Living in the shadow of Amazons, Interlude: The Amazons versus the Cappadocians, Part 2.
By J. Allan J. - jallanj@yahoo.dk
An Amazon and a Cappadocian officer fight a duel on the battlefield.


The battle of the Gelding's Gates, front section:

The group of Cappadocians who were waiting at the top of the mountain pass, were 
alarmed when the avalanche started. They rushed down the pass to aid their 
shocked brothers in arms who came staggering out of the dust cloud. They had to 
sit down while they coughed up the dust from their lungs.

The unharmed swordsmen tried to get some kind of overview on the status of their 
army. They didn't as yet know for sure that there was foul play involved in the 
avalanche, although some claimed that they heard the sound of a horn just prior 
to when the avalanche had started.

All the swordsmen in the front had survived without scratches, they carefully 
moved into the dust cloud to look for wounded survivors, but only few of the 
spearmen came out of the dusk cloud, and most of them were wounded and were no 
longer able to fight. And even worse; no archers could be found, and Diodorus 
himself was also missing. Some survivors might have escaped to the other side of 
the avalanche, but there was only little hope.

The avalanche had made a little hill in the middle of the pass. Some of the 
Cappadocians tried to climb it or dig into it to look for wounded survivors 
under the surface, but they found no one.

Two officers took command of the surviving swordsmen, Captain Prochoros and his 
Adjutant Lieutenant Simonides. They decided to move the men including the 
wounded towards the top of the pass because they did not feel safe here.

Meanwhile the waiting Amazon warriors had mounted their horses as soon as the 
saw the flaming arrow in the sky. They doubled back to the entrance of the pass. 
The Cappadocian scouts immediately noticed the dust clouds from the galloping 
Amazon horses, and, unaware of the catastrophe that had just happened to 
Cappadocian army in the pass, they galloped back to report to Dioderus that the 
enemy had been sighted.

However the Amazon archers at the entrance to the pass were ready for them and 
they killed them easily when they were within firing range as the scouts wore no 
amour.

When the Amazons arrived at the foot of the pass, the foot soldiers quickly 
dismounted and quickly marched up towards the top of the pass in closed columns. 
The cavalry archers followed behind them with their bows readied.

As the Amazons got closer and closer to the top of the pass, their heats were 
beating faster, the expected the males to come charging down from the top at any 
moment, but the Amazons were the first to reach the top. The Cappadocians had to 
carry their wounded and therefore moved much slower that the speedy Amazons.

Bereniche, the Captain of the Amazon front section ordered her Warriors to kneel 
and stay silent, she signalled for the archers on foot to creep forward with 
their bows readied. The cavalry dismounted and soothed their horses in order to 
keep them silent.

Captain Bereniche let the males come as close as possible without getting 
detected, in order to kill as many as possible at the first initial arrow rain.

Then Captain Bereniche cried "Fire", and the Amazons fired away at the surprised 
males. The first column kneeled when shooting while the next stood up and 
finally the cavalry archers mounted their horses and shot over the heads of 
their fellow Amazons.

Although several of the Cappadocians were totally defenceless because they 
carried their wounded comrades, the Amazon archers shot them down in cold blood.

The first columns of Cappadocians immediately fell to the Amazon arrow rain, but 
the next columns kept their heads when Captain Prochoros gave the order the lock 
their shields and stand their ground. The males pulled as many of their wounded 
brothers as possible back behind their defence line as it was against their 
codex of warfare to leave their wounded behind.

The Cappadocians moved even closer together and put up a double line of shields 
to protect them. Bereniche could see that their arrows did not have the same 
impact when the males were cowering behind their shield and gave the order to 
cease fire in order not to waste her archers arrows.

Then the initial Amazon arrow rain stopped and the Amazon swordswomen stepped 
forward, but Captain Bereniche ordered her archers to follow the swordswomen in 
closed formations so that they could fire while they were protected behind their 
shields. Bereniche did not know if any surviving male archers had joined the 
swordsmen and therefore she did not want to leave her own archers unprotected.

