Aftershocks
The time had long passed since the days of the daimyo Ayu, Holden cross, the leader of the knights, and Stigandr, leader of the Viking clans, Apollyon had shattered the world that had been so peaceful, each of the factions had returned to their respective areas, having little need for conflict any longer, but yet, their armies still expanded, and every now and again a border clash would break out. But everything was set to change again, a group of knights, left over from the black stone legion, still felt that they were owed recompense for the war that had annihilated their legion, their names were Mercave, an assasin that had been taught by Mercy herself, Magnus forgeheart, the lawbringer with a brutal reputation for having no mercy upon those who he deemed unfit for the world, and finally Barcus morthal, a conquerer, famous for his raids upon the Viking fortresses in the north, all of them had the skills to do what they felt was right, to return the land to the control of the blackstone legion, all they lacked were the thousands of men required to do so...
10 years ago
The fight for the fortress was going poorly, magnus thought, the knights had beeen easy enough to deal with, considering that they were on the same playing field as far as equipment, but then the samurai had showed up, he had never faced one in combat, but from his skirmish with a wounded kensei, he found a new level of respect for the Dawn empires warriors, the kensei had beaten him senseless, all without the use of his right leg,seeing that it had been broken, he had retreated to recover and thankfully the kensei did not pursue, he decided to move over to the side that the knights were laying siege to, rather than face his death by the hands of a orochi, or even worse, a shugoki.. those things were unstoppable, they stood taller than any lawbringer and their club could always hit harder than even a battering ram, and when you were finished it got worse, they were strong enough to flip you over their head with just one arm, magnus had even seen one that had taken a lawbringer, forced him to his knees, and crushed his head between his hands like a small grape, leading to a fountain of blood to spew out at that point magnus had met the kensei, and he had ended up here, defending the gate against the knights' assault, he could only hope that Apollyon could turn the tide of this,
Meanwhile, behind the lines of the samurai,
Mercave was trying to be stealthy and take out the leaders of the samurai in order to blunt their advance, but it was going quite poorly, the samurai had somehow received warning and they had nearly killed her at her every attempt upon the Daimyo's life, the bodyguards especially, were hard to get by, it was as if a shugoki lived with her considering how much time they spent together, the shugoki has been inches from crushing her, she had been walking behind them in stolen armor that was pieced together from multiple sets, her plan was to get close and get a poisoned dagger into her heart, she was just starting to get close when the shugoki whipped around and brought the club down with enough force that when it hit the ground after she dodged it shook the earth, she then threw down the smoke bomb and rand and hid within the camp, anytime she made a move against someone important, there was always someone in just the right place at the right time, she was hiding in a small room behind all of the smiths, behind all of their smelting supplies, suddenly the stacks of crates that formed the wall of her small camp within the commanders camp, was torn down, standing there looking at her was the guardian shugoki that had almost killed her earlier flanking him were 2 aramushas and 2 shinobi, those were both bad news, the shugoki she could deal with as long as they didn't catch her off guard or out of breath, there was little chance that that club would hit her, for just one hit would put her out of commission, especially if the shugoki swung as hard as he could, she had seen the might of them before,the aramusha and shinobi however would be a problem, ever since the knights had heard that the dawn empire was mobilizing for an assault upon ashfeld, they hadn't seen any other warriors besides kensei's, shugoki's, orochi's, and the occasional Nobushi, but as the assault into ashfeld began, word began popping up of entire villages with a detachment of knights being slaughtered before the main column even got there, none of the villagers ever saw them, but the shinobi had been quick and merciless on those that were less attentive, but those that were not tricked fell to the aramusha, they were efficient and brutal, their twin swords struck like lightning, both warriors had been mercenaries and people with no creed or honor, but when they heard of the assault upon the capital of the dawn empire they heeded the call to action, they literally appeared overnight within the capital, surprising Ayu and nearly overwhelming her, she met with the leaders, a single shinobi and a single aramusha, they stated that they were compelled to fight for their empire once more and offered their services, Ayu graciously accepted and the aramusha and shinobi went to work, anywhere that may pose a problem to the advancing samurai armies, the two types of warriors advanced ahead and either destroyed it, or reduced the threats so that they would be unable to attack other than shadow raids the aramusha and shinobi mainly stuck to bodyguard duty for the commanders, and they were near impossible to detect, immediately Mercave figured out that the shinobi had been keeping tabs on her and making sure that she caused no real harm to anything, she decided that now was as good a time as ever to make an escape, so she ran out of the camp and towards the fortress, she saw a lawbringer fighting against the front gate, an conquerer not far from him, she figured that that was as safe as it was going to get, considering the circumstances, she kept running, for she knew that the aramusha and shinobi would catch her if she stopped. "So much for a quiet exit" she thought
At the front gate
