by Jamie Davis
Otto nodded his approval of the plan.
“So, you’re going to assume command and lead our new army in battle. I commend you. The men and women of our units will be heartened to see you at the front of the charge when we face our opponents.”
“No, Otto, that’s going to be your job when we get back.”
“Me? Why me? What are you going to be doing?”
“I’m going to be sneaking around behind the imperial lines and putting the rest of my plan into motion. We can’t beat the imperials in a stand-up fight, but we don’t have to. Otto, you and Bilham just have to hold their attention long enough for the real plan to come together. If you can do that, then we stand a good chance of winning.”
“What kind of chance?” the big barbarian asked.
“Better now that I’ve got my luck back. Now, let’s get all our gear together. We’re going to have to move fast once Churg returns if we’re going to make it around the imperial army in time. I figure we’re going to need two days to get to our army. Once there we have to prepare them for the battle to come.”
Otto didn’t look as confident at Hal had hoped he would but that would change. He didn’t know how to quit. It was why Hal had chosen him to take over leadership of the main force. His steadfast nature would hold them together when they started taking the beating they were about to receive at the hands of the better-trained imperial forces and their new weapons using the fire sand. That part was imperative if the rest of the plan was going to work out the way it was coming together in Hal’s mind. The rebel army had to hold their ground and keep Norak focused forward with all his forces. Hal knew Otto and Bilham would ensure they did.
Hal turned his thoughts inward and thought about Mona and Cari for the first time in what felt like weeks. He was so tired. The sooner he completed the task Tildi had for him, the sooner he could return home to them. That was where he really wanted to be.
For all the fun and friends he had here in Fantasma, what Hal wanted most was a trillion miles away on another world. Norak’s torture had done damage beyond the physical pain. Hal knew he needed to return home to heal that part of himself deep inside still feeling guilt at the betrayal of his friends and fellow slaves. It hurt even if that betrayal occurred under torture.
Hal had to push forward, though. There was work to be done here. The trip back home began with the first step back to warn the rebel army of what was to come and plan for Norak’s defeat.
35
As soon as Churg returned, Hal filled the goblin chieftain in on what they had to do. Churg immediately sent his scouts out to rove ahead so they could avoid the enemy. Their small party should be able to move pretty fast if they could keep from being detected. Norak had to be looking for Hal and whoever helped him escape by now.
The group started riding north with the goblin scouts ranging ahead of them on foot. Churg trotted along next to Hal and Kay at the lead of the group, having turned down a mount of his own.
After traveling north for several hours, Churg returned from checking with his scouts and Hal asked him how much farther they had to go before they could turn west.
“A few more miles if we’re lucky, Hal. My scouts will locate any imperial patrols easily enough and keep us from running into any of them by accident. Once we’re past their outriders, we should be able to turn due west and make better time.”
“I’m worried about getting to our army too late to prepare them for what is to come. We might have to cut west sooner and take our chances with any patrols.”
“It’s up to you. You are war chief, Hal. We’ll follow your lead. If we continue north a little farther, maybe one or two more hours, we can avoid all imperial contact.”
Kay shook her head.
“Hal, we can’t risk getting caught again. If we get caught and fail to warn our forces in time, the rebel army is doomed.”
“I know, Kay, but we might have to take a chance on it. If it’s just a patrol, we should be able to fight our way through and get away before they have a chance to get word back to the baron or his generals.”
Hal realized everyone was looking at him. It was his decision to make.
Hal looked up, trying to gauge the angle of the sun between the trees and how much daylight they had left. He decided to take a chance. His luck was back, right?
“We turn west now. Churg, reorient the scouts ahead of us as best you can, but we have to make better time westward.”
The goblin nodded and jogged off into the surrounding forest, disappearing from sight as soon as he entered the underbrush. Hal could see no trace of his passing.
Hal the others turned to the left and headed due west at a trot, cutting the angle to make up time and get ahead of the marching imperials.
They rode for another two hours and dusk was setting in, lengthening the deep shadows in the woods around them. Hal was about to call a halt and see if they could find a place to settle for the night when one of the goblin scouts ran out onto the trail holding up a hand to halt them.
Churg ran over and exchanged a few words with his scout then returned to Hal.
“Trouble up ahead. We need to move around to the north again.”
“What is it?” Kay asked.
“A sizable imperial patrol is looting a village just ahead of us. They’re occupied with what they’re doing, though, so we should be able to slip around them.”
Hal didn’t like the sound of circling around to the north again. He also didn’t like leaving helpless peasants and villagers to the whims of imperial soldiers.
“Were the villagers able to escape before they arrived?”
Kay put a hand on Hal’s arm.
“Don’t do it, Hal. We can’t save everyone. Sometimes we have to ignore a small evil to destroy a bigger one.”
