It was a great day to play a fun game of ‘KILL THE OFFICERS!’
The revolution went without a hitch - when bastards like them treat their soldiers that badly they’re practically begging for someone like me to walk up and recruit them all. Of course, seeing the atrocities they did to my people almost recruited them without me.
It started at the assembly in the camp centre - I watched it from up a tree tall enough to see over the camp but far enough away that onlookers would just think the crazy person is on his wander.
Away from the civilians, the slaughter of the sergeants as they walked among their ranks would not cause much of a ruckus, or at least that ruckus will be soon over.
Of course, we recruited some sergeants to our cause - they were still low enough down to be trusted not to spread it higher - but we also did not recruit every soldier.
I enjoyed my viewing point as sergeants led companies against one another - dogs fighting like dogs.
My time came soon enough, however much more I would’ve enjoyed the festivities. I nocked an arrow, and letting go it sailed like one of the ships they forced themselves in on. It hit my target, a cloaked figure that stood to the side, screaming orders. The figure fell to the ground with an unceremonious thump, and beside her a man turned around and raised his staff.
‘Ah. That’s the guy I was meant to be aiming for.’ I could hear his bellow from over the wall and across the field.
‘Traitors!’ I’d say that his people were more apologising for their treason by joining us, but beasts think what beasts want - no need to try and explain it to them.
I steadied myself to take another shot, but he got there first. With a flick of his staff, a bolt of fire shot out.
‘Too easy,’ I muttered.
I shot my arrow through the heart of the projectile, and it exploded out to look like a flying campfire. Eager to finally have a challenge, I waited as another flick of his staff sent more delights.
A barrage of similar firebolts shot out at me - a rain of fire. They spun in the air, swimming through the pretty non existent air current.
‘Well that’s even easier, I can fire my arrow anywhere and still get a hit.’ I still shot for the centre one - you never see a cocky fighter with experience, they’re all dead. My arrow struck into the centre of the centre bolt.
I sat and watched from my tree branch as the fiery mist drifted with the momentum it gained from its previous form. The fiery mist rolled some more before it dispersed right behind me. I immediately ducked my weight onto my back and swung off the tree. I reached the ground just in time to see.
‘An ice spike,’ I said, watching the shard soar through where I just sat. ‘Clever - for you guys. We here can actually react without waiting for the sun to go down.’
I shook off the shot of pain up my leg as I ran forward to the camp.
***
‘Get the general!’ roared Talvan as I charged through the gate.
I shot an arrow. Finally I shot at him, not the other way around. He ducked under just in time.
‘Bastard.’
I shot my foot out to the side. I heard a scream and the clanging of my boots off armour. If only their feet would rustle that loud, then everyone could hear them.
‘Excuse me.’ I ran up to the company blocking me and the general running to the portward gate. They raised their shields, and I kicked them down.
I leaped from the shield I stood on, regretful of the crash I heard as I flew above the company.
‘Aww, you even thought to catch me.’ I landed on the shields raised upward, hearing them buckle between my boots. I dove over what remained of the now scattering resistance, and ran onwards.
‘It just wasn’t good enough to take the long route, was it?’ called Yshav.
‘Of course not! That’s not my style at all!’ I watched my next arrow as it tore through the air. The general spun, before blasting two rays - one at the arrow, one at me. I ducked, and heard the company chasing me explode behind me. Killing a bull with its horns is fun.
The general was not far in front of me, and a stretch still laid before us to the port - ample time for me to catch up. I ran through the leafy undergrowth of the forest that swallowed the camp, thankful for the trees.
‘Get him!’ Talvan was a great man, loyal and honest, but never did that man seem to notice he may be stating the obvious. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him duck into the bushes as a mage shot at him.
‘Guess I’m back to my lonesome.’ I watched as my organisers within turned around to face the mage situation. I ran on, pulling another arrow to my bowstring.
‘Another shot missed?’ The general was a very cocky fleer.
‘Another shot not taken?’
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‘You want me to take a shot?’ He turned and fired a lightning bolt at me.
‘Another shot missed?’
‘That’s just copying!’
‘Oh I wonder where I saw copying before.’
‘Your ancestors weren’t the rulers, mine were.’
‘In my name.’ My next arrow hit his cloak, which is when I heard the clang of a breastplate.
‘Like the armour?’
‘Why are you wearing armour?’
‘Seemed like a good idea, considering there were a lot of strange men in my garrison, and what do you know?’
‘Just means I get a better target to aim at, really.’
‘Lucky you.’
‘Actually, I’m close enough I should really use my dagger.’
‘And I’m far enough away that I don’t care.’
And so I slung my bow over my shoulder and unsheathed my dagger. I was catching up with him, though you would assume any melee fighter could far outrun a mage. He ran fast, though - you do everything well at that high a level.
‘So, plan on catching up with me?’
‘My dagger’s just nearly in range.’
‘Good, with your bow gone I can have fun with these.
He spun around, and forth came a ball of fire.
I really need to use my bow for this one. My bow’s slung over my shoulder. How do you shoot an arrow from a bow over your shoulder?
And so, in a very humiliating fashion, I was forced to roll to the side of the ball as it hurtled towards me.
‘Tired of your mimicry of actions from the epics?’
‘No. There will be an epic written about this fight.’ Or at least a very epic diary.
‘I don’t think the Imperium needs to write an epic about yet another quelled rebellion.’
‘Well, first quell the rebellion and then we’ll have a talk about its possible narrative feature. Until then, I’m sure the Zyxian history books will say a lot about this.’
