Zornhut: Chapter 4
Author's note: Zornhut, or Guard of Wrath, is one of the main guard positions in medieval sword techniques. Also, I've opted for the game's default name for the tactician, Mark.
"Behind you!"
Acting out of reflex, Sain wheeled his horse around and swung his longsword just in time to parry a wild blow from a bandit. Bracing his feet in his stirrups, the Caelin knight counterattacked with a series of swift cuts aimed at the bandit's upper body. The bandit was forced to defend himself from the onslaught of blows but soon made the grave error of leaving his side open to attack--an error that Sain took advantage of by swinging his blade down in a vast overhand blow that took off the bandit's arm, and finished off with a flourish by lopping off the man's head.
Sain raised his sword in a salute to his friend nearby. "Thanks for the warning, Kent!" he yelled. Not waiting for a reply, the knight brandished his sword in the air and with a battle cry, charged at the remaining two bandits; there was a muffled curse from Kent before the other knight spurred his mount to follow close behind.
Sain allowed himself a small grin before he turned his attention back to the bandits. He was counting on their fear of the powerful--and not to mention potentially lethal--impact of an armoured knight and warhorse to force them into either running away, or making a foolish mistake.
The first of the bandits went for the latter; he swung his crude axe wildly in hopes of unhorsing the knight, but the attack was poorly aimed, and Sain had only to deliver an offside thrust to end the bandit's life.
The second bandit had a little bit more sense and experience than his fallen comrade; he did the right thing and simply backed away from Sain's charge, but unfortunately by doing so, he merely planted himself right in Kent's path. There was a strangled scream when the bandit realised the situation was in and he desperately raised his shield, but the scream was drowned by a gigantic crack when Kent's lance penetrated the shield and the man behind it. The knight reflexively released his grip on the now-useless lance to prevent himself from being unhorsed and drew his sword, but it was an unnecessary gesture; their opponents were all dead.
"Nicely done, Kent--" Sain began.
"Stop trying to show off, you fool!" roared the other knight.
Sain winced. Kent rarely used that tone with him; the redhead was beyond angry now--the man was furious. "Yes, Mother," he said meekly, hoping to somewhat calm his friend.
Kent glared at him for a long moment before the knight shook his head and groaned. "When," he said in an exasperated tone, "will you learn not to blindly rush into a melee like that?"
"What are you so worried about? We took care of those bandits, didn't we?"
"Only because they're just simple bandits, and not well-trained soldiers." Kent sighed and sheathed his sword. "I wonder how the rest of our companions are doing out in the front lines."
"They're probably doing all right. Probably enjoying themselves, even! I, on the other hand, do not like being stuck in rearward battles."
"Neither do I. It's a shame our horses aren't well-suited to the desert and have problems moving around, or else I'd be right out there," he said, looking off into the distance where the main battle was taking place.
"By Lady Lyndis' side, you mean?" Sain asked, his tone slightly mischievous.
Kent's voice was neutral as he answered, "It is our duty as her knights to protect her from harm."
Sain smiled. "Of course it is."
---
Rebecca forced herself to focus on the routine of firing her arrows. Nock the arrow, draw the bowstring all the way back and keep it taut, pick a target and aim, and then let the shaft loose.
Her arrow sailed through the air in a smooth arc before it hit its mark--an ugly brute armed with a crude iron axe. The bandit could only stare at the shaft sticking out of his bare chest before collapsing onto the ground, lifeless.
"Good shot!" Wil cried behind her, "but watch this!" The archer grinned and went through the same routine with his longbow, but he held the string taut for such a long time Rebecca was afraid the tension would cause the longbow to break. Just when she was sure that Wil's bow was going to crack in half, he let his arrow loose; she watched it soar high into the air before it disappeared in the sun's glare.
"Watch what?" she asked, shielding her eyes with her hand.
There was a faint shriek from the skies before both of the archers were treated to a spectacular sight of a pegasus knight plummeting to earth from her winged mount. Rebecca could not help but wince.
Wil smirked. "That."
The archers' orders were simple; they were to prevent any of the enemy flyers from reaching the main fray, where their leaders and the mage they were rescuing were battling it out with the remaining bandits and their two leaders. Wil was doing an excellent job at that with his longbow, with Rebecca finishing off the flyers who survived Wil's arrows, and one or two of the bandits who seemed to come from nowhere once they were in the range of her bow. Occasionally a few of the more experienced bandits managed to break through the hail of arrows she and Wil fired, but--
Sir Raven and Bartre will handle them.
The two men were some ways ahead of the archers, engaging what looked from Rebecca's position was a constant stream of opponents. She hoped that they were fine, although judging from Bartre's shouts of challenge directed at the enemy, everything was going well for them. She nocked another arrow and was about to draw her bowstring when she heard Raven's voice shout in warning when one of the enemy flyers managed to get close enough to hurl her spear before falling victim to one of Wil's arrows a swift moment later.
"Look out!"
Rebecca was not as experienced and as well-trained as some of the members of the company, and she was more used to staying at the edge of battle rather than in the actual midst of it. Stunned, her body refused to move and she could only stare at the incoming projectile heading straight for her.
"Rebecca!"
She gasped in shock when she felt a heavy body--Wil's--slamming into her, shoving her aside and out of harm's way. She then gasped again in horror when she heard Wil yelp in pain. "Wil!" she cried.
The archer slowly pushed himself up and propped himself into a sitting position. "Don't worry about me," he said, grinning weakly, "it's just a scratch. Worry about those blasted bandits!"
Rebecca stared at the bloody gash on Wil's right leg. "Oh gods," she said, "you're badly hurt!" She waved wildly at the two fighters near them, who were thankfully finishing off the last of the bandits. "Sir Raven! Wil's injured!"
