The Element of Surprise - The First Battle

[Guy de Mereliot (R)]

The pain was intense, sharp, but I did my best to stay calm through it. I had no knowing if the bone was broken or if I would ever walk again. But I had to maintain my dignity. The girl was screaming at me but I said nothing back, focusing on lying still, hoping someone would arrive soon, for her sake more than for mine.

I then heard a male voice, young, send the woman back to the line and I was thankful and I would have been content with that, with knowing that she was out of harm’s way. But then the woman reassured me and I smiled through the pain. The voice made me think of Geraldine and the fact that she would be crushed should I not make it to her. I couldn’t do that to a friend. I then turned my head to look to the man and waited to see if he would carry me back, or at the least support me.

[Maric du Verais]

The first battle came and I was right along with the men as we lined up. I was afraid, my heart racing and for the first time in my life I wanted to turn and run. I didn't of course, I wouldn't do that to my people, but it didn't stop the fact that I wanted to tuck tail.

But when the battle cry came and we all moved forward I rang my sword free from it's sheath and hurried into the fray. Left and right they came as men began to come toward us with axes free. That was when my blood began to pump and after my first kill and blood began to spray against me, fear was replaced with the need to survive. One particular man came toward me with an axe and I raised my sword to deflect it. But he was big and stronger then I and he had me on the defense as he pushed me into the melee.

One, two, three swings he took with his axe till the fourth came straight down over top of me. I raised my blade and caught the edge of the wood shaft where it wedged and we both fell down onto the ground. He had me pinned and thats when fear became real again and I fought to keep him off me. But no matter what I did I felt the weight of him and the axe coming closer and closer to me head. I panicked then, the finite blade of the axe hovering over my left eye. Tears welled and I knew I was going to die, I knew that I'd never see any one again.

Grunting I pushed as hard as I could, my arms pinned beneath me at an angle as the axed lowered itself, the blade pushing into my brow and cheek at the same time. I cried out then, screaming at the pain of the edge as it slowly split my skin and all I could hear was the sound of laughter from my Skaldi attacker as blood seeped from my wound.

[Thereza de Soigneux]

Amidst the screams of the wounded and dying came the call to join back up and with one stab and twist of my blade I cleared the Skaldi standing before me and did just that, fighting my way toward where Lucient was starting toward one edge of the battle. There were far more enemies than I would have expected for this sort of surprise battle, but perhaps they weren't as surprised as we thought, or this place was much larger than we'd first expected. The lines on either side had yet to thin out and that could very well spell a sizeable loss of life. But we still had to hold fast. There could be a victory in this yet.

Looking off to one side I saw another person go down, and while I didn't see who it was I wasn't about to chance losing anyone else. Perhaps that was a forward thought of me but I remembered too keenly now how things had been with Captain de Etalon with me as the second in command to help defend all of those around me. Sword still in hand I ran in that direction, dodging the other battle that stood in my way and thrust my blade deep into the Skaldi's side. The blood from the wound rushed dark red and I looked at him impassively as he turned and I pulled my blade free to stab his neck while he reeled backward.

It was then that I finally got a look at the boy, his face slashed, and I was surprised. I knew Maric from when I'd met him in the City, and I quickly extended my hand to take one of his arms. "Can you fight?" I asked him seriously, noting the blood that ran down his face and likely would obscure his vision somewhat.

[Astride Schevlok]

They were well past the line, too close to the camp, and the help the man and the escaped captive were getting, I assessed that I could make fast work of. Or rather, I could have, would the throng of battle not be between us, and as a D'Angeline soldier hacked at my mouth, I swung my battle axe at his head, planting it with a squirting sound, before I hacked it out and the man fell. By then, though, I found myself in a mess of shields and helmets, and fighting to make a perimeter around me, I found myself driven far off from my target by the swarm.

