Chapter 55: Soldiers For Hire
”Get down!” Emi is thrown back into the commander role in an instant. Mai, Hikari, and Emi drop down on the ground. Chiara with her unwieldy pike finds herself unable to get down and can only clench herself close to her polearm. She closes her eyes as the lead rounds fly past her, one that flew too close for comfort for poor Chiara. Her eyes open and the two swordsmen are advancing slowly towards them in rank. The two arquebusiers are already in the process of reloading with the heavily armored man at arms standing by them.
“Emi! What do we do?!!” Chiara cries. “All I got is a stupid stick!”
“Come on, Emi! We don’t have much time.” Hikari gets up from the ground, drawing her rusty katana.
Emi is not sure what to make of the situation. This isn’t like in modern combat where a retreat to cover is viable anymore. Other than her matchlock pistol which isn’t even loaded or have its match, The squad is incapable of returning fire. But Emi realizes that Mai has a crossbow. Of course! “Mai, try to take out those gunners! The rest of us will protect you!”
“I’ll do my best!” Mai answers firmly, aiming her crossbow at the reloading gunner on the left. She doesn’t have much to work with other than guessing where the bolt will land. She aims for the helmet of the gunner. “Thunk!” With the press of the lever, the bolt is sent straight for the gunner. The bolt drops with gravity and hits the gunner in the neck, incapacitating him right as he is blowing on his matchcord. The man at arms doesn’t waste any time and starts to advance at a steady pace behind the swordsmen.
“I got him! I got him!” Mai jumps up and down in excitement! “My first crossbow! Kill!”
“Great. Now hurry up and reload!” Mai orders frantically while standing by Chiara’s side with Hikari.
“Reload?” Mai looks down at her crossbow. “Um…how do I reload this thing?”
“Use the goat’s foot! You have to pull the string back on the ground!” Chiara answers in a shaky voice. “...I think…”
“You mean this weird looking contraption!” Mai waves the reloading device behind the girls! Chiara looks over her shoulder and nods.
“I…I guess…I don’t really know.”
“Crap…I guess I have to figure this out.” Mai sticks the crossbow on the ground, using her foot to steady it. She fumbles around with the goat’s foot, figuring out how it’s supposed to latch on the string. The armed swordsmen are within contact distance of the girls. They have to act fast.
”Chiara!” Emi calls out to her, “Deploy the pike!”
She struggles to lower her polearm down from it’s standing position. Unsure where to hold it or position it. She has it straight out in front of her with the spear pointed directly at the approaching swordsmen. “Emi! They’re coming!”
“Get ready, Hikari!” Emi raises her rapier sword. “I hope you know how to use a sword…because I sure don’t.”
“That’s very encouraging.” Hikari sighs bluntly. She has her rusty Katana out in front of her and within seconds, chaos begins.
The swordsmen parry Chiara’s pike by grabbing the shaft and pulling back, causing Chiara to fall forward in front of her, losing her primary weapon. Hikari and Emi advance forward to protect her. The two French swordsmen split up to deal with the girls individually. Hikari attempts a poor swing motion with her katana at the assailant, who is able to exploit her brief defenseless state and strikes her in the face with the pommel of his arming sword.
“Hikari!” Emi dodges a swing from the other swordsman and thrust her rapier into the shoulder of the soldier. He stumbles off, reacting strongly to the piercing attack, which gives Emi a chance to help Hikari. Hikari is quick to gain her conscious back and sees the swordsman is about to finish her off with a stabbing blow. She rolls quickly dodging the strike and Emi is able to come in and strike the soldier in the head which is deflected by his helmet. Hikari sees the other gunner is about to finish reloading and acts fast. She gets up, still holding her katana and charges towards the arquebusier. Mai meanwhile is still trying to figure out how to use the goat’s foot.
“Chiara! Get up and help me!” Mai cries out to her. Meanwhile the arquebusier sees Hikari charging towards her and attempts to draw out his mace. But Hikari incapacitates him by slicing at his arm, causing him to fall and succumb to his injury. She grabs the arquebus, the match still burning and presumingly close to being ready to fire. She picks it up, and realizes the match is supposed to ignite the black powder on the pan which is done via the trigger bar. She aims her arquebus, in the same manner as she would with the AN-94, at one of the two swordsmen who are now kicking Emi on the ground and fires.
“Pompf!” A cloud of white smoke blinds Hikari’s view and the unwieldy nature of the arquebus throws Hikari back, causing her to nearly lose her balance. From Emi’s view, one of the soldiers drops to the ground, groaning in pain.” The other soldier is in total shock from seeing his fellow soldier fall instantly and Emi takes the opportunity to strike her rapier at the soldier's leg and then to the exposed vulnerability under his armpit with two trusts.
“That’s it!” Hikari cries out in joy! “That’s how it’s done! Woooo!”
