Tasmyn heard Ritters call and a small smile came to her lips, turning she waved to him then turned her back and rushed into the archers ranks. In all reality there were far more then she expected. She jumped down into the trench that was beginning to fill with a trickle of archers which not long after became a torrent. Her position was near the fron tof the trench and she could see the enemy not even a kilometre away, lining up for their first strike. Their cavalry units were hidden behind the steep hill and she could see the runners stretching their limbs just behind the trenches. Her pulse accelerated and she could feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Testing her bow she looked up and was shocked to find the Arkanine troops running at the trenches, "FIRE!" a voice called within the archer ranks and she let loose an arrow which joined the hundreds of others in a deadly volley. She followed her arrows path with her eyes and saw it sink squarely into a goblins chest.

Ritter hopped down into the trenches with the rest of the frontline infantry. He saw faces of despair and fear. The Kenernian soldiers were not mentally ready to face such an enemy that were the dreaded Arkanine. He noticed the enemy begin to rush the frontline, a cry came from the group of archers. Instantly, a volley of arrows were shot into the sky by the archers. They screamed through the air before hitting their targets. Ritter followed Tasmyn's arrow and saw it plunge firmly into an enemy's chest. Ritter turned and gave Tasmyn a satisfied smile. He turned again to face the uncoming threat. He looked around back at the soldiers. He knew they needed a leader, someone to focus them, turn them into a collective and effective unit. He took out his longsword, turned to the soldiers and raised his blade to the sky. "Listen to me, men", he screamed, his voice filling with courage, "you all may not know who I am, but listen nonetheless. These enemies do not fear death, but they should, however, fear us. Ready your weapons men, we'll show these beasts a slaughtering like they've never seen before. We shall force them back to their wretched home, and we'll follow them there, back to their home land, and wipe them out. Force their women and children to bare witness to their destruction. It won't be our land, it will be their land, their blood, their people. They may outnumber us, but one Kenernian is the equal of ten of those vile Arkanine. Raise the Kenernian banner and shopw the enemy what a Kenernian is made of. We cannot lose the trenches...We will not lose the trenches. Now scream you hearts out, and show these rats what real warriors sound like, show them you're not afraid, strike fear into their hearts!" He was met with an uproar of valiant battle cries. Ritter nodded to himself and took up a defensive combat stance. The men followed his example. Ritter had learned how to be a leader many years ago whilst serving the Holy Empire. "An Emperor must know how to lead," his father would tell him, "you'll never rule this empire if you do not learn how to make men weep at the sound of your voice." His father had taught him well, the men seemed to be mesmerized by his aura of command. even some of the other soldiers glanced away from their apointed tasks by the sound of his booming voice. His leadership skills would be put to the test in this battle. Ritter gripped his sword tightly and glared down at the enemy, waiting for them to get to the trenches. His blood boiled and his adrenaline rushed. He was itchy for combat, this would be a true test of Ritter's skill.

Tasmyn heard Ritters booming speech and when the battle crys went out her voice was part of the masses. It only lasted a moment though, it seemed to her like mere seconds later she had another arrow shooting off into the enemy lines. Seconds after her arrow was released a dozen or so went spiraling after it, the enemy was infuriated now and ran towards the trenches in a blind rage. She shot yet another arrow and was pleased to see another of the enemy drop, its body rolling down the hill and knocking over other charging beasts.

Arrows continued to impale the enemy while they charged with a furious rage towards the trenches. "Here they come men," Ritter shouted, "drive them back to Arkanine, or better yet massacre them right here and now." He was met with yet another fierce battle cry from the infantry. As they finished screaming, the Arkanine attack wave massed into the trenches to meet the Kenernian infantry. A goblin jumped and landed in front of Ritter. Almost instinctively he grabbed it by the throat and hurled it into a group of Arkanine. The goblin struck his allies with the force of a catapult stone. One Arkanine soldier died from impact and six others were simply knocked over. Ritter charged them with two Kenernian soldiers behind him. Before they could pick up their weapons, Ritter had eliminated two of the Arkanine. The four remaining enemies grabbed their weapons and attacked the Kenernian soldiers. They gathered around them and overwhelmed them, flailing at them with their barbaric weaponry, they turned to focus their attention on Ritter now. Two jumped on his back from behind and attempted to stab through his armor with small blades, he grabbed one with his free hand and slammed it to the ground, he then delivered a hard stomp to it's skull. The two Arkanine in front of him charged for his arms, but he quickly parried their blows with swift blocks. He waited for a clumsy strike from the goblins. They attempted to lunge at the same time for Ritter's throat, but Ritter quickly stepped out of the way and readied his weapon. The goblins looked up in despair to see Ritter's blade come down upon them, severing their heads. Ritter looked around to access his surroundings then he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He had forgotten about the goblin on his shoulders and due to this fooling act, the goblin managed to find a weak spot in his armor and plunge his short blade into Ritter's shoulder. Ritter threw the goblin off of his shoulder and ripped the blade out his wound. He groaned in pain and anger as the blade retracted from his shoulder. He then took that very same blade and plunged it into it's owner. He dulled the pain using concentration to ignore it, something he'd learned when he was young. He again focused on fighting the enemy. Ritter took an offensive stance and flourished into motion, killing enemy after enemy, almost in a rhythmic fashion. It was almost like watching a combat pattern being performed. But as quickly as he killed them, more and more appeared. The wave of enemies seemed endless. "Just keep holding them off, men," Ritter yelled, "we can win this battle, just keep fighting." Though they were dealing with the Arkanine army quite well, they were losing more soldiers than Ritter would have hoped for. "If they keep hitting our lines like this,, Ritter thought, "the trenches will eventually fall...I know we can do this though, we have to."

