THE SWORD OF DESTINY

Mighty Iron Army

With a robust army of six thousand-strong soldiers including banner men with their household troops, loyal to the lord and protector of Iron Kingdom’s Western Outpost, and an additional three thousand from the Iron Palace, Lord Biorn marched against a village in his region. Five thousand foot soldiers, grouped in calvaries of two hundred men were on the lead of the formation, adequately armed with spears, swords and lances. Right behind them were five hundred men that operated war-sophisticated weapons, mostly insanely large horse-drawn crossbows. Their arrows were so large they could cleanly pierce through five men. Following close by were three thousand armoured knights of the Iron Kingdom. Drawn from the Kingdom’s main army reserves, each of them rode horses. Five hundred archers were at the rear of the marching formation, encircling Lord Biorn and the army generals.

Across the three kingdoms, this was considered a great army that could pose threat to kings, a force to be reckoned. This army was supposed to be a show of strength, that the Iron Kingdom wasn’t weak, and was protected from all threats either internal or external. Lord Biorn’s intent was to utterly defeat the invaders, send a warning to all who may think of shamelessly invading his side of the kingdom, and by doing so, he’d be feared by the other lords. With such an army under his direct command, Lord Biorn’s face was filled with pride and confidence – you would think the battle had already been won. Under his command, the army surrounded the village from all directions, with everyone getting into an attacking formation.

The village was positioned at the center of an expansive valley, with gently sloping hills surrounding it to the four directions. Technically, the terrain favored them as it gave them a higher ground. Lord Biorn’s army was so large it occupied the whole valley.

“Your riders reported an army of more than two thousand men. I can see not more than forty…” one of the generals said, a look of disappointment flashing on his face. He seemed expectant and ready to shake the rust off his combat skills by fighting an army of invaders, not a band of men.

“Perhaps they fled when they got wind of our army” another general said

“They wouldn’t have left these men here if they had fled…” Lord Biorn said

“We rode down from the Iron Palace for a battle, not…whatever this is” One general on Lord Biorn’s right said. He wore golden armor and exuded an air of royalty. Even Lord Biorn regarded him with respect. He commanded the men from the Iron Palace, personally sent by the King to oversee and represent him on the battlefield.

“And a battle you shall have” Lord Biorn replied

After holding out on the settlement for over three days, Ryland was beginning to get agitated. He had received no news or further instructions from Khan Rolo or the other Valkyrys. In addition to being in the dark about their progress, he had no idea whether the main Drak’ar horde had arrived. For a man with fire for blood, Ryland was beginning to get bored. And when he got bored, his mood turned real sour. Truth be told, he wasn’t the best man to be around with when he was bored. He once broke a man’s nose for repeating the same joke to him until he grew weary of it. On the morning of the fourth day, he was just preparing to return to the first settlement when he was notified of an approaching army.

“Ryland…”

“What?” Ryland snapped “I swear if it’s about the damn hungry stray wolves I will feed you to them.”

“N-nooo” the man stuttered “there’s an army advancing towards us.”

Ryland instantly paused grooming his stallion and looked up

“ An army? Is it ours?”

“ No, all of them are wearing steel.” The man answered “It’s the Iron army.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ryland shot out from the barn and rested his gaze on the army closing in on them. When he turned around, he realized that they had been surrounded in all directions, they had no choice of escaping. By estimation, he counted thousands and thousands of men. Aside from the Drak’ar horde, he had never seen an army this large. On top of that, he spotted a number of strange but huge weapons that he had never seen before in his life. Turned out the Iron Kingdom wasn’t so lazy after all, and he was right, in a week the Iron Kingdom would have gathered enough men to give them a challenge on the battlefield. For once in his life, he felt a sense of uneasiness or nervousness, something he never felt before. But one thing was for sure as he stared at the army, he wasn’t a bit afraid. By releasing the captives, he was certain that the Iron soldiers would attack this village first. The Khan and his Valkyrys had history of not leaving or releasing any prisoners, so no way the Iron Kingdom would know exactly where they were. He had purposefully chosen this battlefield, but he had not the numbers nor enough strength to defend it. Either way, his arms tingled with anticipation though he knew that he would probably end up dead by the day’s end. All those who knew Ryland Drakaraeth knew that he never backed away from a fight – he’d rather die first before falling without a fight, that’s how crazy he was.

A sharp whistle and his stallion came running towards him. He easily straddled it with the grace of a contortionist. His men took position behind him and waited for whatever that was to follow.