Post #2580913 in Conqueror of the Elements, a roleplay on RPG

{Collaboration done with Eddy. Thanks Eddy!}
Siya led the charge, having only listened a little to what his protector had to tell him. She was worried about him, that much he knew. Yet, he couldn’t help the anger. The twist of burning rage in his gut as he replayed the words he’d read from the decree days ago. Siya couldn’t help the anger at all. It was an insult to him and to those that he’d loved who lost their lives. The young Fire King wasn’t going to tolerate it at all and he was going to fight with a ferocity that could only be labeled as the might of a King.

If they did not believe him to be a King. Then he was going to do his damndest to make them change their mind. Siya would prove to them in every way possible that he was a King and he intended to remain the King for many years to come. Nothing was going to stop him. Nothing. Not even the large army that stood between him and the walls of the city that he was going to protect. Even if that army looked to be a slight bit larger than his own. He wasn’t stopping.

Siya spurred the horse faster, charging out further ahead of his ranks. Perhaps a rather bold -and maybe stupid- move. His body burned with the power of his fire. Several things of metal on his person sacrificed into blue sparkles of energy as he prepared to unleash his power upon them. As the flames licked across his shoulders, down his arms and into balls of burning orange and red along his hands, the Fire King stood up in the saddle. If it weren’t for the already very large war horse he was atop, he might have looked far less intimidating with his small size. As it was, Siya wasn’t entirely sure how intimidating he was, but he planned to change that very quickly.

The moment he was close enough, the first bout of fire lashed out at whomever turned to face him. He didn’t aim for any one particular, just aiming for where he would do the most damage. As the small explosions erupted around him, he worked those fires into a frenzy, trying to hurry them along into large burning blazes that would destroy the siege weapons, decimate the ranks and hopefully have them fleeing from the battle entirely.

With that plan in mind, Siya weaved his fire and let it launch from his hands out into the deepest depths of the enemy ranks, going as far as he could reach with his power from where he was on his steed. He spurred the horse further into the mass, trying to open a path to the wall before him. The King’s fire spread from his arms and shoulders to encompass most of his body almost as a shield. The horse beneath him flinched slightly at the display, the heat most likely being the cause of the creatures discomfort, but when it did not burn it, the war horse settled, if only slightly.

The Fire King’s charge had not gone unnoticed as the enemy forces quickly began to line themselves into formations to meet the approaching soldiers. Officers could be heard shouting in the back lines as the front rank filled with spearmen who quickly leveled their weapons forwards to impale the king’s horsemen as they came forwards.

Attacks of various elements could be seen being exchanged between the two lines before they collided, both attempting to disrupt the other’s formations and momentum. It did not stop the Fire King’s troops though as their line slammed into the formation the force of the nobles had taken. The air rang with the sound of metal hitting into metal as horsemen collided with the spearmen, and soon it was followed by screams of both anger and pain. The horses joined the cacophony as they to were harmed by the wall of spears or trampled people beneath their hooves.

The forces of the nobles quickly began to reform their lines to push back the Fire King and his troops, whose charge had certainly shoved back much of the nobles; regardless of the disruption, the forces of the nobles held their ground as they began to fight back against the now imbedded soldiers of the Fire King who were engaging them fiercely.

