I ran into several beasts and bandits on the road. That was annoying. When I was not beset by a pack of wolves, bandits tried to put tolls in my way. Either that or simply ambushing me. "Your money or your life, fool!" they would say. Killing them got some nice exp. points. It did not make it any less of a hassle. Levelling up was good. I was level 4 by the time I got there. Just as I was approaching the city, an army began to sally out. That was pretty cool. I went over and asked what was going on. They were going on a new campaign against the Western Empire. The empire's civil war was still going on. I asked if I could join them. They accepted me right away. There was no reason to reject me here. I was a real fighting age citizen with a sword. I also was not a criminal yet. That allowed me to join at their bottom rank. I was a peasant recruit. My gear was slightly better than what they got. It was not even necessary for them to have a shield. I was shunted into a squad with 9 other guys about my age. I had to march with all of them. The 9 boys needed to learn some discipline and tactics.
Doomed was not quite how I would put it. I bet half would die though. We were definitely the underdogs of this big army. Moving to the northwest, we stopped in another town for some minor supply refill. We were not there for long before making the march across the border. Almost immediately, we found ourselves attacked by an enemy army. Each side had the time to arrange their troops as they liked. We were outnumbered 3 to 1. The members of my squad were in the infantry. That meant we were with all the pike and spearmen. This was all foreign ground, so the general wanted to take a defensive stance. We were going to make a wall and weather the storm of enemy cavalry. Our cavalry would pick the pieces and engage them after they were split apart. Archers were on top of a hill to rain fire on enemies approaching us. When the battle began, I braced for the chaos that would begin. The cavalry charged against us. Having the pikes and spears stopped a few of the horses. Others just plowed through our ranks. After 4 charges, we were whittled down. My squad was at the front.
Each of us looked at the others. This was not going to end well. I picked up a spear that someone in front of me dropped when he died. With my shield in my left hand, it was pretty unwieldy. I put it on my back. Gripping it with 2 hands made me feel more at ease. Another cavalry charge was approaching. I waited until they got to me. I jumped and thrust forward. The rider was dismounted and I killed him. I did it 2 more times to great effect. There was a lack of allies around. Our cavalry was attacking them as well. It was time for me to go. I had the spear in my inventory and rearmed myself with my sword and shield. It was time to go find some people to kill. Seeing all of the archers, an idea came to me. I was going to go get them from this side of the battle. Flanking them from the side, I charged. I hacked and slashed my way through an archer. About half a dozen more of them fell to my blade. I was shot at and slashed back, killing the man. Ducking and rolling, I was in a life or death struggle. I killed 2 more before being downed. I was a Player. I could not permanently die. It was 5 hours.
