The lost explorer and the summer war, part 4

Cassius pov:

At the beginning I was happy hearing the assault plan, it proved that the prince is learning fairly quickly from us, later I couldn't help but be angry at it, after master Aurelius talked about poison, I'm sure he is corrupting the mind of the prince, making him more vicious and teaching him to treat human live like it doesn't matter, like everything is just a matter of numbers, he should be better than that, more honorable, but there's still time to teach him the virtues of a knight. But even if I not like it I have to admit that with that plan we would lose little to none soldiers in comparison with doing a frontal assault, but now I have to make sure everything is in order to start, after all he needs to conquer those islands as smoothly as possible after angering his father the emperor, Im not going to fail him now.

Now I have to give every captain their mission. After going out of the war room I told a soldier to search for the captains and told them that we have a meeting, and after waiting an hour here they are, twenty five captains, a captain for every thousand soldiers and their supply troops.

After telling them the plan and their parts in it every one went to make sure their troops and the equipment were ready, now let's wait.

Three days later, the invasion began…

Third knight squadron captain:

I remember the reservations I had at the beginning, after being appointed as captain for a knight unit for the merits I obtained in the battle of the basilisk island, I was eager to obtain more merits in combat, but instead they appoint me under the command of a little kid who was send far from home, I as any other had more than a few doubts, but after seeing how he handled Naath almost all the doubts vanished, I was one of the five captains that day, one of the few who saw his abilities as a diplomat, that day I started thinking that maybe this might be the best opportunity I could get.

Now we are about to reach the coast of the town of last lament in the Walano island, I'm going to prove to everyone what we knights are made of…

Septimus, captain of the great ship "sea wolf" pov:

I told admiral commander Cato that it would be a waste throw so many ships at this bunch of savages, maybe I wasn't entirely right, even when our ships are much better armed and are faster, theirs have more maneuverability and their archers have longer range than ours, in the beginning we form 3 groups, seven fast ships and one great ship in the middle flotilla, five fast ships and one great ship in the other two, the enemy and their "swan ships" used a similar formation but with 5 ships in each flotilla, after the first volley of the scorpions we were able to destroy 2 of their ships and cripple a couple more after destroy their masts, even then we were within their range, their arrows were as large as short spears, while the scorpions have more firepower we used them to attack the ships themselves and it seems that whoever is their captain he realize this because they came charging directly toward us, more likely trying to board our ships, this battle will be more difficult than expected.

"THESE SAVAGES THINK THAT THEY COULD BOARD OUR SHIPS AND DISPOSE OF US, THEY THINK THAT THE ONLY REASON WE CAN DEFEAT THEM IS BECAUSE OF THE BALLISTAS, SHOW THEM THAT THE REAL THREATS ARE NOT THE WEAPONS BUT THE MEN WHO USE THEM, LET'S SHOW TRUE FEAR TO THIS BUNCH OF SAVAGES, FOR THE EMPIRE!!!!!!!!!!"

"FOR THE EMPIREEE!!!" "LET'S KILL THEM" they're a rowdy bunch but at least are well trained, now the party starts.

In the end 8 of their ships get close enough to board, but they managed to burn three of our ships with their flaming arrows, if we didn't have the scorpions is safe to assume that things would have go pretty different for us, they are now trying to board four fast ships, one of their ships for each of us, they're raining them down with their arrows, at this point it's clear that their bows are much superior than our crossbows, well, it seems the moment came, I'm glad they put so much importance in me as to send two of their ships in my way.

Taking my sword off the sheath I raise it "FIRE THE SCORPIONS".

After firing the last volley from the scorpions I could only hope to bring down one of their ships… sadly it wasn't the case, it killed quite a few of them but it is useless at this point, the men prepare their shields and swords, the enemy finally start boarding.

I go to the first line with my five officials, there's no time to waste, after parrying an enemy and bashing a second one who came from the left my sword find its way through the chest of the first one while another soldier cut the neck of my second attacker after looking in front of my I see one of them with a bow aiming at me, so I rise my shield to block the arrow but it never came, after looking again I see the bowman with an arrow in the middle of the head, so I unconsciously look back and see my second official dropping a crossbow, then I hear some cries and go to my right and there I see a beast of a man 7ft tall, dark skinned and holding a two handed hammer, I run straight to his back and stab him just for him to turn and growl, then raise his warhammer but I was quick enough to block with my shield, feeling my arms go numb a block blow after blow till I drop to the floor, then I see my second official coming to save me, if I survive this I need to give a rise to that man, sadly for both the dark skinned man hammer found his way to his chest and send him back a couple of meters, I see him coming straight to me, but I don't have enough strength to hold my shield anymore, I gues this is it…

I just close my eyes to welcome death…

Then I heard a war horn, but it is too late, I feel the wind that come before the cold metal…

Tiberius, captain of the great ship "the cow" pov:

After being boarded by the remaining members of one of the enemy ships it is clear which are the experienced soldiers and which are the one who only got out of the academy, but even then no one should underestimate the training of the emperial soldiers, I myself like the counter charge with my trusty axe in one hand and my shield on the other.

Some idiot comes yelling at me with his sword ready to strike but I duck and his sword fails and when he turns to face me the only think he could see is my axe before embedding itself in his face, after that a take my axe and use my shield to hit in the neck an enemy who was attacking one of my soldiers, after that the soldier start slashing with his sword time and time again at the fallen enemy, everywhere I see there's a soldier hacking an enemy of cutting some of their arms or legs, it seems it's time to end this fight.

"YOU'RE ALREADY DEFEATED SURRENDER YOURSELF AND END THIS NOW, I PROMISE THAT AS LONG AS YOU DROP YOUR WEAPONS YOU WILL REMAIN ALAIVE". I hope that do the trick.

And it did, after I said that they started dropping their weapons one after the other, in the end we took 48 captives and their ship, I order my troops to sail to the other ships that my need help, from what I could see the sea wolf is the one in the worst situation right now, two enemy ships are attacking it and both of them are in relatively good shape. I hope captain Septimus stays alive till we get there.

After boarding the sea wolf I make my men blow the war horn to distract the enemies, the saw something that I would never forget, captain Septimus head being smashed by a hammer, before I could rush there to avenge him a savage wielded a scimitar appear in front of me, at his first attack a side stepped and evade but he is truly skillful and I found it increasingly difficult, so in one of his failed attempts at cutting me I cut his sword arm making him drop his scimitar and then hack his neck open and feel the warm blood soaking my clothes, it's time to make that hammer wielding barbarian pay.

After being in front of him I could feel how strong he was, it's good that I drop my shield earlier and take the scimitar, now I start a flurry of attacks that he blocks with the handle of the hammer, but not without receiving a few cuts here and there, the problem is that he seems unaffected, after one of my attack's he decide that he had enough and deliver a blow to my sides, I could feel my ribs getting broken, the hit was so powerful that it throw me to the floor, then he came to deliver the final blow, swinging his hammer from above his head, but before the hit landed I rolled and took the scimitar and cut his legs, and when he hit the floor my scimitar found its way through his neck.

After my battle I could see my soldiers finishing theirs, and after some time the enemies start dropping their weapons, we won, and Septimus my friend, I avenged your death…