Ritter side stepped to avoid an axe slash from an orcish creature, he followed with a swift uppercut which shattered it's jaw. A Kenernian pikemen delivered the killing blow to it. Ritter gave a nod of approval and turned to find a Warkin nailed to the trench wall by an arrow; Tasmyn's arrow. She must have saved him from the Warkin. He looked over to Tasmyn to find her battling a group of Warkin that were set into a violent rage, he moved to make his way to her position. Groups of similar creatures arrived to block his path. Ritter clenched his sword and charged them. "Foul beasts," he roared, "you will die beneath my blade!" He hacked his way through the brutish creatures. He looked over at Tasmyn to check on her condition. She had transformed her bow into a staff and her along with the other archers were defending themselves from a group of Warkin that had broken through the infantry line. Ritter noticed the wound on Tasmyn's shoulder as she scanned her surroundings. She seemed off balance. Before he could call out to her a goblin archer appeared in the corner of Ritter's vision. Ritter turned around to face it as it fired an arrow right into Ritter's left arm. Ritter fell to his knee in pain. He grabbed a shortsword from a fallen comrade and hurled it into the chest of the archer. It fell backwards and violently struggled before death took over. Ritter turned back to the archers, "Tasmyn, are you alright?" he asked as he broke off the end of the arrow and pulled out the rest through the other side of his arm. He managed to maintain a grip with both hands on his sword again. The Arkanine forces were starting to weaken. "A little longer men," Ritter shouted, "We'll send these beasts back to warn the rest of their army just how deadly we are." A moment of silence within the fighting revealed loud stomps coming from the distance. Ritter cursed underneath of his breath. The footsteps were too loud to be human or from any animal he had encountered before. A shiver went down his spine as Ritter feared for the worst.

Back to back with Tasmyn, her and Ritter defended eachother from sneak attacks, Tasmyn dove for a Dark Elf and skirmished with it. Ritter turned and saw two more Dark Elves spread to surround him. He knew that Dark Elves had much finesse to their combat but were prone to anger. Ritter held his sword close and walked towards the Elves. "Nandor, he uttered in Elvish, taunting the Dark Elves. Rage overcame them and they attacked. The Elf on the left attempted to stab out Ritter's leg. Ritter quickly stepped out of the way and slashed the blade right off of the Elf's hilt. It shrieked in anger and dove for Ritter. Ritter had much more upper body strength than the Elf and practically a foot of height on him too. Ritter caught it's tackle and with incredible force, bent it's arms backwards until they broke with a violent snap. It shrieked in pain and he delivered a quick twist to it's neck to silence the creature. The second Elf jumped through the air and brought his sword down on Ritter, Ritter clasped his hands together and caught the sword merely inches away from his helmet. Ritter pushed the sword away and in turn drove his sword right through the Dark Elf's chest. He quickly retracted his sword from the Dark Elf and turned to see Tasmyn fighting off more vile creatures. She seemed to be slightly overwhelmed. Ritter gasped when he saw one of her own arrows sticking out of her shoulder. She had just finished killing the beast that had stabbed her with her own arrow when a goblin came sprinting at her. She wouldn't have time to defend herself. Anger and adrenaline took over Ritter as he burst through a group of enemies and tackled the goblin that was about to maul Tasmyn. "Stay away from her!" Ritter shouted as he pounded his fists against the goblin. He continued to hammer away at the creature until it stopped struggling. He delivered one last swift blow to it to assure himself that it was dead. Breathing heavily he ran over to Tasmyn, "Stay down Tasmyn," he warned her, "you're wounded, let me remove the arrow and stop the bleeding." He looked around to see a few more enemies still lurking around. Ritter looked over to a group of soldiers, "Men come over here," he ordered, "form a defensive perimeter around us." The men sprang into action, taking up a position around Ritter and Tasmyn. Before he began to tenderly treat her wound, he noticed the sound of the heavy foot steps getting closer. He knew an army was coming, and knew it was bringing something else, something much worse.

