I could see the horizon of hazes red, up from my warhorse. The chilly wind brushed against the skin of my face. My muscles twitched in an attempt to produce heat.
"I hope this isn't too much for you, Your Imperial Highness!"said the ever so annoying General Fyrd, with his horse, galloping next to me.
The army carried on behind us, many thousands of men marching across the unforgiving mountains.
"Do you want to explode, General?"
My voice bounced off the stone, snowy slopes of the peak, the entire army hearing my shout at one point.
I tried to sound as intimidating as I could, but the man just smiled at me.
"I'm just worried about you, Your Highness. I was sent here first and foremost to guarantee your safety."
This sly smile again! I wanted to talk back to him, but the band from behind us started playing louder. It was the entry of the "Speculatores", or Scouts in normal people's tongue.
"Your Imperial Highness, General Bernadotte! We have received word from Eschata! It seems the Barbarians have been repelled once again! We don't know how much the nearby outposts will be able to hold them for much longer!"
The music began to quieten down, allowing me to speak freely.
"Then we march there as soon as we can. In two days' time, I'm sure we will arrive to defend our borders from those brutes."
"Oh, I love it when you get patriotic! It's just like I get to discover a wild side from you I haven't discovered...yet."
Besides the General and the army, there was this girl who alone herself could be called an entire company of elite Magic Troopers. Aurelia Taliesyn.
Daughter of Augustus Taliesyn, a man of legendary status at the Border Guard and the Imperial Army in general. He is supposedly the best Urgish Knight in our disposal right now.
I have to say, his daughter is scary strong. The first time I witnessed her aura, I thought she had come here as an enemy. To be accurate, she technically did, until she fell for my charms.
I don't really know what our relationship is about, but I know we are a thing of some sort. I did say I wanted to conquer the world with her. And I also slept with her. Literally. We didn't engage in any kind of sexual acts, as this would have been pure debauchery of my status.
But I do like her. I wouldn't mind doing that sort of thing in the future.
"You're thinking of something dirty, aren't you? You're reddening, even though it's minus 30 degrees up here."said my partner.
I quickly dismissed my blush, smiling at her as normally as I could.
"What are you implying, dear Aurelia? Some kind of...naughty innuendo, perhaps?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
The band started lowering their sound. But no one really announced their presence next to me. I didn't send other scouting parties either.
The world around me seemed to froze. It was some weird intuition that screamed inside of me, lighting my whole body up.
"This..." I tried to reason with my instincts, but my gut was totally going nuts now.
"Stop! Halt! Don't move!" I screamed an order so unnatural to the ears of the fired up men, that had trouble following up what had I just said.
The army came to a halt.
"Huh? Your Highness? What might be happening? Has a problem arisen?"
I didn't pay any heed to either Aurelia nor to General Fyrd, who was galloping increasingly more and more close to me.
The air smelled like smoke and blood.
"Shield wall!"I screamed, just as the distinct sound of arrows, came down upon us, showering our armour and shields. The soldiers generated their magic Holo shields up on their heads, closing in their space to protect themselves from incoming arrow barrages.
"Ambush! Ambush! Descend the mountain! Descend the mountain! We cannot fight here!"
This didn't happen inside the game! This didn't happen at all!
I moved my horse closer and tighter to the formation of the main body of the army.
"We march downhill! March men, march!" My cries were transported all the way to the back of the column, which was still safe.
"Move! Move before they catch up and block us off!"
The men didn't respond, grinning their teeth instead, with their shields above their heads.
We didn't have any casualties yet, but the arrowfire was intensifying.
"This is just like Teutoburg all over again!"i said in disbelief.
If my ear didn't catch the sound of the band stopping at a certain level in the mountain, meaning that some force was blocking it, which again means that someone must be there, then we'd all be dead.
The mist up in the mountain didn't seem to be clearing off any time sooner.
"Men! Follow me! Follow me, and we'll make it out alive! These brutes only know how to fight like the Germanic tribes!"
"The what?"Aurelia posed a question. Oh yeah, this is another world. So, Ariminius and his Tribes don't really exist. Whatever, it's more fun to picture them this way.
The soldiers didn't answer me. I turned to see what was happening.
Horror was depicted in their eyes. They were just cowering under their huge shields, the arrows falling on top of them with ferocity.
Of course they're scared. It's their first real engagement. No matter how much of an elite unit you are, nothing will change if you don't have enough experience to counter the enemy.
Just then, a dude and his company came rushing to us and General Fyrd, along with Aurelia.
An arrow came down from the sky, and pierced the armour of my horse, fatally wounding it, making me fall down to the ground.
Just then, the soldiers arrived, holding their shields in the sky, shaping it like a tortoise formation, or more famously, a testudo; it was raining the gifts of Hell.
"Her Highness, your morons! Protect her Highness! You fucking incompetent idiots!"shout a high ranking officer, holding his transparent holo shield in the air, blocking the arrows from reaching their target: me.
"Vespertite?! Can you hear me?"
The voice of my partner was in front of me, holding her own against the whistling of thanatos.