Elemental attacks did not stop being thrown between the two lines, as mages from both sides continued to bombard their opposites in hopes of forcing a retreat, while other mages quickly moved about to heal those they could; in the case of the nobles, some of their mages were quickly working to try and extinguish any flames that threatened their back lines as well as any remaining equipment.

~~~

Atop the walls of Turron, Duke Forson watched as the reinforcements he had been praying for arrive and charge forwards to meet the enemy. The city itself was bustling as soldiers were quickly moving and preparing to sally forth from the city so that they could support their allies out in the field and drive back the enemy entirely.

He had been somewhat confused a day before when he had noticed the enemy’s trebuchets and catapults had slowed their rate of fire, and by morning he could see that much of the enemy was already beginning to pull back from the walls. Of course, the reinforcements he could see was the answer to that, as clearly the enemy did not want to fight from a siege camp and possibly have to contend with an enemy on two fronts.

Regardless, he was going to move from the city walls to assist his allies outside in the field, and hopefully they could attack fast enough that they just might overwhelm the enemy and hurt them good. At the very least, they could bloody up the enemy and make them pay for choosing to assault his city.

He looked to a sergeant that came running towards him, the Duke turning to fully face him. “Are we ready?” he asked the soldier.

With a nod, the soldier spoke, “Yes sir, waiting for you.” Forson nodded to him and quickly followed after the soldier to where the men were waiting. In only a minute or so, Forson had reached the area where the soldiers were gathering up, pulling himself up onto the saddle of his own warhorse before taking hold of a lance that was handed to him by a squire.

“Our enemy made the poor choice of trying to take our land, soldiers! Now is our chance to bloody them good between us and our fellow soldiers already out in that field!” He moved his horse along the line, shouting out to the men before him as they cheered back. As he made his way to the front, he looked up towards the gatehouse and gave the signal to open up the massive wooden doors. As they creaked, slowly beginning to slide open and grind any rocks beneath them, Forson turned to face his men again, taking a deep breath to shout his words out to them. “For our King Siya and for Turron!” He screamed before sliding his own helmet on, quickly spurring his horse on and rushing on out of the gates and towards the enemy waiting beyond.

Neither he nor his men were deterred by the enemy who had already taken up positions to meet the Duke’s forces as they emerged from the city; honestly it only drove him on more, as it meant he had even less distance to travel before he got to destroy the enemy who had dared to attack the people under his care.
~~~

The screams of the dying, the men in pain, the horses as they tumbled through the forces… It all swirled in Siya’s head. He could hardly keep up with the rush of events. With his men scattered all around him, his lines broken into sections just as the nobles were, he’d lost himself to the fight. It was all he could do because focusing on those screams was sure to send him in a kind of panic attack that would render him unable to fight. It had been bad enough he’d nearly broken down in front of his protectors the day he’d gotten the message.

He couldn’t afford that kind of stumble. That kind of mistake that would render him utterly useless on the battlefield as well as a liability. He didn’t need his men dying trying to save him. He’d lost too many like that before, Siya wasn’t ready to do it again. Then again… What he was doing right then… Weren’t they dying trying to save him anyway? Not in the sense of his life, but in the sense of keeping him as King? Saving him from the bastards who threatened to take it all away from him?

For a moment that thought crushed Siya’s throat and he felt sick on the top of his horse. Siya paused for a mere second in his fight, hand hovering out in front of him as his fires licked at his fingers. Grinding his teeth, he seemed to fight an urge to look around him. Once he got a hold of himself, he continued his assault with his fire. The only problem with his slight pause was that the enemy got closer to him. Hands caught the edge of his long black robe, the split hem that went up to his waist.

A hard drag had the King toppling from his war horse. The animal reared, legs kicking out and knocking over several men before it fell back onto all fours, killing one or two men underneath it’s heavy weight. Siya hit the ground with a thud that knocked the wind from his lungs. Coughing to regain the air lost, he winced as he lay there. Once he managed to get an eye open from all the dust that was kicked up around him, he realized he was surrounded by quite a few men. Anger filled him.

The fires burst around his body, more metal sacrificing and even some of the weaponry that was pointed at him lost their shape as he took them as energy. The fire that raged inside of him exploded out in a heat wave, igniting more of the dry grasses and any who were too close at that moment. The Fire King got back up onto his feet slowly, eyes searching for his horse. Unfortunately the animal had bolted after his display of power, running from the heat of the fire. Siya ground his teeth as he glanced around, fully aware that he was without a weapon, not that he could use one in the first place.

The only thing he had was his fire.

So he wielded it to it’s utmost.

With the Fire King in full fury, several soldiers of the nobles chose to stay clear, simply hoping to avoid being burnt to cinders by the enraged king. Despite his size, he could still produce quite the bonfire. Instead many of the soldiers chose to continue engaging the soldiers of the king.

A couple soldiers however chose to brave the fires, charging forwards with their shields up to protect them from any blasts of fire as they moved forwards to engage him. They did not move to try and surround the young man, as the cluster of the fighting did not give them much room to maneuver, so they were left to rely on their shields to deflect some of the attack as they moved forwards.

