Ch 15 - Caught red handed

It’s been two nights since we left the forest and we will storm the fortress in six hours, a little bit before sunrise to take advantage of the dark and possible drowsiness of the gang.

Our general is giving orders left and right (since when we started calling Gat general? It just happens during missions tho…), talking to the soldiers, then she sent Ali forward to gather information, and asked Gali to relay the information to her men.

Dan is just lost, to fall in love with someone so unattainable, well that’s just his bad luck!

I’ve heard rumors that Gat is opening up to first prince Higg, and they may not even fight next year! And for my honour and family name Valentine, I Sir Julius Valentine, second son of my family am certain that our stop at the royal castle wasn’t just to say goodbye to the Pegasus.

Ali returned, we are fairly close to the fortress, it shouldn't take us half an hour to storm the entrance, shes discussing something with our general.

Let me get there.

“..nd seems Bertie forces are ready to rush in very close to our entrance, so things could go fairly smoothly! What about Mitchell?”

Uh? Let me think a second here, she said ‘and seems Bertie….’ ok, so our groups will storm the fortress almost at the same time. That makes sense, what about Mitchell? We just gota capture him and turn him to the Order of Knights, he's clearly conspiring to kill us no?

“Excuse me General, Ali, what about Mitchell? Didn't we agree that we would capture him, subdue his squad and turn him to the Order of Knights?”

“~puu puu~ You are no fun Juls! Let me play with him a little! An ear, a couple of fingers, maybe his ‘thing’ no? ~tuu tuu~”

Don’t make those cute eyes at me you demoness!

How this two cousins can be so alike and so different at the same time? Does Ali enjoy torture that much? Or it’s just the act of killing what she likes? Lets wait for Gat’s decision and go with it ~kay~ -- not!

“Ali stop it please, and Juls whats with ‘General’ this ‘General’ that? Aren’t we friends? How long have we gone to missions together? Why don’t you just call me Gat like usual?”

Achacha! I forgot Gat doesn’t like to be called General! Oh well we are too used to it to refer to her as general in our strategy meetings that it just rolls out naturally out of my mouth!

“I’m sorry Gat bear with it yes? During missions at least ok? Or how that demoness would say ~key?~”

What am I doing? So ridiculous of me imitating that demoness!

*Chuckle*

“Order of Knights it is, no playing with his parts Ali, you hear me?”

“~boo boo~ if that’s what Gat wants I’m ~o~k~e~y~ with it!”

After that ridiculous syllable by syllable o k e y, I can’t help but chuckle too! Oh Gali is back.

“Gen.., erm, whoops, Gat, erm --”

There you go! Don't worry she will not complain, oh well she wasn't here a min ago so its ok, lets enjoy seeing her swallow her words

“The soldiers are ready and informed to act as soon as Mitchell’s squad enters the scene to detain them, what’s the situation on Bertie’s side? Is he aware of our plan?”

“~ehehe~ he is Gali, I made sure of it ~ehehe~”

Uwaaa, *shiver* that’s one heck of a scary look you got there Ali, I hope he’s not so afraid of you that he decides to run away and not storm the fortress.

Gat gave the word and we are preparing to storm the fortress any minute now, all that we need is her signal.

. . .

. .

.

*swish*

There it is! I ordered my group of soldiers to charge, Gatriel and Ali stormed up front at their ridiculous speed, oh well let’s make the most of it and not fall behind!

Let’s kill all those bastards as quickly as we can.

*rush*

*swish, cling, splurt, thud *

“Agrgrgrg”

*plop, swish, clang, plop, thud, swish, clang clang clang clang, swish *

This is just amazing, I’ve been swinging my sword left and right and felling enemies at each swing, we are advancing as expected... oh, there is Bertie’s squad, so seems all is going well!

Is this how it feels to go to war? It’s the first time we have fought such a large number of enemies!

Hows my left flank? Uh? Hey hey hey gali

“Gaaaaliiiiii”

I charged towards Galiene, she’s being cornered by three men wielding daggers, if I don’t hurry she’ll be done for!

*charge*

*thud, clang, thud, swish*

*huff, huff, huff*

I run in front of her and push her with my back against the wall to cover her, I couldn’t get rid of the three men in the charge. Only one of them fell and one is hurt, he’s holding his right arm with his left one.

Let me continue! I can’t let Gali fall here!

*swish*

*clang*

*kick, thud, swish, splurt*

*swish*

“Ugg damnit I’m hit”

“Juls its ok its just one left now, get back”

“Thank you gali, sorry”

Shit that mongrel got me, with this stab on my leg I won’t be able to move freely for a while.

*swish, clang, swish, clang, kick, splurt, thud*

*huff huff huff*

“You ok Juls? Thanks for saving me here! I thought I was going to die. Let’s move towards the soldiers by the entrance, we need cover you are injured and I’m tired”

I followed Gali towards the soldiers and took cover, one of them is making a knot on my leg with some fabric to stop the bleeding. I look at Gali and my eyes went wide

“Gali are you ok? What’s that blood in your face?”

