Narnia- Life Out Of Shadowlands

Ch 22: Cursed

I looked out across the field. The new arrangement of soldiers was now making sense to me. All of their warriors had fallen back and now stood on a small hillock - where did that come from? - Behind a good part of infantry. Two ranks of soldiers stood their ground in front of the Warriors no matter what. I don't know how many more stood behind them. The other ranks of soldiers and the Cavalry in front of the Warriors were the ones who were actually fighting. They were injuring the Warriors from our side and then the Warriors were dragged, or thrown, towards the stationary ranks. These soldiers passed the injured Narnian Warriors to their Warriors and Tash's Warriors killed them.

The two ranks standing in front of them consisted of the thickest skinned or sturdy soldiers, giants, Minotaurs and the like so shooting at them was useless. The turtle shield formation in front made penetrating their ranks next to impossible.

If too many fighting soldiers fell, as they were, soldiers from behind the Warriors came forward and joined the fight.

I had no doubt in my mind that this strategy was conceived by no one but my brother. I was well aware about how his strategies were and this one was definitely his.

Then another question came to my mind. "How did their three Warriors died?"

Caspian seemed to be quite updated with the progress in battle for he immediately replied, "That giant screaming your name left his place and joined the fight because he wanted to kill you. Reep killed him."

The way he talked about Reepicheep, I knew for a fact that he was one of the warriors who had fallen from our side. I decided not to pry further with that question. Caspian was visibly upset about that.

So, I asked a different question. "The other two?"

This time, he had a wry smile on his face. "Scarlett. She managed to kill two before they killed her."

I nodded in understanding. She was indeed a sly woman. However, I also knew that this tactic would not work again. Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eyes I saw that Caspian and I, engaged in our little conversation, had given the enemy the opportunity to completely surround us. Soldiers in two perfect concentric circles surrounded us and were poised to attack us at the first word.

Caspian too realized this and turned to me.

With half-a-smile, I asked him, "Back to back..."

He nodded, "And side-by-side"

I raised my sword and shield, and the enemy attacked.

Truth be told, I would prefer Edmund had my back any day. However, this did not mean that there was any way I could deny that Caspian too was quite good to co-ordinate with.

As I ducked to avoid the blade of a hag-like creature, Caspian crossed his blade with him. I, meanwhile, twisted around to block the axe of a Minotaur that was aiming for Caspian's head. The Minotaurs fought with brute force and so, the full impact of the block sent a searing pain up my right arm.