The First Battle

It was nightfall in Gold Town and the crickets chirped noisily and unrelentingly while the sound of the waves crashing into the shoreline gave a comfortable and sleep inducing melody.

Gold Town was one of the fifty six towns of The Sun Empire and also one of the twenty third owned by the Arch Mage and as the name said, it was a town of gold as it had several gold mines in its vicinity making it heavily protected.

Thus, Gold Town flourished from all it's good production and it's severe protection, making it a choice to live in by many and as a result, it was filled with hundreds of people going in and out every day and had a population of over a thousand people and the soldiers numbered a total of five hundred consisting of 200 foot soldiers, 100 spearmen, 100 flame Mages and 100 flame archers.

With such a huge force, the town barely had any attacks from sea pirates or even the dreaded Vikings, but it was out of everyone's mind that this glorious town would be befallen with total calamity.

About a kilometre from the shoreline, a thick fog was slowly drifting across the waters like a tiger stalking a deer. It was extremely large and it's length and breadth was colossal.

As the fog neared the town, the soldiers on the watchtowers were alerted at the sudden emergence of the fog but soon went back to their posts.

After all, it was normal for fogs to envelope the entire town through the night and they would naturally go away in the morning though the watch guard informed the other soldiers about the development.

The colonel of the troops furrowed his brows when the news was brought to him. He was wearing a silver coloured armor with a symbol of the sun on his chest plate and a long sword by his side while he exuded the aura and demeanor of a true commander and warrior.

He followed the soldier to the shoreline immediately. By the time they got there, the fog had almost reached the town and was just barely four hundred metres away.

The colonel studied the fog closely and his gut was telling him something was wrong but he just didn't know what. It did seem like a normal fog.

In order to ease the weird feeling in him, he immediately sent an order for fifty soldiers to be stationed at the shoreline and ordered them not to leave until daybreak.

At night, only about two hundred forces were activated and they patrolled the town and guarded the entrances while the rest where asleep or somewhere else.

As he was waiting for the soldiers to arrive, the fog had reached the land by then and that was when all hell was let loose.

Following several whizzing sounds, at least a hundred arrows rained down on the beach instantly killing majority of the soldiers who were unprepared and even the commander was struck by four arrows.

"Enemy Attack! Enemy Attack!" one of the Sun soldier immediately bellowed as he gritted his teeth and unsheathed his sword.

Following his shouts, several houses windows lit up and the surrounding soldiers resounded the alert call while urging the citizens to stay in their homes.

Following a thunderous war cry, a large number of men emerged from the thick fog each carrying clubs, hatchets, axes or swords and they charged towards the soldiers which were on the beach with bloodshot eyes

The soldiers on the beach were astonished at the high number and method the attackers used and most of them turned tail and tried to run.

At this moment, about two hundred plus Sun Soldiers reached the beach and a huge clash began.

The colonel was valiant and even though he was severely injured, he was like a lion among sheep and with every swing of his sword, two enemies would fall.

As he was fighting he studied the attackers. They wore strange garbs. Each of them wore skulls of various beasts on their chests and thick hides while their bloodshot eyes bore into the minds of the Sun Soldiers.

Almost every second, Sun Soldiers and the enemies would fall but the rate at which the Sun Soldiers were slain was more than that of the attackers and the pressure was mounting.

The colonel right now was covered in several wounds that if he was just a bit slower, would have claimed his life. He was feeling the pressure mounting and the impending doom that was looming.

It had been a long time since an enemy had ever landed a hit on him but he was already covered in slashes that would have claimed his life if he was one bit slower.

The enemies were so agile like the Sea Tyrants(A Notorious Pirate Gang) but bloodthirsty like Vikings. While he was almost submerged in the crowd, several of the attackers let out yelps of pain as several flaming arrows struck their bodies.

The 100 Bow division and Spear division had arrived and with each passing second a number of the attackers were killed by the arrows.

In the Sun Empire, their most skilled warriors were their archers and important were the numerous fire Mages and spearmen and they were also the crux of most of their armies. It was due to the might of the Archery Division and Mage Division that the Sun Empire had won many wars and were still winning which made them a target for the attacking side. It was said that a hundred archers from the Sun Empire could take on several towns in a day all by themselves.

In less than a minute of their involvement, two hundred of their enemies were already dead by arrows bit the Mages all watched stupefied. Their flames weren't working, they tried and tried it was simply not working. Flame Mages Division were feared and respected because of their ability to control Fire but without it they were just humans.

Meanwhile, the colonel was fighting fighting as hard as he could. A skull soldier attacked him with his sword raised and the colonel blocked the strike with enough force and immediately counterattacked and fresh blood and the skull soldier's head shot into the air. Another tried to strike him from behind but to the colonel what had fought countless battles, this one was too slow. He immediately twisted, dodging the strike and he slashed at the waist of the skull soldier, directly cutting him in half and his innards were spilled all over the ground.

The battle carried on for half an hour before the Sun Soldiers were over powered, the colonel himself was exhausted and highly injured while he fought with the last of his strength. As he was fighting, he observed the situation and noticed that the number of Sun Soldiers around him were very little compared to the number of attackers. He then had a feeling that he had failed.

He should have evacuated the citizens sooner, instead he chose to fight it out thinking that he would win, he had really underestimated the enemy who were extremely violent and somewhat skilled too.

