A barg stood as a mountain of rugged steel, although still only climbing up the hill. Two small soldiers ran beyond the wall of shields and spears aiming towards that same beast with a war hammer held by its two hands firm in grip. It could be heard all the way back to the archery line.

Valora struck her left leg up in position. Zoran grabbed a few arrows from the ground and pulled back his bow, eye focused towards an open area of the barg's armor coated face.

In less than a second after, she threw the daggers towards the barg's head, making one shot stab through its right cheek, and the other being blocked by its unprotected arm. Zoran hesitated and his arrow fire missed its mark.

While starting to doubt the likelihood of his survival, Valora took out her twin blades and began climbing the arm of the barg; stabbing into its flesh to keep her gripped onto it, like climbing a wall of ice with a horrendous stench.

Carrion stood beside Theodren at that time. Remaining on horseback more than a hundred yards from them, they quickly noticed Valora, easily bu her appearance standing out from the rest. Only one archer would be fearless enough to haste past the spear wall, so there was no doubting that Zoran was her counterpart rushing down that hill.

"And I thought I'd never see the day." Theodren grinned and chuckled slightly. "Here my brother stands, an anxious little man showing off to the likes of thousands of soldiers; and facing the spawn of hell, at that."

"Without a wager. Only he would run that strangely, yet hold pace superior to the rest." Carrion whispered back.

"And charging towards...oh no...." Theodren held his breath at that moment.

Carrion was about to reply, but Theodren already led his horse full speed down the hill in direct charge to the middle.

Carrion hesitated, but seeing that with Theodren leaving his army behind to fight in his brother's defense, he felt he had no other choice but to do the same.

With a snap of his leather to the horse's upper neck, he aimed his lance forward down the hill. With galloping, dust being picked up in his wake; the other soldiers didn't know what to make of it.

Derek began to regret giving the two brothers the honor of leading his armies in repayment for providing the information in the first place. He stared in judgement and yet didn't know what to make of it. They went against his plans, but he certainly couldn't do anything to stop them.

The barg was beginning to roar in irritation as Valora attempted to cut through the backside of its neck.

"Zoran!" Valora called, making him lose his current stance of thought, looking towards the aggravated beast. "Now!"

With a short moment to realize the situation, he took out an arrow and pulled back his recurved bow, hitting its eye. In a scream of pain, it took out the arrow with one hand, trying to grab Valora with the other. Blood rushed down its face as it struggled. It barely missed her each time.

She continued stabbing deeper.

"It shouldn't take this long!" Zoran pulled back another arrow, panicking.

"These blades are made for slashing, not stabbing!" Valora replied aggressively while under stress. "The longer I stay here, the harder it is for me to kill it."

While Zoran focused on the beast's vulnerable areas, he noticed something in his side view towards the right. It was another barg, but while the other was heavily armored and slower up hill, this one ran at speeds nearly half that of a stallion. It was aiming directly towards him!

He began to freak out again, and the army remained only spectators waiting for other bargs to reach them.

By the time it made its way past the other barg, Zoran attempted running away in panic, but tripped on a rock and fell on his face. With a dent on his helmet, he began losing his balance. He stared up at the beast, helpless, fatigued, terrified. Valora was finally grabbed by the barg she was on top of.

At that, in only a blink, their fates intertwined with another's. A lance stuck halfway into the barg heading for Zoran; and with the force of the attack, it fell to his right and knocked over the other.

Valora was released out of its hands, leading her to the ground in a rolling motion. Her body was shook, but there Theodren stood off his horse, grabbing her hand and leading her to her feet.

Zoran was too dazed to fight more, and while Theodren knew it, he took out the sword given to him from Derek, the cavalry sword of the High Guard.

Without a second thought, she took out her blades and slit the throat of the barg she previously faced.

Along with the bargs, unarmored Zerethians with only a cloth to cover their waist were charging up hill. Each of them held an unfamiliar blade that was slightly curved yet had a handle guard.

The mist revealed even more. Thousands of them running up hill like locust, already outnumbering the attackers.

The shield wall had by then been established again, but the members began to waver as time went on. Their arms started to tire, their large steel platted wooden shields were barely held in grip. After seeing their friends die beside them without getting the chance to avenge, of the large wave heading their way; only provided their courage as much relevance as the lives left before them.

The archers wouldn't allow another attack to the sides of their defences. They confidently pulled back their recurved bows, and without a moment in between the call to release, fired their arrows upon the approaching foe.

The arrows sung past the members of the shield wall, screaming only a few feet above Theodren and the others. Carrion had to hold back his charge, as he would easily be shot if he continued down the hill while mounted. He gripped his fist in irritation and concern. Above anyone else, he would rather die fighting for those he believed in than to watch them perish alone.

