Magnifico

The Surprise

The troops were approaching towards a narrow road, the closest road linking Zuix and Quinax, this terrain was a little bit rocky, deciduous trees were all over the place, some looking like almond trees. Hills covered both sides of the road and it’s a perfect spot for an ambush and an ambush on this part would most certainly be successful if it was well planned. The General was in deep thought, thinking when an incoming arrow, shot from a distance approaching his neck region from the east side was narrowly missed by luck and it was obvious that it was an ambush.

"General, it's an ambush" a Quinax soldier yelled.

The soldiers assembled in a V-formation, a strategy they adopt to repel an enemy assault. When they adopt this strategy, they also use their shields to block off incoming arrows.

“Archers, get ready!! Things are about to get really ugly” the General shouted as his facial expression changed. Archers assumed their positions, with their arrows ready for launch on the General's command.

Arrows were descending from the east side of the mountain towards the army of Quinax but they have already assembled with their shields in a formation that didn’t give much room for the arrow’s penetration. They steadily maintained their position even when the incoming arrows from the enemy were becoming increasingly heavy.

“Archers, shoot!” General Sun shouted.

They slightly opened up their formation to give room for their archers to return arrows to the enemies hiding in the woods and the archers did as commanded. They released a rain of arrows towards the east side as well and they made the impact to be intense and continuous. For a moment, tension doused down and the General instructed that the archers should stop shooting and save their arrows.

After waiting for a long minute, everywhere became calm and nothing moved. Then, there comes a division of soldiers running down from the mountain and behold; it was the Army of Alaphas.

They were drawing closer and closer, running towards Sun and his men like people who got nothing to lose.

Razer saw them coming, in a panic, she shouted “ Magnifico is here, they are all here again, oh no!!” She was panicking on top of the horse and Sun told her to lay low and be calm but she wouldn't listen, so she jumped down from the mount and started running away out of fear. While she was just a few seconds away from the General, an incoming arrow struck her down. It pierced her diaphragm and she fell to the ground.

“Razer!! Oh no!" Sun shouted as he approached her and tried to calm her down. Unbeknownst to General Sun, Razer died at the spot.

“Razer, please wake up, you can’t die, you don’t deserve this, please Razer” Sun begged but Razer didn’t even respond neither did she move her body. Sun tried to revive her, he put his two hands on her chest and pushed it in to resuscitate her but it didn't work out. He also tried to blow in air through her nose but she didn't respond. At this point, the General was enraged and he sobbed. Being aware that she has died, he summoned Seth, a commander in his army.

“Seth, I would need you to ride as fast as you can to Quinax and tell the king that I, the General of Quinax needs him to send some troops for back up here in the border region, tell him that it is a matter of urgency and also, take this seal with you, it is my identity card. This seal is a personal seal the King bestowed upon me as the top General of Quinax, if you give him this, he will believe whatever you will say. Take another soldier with you and start riding now.”

"Okay, sir. I will do exactly as you instructed" Seth smiled ominously. Sun wondered what was funny and also what might have made him even smile when they were in danger. He didn't pay much attention to that so concentrated on what mattered.

Seth mounted on his horse at once and left with one soldier who accompanied him. Sun instructed his army to start advancing with full force to the incoming soldiers of Alaphas. Sun at this point threw his long spear to a soldier running towards him and also danced with the sword in a fashion that created a 360-degree turn and slit through two enemies' throat at once. Sun’s men were always confident fighting alongside him because he was so good at fighting and he made it look easy. They always show remarkable bravery whenever the General is with them because he doesn't just tell you how to do it but also how to get it done.

The Army of Quinax has reduced the army of Alaphas into half when comes a giant in human form that stood eight feet tall, muscular, huge, and somewhat green in color with a long sword. He was vigorously killing Sun’s men, slicing their throats, and cutting through formations. He was unstoppable and his tactics were unmatched. His voice was deep and the force of his dancing sword was piercing through shields Sun’s men used for defense as if it wasn’t cast and molded with wrought iron. This instigated fear among the army of Quinax and also drew the attention of the General who left his position to fight the giant that somewhat looked unnatural to him. He threw his sharp spear at the giant and the spear broke into two equal parts, the giant turned around and looked directly to Sun’s eye who looked back with despair and utter disdain. Behold it was Magnifico, exactly as he was described by Razer.

Sun quickly remembered Razer who died in his hands, the stain of her blood on his armor and he became enraged and he took his sword and rushed to kill Magnifico. Sliding his sword towards Magnifico with a speed quite possible to sever a human head out from a neck at once was blocked by Magnifico's elbow which triggered a reaction back to Sun’s palm that made him let go of his sword. Magnifico swung his left powerful fist at Sun’s head but Sun bent down and it swung across in the tin air.

On raising his head, Magnifico kicked him right in the chest which threw Sun three meters away from Magnifico. By this time, other soldiers came to their General’s rescue but Magnifico was too strong and he left all the soldiers half-dead and the only man standing was Sun who was sitting exhaustively beside an almond tree, breathing heavily and was helplessly looking at his soldiers were slaughtered by Magnifico which was the last remaining soldier on the side of the Alaphas. Then here comes Magnifico running towards Sun’s direction but as he was getting closer, something remarkable happened. He threw his small ax at Sun’s head to finally kill him but Sun was lucky enough to dodge it and it swung right into the almond tree which started shedding leaves and seeds. Magnifico has remained quiet all this while and his mouth tight in a grim, made a little noise as an almond seed hit him at the top of his forehead as the water splashed right at his face.

Sun was watching closely as Magnifico started withdrawing and going back and Sun knew that the seed of the almond was sort of draining away energy from the giant or possibly weakening him. As Magnifico stepped back a little, he said with a deep voice “this fight is not over” then he vanished.

Sun picked more of this seed in case he comes back looking for him because he guessed that the seed at least will keep Magnifico away from him. Sun looked around and all he saw were his men lying dead in the ground including soldiers of Alaphas. It was really a blood bath and he was helplessly and exhaustively looking for survivors but he knew that there was nothing much he could do even if he sees survivors. He sat for a few hours in the scorching sun trying to regain energy lost in the fight.

He kept wondering what could be delaying his rescue team that should have been there by then to help them out to at least take the dead men home to bury them, he kept wondering that maybe Seth didn’t make it home. He went down to the nearest stream to find water to drink because he was very tasty, so while he was drinking water downstream, he saw his stallion right beside the shore of the stream eating grass and this was some sort of reliving to him, a man that had lost hope of going back home was suddenly blessed by the sight of his white mount.