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A Thousand Years To War	By : reddragon Category: -Misc Video Games/RPGs > General Views: 1787 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Millenium War Aegis, nor do I make a profit from this.

Chapter List
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The flight from the capital went better than Xal had expected. The dragonewt army seemed to be ill prepared for victory. Instead of the constant patrolling that he had been expecting, the demons had sent only a handful of groups, most of which seemed more intent on ravaging the countryside than they were on stopping the Prince's escape. The few encounters they had had so far had been quick and bloody affairs, with the humans surprising the invaders at each battle.
“It is possible that they do not even know you escaped,” Anna suggested one night as she and Xal discussed the group's next move over their dinner. “We have never really understood the way the dragonewts think, and their leadership roles and organization are a mystery to us. Obviously the bigger ones are in control of the littler ones, but we still do not understand how they then organize within their own numbers. It is possible that they are in the same situation. They might not know you exist, or what threat you might pose to them.”
“But they have to understand some of how our leadership is organized! They came straight for the capital!” Soma protested. She was sitting next to Xal, carefully turning a brace of fat rabbits that she had caught earlier in the day. Foraging was providing most of the band's food, and Soma was an expert at it. Most of the soldiers had claimed to have hunted before, but those had all been royal hunts where beaters had flushed carefully stocked game out into the open for nobles and rich merchants to pick off at close range. They tried to exercise the same tactics, blundering through the woods as loudly as possible and then complaining when their dinner ran off before they could catch it.
Soma, on the other hand, was perfectly at home in the woods. She was an expert at reading game signs, and almost seemed to have a sixth sense for being in the right place when it came time to take down some of the larger prey. She also knew which plants were edible and which ones weren't, making sure the more urban guards didn't accidentally poison themselves during the march. On the other hand, that still left her open to learning in some other areas.
“Of course they came straight for the capital,” Anna replied. Xal could tell it was a struggle for her not to roll her eyes at the archer. The two weren't quite butting heads, but they hadn't exactly become fast friends, either. The best Xal could figure was that they had reached some agreed upon form of hostile neutrality. “I said we didn't understand them, not that they were stupid. If their own hierarchy is based on size, then attacking the capital would still be a perfectly logical thing to do. It was, after all, our largest city and our largest stronghold. Obviously it was a place of great importance to both our ways of thinking, which is why we will need to take it back.
“But, and this is the key piece they seem to be missing, is that the capital was only as important as it was because that is where the King lived. The royal family did not start living there because it was the biggest city, it became the biggest city because that is where the royal family was living. They must know they killed the King, but I think that they do not believe they know about the Prince. As far as they are concerned they killed our biggest leader, and therefore that makes them the leader, because that is the way their society works.”
“So what does that get us?” Alissa asked. Xal still didn't have much of a read on the young priestess. Her healing powers were extraordinary, and had saved the life of more than one man that Xal was positive should have died. But for all that, the priestess remained a bit of a recluse. She stayed close to Anna, Xal, or Soma and said little unless approached first. At first Xal suspected she just didn't like to talk, but he was beginning to suspect that she was just incredibly shy. Being thrust into the middle of a dangerous guerilla campaign was probably the last thing she had ever expected to experience.
“Most importantly, it buys us some time,” Anna explained. “If the dragonewts do not know we exist, then they will not be hunting for us. The groups we've eliminated so far won't go unmissed for long, but there must surely still be some resistance taking place. As long as those disappearances remain unconnected, and they should, we will be relatively safe.”
“We can't have that much time,” Xal pointed out as Soma passed him a rabbit. He paused to take a bite. The meat was tongue-searing hot, but surprisingly juicy and tender. He had been expecting something much tougher to chew, though it was still as bland as he had expected.
“What do you mean?” Anna asked with a frown. “As long as we are careful-”
“They won't find out about us, giving us the element of surprise,” Xal finished for her. He nodded in agreement before adding, “But they do know about Aegis. They'll be looking for her temple, the same way we are. We need to get there before they can do any damage to it.”
Anna's frown deepened. “I had not thought of that. If they can somehow prevent us from summoning the Goddess, then that would make our task nigh impossible. It seems that time is not as much on our side as I had hoped.”
“Then we'll just have to go and make sure that doesn't happen, now won't we?” Soma grinned as she playfully elbowed Xal in the ribs. His smile matched her own, while Anna glared at them both disapprovingly.
“Yes, well,” she sniffed. Everyone turned to look at her, which caused Anna to blush when she realized she didn't have anything she could actually add to the comment. Anything she might say to scold Soma would sound like she was trying to scold Xal as well, and scolding the Prince was utterly unthinkable, right up there with stripping naked to dance around the fire chanting praise to Gornathlis, Lord of the Dark. Instead she took a bite of her own rabbit. That reminded her how hungry she was, which led to another bite, and then another.
