The Battle at Arkater Castle

  Arkater Castle stood massive and firm atop the northern hills. The banners of the great houses danced in the wind. The sounds of horses neighing and warriors shouting split the air.

  Two armies of 9,000 men each were arrayed against each other:

  ? The Valengard Riders, led by Nicholas Valengard, who had come to crush their old enemy.

  ? The Finroth Riders, ready to fight for the blood of their house.

  The battlefield trembled with the hoofprints of horses and the heavy steps of heavily armored soldiers.

  Nicholas Valengard, in the heart of the battlefield, drew his sword from its scabbard.

  "This is our war! The House of Finroth will be destroyed!"

  "Victory or death!"

  With this cry, his soldiers also drew their swords and their riders charged forward.

  The First Attack – Finroth Riders vs. Valengard

  The two armies clashed like a storm.

  The sound of shields breaking and blades clashing shook the ground. Lancer riders mercilessly tore each other apart.

  A Finroth rider plunged his spear into the heart of a Valengard knight, pulling his body from the saddle.

  At the same moment, a Valengard knight struck off the head of a Finroth warrior with his long sword, blood splattering on his armor.

  No one retreated.

  The ground was covered with blood and corpses, but the battle continued.

  The Entry of House Shadowgard – A Thousand Archers in Ambush

  As the battle between Valengard and Finroth reached its peak, suddenly a thousand archers from House Shadowgard, who had been neutral until then, entered the field.

  ? A rain of arrows fell upon the Finroths from the hills.

  The Finroth riders raised their shields, but many of them fell under the rain of arrows.

  An arrow struck a Finroth commander directly in the neck. He cried out and fell from his horse.

  Another tried to raise his shield, but two arrows pierced his body from both sides, and he fell lifeless to the ground.

  But the Finroths did not surrender.

  Eisencruger – A Surprising Counterattack

  Just when everyone thought Finroth was about to fall, suddenly an army of Eisencruger cavalry attacked from behind the hills!

  ? Two thousand heavily armored riders, like a flood of steel, charged the Shadowgard archers from behind.

  The battle descended into chaos.

  The Eisencruger riders crushed the archers with their heavy swords.

  An Eisencruger knight, with savage power, pulled a Shadowgard rider off his horse and severed his head with an axe blow.

  A Shadowgard warrior, in a desperate moment, plunged his sword into the stomach of an Eisencruger rider, but moments later, the blow of an iron mace crushed his skull.

  The Battlefield in Fire and Blood

  Valengard fought Finroth.

  Shadowgard resisted Eisencruger.

  The roar of war drums and trumpets echoed in the sky.

  No one knew how this battle would end... but only one house would emerge victorious.

  Nicholas Valengard's Retreat – The Shadow of a Greater War

  In the midst of the storm of war, as blood and dust swirled in the air, Nicholas Valengard slammed his bloodied sword into the ground and took a deep breath. The battle at Arkater Castle had reached its peak, but now a breathless commander had reached him.

  "My lord! This war only weakens our alliance. Give the order to retreat!"

  Nicholas, with sweat and blood dripping from his armor, fixed his angry eyes on the commander.

  "What happened? Why should we retreat?"

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  The commander said, his voice barely audible amidst the din of battle:

  "The House of Turgan, with 13,000 soldiers, will attack the House of Valdrin. This is King Armin's order. He has summoned you!"

  Nicholas was silent for a moment. His eyes darkened.

  "Tad Turgan... what is he doing? This is a mistake! This war will bring nothing but disaster!"

  But he knew that if he ignored the king's order, he would be accused of treason.

  Retreat from the Bloody Field

  Nicholas turned to his army's trumpeter and said with a cry that echoed through the battle:

  "Retreat! Pull back the forces!"

  The loud trumpet of retreat sounded on the battlefield.

  The Valengard riders, still fighting in the blood and dust, quickly began to retreat.

  Some soldiers were still engaged, but when they heard the command, they tried to fight their way back.

  The Finroth riders, believing they had won, pursued the retreating forces with cries of joy, but the Valengard knights quickly created defensive lines.

  Nicholas, riding his horse, looked at the battlefield. 5,000 of his men had died in this war. Their bodies, along with the Finroth dead, covered the ground.

  But he had no choice. A greater war was coming...

  Movement Towards a New Battle – The Shadow of House Turgan

  When the Valengard forces reached the camp, Nicholas dismounted and stared at the map spread out on the table.

  "House Turgan... 13,000 soldiers... and Armin has summoned me."

  He knew that if this war started, much blood would be shed. But could he stop it? Or would he be forced to fight as well?

  A Storm Was Coming...

  Nicholas slammed his helmet on the table and said:

  "Then we must move... the war has just begun."

  War Council at the King's Camp – Nicholas Valengard's Fateful Decision

  The sound of Nicholas Valengard's boots echoed on the stone floor of the command tent. The torchlight fell on his tired and angry face. He entered with firm and steady steps and scanned the commanders sitting around the war table.