Barcus could keep fighting forever it felt like, no matter how many came at him, his flail never failed to bring at least 2 or 3 of them down, but then again, a minion wasn't exactly durable, Barcus had lead the charge on multiple fortresses within valkenheim, he had even beheaded the guardian of the gate to the entrance of valkenheim, sigmund, a warlord of massive stature, Barcus had fought him and knocked him to his back, bringing down his shield to behead the beast, Barcus was very familiar with the battle tactics of the war born, but there were none here today, just petty knights and some samurai, who he figured weren't worth his time anyways, with all their goings on about honor and such, how was one supposed to be able to fight with a focused mind? So far the gate had been unbreached but the numbers were gaining by the minute, and Barcus was starting to get uncomfortably stressed about the situation, Barcus spied magnus running towards him, beaten up but still in one piece, when he saw him, he knew something was going wrong, he asked "has the southern gate been breached?" As he beheaded a knight captain "yes" magnus roared back "welp, a little samurai was too much for you huh?" Magnus whipped his head towards him and snarled " as if you'd known you cur!" They we're slowly pushed together more and more until they were back to back, suddenly Mercave bursted through the circle by stabbing and riding another warden to the ground, she ran and grouped up with them, "quite the trio here" Barcus remarked, they were ready to begin fighting their way out of the massive horde of knights, when a rumbling was heard from the hills to the north all of the knights looked and witness hell cross that ridge , a massive horde of Vikings began charging down the slope towards the weakened gate, Barcus looked gravely at the horde, "that's a blood charge, we need to leave now, I know the Vikings, if they're charging like this, they will slaughter us to the last man", the enemy knights were still surrounding them, the gate crumbled and they saw the Vikings charge into the fortress, Barcus looked up and saw an orochi and Apollyon fighting on the uppermost balcony of the fort, suddenly the orochi slashed her midsection and she flew back against the railing, with her sword flying over the edge, he then saw the catapult fire come raining down on the balcony, and saw the whole thing collapse and fall inwards, magnus said, "I think it's time we left" he reached to his belt and pulled out his bombs and tossed them into the crowd, seconds later the hole was big enough to run through, all three of them ran as fast as they could, all the while magnus was tossing bombs in front of them to clear out sections in the enemy lines, they ran until they were sure that no one had followed them, they stopped at a small village south of the volcano and saw the fortress overrun with enemy combatants,Barcus was the first to speak, "I guess this is the end of The Blackstone Legion" magnus spoke next "this isn't right, Apollyon deserved to have the world cleansed of these sheep. We need to take revenge for our leader" Mercave was the last to say "that's all true, but we need to wait them out, we can't strike now, while we are weak, we need to wait for the right moment. I know of a place where we can hide, but if we want to arrive there in one piece and without detection, we'll need to remove any sign of our affiliation with The Blackstone Legion", they began removing their emblems and disguising ones that they could not, by the end of it, they looked like just another portion of the iron legion, they began trekking north towards valkenheim, trusting in Mercave, at the edge of ashfeld overlooking a river there was a sprawling fortress, larger than that of Apollyon's, it had taken them weeks to get this far north without raising any attention, when they arrived at the fort, they arrived at the gate and walked straight into the heart of it, as they walked in they noticed a couple hundred soldiers total, a few wardens conquerers and 10 or 20 lawbringers, all decked out in Blackstone Legion armor,Mercave led them into the fort and into a central room, and began explaining "Apollyon kept this fort as a place of retreat if it ever became necessary, all of the soldiers here are 100% loyal to The Blackstone cause, but there being so few of them we need to plan and wait, and when the time is right, we will strike again" they agreed that attacking now would doom them, so they waited
The present (10 years later)
Much had remained unchanged since the end of the conflict, the blackstones had been destroyed (or so they thought) and most of the factions had returned to the areas they called home, as soon as the Viking intrusion into Apollyon's fortress began, both factions decided that it was best if they retreated and let the Vikings have the fortress, the Vikings slaughtered anyone left in the fort and ended up retreating back into valkenheim, seeing that there was no point in fighting for a fort that no one was going to contest or come near, the knights meanwhile began rebuilding after the chaos that was Apollyon, the iron legion remained the prominent power but as time went on, the legion broke down they just became another legion in the midst of many, Holden cross remained the prominent leader over the legions as well, with few willing to challenge him, he became the de facto leader, him and the warden that had roused the iron legion to fight Apollyon kept them in check. The knights tried their best to maintain peace within ashfeld, but the real problems lay to the north, in valkenheim, Stigandr, the warlord who called himself the lord above all Viking clans, had whipped his people into a frenzy when they had fought with Apollyon, and the Vikings were not so easily calmed when riled up, at first after they had taken the shard, the fortress Apollyon called home, they had retreated back into valkenheim, satiated for now, but every once in a while, they would raid ashfeld again, mostly due to the fact that raiding the samurai again probably wouldn't work, considering that the samurai were a culture that learned from its defeats, raiding them again would be near impossible, they did try once, but it was a bloody affair, they tried to land at the same fortress on the sea that they had been to before, but the samurai had rebuilt and fortified the fortress, putting it under the direct supervision of the Orochi, the former emperors champion, he had seen what had become of the fort after the raid, so to strengthen the defenses, he tripled the archers and catapult emplacements in and around the area, he also