Siya’s flame bursts though had caught the attention of one of the officers in charge, the heavily armored woman turning her head to get a better view of the blasts of flames occurring near the front lines. Though it took a moment, her eyes quickly settled on the very King the nobles were attempting to remove. Liliana herself was surprised to see him in the middle of the fighting, but then again she could assume he was hoping to prove people wrong about him possibly being weak and incapable. It was going to be a mistake for the young man, that was for certain.

She turned forwards to see a few soldiers coming towards her, and using her halberd she deflected an attack from one while drawing back on the reigns of her horse. The horse whined in protest, standing up onto its back feet as it lashed out with its front legs and kicked one of the charging soldiers square in the face. The dazed man could do nothing to protect himself from the horse as it came back down on top of him, crushing him beneath it. As the horse came back down, she used the momentum of the fall to swing her halberd down onto the shoulder of the other soldier, imbedding the head of the weapon deep into his torso before she tore it out with a rough tug on the shaft.

She then looked back to the Fire King, and wasted no time in spurring her horse forwards to get closer to him. Hopefully, she’d be able to end this whole mess right here and now.

Siya’s fire lashed out at any who got close to him. He’d encircled himself in the flames and continually twisted around and around in a circle to keep an eye on all sides of him. So when he saw the rider charging for him, he ground his teeth and raised up a wall of fire in front of the soldier in heavy armor. A battle cry from behind him caught his attention and he ducked the hurl of a weapon in his direction.

The head of the axe disappeared into blue shards of energy, fading into his skin to create a burst of fire snaking out from the palm of his hand at the man who had tried to impale him. He turned the bastard to ash and kept turning, his fires growing hotter by the second and any weapons close enough to him disappeared into that blue energy that kept him going.

The sudden burst of flames up in front of her caused her mount to skid to a stop, the woman barely keeping herself from being flung off it and then held onto it as it reared up once more to move away from the fire. Quickly she brought the horse under control, bringing it down and trotting it away slightly from the king. With a scowl, hidden beneath the face-plate of her helmet, she quickly dismounted off of the horse. As she moved, sparks of blue emerged from a bag that hung on the saddle, the energy vanishing beneath the plates of her armor.

As she landed, she brought the end of the halberd’s shaft down onto the ground. As the heavy metal dug into the soft dirt, energy seemed to channel through it and into the dirt beneath it. A few moments later, and a rock spike suddenly shot up from the ground right beneath the flame and shot straight towards the Fire King within. She quickly then began moving towards the king once more, with her halberd held in both hands.

As she reached the spike, she thrust a hand outwards and towards the king. The spike itself then shattered in a blast of earth and stones, all of it flying out towards the king as she continued to close the distance between them, using the sot where the spike had extinguished the flames to give her an opening into the ring.

When the spike came hurling through his fire, it had shocked Siya. He twisted to try to avoid it, but just as he moved it exploded into a rain of dirt and stone. His arms came up, crossing over his face to try to protect his eyes from the assault as the attack rained down on him. When he pulled his arms down just enough to see what had happened, he gave a startled gasp and quickly stepped backward as the figure in full armor came through his fire via the earthen disruption.

Gritting his teeth, he lashed out, sending a flash of fire at her, the ball hurling across the space between them followed by a ripple of fire to try to keep the soldier at a distance. Siya worked his fire as best he could, continually sacrificing as he forced more and more of his energy into his power. The fires burning behind him roared loudly as they increased and inched outward, moving back any who were trying to get close. The line in front of him flickered and tried to rise even as Siya fought to keep the circle going to protect himself.

Her entrance into the circle was greeted by Siya turning and lashing out at her with a fireball, which she swung at with her halberd. The heavy blade slashed through it, dispersing the attack and allowing her to fully enter the circle of flames before the hole she made was filled once more to seal the king in with her.

“I warned you, su majestad, that you would be removed by force should you refuse to abdicate.” She said, raising her voice so as to be heard over the noise of the fighting around them. “ I did not think it would be me though who would be the one to cut you down, though I will gladly do so.” She gripped her halberd in both hands, watching the king for a moment before she shifted forwards towards him. As she did, she made a quick thrust towards his torso with the spear point at the end of her weapon. She did not wait to see if it hit it’s mark as she then pulled it back, raising it up slightly and stepping in further towards him while then bringing the axe-head of the halberd down towards him.

