Chapter one.

I stand shoulder to shoulder with the men and women of my order, my armour fresh and new; leather still stiff, chainmail spotless, and I feel like a fake. I know this was what I trained for, that I earned my place in the Knights Fortis... But looking to either side, seeing my Knight brothers, their leathers like a second skin, chainmail bearing the nicks and scrapes of hard use and it feels to me like I'll only truly start to earn my place now.

"Knights! Attention!"

My head snaps to one side, our captain stands by the Jump Gate, looking every inch the Knight Captain. Greying hair brushed back from a face covered in scars, each one a tale of Hollows slain, comrades defended, lines held.

"We have reports of a large force of Hollows massing near a small town, a few hundred miles south of here. Don't know about you, but I don't feel like letting them get away with it."

There was a grim chuckle from my fellow Knights, I try to join in but it sounded weak, not to mention a couple of seconds too late. Eyes turn in my direction.

A raging Hollow I can handle, but those looks cut deep.

"Yeah... Anyway. Shortly, I'm going to release the jump gate and we'll be a quarter mile away from the massed Hollows. So double time March, in formation, once we get there... Well. Then it's business as usual. We're Fortis, we get in, we control the horde. We are the rock, the anvil to Mortis' hammer. Let's do this... WHO ARE WE!?"

"FORTIS!" The squad shouts as one, my voice in perfect unison now.

"Damn right!"

The Knight Captain hits the release catch and the jump gate bursts into life, light floods the transfer chamber.

"New guy! You're in the Van! Show us if you're ready to be one of us!"

I move to the front and start jogging, knowing that all eyes are on me I have to get this right. I'm overwhelmed by a rush of heat, sounds and smells as we charge through the gate. I try as hard as I can, but the relocation causes me to stumble, conscious of the eyes on me I speed up and find my balance before I fall.

I hear Knight Errant Marcus shout "He kept his feet, you owe me Stirling!"

My comrades laughs fortify me as we charge forward. I cover the distance without even realising, surrounded by the jokes and morale boosting chatter of my fellow Knights

But the laughter dies quickly as we crest the rise and see the mass of hollow we're here to cull.

I overhear Knight Errant Marcus whispering "You weren't kidding captain, that's a lot of Hollow..."

But the Knight Captain just grins. "Would you have it any other way?"

He turns to the Knights assembled behind him

"TIME TO SHOW THESE CREATURES WHAT FORTIS CAN DO!"

With a shout on my lips I charge at the massed hollow, my brother Knights at my side.

My whole life I've trained to fight. From my early days with a wooden sword, fighting imaginary foes, through years of solo drill work, to my days training at the academy. I am a well trained, oiled machine of combat.

But nothing could have prepared me for a real fight, with a real hollow.

Charging into a mass of nightmare monsters, shield raised, sword high and all my training leaves me. A hollow turns to me, like he can smell my panic, he raises his mantis like claws high and leaps at me, his wiry body twisting to kick out with brutally clawed feet at the same time as his hooked blades strike down. I feel my shield lower and my sword start to drop.

For one burning second, I think I'm done for. I really think that all my training has come to naught and I'll not survive first contact with the enemy.

But my body isn't quite ready to die yet. Without thinking I raise my shield and brace for impact, my blade arcing up to slide through his claw, sending it flying away.

I dart back as he charges again, seemingly heedless of his injuries. I wait for him to raise his claws then slam my shield into his face as hard as I can, I feel his skull plate crack as he fades away, the sudden lack of pressure pushing back nearly causes me to fall onto my face.

I hear a cry go up from beside me:

"The new guy takes his first scalp!"

I turn to see Knight Errant Marcus, his great maul raised above his head a grin across his face and four hollow fading into nothing around him.

I raise my blade in salute, the word thanks dying on my lips as I see an wolf like hollow, lunging forward to bite him from behind.

"LOOK OUT!"

I dive past him, my shield wedging into its mouth as I drive my blade hard down its throat. It fades away as I spin about, looking for more.

"Good instincts kid. I think you're going to do well here." Marcus' voice brings me back to reality. I suddenly realise what I've done and start to feel a little embarrassed, but knowing that I'd impressed the Knight Errant was enough to raise my spirits. I dive back into the press, smashing a hollow in the chest to knock it over, following up with a savage slash to the face, dispatching it.

The remaining melee passes in a blur, I relax into the flow of battle and let my muscle memory take over, blocking, parrying and counter attacking without thought.

Hours pass. After what seems like a lifetime, the hollow break and run. The Knight Captain orders us to leave the stragglers to the Order Mortis and while I join in the joking cries of disappointment, I'm secretly relieved to collapse onto the ground.

I close my eyes and lay back, my sword at my side and my shield as a pillow. Even in my exhaustion though, I can feel the powerful presence approach.

"Knight Captain!" I jump to my feet, snapping off a salute and standing to attention.

Knight Captain Reinhardt stands before me, The Human Fortress, his twin shields still strapped to his arms. At no point in the day did he have less than 10 hollow around him, but somehow he was uninjured, his armour barely scratched.

"I was keeping an eye on you today... Seeing if you'll fit in well with the Fortis." His face is grim, his eyes evaluating me. Even though he was deep in the heart of the enemy force, I know he isn't lying when he says that he was watching me... Did I impress?

The seconds he waits before speaking stretch into eternity, I doubt every move I've ever made and the need to run rises up in me. But Knights Fortis don't run, they stand their ground no matter what. So I stand and wait to see what my fate will be.

His face cracks into a wide grin.

"You did great man, I saw that save you pulled for Marcus. You're the kind of Knight that will go far. Especially with The Fortis!" He claps one huge hand onto my shoulder and pulls me to his side.

I feel my face almost split in half I'm grinning so hard. I did it, I've proven myself to the captain! I walk at his side to a nearby bluff, standing there he surveys the battlefield. The churned mud and smashed trees cover miles... But no bodies and that means it had been a good day for The Knights Fortis. My new family.

"Knight Captain... Can I have a word?" Marcus appears beside us, surprisingly quite for such a large guy.

"Of course Errant, speak freely."

Marcus eyes me warily, but as he can't be seen to contradict his superior he starts to speak.

"This wasn't a normal horde, was it sir?"

With one short sentence, he had killed the mood. You could almost feel the temperature dropping as he finished. The smile dropped right of Captain Reinhardt's face as his eyes turned back to the battlefield.

"You know it wasn't... There were too many of them and they seemed..." For the first time I saw the knight captain hesitate. He had faced down countless armies, but this, what he had sensed about these hollow, was making him worry "They almost seemed... Organised. But what power could organise the Hollow?"

"I don't know captain... But I think we need to find out."