Tale of The Broken Sword

Chapter Thirty One : Siege on the Cordia Line - Heart Racing Encounter

19th August, AD 1656

The Eastern Cordia Line, Aurelian borders

Along the trench, Aurelian soldiers battle hard with the Ansteig soldiers. Bursts of gunfire erupted almost everywhere and the numbers of casualties in the trench itself were unimaginable. Everent looked to the left trenches; an Ansteig soldier tore apart a shock trooper with his bayonet while another Ansteig soldier further shot the poor shock trooper, ending his life in an instant.

Bullet spattered the sergeant with mud and he instantly wiped it away to give back the visibility that would’ve kept him alive. An Ansteig soldier appeared from behind and was about to stab the sergeant but he was drove into the mud with a barrage of bullets from behind.

Guthren stood behind the sergeant, aiming his semi-auto rifle at the back of him.

“Don’t let your guard down, sir.” Guthren winced. “Your life, you might need it.”

Everent nodded in shame and continued to move along with the corporal. They both took down as many grenadiers as they can, using their knife or their rifle, it doesn’t matter. Everent ducked underneath a pile of sandbags dividing him to the rest of the grenadiers. With bullets slamming into the sandbags, the sergeant knew that he wouldn’t hang around it much longer.

Knowing that his rifle was out of ammo, the sergeant bellowed out to the corporal, who was busy firing on an unsuspecting group of grenadiers.

“I’m out,” Everent covered his head as tracer fire zipped overhead. “Toss me some of yours!”

The corporal took out one of his own magazine and threw it to the sergeant. “Make it count!” He shouted back at him.

While slapping a fresh clip of the magazine into his bolt rifle, the sergeant spied onto a bundle of grenades on the ground. Within seconds, the sergeant reaches out and grabbed it, pulling the pin and tossed the whole bunch of it towards the group of grenadiers. Keeping his head low, the blast was strong enough to blow up a big chunk of debris off that trench.

Everent slowly emerged from the sandbags and looked around for the corporal but Guthren was nowhere to be found. Knowing that the corporal might have gone to the other side of the trench, Everent proceeded on his own.

As the sergeant broke north, assisting the rest of the soldiers in their battle, sergeant noticed that the forward line has been abandoned but the fight is still raging on the areas beyond it. The sergeant slung his rifle over his shoulders and reached out for a dead soldier’s shotgun. He would’ve found it useful for later, when he enters into the narrow auxiliary trenches.

Everent followed a group as they moved up north, towards the heart of the trench. He would’ve hoped that the Ansteig forces had already surrendered by the time he’d reached to the other end of the trenches. A large soldier came stumping behind him, his heavy rifle at the ready. Another two brought up the rear, guarding the advancing group from flanking attacks.

Everent raced along the trench, his rifle in front of him and his finger on the trigger. The smog had seemed to dissipate into the air and visibility was at its peak. With the smog gone, the full view of the battlefield lay before the sergeant’s eyes. Pillars of gray smoke rising out of the burning fields and trenches, made it as if hell has visited here before.

It was hell alright, and the sergeant knew it ever since he arrived at the Diosce Stronghold a few weeks ago. And this battlefield is the latest victim of its daily visits around the borders of the nation.

Everent came to a corner and slowed down as he reached it. As he curled around it, he froze.

“Sir?” One of them spoke to the sergeant. “We should move on.”

Everent shook his head and told them to move without him. They agreed and left the sergeant alone. Everent heard a few gunshots, but off in a distance from him, towards another trench that was adjacent with the one he’s in.

Approaching the trench, he considered calling out, but he knew that was the wrong thing to do. Someone might be hiding out there –someone from the Ansteig forces– and shouting would give away his position.

Everent climbed out of the trench, hoping that he would’ve seen what had happened in the trenches below him. Everent crept forward a bit, and as he did, the smog began to appear again, this time was thinner than the usual.

Then, a voice came out from below the trench a few metres away from him. Inching closer and waiting for the perfect time to catch the soldier off guard, he kept silent and slowly readying his rifle. A somewhat small figure was near a dead Aurelian soldier, rummaging through his body before pulling out a piece of the cartridge.

After a long moment, Everent felt that he need to quickly finish the soldier off and head back to join the advancing forces of his. He moved quickly and stood there still, just above the unsuspecting soldier. Swing his rifle upwards and aiming towards the soldier, he was ready to pull the trigger.

But in a split second, the soldier too pulled out a pistol and aimed it towards the sergeant. To Everent’s shock and dismay, it was a young girl, probably around the same age as him. With a sweet and innocent looking face smeared with mud and a dash of blood, and a slim figure resembling those of the actresses, the beauty of her face and body captivated the sergeant.

She was holding her pistol nervously and the sergeant could see that her hands were shaking vigorously. The sergeant could not understand why his heart was beating fast as he gazed on her. He too felt a blush on his cheek and his aim towards the girl started to deviate.

In the long stretch of the trench, the only soldiers that remained in here were the sergeant and the Ansteig girl. Everent couldn’t bear to pull the trigger, and the soldier in front of him started to hesitate too.

A few seconds into the stand-off and a loud voice screamed at the direction of the sergeant. “Shoot her, Everent!”

“I...I can’t.” Everent stammered and his gun wavering away. “She’s...”

A loud gunfire erupted and the sergeant felt a sharp cold in his chest. The girl had fired first and she flashed a shocked expression at the sergeant before scouring away from the trench and towards the borders of the Ansteig Empire.

The shot drove the sergeant backwards and into the mud. Blood gurgled out from his mouth and he could feel that the burden placed on his shoulders was carried away by an unseen force. The person who’d called out to the sergeant was Guthren and he ran towards Everent, quickly examining the gunshot wound on his chest.

“You damn shit!” Guthren said jeeringly. “You could’ve died if that shot was an inch closer to your heart.”

“Yeah, I should’ve shot that girl.” Everent gritted his teeth against the sharp pain writhing in his chest. “Wonder why I’ve hesitated.”

“Probably that shot you had was a cupid’s bullet!” Guthren teased the sergeant.

Everent just winced at that and gripped tightly on the gunshot wound. “Cupid shot, right,” He snorted.

Carefully lifting the sergeant on his back, Guthren walked to the direction of the forward base recently set up after the retaking of the Cordia Line.

“The Ansteig Forces have been pushed back into their country.” Guthren said. “With their invasion forces crippled, Krom is currently planning on an invasion on the eastern cities of the Empire. Once captured, the highway there will lead straight to their capital.”

“Just hurry,” Everent groans. “I’m losing blood down here.”

“Right,” The corporal picked up his pace. “Say, the girl that shot you back then, was she beautiful?”

“Excuse me?” Everent frowned.

“Just asking,” Guthren quickly brushed it off. “We’re reaching there. Hang on.”

Now that the battle was over, the sergeant wondered about the girl soldier he’d encountered. Was it love at first sight? Everent shook his head, trying to shrug it away from his mind. She is an Ansteigen, a soldier who’d shot him. And Everent was sure that he would not have time for love. But deep in his heart, he would like to know the name of that girl.