World of Taroo

by Jimmy Eriksson

  Road to Freedom

  There was a big army going to war and many men from different parts of Nanta had come to fight. The soldiers knew they had outnumbered the Darcolian army by much and spirits were high, but they still had to be careful to win the battle. The construction of the new weapons was going well and boosted the morale in the army. They had enough new weapons and the training of using them was being taught by Hun himself. They finally left and with the king in bed resting, Kemi was the one who would lead the army. King Lenchi had now accepted fully that he was too weak to lead the army and didn’t make any trouble for his daughter.

  Kemi was fitted with the armour and stood ready to leave the gates together with the soldiers. She had showed herself as a skilful officer as well as a tactician and the troops trusted her. She had some commanders with her as part of her personal bodyguards, and Jay was one of the 100 that were with her at the front. He stood next to her since he had proven himself to be one of the best fighters in the regiment and a true friend. They marched across the land and picked up more soldiers on the way in the form of retired ones or just regular people that knew they had to fight or be left to fend for themselves if the army failed.

  They camped when nightfall came and the fires from the many food stations warmed the air. Jay walked up to Kemi’s tent and gave her a briefing. He then asked what she believed Arobe would do if they breached the wall. Kemi knew Arobe was a proud man and would not yet have asked his brother for help in Redonia. He might, however, send out a message by bird as soon as he would know he was at their knife’s edge. She said they had time but still had to be quick unless they wanted to have an even greater army meeting them. Jay asked if she thought Redonia would retaliate, but Kemi said she had no answer. She only hoped she was doing what was best for her own kingdom and had to wait and see.

  Kemi wondered if Gon would make it all the way especially now that the border had been closed everywhere, but Jay said Gon would be the only one who would be strong enough to reach there by himself. If the attack on the village would never have happened, Gon would be the most powerful soldier in the entire army. The morning came, and they marched straight for the border. It would take them another three days to reach it with all the equipment they had brought and the speed was continued throughout the march. Many people met them on the way who cheered for the grand army walking through the lands. Kemi heard her name being called out by those who lived on the land. No one showed that they felt fear and instead, spoke words of victory. With such words, those in the army felt strong and walked even prouder.

  They finally reached the border without incidents and they were about to break up the camp to start the border crossing. A large smoke was seen in the distance of the mountain and the army was quickly assembled to be ready for anything. In the back of their minds, many knew that if the king of Darcolia decided to attack then they would be vulnerable since their heavy weapons were not ready. Hun might have helped to create new and heavier canons but they also had to be assembled before use. The smoke came closer and Kemi stood ready with her soldiers in case of they had to engage in combat. The colours of the flags and armours were now visible and it was not the Darcolia land.

  Jay stepped forward and gave a big smile since he knew who it was. The advancing group of people was stopping and walked towards Kemi. Nami was on the horse in the front and behind her were about 500 soldiers. Kemi wondered who she was, and she responded with saying that she was Jay’s girlfriend. Jay blushed and looked confused as well as quiet. Kemi said she would be happy to bless their coming marriage if they won and smiled. Jay looked down and when his eyes moved up again, he got a big kiss from Nami and then fell backwards. They laughed at him as he looked funny laying there and then Kemi wondered why Nami had come. Kemi knew the flag following Nami and said she hadn’t seen the kingdom of Wangoo ever join in any battle. Nami said her aunty was blind to the oncoming battle and would only cower in her castle with food and wine. Nami had a lot of her own soldiers who were loyal to her father and were still in the castle where he returned to once in a while but then followed her. When she moved to the castle a few years after his death, the soldiers and all those who worked for her father pledged their loyalty to her. She brought the attention of what she had learned to her castle and brought the soldiers she had.

  Jay could see the men were strong but they looked to be of an older generation of soldiers. Kemi thanked and welcomed her to the army that suddenly had grown to a formidable force. Kemi said she never knew who was in the castle since no answer was ever received from all the messages sent to the castle. Nami said Wangoo only had contact with the Domoro land since her Aunty was the queen there. They continued on, and finally, they entered in to Darcolia. As the army was setting up camp, Jay walked up to Nami’s army general and asked to talk to Nami. The woman looked at him, and he could see, she was wearing the same assassin clothing as Nami had. She told him to wait while she talked to Nami. After a few minutes, she came out and told Jay to come with her. She let him inside a tent, and Nami was standing looking on a map on the wall with a cape covering her back. She turned and told her general, who he learned was named Soste, to please leave them alone.

  She then asked him what he wanted and he had to look away a little because she had changed into a very small piece of clothing that showed off her well-trained body. She smiled and walked up to him to say she was happy to be fighting with him together in the land. He asked her why she decided to come since Arobe had only threatened the Grasoll land. Nami said it was personal, and he didn’t need to know but that he could be sure she would fight. Jay mentioned that her soldiers looked a little older than usual men in the army and Nami told him they had nowhere else to go so they fought until they died of old age. Jay found it a little different because when the soldiers in the Grasoll army came to a certain age, they were given a house where they could live out their last days.

