I have read both about using children or other men. Anyway it is important to recall that in those years a 14 or 15 years old lad would be considered grown enough to fight.

But I remember reading a document about the Tercios having actual children (10 or 12 years old) for this. They would run under the pikes and cut the enemy's knees and tendons.

Yeah, the Tercios were very professional bastards in battle.

It all began when the worlds colided.

How it happened or why, noone understood. But now new foes were marching through the land, alien kingdoms were demmanding new lands to expand. When king Andrew "the Conqueror" learned that a band of around 250 men had trespassed his frontiers, he expected the his army to easily fend off the offenders. After all, they were just 250 men armed with pole arms... and there were some children among their ranks!

And now he was sitting on the throne, listening to a messenger's report. "My lord, your army was dispersed" he said, terror in his voice. "They fought valiantly, but those strangers were able to fight off all our forces".

"How is that possible!", yelled king Andrew. "What about our griffoon raiders? Their charge is unstoppable to any known foe!"

"They were killed by lines after lines of pikes. They first killed the majestic beasts and then ended the life of their riders!"

"What about the Valkiry Warriors? They wear great swords, certainly they were able to cut the enemy polearms!"

"Just... a few, my lord. the Valkiry warrior wore no armour at all".

"Outrageous! And what about our infantry? We had over 1500 pikemen! What happened?"

"The children happened, sir". There was an incredulous silence after those words, so the messenger explained himself. "Our pikes collided with the enemy's polearms, it was an stalemate... but then our first line fell, man by man. The children that marched with the enemy warriers ran under the pikes and stabbed our warriors in the knees. That's how they were defeated".

The king sat on his throne.

"My lord, they are marching this way".

"How do they call themselves? What lord or tyrant do they serve? Maybe we can still negotiate a truce..."

"They call themselves... Tercios Españoles, from a foreign land called "España" or "Espania", I'm not certain how to pronounced it. They gave me this message for your eyes only".

The messenger gave an scroll to the king. There was a message written in ink with a polished hand writting.

"To the king called Andrew who helds the title 'the Conqueror':

We, the Spanish Tercios, have been tasked by king Felipe the Second to conquer this land for the greatest interest of the Spanish Empire. We stand no quarrel against you, your family or citizens. Your warriors, while foolish, fought with honor, so I know you will do the same, for only a great king can inspire such a thing in their soldiers.

This is the only time I will make this offer. Surrender now, king Andrew, and you shall be treated respect. If you refuse, know that it will be my honor to fight you until death embraces any of us.

May God bless you,
General Ambrosio Spínola."

"...her perfectly simmetrical and prominent spine..."

All right. I'm too much of a man writing women not to fall into this.

I liked it!

Thank you kindly :)

The wedding bells of the church were still ringing when the dark wooden gate of the mansion opened. Damyan entered the place and, with a snap, the gate closed at his back. He pushed the young girl that was walking by his hand towards a chair and walked to the chimney. The bright red flames illuminated his face as he started to chuckle evilly. His plans were in motion.

At his back, the girl sat on the chair. She was young, very young. The fact that was only fourteen did not spare her from marriage once her father had given her away to Lord Damyan Amerthy. She stood up, pulled the humongous white skirt until she was able to sit comfortably, and looked around. Damyan placed a hand on the frame of the chimney, contemplating his future actions, when she spoke. “So… did you marry me as part of a bigger scheme, or are you just some sort of pervert?”

“What?” he asked, visibly confused.

“Yeah, you know… I mean, I’m young but not that naive”, she retorted. “Many older men like you think on marrying a young noble girl like me out of lust, but just to be clear… it’s not like I’m going to let you. Understood?”.

“How dare you, Angelica!” he yelled, offense echoing in each word. “I would never do such a thing!”

“So… classic evil plot. I’m sorry if I offended you, I had to ask, maybe now I can remove this thing”. She tapped with her knuckles on her hip, making a metallic sound. “Oh”, murmured Damyan, understanding what she was hiding under the wedding dress. “So, tell me, what was the point of blackmailing my father to give my hand in marriage then? You have quite a reputation: scams, use of mercenaries, assassinations, torture…”

“It’s… too complex for a young lady like yourself. Now begone and stop bothering me!”

He turned back to stare the fire, his mood somehow killed by Angelica. To Lord Damyan Amerthy’s surprise, her new wed wife started laughing softly, rapidly increasing to a loud laughter. “What are you laughing at!?”, he requested, stepping towards her menacingly.

