He stared out a cold midnight window. His body draped in silk robes as his servants handed him wine.
A soldier in a clean cloth shirt carrying a clipboard walked in, he took off his flat marked hat and bowed forward to the man in the silk robes.
"General Magnom Calisto, sir. We are anticipating multiple soon-to-be sieges on Togenshire, by Stofentall. We need immediate-"
Magnom Calisto lifted his stiff and strong hand up to the moody lit room as his servants surrounded him in prayer.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Second Corpral-"
"Second Corpral?! Do you know who I am?"
"You're General Magnom Calisto of the Limstine Army."
Magnom Calisto sat up from his red leathered bench and turned from the window. He stared straight into the lean and tall soldier's eyes. His own eyes a bright blue contrasted by his sharp short spiky blonde hair. He was buff, tall, massive, a figure built with muscle upon muscle. He was a goliath of power.
"I am not a General of the Limstine Army. I am Magnom Calisto! The Killer of the Coul's. The Traveler of Grasshol, who discovered the other side of the world with but a small army and a handful of horses. I am the taker of villages, castles, bunkers, and fortresses. All who face me in battle fear my power. I do not work for the Limstine Army for the Limstine Army works for me!"
"Sir, but this matter is-"
Magnom Calisto stood up from his bench, his robes fell off his body revealing his cut-up and masculine form that flickered in the warm lit air of the dark deep master quarters of the castle.
"Sir..."
"You do not understand who I am! I am the strongest man in all the seven kingdoms. I am the greatest General to ever live. And if you think but a simple army from a feeble kingdom can break into this fort and destroy this castle, if you believe that they can kill me...? Then you are forfeiting your life right here and now!"
The soldier started to sweat as Magnom Calisto walked up to him. His powerful arms bulging double the soldier's size as he cowered in the glistening heat.
"Do you wish combat by sword or fisticuffs?"
Magnom Calisto pointed to a long two-handed sword that hung firm on the stone wall overhead. The sword was six feet long, with its image reflecting a strong bronze and gold. The hilt was wrapped in dark brown leather as the guard was bedazzled in shinning crystalized gems that spun along its spiraling metal cross.
"That sword..."
"Passed down from father to father, only given to those worthy. The sword of legend. Of Gods!"
Magnum Calisto reached up and pulled the sword from it's hooked spot with only one hand. He wielded it over his shoulder and smirked.
[Sword 14: Sword of Truth]
---
Meanwhile back at the Stofentall camp, a very large man in a hard steel armor set walked up to Sariel.
"General Sariel... If I may ask?"
Sariel turned to the man's fully covered face and nodes his head, "go ahead."
The man through his muffled fully covered helmet asked, "why the little girl? What made you chose her for this dangerous mission and for the Shorebringers?"
Sariel leaned over his legs and stared deep into a fire's flickering abyss.
"She's strong... Very strong... Maybe not physically but mentally. One year ago she escaped her abusive father's clutches and ran from the castle in Limstine all on her own. She was then picked up starved on the streets, cast from wagon to wagon and slave group to slave group until she was half-dead in a ditch somewhere in the Badlands.... But through fate, she was found by a group of kind travelers, who fed her, clothed her, and bathed her. She lives with them for a while until they all died from a monster attack... She experienced death everywhere she went util she stopped relying on others. She decided to do things for herself and made her way down to Stofentall where she used her previous Royal Archery skills to win competitions and make money. That's when I found her. She had just beaten the best archers in all the seven kingdoms with just an old half-broken bow and a gruesomely malnourished body. She's strong..."
Sariel smirked, his pale hands covering his sky eyes as he blinded himself from the flickering flame.
"Very strong..."
---
Tusk ran across the border of the forts stone bricked walls until he reached a small indent leading into a lower barred-off sewer system covered in shit and piss.
"Can't believe he's making me do this..."
He pulled out his Sword of Thunder and-
Slice!
He cut the bars vertically from top to bottom creating a small hole for himself to fit through. He then crawled in and rode along the outskirts of the shit and piss-filled river trying not to step in its vile brown entrails.
After a couple minutes of crawling and hiding in the darkness, he reached an opening that led out from a small hut and into a large open courtyard.
The area was dark but lit up by torches stuck seven feet apart from each other. Over the torches was a tall overhanging wall of stone that surrounded the castle and the interior courtyard that was littered with old weapons and scrapped suits of armor.
Along the tops of the walls stood archers and soldiers who watched over the outside sandy distance. But they weren't as much of a problem since they were all staring away from the courtyard, the biggest problem for Tusk was the single soldier that stood in a small stone tower near the other end of the courtyard. Unlike the other guards he was watching over the entire area with a single small lantern hung above his metal-covered head.
The only reason why this man was the worst problem to Tusk, was because to the right of the stone tower was the only door that led into the main castle's interior structure. And the only way to get to it was to run a direct path through the courtyard.
"Shit..."
Tusk went over a few plans. He could either blitz through the courtyard and get spotted by the watcher in the tower, and then alert the other archers and soldiers on the surrounding walls, which would basically be game over. Or he could try to distract the watcher with a precise lightning strike and make him turn around. But even then that would be risky since lighting doesn't strike in a world where there are no clouds. So doing so would still raise suspicion.
Tusk gripped his sword, and looked closely at the soldier in the watchtower.
"What do I do... What do I..." He sighed, "uhhh... Guess i'm going straight-"
Whistle...
Tusk looked up to the sky as a soft whistling sound echoed across the darkness.
"What is-"
Slunk!
An arrow pierced perfectly through the watcher's eye socket, killing him in an instant.
"What was that?"