contracted shinobi and aramusha to be the inner guards, he left an aramusha general in charge of the area while he stayed in the capital, helping to rebuild the dawn empire with Ayu, the Vikings barely made it to the shore, the catapult fire was near constant, with ships going down left and right, it was truly impossible to assault the main gate. The Vikings lost half of their fighters to that raid, after that, they didn't so much as look at the samurai the wrong way, the Vikings after a time became pacified, they returned to farming and staying within their own borders to build good relationships with the other factions, which had until this point, had looked upon them with disdain and disgust with their methods. The knights for comparison, had an official treaty with the samurai, this allowed the knights to trade more freely with them, but even then the Vikings couldn't be satisfied for long, the younger generation, having just reached maturity since the Great War, desired glory, much like what the raider and the warlord Stigandr had taken from the knights and samurai, but they lacked a clear leader for this movement and as a result, they could only complain to their leaders about being dissatisfied with how things are being run. It wouldn't be long until someone roused them and led them onto the conquest that they desired...
The samurai had suffered the worst of the damage, the Vikings had broken through the defenses that their emperor had assured them couldn't be breached, with everything from the great seafort to the west, to the gate to the very capital breached by a bunch of mongrels that barely knew how to properly use a battering ram, even worse, the blackstones had rammed into the capital midst the chaos and annihilated the daimyo, the royal family, and almost all of the great heads of the houses of the samurai nation, and they hadn't just hit the capital too, they had hit many small villages and cities on their way, leaving a burning path of ruin leading to the capital, after the battle of the shard, the rebuilding of the great dawn empire began again, a process they had grown used to since leaving their homeland and settling in the mire, what's worse, it seemed as if when the fighting was done, the entire clan of shugoki disappeared from the lands of the mire, there was no explanation for this, but many within the faction believe that the shugoki only appear in great times of distress or war for the samurai nation, with many others believing that the emperor had the power to call upon them, with them gone, all the work of being the local guardians for the various villages fell to the Nobushi, they had protected the villages in the past, but when the shugoki first appeared, they took over the business of guarding villages from raiders and such, the shinobi and aramusha also disappeared within their order as well, not many knew if they would return to the ranks of the samurai , seeing as they had never quite fit in with the ranks, all that was left of the dawn empires forces were its kensei, still renowned for their swordsmanship with the nodachi, the Nobushi, guardians of the many villages and distant provinces of the samurai, and the orochi, masters of the katana, and the speed demons of the samurai, the samurai never let any of this information be known to the outside factions, it would make them seem weak and vulnerable, the shugoki were the tanks of the dawn empire, it was they who could smash conquerers and crush any lawbringer the knights could bring to bear, the Vikings were no better, the only forces that could hope to fight one were the warlords and raiders, but overall, the samurai were in a tough position, with nearly half of their forces gone, nobody knew if they could handle another war, Ayu remained hopeful, she still remained the Daimyo, but she rarely took to the battlefield anymore, preferring to command from the back lines, she remained hopeful for the fact that the dawn empire could prevail, as they had before.
Meanwhile in southern valkenheim,
the river legion, the legion that had inherited Apollyon's fortress was seeing an opportunity, Barcus, magnus, and Mercave all met in the central room with their captains and began discussions to retaliate for the destruction of their legion, the forces under the former Blackstone flag now belonged to the river legion, their numbers had grown, but they were not enough to take on neither the Vikings or samurai, but the numerous informants and spies within Northern Valkenheim, as well as in Ashfeld were saying that the younger generation of knights and Vikings were restless, the warborn clans newest were still thirsting for war, all they had done was train and train, with so little actual combat, it had led to small scale rebellions, all of which had never gone anywhere due to the lack of leadership, the knights were no better off, with the raids from the Vikings becoming less constant, the use of the legions was coming into question, that and the young wardens had no way to prove their use, corruption was running rampant as well, with different legion heads taking more than what was their fair share, the centurions and gladiators were struggling as well, they desired for the rush of battle and the glory that came with it, they were also willing to rebel from the faction heads of Holden cross and the Warden, but they lacked the leadership, Mercave had laid out the plan as such, magnus would rally the knights to the south to join the river legion and overthrow the warden and Holden Cross, while Barcus would rally the young warborn Vikings in a rebellion against Stigandr and the raider, meanwhile Mercave would start preparing for the assault upon samurai lands, her phase would have to be executed perfectly, for it was the samurai that they knew the least about, all they had was records of the Vikings raids during and after the years of Apollyon, and even then, little was known about their troop strength, but rumors had been running rampant about the disappearance of the Shugoki, aramusha, and shinobi from the samurai ranks, but they couldn't verify any of it, and with their plan in mind they began the first phase of the plan, Barcus and Magnus would leave with a small contingent to help convince the factions to serve with the river legion, it was then that the first ripples from what would be a tsunami would be felt...
