World Conquest Online

Dom sat on the top of his armoured Red Hare Horse with his Slaying Spear in hand as he watched Cheng Pu and Cheng Zi get ready to charge up the hill. Liao Hua had already left with his detachment and Subutai and Tomoe were to the sides of Dom ready to follow.

"Ready?" Subutai asked Dom, who felt both excited that he was leading a force of over five thousand men, but also worry as things weren’t going to plan.

"Ready." Dom agreed as Subutai whistled towards Cheng Pu, who acknowledged the order and charged up the hill from the tree line with two thousand Sun Family Warriors, followed closely by a large percentage of the foot archers.

They made it around a third of the way up the hill as they ran before they were noticed, keeping their voices down but the sound of their armour was making noises that couldn’t be reduced. Dom noticed some enemy heads appear behind the palisade and then shouts began to erupt around the mini fort, knowing that they were now discovered, Cheng Pu ordered the Warriors to increase their pace, whilst Cheng Zi ordered the Archers to shoot their arrows in to the Fort directly to cause chaos inside.

As the Arrows landed, Cheng Pu was now two thirds of the way up the hill, as more shouts erupted inside the fort. Cheng Pu ran with all of his might as his Warriors reached the walls and began to push their weight against them. In some areas his men began trying to dislodge the wooden stakes that made the wall, whilst others began helping each other prepare to climb. Whilst this happened the Archers continued to shoot more arrows within the fort, with more shouts sounding from within.

"It’s coming." Subutai grinned as the gates began to open and a large group of Cavalry on lightly armoured white horses appeared, a tall general in white armour at the front. Dom could see inside that a large number of infantry where also following them and it wouldn’t be long until they clashed with Cheng Pu’s forces.

Cheng Pu seemed to have noticed and prepared his spearman to take the right flank so they could protect against the enemy Cavalry if they arrived before Dom’s forces did. He didn’t panic and continued to attack the walls to draw the enemy towards him, whilst the Archers continued to shoot in side the small palisade fort.

"Wait." Subutai ordered as some of their Cavalry began to inch forwards from their hidden location, as he waited for the opportune moment when part of the infantry had also left the fort doors, giving them the best chance to interrupt the flow. Dom counted at least five hundred enemy cavalry, but was confident that those from Riverside and their Sun Family Cavalry with them would be enough.

"Cavalry will attack the enemy, Infantry will charge in to the Fort." Dom ordered behind him as they prepared themselves, with Tomoe prepared with the lancers to strike straight for the enemy leader.

"Charge!" Subutai suddenly ordered as he noticed an opportune moment. The Riverside forces charged from the tree line, with Tomoe and her Lancers making straight for the White Armoured General, whilst Subutai ordered his archers to fire at the exposed flanks of the enemy Cavalry. The Sabre Tooth Tigers followed Tomoe, ready to unleash themselves in the fray.

Dom led the Infantry towards the exposed gate, where Subutai ordered a wave of Arrows to be struck to cause confusion before he targeted the Cavalry again. Dom turned and saw as the Officer in the White Armour realised the situation as arrows bounded in to the side of his unit, with men flying from their horses as the deadly arrows from the Riverside Horse Archers hit them, most injured where as others were killed outright. Somehow, the White Armoured General deflected an arrow with his spear, which caused Dom to look on in shock. Dom turned and saw that Subutai had a similar expression of shock as he shot another arrow towards the enemy Officer.

As Subutai’s second Arrow almost hit the Officer, he deflected a final time before having to quickly dodge past a strike from Tomoe’s Naginata as her and the Lancers smashed in to the enemy Cavalry, with Cheng Pu and his unit now charging at them with their spears at the front. Seeing that the Lancers had now smashed in to the Cavalry, Subutai turned his Arrows towards the Infantry that were still coming from beyond the Palisade Fort, giving chance for Dom’s infantry to reach the top of the hill.

