The sight of their commander's horse, trotting slowly with the headless body of their commander gave the two hundred Dark Flame bandits who charged against the Steel and Iron Legion riders a sense of profound terror and fear.
"Kill," Shout the terrifying red masked rider, who had lop the head of their commander.
"Kill," Shout another, a red mask rider.
"Kill," Shout a grey haired man wearing a silver winged mask.
"Kill, Kill, kill, kill, kill." The Steel and Iron Legion riders were roused up with bloodlust and malice.
They charged at the Dark Flames bandits fearlessly, slashing, stabbing and chopping everyone on their path not wearing a mask.
The Dark Flame crew had wrongly evaluated the strength of the Steel and Iron Crew. Everyone of them were ferocious fighter and had great strength.
As the hundred Steel and Iron riders charged into their rank, pandemonium issued.
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Kain rode forward, leading the charge. He parried a thrusting spear from an enemy infantry, breaking the pole and stab him in the unguarded face.
*clank*
Kain clashed with another rider. It was a warrior wielding a greatsword and armored in mailshirt and visor helmet.
"Skinjer, I presume," Said the warrior as Kain blocked his attack,"I will have your head."
Kain didn't reply. Instead, he push back the sword with all his might. With one stroke of his glaive, he put down the man by slashing his right abdomen, cutting the chainmail and flesh. With another stroke, he lop off the enemies head while he rush forward.
Robert was having a duel with another sky warrior. Robert, as always was using duel wielding swords. His opponent on the other hand was using a spear, ideal for a horseman.
He quickly overpowered the enemy and cut him down.
He carve his way forward, keeping up with Kain, with whom he closely followed. As a retainer and the Steward, it was his job to insure that the young master doesn't die.
"Kill the warriors," Commanded Kain to Robert.
At that moment, the left wing became noisy. It caught the attention of the two of them. Three Sky warriors were rampaging in their ranks.
Robert looked at Kain, who nodded. Both of them readied their weapons and rushed forward, intending to kill the sky warriors.
"Put down your bows," Shout Edoras, who was leading the archers. The reinforcement consist of Shadow hands and the reserve Archer unit, The Red Hawks."Take out your swords. Get ready for close combats."
The Dark flame crew that went west towards the archers were closing up on their enemies. However, half of them had already perish due to the continuous volleys from the Archer.
The two army clash. There were much chaos in the air. They were bandits without any military discipline and fought for themselves.
Edoras came into clashes with a Sky warrior, whose horse had been shot down. But he was at an advantage. The Sky warrior had been pierce with three arrows on his left shoulder.
The blow of the Sky warrior was hard. The warrior swing at him with a downward stroke of his sabre but Edoras block it with his shield. The strength between them was incomparable.
Edoras knees buckled as the Sky warrior. He pushed back with all his might.
Throwing back the opponent sword with his shield, he brought down his own khopesh on the opponent.
The place between the village and the wood became soaked with blood and filled with corpses. In the end, the Steel and Iron Legion won the battle but at a huge cost. More than half of their initial number were down.
"Chief, what do we do with the prisoners?" asked Surfi.
Kain stop and look at the person he had struck down. His heart ache seeing the person's youthful looks. He was even younger than him and was definitely a native of the territory.
Many had surrendered after all the enemy warriors were taken down. Atleast a hundred had surrendered, mostly infantry.
"Take them to the mines,"Said Kain,"also Surfi.."
"Yes, Chief?"
"Bury the dead.They had fought and died with honour. Do it according to their traditions."
Surfi perked up. The command was a weird one.
"Pardon chief?"
"You heard me."
"As you command, Chief."
"Give a quarter of the loot to the ones they were supporting, a quarter to the survivors and bring the rest to me."
Surfi nearly choked up. He was himself a refugee. Like most of the other refugees who join the crew, he did not join to become rich but to survive and support his starving family. It was unheard of for a dead bandit's family to receive such renumeration.
"It will be done, Your grace." It was that moment that Surfi realised that what his chief said about himself was true. He was no mere bandit but a noble. In that place and moment, Surfi pledged his utmost loyalty to his chief.
As the powerful figure of the chief trotted away from him, Surfi gave a slight bow and vow that he will never let him down.
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Taking thirty warriors with him, Kain visited each and every villages in the area. Only two villages were unharmed.
He forced the villagers to move to their base. It was for their safety but since many will not listen if he told them nicely, he decided to move their hearts with threats.
All things of value were stripped from all the villages. Robert was made incharge of transporting them while the others buried the dead in the former battlefield.
It took a day and half to finish the work.
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When Kain and his entourage return to the hamlet, It was filled with a huge population. It was not only the rescued villagers or the troops that went to threw off the dark flame crew. There were bandits with bandages and lost limbs everywhere.
The crew that went to subjugate the Moorland riders had returned and by the look of the atmosphere, it seems that the expedition had not gone well.
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