“What the hell is going on?”

Patel stood in front of his barn and wondered.

A distance away, Sullivan soldiers marched into formation.

What Patel didn't know was that minutes ago Vice Commander Liam was thinking the same thing. When he was woken up from sleep by the noise from outside, Liam demanded to know what happened.

“Two slaves broke the curfew? Is that really a reason to wake up the entire camp?” He wasn’t in his best mood when he woke up, especially after he realized it was just a petty thing. He was sure the sentries could take care of the escapees. He was already thinking about how to intimidate the rest of the workers tomorrow.

But when a soldier ran in and announced the team that pursued into the mine was ambushed by a group of unknown enemy, he knew this was serious.

The entire Sullivan garrison was assembled. Men got out of their beds, grabbed onto their swords and shields, and charged out of the room. They quickly formed a phalanx. Liam stood in front of the lines. He had a large sword by his belt and he wore a set of carefully crafted armor. A helmet covered his face and shielded his confusion from his men.

“Captain, bring fifty men into the mines and put down the rebellion!. Take the leaders alive and kill the rest.” He ordered. A captain obeyed and moved head on into the mines. Five lines of Sullivan soldiers followed him tightly.

Patel watched from a distance away. He didn't know exactly what happened, but he had hundreds of militias inside those mines. If just a squad of them was discovered by some random guard...he knew the time to act was now.

He turned to the teens who have gathered around him after being woken up by the chaos.

“Go find your units and attack the Sullivans. Take them down. Regardless of the cost.” He announced as he scanned the teens one by one. “We must win this, and we will win this. If we fail here...we won’t have a chance to try again.” He paused. “Let’s go!”

The teens turned and started moving.

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As Jerry and his group of militias turned around another corner, the exit was just in front. Unfortunately, the exit wasn’t empty.

“How the hell did they get in here? Were the sentries blind?” The Sullivan captain cursed as he saw the militias on the other side of the hallway. Fifty men stood behind him. He had no idea how these spear carrying men got behind all the fences and defenses and into the mines, but as the militias charged forward with their spears up, the captain realized the how could wait.

The militias and the Sullivan soldiers charged into each other. Unfortunately, the Sullivan forces outnumbered the militias this time. Several militias fell in just twenty seconds.

Jerry looked around for a way out. The mines had many intertwining tunnels. There were two tunnels close to where the exit was, but they were behind the Sullivan lines. Jerry didn't believe he had the manpower to break through.

Another militia was beheaded by the guard captain. The captain has already taken down two militias already. Jerry glanced at the spear in his grip and advised against trying to play hero and take the man down himself.

“What do we do now?” Alex asked. All the running was burning up what was left of her energy. She was starting to doze on and off.

Jerry opened his mouth. He wanted to say some words of comfort, but there was nothing to be said or done.

He only gripped onto his spear tightly.

Suddenly, footsteps came in from the two tunnels behind the Sullivan forces. Jerry couldn’t help but let his mouth hang open in excitement as two groups of militias struck the Sullivans in the back.

The soldiers in the back should’ve been watching the back of the entire squad, but their lack of experience caused them to stare in the exciting combat in the front rather than watch the vulnerable back. When the militias struck, the soldiers were caught by surprise. Several of them collapsed in the initial contact. The rest rushed and turned around, doing their best to fight back.

The guard captain turned around as well after knocking one of the militias off his feet. He saw the new hostiles have already surrounded the entire group of soldiers. At this point, the most he could do was fight on and hope Liam would send reinforcement in time.

One militia jammed his spear forward. The captain had comrades on both sides and he couldn’t really dodge, but this didn't stop him from swinging his sword and deflecting the spear to the side.

Unfortunately, just as the captain was about to retaliate, another spear was pushed past his armor and into his body from the side. Another militia used the first militia as distraction and finished the kill. The captain was a skilled fighter, but in a situation where there wasn’t much space to work with, numbers was more important than skills.

The entire Sullivan group was gradually engulfed. Sullivan soldiers were repeatedly stabbed and fell dead. Blood soaked the rugged ground of the mines.

Jerry carefully jumped from one piece of elevated stone to another, avoiding a small puddle of blood. A small surge of disgust was in his mouth, but he kept it down.

Two teens walked up to him. “Jerry, what happened? Is that Alex?” One of them glanced behind Jerry and asked.

“Yes.” Jerry replied. “It doesn’t matter now. Are we going for it?”

The teens nodded. They guessed Jerry was the source of the sudden change of plan, but they weren’t exactly pissed off at him. None of them had a choice. “Patel called for everyone to attack those guards. We should outnumber them.”

Already, screams and cries were coming from outside. Jerry realized his mistake. At this point, timing was everything. He shouldn’t waste time talking. “Then we should go now. Let’s go!”

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Militias from all three teens converged into a single swarm and moved toward the exit of the mine.

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On the outside, Liam’s expression turned from confused to horror as countless men in white charged out of the multiple exits of the mines with their spears ready.

“I want all the sentries in the past two days executed for treason!” Liam cursed as he drew his sword. His thoughts were the same as that of his fallen underlings. How did an army get into the middle of his fortress without getting seen by a single guard? The sentries deserved to die.

All the Sullivan soldiers drew their weapons as well, but none of them liked the odds.

There were three hundred Sullivan guards stationed in the camp. All of them were infantry. According to the thought process of Commander Hartfield, small groups of enemies could be fended off by the three hundred guards. Large groups of enemies would be taken care off by the forces stationed in Maynard City. Putting a larger army in the mines would simply be a waste.

But not all these guards were present. Fifty men were sent into the mines and were isolated and slaughtered. Another fifty or so were scattered across the mines. They were too far from the camp to hear the initial chaos. At this point Liam only had two hundred men.

