It was day five of the war games and House Joran had won two of the three games against House Goodard the day before and now House Killian was fighting against House Joran. House Joran’s mobile attacks were not having the same effect as yesterday when they played against House Goodard, largely due to the fact that today’s match was held on a field whereas yesterday’s was in a forested area. Now House Killian’s attacks were having a better effect as they could sneak around in the tree cover to hit them with quick hit and run guerrilla attacks. Soon the last guard from House Joran fell and then the overseer called an end to the match.

“House Killian is the winner of this battle. The next battle will take place in an hour when…” he broke off as a messenger approached to speak to him on the side. When the messenger was finished he nodded and then turned back to the crowd. “I am pleased to announce that His Majesty, our great Emperor of Ataria, has decided to join us today. He has asked that the remaining games be paused while his guards partake in one of our games.”

The crowd began to murmur before suddenly standing to attention and then bowing as the Emperor walked up to the overseer and waved.

“My people, I have decided to come today to partake in your games. No need to worry, it will not affect the outcome of your matches but it’s rather than I really wanted to see how well my guards would hold up against your Champion!” he announced with a smile.

‘FUCK!! Where the hell did he come from and now he’s looking to pit his guards against my men?” though Hiro with a frown as he looked over the Emperor’s guards. ‘Well hell, he’s even ready with an entire guard troop.’

Hiro quickly looked over to the Ventris temporary garrison where there was a person on lookout. He managed to catch their eye and then gave them a sign. The guard’s eyes lit up big and then nodded briskly and ran into the garrison.

The overseer now took back over the announcements as the Emperor headed over to his own personal tent which had been set up by his men as he talked to the crowd.

“His Majesty’s guards will be facing the champions, House Ventris. This will be a full garrison attack where both sides use all two hundred of their guards in a mock war battle. Archery, swords, shields and spears will be supplied with His Majesty’s guards using the yellow marks and House Ventris will be using their usual black marks. Both sides please form up and put forth your requests for weapons.”

While the two sides went about retrieving their weapons, Hiro’s father Caden, decided to have a *little* chat with him.

“Hiro, please for Gods’ sakes, please don’t have them overdo things!” he whispered under his breath as he felt the sweat roll down his back as he worried over what would happen if Christof and the guards didn’t behave.

“No need to worry Father, I’m sure Christof will take things as they should be.” Hiro replied with as innocent a smile as he could muster.

“Hiro is sure Oncle, no worries!” chirped in Lyra as she tugged on Hiro’s hand to give her another sweet.

“Ah, from the mouth of babes!” lamented Caden as he sat back holding his head.

Soon the two sides were once again facing off. The Moon squad started off by putting down a layer of arrows as their guards ran forth to shorten the distance between their two armies. However all the guards from Ventris did was hold high their shields to defend against the incoming arrows. The shields became speckled with the arrow marks of yellow however no one was hit. Then they began to form up a layer of men with shields held high with a layer of archers just behind them. Soon the two armies were only a hundred feet away when the Ventris archers began their attack. They fired one high arched volley, which forced the incoming Moon squad to raise their shields high to prevent the arrows from raining down on them from up high. It was a mistake they would not make again. As the arrows began hitting their shields, the guards at the front were hit with spears that were thrown from a short distance. The Ventris guards were throwing the spears using an under arm throw method not seen before which gave a high speed and accuracy but limited distance. These spears immediately cut down on the guards causing more than a third of their guards to be immediately out. The Moon squad, realizing that their rush was not the wisest decision, formed up a phalanx and began approaching the Ventris guards. By now the Moon squads archers were out of range due to the Moon squads guards running forth to attack the Ventris guards and they were now running forward to close the gap to provide support to their phalanx.

The two sides were now only a mere forty feet apart when Christof shouted, “Archers, another high volley if you please!”

Immediately the Moon squad phalanx raised high their shields in anticipation of the falling arrows, instead they received a volley of arrows shot at an almost flat arc since they were that close. By the time they managed to figure out the deception more than half the phalanx was out of the game. The remaining phalanx was routed when the Ventris guards formed up the same formation which was used to trample the Restav’s guards, a wedge. But this time there were archers at the center of the wedge and as they pushed forth, they trampled the Moon squad underfoot while the archers sniped from within the foundation based upon the signals called out by the spotters who had stayed behind. Soon it was just the archers of the Moon squad left and they had finally come into range.

They let loose arrows without disregard, forcing the Ventris guards to turtle up. But this turtle was able to move. As one the formation ran forth, shields over their heads and a shield wall on all sides. Every now and then a shield was turn and an arrow would come flying out to hit the opponent before the shield was quickly turned back into formation. In the end, the Moon squad had fallen and all that was left was the Ventris guards who suffered only a handful of casualties. The Ventris guards fell back to their starting point and could be heard shouting out insults to the Moon squad which was in disarray due to their overwhelming loss.

“Son of a bitch! Is this the poor excuse that’s supposed to be guarding our Emperor? My one eyed, one legged, one eared dog could do a better job guarding a bone than those sorry excuses for maggots could!” shouted a voice from within the group.

“Hey isn’t that dog named Lucky?” came another voice.

“Yeah that it is!” shouted the voice again, which caused the audience to stare at the Emperor to see what his reaction was, then the voice shouted again, “Yup, called him Lucky because after all that he could still lick his balls! Can’t say the same for these blokes, they’re like a bunch of hot farts – seems deadly until the wind blows it away! Ha, ha, ha!!!”

Now the audience’s jaws collectively hit the ground. Hiro’s father Caden was holding his head and shaking it in dismay. His mother was pinching her nose with what looked like a headache coming on. The Emperor’s face was red, his best guards were beaten down and he couldn’t do a thing because he had already caught Lady Goodard staring at him with a pronounced smile. Next to the Emperor stood the messenger with a ridiculous smile on his face, as he mentally counted his newly found wealth in his head. It turned out that the bookies all gave odds in favor of the Emperor winning, after all *normal* people would usually give the Emperor face and allow him to win.

The Emperor suddenly stood and with a wave of his hand, “We’re going home. NOW!” Then as fast as he came was as fast as he left.

Hiro watched him leave and smirked, “If you want to bully someone, be prepared to be bullied yourself.”

‘Whack!’ Hiro cringed as his mother tapped the back of his head with her fan. “That’s not something I want to hear from you quite yet,” she said as she frowned down on him.

“Uh, ok.” Hiro replied as he thought it over. “Sha yi jing bai – kill one to warn a hundred.”

‘Whack!’ Hiro’s mother his him again, “That’s no good either. Why can’t you just be a normal five year old?”