Talaka arrived to a scene of utter devastation. The reinforcements had arrived, and his once-ferocious warriors were now a pile of broken bodies, their spirit extinguished. Talaka's sanity snapped. The pain, the sorrow, and the betrayal boiled over. He drew his sword, its edge gleaming in the moonlight, and let out a roar that echoed across the battlefield.
"Rise, my brothers!" he bellowed, his voice carrying an unearthly power. "Look at them! They took our land, our home, our king! They made a mockery of our people and took everything we hold dear! Look at your hands. Are they not the hands of a warrior? Rise and fight! For our wives, for our children, for our ancestors! Let our blood be the rain that washes their arrogance from our land! Let them feel the true wrath of Jabali!"
The surviving warriors, beaten and broken, found a new strength in his words. They rose, their eyes blazing with a rekindled fire, ready to follow their leader into a suicide battle.
Talaka's eyes, filled with a primal fury, met Sir Sedric's. He dashed towards the Eldorian knight, his hands battered and his body exhausted, but he was a force of pure will. Sir Sedric, who had never known fear, felt a tremor run through him for the first time in his life. He saw not a man, but a vengeful god. Sedric tried to sound confident. "I will kill you, and with you, this resistance dies!"
Talaka only replied with one word. "How."
Sedric, taken aback, began to show off his strength. He moved with a speed and power that should have been impossible. "Have you ever experienced this magnitude of strength, Lord Shadow?" he boasted.
Talaka, watching his every move, let out a short, hollow laugh. "Is this what you call strength? Let me correct your arrogance. This is the true meaning of strength!"
With a roar that tore through the night, he released an attack that burned up all the Aetheria he had left. The energy coursed through him, a searing agony, as he unleashed a single, devastating blow. The attack sliced through the air and severed Sir Sedric's right arm in one clean cut. As he vomited due to the Aetheric Backlash, a phenomenon where the body drains all its energy at once, he looked back and saw his two trusted men and the children they were protecting disappear into the desert. He was satisfied.
With his last remaining ounce of energy, he commanded those who had families to run, since this was the end of the line. Talaka picked up his sword and now fought with pure skill and stamina. He was the very definition of a man, a hero, who had transcended his physical limits through selfless responsibility. No one dared to speak of the fear they felt from a single man. He was the very reincarnation of strength.
Sir Sedric, bandaged and reeling from the shock, could not believe his arrogance. He had tried to steal the land of this man. He took a knee and begged for his life.
Talaka, his body broken and his mind clear, said, "Don't let fear stop you from fighting me. Stand up."
Sir Sedric and a few others from the Eldorian and Martial continents learned more in that single moment than they had in a lifetime of war. They fought against Talaka, a final, grueling battle that lasted for three days. Talaka, on his last breath, praised Sir Sedric on his improvement, even with one hand. As Sir Sedric drove his sword into Talaka's heart, the Eldorian knight said, "Thank you, Talaka, for opening my eyes."
Talaka's comrades were all dead, but Sir Sedric felt honored to have fought him. As the battle came to an end, the Eldorians had won, but at what cost? Sir Sedric looked at the land filled with blood and fire and felt a deep, profound anger with himself. He whispered a promise to the fallen hero, "If I ever meet your descendants, I will take care of them." And in the silent aftermath of a massacre, a lone knight kneeled, a broken hero, and felt the immense weight of the victory they had paid for with their souls.