Siya was astonished at the voice. He remembered that voice very clearly. It belonged to the woman who had walked into his hall with her armed companions. She was the one who had brought the letter to him. He couldn’t ever mistake that voice, nor the accent for anyone else. Siya ground his teeth, quickly covering his surprise. As she lunged for him, Siya threw himself back, trying to avoid the very long halberd. Even as he did so, the tip of the weapon sliced through cloth and flesh, though perhaps not as deep as it was meant to go with that initial thrust.

Wincing, the Fire King dropped his hand down to grasp the wound as he lifted the other to let his fires swirl around him in a violent storm. He backed away as quickly as he could, trying to keep out of reach of that deadly weapon. He just barely missed the second attack, the edges of his clothes catching and tearing, but thankfully not skin that time. Panting from his exertion, the amount of power he was spending was making him tired. It wasn’t like the times he’d had the orb to assist in his stamina and energy usage.

He had been perhaps a bit too ambitious with his earlier attacks and display of power. Siya hadn’t thought it through entirely. Not that he’d had a clear head to begin with. His anger, frustrations and sorrows were all building up to the point of exploding. There hadn’t been any room for clear thoughts to plan out an attack. There hadn’t been any room to think through his actions. So, as he stood there facing the soldier who he had found very intimidating and powerful in her own right while standing in his hall days ago, Siya knew that if something didn’t change and soon, he was going to be slaughtered by her.

As her second swing slammed into the ground, she could already feel the heat of flames moving towards her to try and force her back. Quickly she retreated back from the Fire King, a stone wall suddenly erupting between her and her opponent to shield her from the flames. Once she backed away to a distance where she felt safe, she repeated her earlier attack with the stone spike with the wall in front of her.

A thrust of her palm out towards it had the wall breaking into multiple pieces that shot out towards Siya. She did not rush forwards this time to engage him with the halberd, instead Liliana chose to remain back and began tearing small bits of rock from the ground and flinging them towards the king. If he was going to hold her back with the flames, then she was more than happy to fight him from a distance.

Siya took in a startled breath as rock came hurling at him. It was much like the first time with the spike erupted into smaller bits, striking out at him. Though not entirely meant to maim or kill, they were annoying and they were doing their job. Tiring him. Siya did what he could to keep the projectiles from his body. Even so, scratches that burned tore across his face, tore through his clothes and drew long, thin trails of blood. His hands hadn’t stopped moving while she continued to hurl rock after rock at him.

His fires engulfed most of them, but the flames were beginning to die out and there was only so much more he could sacrifice to keep his power going. Siya was panting before the end of it, his body swaying slightly from side to side. He was never meant to have good stamina. He could fight, he’d run for his life a few times, once when he’d been so badly injured he probably could have died from it, but constantly throwing his power around was taking it’s toll. It made him dizzy and it was suddenly very hard to stay standing. With another sacrifice that made his stomach twist violently, Siya hurled a rather large ball of fire at the woman, hoping it would either turn her to ash or at least maim her to the point of no longer fighting him.

Liliana could see fatigue beginning to take over the young king as he defended himself from the rocks with his flames. Her sacrifices however were holding out well for her and could still last for a while longer with her only using the small rocks as weapons. She could already feel the heat of the fire ring beginning to diminish as his energy faded.

With one last burst of stones thrown at him, she choose to attack again and made to move towards him. She was caught by surprise though when the frail king suddenly called upon a surge of energy and threw a large fireball directly towards her. Beneath her helmet, her eyes widened as it closed in on her while she was moving straight towards it herself.

She acted fast, and though she would rather have not had to use her own store of magic like this, she couldn’t possibly jump to the side and avoid the fireball. Her armor and equipment were far too heavy and there was no chance for her to stop her forward movement. Bringing up the halberd in front of her as a makeshift shield, several stones quickly rose from the ground and stuck to her forearms and the shaft of the halberd, quickly forming as big a shield as they could in time.

The fireball slammed into the shield, and the force of the impact easily smashed through the hastily raised shield. She grimaced as the heat of the blast slammed into her, feeling the skin beneath the plates of armor and padded clothes burn. With the heat came the remaining force of the blast, causing her to stumble backwards. She was barely able to catch herself, but she did fall to a knee to fully stop herself from simply being sent sprawling.

