Slaughter on the Front Line
2815 Words
"Do not be crazy, i***t! The rain of fire arrows will fall any moment now!" Goran screamed while grabbing an iron reinforced wooden shield lying in the mud.
"Cut the chatter! Just follow me if you still want to live!" Nikolai exclaimed as he stepped forward, pushing through the thick smoke rising high from the burning camp.
"Whatever, do as you please! Just watch out if I die in vain here!" Goran grumbled, sounding thoroughly frustrated.
Goran shouted at the top of his lungs, calling out to the outcast soldiers who were running aimlessly. Trembling, ten wounded soldiers ran to gather behind Nikolai, forming a small line that was inherently fragile.
"Here it comes!"
Hundreds of flaming arrows plunged down from atop the hill, darting through the air before falling and stabbing into the earth. The sound of thousands of arrows sounded like the roar of a whirlwind ready to flatten anything beneath it.
"Raise your shields! Tighten the formation and no one move!" Nikolai commanded firmly while raising a thick wooden shield above his head.
The soldiers followed his instructions instinctively. They pressed closely together, joining their wooden shields to form a sturdy protective roof in the middle of the open field.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The rain of fire arrows struck consecutively atop their shields. Sparks of fire and wooden splinters flew everywhere, burning the edges of their clothes and damaging the defense they had built.
Two soldiers on the outer flank screamed hysterically when arrows pierced their shoulder and thigh, but Nikolai held his shield position with immense firmness, not shifting a single centimeter.
"Hold! Do not break rank if you do not want to die a foolish death!" Nikolai shouted encouragingly amid the rumble of fire explosions.
After the first wave of arrows abated, Nikolai immediately threw his shield down. He leaped through the thick smoke with a large axe in his right hand.
In front of him, five thick-skinned mountain tribe soldiers were already approaching with drawn greatswords. They laughed gleefully, thinking they would find terrified prey.
"Die, Frostvein dog!" shouted the frontmost enemy while swinging his sword horizontally toward Nikolai's neck.
Nikolai ducked swiftly, letting the enemy's sword blade s***h empty air above his head. With exceptionally nimble movements, he slammed the end of his iron axe right into that enemy's knee.
CRACK!
"AAAGHH!" The enemy screamed in pain as his kneecap shattered. He fell to his knees in the wet mud.
Without wasting time, Nikolai spun his body and slashed the axe into the enemy's neck. Fresh blood spurted out heavily, drenching Nikolai's sweat covered face and chest.
"What on earth was that?!"
The other four enemies were shocked to see their comrade die in a single swift movement. However, their bloodlust prevented them from retreating, and they instead attacked Nikolai simultaneously from various directions.
"Do not be afraid! Attack!"
Nikolai read every enemy movement meticulously. Years of experience leading massive battles in his past made him know precisely the weak points of this unorganized attack formation.
He parried the second enemy's sword strike using the axe handle, then kicked the third enemy's chest, throwing him backward into his own companion.
"Goran! Take your men and attack their right flank!" Nikolai shouted without looking back.
"Huh?"
Goran, seeing Kael's prowess, suddenly regained his courage. He led eight outcast soldiers to charge the two faltering enemies on the right.
Close quarters combat broke out fiercely. The clashing sound of iron and roars of agony filled the air, which grew increasingly suffocating with the stench of blood.
Nikolai kept moving like a tireless killer. Although Kael's body fatigued quickly and his breathing began to chop, his pure combat techniques compensated for all physical shortcomings.
"Die, all of you!"
He thrust the tip of the axe into the belly of the enemy in front of him, then twisted the weapon roughly until the enemy collapsed lifelessly.
"Haah... haah..." Nikolai inhaled deeply. The lingering pain from the mana core extraction wound in his past life swirled again unexpectedly in the center of his chest.
The stinging heat caused Nikolai's vision to blur momentarily. His body pitched forward, leaning on the axe handle planted in the ground.
"An opening!" shouted a tall, large enemy soldier who noticed Nikolai's condition. The man ran at full speed while raising a spiked iron mace high.
"Kael! Watch out behind you!" Goran yelled from a distance while busy holding off another enemy attack.
"I must remain strong!"
Nikolai bit his lower lip until it bled to divert the pain in his chest. He forced his eyes to focus back on the threat coming from ahead.
As the iron mace swung down to crush his head, Nikolai channeled a bit of the remaining mana he had gathered into his leg muscles.
SNAP!
Nikolai shifted sideways with a speed hard to believe for the naked eye. The iron mace slammed into the ground hard, creating a small crater in the mud.
Before the giant enemy could pull back his mace, Nikolai leaped up and drove his knee straight into the enemy's face.
THUMP!
"Argh!"