Prochoros did not fire back because he had no archers, nor did he order his 
troops to rush forward. His opponent had countless archers who would tear his 
formations apart if he attacked, besides he could not tell how many Amazons he 
was up against. The only sensible thing he could do was to keep close formations 
with a double line of closed shields and only rush forward if his opponent 
rushed forward herself.

Therefore he decided to retreat backwards down the pass and, if possible, make 
contact with the other Cappadocian survivors at the foot of the pass. It was not 
safe to stay in the pass since the Amazons obviously were behind the avalanche 
that had buried the Cappadocian elite troops and their general. So the 
Cappadocians slowly retreated downhill in closed and coherent formations trough 
the pass, while the Amazons slowly followed them, still harassing them with 
arrow fire.


The battle of the Gelding's Gates, rear section:

The rear of the Cappadocian army had not even started to enter the foot of the 
pass when the Amazons tipped the boulders and started the avalanche. 

The warriors standing nearest in the rear formation rushed forward to aid the 
few wounded spearmen who came staggering out of the dust cloud, but the 
Cappadocians did not dare to proceed further into the pass to look for survivors 
because the mountains still seemed to moan and shake.

However, they quickly got other things to worry about; The warriors who were 
standing at the left flank noticed a dusk cloud rising in the horizon along the 
mountains. The experienced soldiers knew exactly what is was.

"Contact! Riders incoming," they cried out.

Almost simultaneously a similar dust cloud was sighted coming in from the right. 
Now the Cappadocians in the rear section realized that the Amazons were behind 
the avalanche that had just buried their elite warriors along with their general 
and the Cappadocian swordsmen formed defensive lines against the incoming 
Amazons.

As the dust cloud from the incoming riders were approaching, a mighty black 
cloud rose up in the sky from each the dust clouds. The Amazons shot trajectory 
volleys of arrows against the Cappadocians.

"Arrows incoming, take cower!" the men cried out.

The experienced warriors immediately took cover under their shields, but some 
just stood and marvelled at the incoming dark cloud of arrows that blackened the 
sky. They died instantly when the arrows landed and so did most of the 
unprotected units like sappers, carpenters, weapon smiths and marauders. 

However, most of the peltasts and slingers had experience and immediately crept 
close to swordsmen when the arrow rain started, but the Amazon's trajectory 
volleys of arrows took a heavy toll on the core of the Cappadocian rear.

When the Amazons came close to the defensive line of the Cappadocians, they did 
not engage them at first, but their cavalry archers turned their horses instead 
and rode fast along the Cappadocians while they kept their rate of fire.

The Cappadocian slingers and peltasts fired back at the Amazons riding by, but 
their efforts had only little impact.

Commander Matrodona was in charge of the Cavalry section attacking the 
Cappadocians from the right and Myria was acting as her second in command. The 
two of them already knew each other well because Matrodona was the commander of 
the whole western front section and therefore the commanding officer of Myria.

After sending the cavalry archers, led by Myria, on their way along the 
defensive line of the Cappadocians in order to out-flank them, the core of the 
Amazons charged into the Cappadocian defensive line, while a section of the 
Amazon cavalry rode off to secure the entrance to the mountain pass to prevent 
the enemies from retreating this way.

The Amazons who were assigned to secure the mountain pass were soon joined by 
their counterparts from the other units of Amazon cavalry, which attacked the 
Cappadocians from the left.

The Amazons who attacked the Cappadocians from the left, used the same tactics 
of letting the cavalry archers ride along the enemy defensive line while they 
fired relentlessly at them. This manoeuvre forced the Cappadocians to spread 
their forces thin, while they tried to prevent the Amazons from encircling them.

