The Return to Sarmatia 3
These scenes are happening at the same time nearly!
The Sarmatians rushed bravely into battle behind the Knights of the Dragon Order, and as they clashed with the bandits, who were charging up the hill, and met the bandits with a fervor that would make their ancestors proud.
Since they had the advantage of added height and long-range archers, the Knights were in high spirits as they crashed through the first rows of the attacking bandits. Distantly, Lancelot wondered why there were so many for a simple plunder, but he tossed the idea out of his head as he met the gaze of a weighty set man with arms the size of an old Briton oak tree.
But, before he could challenge the large muscled bandit, he had to get through two others. He spurred Vertigo on and easily beheaded the two men that were defending the larger man with his twin demons while Tristan and Galahad, who were to the far left of him each plunged their blades through the shoulder joints of their opponents, and Gawain plowed one of his horse-javelins through the heart of another bandit on horseback. Lancelot didn't even mind the blood that splattered his face and armor-he's had enough blood coating him in his life not to be sickened by it.
Sir Bruce, Sir Brice, and Lady Knight Chloe, whom were right behind their leader's, hacked at the three bandits by stabbing their fronts and their backs by pushing their swords into the gullets of the men and then plunging the swords through their spinal cords as their horses ran past.
Tristran kept an eye on his little sister, Ilona, as she rode with him into the thick of the battle, and couldn't help but feel proud of her as she threw a javelin straight into the heart of a rushing bandit. Calbur, who was behind him, and whom he could care less about, was following close behind him-much to his annoyance.
Ilona smiled darkly as she nodded to her brother and split from him. If this had happened before she and the others had left for Briton, she wouldn't have been able to throw the weapon. It was only with Tristran, Lancelot, and Galahad's help was she able to now throw the javelin like a gladiator of old.
Lancelot, despite the fact that he was deeply involved with the heavy set bandit, kept a close eye on his brother, Tarkan, and his sister, Habren.
As he dodged a forward and downward slash from the man, he watched as Tarkan and Habren each simply stabbed their victims through and followed Lancelot as he and the others plowed through the lines. Habren had to slam herself down on her horse's back, as an arrow whizzed by her left cheek. Unfortunately and fortunately, the arrow only lightly sliced her cheek. She ignored the blood as it dribbled into her mouth and instinctively spit it out.
Tanais and Garen, who attempted to keep up with Galahad and Gawain, or suffer horribly when Garen's aunt, Queen Malana, arrived removed their bandit's heads.
Once through the worst of the lines, out of archer range, and deep within bandit lines, the eight remaining archers shot again killing sixteen more bandits as they, the foot soldiers and Lion Tribesmen, slammed into the remaining bandits.
As Lancelot twirled away from the heavy thief on horseback to engage a young man trying to sneak up behind him, the muscled man reached high and yanked him off his seat.
He yelped in pain as his head slammed roughly into the rocky ground. Unfortunately, he got no respite as the large man raised his sword ready to plunge it into his heart.
Thoroughly dizzy, Lancelot automatically and instinctively rolled to the left and heard a satisfying thunk-the sword was now deeply embedded in the earth. Rather than make himself sick by rolling over and causing his vision to spin, he whistled sharply as the bandit stupidly yanked and pulled on his lost-to-battle sword-in perfect range of Vertigo's hindquarters.
As he climbed to his feet, he smiled-the bandit, while physically stronger and bigger than he, no longer had a chest-instead he had two hoof print indentions.
Then his smile dimmed a bit as he saw from the corner of his eye as a vicious looking brat cut through Melean from behind. Lancelot met his murderous eyes and snarled. He may not have liked Melean because he was married to his little sister, but he did respect him. In honor of his sacrifice, and for Habren's heart, I MUST fight and avenge him!!!
Lancelot charged and as he rushed into the young man's personal space, he tripped the still growing boy and swung his arm in a downward arc. He felt a tiny spark of guilt as the boy's murderous eyes cleared and revealed young innocent brown eyes staring happily up at him. The boy, a murderer by coercion, at the moment of his death became the young happy young man he should have always been. And in that moment, all of Lancelot's guilt vanished like the British mists on a hot day.
I'm still undefeated!
As was their habit of twenty-five years, Gawain and Galahad plunged into battle as one. It was a habit they had developed in their tribe before they had even set out for Briton for their servitude twenty-one years ago. While Gawain attacked with his double-headed battle-axes, Galahad defended from Maphestas' back with his bow and arrow.
When they reached the center of the battle lines, Gawain jumped off Azon and stabbed the nearest bandit in the gut with one of his battle-axes.
