The Eagle Knights and the five chosen stared into the thick underbrush. The knights looked stoic, while the chosen tried desperately to look brave and not drop their swords. Moments ago, as they set up camp for the night, a demonic roar and monstrous cries had broken the tranquil silence on the rapidly darkening dusk. Now the troop of thirty knights and the five chosen had drawn their swords and turned towards the bushes in the direction of the sounds, and were bracing to fight tooth and claw for their survival. The knights all sat atop great warhorses of varying breeds, while the youngsters stood on fought, it having been deemed that, given their riding skills, they would have just gotten in the way. They were instructed that if the knights were to fall, they were to leap atop their horses, which were conveniently twenty yards away, and ride like hell.

“I don’t like this,” muttered Sirus from Franco’s left, “it’s much too quiet, and I feel as though my heart might burst from my chest and make a run for Vontel.” The five of them stood in a line. From left to right stood John, Sirus, Franco, Alex, and Jona.

“It’ll be fine,” said Jona, trying and failing to achieve a reassuring tone, “the knights will protect us.”

“I’m sure they’ll try,” replied John, “but you heard the captain. If they fall we’re to hop atop our horses, and ‘ride like hell’. Doesn’t that mean that the captain thinks that they might fail?”

“Nuh-uh.” Said Jona.

“Uh-huh.” Replied John, his fear momentarily forgotten.

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“Shut up the lot of you!” Came the voice of the captain, “If I hear one more ‘nuh-uh’ out of either of you I’ll have you court-martialed. Do you understand?”

“Sir yes sir!” cried the five in unison.

“Good! Now face the bushes and try not to piss yourselves.”

The five once again faced the bushes and prayed to any god that would listen for their survival. Suddenly a leaf rustled, then another, and soon the whole underbrush shook like they were caught in a gale.

“Knights,” commanded the captain, “ready for a dive.”

A dive was a tactic most commonly used by light cavalry, mounted infantry, or the Eagle Knights. It was like a frontal charge but required the knights to smash into the enemy forces and then immediately pull back, so that no counterattack could be received and another charge could be organized. While it is effective against light infantry, against heavier infantry, or other mounted troops, it can only serve as a delaying tactic commonly used when fighting on the back foot to lure the enemy to an ambush position or when buying time for the wounded to be evacuated. Against the skeletal shock troops of the demons, which were summoned by the denizens of hell to act as mass infantry, this tactic worked incredibly well. However, the demons themselves seemed to be undeterred by such tactics, and their hellish beasts even less so. The demonic beasts were created in the dark factories of hell, where instead of casting bronze or tempering iron, hellish necromancers slaved away in front of surgical tables with knife and thread, stitching together nightmarish monsters.

A skeletal hand gripping a shortsword popped out of the bushes, followed by another, and then another. Soon a sea of skeletal forms sward towards the vastly outnumbered defenders.