The intensity of the battle escalated as explosions and arrows rained across the chaotic scene, punctuating the ongoing clashes between the armored warriors of the Solium and the seemingly endless onslaught of the hooded, masked cultists, their relentless assault was met with the determined defense of the armored fighters, who battled fiercely against wave after wave of attackers.

In the midst of the melee, one of the armored men found himself locked in a fierce duel, his frustration was obvious as he parried yet another attack, barely holding his ground, with a swift and skillful counter he managed to land a blow, causing his opponent to reel back from the wound inflicted by his sword strike, the cultist's retreated, however, it was only momentary, he was bloodied but undeterred and lunged forward again, intent on killing the warrior.

Just as the armored warrior braced himself for the next assault, an unexpected explosion erupted in front of him, the blast was sudden and powerful, sending a shockwave and disrupting the fight.

The warrior was momentarily disoriented, his senses overwhelmed by the sudden blast, as his vision cleared and the ringing in his ears subsided, he was confronted with the brutal scene before him, the enemy cultist he had been fighting was obliterated by the explosion, chunks of him lay splattered in the area, it seems like the attack hit him in the back, as luck would have it the warrior will live a little while longer.

Looking around, he saw his fellow comrades locked in combat across the battlefield, each struggling against the relentless onslaught of hooded attackers, he saw that there were no enemies immediately next to him, this allowed him a momentary respite, he caught his breath before turning around and seeing one of his own fallen, with another comrade frantically trying to stem the bleeding.

His frustration for the situation they were in and his concern for his fellow soldiers erupted in a shout "Fuck!!! Where are the rest of us?!" the question, though rhetorical and born out of desperation, still received a response from his comrade who was tending to the injured "They’re pinned down by the ship!" he replied, his voice strained with exertion and worry.

He cast his gaze towards the ship’s landing bridge that connected it to the island alongside the various anchors beside it, it was only a small one, usually used when there was downtime and the people aboard were allowed to leave the ship for a while, it wasn’t supposed to be used militarily, too small, and it created a chock hold, one that the enemy was exploiting to their fullest capacity.

He wanted to shout at his comrades who were still aboard the ship to use the Solium’s weapons but he knew in his heart that it would only cause more casualties with so much chaos.

The enemy took them by complete surprise this day.

The sudden scream that pierced through the cacophony of battle drew the soldier's attention to a horrifying scene nearby, another soldier was cut down, while another was stabbed from his front and back, the soldier fell to his knees still with both of his attacker’s weapons in him, as the third cultist came to him and took his helm off, revealing the man’s face contorted in pain with blood coming out of his mouth, the cultist took a fist full of the soldier’s hair and with a single swing of his sword cut the head clean off.

Then all three cultists in disturbing unison turned their heads towards him, the headless body of his comrade fell down and painted the ground crimson red next to the neck, the cultist still holding the head began to walk towards him as the other two joined in.

"Shit! More coming!" the soldier shouted calling attention to his companion as he took a stance, a moment later his friend arrived with a spear he picked off the ground next to him and joined their two-man line, more explosions were happening next to them, and though it made them flinch when they came close the cultists on the other hand looked unfazed by them.

As the cultists began to pick up the pace and were then fully charging them, both men prepared to fight knowing this was probably their end unless some kind of divine intervention happened.

And a divine intervention did indeed happen, or at least it was divine in their eyes.

The sudden spear appeared to pierce the head of one of the cultists, immediately killing him the impact was so strong it carried the cultist’s body before slamming into the ground, the head gruesomely sliding down the shaft of the spear, this made the other two stop their assault on the soldiers and turn to look in the direction the spear came from, this action would be their last.

A woman with snow-white hair charged into the fray her movements were swift and decisive, with a fluid motion of her sword she effortlessly cut down another cultist before he had any chance to counter or prepare a defense.

As another woman this one an elf jumped high above the last cultist flipping in the air and landing behind him, and before he could process what happened to his companion his own head alongside the hood he had on, slid from his body as blood sprayed into the air around him, his body stood for a moment as if not realizing it was dead, held the severed head in its left head, and as suddenly as the attack came so this the body relaxed unclenching the severed head of the soldier and falling to the ground alongside it.

For a moment the soldiers were shocked at what happened but a moment later one of them recognized who the women were "Lady Layla! Lady Asta! You’re back!" he shouted in shock as he looked relieved.

It was Layla who responded to him with a small nod as Asta went to pick up her spear "Yes, sorry to keep you waiting".

As she said that another explosion happened close by sending dirt, rocks, and blood flying at them, both soldiers ducked and shielded themselves while Asta and Layla simply raised their hands to block the debris from their eyes.

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“My lady! The soldier shouted after the explosion’s effects passed “We need to stop these casters, they’ve been pinning the reinforcements from the ship, and with this battle, we can’t muster any men to find and stop them!” his face looked rugged and tired, evident he was not slacking off in the battle, the tone he used was equal times urgent and fearful.

However both Layla and Asta looked as if they did not hear him, ignoring the soldier as Asta simply looked on the battle while Layla on the other hand with her back to the battle scanned the area closer to the bridge, for a moment she looked around until finally settling on something as a small smile crept to her face.