Magnus
Magnus rode south with roughly 10 conquerers and 5 lawbringers, and a few wardens to prove that the river legion meant business, they first stopped at a mountain fortress not far from their own, this was no ordinary fortress however, this was the last training ground of the centurions, their order was older than that of the knights order, their empire that they had served had long since crumbled, but the warriors were strong enough to survive it and begin rebuilding their order, they alongside the gladiators, were glory seekers, and cared little for causes or allegiances, they had fought in the coliseum for their slice of the pie, but the knights had recruited them after the assault on the shard, they had been used extensively against the Vikings and samurai, but much like the aramusha, shamans, and shinobi, they had largely disappeared from the ranks, mostly due to the fact that there was no more fighting to be done, magnus would need them if he wanted to seize control of the legions form the likes of Holden cross and the warden, the rode to the front gate and a centurion guard stopped them and asked "state your business, we have no need for lawbringers in these parts" "I don't come to bring the law, I come bringing a proposition for your leader, inform him that I have a way for him to gain what he so desires" the centurion left and returned a few minutes later, " he will see you now, dismount and follow me" they dismounted and entered into the hall, he removed his helmet and followed the centurion it was a long stone hallway with massive brine braziers lit every 15 feet, the room was more than warm and was plenty illuminated at the end of the stone hallway sat a centurion in a throne, this centurion unlike the others, did not look like a warrior, rather he looked something like an emperor, his armor was black as night with with a royal purple cape and accents his helmet war a standard helmet but it had a plume like a spartan, it
Was purple as well, he stated "what do you propose lawbringer, or should I say Magnus?" Magnus almost flinched but kept his cool and removed his helmet, it was impossible that anyone could know that he had allegiances to the Blackstone Legion "My name is Vitruvius, I am the caput of this fortress" Magnus began "the knights order rose from your empire, there is no debate to that, but ever since the current leadership has lead the legions they have fallen to weakness and pacifism, they are sheep, the lot of them, this is not what we deserve as the successors to the great empire your clan trains under and emulates, I can promise you glory and a return to the strength that you once had, the name centurion will be feared as the ultimate warriors across all of the factions." "A bold statement that is, but how do we know what you speak is true, to us, you just seem like a group of warmongering fools, I need to see a sign of commitment to your cause, until then, I will not commit a single soldier to your cause, yes it is true that I do not share the same views as the warden and cross, but I feel the same as my recruits, we need glory, we need war to justify our existence, without it, we are nothing more than commoners wielding a sword, but we are not mindless, we need a legitimate cause to allow us to fight with our utmost, begone the lot of you" Magnus frowned and donned his helmet and left the hall, his group began riding and they soon came into view of another small out post perched on a mountain about a days ride from the centurions fortress, Magnus he a peacekeeper go and do some reconnaissance on who the fort belonged to, of all things, it belonged to the iron legions subsidiary, the brass legion, they were the "younger brother" of the iron legion, the legion that Holden cross and the warden commanded, the same that toppled Apollyon, when Magnus heard the news he laughed "this is our sign of commitment, ride back to the river legion and send for reinforcements, if Mercave asks, it's for the centurions support" and so 2 wardens rode back with the orders for supplies artillery and men to be transported to raid the fort.