Once the blast had subsided, she forced herself to her feet again, using the halberd to help support her. Once back on her feet, she once again took her stance, halberd pointing forwards; she was slouching though, as at the moment her body wanted to relax and recover from the searing heat and the hard impact she had taken from the fireball, as well as her own shield when it had exploded back into her. “No está mal, su majestad.” she said through breaths, “Mi hermano was not lying when he said you had some fight in you.”

Siya watched as she dropped, and for a moment he thought he was victorious. However, when she promptly pushed herself back up to her feet again, he felt a heavy lump begin to well in the back of his throat. Despite her being doubled over slightly from what he could only assume was slight exhaustion or even pain, Siya wasn’t entirely confident he’d be getting away from the fight alive. If he did, he wouldn’t be without wounds. The young King was very certain he was going to have to have one hell of a miracle to survive.

For some reason, he thought of Minnow. If the little healer saw him right then… The blonde might have just killed the Fire King to save himself the trouble. Siya quickly shoved the thoughts aside and tried to focus on the fight. His weary mind was giving way to other distractions, ones that would most definitely end his life he if he kept it up.

And damn her accent. It was constantly reminding him of Damiano. It was grating on his nerves, making him remember things he really didn’t want to. Siya cursed under his breath as he slowly staggered backward. His fires flickered a little while longer in his hands before simply sputtering out. The young King looked around for something, anything, to help defend himself. From one of the soldiers lying upon the ground he spotted a sword. One that survived his random and excessive sacrificing. The Fire King quickly snatched it up and leveled it at her with both hands on the heavy blade. Gritting his teeth, his eyes narrowed at her. He hadn’t answered her and he didn’t intend to do so anyway. All he could hope for was being able to protect himself until someone helped him out of the situation he was in, which might be a while seeing as most of his own men were fighting their own battles.

She couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of him grabbing a sword to continue his fight with her. Part of it was amusement at the thought of him actually fighting her without magic, yet she had to give him some respect in not just giving up.

Spinning the halberd in her hands, for no purpose but simple flare, she then began to advance on him. She leveled the weapon out so that the point was facing towards him, advancing somewhat cautiously in the chance he had another burst of magic ready to throw at her.

Her advance was cut off when she felt something smack her on the arm, and her arm stung as it was deflected off the thick plates of her armor. Quickly she backed up and turned to see one of the king’s soldiers having moved forwards to engage her now. She hadn’t really thought about it, and she cursed herself for it, but now with the ring of fire down they were no longer cut off from the rest of the soldiers around them. Quickly she parried a second blow from the soldier aside and then quickly slashed him across the head with the blade of her weapon, killing him instantly and knocking him out of the way.

He was not alone though, as now she could feel some of the soldiers on her side beginning to surge forwards as well as some of the kings now filtering into the fight. She growled as she could see she was slowly being cut off from her target. With a shout of annoyance she suddenly slammed the end of her halberd down onto the ground, using the last bit of her own magic to surge it through the ground.

In a violent irruption of rock and dirt, several thick slab of rocks shot upwards around the area she and Siya was in, knocking aside several soldiers from both sides and sealing some within the circle with them. She wasted no time going after those who were not on her side, hoping to clear the area so she could finally cut down the Fire King.

Siya hissed angrily as she returned the blow given to her. He watched, nearly helpless at the fact that she simply tore through most of his soldiers, sealing them in the circle and swinging that horrendous weapon around violently. They fought well, though, his men. Yet despite all their own power and prowess on the battlefield, she outstripped them. The woman was horrifying in power, her speed was even more so. Siya felt his fingers squeezing the hilt of the weapon so tightly that the wrappings were biting into his skin painfully.

As another of his soldiers fell, the young King seemed to snap. Looking off to his right, he forced another sacrifice. As sick as it made him, his world twisting around violently, Siya managed to take it. The fires rekindled and he launched another wave of fire at her. It cut across the ground, igniting anything that was flammable as it went. A second wave followed the first, then a third before the King dropped down to his knees, the sword buried in the dirt as the only thing that kept him upright. Flames flickered along his hand and arm as he glared at the woman defiantly and watched his flames do what he hoped they would.

As she smacked aside another soldier, growling in irritation as she did so, she then looked up towards her target and made to move towards him. Her advance was stifled however, as again she found herself facing the blinding light of flames moving quickly towards her. Shocked, she brought her arms and weapon up to block, trying to summon earth to shield herself as a reflex. With no energy to fuel the magic though, instead she was engulfed by the three bursts of flames as they slammed into her.

