197 Go for the Throa (1/2)
”So… you know how I didn't really use my falchion in yesterday's battle and just led our unit from the back?” I asked to no one in particular.
Luckily, Edo was in earshot of me, and asked the follow-up, ”Yeah, so?”
”I'm really making up for it now, aren't I?” I asked.
My falchion sang as it cut through the air and into the neck of the salamander warrior that had blocked my path.
Two-hundred elite bodyguards from Amon's personal unit — all of them badass looking salamanders whose shadowblades had been augmented by fire spirits — had come to block our path half a distance away from the basecamp of the general whose head I wanted to claim.
And because of the fiery nature of these salamanders, the air in front of us was so hot you'd feel like you were facing off against a furnace. It made it hard to breathe.
Still, we pressed on, with me, Edo, Thom, and Thor in the lead while our handpicked soldiers gathered around us.
”I can't believe we split our forces even more,” Thom laughed. ”This is way too reckless even for us.”
”Don't complain!” Thor growled.
Thor cut a cross into the chest of a salamander warrior on my immediate right in a great display of swashbuckling swordsmanship.
”We follow the Commander's lead for he promised us victory!” Thor continued.
On the other side of Thor, Thom had just stabbed his katana into another warrior.
”What a loyal mutt, you are, Thor,” Thom laughed.
”Enough with the chatter, guys!” I yelled. ”Concentrate… there are three-hundred fire eaters between us and Amon… That's two to three each for every one of us!”
Just as I said this, Edo felled his fourth salamander warrior.
”It seems I'm over quota,” he noted seriously.
Then, without missing a beat, he swung his glaive forward intending to kill more enemies.
”Warriors, brace!” yelled the salamander leading this retinue.
He was a stout-looking salamander with curly blonde hair that burned at the tips. But the best thing about him was that he was riding on a swifthart.
”Enna, Thom!” I called. ”I want that swifthart.”
There was little else to be said as the two drow melded into the shadows and sprinted across the desert toward the target I'd designated. The rest of us increased our assault on the enemy to cover for them and keep the attention on us.
It was a little while later when I heard the sound of the commander's death rattle. Thom had stabbed him from the front while Enna had taken him in the back.
”Push forward!” I yelled.
Without their leader, the well-trained bodyguards were suddenly rudderless. And that was the thing about well-trained soldiers — they tended to falter when the orders stopped coming because they were too well-trained to follow.
”Your ride, Commander,” Thom said dryly as he handed me the reins of the dead commander's swifthart.
I took it, pulled myself up, and then offered a hand to Enna.
”Ride behind me,” I said. ”You can hack at our enemies while I drive.”
After we were both mounted, I turned to my soldiers who'd just broken off from the enemy's lines, and pointed toward the Amon's remaining two-hundred forces.
”Let's go!” I roared.
At the same time, we all heard the explosion of another magnifier blast.
”That's not good,” Enna said from behind me. It was the understatement of the year as far as I was concerned.
We charged forward into that empty space knowing it was a race against time. But, I wasn't overly worried because time and time again, we Foolhardies have beaten the odds, and it was during these type of clutch moments that we were capable of astonishing feats that dwarf any kind of battle sense or tactic.
In front of us, the divide between me and Amon was getting smaller, and I realized that despite all my planning, Amon still had one tactic to him.
”Hurry,” I urged the unknown swifthart I was riding. ”Before he gets away.”
I was afraid Amon, being a strategic type general, was one of those tacticians who didn't care a bit about honor. If that was the case, all he needed to do was to escape to the east where I and my men wouldn't be able to follow.