2 weeks later
It didn't take that long to get everything that he would need to take the fort, the catapults, he figured, could probably clear out the fortress without much trouble, he gathered the men anyways and began giving a speech to them, the plan for attacking was a night raid, it would be unlikely that they would expect such a thing in pitch black conditions, but the fireballs would lend enough light to fight in. And so he began "Brothers in arms, we are the spark that will begin the liberation of this world!FIRE!" And just like that, the wars began, Magnus charged in alongside his conquerers by the time they reached the outer wall, it was already beginning to show signs of weakening, whatever archers had been left over from the first barrage were desperately trying to hold off the massive horde, the second wave of catapult strikes rained down and the wall crumbled in response, they charged in to find many of the brass legion warriors still scrambling for their weapons, immediately the attackers began slaughtering the defenders, the fight was short and quick, the defenders had barely any time to react and as a result were crushed by conquerers, impaled by lawbringers or stabbed by peacekeepers, they were finishing off the remnants of the brass legion when a new figure stepped out, he was a larger figure than one would expect, but judging from his armor and its layout, there was no mistaking it, this was Felix the warden, he led the brass legion, and from the reports he had seen, he shouldn't be here, felix was legendary among all knights as being the same size as a lawbringer, but still preferring a long sword over a pole axe, he was also one of the closest advisors to the warden, he always leaned towards more peaceful solutions, rather than waste soldiers,slowly he fought his way to magnus, by the time he made it to him, a ring had cleared in the middle of the brawl and they took positions and began a trial by combat, under universal rule in ashfeld, once one began a trial by combat, no one could interfere with it, no matter the affiliation, to interfere is certain death, as both combatants must kill whoever does so, they began circling each other, waiting for a twitch, a movement that they could exploit, Magnus struck first, swinging his axe in a wide arc to try to force Felix to move, the move worked, just not as Magnus intended it to, Felix stepped back, jet out of the pole axe's range and charged into Magnus' chest, it was much harder than he expected, considering Felix's bulk, he was knocked to the ground, where he saw Felix preparing an overhead strike to try to cleave off his head, Magnus thought quickly and he brought back his leg and kicked in Felix's knee, breaking it and forcing it backwards, he screamed in pain and Magnus got up, using his sword, Felix used it like a hammer and whacked the back of his knee with the hilt, a lout cracking and popping noise was heard and the knee snapped back into place, Magnus could admit great even he would have a tough time doing that, Felix, enraged at this point, tried to bash him with his shoulder again, but the blow didn't land, it had been much slower due to his injured knee, and as a result magnus had sidestepped it, he used the handle to smack him in the chest, making him stumble, he then used the end of it and whacked him in the side of the head, stunning him, he then spun around and used the base of it to sweep him off of his feet, landing on his back his massive sword fell out of his hands, Magnus kicked him in the head again while he was down, causing Felix to see spots and for him to temporarily lose consciousness, Magnus walked around him and brought up his axe, like another execution, he brought it down and lopped off his head, the mighty Felix was dead, the remnants of the brass legion saw the execution and put up their arms in surrender, throwing down their shields and weapons, magnus raised up Felix's head and proclaimed, "SURRENDER NOW AND YOU WILL HAVE MERCY, RESIST AND YOU WILL BE SLAUGHTERED", he led a victory cheer, and then returned to his command tent, he was more than satisfied tenth how the raid had gone, now all he needed to do was prove to Vitruvius that they meant business...
5 days later...
The fortress had been largely repaired and refortified, and many of the fighters had been recruited to the river legions forces, but a vast majority had been slaughtered or imprisoned, Magnus looked out and saw the army, pulsating beneath the hill, morale was high, and it looked like this plan might just work...
Meanwhile on a hill a couple miles away...
The shinobi looked at the fortress with an almost bemused expression, he raised a telescope to his eyes and looked out to see the former brass legion fortress under river legion control, the shinobi had been following the whereabouts of this little group for about 2 weeks, and soon, he would have to travel back to the mire, mostly to report on what he had seen so far, he had been assigned to the fortress that the Vikings had assaulted during Apollyon's years, and he had been hired by the orochi to guard the fortress, he had received this assignment from him directly, mostly due to rumors that a small army was moving out from southern valkenheim, and the orochi wanted to know why, and from what the shinobi could tell, it seemed like this knight legion was only trying to expand and maybe become the foremost leader of the knights, the way this was fought, it seemed much more like a move by a power hungry legion to take over another, he lowered himself out of the tree carefully, making sure as to not leave any sign that he had been there, and he began his journey back to the mire to report on his findings...
Back In Magnus's camp...
He gave to order to begin readying for a march back to Vitruvius's fortress, which in and of itself is no small feat, the number of catapults that would need to be prepared were pretty substantial, the troops themselves could pack up easily alongside the camp, but more than anything, magnus had to keep the momentum going, at this point in his attack, the other legions would be just starting to learn about this sometime today, and as a result, they would be wary of any river legion forces in ashfeld, and as a result of that, defenses for everyone else would increase as well. So he had to keep moving and strike at the others while they were still unprepared, and so they marched to Vitruvius's fortress...
Meanwhile, in the Iron legions main stronghold...
The main iron legion fortress had been standing for generations, and had prestigiously always been the center of the knights' legion council, the warden and cross were examining a map of the western part of ashfeld, due to the fact that rumors had been persisting about samurai defenses increasing, due to the sounds of marching and construction being heard at night, nothing had been officially observed, but there was no real way to confirm it unless you saw it for yourself, and the samurai were smart enough to not show their hand in a card game, and you would never really know where they truly were unless you decided to go and invade, in which case you would only know for about 3 seconds before they killed you. They were looking over the map marking where reports of construction had come from, a captain rushed in, "Sir!"
