Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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I waited for the men to get close to me. Only two of the five decided to approach me. I heard jeers and laughs from the spectators and even my opponents but I made sure to keep my focus on my enemies.

The two who were approaching did not even have their cowhide shields up so I decided to capitalize. I dropped my shield and rushed to the closest to me. Seeing me coming, the man raised his shield but was too slow.

I used my spear and stabbed at his chest. The place I stabbed drew blood and I immediately looked toward the next guy near me who was in a stupor. I threw my spear with enough accuracy to hit the guy. I made sure to only put enough power to pierce the guy's skin. It hit him in the chest and I heard his grunt of pain but I did not look back as soon as I noticed blood and knew he was eliminated.

It appeared that the rest of the guys were maddened by my acts as two rushed at me while the last guy aimed his spear at me. There was enough distance for me to pick up the spear of the first guy I took down and throw it at the spear aimer. I did not have enough time to check if it hit as the two guys were on me.

One of the guys thrust their spear at me but I managed to dodge only to have to jump back again as another thrust from the other attacker nearly hit me. I decided to back away to my shield while occasionally dodging a thrust attack. I managed to make it to my shield and pick it up.

I was still being cornered though so I decided to make a risky play by throwing my shield like a frisbee at one of the guys and rushing the other. As soon as I threw the shield, I rushed toward the other guy. He was caught off guard and hurriedly thrust his spear at me. His hurry made his accuracy tank as the attack did not even near me. He was wide open and I did something I always wanted to do in battle.

I delivered a flying drop kick sending the guy tumbling as he dropped his spear and shield. I did not celebrate my successful kick as I still had an enemy up and ready to go. I picked up the spear the guy sent flying dropped and ran to him just to prick him just in case.

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I then ran to the guy who was in a defensive pose with his shield up and spear aimed at me. I decided to break his defence unconventionally by using my spear as a bat and bashing his shield to the side opposite of where my enemy placed his spear. The spear broke but did what it needed to do. His shield moved out of my way, knocking away his spear with it. The broken spear still had sharp splintered ends which I used to prick the last guy which made him bleed.

The crowd were silent, most likely in shock. I did not care though as I immediately looked at Sifiso with a thumbs up and then at the inkosi to tell him something. " I win. "

The inkosi praised me for my skills and began kissing my ass. I didn't blame him though. I was the son of an important inkosi with amazing fighting skills. I could go far and would do so. For my reward, I asked to keep it as a favour if I ever needed it. He agreed and said he would do anything I asked of him within reason.

He also gave me five cows as a gift and a show of goodwill. With that meeting out of the way, we continued our journey, heading to the next village with more confidence. The next village was a lot smaller than the one we had been to. I also learnt that the next village was also prepared for an attack but unlike the previous village, looked like they decided to be on the offensive.

From what Themba said, they had a hundred soldiers ready for battle. Out of the hundred, only fifty looked like proper warriors. The rest were either elderly or boys who decided to pick up a weapon. So they might have wanted the advantage of surprise to take many of us out.

Out of my fifty soldiers, ten were scouts, twenty were archers and the rest were normal warriors. There were still special squads among the men, like the intelligence gatherers who were made up of five people but they were still fully-fledged warriors who could fight like the rest of them. I still counted them as specialists, so I put them at the back of the troops. After all, training them was a lot more time-consuming and tedious.

I did not plan to fight but I made preparations for it. I had the scouts find a nice vantage point for the archers while we hung back and waited. After an hour or so, they found a nice hill close enough to the potential battlefield. I sent the archers there before ordering my men to get ready for the fight. The scouts would be barraging the enemy from all around with spears, sticks and stones while the rest fought head-on like the Spartans. Seeing this as our possible first battle, I decided to give them a speech.

" For all of us, this shall be our first time. Some of us may be scared, others just nervous. But don't be. We have trained for this. We have worked hard for this! We shall win and we shall conquer! Why?! Because we are the Mthethwa! Because you are my men and I shall not accept a single death. If anyone dies, I shall personally fetch you from the ancestors and kill you again myself! "

I heard bellows of laughter and shouts of agreement.

" Now you better show them who we are or I will make sure you will remember to do so and you won't want that, understood! "

Yells of agreement came from the group of young men in front of me and I couldn't help but crack a beastly grin before marching forward with my men following in perfect formation behind me.

Even though I had planned not to fight, my actions spoke differently. It showed me how much I craved to battle. To show that what I had, no, what we had all done was not for sh%ts and giggles but to prepare us for confrontation.

I did not plan to fight but I craved it. I could have sent some sort of diplomat or shown that we came in peace by laying our weapons down but I didn't. I wouldn't.

My hands were shaking with nervousness? Excitement? I was not sure but I knew they were. My heart was thumping so hard I was sure it was trying to escape its confines. My grin only grew to unreal proportions and it even hurt my face but it was not of my own doing. My body kept the grin plastered on my face but I did not mind for my brain had better things to worry about.

I was taking a major step. A step to making my dreams a reality or ruining them but at that very moment, I couldn't have been happier.