Imperial Spear Page 2

out with full armor, and weapons. Many had mugs of coffee in their hands, which they quickly drained and threw aside. Our party ran to the rooftops, shouting orders to thousands of mercenaries. It started well. A few hundred archers lined the roofs, and simultaneously strung their bows, and fired volleys of arrows, hundreds at a time at the enemies with extreme precision, while parties of swordfighters hacked through the ranks of ghostly enemies. The enemies disappeared, but countless more poured into the city. For every ten soldiers we killed, one of ours would die. It went like this throughout the entire night, when the army disappeared at dawn. Our exhausted soldiers slammed the giant wooden doors to the city shut. Around a hundred dead soldiers littered the city streets, regular citizens still confused, unaware that a war went on in their sleep. The king came out of the castle and addressed the mercenaries. "All of you. Get some sleep. I thank you for protecting the city. But I fear that those monsters will return." He held a war council later that night. Around the table were "The Seven Greatest Generals Ever" as well as our party of six (Xavier counted as a great General).

  These were as follows:

  General Conner, the Hurricane

  General Lute, the Archsage

  General Cat, the Black Knight

  General Foster, the Great Horseman

  General Jacob, the Head Smasher

  General Eva, the Sharpshooper

  And...

  General Xavier, the Frozen.

  Before we sat down I struck up conversation with a few.

  While. Mattais was talking to his employer, Lute, I decided to approach Gen. Foster first.

  "So you are the Great Horseman?" I asked Gen. Foster. "Yeah. I am Adept at what I do." I was bewildered. "But you wear glasses!" Gen. Foster laughed. "That doesn't stop me!" General Cat came up to me, in his Titanic black armor, twice as thick as his skin. "Are to sure you need that much armor?" His voice was muffled, but I was able to make out "Hell yeah! Swords... Stronger... If you meet another armor bearer... Rapier..." finally Gen. Eva came up to me. I paled for I do not like women. "Get Back!" I warned. She held her hands up "Please do not kill me! I am sorry for doing what I did!" I loosened up... "Sorry. It is not you... It is me." She looked at me with a look of pure caring. "Would you like to talk about it?" I shook my head. "No thanks. It is not of your concern." And so we took a seat and started the council. Roy began with the following generic statements. "Welcome! Glad you could make it. Would you all please remove your headgear?" Foster removed his helmet and Lute removed her hood. Cat removed his... er... her helmet. General Cat was, in fact a female. Wow. I did not notice that. "Okay. Xavier, please remove..." he stopped mid sentence. Xavier was sitting back, testing his knife by running his finger along it. Roy ignored him and continued. "Okay everyone. My capital is being attacked! Last night thousands of soldiers invaded the city. This must stop. Any ideas?" Conner started. "I shall send my armies right away to assist you. 10,000 Swordsmasters" Foster continued. "My horsemen will patrol the streets. All 7,500 of them." Jacob picked it up from there. "My barbarians will destroy anyone surrounding the gate. All 15,000!" Catherine stood up. "My knights will stand shoulder to shoulder in the gate. No one will pass my 5,000 Knights!" Lute stood up. Her hair and cloak flapped in her artificial wind. "I will send my teachers" she nodded towards Mattais "and my senior students to fight for you. All 2,500 of the best!" Eva looked nervous. "Um. I guess my archers would be of service. Do what you want with my 5,000 archers." Everyone has provided soldiers except Xavier. Everyone looked at him, and all ten of his bleeding fingers and he stood up. "My assassins are going to be of use. I will fight as well. 5,000 assassins will be headed here on the morrow." Everyone agreed that tomorrow would be the best day to send their share. The council finished, and my party went to grab some coffee and head to an inn. Ivan shook me awake "Loch! The enemies approach! Wake up!" Xavier was up on the roofs shouting orders to everyone. I was sent with others of my style: quick and strong. Ivan joined the few theif-mercenaries, Heather joined the mass of axe-wielding barbarians, Lucia joined the miniscule assassin-mercenaries, Hector joined the massive group of fairly armored soldiers, and Mattais joined up with fourty or fifty other mages. In all I estimated 15,000 mercenaries. The horde of enemy soldiers streamed into the city. I paled.

  The war of Ilya has started.