Chapter 12: Blood in the Sand Pt. 3
Summer 248 Saba

The ridge of the dune was now crowded with Arabian horsemen, forming ranks in anticipation of charging down the hill and destroying the isolated Flame Breakers, the soldiers who had single handedly turned around every battle the two nations had fought.

"We need to get behind the main lines!" exclaimed Urban.

"We will hold our ground here." said Planck, firmly.

"Against five thousand heavy cavalry?"

"Haven't you wondered where Babak has been all this time?"

"Babak?" asked Urban. He looked and saw that indeed, the infamous soldier was missing from the group.

The Sabaen cavalry had formed up now and as they prepared to charge, Urban saw a figure rise from the sands near the hill and run into full view of the Sabaen horsemen screaming profanities at them. Babak.

"I'm over here! You want me? Yeah you do!" screamed Babak, "Come get me you camel lickers! By the Gods you're an ugly bunch! I'll bet that if Medusa had seen the faces of you lot, she would have strangled herself with her own snakes while simultaneously cutting her own eyes out with a piece of stone the size and general shape of your mother's play toys. Then right before she dies of suffocation she would have thrown herself into pit full of scorpions and blessed Hades' testicles for giving her a way out of that horror." Then Babak turned towards the Flame Breakers and began running. As one, the horsemen raced after him, a wave flooding down the hill.

"He'll never make it!" shouted Six-Inch.

"Oh don't you worry about Babak," replied Lizard,"He's survived much worse than this."

The horsemen were closing in on the running figure that was Babak, their lances lowered, and then...chaos....as the entire dune erupted. Men were flung off their horses and others flew high into the air. Babak had dived onto the sand at the last minute and now he rose and began running again. The Sabaen cavalry had been utterly annihilated, those horses that were not caught in the explosion had been flung around by the concussion. Bones had broken, hoofs had crushed skulls and not a single horse was fit to ride. Urban stared in shock. The bastard had mined the entire dune....

Babak arrived out of breath and saluted Planck.

"How come you always get the fun jobs?" moaned Lizard.

"Because I'm better at everything." replied Babak

"No you're not!"

"Name one thing you're better at than I am."

"I'm faster than you! You couldn't dodge a sword swing of your life depended on it. Which it does."

"Yeah. Thanks for the advanced combat lesson Lizard..."

"That's enough!" said Planck,"We need to make our way back to the army. The High general has another plan to deal with the second force..."

The platoons converged and the Flame Breakers began to make their way back into friendly lines, a hostile, lumbering army in their wake...