Tarron looked around him, he could see other soldiers hide behind bushes. He had been selected to go back to the Empire to get supplies, new weaponry and other necessities. He wasn't in command, a lieutenant named Adlis, who was part of the original army was given command. Although Tarron didn't like this, he did understand it. It would have been foolish to give the command over a vital mission to someone that had recently joined forces.
Tarron had only been in the valley for little over a week. This gave him enough time to restore from the dreadful march, which had returned them to Dericks position and because of the death of their general, under Dericks command. It hadn't upset Torran to be relieved of his responsibilities by someone with the experience that Derick had. He had disliked it much more when he served under their former general.
Funny, he thought, he had never known the name of the Toledian general, but he had known Derick's within hours after he arrived. An arrow slamming into a tree beside him brought him back to his current situation. The fact that these small, feathered pieces of wood actually seemed to hit some of his soldiers proved the fact that it weren't Orcs. It was probably some outlawed gang of men that gave them trouble. They probably hadn't seen the superior numbers of their small army or the fact that they were trained military. The first was sloppy, but the last was understandable, because the uniforms they wore bared little markings of their original design. When something was torn, it'd be fixed with anything that they came across, even old saddles and pieces of unused canvas.
Torran watched his sergeant. He put up three fingers. They would have to wait another fifteen minutes before they could do something. Adlis, the other lieutenant had made a flanking move with almost half of their troops. It would take another fifteen minutes before they were in place. But as Tarron looked to his left he wondered if it was worth the fifteen minutes. Many of the men were hit by flying arrows and while not all deadly or even seriously, they were hit nonetheless. Tarron stopped his thoughts abruptly. Of course it made sense to wait. The advantage of attacking from two sides was too great to be ignored.
Time crawled by as Tarron checked his sword, another time. He looked towards his sergeant, who shook one finger. The sign that it was less than a minute. Quietly Tarron gestured to the soldier to his left. He took out his sword and passed the signal. A quick look to his right made sure the signal was circulating there as well. Within ten seconds the troops were prepared to advance. But still they waited.
Tarron heard shouting from across the field. Not battle cries, but cries of wounded and dying soldiers. He gave the order and ran across the field. He didn't check to see if anyone was following him, but ran straight into the first enemy he saw. The enemy had turned his back to Tarron, because the enemy camp now believed the whole company had made a flanking move. Tarrons troops could slaughter many a foe before the enemy even knew they were attacked from the other side as well. Once they realized this they acted quickly and faced this new threat.
As Tarron fought his way into the center of the enemy camp he realized that they were facing more enemies then they had first thought. Thank heaven these were at least real men, and not the Orcs that had harassed them the weeks before. Tarron sliced an arm of an enemy to his right while hitting a man on his left with the rim of his shield. Both would be unable to fight for quite some time. As Tarron and his men worked there way to the midst of battle, he could see the flanking force through the ranks of their foe. They were also trying to get to the center of the fight.
Tarron didn't have much time to look again, because he encountered a big brutal soldier, who was almost seven feet long. Tarron jumped back just in time to avoid his opponents axe and stepped forward again while stabbing with his sword, in order to hit his opponents stomach. His opponent turned around with, for his size, amazingly fast reflexes. Tarrons sword hit the air, and his opponent was inside his defenses. Knowing this Tarron did the only thing that could help him. He let go of his balance and threw himself after his sword. He flew about two yards, hit the ground, rolled on and graciously stood up.
He didn't get much time to recover as the brute came running towards him again. The brute raised his axe and hit straight down. If the blow hit Tarron, it would have pulverized his head. But Tarron stepped towards his left and swung his sword to the right. His sword started close to the ground and Torran steered it in an upwards motion. His opponent still held his arms straight in front of him, a result from the blow he had made. Tarrons sword struck his opponent just below his elbows and severed both his underarms. Tarron felt relieve as another fight had ended.
Tarron looked around, they were outnumbering their opponent two-to-one, but they still hadn't completely stopped the resistance. The foe held a strong defensive position towards the far-left end of the field. Tarron shouted to some soldiers to follow him and went towards the heaviest defenses. As he looked, he saw Adlis running towards the same goal with about twenty men following him. Adlis would surely arrive sooner, Tarron thought and redirected his charge a few feet to give Adlis a supporting charge, in stead of tumbling into their lines and upsetting Adlis' formation.
