Gulf Wars, Day 3 (Wednesday, March 16th) - Part One

Here it was at last, the day of reckoning. A day of steel and blood. A day for valor and great deeds. The day we took to the field against a mighty force bent on our defeat. We were fighting for the Trimarians, by Royal decree, and we would not fail our Kingdom or our allies. The first War Point battle was the Field Battle, a last-man-standing, best-two-out-of-three melee with over a hundred fighters on each side. That may not sound like much, but when you are out there in the middle of it, trust me, it feels a lot bigger. Blades everywhere, people "dying" all around you and the throbbing, insistent need to kill. No time to think or plan, just reflex and instinct molded by experience and shouted commands. We ate a quick breakfast, gathered our gear and once again headed for the field. As the appointed hour approached, we gathered up our fellow Meridians and Ysabel gave them a "pep talk". She's very good at inspiring the troops and this time she had brought along something special to help. Black and white hearts, made from felt and sewn by her own hand, with pins on the back so we could wear them proudly on our chests. We would fight with heart, defending the honor of Meridies, or at least give the Ansteorrans something to aim for, she said. By the time we lined up in formation, our blood was up and we were ready for anything. I found myself at the inner end of our line, the far end was anchoring the left flank at the top corner of the field, which slopes a bit from the road to the treeline. We had the high ground this time. Next to me on the right was a small gap and then the main force of one of our allies. I wasn't paying much attention to who they were at that point, only the tactical impact of their presence. Next to me on the left was Mikolaj, one of the best fighters in Meridies. Mikolaj is tall and can play sniper with the best of them, so I immediately formed a plan to use that to our advantage. It wasn't long before "lay on" was called and we started forward en masse to meet our fate. There was some initial confusion as to the speed of our advance, but we got it together before it caused a problem. We hit the enemy line like a tidal wave of black and white doom. I put my plan into action then, sweeping blades down and holding them at bay to give Mikolaj plenty of targets to choose from. I was playing my role well and so was he, taking out fighter after fighter. Soon there was an impressive gap in their line and it was starting to buckle. I braced myself to charge and decimate the open flank this presented, but someone was there ahead of me. The next thing I knew, Ysabel was darting in front of me, followed by what seemed like most of Meridies. They quite literally swept the exposed flank away from me. All that was left was a cluster of four or five stragglers that had been cut off from their main line by Ysabel's charge. They were in a bad position and they knew it, but there was little they could do. One by one, they went down as I moved to help finish them off. By the time I got there, only two were left and the press of our people around them was thick. That was when I made a small tactical error. I should have simply left them to the people already engaged with them, but I was eager for just one more kill. I got it, but not the way I wanted. As I moved into the press, my left arm got pinned and I couldn't defend or withdraw in time to stop a wild shot from taking me in the ribs. I was out, but, damn, it had been an amazing battle! I'll give the details of the next fight in a subsequent post. Wouldn't want to overwhelm you with too much awesomeness at once.