It had been 365 days since the unit's arrival. During that time it had adopted the moniker of John Revo, and made it into a name associated with duty, toughness and durability. Many held it in a kind of regard reserved normally for the General herself.

Speaking of which. John Revo, became the first and thus far the only soldier to land a blow on General Amaya during the annual birthday sparring match. When presented with the reward of promotion to Second Lieutenant of the entire Standing Battalion, he instead asked if there was anyone else who would be better suited for the role. Amaya had to admit that yes, the man called John Revo was indeed a strange one, but he was also the most humble soldier under her command as well.

So, he accepted and Gren found him to be a magnificent help in his duties to the General. Corvus, even found him to be a help in the kitchen of the barracks, much to everyone's surprise.

Corvus was out scouting and had just returned to make the traditional oatmeal raisin cookies for the General's birthday. He walked in the gates and was surprised to find Amaya happily munching on a cookie. She thanked him for the best batch of cookies she had ever tasted, though she expected nothing less from him. He had explained that he had only just returned from his scouting patrol.

Both were struck confused, until John walked out from the barracks carrying a tray of fresh cookies. This led to a new tradition being born between Corvus and John, a bake-off, with General Amaya serving as the referee. Though after sampling some of his work, Corvus knew he had a hefty challenge ahead of him the coming year.

And thus the unit, now named John Revo, had been accepted whole heartedly by the soldiers of the Standing Battalion. However, the unit would soon find itself once again staring into the jaws of its new enemy: Xadia. The actions it would undertake would alter the course of many beings, and set it on an eventual path to the Storm Spire itself.

Second Lieutenant Revo had stood for about one and a half hours as he listened to the planning committee made up of three Queens, one King, one High Mage, and the General herself. It sounded simple, harvest a Magma Titan's heart to halt a famine plaguing a part of the human held territories. However he also applied more of his tactical logic to this situation.

It wasn't a good plan.

These humans were after the same path as those he had been programmed to pursue and destroy. Taking whatever they wished if they believed it would solve the current problem, but inadvertently birthing two others later on.

"Seems like a solid plan, eh John?"

He turned to Gren and raised and eyebrow, before signing to him. The reply wasn't what his superior was expecting. Gren had to pretend like he was clearing his throat to cover the sudden sputter forming in the back of his throat.

"Is something wrong Lieutenant?"

Gren looked up to find all eyes in the room fixed on him curiously. He broke out into a cold sweat, not really wanting to repeat what John had said. He turned at a soft pat on his shoulder and was surprised as John nodded to him, before he stepped forward and repeated himself.

General Amaya and Queen Sarai's eyes widened at the blatant statement made by the young man. Harrow raised a brow at his wife, his sign language was still a ways off and he couldn't understand everything the Second Lieutenant had said, but he knew enough to understand when someone was opposed to an idea.

"Second Lieutenant, did you have something to say?"

John met Viren's grey stare with own red and repeated himself a third time.

'This is a fool's errand. We have no idea of the consequences this will raise from Xadia, nor of how they'll respond to such an attack in the future. It would be more beneficial for us to instead ask the Dragon King for aid. Furthermore, we do not know how this will affect the land in the future. You say this will help us High Mage Viren, but what if doing so only makes the situation that much more precarious.'

Sarai and her sister were floored for two different reasons.

Queen Sarai for how he spoke eloquently and instead of lauding combat, wished to extend a hand to Xadia's King and implore them for help peacefully.

General Amaya was very pleased with her subordinate. Not only was he ferocious in combat, but he was displaying many qualities of excellent leadership. She had no doubt that her soldiers respected and loved him for these very same reasons.

After all you could order soldiers to march, order them to fight, but you couldn't order them to believe. And that's what John provided to the Standing Battalion, a belief that one day there would be peace between Elves and Humans. But one day, not today.

She gave a stern look and John stepped back, having stated his peace. He continued to listen as final arrangements were made, the High Mage Viren smirking at him when they strode out to where the small contingent of soldiers were gathered. They would continue with his plan to harvest the Magma Titan's heart.

