tip and held it in his massive hand. Then the Troll swung his club once again and just as he did Allan reacted quickly by readjusting his grip on his spear, he made it so that his palm faced upwards and he pressed his shoulder up against the base of the spear and drove the tip out of the grip of the Troll, spearing the Troll’s shoulder. But, however a single spear into the shoulder of a Troll will not kill him, you must strike it in the neck or in the central part of its abdomen. Allan could see the fury in the eyes of this Troll, who then removed the spear from his shoulder by placing his massive hand over it and pulling it out, due to the proximity and unfamiliarity with the spear, the Troll instead of turning the tip towards Allan just swung it into Allan’s head. The wooden spear body smashed against Allan’s cheek plate so hard that the steel piece of armour bent inwards. Allan fell to the ground, his head spinning and his blurred eyes helplessly watched the Troll pick up his club and rose his club in the air to finally finish Allan off, finally at that very moment the advisor slammed straight into the Troll, shield first. The Troll was thrown off balance and dropped his club again, angered he charged and rammed into the advisor, who swiftly dodged and slashed his exposed back. Allan could smell fresh blood and he then put his hand on his left cheek plate, putting his thumb in the dent and the other four fingers around the plate, he yanked it off with little to no effort, he then placed his hand on the side of his head, it was bleeding. Wondering why the Troll hadn’t finished him, Allan turned to look and saw his advisor fighting the Troll, who was beginning to tire as the Troll relentlessly kept attacking. He whispered to himself “no, not going to happen”.
Taking another deep breath, Allan drew his sword, flipping it so that the tip faced the ground, he then stabbed the ground and forced himself to stand upright. He turned to see his advisor being picked by the Troll and thrown several feet, still holding his sword, Allan’s advisor slashed the Troll arm just as he was thrown. The Troll, scathed but still unfazed reached for his club, raising it into the air with both his arms, preparing for the final strike to end to life of this army advisor, the Troll suddenly spurted blood from his mouth and could no longer carry his club, dropping it, looking downwards he noticed the tip of a sword emerge from his lower abdomen. Surprisingly, he was still standing but life was starting to fade from his eyes. The Troll turned around and saw Allan with his hand armed with a sword lodged into his back. He swung his massive upper body and elbowed Allan, sending him to floor once again, fortunately the impact was not enough to cause more serious damage to Allan’s head which was still bleeding from the previous blow. His advisor got up and slowly walked towards Allan. On all fours, he could not believe at all that he was still alive. His advisor reached his hand out to Allan once he was near to him. Allan looked up to see his advisor and locked his hand with his and with his advisor’s help he stood. All around Allan, he could hear men cheering “Allan! Allan! Allan!” his name was being chanted repeatedly. Allan tuned to see his advisor nodding. It was quite a feeling to have.
Just a few moments later, the remanence of the Trolls fighting on the outside retreated on mass, all of them. Invigorated by this supposed victory the Humans charged after the retreating Trolls. Allan too was overwhelmed with anger and his confidence had surprisingly risen, thus he joined his men in chase after the Trolls into the marsh. Suddenly Allan was pushed to the side just as he was about pass the fifth mangrove tree. Then his metal collars were grabbed and it was his advisor doing this, who then looked Allan in the eye and said with an expression of utter fear “Sire, you must recall them, it’s an ambush, planned out by the Trolls, I see why now. Quick before it’s too late!” Out of the blue, nearby and muffled screams from Human men could be heard. “Leave the marshes, stop the pursuit! Retreat and regroup!” shouted Allan as loud as he could, instantaneously after finding out about this horrifying turnaround in the battle. “You need to leave here first, sire. Ill ensure the others follow” said the advisor. “All right ill prevent any more men from entering and reorder their formation” said Allan as whisked off, regretfully following his advisor’s decision. He emerged from the forest and spread his arms out and shouted “no more men are to enter!” He then raised his sword in the air shouted “storm battle order!” This was formation for storming through a forest or city that was ready. The front had the lighter troops spread out, including the archers and spear and what followed were the real storm troopers, the heavily armoured swordsmen and the armoured general’s unit. As the army was remobilizing, Allan’s advisor a few dozen men appeared, running towards the main body of the army. At the front of the army stood Allan organizing the army into a renewed force. The advisor walked up to Allan and said “there more of them than we thought initially, I do not think there’s just some hundreds in there. No, it’s a horde, there are female Trolls and children. They’re going to defend their families no matter what the cost”. Suddenly something went off in Allan’s, something just sparked, an idea. “Women and children? We’re not going to have to result to that are we?” said Allan. “What? Of course, we are, this is for the long term survival of the Humans. Sire, we came here to execute these intruders”. “They are still innocent, they are just like our Human women and children but different” said Allan. The air got a little tense and the Human soldiers were overhearing this conversation.
