Chal was high and hot casting her light down on the rolling waves of the Anin fertile belt, miles and miles of open mossy land in a brilliant patchwork of colors just at the height of the Anin brightseason. The sky overhead was a cloudless striking blue shot through with rainbow hues from anin's magnetic field.
And atop all that?
An army, the most powerful army Anin had ever seen since the time of the saints, made up of only the strongest, most skilled, and most beautiful Drev. The vast majority of them were over nine feet tall, arrayed from head to toe in brilliant armor and flowing ribbons of silk. And each one of them glowed like a glorious gem in hues of red, blue, white, green, yellow and all other colors in between. In their wake they had spread nothing but their own conquest, absorbing those who osgood worthy to join them, and forcing others to bow under their rule or die in pitched battle like the rest.
"General!" The voice came as a shout, partially breathless as a young scout came sprinting up the hill. His carapace was bright blue silver in the early morning light, and youth granted him a boundless energy though he was untested. He skidded to a stop at her side huffing and puffing. He was not much younger than she, but there were not many who could claim the conquest in battle that she herself could claim.
"Speak!" She ordered
The young Drev raised his spear in salute, "The golden one has been spotted on the horizon headed this way. His force is small, we should attack now while we have the upper hand."
General Kazna reached out a hand and rested it on the young Drev's shoulder, "I admire your enthusiasm, though you might seek to curb it." She scanned the horizon, finally catching sight of a glinting of metal off in the distance. They were still quite a ways away making no pretenses, "His force is small but the golden one should not be underestimated, he has defeated far more with far less."
The young drev, who went by the name Tana, looked up at her, "Then we wait?"
Kazna spun her spear in mild amusement, adjusting her helm, "Now I never said that." She glanced towards the horizon and the shifting glint of metal. She had heard of him before of course. A young Drev not unlike herself who had risen through the ranks of his own clans to become a respected and legendary general in opposition to the spread of her own clan.
The stories that spread of him said he was fifteen feet tall and stronger than ten drev soldiers combined. That when he fought he could cause the very ground to shake. SHe knew battlefield exaggeration when she saw it, but these rumors were likely not without some merit. He was likely a worthy opponent, and from what she had heard he was a brilliant tactician, intelligence and cunning, which was not something often found in Drev generals.
Kazn herself had little use for tactics when strength would do the trick, and it did most of the time.
Now he was all that was left.
The single link that stood in the way of her own conquest of the fertile belt.
She would have victory, and she would do it without guile.
Watching the opposing army advance, she knew his thoughts were similar. H was all that was left, and he would go down fighting, here in the open against her army. She could respect that.
She pulled her hand from Tana's shoulder, humming with delight as her heart began to beat hard inside her chest readying itself for the glorious heat of combat, "For glory and honor." She said, and Tana raised his spear in response.
"For glory and honor."
Kazna raised her spear and let out a hard sharp bellow, strong enough and loud enough to reach to the very edges of her army, which, well trained, and without delay formed up into a tight packed cluster behind her. Kazna stood at the front, her cape flapping in a slight breeze. Distantly she heard the call of another voice, powerful, jarring. It rattled the very air around her from even this distance.
He was calling his challenge, and she would not disappoint him.
Kazna raised her spear and let off another call. Her companions formed up around her, some of her oldest and most bloodthirsty friends pulling up to her sides humming with anticipation as she raised her spear and called for the charge. The sound of her voice was loud, echoing across the remaining mossland to the approaching mob of Drev, the golden one's dwindling army.
She sent her voice as a message, but to his credit he did not falter. She could see now there wasn't much left, Perhaps a hundred or so of his own soldiers against several hundred of hers.
She would enjoy crushing him.
Kazna let out a cry of whild glee as their charge slowly began to accelerate, starting slow at first and then driving upwards in pace until they were sprinting across the open mossland. Ahead of her the distant army was doing the same growing closer and closer with every moment until she could see the yellow and orange of their eyes staring back at her.
She did not see fear.
But the fierce glee of battle.
This was a fight she would enjoy.
They charged, and at the last moment Kazna raised her spear and hurled it forward. The move was entirely unexpected, and so shocking that the front line Drev had no way to react before the spear buried itself through her throat. Orange blood gushed from the open wound as Kazna came level with the front line, ripping her spear from flesh just in time to bat away a strike from her right with contemptuous ease. The short spear in her off hand snapped upward, skewering this one through the gut before she kicked him to the ground and stepped over his body.
All around them the army clashed in a sharp kaleidoscope of bodies and colors rolling around each other in a wave. Cries of pain and triumph rent the sky as the first blood was spilled.
Overhead corpse fowl began to gather in rolling spirals.
