Chapter 11: Chapter 10

Will pulled out his great-sword deep in the man’s side before he swung the long blade again, making a high-pitched sound while diagonally traveling through the air and tearing deep into the man’s neck, who was now on his knees before him. Because the man had no proper armor, but rather only thick fur and random patches of leather, Will’s blade almost severed part of the man’s torso from the right of his neck to the left of his chest. As Will pulled his blood-dripping sword out of the man’s flesh yet again, he took deep breaths while looking around the battlefield. Although his men had superior armaments and weapons, and were well-trained soldiers, the mountain people fought savagely. Even when an Oldwflower soldier pierced one through the stomach, the savage grabbed the soldier and pulled himself closer to him, the sword still tearing apart his guts, making the soldier stumble and fall in shock. On the ground, the savage, with the blade showing through his back, used his enormous hands to pummel the young soldier’s face. Will could’ve sworn he heard the sound of the young soldier’s skull crack underneath the screams and roars filling the night around him as he watched the soldier’s lifeless body lay on the ground with the mountain man collapsed on him.

Distracted by the horrific scene, Will almost didn’t notice the savage that ran towards him, axe in one hand high in the air and shield in the other. The savage chopped down at Will’s shoulder, who barely managed to dodge by taking a large step backward. But the axe not only left a clear mark on his armor, but also a dull pain in his left shoulder creeping up on his chest.

Erock, who was confident in killing the fool that got distracted on the battlefield, let out an annoyed sigh before taking another swing.

…

“And, Fire! “Ellia yelled in front of her soldiers while swinging down the arm she had held in the air.

As the dozens of flaming arrows flew far over her head, she kept her gaze on the battlefield up the hill.

“All of you, come with me!” She commanded, gesturing at around seventy men standing behind each other in groups of twenty. “The rest, keep shooting arrows at the right side of the battlefield until you see us arriving!”

Having said that, Ellia walked toward her husband, calmly standing at the side with his hands behind his back and a slight smile on his pale face, while the soldiers she gestured at readied themselves.

“I’m going to leave some guards with you,” She explained with eyes carrying a hint of annoyance.

Although she practically begged him to accompany Lia, Alys insisted on being by his wife’s side whenever she went out to battle. Despite the fact that it had happened many times before, Ellia couldn’t help but worry every time her husband, who was so unskilled in any kind of fighting, was near the battlefield with her, and she couldn’t personally protect him.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, my love. You go up there and show them why people fear the name Ellia Oldflower.” Alys said with a smirk before giving his wife a quick kiss.

Ellia sighed before she nodded and turned around. “You,” She said to a small group of soldiers who would stay a little longer, knocking their bows. “Stay here and guard Ser Alys.”

The soldiers all nodded before continuing to shoot their arrows.

“Let’s go!” She yelled at the rest of the soldiers making her way to the battlefield.

…

The wooden shield almost broke apart as Struggir rammed it into the soldier’s head repeatedly.

Satisfied, after seeing the soldier’s body stop twitching and leaving his face unrecognizable, he stood up and threw his shield away before grabbing a not as severely damaged one from one of the cold hands of the corpses lying around him. Just in time, he ducked and let the arrows that still rained down hit his shield.

“What the?” Struggir whispered after noticing how much quicker the arrow attack ended.

Confused, he ran towards the edge of the hill, basically ripping apart the few enemies that had somehow found their way this far to the other side of the battlefield with his giant axe. His eyes narrowed as he saw far fewer enemy soldiers in the distance than beforehand.

Slightly confused, he turned to his left with suspicious eyes, before turning to his right and seeing his men slightly pushing back the enemy. Their fierceness may have even given them an upper hand against, especially the young soldiers who didn’t have much experience but also experienced soldiers who were not used to such a crude way of fighting.

Before he could make any decision on what the lack of soldiers in the enemy camp truly meant, he saw outlines of men coming up the hill to his left.

“Enemy’s!” He yelled, enraged, his loud voice echoing through the battlefield.

A couple dozen of his men that were unoccupied turned to him before noticing the figures emerging from the dark behind them.

“Enemy’s!” More and more of them roared before rushing toward them, hoping to slaughter those who had already made their way up and forcing them into an uphill battle.

Struggir was the first to rush toward the enemy. With his already unpleasant face contorted in pure rage, he threw his shield at one of the soldiers that had just made their way up the hill and stunned them before almost separating their upper body from their legs with his axe.

