Prince Rozerd waited for the sunrise. His eyes stared at the horizon. He knew once the sun was up; the storm was coming. He kept a watch on his army from an elevated land with his most trusted man, Kyte.
"My prince, are we going to face them head on?" Kyte asked.
"We do not have much manpower to separate our forces," Rozerd replied. "Colt has already taken a part of the army with him." He looked at Kyte. "I know he will not disappoint."
Kyte smiled at his words. "He would not, my prince."
They could see the initial sun rays scattering at the horizon. Rozerd readied himself to face the enemy. He could see the silhouettes of his insects like enemies marching towards them.
Suddenly, he saw some distortion in space at a distance. "What is that?" he wondered. It suddenly struck his mind, and he understood what it was. "Soldiers! Shields up!" he screamed.
It was a cloud of arrows that had covered the sky. The soldiers placed their shields above their heads to protect themselves. The arrows barraged at them. Some of the men perished then and there. The rest somehow stood on their feet, the arrows stuck in their shields.
"Shields up!" Rozerd cried again when he saw another barrage of arrows.
They all shielded again pretty successfully. Only a handful perished again.
Rozerd saw there were no arrows raining now. "Soldiers! Ready the formation!"
The soldiers lined themselves in a wall formation. The front lines had pikes and shields in their hands to counter the wave of front lines of the enemy.
It was time for the real battle to begin.
They could hear the horn blowing from the enemy's side. It was the signal for the attack.
"Ready the defenses!" Rozerd shouted.
"Aaaaaaa..."
They could hear their battle cries when the enemies were storming towards them. Rozerd knew his brother Hammer was watching them. He could sense his presence from that distance. It was true. Hammer too observed the battlefield from an altitude.
"Brother, I know you are there," Rozerd muttered.
The two armies collided. The front lines of Rozerd were no match for the beastly tribal warriors. They uprooted the wall and teared it open in one go. The defenses were gone. The battle started between the soldiers of the opposing forces. There was chaos everywhere. Every single person was cutting down the other.
"Yaah!" There were battle-cries everywhere.
"What should we do, my prince? I am sure this is only half their army," Kyte said.
"I know. We have to resist," Rozerd responded with a tensed face. His army was losing, and the soldiers were being pushed to the lake. If they get trapped there, there would be no way out. They would be massacred.
Rozerd raised his hand and signaled the archers he had hid behind the hill near the lake. The one he stayed on. There were more than a hundred archers who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Shoot!" the prince ordered.
The arrows left the bows, and it took the enemies by surprise. They started dying in dozens in just seconds. Kyte, too, targeted the best fighters among the enemies, and he never missed. The army who had their back against the wall now counter-attacked owing to the chaos in the enemy ranks. The tribal soldiers were pushed to the open ground again, where the remaining troops of Rozerd attacked them from behind.
They were being sandwiched.
Rozerd smiled. "Gotcha." But his smile could not stay for long as he saw the remaining soldiers of Hammer storming towards them.
There was something that caught his attention much more, and it surprised him.
"Why brother Hammer himself is taking the charge?" he wondered.
"It is strange, my prince," Kyte reacted. "Why would he take such a risk?"
Rozerd thought for a while and said, "I know what he is doing. He is sending me a message."
"What kind of message?"
"He is calling me a coward. He has the advantage, yet he is leading his army from the front. And here I am, enjoying the view." He frowned hard. "That dastard. I will have to enter the battlefield for my soldiers to get their spirits up."
"That is too dangerous, my prince," Kyte objected. "I would rather join the battlefield. You should stay here and give commands."
"No, we both would join."
Rozerd wondered if Colt would make his move now.
Hammer and his army mixed into the chaos. As expected, they dominated the battlefield. The charismatic leader of the enemies made the opposing party shiver in fear.
When Hammer was cutting the soldiers of his brother, his sight fell on someone across the battlefield. It was Rozerd himself who glared at him, mounted on his horse with a sword in his hand.
"So, you are here personally now, little brother Rozerd," Hammer muttered.
Without wasting a moment, they both galloped their horses towards each other, and clashed. They turned their horses and clashed multiple times while dealing with minor nuisances from the opposite forces.
"This will be your last battle, brother!" Rozerd announced, and pointed his sword at Hammer.
"In your dreams!" Hammer shouted.
They both collided again. Rozerd was about to turn his horse again, but suddenly, his sword broke. He could not believe his brother had defeated him.
Hammer had a grin on his face when he turned his horse. "Say your farewell, brother." He galloped towards Rozerd, who stayed there aghast, not knowing where to run off.
"This might be the end." Rozerd smiled with a strained expression.
Hammer was about to swing his scimitar when he got close to his brother. Suddenly, there was a twist in the events. An arrow hit him in the thigh. He could not keep his balance and fell from the horse.
Rozerd grinned this time. "Got you, brother." He had placed Kyte in a position from where he could target the king. He suddenly cried, "King Hammer is dead! King Hammer is down!"
The spirit of the soldiers of King Hammer was in pieces.
"Our messiah is dead?"
"No, this can not be…"
"What would we do now?"
They could not believe what had just happened. The tides were turned again. The spirits of the soldiers of Rozerd were soaring high.
"Hell yeah! We have won!"
They began cutting down their enemies more viciously. Rozerd run with his horse around the fallen Hammer. He knew his brother would not die this easily. He could see the body laid on the belly. He had just announced his death to turn the tide of the battlefield.
"What?" Rozerd reacted in shock when Hammer jumped up and slashed the horse's neck with his scimitar at a lightning speed. The horse lost control, which made Rozerd fall from up there as well.
The enemy soldiers saw Hammer was alive. "King Hammer is alive!" a soldier announced.
"Yeah, our messiah is alive!"
"He is alive!"
The tides turned again.
Hammer broke the arrow stuck in his thigh and somehow walked to his grounded brother. He raised his scimitar high in the air and readied it for a swing. "You are dead now."