The smile lasted for a mere moment before a much colder and stern look settled "The casters will be dealt with shortly, do not worry" she plainly said, she looked around seeing an opening in the direction of the ship.

“Those of you who can still fight come with us, tell the rest to focus on getting the wounded back towards the ship” She pointed in the direction of the least enemies “The momentum will soon shift, use it to get the injured aboard”.

As she finished she turned around and joined Asta before they moved in the direction of the closet enemy group, both soldiers quickly exchanged looks and nodded, even if they did not know what was gonna happen they trusted their leader, one of them ran to join them while the other picked up his wounded friend and began running towards the ship, all the while projectiles flew overhead alongside magical attacks.

Meanwhile, at the location of the casters, several rows of men stood with both their hands pointed toward the battlefield as spheres of magical energy slowly formed in front of them, inside them was a fire that was seemingly swimming around growing larger and larger by the second, the green flames looked alive inside as it grew hotter, it glowed ominously waiting for its master’s command.

However, suddenly a body was flung with force towards one of the casters, the force of it took him and another one of them sending all three of the men flying quite a distance away, this caused their magic to fail and disappear as if it was never there moments ago, and the sudden attack broke the others concentration as they turned to look at their attacker.

Standing there was a feline girl covered in blood almost from head to toe, with a grin on her face as she pulled back her outstretched hand, her eyes looked as if ablaze with hunger and bloodlust.

Before any of them could process what happened she charged forward and grabbed the closet caster by the neck, she lifted him and after a momentary struggle on his part, she clenched her hand and snapped his neck, after that she released the now new body and looked at the rest of the casters, who backed from her.

While this happened and with barely enough time to comprehend the situation a shout was heard behind them as two other felines joined and killed two casters in toe, a pincer attack on prey, a simple tactic, ‘that was perfect for her’ Zindah thought.

The casters that remained now tried to quickly cast any sort of magical attack to counter them, but they were too slow and the felines jumped on the men killing them one by one, while her two companions used their swords, Zindah simply cut her enemies apart with her claws, with her huge grin as blood splattered everywhere she shouted “kill them all!!!”.

As they kept fighting the casters, reinforcements arrived from the woods location charging at them in a vain attempt to stop all the casters from dying, but this only exited Zindah who turned around and charged the new enemy.

This prompted one of her companions to shout “Wait!” just as she finished killing another caster, but Zindah was already deeply engaged in battle her only focus on the enemies before her.

The feline sighed as she looked defeated “Why do we even bother?” she asked her companion who was wiping her sword on the enemy’s corpse.

“It’s our job to keep an eye on her” she answered with an awkward smile, both then turned and charged towards the surrounded Zindah to ensure she didn’t overextend herself and get scolded… again.

As Zindah and the rest were fighting Max’s and his group's approach to the battle was markedly different from the frenzied engagements elsewhere on the battlefield. They moved with relative calmness and avoided most of the combat by focusing on swift, targeted engagements with isolated cultists, this allowed them to progress towards the Solium without incurring any losses or injuries.

However, as they neared the bridge of the Solium, the situation rapidly escalated, a barrage of arrows and spells rained down on the bridge and the men defending the Solium, creating a perilous situation, the defenders that were caught in the open, struggled to find cover from the relentless enemy fire.

At that moment a spell hit the bridge and caused two of the men on it to be thrown off it to the dark sea below, their screams echoed as they continued to fall out of earshot, meanwhile, the area next to the bridge was completely singed with no living grass in sight as the area was evidently bombarded to submission, this scene was accompanied by the several dead and injured that were scattered around.

Then the tension at the bridge escalated immediately as the defenders, wary of any approach, saw and challenged Max and his group with pointed spears and rifles.

“Who are you?!” the soldier demanded as he was staring at Max, he did not know of any allies that looked like him though he also did not resemble the cultists they had been fighting all this time.

Max's non-reaction to the challenge, with his emotions concealed behind his mask, and body completely relaxed showed that he felt very little of the threat, this caused the soldier to tense even more as he gripped the halberd in his hands harder and lowered himself into a thrusting position.

But before the situation could continue to deteriorate any further Estelle stepped in “Whoa easy where you point that thing” she said with a calm voice as she called to the soldier, the soldier on his part looked shocked and exclaimed “Lady Estelle?!”.

Estelle nodded “Yeah, it’s okay they’re with us” As she said this the soldier nodded and lowered his weapons while moving to the other with his hand to do the same.

He turned to her “You were gone for so long, we feared the worst” he said then looked around the group “I don’t see Lady Layla, is she…?”.

“She is fine, she’s already engaged with the enemy forces”.

The soldier sighed in relief, and as he looked at the new group, and saw a man with strange armor approach Estelle and tell her something inaudible to himself, a moment later Estelle nodded and pointed in the direction of the ship, and the man shouted to the rest of the group to follow him.

As this was happening, the soldier's attention shifted to Max, who moved through the defenders with a calmness that contrasted sharply with the surrounding turmoil, Max's presence in the midst of arrows and explosions, combined with his stoic demeanor and the company of Layla's elven officers who took his flanks as they stood overlooking the battlefield, made the soldier question who this new strange individual was.

The soldier's curiosity got the better of him as he turned to Estelle and asked "Who is that?" pointing at Max.

Estelle's response, accompanied by a smirk, "That, is why we are here" was telling.