Chapter 18 The siege of Cordoba part 6

From all directions of Cordoba men, women and children ran south along the streets, towards the safety of the castle, standing on a distant hill. With a swarm of rats big and small chasing them. The weak, fat and old were cut down first, as the strong ran for their lives. Women carrying their children were mercilessly shoved aside, left to their own fates, as people ran in a crazed panic. Those who were foolish enough to stop and help were quickly run down and eaten by the rat swarm.

Rain poured down, thunderstruck, the city burned, the streets bled and chaos reigned. But amidst the chaos some resisted. The Duke of Faro and his brave vassals formed defensive lines to stop the swarm, with whatever brave men they still had left. For few had the courage to face certain death. Nonetheless, they stood holding back the swarms. With their broken, battered and maimed bodies, they stood. Men's limbs were cut off and devoured, nonetheless, they fought on, with arms missing they fought on, with legs missing they fought on, to their last dying breath they fought.

On the streets, the lines of men stood as rats came pouring down the streets and the roofs.

One by one the lines of brave men broke, cut off and surrounded, they were overtaken by the endless tide of rats. The end was near, the city was doomed.

There were no more brave men left to fight. The lines of defense were shattered and scattered to the winds. Some missile troopers still fought desperately on the rooftops. Shooting their arrows, bolt's and musket balls at the rats climbing the buildings. Some humans had made it inside the abandoned buildings, where they made their last stand. Rat-ogres broke down doors of buildings, sending the swarms after whoever hid inside.

But there was still hope. One line of defense still stood. In front of the small hill leading to the castle, Jesus and 16 Jesuits stood holding off the most eager rats who ran ahead of their swarm. They bought time for the last of the city's survivors to evacuate to the castle. But still, it was a desperate stand and they knew it. In the distance they could see the swarm approach, breaking, eating, killing and maiming people as they came.

Nonetheless, the Jesuits stood their ground, for they had already accepted their deaths. They knew the city was surrounded by all sides, even the bridge leading over the river to the forest, beyond the castle had been captured by the swarm.

Behind them, Lord Bispo and his two mounted men carried wounded children and women up the hill. Bispo had done his best, trying to get the citizens to fight. But In front of the endless swarm, no normal man was willing to fight. They would much rather huddle in the farthest corners of town, praying to their god to come and save them.

Thinking of the situation they were in Jesus came into a dilemma. The Jesuits stood on a 4-way street. The swarm was coming from the front and the town's people from the two sides. If they pushed forward they would save the people coming from the sides. But if they did so they could get surrounded, once the swarms arrived from the sides. Thinking of this Jesus came to the same answer that Marino had given him. 'There is no uncertainty, there is only adventure.'

With these thoughts, Jesus shouted his orders. 'Men! Form a shield wall 2 men deep! We will hold the central street!' With that said. The men just gave one answer. 'Yes, Master Jesus!'

They marched forward and created a solid line of Shields, on the 7-meter-wide street, between the two-story stone houses. Standing there they saw the rat swarm approaching they felt the ground tremble and heard the rat's hideous scream. The Jesuit's hearts hardened and bodies tensed in anticipation. Sweat ran down their faces as their eyes watched the incoming swarm.

Warrior Ledo was uncertain about this plan, being the youngest of the group, only turning 17 this year. He did not wish to die here. With uncertainty in his voice, he asked. ' So this is where we die?'

The Jesuit's hearts raced faster after hearing these words. They had decided beforehand to follow Jesus to the bitter end. But in the end, they were still just human, and deep down, nobody really wanted to die.

The only ones unfaced faced by these words were Jesus and Bragi. Warrior Bragi just frowned at Ledo's cowardly words. He was not scared, for he had the force. He had no fear, no uncertainty and no emotion for he had the force.

Jesus turned his head, looking at his men and smirked, with a laugh he said. 'We die here? No! This is where we hold them, this is where we fight. And this is where they die!'

Warrior Bragi roared upon hearing this, he felt a fire be lit in his heart. He turned to the men, lifting his shield he roared. ' Earn these shield boys!'

The men roared in excitement, feeling their blood boil. ' Au, au, au!' they roared and banged their shields. Not long ago they were just peasants, working the fields. It was thanks to Jesus that they were given this armor and opportunity to be something more.

Jesus grinned in excitement as he spoke. ' Remember this day men, for it will be yours for all time!'

With this said they looked to the swarm once more. They gritted their teeth, flexed their muscles and waited. Now with great excitement in their hearts, for the glorious battle to come.

