The soldier fell to the ground hard, further terrifying his allies behind him as they started moving back to the bridge behind them. Cadin stood in front of his small wall of shields, slowly walking towards them holding his sword dripping with blood. The wounds on his body rapidly healed, only leaving tattered fabric and pierced armor.
Slowly they continued retreating back to the next platform. Walking on the bridge while raising their blades in front of them towards Cadin.
'I think this is enough. At this point they should surrender.' He stopped at the foot of the bridge, looking down at the soldiers who kept moving to the other side.
As he watched them, a loud thud caught his attention, from behind the line of shields. They turned around to see what caused the sound, a corpse. One of Foren's men. His hood was off revealing blood on his face along with a gaping wound in his throat.
"What the-'' Before he could finish, an arrow slammed into his chest, breaking through the leather and straight through his chest. A sharp pain quickly rose from the wound, forcing Cadin to grab his wound, not feeling the pain go away but slowly rise. The cavalrymen were stunned, seeing their leader on the floor groveling in pain. Immediately they formed a ring of shields around him, pointed upwards. Surrounding their wounded leader with weapons raised.
The arrows only continued falling, far stronger than any seen before they tore through the defenses, stopping halfway inside the shields, digging into the arms of the soldiers.
"What- What…Is this!?" Cadin ripped off the arrow, immediately blood began pouring out. But the wound was not healing. The calmness in Cadin's mind was quickly replaced with a sense of weariness as the wound continued leaking blood, not healing.
`Why isn't it healing, and where is that archer!" After he shouted, the barrage stopped, leaving the noise of metal clashing against each other and the shouts of soldiers from the other platforms.
The noises slowly ceased after a few more minutes of fighting, the last of the enemy's soldiers were moved to a wooden hut and guarded by the soldiers.
Cadin stood up, feeling the pain continue and the wound still visible. He peered through the gaps in the shield ring surrounding him, outside, Foren landed on the ground, clenching his shoulder tightly.
"Soldiers, move to Foren, focus your shields to the top." Heeding his command the cavalrymen raised up their shields, moving farther apart and gaining more ground reaching Foren, bringing him under their defense.
"Foren, are you alright?" Cadin crouched near Foren, grunting in pain.
"I'm alright, we gained this camp though, we can hold it right?"
"Leaving my soldiers here is a high risk, given what has gone on here. We cannot take the camp but we can take the prisoners back to the other camps." Cadin explained, Foren looked up with a face of confusion and hesitance.
"No, we fought to gain this camp, we need to hold it." Cavalrymen yelped in pain from the other platforms, struck by arrows as well, quickly raising their shields up against the threat as the volleys went on.
"Foren, we have already gained enough camps, we need to get out of this one. Losing this place is only a minor setback. And where are your fellow soldiers." Just as he asked, loud thuds far and near could be heard outside their cover. The bodies of Foren's men fell down lifeless, dead with deep stab wounds and arrows lodged in parts of their bodies.
Looking out, Foren understood, nodding his head in agreement with Cadin.
`We need to get these people out quickly and away from this area. Need to make the cavalrymen start bringing them down the stairs.' He turned around, the cowering fighters they were once fighting huddled against each other.
"Cavalrymen! Bring your prisoners and start rushing them out, keep running with your shields above your heads!" Cadin yelled at the top of his lungs. He tapped the shoulder of one of the guards, pointing at the fighters behind them inside the wooden huts, just above the platform.
Cadin could still feel the pain from the wound, only getting slightly better. He took out his shield, weary.
After a few seconds, he ran. His fellow soldiers and Foren followed behind, arrows fell all around them, piercing through the shields. One slammed straight Cadin's shield, hitting his arm, he gripped in pain but continued moving, the adrenaline in his body slowly dulling it out.
He grabbed one of the cowering soldiers, throwing them near the line of cavalrymen in front of them.
"If you want to survive, follow us and stay under the shields. Move it!" He shouted, fighters dropped their weapons, rushing under the cover of shields as arrows hit a few, knocking them to the ground. In the distance, the others followed suit, already running down the stairwells in a rapid retreat.
After waiting, the unit moved, running as fast as they could across the bridge as more were shot by arrows, falling to the ground below.
The unit moved down the stairs with the prisoners, rushing down while screams filled the air, outside Cadin could hear the arrows hit the wood of the tree.
On the ground the soldiers were also fighting, some already killed while the rest hid behind cover, releasing arrows into the leaves above.
"Soldiers, raise your shields and move out with the prisoners!"
Soldiers raised their shields for any prisoners near them, feeling as each arrow tore through their thick shields. Cadin brought Foren to one of the horses, placing the lead in his hand before mounting his own horse.
In a minute, the army retreated down the path. Cadin led at the front with what was left of his cavalrymen, a few practically holding onto leads of other horses as they retreated.
Joken caught with him, heavily wounded as well.
"My lord, we have lost about a dozen or so horsemen and more footmen." He reported, breathing heavily with each word that came out of his mouth.
After running endlessly for minutes down the path. The volleys seemed to have stopped.
Cadin moved his horse next to Foren's, "We will return you to the camp along with these prisoners. We shall return tomorrow or the day after once my army has managed to heal from this attack." Foren nodded his head in reply.