With deep furious breaths, he continued to swing at the men making their way up the hill, soon joined by his men.

Although the Oldflower soldiers had to fight an uphill battle, their superior gear and training made it so that they managed to push back the savages.

Noticing the change, Struggir became even more enraged and kicked one of the soldiers down the hill into the other enemies, making some of them lose their balance.

Seeing what had happened, an idea came to Struggirs’s mind, and he backed off the edge. Seeing that, the Oldflower soldiers sighed in relief as the fat giant disappeared from their view.

But the joy didn’t last long when he appeared again, this time holding a corpse over his head. The blood dripped down from the body’s wounds and onto Struggir’s smiling face showing his crooked teeth.

With a manic expression, Struggir threw the body down the hill and knocked down some soldiers before throwing yet another body; some were of Oldflower soldiers.

.

Ellia watched from down the hill as Struggir threw the bodies of her soldiers who had bravely lost their lives with an icy stare.

“You with me.” She said to a group of soldiers next to her and went further along the hill.

.

The battlefield was now filled with not only bloodcurdling screams but also maniacal laughter.

Struggir couldn’t get enough of seeing the soldiers being hit and pushed by the bodies of their comrades.

As the fight went on, some more of his men joined in, the big ones also throwing down bodies while the others continued swinging their swords and axes.

What brought him out of his manic state was when the men to his side suddenly started dying.

Stepping back from the edge, he watched as a tall woman with auburn hair and a small group of soldiers came up from somewhere far from the other enemies and started fighting their way towards him.

Although he spent most of his life in the mountains, he recognized the woman easily cutting her way through his men. It would be strange if you didn’t know about one of the only and unarguably most famous women on the battlefields of Beymore.

At first, he felt fear. He knew about all the feats that this woman supposedly achieved, and he didn’t doubt them as he watched her slaughter one man after another. But he also felt excitement at the thought that he may not have been able to achieve a victory without casualties and gain the respect of his people. But if he managed to kill the great Ellia Oldflower. He couldn’t even imagine the fame his name would gain not only through the mountain tribes but the entire continent.

With a smile, he pushed away his men and walked toward Ellia, axe in hand.

 .

Ellia ducked under the admittedly fast sword of the mountain man before dodging another swing by taking a quick step back.

The man let his sword be led more by fear than reason; fear he gained after watching his comrades mercilessly killed by the tall woman before him. Before he knew it, the arm with which he was just holding his sword flew through the air while blood splattered out of the remaining stump. He couldn’t even let out the scream that was just about to leave his mouth before the woman brought her great-sword back down from her upward swing that had severed his arm and dug it deep into his neck, leaving his head only attached by thin threads of skin and flesh.

Ellia didn’t bother looking at the man she had just killed and marched forward, swinging her sword toward the fat man before her.

Struggir blocked her sword but couldn’t help but be surprised by the woman’s strength making his arms tremble.

.

Erock panted as he wiped off the sweat and dirt from his forehead and grabbed the big wound on his left side.

He didn’t expect the boy before him to be that skilled.

“What’s your name, boy?” He asked between breaths.

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But Will didn’t answer.

He just held his sword in his trembling hands while the blood of his left arm streaked with wounds colored his entire arm red and dropped to the ground.

Will managed to wound his enemy after he was stunned by his strength. However, after acknowledging Will’s strength, he threw away the rest of the shield Will had shredded and pulled out another small axe. His enemy continually used his axes to attack only Will’s left arm with fast movements that even surpassed his little brother’s.

Although the wounds were shallow, there were dozens of them, significantly weakening his strength.

Erock chuckled before he ran towards Will and swung towards Will’s left arm.

Will could only find solace in the fact that Erock had gotten slower as the fight went on because of his wound, but the same applied to him.

As he tried to dodge and deflect Erock’s attacks, more and more wounds accumulated on his already damaged arm.

The pain in his arm eventually became too much, and Will almost dropped his sword.

Finally seeing his opportunity, Erock started to take a big swing at Will before a piercing pain permeated from the wound on his side, making him slump to the ground on one knee.

It was lucky for him that Will couldn’t exploit that chance and just stood before him desperately trying to lift his sword.

After a couple of painful seconds, Erock managed to stand up and watched with a bit of amusement as Will tried to lift his sword.

From the corner of his eye, Will saw Erock standing up and slowly limping toward him.

Desperately he used all the strength he could muster, but to no avail; the sword wouldn’t budge, and even he couldn’t use It with only one hand.

