Standing amidst the carnage, bodies ravaged beyond recognition, limbs from dead men were everywhere, and the fortress courtyard was masked in blood and gore. The once proud silver knight was panting from exhaustion, standing on his soldier's warm dead bodies; his armor was damaged and scratched. The knight was bleeding from his arm, and a cut was visible though shallow blood steadily flowed through the open wound.

Five figures clad in black stood opposite him; they stood proud against the wounded night, but the knight's focus was not on the figures in black. It was the man who had once been wearing black but was now dyed in red. The red figure's metal helmet was dull compared to the knights that shone and reflected the sunlight, the red figure panted as he sheathed his sword.

Taking a deep breath, the knight nervously looked around, his sword on guard as he stepped back; he glanced back towards the inner fortress, and a dozen thoughts ran through his head.

"If you're thinking of running....you won't make it."

The silver knight was surprised to see the red figure standing on top of a pair of Aegean guardsmen that he had brought with him in a counterattack attempt. Taking a deep breath, the knight steadied himself and his mind.

"I know, and I have no regrets."

Gyun looked into the knight's eyes, and silver eyes looked back at him through the eye holes. There was fear, but deep in the eyes, Gyun saw calmness. Nodding his head solemnly, he stepped over the bodies of the dead soldiers. "You're a warrior, a true warrior....."

Gesturing with his hand, the rest of his squadron stepped back, wiping the blood from his hands on his uniform, "People like me and you...there's only one way we die, and that's struggling; I'll give you a chance to die a warrior."

The knight didn't avoid Gyun's eyes; through their helmets, they stared at each other, their eyes locked together, reading each other's movements and emotions intertwined; The silver knight reached to their chest, bringing up a golden cross on a necklace; the knight touched it to the forehead of his helmet, the man muttered a few words before letting go of the cross, gripping his sword with both hands he brought up to his shoulder.

The knight hefted his sword to point at Gyun "Deus Vult."

Chuckling, Gyun shrugged his shoulders, "I can't understand a fucking thing."

Taking a long breath out, his leg was twitching as he slid one of his legs back into a lunge stance with his sword high above his head; the curved sword caught the shimmering sun, and the wet blood-covered blade reflected the light. The pieces of gravel crunched slightly as Gyun wiggled his foot to correct his stance, the armor he was wearing clinked slightly.

The knight's blade shook slightly as a light bluish tint glowed on the large longsword, and wisps of aura escaped from the blade. Gyun's blood-covered blade glowed dimmer, but it was more controlled; no wisps of aura escaped from the blade compared to the knight's.

The tension was palpable; even among the burning fortress buildings and the fortress gates being opened at that moment, it was as if only those two existed, and in that moment of complete stillness, it was a sharp breath from the knight that broke the balance between them. Both lunged forward with the intention of finishing the fight, but one was faster, and the other was stronger.

Gyun's sword whistled through the air, cutting the knight from the shoulder to hip, a horrifying screech of metal on metal pierced the ears, causing a shiver to go down Gyun's spine, but the knight was cut from the same cloth as Gyun pushing through the lethal attack delivering a heaving overhead downward slash, Gyun brought his blade up in time, but couldn't fully take the force of the attack redirecting the heavy sword into the courtyard tiles.

Stone exploded everywhere, and fragments sprayed outward, clattering against the pair's armor; the knight screamed as the pain of the attack registered, but with both swords lodged into the ground, the pair exchanged a momentary look before the knight backhanded Gyun. Sliding across the dirty tile floors he nearly tripped over a dead soldier.

The knight tore off his helmet, an aged grimy face; the man's fair skin and blonde hair contrasted with the dirt and grime on his face, roaring the knight plodded forward; Gyun felt fear grasp his heart for a moment,

-He's not dead-

That thought momentarily consumed him, but he pounded his chest plate, screaming a war cry; it didn't matter if he wasn't dead yet. He just had to kill him; pushing off his tired legs, he charged forward, meeting the man in the middle. The knight threw a flurry of punches; a few connected, but Gyun endured it as he had all the punches before; Gyun grabbed the man's head, but his hands were too slippery with the blood, and the Knight pushed Gyun off of him.

"fuck" Gyun panted heavily; his side was screaming in pain as he tore the wound even more. With movement, his mouth was overflowing with blood, and it dripped out from underneath his helmet. Wobbling slightly on his feet, Gyun raised his fists, squeezing his hands tighter.

