“Hold the lines!” “Archers! Fire at will!” “How many of these monsters can there be!” The sounds of the battle rang in the ears of Aiden Gion. “Where are those Yénas and their owners? We could use some war hound support.” Looking around, Aiden finally spots his friend Pyrell chopping down yet another corrupted corpse with his trusted double-edged axe, affectionately named Lenora. Being a dwarf, Pyrell is usually difficult to spot until it is way too late, unless one knows what they are looking for. Aiden happens to be one of those lucky few.

“Scared of being overwhelmed by these walking skeletons, stone blood?” Aiden says slyly while expertly parrying a blow from a sword with his staff and letting loose a blast of frozen air at his enemies. All five instantly freeze solid.
“You know you’re one of the only people I let call me that, long ear. And no, I was simply saying they looked underfed and could use a good meal of Kata,” replies Pyrell, who immediately upon seeing the wave of ice jumped into the air and came crashing down with Lenora shattering three of the beasts. He then expertly delivers a crushing backhand blow to the remaining two, cleaving them neatly in half.

“Nice,” commented Aiden, “but I have always found Lenora to be lacking in the fire-power department.” Just then, he released a small ball of fire from his hand. Having seen the trick before, Pyrell knowingly leaps out of the way behind his elven friend for protection. The ember flies a few meters away, and then descends into a large group of Kata. Not knowing their future fate, and thinking that was the worse, the beasts break out into a mischievous grin directed towards Aiden.
Behind him, Aiden could hear Pyrell mutter, “Great sapphires, do they even have any teeth?” Breaking out into a mischievous grin of his own, neither dwarf nor elf had time to give a second look, as there was an instantaneous rush of heat and light being emitted from the center of the Kata. The tiny little ember Aiden had cast moments before had erupted into a raging inferno- a giant tornado of fire.

“Always the show off,” muttered Pyrell. “Remind me never to make you angry!” he shouted toward his friend, as both looked for their next victim. Across the battlefield, the King of Fautalicía was not having as much luck as Aiden and Pyrell. Everywhere he looked, the monsters swarmed his vision. His guards were fighting valiantly to protect him, as was Isolde, leader of the Immortal Legion that Aiden and Pyrell were both a part of.

Back to back, Isolde and King Dalen were furiously protecting each other’s flanks with their shields from the numerous arrows that were being launched at them. “Sire, I know not how much longer we can best these demons. Half the army have been wounded, or worse,” Isolde said in a thick accent, while chopping off the head of the nearest Kata and shielding her face from the spurt of blood that followed.

“We just have to prevent them reaching the tower. The mages in there are creating a spell to topple this threat. All we need to do is buy them time and protect them a little while longer,” Dalen shouted while performing a magnificent spinning attack, striking three Kata at once. “Sir, if we don’t retreat now we will not win. We cannot afford this massacre. I understand we need mages, yet I would rather see ten mages fall so that we can save a few thousand men,” Isolde interjected.

“Be that as that may, I am in no position to sound the retreat, Isolde. The best chance we have is to try to make it to that small clearing where it seems two of your own are fighting and try to make a decision there. They seem most adept at destroying these things,” Dalen casually remarked, all the while fighting for his life and bashing his shield against the nearest Kata, sending it flying. “Then we must try to make it there,” Isolde replied. Silently, and to herself, Isolde added Fautal hope that clearing is caused by Aiden and Pyrell. If not, and they have died, we have no hope of winning.

“Hey Gi-Gi! How many have you bashed together?” Pyrell shouted over the din. “More than you my friend,” Aiden countered, while manipulating the very fabric of space to pick up a handful of Kata and slam them against the blood-stained ground. Seeing a flash of gold to his left, Aiden magically slowed the advance of five creatures on his right so he could address the king.

“Ah, so the king can fight after all,” Aiden remarked upon seeing the human’s king and his commander, “And Mistress Isolde, I am glad to see you are unscathed.”
“Once this battle has reached its finale, you shall be reprimanded for the way you addressed the king. While you are still an Immortal Legionnaire he is your king, whether you be elf, dwarf, human, or Quatsin,” Isolde commanded.
“We are in the middle of a battle for our lives and yet you insist on formality? Honestly Isolde, lighten up,” Dalen countered.

“But Sire!”

“No buts, Isolde.”

“I hate to break up this banter, but can we spend less time yappin’ and more time slashin’?” Pyrell yelled, in desperate need of assistance, as 10 Kata surround him. As soon as he starts to yell, a sizzling sound and a burnt smell fill the air as Aiden releases a bolt of lightning that jumps from one Kata to the next, until all ten are reduced to sizzling piles of ash.

“Are all mages so powerful?” King Dalen asked, already on his way to slice through a monster.

