I watched our group slowly reach charging distance from the enemy.
"Alright, I will take the guys on the left, you take the guys on the right."
"What", said the commander of the group. "What the bloody hells are you talking about woman?"
I rolled my eyes. "Fine you baby, I will take the ones on the right, you take the ones on the left."
He was about to retort when another knight came near him and whispered on his ear. His eyes widened as he stared at me dumbfounded, and his aide returned to his previous position.
"Well?"
"... the ones on the left will be more appropriate, we can catch them in a pincer formation."
I gave him a thumbs up, "got it!"
When we finally reached charging distance I took a few steps forwards, just as I did that the horn sounded and people around me started running. I started a light jog before taking a deep breath, and suddenly I left in a trail of white rose petals, reappearing on the enemy formation well before our group took more than ten steps towards the enemy.
Pieces of bodies started falling around me, and for an instant people stood frozen at the sight.
Extending my sword I gathered my aura on the blade, and with a quick spin I unleashed the gathered aura around me in an explosion of light that cut apart and blasted the soldiers away leaving a small clearing around me. I felt my aura levels dip slightly, but it's still better than when I first trained this maneuver. Plenty of room for improvement but for the moment it's a good enough desperation move.
I continued my inexorable movement forwards, cleaving down the enemies that came towards me. Some ran as they saw their allies fall down like leaves on the wind, while others came at me with desperation in the eyes hoping that they would be the one to put me down, or at least would wound me enough so the next soldier could finish me off.
If it wasn't sad, I would think their attempts utterly adorable.
I spotted a knight and in an instant I cut him down, making the soldiers at his side jump in surprise and fear. In a whirlwind of speed I cut down the soldiers before jumping high in the air.
Up above I can see the soldiers and few knights staring at me transfixed at the sight of a woman jumping so high it felt like flying, before I brought my sword and with a burst of aura I spun towards the ground slamming the blade on the ground making a great shockwave and throwing the soldiers backwards.
More and more soldiers started to run away from me, and I let them go as I focused my efforts on those actively fighting me.
Thirty five... forty two... sixty one.
Well, it will be a long way until I hit one thousand. Better get to it.
~~O~~
"What's happening with our flank! It's starting to lose cohesion!" Said Ser Barristan the Bold to one of his officers.
"Ser! Looks like there's something there that's forcing the soldiers to rout, I can't really see it very well from here. I heard something about a 'witch' but nobody stayed to give more details."
"Incoming enemy!" Said another knight as the wave of Rebel army finally reached Ser Barristan group.
"Seven Hells! Ser Ashwood, take a smaller group to reinforce the flank, at the very least send me a messenger to tell me what is going on." Said the Kingsguard before raising his own sword and charging his enemies. "For the King!!!"
~~O~~
"One of the enemy infantry flanks is starting to lose cohesion", said Jon Arryn to his aide as he gave orders to the cavalry he was leading.
"Wasn't there were the Witch went? Must be her doing."
Jon squinted his eyes, and he swore he saw a group of men being send high into the air.
"Yes, it must be. We can't have her do all the work now, can we?" Said Jon while drawing his own sword, "death to the Mad King! Death to the Dragons!"
~~O~~
It was a good thing that once I awakened my aura I took my time to train it at every opportunity I could, specially as I mixed it with my swordsmanship training from father. It allowed me to become more efficient with aura use, push past my limits in a safe environment and make sure I actually knew how to use a sword.
Not only that, but it gave me much needed discipline to repeat a single strike over and over and over and over again even as my limbs started to become tired and boredom started to set in.
Which was the only reason why I managed to keep up with my attacks. I mean, don't get me wrong killing isn't exactly fun, but at some point effortlessly killing the enemy forces starts to get repetitive so I took to varying my attacks from time to time as I went through the enemy troops like a scythe cutting wheat on the harvest.
I heard some loud rumbling sound from my right and I saw a company of cavalry coming at me, the knights in plate shining with the sun and their light reflecting on the armor. It was also fortunate that they were wearing the banners of the Targaryen, which was distinctive enough even I could spot them.
Cleaning my sword of blood I grabbed it in a reverse grip and I gathered aura into it, making the blade shine with power. Tapping into my semblance, I added more power into it in an instant like I had trained so many times before.
"Rose..."
The cavalry came closer step by step, and when they were close enough I swung my blade forwards with as much force as I could muster.
"SLASH!!!"