“Indeed.” Xal spoke up to distract everyone else from Anna's embarrassment. “We'll break camp early tomorrow. I want to-”
Everyone froze as something heavy rustled the bushes just outside the firelight. Xal and Soma both reached for their weapons, but the noise died as quickly as it had come.
“Goblins?” Alissa whispered. She looked around fearfully, as if expecting the little purple horrors to come bursting out of the darkness at any moment.
Xal shook his head, not wanting to speak in case it drowned out something he needed to hear. He strained his ears, but the only noises he could make out were the usual insect buzzes and the wind tickling at the trees overhead. Goblins wouldn't have been so quiet; they would have come charging in screaming. Besides, how would they have gotten past the sentries? Xal wouldn't have spoken the thought out loud, but the truth of the matter was that the most distant ring of guards were, essentially, bait. The dragonewts didn't believe in stealth, and would have shouted out their battlecries as they had spotted the men on watch.
That meant that whatever was out there was trying to be careful enough not to be heard. An animal wouldn't want to be heard, but an animal wouldn't have gotten closer to the fire. Out in the open woods, forest fires were deadly threats. The things that lived in the woods were well aware of that, and would have gotten as far away as possible just in case it started to spread and trapped them. That left only one option...
'But why try to sneak up on us?' Xal brow furrowed as he tried to puzzle out the situation. 'If it was another group of survivors, surely they would have approached us openly, either to join up with us or to ask for supplies. I don't remember there being any villages out this way, though. Who else is in these woods?'
Xal tapped Soma on the knee and motioned for her to lean in close enough for him to whisper. “Do a quick check on the guards, make sure everyone is at their post. There is someone – or something- out there, and I want them on their best alert.”
“It could be bandits,” Soma whispered back. “They've been known to use these woods as a hideout when it is too dangerous to remain near the villages or in the mountains.”
“Would they attack at night?”
Soma shook her head. “Too risky. We're probably better equipped, and it is obvious that we're alert and ready. They'd have the element of surprise, but they wouldn't be able to coordinate very well. Their best chance is to gang up on us, try to take us down a couple at a time. Their best chance would be during the day, when they can ambush us and work as a group.”
Xal nodded. “Understood. Go, check on the guards. I get the feeling it is going to be a long day tomorrow.”
*
The next day, Xal kept the scouts in close, careful of Soma's warning from the previous night. If the suspected bandits wanted to try and pick them off piecemeal, then Xal wanted to make sure that was the last thing they could do. Instead he arranged for an abbreviated marching column, four men abreast, with Alissa and Anna riding in the supply wagon near the center, where they and it would be safely surrounded by men in heavy armor. The only person not in formation was Soma, who was keeping pace with Xal at the head of the line.
The wagon was Xal's greatest worry. They had salvaged it from a burned out farmstead not too far from the capital, and it held all of their supplies. Given the option he would have spread things out among the soldiers rather than keep all of their possessions in one place, but by consolidating the boxes of food and medical supplies it allowed the soldiers to march while under arms. That made it easier for them to respond to any attack, while at the same time providing the column with a very obvious vulnerability, one he suspected the bandits or dragonewts would be quick to take opportunity of.
In the end it wasn't bandits or dragonewts the survivors had to be worried about.
It was bandits and dragonewts.
Bloodcurdling screams ripped the air as goblins came pouring out from between the trees on the left side of the road. They came in an unorganized swarm, waving their clubs and swords overhead as they charged towards the humans.
“Shields up!” Xal bellowed as he drew his sword. Soma had already notched an arrow to her bowstring by the time his hand reached the hilt, and the arrow had already pierced the lead goblin's heart by the time the sword's blade had cleared its sheath.
The leader's death had no effect on the dozens of goblins behind it. They trampled his corpse into the dirt as they closed with the humans, driven by their own mad need for blood. A goblin leapt at Xal, slashing at him as it came. Steel cracked bone as the Prince kicked it back, giving him enough room for a cutting blow that opened the goblin from its shoulder across to its hip.
By then it had broken down into a general melee. One soldier went down with a goblin gnawing at his throat, while another collapsed under the weight of three of the little bastards climbing all over him. He screamed as claws and teeth tore at his body, but his armor kept them from getting to anywhere vital. Two of his friends charged to his rescue, but the goblins were too close for them to effectively wield their own swords without risking stabbing the man they were trying to save, nor did the goblins much enjoy being pulled away. A dirty sort of brawl broke out between the seven of them as thee soldiers grappled with their attackers. One of the soldiers managed to get his hands around a goblin's throat and twisted, while another goblin lay in a broken, bloody heap where a stomp from the second soldier had caved in its ribcage. Together they managed to do for the third goblin, but by then the man they were trying to rescue had already passed out from blood loss.