Cross and the warden looked up at him, slightly annoyed, but curious, "Sir, the brass legion, they've been destroyed! Felix is dead, and the fortress now belongs to the river legion!" Cross was stunned, same as the warden, "that's impossible!" Scoffed Holden, "The brass legion is one of the better equipped legions, there are no real ongoing legion conflicts at the moment, that and Felix was one of the greatest wardens to ever live, there's no way he can just die"
"Actually sir, the legion was in the process of a mercenary loan agreement with another legion, the eagle legion to the south, there have been raiders constantly pillaging and the brass legion was contracted to defend the area, so there were significantly less forces inside the fort than what usually made up their army" replied the captain, "but that's not all, the raid that took place happened at night, and not only that, but the entire thing came out of nowhere, according to reports there were massive numbers of catapults always firing on the fort, enough to light the sky, the troops then rushed the fort while the defenders were still trying to equip themselves, I tell you, this was heavily strategized for days for this sort of an attack" the warden then spoke, "well, whatever the case, do we know who actually did this?" "Initial reports have no real culprit, but I suspect that the river legion led the attack, considering that they own the fort now" but it wasn't unheard of for legions to contract each other to do the fighting, mercenary work in a nutshell, no matter which way they looked at it, the river legion was at fault here, the warden and cross exchanged a glance and sighed, cross was the first to speak "I don't like it, considering the loss of Felix, but the iron legion is in no position to wage a legion war at the moment, i think it's best if we just let this one go for now" "I'm in the same frame of mind as you, but we need to make sure we keep the rise of this legion in check"
In the samurai capital...
"An entire legion obliterated?" Ayu asked, she had just received word from the shinobi that had witnessed the fight "indeed my emperor, this was a quick and brutal fight, I was even able to witness the death of Felix the warden, the way this lawbringer fought, it was as if he had condemned and had the execution orders in hand the entire time, he fought and executed him as if it was no harder than chopping a vegetable" "that is beside the point, any warrior, when accustomed to fighting for long enough, does no longer tremble when it comes time to kill his enemies, am I right?" She looked over at the orochi, sitting in his ceremonial robes next to the daimyo, the scars across his face didn't reveal a thing about him, in fact, very few people knew a thing about him, the few who did being Ayu herself, she had grown up with him,and momiji, the shugoki who was also her closest friend and bodyguard, but he hadn't been seen in years, soon after Apollyon's fall, when the peace and prosperity after the war that Apollyon had created had come, he had simply disappeared, alongside every other shugoki that had been with the samurai, even those who were heads of houses suddenly disappeared without so much as a warning, he had known him simply due to the fact that momiji had saved his life when facing threats that a simple katana couldn't take care of, they had known each other for a long time even before that, the orochi has been a guard for a local lord in The westernmost section of the mire, raiders were always prevalent and there was never always a nobushi nearby in each village so to help defend against the raiders, the shugoki were born, they started by choosing to train under a master shugoki, they were the "local champions" of the village, they trained from when they were 12 in comparison to the kensei's 14 and the orochi's 15, they would train all their teenage years, building up bulk until they were bigger than anyone else around, they were given a club, which was easy enough to acquire and/or make, they were also given a mask to protect their identity, as soon as they got it, the mask became a part of them, letting them channel the power of the oni, which was the local legend of how they could do what they did, momiji had been the champion fo the lord that the orochi worked for, the orochi had seen to that they would become friends, because a shugoki that wasn't your friend, well that was as bad as pissing of an entire clan of bloodthirsty Vikings, but that was beside the point, the orochi maintained a smooth demeanor, not even so much as wavering before giving his response "yes, but even the basic morals will persist inside the most withered husks" Ayu raised and eyebrow and turned back to the shinobi, "is there a culprit or is cross and the warden still looking?" "The river legion is behind the entire attack, I was in northern ashfeld gathering information about the Viking border defenses, when a small army began marching out of the mountains, I followed them, curious as to why a knight legion was marching out of valkenheim, I witnessed them attack and destroy it all, but it is my belief that the knights are still unsure of who did it" "good job, this information may prove valuable in time, but more than anything, we need to watch this and see how it plays out" "if I may, empress, I suggest that we hire more shinobi to see to that we know what's going on, about 2 more should do it" the orochi looked directly at the shinobi "who would you recommended for the job" the shinobi, who belonged to the samurai's house of the crashing wave thought about it for a second and responded with "ask for hakata and hataya, they are twins and they excel in surveillance they both belong to my clan" "very well,for now I suggest we continue to lay low, our defenses in the south need to be built with enough ferocity to destroy anything or anyone that can actually find it"
The orochi bowed and left to prepare for his journey to the southern defenses as Ayu gazed out the window, she saw the mire in its vastness, she could always depend on the unpredictability of the mire when it came to repelling invaders, hell, the only reason the Vikings made it was that they got lucky and found the navigational charts at that small shrine, better yet, if the orochi hadn't been imprisoned during the invasion, him and general tozen could have killed every last Viking on that bridge, but she shook her head, what was done was done and it had been 10 years ago, she had been merely 18 when she had gotten caught up in that conflict, and now at 28 she was still a fighter like no other but she had grown wiser and had decided to try not to get herself killed, for the leader of a faction is its heartbeat and if she were to die, so would the samurai, her forces were still not what they once were, Apollyon had taken care of that, but she still possessed enough to formidably take on both factions at once, but then again, when had samurai ever fought on 1 on 1 situations, she had to be sure that each of her warriors was equal to 10 of the other sides, hers were easily worth 20 Vikings, their training so poor as it was but she needed more, more so that she could rest easily with the defense of the dawn empire, she did not count the aramusha and shinobi, they themselves were like ghosts, only popping up a couple of times a year, but as she stood there she couldn't help but feel a sense of, what was it?, a sense of her knowing she wasn't alone, or her people for that matter the houses, weakened by war with the other factions, were still a formidable force, she secretly hoped that the shugoki would make themselves known soon "Momiji..." she said quietly "where are you?"
