Swords clanged as blood painted the battle field of Bernbute. Men roared in success as others groaned in pain. The sun was overhead at midday. The men of Bernbute city stood firm within and on top of their fortress. Regular citizens sheltered in safe areas- the old palace and religious facilities.
The king was in his chamber, sat on a royal seat and eyes fixed on his father's statue. His right hand was firm around the silver handle of his sword. He had his armor on. His guards stood firm outside his door. For the first time, he had no plan at all. He was clueless such that he felt naive and desperate. If the city walls were breached, then all his hard work would have been for nothing.
Even from his chamber, he heard. The noises. The groaning. The swords clanging. He felt it. His reign was ending in the worst possible way. It was time to act and he had to act in the most suitable way. He got up from his seat and walked out of his chamber. His main advisor, Lord Elide, joined him at the hall way of the palace.
" Lord King, the Merrians are losing terribly, seems the wilds would be turning their concentration on us soon!" Elide stated.
He stopped walking and held Elide by the left shoulder. He smiled briefly then looked straight into his eyes.
" This is just the beginning. If we are to survive this war, we have to save our energy, we will be needing a lot of it over the next...days, weeks, months, years even!" He said then let go of him.
" What if we help today? What if we aide Merria and save her warriors today then they will be indebted to us? We won't be worrying about civil war for a while, huh?"
" Good plan, but no one has experience against these Wilds, so we take advantage of the situation today and we save the day tomorrow!" He said then walked out of the palace. Lord Elide did not push it. He knew the limits to engage his king in a conversation. Many before him had their tongues removed. He was not looking forward for that.
He walked to the viewing front on top of the fortress and stared down at the war. The Merrian army had been wiped away and piled on the battleground of Bernbute. The Wilds stood in front of the gate and eyes fixed on top of the fortress, as if they dared the Bernbutes.
" Take a sac of apples, they love apples. It should distract them for a while!" He said, his eyes lost in the battleground. The warriors heed to his command and immediately, they began collecting apples . As soon as a sac was full, they carried it up the fortress and next to the king.
" On your command, Lord King!" The commander requested.
" Actually, poison the apples with the most poisonous seed powder then pour down the apples to them and remain with the sac. They won't even wash them, they will just eat them to their death!" He gave his orders of which were quickly heeded to and the apples poured down from the fortress like rain.
As expected, the wilds scrambled for the apples, stampeding some of them to death and others accidentally burying their swords in hearts of others within the process. After the induced struggle among the Wilds, they had half of their number alive at the battleground to fight and with poisoned apples. In as much as they were very fond of apples as the myths and personal interactions with them suggested, it happened this time they did not care to take bites of the healthy looking apples. They stood still, their eyes fixed above at the fortress and one hand with weapons and the other with apples.
Almost in sync, they threw back the apples abruptly hitting several Bernbute warriors with them on the head, making some of them lose balance and fall off the fortress and down into the battleground or in the city. Some survived while others died from the impact. The ones who fell outside the city and survived were brutally slaughtered by the Wilds as they screamed in satisfaction.
It was evident that they were not to be distracted. Their minds cried for war and nothing else. They started attempts of knocking the gate open. They carried a large metallic rod that the Merrians had brought with and hit the titanic gate severally. It was war and the Wilds were no where near exhaustion as Arvin thought. Instead, they were more energetic than how they had started.
" Archers! Lose, you know the sequence!" The commander shouted as the royal guards surrounded the king.
" The king is to be protected by your lives!" He continued.
The archers found their targets for a while until the wilds presented their own archers. Theirs were much accurate and more severe. They retaliated, taking down several archers of the Bernbute army. Clearly, The Wilds were the favorites and far stronger. They continued hitting the gate as it weakend by every strike.
Inside the city, some warriors prepared in case of breach. Everyone held their weapons ready and firmly as they awaited death or glory.
***
The Wilds had presented their first batch of warriors across the Kingdom of Bernbute. Every sub-kingdom was targeted by the first batch. Merria was the most vulnerable of all. They had sent half their army to attack Bernbute in quest to release themselves from the kingdom and embark on an independent path. The wilds raided several villages and towns in Merria forcing many to flee their homes in haste and many others to death.
