[Lavinia’s POV—The War Ground—Dawn]
The first clash wasn’t sound.
It was a feeling.
A pressure—thick, violent, ancient—rolled across the plains as forty-eight thousand ren soldiers thundered toward us. The earth shook beneath their boots. Dust exploded into the sky. The wind itself trembled.
But Eloria did not move.
Not until I gave the command.
The mont my blade lifted—the world snapped.
"FORWARD!"
We surged.
Hooves sliced through the grass. Shields locked. Spears lowered. I felt the force of fifty thousand heartbeats pounding behind , hamring through my bones like war drums.
The distance closed.
ter by ter.
Breath by breath.
I saw the whites of their eyes—saw the terror, the fury, and the desperation.
And in the center of their line—General Luke.
The Iron Wall.
Unshakable. Expressionless. Unreadable.
His arm rose.
With a single motion, ren’s front line collapsed into a defensive wedge—shields forming a barrier of steel.
They were ready.
So were we.
"IMPACT!" Arwin roared.
And then—CRAAAAAAASH!!!
Two armies collided like mountains slamming together.
Shields splintered. Spears shattered. Bodies were thrown backward by the force of the collision.
"SHIELDS UP!" I commanded.
My voice thundered across the front line.
Dozens of shields snapped into formation—an iron wall rising in perfect unison. Arrows shrieked through the air, a black storm falling toward us like the sky had decided to kill us itself.
"MARCH THROUGH!"
My soldiers advanced without hesitation.
Arrows cracked against shields—KLANG! KLANG! KLANG!—so bouncing off, so embedding into wood, others ripping flesh where gaps appeared.
The sound was a symphony of brutality—tal hamring tal, bones snapping under pressure, and screams cutting through the air like blades.
Through the arrow-storm, through the chaos, through the dust—
A wave of ren soldiers burst from the wedge formation and charged straight at us.
Fast. Reckless. Desperate.
Their eyes were wild.
Their boots tore into the ground. Their swords raised, ready to pierce through the tiniest gap in our shields—and then the earth itself seed to growl.
A deep, spine-rattling rumble.
Then—
"MARRRSHIII—!!"
A roar so loud it ripped the battlefield open.
"ROARRRRRRR!!!!"
Marshi exploded out of the formation like a teor made of muscle and fury. His massive body slamd into the front line of ren soldiers with the force of a collapsing mountain.
CHOMP!!!
One soldier vanished between his jaws—bones crunching in a single violent snap.
SLASH!!!
Marshi’s claws sliced through three more, sending blood spraying across the dirt in crimson arcs.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Bodies were thrown like rag dolls.
"GOOD BOY, MARSHI!" Rey shouted sowhere behind the lines, though I didn’t see him—I only felt the wild magic rippling around. That ans...he has arrived...now...we don’t need to worry since our remaining armies have arrived.
Marshi roared again, the sound vibrating through the ground, through our bones, and through the very air.
The ren soldiers hesitated.
Just long enough.
"THIS IS OUR OPENING!" I roared. "FORWARD! CUT THEM DOWN!"
Haldor surged beside like a sword given life—shield raised, blade dripping, eyes blazing.
"YOUR HIGHNESS—ON YOUR LEFT!"
I swung—CLASH!!!!
My sword collided with a ren captain’s blade so hard the shock ran up my arm. He pushed. I pushed harder.
Sparks burst between us as steel ground against steel.
He snarled, "Today you’re going to die, Princess—!"
I smirked, twisted my wrist, dropped my weight, and...SLASHED upward. His chest armor split. He fell with a scream. Marshi pounced on another behind him.
"You underestimated lightly...captain of ren."
And then...I rode forward... The battlefield rippled with violence.
CLANG! CHSHK! THUD! ROAR!!!
Elorian soldiers surged forward with renewed fury, following the path Marshi carved through the enemy lines. Osric’s cavalry crashed into the flank. Arwin’s division smashed into the center. Zerith shouted orders as he cut down attackers with ruthless precision.
But still—still—the ren forces ca like a relentless tide.
"Don’t break formation!" I shouted.
But then—
"YOUR HIGHNESS—MORE FRONT!!" Haldor warned.
