World Conquest Online

By the time that Lu Fang and his Lancers had cleared their run, the Celtic Warriors and Praetorians had both began charging in to the flaming entrance of the now hellish Tongpai Town. The Praetorians in a tighter formation than their Barbarian counter parts. They were led by a wild eyed Abubakar, a warrior who had never asked to be in this position, but had been thrust in to it by circumstance. Tongpai Town was the place he would prove himself, not just to himself, but to Meritamen and the trust she put in him.

They charged, using their momentum to dispatch the remaining enemy that were trying to escape, the only direction they could run being towards them. All that could be heard around Tongpai Town was the sounds of roaring Warriors from Riverside and the dying screams of their burning foe.

Dom heard it all from his own battlefield, the sounds echoing throughout. The blazing carcass of Tongpai Town shone bright in the night sky, as the smell of burning buildings and roasting flesh reverberated in his nose. His eyes stung as the smoke blew his way, but he gazed ahead of himself regardless.

The gates in front of him had similarly collapsed on the floor, the enemy charging wildly to escape and destroy their ambushers. Dom looked around as he stabbed his spear in to the throat of a wild eyed enemy that was part of a large group that were trying to push through, their organisation looser than he expected.

He had finally had chance to face them himself and seeing them in a face to face situation would always leave a mark on him. They felt like something from a horror movie and their lack of self preservation made them a dangerous foe. They wore a mismatch of rags, with a large percentage wearing barely anything at all. He was also surprised to notice that there were both male and females amongst them, hard to distinguish due to their slim, almost malnourished looking figures.

The Hoplite had done a good job at holding them back after the initial charges, but it was now the time for the Legionaries to do their work. They marched forwards as one, Dom strapped his spear behind him as they did so that he could join them in the melee. He began drawing his new sword the Harpe as he marched alongside the first Century beside Octavian in the first row. Tomyris was on the other side, marching with the third century that would join him as they finished the job.

Dom didn’t need to March forwards, he could have stayed back and watched, but he wanted to join in. No, in his mind he needed to join in, and vanquish this foe that threatened the kingdom he was trying to make.

Subutai was close by, his Archers still taking shots as less of the enemy appeared on the walls that began to collapse in places as the buildings beside them burnt high in the sky. He keenly dispatched any that could be seen and was loudly encouraging the Horse Archers beside him. Dom wondered what it would have been like to see Subutai in his prime, leading tens of thousands of Horse Archers.

A gruesome tormented grey face suddenly appeared in front of him as he approached the fallen gate, the smoke from Tongpai Town reducing his vision. There was a lot of hatred emitting from the eyes piercing in to him from his burning foe. He quickly swung his sword Harpe, slashing at the enemy who put their thin arms up to block, their own sword discarded in the inhumane heat. His sword surprisingly cut through both muscle and bone easily, whilst Octavian beside him finished the enemy with a stab to the gut and a butt from the shield.

"Keep in line!" Octavian ordered as some keen Legionaries began to make the formation misshapen. A terrible mistake in the smoking ruins of Tongpai Town.

More enemies flooded out as they walked over the burnt gate. Dom was surprised by the mismatch of weapons that they held, some held a variety of swords, whilst others had bows, axes and spears. There didn’t seem to be a particular pattern or style to the weapons held.

A barbed arrow was shot, flying over Dom and Octavian and hitting a Legionary two rows behind. Dom heard a grunt and some profanity, but the century continued to move on. Dom didn’t see where it was shot from, and he realised how exposed he was becoming.

"Let them come to us." Octavian ordered as Tomyris, Centurion Percennius and the third Century appeared beside them. Nearly two hundred Legionaries stood beside Dom as he stared at the remaining enemy at the gate, exhaustion and fear on their faces as they couldn’t leave by the gate, but couldn’t return where they came from.

One of them growled, slightly taller than the rest, wearing much better quality garments and wielding a bow with barbed arrows. A loose fitting chest piece protected his key organs. He growled loudly, the rest responded with a scream as they made their final charge towards the waiting line of Legionaries.

Dom braced himself as the mutual killing began. The Legionaries keeping the gateway blocked and in a tight formation as the enemy ran straight in to their heavy shields. The Legionaries quickly following up with a stab of their sword, before retracting and repeating. The enemies agility and nimbleness lost due to the excessive heat that radiated from behind them, causing them to be exhausted and dehydrated.

Dom joined in, using his own sword to slash and stab. He felt that he could clearly see the weaknesses and the ideal location to strike in each enemy he faced, as possible opportunities for counter attacks appeared in front of him. Taking advantage of it he slashed another foe in the stomach, before almost decapitating another that suddenly appeared. The enemies around him all fell in a heap before the Legionaries wall, their grey bodies stamped on by their own kind as they continued to come.

This continued as he ducked and dodged, being supported by the Legionaries around him, with the occasional arrow flying over him from Subutai and the Horse Archers on to the burning enemies that came towards them.

Once the pile began to build up, Octavian quickly ordered the formation to step back several steps. Dom had wondered why, but quickly realised the enemies were using their own kind as a stepping stone to try and leap in to their formation. One did jump high off the small pile of corpses but was dispatched by an arrow from the Horse Archers behind, who were targeting the enemy Archers, falling within the Century and only causing a minor distraction.

Dom had lost sight of the armoured enemy by now, who he assumed was some form of leader in this particular group, but as the smoke became thicker and thicker, the visibility reduced.