“That’s brilliant! I mean, I have been involved in devilish plots since I was four! Blackmailed? Thrice. Kidnapped? Twice. Sold as a slave? Once. Assassination attempts? Four. My hand given into marriage without my consent? Five times. You should know that I allowed this wedding to happen”. She stood up, ignoring Damyan’s threat, and walked towards a great window. She looked to the city outside while she continued. “If I have to guess, I’d say your plan is to dethrone my father, he’s the Count of Mornalia, after all. But if he was, for instance, assassinated, his position would be inherited by my brother. So I guess you have planned for that, right?”

Damyan, recovering his composure, walked slowly towards her. He twisted his mustache, standing right next to Angelica and watching the city as she did. Below them, the party of their wedding was still raging. “Yes. I have planned for that. You almost sound like you want them dead”.

“My father? Yeah, he’s always used me. ‘It’s your duty, to serve this country’, it’s your fault you got kidnapped again’, he’s a bastard. Not my brother, though, I’d be happy enough if he was sent far away never to come back”.

“That can be arranged…”

“Use my aunt” she interrupted. “Aunt Ophelia always wanted my father’s throne. You just need to leave some evidence pointing to her. Use this”, she said as she removed a hair locker from her head, her long blonde hair falling around her round and beautiful face. “I stole it from her years ago, it was a gift from my grandmother to aunt Ophelia. Anyone knowing the family will recognize it as hers”.

Damyan took the hair locker, impressed with the young girl’s determination. But she continued. “By the way, my father loves to go out hunting each Sunday. It’s the perfect moment”.

“Well, I’ll be damned” retorted Damyan. “I was not informed you were such a… proactive young lady”.

She laughed softly. “Oh, please. Who would suspect of the youngest, cute, blonde little daughter of count Morgan?” she answered, looking at her with very trained puppy eyes. “Nobility is a dangerous world to grow into. You either adapt, perish or live the rest of your life as some noble’s puppy wife. To hell with that”.

They stood like this, watching the sun set without saying a word for several minutes. “So, my dear wife, what is it you desire in life? Why did you allow this wedding to happen?”

“I want to be feared”.

She walked away to the chimney. Her semblance was serious and, for the first time, Damyan saw in her look a pained expression. Blond curls falling in front of her face that he did not try to remove, the experience of a life no child should ever have reflected on her green eyes.

“I want to be feared”, she repeated. “But not because I’m your wife: I want the world to know my name, I want my enemies, everyone who ever wronged me whisper my name afraid that I may hear them. I don’t want anyone to try to manipulate or use me again. So, when you asked my hand in marriage, I knew this was my chance”. She looked at him and, despite her short stature, despite being a cute, blond and thin girl, something in the way she looked at him made him know she was dead serious. “Do not be fooled, Damyan: if you try to use or abuse me in any way, I will get you killed. But if you help me, I will give you the means to get my father’s throne and, eventually, the whole kingdom”.

Damyan stared a her for some moments and, at that point, he understood. She had not told him everything that had happened to her. Not even close. “Anyone else who wronged you?”. Angelica looked again towards the flames and murmured ‘My uncle. My cousins’. He walked towards her and extended his hand. “We have a deal. But be warned: shall you betray me, I will make you wish for death before I even started exerting my vengeance on you”.

“Quite a typical threat, don’t you think?” she said as she shook Lord Damyan’s hand.

“I feel like this could be the beginning of a long, lasting friendship”.

“Who knows. Maybe, in due time, I may even think of you as my husband. Now, where is my room? I really hate this dress”.

“Top of the stairs, second floor, third door to the left”. Angelica smiled and, carrying the dresses’ skirt on her thin hands, she disappeared through a door. Once he was alone, Damyan blew a long breath and curled his mustache. “Hell… I may be in love!”

​

___________________________________________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed it!

No one remembers what happened, but plant life is almost completely extinct worldwide. Nowadays, hunting is the main food source for all creatures.

"Today, on the anniversary of her passing, we commemorate the life of Silent Light, the single greatest hero of recent times. Born in 1985, her civilian identity unknown, Silent Light joined the Super Guard Team in february 2001, being mentored by The Captain as the new heavy assault member of the team. Her voice, when whispered properly, was able to conjure fire and light, which joined to her increased strength and resistance made her an ideal candidate for the Guard.

Sadly, during the battle for Paris en 2015, Silent Whiper met her end the 29th of november at the hands of Black Cultist. We are proud to have with us today none other than The Captain. Captain, welcome to the show..."

Laura turned changed the radio channel to listen some electro swing. It was 10:30 am and the café was filled to the brim with clients. She knew that while a few clients may enjoy a talk show, what most of them wanted was to have some background music, and steaming mug of coffee, maybe a pastry and peace. That was what she sold in 'Café Arland', an small area of repose in the neverending stress and speed of the great city.

