Avalon/Roleplay Section/Hector/The Battle of Henhower
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The Battle of Henhower, Part I
Hector weezes from the open wound on his forearm. He hadn't had time yet to seal it because they were being chased. Half of his men are seriously wounded, more than half are dead. They shuffle through the forest as fast as possible, carrying what living men he has left. They run, blinded by tree branches bashing them in the head. Arms over necks, hobbling like a three legged sack race.
He turns to see some undead gaining on them. Hector drops the soldier he is helping, and turns and draws his sword.
"What in the bloody hell happened Sergant?"
By his side is a bloody man, looking half dead.
"Mi'Lord, I have no idea what happened. Our watchman fell asleep on duty. And before we knew it, some of our fellow troop leaders took off just before they struck us."
Earlier that day, while Hector and his men had slept, an undead horde, huge and grotesque moved in on Hector and his men. 10 men died trying to fight them off, The rest were wounded by scrapes, bites and claw marks. They quickly fell back to the edge of the woods.
Hector had tought them all how to avoid being tracked by the undead... simple, if you bleed, they come... if you bleed, they will find you. So, any bloody wounds, must be cotterized immediately. As the horde began feeding on the 10 dead men, Hector quickly grabbed a bag of cannon powder and poured it on his mens open wounds, then set fire to it. The screams of his men from the pain were drowned out by the screams of undead hord. As quickly as he had set fire to their wounds, he had them up, pairing up the worst with the best, then off they went, Hector, looking over his shoulder as they left.
"Mi'Lord! You're arm!" Hector looks down to see his army covered in blood! "DAMN DAMN DAMN! I didn't take care of my own wound, now we may all die here!"
Hector attacks and cuts off two heads. As the beasts stagger and fall, he quickly follows through with the sword in the heart. Two down, two to go. The Sergant is attacked from behind, and goes down, Hector approaches the third from behind as it approaches the Sergant. Through the back piercing the heart... another one down.
The Sergant flails wildly trying to break free from the monster. Hector rushes to him, suddenly, the undead man is pierced through his heart by an arrow.
Hector looks up and sees his friend, Revan, atop an undead horse. It bucks wildly, but Revan has him under control.
"Hector, old friend!"
"Revan, my god, how long has it been?"
Behind them, the Sergant staggers to his feet. "Lord Revan, I thank you, sir, you... saved my life!"
"Think nothing of it! Hector, your wound, you have to seal that, you know..."
"Yes, yes, of course, as soon as I get some cannon powder..."
"Here, I have some, but first, I need help killing this horse, if I get down now, he'll surely kill us both."
"Of course" Hector lunges and stabs the horse through the chest. The horse bucks back and throws Revan, flails for a moment, then goes still.
"Thanks, nice and delicate, and I appreciate the warning too!" Revan says as he grabs Hectors hands and comes to his feet. He retreives a bag with some cannon powder and promptly lights it to seal Hector's wound.
"Damn, that hurts. Isn't there any other way to do this?... What happened back there, Revan, how did we get caught off guard?"
"My watch was taken out, by a wraith. Not normally accompanying an undead horde. That is how they were able to move in so swiftly, practically undetected."
"A wraith with an undead horde, that's like a King walking down the street with a peasant. What on earth is going on?" Hector asks, looking down in the dirt.
"I don't know, but perhaps this last invasion of the undead was guided by beings more powerful then ourselves. Perhaps an intelligence greater than the wraiths."
Hector shudders... "OK, enough, let's get moving... I'm heading back to Cteduul to see if I can possiblly recruit."
With that, Hector grabs the man he dropped earlier and starts towards Cteduul.
"Coming, Revan?"
The Battle of Henhower, part II
The skies were grey, at least that's what Revan could make out of all the treetops in the way.
"Let's go"
Soon after, the sound of the undead fill the men's ears. The men grab what wounded they could and darted off. Revan looks back at his men to make sure none had been left behind. He saw one man struggling on a wounded.
