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

formations. Archers, when you see an open man, shoot him down right away.” Trance watched with a little satisfaction as his plan went into effect and began to work. The satisfaction of his success evaporated when he heard that they were coming through the wall.

Quickly Trance went down the stairs to help the spearmen only to see that they were beating the Azarians. The spearmen were lined up as Trance had asked them and were surprised to find that they were rather successful this way. Trance joined with the spearmen and drew his sword as they drew their secondary weapons. They fought the Azarians in close quarters and pushed them back. Suddenly the Azarians broke another hole in the wall and came in and pushed the defenders back. As planned, a minute after the new breach in the wall, the swordsmen, ax men, and mace men came running to assist the spearmen. They swept through the Azarians on the inside of the outer fort, reducing their number dramatically.

The now furious leader of the Azarians, Orazior, a tall very tanned boy with dark brown hair, brown eyes and very broad shoulders roared with rage as he saw his men being reduced in number. He marched up the field from the back with his bodyguard toward the fort, trying to figure out this new strategy of the new captain of the Gray Mountain Warriors. He started directing his troops to regroup and reform their formations. He then called up his Gladiator group to head for the holes in the fort walls.

Trance kept his men going by shouting orders and calling for victory. By this time the dagger men and the men with alternate weapons had joined the battle. Trance kept changing orders and having his men reform to keep the Azarians on their toes. Suddenly he saw what was feared about the Azarians; they had an elite group of killers.

The Gladiators were the biggest Azarian warriors and the best trained. They were strictly trained to kill with all of the weapons, especially their own. They had one goal, eliminate the enemy. This group of boys really wanted to get into the Golden Griffins. Some even had the ambition to be in the Royal Bronze Guard, an extremely dedicated and trained group of knights whose sole purpose was to defend the royal palace from invaders to the end. They got to the holes in the wall, entered with their weapons in hand and started changing the balance of the battle.

The battle raged on and on with no winner in sight. The Gladiators did their best to beat back the Gray Mountain Warriors; however, they became frustrated that Trance had prepared his men really well and were very difficult to knock off. Trance himself took on a couple of them and defeated them. His skill shocked everyone. The Azarians had been led to believe that he would be a pushover and wouldn’t be much competition. Orazior was convinced that he could beat Trance, no problem.

Orazior and his bodyguard reached the fort and entered. Now everyone was in the fort. Both sides were now about even and slowly diminishing. Orazior finally decided to demoralize the Gray Mountain Warriors by personally defeating Trance. He was very confident; after all two years ago he had won the ultimate prize. He had gone to the end of year tournaments and he had won the huge Gladiators Circle event. He was also one of only two guys to ever defeat Rex, the captain of the Royal White Knights and Princess Corena’s suitor. He raised his short sword and came toward Trance.

Trance had just found a small break and had quickly counted both sides. His team was ahead, thirty-nine to nineteen. He felt fairly confident, yet he knew that the battle wasn’t over yet. Then he saw the opposing captain approaching. In a way he had almost expected this to happen. Trance turned to meet his opponent, a showdown of captains.

Their swords clashed and battered at each other. Trance really surprised Orazior with his skill as a swordsman. They dueled desperately, each one knowing that they had to defeat the other. A few boys from both sides were eliminated because they didn’t pay attention to themselves since they were watching the captains’ duel. Trance countered every move Orazior tried to do. As they battled the more Orazior became frustrated and reckless. With a couple quick and carefully placed sword swings Trance defeated his opponent and then proceeded to lead his team to surround the Azarians. Ten minutes later the Gray Mountain Warriors had succeeded in defeating the Azarians, their first victory with Trance as Captain.

Now, as the celebration on the field continued as it did when the home team wins, everyone started to realize how good a captain Trance was. He had started to show his worth. To everyone it seemed that Trance knew a lot about castle defenses. However, this was his first battle. Was he lucky to get this victory? How would he fare in the next battle? Just think of the fine knight Trance was going to be when he signed up thought several people as they came out of the stands to congratulate him and his team. His team was also impressed with his leadership. Neklon just beamed as he watched Trance get the praise and recognition he’d earned.

Trance met everyone who wanted to congratulate him. He did his best to praise his team and build them up. “Without their efforts, I’d have gone down,” he simply stated. He wanted to show off his team and have them get most of the glory. Together he and his team had passed their first major test. Now, they’d have to do it again the next weekend in their next battle, which would also be here. Then they’d have to go to another school the week after and be the team attacking the fort. The team had really worked hard to plan their defense strategy; now they’d have to