[Emeric Deveroix]

It seemed that whatever else the girl was she chose this time not to be stubborn and I watched as she walked away for a moment, then offered my arm to the man quickly. His leg looked pretty bad, but I wasn't one of the medics. All I needed to know was whether or not he could hobble or if I had to carry him. Old men on the battlefield, what were they thinking? Then again he'd saved the girl and likely gotten himself a good story to get himself bedded at camp so at least he had a sac on him. "Think you can walk?" I asked nonchalantly as I waited for him to either get up or try to.

[Guy de Mereliot (R)]

I looked up at the man and shook my head. "Not without something to lean on," I told him, straightforwardly. "Just get me to the healers." I wasn't going to explain or waste my time with words. I simply needed to get help and soon. And this bot needed to make up for me being off the field. Time was what mattered.

[Prince Delaunay de la Courcel]

I had been given my own unit and when the day had come I was standing on the front lines with them. My heart beat hard and my palms sweat but I was ready, I had practiced till every move of a blade was engrained within me. So when it came to strike first against the Skaldi bastards I was ready.

When the call was made I advanced with my unit and when the Skaldi came out with their weapons I gave a cry and began to take them down. I moved in spins and movements that were taught to me by Joscelin, one of the greatest Cassilines of our history. I took a few hits in the face from a particularly skilled Skaldi but managed to run him through with a sword before he got the better of me.

"Come on gents, lets get these bastards!" I cried out to any in my unit that was listening.

[Jacques de Layne]

I kept on my efforts through the swarm – there was blood on the ground, blood on my hands, on my sword, on my shield which had been cracked by a Skaldic axe, just as I'd later cracked its owner's skull.

There was brain matter on my armor, broken bone under my feet. It was a bloodbath, and I felt sick, but reminding myself of why I'd come, I went on – I'd given Eulalie my word, and I'd keep it, and then I'd die, I insisted.

And so insistent on finding Owen du Blaine, I kept on muddling through the melee, parrying and striking as I could, eyes wild with the scent of blood, suffering, death and fear.

[Eirik Reyksol]

I heard it before I felt it, the familiar sound of an arrow splitting the air. Then there was a burning pain in my left arm and I didn't have to look to know that there was an arrow imbedded there. I cursed and stumbled back, nearly tripping over the body of a man who I knew well. It took this for me to pause and survey the battlefield that had once been our home.

The dead and wounded littered the ground and I saw immediately that more of them were Skaldi. Not only had we been surprised in our sleep, but without the support of any other clans, we were outnumbered. I realized that I was going to have to retreat if I did not wish to lose even more men.

The pain in my arm reminded me that I was vulnerable, and I grunted as I snapped the arrow in half and tossed the feathered shaft away. Johanna could tend to the wound later, for now, I had to make a decision.

The best thing would be to fall back to the cliffside north of us, it was a near perfect defensible position, and the help I was expecting from nearby clans would come from that direction as well. If the D'angelines were foolish enough to follow me, well, we not have to hold them off too long.

I started shouting for a retreat to those closest to me, who would know to pass the word, and then I began to fight again, the pain in my shoulder make my shield feel ever heavier, but I had to make sure my people were out before I fell back.

[Quinn du Paras]

“Thanks,” I said, accepting the sword and awkwardly sheathing it before getting a better grip on my one remaining weapon.

My head whipped about as I head Lucien’s cry. “Siovale!” I answered with a roar; my legs pushing me in that direction instantly even as I glanced back to see if the man who’d saved me was following.

[Heribert Reiterin]

I saw our leader just after he was hit with an arrow. I jumped over bodies, dodged a few arrows and managed to make my way over to Eirik. I heard him shouting for us to pull back. I did what I could to fight the D'Angelines that were near us. When we had a moment to ourselves, I spoke in a whisper, "Johanna, and the other women and children are located in a hidden cave past the low hills. What should we do? Lead them to another clan?"

[Maric du Verais]

The axe cut my skin so deep that it felt as though it was cracking my skull and I felt the blood pooring into my eye which I closed instinctively. I was sure I was about to die when his weight was lifted and Reza was standing there with her hand out stretched.
"You saved my life." I said softly then reached out and took her arm, standing as I did.
"Thank you." I added before I rubbed the blood from my face. I wasn't sure how deep the cut was but I felt as though I could still keep going despite the fact that when I opened my one eye everything looked red.
"I can fight." I said then and nodded briskly. "Let's go."