"There are less and less of them Lord Lazarus." Octavian grunted from beside him as he stepped over enemy bodies as the Century now pushed over the enemy corpse pile and went back on the offensive.

"Keep your eyes open." Dom heard Tomyris shout, as the occasional Arrow still shot towards the marching Legionaries. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Let the fire take them, do not expose yourselves unnecessarily!" Dom ordered, not wanting to take the risk of the battlefield causing injuries to his Warriors.

They made a semi circle formation around the gate, with Subutai and his Archers positioned behind. Time slipped by as less and less enemies approached, those that did in a worse state than those before them. Their bodies covered in burns, or severe damage to them from falling debris. A few had approached with arrows protruding from them, most likely from the Lakeside.

.....

Gan Ning stood patiently on the Galatea as the crew around him and on the surrounding ships fired at the coast of Tongpai Town. Their enemy illuminated by the flaming buildings behind them. The smoke thankfully blowing away from the ships and giving the crew a perfect view.

"It feels like target practice." He said to Hua Rong who was beside him, his own bow by by his side, too exhausted to participate himself.

Hua Rong and Gu Kaizhi had safely escaped the town through their tunnels, arriving at the edge of the Town. Rather than taking the land route and potentially being caught up in the fight taking place outside, they had opted to use the small escape boat that had been hidden nearby. A small crew had waited for them and they had rowed safely to the fleet whilst the arrows and stones rained down on Tongpai Town.

"It wouldn’t feel this way if you was in there." Hua Rong replied, clearly aware at how close he had come to dying tonight. The enemy were ferocious and he was grateful the trap had worked.

"I don’t doubt it." Gan Ning agreed, before turning to the crew. "Keep the pressure up, the more we take here, the less our men on the land have to fight!"

"Their numbers are clearly thinning." Gu Kaizhi commented from behind, sat on a stool on the deck. "This should be over soon."

"I’m surprised by how many there was in the first place." Gan Ning stated, "We would have had little chance of success if we had faced them in a different situation. It just shows how much further we need to go to protect what we are building."

"I would definitely prefer to fight fellow humans next time." Hua Rong agreed, as he lifted his bow, deciding he would release some of his tension as his arrow swiftly arched and caught one in the throat. The enemy grabbed at their neck, before loosing balance and falling in to the lake, his comrades continuing to run towards the gate where Dom was located.

"Keep up the pressure!" Gan Ning ordered as the enemy numbers continued to reduce.

...

The sun had started to rise by the time the final battle for Tongpai Town had ended. The Commander’s of Riverside stood together and watched the once successful Town gradually collapse in on itself, most of its buildings now nothing but skeleton structures and ash.

The enemy bodies that had escaped were all being collected and dumped together in a pile by the military fortress that had been heavily dismantled for fire materials. Each enemy was stabbed again before being moved to confirm they were dead, as some Riverside Warriors had been injured by not fully dead enemies who had retaliated when being awoken.

They hadn’t entered the town yet, the place too dangerous for the Warriors of Riverside to tread. Gan Ning had his ships patrolling the outside, whilst Xun You had a squadron of Horse Archers patrolling the outer wall. Dom had wanted to search some of the bodies inside, particularly looking for the enemy in the chest piece armour and any others like him.

"When the sun is fully up, I’ll dispatch scouts in to the forest to make sure that their are no enemies in hiding." Subutai started as the available Commander’s stood and discussed the next steps. His body covered in dust from the smoke that had blew on him. Xun You and Gan Ning were both busy managing their areas. Lu Fang was managing the body gathering and burning, whilst Abubakar had been dispatched to Riverside to inform them of the victory, a proudful look on his face after the success at his gate.

"They’ll need to be careful, make sure to take some of the Tiger mounted Forbidden Guard." Dom ordered, his eyes red from the smoke and his lids blacking from exhaustion. His own black armour now grey from the dust that had landed on him, "I want us travelling back to Riverside by afternoon, with a stop over at our Military Camp by tonight."

"That would be good." Tomyris agreed, her armour bloodied from being at the front of the fighting. "The Warriors are exhausted, as am I. It has been a long few days."

"I second that!" Tomoe agreed, her armour also bloodied and covered in dust and other unknown gooey substances, "but I will scout the forest with Subutai first."

"If we have confidence, I would recommend that we start to send units back soon." Subutai offered, "If there are enemies and they sacrificed their allies, just to catch us now whilst we are exhausted, we won’t win anyway. It would be better to reform and replan."

"I agree, let’s get the enemy bodies gathered and burnt." Dom replied, "Then we’ll send the first units back, we’ll start with the Praetorians and Celtic Mercenaries as they had the toughest time. Followed by the First and the Third Legions."

"I’ll leave a small scout force here until everyone has departed and have them check the wreckage once it is safe to do so." Subutai explained. "I’ll make sure they are volunteers."

"Let’s get Gan Ning to leave one of the Bireme and Merchant Ships, so they can sail home rather than travel by foot." Crassus agreed, he was sat down under a tree whilst the rest stood exhausted and discussed. "It’ll be safer with more numbers. The rest of the Navy can return then."

"Let’s do that, but they must leave within the day. I expect the flames would have been visible in the distance, and I don’t want to meet any more neighbours quite yet." Dom said proudly, already trying to plan how they could keep this location. He would need his key strategists to discuss this when he returned.