The Staircase

Tomyris landed on top of the small hard wall of the Tongpai Military Camp, she looked across and saw that Guo Sheng appeared beside her, a smile on his face and his halberd raised in his hand. She looked down below and saw the scene of the camp, as Warriors quickly reacted to the call of their fallen colleagues. 

At the bottom of the wall was the body of the Warrior who had shouted the warning, his head broken by the stone that had been fired from the Balearic Slinger. Two Warriors who were not wearing armour were gathered around his body, whilst others were either putting on their armour or heading towards the stairs that would take them to the small wall. 

Guo Sheng noticed those heading towards the stairs, and headed in that direction to stop them from getting a foothold on the wall, as this happened, two more warriors appeared. One was a large Celtic Warrior, covered in blue tattoos and brandishing a long iron sword, where as the other was one of the Legionaries from the I Legion Germanica. They both looked around, and looked at Tomyris who nodded her head in Guo Sheng's direction. They both understood her meaning and followed him.

She looked around the camp and that the camp below was well organised. There was a training area in the centre with posts made from straw for the Warriors to attack, as well as some stones of varying weight for the Warriors to lift for weight training. To the west were some wooden storage buildings and some tents, where Shang Warriors were currently running from with Swords and Armour that they were trying to put on. To the north were some wooden buildings that would house the commanders, as well as an area where food would be dispensed. To the east was the entrance gate and to the south, where Tomyris was, was another large grouping of tents. 

Tomyris could see that there must have been around two hundred Tongpai Shang Dynasty Swordsmen below, in varying levels of armour, with varying levels of alertness and sobriety. The numbers were lower than she was expecting. More Riverside Warriors now appeared on the Wall, Tomyris was glad to see that Cunomoltus, the Mercenary Leader of the Celtic Warriors, had appeared. He smiled and instead of heading towards the Staircase where Guo Sheng and the first few had gone, he just jumped down on to a tent beneath him with his sword in his hand. Before Tomyris could react a few other Celtic Warriors did the same thing.

Now five Warriors at a time were appearing on the wall, and Tomyris was excited to get her sword bloodied, she got to her feet and ran down the wall towards where Guo Sheng was. Her task to get the Gates open so the rest of the Riverside forces could come in. Behind her more Warriors climbed the wall, ready to support her in her task.

...

"Come on then!" Guo Sheng taunted as he stabbed his halberd down the stairs at the first Tongpai Shang Dynasty Swordsmen that approached, catching him in the throat quickly, before retracting his halberd and stabbing down towards the second. 

Behind him, a Celtic Warrior and a Legionary appeared. The Legionary stood on his left side, and the Celtic Warrior on his right. They shared a look between them and Guo Sheng took a step down the staircase, stabbing towards the next Shang Warrior below him, taking that one in the shoulder. 

The Tongpai Shang Warriors were growling at Guo Sheng, the Legionary and the Celt, but were weary of pushing forwards as they did not have the reach of Guo Sheng's halberd. Soon, another couple of Riverside Warriors appeared, another Legionary and another Celt. 

"I thought you were waiting for the gates to open?" Guo Sheng teased the two Celt's who were behind him to the right.

"We did not want to miss the fun." One of them replied in a gruff, thick accent. He strode forwards himself and slashed his sword down towards the Tongpai Shang Warriors below, his sword having a much longer reach. The sword was never going to reach the weary Tongpai Shang Warriors, but it did cause fear in them as they stepped back more, allowing Guo Sheng and his small team to take a few more steps down. 

"Get some Balearic's on the wall!" Guo Sheng heard Tomyris yell as she arrived at the top of the staircase. "They can fire down and clear the floor out, we need to give Cunomoltus some support."

Guo Sheng turned his head and saw further down the wall a mass of flying tents and he could hear the screams of battle as unprepared Warriors were attacked by a vicious force. He could just make out the blue tattooed Celts who were causing the chaos. 

"The Commander is always like this." The gruff sounding Celt said from behind with a laugh.

"We need to get a move on!" Tomyris ordered, as Guo Sheng pushed forwards even more, stabbing another Tongpai Shang Warrior as he reached the bottom of the gate, those coming down the stairs behind him now fanning out to create a semi circle at the bottom of the stairs. "Guo Sheng, protect the Stairs. You two come with me, we are getting this gate open!"

....

Tomyris and two Legionaries quickly flanked towards the gate as the semi circle under Guo Sheng fanned out to protect the stairs and keep the now massing enemy forces occupied. Tomyris was grateful that Cunomoltus the Celt had decided to create a diversion that split the enemies focus. 

"You, get the wooden beam on the gate!" Tomyris ordered one of the Legionaries, as she span her small shield in her hand and prepared her short sword to fight of the enemies that were heading her way. The other Legionary protected his comrade, who dropped his sword and shield, grabbing the wooden beam and started to hoist it up.

