1 Prologue: Steel Elephants and Pipes of Fire

Suggested Chapter Music: The Four Horsemen, Battlefield 1

"The Caliberian dominion is just within our sites! We will travel through the Berksh hill pass and then attack the Abakan town of Dall! From there, we attack the neighboring villages and advance to the Abakan city along with the other brigade and take the Abakan territory!"

A highly decorated knight yells these rallying words in front of 4,000 soldiers, all sorted into 10 different columns. The soldiers are equipped with metal armor covering their entire body, with steel helmets for face protection. Each soldier wields a mighty steel longsword, while others carry bows or crossbows that can take out enemies from a long distance. Groups of cavalry gather at the front of each column, with long lances painted in gold. The military from the land of Fridalm would look terrifying in front of other vicounty's. Still, for some reason, all threats to Caliberians on taking over their territory seem to have failed.

The large group of soldiers began to march along the road outside the hilly range, headed towards the path.

"What d'ya think about them, Calibers?" One soldier asks another.

"I don't know Tanier, but they are foolish to try and face us in combat. Our brigade alone can probably take on their military, and our total force outnumbers them by at least 1 to 10."

"Not to mention that their forces are spread apart thin. I mean, a force of about 4,000 poorly trained farmers and few knights are up against about the might of three different vicounty's, all of which have a military with better training than them."

"But their hero might cause a problem, you know, I've heard that the last hero killed the demon king. Who knows what theirs can do." Tanier replies.

"But it doesn't matter what kind of general they summoned; a proper leader would have surrendered by now. I'd say that their recent victories were by luck or something- hey, why did everyone stop?"

Everyone stopped in the middle of the road along the edge of the hills. On the top was a huge, smooth dome, no, two domes overlooking the path. From each dome pointed out two long tubes, and you could see the outlines of people from the top reacting to the army below.

"That's a pretty shitty place to have an observatory, right?" Tanier laughs.

"That's an observatory?"

"It explains the 2 telescopes, doesn't it?"

"But why do you need two in the same place-"

A sudden grinding sound can be heard, echoing across the mountains, and the two domes with the tubes point down to face the enemy. Suddenly, the sound of thunder rumbles through the air, and an explosion from the two tubes can be seen. The middle line of the marching brigade envelops a fiery explosion and flame. Bodies can be seen charred and flying in the air, and the smell of burnt flesh begins to fill the bottom of the mountain.

"Them observatories have explosion magic!" A knight yells.

"Charge their positions and take out whoever is inside of those domes! The rest of us will head for the path!" the decorated knights yell. A group of horses rushes past the knights, carrying carriages full of supplies and officials.

"What do we do?"

"You heard the man, attack the enemy now!"

2,000 knights charge up the hill, being cut down by the explosions from the two domes. However, a large portion of the soldiers remain.

"Come on; we are almost there! Head to their positions and kill anyone who-"

A knight's sentence was cut short by what sounds like a clattering of pans, and he drops dead on the floor, with holes in his chest. A man peers over the defenses laid on the top of the hill dug in months ago. He appears to be carrying some pipe or club, smoking from the entrance.

"Fire!" He screams at the top of his lungs.

Similar sounds began happening at all parts of the hilly defense, with Caliberian men holding smoking pipes and rods that seemed to leave gaping wounds into any knight's chest. The formation of knights falls, and some begin to run down the hill.

"Come back!" Tanier screams.

"Come back, you cowards! We'll take this hill for Fridalm's honor and decimate the Caliberians! Hurry and destroy that turret! For our Lord, for our families, and fo-"

A burst of the same sound, clattering of pans, occurs, and Tanier falls with 6 holes in his chest. His fellow knight has the face of both shock and horror as Tanier lands in a pool of red. In fear of being struck down by these devastating new weapons, he starts crawling down, scared out of his life. However, he crawls in the wrong direction amidst the explosions and confusion of the knights and ends up crawling towards the enemy trenches.

The knight lands in a THUD inside of the enemy fortifications. Some of the defending Caliberians take confused looks at him, and one quickly pulls out a much smaller pipe. The knight gets on his knees and bows down to these soldiers.

"Please ~ mercy. Mercy on me, soul! I'll never touch a sword again! We were following orders. We meant no har-just, please, don't kill me. Please," he sobs.

He then looks up and sees the Caliberian with the small pipe aiming directly for his head, with a finger on a lever below the pipe and a solemn, cold face. He moves his finger, and the knight closes his eyes for one final time.

Bang.

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"Sir, the attack on the observatory has failed! We have to push through the pass now!"

The other half of the brigade make it to the pass, but their numbers have dwindled due to the Caliberian fortifications that use the strange stone and fire magic. Outside the pass, the entrance was a small barricade made up of a dozen defenders and a land cannon?

"Fire!"

"The enemy has arrived; load the grapeshot!"

"Let none of them pass!"

The Caliberians shouted these words, and they started to use their pipes to attack the Fridalm brigade. Dozens of knights are immediately cut down, and even some of the invincible cavalrymen begin to fall. Some of the soldiers take cover behind a carriage, hoping to shelter them from the Caliberian weapons.

"There's a group of them behind that carriage!"

"Load the high explosive!"

"Fire!"

Suddenly, the carriage is destroyed in an explosion, and pieces of wood fly towards the hiding brigade soldiers, piercing the weak spots of their armor.

"Tell the coachman to ride through this mess now!" The knight in decorated armor says.

"Sir, what about our men?"

"The men are all two-bit mercenaries or some cousins of those cheeky nobles. Let them rot in this forsaken mountain pass!"

A sudden "Yah!" can be heard outside, and the horses begin to gallop through the Berksh hill pass.

However, halfway down the pass, the horses reach a skidding halt, stopping the carriage's movement.

"What's the matter? Keep going, you dimwit, or we'll die!"

"The enemy has elephants, sir!"

"What?"

"Elephants!"

The brigade leader hops out of the carriage to investigate this outrageous claim and looks in front of the carriage. Just like the coachman said, three elephants were approaching in front of him, trunks facing forward and making ground shaking grumbling noises.

"Get me, my archers, now!

A group of four exits the carriage from the back, wielding exquisite bows made from elven wood and lines of sinew from unicorns, all national treasures that can take down a charging orc in one hit. They nock their bows and arrows and begin to aim at these elephants.

"Fire!"

Four arrows fly out and hit the middle elephant, but all bounce off harmlessly. The decorated knight takes a closer look, and to his surprise, they were made of steel, and a man from the inside of the steel elephants pops out to observe the situation. Only then, the knight realized that the elephant trunks looked the same as the observatory's telescopes, and they were pointed right at him.

"Everybody run now!" he wanted to scream. But it was too late; the carriage, four archers, coachman, and he were all taken out by a blast from these elephants.

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"Sir Tanada, the defense of the Berksh mountain ranges were successful, as well as the other hilly passes. What is your next command?"

A shadowy figure with black hair turns around to face the speaker. He says, with a smile, "Let the counterattack begin."