Jumping forward with a kick to the knight's leg, the Knight's leg buckled slightly as he tried to step back. Gyun lept forward, pressing forward despite the pain, swinging wild punches and gritting his teeth. But the knight couldn't see that; he saw a faceless, expressionless helmet, not a man, but his death.

Gyun felt a crunch from underneath his fist as the knight's nose was broken, and his blows landed, but the knight dropped to his knees and defiantly swung punches back. Gyun felt them land, but they were weak attempts of a dying man. Pushing the man onto his back, Gyun lept on top of the man's chest, grabbing his collar and punching the man as much as he could; thuds and sickening crunches that were drowned out in the grand scale of the battlefield were only audible to the two men.

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The knight at first used his hands to protect himself, but Gyun eventually found openings, and he tore them open even wider; unrelenting even in exhaustion, he bore down on the man's last-ditch attempts. Punch after punch, Gyun continued long after the man stopped breathing. Finally, after the man's head was nearly flat into the ground, he stopped ragged breathing and bloody...in all his glory, the knight had died fighting.

Exhausted beyond his limits, Gyun's heart pounded in his chest as he sucked in deep breaths; he could barely manage a raspy whisper, "Like Warriors...like warriors."

His hands shook and trembled from adrenaline or fear. He wasn't sure, but he couldn't close his left hand. He tried, but it wouldn't move; there was something shifting in his hands. Gyun couldn't see it with the leather gloves on, but he was sure he'd broken his hand. Everything felt muted, but he managed to stand up shakily through his ragged breaths, the burning in his lungs from inhaling smoke from the burning fortress buildings and tents, and sheer exhaustion.

All he could do was stare at the bloody pulp the once shiny silver knight had been reduced to; pushing his helmet up, he spit out blood that welled back up in his mouth. The burning flames of the small poorly built shelters of the fortress seemed to draw him in; he wiped his hands on his pants in a poor attempt to get the blood off of his hands, but the blood had already soaked into the gloves.

Vin harshly shook him from his daze, breaking him on his shoulder, shouting over the sounds of the full-scale battle, "SERGEANT!! SPOTTERS ON THE WALLS SAY WE HAVE 5 ENEMY HVT'S ON ROUTE TO OUR SIDE OF THE WALL! CAPTAIN WANTS US BACK ON THE WALL!"

Immediately snapping out of his stupor, Gyun shouted back, "What?!"

Vin pointed back to the fortress wall, "Yeah, we're in some real shit; they're from the Aegeans Royal Academy!"

Squatting down to the dead knight's body, "Hahahaha! Some coddled fucking rich brats are their reinforcements?!" closing the dead man's eyes, Gyun grabbed the man's cross necklace, snapping it off his neck, he fingered the necklace feeling the simple handiwork before placing it carefully in a bag tied to his waist, untying the helmet strap he took off his helmet, and dipping his fingers into the dead knight's cut open chest, he used the blood on his gloves to draw a cross on the side of his helmet in a morbid show of respect to the dead knight.

"Let's get moving sergeant!"

Sighing Gyun stood back up, taking a moment to glance at the dead knight before replacing the helmet back on his head, obscuring his view back to just the small slit.

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Arriving back onto the wall, Rangers and infantry soldiers were running amok on the wall and shouting orders to each other; it was chaos; Gyun and his remaining squad members jostled through the chaos to the gatehouse where the captain was barking orders; the man was trying to direct the regular infantry to defend the walls.

After a moment, the captain turned to notice them, waving them over; he pulled down on his scarf a bit; it was one of the nervous ticks that the captain did when things were getting bad; Gyun had picked up on from his time serving with the man. Gyun glanced over at two other Ranger squads standing near the captain; they were relatively clean and must've been the soldiers at the back of the line.

"Squadron 5, now that you're here, I'll get into the details." The captain led the three squads outside of the gatehouse to the wall; Gyun clicked his tongue as he stepped out into the sunlight again; he had enjoyed the few moments in the shade. As he walked, he tried his best to hide his limp; the bandages around his waist were red as they soaked in blood.

The captain pointed to the left, away from the cliff face that they had jumped off of, towards the treeline, which was a thousand or so meters from the wall; in between the wall and the treeline of pine trees was nothing but grass with dirt patches and the occasional bush. Above the treeline were at least a dozen flares; the red color of the flare meant only one thing: some of the flares were already falling. Distant screams could be heard and brief flashes of dim colors and trees toppling over soon after indicated the use of aura.

