Chapter 2
THREE DAYS LATER
Georgios walks around the ghost of a camp. Many tents unfilled and many men spread out into small groups. He then looks to the middle of his camp.
Rows and rows of bodies. Bodies of men he had once commanded, now dead under his watch. Georgios grimaces, "So many dead, so many gone, I will not let this be in vain, I swear it" he thinks to himself. He walks over and uncovers a tarp covering one of the bodies.
He sees the face of a young man that he has a slight memory of the day before. He was the first to spot the group of men that had flanked around the mountain and hit his men from behind. Georgios had thought it would happen but did not think it would happen so soon. He didn't think that after the first battle the officers of the enemy army would have sent men away right after they had clashed
After the first day of fighting the other army was slaughtered not even taking a single spartan life. It was a huge success for the spartans and a huge damage in morale for the enemy. No one has up to this point seen spartans in battle on this scale, only the Vacuo's have over territory squabble or when in many of cases they had to cull their helots.
Georgios covers the man with the tarp and walks to the back of the camp looking down the rear of the valley. No sight of the enemy that flanked them, but he knows that they are waiting, waiting for the main force to attack them to make their move. Georgios knows that their time his near he knows that the spartans and himself might not live to see tomorrow and he knows the enemy knows that too.
He walks to the front of the camp next to one of his officers, Alec. He speaks
"My king, the enemy forces are waiting, my guess is for our surrender" he says with a light hearted tone and a grin, Georgios returns this grin
"I know, they think us weak and broken, they think their sneak attack rattled us, tell me Alec did it rattle us?"
Alec looks on at the enemy camp for a while
"No my king, we are not rattled if anything we should be happy, now we killed to kill the enemy on two fronts" he jokes
Georgios smiles for a moment and then it fades. He looks back at Alec in his eyes. He can see the look he has seen once before, a look of a man that knows his fate and has accepted it.
"My king, the men they are tired but not dead they will still fight we will not surrender, not on this day or the next, we knew when we set out with you that we might not see home again that we might not see our wifes and children again. We will stand and fight by your side my king"
Georgios replies
"I know Alec, I know"
He stops and takes a glance at the middle of that camp again and then at the rear
"Alec gather the men and leave a skeleton crew of men at the rear, I have a plan"
Alec heads off with a nod. Georgios stares at the enemy camp far down the valley and down the twisty path up to theirs. After a awhile the remaining spartans gather to their king and await his words. Georgios turns back and meet his mens gaze and begin to speak
"Men, when we set out on our journey we sought fame, we sought to kill the enemy of our country and allies and to put a end to this war between these foolish nations. Men we have shown the enemy that we are not to be underestimated that we are a beast worst than the grim that plague the realms, we have shown them the full power of sparta and her men"
The men now starting to cheer and bang on their shields and roar at the top of their lungs. Georgios starts to speak at the top of his lungs and shouts
"Men today is the day we end this today is the day we kill every single one of those scum and we will break through, we will make today known to all that we are just mere men, we will show them that the God of Light has made us for victory and the God of Darkness has gifted us with slaughtering mere men!" He shouts
The men are now in a frenzy shouting the name of their country in unison releasing a deafening war cry to be heard from miles around
"Aadi" Clementine starts "I think the Spartan dogs are ready to die" he says with a smirk
Aadi stares at him a confused look
"What do you mean ?"
"Well if they want battle lets give it to them, Im positive that we can destroy this petty road block today, when we attack your spearmen will lead the charge and my men will attack them from the rear, I have good confidence that they can break through and put a end to their lives"
Aadi stares at him for awhile and contemplates his plan, while it didnt work well yesterday because Clementines swordmen were in the front maybe with the extra range of his spearmen it could do the trick
"Alright, this could work I will give the order"
As Aadi walks off the Mantle man smirks and calls over one his captains
"Have the bowmen in the rear ready to fire on my order, I will end this battle today at any cost and if Aadi cant see what that cost could be then I will show him"
The Captain walks off
Georgios and his man are formed up and the very entrance of the valley watching the army of men march down. As the get closer Georgios spots that they are spearmen
"My king, this could be a problem" Alec states
Georgios gives him a nod
"None the less Alec we will hold, we are better and more heavily armored, just stay behind your shield and remember your training"
Georgios looks back at his men as the army ahead picks up pace and begin to charge and yells
"Men today is the day we take everything from them, we will take everything and give nothing, today is the day they die! "
Georgios turns back facing the army
"Men form phalanx now"
The men brace together and hold their shields up awaiting the charge of the enemy
Seconds tick by and seems as if they last an eternity, the dirt and dust kick up into the air and before you know it the enemy his upon them. The two armys collide with a great bang of shield versus shield
The battle ensues, the spartans and both spearmen take jabs at each other hoping to end the life of one other, Georgios himself at the front takes jabs at the enemy scoring a hit every so often each man he slays shooting blood up into the air covering both armys and also creating a gap in the formation exposing the flanks of more men to be killed
After a while when the heat of the start of the battle seems to slow Georgios makes his move and yells
"Men all together now, push! "
The massive push of hundreds of spartans pushing in unison throw the enemy off guard and cause many to stumble. With this advantage all spartans thrust out at their desired target and slay the vulnerable men with ease
The enemy seeing this quickly close the gap and continue the standstill fighting. Then again when they let their guard down again the spartans push with a greater force this time causing more enemy spearmen to stumble some even fall flat down on their backs. The spartans thrust their spears again slaying the vulnerable men causing cries and screams of pain to fill the air and blood to soak the ground.