He quickly looked for other weapons but knew he’d die the second he turned around to lift one up.

As his gaze darted around the battlefield surrounding him, it halted on the young soldier and the mountain man he had seen fighting beforehand.

When Erock was a couple of steps away from the panicked Will, he took a deep breath, reveling in his victory.

Not wasting any more time, he swung yet again, this time with less strength, so as not to open his wound any further.

When his axe almost dug into Will’s flesh. Will suddenly turned towards him, only determination recognizable in his eyes, and practically threw himself into the axe but shifted his body, so it cut into his right chest.

Stunned by the boy’s seemingly suicidal action, Erock couldn’t dodge and slammed into the ground.

Before he knew it, a fist repeatedly hit his face, crushing his nose and loosening teeth.

Erock used his right hand to dig into Will’s wounds.

When Will felt the pain, he hesitated for a second, giving Erock a chance, but the moment Erock tried to use his left arm to push Will off, the piercing pain flowed like currents through his left side.

Will’s hesitation didn’t last long until he pulled the axe out of his chest and started to drive it repeatedly into Erocks skull until only a mush of flesh was recognizable where once was a face.

Will sat there on Erocks corpse as the Oldflower soldiers around him further pushed back the savages that seemingly became less as his fight continued, meaning that his mother must have appeared on the other side of the battlefield.

…

Struggir alternated between his many wounds, trying to stop the blood from flowing out.  

He walked towards the forest farther and farther from the battlefield after pathetically losing the fight that lasted only a few seconds and rolling down the hill.

As he laid at the foot of the hill, wincing in pain, he thought about continuing to fight for a fleeting second but quickly remembered the person that brought him into this position, and considered himself rather lucky to have been far enough from the enemy soldiers still climbing the hill so that he could flee undetected.

He was no fool. He knew that he would bleed out soon, but he wanted to die as far away from the battlefield as possible, as far away from the shame as possible.

“Lia!” A shout echoed through the forest.

Almost instantly, Struggir could see its reason emerge from the forest.

“Haha… hahahahaha..” Struggir laughed even more manically than on the battlefield as he saw the little girl look at him with big eyes.

For a moment, Struggir forgot his injuries and shook his head. “Lia, hmm. Lia Oldflower. Fucking Jaren.”

Lia took a few steps back, but her gaze never left the bloodied fat giant talking to himself.

“Lia!” Tobin and another guard suddenly ran past her and unsheathed their swords. “Run back. The others are still looking for you in the forest.”

Hearing the soldier’s words, Struggir ran toward them with no hesitation. “Raaaagggghhh!”

Shocked that the heavily wounded man could still run toward them, Tobin quickly dodged while the other guard struck down with his sword.

As if possessed, Struggir paid no attention to the blade that dug itself into his lower neck; he used his remaining strength to lift his axe and let it practically fall onto the shocked guard’s head, splitting it in two.

Suddenly a sharp pain came from his side, and he turned to see Tobin stabbing him. The rest of the heavily damaged armor he stole from the scouts only managed to stop the sword from being driven too deep into his guts.

As Tobin tried to pull the blade out, Struggirs enormous hand gripped tight, letting the blood flow from the deep cuts.

Tobin pulled as hard as he could, not wanting to lose his sword when fighting against this monster, but slipped on the mud and leaves as he did so.

Struggir pulled out the sword and stumbled toward Tobin, frantically crawling backward away from him.

He felt something leaving a shallow cut on his back as he did so.

He turned around and saw trembling like it was the coldest winter with Tobin’s and the other guard’s swords.

A smirk etched itself on his face for a split second before he struck down with his axe yet again, this time with even less strength than before.

Lia tried to remember every little detail her mother told her in her short training.

As the axe fell down from a height that seemed to her like the sky, she took a step to the side while trying to deflect the axe but quickly noticed how even though the man was almost dead, the weight of the axe was still far too much. The axe missed her because of her sidestep but pushed her sword’s blade into her arm.  

“AAAAAAGGGHHHH!” As Lia fell to the ground, she let out a horrible scream. She had never felt that kind of pain and could only watch with eyes full of tears as the man in front of her yet again lifted his axe to finally kill her.

As the axe descended toward her head, she could see Tobin jump on the man’s back and repeatedly stab him in the neck and face with a dagger, making him stumble backward.

Lia’s heart was motionless, her mind was empty, her ears didn’t hear anything, and her eyes faded to black as the axes blade struck her.

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