[Cateline de Bouclier]

I could tell that things were looking good for us. The bodies of the Skaldi spoiled the air and stuck in my nostrils, but I continued to fight forward. I heard a thundering sound coming up behind me and saw a Skaldi coming my way. He swung his axe and I dodged it. He swung again, and this time I moved out of the way and rammed my sword into his gut. He groaned and growled at me. He dropped his axe and grabbed his stomach. I waited for him to fall, but instead he slapped me across the face and I fell backwards on a rock. Everything was black, and I wasn't even aware of the Skaldi falling part way on top of me, lying dead.

[Astride Schevlok]

I was in the thick of the melee when word came that Eirik was pulling everyone out. It came as confirmation, rather than news: I could see my battle brothers disengaging, getting ready to run, to escape.

I was not done, however.

These D'Angeline swines had attacked us – and I felt vengeance was best served hot, best bloody and well dealt, and so I fought with increased rage, creating a perimeter around myself. To those around me, I screamed, “Do what you must, but make them pay!” in our language, until I found myself nigh surrounded.

I found the weakest link, crashed his skull without remorse. I was battered and bruised, and I'd taken an arrow's graze to my thigh, but it was nothing that would not heal. I wasn't quite ready to leave yet, but I would. And then, soon, soon, I'd be back.

With a vengeance.

[Kai “Ill-Begotten” Ungewollt]

Throughout the charge, I'd been quiet – was I ever loud? Likely not. I'd followed quietly Heribert and Johanna, and instead of joining a disorganized attempt to meet the enemy, in which my arrows would be useless, I'd stationed myself at a higher position, stealth over brawn, as usual.

Bow and arrow at the ready, I was meaning to take out any soldier rushing towards the place where the women and children hid, and though my arm shook with the tension of the effort, I held fast stubbornly.

[Armand de Louis]

The man was half the fighter he could be due to injury, and he did not relent – and though I would not scream something other than my own, I leaped on his trail, charging at whatever enemy was in the way.

“Kusheth!” I cried out in answer, even as an arrow pierced my shoulder – the roar of enthusiasm changed to pain, but I did not give up, accepting it for what it was, a trial. Instead, I sliced at a Skaldi, and another, and another.

They seemed to be running, though, and I grinned evilly, feeling that we were indeed inflicting in them the fear of Mighty Kushiel.

[Owen du Blaine]

I'd gone cold, numb almost, and struck at anything with a hint of fur or animal hide, anything not dressed in a d'Angeline uniform and was visibly male. I'd taken young men and old, had lost my shield along the way, and my horse was dead some ways back, his leg chopped out from under him by a Skaldi ax. I was bruised and bleeding, certain two fingers on my left hand were broken if not shattered, but I was alive. Alive, blessedly.

Suddenly, it seemed as if there were more than I could manage. Three came at me at once, surrounding me from every side, and I crouched a little in defense, wielding my sword with both my hand and ignoring the agonizing pain flaring from my fingers. I crouched, and waited; each heartbeat passed like long moments til at last I sprung, less than four beats of my heart later, striking suddenly to my side and not the obvious choice before me.

[Jacques de Layne]

This was messier, louder and more frightening than I thought – and the man I'd promised to keep save was a ways away, but visible in the distance, and surrounded. Oh, Elua. I might yet have my wish in one fell swoop. For the first time in a long time, I thought of Merciful Kushiel, and thanked him, even as I raised my sword and pierced through yet more Skaldi warriors.

I'd been largely unscathed – a blessing and a curse, and safe for a superficial prick to my knee, and a scrape on my arm, I was well and able to fight, still. He was surrounded, and I pierced through the melee with a cry, hoping to draw the attention of one. The ploy worked, and swords locked, I held him there a moment, until in a fit of despair I raised my boot and kicked him to the stomach.