He faced five hundred militias.

Patel was holding onto a sword taken from a fallen Sullivan guard. It worked better than a spear. “Attack! Take them down!” His voice was desperate. It was now or never. The former high school student wasn’t quite used to making decisions that can be a matter of life and death.

Militias charged forward and slammed into the first way of Sullivan soldiers. Immediately, following a wave of sickening sound of metal tearing through human flesh, a dozen militias and five Sullivans fell.

More men from both sides quickly replaced the fallen.

The teens fought in the fray as well. They weren’t the most skilled group of fighters, but they weren’t too bad either. Most of them came from relatively wealthy families, and in a world where food was a scarcity, they were even stronger than some of the Sullivan soldiers. After getting past the initial shock and fear, they fought well with the cover of their militias.

Two militias launched themselves onto Liam. His carefully decorated armor showed the militias he wasn’t just any common foot soldier.

Both militias struck forward at the same time. Liam produced a war cry as he blocked both spears and tried to push it to the side. The two militias worked to keep pushing forward, but the Vice Commander was stronger. He finally deflected the two spears before taking a step forward and slashing horizontally. One of the militias was cut in half while the other took a step back just in time to avoid the miserable fate of his comrade. As Liam’s blade flew by and he was on the way to pulling it back for another swing, the militia sent his spear forward again. This time it was aiming for the Vice Commander’s chest.

The spear stopped right on the armor.

Liam breathed a sigh of relief as he cut open the neck of the confused militia. His armor was made by the best smith in Maynard City. It would take more than a single strike from a wooden spear to break through. But before he could take a break, two more militias charged up.

As the battle continued, more militias circled around the Sullivan soldiers on all fronts. Every soldier on the side would face more than one militia. Unlike Liam, most soldiers would fall from a single stab.

At the same time, Jerry and the two other teens got out of the mines. They paused for a few seconds as they processed the entire battlefield. All the screaming and crying and fighting and dying made them both excited and afraid.

The two teens drew their blades, produced a scream, and charged forward with their men.

But Jerry stay behind. His eyebrows knit together as he suddenly remembered a potentially fatal problem.

Immediately, he grabbed onto one of the teens.

“Did Patel talk about sending some people to the gate?”

“What?” The teen yelled.

“Did Patel send men to the camp’s gate?” Jerry repeated equally loudly.

“Ahhh...I don’t think so…” The teen looked at Jerry like he’s crazy or something before breaking free and charging into the battle. His heart was pounding like crazy. The adrenalin in his body made him feel like he could rip through an army. He wanted to fight.

Jerry stood there, frozen.

This was bad. Really bad.

The teens didn't have enough power to challenge the entire Sullivan Empire. Jerry didn't know what exactly Patel was thinking, but putting himself in Patel’s shoes, Jerry knew the basic idea was to take over the camp, quietly, and work from there. Ideally, by the time the Sullivan forces knew the camp was gone and sent reinforcement, the teens would have emptied the mines and had an army behind their back.

But if the gate wasn’t taken over from the first possible moment, Sullivan messengers could get out of the camp and deliver the news to Sullivan commanders with more than a couple hundred men. The teens didn't have calvary and didn't stand a chance of intercepting the messengers. Lose the gate, and even if the teens win the battle, they would lose the war.

Well...time for him to save the day.

He turned to his men. “Follow me...”

He barely finished when he realized how small his army was. After the two battles inside the mines, half of his thirty militias were gone. With a handful of men, he could barely stay alive inside the battlefield, much less take over the gate.

Screams continued as Jerry’s mind wandered over all the things he could do. Finally, he made a decision.

“Leave ten men with her. Keep her safe at all cost!” He pointed at Alex. The girl was already asleep. Ten militias nodded and complied. Jerry gave Alex a last glance before stepping into the battle with three other militias.

As soon as he stepped in, men continued to fall around him. Thanks to the protection of the three militias, he made his way to one of the teens in one piece.

“Where is Patel?” He screamed into the girl’s ears.

Without an army of his own, Jerry had no choice but to get help from other teens. This powerless feeling made him angry, really angry, but he had no other option.

The girl shrugged. A stain of blood was on her pretty cheek. The small smile on her face suggested she might be enjoying this. “Don’t know! Saw him a while ago. He might be on the other side of the battle.”

“Wait...he’s fighting in the field?” Jerry almost coughed. What the hell was Patel thinking? He was the commander! The Commander! Which wise commander would charge into the fray like a random foot soldier? An army was only strong when every member did his or her job. The role of the commander was to stay behind in safety and coordinate all the underlings. Without a leader, everyone was just blindly attacking, and victory or defeat was completely by luck. In an emergency situation, a situation like this one, there was nothing they could do.

Calm down! Anger can’t do anything. Change of plan.

“Listen to me!” Jerry turned to the girl and said as calmly as logically as possible. “We need to go to the gate…oh shit!” A Sullivan soldier charged at him. A militia jammed a spear into the soldier’s back, and the girl in front of Jerry beheaded the man with a decisive swing. Blood was splattered all over Jerry’s face. The headless body collapsed on the ground while the head rolled to beside Jerry’s leg.

Jerry stared at the head for two seconds before returning to his task.

“We need to go to the gate…”

“Why? To run?” The girl looked at Jerry like he was a coward. “Are you trying to run while the rest of us fight? You spineless bastard.”

“What? No…” Jerry stopped as he realized the girl simply threw him a dirty look and continued to push forward. She had no intention of listening to what he had to say, and it annoyed him. He didn't enjoy trying to convince people.

Again, he had no choice.

Jerry turned around and walked to find other teens.