The mercenary turned at the sound of her voice; he nodded and clapped Bartre on the shoulder before running back to join the two archers. "How bad is it?" he asked when he arrived. Not waiting for an answer, he ripped Wil's trouser leg so he could take a better look at the wound, ignoring the archer's protests. "Huh, that spear made a pretty nasty tear. Good thing I had Bartre call for one of our healers."
"It's not that bad," Wil said.
"Shut up and stay still, you idiot," Raven snapped as he tore off Wil's sleeve and wadded the piece of cloth up into a pad. He pressed the makeshift compress firmly against the archer's wound. "Rebecca, hold this down while I bandage him up," the mercenary ordered, removing the strips of linen he wore around his wrists, "it's not much, but it'll stop the bleeding and make sure he's still with us until a healer gets here."
"I'm fine, Senior Raven."
"Wil, I thought I told you to shut up. And stop calling me that!"
One of the company's newest recruits, Heath, came swooping down on his wyvern some moments later to land near them, Serra seated behind him. The cleric muttered something about her wind-tangled hair before she slid off the wyvern's back and padded off towards the group.
"Raven," said the wyvern knight, "Mark says that you and Bartre are to join Lord Eliwood. He's going to engage one of the bandits' leaders, and he may need some help. Rebecca, once Serra's done healing Wil, both of you move to the east flank--Erk and Canas need some support in dealing with the last of those desert bandits. Don't worry about Wil--me and Hyperion will fly him safely back to the rearguard."
Bartre gave a hearty laugh. "Ah, the sweet call of battle! Come, youngling, let us prove our strength against that so-called leader of these wretched bandits!" The burly fighter hefted his axe against his shoulder and marched off, laughing.
Rebecca almost giggled when she saw the look of exasperation on Raven's face.
---
"Jasmine?" Hector repeated in disbelief when the bandit introduced himself.
"You've something against my name, boy?" the man snarled. "Feh, don't matter, me and my brother Paul will kill the lot of you!"
Hector did not even deign the bandit a reply and instead, moved closer to attack. He made a big swinging roundarm blow with his axe; the bandit blocked it and countered with a savage slash of his own weapon. Hector dodged out of the way and made another attack, but again, his blow was blocked.
"Hector!"
"Stay out of this, Lyn," he said to his friend behind him, not taking his eyes off his opponent. "This one's mine. You've had your fun taking care of this fool's henchmen."
He moved to attack again, this time making a feint at his enemy's head. Unfortunately the man recognised the bluff and instead of blocking the blow, simply moved aside and swung back in retaliation, managing to score a hit on Hector's left forearm. Fortunately, the blow wasn't quite strong enough and it merely bounced off the vambraces Hector wore. It did hurt quite a bit however, and Hector knew there was going to be a very nasty-looking bruise on his arm once he removed his armour.
The two continued to trade blows for what seemed like eternity when finally, enraged by his inability to dispatch his opponent, Jasmine lunged wildly at Hector, opening room for the Ostian lordling to attack; Hector spun out of the way and struck a vicious backhanded blow. His axe connected; blood spouted from the bandit's right shoulder as the weapon's edge penetrated through the crude leather armour the man wore and bit into flesh.
Shocked, Jasmine dropped his weapon and frantically backed away. The bandit started to reach behind his back--presumably for another weapon--but Hector was much faster than he was.
Acting more out of instinct than thought, Hector reached for the hand axe that hung at his belt, brought it back behind his head and in one smooth motion, flung the deadly implement with all his might. The small axe was only a blur in the air, and found its mark with a sickening thud and a spray of blood.
Jasmine stared at the weapon that was embedded in his torso. "I got hit but it feels so good..." said the bandit before he sank slowly to the ground and died, a smile on his face.
Feeling a touch disturbed, Hector stared at the dead body for a few moments longer before he turned away and shook his head. He then noticed Lyndis looking at him with a most amused expression on her face. "Not," he said to the swordswoman, pointing a finger at her, "a word."
Lyndis gave him the most innocent look she could muster. "I wasn't going to say anything."
"Right."
A loud victory yell some distance away caught their attention. "Well, that shout from Bartre must mean that Eliwood's taken care of the other one. What was his name again? Paul?"
Hector shrugged. "Who cares?" He walked to Jasmine's lifeless body and with a hefty tug, dislodged his throwing axe from the bandit's chest. He wiped off the blood on the weapon with the dead man's shirt before he eyed the axe critically. "Only a few nicks on the edge," he said, "I guess it's good for a few more throws before it's useless." He made a face as he secured the weapon on his belt. "I'd just toss it away, but Oswin would rumble in disapproval if I did."
"Look," Lyndis said, pointing at a blue flare that shot up into the sky, "Erk's signal. The fighting must be over on all sides now."
"Good. Let's go and see what that mage we just rescued has to say." Hector stepped to one side and waved a hand in an almost gallant gesture. "After you, Lady Lyndis."
Lyndis chuckled. "Why, thank you, Lord Hector."
"See? I'm not the ill-mannered, axe-swinging ruffian everyone seems to think I am."
She smiled. "No, you're just an axe-swinging ruffian."
Hector sighed.
---
Pent smiled at the gentle-looking young man standing in front of him; the redhead had just explained as to why he and his friends were out wandering in the desert before the party stumbled into the mage's little predicament with the desert bandits. It was a good thing the party chose to rush to his aid; like he had said to Eliwood earlier, despite the fact that he was handling himself pretty well, spell tomes do not last forever.
They must be searching for Archsage Athos. I wonder...
"You said you're looking for the living legend, Eliwood?"
Eliwood nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"Well," Pent said, still smiling, "I think I can help you with that."
Eliwood could not help but smile back.