If he could feel, John would be feeling only a sense of dread as he made ready for combat.

John dodged another blast of electricity as he made another series of sharp gestures for the soldiers to withdraw.

As he had expected, the plan had gone south the moment they met the Titan. John had done his best to direct the soldiers into a protective division between the King, Queens and High Mage. The resulting attack had severely disabled the Titan at the cost of nearly one fifth of the men, including the injury of General Amaya. It was the lowest cost he could reason.

High Mage Viren had stepped in and harvested the heart without further incident, then of course, the Dragon King himself arrived at the site.

Factoring in his appearance, John hadn't even looked to Gren, and ordered the remaining soldiers to evacuate behind the Royals. After ensuring the safety of the Queens, King and his General, John raced back into the field five times. Each time he returned to the Battalion he carried two soldiers on his shoulders, deposited them at the aid tent before returning to the field. It was as he was racing back the fifth time that he saw Queens Annika, Neha and Sarai racing back with a pale High Mage Viren.

He heard the beating wings of the Dragon King overhead. John watched as the Queens of Duren broke off in another direction to distract the King in a suicidal fashion.

Factoring again, John considered his options, and as the King flew lower he selected the most correct one.

Sarai had just made it through the gates closely followed by Annika and Neha. Heaving a sigh of relief that they were back in friendly territory, she eased Viren off into the waiting arms of a nearby soldier. She paused when she saw the white hair streaking the top of his head, but put it out of mind, for now anyway. Turning and dismounting herself, she pulled Harrow into a bone crushing hug and a kiss full of relieved passion.

"Are there any others still missing?"

Harrow turned to Gren as he dashed up.

"Just Second Lieutenant Revo your majesty."

He huffed as he straightened, John had really done it this time. Not only had he known this mission would end horribly, he had also been making mad dashes to and from the field of battle pulling back wounded or lost soldiers to their lines.

Even he and General Amaya owed their lives to him. If not for his intervention, he doubted they'd have survived the swipe from the Magma Titan's claws.

That's when he caught sight of Thunder rolling through the skies overhead and trying to buck something off his back. Gren called for telescopes and ordered the lookout to focus on the Dragon King's back.

Meanwhile the Golden Knight of Lux Aurea and her squadron of soldiers arrived in time to support the Dragon King, they too saw his wild flight and brought out their own eyepieces.

What both sides saw, they could not begin to fathom in their sane mind.

There, standing just below King Avizandum's horns was Second Lieutenant John Revo of the Standing Battalion. He had a firm grip on a tuft of hair with his left hand while his right was thrown back over his head.

Despite his violent flight, the young man dug in and moved with the bucks, dips and dives with an experienced air.

The Elves were aghast at the impudence this one human displayed as he rode the back of their King like he was nothing, but a common twin-tailed inferno-tooth tiger.

The Humans began to cheer and chant as the brave Second Lieutenant held on.

Meanwhile in the skies over the molten river that divided the two worlds, the unit's protective skin was beginning to short out and dissolve due to the proximity of powerful electricity. The skin on its right hand began to fade away to show the metal underneath.

Lurching forward to readjust its grip the unit's newly revealed hand, made contact with the King's exposed neck and produced an unexpected side-effect.

There was a hiss from the contact and the Dragon King suddenly gave a howl of pain, before going into a straight dive at the Xadian side of the border.

Judging the speed and distance, the unit jumped off and rolled away when they were roughly thirty feet from the ground. It rose up slowly, bringing its sensors to full awareness. Looking down, the fake skin regenerated over the metal alloys as the rest of its systems ran an internal check from the sudden jump. There was a dull rumbling off to the side and it turned to see the King of Dragons shake off the collision from the earth. The two stared at each other for a moment.

The unit took note of the new scar on the right side of the King's neck, had that occurred from contact with its exposed endo-skeleton? Further investigation would be required.

"Who are you?"

Instead of replying, the unit turned and fled as the oncoming squadron of elves approached.