  Nami said there were soldiers as old as 70 in her army, but with the training they received, they could fight any young opponent well. As they spoke, there was movement outside the area that no one had seen. A group of 40 masked men suddenly rode up close and started firing arrows from crossbows. The army reacted fast and brought up shields to block, but some of the soldiers took hits. The army stayed where they were, and instead of charging forward and lose horses as well as soldiers, they brought out the machinery that the forest people had provided. Only smaller weapons were fired against the attackers since it would take too long to set up the big ones. However, one canon that had been prepared for a surprise attack like this was fired and created many small but heavy fast iron balls that rained down over the archers. Those on the horses had to block with their shields but some of the horses received the hard iron balls over them that either killed or injured them.

  There was also a device ready that fired arrows fast, and first, the army had trouble in the aiming since the men were circling with the horses that were uninjured. It didn’t take long until they finally got it right and created much damage. The archers had to retreat after five of them went down and another nine were hurt. The army got a low toll of three dead and fourteen hurt and a better defence was brought up to make sure they would be ready if another attack came. Jay, who had to leave Nami in a rush, stayed with the soldiers to make sure proper preparations were done.

  In the morning, the army packed up to continue on deeper in the land. The border between the lands was wide and many living on it supported neither of the sides, and instead wished to be left alone even if most of them paid taxes to Darcolia. They walked past a few villages, and the residents inside were afraid and held themselves in their houses. Another sign of tricks came after the army had come well inside the land of Darcolia. When the army came to an old ruin, an ambush came with around fifty men. They had swords and were hopelessly outnumbered, so Kemi thought it was strange, but had to defend no matter how small the attack was. Kemi gave the order to attack, and they approached the men coming through the ru
in. The attackers backed off as they were taking on the massive army and were drawing the army in closer to the ruin.

  Kemi told them to take the soldiers down, but Jay found it worrying that the attacking men were only backing off and seemed to draw the soldiers in inside the ruin. They fought inside the ruin, and all of a sudden, a massive roar was heard and the ground started to shake. Jay ordered a full retreat for the men, but before the soldiers could react, the true reason for the attacking men drawing them in the ruin unfolded. Part of the ruin broke up to fall down and the attackers ran off fast towards their horses that were waiting for them.

  The ground underneath was full of spikes and twenty-two soldiers lost their lives and only a small toll of three of the attackers were killed. Kemi was very angry and thought the tactic was cowardly even if she believed it was an effective attack on her. Knowing little about the land did not help as she could not say if there were more of those traps waiting for her. She told Jay she wanted to march faster and set off towards the big wall with the sight on the king. Nami brought up the wall to Kemi that it was strong enough to take on the most powerful of weapons but Kemi smiled to her and said she had information given to her from a source she trusted. Nami wondered what it was, but Kemi only told her to wait and see.

  After talking to the officers, Kemi also took the decision to send some soldiers to the mountain to have a look and dispatched a thousand soldiers to check up the possibility for mountain exit next to the palace for attack. The thousand soldiers went with High Officer Hillmer and made their way towards the mountain entry while a new camp was set up for the rest of the army. When Hillmer had brought the part of the army, they found no one and he understood it might be an ambush and told the men to be ready for it. The soldiers were right to be careful because the attack came right after the army had come fully in. The fight became intense and arrows were coming from every direction, and the soldiers had to take cover. They tried to fight back with the archers shooting back, but they had trouble hitting any targets due to the excellent cover of the Darcolian army.

  The soldiers bravely tried to fight on and pushed on, but a lot of the soldiers were injured by some boulders that came down and some fell to the arrows raining down. The fight never got to swords, and after realising the situation, Hillmer ordered a full retreat, but as he was moving back with the soldiers, he got hit by an arrow in the throat and had to be carried out by the soldiers. Shields were raised over the injured officer to try to cover him from the flying arrows raining down on them. Outside the mountain on the way back, Hillmer was still alive, and the soldiers continued on back to the others. When they finally had come back to the rest of the army, Hillmer was taken care of by the healers of the army, and Kemi was briefed about the mountain being too hard and well-guarded.

  A further twenty-five soldiers were killed or injured, and no one of the Darcolia army lost their life in the mountain, and it was decided to abandon the mountain as a way in to the castle. They finally came to the wall on the evening, and the army spread out over the land in a line. They saw King Arobe’s army placed over the wall, and the king himself was standing in the middle behind a metal net. He used a horn made to enhance his voice so those outside could hear him and told Kemi she was a fool for coming to his land. He told her she should return home to her land of morons. He said the wall would withstand anything she threw at it and told his men on the wall to aim their arrows at the intruders. Kemi knew it was now or never and told the soldiers to ready the secret weapons and the covered wagons that had been placed around and when the clothes came off, several canons and multiple arrow shooters were standing ready.