Tarron and his men still had twenty yards to go when he saw the defending foe fall back in the center of their line. Adlis threw himself into the midst of it. Tarron looked in disgust, because what Adlis couldn't see from his position was that almost thirty men were hiding to his right. It was a carefully set up trap and he had plundered right into it. Tarron run even faster now, but he knew he would come to late. The enemy troops closed the hole in their lines before Tarron had mad three more steps and he saw the decorated helmet of Adlis fall down amidst the fray of the fight.
When Tarron reached the fighting he hadn't seen Adlis for almost a minute and any sign of struggle inside enemy lines had stopped. With double fury he ran into the foe, striking left and right, killing with every movement of his sword. 'Onwards!' he shouted 'Onwards to victory'. Even he himself noted he hadn't used the Empirial battle cry, but nonetheless his soldiers followed and soon there wasn't an enemy left standing.
While the fury of the battle cooled down, Tarron walked towards the place where he had last seen Adlis. From admidst a pile of scorned enemy bodies he saw the stripes of a lieutenant. And even before he had removed the dead foe, he knew it. Adlis was dead. They counted their loses and came to the conclusion that, apart from the fact they had lost their commander, they had an easy victory. They quickly buried their dead and marched on.
Five days later they reached the borders of the Empire. Tarron was in charge now, and he had decided where they would get their supplies. He thought of his options and realized he only had one. Adderling, the only city on this side of the country where the people cared more about the color of their money than the wishes of the Emperor. So they marched on, into the realms of the Empire. And as Tarron looked around he saw the look on his men's faces. They all felt like they were invading a hostile country. But this hostile country was the Empire, the very lands they would have defended with their lives only a few years ago. All felt awkward as they realized they were now an enemy of the Empire. Silently they marched on, unwilling to speak out their thoughts.
By noon of the next day they could see the city of Adderling. The city wasn't much to look at, but they weren't there as tourists. Tarron stationed his men outside the city and walked onwards. As he reached the city gates he could see they were closed. As he asked around he found out they were closed because there was an army approaching the city to conquer it in name of evil and chaos.
All merchants and farmers he spoke were nervously walking around in front of the gates, expecting to be let in. Tarron knew they didn't stand a chance if the army eventually came here. They would have to go to another city or take on the army that was approaching. Tarron decided to stay here until the army came and postpone his decision.
As days went by, no army was to be seen and the gates were still closed. Waiting wasn't something Tarron loved doing and this was showing in his temper. He was walking on his last legs, for he hadn't slept in days. And at last he couldn't stand it anymore and walked towards the gatehouse. 'Hear me!' he shouted upwards. It took a while before he got an answer, and the tone of the insult wasn't one he could very much deal with at this point of time. Because nobody inside the city could be persuaded to talk to him he walked towards the few farmers that were left. The merchants and wiser farmers left days ago, knowing that they wouldn't be able to enter the city.
'Goodevening' he addressed one of the farmers. 'evening' the farmer answered nervously. 'I've heard an army is coming' Tarron continued 'but I haven't seen it yet. Do you have any idea where it is?' 'They say it's camping just outside our view' the farmer replied. That's and odd thing to do for an army, Tarron thought. Then he suddenly realized something. 'Which way is the army?' Tarron asked. The farmer raized his hand, pointing north. Tarron had to display an enormous amount of self-control to prevent him from cursing and shouting at the farmer. Had his temper been bad before, he now was furious. And he had nothing to blame but himself, for the army everyone was speaking of was his own.
Because he had always been an Imperial soldier the simple fact that they hadn't any uniforms on had completely gone by him. They would look like common robbers and thieves to anyone else. Tarron almost run back to his men. As always, the running refreshed his mind. If the town could be so easily convinced it was under attack, thought Tarron, this probably would be because the entire country was without military support. As he thought further he realized that some soldier had told him they came from this part of the Empire and had been drafted by Derick on his way north.
A plan was forming in Tarron's mind and he started running even harder. When he got back to the camp a very nervous sergeant greeted him. 'Glad to see you, sir' the sergeant said 'We were starting to get worried'. Tarron told the sergeant to wait here and he collected five men from the ranks of his division. No wonder Adderling had closed the gates. Here were three hundred of the meanest soldiers Tarron had ever seen. He couldn't help but smile, partly because of pride in his men, partly because of the plan that he was about to undertake. Hie returned to the sergeant and ordered him to take the men and march back towards the border of the Empire.
Slowly Tarron and the five soldiers walked away. They went straight towards the first farm in sight.