71 - Trapped Part Three

Less than a minute later, John's suspicions are confirmed. Through the thickets they see a large group of men on horseback arriving on the road. Full of anticipation, they watch as the scouts ride towards the traps. For a moment it seems as if nothing happens, because the first scout rides under the first rope.

"You hung it too high, John!" yells Maarten quietly, after which the others call him to silence.

But then the second scout looks up when he sees something out of the corner of his eye. It is the rope that strokes through a short red plume on top of the helmet of the first scout. This little thing is what kills the man. Because he sits upright on his horse, which in John's defense is a lot smaller than the horses that Falwyn's army uses, he is now tall enough to ride against the rope. However, he is not hit at the neck, as John's intention was, but full on the forehead. The scout remains in the saddle, but his head claps back with great force. For a moment he stays upright with his head in a strange angle, but then he collapses in his saddle.

The men behind him are therefore just in time to bend over to dodge the rope, whereupon the third man quickly pulls his dagger and cuts the rope with a quick cut.

John and his three men quickly jump up from behind their hiding places and run to a position just behind the second trap.

The captain of the scouts, who looked back behind him after all the commotion, sees the men running and spurs on his horse. However, as soon as his horse jumps forward, it’s legs get stuck behind the second rope. With enormous force, the horse falls forward and on its side. In addition, one of the legs of the warrior on his back is shattered and John and his men have time to take up their position. Quickly they brace themselves with their large shields facing forward, and their spears anchored in the ground. Thus they are ready to absorb an attack of cavalry.

However, even before it comes to that, there is a huge noise again. Just a little later than planned, Charles hits his last blow against the tree. This was not the first time he hit the tree, because he had been a little too cautious with the preparations. It took him a few blows before the tree finally fell down.

With a thunderous roar of broken branches, the thick tree plunges down. The last scout only just manages to make his horse jump forward so as not to be hit by the tree. The trap has been sprung, and all John and his men have to do now is make sure that those scouts don’t return to their unit. That gives John and his soldiers enough time to take a quick look at the incoming army, and then quickly return to Raidon and the defenses he is building.

However, they’re not there yet. First, eighteen more scouts have to be disabled. Now that their captain and another man have been eliminated, the remaining scouts are a lot more cautious. John sees three of the scouts trying to turn around and fight past Charles to warn the rest of their army.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

However, he cannot spend much time checking up on them, because the other fifteen scouts throw themselves at the four soldiers. Hoping that Charles can stop the three warriors by himself, John braces for impact.

At full gallop, the scouts rush in, with the intention of simply knocking over the four soldiers who block their path. What they have not thought of, however, are their horses. Only the most well-trained warhorses will throw themselves on a shield wall. However, the horses the scouts ride are not such expensive animals.

Just before they arrive at the small shield wall, they hold back and move to the sides. This causes great confusion in the ranks of the scouts, giving John and his three men the opening they were waiting for.

"Attack!" shouts John, reinforcing his own words by rushing forward and stabbing the first scout a spear in his stomach. "Try to spare the horses, we might be able to use them."

John stabs a second scout in the leg with his spear, but then has to duck quickly away from another scout’s sword. In addition, he doesn’t have the time to withdraw his spear, and therefore has to let it go. Now armed only with his shield, he quickly draws his sword. His big hammer is still hanging on his back, but in close combat, John has no room to swing it. The disadvantage of his sword is that he can’t reach much higher than the legs of the scouts.

A long sword comes whizzing towards his head, and John manages to throw up his shield just in time. With a dull blow, the sword strikes right through the iron edge at the top of his shield. Because the scout can put extra force from his horse, the sword penetrates almost ten centimeters into the wood of the shield and gets stuck there for a moment.

John doesn't think twice, and turns his shield to hold the sword in his shield. Meanwhile, he repels a blow from another scout with his own sword, and then quickly stabs into the leg of the first scout. With a cry of pain, the scout releases his sword, which now sticks loosely into John's shield. When he turns to the second scout, he notices that that one is about to deliver a mortal blow to him. Just as John rests on the fact that he will not survive this skirmish, the scout suddenly slams forward with force against the back his horses head, which immediately runs off. In amazement, John sees that a crossbow arrow protrudes from the back of the scout.

Further on, Charles is reloading his crossbow at ease, balancing on top of the tree he dropped across the road. While John is still looking in amazement, Charles shoots a second bolt. Then it becomes quiet on the small battlefield. Looking around, John sees that besides himself, only two other soldiers are still standing. Muras lies face down in the overturned earth of the roadside, with two dead scouts next to him. Everywhere the bodies of the scouts and their riding animals litter the ground. Despite John's orders, five riding animals were killed. Six others are so shocked by the violence that they ran away.

"Maarten, could you go and looksee where those horses fled to? I don't want us to have gone through all this effort, only to be betrayed by a bunch of stupid animals."

"Sure, John. I'm on my way."

While Charles climbs off his tree and helps Jonny search the bodies, John goes to see Muras. As he approaches, he sees that the older soldier has a big dent in the back of his helmet. In addition, the pool of blood in which he lies seems to be getting bigger and bigger. When John Muras turns around, the entire front of his armor is red with blood. "Boy, that has to be a big wound, if he’s losing so much blood." But no matter where he looks though, he can’t find the wound anywhere. To be on the safe side, John carefully pulls the helmet off Muras' head to see if he is still alive. However, as soon as he gets to the helmet, Muras' eyes suddenly open! "Aye, that hurts, you son of a dung beetle!" exclaims Muras. It turns out that he was only knocked out, and that the pool of blood comes from both dead scouts next to him. With John's help, Muras manages to get up, although he is still reeling.

"Hurry up, guys." shouts John to his men, "we still have to see what kind of army is coming our way." The men quickly finish their tasks.