Back in ashfeld,
Magnus walked into the main hall, all too familiar with its layout, approached the main throne at the end of the hall, upon which sat a Vitruvius with a sly grin on his face. Magnus ripped off his helmet and tossed a head forward, he had been carrying it in a bag on his belt, the red hair and the goatee were unmistakeable, it was Felix's head "commitment enough for you?" He snarled Vitruvius looked at the head and simply said "yes" Magnus immediately began to retort before he realized that Vitruvius was agreeing with him " I'd had a few centurions keep tabs on your movements after you left, wanted to see if you were going to turn around and stroke at me, but instead they witnessed the slaughter of the brass legion, there is no doubt in my mind now, my legions and I shall accompany you on your quest, the gladiators to the south will still demand more proof, but I sent an envoy to inform them of you and your actions" Magnus sighed visibly and gave Vitruvius a wry smile, "glad to see another brother in arms" the shook hands and when Magnus stepped out with Vitruvius onto the main overlook to the training grounds, instead of the training equipment that had been filling the area, he saw legions of centurions with their captains standing at the forefront in what looked like a solid wall of soldiers, Magnus knew how to give some formation orders in Latin, but anything other than basic commands he would have to look up, all lawbringers were scholars and lawmakers foremost before warriors, for a dumb judge is no better than chaos, he reached the top of the steps and surveyed the mass and yelled in his louder authoritative tone "Forma - Ad signa!!!" Instantly the soldiers split and formed a clearing up the middle, with the captains now standing in two lines facing inwards, Vitruvius then called out "Laxate!!" And instantaneously the soldiers assumed a parade rest position, they walked up the column and the main gates opened to their fullest extent, instead of just a central section, the entire thing opened up a hole an entire legion could walk through, and one by one the legions then followed.
At the river legion camp
Ricardo, the lawbringer in charge of the camp while Magnus was away was overseeing the preparations for a march south, when he heard a sound like a mountain crumbling, he ran out and bore witness to the veritable horde marching in perfect order into the camp, and at its head was magnus and a centurion in purple and black armor, Ricardo assumed that it had to be Vitruvius considering the plumage and styling of his armor, the legions stopped and Vitruvius turned around and proclaimed "DIMITTO!!" And like a well oiled machine, the horde dispersed and began setting their own camp alongside the river legion forces Magnus looked at Ricardo and asked him "how do we have any idea of what sort of target we are going after?" He replied "as it stands, ashfeld is under control by 5 major lords, which control about 70% of the faction, the remaining 30% belong to a collection of smaller lords, the warden and cross hold the most influence however, the iron legion isn't what it was during the fall of Apollyon, but it still remains the largest legion, with them controlling about 20% of all of ashfeld, we will need to play our hand strategically if we want to take on the 5 lords, but we could also try rallying the smaller legions with us, this will increase our size and make it easier to assault the larger fortresses, so we have 2 options, we go for it all, or we can bide our time and try to build our forces, however, news of the downfall of the brass legion has certainly reached unfriendly ears and all other legions will be ceasing their contract work in order to defend their holdings, so we will not be so lucky next time..." Magnus looked to Vitruvius for any sign of approval or wisdom, but he merely scowled at the map and said "it has been truly a long time since the age when centurions were a driving influence, I had not realized the concentration of forces across ashfeld, I will have few allies left, but I believe I can get us an audience with at least a few of the smaller legions, they will be happy to join us if it means expansion for them" magnus gave another puzzled look at the map and decided at once "we need whoever we can get our hands on, the iron legion is no soft target, Vitruvius, which legions have you in good standing?" He thought it over for a minute, examining the individual labels, "the igneus, the damned, and the bloodsworn" "really?" The bloodsworn hold you in good standing?" Vitruvius gave him a look with a raised eyebrow, "they may be few in number, but they respect commitment to a cause, and a centurion is sworn to service for life" " then let us embark for the bloodsworn, Ricardo, keep the forces here until I give further orders" "yes sir" magnus and Vitruvius left the tent and began preparing for their journey south, knowing not whether they would live through the next month...
