56 Bravehear (2/2)
”You named your swifthart already?” I asked.
”Haven't you?” Luca asked me back.
I shrugged. ”Haven't thought of a good name yet... Jade Shadow, huh?”
”What?” Luca raised an eyebrow at me as if daring me to question his naming sense.”
I shrugged again. ”Nothing... the name sounds cool.”
Our discussion on swiftharts ended there because the horns of war had just sounded—and they were coming from the opposite side of the field where the grey mass of enemy soldiers was positioned.
”Here, we go!” I said a little louder than I intended. Nerves. ”You all know what your teams have to do. Keep close to each other when the melee begins and follow through on your roles. Ashley, your squad's upfront.”
My officers dispersed to return to their respective positions in our unit. The time for preparation was over.
Aura patted me lightly on the shoulder before she took her place standing beside Luca who was behind me.
A loud, raucous cheering from the other side began, and like a sonic boom reverberating across the plains, the roars of a hundred thousand warriors shook the earth beneath my feet.
I glanced down briefly. ”Geez... this is something else.”
My eyes glanced upward and back toward the enemy who continued to roar and yell like the devil himself was slapping their behinds with his fiery whip.
I turned around and saw the tense looks of the soldiers behind me. It seemed like the fervor of the other side was beating down our own morale.
It was suddenly hard to breathe like I was somewhere high up where the air was too thin. Sweat dripped down my forehead. My body felt tense.
And then, like a syren's song drawing my attention, a single cry pierced through the veil of grey muck, ”Warriors of the Trickster Pavilion!”
Darah's voice was like the clarion call of a valkyrie. It was that powerful and that demanding of our attention.
”Tonight, we face the fools standing at our door...” Darah unsheathed her golden sword and raised it high. ”Tomorrow, we greet the red dawn in victory!”
The roar that followed her proclamation made the very earth beneath us tremble. There was not a single voice in the entirety of the Darah army that was not raised. There was not a single hand that was not up. Even Luca. Even me. We were all caught up in this inspiring moment.
Ah, so this is what it's like when a Great General of the Fayne inspires others . I thought. This is how you boost morale .
I could only imagine what our warcries were doing to the enemy army whose own warcries seemed weak in comparison to ours. I could only assume they felt an equal mixture of shock and awe. I knew I did.
Goosebumps rose on the skin of my neck. The hairs on the back of my arm stood on end. That's how electrifying the atmosphere was.
Darah, her armor gleaming even under the low lighting of the Fayne's golden moon, pointed her golden sword forward—and the noise died down suddenly as if the world around me went silent. For those few seconds, everything was still, all was quiet. You could hear a pin drop if you listened hard enough.
Then Darah gave her marching orders, ”Go and be glorious!”
The silence broke. The tension reached its peak. A second roar escaped the lips of those of us in the center army. We heard the right and left armies answer back with their own warcries. Then all at once, the proverbial dam broke and we charged like a tidal wave seeking to consume all we came across.
I remembered running in front of the Foolhardies. I remembered my feet feeling light as feathers. And as the scenery around me began to blur and only the way forward seemed crystal clear, I remembered yelling for everyone to ready their weapons and then unsheathing my falchion.
The wind was in my hair. The cold bit at my skin. The smell of earth floated to my nostrils.
From in front of us, the enemy infantry charged and I remembered their faces coming ever closer.
Suddenly, violently, my remembering was over and the clashing of the two sides began, and then all was red as my falchion's shadowblade cut down the foe before me.