Ambush at the Heian strait part 1
The imperial navy was moving the massive imperial army from the Eastica continent back to the homeland of the Heian people. The gravity ships of the empire were able to move the emperor and his most experienced soldiers to break the siege at Asciador. It was one of the empire's most significant cities on the coast, in the empire's heartland.
As they finally reached it, they saw that no army nor navy had besieged it. The city was untouched and completely intact.
"What the hell is going on here!?" Berig yelled at Gadaric.
"The last intel I got was that they were besieging Asciador!" Gadaric explained.
The emperor then hit the railing in front of him so hard that it broke.
"We have been fooled once more..." the emperor said.
~~
In the meantime, the regular imperial navy was sailing across the ocean. The two youngest children of the emperor, Wulftrude and Wulfila, were commanding it. They entered a thick fog as they were moving through the Heian strait. The ships slowed down, as the seas were rocky and treacherous if visibility was low.
"A really thick fog isn't it," the captain said.
"Yeah, I can hardly see my hand as I reach out," a sailor said.
The sailors all saluted as prince Wulftrude came to the bridge.
"Why is there a fog here?" Wulftrude asked the captain.
"What do you mean?"
"There never has been fog on the Heian strait..."
At that moment, a clashing of swords could be heard. A sailor turned around and was met with an axe in his face.
"HARALDRAR COMMANDS THE WAVES, AND WE ARE THE HARALDRAR!"
The fierce Harldrar war cry was yelled at by the warriors who had silently boarded the ship. These warriors were the infamous Haraldrar warriors, the masters of the Haraladrar islands from the north. They had sailed across the entire Aesis world, and almost every nation and state had felt the wrath of their raiding force once in their history. There is a famous Aesis quote, "if you have a coast, you also have something the Haraldrar want."
Wulftrude summoned a sword made from flames. He killed the Haraldrar huslar warrior who had boarded his ship. His swordsmanship was excellent, with no extra movement, and his motion looked like a dance.
As he was fighting the opposing warriors with his men, a large man's hand grabbed him from behind through the thick fog.
Wulftrude was thrown hard on the ground, and the large man placed his large foot on Wulftrude's chest. It was Athelred who was keeping the prince down.
Athelred, the high king of the Haraldrar, tried to punch Wulftrude as he was being pinned down, but the prince created a flaming dagger and cut the tendon of Athelred, freeing him.
The prince rolled from under the leg and threw a flaming sword at Athelred.
"Hahahaaaa...Rare to see a rabbit fighting back against a bear," he said while smiling.
Athelred didn't care that he had been injured, and he just waltzed forward and, like a wild animal, used his bare hands to fight against Wulftrude.
The high king of the Haraldrar was getting cut and slashed, almost losing an arm and a leg on occasion or two. He didn't look tired, and if one punch landed at the prince, he would die surely.
Wulftrude, though had a plan. He lured the high king closer to the center of the ship, where the mast was.
He placed his back against it as Athelred rampaged toward him. He took out his two axes and swung at the prince with them instead of hitting the mast. It started to fall, and Wulftrude struck a flaming sword onto the feet of Athelred, not allowing him to dodge it.
He captured it with his hands, but Wulftrude pierced the thigh of Athelred, and the high king could no longer keep the mast from falling. He was pinned down by the enormous boom and tried to bench-press the mast.
"Stop squirming. You have lost," the prince said, placing a burning flame on the high king's throat.
~~
Just before the battle started between Wulftrude and Athelred, the ship of Wulfila suddenly stopped. Wulfila went to the starboard of the transport vessel and spotted a harpoon with a rope tied to it.
Wulfila saw a Guiscard ship behind the transport vessel. It had fired a harpoon with a ballista and stopped the vessel right on its track.
"SOLDIERS! TO YOUR STATIONS!" Wulfila yelled.
The Varangian soldiers who were being transported back to their home country rushed to the deck of the transport vessel.
The fog thickened as the Guiscard ship was ready to board the imperial transport vessel. A boarding device fell on the ship. Guiscard soldiers marched forward and, with perfect teamwork, hit the Varangian frontline on board the ship.
The Guiscards were the ancestors of the Haraldrar, that had conquered a large island from the Sardes federation. They were more organized and well disciplined than their Haraldrar cousins but still had kept their martial culture.
The Varangians were great soldiers, but the Guiscards were too much for them. They were better and more experienced in fighting on ships' moving decks.
Wulfila blasted through the Guicard shield wall and rallied her men forward. She fought with a flaming battleaxe. Like a true warrior, she fought with great ferocity.
The Guiscards were being pushed down into the sea. As they fell, the heavy chainmail armor drowned many, and falling to the sea was a guaranteed death sentence.
As the Varangians' charge was gaining momentum, an undetected enemy was slaying them from behind. A couple of soldiers saw something wrong, but a sword appeared from the mist as they tried to spot the hidden enemy.
One's throat was cut open in a flash, with the other soldier lost an arm. The Varangians were being killed by an invincible enemy.
The enemy that couldn't be seen then tried his luck at Wulfila, but she was able to block the blade. The princess saw that Raymond, the king of the Guiscards, was holding onto the sword. He was the same one who had summoned the significant fog and hidden the Haraldrar and Guiscard ships from them all. His divine power was to create fog and make himself blend into them, making him seem invisible.
"Young girl. It has been a long time since someone was able to stop my first attack, but let me point this out. No one in this world has been able to stop more than thirteen attacks from me," Raymond said and vanished again into the fog.
Wulfila split her large battle axe into two smaller ones. She calmed her breathing and readied herself for whatever attack.
"TWO!" Raymond yelled, and the second attack came from underneath the princess's chin, but she could dodge it by somersaulting over.
"THREE!"
"FOUR!"
"FIVE!"
The attacks kept coming, each from a more creative place, but Wulfila could dodge the strike each time. She didn't try to attack Raymond once but calmly waited her time.
"TEN!"
"ELEVEN!"
"TWELVE!"
The attack stopped for a moment.
"IT SEEMS THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE A NEW RECORD," Raymond echoed out from the fog.
Wulfila was getting ready for the final attack. Then she saw the Guiscard king walking toward her from behind the fog veil. As she was prepared to charge him, she saw copies of the king around her. Raymond had created many mirages of himself made from the fog. It was almost impossible to know which one was real, and if she guessed wrong, she could turn her back to the real one.
Wulfila wasn't worried, though. As the mirages attacked her, she let the fake ones evaporate as they came in contact, and when the real sword lunged in, she dodged it and grabbed Raymond from his long gray beard.
"How did you know which one was the real one?" The king asked.
"Your footsteps.....It's hard to miss those. They are faint, but they still are there. Now surrender," Wulfila said and placed a flame axe on the king's throat.
~~
Wulfila had chained Raymond and moved her transport vessel next to her brother's warship. She threw Raymond overboard as both siblings had won their battles.
"Why is that Haraldrar under your ship's mast?" Wulfila asked her twin.
"You have chains strong enough to tie this big guy up?"
Aethelred started to again try and push the mast up, but Wulfila went, and soccer kicked him. The high king of the Haraldrar passed out.
"There are your chains," Wulfila said.