“I don’t believe that, Kay. It’s all part of the same evil in the end. Besides, going around to the north again will take too much time. It’s better to fight our way through. Churg, how many of them are there?”
“My man said about thirty, give or take a few. That would be about right for a full imperial cavalry troop.”
“It’ll be tight,” Hal announced. “Still, we should be able to take them with the help of the scouts to take out any stragglers who escape the initial attack. They’re going to be occupied with their pillaging and won’t even know we’re there until we’ve killed most of them.”
Otto laughed and pulled out his battle axe from its sling on his saddle.
“He’s right. We’ll be able to catch them with their pants literally around their ankles.”
Rune and Junica both nodded and readied their weapons. So did the small group of surviving recruits still traveling with them.
“Good. It’s settled, then. Churg, have your scouts fan out to the south of the village. Take out any who try to escape. We don’t want them to warn the rest of their army about our presence. The rest of us will dismount and proceed on foot to the edge of the village. We’ll decide what to do once I get an idea of the layout.”
Quest accepted — free the village
Churg ran off with his scout to spread the word while Hal and the others dismounted. A few recruits were detailed off to hold the horses and wait for their return while Hal led the remaining members of his party down the trail towards the village ahead.
The trek to the village didn’t take long and he heard the screams and shouts from the villagers and imperial soldiers before they arrived at the edge of the woods. There were several homes and outbuildings burning, lighting up the sky as dusk set in. People ran in all directions, some being chased by armored imperial soldiers.
Hal was about to start formulating a plan of action when a woman and two small children ran from the village headed directly for the hidden party. Two cavalry troopers ran after her, one grabbing the smallest child from her and threw the child to the ground. The trooper raised his saber over his head ready to strike down at the child.
“Screw this,” Hal muttered. So
much for coming up with a plan.
Shouting a challenge, Hal charged from the concealment of the forest, drawing his sword. He started towards the trooper threatening the child but two of Junica’s arrows sprouted from the imperial’s chest in rapid succession and he fell backwards with a gurgling cry.
Hal veered towards the other man, who’d just grabbed the running woman by the arm. Hal swung downward and hacked deep into the soldier’s arm.
The man screamed in pain but had enough presence of mind to pull his saber around and parry Hal’s next attack. Hal’s forward momentum carried him into the imperial trooper and he leaned into his shield delivering a crushing shield bash attack that staggered the man, nearly knocking him from his feet.
Following up with a thrust to the chest, Hal finished off the elite cavalryman as he backpedaled away from the assault. The man collapsed to the ground clutching at Hal’s sword for a few seconds before he went limp.
2500 experience points awarded.
Hal waved to his small force at the edge of the woods.
“No time for fancy plans. Get in there before they kill everyone.”
Kay and the others, followed by the small group of recruits ran forward, weapons drawn and headed into the embattled village.
The chaos in the village lent itself to their sudden, surprise attack on the imperial cavalrymen. They were so intent on killing the men and children and raping the women that it took long minutes to realized they were under attack from Hal’s forces.
Hal ran through the houses on the outskirts and heard screaming from inside one small hut. He ducked inside and found a trooper atop a woman with another standing by holding her down.
The second imperial let go of the woman as soon as he saw Hal enter and picked up his saber from the floor.
“I recognize you. You’re the escaped prisoner the Baron has been looking for. I’m going to collect the bounty on you and be rich for the rest of my life.”
“You’re not the first to try and take me for the price on my head.”
“Careful, we have to take him alive,” the other trooper cautioned as he rose from the cowering woman on the floor and took up his own blade.
Hal realized he’d lost the initiative and tried to regain it by launching an attack at the first trooper. The man was a good swordsman, though.
He parried a series of Hal’s attacks with his saber while his companion came over to join the fray.
Suddenly, Hal was on the defensive as he blocked blow after blow with sword and shield while backing towards the door.
The cavalry sabers were quick weapons, even though their curved blades didn’t have the reach his longsword did. Hal knew he had to try something to divide their attacks and use it to take one of them out quickly.
Blocking the next series of attacks with his shield, he swung at the closest trooper causing him to step backward and parry the attack. Hal then spun around while fending off the second trooper’s saber with his shield.
The move caught them both by surprise and Hal pressed in on the second trooper with two rapid thrusts, one to the leading thigh that must have severed an artery judging by the spurt of blood from the wound.
The second thrust caught the man in the throat and he fell, choking on his own blood.
2500 experience points awarded.
The first trooper managed to land a slashing attack at Hal’s exposed back. Searing pain lanced through him as he turned to parry the following blows.
Health damage: Health -12
The attack hurt like hell but Hal didn’t think it had penetrated his new armor.
With only one trooper to deal with, Hal started trading blows, blocking the return attacks with his shield. A slash took opened up a rent in the trooper’s chainmail across his chest and cut deeply into the flesh and muscle beneath.
