{Ranger's Apprentice} "A Mission to Skandia"

Chapter 19: Let it Begin

Will and his party of thirty archers had almost reached the edge of the camp, not once marked by the Temujai fighting below them once they had thrown off the Kaijin who first attacked Will, when the Ranger's sharp ears caught someone shouting. Shouting his name, to his interest. 

"Ranger Will," Edwin began.

"I hear it," he replied. After only a slight hesitation, he held up a hand to stop his party and swung his own borrowed horse around to meet whoever was calling him.

Somehow, he did not find it particularly surprising that it was Alaric.

"Will," he said again as he neared, heaving in great breaths of air for having run so swiftly.

"Alaric." Will acknowledged the younger man. "Take your time now. What is going on?"

"Skandians...back there..." Alaric drew in a long shuddering breath and then began again, better composed. "The Skandians back there in the center of the camp, they are being massacred. There are archers in a wide circle outside of this camp, hidden. They are shooting down the most hot-headed of our warriors, and there is nothing the Skandians could, or rather would, do."

Will frowned. "You want me to take care of the archers."

"That is the only option I see," the knight replied confidently, though desperately as well.

After a second, Will nodded. "It should not take too much of the time I had meant to save. We shall take the archers first. Wait, Alaric. Tell me, how many Skandians are here today?"

"Two thirds of the entirety of their army. Three thousands."

Will's eyes shut briefly, and he said very quietly, "That leaves only some fifteen hundreds back at Hallasholm."

Alaric nodded grimly in confirmation. "But Halt should hold them for a while yet. I assume your intent is to ride to that city after you dispatch with the archers?"

"Halt did not come?" Will asked, hardly much surprised at the news, but pleased with the hope it brought all the same.

Alaric shrugged. "He does not exactly have the choice of asking them to stay and coming out here himself when they wouldn't listen. He couldn't come, even if he thought that wise."

"That is good news," The Ranger replied with renewed confidence. "Though I must admit I had been counting on it. Well now, knight of Araluen, I must take leave, we have some archers to get rid of and a city to save!"

"I wish you luck, Ranger! And I shall seek to call those Skandians back to their senses as soon as is possible, so that we may add to your forces."

Will dipped his bow, which they had smuggled back on their way out of the camp, towards the knight briefly in a sign of farewell, then turned around, spurred his horse back to the front and led his men away from his friend.

With little incident, they soon found the archers concealed among the bushes and trees, and they made enough noise (intentionally) that the Kaijin were immediately distracted from their task. With a loud hiss of annoyance, their leader called them all to turn their attention to the Araluen archers led by Will.

"Get out of sight." Will muttered. "Scatter." He had already forewarned them of what they needed to do, and mere seconds later the Araluens had scattered in all directions, not able to completely hide their whereabouts, but sufficiently escaping the immediate volley of arrows sent in the direction they had been.

There was a brief silence as the Kaijin positioned themselves, carefully covering each Araluen while trying to make sure they did not have a companion positioned against the same man. In the silence, while the Temujai were still working it out, Will's voice cut quietly through. "Fire."

It was the work of thirty normal archers against twenty extremely skilled archers. But the advantage was with the Araluens, simply because they were more, and the Temujai were too clumped together, forming a clearer target. After a brief exchange of arrows on both sides, Will gave a soft bark of command, and the Araluens drew back, wheeling their horses quickly away from where the Temujai was. Less than ten of these latter had survived, while the Araluens had only attained a few minor injuries. Nonetheless, Will forced these three injured to stay behind for a while and had Damien dress their wounds while he led the rest of his men back in a straight charge.

This took the Kaijin completely by surprise. As specially trained archers, the most skilled among all their warriors in the craft, they had never trained over much in the art of close combat, and when Will's men charged into them, stampeding right through them, it would seem, on their horses, they had little means of defense. In fear, most of them fled, while a few stood firm only to fall down, trampled by the horses. It was a brutally quick victory.

With a half-disgusted pity that Will always had for enemies, he turned away from the sight and said to Edwin. "Well, that's settled. Now we must ride with all haste back to Hallasholm. Call back the wounded, and your father."

>>>———>

Halt stood impassively on the battlements, his Ranger cloak wrapped more tightly than ever around him, as if in an effort to escape mentally from the battle that was inevitably coming closer with every step that the dark mass of Temujai soldiers took towards the city walls. Every gate, every door had been barricaded. The walls were lined with Skandians ready and eager to fight, while the women and children had been safely locked inside the main hall. There was little they could do save to wait.

>>>———>

Shan En'tak, the leader of six thousands of the best warriors he had handpicked from the entire population of the Temujai under the Sha-shan, his brother, smiled with grim satisfaction at the sight of the Skandian capital city standing in their horizon, ready to be taken.

Everything was ready. His friend and ally, Ka'zhak, will hold back still the warriors who had been drawn away, so that his victory will be complete, and hopefully swift. He thought back for a moment to that other war, many years ago, when he had been only a small captain of little import. That battle had been terribly, shamefully, lost. Silently, he swore to himself that the same disgrace shall not be said of this battle, now under the operation of his commands. With new determination, he turned and exchanged a soft word with his captain riding beside him. With practiced ease, the said captain wheeled his horse and gave several loud commands to various men.

It is time to begin. 

A/N: Hello~👋🏼 Regrettably, I must announce that school is starting for me very soon, meaning that I cannot promise to update at least once a week as I have done so far (without explicitly saying so😆), though I do promise to try to do so.

Hope you have enjoyed, and please to remember to click that little star and leave a little comment~💗🥰