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The Battle of Fort Axios
Military action
13/10
11/10
The Army of the Dragon didn't have to wait long. As the sun set over the day that had marked the first contact with the enemy, a force of about 2,000 men appeared on the crest of the rise leading up from the Fort Axios beachhead.
The Dragon ordered the Silver Shields into the field under the cover of the Fort Walls, with the other two Legions providing archer support from within it. Interlocking their shields and lowering their spears, the Silver Shields - for the very first time - formed into the almost impenetrable phalanx formation that would be seen on dozens of later battlefields. With the Lord Dragon, Lady Kiwi, and Lady Sam out in front, they didn't have to wait long for the battle to start...
With an echoing roar, the enemy army, clearly outnumbering the Silver Shields by more than three to one, charged down the hill. The swords, clubs, axes and short spears waving wildly above their heads.
The Dragon rolled his neck, lifted his sword ready and called out to the Legion behind him. "No Quarter given, no man passes, Axios!!"
The deafening roar boomed from behind him as every man in the Legion answered as one. "AXIOS!"
At that exact moment, and totally unplanned, the charging enemy passed the halfway point of their charge, moving too fast to stop, and having come too far to turn around, they passed into rage of, and were at the withering mercy of arrows as the men inside the fort let loose. They sky darkened as a thousand arrows filled it at once, volley after volley dropping the charging enemy force by their hundreds... their bodies littering the field and their numbers dwindled to a more manageable level before the first contact was made.. and felled by men whose existence they didnt even know about...
The fist man came straight for The Dragon, the mighty swing of his sword cleaving his blade in two and relieving his neck of his head. Swinging wildly as he stepped into the Melee, only breifly looking behind me to see the rest of the horde crashing impotently into the shield wall, impaling themselves onto the spears of the silver shields... the lifeless bodies piling up in a heap as the men implemented their years of training... block, hold, thrust, step. Each block defending from attack, each hold keeping the enemy from pushing through, each thrusy imaplaling another man on another spear, then stepping over that body to do it again.., The enemy were dropping like scythed wheat and The Dragon hadnt worked up a sweat yet
It was almost disappointing....
almost
With no enemy soldier surviving the raid to rescue Myrwen, the use or identity of the Dragons was not known to Kroll's forces yet and Pete wanted to keep it this way. With the battle underway and The Lord Dragon leading the defense from the center, Ladies Kiwi and Sam were able to do what they did best.
Sam shadow portalled behind the attacking army, seeking out and either killing or capturing any of the men who appeared to be officers, her shadows pulling the men to the cells in her shadow realm for later questioning and her daggers slicing through any man brave (or stupid enough) to interrupt her.
Kiwi single-handedly held the only flank. With the walls to the rear and the woods to the North, only the southern flank was open, and even then, only just. With her void bow at the ready, she felled any man who threatened the exposed end of the Legion's line... and when they got too close for the bow, her vampiric nature gave her other options.
The battle was breaking up rapidly, the enemy realizing quickly that the shield wall was unbreakable and the men in front of them were far better armed, armored and trained than they could ever hope to be. A lifetime of work on the practice field, the men of the Silver Shields practiced their well honed trade with savage, brutal efficiency.
With each step forward, they moved further away from the safety of the fort walls and with one last stabbing step, the shield wall exploded, men bursting forward, their spears dropped and, with swords in hand, started cutting, stabbing, thrusting, and scything through the enemy ranks. Each man fighting alone, yet still part of the unit, each man still defending the men either side of him, while tearing through the enemy in an awe inspiring display of organized violence.
For his part, the Dragon pirouetted and wheeled on the spot, both swords, a Catherine wheel of spinning death. Launching his swords out in a spinning arc to cut through the a group of men charging forward was followed by an explosion of immense proportions as a fire ball was launched from his fist and into the men closer to the rear ranks.. body parts and viscera flew in every direction as the ground shook, the men close by turned and fled... straight into the waiting arms of Sam's shadows
Two of them, however, were intent on standing their ground. Both of them raising their swords and advancing on the Dragon who, in turn, spun his swords in his hands and prepared to fight.... Until an arrow sprouted in the chest of each of them in rapid succession, a brief look of suprise on thier faces before their bodies folded in on themselves and a purple vortex sucked them, screaming, into the void.
The Dragon turned to a smug looking and curtsying Kiwi... "Show off!"
The Battle itself lasted less than an hour before what was remaining of Kroll's forces turned and fled from the far more skilled and disciplined Caer Wen Legion. With Sam having decapitated the raiding force's leadership, the enemy had been reduced to a disorganized mob with some standing their ground to fight and die, others retreating only to be cut down by the archers on the walls.
"Men of the legion. HALT!!" Came the cry from behind The Dragon and the Ladies as they dealt their dosages of death, turning to see the captain who had yelled out the order and suddenly realising how far away from the walls, and the safety of the bowmen, the legion had come.
The ground behind them was strewn with the dead, not a single one of them wearing the silver armor or carrying a silver shield. The men stopped immediately as the rest of the enemy, no more than a few dozen, broke, turned and fled... easy pickings for kiwi, Sam and the archers.
The Legion reformed, every man instinctively and immediately knowing their place in the formation, each of them panting with the exersion of battle, each of them soaked in blood that wasnt their own. Not a single man of the legion had fallen.
Sam and Kiwi had decided, at some point during the battle, that three of the enemy, all of them minor officers, would be spared to deliver a message to Kroll. Held by Sams Shadows while the Dragon stayed with the Legion and the Ladies gleefully finished off the enemy... of the 2,000 men who had charged the shield wall of the Caer Wen Legion, only these three would be left to tell the tale.
"Do you know why you are still alive?" The Dragon asked them simply.
All three of the men, looks of abject shock and terror in their eyes, shook their heads.
I stepped to the side, sweeping my arm in a broad gesture to the rest of field, a group of silver shieldmen wandering through the carnage and dispatching the wounded. "You are alive to bear witness... Your leader.. Kroll... brought us into this war, they have awoken a force they cannot yet comprehend. We may not have started this, but now we are here, we mean to finish it. You dealt with one legion today... one... and they were outnumbered more than three to one. There are many many more where they came from and your armies are about to feel the full measure of my wrath! You came for my daughter, I am coming for them. Make sure they know that... now go!"
The Dragon nodded simply to Sam, who in turn released the disarmed men and allowed them flee, before turning and walking away to his men.
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