"Here, I got him."
Revan hoists the wounded man over his shoulder while still run at full speed. The soldier is relieved a bit but his face still bare the fear of being caught by the undead.
"Revan, what are we going to do? 700 of those damned sacs of flesh, we'll never make it out."
"Oh, quit whining soldier. With an attitude like that I'm surprised we're not being chased by you!"
The wounded man on Revan's shoulder had a bloody gash upon his head. He could still see but with a red gloss over his sight. He takes a look at the horde behind them in horror. The undead. Dead men that, yet, still lived. Not only were there dead men there were also the preditorial creatures of the area. Few like giant house cats. The undead think nothing of the trees as they either bounce off of them or plow right throught them showing no sign of fatigue. Water pertrudes through the blood on the wounded man's face through his eyes.
Revan and his men, just a little bit behind Hector's men, were gaining speed away from the horde that lie behind them. The trees broke away to a small valley. The men could see Hector's unit fall into the valley and freeze. When the men enter the quiet valley they held their breath to see the pale flesh of a small group of undead barreling towards them.
"Go Hector, I can hold them off."
"Revan, are you crazy? You'll die here."
"Hector, It's either you or me. Now get going and don't waste any more time."
"I'm sorry Revan, but I'm staying to fight."
Revan turns to the monsters and calls his men to a defensive box formation.
"Throw the wounded behind us, I don't want them to get in the way."
Hectors men join Revans to create the box formation. Revan and Hector stand in front of the box and wait.
"I knew this would happen, Didn't I tell Grim-Reaper it was too risky to take Henhower?"
Hector did not reply, he unsheathes his sword and assumes a battle ready stance. His sword seemed to shimmer like silver though no light could have done this. Revan prepares for battle. It began to rain. The horde was seconds in front of them. Revan could clearly distinguish the shape of the beasts and the second before the two masses clashed Revan was not scared of the beasts that wanted his blood so badly. In fact he felt brotherly towards them.
As living began to fight undead, Revan clearly knew that it was rediculus to think like that. The first to attack Revan was an undead giant cat. He fell to the floor and raised his blade to cut the underbelly of it. The undead beast fell to the floor, still flinching but with not enough mobility to do anything. Revan quickly picked himself up to slice the right side of an undead in the form of a human. He finished the undead with a clean spin and a quick slice of the neck, causing the head to spin and fall to the ground as its body did. Revan charges another monster and sinks his blade in the left leg of another undead. The leg snaps like a tree freshly cut by a wood cutter. To finish the undead off, Revan crushes the head with a powerful stomp with his foot, continuing on to the next monster.
The men had fought well but many had start to fall. Down to the few men Hector had he spoke.
"RETREAT!!"
Revan followed that up with the same call. He had 4 men down to their last breath. Hector's men run off into the valley. Revan runs blindly out of the skirmish towards the forest. He would have turned around since that was where they were being chased by the first monster horde but he was already ahead of the monsters.
3 men safely make it out of the skirmish, one struggled at first but was then caught by an undead that had jumped into the sky and onto the poor soldier. The undead beast bit down into the neck of the soldier and ripped out a chunk of the soldiers neck with the veins spraying out a stream of red blood that shot at least 3 feet away. Revan and his three men ran wildly into the forest. They were soon met by the bulk of the horde that was chasing them. Revan verred left and never looked back. He was running faster than he had ever ran but no matter how fast Revan ran the undead seemed to match his speed. One undead managed to slash Revan on the back and Revan cried out to no one but the beasts behind him.
A flash appeared ahead of him and a crack. A tree had been struck by lightning and before it could fall Revan slipped under the tree, blocking off the undead with a blaze of fire.
