Battlefield

Night. Whistles rang across the lines, cannon fire boomed like thunder and howled through the air from the fortress behind. All across the battle lines, the ally troops were rushing into positions, either in the defensive line in front of the fort or among the offensive armoured horse riders. A wave of soldiers wearing red in different forms was released as the giant fortress opened for some time, it consisted of troops ranging from horse riders with spears, archers, and foot soldiers to heavily armoured knights. Kai was among these men was just a boy in his teenage years riding for the frontline; on a horse, with a spear in one hand, the rein in the other. With fifty riders all crammed together, there was little room for manoeuvrability to any other direction but ahead and Kai could do nothing more than tightly grasping his spear while waiting for the arriving slaughter.

At some unheard command, the assault began as the horses' hooves rumbled forward. The grinding noise of hundreds of foot soldiers and riders making their across the battlefield was accompanied by the roar of cannons as they streaked through the air onto the enemy troops behind, Kai caught a glance of the destruction as he looked over his shoulder. Bodies were torn into an explosion from the canon fire but it didn't stop the assault. The defensive frontline was slowly breaking away, canons were never known to be fast and accurate enough. A mad dance erupted in the land as some soldiers from both sides broke away from their position and started to flee. Kai quickly looked away, it was not his task to be concerned for the defensive line, his task was to attack the enemy camp and butcher their backup.

Soon enemy defensive line came into view, armoured soldiers with swords and shields waiting for them. The other rider troop was first to assault them, as they raised their spear in unison and broke into the wall of soldiers like a steel arrow. Kai held his spear only dead bodies came in his way.

'Not my time yet.'

The allied troop broke through the first defensive line but all weren't lucky, as Kai watched a fellow's horse get its leg stabbed, the sword lodged into the bloody wound, the horse shirked and jumped back sending its rider on a wild spin through the land before falling hard. Kai was not certain whether the rider survived or not, but his comrades kept dashing forward with no regard for it as the sounds of swords, shields and screaming dying men filled the air. Kai ignored the cacophony of brutality as his troop entered through the enemy line from the way made by the other troop of riders from the bodies of the enemy.

'Not yet.'

The enemy was not down for the count just yet, as when the troop drew closer, another sound added itself to the cacophony and alerted Kai of enemy return fire. The thundering roar of cannons.

"Cannons?" A rider said beside him in shock. "We weren't told they have canons!"

"But apparently they do," Kai stated.

The rider cursed. "Fuck!"

At that moment a huge ball of fire suddenly rose and crashed between the riding troop, Kai reacted quickly and forced off the horse to the side, colliding with the rider beside him. The loud boom rang through his ears as a ball covered in flame came into his view. Kai's eyes widened and jumped off his horse before it could go berserk in fear, tackling the other rider beside him. Ear piercing metal bending boom filled followed by the noise of crying horses, Kai landed on the ground, on his back. He didn't rest and rolled away, just moments before the afraid running horses could crush him beneath their hooves.

The soldier who was beside Kai got his arm and entire shoulder ripped off, spraying both of them with blood. The soldier collapsed to the floor on his knees, rapidly bleeding out. He looked up at Kai as he was getting up and said a single sentence.

"I can't fight anymore."

It meant more than that, and Kai easily understood the meaning. He could not fight anymore and would die soon.

"I'll make it painless."

Kai brought up his spear and without so much as a second of consideration, plunged the spearhead into the soldier's throat and through his neck. A few gurgling noises slipped out of him before his lifeless body slid off of Kai's spear. No one so much as glanced their way through the ordeal and Kai merely cleaned off the blood on his spearhead with his hand and returned to waiting, never even mourning the comrade he had just killed. One of the riders stopped beside him for a moment and threw him a look.

"Why did you-"

Kai snapped. "There is a shrapnel lodged in his neck, he wouldn't have made it."

The rider scowled. "That doesn't -"

"I made it as much painless as I could, far less than the other way would," Kai said. "Go now! The alive need you."

The rider frowned and rode away towards the others ahead. Kai took a look at the devastation for a moment. A pile of blood, broken bodies in torn metal armour, pink-red chunks of flesh and innards scattered around, it was of the men he got to know for the past few days.

"Still alive," Kai muttered. 'How many have died and how am I still alive?'

It was only for a moment then Kai stood up with the support of his spear and looked forward. His horse had already run away. The rest of the journey had to be made on foot. Thus he began a run, slowly at first, picking up speed. Cannon fire booming around, soldiers screaming. He dismissed it all and kept charging toward one of the parts where the enemy's wall of soldiers was broken, just a few left and they were loading a canon. Kai pushed forward, the canon was loaded and the enemy soldiers began to light the fire, the shot pointed right at Kai, and then he did something unexpected. Kai jumped on the cannon barrel, split second before the shot fired, it shook beneath his feet and the heat was felt through the boots. Kai screamed raising his spear and throwing himself off the barrel beyond the defensive line, it looked as though he was flying for those moments, the soldiers yelped in shock as registered what had just happened. In that moment of crystallized time, Kai looked at the soldiers of the second defensive line. Completely armoured, with shields of steel, and large swords, they raised fine weapons as though they were to cut him from the sky.

"Wind flowing from the east, I summon thee, showeth thy might in the destruction of mine own foes. Turneth their inside into outside and outside into inside."

Kai breathed deeply as he muttered, for a moment an image of a spear piercing his own heart formed in his mind, and then a sudden surge of power ran through his body. Out of nowhere, the energy was like lighting, heat, a raging storm inside him, travelling throughout his body. He landed near the enemy soldiers, spear under his arm. Kai waved his hand, and the air burst around it as white smoke tearing through the air washed out from him, and slammed onto the group of enemy soldiers and ripped them apart like cannon fire.

Armour and flesh torn and mangled were thrown into the air and Kai ran through it. All around him the other troops were engaged in a stalemate. But not Kai, he looked ahead and pushed forward. His eyes were set on the biggest prize, an armoured man on a large white horse on the highland, just outside the camp gates, surrounded by armoured knights, the commander. Kai gritted his teeth, his sight unwavering, he placed as much force on his foot as he physically could and jumped, spinning himself mid-air and threw the spear aiming for the commander. The spear pierced through the air making a whistling sound and before the commander could notice; it pierced through his breastplate, lodging itself into the chest.

Kai saw the commander jerk and then fall off the horse from the distance.

"It's done," Kai muttered, there is no one to command the enemy, nowhere to flee if the ally Batallion was blocking their every escape route as planned. The enemy would now fight to the last man with no regard for their own lives, but to participate in his attempt of a last stand wasn't Kai's task, so he turned away towards the fortress and pulled out a golden short spear named Mortal Thorne hanging to his belt.

"Still alive." Kai sighed to himself and started making his way back across the battlefield.