At the foot of the hill, 20 thousand soldiers stood. They were of common birth, while their leaders were high ranking nobility supported by the clergy. They sharpened their swords and pranced their spears as they began to march.
"Men!" A voice cried out, on his horse was their general, he was old but skilled, frail but strong. His raspy voice echoed among the ranks of knights, spearmen, and bowmen who were following him into battle.
"Today shall be the day!"
The first column crested the hill and came before them the sight of the enemy. The might thin walls and the menacing towers which seemingly stared at them, looking down upon them. The wall was long and stretched as far as the eye could see, upon those walls were a small number of metal men. These metal men were short in numbers.
But they did not underestimate the enemy, they remembered that these metal men can take out ten normal men alone, what more could a thousand of them do to them? They had the blessings of the gods, that was their unnerving factor. Leading them was a strong and seasoned general, who, along with the mages that paved their path through the forest, made them feel at ease.
At last, a small scrimmage of light from the sun escaped through a rare hole in the black smoke that covered the sky. It shined upon the general who was on horseback. He was seen by all his men for he was up on the hill. He gazed upon his army and drew out his sword, holding it high.
"Today!" He shouted.
"We shall redeem our brothers!" The knights drew their swords.
"We shall avenge the women and children!" The spearmen lowered their spears.
"We, in the name of the Goddess and the Pope!" The archers pulled their bows.
"Hereby condemn!" The mages cast their spells.
"These demons to hell!" And the drums of war sounded.
The horns echoed and the drums rolled. As the wyverns soared above the smoked sky did the army charge forth. The general, whose birth name was Valdir, charged with his ten guards and led the assault.
It was a beautiful display of courage and will, the determination in their eyes and the utmost confidence they possessed. The goddess was watching from a distance, smiling and clapping her hands, this was her redemption, her triumph! The beginning of her path to glory among heaven.
They charged down the hill, the horses speeding forth. The knights and spearmen were charging in tight columns as the archers positioned themselves over the hill.
"Fire!" Their commanders shouted.
They released and then came out their arrows. In-front of the archers were several mages who positioned themselves in front of them. They wielded their staffs up high and cast a small circle of magic over their heads.
The arrows would pass through the circles and they would be enhanced, from measly iron-tipped arrows they would become magic arrows with power to penetrate the very skin of the wyverns. These arrows shined blue in accordance with the Goddess who lent them most of their extra power, and these arrows appeared as missiles in the sky.
The blue trails of arrows soared above, illuminating the shrouded battlefield, but to their surprise, the arrows failed to reach the walls.
A transparent dome suddenly made itself known and covered the entirety of the wall and separated even the smoke which covered the sky. This was unprecedented magic that required the skills of a powerful mage, or quite possibly, an archmage!
But this wasn't magic they were seeing, what they were seeing was the manifestation of an energy barrier, though weak, could repel weak magical spells and weapons. A reason for this weakness was due to the fact that the main core that generated this dome was located at exactly the Main Hub of the Machine Empire where the wormhole was based. It covered a vast area, the entirety of their territory.
The vast area meant that the dome was stretched and so its defensive qualities were significantly reduced, nonetheless the barrier proved to be a strong hurdle.
The arrows bounced off the barrier, making little splashes before either breaking apart or outright just fall to the ground.
There was no visible resistance, the barrier was the only problem they had. The menacing towers that towered over the thin walls were not doing anything, there was no hostile fire. The metal men on the walls suddenly disappeared, as if they all abandoned hope and retreated.
Seeing this, Valdir shouted in rejoice.
"The enemy has retreated! Attack! Attack!"
The orders were spread among the commanders and the commanders told their troops. The mages began pounding the barrier with spell after spell as the soldiers tried desperately to hack and slash their way in. But it proved futile.
