Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

to defend the castle from any invaders that would come in when the wall was breached.

Since Rex was no longer on the wall and was leaving the archers to their fate, Trance took over and started to get the archers to work together and take aim and snipe as many opponents as possible. Suddenly the Eastern teams sent a battering ram forward and rushed it at the wall. Trance had to admire the way they had hid the ram up to this moment. It seemed to only take moments for the battering ram to do its work and open a breach in the wall, and the Eastern boys started to flood into the fort. Not surprisingly, Rex had other teams in front to be the first defenders as the Eastern boys came through.

On the wall Trance was quickly running out of arrows. As he checked and found that he was down to just three arrows he saw something unexpected. The Eastern boys that had used their ram to knock in one breach in the wall had pulled the ram around and headed to the other side of the fort wall to knock another breach in the wall. Instantly Trance directed the archers to shoot toward the ram.

“Rex! They’re taking the ram to knock a breach in the wall behind you!” Trance yelled down to warn him.

Rex looked up scornfully and ignored him. Nobody took their battering ram and tried to breach a wall twice. Besides, Trance was probably trying to make him look bad again.

Meanwhile Trance and most of the other archers ran out of arrows. He set his bow aside, picked up his shield and drew his sword. He looked down just in time to see the second breach open up and Eastern boys flood in. With mixed emotions he saw Rex’s head snap around in total surprise and then glare up at him as if this was his fault. Something needed to be done to save the situation as the Eastern boys were gaining on the Western boys. In a moment he made up his mind and in just a few words got the archers to draw their secondary weapons and follow him to the stairs near the second breach and down to head the opponents off.

Trance raised his sword and leapt into the midst of the throng of invading boys. He engaged one opponent after another. He had led his team all year in circumstances like this many times, yet this time there were ten times more opponents. With this many opponents he could easily be eliminated at any moment so without regard for his safety he fought valiantly against every opponent he came across as well as covering for as many of his teammates as he could. With this many boys on both sides in such close quarters Trance swung his sword with swift and lethal efficiency.

He also paced himself. Every few minutes Trance tried to take a break for a moment. He couldn’t last if he kept fighting constantly without a break. Soon he noticed that a number of his friends were there battling beside him. Hamon and Gracer were on his right, and Zam and Mandor fought to his left. Trance couldn’t help smiling. Even Orazior and Lamden were battling beside him. Soon he noticed that many other boys were fighting beside him. In an almost overwhelming moment he realized that these boys saw him as their leader and would follow him anywhere, and were prepared to defend him, putting their own selves in danger of elimination.

The press was getting great as the battle wore on. Many boys on both sides were being eliminated one after another. Trance had never been this exhausted in his life. The tide of boys coming against him surged as the Eastern Constellation boys seemed focused on eliminating him. Trance’s right arm ached as he swung his sword. He felt himself being backed up by the pressing opponents. The battle raged and went from a regular battle to who wanted it more to who would survive.

The longer the battle lasted the more boys became exhausted and were thus eliminated. Trance focused on the opponent right in front of him yet it didn’t escape him that there were ten more boys behind him.

As he eliminated his current opponent he couldn’t help notice that several of his team had been eliminated as well. He defeated one more boy and had a chance to take a quick scan around him. To his disappointment it seemed that his team was still outnumbered. He was further dismayed to discover that Rex and the White Knights seemed to be backing up, trying to have Trance and the rest of the Western Constellation boys fight the battle for them.

All right, that’s fine thought Trance as he took a deep breath and leaped back into the fray. After defeating three more opponents he had a quick thought and made a move that led the opponents that were pursuing him to follow and bring them closer to Rex.

“What are you doing?” shouted Rex as he suddenly saw what Trance was doing.

“Just making this a fair contest,” Trance replied as he swiftly defeated another boy.

With a rather rude curse Rex and his White Knight teammates that were still in the battle were forced to engage their opponents. Rex quickly eliminated two opponents and surprised a third opponent when he was noticed by some of the leaders of the Eastern boys. This was what he had been trying to avoid. Since he was technically the captain of the West, he would be the focus of where they would concentrate their efforts. However, they seemed slightly confused.

The leaders of the East knew Rex was the captain of the West, yet it seemed to them that Trance was the one that was leading the defense of the fort. They had seen the rivalry between Rex and Trance enough to know that they did not get along. They also recognized that individually they