Digging into their defensive positions, the army was waiting, quiet and anxious. Within the hour the army was on the horizon. Battle horns blew and Jon calmed himself down and prepared his shield. Jon called on Woden to protect him and his father from the enemy and let them prevail.
As the enemy sent a large portion of their army forward, the king and a few hundred men remained behind, playing right into the Jarls' devious plans. As the army marched on them, they mocked the Northmen as they all began knocking on their shields and chanting "Die" in the Northern dialect. This infuriated the entire army, almost provoking the Jarls to reveal their tricks and come from behind the hill to fight the whole army head on. Playing the strategic game, the Jarls would get their vengeance when the army was pinched between the infuriated Northmen.
The brave 500 men of Jon's cohort formed their shield wall in front of the archers who loosed clouds of arrows into the advancing men. The arrows were flying 200 at a time into such a concentrated area, that the advancing army was losing men on the front of the shield wall quicker than they could step up and replace them. The entire left side of the army was crumbling as they reconsolidated back into the advancing shield wall. The enemy had lost almost 200 men already and the closest men were still 75 yards away from the shield wall. The archers kept letting loose dark clouds of arrows, dropping men either dead or too wounded to fight.
Jon again summoned his spear, and threw it at the first enemy he saw. The spear went right through his enemies head and into the unprotected chest of the man behind him, killing them both. Jon kept summoning Gungnir as fast as he could and heaving it at his enemies. Jon prepared himself for the deafening sound of shield meeting shield. The archers did incredible damage to the soldiers of the king and to their morale, but even still Jon's cohort was outnumbered two to one.
CLANG!
The shield walls collided and Jon's cohort was being pushed back steadily by the sheer number difference of the enemies of the 500 brave Northmen. The archers were unable to continue shooting, but they needed to cover the Northmen rushing around the hill to attack the exposed backside of the enemy shield wall. The men if front of Jon were being hacked and slashed and stabbed from the massive enemy force in front of them.
Suddenly something lightly hit Jon in the face, leaving a warm, wet spot on his cheek. Just to his side, Jon saw a man holding what used to be his whole hand, but now was just a palm with 4 little
bloody stumps. Unfortunately for the man who just lost his fingers, dropping his shield was his final mistake as a long pike was thrust through the center of his face, piercing through the back of his head, severing his brain stem. Jon felt slightly sick, but recovered immediately with a little focus.
As the Northmen in front of Jon were being ground down, the front line of the shield wall was getting closer and closer to him. Jon began to focus and time began to slow for him. Jon watched as a sword bit into the neck of the man directly in front of him. Now Jon was on the front line and a shield was raised over his head. Jon parried a sword and stabbed it deep, down into the man's chest, pulling the sword out and spraying blood over everyone next to the man. Jon was in a frenzy now, pushing hard against the enemies shields he dropped to a knee quickly and as he did the man across from him almost fell forward completely, the only thing keeping him up was Jon's shield and the man behind Jon quickly decapitated the man. Jon stood back up so fast that the man was thrown off of his shield and on top of another few men. Just as the next man was stepping up to fill the gap, Jon swung his sword at the enemy, which cut halfway through his face, the man dropped. As Jon kept hacking and stabbing his enemies, a far away horn sounded as the Jarls finally had rushed around the back of the main enemy force and were now slaughtering them mercilessly. The king of these lands could only watch helplessly as he urged his men forward to save their countrymen.
With the attention split in two directions, the strength of the enemy pushing the shield wall was reduced by half, give or take a hundred men. Jon and his cohort began to push back the enemy, freeing the archers to maneuver around the side of the enemy force and shoot into the center of the exposed shield wall. The enemies were dropping like flies as some men died looking like porcupines with so many arrows bristling from their backs. Jon was fighting like a mad man, his sword was a red blur as every stroke was fluid and efficient. Jon looked to his left and saw his father fighting with the same energy he had, even more technical with his sword skills, every attack was a kill, beheading a man here, plunging his sword hilt deep into his enemy there. Jon used this as a source of strength and inspiration, knowing they would both survive this grand battle. The cohort Jon was in was shredded. A little over half of his 500 men were dead or wounded laying on the battlefield.
As they pushed the enemy lines back, the archers shifted their focus to the 200 fresh men who were in protective formation around the king. Concentrating their fire on the outsides of the shield wall, arrows were slipping through the cracks of the shield wall and were starting to drop the men, hindering the progress of the fresh warriors. The closer the king got, the less men he had around him, the king called for a full retreat. Only the men surrounding the king would make it out alive today, as the main force was trapped between the merciless Northmen.
With the king now in full retreat, the archers could now focus on the center of the main enemy force. There were still almost 400 men of the Golden Isles left alive, they were quickly encircled. The archers were absolutely destroying the enemy, though the arrows were running out and some archers were even pulling arrows from corpses to shoot at the enemy again.
Jon pushed with all his strength, what was left of it anyway. His arm was burning like it was on fire, and his hand was beginning to cramp from swinging his sword so much. Even though it was painful, Jon continued to fight. Jon ducked a spear and stabbed his sword through the open mouth of the offender. Just as he was pulling his sword back, another sword was coming down for his arm, which would no doubt sever it completely, as his armor was only light leather and chainmail, not even the sturdy, riveted chainmail. Jon let go of his sword and summoned Gungnir. The gleaming golden spear materialized in his hand almost instantaneously. He stabbed the spear through a shield and into the man attacking him. Jon felt unstoppable and as he was watching the carnage unfold before him, he felt he had learned a lot about large scale battle.
The Northmen continued to fight and push in unison until every last Golden isles man had perished. The very last man begged and pleaded for his life, just as Jarl Svygard was about to behead him, he offered information for his life. He proceeded to tell the Jarl about force sizes in the area and village locations as well. Just as the man finished and was asking to be released, the Jarl drove his sword into the top of the man's skull, killing him instantly and earning an immense roar of approval from the Northmen horde who suffered over 200 deaths and many casualties, although the vast majority were minor, some men had lost their entire sword hand or an entire leg from the knee down. These men would be cared for and if they could not fight, they would be stewards for the remainder of the raid. Everyone had to pitch in. Everyone.