Chapter 425 - Fight In The Swamp
A few days after he had conquered the Barony of Baltimore, Einar gathered his army and prepared to advance towards the last territory of Desmond's kingdom.
Once he could get there, he knew that he would have a decisive confrontation with King Chongelt and his troops in the area of the swamps, for he did not believe that he would face them in the capital city of Tralee.
This because they had already corroborated that the siege capacity of the Nordic army was extremely high, so the enemy soldiers wanted to test their ability to fight in the open field.
Einar's army began their trek through the hills and in just two days, managed to reach the swampy area.
As in the barony's forest of Kinsale, Einar left 2,000 soldiers as a vanguard to advance in the swamp, guarding the advance of the troops.
After this, the troops advanced through the swamp to avoid Einar's problems.
He decided that the vanguard will review the best way for all the troops to avoid passing through some extremely humid areas or where the water level was too high.
Because of this progress was a little slower, but they managed to cross the swamp with relative safety.
On the way, Einar only frowned because of the smell of the swamp, this because there were many areas where the water was stagnant, which caused the smell of putrefaction.
Not to mention that in some parts of the swamp there were some animal carcasses which were in a state of decomposition advancing.
As he made his way through the swamp area, Einar could see a group of soldiers emerging from one of the many pools of water in the swamp from afar.
They seemed to be in a somewhat deplorable state, so getting off the horse Einar approached them. When he saw them closely, he realized that they were somewhat injured.
"Konungar Einar, we found the enemy camp. It is only that they found us. We managed to get out of that place as quickly as possible, but not all of them succeeded.
We are the only two people who survived the massacre they committed against our group of 10.
But his sacrifice was not in vain because we can guide him to where his camp is located. I am almost certain that they will have prepared for our arrival.
Although if you allow me, I would like to remove these stupid leeches that I have on my body. "
Einar stopped his hand and shook his head. "Don't remove the leeches, because if you do, you will start to bleed horribly and with the wounds you have you will end up bleeding so you could go into shock.
Just let the leeches finish drinking your blood. When they do, they will fall to the ground. It is the safest way to avoid that you can worsen your situation.
However, what I want you to do is take a bath and let the doctors heal your wounds.
After this, we can start the walk to the camp because I am sure that in an hour or two they will not finish moving it completely. "
The two soldiers sat down and quickly went to take a bath.
After an hour, the soldiers returned looking more rejuvenated, so they began to lead the army into the camp.
Fortunately, the road was not so full of ponds, so the soldiers did not have to cross any kind of dirty or insect-filled water.
Upon reaching the enemy camp, Einar could see that there was a hill where the enemy soldiers were.
All of them were holding their shields and were in a circle formation, waiting patiently for the Nordic army to arrive so they could defeat it.
Einar, seeing the enemy army could only smile because he never thought that the enemies would place themselves in an advantageous position.
Because of this, he gave the order to the snipers to climb into the trees, where they could comfortably shoot all the enemies.
When the snipers were already in their positions, the soldiers advanced with their crossbows.
Knowing the danger of arrows, Einar placed in the front row a group of soldiers who had wooden shields with steel plates in their hands.
Which were specially made to be able to stop the attack of any kind of arrow that could reach them.
King Chongelt when he saw the formations of the Nordic army only smiled as he realized that most of his soldiers did not have shields.
"That idiot king of Dunchad lost to such a weak army. It should be a disgrace.
That he can't see that all of them are extremely weak. They don't even have weapons in their hands. Those things for sure don't even hurt.
Warriors, today we will destroy this supposed army of invaders and bring the head of this accursed pagan king to the High Pontiff. "
After those words, the Irish warriors struck their shields with their swords and axes. Later, they ran down the hill in order to destroy all the Norse in a glorious way.
Unfortunately, their strategy would go awry as snipers found from the trees started firing.
Suddenly the enemy army began to fall dead warriors who did not even have arrow wounds or any weapon.
They simply fell to the ground where they ended up dying, from the gunshot or because of their companions passing over them, thus ending their lives immediately.
As the warriors got closer and closer, the soldiers aimed their crossbows and with their explosive bolts; they fired.
Warriors who were confident in their shields screamed as their hands were destroyed by the explosive bolts.
Which completely destroyed the hands and the wood of the shield. This caused the attack to begin to slow down, and it was then that fear seized the attackers.
King Chongelt who was watching everything from the hill shouted and ordered the entire army to advance.
Thousands of Irish warriors descended from the hill and were ready to fight to the end.
Einar, seeing that, smiled and gave the order for the soldiers with bows to prepare.