Fragment from Penumbra

...“Now here goes my first piece of advice, focus, cause we’re about to get hit.”

“Steady…” 

Lord Gwyn was still at the head of his army trying to decipher where the enemy was. The boots and clanking armours could be heard clearer than ever and now cavalry had joined in, it was the rhythm of death and it was marching to its inevitable conclusion. 

“Steady…”

Gwyn’s army was expectant. You could see the tension in the pose of these warriors, they knew the time drew near. Prayer was heard in the form of whispering or mumbling all around. The marching grew louder, it swallowed the sound of prayers. Even Artis could no longer hear the rattling of his shaking armour.

“Steady…”

This time the whisper was quieter, the army’s marching was truly loud, Anakeim’s warriors were no more than yards away. Suddenly the marching began to grow a bit fainter, very gradually you could hear the boots getting away on the muddy terrain. Anakeim had sealed his fate, he had Gwyn at his rear ready to flank.

“CHAAAAAARGE!”

Lord Gwyn yelled at the top of his lungs, the command echoed through the valley walls, bouncing back and forth taunting Anakeims badly placed army. Every single soldier of the contending army had a chill shoot up their spine, from the lowest to the highest rank, every soldier knew a mistake had been made and it was time to pay.

The Lord Commander charged head on into the mist, the thick of his army backed him. Faust ran into the mist also, and so Artis followed. Artis ran but felt that he was not advancing, it was a pretty slow and clumsy run as he kept sinking into the mud, the fog was so thick he felt he wasn’t moving at all.

Anakeims army threshed to get into a more favourable position but they could not see the threat and t’was too late. Lord Gwyn’s warriors clashed into shields and formations, the clanking metal was now more than a faint shake, it was like exploding thunder as the strengths of both armies met. Faust and Artis advanced to the rear of the contending army. Faust targeted his first kill and thrust his sword so hard into the back of a warrior that he pierced his leather armour on both sides, the man let out a muffled and gurgled yelp as blood shot out from his mouth. Artis saw this and froze, in a fraction of a second the words of Faust became ever clearer, this man hadn’t even seen it coming. As the man fell to his knees trying to clog his wound with his palms, Artis noticed this man hadn’t even fully drawn his sword, they had achieved the element of surprise. Faust kept swinging his sword at other warriors alongside his comrades Artis stood behind them just watching the bloodbath begin to take shape.   

At this point the horns of the opposing army began to sound, Lord Gwyn’s army generals began shouting out orders. “Full speed men, we’ve got them where we wanted!” The opposing army began to retreat into the whiteness of the fog right into the small valley. It was a perfectly sprung trap. If Anakeim was captured or his army destroyed, the war would be over and peace would come, this was Lord Gwyn’s deepest desire and his adult life’s goal, a goal he had been pursuing for fifteen grueling years.

As the contending army was funneled into this valley some soldiers were so cramped they couldn’t even raise their shields to defend, they were quite useless and trapped, Lord Gwyn’s army pushed them further in without mercy. 

Just at the height of the battle, as lord Gwyn slayed yet another warrior his instinct gave him a sharp twinge, and just as he thought he had this battle in his pocket he noticed the cavalry was missing. He was too wise to think that the cavalry had merely escaped the slaughter, no, this was something premeditated. Just as the thought was born he heard hooves on the ground approaching.

“Gwyyyyn!!”

Lord Gwyn turned to see Anakeim breaking through his men and the mist on his horse, his strange orange armour gleaming in the endless sea of fog, behind him his cavalry began to materialize. The Lord Commander’s heart sunk when he saw the tactic at hand, he had been so focused on springing the trap he had lost sight of the cavalry, a mistake that might have the highest cost of all. 

Anakeims horse run past Gwyn, but his sword run through him. Gwyn fell to his knees and was escorted by his guards into the ranks of the army. Anakeim saw this and decided the day was his, it was now time to liberate the rest of his army from that deadly funnel of a valley. The cavalry made short work of the foot soldiers in the mud.

“Help me Artis, I can’t take them alone!” Cried Faust as the opposing army, after seeing a glimmer of hope, began to counter attack. Artis raised his shield and approached Faust to support him, the boy desperately thrusted his spear at the crowds to no avail, at that moment a mounted knight traversed the mist and hurled a spear, Artis faced him and caught the spear with his shield but the spear went through and borrowed into his rib cage, past his armour. Artis fell on his back, looked at his hands and saw blood, he began to yell in pain when he saw this. Three soldiers came to Faust’s aid, they exchanged swings and blows, a savage fight broke out within the battle. An enemy soldier’s face was split in two by a battle axe, helm and all, blood gushed into the mud and a few loose teeth followed. One of the soldiers that came to Faust’s aid fell from a spear to the throat, before the enemy could pull the spear out Faust broke the spears tip and began harassing that soldier. Armed with only the wooden pole of his spear, he posed almost no threat. Faust swung at him a couple of times until his sword finally caught his leg, the enemy soldier lost footing and fell into de mud, Faust stomped on the enemy’s head until he buried his face in the ground. The other two soldiers were now sparring with the enemies giving Faust time to run towards Artis. He kneeled next to the wounded boy, he examined his wound and shortly began to help him up.

The enemy soldier which had his head stomped by Faust incredibly had survived. He brought his face out of the mud and drew a deep breath, he looked around, face deformed, bloodied and muddied trying to get his bearings. His blue eyes searched the battlefield and he saw him, Faust, kneeling over a fallen comrade. He searched the mud for a weapon but he could find nothing more than the wooden part of his spear. He picked it up and thought it would have to do. 

Faust tried to pull Artis  back to his feet but the boy yelled and whimpered, he was under incredible pain, the spear had been sent with a mighty force by the strider, his arm’s and horse’s strengths combined, it had gone through the shield, through his armour and through his ribs, the wound would be infected soon unless he got to a chemist, which was Faust’s plan, if he could only get the boy back to his feet. As Faust tried a second time the surviving enemy soldier came from behind him with a vengeance and begun to strangle him with the stick of the spear. Faust, completely distracted was brought back to his feet and had left his sword next to Artis. 

Artis saw Faust was in trouble, he was pointing to his sword with a hand while trying to free himself with the other. Artis grabbed the sword and tried to get it to Faust, inches away from Fausts hand, the sword was kicked out of Artis’ hand by another soldier and then he sat on top of Artis and began to strangle him with his hands. Artis squirmed in the mud and in his blood trying to free himself from his aspiring killer. But he was too weak and the pain was too great, Artis began to go whimper, the time had come. Artis had been truly terrified he’d end up in this position, but now being in it he decided it was not so bad. His arms dropped and his gaze faded and then everything was black.