A.N.:
To fully immerse yourself in the emotion try listening to Parable by Mako or Misery by The World Alive
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Timothy knelt, crouching behind a cannon with his back soaked in sweat and his forehead beaded with perspiration.
He stared intently at the huge gap in the wall.
In despair.
In horror.
A large billowing cloud of smoke arose from the gap.
A dozen men lay in mangled shreds, maimed and mutilated by fast-flying shrapnel and rocks that exploded out of what used to be the town's wall.
Seconds later the smoke partially cleared, blown away by the persistent autumn winds making a freshly made gap in the wall now visible for all to see. Timothy's heart chilled at the sight.
'What cursed cannon could possibly inflict such monstrous damage..." The young soldier wondered staring at the hole in the wall in awe, in horror.
Just when the soldier was confused about what to do, another synchronized blast of cannons rung out from the clearing beyond the walls. Ten fast-flying cannon balls drew black arcs across the horizon towards the gap in the wall.
Three of the cannonballs fell short of their intended target falling unto the ground about a dozen meters away from the wall, bouncing and rolling harmlessly into the rubble from the dilapidated wall.
Another five reached the wall but failed to hit their marks striking it and only managing to injure a single man.
But the remaining two cannonballs,
Those made it through. Flying through the gap they hurled towards the unprepared artillery squads guarding the damaged gates.
The two cannonballs bowled through the soldier like bowling pins, squashing everyone in their paths into meat paste.
The entire artillery squad was reduced to a disorganized mess with two-thirds of its members either dead or incapacitated while the remaining one third were either injured or had already fled from their post in fear.
Timothy looked down feeling a sharp pain in his lower abdomen.
A palm-sized shard of stone was lodged in, blood flowing relentlessly from the gash.
Remembering his training he didn't attempt to remove the shard, instead, he pressed his palm on the site of the injury in a desperate bid to stop the bleeding.
Shakily getting up to his feet,
Timothy turned towards the enemy troops stationed in front of the gate and unsurprisingly the enemy had begun its assault with the heavy cavalry leading the charge.
Everything became clear to the young soldier now. The enemy's plan had been to get rid of the artillery that should be defending the gate before assaulting the town with the heavy cavalry in lead.
From the elaborate plans the Arien commander devised to conquer the town, it was obvious that they were probably aware of the reinforcing forces from Verum heading their way and most probably can't afford to delay too much.
Looking at the Heavy cavalry leading the charge, Timothy was aware that without them this charge would possibly be pointless. Assuming only light cavalry and infantry entered the town with the support of the common folk the soldiers should be able to repel them and if considering the cannons in a prolonged battle Willow town's heavier four-pounders would be able to easily outgun the lighter and fewer two-pound field guns in the hands of the enemy.
The real advantage the enemy had over Willow town is its heavily armoured calvary that could render the swarm tactics used by the peasants useless, but that's only if they can manage to enter the town's walls after bypassing the cannons.
*BOOM!*
The cannons on the wall by the gates blared with loud explosive noises but only managed to carve out a third of the advancing heavy calvary with a sizable portion of the threat still en route for gateway.
*BOOM!*
Another round of artillery fire rang out from the clearing towards the gap in the wall but luckily this time none of them got through, but despite that instead of returning to their posts the soldiers all fled, All except for Timothy.
It wasn't that he didn't wasn't afraid of death or that he was the typically brave one, no it wasn't any of that. The thing that kept Timothy staggering unwittingly towards the cannon was that smile.
That pure, naive smile that was completely ignorant of the ugliness of humanity, That smile that appeared so timid when May confessed her feelings to him, It was that smile that gave him the courage to move on.
He knew he was once like her thinking life was a bed of roses where justice prevailed and the weak were protected, but the incidents that have been occurring since the start of the invasion had completely stripped him of such useless naivety. He longer hoped for peace or happiness, but to instead die a painless death, unlike his many colleagues that had gone before him.
He no longer even had the hopes of ever seeing his brother again after seeing knights much more skilled than his brother being brutally slaughtered and reduced to nothing but meat scrapes. What he wanted now was to try to protect that smile, the smile which he had long lost, the smile of the only person he might possibly ever truly care for before his death, even if it came at the cost of his life.
'I just need to stop them once. Just once and it would all be alright.'
'Just once and May would be safe.'
With this thought in mind, Timothy staggered slowly towards the last remaining cannon, although it was partially damaged by the enemy's cannon fire it should still be able to fire a few more shots and that was all Timothy wanted right now.
Aiming the cannon slightly towards the oncoming heavy calvary he picked up a torch and lit the fuse at the end of the cannon.
Collapsing to the side with his blood pooling under his body, his eyes went blurry and he saw the heavily armoured horsemen approach the gates.
By the time they arrived his vision had already gone blank but before he lost consciousness he heard a particularly sweet sound that he would come to love in this life and in his next.
*BOOM!*
With a loud bang, the cannon's blast echoed through his consciousness, singing an ever so sweet melody to his fading soul.