"Commander Ilbert, the beasts haven't approached us," Siles commented as they looked at the valley that was full of flickering lights, screams and shouts, "What should we do?"
"Wait for the reinforcements, we have no clear sightline of the path here and we have lost many men," Kovik stepped forwards, "What have we lost?"
"We have lost most of our men, I count 200 still alive in our ranks right now," The three commanders looked at the lit up battlefield and wondered what could be happening to hold off the beasts for such a long time.
"Any word of the cavalry?" Bugles in the distance announced the arrival of their reinforcements, "Speak of the devil."
"I wish not to speak of him, commander Ilbert, we have lost nearly 1,000 men in a single night to what I can only assume is the lord of darkness."
"I am aware, commander Siles, I am upset about it as well, I had the the 1st shock, the 1st defense, the 2nd defense and your detachment of clerics, nearly 1,000 men if you count our runners and supply men," The three men looked back as the cavalry stopped with the 2nd shock troops on the second seat of their saddles, "Good evening, commander Hevos, we have a situation, a bad one."
"I heard from your runner, overwhelming numbers of dead."
"Yes, but."
"Why haven't they attacked you here?"
"That is the perplexing situation," The commander replied, "I could only assume that there are still men fighting in the valley."
"Then we will go help them, man your lines, forwards!" The men moved on as the 200 men of the battlefront left alive after the disaster waited in their trenches. The cavalry galloped forwards towards the light in the valley.
A body was cut in two as blood splattered over the legionnaire after a beast, cornered with the fire and Reynold, had lunged forwards. He grit his teeth as his body could continue no longer as the final, attainable beast from the darkness fell on its decaying legs and he drove both blades into its skull, with a roar that would make more animals envious, "AHHHHHH!" He shouted as he drew both blades and held them up, his right eye destroyed by the bright sunlight powder and his arms covered in blood. His uniform was torn by the desperate attacks of the terrified dead while the sunlight powder still burned brightly. Bugles pulled him out of his combat trance as he turned to see a whole, fresh unit of men approaching, "Reinforcements."
"2nd shock, dismount!" Commander Hevos shouted as he looked around and the men dismounted to start searching through the ruins of the camp and the battlefront, "What happened here?"
"That is a lot of dead," Reynold turned back to the horizon and saw the sun beginning to climb and push out the night.
"Dawn approaches," He fell to his knees as his exhausted body could no longer go and his two blades lodged themselves in the blood soaked ground, "I survived," He fell face first into the dirt as he heard a legionnaire approaching him, Reynold was out of it. The legionnaire turned him over and saw his blank eyes before feeling his chest to see if he was breathing.
"There is a live one!" His words shocked the commander as he rode his horse towards the shouting soldier, "He looks hurt!"
"Take him to the lines, he needs the help," The commander ordered as he approached him, "Whoever this poor soul is, he saved our kingdom, hurry."
For the second time in two days, Reynold awoke without knowing what had happened or where he was. The room smelled clean, felt clean. It wasn't anything a field hospital could provide him with, "Are you finally awake?" An unfamiliar voice made his head turn and noticed a well-dressed and clean woman, "I was the one assigned to watch over you until you woke up."
"Where am I?" He sat up and looked at his hands. They were bandaged and the blood on his arms was gone, Reynold wasn't dreaming.
"You are in the main hospital of Galewin," Her response was met with the confused, even bewildered expression of the young man, "The Dawn Lady requested you be cared for in safety, away from fighting."
"What about the lines that I was assigned to hold?"
"You have been asleep for a very long time."
"So? So what? What about me being asleep for a long time? What happened?" The smiling woman shook her head.
"The order was to pull back and dig in further back, with more tenable lines," She explained as the young man nodded, "The last report that the Dawn Lady has received could only confirm that the lines are being held, even that the dead are being repulsed with more simplicity than when in the valley."
"I was in that valley, many of us died because of that advance."
"Yes, many did."
"And now what? Is it wasted?"
"No, we learned a lot of things," She replied, "But you must have seen something that could be of greater use to us than anything our previous reports could have suggested."
"What do you mean?"
"You fought, well as field commander Ilbert declared, alone and the dark lands ran from you," Reynold's mind jumped back to standing in the valley and he shivered, "Take your time, young man, we are simply glad you are alive and here with us today," She stood up and walked towards the doors of the room.
"What caused the dark lands to become such a problem?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I saw something that makes me believe it is the main problem."
"Then the Dawn Lady will want to hear of your tales, Legionnaire Reynold," The door closed behind her and he sat there, looking at the door, blankly. He had never met the Dawn Lady but now they wanted to hear of what he had seen. Was he even sure about what he had seen? Was he not simply caught in his fight for survival? Had he really been offered a spot in the dark lands as a second in command of the dark armies? So many questions buzzed around his mind as he looked around his luminous room and he sat on the edge of the bed. How long had he been asleep for exactly?
Reynold blinked and realized something was off with how he was seeing things. A hand covered his left eye and he went blind, as if a second hand had covered his right eye as well, the sunlight power had destroyed his eye.