The first Tongpai Shang Warrior reached her, she punched him in the stomach with her shield, taking the air from his lungs, before spinning low to the ground as he rolled over her and stabbing the chest of the unsuspecting Tongpai Shang Warrior behind him. She then dropped to her knee and stabbed the original Warrior in the chest, who was still in shock at the situation that had happened. She quickly rolled with her blood covered sword, as another Shang Warrior quickly appeared and slashed down at her. 

Tomyris raised her shield, that banged loudly as sparks flew from the Tongpai Shang Warriors Sword that came down on it. She got to her feet and quickly deflected a second slash with her shield, before stabbing towards her foe. Unlike her earlier enemies, he jumped back and parried her strike. She didn't loose balance though, as her feet were well planted in a wide stance and she worked hard to exercise her core stomach muscles. She glanced behind her quickly, to see that the Legionary was now successfully lifting the beam, as two Tongpai Shang Warriors ran past her towards the Legionary that was guarding him. 

She smashed forwards with her shield at her enemy again, before crouching down, dropping her shield and taking a dagger that was strapped to her calf with her shield hand. She then stabbed wildly at the enemy who was keeping his distance and span, before throwing the dagger towards the back of one of the enemies that ran past her. The dagger landed between the enemies shoulder blades and he fell, whilst the other enemy ran in to the Legionaries drawn sword as he watched his comrade fall. 

Tomyris quickly rolled and picked up her shield, before slashing at the enemies calf and catching it, drawing a fountain of blood as he fell, his right leg split below the knee. She finished him off with a slash to his neck, before standing up, blood dripping from her as the fountains of blood had covered her.

"I've got it!" The Legionary exclaimed as the bar came loose and he pushed it up. Tomyris looked and saw that the group at the Staircase had spread and Guo Sheng had sent a couple more Legionaries to support her. 

...

"She's like a battle goddess!" The Celtic Warrior with the gruff, accented voice exclaimed as he looked at Tomyris, who was dripping with blood from head to toe. 

"More like a blood goddess." Guo Sheng agreed, shocked and mesmerised by her fighting style. Confident that he wouldn't be able to beat her in a fight. He looked back at the wall and saw that some Balearic Slingers had now appeared and had started firing stones down at the crowd of Tongpai Shang Warriors that had now started to fight back more effectively. He then looked in the direction of Cunomoltus, whose wild attack had seemed to have slowed down. "We need to help your commander."

"He'll be fine." The Celtic Warrior replied, before also looking in that direction. "I take it back, I think he needs help."

Guo Sheng looked, and saw that a towering man, with ebony skin, a cheetah skinned shield and a deadly looking short spear, headed towards the area where Cunomoltus and his small group were. 

"You guys guard here!" Guo Sheng ordered some of the fresh Warriors that had just arrived at the bottom of the staircase, before taking four Celtic Warriors with him with the intention of pushing past the tents and following the Wall to Cunomoltus. 

.....

The gates behind her swung open, and a large group of Riverside Warriors charged through. They were left by Lu Fang and Percennius, both with weapons drawn as they ran in past the four Legionaries that were now opening the gate. They then ran past Tomyris, both casting an eye of awe at her, before charging straight in to the main force of the Tongpai Shang Warriors that were now trapped inside their own Military Camp.

Tomyris looked on with a bloody smile as the Riverside Shang Legionaries, Legio I Germanica Legionaries, Former Tang Bandits and the Celtic Warrior Mercenaries all charged in to the camp. She gripped her sword tightly and charged in herself, screaming loudly and releasing her pent up anger at having not been involved in a proper battle for a long time. The Balearic Slingers on the walls also pelted down the enemies with stones, and everywhere there were the sounds of battle, the earlier sounds of enjoyment in the Tongpai Military Camp having now become long gone. 

"Where is Guo Sheng?" Tomyris heard Lu Fang say to her as she reached his side and smashed her shield in to an enemy warrior.

"He's guarding the staircase." Tomyris responded, stepping back from the fight and turning her head towards the staircase and not seeing him there. "Or at least he is supposed to be."

She saw that the staircase was still guarded, but not by Guo Sheng as she had ordered, she closed her eyes and picked out the sounds of fighting towards the wall, opening her eyes again and looking in the direction of Cunomoltus and his men, who were now struggling against a group of more experienced Tongpai Shang Warriors and their leader, a tall ebony skinned man, with a cheetah skinned shield and a deadly looking spear. 

"He's there!" She exclaimed, as she saw Guo Sheng charge in with his four Celtic Warriors in support, hitting the enemy group in the flank. "He is fighting the enemy commander, that must be Zuberi the Scout Commander."

"Has anyone seen Aelfred the Defence Commander?" Lu Fang asked, as he also stepped back as the Warriors around him got in to a pattern of blocking the enemy and then stabbing forwards. Percennius had them all following a strict pattern and Tomyris was impressed to see the control the new Centurion had over the large group of Warriors under their control. 

"No, but I think Guo Sheng needs help!" She exclaimed as Zuberi raised his spear and stabbed it in to one of the Celtic Warrior Mercenaries chests.