Page 57 of Historical Hotties
And Cassius was right in the middle of it.
The mercenaries were few, and highly skilled, but they were also highly clever. Knowing they couldn’t match Doncaster’s numbers, they scattered, which caused small groups of Doncaster men to go in chase. They were separating the army in a tactical move, piece by piece, that Cassius saw early on. He began ordering the Doncaster men to remain grouped and to not run after the individual mercenaries.
But those individual mercenaries were creating an issue.
They were the ones who were setting the fires and generally causing havoc, trying to force the army to splinter. Darian had his hands full because he was over by the church dedicated to St. George, trying to keep a gang of mercenaries from raiding the church. That put him in a stationary position, meaning he couldn’t move away and manage the battle.
Cassius, once again, took charge.
He broke up his troops into four big groups and assigned each group a section of the town. The men formed lines and began to move through the streets, fighting with the mercenaries, but sweeping them towards the town gates to essentially sweep them out of the town. It worked well enough for the metal worker avenue and for the avenue of the bakers, but the avenue of the merchants was a more difficult fight.
That’s where things got down and dirty.
There were three gates leading into Doncaster’s village and Cassius made sure those gates were covered with a heavy presence of Doncaster soldiers as the fighting on the avenue of merchants turned into hand-to-hand combat. The mercenaries were resorting to dirty tricks to battle the Doncaster men, including climbing on roofs and either dropping heavy things on the Doncaster men, like pots or rocks, or by jumping on top of them.
Cassius saw more than one soldier go down by someone jumping off the roof on top of them. He even saw one of Darian’s junior knights get toppled off his horse that way. Bose was able to help the young knight, who was badly injured, but he took a blade to the arm for his efforts. Still able to fight, Bose had dispatched his enemy in a spectacularly gruesome way before making sure the young knight was taken away from the fight.
And the battle raged on. The Doncaster men had the mercenaries overwhelmed, but they didn’t go down easily. Cassius had also given the order for the men to take away whatever booty the mercenaries happened to be carrying, so it soon became a fight for the mercenaries to purely keep what they’d already taken.
That’s when the punches began to fly in earnest.
There was so much blood being splattered around that it was difficult to tell where it was coming from and who, exactly, was injured. Bose had beaten down a man who was carrying hams as well as finery he’d taken from a merchant stall, pounding him unconscious until he could finally take the items away from him. All of the ill-gotten gains were being hauled back to the church for protection so the merchants and villagers could reclaim their items when the fight was over.
“Cass,” Rhori called above the sounds of battle. “The south side of the village is burning heavily. We should put men to help fight the fire. The villagers are afraid to come out of their homes and if we don’t do something, the town will be gone by morning.”
Cassius could see the heavy smoke rising to the south and he knew Rhori wasn’t wrong. With the brittle material the cottages were built with, they could go up very easily in a blaze.
“Select a contingent of men to fight the fire,” he directed. “Some to protect the villagers and some to help fight. Where’s de Lohr?”
“Still at the church as far as I know,” Rhori said. “Do you want me to fetch him?”
Cassius shook his head. “Nay,” he said, lashing out a big boot and kicking a mercenary in the face when he came too close. “Leave him where he is most needed. In fact, I think…”
He was cut off when the sounds of bolts being launched filled the air. Two arrows sailed past his head, striking both a mercenary and a Doncaster soldier. But before Cassius could get out of the way and under cover, two big bolts sailed into him, one hitting him in the shoulder and the other somewhere down on his torso.
The force of the strikes were hard enough to nearly topple him from his horse, but he held fast. He didn’t want to end up on the ground where he would surely be set upon. As he struggled to stay upright, Rhori was beside him, shoving him up onto his saddle.
“Christ, Cass,” he muttered. “We need to get you back to the castle. Can you ride?”
In extreme pain, Cassius grunted. “Bloody bastards,” he muttered as another series of bolts sailed through the air, missing him and barely missing Rhori. “Get the hell out of here. Tell the men to retreat to the church. Go!”
“But –”
“Go!”Cassius boomed. “I will make it back to the castle on my own, but you are now in charge. Find out who’s shooting off those arrows and cut their bloody heads off!”
Rhori wanted to go with him; he truly did, but a direct order from Cassius wasn’t meant to be disobeyed. With two ugly projectiles sticking out of him, Cassius took off down an avenue, heading towards the gate that led back to the castle, while Rhori bellowed at the men to retreat back to the church. It was really all they could do as more bolts began to fly and Doncaster men began to go down. Somewhere in the mayhem, Rhori sent twomen after Cassius to ensure he made it back to the castle. The last thing they needed was for Cassius to pass out and end up in a ditch somewhere.
Or worse.
Retreat to the church they did, with tales of Cassius de Wolfe being struck by arrows and still managing to fight his way out. Brave and strong, Cassius wasn’t going to let a group of barbaric mercenaries end him.
He was a de Wolfe, after all.
A minor skirmish with mercenaries turned into an all-night murder spree for the Doncaster men, Rhori and Bose. Now, they had a personal score to settle.
Marcil and his mercenaries did not survive the night.
*