‘Oh yes, the Imperium will be sure all scholars need to know of your failure today.’
‘They’ll include that line, right above the notice that says you die today.’
‘Those are good last words, Rebel.’
‘You just said what I said but slightly differently.’
‘I’m a priest.’
‘Of death!’
‘Have you ever met a priest that’s not?’
‘No, but it’s still strange. Almost as strange as how you forgot I have arrows.’
The general turned around to see my arrow fly at him, but with a swish of his staff the arrow was drowned by a current striking into it. The general fired the line of water at me, and I pulled up my cloak. The water spritzed me, and my hair clumped down into my eyes.
‘I’m getting closer!’
50 feet or so.
‘I guess you are.’ Getting closer.
‘I won’t even need my arrows soon.’
‘Thank Iphan!’
‘I still have room for one more.’ I shot the arrow, but he turned a corner.
’Tyldon!’ The port was much closer than I expected. Lying now just down the hill the general ran down, it couldn’t have been more than 100 metres. ‘I can still catch you in that time.’
40 feet between me and him.
I was much faster than him, though now the general began hurling more spells at me than before. My eyes were split between him and his creations, and I had to try and shoot arrows at both.
30 feet.
‘The view always was great from here, wasn’t it.’
‘It’s the last time you’ll see it!’
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’
15 feet.
‘Well I do.’
‘Too bad my ancestors will write the history of this one.’
5 feet.
‘Right behind you!’
‘Not for long.’ The general swung at my feet with his staff, and I jumped. He pulled his staff around in the follow through, and once again I felt a force of wind hit me.
The gust slammed me to the ground, and I lost my footing as I rolled down the steep hill. I swept at his legs, but the general was too far. 40 metres to the port, 10 feet to the general.
I jumped to my feet, nocking an arrow and firing it. The general ducked, but did not fire back. Instead he fired a shot at the port.
Unmooring the ship.
‘Captain!’ What little forces I had outside the garrison all stood in the port, which they seized while I was meant to be seizing that bastard’s head. They strung arrows from behind the boxes of grain they must have taken from the men filling the ships for the next journey.
‘Fire!’
They took their shots.
As the arrows flew, so too did the wave the general pulled to his staff. They crashed harmlessly into the water, and were soon wrapped into its depths. With a twist, the wave snapped back at my men, and with a roar they were tossed away.
They do not deserve to be forced to fight men like this. Near gods.
The wave crashed through all the defences, striking off the ships. They soon pushed out into the sea.
‘Bastard!’
‘What? I cannot kill two pests with one spell?’
The general burst through the wide open gates of the port, and I followed soon after him. He pranced onto the gangplank, and quickly disappeared over the edge.
He tried to raise the board, but my boots slammed upon the planks just in time. The oaken planks played like drums as my feet pounded up their length. I paused as I stepped over the top.
‘And so this is, Rebel.’
‘You finally have to fight me in a duel.’
‘I’m the one wearing armour here.’
‘You don’t even have a suitable weapon.’
‘Sure I do!’ As if this chase could have gotten any stranger, the priest whipped his staff, and a blade of flames burst from its tip.
‘Of course!’
‘Now we get to put that reputation you think you have to the test.’
‘I hate proving my combat skill, though. The whole point of my mastery is that no one who sees it lives to tell the tale.’
‘I’m sure I’ll be able to give an account.’
‘Well then, let’s start.’ I sprinted at him, and he fell into stance. He swung his staff, and I held up my elbow to block it. I hit the wooden part of the staff, as such I was not hurt. He could not hurt me with bludgeoning damage, though it was quite forceful nonetheless. He pulled his staff back, but I avoided his blade. I struck at him with my own blade, my dagger unsheathed again. He jumped back.
He turned, sending a gust of wind at the sails. With a jump the ship began off.
‘Already planning your trip?’
‘Yes, I’ll be finished with you soon enough.’ He swung at me again.
‘Maybe you should’ve just stuck with magehood.’
‘Maybe you should’ve just stuck with - oh yeah you’re only a fighter.’
‘A fighter who’s about to kill you.’
‘Just a fighter.’
The ship separated from the shore, and we rocked with the falling waves.
I ran at the priest again, and we swung at each other once more. I ducked beneath his staff, and landed a foot upon his chest. He fell back. And to the floor. I began to near.
‘So, your occupation was great, please don’t come again soon.’
‘Sorry, duty calls.’
‘We will repel you.’ Five feet away from the priest, and he still knelt on the floor, held up only by his staff.
‘You most certainly can try.’ With that he swept his staff up, and it roared against the wind. Or with the wind. The staff pointed at me, and I felt a blowing strike similar to rocks under a wave pound against my chest. I lost my footing, and was tossed through the air.
The wind now screamed in my ears, drowned out only after I plunged into the icy depths of the sea. The cold water paralysed me for a long moment, my breathing hard and fast.
‘Goodbye, Rebel. Till we meet again.’
Soon a boat came out to get me, and the men who were thrown into the sea by the general’s other wave. I was pulled ashore.
‘Where is the general?’ I jumped to my feet once again, ignoring the pain. I could see the ship in the distance, disappearing over the horizon.
‘He’s too far away, now,’ said Trephon’s voice. ‘None of our ships could go that fast, even with an army rowing them.’
‘He will starve, surely.’ I couldn’t have just failed my one job.
‘Those ships are packed for a voyage back north-east, Sir, he has rations for an entire ship.’
‘He will be driven mad by the loneliness.’
‘He already is mad.’ I swore.
‘An army comes,’ I stated in a low voice. ‘We must prepare.’