“Good shot, Hikari!” Emi’s brief moment of celebration is cut short by the Man at Arms swinging his poleaxe at her torso, striking her the cuirass. The force of the blunt seriously injures her and she drops to the ground, slowly blacking out!
“Emi! No!” Mai watches in horror as the Man at Arms starts to approach her and Chiara next. “Hurry up, Chiara!”
. “Almost got it!” Chiara pulls hard on the goat’s foot drawing the string back onto the latch. “There! Load it Mai!” She draws out her dagger and sticks close to Mai to defend her. Chiara doesn’t have much hope in taking on the heavily armored soldier with her short dagger. She looks for vulnerabilities, in the same way that Emi was able to take out that swordsman. He’s covered head to toe in armor. Her little dagger doesn’t have anywhere to go.”
“Hey Frenchie! Eat this!” Mai launches a bolt at the Man at Arms with her crossbow. “Thunk!” The bolt knicks the armor, causing a noticeable dent but the Man at Arms is not phased. “The history teachers lied to me…” Mai grumbled to herself, dropping her crossbow in disbelief.
“Aaaaaaah!” In a confused fit of rage, Chiara charged at the Man at Arms, with her dagger aimed right for him. He stops her with just one hand on her head, just like an older brother stopping a younger sibling from attacking. Chiara legs and arms flail, the dagger striking his armor but it’s to no use. He shoves her away and then strikes the poleaxe at her, taking it out in an instant like he did with Emi.
The Man at Arms swings his poleaxe at Mai who dodges it with a duck and runs away. The Man at Arms, not amused, chases after her, despite the weight of his armor, he’s capable of catching up quickly to Mai, forcing them both back into a standoff again. Hikari jumps behind the Man at Arms, reaching for his poleaxe and he tries to shake her off. Mai joins in, Latching onto the Man at Arms as he is struggling to get the two girls off him, a fate which would have been a blessing if it were not a battle. The weight of their combined bodies makes it hard for the armored soldier to shake them off. Mai attempts to strike at the gaps between the armor plates but is not steady while hanging onto the soldier’s arms like a monkey on a tree. Using all of his strength, the Man at Arms twists in a forceful motion throwing both Hikari and Mai off him for good. Now both on the ground, The Man at Arms approaches Mai and raises his poleaxe high in the air.
“Ugh…it’s so over…” Mai mumbles to herself as she is about to witness her final moments in this simulation. All of a sudden, she hears a man shouting from far away.
“A Frenchman! What a disgusting sight!” The deep German accent slices through the air like a swing of the sword. A man, dressed in an outlandish outfit of fabric bands, white and black, puffy and bold all over. He wears only a cuirass for protection, and his head is sporting a hat so big and flamboyant, it’s a mystery why such a great warrior would wear such a thing. But his weapon was no laughing matter. A great sword, nearly as long as the Man at Arms’ poleaxe, is carried by this strange German with a bushy moustache.
“Picking fights with girls! As if you French demons can’t get any lower!” The Man at Arms changes directions and readies his poleaxe at the crazy German, swinging his Zweihander around like an artist with a paintbrush, ready to paint the fields with blood. A weapon that would had looked so unwieldy and yet, he is able to swing it around so fluidly and with purpose. The poleaxe strikes at him but he defects it with his great sword. He grabs his own blade in a half sword and charges him, pushing the Man at Arms away and giving him multiple strikes with his sword. Hikari rolls over and spots that the Man at Arms is not armored behind his legs. “Mai! His legs are exposed!”
Coming back to her senses, Mai sees what Hikari is talking about and notices the Man at Arms lost some of his back armor on his legs. She crawls towards her Katzbalger and waits for the moment to strike. The Man at Arms and the Landksnecht are throwing blows and deflections with their weapons. Mai gets close enough to swipe at the legs of the Man at Arms.
The armored Frenchman groans and falls to his knees. The Landskecht in a hearty laugh strikes the poleaxe off his arm with a blow from his great sword and then chokeholds the Man at Arms by the neck with his blade. Pulling it close to the small gap between his helmet and his neck plate, before using all of his strength to break his neck with his arms and Zweihander in one swoop. The Man at Arms has been extinguished.
Mai and Hikari get back on their feet, Emi and Chiara are eliminated and lay motionless on the ground. The Landskencht wipes his greatsword and turns is head towards Mai and Hikari who approach him. He gives a warm smile and bows. “My ladies. You have proven yourself to be…adequate soldiers worthy of the Holy Roman Emperor blessing! You have exceeded my expectations and Kayla will be pleased to know how your first skirmish went.”
“Kayla sent you?” Mai tilts her head.
“Of course!” The German laughs out loud. “She felt bad that she didn’t give you the quick rundown on how battles are fought in this mod. We typically just have the noobies figure it out for themselves.
