Fading Fires

You stay back only briefly as the rest of your army marches passed you, making their way step by step to engage with the same advancing Rathkin army. It was like watching two giant waves in the ocean slowly colliding with one another as the two separate marching herds of warriors engage into one another.

Standing back and allowing your warriors to fight and then going in towards the later stages of the war is something you were expected to do because if you were to fall early, the blow to the Syndicate's moral would crumble at that point. Still though, you aren't one to follow much of the rules so after only staying up on your tiger for a handful of minutes watching the battle go down, you eventually hop off your girl, run your covered fingers over her pelt and give her a little scratch, "Go get em, girl." you whisper out as you scratch behind her ear, "Stay safe..." you pat her back three quick times before she growls out and charges off into the distance.

Watching the giant albino sabre tooth charge off into battle was oddly satisfying as she moved with such grace until she pushed off her hind legs and leapt on top of an unexpected Rathkin warrior. The scream from his body as the weight of the tiger toppled onto him was that of pure fear. It causes you to grin back, feeling somewhat sorry about the warrior who is now basically going to be tiger chow.

With a deep breath in, you shake your head slightly, grip down hard on your weapons and hold them to the ready at your side. The time to join in the war was now and with a few hops in your stance and a few more deep breaths you focus yourself. The soft yet deep breaths allow your heart to simmer down and with that, all the adrenaline coursing through your body to ease itself and make you feel calm. Your eyes gaze around the battlefield taking in all your Sicilian Sunriders and Warriors going toe to toe with Rathkin and it is at that point, you join your brothers and sisters in battle.

Down off in the distance you believe you can even make out Ashe from her red locks of hair and to your surprise, she is already in the middle of everything, holding a shield in one hand and a spear in another as you watch her thrust the tip of her weapon directly into the torso of an enemy. Not wanting to get shown off by having Ashe get more kills than you, you turn towards the forces ahead, looking directly at dozens of poorly geared warriors but also seeing half a dozen or so elite Rathkin warriors decked out in their slightly golden armor.

"Ahhh!!" you scream out as you step into the front lines, swinging your short sword methodically at an enemy. With your expertise in both aggressive and defensive battle stances, the normal common warriors of Rathkin didn't put up that much of a fight. You still had to stay on guard because this is war and it wasn't always only one on one battles, warriors would group together and help each other as much as they can.

"DIE SCUM!!!" An elite warrior moves forward, slashing at you with his short sword while keeping his kite shield at his side, making sure not to open himself up to a retaliation.

It was easy enough to block his invading blow with your own short sword as you spin to the side and thrust towards him with your dagger. He's able to reflect your blow easily with his shield but your movement around keeps him from going on the offensive. You know having full armor plus a kite shield means he can be extremely defensive and will be hard to take down so with your dual wielding weapons, you stay on the offensive, making sure he doesn't have time to trade blows.

You slash into his body, bouncing your blade off his armor before spinning to the side and with all your might swinging your dagger hard into where his rib cage would be. The beautifully crafted dagger and the fine tip point on the end was able to easily penetrate into the armor of the warrior, shoving your dagger a few inches deep into his side. The scream of agony from the warrior yelps out into the air as his body falls away from yours, stumbling backwards as a gush of blood pours out from the newly opened up hole you just created.

"Ughh..." He groans out as he stumbles in his step. You can see him clenching his teeth hard under his helmet as he's got to be extremely pissed off that you were able to best him. Not wanting to feel like he's been defeated so easily he quite wearily attacks into you. At this point it was rather pathetic of this Elite Warrior because now his attacks were now much more obvious to you as he couldn't move with such grace anymore.

It only took another fifteen seconds for your dagger to be sticking directly out of the side of his left cheek. The life in his eyes instantly fade as his now limp body fell to the soil below. Having almost no time to even react to taking the life of this man, you quickly withdraw your blade from his skull before lunging forward towards another warrior.

"Thanks, Darien!!" A random Sunrider echos out as you withdraw your blade from the side of a Rathkin fighter, "For the Syndicate!" she shouts before charging forward into another waiting enemy.

Your eyes glance around the battlefield, taking in all the glorious sights around you. Thousands of warriors sprawling out in three hundred and sixty degrees from your location are all battling to the death. What was rather unexpected was the amount of noise expelling into the skies. The last screams coming from friends and foes alike, the clashing of steel on steel shattering your ear drums as well as the grunts and groans of the defeated and dying who continue to wail away on the ground.

It didn't stop you from getting back into the battle though as you dash forward into a row of Rathkin enemies. Lucky for you, the next couple of warriors where once again almost no match for you at all. Plunging your dagger deep into a chest of another warrior three quick times, you push his body off as he falls backwards, only to quickly duck and weave away from another attack before going on the offensive again. Pointing both your short sword and dagger directly at the warrior, you jump forward and the tip of your sword goes straight through the warrior's right pectoral while your dagger does in his left.