The first had her stumbling back, while the second finally had her buckling. She tried in vain to hold against the third, but it finally had her toppling and falling backwards across the ground. When the flames died down, Liliana found herself lying on her stomach, her armored singed from the flames and her body alight with pain from the heat of the blasts. Fighting through the pain, she slowly began to push herself first onto her hands, then onto her knees.

She’d lost hold of her halberd when she was sent sprawling, so she was left to struggle to rise onto her feet with nothing to support her. The thick plates of her armor were making her struggle even more difficult now, especially with her helmet now feeling like it was suffocating her. She quickly yanked the helmet off her head, letting it fall to the ground as she began to shakily rise to her feet, turning her eyes to glare at the Fire King.

Despite the pain, she found herself smiling as she looked at the younger man. “Well done...su majestad.” she said between gasps for air. She tried to step forwards, only for her body to give out and her collapse onto a knee. She hissed at the pain, closing her eyes tightly before looking back at Siya. It was just them now, with the soldiers on her side having been burned to cinders by the flame blasts. She was saved only because of her armor to absorb much of the punishment.

She attempted to stand, but turned her head around instead as she heard the rock wall behind her collapse back into the ground. Through it, her eyes narrowed as one of the masked men that had originally accompanied her to deliver the message stepped through it. In his hand, he had a bow, though it looked as if his quiver was empty as he stepped forwards. She looked at the hand on the bow, noticing it to be the three finger man from before. “Avispón? Qué estás haciendo?!” she shouted back to him as he suddenly grabbed hold of her with his free hand.

His voice too was buried beneath an accent, though it still held a hint of Iverian in it as he spoke back in the Iveirian tongue. “We are retreating, As brother ordered us to do.” He said, dragging her onto her feet as he began to pull her along despite her struggling to get away.

“He is right there! We can end this now, dammit!!” She shouted at him.

“Not without being killed ourselves! Now quit fighting and move!” He shouted back at her as he dragged her along with him. She resisted for a moment more before finally giving up, the pain finally forcing her to submit to his command. As he pulled her along, he glanced towards Siya for a moment, watching the young man before he dragged her out through the hole that had been made in the wall.

Siya watched as someone else entered the circle of stone. He tensed, waiting for the newcomer to aim their weapon at him. After all, it was a bow they were holding. Without his power, he couldn’t possibly put up a fight. Leaning against the sword heavily, Siya glared at the other. However, when the man reached down and pulled the woman up to her feet and started retreating after a bit of disagreement between them, Siya’s gaze grew wide with shock. They’d left him. Both of them, when he was sure they were going to kill him.

Wasn’t that the whole point of having the issued decree in the first place? The whole point to attacking all of his cities and towns? Wasn’t it to draw Siya out from the palace and then kill him as soon as they had the chance? The young King was so conflicted and confused that he hardly noticed the nobles armies withdrawing until a very loud and rumbling cheer rose up from his own soldiers.

As he watched, he let out a long sigh that ended in a groan and simply toppled over in the middle of his circle of scorched earth.

“King Siya!” a voice called from within the circle of stone, Forson quickly moving over to the collapsed man on the ground. His armor was dinged and scratched from the fighting, and he was missing his lance as he quickly knelt down next to the Fire King. “Sire. Sire!?” he called out to him before he looked up at the soldiers who had peeked into the stone circle. “Grab a healer, immediately!” he ordered before looking back down at Siya as the soldiers immediately left.

“Lord Siya, we’ll have a healer for you soon. Just hold on, alright?” He said, quieting his voice and calming himself so as not to possibly panic the injured king; he also removed his helmet as well, revealing his dirt and sweat covered face. He didn’t touch Siya, as he did not want to risk possibly injuring him anymore than he was already, especially since Forson did not have any medical training of his own.

Siya groaned as he lay upon the ground. Slow breaths filled his chest as he lay there. He heard Forson’s voice, but he didn’t have the strength left to even acknowledge or roll over to face the man. So, he simply let his body fade out into oblivion. At least the sleep was peaceful then. No worries, no stress… Just darkness.

Snippet #2580913

located in Iveir, a part of Conqueror of the Elements, one of the many universes on RPG.

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