Hundreds upon hundreds of Zerethian fell before reaching the summit, and many more Lorlynian footmen quickly took place of their fallen brothers faster than the arrows could be pulled back. Zerethian and bargs hit the shield wall, forcing the spears to lose balance upon impact, and constantly having to readjust themselves to prevent any Zerethian from getting through. The arms of those soldiers were sore, and their chests felt a sharp yet long pain from overexertion.

Another wave went for the side defences once more, and the archers were again vulnerable. The infantry defending the archers were already nearly depleted. The archers had nothing more than a short sword to counter the quick maneuvers and attacks of the enemy.

The Lorlynian and Paldaron armies were confident and experienced fighters, but the enemy lacked two things which made humans weak. The Zerethian were without exhaustion, fearless at the outcome of their contributions, no matter how small.

"There's too many of them! Get Zoran out of here! Behind the shield wall!" Valora ran to retrieve her daggers and quickly acknowledged what he said, remaining empty of voice and action, though staring in every direction down the hill. "I'll cover your back, now move!"

She was hesitant at first, but attempted to carry Zoran out of the fray. It was no use, however, as the shield wall could not lose its position under any circumstance authorized by them.

"Zoran, please! We need you on your feet again!" Valora shook his shoulders.

Theodren made a loud noise that suddenly shook Zoran to his feet. Valora was startled as well, and they realized he was tackled by the unarmored Zerethian.

Arrows continued to fly past them and held off some of the threat.

Valora rushed to Theodren, throwing two daggers at the upper backs of two enemies on him. With his blade taken from his hand, he bursted out in a heap of fury and crushed the enemy heads flat with his metal coated hands. His gauntlets quickly became dented and cracked, making it dangerous to continue wearing them. Valora took out a few on him towards the edges.

Zoran was focused on preventing more to arrive on top from further down hill with arrow fire. He too became overwhelmed with at least three against him at once. He had to hide behind his shield and quickly started to tire.

More of Theodren's energy was spent killing the enemy, and not nearly enough on getting out of the pile of the dead. He had to feel around him in the darkness of his almost suffocating state, and found a Zerethian blade. He cut his way out, but only to have the sight of a barg ten feet from him, roaring as it charged towards him, viscous teeth and small yellow eyes.

He gave out a quick sigh of exhaustion at the sight, then panicked as he attempted to leave his predicament. Valora also gave a sigh. She again made the charge to get up the barg's leg and climb up from behind, rather than her less successful previous attempt.

Though she tried, Zoran desperately shouted at her to pull back. Theodren was running back up hill at the moment, and only made a glimpse at her when Zoran made his call.

She didn't look back (in fear of it striking her), and realized Carrion had just led his horse along with the rest of the eastern cavalry army against the approaching bargs.

Hundreds of dead Zerethian and at least ten bargs began to fall down the hill. Some mounted cavalry men fell off their horses like birds flying towards a stone wall, however, when bargs struck them at equal speeds of their charge. Carrion struck his lance through a barg's side, just as Theodren, impaling it in the heart.

"And they say Theodren gets the stage." Zoran laughed a little and grinned in relief, still partly out of the present, laying on the hardened ground.

Archers began to cheer behind them. Members of the shield wall wavered again, wondering if they still had to hold the line despite their exhaustion.

Beyond them were flattened corpses of clay men: some heavily armored and armed to the teeth, some without more than a strange sword.

Only a few bargs remained, but they were eventually brought down by all the remaining arrow fire and spear thrusts from the strength of the men at the wall.

Time went by with nothing more than quiet breezes and the sight of an empty eerie mist as a blood straining sight from beyond.

Some soldiers began to question if more was even to come. A few began proclaiming it was over: they had won.

Members in the shield wall began dropping their weaponry in exhaustion, resting on their knees. The archery line as well as others began to clap, singing and quoting folk tales.

The generals looked to their high liege for a response, awaiting their leave of a rather brief conflict.

....Beyond them, however, there screamed a crash so violent in voice that they were all certain could be heard from every country that surrounded it!

The ground shook below each soldier, tearing apart the dirt and gravel mix from their very footing. Theodren as well as the others could do no more than hold balance onto their weapons as they placed them in the ground.

The horses, to which Carrion and Theodren used as well as all the other riders, ran off in panic. Some stallions began stampeding back up hill away from the fight ahead. They sent their riders with them despite their many pleads to remain in place. The stallion cries were felt in the soldiers hearts, for they too feared what was coming within the fog. Among the troops were few if no words spoken, for their fear overcame their short lived feeling of ease....