When the entrance to the pass was secured by the Amazons, they gave the signal 
for a group of approximately 150 reserve infantry warriors who had waited to 
join the battle. They rode forward to the mountain pass, dismounted and marched 
up the pass to attack to Cappadocian survivors at the top of mountain from 
behind. They were joined by 100 cavalry archers as auxiliary troops.


Captain Damianos:

The Cappadocians facing Commander Matrodona's warriors were led by Captain 
Damianos who took charge as soon as he saw the dust cloud rising from the 
incoming Amazons.

He was actually a spearman misplaced in the rear because nature had suddenly 
called and he had to take a shit in the bushes. While he looked for some soft 
grass to clean his bottom with, his fellow spearmen had already marched by. He 
instead marched with the rear section and was on his way back to his own section 
when the avalanche had suddenly started.

"Spears with me!" he called out when the Amazons approached.

But then he realized that he was isolated, the troops which he had with him were 
ill-suited for fighting Amazon cavalry.

However, he lined his troops up in a defensive line of swordsmen with locked 
shields and put the peltasts with light armour and slingers with no amour right 
behind them. He specifically ordered the peltasts not to throw their javelins at 
incoming Amazons, but to use them instead to stab the horses of the Amazons when 
they came near enough.

Most of his troops survived the following arrow rain which mostly killed the 
unprotected troops in the middle like sappers, siege engineers and marauders, 
but Captain Damianos had no need of these troops anyway. The Cappadocians were 
not going to lay siege on the Amazon capital Themiskyra. They were all going to 
die here instead.

Damianos was no fool, he could clearly see that, with their spearmen and archers 
gone, the Cappadocian rear did not stand a change against the better armed and 
numerous superior Amazons on horseback. His only hope was to fight hard and gain 
a glorious death.

When the Amazon cavalry were right in front of them, he cried out at the top of 
his lungs; "Kill their horses!"

The peltasts charged forward and stab their javelins at the horses of the 
Amazons. The Amazons then halted their attack when their horses either reared 
from the pain of the javelins or were killed or severely wounded. Those Amazons 
who fell from their horses were quickly killed by the swift Cappadocian 
swordsmen, but Commander Matrodona spurred the Amazons forward again.

By mere coincidence she and Captain Damianos faced each other. He patiently 
awaited for her attack, then he ducked and stabbed her horse with his spear. The 
horse neighed loud from the pain and then it fell to the side and threw 
Matrodona on the ground, but she immediately got up, swung her war axe and 
killed the swordsmen who charged her. Then she addressed Damianos directly.

"You murderous, horse-killing male pig!" she spat at him. "I'll get you for 
that."

"Well, come get some, big girl," he barked at her, drew his sword and went 
forward towards her. His spear was still stuck in the dead horse so he had to 
make do with his backup weapon and his shield.

"Carry on fighting, lads," he gave his final instructions to the men behind him. 
"Stand firm and die with honour."

Then he charged Matrodona who immediately went at him armed with a war axe in 
one hand and sword in the other where she also carried a buckler, a small wooden 
shield, tied to her upper arm.

Soon after they clashed together and initially delivered a number of blows and 
stabs at each other, it became evident that neither of them were quite 
comfortable by fighting this duel;

He was used to fight in a formation, so every time he had delivered an attack, 
he instinctively took a step back and went into defensive position before he 
went forward again.

She on the other hand was used to fight from horseback, so fighting on the 
ground meant that she had lost her usually leverage against her opponent.

The battle continued behind them, but they seemed completely absorbed into their 
private duel and the other Amazons swiftly manoeuvred their horses away from 
them to avoid interference. 

The Amazon archers could easily have shot him down, but that would be a grave 
transgression. He would be named the winner and she would have kiss the feet of 
his corpse and then be forced retire from military service, but only after 
killing the perpetrator, of course.

The defensive line of Damianos managed to repel the initial attack of the Amazon 
cavalry. The strategy of using javelins to stab the horses worked well and the 
Amazons suffered considerable losses.