The gap is then closed again, but the enemy is shocked now their morale starting to fade seeing the two ranks in front of them being slayed in quick succession, they are beginning to panic not know the spartans had this much fight left in them
But when all seemed to be going well for the spartans when it seemed that the enemy was close to breaking Georgios goes to give the order again only to see something that filled him with dread
A massive wave of arrows started to fill the sky coming right toward both armys. As the arrows hit some deflecting off of the spartans armor most struck true killing many men of both armys
When the arrows hit the enemy spearmen panic and began to flee, when this happend some spartan men begain to give chace not knowing the situation in the heat of the battle
"No you fools form a circle now !" Alec scream at the top of his lungs
"Form a ci-" his words cut off with a arrow to his throat
Georgois turns to see the man fall to his knees and grab at the arrow only to be impaled by more. He quickly grab the men closest and raise their sheilds, the other spartans seeing this and the arrows fall finally realise whats going on and follow their kings lead
After what seemed forever footsteps heard from behind them. It was the skeleton crew of spartans they were coming to the front and what seemed to be being chased by swordmen. As they grew closer a hole in the formation was made for them to join and a man navigated his way to Georgios
"My king we were over run, more men then yesterday attacked us, it seems more flanked around to join them. My king" he stops for a moment
"My king we are surronded" he states
Georgios looks at him and nods the spartan turns back and fills a spot in the formation. Georgios thinks "Damn it all! If could have routed the enemy we could have turned back and dealt with the men behind us! " Georgios begins to worry knowing his plan was begining to fall apart
After awhile the men pursing the spartans catch up and form a shield wall in the valley and wait. Then after a long ten or so minutes pass a voice can be heard
"Spartans" it was the Mantle man "you are complety surronded and defeated, now lay down your arms and surrender"
All of the spartans near Georgios turn and look at him and then one speaks up
"My king, we will not we have come to far to give up now we can still win this"
Georgios turns and looks at him, the man being just as young as the one from this morning and Georgios gaze falls thinking in his head about the lives of his men around him. Knowing they are all ready to die for him if he gave the order. He then looks up and grabs the young man by the arm ushering the others to fill his spot in the formation
"Listen here and now spartan. This is whats going to happen"
Clementine yawns as Aadi approaches him
"What the hell was that stunt! You murdered hundreds on my men in that volley, what even made you think that was okay to do?"
Clementine looks at him and returns his furious gaze
"That Aadi was winning and this is what it looks like"
He says as his hand points at the spartans and also the thousands of bodies surronding them from both sides
"You did not have the will to make such a sacrifice nor the bronze, I simply just won this battle for us so we can continue to Vacuo and hopefully still launch our sneak attack and win this war"
Aadi stares at the bodies of his men, men he once knew slayed by their own allies. He scoffs and walks away
"Their blood his on your hands Clementine and one day you will pay for your crimes"
Clementine watches as he walks away and thinks to himself
"After three long days of battle and disgrace and this his how he repays me? Huh he will see soon"
He turns and faces the spartan shield circle
"Georgios I wont ask again, surrender your men and end this charade and be over with this. You have lost and that is clear to see, now come how with what honor you have left and maybe you will keep your lives"
Soon after he says this a gap was made and Georgios walks out, no helmet, no shield and no spear. He walks out and meets the mans gaze
"I have thought over your words and I accept, what are your terms"
A small smile can be seen arcross Clementines face
"Finally" he whispers to himself "Your men will be treated with the dignity they deserve and will be put into labor camps but you thought, I can not promise your life or safety but your men I can" he says "but first you must kneel to the power of Mantle and announce your surrnder to all to hear"
Georgios looks around and sees the cock smirks of the men that surround Clementine and after a while he does so. He gets on his hands and knees
"I Georgios King of Sparta" he starts and Clementine can start to be seen to laugh
"surrender me and my men to you Clementine of Mantle"
As all of the men let their guard down and look around at each other one begins to approach Georgios. Just then to the suprise of eveyone Georgios yells
"NOW"
Then in the blink of an eye the spartan from before rushes out of the protection of the shields and thrust his spear thought the heart of the men in front of Georgios. Georgios then grabs the spear from him and readys himself as his men behind him break formation and begin to kill and fight all those near
Georgios aims his spear at the Mantle General. His helmet off not obscuring his vision at all. His left arm free of his heavy shield slightly putting him off balance. His breath slowing and his target being far away and being the only thing that filled his sight at this very moment.
