As far as the eye could see, huge indigo coloured mountains painted the background of the vast landscape. Where the mountains ended, a great yellow savannah plain began. Beneath the azure blue skies, the lush savannah spread out across the lands like a huge gold-ish yellow carpet. There were few trees that broke the flatness of the plains. The stand still breath taking view, could be easily confused for a portrait.

However, that was not the case. A beautiful painting would fill one with a sense of warmth. This picturesque landscape had a cold and stale feeling to it. There hung about an eerie silence in the air. This could be explained by the lack of life in the plains and mountains. How could creatures not inhabit such a beautiful land?

The explanation lay at the edges of this beautiful portrait like landscape, on opposite sides, two dark blotches could be seen. From the distance, these blotches could be confused for smudges of ink. Unfortunately, this was not a painting. Only from a great distance would they appear as smudges of ink. As one would draw closer and closer, it would become evident this blotch was alive and moving. These two smudges of inks on both sides were people – a large number of people. More accurately, these were two armies.

***

The sheer number of both armies easily crossed quarter a million soldiers each. Second by second, these armies drew closer and closer to each other. With each step that these armies took, the earth rumbled. Every ecosystem has a fixed limit of inhabitants it can support. These savannahs too, could only support a few. However, with the arrival two grand armies, the air was quick to become stagnant. All living creatures that inhabited these plains had already fled for their lives. The sixth sense of the animals had already warned them of the impending disaster. What was left behind, was a beautiful but empty landscape – and the future burial grounds for thousands.

The armies that marched in an orderly fashion from the ‘land of the rising sun’, consisted of the fair elves, the short dwarves, the timid humans, the wild beastmen and other human like races. ‘This side’ of the ‘ink blotch’ was one of many colours.

The proud elves, adorned in gold armour, rode in on their white stallions. Theirs was the army of the colour gold and were the smallest in numbers compared to the big four races.

The short but muscular dwarves, clad in thick steel battle armour, rode massive scaly lizards. Theirs was the army of colour silver and steel. The humans, the most diversified of the group - their attire ranging from simple mage clothing to white knight armour. Some humans were on foot and some on horses. The humans easily made up for the majority of the forces but unlike the other races they were divided on many grounds such as caste, religion and country. The human armies carried many flags representing the many countries they came from. There were flags with drawings of shields, swords, animals, beasts and mythical creatures – held by the flag bearer who led the columns of soldiers for their respective countries.

Lastly, the beastmen; they wore nothing more than fur and leaves. However, it suited them just fine given their wild nature. The beastmen had the highest physical endurance amongst all the races and it would hurt their pride to ride a ‘fellow’ animal. After the humans, the beastmen were the second largest group in the army. There were many other minority races present in this united army. However, they are too insignificant to describe.

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Seeing such a large gathering of ‘comrades’ despite being from different races – the humans could not help but be cheerful; their morale was high. This cheerful attitude disturbed the other ‘tensed’ races however, the others avoided paying heed to the humans – they were considered the ‘weirdest’ of the lot. Which race in their right mind would be cheerful before a battle?

Fortunately, the humans were perfectly sane. They were simply happy for they had been dealing with the ‘evil’ all alone for all this time. Were they not entitled to be happy seeing aid?

Under normal conditions, these races (elves, humans etc.) had their so called ‘pride’ which would never let them cooperate with one another. However, the times were harsh and desperate. Desperate times called for desperate measures and hence, these races stood above their petty politics and pride. This gave birth to the united armies; united under the banner of the living and peaceful to oppose the ‘evil’ that was plaguing the lands.

The so called ‘evil’ armies that marched from the ‘land of the setting sun, consisted of orcs, trolls and all other known malevolent monsters.

These monsters only understood the language of war and blood. They were born and bred for the sole purpose of spreading disaster and laying the lands to waste.

Even though they were labelled as ‘evil’, they too belonged to this world – at least that is what the wise philosophically stated. These orcs though ‘evil’ kept the population of ‘living’ in check. When humans expanded too deep into nature, the orcs would trim the population – at least that what the wise philosophically stated. Simply worded, these monsters were simply predators and others were preys – isn’t that what nature is all about?

As these monsters would attack in small groups, large scale disasters were easy to avoid. Very rarely, did monsters attack in hordes larger than a hundred. Hence, monster led calamities are very rare in this world.

.

However, this was not one of those rare instances. How can one say that? The banding of different monsters under one flag was something very new in this world. Who banded the monsters together? What was their purpose? There were many such definite questions but only vague answers could be found.

The civilizations of this world were still relatively young and very inexperienced. But they had experienced enough sufferings and hardships to know that if these monsters were not stopped, the existence of all other races would be brought into question.

Hence, the races united to eradicate the ‘evil’ from its roots. This kind of story, in another world, would be a common tale but in this world it was the first of its kind.

This could be considered one of the greatest wars of all times on this continent. Unfortunately, to mistake this particular battle as the true warring strength of both sides would be fatal mistake. The actual strength of both sides numbered in the millions. This battle was nothing more than a tiny skirmish. It could only be considered one of the many that were happening simultaneously across the continent. In fact, on some other battle field, where the plains were larger and movement was less restricted – armies to the size of a million could be seen.

Now the question does come to one’s mind is, if this isn’t the greatest battle to be witnessing then why are we here? Well, that would be because our ‘Hero’ is due to making an appearance here, albeit he is running a bit late…