The captain ignored the loudness of the battlefield and spoke calmly above the noise, "The outer perimeter failed to keep out any Aegean reinforcements, and command estimates around a half dozen to two dozen HVT's from the Royal Academy punched a hole through and engaged the infantry battalion that was supposed to help with our side of the wall has been engaged with the enemy HVTs for more than 10 minutes. One of the men that the officer in charge of the battalion sent to tell us said that there were five knights, and they had the crest of the Aegean Royal Academy; as you know, Royal Academy Knight students are killed on sight...Gyun is going to be giving orders for this, understand?"

The squad leader from squad 12 said, "And the soldiers?"

The captain grimaced at the question, "High command made no comment on the potential survivors, but as commanding officer on the ground, I give you permission to save and bring back any survivors."

"Tch, of course they didn't," the squad leader's voice dripped with disgust,

One of the other soldiers chimed in, "Sons of bitches could care less about grunts like us."

Gyun sighed, "Fuck it, we'll go."

Though his words implied that there was a choice, in reality, there was no choice; the punishment for disobeying orders was at least ten lashings and, with the maximum penalty of death, a fact that everyone was intimately aware of, more than they wish they were.

The commander clicked his tongue, "Good, you're going immediately."

Gyun and the commander exchanged a nod before he raised his hand, "Saddle up, boys!"

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As they reached the treeline, Gyun slowed his run, raising his hand to signal for a stop, before crouching down against a tree; a moment later, the Ranger's two other squad leaders approached him. The dirt crunching beneath their boots, the smell of blood wafting in the air from within the forest.

Their voices were low but not quite whisper, "What's the game plan, sarge?"

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Gyun spread his Qi out across the forest; though his range wasn't as far as some masters, he knew if the enemies were Royal Academy knights, they would be able to hide their aura and be hard to detect, but he still had to try.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, "If they're in that forest, I don't sense them..." After a moment of hesitation, he added, "Or anyone."

The two squad leaders grimaced; the soldiers were all but confirmed dead; the squad leader from squad 12 muttered a prayer for the dead soldiers; his helmeted face seemed inexplicably sad in particular for some reason.

-He knew someone from the battalion- the thought immediately popped into Gyun's head, but they couldn't afford to be distracted when entering a forest with high-level enemies.

"We move together, stay within a hundred meters of each other at all times. We sweep the area for a few minutes, and if we find nothing, we fucking leg it back to the wall. I'll leave the formations up to you guy's discretion."

"understood"

"Good, I'll go up the middle with my squad; squad 12 can take a left, and nine, you guys will take our right; make sure to stay within eye line and earshot; those fuckers are definitely going to try and pick us off."

Squad 9's leader chuckled nervously, "Well, you boys know what they say, right? One scream means I'm dead, two screams mean I'm dying, and..."

Gyun finished the saying, "Any more means I'm about to die."

"fuck yeah, boys, let's get those bastards" Squad 12's leader's voice was still shaky but excited; he obviously hadn't gotten over the death of whoever was in the infantry battalion that was wiped out.

"hoorah!"

Gyun patted his helmet, lightly motioning his squad to follow him as they lightly jogged through the forest, squads 12 and 9 guarding their flanks. The squads gradually spaced out from each other until they were roughly a hundred meters apart. After that, all three squads slowed to a walk, trying to move as carefully as possible through the forest.

Watching the area and the trees, Gyun kept his eyes open, scared to blink; he was constantly spreading out his qi over the surrounding area and had found nothing.

Vin approached Gyun from behind, coming up beside him. Neither stopped scanning the area around them or turned to each other as they walked, swords in hand, "Any sign of them?"

"I'm not getting anything...what about you?"

"Jack shit"

Gyun glanced around to squads 9 and 12 on their perimeter; he whispered to Vin, "Who'd we lose?"

Vin sighed, "As far as I know, all of them were wounded and carried off, I think, except for Jang, he was killed."

"Did you see it?"

"Yeah....ballista tore a hole through him the size of my fist somewhere around the midway from the wall and the assault point."

"fuck...we find his body after this and bury him, ok?"

"...Yeah," Jin's voice was low, and Gyun could feel a slight shakiness in the man's voice but didn't comment on it,