“They're going for the wagon!” Soma yelled as she shot another of the goblins as it got far too close for her like. Her nose crinkled as the creature's bowels voided.
Xal whirled at her shout. An angry growl rumbled deep in his chest as he watched a pair of goblins trying to clamber up the backboard of the wagon. Anna and Alissa were standing above them and trying to dislodge the goblins with staff and broom, but the goblins' sharp little claws gave them a firm grip on the wood. The good news was the goblins weren't making much progress in boarding, either. Unfortunately, the bad news was that the two women were so focused on defending one end of the wagon that they neglected to keep an eye on the other.
Another pair goblins managed to gain the boarding steps at the front of the wagon, giggling madly as they scampered up the ladder. They leapt across the boxes and sacks that filled the wagon bed, eager for that first taste of tender, pink flesh. Anna screamed as she twisted to try and fend them off, swinging her broomstick about with mad ferocity. The goblins cackled as they chopped at it with their swords. The blades were chipped, as well as partially dulled from a combination of poor forging and lack of proper maintenance, but that didn't matter. The broomstick had come from the same farm as the wagon, and was little more than a fairly straight piece of dead wood that someone had attached bristles to. It shattered under the first blow, scattering splinters all over the back of the wagon. Anna shrieked as one of the splinters lodged in her eye, blinding her. She stumbled backwards and collided with Alissa, knocking both women from their feet.
The goblins in the wagon shouted happily as they leapt at their prey...only to fall back a moment later as Soma's arrows struck home. The first goblin went down with an arrow through its eye, dead before it even knew what had happened. The second goblin was a little faster, and managed to dive over the side as Soma's following shot buried itself in the goblin's shoulder. It landed on its back, wailing as it struggled to pull the arrow free. The serrated arrowhead had gone in deep, however, and lodged under the goblin's collarbone. A third arrow stopped the monster's thrashing a moment later.
That left the two goblins who had been trying to climb the rear of the wagon. With the two women out of the way, they were free to reach the top of the wagon, where Anna and Alissa waited helplessly. Alissa was doing her best to try and restore Anna's eyesight, but her magic was better tuned to dealing with the major trauma of a battle, not the delicate injury of a lone splinter, no matter how debilitating it might have become. Though she was quick, not even Soma was fast enough to stop them.
That left it all up to Xal. He reached the wagon just as the lead goblin had made it to the top of the wagon's loading gate, completely oblivious to the danger coming up behind it. The height of the wagon actually put the goblin up at about the same level as Xal's shoulders, so that as his sword flicked out it cut across the back of the goblin's knees. Orange blood gushed out of severed arteries, spilling across the front of Xal's armor and face. The bitter taste made him want to gag with disgust, but he fought down the urge as he focused on finishing off his target. He thrust his sword through the goblin's back, and the blade pierced the goblin's heart on its way through the monster's ribs.
That thrust was nearly Xal's undoing. He realized too late that he had put too much strength behind his attack, and by then the sword was already stuck deep in the soft wood. There was no time to pull his sword free, as the second goblin wasted no time in throwing itself at the Prince. Black claws aimed for Xal's eyes, but he managed to get his arm up just in time for the goblin to latch on to that instead.
'You really ought to start carrying a shield,' some black humored corner of his mind laughed as Xal fell backwards. The wagon had churned up the roadbed fairly well, so the dirt exploded as the man and goblin hit. The two wrestled for a moment, but while the goblin was strong for its size, it wasn't much heavier. A child's height came with a child's weight, which made it easy for Xal to get the upper hand. An arm across the goblin's shoulders was enough to pin the it's wriggling form to the ground while Xal pulled his holdout knife from the sleeve attached to his boot and dragged it across the goblin's throat. A fresh gush of blood soaked his gloves, and once again he had to deal with that horrible taste as bit made it past his lips. Xal dragged his teeth across his tongue and spat, but nothing he could do was enough to clear his mouth of the foulness.
Xal shoved himself back to his feet as the last goblin let out a warbling cry before one of the soldiers ended its life. It collapsed listlessly to its knees, then fell face first into the mud. Xal nodded to the soldier, trying and failing to remember the man's name. “Good job.”
“Thank you, sir,” the nameless soldier answered as he wrenched his sword free of the corpse. He thumped his balled fist against his breast plate and nodded at Xal, then reached for a pouch hanging from his belt and pulled out a red cloth to wipe down his weapon.
“I think this belongs to you,” Soma said as she approached the Prince from behind. Xal turned to see her holding his sword out to him hilt first.
“Thank you,” Xal repeated. He took it carefully, letting her pull her hand back from the blade before tilting it upwards to get a better look at the blade. It didn't seem to have picked up any new notches, but he had an unhappy feeling that he was going to be spending quite bit of time later that night with a whetstone. That wasn't to imply that the sword was getting dull, just that it might have faced some difficulty cutting into a puddle of water. “Well, now that that is over with-”
“ATTACK!”