Galahad remained on horseback and shot arrow after arrow at the rushing bandits as they tried to surround and trap him and his brother. He had just finished off his last arrow, when a hand appeared to the right of him, gripped his armor tightly, and dragged him off Maphestas' back.
As Gawain met the rushing attacker, he sensed another come up from behind him. He quickly looked for his brother, but Galahad was no longer a top his white-hared gray speckled horse. He quickly spun into the bandit's defense, to hack into the attacker's intestines, and met the second rival head on. Fortunately for him, as he took a deep breath to engage the bandit, Garen, his cousin, jumped in front of him and fought to dirty man instead.
Galahad was shocked to feel Maphestas no longer under him, but he recovered quickly enough. As he met each swing from his opponent's sword with one of his own, in the corner of his eye, he spotted Tanais and Brice close by; that meant that Bruce and Lady Knight Chloe were too because Bruce and Brice were twins and Lady Chloe was the fiancée of Brice, and he'd never let her out of her sight.
Agravine with Tarkan, Pappy, and Habren all grouped back-to-back to protect their weak sides, couldn't help but pray silently to Mithras. As he dodged a hastily swung blade from a fifteen-year-old bandit, he glanced around. All around them were an endless sea of men, women, flesh, and blood.
Even with the height advantage and early long-range archers, the bandits were slowly but surely pushing them back up the hill in certain places. He gritted his teeth and pushed forward as hard as he could. He wouldn't disappoint Gawain and Galahad! He wouldn't! Especially when the two brothers, along with Lancelot, trained him and the others to be better than this!!!
He carelessly hacked away the boy's sword hand, slashed his torso, and winced-the weak points in their defense came from the Lion Tribesmen who were not being lead by the Knights or those trained by the Romans-like Babai and Miskoc.
They would lose.
Lancelot's battle plans were brilliant, but their numbers were too small, and there were simply too many bandits against their measly five-dozen defenders.
I'm sure of it.
Tristran, with Ilona and Calbur close by, serenely hacked away at the men who foolishly challenged him.
As Ilona and Calbur each engaged one man in battle, Tristran circled slowly to eye the three who had surrounded him. In quick, merciless succession, Tristran slit the throat of the man before him, sliced deeply into the main artery, near another man's genitals, and stabbed heartlessly into the man's heart behind him. Once finished, he blandly swiped the air to remove the blood on his sword and looked to the two women with him.
Ilona was huffing, but at her feet was a man missing his left arm. The blood puddle underneath him was impressive.
Calbur, who also stood over a dead man, was covered in blood and heaving deeply. A red flush covered her entire face, neck, and even lower down to cover the swell of her breasts.
She eyed Tristran like he was a hunk of raw meat to her half-crazed, starved, traveler persona. As he looked into her eyes, he shuddered. Her eyes were alight with bloodlust and simple, raw, physical, carnal lust.
Then and there he knew-she didn't REALLY want him. She just wanted a murderous, sex-crazed, homicidal maniac.
Just like her!!!
Ilona tapped him on the back and pointed up the hill with a happy, hopeful smile-ten more riders, all armed to the teeth, were rushing to their aid.
More importantly, one of the riders carried the symbol of the Wolf Tribe-Gawain and Galahad's tribe had arrived.
Meanwhile back at the wagons, as their husbands' waged war, the Ladies of Camelot waited anxiously on their horses for their signal to enter battle.
Hera cursed at them and yelled angrily, "Why aren't you helping?!"
Before Ama could chastise her, a low, rumbling horn note was heard. It echoed loudly throughout the valley and Alma retorted over her shoulder, "We were waiting for that! YIAH!!!!!!!!!!"
Ama and Hera watched with wide eyes and the four women, each queen's-to-be of three of the eleven Sarmatian Tribes rode into the thick battlefield.
Almost immediately, Ula returned with one of their tribesmen, Moran, who was heavily bleeding from a wound to the head and a deep cut to the arm.
Ula quickly carried the half-conscious man to a bedroll, pulled out her healing pack and gauze, a bowl of preheated water, and began to quickly and proficiently clean and stitch the wounds.
As she did that, Alma returned with a knight of Briton and Enys returned with a Lady Knight, and Ula answered professionally, "This is what a Rescue Healer does. We go into battle, rescue the wounded or dying men and women, and bring them back safely behind our own battle lines."
Emogen was beyond worried. Everywhere she looked she saw a mix of mix-matched clothes that identified the bandits. Very rarely did she see the British armor of her beloved kinsmen and women. As she rode through the battle, she ripped off her bow and let fly three arrows in rapid order.