She had just finished cleaning one of the coffee machines when Arnold came back from his break. He was a young lad on his late teens that had recently got into college, but he did struggle financially. He was diligent, well behaved and had a lovely smile that cheered up the day of even the grumpiest of clients. "Hey boss, I'm back, would you like to take your break now?"

"I'd love to", Laura replied, "but I'll go to my office to do some maths. Can you handle this?"

"Certainly, take as much as you need. I'll call you if something's on fire"

"You better pull it out before I come back!".

They both laughted as she took off the delantal and got to the back of the café. She had taken a considerable effort to make it as lovely as possible: there was quite a comfortable staff room with a sofá, TV, and an small kitchen. She even spent money on building a new staff bathroom that was quite bigger than the client's one and was always perfectly clean. Her philosophy was that staff members had to be happy in order to make their clients happy as well. It was a modest business, but she loved every bit of it.

Laura got into her office and, after locking the room, she turned on the computer and browsed the news with some specific tags: [Fire Lady] [Robbery] [News] [The Captain]. The results came back immediately, talking about the heist of two days before: "Fire Lady assaults again a gambling office, stealing millions. The Captain showed to the scene just a minute later, but the villaness managed to escape after throwing him a fireball that blinded the hero. He declared that the SGT are after her and should apprehend Fire Lady very soon". Laura smiled.

The same declarations every day. Every week. Every month. She printed the news report and placed it inside a huge dossier with all of Fire Lady's successfull hits: an actor known unofficially for being involved into child abuse rings that was killed in a fire, a pharmaceutical CEO who intended to increase price of insulin hundreds of times that was found beaten almost to death, an underage detention center that was attacked and all inmates freed (althought in this one the reported missed to mention the abuses the guards were doing on those children), and a long etcetera.

She still found it funny and sad. That she had to become a villain, even a minor one, to even bring a bit of goodness to the world. And, as always, the SGT would say she is not a threat, that she is just a wannabe villain that would soon be detained. But they never did.

She saved all those things and produced her financial notebook. She still had to do some maths, after all. Almost twenty minutes went by when a buzz interrupted her work: Arnold was asking for help. It was 11:30am, it was usual that more clients came by at that time. She walked towards the front and soon realized something was off: he heard Arnold talking very fast, scared, and a second voice replied, a voice she knew too well. She had started to run when there was a huge crash and something stuck through the wall next to the door that lead to the café.

A long, bloodied blade.

She opened the door. The clients were fleeing and screaming. Over the counter a huge man wearing a steel and golden armor was holding a weapon and, impaled by it, Arnold too his last breaths. The Captain slowly looked at Laura. "I've finally found you, Fire Lady. Your servant didn't want to cooperate". The so called hero pulled the sword back, and Arnold's body fell limbly to the ground. "Now, about that fireball you threw to my face..."

"What... did you..."

"Oh, poor little villain is scared now?" he said, mockingly. "You shouldn't have insulted me with your presence, you whore!"

He took a huge swing towards Laura. She ducked, raised a hand, whispered: "holy light", a glow covered her hand and, with a loud 'clank', the sword was violently stopped against her flesh. The Captain observed her hand as the golden glow rapidly spread to the rest of her body and, when Laure rose her head to stare at him again, his face grew paler.

A second later, The Captain was thrown out of the building, hit several times on the pavement and stop himself abruptly when he hit the wall at the other side. He stood up moving away the debris that was falling over him, and he saw a ghost brought back from the death. Laura was hovering, covered by a layer of golden light, while silver flames orbited around her hands; her eyes glew white and her hair floated while energy sparks jumped from the tips of each strain.

"No... You are dead! I saw you die!!"

"You killed Silent Light", she said, her voice booming. "You killed her when you liberated corrupt politicians. When you let assassins, rapists and other bastards to get away because they paid more. You killed my belief in super heroes the same day you started training me! Just as you tried to kill me and let Black Cultist take the fall!!"

"You became a villain! You had to be stopped!"

"No. I did not" she said as she rose the palm of her hand towards The Captain. "I learned the truth. I became free". The light concentrated on her hand, and then she whispered: "Kill the evil".

​

_______________________________________________________________________________________

News reports: 30th of november 2022:

Silent Light is not dead! The situation is still unclear, but it seems that after being taken for dead at the hands of Black Cultist the 29th november 2015, she adopted the identity of Fire Lady. The Captain has fallen to her hands and, few minutes after, the tower of the Super Guardian Team has bursted in flames. It is still unknown what is causing this conflict or how many heroes have perished in this battle, we will continue informing as facts are confirmed.

In other news, the family of Arnold Anders, sadly killed during the fight of Silent Light and The Captain, has today received a sum of 15 million dollars with a letter of a very dear friend of Arnold. Anders family has refused to make any further declarations.