The colonel's eyes shined with a strange light and his fighting ferocity increased as he slaughtered more of them with each passing second.  He would not lose, he must not lose!

Those two words kept ringing in his mind and he became like a hungry beast, slaughtering more of the attackers. His actions caused the low morale of the troops to increase as they too put in all they had and lashed out viciously. Their actions caused twenty of the Sun Soldier to be killed but they slaughtered a whole lot of fourty from the attackers side.

The colonel was laughing maniacally as he slaughtered his way through when he slashed his word into the side of one of the attackers. He loved to severe his enemies in half and the sight of their faces before their death was extremely pleasing to him and it made him feel like a death god.

But instead of the sight of his sword slashing through this Skull Soldier, it simply embedded itself on the outer layer of his skin. No matter how hard he tried, he could neither remove nor slash all the way through.

He raised his gaze and his eyes latched onto a towering man that would rival with an elephant in height staring at him coldly and viciously. If it wasn't for the countless years in battle the colonel would have pissed himself several times at such a sight.

The elephant sized man was only the first as several elephant sized men charged into the frenzy and many Sun Soldiers screamed in fear and agony as they were trampled or dismembered by the huge maces and axes the men were wielding.

Only the colonel still stood his ground against the monster sized human and his arms constantly trembled at the force every time he

parried a strike.

The Colonel lived up to his post and was extremely agile, skilled and quick, causing the huge man to have trouble of killing him.

"Retreat! Retreat!" The Colonel yelled loudly while he immediately dodged a swing that was about to decapitate him.

The surrounding soldiers resounded the order and fled like cheetahs away from the battle field and it was to be said that they were more agile and swift in running away than when they were fighting. Though they were mostly fearless, their opponent and fighting style was savage and unpredictable, making it a hard task to defend.

The Colonel too didn't lose out as he sped across the beach to enter the town, slaughtering any enemy that tried to impede his progress.

The enemies, seeing the dreaded Sun Soldiers retreating speedily let out terrifying bouts of laughter as they chased them down.

Sun Soldiers were known all over the Northern Continent as very fierce and merciless, there were tales of them defeating huge numbers of enemies and slaying countless beasts. In the first great war of the entire Northern Continent, The sun empire thoroughly defeated the other Empires and the other Empires had to team up so as to be able to even defend from the Sun Empire's attacks and they still lost a great deal of land,soldiers and resources.

Currently, the other Empires had to let the Sun Empire give a say in any matter involving the entire Southern Continent before anything was carried out, not out of respect, but out of fear.

Now the so called Fearless Sun Soldiers were running away like chickens. The Skull Soldiers increased their attacks and many soldiers who were in the process of escaping were killed.

Only the colonel and a handful escaped and they ran into the town spreading the bad news.

A good number of the citizens had ran away when they heard that the town was under attack while a huge number still stayed because they believed in the might of the troops, but now they heard that the troops were defeated and were even calling the people to evacuate immediately, their faces fell.

The attackers then poured into the town, setting numerous buildings ablaze and killing hundreds. Numerous bodies filled the streets as the attackers destroyed, killed, pillaged, and raped. There was screaming and crying everywhere as people scrambled around like headless chickens before facing their end at the hands of the skull soldiers although there were those who lived farther from the beach and were lucky to escape before the carnage reached their area.

In the midst of all these, the colonel was still fighting as hard as he could, blending into the darkness and ambushing as many of the attackers as he could while saving a good deal of people and in just two minutes he had saved fifty six lives and led them through a secret passage out of the town and the number of enemies that had died at his hands numbered seventy six.

But the Colonel knew he couldn't save all the people but he would not leave them behind either, he would fight each and every one of these bastards till his last breath.

The colonel was a very brave and nationalistic man that loved his Empire with all his heart. Aside from being brave, he was very skilled and never indulged in women like most officers would do, instead, he was up all night and day learning new skills and studying more about his Empire all so he could have a chance at ruling it one day.

He was brave but not foolish. He knew it would be a death sentence to just blindly charge into their midst so he still continued his method of ambushing and then slaying them and he used this tactic to slay an additional thirty six enemies before he was surrounded.

Even though he was surrounded and injured gravely, his courage and will power was still strong. He lashed out viciously and managed to escape although he bore more grievous  wounds.

At this time, about five hundred citizens had escaped while the other five hundred were dead or dying. The colonel himself was already feeling dizzy due to the huge loss of blood. The army that was stationed in Gold Town had already fallen and the attackers gleefully enjoyed what Gold Town had to offer.

As the colonel sought to find a place to hide, several Skull Soldiers came around a corner and they saw him. Immediately they charged and surrounded him while brandishing their weapons.

"You must be the leader of the army here right?" One of the skull soldier whose face was covered in blood asked.

The colonel showed no fear and fearlessly answered, "Yes, I am"

"Good, we need you to come with us, we have been searching for you since the battle began and gave strict orders for you to be captured, not killed so you better come obediently" One of the skull soldier sneered.

"If you think I'll go with you just because you said so, then you must really be underestimating me" The colonel said as he got in a fighting stance and dashed for the closest skull soldier.

He never expected it and the next moment his head was sent flying while fresh blood spurted everywhere dying the ground red.