The enemy's nose was smashed and bleeding, causing him to step back while groaning in pain. Nikolai did not give his enemy a single moment to catch his breath.
"You want to try your luck? Fine, just do not cry about it!"
He snatched a short sword tucked at the waist of a dead enemy beside him, then thrust the blade beneath the giant's chin.
The giant collapsed against the ground with a loud thud, dying instantly with eyes wide open.
Nikolai stood atop the pile of enemy corpses, wiping the blood covering his eyes. Around him, the lines of mountain tribe enemies began to be pushed back due to the fierce resistance they never expected from these punishment barracks.
"Is that all you have got? Damn, it is far too easy to kill you all. Your lives are truly worthless," Nikolai muttered softly.
The remaining outcast soldiers cheered hysterically seeing their success in surviving the first wave of enemy attacks.
"We did it! We won!" shouted one of the outcast soldiers joyfully while raising his bloodied sword.
However, Nikolai did not join in celebrating that small victory. He stared straight toward the main hill, where the elite Frostvein troops stood under the command of Commander Vane.
The elite troops merely stood silently from a distance in their polished iron armor, watching the battle in the punishment barracks without the slightest intention of sending reinforcements.
"Bastards! You stayed silent on purpose so we would die here, didn't you?" Nikolai muttered in an extremely cold tone.
An itch in his hands called forth a burning desire for vengeance. This rotten military system was the creation of the traitors under Isolde's leadership.
Goran walked toward Nikolai while wiping sweat off his forehead. "Kael, the enemy has retreated behind the hill! Where should we hold our ground now?"
Nikolai turned his body, looking at Goran and the dozen surviving outcast soldiers with a sharp glare.
"We are not holding our ground in this trash heap anymore," Nikolai said firmly.
"W-what do you mean?" Goran asked, confused.
"We are going to Commander Vane's main tent right now," Nikolai answered while tossing aside his cracked iron axe and replacing it with a better longsword belonging to the enemy.
The outcast soldiers looked at each other with faces full of hesitation and deep fear.
"But... Commander Vane is the highest commander on this front line! If we abandon our post without orders, we could be executed for disobedience!" exclaimed one of the soldiers anxiously.
Nikolai laughed cynically upon hearing it. "Execution? You were sentenced to death the moment you were first sent here to be arrow bait!"
Nikolai's sentence silenced everyone present. What the man before them said was indeed a bitter truth they had always ignored all this time.
"Do you want to stay here waiting for the next enemy attack and die a foolish death, or follow me to demand your rights as human beings?" Nikolai asked again in a challenging tone.
Goran tightened his grip on his sword, then nodded forcefully. "I am coming with you, Kael! I am sick and tired of being turned into enemy food!"
"We are coming too!" exclaimed the other outcast soldiers in succession, ignited by Nikolai's charisma and leadership.
"Alright, just obey my orders if you do not want to die."
Nikolai led the small group of fifteen people, walking across the battlefield filled with corpses and the ruins of burning tents.
They marched toward a grand, dark red tent standing sturdily behind the hill, where Commander Vane and the elite officers were making merry.
Two fully armored guard soldiers standing before the main tent door immediately crossed their spears upon seeing Nikolai and his group approaching.
"Halt! Outcast soldiers are forbidden from approaching the command tent!" barked one of the guards in an extremely arrogant tone.
"Move aside, do not block the path if you still value your lives," replied Nikolai without slowing his pace in the slightest.
"Insolent! Are you looking for a fight?!" shouted the guard while pointing his spear tip at Nikolai's chest.
Without further word, Nikolai grabbed the spear shaft with his left hand, then pulled it with immense force until the guard was dragged forward.
THUMP!
A single elbow strike from Nikolai landed squarely on that guard's jaw, knocking him out instantly and sending him face first onto the snow.
The second guard, panicking, tried to draw his sword, but Goran along with three other outcast soldiers charged forward immediately and pinned him to the ground.
Nikolai kicked the wooden door of the main tent, breaching it inside.
BANG!
Inside the warm tent, fragrant with incense smoke, Commander Vane was sitting casually in his leather chair enjoying a glass of wine with two young officers.
The stout man with a thick mustache was shocked out of his wits seeing his tent door destroyed by the kick of a low, filthy outcast soldier covered in blood and grime.
"Bastards! Who gave you permission to enter here, you rotten worms?!" Commander Vane shouted, his face turning red as he held back his fury.
Nikolai stepped forward slowly, allowing the enemy blood dripping from his sword to soil the expensive red carpet inside the tent.
"We just finished clearing out thousands of enemies that you allowed to break through the front lines, Commander," Nikolai said in a heavy, cold voice.
Vane slammed his wine goblet onto the table roughly, spilling its contents over the war map.