Surprisingly, you figure these warriors would put up little resistance for you but as your eyes move around the battlefield, you see all types of warriors living and dying, not just Rathkin warriors as you can see many of your Syndicate falling, you realize that you were one of the more well trained warriors and even though it was considerable easy for you, it wasn't so much for many others.

"Behind you!" you shout at an ally standing no more than ten paces to your side but it's too late as suddenly the tip of a spear is poking straight out of his chest. You make contact briefly with his dying eyes before the spear from behind gets pulled back through his body and he drops dead to the ground. "Ahhhh!!!" you growl out as you lunge into the enemy, doing what you can to quickly avenge your dying brother in arms.

As the war raged on, you lost track of how many warriors you end up slaughtering and as you move gracefully around the battlefield, going from warrior to warrior, you are like that of a tornado of death, slicing, slashing and thrusting every person around you.

Side stepping an attack, you slash your short sword across a warriors arm, before pushing him hard, causing him to face plant into the red stained soil below before you reverse your grip on the sword and shove it directly into his back, causing his final scream to mix with all the others. Pulling the short sword out of his back, a pulse of blood shoots out from his body as you take a few deep breaths before you slightly angle your head up, scouring the battlefield to bring your surroundings together.

With the adrenaline coursing through your body you had no idea how long you were already going at it, nor did you know how many warriors have fallen. As you peer around, the entire battlefield is still littered with alive warriors fighting until they can't fight anymore. You see so many civilians out and about, carrying and helping the wounded back to their respective sides. But what really makes your body tremble is the amount of unmoving bodies which are littering the once beautiful grounds.

Off in the distance, you can see your High Commander thrusting her spear over and over again at the enemies around her. It brings you happiness to see her being so efficient with her weapon. You force yourself up, pulling your impaled blade out of the Rathkin warrior's back and as you refocus towards the direction Ashe was in, that's when you finally notice the behemoth of a man that is about to test his luck with that red headed girl.

"Shit shit shit!" you grumble out as even from this distance away, the blood of your Syndicate allies stain his normally flawless golden armor. You move with haste in their direction, not only wanted to help Ashe but to finally get your chance to do battle with the man who took it all from you.

"Ahhh!" an enemy leaps in front, cutting you off and wildly slashing his blade back and forth. With a quick parry, you slice your blade down the hilt of his own, forcing the blade from his grasp before you shove your dagger directly into his abdomen, mutilating his insides before pushing off backwards, throwing him to the soil to die slowly into the ground. You don't even take a second to finish the poor warrior off as you have more important places to be. You continue your steady pace towards Ashe and Rixx, fighting warriors in between as you close in on their proximity.

Continuing on, Ashe is attacking into Rixx and even though you know she is a very strong and tactical fighter, you were still nervous because of how powerful of an opponent that golden eagle truly was. Polishing off another two low class Rathkin warriors as well as shoving your short sword directly through the back of an Elite Warrior's neck saves two more of your allies, causing them to nod, grant you thanks and continue their assault.

As you pull the blade out of his throat, you realize Ashe is only another hundred or so paces from your position so you could see the two going to battle quite clearly now. It appears that Ashe was holding her own for the most part but with the way she was dodging, rolling and pivoting you knew she could be running out of steam. It was only when Ashe had to jump backwards to dodge an invading blow from another warrior that she took her spear and with all her might, jammed it straight into the warrior's chest.

At the same time though, Ashe dropped her guard which is something a skilled warrior like Rixx would easily take advantage of. And take advantage of that he did...

He slashes his giant great sword forward and your eyes goes wide as it appears now the battle all around you has slowed down. His humongous blade is arching down from over head, directly towards your High Commander. Ashe was able to move only slightly, but the tip of his blade still made contact with her. His hefty slash downward courses into her body, the tip of his blade digging inside her chest, slashing from her collarbone all the way down her navel. You thought this was it, you figure this attack into that red head was going to end her life and you were watching it happen right in front of you with your own eyes. "No no no no no..." you grumble out as you move faster to close the remaining distance.

As her body continues almost flying backwards through the air, you see her bounce almost lifelessly off the soil as her weapon scatters across the ground. You assume Rixx would go in to complete his kill but he is soon distracted elsewhere as a handful of other Syndicate warriors charge towards him, causing him to backpedal a handful of paces to regroup with his comrades. For you though, you didn't even care about that monster of a man anymore, your first and only thought at the moment was getting to Ashe, seeing if she was still alive and doing what you could to keep her safe.