As the sun climbed higher in the blood-red sky of Bloodmire, the tide of battle ebbed and flowed like a crimson sea.
From their vantage point atop the castle's highest tower, Atenzi and Báthory watched as Khan regrouped his forces at the edge of the Whispering Woods.
"He's cautious," Báthory observed, her eyes narrowing. "More so than I expected."
Atenzi nodded, his golden-crimson eyes never leaving the battlefield. "He's lived for centuries as a conqueror.
He knows when something doesn't feel right." A cold smile played across his lips. "But even the greatest strategists can be undone by their own hubris."
As if on cue, they saw Khan's freed general galloping towards him.
Even from this distance, Atenzi could sense the urgency in the centaur's movements, the desperation to deliver his false message.
"And so the final act begins," Atenzi murmured.
They watched as Khan received his general, saw the great conqueror's posture change as he absorbed the information.
For a long moment, Khan stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the looming castle.
Then, with a speed that belied his massive form, Khan began barking orders. His remaining forces, still formidable despite the losses in the woods, began to form up for a frontal assault.
Báthory's eyes widened. "He's actually doing it. He's committing everything to a direct attack."
Atenzi's smile was predatory. "Of course he is. In his mind, this is his one chance to end the battle decisively.
To crush the heart of Bloodmire in a single stroke." He turned to Báthory, his eyes blazing with dark anticipation. "Little does he know, he's marching straight into our maw."
As Khan's forces began their charge, Atenzi set the final phase of his plan into motion. "Signal the retreat," he commanded. "Make it look desperate, disorganized.
Let them think we're on the verge of collapse."
Báthory nodded, relaying the orders.
Across the battlefield, vampire forces began a staged withdrawal, falling back towards the castle in apparent disarray.
Khan's centaurs, emboldened by this sign of weakness, pressed their advantage, pushing ever closer to the castle gates.
Atenzi watched the approaching horde with calculated intensity. Timing would be everything. Spring the trap too soon, and Khan might realize the deception and pull back.
Too late, and they risked genuine defeat.
"Not yet," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "Not yet..."
The first wave of centaurs crashed against the castle's outer defenses.
Atenzi could hear the thunder of hooves, the clash of steel, the screams of the wounded and dying.
But still, he waited.
Báthory gripped the parapet, her knuckles white. "Atenzi," she hissed, a note of urgency in her voice. "If we wait much longer-"
"Shut up," Atenzi cut her off, his voice carrying an edge of steel. His eyes were fixed on a point in the distance, searching for one particular figure amidst the chaos.
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And then, he saw him.
Genghis Khan himself, moving towards the castle gates, a massive battering ram carried by his elite guard before him.
"Now," Atenzi breathed.
Then, louder, "NOW! Spring the trap!"
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen.
The battle raged on, Khan's forces pressing ever closer to the heart of the castle.
Then, with a sound like the world itself groaning in agony, it began.
The ground beneath the centaurs' hooves started to shift and buckle.
Cracks appeared in the castle walls, widening with alarming speed.
Khan, to his credit, realized the danger almost immediately.
Atenzi saw him rear up, bellowing orders to retreat.
But it was too late.
With a thunderous roar, the castle began to collapse.
Towers crumbled, walls caved in, and the very foundations of the structure seemed to liquefy.
Khan and his elite forces, caught in the courtyard and lower halls, were trapped in a avalanche of stone and steel.
Atenzi watched with grim satisfaction as chaos engulfed the enemy army.
Centaurs screamed in terror and pain as they were crushed beneath falling debris or swallowed by suddenly opening chasms.
"It's done," he said quietly. "The heart of your castle is destroyed, Báthory, but with it, we've broken the back of Khan's invasion."
Báthory's eyes were wide, a mixture of horror and exhilaration in her gaze. "My home... centuries of history... but by the dark gods, what a glorious destruction."
As the dust began to settle, Atenzi turned his attention to the remnants of Khan's forces. They were in disarray, their formation shattered, their morale broken by the cataclysmic trap.
"Now," Atenzi said, his voice carrying the unmistakable resonance of Lashon Kesef, "we finish this.
No mercy.
No quarter.
Let none escape to tell the tale."
Báthory's answering smile was all fangs. "With pleasure, my champion."
As one, they descended from the tower, ready to lead the final charge that would turn a decisive victory into a total annihilation of Khan's forces.
The battle for Bloodmire was entering its final, bloody phase.
And at its heart stood Oni no Atenzi, his eyes blazing with the fire of victory, ready to cement his legend in the annals of Naaim's history.
As Atenzi and Báthory descended from the tower, the full scale of the destruction became apparent.
The once-proud castle of Bloodmire was now a maze of rubble and ruin. Dust hung thick in the air, punctuated by the screams of the wounded and dying.
Atenzi moved with a phantom's grace, his every step calculated and purposeful.
His golden-crimson eyes scanned the chaotic battlefield, assessing threats and opportunities with cold efficiency.
"There," he said, pointing to a group of centaurs struggling to regroup amidst the debris. "They're trying to form a defensive line.
We need to break them before they can rally."
Báthory nodded, her fangs gleaming in a predatory smile. "Allow me."
With a gesture, she summoned a cadre of her elite vampire warriors.
They moved like living shadows, flowing across the ruined courtyard with inhuman speed. The centaurs, already disoriented from the castle's collapse, barely had time to register the attack before the vampires were upon them.
The ensuing battle was swift and brutal.
Atenzi watched with a mixture of admiration and cold calculation as Báthory's forces tore into the centaurs. Hooves clashed against claws, steel met fang, and blood flowed freely.
But even as this skirmish raged, Atenzi's mind was racing ahead, planning the next phase of the battle.
He knew that the destruction of the castle, while devastating, wouldn't be enough to completely break Khan's army.
The Scourge of Civilizations had not earned his fearsome reputation by giving up easily.
"We need to find Khan," Atenzi said, his voice cutting through the din of battle. "As long as he lives, his forces will have hope. We need to extinguish that hope."
Báthory turned to him, her eyes gleaming with bloodlust. "And how do you propose we do that, my champion?
Even buried under rubble, Khan is a formidable foe."
Atenzi's answering smile was cold and calculating. "We don't fight him. Not directly. We isolate him, cut him off from his army. And then we give him a choice he can't refuse."
As they made their way through the ruins, Atenzi outlined his plan.
Báthory listened intently, her expression a mixture of admiration and growing excitement.
"It's audacious," she said when he finished. "Risky. But if it works..."
"It will work," Atenzi said with absolute conviction. "Khan is a conqueror, a warrior. He won't be able to resist the challenge."
They paused at the edge of what had once been the castle's great hall.
The space was now a crater of broken stone and twisted metal. And there, at its center, a figure was emerging from the rubble.
Genghis Khan, the Scourge of Civilizations, rose like a colossus from the ruins.
His centaur body was battered and bleeding, but his eyes burned with undiminished fury.
In his hands, he held a massive warhammer that crackled with eldritch energy.
"Báthory!" Khan's voice boomed across the battlefield, causing even the vampires to flinch. "Face me, you cowardly witch! Let us end this here and now!"