Wheel Of Life

The rider continued to quickly approach as Tsubotai ran down the stairs. "It's Leif!" he shouted loudly.

Mark looked at him shocked, Tsubotai had amazing eyesight, maybe this contributed to why he was such a successful general in his past life.

"Open the gate!" Tsubotai bellowed again.

Ellac and Ernac reacted quickly, the monstrous twins quickly dropped their weapons and lifted the beam that held the gate shut. They threw it to the floor effortlessly with a loud bang, before grasping the wooden gates handles and yanking it open. The heavy gates g.r.o.a.n.e.d as they were pulled, opening a gap wide enough for the approaching rider.

Mark looked out towards the approaching horseman who was quickly getting nearer. He was relieved that he had not ordered Boudica to fire. He soon recognised an exhausted Leif on one of the black skinned war horses.

"Enemy in the woods!" Lief shouted from below as he approached, his horse quickly galloping through the now newly opened gate. His horse was frothing at the mouth, its eyes glaring red, whilst it's hind was covered in red marks from running through the woods uncontrollably.

"Enemies in the woods!" he repeated, looking for a reaction. He jumped from the horse and almost fell from exhaustion, but was caught by his commander Tsubotai.

"Water the horse!" Tsubotai ordered at some villagers who stood nearby.

"How many?" Mark shouted from above the wall.

"Too many!" Leif replied. "We need reinforcements now! We are struggling!"

"Who is we?" Mark asked.

"The Hunters and Cave Bandits!" Leif yelled. "We met up at the camp before coming here. On route some arrows flew from the forest, injuring some and killing a few. Since then we have been attacked constantly."

"We need to support them!" Tsubotai commented.

Ellac and Ernac looked at each other with an understanding that only siblings could have. They grabbed their weapons and charged out of the gate, towards the silhouettes that were slowly leaving the woods.

"Archers! do not fire on our men!" Mark ordered quickly. "Who are they?"

"Heavies!" Little Tai yelled, reacting to the twins sudden movement. "Let's go rescue our new brothers!"

The other heavies charged, Vlad, Octavian and Lucan, following behind the twins that quickly picked up pace as they ran down hill.

"I don't know, they are dirty and crazed! Did Rollo make it back?" Leif asked suddenly.

"He did." Tsubotai replied. "He's touch and go though."

"I need more information!" Mark shouted from the wall towards the exhausted Leif, interrupting their conversation.

Gan Ning looked at the situation and unsheaved his swords. "Let's not let them have all the fun!" he shouted!

The Light unit quickly charged after him as he headed to support the newcomers who were still silhouettes in the distance. The sound of clashing weapons and yelling could be heard as they cleared the forest. The group of men being hounded by another force from behind.

Mark clutched his spear shaft tightly, preparing to head down the stairs and join them.

"Bring them back." Boudica said to mark quietly.

"What?" Mark asked confused.

The Silhouettes were more recognisable now, Bertrand could be seen at the front leading the way, with a collection of new faces in the middle. at the rear were Wu Song, Dwayne and some other large men who were clashing weapons with enemies in black.

"Why attack them in the woods?" Boudica asked.

"Because it's a good place to ambush?" Mark replied.

"Who would want to attack us? let alone ambush us?" She replied.

Mark was stumped for a second, they had only made one enemy and they had been wiped out. Who had reason to attack them, as most bandit groups he was aware of wouldn't have the bravery to attack a large group of armed men.

"We need to help them out?" Mark questioned.

"We do!" She replied, "but what if it is a trap?"

Ellac and Ernac soon reached the retreating group, followed by Little Tai and his men. They ran through the crowd who parted ways and reached their foe dressed in black.

Wu Song looked towards Little Tai and nodded in thanks, he was covered in blood, but it was hard to discern if it was his or someone else's. Dwayne had a nasty cut down the side of his arm, and his clothes were also bloodied, he looked in a bad way but continued to fight.

The tip of a long sword quickly reached out towards Little Tai, who reacted by parrying it aside with his drawn Tachi.

"We need to move faster!" Wu Song yelled. "We are in the open now and their archers will start firing again."

Little Tai agreed with him, understanding the situation was not good. More enemy left the woods and Little Tai could see that they were outnumbered.