  Runehard, the king's chief commander, placed his hand on the map spread out on the table and turned to Nicholas:

  "You've finally arrived, Duke Nicholas. Now tell me, what do you think?"

  Nicholas fixed his sharp eyes on the map. Battle lines, troop positions, and key areas of the continent were marked on it. He placed his hand on the Grimwood area and murmured under his breath:

  "So you want to attack from here?"

  One of the commanders, Varnick, replied excitedly:

  "Yes, my lord. As the king has ordered, we can bypass the Valdrin route through Grimwood Forest and launch a surprise attack. This will allow our forces to reach them ahead of schedule, just when they least expect it."

  "How many soldiers do we have?" Nicholas asked in his heavy voice.

  Varnick smiled and said:

  "13,000 on our side, 15,000 on the Valdrin side. But they are preparing for war, we can defeat them with a surprise attack before their allies arrive!"

  Nicholas narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. He remembered all the wars he had seen in his life. This plan smelled more of disaster and bloodshed than victory.

  "No. This is suicide."

  A heavy silence enveloped the room. All the commanders looked at each other. Wolfgar, one of the veteran commanders, stepped forward.

  "But my lord, if the Valengard riders join us, our force will reach 16,000 men. Then we can bring Valdrin to its knees."

  Nicholas, still panting from the fatigue of the previous battle, looked at Wolfgar. Then he placed his hands on the table and leaned forward slightly.

  "I will not involve my soldiers in this foolishness."

  Wolfgar frowned. Varnick protested:

  "But this is the king's order!"

  Nicholas said firmly:

  "I promised Queen Selena and her son that I would protect the alliance. This alliance is the only thing that keeps us safe from our real enemies. We are already engaged with the Finroths, and the Eisencrugers and Shadowgard are almost destroyed. There is no hope of support for this war. If we do this, we will only bring ourselves to ruin!"

  Runehard took a deep breath and said:

  "But if we retreat, the Valdrins will become more powerful than ever."

  "And if we attack, it will only start another pointless war that will result in nothing but the weakness and exhaustion of our army!" Nicholas interrupted him.

  All the commanders fell silent. Nicholas didn't wait for an answer.

  "I will not participate in this madness."

  Without looking at the commanders again, he left the tent. In the cold night wind, he took a deep breath. He knew that with this decision, he had put himself against some of the commanders and even the king.

  But he was not willing to sacrifice his soldiers for a foolish battle.

  End of Act One - The fire of war still burns...

  The Shadow of Hunger over Nexarium – The Gradual Fall of an Empire

  The magnificent capital of Nexarium, a jewel in the heart of the continent of Arcatra, was now nothing but a ghost town. The marble streets, once filled with merchants, nobles, and knights, were now filled with the bodies of the starving, people suffering from disease, and children crying in the corners for a piece of bread.

  Since King Armin led the country to war, the situation had changed rapidly. The great houses, which once supplied Nexarium with gold, food, and rare spices, had stopped their trade. Trade caravan routes were closed, and food storage warehouses were emptying day by day.

  A rebellion was forming.

  The People in Front of the Palace – Cries That Are Not Heard

  In front of the massive Arkaterin Palace, thousands of people had gathered. The sound of the people's cries filled the square:

  "We are hungry!"

  "The king has abandoned us!"

  "Our children are dying!"

  Eyes were fixed on the tall towers of the royal palace, where King Armin lived in complete safety within the thick walls.

  But he didn't even bother to look at the crowd.

  Inside the palace, in a golden and magnificent room, Armin sat on his throne. In front of him, the commander of the royal guard, Lord Gildern, knelt.

  "Your Majesty, the people are rebelling. They want to see you."

  Armin, dressed in beautiful royal clothes and holding a goblet of wine, shrugged indifferently.

  "Let them shout. Do I care?"

  Lord Gildern took a deep breath.

  "But my lord, if this continues, the people will attack the palace!"

  Armin, with a bitter smile, poured his goblet of wine on the ground and said:

  "And what do you think the walls of this palace were built for? If they want to die, let them die. This war must continue."

  Lord Gildern felt like he was standing in front of a mad king.

  In the Dark Streets of Nexarium – The Spark of a Revolution

  In the narrow alleys of Nexarium, where even the royal soldiers dared not enter, a man stood in tattered clothes but with fiery eyes. His name was Leonart Finroth, one of the sons of the Finroth family, who now lived among the people.

  He shouted among the crowd:

  "We should not die in silence anymore! The king has forgotten us, but we are still alive! If he doesn't care about us, then we must take this kingdom back from him ourselves!"

  The crowd, driven to despair by hunger and humiliation, joined him with cries full of anger.

  The flames of revolution flared in the shadows of the night...

  To be continued...