Warhammer armies: Bretonnia - The Round Table of Bretonnia
Home arrow Literature arrow The Tales of Jean Marcel arrow The Raid - Part III
22. September 2020, 23:23 GMT

 

 
 

The Round Table
Home Home
Gallery Gallery
User Login
 
 
 
 
The Raid - Part III PDF Print
Friday, 17 February 2006

In a final Epic battle, The forces of Chaos prepare themselves for the assault of the nearby castle of L'Anguille, with Jean Marcel's army awaiting their arrival.

Huddled in the castle were the knights of Jean Marcel. Currently at battle with the forces of chaos as the approaching army was settling in and approaching to siege the castle and kill all without mercy.

I, jean Marcel, mounted on my Pegasus Skie, stood in the courtyard of my humongous domain near the beach. We were awaited the arrival of the chaos hordes outside of the castle and equally awaited our time inevitable time of death. The untouched nerve of the chaos hordes could not be defeated by such a small army that I had, but I was determined to go down fighting with honor and with a moral victory, had it not have been one already.

We could hear the marching footsteps get closer as the sound of dark, rapid hooves also gathered outside the castle. The Chaos lines had been determined as they set up only 400 paces away from the castle. The odd arrow or two killing a warrior with every shot and yet they stood there dangerous and unmoving as they waited for their signal to advance on our positions.

Firing arrows over the walls desperately, we could not stand the sound of death creeping onto us. The sound of multiple chaos hounds and daemons were heard outside the gates. We heard another band of Minotaurs coming. I was sure that with the weapons they carry, they planned to knock the gates open with ease in this castle.

We formed up whatever units we could, awaiting the opportunity for a charge as a Pegasus knight took the top of one tower each and readied to lift off as I had put myself overtop the gate itself watching the army approach. We came out to have a bulk of peasants with very few knights. I had confidence in my Grail Knights and my Knights of the Realm that we had but the peasants being the bulk of the force, I did not trust our chances.

I continued the order to fire all missile weapons as trebuchets were still launching their rocks onto the further enemies and the ever-closing army of chaos was shot upon by longbows. There was a moment of silence as I heard only the footsteps of the enemy. They stopped meters away from the gate and gazed at me with their eyes. The Minotaurs advanced forward and hit the gates repetitively. I unsheathed my sword, ready for our impending doom. With slow swings, the Minotaurs made woodchips out of the barred wooden gates in minutes as some drummers started to beat their war drums. I flew to the ground in front of the metal gate as the Minotaurs roared at my sight and bashed down the steel gates followed by crumpling it with their weapons. Now feeling the ground shake with every step, I readied myself.

My Pegasus was slightly fearful of the monstrous beasts as they thumped closer to me and my knights. Unworried or moved by their undying fear, I held my sword high and shouted out in a declaratory voice:

“For L’Anguille and the Lady, for all we believe in, our honor, our glory and our faith in our Fair Bretonnia, we will repel the chaos not in the name of the Lady nor the King or our country, we shall repel them in the name of ourselves! Together we fight unto our death! For your loved ones and for all of what you believe in, charge the wretched worshippers of Chaos!!!”

In a shout of glory, the knights and peasants alike screamed for glory as they charged into the hellish enemies. I charged weaving my great sword as if it was a feather, I slaughtered each opponent that came to me one by one, unmatched in skill as I would kill three chaos warriors with one sweep and another 4 while drawing my sword back. My knights jabbed their lances deep through the hearts of the enemy maybe two kills for each jab as the chosen warriors were so tightly packed. I commenced a duel with a Minotaur and I brought it down with ultimate ease as the brave Skie would flail his hooves crushing even the biggest bones on the beast’s body as I would fly up to the behemoth’s head and slice it off like cutting through cloth. With fellow Pegasus knights on the outside battling the forces of the possessed, we were winning for only so long as the chaos forces surrounded our knights.

After the slaughter of the Minotaurs I took a glance at my army, or what was left of it and I screamed loud enough for any knight or peasant to hear: “Retreat to the towers! Retreat to the Main tower!”

With that a massive amount of knights rode their horses inside of the castle as I followed them and locked the gates behind us. The poor souls that had been left out there would fall in battle as I could hear the deadly screams outside of the doors. I feared for the worse as I looked in all of my glory for what my eyes to behold was just a dead end behind us. I looked around the room; we had locked ourselves inside of the castle’s chapel. We did not have much time as we heard the pounding at the barred doors by the chaos warriors. We grabbed the holy relics from the chapel and equipped ourselves with the castle’s holiest weapons as we would go down in a shining moment of glory.

