Hello everyone. Here is chapter 12. I hope that you will enjoy it. :)
While there was trouble happening at Albert's own castle, Swain and his men are busy kidnapping the women as well as the children, along with burning the villages and killing the men, when they saw something that surprised them and it was something that they didn't expect.
It was Albert and Alfred, along with their respective armies, that had arrived much to the shock of Swain and his men as they thought it would take them a week or two to get to their location, not five days, as they quickly tried to escape across the bridge in hopes of escaping Albert, Alfred and their respective armies.
Luckily for Swain and his men, one of Swain's soldiers blocked the entire enemy army by standing a wooden bridge in an attempt to allow his King as well as his comrades to get into a defensive formation while Albert and Alfred had to try to get past the soldier, which was soon proven to be an difficult job to do.
Albert and Alfred took turns in sending each of their soldiers to fight against the soldier, though, it was proven to be fruitless as the soldier stood his ground and he killed many of Albert and Alfred's men with the number of soldiers killed reaching forty, which was when the tide turned.
One cunning soldier, who was amongst Albert's army, drifted under the wooded bridge by using a barrel before thrusting up his spear and killing the soldier that was blocking his King's attempt to get forward with the fallen soldier laying dead on the bridge as Albert's men ran across the bridge.
Alfred's army followed Albert's army in crossing the bridge before they formed a shield-wall of their own with Swain's army having done the same thing as the two armies began shouting insults at each other as they waited for either one of them to make the first move.
It was Albert's army that made the first move as they charged at Swain's army with the two armies clashing shield-to-shield as well as killing each other with their swords or axes or mace or whatever they could use to defeat the enemy as the two armies continued to fight.
Unfortunely for Swain, he had a problem with that being the fact that his army hadn't come to fight wearing a key piece of kit and that kit being the chainmail armour that was used to protect them as they slowly saw the tide of battle turning against them while they, bravely, fought on.
Soon enough, Swain and his army's shield-wall crumbled as the battle became a blood-bath with the fighting pretty much becoming a free-for-all at this point while both Albert, Alfred and Swain continued to fight in the battle, though, it was very clear that Swain's time as King was over.
This was proven when an archer, in Albert's army, aimed his bow and arrow at Swain before firing the arrow that ended up hitting Swain in the throat with this shot proven to be fatal as Swain fell to the ground, dead, while his comrades were being slaughtered around his dead body.
Eventually the battle came to an end as Albert and Alfred allowed the survivors to go home as long as they didn't invade the kingdom again with the survivors being true to their word as they used only twenty-four, of the original three hundred ships, to take them back to their kingdom.
Albert's army cheered at their victory over one of the biggest threats to Albert's crown and they started to have a drink with Alfred's army as they celebrated the victory over their enemy, though, Albert and Alfred knew that the victory came at a very big price for the both of them.
Albert had lost three hundred men while Alfred lost two thousand men in the battle and Swain had lost four thousand men with the battle having taken it's toll on the two formers as they knew that they need to have some rest, though, they settled with celebrating with their men.
They had no idea that there is one more threat that they have to deal with and that threat is none other than Haredi, who is tougher as well as smarter than Swain with the former having build his invasion fleet and he was now making his way across the water from the south of Albert's kingdom.
He has come to exact his claim on Albert's throne and he wasn't going to stop until he had exactly what he wanted as he, along with his men, sailed across the sea before landing at the beach, the next morning, where Haredi and his men walked onto the beach before starting to destroy the nearby land and killing the locals.
It wasn't long until news had reached Albert and Alfred with the two leading their armies back down southwards to confront Haredi, though, the two Kings were having an argument about what to do and it was up to the royal messenger, Leofric, to try to keep the two Kings from escalating the argument.
"We need to confront him, quickly" said Albert as he became firm. "Because if we don't, our people will be in danger of enslavement".
"I understand, Albert, I really do" said Alfred as he tried to stay calm. "But you need to go back to your kingdom, you haven't got the manpower to take on Haredi".
"Do not tell me, what to do Alfred" said Albert as he became irritated. "I have to do my duty in protecting my people, I will not be cowed by Haredi and his men".
"Your majesties, please don't fight" said Leofric as he tried to calm the two down. "We need to work together, if we are to stand a chance of defeating Haredi".
Albert knew that his royal messenger had a point and he took some deep breaths to calm himself down before apologising to Alfred for his attitude, though, Alfred forgave him as he understood why Albert is very protective of his kingdom as well as his people, knowing that he would be if he was in Albert's position.