Minutes passed, the tension faded and the army began to settle. The wyverns were nowhere to be seen as they disappeared amid the smoke. The mages continued to batter the barrier with their most powerful spells and it seemed to be working, one mage hurled a large boulder at the barrier and a few pieces of the boulder managed to slide through.
More minutes passed and finally, the barrier disappeared. The mages were the first ones to take the charge, they dashed to the walls and confidently jumped over it. The soldiers behind them watched as they disappeared behind the thin walls.
The general did not want his army to be left behind in the spoils, they had to secure a foothold for the millions of other men who would march in with them, for the crusade! He thought. His army once again marched in columns, knights, spearmen, and bowmen with the general leading the way.
And then, an eerie silence. Tension began to build up as chills went down their spines, all of them. Even the battle-hardened veterans felt the fear crawl. And that fear made itself known.
One soldier looked up the dark clouds and saw something pierce through the sky, and then another, and then another.
These were the wyvern riders, or what was left of them. And then the surviving wyverns descended from the clouds and the fight that was taking place beyond their sights finally came to them. The wyvern riders against metal beasts which flew at speeds incomprehensible in their eyes. They watched as their riders were massacred one by one.
Suddenly, an explosion pierces a section of the thin wall in front of them and the screaming body of a mage emerged from the smoke.
She screamed in pain, her wails echoing through the plains as blood drooped from her forehead. Her robes torn and left eye blinded. Behind her, from the smoke, came the metal men. They wielded their metal weapons and strange staffs, they slowly walked behind the mage.
As she wailed and cried for help, one of the metal men raised its weapon and beheaded her.
The soldiers who witnessed this were struck with fear and a loss of hope, the mages they looked up to pave their path to glory were reduced to mere humans screaming for their help and beheaded in front of them. The general also witnessed this, he felt the fear and the loss for hope but he persevered.
"Charge! Kill them all!" He screamed! And his commanders screamed with him. They once again drew out their swords and they went in.
The metal men also charged towards them, they wielded these strange swords which glowed and had an odd shape and rods of steel which breathed out fireballs, it was a massacre before they even clashed.
There were only a handful of metal men but they had the strength of a thousand normal men. The general was the first to clash swords with the metal men. The sheer power from the metal man's swing was enough to push him from his horse and he fell down.
He hit the soil below him hard but the adrenaline surging within him ignored the pain and he quickly rose to his feet and picked up his sword. The metal man seemed to be waiting for him as it merely stood and stared with its two glowing eyes. As his men battled around him, more wyverns began to fall and the sky was lit up in a spectacle of explosions which resembled fireworks. The thunderous roars of each wyvern and metal beast filled their ears.
The general saw this but he focused on the opponent in front of him.
"Die demon!" He shouted and then he charged. He ran towards his metal foe and once more their swords met, this time he did not fall for he finally used his swordsmanship skill, "Greater Wield"
The skill gives him more power and control over his weapon. Normally, his sword upon the first contact with the metal man's glowing variant should have been incinerated due to the fact that the metal men wielded a mere handle which upon activation would manifest a rod of concentrated plasma.
His sword, however, was able to counteract the heat because of its magical properties. The battle around them raged on as their fight did as well.
Valdir swung his sword from his head and aimed to decapitate the metal man but the metal man was as fast as any skilled fighter and blocked his attack. They continued their duel as many of the general's men fell, the army of 20 thousand was being massacred. The metal men were literally throwing themselves in the middle of thousands, yet they would massacre hundreds in just a minute.
The magic arrows barely scratched them as they continued to mow down their ranks. And then it happened, an explosion in the sky so powerful it drove the clouds of smoke away. The sun brimmed so bright as the clouds were pushed in a circular fashion.
The battle in the clouds was finally over and their wyverns were all dead.
Valdir was exhausted, bruised and his sight began to blur. He could no longer maintain his skill, his magic badly diminished after twenty minutes of fighting against a metal man.
"You did good," A voice rang out from the shadows behind the jagged rubble.
And then he appeared, smiling directly at him.