By LordCybereye
Drake stood there on the old wagon, that had been used to carry the Blade Master that had tried to kill him the night before, looking out over the heads of the 500 man army he had managed to put together in two days. It had been a miracle that that many men and boys had come to defend there homeland now because only five days ago not one man or boy would even listen to Drake. Three days ago a hunter was in the mountains and had run across an army camp massing in a valley. The hunter, almost dead of fatigue, had run all night and all day to get back to the first town just outside the mountains, the town of Red Grass. �It doesn�t matter how you got here,� Drake started to say shading his eyes from the early morning sun, �All that matters is that you are here and willing to fight to the death for your homeland. Our scouts say that we are out numbered ten to one. I can only take thirty to forty by myself so...� Just then most of the men started to laugh and cheer. �O.K., O.K., maybe with a bit of luck the tricks up our sleeves will give us the advantage! Now, may the gods be with us! Battle ready!� At that the 500 man army started the last few things that had to be done before the Blade Master army of 5,000 started their attack. Before Drake could get down from the wagon a very strong feeling hit him. He was just talking to dead men, he could smell death already. Drake had had this feeling one time before, just before the Blade Masters had taken control of his castle and kingdom, and killed his beautiful young Queen. A tear ran from his eye as he started to give orders to the commanders of the army. By the time that the second bigger sun had risen above the foothills Drake's army was ready. They didn�t have to wait long before they could see and hear the Blade Masters coming out of the forest on the other side of the plains. It was a ten minute walk to the other side of the plains and there was a small stream just short of halfway. At this time 200 men should be in the small valley that the stream had made preparing the make a surprise attack at the front lines of the Blade Masters. After the Blade Masters are attacked at the stream by men on foot, equipped with spears and long swords, the 100 men on horses, equipped with lances and flails, with Drake, will show themselves at the forests edge but will not start moving until the army is halfway from the river. Just after the army of Blade Masters start moving toward the horsemen a 100 men, who were equipped with bows and maces, hiding in the stream valley well away from the men on foot in the middle, will attack. At first with bows at the flank and then move around the back for a rear attack with the maces. By this point the horsemen should be able to clean up the rest. The first attack at the stream did next to nothing, no one was left standing and there was only a small gap put into the front lines. Drake moved the horses out of the trees and waited. The arrows could be seen but Drake could not see behind the front lines do to all the shields. The horses started their run with the lances. It was only 100 horses but it sounded like thunder. There was a loud crash as all the lances hit shields of the front lines. Drake and the ten to fifteen horsemen near him broke through the front lines and started to swing at anything that moved with their flails. Drake started out with around the world, two Blade Masters down, reverse windmill, another down, crossover pile driver, another. Windmill pile driver and then into another move, Drake moved as if he had had planed out the entire battle before it started. Quickly flowing from move to move, every move taking another Blade Master down. The more moves he completed the more he killed, but it was not good enough. After only a few minutes the other horsemen were dead. Drake started to make his way to the forest but just then out of the forest behind the Blade Masters came more men on horses. Drake lost his concentration only for a second, as he though that if more Blade Masters were coming the battle was lost. When he turned his head back towards the way he was going a Blade Master moved in front of him and swung it�s war hammer... �Drake. My darling it�s time to get up.� A hand was gently rubbing his face, he could smell rose buds. The same smell that he smelled every morning when he was with his queen. He felt very safe and warm here. He opened his eyes but the sun was to bright. �Faith, is that you?� Squinting his eyes Faith�s silhouetted body came into view. The most beautiful woman he ever new. The first woman that he loved and the only woman he would ever love. Leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek and then moving on to his ear to say �Yes my love, it is me.� Drake could now tell that the smell of roses was coming from her. �Were am I.� He whispered back into her ear. She pulled away saying with ease, �You are in our room in the palace, over looking your Kingdom.�, she was not even surprised about what he asked. With the help of Faith, Drake got up and started to walk over to the large open window to look out, �I had this dream...� Just as he was about to tell her about the battle he suddenly had this strange feeling �This isn�t right.� Drake pulled out of her grip and started to back away from the window. He could feel the cool wind coming in from out side but it didn�t feel as it should. He should have been able to feel the warmth of the sun as well as the cool breeze, but all there was was the wind. Looking at him with a disturbed face she managed to say �My love, what is wrong?� Pictures flashed in his head. Pictures of Faith being impaled by a sword. �You, you should, should be dead!� Faith extended her hand to him �It was just a dream my love, come and lie with me...� At the top of his lungs Drake interrupted her �Stop this, this is not real!� Drake awoke to find his horse lying dead on his legs. As he pulled his legs from under the horse the pain he felt was so great that if he screamed the whole world would hear him. But he could not scream because he had to be quiet so no one would hear him and kill him. As he rolled over to rest and wait for the pain to go away he saw a long sword in the hands of a dead Blade Master. Drake forgot about the pain and grabbed the sword and slowly looked over the dead bodes that now blocked his view of the battle field. The plain was completely covered with lumps of flesh. The suns were setting and a strange mist was rising from the blood of the dead bodes. Drake could not really tell how badly he was heart in the shadowy light that was coming through the mist, but he did feel pain all over and was cold. He needed to get out of the field and into the protective confines of the forest, and build a fire to warm his cold body. The struggle of getting up was so great that he needed to close his eyes and rest as he leaned over the sword. After a few moments Drake heard loud, uneasy, forceful breathing in front of him. He lifted his head slowly and focused on a figure holding a sword in a way that a bit of light was shining off of it right into Drake�s face. The figure was about fifty paces from Drake and it started to move toward him, swinging his sword into different moves. Drake new that this figure was a Blade master, only a Blade master would try to intimidate and scare away a foe in this manner. The Blade master was doing some very hard moves but Drake was not intimidated or scared. Blade masters only acted in this way if they are hurt or in a no win situation. And by the sound of the Blade masters breathing it must be hurt bad. The faster it moved from move to move it�s breathing got harder and harder, each breath sounded almost like a gargle. It must have internal bleeding and is spiting up blood. Drake would have not problem with this one if he wasn't hurt too. The Blade master did the move �Diving Eagle", a vary hard move that if you don�t get right you could kill yourself, but if done to the right opponent it could win the fight for you. |