Amaya thought she had seen everything in her life, the events of today though were seriously changing that matter of thought. Now she could only watch as her new Second Lieutenant raced across the narrow bridge between the Human Kingdoms and Xadia.

Arrows rained down from either side to keep both sides pinned down, while John ran head long through the storm without so much as a hint of hesitation. He had just made it two-thirds of the way when an explosive arrow from the Sunfire Elves blew up the last third of it.

Time seemed to slow, as John raced forward and jumped the gap.

Amaya hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until hearing a loud clang from armor hitting the stone of the wall. She sighed heavily as her soldiers roared in victory all around her.

A small group gathered to help John up as he began to crawl up on a break in the battlements-

CLANG

John pitched forward, an arrow jutting out the back of his left shoulder. Before anyone could panic however, he got up, and calmly yanked out the arrow. The tip not even showing so much as a dent as he notched it, pulled back on the bowstring and fired it.

Janai was angrily glaring across the river at the Human Battalion, this attack would not go unpunished. Xadia would have her vengeance, soon.

At least today, they had seen to the impudent human that had dared to scar their King. She did oppose the fact he had been shot in the back, and would address the bowman later. However there were more important matters to attend to at this moment.

She had just turned to check on the healer's progress when she heard a faint whizzing sound.

CLUNK

Janai's eyes were as wide as the rest of her soldiers. There, about an inch from her face was a Sunfire arrow. Slowly turning, she felt her left eye twitch at the sight of the infuriating human lowering a bow, then raise his right hand with one finger extended.

The gesture flew over the Golden Knight's head but the Humans clearly understood it, as they roared in triumph. A truly sickening sight, while she got the distinct impression that he was insulting her.

She fumed and turned sharply to her squadron, barking at them to see to their King and to get him out of harms way.

She swore that she'd fight that Human again one day. After all anyone that could take an arrow to the back, then return it in a prompt fashion deserved to be taken seriously.

The next time however, she would face him head on. He'd proven himself to be an honorable sort, for a Human. After all, if he'd wanted to kill her, he would have aimed for her head as soon as she removed her helmet.

From that day going forward, John Revo came to be known throughout Xadia as the wretched one that had scarred the Dragon King. Many going so far as to call him the 'Cursed One.'

Many more had petitioned the Dragon Monarchs that this insult could not be tolerated and proposed to end him via Moonshadow Elves.

However, the monarchs had issues of their own. Their son, their only egg, was gone. Spirited away while their Dragonguard was nowhere to be found, and presumed to have deserted. Theories, accusations, and wild conspiracies flew left and right. They all shared one common fact though: they suspected the Pentarchy, more specifically Katolis and the Dark Mage Viren. The shadow he cast was hard to miss.

The Pentarchy however, found themselves rallying behind this once unknown guard from the Border. John proved that Humanity could not only stand up against Xadia, but they could also win.

Among the Pentarchy people he was soon to be known as John 'Thunderman' Revo, the Guardian of the Border.

The Standing Battalion was in good spirits, even as they mourned their fallen and celebrated them throughout the week, while John characteristically resumed his guard duties along the wall that ran along the Border. Much to the chagrin of the Sunfire Elf squadron that mirrored the duty from across the fiery river.

Sarai lazily turned her head from Harrow's shoulder to her sister with a smile, as they all rested in front of the hearth in the barracks of the Standing Battalion. They had been resting these last few days, while Viren left earlier to do the ritual needed to end the famine. It was better to tell her now, than later. So, sitting up a little from her husband's warmth, Sarai got her sister's attention and began to sign out what she and Harrow had discussed last night.

'Amaya, I hope you can forgive me, but I must ask you draw up the necessary papers of transfer for Sir Revo to the Crownguard, effective immediately.'

Queens Annika and Neha couldn't help but laugh from their cuddled place on the floor opposite of the General. Her flabbergasted expression truly was priceless. Harrow himself chuckled as Amaya hefted herself up and had Gren send for the Clerk to begin the necessary arrangements.

Sarai could only smile as she resumed snuggling up into her husband's side. After all of this, she couldn't wait to hold Callum and Ezran again.