Another wave of ren soldiers barreled toward us—larger, heavier, screaming with rage. Their shields slamd forward.
CRRRAAASH!!!
The collision jolted through my bones.
"PUSH BACK!" I scread.
"PUSH—!!"
My soldiers leaned forward, every muscle straining, boots digging into the mud, faces twisted with effort. The two walls of flesh and tal crushed against each other—CLANG! CLASH! RRRRRRHH!!!
The world beca chaos. Swords bit into armor.
Arrows tore into throats. Marshi ripped another man apart with his jaws. I parried, swung, and stabbed—every move clean, ruthless, and precise.
"YOUR HIGHNESS!" Haldor shouted over the noise. "The right flank is collapsing!"
"THEN WE HOLD THE CENTER!" I roared back.
Blood splattered across my cheek. My sword sank into another soldier’s ribs. He fell choking.
More ca.
More always ca.
And the battle only beca intense—and then more intense—until breathing itself felt like fighting.
A spear grazed past my cheek—SWISH! —I tilted my head a fraction, grabbed the shaft, and snapped it over my knee before driving the broken half into the soldier’s throat.
He collapsed.
Another replaced him instantly.
CHING!
My blade locked against his—our faces inches apart, both of us snarling, pushing, teeth clenched—
He spat, "DIE, PRINCESS—!"
I tilted my head and smiled coldly—"Not today."
I slamd my forehead into his helt.
CRACK!
He reeled back, dazed—and I slashed his legs out from under him.
"Marshi—!"
ROARRRRRRR!!
Marshi hurled himself over my shoulder like a teor, landing on the fallen soldier and tearing him apart in one brutal motion.
Blood sprayed across my armor, warm and sticky. Haldor’s blade flashed beside —clean, precise, and rciless.
Above us, Solena dove—her talons gleaming in the sun like obsidian blades.
SKREEEE!!!
She pecked directly into a soldier’s eyes.
He shrieked—clawing his own face as blood stread from his sockets. Marshi landed on another man, crushing his ribcage with a deafening CRACK!
The ground beneath us was no longer a battlefield.
It was a graveyard being carved in real ti.
Blood.Blood.More blood.
And in that chaos—CLASH!!!!
My sword slamd into another.
But this one—did not budge. Not even a hair.
A wall of force.
A mountain.
A storm.
A voice—deep, cold, seasoned by decades of war—rumbled from the man behind the blade:
"Finally..." His eyes locked onto mine—sharp, calculating, almost amused. "...an honor to et you, Princess of Eloria."
I smirked, pushing back just a little—not enough to retreat, but enough to provoke.
"The great General Luke or ren," I purred.
"Or..." I tilted my head slightly, voice dripping like venom, "...should I say—the only man with a brain in all of ren?"
A dangerous silence flickered between us.
Then—with terrifying strength—BAM!!!
He shoved .
My horse stumbled backward, hooves scraping against the blood-soaked mud.
Luke’s voice grew colder.
"Call whatever you want, Princess." His eyes sharpened like a drawn blade. "But know this..."
He slid down from his horse in one fluid motion—boots slamming into the earth like thunder.
"...this will be your last battle."
I jumped off my horse as well.
Landing silently.
Sword raised.
Eyes locked on the Iron Wall himself.
"Let’s test that theory," I said softly, dangerously. My crimson cloak billowed behind like a slash of blood.
"Right here."
Luke’s lips curled into a grim smile.
"Then co, Princess."
I lifted my sword. He lifted his.
The world moved. The battle around us blurred—
And only two things existed:
Crown Princess Lavinia of Eloria.General Luke of ren.
Lioness vs. Iron Wall.
A ruler forged in lightning vs a general forged in war. And as steel kissed steel—CHAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
—sparks exploded like fireflies dying in the dark.
Luke’s voice growled low:
"I’ve waited a long ti... to end the girl who overturned my kingdom."
I twisted my blade, forcing him back one step.
"And I’ve waited..." I leaned in, smirking. "...five days to et the man stupid enough to serve a child."
His jaw tightened.
Our blades pressed.
The earth cracked beneath our feet. The air tightened into a noose.
And above us—the sun rose crimson.
As if the sky itself knew—this duel will stain the world.
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