"Yeah, I can hear you."
"Thank God! What do we do?!"
Just then, roaring from up the tight slopes ahead of us was heard. The voices of brutish nightmares, the echoes of an unknown force way greater than our own was approaching. The epiphonemas of my rear guard as they clashed with the Barbarians, evolved into horrified screams.
"Tsk! Why do I have to do everything...!"
My physique vanished from inside the tortoise formation, my eyes directly facing my adversaries.
"...myself!"
I pierced the air, breaking the spead of sound, releasing a powerful slash with a beam from my Surger, making it temporarily a Magic blade.
The force I used under my feat cracked the earth. The magic blade tore through the armour and skin alike of the brutes.
They looked strange. Folk of strong physique, all shaved hair, pale in complexion, of all gender and ages. They looked like a bunch of a disorganised band from my point of view.
The weapons they carried, were also strange, having different shapes, and a lot more curvy. Some looked like sickles, and others like maces without spikes, twin bladed axes...
I disintegrated them.
My gaze scared them so much, they started retreating inside the mist, the arrows coveting their retreat.
"Cowards! You bunch of disorganised peasants! You dare call yourselves the Porphyroi?! The Imperial Guard?!"i snapped at the soldiers, turning my head behind to face them.
I raised my Surger in the air, casting a spell.
A red stream of light climbed up in the air, dispering the mist, exploding midair.
The Barbarians were revealed, their positions on the top of the cliffs above us, inside the tree lines, with the two paths blocking our way, meant to slow us down.
I turned my full body at my men, addressing them completely. Now, for the killer blow.
"Is this how you guys would kill me?! With this kind of performance in battle, you'd rather kiss your asses goodbye!"
By mocking them, the soldiers self-reflected on what they were doing and what they were going to do, what they were hoping to do.
"If you were to stand against me, then you'd be able to at least handle such simple-minded Barbarians, right?! Or are you just simple-minded yourselves?!"
Just then, amongst the madness, a fife started playing again the melodies of war. The Banner of the Empire stood up again tall, the men clenching their arms, screaming and roaring.
"Take their heads! Take their heads! Hack them down!"shout a soldier, as the men, shouting in sync, bringing their shields together, facing the enemy.
They charged up at the enemy positions. The rear guard rushed to the two blocked positions to secure a passage, as per my orders.
The remaining Knights, and the bulk of the expeditionary force moved up the hills, faster than the arrows, thus avoiding them, charging to the enemies. I was amongst them.
"Hold your Surgers! Hold them!"
The army held out their wands whilst charging to the enemy, with one hand their swords and on the other charging a spell.
"Release! Release! Fire!"i shout, shooting at them a barrage of magic, piercing them and killing many of them in the process.
Next, came the swords. Generating our Holo shields, bashing onto our enemies, we hacked, slashed and cut our way till their back lines, sparing no one.
"Do not leave a single one of them! Kill them all!" I gave my orders directly, holding the Imperial Standard.
The soldiers were in a frenzy. My companions are drunk from bloodlust, maniacally slitting the throats of the enemies of the Empire, all with a smile on their faces.
"See?! This isn't so hard after all, is it?!"i said, as the men this time all answered, singing their choice of words.
The band was playing all this time, the rivers of blood slithering all the way down at their feet.
The rear guard had broken through with ease, commanded by Aurelia, who herself exhibited military and magic prowess once again, blowing an entire battalion of enemies to oblivion, using only a single spell.
The General just cowered in fear with his other officers, with their help of their personal cavarly contingent.
The ambush turned out to be a massacre for the ambushers instead of the ones they were ambushing: us. We just hit our first major victory, and I think I shifted the balance of influence and power toward my favour instead of General Fyrd and his mates.
The soldiers went crazy, berserk. The archers killed anything that moved, each and every Barbarian was slain this day. Their Generals, or I guess Banner Lords, surrendered to me on their horses freezing from the cold.
My soldiers hadn't calmed down at all, but they just resorted to cussing the enemy Generals arrogantly, as we hadn't lost a single man. Just like the armies of Caesar, which camped in Gaul during winter, to protect themselves from the Germanic Tribes, they stopped fearing these brutes after battling them and realising they aren't anything special.
I guess i should have two military branches. One with his mobility and destructabilty, such as these Porphyroi, the men who closely resemble Romans, and Phalangites, heavy defensive units with pikes, sarissa's of such sort.
Oh yeah, this is all coming together.
The Barbarians spoke some kind of Ancient tongue I couldn't understand, but I'm sure they begged for mercy.
"So, what should we do with them? Negotiate with the other Barbarian tribes of Terra Incognita?"
Aurelia came next to me, her sword blood sullied up until its base.
I looked at her with a smile on my face.
"Whaaaaat, of course not."I said, breathing heavily.
"We kill them obviously. They're just 'dead weight' to us!"
It was only I who laughed with my pun. Maybe I do have some screws loose after all.
"It's fine, Vespertite. I love you even with that kind sense of humour."
Author's Note: Thanks for all your support! The next episode features a change in the pace of the story! We are halfway there!