Reincarnated As The Dark Knight

"What's his plan?"

"I don't know, I don't care. All I know is that I've got more meat. Is that not enough for you? Stop trying to see hidden meanings behind everything and just eat because you may never get another chance like this" Eustace said hungrily as he devoured everything in his bowl "More please!!!"

Eustace was oblivious but the bad eyes staring at them failed to go unnoticed by Artur. Intense gazes, they were to be expected. The other slaves who were jealous of their luck and the soldiers who thought of them as lowly children slaves who were brought up to their level.

It did not sit well with them as Lord Khan ordered for their special treatment. What was special about them except that Eustace was too big for his age.

Artur ate quietly while Eustace emptied plate after plate, not caring what the others thought. He thought that if they wanted the same treatment they should have impressed Lord Khan like him even though he did not know how he did it.

Even with Eustace's words Artur could not stop thinking that Khan had some hidden intentions. He wondered if Khan recognized him but that was not possible, they had never met before.

***

"...Add some more rice to their plates tonight and give them some beef with that"

"Come again my lord"

Khan looked crossed "Do you want me to repeat myself?" He snapped

'You could have just repeated yourself instead of wasting saliva and saying that' Artur thought.

"Wait, you know what? Do that for the rest of the group. As for the both of them, let them eat whatever they want as much as they want"

Colonel John wasted no time in answering "Yes, my lord. Do you have any other requests?"

"That'll be all for now. Just do that and make sure to prepare the gear for tomorrow"

"Your wish is my command my lord"

***

Artur could not find any valid reason as to why Khan would give them special treatment. It was nerve racking.

'He mentioned gear for tomorrow, I guess I'll just have to wait til tomorrow to find out. Best not to dwell on it. Let's just eat some rice' He thought and resumed eating his food.

***

Artur woke up to a warm morning, provided by the red stones and smiled. He was earlier than anybody else in the camp, mostly because he was too anxious to sleep. It would have been a good chance to escape given that no one was awake but that was not going to happen in such a cold weather. He would need access to horses of which he had no idea where they were kept. He did not even know if guards had been stationed. Not worth the risk.

'Dear Santa, if you exist in this world I'm thinking of getting my Christmas gift early. I'm not asking for much, just give me a reindeer'

Of course Artur knew that there was no such thing as Christmas in this world. For the past five years that he had been there, he had witnessed several celebrations but never one even slightly related to Christmas. Hell the calendars were not even the same.

It was not long before he was joined by Eustace and soon the whole camp was awake and lively again.

Artur was wondering what the soldiers were going to make all the slaves do now, feed horses? Fight? There were lesser things to do now that they were not at the camp but things were more dangerous here.

Just as he expected, everyone in Artur's tent were called out into the snow. Poor kids.

Artur noticed that some of the soldiers were giggling and some decided to make it loud by laughing hard. He had no idea what was going on but whenever people like these were laughing the outcome could never, ever be good.

He knew that he was in trouble.

There were children slaves from other tents present but all the girls had been taken away. It was just boys.

They were all made to line up in many rows, facing some soldiers who stood beside some huge boxes. Artur hoped, and he prayed that it was not what he was thinking that was going to happen but right then and there, his hopes were shattered by the announcement.

"You will all be given some light armor right now and as soon as you receive yours you are going to put them on. Bear in mind that if you complete the task which you are given, you will be taken out from slavery"

It was clear what their intentions were.

***

"I wish I never accepted that rice" Artur said.

"It wouldn't matter so cheer up Victor, we are making it out of this alive" Eustace said.

"You think?"

They were in light battle armor that was not serving to protect them well holding swords and long shields. Some were even holding spears with Khan's flags hanging from them. The weapons weighed down on Artur and the cold was not helping at all. 

He and the rest of the slaves were put in the front as meat shields to take the first part of the enemy's attack. Their armor was even designed to look like the normal soldiers'. So this was the purpose of the rice; to give them more energy to run for their lives. It was weird when they were all even given hot tea even though it had no sugar. How disheartening was that?

The little army was in an open field, some on horseback and the rest on field. If you looked at them from afar one would think that they were actually a real army. There was a hill ahead of them and Artur could not seem to shake off the ominous feeling that he was getting from it. 

A few moments later, dark figures sprouted from it, all in a straight line and crowded the top of the hill. Enemy soldiers. They were all well arranged with huge spaces between the groups at regular intervals.

'This is not good at all'

They all received their command and got into battle ready positions. The hill was far away and the kids were ordered to charge at the soldiers. Clearly, their lives were of no value as a bunch of kids were being asked to go fight an army. They were given the order to attack and with no choice, they did. 

The enemy soldiers in return, sent a storm of arrows into the air. From the cries it was clear that they were children, but children or not, as long as they were carrying weapons, they were threats that needed to be eliminated. To them it was like the Great Khan was now so out of soldiers that he had to use little children too. How embarrassing.

The children saw the arrows coming down at them and some turned around and ran back in fear. It was too late to turn back. All the slaves who turned around were who turned were hit by the arrows but Artur remembered that he had seen things like these in movies before.

 He placed the long shield on the ground and simply hid behind it. 'Damn idiots, what the point of having a shield then' He thought.

Apparently, he was not the only one who had thought of this. Some other slaves also used their shields planted into the ground and survived the onslaught. Ultimately, about forty to fifty boys were dead out of the almost two hundred that were deployed. Artur peeked out from behind his shield when he noticed that there were no more arrows and the little army attacked again. 

"Victor stop!" As they ran forward Eustace suddenly dragged Artur by the hand back, forcing him to stop in his tracks. 

"Why did you stop me Eustace? We can only escape if we reach that cluster of trees ahead" Artur said, clearly angry.

"Come on mate, surely I'm not the only one who's noticed it now, am I?" He had a worried look on his face.

"Noticed what?"

"The snow up ahead, can't you see it?"

 Artur looked to the direction of the enemy and the surrounding, but he saw nothing.

"Eustace, I don't see anything"

"Then why don't you look more carefully"

He did as Eustace told him to and looked harder, then a bit harder until he saw something move in the distance. Because of all the thick fog and the wind blowing hard on the snow he could not make out what it was, but he was starting to see it clearer now. The movement was happening in multiple places, each following a straight path.

"The snow, it's moving..."

"Like it's coming toward us, right?"

"Yeah, like it's running toward us"

Reality dawned on Artur, and he smiled like someone who had just been hit by the weight of their bills. The worst possible scenario had just played out before him.

"You have got to be shitting me"