In the cleared space, she gasped in horror-Zimkar was down and wounded badly and Babai was too, but he was still trying to defend and protect his youngest son. She rode up to them, making three of the attacking bandits disappear, less her horse kick them, and dismounted in one smooth, expert, movement.
Babai acknowledged her with a nod and a smile as she smoothly pulled out her twin Sais and twirled them at the bandits with a challenging smile. Two bandits answered her challenge.
Babai was happy for the help. The father of Lancelot was impressed as his daughter-n-law got rid of the bandits quickly with skills similar to his son's. As he battled a young one, he thought she's a warrior too! Her skills have some of our tribe's influence…that must be because she and Lancelot have trained together. Ama will welcome her without the test when I tell her of this!!
When the area around them was mostly clear, Emogen turned to Babai and ordered, "Help me get him on Light of Hope. He needs immediate healing."
Together they got Zimkar on Emogen's pure white horse, and in a burst of speed, they were gone.
As they area quickly filled up again with Knights and bandits, Babai thought as he engaged yet another man in battle, there are too many!!! We NEED help!!!
Tristran was amazed when he and the other Knights miraculously met in the center of the battle with three Lady Knights, Agravine, Garen, Tarkan, and Ilona, and Galahad cried out, "There are too many Lance! What now?!"
Lancelot yelled back, "Summon as many Archers as possible! Tell them to shoot at will!!!"
The four men shared a glance, but they knew they had nothing else to lose. Lancelot's last command was suicide, but they didn't have a choice-to protect their loved ones, sacrifices must be made-from them all.
Galahad raised a pure golden horn carved into a glorious dragon with dark sapphire eyes and a sword clutched in it's front claws and blew a nice long note followed by three short blasts. As the four tones reverberated throughout the valley, not five seconds later, eight arrows sang through the air from four different directions and twice more before they fell silent.
Tristran, wanting to boost his fellow Sarmatian's spirits, added, "We have help!!!"
Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, and Tristran all gave a loud RUSSS, which gave their wounded and tired Knights hope as ten more people entered the battle armed to the teeth with swords, bows, and javelins.
"My Queen!! The Lion Tribe is under attack by bandits!!" exclaimed her eldest son from her first marriage, Rugon.
Malana snorted and replied blissfully because this was the one thing she had always hoped for-the end of the Lion Tribe's might, power, and influence, "Let them deal with it! Lets see how mighty the Lion truly is."
Gowan, her youngest child from her first marriage, interrupted slyly, "Mother! Don't you remember what Queen Ama's letter told us?!? Gawain and Galahad should have arrived yesterday with Agrimpasa and First Prince Lancelot!!! Will you leave them for dead now, just when you received the power to manipulate the Lion's thrown?"
Queen Malana's two sons and daughters watched as their mother paled and ordered as she pulled out her own sword, "To arms!!!"
Lancelot sighed in relief. With the arrival of their saviors, the battle had ended rather quickly. As the Knights trudged up the hill with the remaining defenders of the Lion Tribe, Lancelot asked as he came upon a small lake of dead, dying, or wounded, "Numbers???"
As she wrung her hands together nervously and at the same time tried to keep her granddaughter's from seeing the bloody field, Ama watched with wide, worried eyes, as her daughter-n-law rambled off as she quickly sewed Zimkar worst cuts across his forearms, "We have seven KIA, one is dead, and twenty-two are WIA."
Galahad barked as he placed a warm, gentle hand on his wife's shoulder as she pulled a blanket over the pale body of one of their knights, "Break down?"
Enys sighed and said as Habren weeped over the dead body of Melean, "Five Sarmatians are dead and Sir Mitchell and Lady Knight Fionn are dead. Melean is dead, and twelve are wounded from the Lion Tribe and ten of our knights are too. They'll live."
Gawain sighed as he said thankfully, "Eight…we were lucky. It could have been worse…a lot worse."
Galahad who had a sluggishly bleeding upper arm asked cheerfully as he took the offered gauze from Alma and applied pressure to his wound, "So, who are our saviors?!"
From behind them, a pompous, cold, vile voice from his past answered for him as Ama's face transformed into a visage of pure hate, "I, Queen Malana of the Wolf Tribe, am the Mighty Lion Tribe's Savior. Who are you boy? You don't dress like a Sarmatian or a Roman??"
Enys watched her husband in concern as Galahad's face paled, his eyes popped wide open, and as he dropped the gauze he whispered loudly, "Mother…"
Gawain quickly moved to his catch his little brother and greeted the gathered Wolf Tribe as he met the eyes of his Sarmatian kin, "Well, this is unexpected…"
He ended in a murderous rage as his gaze evenly matched his mother's shocked and horrified hazel ones that he had unfortunately inherited, "…hello…mother…"