"When I was young and naive, I was foolish enough to think myself a good warrior just because I won most of my spars, against my friends and fellow knights my age. My parents had said I had the talent, a gift for the sword.

All that false confidence and naivete were shattered when I had unknowingly stepped into a life and death battle the first time. I faced Eugenia Stahlfaust, aunt to the dwarven King, a renowned warrior nicknamed the Hammer of the East, and she had crushed me so quickly I realized that all my skills amounted to little before the true veterans.

Then they were shattered yet again barely a week later, when my convoy was attacked on the way home. I got to witness Miss Aideen in a fight that day, and it was a sight I would never forget until the day I die." - Confession from Solenia Utghwes, Knight-Captain of the Duchy of Dvergarder, to her juniors, circa 242 VA.

Solenia had charged into battle despite it being a forlorn hope. She realized full well that the situation was untenable, that even if she managed to help the knights hold off the bandits from this entrance, there was nobody left to hold the third should it breach as well. She would rather die fighting than be captured alive either way.

The girl, along with the rest of the maids, reached the lines shortly after one of the older knights collapsed when a mace struck hard and dented his helmet. One of the older maids had died during that time, falling to the same mace-wielding bandit that had taken out the knight.

Solenia charged that very bandit and swung her two-handed greatsword, its meter-long wavy blade striking at the bandit. The man managed to block the blow, though the blade scored a visible chip on the shaft of his mace.

He struck back as she withdrew her blade, and she weaved away from the blow as she countered with another strike from the side. The bandit caught the blow with his shield, and struck again with his mace.

Solenia took the blow to the left shoulder. It was painful, and would definitely leave a nasty bruise, but it was also nothing that would stop her from fighting. This time she had not pulled her sword back completely, and her grip shifted as her gauntleted left hand gripped the sword by the lower end of the blade.

The surprised bandit failed to react in time when Solenia used her sword like a short spear and skewered him through the gut, pulled the blade out, then skewered him a few more times for good measure. She then kicked the dying man in the chest and took her place besides her knights even as the dead body toppled backwards.

Stolen story; please report.

She caught the next bandit's machete on the blade of her sword. Inwardly a part of her yelled at what she did, something which would have gotten her scolded by her teachers as an example of what not to do, as it'd just damage her sword's blade unnecessarily.

Solenia couldn't care less. She had no room to fall back. She had to stand her ground, lest the line break again. With a heave, she pushed the bandit's machete away, hard enough to topple the man's balance for a moment.

Then Solenia shifted her grip once more. Her left hand was still on the blade, and she shifted her right hand to grasp the blade as well, before she brought it down on the bandit's helmeted head, the sword's cross-shaped handguard being the first to land.

The end of her handguard had solid, sharpened spikes built into them, precisely for a move like this, a technique used to fight armored foes. It had not punched through the helmet, but the impact caused a massive dent to form regardless, and the bandit fell to his knees as his eyes glazed over. He bled from all seven facial orifices before he slumped over dead.

While Solenia acquitted herself well, the battle itself was turning worse for her people. Another of the knights had fallen, unconscious and bleeding from a dozen wounds, as the maids dragged him to the back for safety. One of her own maids also took a horrible injury, as a bandit practically disemboweled her.

A knight saved the maid from death, but without treatment, there was only a painful death for her to look forward to. She would not survive this unless they won and got her treated immediately.

She winced when she saw who it was when she had a moment to risk a glance. The maid was Ines, one of her best friends, and Graciela's youngest daughter. Solenia only hoped the girl would survive long enough to be treated.

Another young knight, her friend Bianca, also had to fall back. A bandit's axe had severed her sword arm near the shoulder, which made the line even more fragile. The rest of Solenia's maids already picked up fallen weapons and fought alongside them, but there were at least forty or so bandits left. Their outlook was bleak.

Solenia heard a startled gasp from behind, but had no leeway to look back as she struggled against another attacker at the moment. A moment later, however, something metallic and black struck her opponent right in the forehead, hard enough to crater the man's skull.

Then she saw Aideen, the young foreigner who had healed her back in Knallgant and had ostensibly accompanied her to make sure her injuries heal properly, jump over her, with a strange three-sectioned weapon in her hand, the other end of which she yanked out from the dead bandit's forehead as she landed.

Right afterwards, Solenia learned what being skilled with a weapon truly meant, as Aideen danced between the blades of the bandits, right in their midst, without a care and her weapon struck left and right almost like a serpent.

It was a mesmerizing sight for the girl, even over the gruesome carnage it embodied. Aideen was ruthless and efficient despite her seemingly flowery movements. Her strikes aimed at fatal or crippling points, and more than once the odd sickle-like blades on her weapon decapitated a hapless bandit.

Solenia never forgot the sight she got to witness that day, of the Silver Maiden in battle.