As they rode further into the possibly hostile gruge, the knights seemed to be nervous. Since nothing had been pointing at an attack or that this was hostile territory, they weren’t wielding their swords and axes as their shields were on their back, able to be grabbed with a single movement when needed. They looked around for any possible danger, still vigilant every since they got into this territory. One of the banner wielders seeing movement in the distance. From here it was difficult to see but he pointed to the right of the road where Lucas, Lilly and Emma were. “There… some people are trying to hide next to the road.”
Before any sign of danger outside of Lucas and co could be spotted, a horn sounded through the woods. Not taking any chances, the king would take off his crown, quickly putting on a helmet, yelling at his troops. “Vizors and shields!” Just as he managed to make it so his helmet was secure on his head, the arrows came. He too grabbed his shield, feeling most arrows bounce of his armor and shield. The men around him getting thrown off their horses when some got hit as other men yelled in pain. To his right was a man lying on the ground with an arrow that managed to find a gap in his armor and find his way into his shoulder.
Right after the first volley of arrows had been shot, the foot soldiers came. A small horde of skeletons deciding to try their luck at taking down the king. Seeing the amount of skeletons, he knew that they would never win. “Everyone with a horse, take someone without a horse and flee!”
The skeletons charging at the group wore little to not armor. Most wore an open face helmet as some wore nothing. This choice of armor was because their bodies weren’t strong enough to be able to take many hits and any amount of force to their legs or arms already would prove enough. They had to rely on pure skill and to not be hit in the first place.
Sadly for him, as he yelled that, before the skeletons had made it up the hill to the road, a second volley was fired, this time aimed more at the horses than the people, killing or heavily injuring every horse that wasn’t already on the ground. Some of the knights were trapped underneath the horses, trying to make their way out of underneath the bodies.
Now the skeletons had reached the road, grabbing the unfortunate souls that were trapped and starting to stab their daggers in whatever opening the could find. This was a painful way to go as the blades went into their bodies over and over again, killing them rather quick.
This is when the real fight started, of the remaining sixteen knights, four had an arrow in their shoulder. They grabbed their weapons in their remaining good hand and opted to not use a shield.
Thanks to their armor, they weren’t so easy to kill, even with the obvious overpowering amount of people. Swords hit swords as shields blocked attacks as well. Slowly, the group of knights tried to get together, but for now they weren’t able to do so, mostly focused on saving their own hide. The king experienced this as he saw two skeletons stab a fallen knight, turning their eyeless skulls to him. His horse lie dead beneath his legs. The white fur being covered in red as many arrows were deep in the poor animals blood. Angry at the heartless act, he would swing his sword to the skeletons.
His sword was able to decapitate the first one with easy, his head falling onto the ground and rolling down the hill. As he swung for the second on, he lost his footing as the skeleton duck and he hid nothing. As he tried to find stable footing again, the skeleton came back up the hill, being accompanied by two more. As a series of attacks were released on him, he started to parry and fight back, using his sword to parry two attacks while a third had to be redirected with his shield, forcing the sword down into the body of his horse. Thanks to this, the sword got stuck, exposing the skeleton. As an automatic reaction, he would stab him, hitting nothing as it went between the bones. He didn’t have time to realize what had happened, needing his sword back to protect his right as the other two attacked again.
As the king fought his battle, it started to get clear which group of the knights were finding it difficult to win. As the right side of the king had been his own people, trained with the sword and shield, they realized all too late that any stabbing attack barely did anything. The knights on the kings left that were trained in the art of axe wielding opted to completely forgo their shields, dropping them and using brute strength, chopping into any bone that even dared to show itself.
While his left side was showing a promising fight, his right started to falter, three more knights fell down, being taken down as the skeletons managed to get through their defenses and pull them down the hill, letting other skeletons finish the job. The kings general was also fighting next to the road, finding the skeletons trying the same strategy with him. His bigger mass proving it difficult to do so. But while he was busy ripping off ones head with his bare hands, it got too much for him too, disappearing and rolling down the hill as the skeletons jumped on the opportunity.
With the fighting continuing, a lower ranked commander wielding an axe had time to breathe. He turned to look behind him and saw the sword wielders having it difficult. Not only that, he saw the king holding back a group of six skeletons by himself. “Ulf and Jackson!” The commander had chosen two of his men that he could see weren’t having it too busy as one had just mowed down a couple of skeletons with his heavy strikes. “Other side! Go hard!” Being very well organized, they would grab their helmets, opening the vizor. With one hand they grabbed a small knife, cutting the leather straps keeping the helmets on their heads and throwing them off.
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He watched for just a second as his men charged to the other side of the road, saving a knight from being stabbed in the neck. That was all he saw as he ran to the king, jumping forwards even with his heavy armor, using his body weight to floor four of the skeletons going at it on the king, giving him the chance to focus on the last two, striking them down quickly, leaving a pile of bones at his feet.