Therefore the Amazon cavalry did not dare to charge them head-on again and 
instead turn spilt up where one group kept the Cappadocians in check and the 
other group and rode after the Cavalry archers along the defensive line to 
outflank the Cappadocians where their defensive line was weaker.

However, the defensive line of the Cappadocians on the opposite side could not 
stand up to the Amazons attacking from the left. Their officers panicked, lost 
their heads and quarrelled among themselves. They were too busy scolding each 
other that they didn't take heed to the mortal danger of the Amazon arrows and 
therefore they were all killed in the arrow rain because they didn't take 
sufficient cover.

Although they were left without officers to lead them, the common foot soldiers 
still tried to form a defensive line, but it was hopeless to put up a coherent 
resistance with no officers to lead them.

The peltasts and the slingers fired desperately at the Amazons without causing 
any significant harm. When the Amazon cavalry charged the defensive line head-
on, several inexperienced Cappadocian warriors panicked, broke ranks and started 
to flee back south from where they came. To make matters worse the fleeing 
Cappadocians disrupted the ranks of their fellow warriors who still stood firm.

The charging Amazons broke the defensive line of Cappadocians from the left, 
cutting them down with their war axes and stabbing them with their swords or 
else shooting them down with arrows.

The Amazons also overwhelmed the Cappadocians to the south; Down here their 
forces were stretched thin and therefore easily outflanked by the fast moving 
Amazons who charged through their ranks like a knife cuts through butter.

Only the Cappadocians organized by Damianos stood their ground, and although he 
was tied up in a duel himself, the men had sufficient courage and cohesion to 
stand firm. However, their situation soon became hopeless when the Amazons 
charged them in the flank and from behind.

The Cappadocian core offered no resistance at all as it consisted mostly of 
already dead troops, so the Amazons just basically had to ride through piles of 
dead and cut a few live ones down to get to the section where the Cappadocians 
still offered resistance.

Suddenly Damianos' men were hit by arrow fire from behind by the Amazons who had 
broken through the Cappadocian defensive line on the opposite side and now 
attacked them from behind.

Although, the arrow rain fired from behind them decimated their fighting forces, 
it did not break their fighting spirits. They pulled all their troops close and 
formed a new defensive line to face their new attackers.

The Cappadocians almost stood back to back in their formations. The surviving 
slingers picked up swords and shields from the dead while they prepared for 
their inevitable demise. The Cappadocians cowered behind their shields and 
readied themselves for their final stand.

The Amazons lined up their troops for their final push against the final stand 
of the Cappadocians; To the left and the right and to the south the Amazons 
stood ready to crush the life out of the last fighting Cappadocians, while to 
the north the Amazons held the entrance to the mountain pass, making sure that 
no one could escape this way.

When the Amazon troops all were in place, Myria raised her war axe and saluted 
her own troops, then the troops to the south and then the troops opposite of 
her. They all saluted her back and cheered loudly.

Then Myria gave the signal to attack and from behind a massive volley of arrows, 
the Amazon cavalry attacked the last stand of the Cappadocians simultaneously 
from three sides.

It turned into a massive killing field; The males hacked and stabbed wildly at 
the Amazon's horses before they rode them down. The Amazons couldn't crush the 
Cappadocian resistance in their first wave of attack and lost several hoses and 
warriors in the fray when the three Amazon sections collided with the 
Cappadocians.

Instead most of the Amazons pulled back and dismounted to save their hoses from 
harm and attack the remaining males on foot with their swords and war axes in 
close formations.

Although the males fought bravely, their defeat was inevitable. In the end, the 
few remaining Cappadocians preferred to kill themselves rather than to collapse 
from exhaustion and be taken alive by the Amazons. The males either fell on 
their own swords or teamed up in pairs and slit each other throats 
simultaneously.


The end of the duel of Damianos and Matrodona:

The Amazons were winning the day decisively; The few remaining pockets of 
resistance in the Cappadocian rear were soon put down by arrows or cut down by 
Amazon cavalry, but still Matrodona and Damianos fought on, regardless of who's 
army was winning or loosing.

