A scream signaling to stay low made him come to his senses again, even if for a little bit. He turned his eyes to the left and right in a hastened manner, as he noticed the other soldiers around him lowering their heads.
Not wanting to be more or less shot by arrows, he also followed along and put his neck down with the other men.He also did it for another more lesser reason, which was the urge of not being willing to stand out.
The simultaneous thuds of arrows hitting against all manners of fabric,wood and metal resounded closely in his ears. And what followed soon was the sounds of groans and agonizing screams.
He shook violently and started to hope that this was just a unclear nightmare he was having,whilst being unconscious in a hospital bed somewhere;anywhere but here,after his accident.
But the sensations were feeling all too real for him. That sensation of slight pain when the armored man pulled his arm came into his mind.
He had not the time for even a slight contemplation as his back was shoved forward, by a fellow soldier behind him. He was too dazed and confused to be even notice the feeling, and was forced to march on.
A shove pushed him forward.Then another shove again. Then another shove, whenever he tried to stop himself from inching closer to what was just a few more steps away from him.
A mass of sharp pikes just waiting; almost in a static position, if not for the sight of the very real men behind holding them in a extremely tight formation. He could see and feel the cold indifference and silent rage from them, implanted like a birthmark on their faces.
Why was he being pushed towards to something that looked like it was supposed to be in part of some horrid layer of hell?
"GET READY!"He heard the armored man's brazen but muffled shout in both his eardrums.
"PUSH!"As soon as the loud command of the sergeant was given, the other soldiers sprang their arms into quick motions, thrusting forward.
And this was the same for their enemies too, as they had gotten into the right range to battle in what is known as a "push of pikes."
The opposing columns of pikes had clashed. It was a horrifying sight for the confused man.
He was starting to lose the stomach, and even the will to remain here as he turned to see someone to his right side get a long pike through his right eye, in a sudden and fast motion.
The pike then pierced through the man's right eye to the back of his head as the iron tip protruded out, with a little chunk of pinkish red matter stuck to it.
And it was as quick as it came, with the tip suddenly pulling back away, letting the impaled man fall over to the ground, kneeled with his leather cap coming off and dropping itself on the muddy ground.
And as if was some domino falling over the other pieces, the confused man felt his eyes moving in all directions only to get a glimpse of all the chaos that started ensuing.
A man's eyes were put out as two pikes jabbed and squished into his sockets. Another man's mouth had been impaled through with pikes, and he could see blood bubble up and heard the choked and gurgled howls in his breaths before he fell limp upon the ground.
Witnessing this, his brain felt as if a cold liquid had washed over it. And he also had a overwhelming that creeped up on his back to break it in half like a twig.
He wanted to get out. And he wanted to do it desperately.But his legs couldn't even shook properly,as the sheer tightness of the formation kept his legs hopelessly still and unable to move freely.
He immediately let his hands off the pike he held and started to use his hands, and even nails to claw or push his way through.
He turned to the left and used his elbows, legs and arms to push and shove his way through the tight square formation of men.His eyes were bloodshot with desperation as he shoved his way through the rows of men.
He had only one thought prevailing in his mind on what he thought this was, pushing out other thoughts along with even some of his irrational fears and primal instincts.Madness. He felt that it was madness.
But it was only for an excruciatingly long split second, before he felt himself slipping over someone's leg, violently pushing his face first into the dirt out of the left side of the tight square of soldiers.
But he was able to put both his hands on the dirt before he could accidentally hit his head on the ground.His breathing was quick,almost to the point of almost hyperventilating. He felt his legs kneeled and back slightly bended.
A large discomfort came over him as he finally felt the clothes on his back. He knew that it was not the blue polo shirt he usually wore.
But he was shoved out of his thoughts as he heard shouting, screaming and the sounds of wood slamming against wood. He slowly turned his head to his right and his eyes widened to see men fighting and arrows whizzing above.
He shakily stood up and took in his surroundings with dread. The humid air. The grassy smell.The dreadfully escalating heat of the sun. He could really feel all of it.
Then something violently struck his face, and he felt its force turn his head to the left. A stinging pain, all too painful. On his right cheek.
A stinging pain and a wetness.And on the ground just a little ways to the left of him, was an arrow stuck to the ground. Then almost absent-mindedly, he ran over his right cheeks with two fingers and presented them to his eyes.
Blood. A dark red color that reeked of iron.He saw it on the surface of his two fingers. With the combined sting, his right cheek then started bleeding down his cheek with a horizontal gash.
He then craned his neck to the men on the plateau in a robotic way, and he saw that the opposing Luthirian soldiers were slowly loosening their formations.
He then spotted a little hand between one of the rows of men.A little green hand holding a bow.It didn't look like the one belonging to a child,mainly because of the overgrown and unnatural nails attached to it.