[Fálki Pórbrandr]

Eirik gave the command to fall back and I heard it, shouting the order down the line and covering the line so some of them could fall back- and then I saw Astride, still fighting, still pushing forward. What he was doing I couldn't say, but I knew the orders and this was going against them. With a muffled growl I dispatched the enemy standing in front of me, then ran in that direction.

On my arrival I found him surrounded and killed one of the men on his side, then gave him a piercing look as I took the reins and tugged firmly to turn his horse around while the ax in my other hand fended off a sword-blow. If this man's foolish frenzy got me killed I would make sure he joined the afterlife with me. "Eirik said move out," I growled as I followed the horse around, then released the reins. "Fall back."

[Owen du Blaine]

The man I'd spun to attack was just as quick as I, and deflected my attempts to remove his head from his shoulders with frightening ease. Were he better a fighter than I or simply just fresher I didn't know, though I suspected the former, not that I'd ever had admitted it outright.

Steel rang; this overgrown farmboy had a sword of his own, and my attention for the moment was focused solely in keeping him from lodging it in me. After a moment I risked a glance behind me, wondering why the other two hadn't cut me down, only to find one doubling over from an apparent boot heel to the stomach from a d'Angeline savior, and the second coming up from behind him, ax raising.

"Behind you!" I shouted, before wheeling to parry my foe, desperation beginning to thicken my veins.

[King Marcel de la Courcel]

Exultantly, I saw that the tide had turned against the Skaldi, though really, the odds had never been in their favor. I saw that we had taken losses, but theirs were far greater. Unlike the war in Akkad, I did not know as many of the men I fought with, and it helped, made it easier to concentrate, though knowing that my brother was out here was actually quite terrifying. Part of me wanted to try to find him, but mostly I knew that I would be a target if anyone figured out that I was the King, so I kept my distance, not wishing to bringing yet more danger upon him.

Still, I kept my eyes roaming the field for him, and it only took one moment of that and a Skaldi was in front of me, slashing more horse's throat and bringing the animal crashing down. I only just managed to leap clear and keep from having my leg smashed, but not quickly enough to avoid a sword slice to the thigh. The pain was sharp and the blood hot, but adrenaline kept me from feeling too much of it just yet, though I went down to one knee.

I thought for a moment this might be it, but the Skaldi was overconfident and as he lifted his sword to deal me another blow, I stabbed him in the belly, shoving him backward and I used the momentum to pull myself to my feet. I wasn't sure if the man died or not, because two more took his place and I was suddenly once more in a fight for my life.

[Jacques de Layne]

The boot trick was low, but helpful, and on instinct, when a D'Angeline voice screamed a warning, I raised my sword to parry it. Alas, the blad slipped, though, and I had but a moment to dodge, lifting again my blade to impale the axe-weilder's back.

I was angry now, and my blade was stoutly wedged in the last Skaldi's armor. “Filth,” I groaned under my breath. Just as I turned, though, I felt a sting in my thigh, up and close to the crotch, and I screamed, letting out a blue streak of curses as I felt my knees buckle.

[Owen du Blaine]

I heard nothing but scuffling behind me, almost drowned out by the melee around us; vaguely I was aware of the Skaldi shifting through us, some running, some seeming to stalk even in a jog, but the bastard before me didn't turn to join them. I scowled and put my all into dispatching him when suddenly a bellow sounded out behind me.

Pure concentration alone kept me from turning to look, and instead I found my all a moment ago wasn't truly everything. I surged, adrenaline and heat battling the cold numbness in my veins, and swiped my blade through the stomach of the man before me. His guts spilled with wet sounds before he actually toppled, and I turned, pivoting smoothly on my heel, but dropping my injured hand away from my sword to rest it once I realized there were no Skaldi's immediately around.

The man who had taken on one of the three circling me was down, though, his leg pouring blood. "Balls!" I shouted, and dropped immediately to aid him. There was a gash in his thigh, so close to his manhood that I physically shuddered, and immediately I dropped to my knees beside him, unbuckling my belt. "Lay down," I ordered, not taking the time to be nice about it, not having the luxury. "There's too much blood - we have to stem the blood somehow."

