Taking a deep breath, Astor marched forward with the rest of the army. Quite an intimidating sight was laid out in front of him. The Faldrick army's formation had archers in the front with an endless wave of infantrymen at the back. Their sigil was a gold-adorned curved dagger pointing downwards with a red dragonoid serpent coiling up around the blade. Resting its head on the trident guard, it held out its mouth baring two red fangs. Astor gripped and fumbled with the handle of his sword. The handle had an untanned leather strip coiled around it, forming the grip. After flexing his hand muscles in the comfort of the leather, the army proceeded to lurch forward. Scanning in front of him, he cursed silently. The previous rainfall had made the soil that was to be their battleground soft and or muddy in various regions. The commanding leaders of his army yelled out inaudible phrases that Astor was either too focused or too far away to hear. With a roar, the front lines charged wildly towards the ranks of the enemy archers. Astor thanked his holy luck that he was towards the middle of the formation. Armed with shields, the first wave would act as the trigger to set off the opposing archers' primary offense. Their job was to receive the brunt of the ranged damage before causing the enemy archers to retreat back into their formation. The first wave took a considerable lead from the rest of the main army leaving behind a trail of riddled corpses. Clusters of cavalry knights broke off from the main Mayland army, closing the gap between their offense and leading away into routes around the outstretching ridgeline that would later flank the Faldrick army. Astor watched as occasionally some horses were felled from the incoming arrows, with their riders being thrown out or pinned under them. The advancement soon broke out into an all-out sprint. Astor approached the enemy soldiers. The first wave had struggled with being outnumbered and he spied an opening to assist a deadlock between two enemy soldiers and one ally. With stray arrows whizzing by, the sounds of roars and metal clashing increased to a deafening roar. Astor only had to focus on the skirmish in front of him. Taking a few steps forward, he quickly appeared in the field of view of the two soldiers. With one still preoccupied with his ally, the other reacted to his presence by charging at him. Holding his breath, he quickly took a basic stance with his sword raised slightly over his right shoulder and started to match a safe counter speed to the enemy's charge by back-peddling. The enemy soldier, yelling with all his might, swung his mace down towards Astor. Waiting until the last moment, Astor flexed his back muscles to dodge out of the way. After gauging the distance and avoiding by a breadths hair, he quickly advanced tightening the gap between them. The enemy soldier flinched, and Astor swung his sword down toward the soldier's head while following the path of his enemy's strike. The soldier stumbled, but still managed to awkwardly block the slice, but to avail. Not committing fully to the initial strike, Astor felt his blade ride down the mace before catching it. Slashing back up into the man's hands, Astor felt the the dull drag of flesh on his blade. Without stopping with the enemy soldier now leaving his lower regions open to attack, Astor quickly shifted his center of mass into a wider stance to counter the still progressing body of the enemy soldier. Swiftly moving to the left and retreating as not to get tackled by the approaching body, Astor continued to pull his sword through across the mans hands and into a low wide slash. Astor felt his sword pierce through hard leather momentarily before feeling his blow slice across the soldier soft belly. The soldier screamed in agony and crouched down, attempting to hold his abdomen with what was left of his appendages. Astor felt that the blow was not immediately fatal, but it would kill soon enough. Turning his attention to any other opponent, he spotted two enemy soldier charging at him. Astor charged towards the two, knowing that his strategy of backing up and utilizing the delicate spacing that he had calculated for the first initial clash would not be possible since he had not the time to look behind him. Covering some ground in front, just as they were a few paces ahead, he slowed down and took two powerful steps to a full stop. The two soldiers hesitated while continuing their charge towards Astor. There were a few seconds of delay between the two to whom would swing at him first and Astor seized the opportunity by lightly lunging at one of the closer soldiers before retreating. His blow was deflected easily, but he knew that as soon as he attacked one, the other would try to retaliate instantly. Astor backed up and step out of the range of the defending soldier into the attacking one. He was able to isolate the initial fight into a one vs. one. The attacking soldier was bulkier of the two and threw a series of wild swings towards Astor with his hatchet. Astor dodged backward with the newly gained space from his own charge, occasionally using his sword's longer range to keep the big man at a distance by nipping at his hands and drawing blood. Both advancing soldier soon stopped as Astor noticed two of his allies charging out from of the blur of movements around them. Retreating away to a safe distance, Astor breathed out a sigh of relief and allowed his body brief respites of air before returning his focus to the now two vs. two. Astor