Dom appeared on the other side of the light ring, he felt a lightness as he exited and was relieved to see that he was in one piece. In front of him was a large open Oasis, the water was a turquoise colour and had very little movement, the Oasis was large and reminded Dom of a small reservoir or lake. Surrounding the Oasis were long green reeds and long green grass, that were easily past Dom's waist. There were also Palm trees surrounding the Oasis and their canopies gave little shade on the warm arid ground, that was a mixture of dried mud and coarse sand.
The rest of the Riverside contingent soon appeared through the light ring, with the Spartans leading the way, followed by Tomoe, the Lancers, Subutai, Banas and then the Horse Archers. As they appeared they all had a look of awe on their faces as if this was a surreal experience to them as much as it was to Dom.
Leonidas and Cleombrotus brought their horses to either side of Dom and stood guard, Leonidas was holding Dom's white flag with the Sabre Tooth Tiger on the front, whilst his spear was strapped to his back. The Lancers and their heavier armoured horses went to the left with Tomoe at the front, where as the Horse Archers and their lighter armoured horses went to the right with Subutai at the front with Banas behind him.
"What a pretty little lake." Tomoe said as she approached Dom, before mumbling, "It's been a strange few days."
"It's an Oasis." Subutai commented, "Which means that we are most likely in a very dry terrain for this quest. The Steppe horses should be ok as long we keep them watered, I'm unsure on the Red Hare's as I haven't seen them in this sort of terrain though."
"We did get them from the Yellow Plains, so hopefully they will be ok with it." Dom replied.
"Let's get them all watered and then we can have a look around and work out where we are." Subutai stated. As he said it the light ring disappeared and behind it Dom noticed that they weren't alone.
A large force of Warriors were approaching the Oasis, marching in a column ten wide, and it tailed of in to the distance. It was mainly built up of Infantry who held wooden shields and spears, they wore white armour made from strong material and had a sickle like sword at their waist. As they marched closer Dom could see that behind these were Archers, who wore bronze tiled armour over leather tunics, they held their bows in their hands as they marched in pace with the infantry.
On the flanks were rows of light brown horse cavalry who held long lances in front of them and wore light armour that had bronze tiling on it. The horses had elaborate feathered plumes atop their heads, which were of a dark blue colour. Behind them were small wooden chariots pulled by two small brown horses, each chariot had a driver who wore a light tunic, and an archer similar to those that marched, who had a small bow and his quivers beside his feet.
At the lead was a group of ten riders, these all wore bronze tiled armour and also wore fabric headdresses that would keep them a bit cooler in the hot sun. The lead rider wore a more elaborate armour that was engraved by red jewels. The others seemed to flank him and he seemed to be the obvious leader of the group. The riders seemed to have noticed Dom's small group by the Oasis and they trotted ahead of the long column and approached them.
"Be careful." Subutai whispered to Dom as he noticed the direction of the army.
"Greetings Riders." The leader stated at they got closer, "Are you with the Hittites or the Egyptians?"
"Egyptians." Dom replied with a wave, gratefully recognising that these would be the Egyptians and not the Hittites.
"You don't look like Egyptians." The leader replied seriously, "But then again, you don't look like Hittites or any of their allies."
"We are well travelled mercenaries that have decided to join the Egyptians in this fight." Dom stated.
"Interesting, four men and their all female guard, have come to fight alongside us?" The leader laughed, "I'm not sure what you and your concubines could add to my force of five thousand. or even if I want to take you."
"These are not my concubines." Dom responded in a measured tone, "these are a small amount of my military who have come with me to aid the mighty Egyptians. These women are some of the strongest warriors you will ever meet, we do not differ between genders."
"I'd love to test them and find out!" The leader argued back, a glint in his eye. "If they are not your concubines, maybe they can provide me with some evening entertainment?"
"We are here to fight, if you are not happy with us, we can always go somewhere else." Dom responded seriously, frustrated at the way the conversation had gone, and annoyed that the NPC's were so argumentative. He suddenly felt that this was going to be a much harder quest than he had initially planned.