The injury slowed the subsequent attacks and Hal soon had him pressed back against the wall of the hut where he finished him with a thrust to the heart.
2500 experience points awarded.
The woman cowered on the floor, trying to pull the pieces of her torn dress around to cover her nakedness. She clearly didn’t know what to make of her rescue since she didn’t know who Hal was.
“Gather the other villagers and head for the forest. It’ll be safe there until we finish off the rest of the imperials. Go!”
The woman nodded and sidled past him, running out the door.
Hal followed her and searched for another target.
Two of his recruits were trying to fend off a cavalryman with their spears. It was working but both were injured and it looked like the trooper was going to finish them soon if someone didn’t step in.
Hal charged the trooper from behind, hacking down at the man’s shoulder, cutting through the armor and deep into the flesh and bone below.
The wounded imperial dropped his saber and tried to turn away from the new attack. Hal knocked him to the ground while he was off balance and thrust his sword into the trooper’s face, piercing his brain and killing him instantly.
2500 experience points awarded.
The two recruits stared at the Hal for a moment.
“You did well. Stick together and work in tandem like that. You’ll stay alive that way.”
They nodded at the advice and took off to the left in search of new targets.
Hal realized they’d taught them all well how to fight in a large unit, but when the fighting devolved into individual small combats like this one, they weren’t as prepared as they could be. No time to fix that now, though. He hoped the pair survived the attack.
A shout from his right spun Hal around. A huge imperial sergeant spotted Hal standing over the dead trooper and he charged raising his saber overhead.
Hal barely had time to turn and square himself before the sergeant arrived and began hammering blow after blow down on him.
The man was unnaturally quick and it took Hal a long time to find an opening to return the attacks coming in at him.
Two attacks broke through Hal’s defenses but he was able to keep them from being too serious.
Health damage: Health -10
Health damage: Health -6
Hal launched a series of counterattacks trying to get out of the defensive position he was in.
He finally broke through the sergeant’s defenses by dropping to a crouch and slamming the iron-bound rim of his shield down on the top of the man’s boot.
Hal felt the crunch of broken foot bones resonate up through his arm and the sergeant’s leg buckled as he fell to one knee.
Tucking his shoulder down against the back of his shield, Hal shoved hard and knocked the sergeant backwards to the ground.
His opponent was faster than he thought because the big imperial sergeant used the momentum from the shove to continue the roll into a back somersault and came back to his feet, though he was favoring the injured foot more than a little. He winced every time he put weight on it.
The sergeant took a step forward and started to stumble. Hal shouted and lunged forward. Too late, he realized it was a feint and the next thing he knew, he received a ringing blow to the top of his helmet that left his ears ringing.
Health damage: Health -10
Hal brought up his sword and parried the next two blows that rained down on him while he cleared his head. The sergeant snarled at Hal and continued to press his attacks home.
A slash snaked past his blade and cut across Hal’s shoulder making him cry out in pain.
Health damage: Health -8
He was running out of tricks to beat this guy. He was good and if any other imperials came to help him, Hal would be finished.
A thought occurred to him. Maybe turnabout was fair play. Hal let the shoulder of his injured sword arm drop a little, lowering his blade as he leaned to that side.
The sergeant shouted in triumph and lunged in to a follow-up attack to take advantage of Hal’s injury.
At the last instant, Hal brought up his blade to bat the saber asi
de and swept his shield across, striking the other man’s sword arm on the wrist with the rim of his shield.
He must have caught the bone of the man’s wrist perfectly because the fingers spasmed and the saber fell free.
Now it was Hal’s turn to take the attack to his opponent while the big sergeant backpedaled drawing a long dagger to try and fend off Hal’s attacks.
It didn’t work for long. Hal shouted and lunged forward, his sword snaking past the smaller blade and plunging into the imperial sergeant’s chest.
6000 experience points awarded.
A quick glance at his health points told him he was nearly down to fifty percent remaining. Checking to make sure no other enemies were nearby, Hal leaned against a nearby hut for cover and closed his eyes to engaged his Chakra Regeneration while he paced through the motions in place.
18 health points recovered.
There, that would help a little.
A shout and a scream from the other side of the hut he was using for cover told him the fight was still going on and Hal darted out of his hiding place and charged around to find three more imperial troopers facing down against a lone member of Hal’s recruit force.
The man’s partner lay dying at his feet and he was wildly swinging his spear from side to side, trying to fend off the attacking trio of imperials.
Hal opted for silence this time and ran up behind the unsuspecting troopers, killing one with a lunging stab to the kidneys before the others knew he was there.
2500 experience points awarded.
The other two spun around and then sidled up next to each other to keep Hal and the recruit in front of them.
“Let’s take care of this together, recruit. Shall we?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
The young ex-slave moved to stand next to Hal and held his spear at the ready in front of him as he’d been taught by Bilham and the others.