“Akurai do not belong on the Broken Coast! Do Akurai belong on the Broken Coast?!”
Many of the soldiers shouted, “No, ser!”
“The 12 Laws state that we all must “obey our liege” and “fight the unholy.” If we die, we will transcend and take our rightful place in the æther with our fallen kin. King Ulmer, your king, has called for us. He demands your aid. You are peasants; you are his levies. Get your shit together and hold your fucking positions. You will charge when you hear the signal or I will kill you myself.”
Gharland spurred his mount through the front line with Britus close behind towards the other higher-ranking officers at the rear of the army, where they would be safe surrounded by dozens of men-at-arms. He continued shouting orders as he rode.
“Was that supposed to inspire us?” Rilan asked sarcastically. A bunch of the soldiers chuckled under their breath; Tomas included.
Tomas had never laid eyes on Ulmer Stoneheart, king of the Broken Coast. He wondered how many battles he had seen in his lifetime… and how many he had actually fought in. He questioned how fair all of this was.
“Tommy,” Rilan whispered.
Tomas’s hands began to shake again. “What?”
“Do you remember that time when we were younger, when we walked in on your father slaughtering that lamb in his butcher shop?”
Tomas shuddered. Why would Rilan bring this up now? Is he trying to make me feel even worse?
Rilan continued, “We were so little. We didn’t know that that’s where his produce came from. We never knew. That’s why he never let us in the back of the shop again.”
Tomas gulped. He remembered that day clearly in his mind. The lamb’s squeal. The blood-covered blade. His father’s hands around the scruff of its neck.
“We were so horrified… so scared,” Rilan said. “Do you remember what we did next?”
Tomas smiled, nodding. “We went out the back, let free all the lambs from the pen.”
“Watched them run into the Fist! Your father was so angry!” Rilan and Tomas laughed nervously to themselves. “But they got away. He never found them.”
It was a fond end to a very horrible memory.
And then, in the distance, a command was shouted- “Archers, ready!”
Tomas felt his muscles tense up and his heart race.
“I feel like those lambs, Tomas,” Rilan whispered. Tomas could hear the fear in his voice. “But I don’t think anybody is going to come rescue us today.”
Hundreds of arrows shout out from the rear, whizzing through the air with a deafening whistle.
“Vanguard, charge!”
A horn blew, louder than anything Tomas had heard before.
The vanguard rushed forward as a mass of hundreds, shaking the ground.
Tomas and Rilan forced themselves forward with the rest of them.
I’m going to die.
※
The two armies collided chaotically and unevenly like waves upon the rocky coast. The sound was ear-splitting. Thousands of men shrieking; swords and spears clashing upon metal and flesh.
The Akurai Imperials were equipped with thick, black-and-green plate armour and striking helmets which bore spikes on top. Their soldiers stood at least a foot taller than the men defending their lands. They were a fierce match.
Tomas and Rilan stuck side by side as their section of the vanguard met the enemy’s. In an instant, Tomas’s world was consumed by darkness.
Mud was kicked up by all the running soldiers. Blood sprayed out in all directions. Boys shrieked. Weapons were knocked from the hands of soldiers. Bodies fell into the once-grassy mud.
Tomas’s ears rang with the deafening noise.
He felt his spear bounce off a foe’s shield before his body collided at full speed into the wall of tower shields before him. The line of spears did little on the initial charge- the army of green and black exploded through the ill-equipped forces of the Broken Coast.
Those impaled fell screaming. The rest fought on, adrenaline pumping through the air like a suffocating mist.
Tomas was swallowed up in the turmoil. His spear snapped in half by the swing of someone’s sword.
The soldier next to him grabbed a Akurai helmet that had been knocked to the ground, smacking it over the head of another with an almighty crunch. The spikes atop the helmet pierced the metal armour with ease and the Imperial dropped like a deadweight, the helmet impaled in his.
Tomas’s face became covered in mud and muck thrown up by the pandemonium. It was in his eyes, his mouth. He coughed as mud and blood spattered into his airways with each shaky breath he took. He stumbled backwards but fell into other soldiers.
There were friends and enemies on all sides, in all directions.
A weapon. I need a weapon!
Tomas drew his shortsword from the scabbard hanging on his belt. A Akurai soldier standing at least eight-feet tall spotted an easy target in Tomas, and raced towards him, raising a menacing mace into the air.
In complete terror, Tomas stood his ground before ducking underneath the strong swing of the soldier at the very last second. He rose from behind as the Imperial stepped too far forwards, the shortsword slicing through the thin layer of armour at his lower belly with all the strength Tomas could muster.
It was a lucky cut.
The Imperial soldier fell screaming, his guts spilling out like a fishing bucket overflowing with catch.
Tomas froze in the chaos, staring down at the kneeling man as he struggled to collect his innards with his bloody hands.
The Akurai soldier wailed. It was unlike anything Tomas had ever heard before. The pain in his moaning, the fear in his screams.
I did this, Tomas realised. He could not avert his eyes.
He did not want to kill this
