The only other survivor from Gavin’s team is lagging far behind Gavin and when an arrow pierces into his left shoulder, I make the call to leave him behind. Eldon grabs me by the shoulder to say something but another arrow lodges itself into the right hind leg of the survivor’s horse and sends both of them crashing to the ground. The dust doesn’t even clear before Eldon lets go of me but gives me a nasty glare to let me know he isn’t happy with that call. But I don’t really give a shit whether he’s happy or not.

When the first hurdle team runs out and sets down their barricades, they follow after Gavin and when they’re clear of the second hurdle, I shout, “Both sides! Second hurdle! Set ‘em up!”

We don’t have enough time to set up all the barricades before the first wave of Viper riders crash into the first set of barricades. The look of sheer terror on the faces of those horsemen at the front was utterly intoxicating knowing I’m the reason behind those horrified looks. They tried to stop themselves and turn around, warning the ones behind them to stop but it was too late the moment they entered this valley at top speed. The ones obstinate about stopping and turning around were thrown from their horses by the unstoppable momentum behind them and crushed into meat paste under their allies’ hooves. Seeing that, the others had no choice but to grit their teeth and accept their fate, running headfirst into the spiked barricades, the wooden tips from the spikes impaling themselves into the horses’ chests and bellies, killing them instantly and flinging their riders to the ground.

If those riders were lucky, they would’ve broken their necks the moment they hit the ground. The unlucky ones survived with broken limbs or cracked skulls and had to watch helplessly from the ground as their horde of allies broke past the first set of barricades and crushed them beneath their hooves, the sheer weight from the dead horses’ bodies breaking the first set of makeshift wooden obstacles. As the second hurdle team clears the third hurdle location, the third hurdle team runs out and puts down their barricades without needing my order. Let’s hope this is enough.

We only have three sets of hurdles because for one, they’re hard to make. If we had all 200 of these people working day and night for an entire week, I have no doubt we could fill this valley to the brim with spiked barricades and not a single horse would be able to get through alive. But we only had 50 or so people working on these barricades for a week and according to Gavin, the rest of The Fold’s leadership wasn’t willing to wait another week just to make more barricades. Why did they take a week just to approve this ambush but wouldn’t give us more time to make more barricades? I’ll never know.

The second reason is, it shouldn’t be necessary. Bertrand told me two sets of barricades should be fine for most operations since most of the cavalry charge’s momentum should be broken with the first set of obstacles. The second set is more so for totally dissipating the momentum while the defending side uses it as cover for the actual fight. Since I wasn’t confident in The Fold’s ability in combat, I decided on three sets of barricades even if it meant leaving some wiggle room on the sides that riders could slip through. Though with how narrow this valley is, it wasn’t a big concern for me.

As the Vipers approached the second set of barricades, they slowed themselves down considerably and were almost able to stop themselves. The first set of barricades had a major hand in slowing their speed but it still wasn’t enough and the riders heading the second wave could only watch as their horses were slowly shoved forward from behind, their bodies gradually impaling themselves onto the spikes and their unearthly death wails horrendous to the ears. Well fuck. It looks like Bertrand was right and the third barricade really wasn’t necessary.

Seeing the Vipers’ charge had completely stopped at the second set of barricades, I started moving forward, shouting, “They’re sitting ducks! Loose the arrows! Midway team, on me!”

At my command, the archers who quietly gathered above us on both sides of the elevated cliffs begin raining arrows down the Vipers below. Screams of pain and surprise ring out as arrows fly through the air into the men and horses below. After the initial shock, the ones with shields bring them up over their heads as they can only weather through the barrage. The ones without can only dismount and try to use their horses as cover from the storm of arrows.

As I’m moving forward, I arrive next to Gavin who looks to be in rough shape, still sitting wearily on his horse with his head down. He’s covered in cuts all over and there’s even an arrow sticking out of his left hand. Not knowing if he’s even alive, I reach up to grab his arm when he grabs hold of my wrist and glares at me. Giving him a shrug, I open my palms towards him to show I don’t mean him any harm. Instead, he scoffs, letting go of my wrist and sliding off the back of his horse.

While stumbling his way past the valley dweller team, Gavin croaks out, “I’ll be fine with a bit of rest but I’m in no condition to fight. You lot are going to have to finish this without me.”

Watching his back, a smile grows on my lips and I shout behind him, “Good work today, Gavin! May the Savior bless you with a speedy recovery.”

He pauses in his steps for an instant but doesn’t turn to look back before continuing onwards. Pulling my eyes from him, I turn around and shout, “You heard the man! We’ll finish the snakes right here and now! For the Savior!”

Shouts of, “For the Savior!” resound around me as my team of 80 valley dwellers march forward. When we reach the third set of barricades that didn’t see any action, we move them off to the sides before resuming. Since this is an incredibly strange fight with forces on foot attacking immobile mounted forces while arrows rain down on those mounted troops, a shieldwall here is out of the question since I’m not expecting them to come our way anytime soon. I take up the role of vanguard as we saunter our way forward.

