It’s taken us a little shy over three days to reach Dacasan, another two hours to get to the gates of the castle, we dropped the injured off in the hospital and it began to snow; it’s thick on the ground as we march through the city. The men stop to greet us at the gate, ready to fight for their lives if it comes to it and it will. Bloodshed is an unfortunate means to an end. They will not open the gates; I have men positioned at the back gates they shall be opened with explosives and the legionnaires will flood in and then we shall blow this gate open whilst the enemy is distracted.
“Commander Arkness you have no business here, the Order of Osiris have the capital protected.”
“So you know who I am? Do you know who this lovely lady is?” The man who they call Dungre is the lieutenant of this ‘order’ he looks at her, seeing the staff in her hand and smiles,
“Well I would say you and the Druids have become friendly, because I see many of them in your ranks, you even accept mages now.”
“Commander Anni’ka and I have come to make a treaty with you, you give the capital back to the king and we won’t destroy your order.” He looks at me,
“You only have half of your men, no siege equipment you cannot take this place… I’ve heard you’re the best mind for tactics since the reign of Aryden, but it looks like this tactic failed.” I smirk and Circe shoots a flare from her staff into the air. “Is that your plan?” I shake my head, holding my chin whilst doing so.
“No lieutenant this is my plan.” And with my final word the snow falls and the back gates are blown apart by legionnaires, they rush in and a hoard of gunfire is heard,
“Men take cover, fight don’t let them take the capital.” The clattering of swords is heard alongside the guns,
“My love shall you do the honours?”
“Of course my love.” A ball of flames encircles her hands and she releases it into the gates, they explode and pieces of metal fly inwards. The shards hit some of the soldiers, impaling them.
“Capture the castle… destroy everyone I want this order annihilated… I want the man who calls himself king, I want his family to be extinct and I want to kill him myself.” I don’t really have to do much; the enemy soldiers attack the others. Circe blows holes in the ground; men fly into the air and cascade upon the snow. The winter is upon us and the nights shall become long, shall the night befall us upon this battle? That is yet to be known, but blood has spilt onto the white ground, splattered across yonder. The legion has only suffered little casualties, they have all but a dozen men dug in near the keep, perhaps many more in the building, they fire into us and our men fall,
“Men fall back!” Circe yells and they fall behind cover,
“Commander, we are pinned down and our scouts say that reinforcements shall arrive to flank us in the hour.”
“Bollocks… Circe what do you think?” She smiles,
“You’re asking me?” I grab her face and kiss her,
“Indeed, you are my second in command here I wish for your advice.” She smirks and bites her lip,
“I say if we stop firing for long enough they’ll think we are defeated then all we need is the mages to blast into their cover.”
“I like that… commander Anni’ka.” A man by the side says holding his shoulder in agony. “Be quick about it though.” She signals them to hold fire and to drop down. The gunfire soon begins to stop; you can hear the fear and confusion in the hearts and minds of the enemies,