"Oooohhhhuuuhhhmmmm! Oooohhhhuuuhhhmmmm!" sounded Hérion's horn as the Bear and Eagle banner whipped with the western winds. ""Oooohhhhuuuhhhmmmm! Oooohhhhuuuhhhmmmm!" again the horn sounded. 6000 of the Rochkallo' emerged to the flank of the beasts of Arkanine, the setting sun gleaming off of their armor and spears. "Rhovanion, you'll take the left side; Lysander the right; Hérion, ride the banner of Arkadius down the center, I'll follow. Hit them with a volley as you draw close to kill the spearmen. Good luck brothers." Erurainon rode to the front.

"Rochkallo', my brothers of the horse and spear! Again we face an army many times larger than ours," the wind whipped his hair across his face. "And again, we will triumph. The Kerneans' had no faith in us. To them, we were but savages with swords and horses, we will show them just how wrong they were." a cheer rang out. "Today, my brothers, many of us will die; many swords and spears and shields will be broken, but we will destroy them with one thing they cannot break...VALOR!!" another cheer rose high into the sky. "Today we do not fight for land, we do not fight for power, we fight for something much great than that, we fight for the honor of ourselves and our country. Do you know what lies there? Beyond those fields? Immortality brothers!! And it is all yours to keep!" Erurainon yelled to his men. He drew his sword from it's scabbard; the silver steel gleaming with the rays of the setting sun. "Rochkallo'! Forward!!!" again the horn sounded.

Tasmyn struggled with Ritter as he attempted to keep her down, "Ritter seriously, I'll be fine, get off we! We have more pressing matters!" Her movements hurt but time could not be wasted, the Arkadians were getting reinforcements and they couldn't waste time with crap like this. She was facedown and could feel the ground vibrate, looking up she heard the sound of Rochkallo horns, "there back!" she gasped, she had thought they had left. Perhaps this battle wasn't as hopeless as first perceived. Looking up she could see Kenernian cavalry crowning the hill but had to avert her eyes as the brightness of the sun burnt, it was working. They could win... she hoped. Turning her head she saw the men surrounding herself and Ritter, they fought valiantly but were slowly getting overpowered, Ritter was still on her back but her arms were free, grabbing an arrow which stuck out slightly further in the quiver she threw it at a Goblin, the arrow miraculously managed to penetrate the goblins weak point in his armour, howling the beast fell only to be finished off by a soldier, "Ritter, get off!" She said once more, struggling again.

Tasmyn watched as the beast ran away, side tracked momentarily. Shaking her head she was aware of Ritter's voice and a few moments later she registered his question, "Yes, now stop talking and fight we are in a war not training a war! Ritter you should know this far better then any other! Now move!" she commanded in a stern tone, pulling her bow out she ran towards a crowd of goblins and feared what she would see in the middle. Stabbing at the outer rim of goblins they soon turned at her, and began cutting at her with their flimsy weapons. She was seriously outnumbered, making one hit for every three she received, her arms and face were covered in tiny scratches that cried tears of blood and the arrow in her back dug painfully. She faltered for a second and a goblin cut at her making a deep scratch into her arm, gritting her teeth in pain everything went black for a second and she knew that if she lost much more blood she was screwed to say the least.

Tasmyn smiled thankfully at Ritter when he had helpled her kill off the rest of her assailants, "you were pretty scary back there," she said breathlessly as she wiped blood off her cheek. She felt the thumping footsteps and steadied herself as the ground jolted under the terrible beasts weight. "Oh... crap!" she muttered quietly. She nodded once at Rittter's instructions and began running at teh goblins, she had turned her bow back into its original form and was rapidly shooting at the goblins as they swarmed forward. She turned her head at teh sound of a familiar voice and saw the Rochallo' coming, she couldn't hear what Hérion had said but began to fall back on her own accord as the genemy numbers dwindled and the Rochallo crushed them, backing up to where Ritter stood she watched aghast as the troll murdered soldiers heartlessly, her eyes followed the lines of the arrows as she stood swaying on her feet. Closing her eyes she felt herself loose balance and her eyes flung open again to see the troll go down and Hérion galloping towards them. Smiling at him she began to reply but instead of words coming out her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed to the ground.