[Jacques de Layne]

Somehow, the Skaldi who'd nigh made me a eunuch had fled. Perhaps what he'd done was enough, or perhaps he was obeying orders. Through the haze of pain I heard orders being shouted and horns being blown, and one order sent my way, to lay down.

It was an easy order to follow, and I did, feeling weak in the knees already, a bit light-headed. I fell and lay in the battlefield's grime, bleeding and bleeding more, and I felt under me gut and brain and broken bone, crushed armor and cold cadaver. In death, we are all alike, I mused.

“Leave me,” I said hoarsely. “I don't care much for life, my lord, and would sooner die and know that a good man lives, than be a burden.”

It was just as I'd hoped it would be, but more real, more painful, more disgusting. I felt serene, though, and ready to let go.

[Grace Ouilet]

It was mayhem. Mayhem, blood, guts, screams of pain and anger, steel and horseflesh.. I stumbled along behind Marta as she dragged me, but the moment she let go in favor of ushering her children instead, I stopped, still blindly staring... and then I saw him.

It was him, so beautiful, so regal and handsome, navigating his way through the blood and the steel on a horse that likely cost more than a small estate would. I was captivated, but the image lasted only a fleeting second before more blood erupted, coming this time from his horse. Marcel fell, and I stopped breathing as I saw a Skaldi before him; his blade came down and back up with fresh blood flinging through the air, and I screamed. I screamed, even as I saw the Skaldi fall down, even as I felt a rough hand grab my hair and haul me back away again.

"MARCEL! Marcel! No!"

I fought, I kicked and I slapped and punched with the blunt sides of my fists, but it made no difference. I was drug away by a man, not Marta, and Marcel faded from sight. I screamed his name once more, my hands flying to my stomach, covering it where his babe lay inside my belly.

[Astride Schevlok]

Blasted Falki! “I'm not done yet!” I screamed, voice angry. “One of your precious slave girls escaped, and I'll make them pay for it!”

It was absolutely irrational, and I stared back at him, frowning. “And let go my horse, Falki.”

Bloody Eirik and his caution. I'd bleed them all to death, if they'd let me! But no, now we were turning into D'Angeline sops, obeying orders, falling in ranks. It made me sick to my stomach, but I retreated nonetheless.

[King Marcel de la Courcel]

I was lucky enough to be joined by Jaime ... something I hadn't imagined I would ever think before, but he dispatched two Skaldi while I battled a third. Back to back, I had a feeling this was going to be an impromptu strategy meeting, when I heard something that distracted me - my name, on a woman's lips. I stabbed the Skaldi in the belly and looked around, but I saw no one to whom the voice could have belonged.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Jaime, who shook his head.

"Hear what? Look, they're retreating, we need to decide what we're going to do about it."

He was the expert, so I simply let him continue, my mind still on the sound of my name amidst the screams and battle cries of the dying. Maybe I was losing too much blood from the wound in my leg, was this some sort of battle madness?

"We could possibly send troops to circle around them and cut them off, but I have a feeling they've already sent runners to some of the other clans. We could end up sandwiched between them, and that would not be a good place to be."

Thanks for that advice, Sir States-the-Obvious-A-Lot, I thought, irritated that Jaime did not give me credit for having fought in a war before this one.

"I'd advise we withdraw as well, tally up our losses and plot out our next move." He continued, oblivious as usual to my annoyance. Still, he was right, which was even more irksome.

"All right, we'll withdraw," I said, grabbing the reins of a wandering horse. "Let's get back to camp, but leave a fresh contingent here to keep this land, I don't want them to regain this area." I hadn't particularly thought to conquer any Skaldi land for Terre d'Ange, but it would be a hardship for them and any advantage helped.

Mounting the wayward horse with a grunt of pain, I once more scanned the battlefield for the source of the voice, finally having to conclude that I was hearing things, and with one last glance at the small pockets of fighting, I kicked my horse's flanks and started to ride for camp, knowing our work here was well done.