A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"Ha, you haven't done a particularly good job at foolishing me, Commander," Oliver said, turning his eyes back to the slope where Karstly in the rest were just beginning to move on. "Still, I am unsure whether we will have a choice. Even for Karstly, this mountain is too well fortified to simply walk through.

We've already seen how the men struggled with just the first set of barricades, how are they going to manage through the rest of them? There won't be a single man left. That's not the sort of victory we can afford. We need enough soldiers to man this fort, once we capture it."

Apparently heedless of the concerns of his men, Karstly put a foot to his horse, and leisurely clopped his way to the front of his men, retaking the vanguard for himself, after the Blackthorn soldiers had finished paving the road for him.

"Your soldiers will need to rest, will they not, Gordry? Send them towards the back. We will have Colonel Nolan take your place," Karstly said.

"We need no sympathy, General," Gordry said, a little too quickly. Even he knew it to be a foolish thing to say, but in the heat of the moment, off the excitement of their small victory, his pride got the best of him. His men's discipline had warmed him, and that pride was a difficult thing to put down.

"Hoh?" Karstly said, looking at him. "Are you quite certain you wish to speak so boldly, Gordry? The path ahead will be even more fraught with danger than the one that we have passed through. Will you put your battalion through another instance of that excitement? There will be hardly any of you left when it is done."

It was a threat, plain as day, but Karstly made it regardless. "…I stand by my words, General. On these slopes, only a few of us can fight at a time. Most of my men stand rested. We will take the front once more, if you will allow it. We have not yet demonstrated all of our worth."

The General narrowed his eyes at the Colonel. "I wonder… are your sentiments not misplaced, Colonel? Is this rationale, or emotion pushing you forward? If you had not seen the Patrick boy score the victory he did, would you be making the same pushes?"

The Colonel faltered slightly as Karstly saw through him, but it was only for a second. His anger took over, and he hotly declared the truth. "Aye, it might be that, General. I might not wish to be outdone by a youth his first time on the battlefield."

"Or a youth who has broken his hand, and still managed to slay a Colonel, despite only having four hundred men under his employ," Karstly noted, pressing the issue without a smile on his face, though the amusement in his eyes made the truth of his personality clear.

'You are a most terrible man, my Lord,' Samuel thought to himself as he listened in from the side.

The Blackthorn Colonel bristled. "Perhaps," he said, barely managing to refrain from shouting. "We will ensure that at the very least, the achievements of our Blackthorn men eclipse his by fivefold. We will see ourselves a good few Colonels heads."

"Fivefold, is it? Come, that is quite the feat. There would be barely four Colonels left, if my counting is right. Or is it that you aim to seize General Phalem's head yourself, Colonel, to take the glory away from me?" Karstly said icily.

"If the man ends up in front of me, I will not halt my sword," Gordry said.

"Then I had better watch where I place him," Karstly said with the utmost confidence. Gordry did not comment on the fact that Karstly seemed to believe he could put the enemy General exactly where he wanted him. There was no time. They had already arrived at the corner of the pass, and their army had reformed behind them, willing them forward.

The barricades that they had expected were up ahead. Even Gordry had expected them deep down, but his heart still fell upon seeing them. There must have been ten there, all of them deeply entrenched. The enemy had used the time that they had to hammer them in place. There would be no moving them now.

"…I suppose we are forced to go back," Gordry muttered. There were other paths to the top, all of them guarded to various degrees. This was only one of many.

"Back? Why would we do something so foolish as that?" Karstly said. He put a heel to his horse, and sped it to a trot. His retinue continued after him, some thirty men. Gordry cursed, having no choice but to grant his own horse a degree of speed, and follow on behind.

"This is recklessness, General!" Gordry shouted. "Ten barricades like that – you'll kill us all!"

"You committed your own men to this, Gordry," General Karstly pointed out. "You who care so much for your men's lives, you let your pride get in the way, and you declared that you would have your accomplishments. You have cemented your position. There will be no fleeing from it now."

"Yes… Yes! I agreed to it, when circumstances were different! I did not expect a way forward that was the equivalent of walking on stakes!" Colonel Gordry shouted, his rage making his way into his voice. He knew that his men could likely hear him now.

Ordinarily, he would have known no deeper shame than being caught shouting at his superior officer, but now, as Gordry had said, circumstances were different.

"Is this insubordinance, Colonel?" General Karstly said. "Of a Blackthorn man? And after my victory over Khan? You would doubt me? I say blood yourself on these barricades for my sake – you did not hesitate to do it before, why do you hesitate now?"

"There are limits, General!" The Colonel shouted again.

"Madness," Phalem muttered to himself, watching the display. General Karstly was charging at full speed towards those barricades, dragging his army with him. He could see him arguing with his officers. Even they were having second thoughts. "Your only way is backwards. Forwards, for you, is annihilation."