The little hands then started to increase in number between the lines of men, and little green humanoid figures started to emerge from the loose formations, all holding all kinds of ranged weapon.
There was a short silence the confused man felt as he looked around to see Argotilian soldiers also surprised to see the little humanoids.
But that silence was extremely short as swarms of little silhouettes started to leap over the Luthirian soldier's shoulders and down towards their formations right under.
It looked like a massive swarm,as it seem to blot out the sun for a second and gravity then would do its duty, as the large number of little silhouettes started to descend and dropped quickly down on the Argotilian soldiers.
"GOBLINS!" A soldier screamed out with an apparent terror in his voice.But there were no breakage of the forces as the back lines of all the Argotilian formations started to hold their pikes upwards to impale the falling green creatures.
The man,who had ran out of his formation out of confusion and fear felt more dread as he heard the word "goblins."
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It was the name of just a fantasy creature to him back home. But a quick mulling in his mind and hearing the truthfulness of that other soldier's tone; combined with all the sensations, it felt like it was slowly killing him inside.
But the animalistic grunts he then heard forced him to look to the soldiers again, where he saw countless goblins had already descended upon the soldiers.
Some were impaled, but he could see that most of them had slip through the gaps and started to attack the soldiers, stabbing eyes and all the little gaps which caused the most agony.
The long pikes started to fall, and he heard what sounded like a desperate war cry sound out from the raised plateau and he looked to see waves of men start to charge down the plateau to the Argotilians, intent on quickly using the ensuing shock from the goblins effectively.
The man, now more terrified, slowly started to step back as he spotted a group of goblins staring him down with their yellow eyes. Their grizzly features were laid bare to him and the blood stained weapons in their little arms didn't help him remain brave and composed.
He stepped back slowly, with more sweat dripping down his face.And then he started to sprint away,intent on getting far away from what he had now declared in his mind; a hellhole.
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A small weight that was similar to that of a child crashed on the back of Sir Argin Pedrozny.
He then felt continuous thuds on his shoulders,which he recognized was a knife hitting him on his left shoulder plate.
He quickly wriggled his back around and grabbed the goblin on his back with his free hand and pulled it to his face in a chokehold.
And before the goblin could react, he swung his gauntlet clad fist into the face of the creature with force.He then heard a sickening crack as he punched the goblin's face in.He then quickly threw it away, dropping it on the muddy ground.
"Damn!"He muttered out in a fit of frustration through his helm.He then looked to the other fellow dismounted cavalrymen fighting the goblins.
His cavalry detachment was effectively put in a shock as goblins quite literally rained down on them from the ranks of the Luthirian army.
And now he also was made aware about the scale of desperation the enemy army was on to hire goblin/non-human mercenaries. No self respecting ruling state would resort to call on them unless they were fond of being backstabbed. But a duchy on its last legs might.
"AH, NO! NO! NO!HELP ME! SOMEONE!" A sudden pleading scream came into the ears of the old knight. He turned his head to the source, only to see a group of goblins holding a young knight down a few distance away repeatedly sinking their daggers down on the knight's exposed chest where the breastplate once stood, in which it had probably been torn off.
Argin only looked on to the scene with narrowed eyes, with a stoic expression betrayed by the hard gripping of his arming sword on his leather sheath.But he was too old to be idealistic enough to attempt to rescue him,less he suffer the same fate.
He then pulled his sword in a quick motion of his right arm.He did not bother to take a stance as he knew he was fighting opponents that would only swarm him at any given chance.
And he did not intend on taking a last stand either. He raised his sword up and shouted out,"RETREAT,ALL OF YOU!FALL BACK AND LINK UP WITH THE MAIN BATTLE LINE!"
And he could only hope that the other knights heard him through all this chaos. And he also hoped that the main army wouldn't be in too much chaos like this.
Argin then thrusted his sword inside the chest of a goblin that leaped to him with its wooden club. He then turnt his body around with the fluidity of a dancer, as he dodged around the thrust of a spear coming through immediately as he killed the club goblin.
Immediately as he faced the other goblin, he swung his sword swiftly from the right to the left, quickly slicing the throat of the spear armed goblin.
He then rushed forward and flew into a sprint. His armor clacked together as he started running into the marshes,back to his brown steed. He ran quick and fast, even with all the armor on his being. Although the armor's weight was distributed all over, he still ran as if there was nothing on him.
He glanced over to the side for a second to check if the other knights had followed behind on his order.He spotted a few dozen following suit, but he knew that some had perished. But casualties were always inevitable in a battle.
And it was not much of a concern to him, as the main army could still bring about a victory, but it would be quite costly.
And the only thing he could be filled with satisfaction about this battle was that this was a final battle which would surely strike a killing blow to the Luthirian Duchy, which had been just a broken fragment of a larger kingdom.
But he also wondered if this was just a twinge of wishful thinking. He was a little too old for that.
