After the huge fight she’d just been through, not to mention the all-night long hike to get here, Sylvie was almost completely worn out – but the fact that she and her sister had just overcome a supposedly invincible opposing force gave her a lot of confidence, and she felt more than ready to deal with an army of human soldiers, no matter how many of them there were. She strode towards the city of Elgon, looking determined and aggressive, which she hoped would scare any enemies in her path into submission. When she saw the army that lay in wait for her, though, she couldn’t help but give a little gasp. There were truly thousands and thousands of them, and she also saw rows and rows of siege weapons – catapults, huge crossbow-like contraptions and siege towers – among the mass of troops. Still, the soldiers were no taller than her ankles and, apart from her head, she was completely clad in armour several inches thick, so she didn’t slow down. When she was just a few of her giant strides away from the nearest enemy forces, she saw a dark cloud rise up from several thousand of the soldiers and sail towards her. Just in time she realized that it was a swarm of arrows and she hastily covered her face with her hands. The great majority of the arrows impacted her body and limbs, causing her no harm at all. A couple managed to hit her ears or get stuck in her hair, which, though irritating, didn’t bother her all that much either. She lowered her hands, only to see another cloud of arrows heading her way, so she simply hid her face again.
Despite being unharmed, Sylvie didn’t want this to continue on indefinitely, so she decided to act. She took two steps forward, stomping her feet down on the ground with maximum force, which actually caused quite a few enemy troops to wobble and stumble. Now the nearest ranks were just a foot (from her perspective) away from her feet. She lifted up her gigantic left steel boot and held it above the closest soldiers.
“I don’t want to squish anyone!” she cried out, trying to sound as fierce as possible. “But if you bunch of little pipsqueaks don’t surrender right now, I’m just going to walk forward – and if anyone gets in my way…well, I guess I’ll just have to scrape you off my boot soles later!”
Sylvie, of course, had no intention of actually crushing anyone to death under her boots. Killing violent, voracious, murderous ogres was one thing, but stomping helpless soldiers to death, many of whom probably didn’t even want to be here and were just made to follow Argo’s orders, didn’t feel right to her. But she hoped that most of the enemy soldiers didn’t know this and that they believed her to be a merciless warrior giantess, capable of squishing humans as easily as most humans would step on insects. To her delight, her strategy seemed to work…at first. Many of the enemy, especially those who were standing right in front of her and over whom she towered like a Titaness, did throw down their weapons and run away. A couple dozen braver – or perhaps more foolhardy – warriors charged forward and attacked her right foot with swords, pikes and spears, all to no avail. There were still occasional bursts of arrows fired at her, but she just swatted them away. She also began waving the tip of her sword, from which ogre blood was still dripping, over the frightened soldiers’ heads, which scared even more of them into retreat. The noise from thousands of voices, all clamouring and screaming and yelling orders, just sounded like an incomprehensible roar to Sylvie. The enemy was on the retreat, but they hadn’t given up yet.
The huge siege engines were being loaded and aimed in her direction, and for a moment Sylvie felt a touch of fear, but she decided to stand her ground. The largest catapults launched huge boulders over the heads of the soldiers, but to the young princess they were just pebble-sized and they bounced off her armoured body without hurting her. The same thing happened with the great ballista bolts that came flying at her, none of which managed to hit higher than her waist. She even caught one of the boulders that was aimed at her and threw it back, hitting the largest siege tower and instantly causing it to collapse in on itself.
This was the moment when the enemy seemed to realize they weren’t going to win. A mass retreat began to happen, with most of the men, ignoring the desperate commands of their officers, dropping their weapons and running off, away from their giant foe. But Sylvie wasn’t about to let them escape just like that. She strode around the main mass of troops, occasionally knocking a score or so of them over with the tips of her boots (though she was careful not to step on anyone), and blocked their retreat.
“Running away, are we?” she said mockingly. “I don’t think so, you bunch of insects! You’ll all stay right where you are, throw down all your weapons and surrender, and I’ll consider sparing your lives! Otherwise…”
She stamped her foot down as hard as she could, causing a miniature earthquake to the frightened soldiers below. Her commands were, for the most part, instantly obeyed by most of the enemy, although a few of the commanding officers were still riding around through the fray, trying to get their troops to continue the fight. Sylvie directed her gaze at one of them, an important-looking man in a plumed helmet, carrying a rather tattered flag, who seemed to be in charge of most of the troops. She bent down on one knee and reached out with her long arm, then plucked the tiny general off his horse with two fingers. The terrified man now lay helpless in her hand and began pleading for his life. Sylvie had at first thought it might have been Prince Argo himself, but she saw from his greying hair that he was much older than she knew Argo to be. Also, from the way her sister had described him, she didn’t think Argo would be the type who’d lead his men from the front lines.