“Not all, your Highness. Even though it is true that mages in the Legion are already powerful, Aiden is the most talented mage in many centuries,” Isolde replied.

“Now commander, you are making me blush,” Aiden said, while he simultaneously roasted five Kata and froze another eight. “Our warriors are not shabby either, my Lord,” Isolde said, nodding over to where Pyrell had just single-handedly decapitated 15 Kata with his signature “Hurricane Lenora”, a fierce attack that had Pyrell spin in place a few times while spinning the deadly axe.

“That may be, Commander, but we are in low numbers. And I fear some Kata giants are near,” Aiden remarked. Almost as if on cue, the ground started to rumble and one of the giants appeared over the hill, charging straight toward Aiden, Isolde, Pyrell and Dalen.

“Well, I don’t know how many of these creatures exist,” Pyrell said. “But I do know that there is going to be one less after the next minute,” Aiden said, finishing the dwarf’s sentence, before both charged to meet the 3 meter tall creature.

The creature let out a tremendous howl that shook the nearby soldiers. It then dropped onto all fours and charged at Aiden and Pyrell. In its charge, the creature impaled several bodies onto its massive horns, not caring whether or not they were fellow Kata or the soldiers fighting them. Aiden and Pyrell, luckily, had faced a few of these behemoths before, and leaped out of harms way at the last second, evading the razor sharp horns by a matter of centimeters. The beast, unable to change directions so quickly, rammed into a wall of the ruin where the battle was taking place, an old Fautalicían outpost long since abandoned.

Dazed and disoriented, the creature began fumbling to get up. Firmly planted into the wall was a large section of the Kata giant’s horn, having been snapped off at the base of the creature’s skull. This disoriented state was exactly what the elven mage and dwarven warrior were waiting for, and upon impact began to attack the monster.

“Try to snap off its other horn! Those things are deadly.” Pyrell yelled. “Otherwise I won’t be able to get a swing in!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Aiden muttered under his breath. Concentrating deeply, Aiden blasted a wall of stone at the giant, pinning it to the wall it just rammed into. Then he was able to release a small but immensely powerful sphere of frozen energy at the creature’s skull. With the horn being frozen solid, Pyrell was easily able to swing Lenora at the horn, instantly shattering it.

With the beast wailing in agony, Pyrell had to shout over it to be heard. “Lenora can chop through anything! ‘Atta girl!” he exclaimed, his affection for the axe being easily detectable. “Two horns down; let’s kill this puppy,” he said, mostly to himself. He then prepared for a powerful cleave to swipe right through the center of the monster.

Before he could swing, however, a giant burst of energy came surging through the air and struck the Kata in the head, right between two huge ungainly eyes, instantly paralyzing and killing the beast.

“Aiden! We agreed the next giant we faced I would be able to kill!” Pyrell shouted angrily.
“What makes you think that was me, shorty? I’m over here protecting your sorry behind frying some Kata so you could kill it!” Aiden replied hotly.
“Wait. If you are over there frying those Kata,” Pyrell said, realizing his friend was over 7 meters away, “then was caused that burst of energy.”

“That fire is really hot. I would hate to be on the other end of it,” Aiden said to himself, then hollered over to his friend, “I don’t know, but it certainly wasn’t me. I can’t do fire and whatever that was simultaneously, at least not on that scale.” Looking around, Aiden tries to spot the cause. Having keen eyes, even for an elf, Aiden was easily able to spot details others couldn’t. He could see a tiny speck of blood flying skyward from an uppercut and lodging itself on the gargoyle perched precariously above. Looking to the sky, he could see the Asimov’s flying overhead, just waiting for the battle to end so they could enjoy a nice long feast.

Finally seeing something disturbing that could have been the cause, Aiden weakly hollered to Pyrell in an awed yet scared voice, “Py, what happened to the King and our Lady when we charged the giant?”

“Stayed where we left them, fighting more of these creatures I guess. Why?”

“I think we just we placed in a Dénas sized problem.”

“What problem could be as big as the entire continent, you lazy elf? I need help now!”

Losing his temper, Aiden let loose a string of lightning bolts in quick succession, vaporizing Pyrell’s foes. “There. They are gone you land-dwarf. Now look at the top of the Tower Yacuf!”

“Fine you tree-climber. But this better be go-oh no. What the Tel is that thing!” Pyrell said, realizing his mistake in making the elf mad and then not realizing it was urgent.

“We need to get to the top of the tower. NOW.” Aiden said weakly.

What they saw terrified them, yet they knew they were the only ones capable of the challenge. At the top of the tower, with Isolde’s body in one claw and Dalen’s in another, was a Briel Dragon.