The black company had kept themselves hidden for more than two months now. The island of Spade was hilly and was not hard for a small force such as the black company to vanish in the hills.

Many villages were burned down and massacred, but they still hadn't caught the attention of either the capital city garrison or the army on the coast attention.

They camped on a small hill looking down on the fortress city of Straiki. It had three layers of walls with an impressive citadel at the center.

The people of Spade had fought for their independence for a long time and had become masterful soldiers with a strong patriotic mindset. They were determined not to go down without a fight.

"So what is your plan?" Mona asked Markus.

He stared at the soldiers who were stationed on the walls. Most of the soldiers and military personnel were on the coast preparing for an upcoming landing of a Heian empire's invasion.

"Get the soldiers ready. Tell them to prepare the prisoners as well."

~ ~

Early in the next morning, the soldiers of the capital city were alerted to gather around the outer walls. What they saw was not an enemy army, or siege weapons being raised.

Five civilians of the state of Spade had been brought right in front of the gates, but out of the reach from the archers and crossbowmen. These people were young boys and girls in their early teens taken from the villages that had been destroyed.

"Good people of the capital city. I am the leader of the black company that is currently on the payroll of the Heian empire. We would like to give a formal greeting to the ways how we operate," Markus yelled out to all the guards and citizens on the wall.

After his speech, the soldiers decapitated the prisoners to the horror of the people watching. Markus then slowly started to walk away along with his soldiers back into the hills.

The soldiers on the wall tried to shoot down at them, but they were too far. They still tried and vowed to kill them all.

"I bet this got their attention. What is your plan now?" one of the soldiers asked.

"They will not send their army from the south to go after us. They need them there to make sure that no imperial army can land safely. Soon the entire garrison and army protecting the capital will come after us and we will give them hell. After that, the city will be ours."

~ ~

It was not long until an army marched out of the capital determined to track down Markus's mercenary company.

The nation of Spade valued its citizens so all of the soldiers were well-motivated and determined to get revenge.

The garrison army was around five thousand strong and was being led by the mayor of the city, Piers Borges. He was an old man, but had fought the Heian empire all his life, and was rumored to have beaten once one of the children in purple.

"Mayor Borges, the soldiers are ready. What are your orders?" one of the soldiers asked.

"We need to catch up to the enemy as soon as possible. They cannot be a large force since we hadn't heard of them yet. They are technically just another bandit group," Mayor Borges said brushed off the threat Markus's army posed.

~ ~

As the army of the city marched forward on the hill, they saw the roads had been destroyed and sabotaged. The spade army turned around and started to go through the thick forest tracking down the black company that had left a trail that could be followed.

As they marched forward, the forest got a lot denser with high cliffs on both sides. None of them realized they were being lured into kill zones.

The earth fell upon them with large landslides crashing at the rear of the enemy.

The mayor rushed to the back believing the enemy had attacked them. When he arrived at the rear he saw hundreds of his men buried beneath the earth.

He then heard screams of his men coming from the front, right from where he had been.

Volleys of arrow fire struck the front of the army. The volleys didn't do much damage but forced the soldiers to get closer to form an umbrella of shields.

As the soldiers' formation got tighter the earth started to rumble. As the soldiers peaked over their shields they saw large rock boulders rolling at them.

The soldiers were in much tighter formations so the rocks crushed even more men and made it harder for them to dodge.

As the boulders started to crush more and more men, mayor Borges rushed into the front. He released his divine power and formed hands made from earth. These hands stopped the incoming rocks and saved many men.

As the boulders stopped rolling the mayor looked around. It was quiet.

"COME OUT AND FIGHT AS REAL MEN WOULD!" Mayor Borges yelled.

No one answered.

"MEN! BACK INTO FORMATIONS AND MOVE FORWARD!"