In Valkenheim
Barcus was having an amazing journey so far, and that was the most sarcastic understatement he could think of, he had been riding and had only found one village in this god forsaken wasteland, he had rested there, but he had to keep riding to make it to the hall of the warthog, home to the warthog clan, he had been here before, after all, he was the infamous northern dragon, a man who slew the guardian of the gate, Sigmund, and led the spearhead of Apollyon's assault through valkenheim, he had 8 fortresses conquered under his belt, and he knew intimately, the strategies, fortifications and tactics of the warborn clans, so he was intimately familiar with the terrain, the terrain wasn't his primary concern, it was the people themselves, he needed to raise a rebellion against stigandr, the current leader of the clans and the Viking faction, but almost all of the clans he had fought were loyal to a fault, that left him with one option, Barcus was a man from northern ashfeld, and as a result, he had distinctly Viking like features, he was also highly familiar with shields in combat, he wa also proficient with a short sword, his plan was to disguise himself as a warlord and start the rebellion himself, instead of working behind the scenes. He knew from the little time he had spent in that tavern that the younger warriors were just itching for a fight, for their livelihoods deepened on their combat prowess, and with peace being in the forefront of stigandr's mind it was easy to see why the younger generations were unhappy, as he rode he became distinctly aware of the increasing amount of trees and shrubbery, this could only mean one thing, the hall of the warthog was near, as he saw what looked like something straight out of a legend, a massive warthog stood like a guardian in the middle of the path, it branched around the main statue next to some smaller ones, the eyes were small flames in its eyes, and at the end of the tusks, a fire burned, he rode past, a little shaken, but not scared, the statue had startled him more than anything, a fierce guardian protecting who knows what? He slowly rode past keeping his eyes out for the telltale signs of traps or an ambush, that's when he saw it, or rather them, it was a small outpost, one of many near a major fortress like the hall of the warthog, but it wasn't the structure, it was a single man walking in the main wall, 3 raiders walking next to him, acting like bodyguards, scanning their surroundings for threats, it was a warlord, and not just any, but the leader of the outpost itself, he could tell from the bears head that he wore as a helm, only the fortress commanders actually wore metal helms, wolfs helms were typically worn by those second in command, and a bears head was usually a platoon or group commander, he would need his clothing and weapons if he wanted to blend in to his new surroundings, at the moment he was dressed in mostly winter clothing, except for his flail and shield, no one would be able to tell at first glance that he was a conqueror, he moved in staying close to the shrubbery and trees, he saw no way in through the small wall that encompassed the small tower and barracks, but there was a tree branch that would get him into the main tower, and so he climbed the tree, he took care to wrap his flail chain around his arm so it wouldn't clink while he climbed he slowly made his way out across the branch, it was an old pine and the branch itself was nearly the width of a battering ram, as he approached the tower he saw some grunts looking out and watching for anything suspicious, Barcus brought out his crossbow and took slow careful aim, he fired the bolt and dashed forward the bolt caught the first right in the head, his friend turned around to hear the telltale clinking of a flail wrapping around his neck, barcus brought the links in tight around his neck and promptly snapped it, he was in position, but now he had to get the gear of the warlord without making too much of a mess, he saw his opportunity when the small group stopped for a second at the base of the tower, presumably for the commander to berate some young guard for something trivial, barcus inhaled while he looked over the edge and launched himself out he fell and brought down his feet on the back of the warlord, who had bent over to pick up something when a full conquerer landed on his back, flattening him and dazing the hell out of him, which in any normal fight would've only earned him a whack or slash at the conquerer's benefit, but barcus was out to kill, he let his flail clink down to his side, it was wrapped in the chains around his forearms, so it never hit the ground, he grabbed the top edges of the shield, the bottom part of every conquerer shield is sharpened to make a thick edge, much like a guillotine, which is what this shield became, he brought it down and decapitated the warlord entirely and his body was still, the three raiders,just now realizing what had happened tried to bring down their axes on him all at once, he brought up his shield and parried all three, his flail now back in his hand, he charged forward and bashed the first raider stumbling him, he brought his flail to the side of his knee, instantly snapping the joint and forcing him to one knee, all while this was happening, the other two saw an opportunity, the tried to swing horizontally at his head level to try to take off his head from the back, the conquerer simply ducked and in the pan of a second, the first raider was dead, barcus then went to work on the other two