The Battlefield

I had my shield in one hand and my sword in the other. I was exhausted. Covered in blood and gore from those I had slain on the battlefield. We barely had time to recover as the next wave of creatures inched closer. My armor suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I rested against the hilt of my sword as I had it down in the spongy Earth.

The battlefield smelled of death. The rank smell wafted up into my helmet, and there was no escaping it. I took my helmet off and noticed that the hair that sticks out of the bottom of it was stained red. I glanced up at the encroaching line coming across the field. We only had approximately 10 minutes to gather ourselves before we were fighting again.

I straightened myself up, unstuck my sword from the mud, and walked along the line of soldiers resting.

I shouted, "We have about 10 minutes to rest and gather ourselves! Be prepared to fight! Tend to any wounds that you can patch, and be ready to defend the line! We will not go down!"

The warriors quickly gathered themselves. Some rushed to have their wounds attended to. I sat and assessed the next wave coming at us. I took a deep breath and placed my helmet back on. I wiped the gore off of my sword onto the grass and placed it back in the scabbard.

I walked over to my second in command and gave him orders to start collecting anyone left who is able to fight. "Put them into the formation." He looked just as exhausted as I did.

I had lost track of how long we had been on this field. Had it been hours, days, weeks? Maker only knows. We had lost several warriors, not as many as I would have thought if I was being honest. However, we had several wounded. This next battle would take several, if not from wounds, then from exhaustion.

The drums were sounding in the distance. Warriors were running to their positions. We were all covered in the remnants of the other waves we had cut down. The second in command and myself were shouting orders. Soldiers were getting into the formation, ready to fight once more.

I unsheathed my sword and raised my shield. We could begin to see the enemy marching across the field. They were coming faster than expected. I looked to my left and to my right shouting, "Hold!" The second in command repeated my orders farther down the line.

"Hold!....Hold!...Hold!"

The enemies were starting to clear the field. I looked to the other commander, and he gave me a single nod. I nodded back. I looked straight ahead and took a deep breath.

I raised my sword into the air. "For Death and Glory!" I shouted to the soldiers. I swung my sword down, and began to run forward. I could hear the army behind me follow my lead. Our fast footsteps sounded like thunder against the Earth. Most of the soldiers were yelling. My adrenaline began cursing through me.

It seemed like the short distance to the enemies took years to cross. When the first clash of swords hit, I was shocked back into reality. I began running through slicing enemies anywhere I could make contact whether that be their stomachs, throats, anywhere I could. One of their soldiers on horseback came crashing through the crowd and made contact with my shoulder. The tip of the sword was angled just enough to get under my armor. I didn't have time to assess the wound before cutting down the culprit of my injury. The horse ran off away from the fighting. There was blood seeping out from under my armor. I hissed in pain. There's no time to think about it right now.

I kept swinging. I turned just in time for a sword to come down on my shield. I stumbled back and repositioned my shield. We spared against each other. We were meeting each other's moves, neither of us making much ground. I attempted to push him back with my shield, but he had a bigger build than me and didn't move much. My only advantage was that I was quicker. I dodged his advantages pretty easily. One of us was going to have to make a big move soon or we would be here until one of us goes down from exhaustion.