  The king looked at the different looking machines and wondered how well they were but felt like it would be bad to risk any men to find out. He told the men on the wall to fire the arrows and when they did, Jay shouted for the shields to come up. When it stopped raining arrows, Kemi told her officers to be ready. Kemi took the decision to start attacking and would not hold back on the offence. She told the men to fire at the wall to try and test it and the wall received many hits but nothing left more than a scratches. Arobe laughed and said it was no use and told the men to prepare another load of arrows. Jay said the blasts did little damage so they had to think of something new. The wall was, indeed, strong and Arobe had it constructed over many years so it would hold.

  Kemi looked calm when she stared at the wall and turned her face towards the soldiers handling the canons. Instead of simply firing on the wall randomly, she gave another order. Kemi asked if the canons had been loaded, and Jay said they were ready but again telling her he believed they would do no harm to the strong wall. She smiled and told him to aim all the canons at one specific place in the wall that had a rock missing in it. He looked at her, and then the wall to see the missing rock she pointed at. He looked at her again and wondered if she knew something she wasn’t saying. He made sure all the canons were lined to the same point and then gave the signal to Kemi.

  From the wall, Arobe was seeing what was happening and wondered what she was up to. Kemi looked directly at Arobe, and he could see something was not right. She gave the order for the canons to fire at the specific part of the wall and several loads were shot towards it. The canons’ loads hit the wall and an ear deafening sound was appearing when it did. Arobe did not prepare for the weapons they brought to be of any trouble for him and had put the Grasoll land down to be a smaller threat due to the information given to him by those gathering it. Then, he found himself looking at a big hole in the wall where the canons hit. Several more explosives were hitting the wall and also some of the troops that were standing by the wall were hit.

  Arobe was taken by surprise that the wall had broken so quick and wondered how it could break since it was built so strong. He could hear a horn from where the Grasoll army was, and suddenly, many soldiers began to run towards the wall. The king ordered an attack, and the soldiers fired more arrows at the attacking army. Some climbed over the rubble and started to fire arrows through the hole at the Darcolian army but got arrows shot back at them. Another load of all the canons was ready, and Arobe could see the outcome might be troublesome. He ordered everyone to fire at the canons to stop the soldiers firing the loads. Several of the soldiers at the canons got hit and died by the many arrows so Kemi ordered shields to cover the canons. A few loads went off and hit the wall again that broke down even more. Arobe told his high guards to bring in his new weapon.

  Kemi was walking back where Nami stood ready for the ride in through the wall, but she looked at Kemi and wondered how she got the information about the wall being fragile there. Kemi asked one of the officers in charge of the back line to prepare the arrow machine. She then walked back to the canons that kept getting hit by the arrows from Arobe. She said there was little problem if the evil king only had arrows to defend his kingdom with. Just as she said that, a sound came from behind the wall and a big boulder was launched up in the air. The soldiers vacated where it landed and it hit no one. Arobe told his men to adjust the machine and then told them to fire again. It went fast and another boulder was launched up. Jay saw where it was going and told the soldiers to move. A direct hit on one of the canons destroyed it completely.

  Kemi ordered the canons to keep firing, and every time the canons load hit the wall, it broke it down even more. A fierce battle took place at the wall, and Arobe had been preparing for the battle for some time. He had many arrows made for the soldiers that kept firing them. Once a soldier got hit by a returning arrow, Arobe replaced the soldier with a new one. Many of Kemi’s troops got injured, and some died of the continuing rain of arrows, but she knew she had the numbers on her side. Jay saw the wall had opened enough to get through after a perfect hit by the four last canons. He ordered the soldiers that had their shields up to advance forward. With the wall then so damaged, it suddenly collapsed where the hole was and revealed a much greater opening.

  Arobe told the men to get ready for the attack coming from the Grasol
l land. Kemi gave the signal and then her army rushed to the wall that had opened. Arobe and the Darcolia army stood ready to fight after drawing back from the wall that had become too dangerous to stay at with it breaking more for every shot still coming from the canons. As soon as the first soldiers walked through, they got hundreds of arrows shot at them killing anyone even holding a shield. They pushed in and Arobe expected them to move towards him but they had stopped and instead cleared the wall of anyone still trapped not able to come down. He could see something that was not used on the other side of the wall and was wondering what they did.

  Arobe was running low on the arrows holding the number down at the wall entrance and was about to order a seize fire to then attack head on. Kemi ordered the last weapons to fire and the arrow machines that had been placed behind the soldiers started spitting out hundreds of arrows really fast. There were two arrow machines set up and each had about five hundred arrows. The first wave of Darcolia soldiers were bringing up their shields while walking down but got just a few steps to the attacking army and then many of them were down. The arrows had made their impact and the result was visible before everyone. Arobe looked over at the about hundred dead or injured soldiers that were lying scattered over the land beyond the wall.

  Arobe was a skilful warrior, but he had a feeling of uncertainty rushing through his body. Kemi told Jay to lead the attack, and Jay lifted his sword then started riding slowly towards the wall opening. The wall had fallen down even more and the soldiers behind who were shocked by what previously happened, tried to assemble in a line. Arobe knew he was outnumbered and thought the wall he had built would last a much greater attack than what Grasoll land did. The king had to watch Kemi’s army rush in fast and with them being more soldiers, they came in with confidence.