Through the orange and red flames of the fire, Revan could see the undead making it's way slowly closer to the cave. It was absolutely horrifying to Revan and his eyes buldged, starring at the undead closing in on him. One undead had made it into the flames and embraced them. It was burning alive, or burning dead, walking through the scorching flames that burnt the skin into crisp that cracked off as it moved. It fell on the floor, motionless. The rest of the horde walked into the flames all burning in one hellish inferno so blood thirsty and determined to kill Revan. Revan could smell the peutrid smell of burning flesh that filled the whole cave and it became hard to breathe. All that night Revan had the horrifying sight of undead after undead walk into the greedy flames that claimed one after one. It had saved Revan's life but at a terrifying display that wouldn't let Revan sleep.
The next day Revan had claimed the area safe and he kicked what was a combination of flesh and dirt onto the flames and they went out. Revan wandered around the area and finnaly found one wounded man in a tree. He, soon after, found the last two in a rotting tree. He took one deep breathe and ordered his men to move on.
"Carry on men."
The Battle of Henhower, part III
Hector ran with his eight wounded men as if none of them had a scratch on them... Hector smiles sinically. Maybe these gashing wounds are superficial. Look at my unit move..
After Hector had sounded the retreat, he lead his men down to a vally floor, over a river and into the foothills of Cteduul.
"Revan, there is a pass up that way..." he says, gasping for air. No reply.
"Revan?" Hector turns to look as he runs, slowing as his men pass him like lightning.
"Revan!" He calls out. He sees him, running through the woods, with a burning branch...all alone... in a different direction... Revan disappears behind a hill. The undead are fast! They are right behind Revan.
Hector looks and sees a horde turning towards his men.
Revan can fend for himself, he's rather good, but my men need looking after.
Hector quickly picks up the pace and races to catch up. Suddenly, they are surounded. The undead seem to come from everywhere. There are hundreds of them, but only a few are in front.
"Swing that sword Soldier!!! Swing it!!" A confused and frightened soldier looks back at Hector, then plunges head-long into the 3 undead in front of him. He doesn't even get a strike in and they consume him. He disappears in a mangelled mass of rotten flesh, as the undead devour him.
Hector screams, "To the right, to the right, run!!!" He's down to 7 men now. They vear right and the men, in unison swing their swords and cut the undead down in front of them and blast through.
Running as fast as they can, they crest a hill and one man tumbles head over heels down the other side. An undead beast pounces on him, and the man's scream turns into a girgle as blood fills his throat!!!
Damn it, man, why didn't you keep your footing? Hector runs. Strangley, he's not afraid for himself, he fears for his men; and, he fears for her. If he never makes it back, then she'll be all alone... Enough, think! Where can we go. We can not escape this horde! They will not tire, but we will, and quickly!
As they run, it is all they can do to stay ahead of the mis-shapen freaks! They start to ascend another hill. The trees start to thin here. This is a rural region. By the gods, I've lead them to a village. Damn it Hector!
As they ascend, Hector hears a bell ringing wildly! The men crest the hill and see a small village. People are grabbing everything and running towards a chappel!
That's it!!! That's it!!!
"Head to the chappel men! Run, the church is sacred ground. The undead can not go there!"
I smile crosses his face. I've cheated death yet again!... Not yet fool! You've got to make it there first!!!
The undead pick up speed, sensing the urgency. Hector's men follow suite, speeding up, rejuvinated at the thought of survival.
They run. A small child is ahead of Hector. He'll never make it. Damn my selflessness! He smiles at the lack of humility he has for himself.
Hector scoops up the child and his mother in one swoop, only slowing a bit and continues running. He can feel the heat of the undead as they close in on him!
"Run men!!! RUN!!!"
The men come crashing into the church and collapse to the ground. Hector, is right behind them. He tosses the child and his mother into the church door and turns, standing defiantly outside the church door at the horde as it comes to a stop.
He stands their, studying them. They, in return, study him. They pace around the chappel, defiantly. But soon, their undying hunger forces them to return to the woods, in search of flesh.
"Sir, that was close."
Yes indeed. Yet, another tale to tell. He thinks to himself. How many of these will I survive?
His thoughts turn to Revan. By the gods, I hope he makes it.
Next: The Battle of Norjke
