Chapter 3 – Battle of Skeletos Pt.2

I sat in this god awful trench for what seemed like hours, nothing, no attacks, no arrows flying in our face, no action, we were all getting frustrated, especially the trigger happy sons of guns, literally, that's what they're called. Just... Where were they?

"Incoming!" A soldier off in the distance screamed, I looked up to find that the sun had been literally blocked out of the sky, I stood there, unable to move, until I was forcibly pulled down by Jake down into the trench and under the wooden platform. Then the sound of arrows penetrating the soil and wood dominated the battlefield.

"Ahh!" I heard a soldier off in the distance make a blood curdling scream as we all assumed he got hit.

The sound of piercing arrows went on for about a few more minutes, but felt like forever, soon however, the sound stopped and most of us popped our head up and found that the battlefield was littered with arrows, some were either in the wood of the supply crates and most were just sticking feather side up from the ground.

"Recover!" I heard a familiar gruff voice off a few blocks down. Soon all of the wounded were treated and evacuated from the front lines, as for the rest of us, we relined our defenses and began to face to where the arrow barrage came from. Soon enough our howitzers aligned their massive barrels at the northern most mountains.

"Ready!" The cannon operator yelled, the other cannon crewmen followed suit as they all closed off the back of the massive howitzer and began to make distance. Then for each howitzer stood another crewmen with a string which acts as a trigger, as everyone got in the proper safe positions, the cannon operator raised his hand and looked through his binoculars.

"Fire!" He swung his arm down back to his waist in a hasty matter and like that every single howitzer released a large barrage of muzzle fire and smoke as well as the massive round that flew through the air. We all looked and followed the multiple rounds that flew in the air towards the mountains, then suspense built up rather quickly as the massive multitude of shells approached the mountains to where the suspected arrow fire came from.

Then the rounds finally hit and the sound of a massive explosion echoed through the air as the rounds landed a direct hit on the mountain side. Then some soldiers cheered on and some whistled in a positive manner as they examined the damage done.

-Skelly's POV

"Bows up!" I ordered aloud, the soldiers following suit as thousands of archer women raised their longbows up in the sky armed with steel headed arrows, they held that position until I raised my hand in the air and brought it down, then the sound of flying arrows fill the air and the battlefield in front of me was suddenly blocked out of sight. I smiled a little, no one has ever survived a barrage of arrows, especially from us skeletons.

Eventually after the massive arrow storm, it seemed all soldiers were gone, did they retreat? Wait... I looked off in the distance with my telescope once again and found that soldiers were coming out of the ground! My smile immediately was washed away as I saw soldiers recover their wounded, which was only a couple dozen out of what seemed like 500.

Then my worst nightmare came to life as I looked up to see the howitzers barrels point right at us, then more soldiers came up and loaded what seemed to be a pointy oblong like metal shell right in back of the cannon, then soldiers began to run behind some foliage and behind each cannon was an elongated string with a crewman holding it. I looked to the far right and found a rather old soldier with a cigar in his mouth raised his hand, similar to the position I was doing, wait... that means. Then I heard ever so slightly the man yell, "Fire!"

My eyes widened and I jumped down from the peak and began to yell everyone to "Get down!" Suddenly every skeleton women archer began to run and scatter to try and find cover. I then felt a surge of heat overcome us, not enough to burn, but enough to tell us to get down NOW!

"GET DOWN!" I this time yelled much louder and everyone did just that, then I looked to see a barrage of fireballs quickly approach us and for a moment I saw my life flash before my eyes.

KAPOW!

The massive fireballs exploded overhead and knocked a massive chunk of stone off the side of the massive mountain, I quickly recovered up off the ground and found everything was to hard to see, my ears were ringing and the dust was irritating my eyesight, but I could see skeleton women, my sisters, stumbling to even walk straight as the blast disoriented them, but what was worse was that as I too tried to walk, I saw so many dead bodies in front of me and some would trip over them and fall face first to the stone.

Eventually my hearing came back and all I could hear was the agonizing moans of the injured and the sizzling of the heat from the massive fireballs. When the dust finally cleared up a little, I prayed to every fiber of my being to tell me this was a nightmare. What was I thinking? I did this, I put so many in this situation, I came unprepared, I came so downgraded, ever since that Notch damned Steve came in, everything we mobs stood for just fell apart, our pride shattered to mere villagers! Now WE'VE become the hunted and no longer the hunters.

I looked back over the battlefield and saw that the Austarians were cheering and chanting.

'How dare they!' I thought en-ragingly, clenching my fist and my bow I felt a tear slide down my cheek, there was no way we can win this battle, not even against a small force like them. I wiped my face and turned around to face the disheartened archers, before I spoke I hesitated.

'Mother, father... forgive me.'

"Retreat! This battle cannot be won!" I yelled aloud to my troops which surprised and shocked them. However, they passed over the white flag and I stuck in the ground to where it is visible for them to see. I then jumped back down and began to walk off, my surviving troops carrying on with me, some were carrying wounded. Before we left however, we took some time to properly bury the dead under stone. We paid our respects my firing one single arrow from our bows before we departed.

"Don't worry milady, the battle is lost, but we can always improve next time." I was shocked to hear what my scout said to me, I smiled sadly and looked off back to the battlefield.

"Maybe... Just maybe..."

3rd POV

Austarian National Paper

Glorious news comes to us as the Skeleton Princess unconditionally surrenders! The short lived battle ended when they were met with a barrage of artillery shells. The victory will now be recorded in the history books of our glorious nation! Reports from General Kapustin say that he had confidence in his troops and "he will show them walking sack of bones what true villager might is!"

Now the reconstruction of the Province of Skeletos now renamed, Albany, will commence a few days after the massive upgrade in border security. President Steven claims his apologies in his lack of border control and promises to make this nation safe and free from mob tyranny.

Scott Lynch, ANP.