The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

101 - The Field of Death - Part 1

Lionel's Point Of View

The daylight sky above seems to glitter red with sparks and flames that burst violently at the twisting and turning winds ripping at our bodies.

"Boulders incoming!" I hear screamed from the scouts that keep an eye on the enemy magicians in the back. Only wind magic let's him get the warning through the air.

"Secure the shields!" I bellow out among the sound of screams of both people and steel, as the enemy's weapons batter our shields without rest with battle hammers and maces. As the last enemy clears away, the enormous tower shields are bashed into the ground with force enough to make the pebbles jump, and supportive earthen walls are raised underneath to keep us from being crushed by the incoming horrors.

An eerie silence descends on us now where the enemy soldiers are gone... and with it, the sounds of our breaths and hearts become the only sound left on the battlefield... the sudden silence after the flood of noise puts you on edge... it... it is the tense state of waiting for something to happen without being able to do anything other than hope for the best...

"Double check your shields!" I yell out in the dreadful silence, hoping to shake anyone overwhelmed by fear out of it and peer to the older scruffy man next to me. Rover. His steely brown eyes gaze down into the ground. He is clutching his sword tight enough to turn his knuckles white, but doesn't budge an inch though I can see him tremble. He has a daughter waiting for him in a village only a couple of miles from here. He cannot afford to fall.

I grit my teeth and focus. If I appear afraid the men around me will sense it immediately. We must keep this line. We're the first and last line of defense, if we don't hold out then the kingdom falls.

Niles behind me lets out a forced breath to calm down, but even I can tell his breath is ragged from fear.

"Incoming!" The sound of our warning horns blast loudly. The arrival of the boulders is heard before felt, as the air whines and screeches from the masses being flung at us without a hint of mercy... a sound compared to the scream of wailing ghosts, and it sends a chill down my spine to remember the view of those who got crushed in the past. The last thought I have is 'wherever it hits, be safe'.

Then it hits us like lightning.

The earth quakes violently under our feet as the first man-sized boulder smashes into the ground with a deafening impact. The dust and pebbles fly into the air and turns everything into a shaking, dusty fog, but even then I can still see the trails of boulders whirling through the dust and down onto the shields of my men, and I can only pray that they still stand when the dust falls. This is the best response we found after having tried to redirect the boulders multiple times, only to have the boulders explode above us and hit us anyway. Furthermore, we use the boulders for defense once they've landed, but till then, we defend.

The Headal commanders know this, but they don't care about giving us a height or material advantage... they aim to exhaust us physically and mentally. They aim to drive us mad with the sound, and the fear that if we mess up we die. There is no coming back from being crushed by boulders larger than a man.The last crash sounds together with the voice of our scout.

"Boulders exhausted! Enemies incoming!" I get up in an instant and pull the tower shield with me. My legs are still weak from the trembling ground, but we have no time to rest.

"Rise! Prepare for impact!"

I hardly finish my sentence before a massive weight lands on my tower shield, and the spike of a war hammer descends on me with merciless speed and aggressiveness. I grit my teeth and curse their aggressive behavior. Of course they give us no semblance of rest, but this time is worse than usual. The sounds of war flood back, as if the silence from before had merely been an illusion.