Matrodona circled around him and attacked him from all sides by slashing her war 
axe and stabbing her sword, while Damianos stood firm and stabbed with his sword 
and bashed with his shield.

Both of them were worn and sweaty, but neither or them were yielding nor gaining 
ground against the other and apart from small cuts and scratches neither of them 
had not been able wound the other.

The other Amazons settled down and formed a ring around them while they 
patiently watched the duel that displayed very skilful close quarters combat 
from both combatants.

However, Matrodona grew tired and irritated because the fighting had ended all 
around them and she had not yet managed to put her male opponent down. She 
thought that he soon would be too tired to hold up his shield, but she noticed 
that he could strap on his shoulder and rest his shield arm this way. When he 
regained his strength in his arm, he un-strapped his shield and bashed with it 
again.

Matrodona decided to make a bold and risky move to finish the fight. She first 
made a couple of spinning moves where she slashed her axe at him, followed by 
thrusts of her sword in order to confuse him. When he moved back into defensive 
position, she quickly threw both her weapons in the air, grabbed them with the 
opposite hands and attacked him again.

Now her axe came from her left and, without thinking and blocking her axe with 
his sword, he instead moved his shield to the opposite side thereby leaving his 
side unprotected. This was her plan and she trust her sword in his unprotected 
side.

"ARRHHHH!" Damianos screamed wildly when her sword penetrated his flesh.

He went to his knees and dropped his shield to the ground as if he was too 
gravely wounded to hold it up. He kept his head bowed, but followed her 
movements closely by watching her shadow move on the ground.

She moved closer and lifted her axe high over her head to chop his head off, but 
then he suddenly sprung up like a iron spring and trust his sword through her 
armour and deep into her underbelly. Matrodona made a loud guttural sound and 
dropped the axe behind her when her arms went limp.

They stood for a brief moment starring at each others faces while he held his 
sword buried in her body, her face reflected surprise and disgust. She opened 
her mouth to curse him, but she only coughed up blood which oozed out of her 
mouth.

Then Damianos hammered his elbow in her forehead and the big girl fell to the 
ground like a tree. The other Amazons gasped in disbelief of the sudden turn of 
events in the fight.

A deep sigh went through their ranks, Matrodona had fallen.

But how to go from here? Damianos was left all on his own, surrounded by enemies 
who didn't look friendly. He could of course call another out for a new duel, 
but he was wounded and too exhausted to fight again.

Therefore he decided to play his endgame in a civilized manner. He picked up his 
shield and strapped on his back, then he took off his helmet and held in his 
hand, while he in his other hand held his sword pointing downwards. This way he 
signalled that he had finished fighting for today.

"Which one of you ladies is the highest ranking officer?" he politely asked the 
Amazons who surrounded him.

"He speaks! And in a civil tongue, indeed," the surrounding Amazons complimented 
his courteous choice of words.

"That will be me now that our noble Commander Matrodona has fallen," Myria said 
and let her horse trot forward.

"Then you will have to do the honours," he said and handed her his sword.

Myria initially thought he wanted to surrender, but Damianos explained that he 
wanted her to kill him with his own sword because according to his codex of war 
he must only be killed by an superior officer of the enemy.

"Clean death, please," Damianos courteous requested.

"I suppose that I could help you with that," Myria took his sword and got off 
her horse. "However, you must earn your right to a clean and quick death."


The Amazons extracts the semen of Captain Damianos after the duel:

Myria explained that Amazons usually extracted the semen of enemies who showed 
valour on the battle field so that their girl children would have good fighting 
skills in their genes. This way he would make up for the killing of Commander 
Matrodona.

She demanded that he impregnated at least three Amazon girls in exchange for a 
clean death. He could of course refuse, but the Amazons would extract his semen 
in a much more unpleasant way and he would afterwards suffer a slow painful 
death.