Unexpectedly the advisor chuckled and what a situation to chuckle at. “Why do you laugh?” asked Allan who then removed his helmet. “Sire, I’ll tell you, I’ve just never heard anyone say something like. If you let them live they will just come back, we have to show no quarter and no sympathy for the greater good of all Humans” said the advisor in his response. “Why not just direct them back to Doomenheim? They have come for the greater good of their people, they are suffering” said Allan. “Sire, I just as much as you dislike the killing of anything” said the advisor until he was interrupted by Allan who sharply said “what is our objective in this campaign?” “Our objective is to rid our lands of the Trolls” said the advisor. “Well then why are we trying to exterminate a race, I think the best thing to do is to make a truce with them and send them back to Doomenheim or better yet give them what they want so they leave us in peace” said Allan. “Sire maybe you need some rest, I don’t think you are thinking straight and we don’t have much time, we need to get rid of those Trolls in that marsh, do this and we are nearly complete, I can see my wife sooner and you can see your father sooner” said the advisor. There was a pause in the conversation and the advisor then said “you know what, sire I think you are on to something. I shall comply after all I am to serve with utmost loyalty. I might have a solution”. “By all means good advisor” said Allan. “Why not conduct a siege of the marshes, we need to line the entire inhabitable area of the marshes with a simple palisade and watchful troops on both sides of the marsh, make the marshes a prison for them. They will starve in there and eventually they will come out, out of sheer desperation and we can as you said make a truce with them. From that moment we need to escort them back to Doomenheim. I just hope your father will approve this” said the advisor with a disturbed tone. “It doesn’t matter now; I don’t want to see any more of our men’s lives at risk again. The lives of the Trolls and our men’s lives, we can save them all and stop this” said Allan.
“Right you are, sire. This is actually a good idea” said the advisor, now fully convinced at this turn of events. “Now we’re going to have to put words into actions, we need to split the army into two, one shall claw its way through the marsh and the other should remain here, this siege must be conducted properly, no Trolls should get in or find some way out” said Allan. “Yes, Sire. Ill lead the men through the marsh” said the advisor whole heartedly. “No, good advisor. I shall. The Trolls might be more inclined to speak to a person of Human royalty” said Allan bravely. “No, that is one thing I cannot let you do. It’s a risk. We can’t lose you Sire, that is a sure way to death and I would rather die than to have known that I let you die” said the advisor, in complete d
isagreement with Allan over who should be the one to lead the troops to the other side. Then Allan lifted his arms and stared straight into the eyes of the advisor, putting his palms on the shoulders of the advisor from his stretched-out arms. He then boldly said “this is not a suggestion; it is a command from a prince to his military advisor”. Allan then quickly left the scene and ordered the ranks to be split into two. He raised his bloodied sword in the air and at the top of his lungs shouted “light infantry and half the archers leave your ranks and form a column, four men wide!” After the command was given Allan and his advisor sorted out the battle positions of the troops, readying the armies for the march on the marsh. He also gathered a couple dozen peltasts and about close to fifty heavy infantrymen. The peltasts would serve as scouts far ahead of the main column, lightly armed and therefore agile they were going to be of great importance for this audacious plan to be pulled off. At the rear and at the head of the column