"How about a wager, one of your not concubines against one of my guards, if they win I'll take you seriously and let you join us. If not we'll just kill you to make sure you are not a spy, I can take your women as a gift for my king." The Leader commented.
"We are not spies." Dom replied seriously, "My name is Lazarus, and we are mercenaries from a town called Riverside."
The leader put his hand up to signify silence, his guards putting their hands on the hilts of their sickle like swords. "I am on a military march, to lead the way for my King's army and strike our enemies before they arrive and make camp. You happen to be at the exact site I want to set up my camp for the night before we strike at them and you expect me to not think you are a forward scout of them. I have also never heard of a Riverside, or an army of Warrior women. This all feels like it's a set up."
As Dom was about to argue back, Tomoe turned her horse from the Oasis where it was drinking from and trotted over to Dom's side. She had her full armour on, including her helmet which had devil horns on it, in her arm was her Naginata and she stared deathly at the Leader who was questioning them.
"I am Tomoe Gozen of Riverside." She stated, "I will accept your duel. We are no spies and I doubt you have any Man who can defeat me."
Dom turned to look at Subutai, who just nodded back at him with a smile. He had let Genghis loose who was flying over the Egyptian force in a circle, letting Subutai get a rough gage of how many warriors their actually was.
"That is some very interesting armour, I have also never seen someone with such fair skin before, beautiful." The leader said to Tomoe, "And your horse is also a beauty, maybe your leader will gift you and your horse to me and we can believe you are not spies."
"Choose your warrior, I am ready." She responded seriously, aligning her horse straight against the Leader's guards. "I am no prize or gift."
"Nkuku, try not to harm the horse." The leader ordered with a grunt as his group parted, and a tall and wide warrior on horseback appeared in the group of guards. His dark arms bulged through his armour and he held a long lance in his hand. By his side was his sickle sword and he stared at Tomoe as if she was his prey and he was on the hunt.
"Good luck Tomoe." Dom said to her seriously, but inside he was excited to see this Grade B hero fight.
"Thanks Lord Lazarus." She replied, giving him a thumbs up with her armoured hand. She raised her Naginata and prepared herself to charge.
"Go!" Nkuku ordered his horse as his huge frame charged towards Tomoe, whose horse had it's back to the Oasis.
"Go!" Tomoe ordered, kicking her legs in hard against the Red Hare's sides, a killer look in both her and the horses eyes.
Nkuku's horse was fast and used to the terrain and he got a good pace as he lofted his lance and prepared to aim and stab at Tomoe in the chest. Tomoe however was on a Red Hare, one of the fastest horses in history. Red Hare's strong legs sped forwards and Tomoe screamed in delight as she pointed her Naginata forwards as they closed in on each other.
They suddenly passed each other at lightning speed, with no one seeing what the conclusion was from the first bout. Tomoe continued on, pulling her Red Hare's reins and turning it back towards the Riverside contingent. Nkuku however continued in a straight line for a few more paces, before his horse slowed down. As it slowed down, his lance fell from his hands and clattered to the ground. He slowly tilted to the left, and his head came loose and rolled from his body, crashing in to the ground as blood spurted from his headless body, which slumped forwards in his saddle.
"Useless!" The leader responded seeing that his guard had died after one bout. "I'm Tau, commander of the Ra contingent of King Rameses II mighty Army."
"I'm Lord Lazarus of Riverside." Dom replied, "Here to help King Rameses defeat the Hittites."
"Well I'm happy you are on our side." Tau stated, before turning to Tomoe, "You didn't have to kill him."
"In a duel, there is only life and death." She replied seriously.
Tau shrugged his shoulders before turning back to Dom. He looked over the Riverside group, noticing the five Red Hare and the twenty strong Steppe horses who were all well armoured. He then took in the quality of the weapons and armour that the warriors wore and the strong arm muscles that he could see on all of them, be it man or woman.
"I'm not sure what twenty five people can add to five thousand, but I'd rather have you on my side of the battle, than against." Tau stated. "A wager is a wager, and I lost."
"Four thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine." One of Tau's Guards commented.
"Yes Abubakar, Four thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine." Tau agreed with his guard.