found that any further involvement to the skirmish would only serve to hinder his allies since the two enemy soldier were now being pushed back. Looking around at his current surroundings, he noticed that everyone was already too preoccupied with their own deadly encounters to pay him any heed. Astor scanned the battlefield and spotted three of the cavalry knight deeper in the enemy's defense, fending off a squad of the enemy infantrymen. Astor dashed past three or four other engagements to assist the horseless knights. While he was approaching, one of the knights had successfully pierced the leg of a careless enemy soldier with his spear. Astor appeared behind the wounded soldier, slashing the head of the soldier. Sinking his sword deep into the hardened outer layer of the skull before feeling the skull crush from the impact, Astor heaved the broken body downwards making the slash travel more fluidly through the brain and allowing him to retract his blade quicker. The display struck fear and hesitation into the remaining enemy infantrymen, and Astor, with the three knight were able to fend them off long enough for the surrounding allies to assist. As he tore away a polearm from a frightened soldier, Astor allowed an ally to finish off the enclosed surviving soldier. Before he had noticed, he was surrounded by his fellow compatriots. It seems that they were successful in pushing through the enemy's defense. With his breathing heavy, Astor began to trot back to the front lines. His vision blurred and his muscles ached, but as he approached the front of the enemy line, he felt blood rush back into his head. Taking advantage of his second wind, he rushed to greet an archer readying his bow. Astor was caught off-guard by the bowman after he dropped his bow to duck under Astor's slash before lunging at his neck with a stiletto. Astor dropped his sword to allow his body to contort away from the thrust freely and pulled out his own dagger. The archer tried pressuring him with a series of lunges and sidesteps but Astor gracefully matched his speed, asserting his ability to counter any reckless attempts at his life. Astor was at a significant disadvantage with his dagger skills clearly inferior to the bowman's but all he had to do was buy time. The sleek bowman was soon forced to retreat from his bout with Astor due to the approaching enemy reinforcements. Astor quickly scanned the grassy floor for his weapon. Seeing a familiar sparkle from gem among the chaotic shadows, Astor picked up his now muddy sword off from the ground. While bending over, he was then bumped by a passing soldier and lost his footing on the loose mud. Thrown face first into the mud while still panting furiously from the previous encounter, Astor stopped himself from swallowing a mouthful of muck. Lifting his face in need of air, he inhaled the stench of heavy, stomach-curling soil. Wiping as much off as possible, Astor hazily checked the area to see if any enemy decided to take this opportunity to strike. Seeing only his allies, he quickly picked himself up while attempting to shake the mud off. Dying with your face in the mud couldn't have a more of a literal meaning, Astor thought to himself. Astor pressed on with the rest of his company. The army seemed to have successfully pressed through towards the city Mainport, and it was only a matter of time before they would subdue Faldrick's army.The capital city is across the sea of Mainport, which rested on a peninsula. The reason for invading this city was to take control the sea around the capital, cutting off the steady stream of supplies from the capital city to surrounding strongholds. The attack on the capital had probably already started. Capturing this key city will force the empire to surrender as continuing will quickly become a waste of more lives. As he approached the city borders. There a group of Faldrick soldiers was pushing through the line of Mayland forces. Astor cursed silently, they were the elites of the Faldrick army known as the Celestial Array and would probably be the last line of defense standing between them and victory. With eleven Celestial members and a few dozen knights, they were holding a crucial choke point where the land pinches into a narrow bridge before reaching the city. Arriving at the scene, Astor noticed the members of the Celestial Array being encroached on by multiple directions, but no one from the Mayland side was willing to engage them. Any stragglers unwilling to face the elites were quickly dealt with by the dozen or so Faldrick knights. The Celestial Arrays bore armor with ancient runes that provided enchantments to physical attributes. Such magic requires years of meditation to master not mentioning the rare magical ores necessary to inscribe the ancient runes. Ughhh…cowards…, Astor sighed. Astor stepped forward into the empty semi-circle created by the tension of one of the Celestial Array member. Turning towards him, Astor saw the face of the seasoned veteran. The gray-haired man had wrinkles that seem define the vicious features on his face. With eyes that glowed with blue eeriness, Astor could feel his heartbeat race before it eased down to a nimble beat. The world seemed to slow down as they two confronted one another. Silent exchanges of respect were given through their eye contact while the two stared at each other. Slowly, Astor took a natural stance towards the old man and to him the same but with more lax. Inching towards the old man, Astor initiated the first attack.