The warriors broke through the gate and we charged probably for the last time into the enemy. We ploughed through the first 30 maybe 40 of the possessed warriors as we were strictly outnumbered as many, maybe as many as a thousand, would take each man’s place on the battlefield. They chanted again and again “Blood for the Blood God! Blood for the Blood God!” We charged again and again into warrior after warrior as we would slaughter them aside but only to find more opponents grabbing at our steeds. I flew out of battle and back into it, plunging into the heart of the enemy with Skie as his hooves would crush the helms and skulls of the warriors and my lance would cut through the enemy lines with simple ease but even this glory was taken as the hounds would jump and tear off a piece of Skie’s flesh as they’d wound my poor beloved Pegasus.

We would not last much longer as my knights would fight to a man as they would fall to the enemy’s rusty chaotic blades one by one, staining blood on the paths and grass as it was shed from knight and worshipper alike. “You fight bravely all of you, whether you fall in battle or live to tell the tale today, you will all be remembered in Bretonnia!” I’d yell out to strengthen the morale of my men. As the light of hope seemed to fade into the ever growing darkness, all faith in Bretonnia shredding away from our hearts slowly as each knight would fall, I shone my brightest before ever being matched in skill or strength as I’d weave my blade continuously; driving it through each foe that would present himself to me.

With the fate of our lives lying in the Lady’s hands now we fought until we had no ability to fight anymore. We fought until the heavens could be heard. We fought until we heard a horn, yes a horn. A loud booming horn was sounded while we were amidst in the fighting. With what few knights I had beside me fighting for our lives we looked beyond our gates. A sight came before me that almost brought tears to my eyes.

I saw the immense forces of chaos past the gates with their swords high and then a quick surprising and glorious sight as a reckless charge of hundreds of knights charged right through the warriors as I saw them being torn apart by Bretonnia’s lances. I fought on for I knew if I could just hold them out long enough, we would survive. What remained of us included 6 Grail Knights, Me, 4 Knights of the Realm and a small band of Men-at-arms still valiantly wielding their weapons for their lives. I saw a holy light come down upon our court as we became blessed, our eyes glowing and an aura surrounding our bodies in fey, foreboding light as we too recklessly swung our weapons to no end as we awaited aid. We saw an inspirational sight as King Louen atop Beaquis flew high above the castle as he would fly down yelling out “For Bretonnia! For The Lady! Kill the chaos worshippers of the North!” as Beaquis would clench and squish chaos knights as he joined the battle right in front of me. He wielded his sword like a master as he would cut asunder each foe. Inspired I declared a final charge with what men I had left and we cut down the forces until there were only souls left of the worshippers, meant to roam the Old World in search of purpose. The final Chaos Lord was all who was left as I challenged him to a final duel. As he was to die anyway he was determined to kill me off before he left this world and joined his fallen comrades.

I drew my blade one more time as he picked up his Great Axe. He savagely swung his axe in frenzy at me as I stood in a defensive position, countering every blow he would try and strike. I would parry his axe with my great sword and turn to strike a blow at him but it would just skim his armor as he would swing for my head. I challenged his swing and blocked it with my full strength into the holding of it. He called his axe off as I found an opening to swing but his reflexes caught it, but instead I kicked him away as he wasn’t pushed down but just startled, I charged at him with my sword above my head as he then swung his axe at my body and I had enough sense to dodge it. He threw his balance off with the swing and with a sense of pride and justice; I cleanly swept my blade across from me and decapitated the Khorne lord.

The King himself applauded in my victory as my fellow knights cheered.

“My liege, without you I would not be standing before you, I thank you fo-”

“Think nothing of it Duke Marcel. You have proven time and time again to be a loyal and honorable fighter and even in my presence. I am glad to have you serving as one of my highest ranked Lords.”

“My Lord, thank you. I also speak on behalf of what is left of my army as we were blessed by the Lady herself, thank you entirely for coming at the right time. If you had not our lives would be in the service of the Lady for eternity, but I am most pleased that my knights and I can fight by your side until our death again.”

He humbly smiled at me and nodded his head as he mounted his hippogriff. He flew into the air and rallied his army to set out to quell the outlying coastal borders that were also attacked. He looked at me and imposed an invitation on me, asking if I would come. I nodded my head in agreement but only after I had a quick rest and a short time to reset myself for battle. I repaired the chain on my relic, I took a holy lance from the chapel and we burned the chaos bodies by the beach. I sharpened my sword and gallantly mounted my noble steed Skie once again.

In a final word I rallied what was left of my army and shouted out.

“To Battle!”

The End.

Last Updated ( Monday, 20 February 2006 )
 
< Prev   Next >
 

For technical and legal reasons, the Round Table of Bretonnia has shut down operations. For inquiries and questions, please contact the admin at webmaster@roundtable-bretonnia.org
Warhammer, Warmaster, Games Workshop (and more) are registered trademarks of Games Workshop Ltd. This site is not affiliated with Games Workshop Ltd. and no claim of ownership is made to any of these trademarks.