Xal's shoulders sank as fresh warcries, human warcries, echoed out of the trees. “Sonuvacrap!”
Bards will always sing of epic battles, whether they end victoriously or ignominiously. Whether they are singing for kings or for peasants, such tales are always greeted with enthusiasm, for every audience enjoys being able to share in the glory of the struggle without actually having to risk dying for the honor. The most popular songs, however, are of the great farces where mighty kings are turned into dandy fools and ferocious generals act like great big bloody idiots.
When the second half of the battle would finally be put to verse, it would go down in history as the great comedy of the century, a fact that made sure never to let Anna live down.
A dozen men came charging from the trees, this time from the right side of the road. They were big men, muscular from years of hard living. They were half wild, clad in the furs of the great beasts they had hunted, their skin caked with dirt and their hair greasy from fear of bathing. At their front was a shirtless, bronze-skinned youth wearing a bright yellow sash and a thick rope belt to hold up a pair of tattered green pants. A mane of wild red hair cascaded down his back, where it met a wolf's tail that had been tied to the back of his pants. In his hands was an enormous, single headed ax, whose blade was tall enough to cover him from waist to shoulder. They moved quickly, fresh and ready to fight.
Xal's men were in no such shape. More than a third were down as casualties of the previous fight, with a third more occupied with triage, attempting to stabilize the wounded until Alissa could tend to them and offering final mercies to those who did not have the luxury of such time. Few of the remainder were unwounded, and all were sore and tired. They wanted nothing more than a warm meal and a few hours sleep, not another life and death struggle.
But they were soldiers, first and foremost, and in the end that made all the difference.
“Form up!” Xal yelled, waving his sword overhead to rally his remaining troops. Half a dozen men answered his call, forming a line between their comrades and the howling barbarians running towards them. Their forms were identical as they turned to present their sides, shields raised together and swords held low to stab out between the narrow gap between each man.
The bandits threw themselves at the shield wall, and their charge broke like a wave against a rock. Half of the bandits were killed outright, skewered by the rapid thrusts of waiting blades. They had seen how difficult the fight against the goblins had been, and were expecting tired and broken men. What the bandits had failed to realize was that the goblins held several advantages the bandits did not, being smaller, faster, and unusually strong for their size. Xal's soldiers had heard the speeches and studied their history, but there had never really been any way to actually train against dragonewts. Instead they had practiced against who and what they could, namely other men from other regiments and other nations.
Men just like the bandits.
The bandits did not have the morale to take such losses and continue. When their charge broke so did their spirit, and the survivors turned on their heels to flee. The only one who didn't was the youth who had been at the front of the attack. He pointed at Xal as he let out a wordless scream that was less a sound of battle and more of a primal challenge, the bellow of an alpha male who had found his rival and would not rest until one or the other had been put down for good. He swept his great ax in a wide arc, smashing through the shield wall with a single mighty blow. The soldiers recovered quickly, but not before he had made it through their lines.
Soma's bow creaked as she pulled the string taut, but Xal put his hand in front of the arrow before she could release. “Wait. This one is mine.”
“Xal, don't be stupid!” Soma pointed her arrow towards the forest floor as she eased up on the draw. She scowled as she turned towards the Prince. “We all know how manly you are, you don't need to prove it by-”
“That's not it,” Xal answered without bothering to look at her. He slid his foot back half a step, bracing himself for the expected assault. “I just want one alive to question, that's all.”
“I wouldn't have to kill him,” Soma pouted.
Xal grinned, but still didn't look at her. He kept his eyes on his challenger, refusing to blink as the mad dog of a boy got closer and closer. “Next time, Soma.”
The youth covered the last few feet between them in a single tremendous leap, his weapon a dark blur as it whistled through the air. The blow was strong enough to smash Xal into a gooey paste...if he had been stupid enough to stand still and take it. Instead the Prince slipped to the side, easily dodging the cut and setting up his own attack while his opponent was still off balance. Xal's foot lashed out, and the youth screamed in agony as the steel boot shattered his kneecap. The boy collapsed in a ball of tears and pain, unable to do anything but cry over his maimed leg.
Xal kicked the club away, just to be sure, then knelt down over his captive. “For the record, the kingdom of Cerval takes very dim view on banditry, especially when committed against a royal person such as myself. I know that there will be plenty of folks who think this invasion gives them permission to go a little crazy, but the laws are still the laws, and I have every intent on enforcing them with all the honor and ability that my father would have expected of me. The good news is that if you cooperate, then I may find just cause to be lenient in determining your punishment. Sadly, it may be a while before Alissa can come and tend to your leg, but don't worry! Once she is done with you, you and I are going to have a very, very long talk.”
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A Thousand Years To War