As the commander was now on the ground with the skeletons next to him, he had to get up quickly. The skeletons were faster though, having no armor to hold them back. As he tried to stand up, he felt a pain in the back of his knee, a sword having found an opening in his armor and causing him to be unable to stand. He swung his axe at the legs of the skeleton who couldn’t parry it as the sword was still in the commanders knee, knocking the bones from underneath the skeleton to make it drop to the ground, not dead yet. The commander used to back of his axe to pierce a hold into the skull, finishing off the skeleton.
With the kings help, they killed the last three, the king dropping his shield to drag the commander away from the edge as he wasn’t able to walk anymore. This left the king open to an unseen attacker that had managed to sneak through the lines. The clattering of his teeth could be heard as he laughed, swinging down his sword towards the neck of the kind, aiming at the weakest part. Right before the sword hit the king, the sword would find his way digging into a naked arm.
The general that had rolled down the hill had managed to fight his way back up to the king. He was bleeding from multiple wounds but didn’t see fazed. Even when the sword dug into his arm, he would just grab the arm of the skeleton, ripping it clean off before taking the heft of the sword, pulling it out of his arm. The skeleton turned to face the general. Due to the lack of flesh and muscles, not much of emotion was shown. But scared or not, the general drove the swords with an overhead swing into the shoulder of the skeleton, breaking the bones going all the way down to his pelvic bone. The skeleton dropped down dead, nothing more than some bones.
The fighting stopped for a second, the skeletons pulling back from the group on the hill. Of all the knights still able to fight, there were only two sword wielders and five axe wielders. The commander that was stabbed in the leg unable to fight since he couldn’t stand up by himself. The general knelt down, grabbing an axe of a fallen knight, dual wielding weapons now as he still had the big sword on his back.
Surrounding the king and his knights were still a rather big group of enemies, being around four against one. To make things worse, a new yet smaller wave came out of the bushes, these skeletons were wielding crossbows although some had bows and arrows. The general having no armor would quickly be surrounded by the knights, all having their shields ready to block the arrows. As the new volley of arrows and bolts started, the general had to duck for his enormous stature to stay safe.
The armored knights were protecting their shoulders and face with the shield, feeling the impacts of the bolts and arrows but not really being hurt by it. Even the general seemed to be alright, standing back up as both groups now stopped, looking at each other, waiting for someone to make a move.
As the fight was happening, nobody had eyes for the group of three being a fair distance away, trying to remain unseen. Lucas was still trying to hold Lilly and Emma back, having their wrists in his hands. If they really tried they would be able to get out of his grasp in order to go and help, but both knew that Lucas was right, this was an unwinnable fight. Emma had started to cry as Lilly was watching them in silence, not sure what to even say or whether she would even need to say anything.
The skeletons didn’t really seem to have a leader, everyone hesitating to attack. If the knights attacked, they would lose the high ground and the defensive power. If the skeletons attacked than they would probably lose a lot of men. Not only that, this was the end of the road in terms of their lives. When dying as any creature, you’d come back as a zombie and then a skeleton. Dying now means death, forever, eternal, they weren’t so keen to meet their end.
The king knew that they had to react first. They had to try and make their way back to their own land, even if this was a long walk. Sadly enough, the commander was unable to walk which meant that the general would have to lift him up, limiting his ability to fight and with the arrival of the ranged adversaries, their odds got even worse by around six attackers for every available defender. As the kings eyes went over the small battle field, his eyes would fall on what looked like a weaker part, having a group of what looked like undead dwarves.
“Men! When this fight is over and we get home, I’ll make sure you’ll be drunk for a month!” The speech was nothing big or too inspiring for some people, but these men knew the king and wouldn’t have wished for anything else. As the king charged at the dwarven skeletons down the hill, they had some time. Their backs being protected as the skeletons had to first run up the hill to then cross the road. The flanks being exposed to any attacks but they knew that, getting out of sight of his daughters.
As the started to cut down the dwarves, arrows started to fly again as they swarmed the king and his men. For a few seconds, the only thing that could be heard was metal on metal and softer more blunt noises when a sword or axe hit bones.
They were doing well to begin with, that was until the ones in their backs caught up and they were surrounded once more, this time not having any high ground to help them. One by one, the knights would find their way to the ground, being difficult to be taken down but not immortal. Even the king who had trained the most and was the best fighter would find his end, leaving the general on his own, the commander being left behind on the road.
As the commander didn’t move, he would be left alone for now, the general huffing and being wounds so badly that any normal man would be dead already. As he was alone and surrounded, he threw down his axe and sword, instead opting to take the big sword on his back. He wasn’t going to go down so easily. Before anyone could try something, he would’ve cut down two skeletons with one swing, running back to the road.
His path was blocked by multiple skeletons, using his sword to cut a path. As he turned around to face this horde of skeletons, they didn’t seem to follow him, all staying back. The blood of the general continued to leak out of the many wounds. Seeing the lack of movement, he put his swords onto the ground, leaning onto it, panting and groaning in pain. As he was resting, keeping the skeletons in his eyes, a sudden pain came seemingly from his ankle, making him scream. As he turned around, he saw a full black bunny biting a chunk out of his ankle, seeing more run to him. “What the actual fuck?!”