But now, he just had to inform prince Corintalè of the failed assault on the left flank.
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A certain prince looked onto the battle ensuing. His expression was laid dormant, as he scanned the battlefield carefully.
"It's a goddamned brawl down there!"One of his armored bodyguards stated in surprise at the ensuing battle. That is, if you could call it one.
It was really a brawl as far as the eye could see. Almost all of his men were out of any sense of an organized unit. And the young prince was also a bit thankful that it was the same case for the enemy too.
And he could now clearly spot the waning morale in his troops.And it could possibly break his whole army.
And He knew he had to act on it. And the act would require him to ride up to the side of his men to encourage them.He also later thought of his personal knight Argin,but just for a second, as he knew the old knight would refuse to die easily.
"Well? What are you doing, knight?"Corintalè asked to a knight nearest to him, his tone keeping a fine line between confident and angry."Go relay a message to those hotheaded nobles! If they want a blasted fight, they can get one over there!"He finished as he pointed a finger over to the frontlines, where men and creature were fighting.
The knight near him swiftly nodded and turned his horse around, quickly rushing into a gallop to the back lines.
The prince himself then unsheathed his own sword and used it to signal his bodyguards to move forward behind him and into the battlefield.
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His way out into the forests were blocked by the bodies of other soldiers desperately fighting each other.
Every little gap he tried to escape to was blocked off by a pit of bodies clawing at each other's eyes and throats.
It felt like to him as if an unknown malevolent hand was blocking his way out of the battle.
Did that mean he were to die here, in this evil place? He was not very religious or had any large sense of spirituality , but he felt as if his soul and spirit would be trapped here for eternity if he ever perished here.
He wiped one of the many rivers of sweat on his face, and his breath felt hitched from all the running around.And he couldn't stop, less he get absorbed into a mass of soldiers tearing each other apart.
He then opted to try one more time. He broke from a semi-sprint into a full sprint yet again as he spotted another gap in the mosh pit of men.
He got closer and closer. He did not care for how tired he got anymore as the way out was getting closer.
Almost....
Almost...
But as he finally was just less than a few meters away, he heard the extremely close sounds of multiple hooves from his left ear. And before he could turn to look, he felt himself being knocked away to the side by a large force. And a throbbing pain all over his left arm followed along.
He felt himself spin for a excruciatingly long second before he landed on his back on the muddy ground.
He gritted his teeth in pain on his back and left arm. He clutched his left arm and then a neighing of a horse came into his ears.
He quickly turned his head to the source and was laid witness to a majestic pale white armored horse, along with an armored man adorning a golden crown riding on its back.
And he saw other multiple horsemen behind him.
"The prince is here!"He heard someone shout out from the crowds of men and goblins fighting.
The confused man only laid there in a daze from the pain on his left arm and back.But he had heard the word prince, which left him a bit awestruck. It was really akin to some cliche fairy tale event, occurring in front of his very eyes.
He then saw the horseman which he now knew as a prince open the visor of his helmet and was laid to observe his youthful face.
He could a feel a strange palpable feeling omitted around him.But he looked onto the prince with widened and terrified eyes.
The prince raised his sword in an act of command and in preparation of revitalizing his men's morale.
Corintalè opened his mouth to speak.But something had happened.
There was not a single word uttered , but only the sounds and the sight of something swishing forwards at high speeds into the mouth of the prince.
And it was a large arrow, which had reached its target precisely where it's supposed to be.
The sounds of a man gurgling and choking followed soon after.A large arrow had lodged into the mouth of the prince all the way through.
The man laid on the ground felt his eyes widen to the size of dinnerplates as he witnessed this event.He then glanced momentarily to where the arrow came from, and had spotted a lone bowmen from the plateau putting a longbow down with an arrogant flair.
He could see it. A wide smirk was etched onto the archer's face.
He then turned his eyes to the so-called prince again, who had already fallen off to the right side of his horse.
He could notice the shock behind the armored faces of the other horsemen, who had only watched on in horror ,unable to react appropriately.
The pale white horse, frightened, then ran off whilst the prince's corpse dangled and rocked to the side along with it.
As the confused man looked and behold a pale white horse, with a body hanging and dangling off the side of it, he could feel a thick dread forming around in his surroundings.
Chaos and hell descended and followed soon after for the 4th Argotilian Army.
Every single soldier of the Argotilian army started to break and run away from the enemy.
An ear-rending howl of triumph then came from the lines of the Luthirians. They then started to chase the retreating army with a renewed bloodlust boiling through their bodies.
Seeing the chaos descending, the confused man got up in haste and bolted towards the forests, long before anyone else could.
As he entered the forest, he still kept running. He felt small little stings of pain from his own skin scratching against sharp branches and the like.
But he dared not stop.He still kept running.Ignoring the screams, war cries and the sound of iron against iron, he kept running. And he dared not look back