A bloodied head flew past as Little Tai planned to counter attack his opponent, the spray covering his face. He was blinded for a mili second and felt something heavy clash in to his side. He heared roaring from beside him as pain in his side started to spread. He stepped backwards and cleaned his eyes with the back of his palm. The felt dazed as he looked around, prepared to receive another strike. He was grabbed and dragged backwards roughly and looked to his front to see Octavian swinging his War Hammer around, smashing in to the enemy who was attacking Him. Lucan followed up behind Octavian and slashed his sword high, aiming at their heads. Vlad yelled wildly in a blood rush from behind, still grabbing grant back of Little Tai's armour.

"Protect the commander!' Vlad roared loudly.

Ellac and Ernac supported the tired Wu Song as they reached his side and helped relieve the pressure on the front line.

"Where did they all come from!" Vlad yelled towards Wu Song.

"They ambushed us on the way back! No idea who they are, but they are crazy!" He replied.

The two sides continued to clash, with damage to both sides, Dwayne looked close to passing out. One of the Cave Bandits fell to the ground, a sword biting deep in to his c.h.e.s.t.

They slowly retreated up the hill towards the fort, until Gan Ning and his troops charged in to the fray and pushed the enemies back. They attacked wildly and it allowed the exhausted Hunters and Cave Bandits to quickly turn towards the fort.

"Retreat!" Bertrand shouted from the rear, grasping the attention of the men who were fighting at the front.

They did not need a second instruction and they all quickly sprinted towards the fort doors. Gan Ning and his troops protected the rear, whilst Little Tai was dragged by Vlad. Octavian stayed behind with Gan Ning's men smashing his war hammer at everything that came near him.

"Order a full retreat in to the fort!" Mark ordered from the wall.

Tsubotai raised a horn to his lips that he had looted from the Bandit hideout earlier in the day, hee blew it long and loudly. The men beneath understood and Gan Ning's men turned and ran as well, creating a gap between them and the crazed attackers.

An enemy pounced at Gan Ning, wildly, with his teeth b.a.r.e. A dagger aimed at Gan Ning's back. Gan Ning sensed the incoming danger and leapt forwards up the hill, narrowly avoiding the pursuant.

"Archers, fire at those sc.u.m!" Boudica roared as she launched her first arrow. Her arrow flew true and stuck deeply in to its target, the foe who was chasing Gan Ning.

"Thank you my queen!" he yelled as he neared the gate.

The Hunters were first through the fort doors, with their combination of short swords in their hands and bows across their backs. They wore dark brown bloodied tunic's, some wore hats, whilst others had wild hair from the run.

"Get up here and help!" Mark ordered them quickly, and they responded in kind, running up the stairs and joining the other archers on the walls.

The Cave Bandits soon followed, along side the Heavy unit of Little Tai. They were all larger men, with little clothing. They had tall muscular frames and held large weapons that most people would struggle to wield. Bertrand was at the front and directed them to the fort doors where they prepared to close them.

Little Tai was dragged in by Vlad and placed gently at the base of the steps.

"Get Belle!" he yelled, "The commander had been stabbed!"

A look of shock appeared on Mark's face as a villager ran off in to the distance to do what he had been told, the old life of a slave taking orders never leaving him. Little Tai can't be hurt he told himself.

The Archers continued to fire and the Hunters soon joined them in raining down arrows on their enemies, finally having chance to strike back at the ambusher's.

Gan Ning and the rest of his unit soon piled in to the fort, they pointed heavily as they joined the others and prepared to repel the invaders. The last person through was Octavian, who still widly swung his hammer at the attackers. He smashed body and limb of anyone that neared him.

As Octavian entered the fort, a couple of crazed enemies followed him in. The other members of the Red Ribbons pushed the fort doors closed quickly, before Ellac and Ernac replaced the heavy wood that kept the doors shut.

The two crazed enemies that charged in were quickly dispatched by the troops inside. They wore tattered, dirty clothes and were covered in both fresh and dried blood.

Mark breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at his men, a few were badly hurt, but no one he knew had died. He lamented the loss of the potential new recruits, but those that had survived would be loyal to the Red Ribbons, that he knew.

He looked out towards the fields in front of him, more and more enemies in tattered clothes left the woods, slowly surrounding the flat infront of the fort.

"There must be atleast one hundred of them" Tsubotai counted.

"With such numbers our men should never have survived." Boudica commented.

"Maybe it was a trap." Mark said.