Dimensional Descent

Mikael walked around with dark lines on his forehead, cups, tables and other furniture smashed all around him.

As though this wasn’t bad enough, he had torn a hole in his military tent out of rage and a few of the comfort women were currently trying to sow it back together. But, this only pissed him off even more.

The corpse of one of these women was lying on the ground, having been killed by him in a fit of rage. But, none of them dared to move her body, they could only step over her as they continued their attempt to sow the tear shut.

As though by design, this of course managed to piss Mikael off even more. Why wouldn’t they stop sniveling and crying? It was just one dead woman and now they suddenly couldn’t take it? They were fine with servicing a dozen men during any given night, but murder was where they drew the line?

Clearly, in his ridiculous tirade, Mikael had completely forgotten that most of these women weren’t here by choice.

”Fuck!”

Mikael ripped one of the women away from the tear, ironically making it even wider as she subconsciously grabbed out.

”Dammit!”

The woman was quickly bent over a table, her dress being torn away and a sudden cry leaving her lips as she felt something enter her.

Mikael began to vent all his frustration, clearly not caring that he was using far too much strength.

”Sir Mikael.”

At that moment, an attendant walked into the tent. Despite seeing the woman pressed into the table and Mikael furiously humping her from the back, he didn’t have much of a change in his expression as though he was very much used to seeing such a scene.

”What the hell is it?”

”We’ve gotten news of their movements.”

Mikael’s eyes went red with rage.

”Oh yea? We’ve gotten more word, is it? What about the first time at the Alpes? The second time at the Treeant Forest? Why am I spinning my army around in circles just to find cities they’ve abandoned and hardly touched?! Are you fucking with me?!”

The woman below Mikael whimpered. The hand Mikael used to press her face into the table exerted too much pressure, making it impossible for her to breathe.

”This time we’ve done more due diligence. We are certain that this information is at most three days old. We will most definitely be able to intercept them if we move now. From my understanding, it seemed that the net they cast to stop our messengers finally showed a flaw. This time, we’ve got them.”

Mikael squeezed and threw the woman he had bent over to the side. She gasped for air like a fish out of water, scrambling to return to her work mending the tent’s fabric.

”Why didn’t you say that from the very beginning?!” Mikael roared. ”We’re moving out!”

**

Mikael road a magnificent steed. It had a muscular body that seemed pumped of steroids and flowing hair that made up its mane and covered its hooves. It almost looked like it was galloping on air with the way it moved.

The army tore through the plains.

”I don’t like this valley, circle around it!” Mikael roared.

Even though Mikael seemed hot headed, he was still a general with decades of experience. He refused to be led by the nose. He would be cautious whenever there was an opportunity to do so.

Circling around the valley would at most add half a day. Rather than harming them, this would only help. Instead of arriving in the morning, they would be arriving in the afternoon. If they managed to catch the rebel army mid siege, this ’war’ was as good as over.

However, what Mikael didn’t expect was to have to pull the reins of his horse, forcing himself to come to a grinding halt, barely a day later.

Before them, a river that had never appeared before had suddenly appeared as though a god reached down and created it on a whim.

It wasn’t very wide, just five or so meters. It probably wasn’t very deep either, maybe a meter or two at most. Yet, for an unprepared army like theirs, it was enough to bring them to a screeching halt.

Go around? They had no idea how this river appeared here in the first place, just suddenly appearing at the end of a forest of sparse trees. Without knowing this, how could they even make such a decision?

Was the only option to go across? But if they were forced to cut down some trees to build a bridge, they would add another half day to their journey. By then, they might as well have not gotten the message on time at all.

If they tried to brute force their way across, it would be too easy to get caught with their pants down.

It was exactly then that Mikael heard something he least wanted to hear at this moment.

”CHARGE!”

Mikael’s expression changed.

His neck snapped back, suddenly realizing that an army was approaching from his back.

’How the hell did they get behind us?!’

Mikael froze. ’The valley?!’

He had chosen to go around. But, what if there was an army hiding within the hole time, waiting for him to make exactly that decision and prepared to pounce on him?

If he went into the valley, he was finished. If he went around the valley, he was finished.

”Cross the river!” Mikael roared.

But, as soon as his command fell and began to be acted upon, the sound of arrows whistling through the wind came from the other side of the river.

Hiding within the widely spaced trees, archers Mikael hadn’t even noticed before suddenly made their presence known.

”FUCK!” Mikael roared, charging his horse through the shallow waters to make it to the other side. He would hack these archers to pieces!

”Whoa, whoa, whoa, now. I can’t let you do that.”

In a streak of golden light, Mikael suddenly found his path blocked by a boy who was young enough to be his grandson.

Leonel smiled lightly, holding a spear in his hand.

”Mikael the Sturdy, right? Nice to meet you.”