In front of them they saw 2 men running screaming. ' Help, Help us! Please!' But it was too late as the blind Mole riders ran them down. The rider pinned one of the men in place with it's spear, as the blind Mole feasted on his living flesh. The man screamed in agony and struggled. The other man tripped and fell on the cobblestone street, presenting his vulnerable back to the chasing mole. Sharp claws pierced the man's back, and opened his soft insides for the beast to enjoy. With animalistic screams the men's lives came to an bloody end.

From behind their T-shaped visors and shields, Jesus, Bragi and Ledo stood in the middle of their formation, watching this bloody scene unfaced and unafraid. As the swarm approach, only 3 meters away, Jesus yelled. ' Brace yourselves!'

The rats and moles ran at full speed, while chanting their own war cries. 'Deth to all humans! For the Underhive! Kill kill kill!'

With a loud bang, the rats crashed into the shields. They came with such force that the rats In front had their bodies squashed and bones broken, as they were squeezed between steel shields and rats. The Jesuit line slid back, as they dug their plate boots into the hard ground. With gritted teeth they held, managing to only let the hord push them back for two meters. Now at the end of the street, they held.

With their short hands, the rats swung and poked their blades over the shields, managing to only scratch the Jesuit's helmets and cut their cloaks.

With a loud voice that overtook the rat's incoherent screams, Jesus yelled. 'Forward! Push!'

With all their might they pushed and thrusted their swords forward through the shield gaps. With each strike rats died. But most died by being crushed against their own comrades, some suffocated and some fell to the ground and got stomped to death. As bodies piled on each other and blood flowed the Jesuit had to stop, managing to only advance a few meters. Now unable to move forward. The rat bodies started to form a pile forcing the rats to climb over their dead. From the top of the corpse pile, the rats leaped on the Jesuits, skewering themselves on their sharp steel swords. With rats coming straight and above the formation became a mess. Some rats flew off the Jesuit's shields behind their line forcing the Jesuits at the back line into single combat.

Feeling their formation soon to be overrun, Jesus commanded a slow retreat to the edge of the road. Between the last two buildings. There they stood their ground. They hacked and slashed the rats into pieces. When rats tried to climb over their shields the back line would join in, stabbing the rats in their rat faces.

As they fought Jesus heard a loud voice through the rain. ' Pull back the rats are coming!' Turning his head to look he saw Lord Bispo and his two men shooting their muskets, toward the left side street. Fearing encirclement Jesus commanded his men to push the rats back, trying to create space so they could run. ' Push them back and create space. We need to retreat! On my command push! Push!' With a hard shove, the rats staggered back one step. But we're instantly pushed forward from the back by other rats. The rats In front unable to get their balance back after the Jesuit's push were crushed into the shield wall, breaking their rat faces and bones.

'Hurry they're coming!' came lord Bispos warning from behind.

Unable to advance Jesus felt his heart sink in dread. He knew this was it, this was the end. All they could now do was hold on for as long as possible.

With this in mind, Jesus gave one final command. ' Turtle defense Formation!'

Quickly the Jesuit sides folded in, Releasing the tide of rats. Seeing this Lord Bispo gritted his teeth, as he and his men started to run up the hill. The rats swarmed the intersection and attacked the Jesuits from all sides. In the middle of the swarm, the Jesuits stood in a tight circular formation. Shields covered all sides top to bottom, creating a half ball of steel and pointi swords. Through the gaps in the shields, the Jesuits poked out their swords wounding and killing the rats. Some rats tried to climb the shields looking for weak points, some tested the shield's strength by jumping from the rooftops onto the shields. But all such foolish attempts were quickly ended with sharp steel swords. No matter the loss the rats still came hungering for the men's flesh. As they came they hacked and slashed at the shields and their gaps. Little by little cuts and wounds accumulated on the Jesuit's bodies. Their bodies shook and their strength wined.

Jesus felt his hand trembling and his body started to give in. Looking to his left he saw the same in other men. They were at the end of their ropes. With gritted teeth, Jesus spoke with all his strength. ' Don't give in! All that pain and exhaustion you feel, ignore it, push past it! For it is all just in your mind! Your bodies are much stronger than you think! You must overcome your limits! Believe in yourselves! Believe in the force!' Aaaaaaaa!' They all roared and thrusted their swords for all their worth.

10 seconds, 30 seconds and then 1 minute went by and they still held strong. Piles of rat corpses encircled them and a pool of blood and water engulfed their feet.

In the distance through blurry tired eyes, Jesus could see them. Four Fuking Rat-ogres, the one in front wielded big metal gauntlets and a loincloth, it looked like a naked street fighter. And then he felt it, the rain stopped.

