A gentle breeze stirred the sparse grass that was scattered on the plain outside the French village. Arrayed on either side were two armies. On one side, with light cavalry, regular infantry and a few scattered heavy armoured knights, stood the English. They were well armoured and trained and many were veterans of the campaign that had led to the defeat of the French at Agincourt. Sitting astride a giant warhorse was the Lord Edmund Draycott, heavily armoured with two fierce blades strapped to his back. Beside him, on a smaller horse, an old man sat hunched, his expression a scowl. An odd place for a man like this, but Arcaedus’ ability to See would benefit the army greatly when the time came to direct the troops.
Lined up against this formidable force stood the French. Having suffered at Agincourt, they were hesitant to engage the English again, especially against veterans of the very same battle. Their force, made up of pikemen and spearmen, more often than not wielding what would have been a farming implement only days ago. Behind these were the archers. Having seen the power of English longbows, the French had adopted the weapon, acknowledging its advantages in terms of the skill and training required when compared to other weapons. Most of the men had sabres in their belts, used to wielding them from horseback, but unable to do so this time. One figure was alone on horseback, the giant fiery Scot, Magnus. He would be directing the troops while Dmitri and Claudia went ahead with their task. Wayte stood with these two, Claudia nervously biting her nails as she viewed the army arrayed against them. Dmitri stood beside her, holding onto her determined not to lose her again. Uriel was absent; he had stayed back at the Monastery for now, holding back so that his appearance would force a reaction by Akahaziel. Alongside Claudia were a collection of men, if they could even be considered men yet, some only barely showing signs of a beard, but each determined to prove their worth. These men wielded one of the simplest of weapons, the sling. Instead of using rocks however, Claudia had provided each of them with a bag of jars and vials. She had cajoled the monks to follow her instructions in order to make potions but they had balked at the thought of making anything that would damage another human being. They had relented somewhat and helped create potions that could incapacitate the enemy.
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Dmitri reluctantly let go of Claudia and went over to Magnus, “Help me up, I want to address the men.”
Magnus replied by reaching down and grabbing Dmitri by the arm and simply yanking him onto the horse. Upon seeing Dmitri’s expression at the method, Magnus just laughed. Raising his voice above the sounds of the soldier’s idle banter, Magnus asked for silence so Dmitri could speak. Sitting on the horse in front of Magnus, Dmitri looked at the men assembled before him; he could hear a few mutters and the sound of wind, so he raised his voice so all could hear, “As some of you are aware, my name is Dmitri Raskolnikov Romanovic. I am not here as your leader, I am here as one of your fellow human beings. We are here today to uncover and stop a great threat to humanity, the Demon Akahaziel. He followed me here from my homeland, and in doing so brought much corruption, both in the land and in the minds of men.” He nodded towards the English, “We will fight these men, but do not hate them, for they have been led astray. We will sever the head and the rest will fall. Fight with me brothers, fight with me and we will defeat the evil in this land.”
To Dmitri’s surprise, the assembled soldiers roared in approval. Climbing down, he strode back over to Claudia and Wayte who were staring at him.
“That was amazing!” Claudia said in awe, “You brought them even more solidly to us, they will die for you if they need to.”
“Well let’s see to it that they don’t need to,” replied Dmitri.