Onyx staggered, his mind growing tired, but his body even worst.
Yet he continued slashing farther and farther back into the frontlines of the entire enemy armor.
His men needed to fall back, but even more so... He needed to fall back.
As good as dragonscale armor was, it was started to grow thin in places Onyx did not want it to grow thin...
He grit his teeth.
Somewhere far above the mountain they were only at the base of climbing, his frie- No... His family were fighting to mark themselves into history, and secure the throne for the future king...
Onyx grimaced, but didn't stop.
Ahead of him, one of the generals swung down his sword, killing one of Onyx's men in a heartbeat.
Pushing through the soldiers, ignoring the hits that continued to engrave themselves into Onyx's armor, he pushed forward nonetheless.
This was a story of grit, pain, and climbing.
And Onyx had no reason to surrender just yet.
He walked forward, and at some point, the hits stopped coming.
For some reason, the soldiers had backed away from him.
The general looked straight at him with a scowl.
"You are the leader of this rebellion against King Rider I take it?"
Onyx stopped and stared back into the eyes of the pathetic excuse for a general.
"I am..."
The man chuckled bitterly and picked his sword up.
"My name is-"
"I don't care..."
Onyx cut him off.
Lifting his blade's tip, and pointing it at the general, Onyx grinned behind the mask.
"Long live Leander..."
The man stopped and wore a deadpanned expression.
"You do realize that if somehow you took the academy... You would need to take Rider's kingdom... Right?"
The enemy almost had a look of concern on his face.
Onyx chuckled bitterly.
"I know... But did that stop Orion from leading his fateful last charge against The House of Aries?"
The man smiled and closed his eyes, as if he was giving Onyx a look of approval.
"An honorable response... I do not disagree with you, and I pity the men and women who were caught in the corrupted king's conquest... But It is not up to us generals to have a say in this... You know what happened to Rayan of House Mayhem I take it?"
Onyx only nodded.
"Then I pray that you can defeat me and my army spanning ten times the size of yours, and I pray that you are able to grow strong enough to take the kingdom of Equus... Or else my the gods grant us poor souls mercy..."
The man pointed his sword back at Onyx, exchanging the honorable duel request with approval.
"May the best man win..."
Onyx set with a deep exhale.
"Indeed..."
The man in golden armor responded, before the both of them immediately dashed towards each other at frightening speeds.
The ground shook from the force of their lunges, but when the blades met, the entire mountain shook from the force.
Onyx was no paladin, and neither was the force of nature he had pitted himself up against.
But he would have been a fool to say that he hadn't grown unbelievably strong in recent months.
Maybe it was those days black out drunk in a tavern, that finally made him realize that he needed to find a bigger purpose.
He remembered dueling against Chase for fun before they left for the mission within The Frozen Forest.
Onyx had thought himself a fool for not expecting a healer as skilled as Summer to be joining them on the journey.
It had been a fool's mistake after all to let his first love be killed in such a pathetic way...
If he had been a few moments early...
If he had been honest with both her and himself, they could have lived happily ever after, had a family, or maybe even attained great things together.
But now, Onyx was alone...
Or at least that was what he tried to convince himself, burdened by the curse of survivor's guilt.
He dashed aside, avoiding the powerful attack of the gilded general, he swung upwards, only meeting the blade of the man with his own.
They held the clash for so long that Onyx's bones began to grow numb, as if his entire body was falling asleep from such motionless movement.
He growled behind his mask, and pushed forward, infusing his entire body with all of the primis left within his core.
"I- Will not give up..."
He whispered, pushing back the blade of the gilded warrior with golden blonde hair and dark brown eyes.
Once he got to the point where the man's sword was held in front of his own face, Onyx let go, dashing underneath the blade of the man, and coming out on the side of him, and delivering thrust of his sword in a backward motion.
The sword broke straight through the man's golden armor, piercing his heart in moments.
"You fought honorably... May I ask your name..."
"Gre-"
He spit out blood as his body collapsed.
"Gregor, The Imperial..."
Hid body fell to the ground, as the light began to fade from his eyes.
Onyx spoke in a monotone voice, hiding the sadness in his heart.
"I, Onyx, of House Dragon, will free the two kingdoms from the fury of the King of Corruption..."
The man smiled, as his life was extinguished in those following seconds.
Onyx knew that this battle was nothing like the battle of Frostfang, winning such a mighty duel would not win the war...
His army had lost half of its count, and Onyx couldn't even try to count the amount of heads surrounding him, still full of life as their leader was slain on the spot.
Onyx tightened his grip on the sword, looking onward with distain in is tired eyes.
Ripping the helmet off of his head with his left hand, he felt sweat and blood spill from his face.
Lifting his blade in the air, he felt the sight of the ancestors gaze upon him.
Surrounded by enemies, he would have to somehow fight this one on his own.
He didn't trust mere adventurers to stand on par with real soldiers, but he was grateful that they had fought beside him.
Onyx smiled softly, as crowds of soldiers began to move toward him.
He closed his eyes, lowering his blade and preparing to go out in a blaze of glory.
A loud squawk echoed through the entire town, as Onyx looked up with confusion, as did every other soldier surrounding him.
Two griffins descended from the skies, flapping their withered wings with the pride of a lion.
Onyx smiled as tears began to wash his face.
Two soldiers of mighty renown had joined the fray, as the griffins crashed into the ground at Onyx's side.
Zelenna leaped from the back of her griffin, and the one they called The Faceless Man slowly landed on the ground with a thud.
Each armed with weapons and expressions of mighty valor.
"I didn't think you would come..."
Onyx said unable to hold back his toothy grin.
"Sorry it took us so long, it isn't easy to convince an entire kingdom to alliance with a band of students and teachers..."
Onyx tilted his head.
"Alliance?"
Then roars echoed through the city gates as countless soldiers ran through the city in a perfected formations.
Among them, Onyx spotted two hard to miss soldiers...
The generals of The City of Factions...
"Natalie Of House Terricka and Veximus of The House of Valor have come to our aid..."