'What are we gonna do Jesus?' Asked Ledo in concern, seeing the ogre's approach.

'You will hold your ground. This is my fight.'

Ledo and Bragi watched in wonder, not understanding what Jesus said until. 'Bring it on monster! Aaaaaaaa! ' Came a mighty shout as Jesus pushed forward past the rats, Quickly cutting down a few. Then he jumped with inhumane speed on their heads, running straight towards the rat-ogre. The rat ogre sneered at the crazy human, as it got into a fighting stance and let out a right hook. Jesus jumped forward in a Superman pose, past the fist and flew sword first into the creature's neck. With the sword in its neck and straight to its brane. Fiercely he stared into the eyes of the creature as it died. Then came a great tremble as the ground shook. And then a mighty shout of 100 men. ' For Cordoba!'

With the sun at their backs, the horsemen charged down the hill. The rats turned to face them but were blinded by the sun's light. 100 heavily armored horsemen charged with long lances, quickly rats were skewered by lances, trampled by horses and turned into meatpaste. Horses tripped on corpses, and riders were thrown into the air. Dismounted men were trampled by horses and eaten by rats. But nonetheless, they charged past the Jesuits, with Daroba in the front. 'Yess! Father, are you watching me? Can you see how great I am? I am strong. I am a warrior. I'm a man!' Daroba thought to himself as his mighty black steed trampled all the rats like cockroaches. 'Yess a worthy opponent at last!' He thought charging straight towards a mighty rat-ogre. The rat beat his chest like a gorilla, challenging the Dukes only son.

Seeing the ogres exposed chest he yelled. 'You Fool!' Then in a second, the Lance stabbed straight through the ogre and with a hard thud they collided hard. Like two minivans in a head-on collision, they destroyed each other. Daroba's neck snapped and his lance-wielding arm twisted into an unnatural angle. All he managed to do was let out a quick pained 'AA!' Before his horse flew into the ogres body and squashed him between them creating a hideous disfigured, bleedy mess.

While this was going on the Jesuits smartly decided to run. Running up the hill Jesus saw a thousand soldiers hesitate, as they saw the horseman get slaughtered and the Dukes son die. They wanted revenge for the Darobas death and the city. But they also saw the endless black and grey horde of rats and they were scared.

' You Fuking idiots! Get back into the castle if you don't wanna die!' Jesus yelled to the soldiers.

From the castle window, the Duke watched all of this happen with mixed emotions. He felt Frustrated, angry, scared, disappointed, betrayed and despair as tears and snot ran down his old face.

Running through the gates Jesus could see the entire courtyard full of people. Priests, nuns and people with medical skills were treating the wounded people. Children cried for their dead loved ones. While others ran around alone frantically, with snot in their noses looking for their parents. Many cowardly men sat there on the ground with dead eyes, regretting leaving their families to die. Most here were men, now single men.

Riding his horse Lord Bispo arrived at Jesus' side and said relieved. ' Captain Jesus am I glad to see you alive and well.'.

'Likewise my friend. So how are things here?' Jesus replied, with a light smile.

'Well like you can see. Things are not so good. There are about 2 thousand fighting men left 3 thousand peasants and thousands of wounded soldiers and peasants. And apparently, the Duke has not shown himself for days.' With a hopeful pleading expression, he added. ' Do you have any suggestions? What should we do?'

'Well for starters we co.....' Jesus interrupted his sentence when a cheerful man yelled. ' Look It's the Duke! He's Finally Here to save us!' He said pointing upwards to a balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Everybody stopped to look at the Duke as he stood there shining in the sunlight, like a well-oiled man.

I see that the Duke is a big fan of my son's healthy skin-cleaning olive oil products, wait why does he have a torch in his hand? Jesus thought to himself.

With tears in his eyes and snot in his nose, the Duke spoke pragmatically. 'My family line is over! The city is lost! Everybody hear me, Flee for your lives, save yourselves, for this is the end!'

Then the crowd gasped in shock and the Duke screamed in pain as he set himself on fire. What parents were left covered their children's eyes and others looked mouths open in awe, as the Duke screamed and danced in fire.

The Duke in his endless wisdom had thought that this would be a fast way to die, but he was wrong. In agonizing pain, he climbed on the balcony railing and jumped. With a hard thump, he hit the beautiful green grass below and died.

People just watched stunned in silence at the burning corpse.

'So passes the Dukes line. May he rest in peace.' Jesus said in prayer and did the sign of the hammer.