Kazna rammed an armored shoulder into another Drev's chestplate, ducked under a swing from her left and brought back the shafter of her spear in a sharp arc that collide high and hard with the Drev's cheekbone. She staggered back and fell into the fray as Kazna spun, catching another spear on the haft of her own weapon as it descended in a powerful, but slow overhand arc.
The other drev seemed almost surprised as Kazna spun to the side, causing the two bits of metal to skid apart. The Drev stumbled past her, and with a sharp backhand thrust she severed his spinal cord dropping him to the ground like a wet sack of moss to expire under the sun.
Finding herself in a momentary bubble of open ground, Kazna turned her head to scan the crowd. One of her own soldiers was skewered twice by two seperate spears and driven into they round by a battlepair. Off to their side her own soldiers dueled a hulking grey behemoth of a drev, who despite his ugly carapace was so strong, he flung bodies off him left and right, armor spattered with gore.
Kazna readied her spear, branching herself against the ground as she began her charge. The big gray one was distracted.
Kazna ran and leaped into the air readying her spear to come down through the metal joint between his neck and shoulder armor. But it was not to be, at the very height of her arc, something hard and cold slammed into her middle, knocking the wind from her and halting her forward momentum, throwing her backward to land painfully against the ground, but she did not let her momentum go to waste, rolling backwards to land in a sharp crouch through her stomach and chest still smarted.
And there he stood, nonchalantly holding his spear at his side, chest open. A spiked visor was drawn down over his head, but his eyes were still visible glittering with some humor from behind his armor. He was perhaps the most beautiful Drev Kazna had ever seen. The stories had certainly been exaggeration, but in some ways they had not done him justice. The golden one was well over nine feet tall, with carapace the color of molten gold. Sunlight shattered off his body into sparks that quivered over the moss and spattered his surroundings in bright pinpricks of light.
When he moved, he moved with the lazy ease and grace of someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
The tip of his spear was stained with orange, bur his body was unmarked.
Kazna stood slowly, and the roiling mass of bodies broke around them, none daring to step into the circle of what was to become a private fight.
"General Kazna is it." When he spoke his voice was deep and melodious, unperturbed by the battle raging around him. In his eyes she sensed a spark of humor despite his inevitable demise.
"It seems you have the upper hand." SHe said, planting her spear against the ground, "I don't know your name."
"For you general, you can call me Lanus."
She rocked an eye ridge, "Not particularly imaginative."
He shrugged, "Perhaps not. But what my parents lacked in imagination they made up for in battle prowess."
She spun her spear, "So, you are he, the golden one of the north..... I was told you'd be taller."
He laughed, "And somehow no one failed to mention how beautiful you were."
The compliment caught her suddenly off guard, and she was left speechless for a moment. Taking advantage of her sudden shock, Lanus leopard forward and cut inward with three sharp blows that kazna was just barely able to fend off as off balance as she was, staggering back under the onslaught. Even so the obsidian edge of his spearhead caught her a scoring glance on her cheek breaking skin and causing a bead of orange blood to trickle into the sunlight.
But then she got her footing back locking them into place together.
He hummed in amusement, "Beautiful but maybe a little thick."
Kazna made aface ad spun her spear sharply in a move she herself had developed. The sharp circle of her spear whipped Lanus's to the side and opened up his torso just long enough for her to ram the but of her spear into his gut. He gasped and staggered back gasping. She smirked, "That's funny, I was going to say the same thing about you."
He lifted his head wheezing through his eyes, still sparked with some amusement, "But you still think i'm beautiful."
He readied himself for another go, recovering from her attack quickly.
"That all depends on how well you fight." She said, blood rolling eagerly into her limbs, heart racing, stomach churning. She was excited for this fight, more excited then she had ever been for any fight before, "Because so far all I've seen yo udo is talk."
He spun his spear to match her, "Than quit stalling and fight me."
She took his invitation racing in on the offensive. They enhanced a series of blows overhand, side over-hand, otherside. Then they were locked together low, their spears pointed towards the ground, facing each other head on. Lanus ducked his head and Kazna was just able to pull back and disengage before she was impaled under the chin by one of his helm spikes.
All around them, the other fighting had slowed. Bodies littered the ground, but those who remained couldn't help but stop to watch the proceedings. It was uncommon if not rare to see two fighters of such prowess go up against each other, and it was likely the victor would determine the outcome. Both sides knew it, and at this point the weak had been driven from their ranks. It would be a shame to lose any other fighters.
So the fight had died down, soldiers intermingling as they watched their leaders vie for supremacy, the winner laying claim to what remained of both armies.
Kazna pulled back, leaping down from a small rock outcropping before she could trip. Lanus leaped down after her spear raised, She dodged to the side meeting spear with spear as he came down. He hit the ground hard, but did not falter, whipping the but end of his spear back towards her head. She ducked and took a cut as his legs, but he jumped as her spear passed underneath him.