"How dare you speak like that in front of me! You are merely outcast soldiers whose job is indeed to die! You are just bait to clear the path for the main force!" Vane barked as he stood up.
The two officers beside Vane immediately drew their swords, stepping up to protect the portly commander.
"Surrender your weapons now and kneel. If you refuse to obey, I will order the military forces to slaughter you all!" Vane threatened with a treacherous look.
Nikolai narrowed his eyes, taking a step closer to the command table.
"Do you think cheap threats like that can frighten me, Vane?" Nikolai whispered softly.
"Damn it! Kill this bastard right now!" Vane commanded hysterically to his two officers.
The first officer leaped forward, swinging his sword toward Nikolai's head with a very fast overhead strike.
Nikolai merely stood still, his body tilting slightly to the left, letting the enemy sword pass a few centimeters from his ear.
With a single highly precise spinning movement, Nikolai pushed the spine of his own sword, striking the officer's jaw until his teeth flew out and his body was thrown into a tent pole.
"Argh!"
"Bastard! What devil has possessed you?"
The second officer, seeing his comrade fall instantly, became hesitant and terrified. His feet froze on the spot.
Nikolai capitalized on that hesitation. He stepped forward quickly, kicking the second officer's knee until it buckled, then slammed the pommel of his sword into the man's nape until he fainted.
Now, only Commander Vane remained standing alone behind the command table with a deathly pale face and a body trembling violently.
"You... you are not Kael! Kael could not possibly have fighting abilities like this!" Vane screamed in a high pitched, terrified voice.
Nikolai ignored Vane's words. He vaulted over the command table in one nimble movement, then grabbed the collar of Vane's expensive iron armor with his left hand.
CRASH!
Nikolai slammed Vane's portly body onto the wooden table until the expensive table split into two pieces.
"Ouch..."
Vane groaned in pain on the floor, clutching his tight chest. Before he could get up, the cold tip of Nikolai's sword was already pressed directly against his throat.
"So, Vane? Do you want to try my sword?"
"Please... mercy! Do not kill me! I can give you gold and a high rank in the main army!" Vane wailed, begging for his life to be spared.
Goran and the outcast soldiers watching from the front of the tent door held their breath. They had never imagined seeing a high commander kneeling and begging for mercy from a low soldier.
Nikolai looked down at Vane with a gaze filled with utter disgust. Corrupt rulers like this were the reason Frostvein was rotting from within.
"I do not need your tiny gold or cheap rank, Vane," Nikolai said coldly.
"Then what do you want from me?!" Vane asked, tears of fear streaming down his cheeks.
Nikolai lowered his body, bringing his face close to Vane's ear while pressing his sword tip a little deeper until blood dripped onto the man's neck.
"From now on, I am in control of this front line command," Nikolai said sharply.
Vane swallowed his saliva, which tasted extremely metallic, his eyes darting wildly searching for an opening to escape, but Nikolai's grip held his body far too firmly.
"You cannot do this! The empire will surely send a slaughter squad if they learn of a rebellion!" Vane screamed, trying to bluff.
Nikolai smiled faintly, a smile that made the hairs on Vane's neck stand up instantly.
"Let them come. In fact, I can hardly wait for the arrival of people from the capital," Nikolai replied in a casual yet deadly tone.
Goran stepped forward closer to Nikolai with an extremely anxious look on his face. "Kael, what should we do now?" Goran asked full of anticipation.
Nikolai looked down at Vane, who grew increasingly terrified beneath the threat of his blade, then shifted his gaze to the front line maps scattered across the floor.
"Tie him to the post in front of the tent without clothes. Let everyone know who the new ruler of this place is," Nikolai ordered firmly.
"What?" Vane muttered in disbelief.
The outcast soldiers immediately stepped forward with great enthusiasm, dragging the hysterically screaming Commander Vane out of the tent.
"Let go of me, you fools! Do not act as you please in this tent! I am your commander!"
Nikolai sheathed his sword, then walked toward a separate command desk in the corner of the room to search for information regarding the latest military force maps.
As he flipped through the stack of war report papers on the table, his attention was suddenly arrested by a black envelope with a very familiar red wax seal.
Nikolai's heart beat wildly and irregularly. He recognized the emblem of the Thorned Rose carved into the red wax.
"This emblem..."
He picked up the envelope with a hand that slowly trembled, then broke the wax seal to read the contents of the letter inside.
As his eyes read line after line of writing on the paper, Nikolai's facial expression turned into immense rage until his eyes glared sharply.
"Kael! What is wrong with you?! What kind of letter is that to make your face look like that?!" asked Goran, who had just walked back inside the tent.
Nikolai raised the letter with fingers that gripped it so tightly the paper tore slightly.
"This is an execution order to execute someone!"
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