"I accept, but I will properly not be able to do much effort myself," Damianos 
explained and showed her his blood stained hand which he had been pressing 
against his wound.

Ups, that was a nasty cut which Matrodona had inflicted upon him. The iron in 
his armour must have saved his life, or prolonged anyways. She quickly called on 
the Amazon surgeons to treat his wounds and stop the bleeding.

The surgeons first made him undress and had him sit down on his helmet while 
they carefully washed his wound and examined it. The cut was just a flesh wound 
which had not damaged vital organs. Then they smeared a paste made of healing 
herbs in the wound which stopped the bleeding.

Finally Myria ordered that the Amazons put some blankets on the ground and made 
him lay down while the surgeons carefully sewed up his wound. Then he was ready 
to perform his chores and several Amazons who were in the right time of their 
moon lined up beside Damianos who remained laying down stark naked.

Myria first offered him some wine from a jar to calm his nerves, then an Amazon 
proceeded to lay down beside him. She gently caressed him at first in order for 
him to relax and then she started stroking his member. When it was fully erect 
she carefully mounted him, inserted his member and rode on it.

The situation was rather strange for Captain Damianos at first; Having 
intercourse out in the open with lots of women observing and commenting him, and 
Captain Myria supervising the whole event as if it was a military operation. 
However, the sensation that he felt wasn't unpleasant at all and he soon started 
to enjoy it.

After he ejaculated into the womb of the first Amazon, Captain offered him some 
more wine and let him relax for at little while before she called the next 
Amazon forward. This ritual repeated itself until he was exhausted. When the 
fifth Amazon was done with him, he reached out and gently touched Myria's foot.

"No more," he said in a weak voice. The last Amazon had to work hard and 
patiently to get his cock erected and had to ride him a long time before he was 
able to ejaculate.

He explained to Myria that he was depleted and that his wound had started to 
bleed again. Myria checked his wound, it didn't look good and therefore she 
decided to call it a day and told the remaining Amazons who patiently waited for 
their turn to find someone else among the wounded or captive enemies to 
impregnate themselves by. 

Then Myria ordered Damianos to kneel in front her with his back to her. She took 
a firm hold of his jaw and turned his head to the side, leaving his throat fully 
exposed.

However, she hesitated to kill him and softly explained that she would spare his 
life if he surrendered. The surgeons could heal his wound and he would ride a 
horse back to Themiskyra while he recovered and would not have to march.

Myria wasn't thinking of herself, as she already had enough on her plate, but 
there were plenty of Amazons who wanted to either get impregnated by him or else 
retaliate on him once the word got out that he had killed an Amazon commander in 
mortal combat. His new life among Amazons would certainly not be boring. 

But Damianos politely but firmly turned her down her offer. He had wife and 
children back home in Cappadocia and they would shamed and outcaste if he 
surrendered. He simply had to die in order for his wife to re-marry and his sons 
to have a new father.

Myria then asked him his name and when he gave it to her, she called out loud.

"Well, Captain Damianos of Cappadocia, death or surrender?"

"Death!" Damians loudly answered.

Myria cut his sword deep into his throat and thick streams of blood splashed 
out. She let go of his jaw and his dead corpse fell to the ground.

Myria turned his dead body facing up, then folded his hands around his sword, 
collected his tunic, sandals and underwear and put it under his head and finally 
she put a shield on his genitals to make him look a little presentable when his 
countrymen would come and claimed his corpse.

It was not his own shield because that contained iron which the Amazons would 
salvage and re-forge for their own weapons and armour. The Amazons also 
collected his armour, helmet, greaves and spear as they did to the few other 
ironclad spearmen that they could find. His sword was made of bronze and 
therefore he could keep in his death sleep.

Then Myria had finished her chores for today and jumped back on her horse to 
check out how far the Amazons on the top of the pass had gotten in their task of 
defeating their opponents.

Myria also had to inform Princess Artianna that Commander Matrodona had fallen.