A white blast of energy flew at prodigious speed towards them, wide enough to catch all riders in the company. As it hit them the energy attack seared and cut at their bodies, leaving a large trail of destruction as bodies cooked inside their armor from the light while at the same time being torn apart by the kinetic energy.
The few riders that were fortunate enough not to get caught in the attack were still near enough that their mounts either tripped or shook them away, some being trampled underfoot as the animals ran for their lives against this affront to natural order. I doubt they would panic nearly as much if someone had throw at them Wildfire itself.
I took a deep, steadying breath. That attack certainly made my aura take a noticeable dip, still a great improvement since the time when I invented this attack and was out of aura in a single blast. Granted I didn't attacked at full power, but I think I learned how to pace myself better now.
Turning around, I saw more soldiers staring at me in horror before dropping their weapons and deserting from the fight.
Since I can't really count how many routed since they saw me fight, I'm still at the low number of two hundred ninety five enemies killed, recent deaths included.
"Hah... long road to travel."
~~O~~
"What was that flash?" Asked the crown prince Rhaegar as he overlook the battlefield.
"I don't know", said a crownlanader knight, "it came from the left flank."
"Where the dornish are?" Mused the prince, "I will let Prince Martell deal with it for now. How are our forces?"
"We're even at the moment", said the knight much to the displeasure of the prince, "the numbers of the rebels were as great as ours and they appear to have a strong morale."
Rhaegar frowned. Things should have been in their favor instead of being a hard fought battle. If only Jon weren't defeated, or if he at least managed to retreat in good order, then perhaps things would have been more in their favor.
"Jon my friend, what would you do right now?" He whispered to himself before he came to a conclusion, "we need to seek their commanders in order to break their morale. We will advance at once. There", he said while pointing at the flag on the distance, "we will fight against the Arryns. If we can kill both Lord and Heir it will shake Robert Baratheon."
"At once my prince. Sound the horn!"
With a last glance to where that strange flash of light came, Rhaegar turned on his mount before advancing.
~~O~~
I don't know how long I fought. Was it ten, twenty minutes? Was it an hour?
At some point killing and routing people started to become a chore, but I had to continue to make sure the enemy would be defeated and the rebels would win. I couldn't be everywhere, but I could sow as much disorder and damage as possible.
Even now several Knights and Lords fell to my blade, their superior armor choice doing nothing more than mark them as opportunity targets to me.
I also knocked out one kingsguard knight, but I wasn't sure if he was Ser Barristan so instead I simply took him back behind friendly lines as prisoner before going back to the thick of the fighting, going further back in the enemy lines to make sure I won't end up killing my own allies by mistake.
The song and dance continued, with the cycle of death and routing going on until I reached a shallow of the river, where cavalry was fighting against each other, and in there two figures could be clearly seen. Robert with his yellow shirt and stag horned helm and someone else battling him in deep black armor and a red cloak.
I made sure nobody came closer, the ones on our side not even bothering with me while the few that stood in my path were given a powerful blow on their armor as a warning, and a beheading if they were stupid enough. I was glad to see my allies knew I wouldn't let their leader die.
Robert warhammer dealt a blow to his enemy's horse, throwing Rhaegar into the ground. The Lord of Storm End tried to trample the Targaryen but the prince managed to dodge the attacks before standing up. As Robert tried to smash his head the prince managed to kill the horse but Robert jumped out of the animal before it fell.
Battle raged for some more time, until Rhaegar swung his blade ready to impale Robert...
... just as the peble I threw disarmed Rhaegar as Robert's warhammer smashed on his face, caving in the helm and crushing his skull. For good measure Robert did a double tap by smashing his chest, making a hole in the prince's breastplate.
I approached Robert and he was panting from the short bout. "Hey, how are you doing?" I asked him casually.
"... I totally could have killed him by myself", he almost snarled at me in what he thought was an intimidating manner.
"You probably could", I agreed, that's what happened according to my old man memories after all, "but you would have been hurt and I rather not have that on my conscience."
"Heh", he chuckled before spitting on the corpse, "it would have been worth it, to know I was better than him."
I shook my head. "Boys. I won't tell anyone if you don't, deal?"
He grunted but nodded.
"By the way, while you two were having your moment the enemy sounded the retreat, but it's more like a rout from where I saw the guys running. Our cavalry are running them down at this moment, that's what cavalry do, right? Kill the people running away?"
"One of it's duties", he said, "well, what are we standing here for? We have some clean up to do before we can celebrate!"
"Sure, it should also be just enough for me to complete one thousand kills." I said with a smile before turning away.
"... one thousand?"