“Don’t worry Juls is not mine I only got a small scratch on my shield arm, but it’s nothing serious ok? Rest a bit”

Nodding to her words I take a look at the spectacle that’s happening in front of me, the bowmen have already swords in hand and are pushing forward. Gatriel is spinning like a demon and jumping left and right with that strange style of hers.

Bertie’s men are fighting fiercely, there are so many bodies in the floor!

Man this is both exhilarating and scary as hell! I’m so happy I decided on being a knight, I’m a muscle-head you know!

I’m graduating at last! I will follow our general to whatever end if she allow us to!

Where is ali? Haven’t seen her since she disappeared in the initial charge.

I scan the fortress left, right, up, center... nothing I can’t find her.

Ok things are getting easier now, seems we are about to finish, the sun is already up, we have been at this for over three hours now.

I’m rested but can’t move yet! Gali has gone back to fight and retreated a couple of times to catch her breath!

Damn my luck that I had to get injured so early into the battle.

Uh? Is that Gat? What? I stood up quickly

“GAT! GAT GAT GAT! You ok? Answer me dammit”

As the light shone on her, all I could see was her figure drenched in blood, from head to toe, her hair was sticking to her head and the back of her armor, her swords were hanging on her arms, touching the floor.

Whats happening, is she injured?

...

“Come on General --”

I started limping towards her, a soldier helped me to get to her position.

Uh? Where is she looking at? What’s there? Uh? Who’s that on that upper balcony?

What’s that on the arms? Uh? Noway, no way! I can’t see clearly the sun is hitting my face...

*plop plop plop*

Three bodies just fell down that balcony, I close my eyes a bit to try to focus on who’s up there! Oh! There she is, what did she drop?

“So she did it! As expected of Ali”

So she did it eh? I looked at the bodies that just fell down, and saw the three bandits.

Those are the leaders, based on our intel they look just as those corpses.

I look up again but I couldn’t find Ali’s figure.

Soldiers arriving from the west, must be Bertie’s men, they are carrying three people, three of Bertie’s men were injured.

Oh well who said this was a job that was going to be easy?

“~nee nee~ Juls”

Uh? When did she get here? Shit she still scares the crap out of me when she appears out of nowhere!

“Yes Ali, I was injured, sorry ok? You win today for sure! I only killed about 20 before I got stabbed”

“~puu puu~ I haven’t reached that number yet! Took a lot of time to get to the leader’s room ~pyon~”

Don’t pout please!

Doesn’t... no no it actually fits you way too perfectly, it’s just I know you, you demoness, so stop it!

“General, then should we start the second phase of the plan?”

“Yes Gali let’s start it right now. Please give the order to the men”

Galiene went to the men and relayed the plan, and they started sparring just crossing swords, and every once in awhile shouting. Making as much noise as possible.

Bertie’s men joined the pan, and like that we spent several hours, rotating soldiers so they could rest, while faking a continuous combat until was night-time.

“Ok Stop now, let there be silence for some time, let’s wait for Mitchell’s impatience and wait for him to get here after not hearing any more sound.”

And as Gat said we made formations, some 50 archers went to the balcony, some others hid behind the walls back the eastern entry point, and the rest of us behind Gatriel were waiting for the 2nd squad to come inside the fortress.

As night fell, after just a couple of hours of silence we could hear the march going up the steep slope of the eastern entryway.

The soldiers stormed in, Mitchell and his men in the forefront, all but one were smiling.

It seems one of his party members isn’t happy with his plan! Great! Another witness!

“Uh? Whats going on here? --”

*rumble rumble rumble*

*step step step step*

The sounds of the soldiers surrounding Mitchell's men and soldiers could be heard in the whole fortress.

Bowmen pulling their strings, and swords pointing at them from left, right and back. And in front of them, there we stood.

Gatriel, Aliyah, Galiene, me, Bertie, and his men, some patched up as they were injured.

“What’s the meaning of this? Is this how the great Gatriel Decebal treats her reinforces? Lower your swords soldiers, just came to help!”

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

“I said lower your swords lowly peasants! Or you can’t even listen to my words? Whats going on Lady Gatriel Decebal? Order your men to lower their weapons.”

“Keep pointing the weapons men! Bryan come here right now, hurry now, come on”

Gat called for precisely the guy who wasn't smiling, oh that must be the guy who voiced discontent on the tent! Smart move Gat!

I’m impressed indeed.

The man called Bryan started to trot towards Gatriel when Mitchell’s face distorted into something unrecognizable and in a fit of rage rose his sword and aimed at his back.

“YOOUUUU TTRAAAITTTOORRR--ugggr--”

*kick, thud, roll, plop, plop, roll*

Three seconds, ten meters, a straight line.

A blur, a kick, bam! Ruthless as ever.

“Shut your mouth you filthy piece of shit, do you have any idea of the consequence of your actions? We will turn you to the Order of Knights. Your punishment will be harsh.”

She ordered the soldiers to tie Mitchell up, and gave the chance to the other four to flip sides and be witnesses of Mitchell plot or face the same fate, after a single hour, we were on our way back chatting merrily dragging by rope one single prisoner.

Thanks for reading my fiction! I hope to get your comments and help from now and in future issues.

Give and Take you know undefined, you help me, I help you! isn't that the main reason why most of us gather here in RRL? to learn from each otner?

Cheers.