Edge of the Abyss

"And we return to where we once ruled," High Constable Ralgar Strane whispered, his bearskin cloak wrapped around his broad shoulders. Beside him, Lady Mileena Liothelle moved with confident strides, her steel plate gleaming in the beams of bright sunlight that speared through the swirling ashen clouds above them. Their force was nowhere near the full strength that the Order once could muster, consisting of a mere hundred and thirty blades. Ralgar shook his head, remembering the days when ten thousand shining lances could be called in three day’s time. Now, only two full lances of knights could leave Red Lion Watch, with a lance of freshly arrived initiates as well. Forty spears, forty bows, a ballista, Lord Josquin, Lady Mileena, and High Constable Ralgar finished off the small force, the grim task ahead steeling them with cold resolve.

Josquin de Bravour was the first to see the enemy. Tall and lithe like a willow, with a dark beard salted with grey, the former Lord of Evencrest held his starmetal bastard sword aloft, its blue-white sheen catching the sun. “Ahead!” He called in a clear baritone, “Through the smoke of that northward pit of lava!”

Ralgar halted his destrier, squinting through the haze, ash, and smoke. Dark shapes began to form, shadows within shadow, and they moved forth with confidence. Traitors, he thought bitterly, Craven fools, who turned their backs on their very kinsmen for trinkets granted by the Wicked Ones. While he had fought many Varangur, he at least respected them for despising the Abyss and all it stood for. These men, however, betrayed the Korgaan and forsook humanity to help the Abyss itself expand. His right hand clenched the grip of his sword tightly at the thought. “Brothers and Sisters,” his basso voice boomed, “Prepare yourselves for battle!” Across the ash-dusted field, inhuman grunts and shouts echoed, booming across the chasms and volcanic stone, amplified into sounds of terror. “Advance!” Ralgar ordered, and the battle began…

...The heat of battle filled the air with screams of agony and showered the ground with torrents of crimson rain. Knights charged corrupted men, slathering beasts fell upon knights, the Initiates broke, the spearmen smashed into the enemy heavy cavalry. Both forces were funneled into a choke-point between a clifface and pool of molten lava, which was soon littered with carcasses from both sides. What Ralgar failed to notice was a great, drooling beast that lurched forth to charge the shining foot knights on the right wing of the Brotherhood army. It smashed a great fist into the full-plate clad knights with a sickening crunch, and Ralgar spurred his horse forth. To the credit of the knights, they did not break. With the aid of Ralgar, they hewed and skewered the creature, whose wounds seemed to heal rapidly. It lumbered, stomped, recovered, and pulverized knight after knight until they all were dead.

Ralgar clenched his teeth, brows creased in utmost rage, vengeance blazing in his eyes, redemption burning in his soul, and brought his destrier into a leap. He sliced his blade to sever the creature’s head from its body, steel singing as a ribbon of black blood arced through the air to splatter on the ground. The creature collapsed, shaking the earth with a loud crash.

Rearing his destrier, Ralgar then moved to aid against the black-clad archers who shot poisoned arrows at the Brotherhood forces. Though he successfully rode them down, he was too late to save the Brotherhood bowmen, who were slaughtered by six immense men of sheer corded muscle and ancient, spell-forged armor. One, armed with a gargantuan morning star, smashed Mileena Liothelle and sent her through the air to collide with the clifface and fall motionless to the ground. To the north, the general of the cursed men flew his disgusting beast of a mount to devour the Abyssal Hunters. Knowing defeat was upon him, Ralgar defiantly grabbed Mileena’s body and fled the field as the corrupted men retreated back to the deeper pits of the hellish landscape. Though the Brotherhood was defeated, the corrupted men could not continue with their incursion, and there was some solace in that thought…

...Ralgar regrouped with several knights who had fled the field. Mileena, stunned but not slain, soon awoke. The Bravour knights had also retrieved Lord Josquin, whose arm was badly maimed, but who yet drew breath to fight another day.

They returned, beaten but not broken, to the Red Lion Watch. They had done their duty. The line was held.

The Eternal Watch continued...