He came down with an overhand cut, which she caught while in a low crouch, using the power in her legs to throw him backward. He stumbled two steps as she raced towards him.
Sparks shed left and right as their weapons clashed their fight taking them through the bodies on the ground, and ovr tripping hazards. Kazna slipped in a pool of blood staggering to her left. Lanus took advantage, and though she cot his underhand blow on the haft of her spear, she did not catch his shoulder which rammed into her chest and threw her over backwards. She hit the ground hard, but rolled to the side as he dropped his weapon down through the space where his throat had been. Impacting rock, the tip of his spear shattered with the power. From the ground kazna thrust upwards towards his chin, which he sidestepped, kicking an abandoned sword up from the ground and into his hand.
The sword was sharp and curved, maybe only three or four feet in length, but it was a mean looking weapon. Kazna got to her feet, and lanus was able to retrieve a matching sword from the ground courtesy of one of her fallen soldiers . He spun the two swords sharply and nodded before racing towards her, cutting overhand with one of the weapons, but bringing the second one in a circular arc towards her side. She caught the first one, with one side of her spear, before bringing the lower side of her spear upward in a sharp sweeping motion to catch the second blow.
She knocked him away and he came at her again.
And again, and again.
The day was quiet now except for the sharp rattling of their weapons against metal as they battered each other from armor to flesh.
Blood ran down from her face and pooled at her neck spilling into nostrils at her throat, and she found herself desperately snorting back her own blood. A sharp cut on Lanus's leg had gblood dripping downward making his steps slippery and uneven. The sun once high was now sinking towards the horizon and still they fought, neither of them willing to give up.
Still as exhaustion set in the two of them slowed, growing sloppier and sloppier until eventually they broke apart, huffing and panting.
Kanza wiped blood from her neck, taking in a gasping breath. Lanus limped backward to nurse his own wounds, leaning against a rock.
"Your''re not bad." He panted, "but there's room for improvement."
Kazna snorted, "Is.... that so. I couldn't tell between your blatant lack of defense ability."
"I don't need defense when I have offense."
"How is that philosophy working out for you?"
"I don't know, you look pretty good covered in your own blood."
She ran a hand across her face wiping more blood onto the ground, "Honestly I think I would look much better covered in YOUR blood."
"Too bad you won't live long enough to see it."
And then he lunged at her again, but she was ready, ducking and cutting into his guard. He hadn't expected that as she slammed into his stomach and pitched them both over backward. She lost her spear in the manuver but his swords became useless as she pinned his arms to the ground, but before she knew it his legs were locked around her waist, and he was squeezing, hard. She dropped her hands to his neck intending to crush his spin, but he grabbed her upper arms with his lower hands to push her off.
He continued to squeeze making it difficult for her to breathe. They sat like that for a long time, neither of them able to generate enough power to make the other quit. The sun sank lower. At some point one of them slipped which turned into a sharp flurry of limbs. Before either of them knew it, they were still on the ground, but lanus had ahold of two of her arms, and she had a hold of one of his legs, either of them could have snapped the others joints backwards, rendering the other crippled.
Neither side would have won.
So they sat there, trying to test the other's pain threshold, slowly increasing the pressure hoping the other would give, but nothing.
The sun sank behind the horizon.
The world around them grew cold.
It was a battle of wills now.
The unstoppable force against the immovable object.
It was only when dawn peaked its head over the glowing horizon of the volcanic chain when lanus finally spoke.
"Neither of us is getting out of this and you know it."
She had some idea.
"I have a proposal."
"Are you finally surrendering?" She asked wryly, though it was all she could do to keep her eyes open.
"Join my army, and you and everyone else can live."
She laughed, "How about you join MY army and I'll do you the same favor."
He paused thoughtfully as chal peaked her first rays over the mountain chain, "Okay, how about..... Our army?" For the first time in so many minutes, his voice was not simply teasing but, almost hopeful.
She did not let herself be caught off guard by the words though she was surprised.
"Are you....?
"General Kazna, I lost my swords at some point during the fight, so I think it counts if I retroactively challenge you to a trial by unarmed combat."
She couldn't help but laugh. Here they were covered in blood under a rising moon of anin on a bloody battlefield and this oaf was.... Suggesting. Then again, she had lost her spear some hours ago, and she wasn't sure where it was, and Lanus.... Well he was everything they had said he was. Perhaps that and more.
Kazna had never met anyone like him, and was unlikely to do so ever again.
It would be a waste for her not to.
The dynasty of warriors they would leave behind.....
"Very well, I accept your challenge, and deme your worthy." She said softly and together they finally let go, collapsing in the moss and the blood as Chal rose over the volcanic chain