Josh and Silion hid in a cave above a hill that separated Bernbute from Merria Land. They were aware of what had befallen the kingdom and they feared, not only for their lives, but also for the lives of many innocent residents in the kingdom.
Midtown had been attacked secretly though. The wilds had infiltrated the town Neeka and subtly killed half the men and women who could fight in the town. The town did not literally have warriors to defend it, they had not faced any attack in a very long time. By the time word was out that there was a state of emergency in the town, it was too late.
Welter was aware that the Wilds would attack on the start of winter but he did not know when they would. It was this Intel that had him develop a bargain with Nira and had her captured before his own intents clouded his judgement. If someone was to be blamed, everyone should have blamed him.
**War of Bernbute**
The gate was getting impatient. The sound of horns echoed through the city. The horns were only used in the case where the city might be breached by its enemies and the warriors felt it, the Wilds were overpowering them in as much as they had an advantage. The Wilds' weapons were not that modern but they did the work anyway. As the war progressed, the men of Bernbute weakened. In every five Wilds killed, twelve Bernbutes fell.
The king Arvin directed the people to be moved away from the city. Horses were prepared as women and children were assembled for rescue through the secret passage. Every man was given weapons and armory to defend their city and their kingdom. Ravens were sent to deliver messages to and from several Lords of the land. The kingdom was on the verge of collapsing. The king was behind several warriors, his sword held firm and ready to serve his kingdom. Every woman and child in the city had been exiled for safety. They escaped through a planted forest and into boats that awaited them in the Bernbute harbor. In several groups, they were shipped abroad.
Every male of fifteen years and above was expected to fight for their country and serve their king. In Bernbute, every male child was trained for war from the age of ten and at fifteen the male was sworn to protect the Kingdom. Weapons were abundant and plenty but from the look of things, that was not an advantage anymore.
The gate was finally breached and the Wilds stormed into the city, more energetic than ever. They felt alive. They screamed with joy at the sight of how beautiful the city was and that they had successfully gained access into it. They slayed one Bernbute warrior after the other as some of them fell to the sword as well. They were about two hundred by the time they stormed into the city but with strength of six thousand men. Arvin stood perplexed at the site of how his people died. It was then that he saw his father's spirit.
He had not seen it in years, when he took the throne at first he did but ...
" You can do this!" His father's spirit said to him.
" What if I can't?" He answered it, his grip on the sword loosening and his strength burning out. He had killed three wilds he had already faced and only because his guards had stood by him.
" You can, you will!" The spirit said then disappeared. His hands hardened around the handle of the sword. He became so energetic all of a sudden, as if he had been triggered.
He slaughtered three wilds in succession before addressing his men, still fighting the wilds.
" Make them retreat outside the gate. We have to lock our gate! Protect our properties! Protect the land of our fathers. Do not give them any ground!" He shouted in command and his men yelled in psyche. They became more intense and dedicated.
" River front!" The commander directed. River front was a strategy they had in their playbooks. It meant they were to behave in the way of a river. They would position themselves in a manner a river does. They would form the source of the river, tributaries and the mouth. Two warriors stood with their backs against each other in every aspect of the model and together they would form a diagonal line.
Some of them would then race up to the fortress and await for signals by the ones imitating a river for any additional support required.
The warriors divided themselves in honor of the strategy designed by the King, Arvin Beast. The startegy was the most effective in the land as the enemy would be confused on how to proceed.
" Force them to the battleground!" Arvin commanded his army. It was then that they saw a difference. They had gotten an upper hand after all. One by one, the Wilds fell and others were pushed until they were out of the city. Behind them, the other group of Bernbute army awaited the attackers and fought them from the back, such that the Wilds were sandwiched between them. They made sure each and every wild fell to their swords, even though some of them were still unlucky.
After a while, Bernbute was free from the attack of the wilds but they knew it was only a matter of time before the second group of the Wilds attacked them again. They piled up the bodies of their warriors and took them to the graveyard for mass burial. They picked up also the bodies of the wilds and as a ritual they usually performed after every win, they took them to the cursed forest and burnt them.
The city was silent for a while. The king had gone back to the palace and took a bathe and changed into fresh clothes. He stood from his window and looked down at the empty city. The army was getting rid of any blood spilled in the city. Lord Elide joined him.
" We won! You led us to victory, again!"
" We haven't won Elide my friend, we are far from victory!" He said walking away from the window.