Georgios flings his spear with all of his might and sends it at the Mantle General
Clementine's eyes widening at the sudden moment of the spartans and their attack. His men quickly retaliate and begin to attack the remaining spartans no longer in the safety of the valley
The spear comes and strikes Clementine across the left side of his face cutting his cheek and ripping it open sending blood flying everywhere and him off of his horse
The battle that ensude was suicide and every spartan knew it. But their only goal left now was to kill and take as many men with them to the after life as they could
Georgois turns back and grabs a spartan sword from one of his men that rush up to his aid. Georgios turns and rushes the man nearest to him and feints at his leg and then coming up to cut across his neck causing the man to go down gurgling on his own blood.
Georgios cuts down man after man before the inevitable happens. The spartans no longer being in formation and protection of the shield way are picked off by Mantle sharpshooters with early dust rifles. Their accuracy poor and wild can still be lucky at such close range. To add on to the spartans demise bowmen began to join in too picking off whoever they could, Georgios being a prime target
Without his shield to protect him Georgios was hit many of times but to their surprise nothing happend but the arrows and bullets reflecting and bouncing off of him. To their surprise this was how they learned that he in fact was an aura user being very rare
But after a while it happen Georgios's aura finally broke whilst he was in the middle of stabbing another man in his chest and twising his sword
An arrow hit him in his leg and then two more in his chest causing him to falter and fall to his knees. He takes a look around him, seeing his men fight to their last breath and to the last drop of their blood. He then looks ahead and sees the young spartan from before being stabbed in his stomach and from his sides by two other swordsmen
To their surprise when the man yells at the top of his lungs and turns and slays to two swordsmen in quick succession and then grabs the spearmans hand pulling the spear further though him and the man closer his eyes widening in fear as the spartan drives his sword down onto his head going straight through his skull killing him instantly, the man falling to the ground with the sword still in him, the spartan man then stabbed by five more swordsmen finally bringing him down
Georgios then looks behind him seeing the rest of his army being picked off one by one by spearmen, swordsmen or sharpshooters and bowmen of the like. Then before he knew it he was the only one. The last spartan alive in the valley. The enemy men around him backing off aware and scared of his power and as they do many sharpshooters and bowmen take their and let their shots run free ending Georgios's life
As the Mistral and Mantle army gather back at their camp on the hill looking over the valley the Generals of both army's meet in their tent
Aadi stares at Clementine and his newly acquired wound across his face
"Clementine our numbers" he pauses "we lost more men to the spartans then we previously though and we both know that we can't make our attack on the Vacuo capital and seeing the power of the spartans, we both know we dont want to risk an attack on theirs"
Clementine stares at him with rage and hate
"You speak cowardice Aadi, if I go your men will follow just as you have before"
Aadi looks back at him
"No Clementine WE wont"
As he says this five armed guards rush into the tent
"Clementine Moon you are being relieved of command by both my army and yours, you will now follow my every order to the letter wither you like it or not"
Clementine looks around him understanding the sitatuation
"Fine, so be it Aadi"
Aadi sighs and then states
"We will sail back to Misral and gather more men, there is news of another, bigger attack on Vacuo. Their we can regather our honor and pride. But I will let you know when we get their I will report to my king everything that happen here"
Clementine just stares at him the rage now faded and now replaced with a blank stare
"Do what you have to then, it wont change that I won us this battle and hopefully your king will see it that way too"
He says and then quickly leaves the tent. Aadi then stares at the battle map of the attack they were to do on Vacuo and then grabs the map tossing it onto the ground in slight frustration
"If those spartans wouldnt have stopped us then maybe, maybe we could have ended this war"
He then leaves his tent and orders to break down camp and to begin their journey back to Mistral
Aruthors notes:
Well this is the end of the beggining. Next chapter will start in vol1 chapter1 of rwby. I hope you all liked what I did here and just didnt jump right into the story of rwby. Trust me this is adding into the lore of the story and will have more meaning then some of you may think. Anyone I hope you enjoyed this so far!