Nova Roma

Chapter 65 - Final battle in Insulae Canibalium

The cavalry and conscripts cross the mountains of southern Insulae Canibalium (Cuba), to avoid attacks in which the Praetorians and some troops are responsible for investigating the mountain looking for the best place to attack.

Azalea was the leader of the Praetorians and main confidant of Hellena, his father was a tribune to the command of Marco Antonio when they lost the war, Augustus captured his pregnant mother and held her in Rome in house jail, where she gave birth to Azalea.

She would live a quiet calm childhood, unlike Hellena, in her childhood she grew up with her mother’s stories about her father and the fabulous battles she had lived, this motivated her to want to be like her father and fight.

But while he was growing up he realized that women only had the duty of being mothers and could not be soldiers and much fewer command troops, despite all this, he never abandoned his dream of commanding and surpasses his father.

One day her mother received a legionnaire their house, who told her that they were sent as ladies of Hellena the fiancée of the grandson of Emperor Augustus, on the way Azalea met a pretty depressed girl she was Hellena.

Azalea started chatting with Hellena after she met Flavio, Hellena was always quite jealous with Flavio but this never mattered to Azalea because she just wanted to have a chance to prove she could be better than her father.

Flavio noticed that she was a girl who was looking to fight to show her courage, I allowed her to participate in the training of the troops, this made Azalea very happy because she realized that she had a future serving with Flavio and Hellena.

Eventually, time passed and showed that she was learning quite quickly without mentioning that she was a born leader, thanks to this and the great friendship she had with Hellena, she was raised as head of the Praetorian guard, where she met her husband and years later had some babies.

The training he had to suffer was Spartan, from being in the colder regions to the Sahara desert, all Praetorians specialized as the elite over the elite in the Roman army without mentioning that the brainwashing that forced them to receive Flavio.

This brainwashing was simple but powerful as Flavio being a god and Hellena a demigod, just show them their powers and tell them that after death they will have a place in the so-called "Heaven" for their services to the imperial family, not to mention that the pay, services, and prestige they receive motivate them to remain loyal to the imperial family.

The fears of Flavio have an explanation, during the history of the Roman Empire, the Praetorians were always problems for the emperors because some killed to sell the imperial throne and others simply because they did not like the emperor in turn.

Thanks to your efforts to worship the imperial family, you can be sure that your Praetorian Guard will not betray any family member during the coming years of the empire.

On Azaela Mountain she was in a tent reviewing reports and maps, she was the leader of the intelligence base in the center of the mountains.

She scratched her eyes tired of seeing reports about cannibals and others "I hope we can end this war and that I can take care of my children again"

At that moment one of his managers entered his shop who gave her a Roman greeting "Commander we have found the Mohan stronghold and a fairly safe way to reach it"

Azaela smiled, this was good news "Quickly prepare a safe path for Hellena’s troops to arrive without problems, the faster we finish this cannibal garbage, we can be with our families"

The soldier left to take the order to the messengers, after a while a safe path was prepared for the advance of the troops.

Somewhere on the slopes of the mountains, Hellena was training her shot with her carbine, aimed a target at about 300 meters, held her breath and fired, the bullet hit the center, opened her carbine and placed another bullet inside his weapon when he prepared to shoot.

A soldier appeared before her "Empress, Azaela less informed that the Mohan people have been found, we await your orders"

Hellena only saw the soldier and nodded to turn to the firing range and shoot again, the bullet hit the center of the target again "Prepare the troops and the cannons, it’s time to finish this conquest, our efforts must be in the south wall not on this island "

The cavalry and the auxiliary troops set out on the path marked by the Praetorians, the journey was quite relaxed, except for some inconveniences with the wheels of the cannons that were stuck with the difficult terrain, but without more setbacks they reached the central base where they rested to leave for the siege of the last Caribbean cane.

Hellena was received by Azaela who explained the movement made by the Mohan among other things of vital importance since as of tomorrow they had to accommodate the cannons and the troops to be able to attack in an orderly way avoiding unnecessary casualties.

At dawn they positioned the troops in the indicated places and with this began the siege of the last Caribbean bastion in Insulae Canibalium, the Mahan realized this but it was too late there was nowhere to run they could only face the enemy that was stalking them.

Shaman Mohan knew that they could die therefore he decided to summon Bachue his goddess whose mother sacrificing all the children in a ritual that filled the soil of his village with blood.

From the blood came a woman with black hair and a white robe who opened her hands "My children, tell me how can I help you"

The shaman stood on his knees before his mother goddess "White men have surrounded us and are quite strong so we need your guidance to defeat this threat"

Bachue looked at his son on the ground "His sacrifice is not enough I need everyone to return to their origins to be able to defeat this enemy"

The shaman knew that his mother goddess needed everyone’s blood that is why I do not hesitate to accept his goddess’s command if they are going to die it is better to do it with her than to die at the hands of traitors and white men.

At that time all the Mohan lost their lives including the shaman, their bodies became a red mass that surrounded Bauche who began to become a giant monster of 10 meters of red color.

In the siege camp the soldiers watched with surprise the great monster that began to appear in the center of the Mohan tribe, Hellena quickly ordered to occupy positions and open fire.

The guns opened fire and their steel ball came before such a monster that stood on the horizon, Bachue shouted at the pain of being pierced by the enemy’s weapons and decided to fight back throwing pieces of wood from the houses to Hellena’s troops.

A crossfire was present and Hellena ordered to charge against that monster, raised in his faithful unicorn charge in the front line with his troops.

In just a few minutes they were close to the gigantic monster, Hellena released her divine energy and built her on her sword, unlike Flavio could not create spears or swords from her but could use her for her weapons.

Bauche saw the enemy approaching and concentrating blood around her I think some arrows he threw on the cavalry, the first deaths were present, Hellena quickly rode to her gigantic feet had to cut her tendons of the feet to be able to immobilize her.

Azaela understood what Hellena wanted to do and guided her troops as bait to prevent the monster from realizing Hellena’s intentions, meanwhile, Hellena dodged the monster’s blood arrows without much difficulty.

He managed to surround the monster by a blind angle and short the tendon of his first foot without problems, this caused his foot to kneel when he turned to see who had attacked her, a shot hit in his right eye was Azaela who with his flintlock pistol He managed to hit his eye.

Bachue shouted and looked at the woman who blinded her with hate, with his right hand gave a big swipe that threw Azaela over the ruins of a house, Hellena took advantage of the distraction to climb up Bachue’s back and bury his sword in his spine dorsal.

This caused Bachue to fall on the ground without the possibility of moving, Hellena walked over the immobilized monster until she reached the neck where she buried her sword countless times, the surviving cavalry helped the empress, firing her weapons and burying her swords in the body of Bauche.

Soon the monster’s eyes went out and his body began to shake into blood, the battle was over.

Hellena cursed the monster and ran quickly to see her friend who had been thrown moments ago, what she saw saddened her. Azaela was with one of her hands completely shattered and in a delicate state, quickly gave first aid to prevent her from dying.

I knew that Azaela’s military career is over but that doesn’t matter as long as she doesn’t die ...