When we reach the riders stuck at the second set of barricades, most of the riders are alive and still atop their horses. Hells, even some of the horses impaled on the spikes are still breathing though I’d assume not for much longer. Poor things, innocent in all this yet forced to suffer the greatest. The first rider I reach has two arrows sticking out of his body but neither of them landed anywhere vital. Seeing me, he nervously swings his sword at me and narrowly misses when I move my head out of the way. Before he can swing again, I pull out my sword and stab it into his belly.

He looks down in horror and feebly tries to take off my head again on the backswing but I move out of the way again while ripping my blade across his belly and tearing it open, his innards spilling forth onto the saddle underneath him. As he looks down at the mortal wound in resignation, he only stares into my eyes as tears spill forth from his own. I only look at him with curiosity and tilt my head at him as if asking why he’s still alive. A moment later, the light fades from his eyes as his body slumps forward before falling off his horse. Turning my attention to the dying animal he fell from, the creature is wheezing its last breaths as confusion and fear fill its big brown eyes. Running my hand through its mane, I try my best to sooth it before quickly taking out a knife and jamming it into the top of its head where the brain is, the animal dying instantly.

Angelene taught me how to end a horse’s life as painlessly as possible because she said it’s the first thing she was taught. Her father taught her that if she wanted to ride a horse, she also needed to know how to end its suffering if it got injured. She made sure I learned as well when she taught me how to ride and even demonstrated the exact spot on Sunshine’s head. I thought it was a bit cold of her to show me using her favorite horse as an example but after mulling it over for a while, I looked at it differently. She knew exactly how and where to end Sunshine’s life because of how much she loves her, not in spite of. Though it does beg the question why I was more willing to end the horse’s life painlessly than its rider but I suppose the answer to that is for another day.

As my team keeps making their way through the clustered horses, we easily kill everyone we come across. The only real resistance we came across was from the ones who dismounted but even then we had a major number advantage against them. I didn’t even bring my shield today and left it at the shack because I knew things would end up like this. But as the space grew tighter the further forward we went, I swapped my sword out with my axes which need less swinging space to be lethal and renewed my vigor as I tore my way through the Vipers. Eldon was right beside me the entire time and took pot shots whenever he could but he had to swap to a shortsword halfway through.

Whenever I saw someone from The Fold in trouble and I could save them, I acted like I didn’t see them or was busy fighting off someone else. If my left or right side asked for reinforcements, I’d ignore them or tell them all the reinforcements have already been sent to the opposite side. There’s not much I can do to the archers up top or the group in the rear, but I have the lives of all the ones here in my hands. All in all, it was a pretty delightful ambush.

Well, aside from the dreadful smells of horse shit, people dying and then shitting themselves which I’ll personally be naming dying shit from now on, and all the bodies starting to bake under the sweltering midday sun mixing together. Oh, and the heat was a problem too. That midday sun was a fucking nightmare but the amount of peopler surrounding me made it worse. Imagine hundreds of people trapped in a tiny, cramped valley, shoulder to shoulder, fighting for their lives while the midday sun above roasted them like skewered pork. Horrific.

But all horrors must come to an end and ours came when we reached halfway between the midway point and the valley’s entrance. When we crossed a certain threshold, we noticed the horses and their riders thinned considerably and we could walk and breathe freely again. Looking around in confusion, a possibility sparks to life in my mind and an archer above me confirms it when he shouts, “Brother Isaac! The snakes broke their way through the rearguard at the valley’s entrance, killing everyone on their way out. They’ve escaped the valley…”

My face wants to break out into a smile but I hold back when Eldon screams next to me, “What!?”

The next instant, Eldon hops on the horse closest to him without a rider and rushes toward the valley entrance. Seeing something interesting happening, I do the same and hop on the riderless horse next to me, shouting up at the archer, “I’ll go after him! You and the rest finish what we’ve started! If you can capture them alive to undergo the Trial of The Pit, do so, but if they resist, end them.”

Without waiting to hear his response, I rode through the valley following Eldon’s back. The horse I’m on is unfamiliar but she’s extremely compliant, probably just glad to leave that scorching, fetid hell behind. When I get to the valley entrance, I find Eldon stationary there, quaking with rage as he looks at the eviscerated corpses of his brothers and sisters. I hide a smile as I stroll up behind him, saying, “They gave their lives up to protect The Fold and the Savior. We’ll exterminate the snakes once and for all now that we have the upper hand and get vengeance for them.”

Instead of replying, he took off again following the chaotic tracks they left behind. Following him, we ride for a few minutes when he suddenly takes a sharp right turn into the treeline next to us. When I do the same and get past the treeline, I find him off his horse, standing over an unfamiliar young man with a bloody sword raised high, about to end his life. Seeing the scene in front of me, it’s like a bolt of lightning exploded inside my head and I scream, “Wait!”