Captain Minetos: A Short Story

Despite the fury of their enemy’s attack, Captain Minetos’s 1st company was in good shape. The Raiders in front of us had suffered a fearsome toll from our archers. In fact, there weren’t any men immediately behind the enemy formation to fill the empty places in their line. However, enemy skirmishers had begun sweeping our open flank, which was a dangerous threat. The Amarians were formation fighters, each warrior was trained to depend on the shield next them, turn their flank and their whole fighting system unraveled. I saw an Amarian warrior get blindsided by the enemy flankers, taking a spear in the thigh.
My mouth felt dry, but I yelled “Wolves, follow me!”
“To Lord Solon!” my men shouted, taking up a battle cry.
“Charge!” I screamed at
With every step he took his menacing face contorted with hatred.
Out of nowhere, a hand axe whirled at me. Reflexively, I lifted my shield. The axe harmlessly banged against the metal; a third man at the edge of my vision had engaged me from only a few feet away. I took a step backwards, not having any time to chide myself for the carelessness. The two large men snapped off a few more curses and attacked me. Fortunately, one of them stumbled on the dead man at my feet, distributing the timing of their combined assault. Everything else around me faded to background noise, as I fought them.
The Raider’s brother tried to skewer me in the leg, expecting his partner to smash my shield. I parried the spear and bashed him in the face with my own shield. He screamed and jumped back. His nose bled. The other spearman tried to slam into me with his round shield to knock me off balance. I stepped diagonally, so his blow glanced of my shield. I looked for the third Raider, but I was relieved to see he was on his knees with an arrow in his shoulder. “Lucky, a Royal Archer was watching my back,” I thought. The man still held another throwing axe; yet, he was momentarily