“It might sound like the height of foolishness to spend one’s life searching for a worthy opponent, just to potentially lay their life down after they found one, but that was how some warriors really lived their lives. They sought after opponents that were strong enough to validate their own existence as a warrior, and would cut them down, or die trying.” - Tan Le-Chun, adventurer from Al-Shan, circa 402 FP.
“Reminds me of some of the folks back home.” - Savir of Clan Stonehoof, orcish adventurer, circa 402 FP.
Unlike most of the Imperial army that wielded spears or sabers paired with shields, the gatebreakers followed after their commander and mostly wielded heavier, two-handed weapons, which allowed them to deliver punishing blows in close combat. Two-handed axes, great maces, as well as a weapon that was basically a glaive with a longer, sturdier, blade and shortened handle was popular amongst them.
Liat herself wielded such a shortened glaive, the weapon measuring a good meter and a half with its shaft and blade of equal length. The blade was of good steel, sturdy and durable enough to deliver hefty, punishing blows, with its tang running along the entire length of the wooden handle to support it. The hefty weapon was something she had made for herself after she joined the military for a while to better suit her fighting style since money was no longer an issue for her then.
She saw her soldiers fighting while she made her way to the front, though the enemies they faced fought back with measured, disciplined strikes as well. The shield formation the enemies set up blunting her unit’s thrust effectively before it opened up some and allowed the other side’s warriors to engage her own in equal footing.
As she rushed forward, she happened to spot a scene where a young girl – one likely young enough to be her child if she had one – took on two of her soldiers at the same time, swiftly dispatching one while sending the other one reeling back with obvious injury. Before Liat could get there, the young girl methodically took care of the second soldier as well, which piqued her interest.
Normally she would have considered dealing with a much younger opponent like that as some sort of bullying, but this girl clearly knew her way around a battlefield, and the way she wielded her glaive hinted at years of training at the least. That, and the girl was fighting alongside a group of other youths who were all fighting in ways she had not seen amongst the military. They fought more like independent warriors, yet coordinated with one another to leave no gaps for her soldiers to exploit.
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To the young girl’s left side Liat saw a pair of slender girls, probably twins from their identical looks, fighting in tandem in such a way that the two seemed like they shared the same mind, their movements so in sync with one another that it was at times hard to tell where one ended and where the other began. Those twins fought with such skill that the two of them still held the advantage even while tackling four of Liat’s soldiers at once.
Liat also saw some of the short, stout enemies fighting next to the young girl, and further out, some of the large, beastial ones, the unit apparently a mix of all sorts that somehow managed to fight together in a cohesive manner regardless, something rarely seen or done in most militaries. The young girl Liat that first piqued Liat’s interest seemed to be commanding them, as well, which was another surprise given her age.
All that just solidified Liat’s decision as she made her way towards the young girl, her blade swinging towards the girl a moment after her presence was noticed.
To Liat’s surprise, the girl not only accurately blocked her strike with her glaive’s shaft – which bent to a decidedly unhealthy degree under Liat’s vicious blow – but also managed to push her strike back with unexpected force. It was almost as if her strike bounced off the shaft of the girl’s glaive somehow, which definitely isn’t how wood worked.
Liat didn’t have much time to muse, though, as she had to block a swipe from the girl’s glaive right afterwards, the girl not wasting the slight opening Liat gave in her surprise. The shaft of the girl’s weapon seemed to wobble and flex as she swung it, which made the glaive’s blade shift up and down, making it hard to predict its trajectory, but Liat caught it on the side of her own blade regardless, simply covering all the points it could have come from.
The girl seemed undeterred by having her strike blocked, and swiftly rotated her glaive, striking with the spearhead on its other end. Once again the wooden shaft of the girl’s weapon seemed to wobble and flex, causing the spearhead to shift around like a living snake. Liat was surprised when she saw it the first time, but by now she was certain that it was likely a characteristic of whatever material the girl made her weapon with.
She had never heard of wood that bent and flexed so easily, yet were able to take a blow from a heavy blade without taking more than a nick, but clearly that was what she was dealing with there. As such, Liat swept with her blade once more, directly pushing the spearhead aside rather than trying to predict its odd trajectory, which she assumed was a trap many had likely fallen into.
Many of her soldiers followed her example and rushed over to the area, but they were surprisingly stopped in their tracks by the youths and other foes they were facing. None of her soldiers came towards her, knowing better than to interrupt Liat when she was fighting, but surprisingly none of her enemies did so either.
That meant that they either knew to respect a duel when they saw one, or that they were confident that the young girl could take on Liat on her own. She had no idea which it was, and she didn’t like that feeling.