“Stop squirming, you little worm!” she said to her tiny captive. She was actually enjoying this feeling of being able to intimidate and frighten humans for a change. “I’m guessing you’re not Argo himself, are you? You’re one of his underlings, am I right? Tell me where I can find your boss, then I’ll let you return to your men.”
“I’m…not…telling you anything!” the man cried. Sylvie had expected him to be uncooperative, so she decided to persuade him a little bit. She deftly took hold of one of his legs and began to twist it slowly, and he began to scream in pain.
“I’m not letting go until you tell me where I can find Argo!” she said firmly, increasing the pressure on his leg. “Tell me now, or else you’ll be going to jail with one leg instead of two!”
“All right, all right…but please let go!” the enemy commander yelled. Sylvie released him and he fell back in her palm, gasping for breath.
“My lord Argo is up there, in the castle,” the man said, pointing up towards Elgon’s hill. “At least, he was there when he ordered us to attack earlier. Please, I can’t tell you anymore!”
“All right, that’s good enough, I guess,” she said. She knelt down and dumped him unceremoniously on the ground. He tried to stand up, but his leg was still in great pain and he instantly fell down. As he yelled for some of his soldiers to come and help him, Sylvie turned towards the city. She wanted nothing more than to rush up to the castle and catch Argo himself, before he had a chance to escape, but she didn’t know if that would be possible for her. Elgon’s labyrinthine streets were much too narrow for her to pass safely through, unless she walked extremely carefully – but she didn’t have that much time to spare either. She guessed Argo would try and flee to safety as soon as he saw that the battle wasn’t going his way, which he probably already had.
She was about to try and enter the city when she saw another, much smaller group of soldiers emerging from one of the gates. Sylvie was amused at the thought that there were still some humans who thought they could attempt to defeat her in battle. But then she saw that one of the soldiers was carrying the flag of the Kingdom of Vandan. These weren’t enemy troops at all, but citizens and soldiers of the city that had come out to meet her. The small group – no more than a hundred or so – came all the way up to her feet. She recognized one of soldiers at the front: it was Commander Ansur, whom Valdan and Lorek were always busy training with. She thought that Belena had told him and the other troops to remain behind at the castle, but they were here now. Sylvie stooped down and extended her hand to the commander, who climbed in.
“Congratulations, Your Highness!” he said to her. “You’ve saved us a lot of trouble in dealing with this army. We’re all very grateful.”
“Thanks…but aren’t you supposed to be back in Rismark? Does Belena know you’re here?”
“No, she does not…and, with all due respect to the Royal Princess, but she has never been in a battle like this before. I know she just wants to protect everyone all of the time, and we all appreciate her bravery, but she needs us humans more than she thinks. My men and I have just managed to expel most of the few remaining troops in the city, and the last few remnants are being dealt with by your brother as we speak…”
“What!? Valdan is here too? Oh boy, if Belena finds out, she’s going to murder him! Where is he? I’m going to have some words with him…”
“Actually…we’d prefer it if you stayed right here, Princess Sylvie. We need your help in disarming and detaining all of these enemy troops outside the city. They are far too many for my men to handle by themselves. But they seem to be scared stiff of you and wouldn’t dare do anything to us while you’re here. Please, Your Highness, we need you here! Valdan is a capable and well-trained soldier – I should know – and he has the makings of a good commander as well. Don’t worry, he’ll find and catch Argo, and then we’ll bring that bastard to justice. He won’t escape from what he’s done here, mark my words.”
Sylvie had half a mind to ignore the tiny commander and head off into the city again – but she realized that what he said made sense. Besides, she knew the people of Elgon were all watching her, and she decided that it might be wiser to act like an adult for once. She agreed with Ansur and placed him on the ground again. This foreign army, though defeated, still had to be decisively dealt with. Ansur told her that the plan was to relieve all the enemy soldiers of their weapons and armour, then escort them to the borders of Vandan with an armed guard and release them. Only the commanders would be taken prisoner, and they too might be released if it turns out they were merely pawns in Argo’s vile scheme. Sylvie didn’t have any better ideas, so she agreed to stay and help. She couldn’t help worrying about her older brother, however. She hoped he would succeed in capturing Argo, without getting killed in the process. She also wondered how Belena was doing at the moment.
“I’m so glad this day is almost over,” she thought to herself. “The worst part is done with – or at least, I hope it is.”