As Dom reached the top, he suddenly heard screams of terror, looking to his side he saw that the Sabre Tooth Infantry with Centurion Chen Lu in the lead, clash in to the infantry line, the claws and teeth of them shredding the infantry apart, whilst the sword and spear wielding riders stabbed and slashed around them.

The Sun Family Infantry now hit the enemies as well, with the swordsmen creating a shielded barrier so that the spearman could squeeze through and claim the gate. Dom watched around him as the Sun Family infantry out powered their enemies, with the obvious training from Cheng Pu coming to fruition against the mix of enemy infantry units.

"Put down your weapons or you will be eliminated!" Subutai yelled loudly across the battlefield, trying to make the enemies surrender so as to limit losses on the Riverside and Sun Family side. Capturing enemy Warriors was on the agenda, but preferably when they were inside Jiangxia and they could control the situation, where as capturing any here would mean they would loose forces to guard them.

Most of the infantry that were near the Sabre Tooth Tiger’s immediately through their weapons down, whilst Cheng Pu’s forces came across the Cavalry that had been crushed against the Palisade wall by the Lancers and the follow up Sun Family Cavalry. Cheng Pu and his men began pulling Cavalry from their horses, whilst their leader clashed with Tomoe. Cheng Pu did his best to disarm the enemies without causing any needless lives, an understanding that these were an Elite Unit that they wouldn’t have expected in Huang Zu or Liu Biao’s army.

"Leave the Officer to General Tomoe!" Subutai ordered across the battle so that she wouldn’t be interrupted. Whilst Subutai was not a fan of duel’s, he understood it was something Tomoe enjoyed and the battle outside of the Palisade was already won, with the key battle inside now taking place.

Dom seeing that the outside was being dealt with, charged directly in to the fort itself with the two thousand Warriors he had with him, the Sun Family Swordsmen stuck in neat formations, using their shields to control the battlefield and funnel the enemies towards the exposed tips of the Sun Family Spearmen that were in the centre. Dom calculated that their must be around two thousand Warriors inside, with around a thousand outside that were massively outnumbered by Cheng Pu and Subutai’s forces.

He noticed some Archers in the distance who were gathering themselves to fight back, however by this time Subutai’s Horse Archers had joined under Centurion Banas, who quickly ordered them to launched a volley in their direction, causing them to retreat and disperse. Unlike usual, Dom couldn’t find a place to put himself in the Battle as over four thousand people fought in the enclosed space and instead sat atop his horse, guarded by his Batavi Emperors Guard, and watched the Battle unfold.

"Send some more men to the left!" Dom ordered as he saw that the left line of Sun Family Swordsmen were being attacked by a larger number of enemies who were originally pushing back at the Palisade wall against Cheng Pu’s men.

The Sun forces had the advantage and the those inside the fort were either surrendering or being pushed back. Dom kept shouting orders as he moved more warriors that arrived from Cheng Pu’s detachment to different parts of the battle, whilst Centurion Banas made sure to keep pressure with her arrows on any enemy Archers that came in to view. After a few minutes, Cheng Pu arrived with more of his men.

"Lord Lazarus, General Subutai has requested your presence outside, I can take over here." Cheng Pu stated, a tired smile on his face as another thousand of his men appeared, allowing the Sun Family forces to now easily outnumber the enemy. Dom thanked him, before turning to the wider battlefield.

"The Fort is ours, Surrender and save your lives!" Dom ordered, his voice echoing louder than intended. He was confident at this point that even if Liao Hua had captured any escapee’s, that Jiangxia and Huang Zu’s navy would be aware. He then turned and left the Fort back through the entrance he was partially blocking, to see what Subutai wanted.

The Enemy Cavalry were all dismounted, with many being tied up by Cheng Zi and the spearmen he had with him, with the surviving horses having been rounded up by the Sun Family Cavalry. Dom was surprised to see that a lot of the enemy Cavalry had survived, having being forced to surrender quickly, however there was a lot of injuries. Many enemy infantry had also surrendered, whilst a large number of bodies littered between the fort entrance and where the outside clash happened. Only a few minutes had passed but easily a thousand lives had been taken across the battlefield both inside and outside the Fort.

