"Of the many nations in Alcidea, most relevant ones are large, powerful nations like Posuin, Clangeddin, as well as the Elven and Dwarven nations. Most other smaller nations that existed, survived this long by being a tough, thorny bone to chew.

The larger nations considered the benefits of annexing these nations to be less than the losses they would have suffered in the process, and this in turn led to a tentative peace between nations." - Excerpt from "History of the Nations of Alcidea" by Owain Fiachna, Scholar and Historian, circa 565 VA.

It was near the evening before Reinhardt's group was committed to the fight. The third line suffered a breach, probably done by the enemy earth mage that had escaped Salicia's grasp that last time, and the zealots poured in through the breach in the wall.

While they overwhelmed the nearby dwarves, they in turn were unprepared for the rush from Reinhardt's group, led by the remaining shieldbearers amongst his people. Center to their charge were the remaining eight shieldsmen from Mischka's group, led by Yuri and Niko, each of whom wielded a shield taller and wider than a man.

Behind them followed the rest of the group, a motley mixture of men and women from most races, as well as mixed-breeds. As mercenaries, they fought with less order and discipline than the dwarven regulars, but made up for it with ferocity and fierceness.

Even as their frontline formed a shield wall and did their best to stopper the breach, The rest of the group fanned out and struck at the zealots who had made it through already. Mischka led part of the group to the left, while Reinhardt had Grünhildr lead the rest to the right.

He himself followed behind her wake with the rest of the group. While Elfriede was a better fighter, Grünhildr's void affinity made her the best in the company when it came to leading their troops for a daring breakthrough. The rest of the group simply had to follow her and guard her back.

As he followed behind Grünhildr's left, Reinhardt saw a dying zealot who was missing an arm and part of her abdomen trying to grab a fallen spear near her. He put an end to that notion with a blow from his polemace, which splattered the woman's brains all over the soil.

To his left he saw Nicole as she deflected another zealot's makeshift spear - it was literally a long staff with a kitchen knife tied on its end - with her rhomphaia and disemboweled the man on her counterswing.

The young mercenary stepped back a bit to avoid the intestines and guts that splashed to the ground just in front of her, and soon was busied with another zealot who ignored his dying comrade and went at her with reckless abandon.

Further to her left, Reinhardt could see his old friend Kasimir at the edge of the shield wall. The half-orc mercenary tried his best to fight against the push of the throng of zealots in front while covering the pikeman behind him who struck from behind the shield wall.

Reinhardt dealt quickly with another zealot that escaped Grünhildr's rampage by virtue of being on the side, far enough away from her axes. He deflected the man's war scythe - a scythe blade mounted vertically at the end of a pole - far enough away that he only managed a slight cut on his body, a painful cut, but of little consequence at the moment.

In return he jabbed the spike that capped the other end of his polemace deep into the man's gut, and whirled the weapon around to bring the mace end atop the man's skull as he bent forward.

The blow took off the top half of the man's skull, and pulverized his brain, killing the man on the spot. His body slumped forward, and Reinhardt took the moment of respite to survey the situation to his left.

He frowned when he saw that the tip of the shield wall where Kasimir was had crumbled, and as a result more of the zealots had poured in from the gap, as they threatened to flank the shield wall. Of his old friend, he found no sign.

Reinhardt blew a whistle to quickly get Elfriede's attention. The whistle was made so the sound it emitted was inaudible to a human, though perfectly audible for some therians. Elfriede had memorized the specific vibrations that whistle made though, which made it a convenient way for him to get her attention from afar.

After he blew the whistle, he made several gestures with his right hand, trusting that Elfriede paid attention to him and noticed them. She usually kept him within the range of her magical perception unless she had a specific mission elsewhere.

When he noticed that half the mercenaries to Grünhildr's right turned and went over to his side, including Elfriede herself, he knew that she perceived his gestures.

"Left the rest on the right, answering to Grün," said Elfriede as she ran up alongside him, a couple new tears on her repaired gambeson, but no wounds on her body. "Where do you need us?"

"The corner of the shield wall's crumbling. We're reinforcing them," replied Reinhardt curtly as he led the mercenaries towards the affected location.

The zealots that tried to flank the shield wall found themselves flanked instead, and pincered as they were between the shield wall's anvil and Reinhardt's hammer, they were quickly decimated

Reinhardt and his people fought fiercely as they held the breach, and only withdrew when reinforcements from the fourth wall - a group of dwarven heavy infantry led by Barnaby himself, all of them sporting injuries of some sort - came to relieve them.

It was while they retreated that Reinhardt finally found his old friend. Kasimir's body lay face down on the soil, and when Reinhardt turned his old friend's body, he saw that Kasimir fell to many stab wounds that riddled his torso, neck, and face. Several broken spearheads were even stuck in his body.

All Reinhardt could do for his old friend was to close his eyes, and bring his body away from the blood-soaked patch of soil he died on.