Chapter 6:
Roman
battle horns blow.
Marcus and Flavius charge first
yelling "For Rome!" followed 10 meters behind by their cavalry
guards, they will not interfere with the actual battle, they are here
just make sure nobody gets in their way. Then another 150 yards
behind them on either side is the line of infantry at a full out
sprint.
Aristoxenus and Amopaon kick their steeds hard
and yell "Come Macedonians! Ride! Ride!" Set up in the same
formation as Romans. Aristoxenus, Marcus, Amopaon, and Flavius all in
full gallop near close to each other, all of them with swords
extended toward their enemy.
Amopaon and Flavius are the first to
meet in combat, both screaming hard they come within striking range.
Amopaon takes his sword and supports the blade side opposite from
Flavius with his palm, he intends to end this quick. In a quick
motion Flavius swings and is parried by Amopaon. Then with the
running speed of his horse and the accuracy of his sword, the blade
is slid threw Flavius's neck. Amopaon continues to gallop as
Flavius's head in a shower of blood is thrown 20 feet from his
body, with a crash to the ground, Flavius's decapitated body falls
from his horse. The general Flavius is no more. A second after the
beheading of Flavius, Aristoxenus and Marcus Julius meet in battle.
This time Marcus is the first to make his move, and swings straight
at Aristoxenus's neck, but parried by the fast motion of
Aristoxenus's own sword. Quickly before Marcus rides past,
Aristoxenus puts the hilt of his sword out breaking Marcus's nose,
sending him off his horse to the ground. Marcus scrambles to his feet
and grasps his sword expecting Aristoxenus to make another pass on
his horse at him. But instead Aristoxenus waits for the guards of
both generals to catch up and form a circle around him, he dismounts,
gets into a fighting stance.
Aristoxenus turns to
Marcus "I called you out here and you were honorable enough to
allow me to battle you one on one, the least I could do would be give
you a fair battle."
Marcus replies "that is very
noble of you good Aristoxenus, too bad you won't live long enough
for anyone else to know about it."
Just then the two infantry
lines meet around the enclosed generals, the sound of men and metal
colliding deafens out all noise for a period of a few seconds. Death
is no stranger to these fields, and the gates of Hades shall be busy
today. Right after the crash the screams of dieing men fill the ears
of all. Arrows soar across the air from both Macedonian and Roman
archers flying into the closely packed infantry, up in the front of
the chaos Romans and Macedonian infantry drop like flies, both
killing each other at a astonishing rate. Blood soon puddles all
across the field as the dead number up within a short period of time.
All this pain and death can still not mask the tension generated from
the encircled generals. The talking between the two has stopped, it
is time.