Dom saw where Subutai was, sat on his horse watching as Tomoe continued to duel with the enemy Officer. His White Armour gleaming in the sunlight as he parried Tomoe’s slashes and countered her. Dom had never seen someone fight against her to this level and was impressed by his skill, however still confident in Tomoe’s victory.

"I want him." Subutai commented seriously as Dom appeared beside him. "He is brilliant."

"He fell for our trap pretty easily." Dom replied seriously, whilst also impressed by the battle that was taking place. No insults were thrown between the two Warriors, just pure violence as they fought with each other with the aim to take the others life.

"Look around, the enemies are all a ragtag bunch. Only the Cavalry wears the same colours as him." Subutai explained, "I doubt he was the commander of this Fort but more of one of those reinforcements the prisoner mentioned. We caught them unaware, but he isn’t fully at fault for that."

"Stop fighting!" Dom ordered loudly as the two continued to fight, as much as it was entertaining to watch, Tomoe needed to maintain her energy for the upcoming battle at Jiangxia. Dom knew that Tomoe had heard him, but she couldn’t stop if she was being attacked still.

"Great Warrior, you have fought well, but your men around you have surrendered." Subutai shouted commandingly, "If you surrender, I will spare their lives. If you do not, I can not make the same promises."

This seemed to grab his attention and as he began to pull back his weapon, Tomoe span her Naginata and hit him across the head with the blunt side of the weapon, causing him to topple unexpectedly from the horse. She then span it again, pointing the sharp edge towards him, whilst he lay unconscious on the floor.

"He was surrendering Tomoe." Subutai chided her playfully, as the tied up Cavalry watched on in shock that their leader had lost.

"Still my win." She replied, before turning her horse and heading inside the fort. Cheng Zi and some of his men quickly gathered the fallen officer and tied him up with the rest of his men that looked shocked at their loss.

"Cheng Zi, I’ll leave this clean up to you, please gather all of the horses and prisoners inside the Fort, we should have it conquered imminently." Subutai ordered, before he and Dom headed back inside.

The inside of the Fort was more peaceful now, as the majority of the enemy had surrendered to Cheng Pu and the Infantry. Many were being disarmed and tied together, whilst Cheng Pu had others searching the tents and temporary structures that littered the inside of the fort. Centurion Banas was currently interrogating one of the junior officers from the enemy forces, whilst Centurion Chen Lu’s tiger stood nearby with an arm in it’s mouth. Dom wanted to shake his head in dismay but tried to keep on a professional face.

"What is he saying?" Dom asked as he approached Banas with Subutai.

"Their commanding officer fled through the rear when the arrows began to fall in to warn Jiangxia. They were a mismatch of forces that had been gathered from local areas, with some reinforcements from the province capital. The main forces are still within Jiangxia." She explained, with the young prisoner nodding his head in agreement.

"Does he know why they are stationed here?" Dom asked her, looking at the prisoner with serious eyes.

"Supposedly they were informed that our navy would be arriving in the coming days to attack, they actually expected us a couple of days ago and because we didn’t arrive they believed that the person that informed them was lying." She stated, her eyebrow raised as she discussed it. "That is why the commanding Officer supposedly abandoned them so quickly as they would be at a lower level of alertness."

"That is a strange development." Dom agreed. "Hopefully Liao Hua caught the fleeing officer and we can gather more information from them."

"Let’s check out the River and see what the situation is." Subutai stated, pulling Dom from his thoughts as the two of them headed to the cliff edge that looked down on the River entrance below, that lead to Jiangxia where the battle would take place.

"That is a real problem!" Dom declared as he looked down below, his mouth agape at the sight.

"Banas!" Subutai ordered loudly, "Bring me Archers now, all of them!"