Battle Cry VIII

Cedric stood over the balcony rail, gazing anxiously as the rear of the Wolverine
fleet flooded inward, toward the beach. Galgi, who stood next to him, gave a sigh of
relief.

“It looks like sailing far around the back of their fleet was a good gamble to
take,” the weary man said, releasing his grip on the railing. “Especially considering
there’s no place to escape to the west.”

“Nothing but more Wolverines; not to mention Shlanks, huh?” Cedric mumbled
in response, craning his neck to try and glimpse the distant shoreline, barely illuminated
by scattered moonlight and torches of soldiers- moving in mass toward the sea.

“That’s right, sailing around to eastern shores was our only real choice,” Galgi
answered, fixing his disheveled hair with his hand. “We just had to hope they wouldn’t
see us if we took a long path around their backside. Thankfully, this little transport ship
is one of the fastest movers I’ve seen.”

“Probably helps to have a monster like Ralin powering it,” Cedric replied with a
chuckle.

“No doubt,” Galgi said, grinning, “he’s in there cranking the power mill so hard,
I’d be getting in his way if I tried to help.”

As if he’d heard them, Ralin emitted a longwinded “Uohh!” from the captain’s
room, summoning grins to both their worn-out faces.

“I wonder what’s happening with the battle…” Cedric muttered as his grin
gradually faded.

“Well, by the looks of the deserted northern beach battlefield, it seems Hydrick
and Al’s armies moved over to make one massive battlefield,” Galgi answered, squinting
at the shoreline. “What was left of them at least. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on,
but my guess is all hell is breaking loose…Wolverines trying to retreat, and Samuel and
the others swarming on them like madmen.”

“I can only imagine what it’s like for them… to be able to chase their backs after
so long,” Cedric replied, staring on with melancholic interest.
Just then, a unified war cry sounded like a wave passing over the beach.
“UUOHHHHHHHH!”

***
The armor-less and heavily bandaged Hydrick led his assault, alongside Samuel’s
second Lieutenant Gregory, into the heart of the enemy’s right defense line led by one
of Faron’s Lieutenants.

With ease he cleaved through the men protecting the enemy commander, and
in one strike knocked him from his horse, dead. The Teutons around him roared their
battle cry as he raised his broad sword, urging them into the brittle defense line that
fought to hold the pursuing Teutons back while the bulk of the Wolverines retreated
toward their ships.

Gregory, a tall man with wild red hair flowing uninhibited by a helmet, took over
the charge as their combined forces caused the defense line to collapse. Hydrick looked
over the Wolverine forces as they commenced a full retreat, finally pinpointing the
escaping Pursia far ahead and narrowing his eyes before turning toward the middle of
the battlefield. The surge caused by his defeat of the enemy commander and
breakdown of the defense line, was spreading like wildfire.

At the center of the battlefield, Al paved the way forward alongside Samuel’s
Third Lieutenant Roland. The stout man matched Al well, cleaving into the enemy
defense line with a long iron club covered in spikes. Just as their momentum seemed
unstoppable, however, they were met by heavy cavalry forces adorning a sharp goldcolored armor.

The elite cavalry managed to push the dually-led attack backward, until a battlecry surged from the left like a shockwave to the center of the battlefield. The men at Al’s
back pushed forward as if possessed, and he and Roland began to fight through the lines
of heavy cavalry soldiers.

“Looks like Darnew moved over from their left side to make sure Faron retreats
safely!” Al shouted to Roland, who nodded with an excited look.
Just as the two cut their way into the last five lines of heavy cavalry, Darnew
came into clear view. Before they closed in on him, however, a presence rumbled from
behind with a deafening war cry.

Riding the shockwave that had come from the left side,
Samuel’s towering figure charged through the gap between Al and Roland, nearly
knocking them from their horses.

Valblin and Feng rode alongside him at the head of the 25 knights, with some
two-thousand heavy cavalry trailing close behind. Samuel himself seared through the
five lines of heavy cavalry, obliterating man and horse alike with only a few strokes of
his oversized glaive. Before Darnew managed to turn-tail in panic, Samuel’s glaive had
gone through him, producing an explosion of blood and flesh. Valblin swung his golden
glaive through some dozen heavy cavalrymen while Feng cut even more down with his
longsword, leaving none in their wake to attempt a flanking attack on Samuel. The
group behind them fanned out, finishing off the collapsing middle defense line and
initiating a consuming route of the retreating Wolverines.

The surge of morale took over the entire center army, and their war cry rang
loud as they pushed the Wolverines toward the sea. Samuel headed the assault while
the other commanders fanned out at different points of the charge. The unstoppable
Teuton force swallowed thousands of Wolverines, before the front-lines came into firing
range of the war galleys the Wolverines were pouring into. Ballista and cannon-fire
erupted on the shoreline, finally halting the relentless massacre- which allowed the
remaining Wolverines to fill the many ships.

One man, however, did not let up in his advance. Through smoke and flame his
horse raced, and as the barrage of artillery fire ceased and the smoke cleared, his
daunting figure came into view near the very end of the shoreline. His green robes were
tattered and enflamed, and moderate wounds shone throughout his long torso and
arms.

“General!” many of the front-line soldiers cried out, while Hydrick, Al, Valblin,
and the others watched in silent amazement as the man raised his glaive and continued
toward the water, in the direction of a particularly large ship adorned with a golden
archway.

The ship began its departure, firing one last ballista arrow on a direct course to
the man. He refused to falter at the sight of the massive projectile and swung his glaive
with a crushing force as steam rose from his arms. The ballista arrow shattered around
him upon impact, a dozen of its pieces ricocheting into his arms and legs.
The man showed no sign of distress and pressed forward, raising his glaive once
more.

“COME AND FACE ME, SHUANT!” Samuel bellowed out, a seething fire in his
eyes. The curly-headed Wolverine Commander-in-Chief stood at the rear of the ship’s
deck, watching with crossed arms and menacing eyes.

“OR ELSE REGRET THE DAY YOU RAN LIKE A COWARD FROM THIS BEACH!”
As his roar reverberated across the beach, Samuel heaved his glaive back and
threw it like a spear across the water. It traveled some hundred meters before crashing
into the wall just behind the unflinching Shuant, missing him by a hair.

The man who stood alone on the shoreline raised a fist in the air. This time, he
didn’t have to say anything. The sight of his strong back as he stood firm captivated the
Teuton forces and raised their loudest battle cry yet- a cry of victory.
**
The resounding cry reached Cedric as their small ship sailed away from the
beach, far beyond the retreating Wolverine fleet. Galgi and Ralin stood on either side of
him, wide grins plastered on their faces. Cedric cracked a smile himself as he watched
the cheering army in the distance.

“What a thing to witness,” he said in a low voice.

“Yeah, the momentum is in our hands, now,” Galgi responded, placing a hand
on his shoulder. “And you hold the cards to our victory, Cedric.”

“That’s right- let’s not screw it up, Cedo,” Ralin added with a playful smirk.

“Yeah, I know,” Cedric answered, gritting his teeth behind a fiery smile. “The
answer lies with me, now.”