“It would have been nice, if you came earlier.” Hikari sighed. “It’s too bad our friends are dead.” She looks over at the laying ragdolls of Emi and Chiara.
. “Not quite.” The German interjects. “Since the battle is over, they should be respawning…right about…now.”
Emi and Chiara’s ragdolls are soon coming back to life. Emi groans as she gets up from the ground while Chiara rolls over on her back and plops up from the ground, the both of them, slightly confused.
“That was…strange.” Emi noted. “It was like we were still standing in this field…but…you two couldn’t see us.” Emi looks over to Mai and Hikari.
“It was like we were…ghosts.” Chiara added. “We don’t get a fancy penthouse in the afterlife?”
“Not in this mod, I’m afraid.” The German explained. “You were both in spectator mode. After you perish on the battlefield. You are given the ability to roam around and witness the battle from any side or angle until the victor is decided.“
He sheathed his massive zweihander across his back with surprising ease and strode towards the group, clapping Mai on the shoulder with a force that nearly buckled her knees. "Your fire, Fräulein, is commendable! A crossbow is a good woman's weapon. And you!" He turned to Hikari, his bushy eyebrows rising. "Charging a fully-armed man with a kitchen knife from the Orient? Madness! I like it! You have the spirit of a Doppelsöldner!"
“A doppel what?” Hikari says flabbergasted. “What’s with our crappy equipment anyways?”
“Glad you asked!” The Landskencht pulled some scrolls from his leather backsack. “Kayla informed me to hand you these. It’ll give you all the answers you seek.”
Mai is the first to receive and unravel her scroll. Speed reading through it, her eyes widen in disbelief as she finishes down to the last line of the scroll. “I'm ... .a noble mercenary?! No way! That explains the fancy clothes I got!” Her grin grew three times in that moment, much to Hikari’s dismay.
”Impressive.” Hikari says sarcastically. “But I’m sure my backstory is going to be even better.” Hikari starts reading through her scroll but her smug sense of superiority starts to fade as her eyes make their way to the very end. Ashigaru
"Peasant? PEASANT?!" she shrieked, her voice cracking. She brandished the scroll at the Landsknecht who looked on with a shrug. "I’m a tenant farmer who got pressed into service by a feudal lord and later fled on a Portuguese trade ship to Europe!" Hikari does a spoiled fake sob as she speaks.
“But this is not the end of it all, Japanese girl!” The German reassures her. For this is the early modern era! A time of mercenaries, exploration, commerce, and opportunities. You’d be surprised how many Landskechts and Condottiere were able to make a name for themselves. You can be something more than an Ashigaru if you put your heart into it!”
“And all I got is this stinking Katana…” Hikari waves her rusty sword around.
“You know you can loot off the enemy right?” Mai suggested.
“What do you think I am, some kind of lowlife. Of course I’m going to loot the enemy! The gun is mine!” Hikari snatches the arquebus from the ground. Meanwhile Emi is going over her history.
”Says here I have French and Spanish heritage here” Emi scratched her head under her Morion helmet. “I guess that explains why I’m not on the enemy team. I’m a soldado, looking for opportunities and fortune.” She grins at Hikari. “Looks like we’re both starting from scratch.”
”That doesn’t make me feel better about being a peasant.” Hikari groaned. “But sure thing, Emi.
Chiara’s scroll was more elaborate and tragic. “An Irish mercenary displaced by the Tudors, desperate to serve any Catholic powers in need of sword or pike.” The scroll explains her clothes as being a mish mash of scavenged fabrics from the fallen; either by close friends or by enemies slain in combat. A tradition inspired by Landsknecht practices and the perks of being a Mercenary to dress as they wish.
“So... we’re all mercenaries,” Emi summarized, folding her scroll. “Just from different places, with different backgrounds?”
Exactly. The Landksnecht confirmed leaning on his sword. “And you are all apprentices of Kriegshandwerk. “This is just the beginning. We’ll be departing soon to Cerignola to meet up with the Spanish. Word is they are expecting an overwhelming French assault and will need our services to assist them.”
”Do we have to hike over there?” Mai sighs. “I’m kind of tired.”
“Of course not. We have fast travel.” The Landsknecht answered proudly.
“Nice.” Mai finishes looting the dead soldiers. “You girls up for some more?”
“It seems…interesting.” Chiara retrieves her pike and the arming sword from the dead swordsman. “I want to see where this goes.”
“Same.” Emi nodded. “This is…kind of cool. More than I expected.”
“Hpmh. I’m not going to quit this mod as a peasant.” HIkari shakes her head. “Count me in.”
“Then it is settled. Armadillo Squad. I am Wilhelm the Doppelsöldner. At your service!” He bows formally to the girls who awkwardly bow back. “Now, let’s go find our Spanish friends.”