"FIGHT!" Kacper’s scream was drowned out by the intense battle raging around him. His breathing was haggard in between swings as he tried to break through the line of soldiers stationed in front of the final fort. His goal, his mission. All he had to do was take down the final hurdle in front of him, and the South would be secured.

His scouts had reported thousands of defenders gathered at the fort waiting for them. So many that they made a wall of bodies around it. He knew this was the final battle, his final challenge. He threw everything at it, even if it slowed his march through the forest. It was too important. With a swing of his sword, another fell. His breathing kept getting heavier as he wondered how long he had been at it. Hours, minutes. He couldn’t tell; his mind was consumed by the desire to fight and win.

"THE LEFT IS COLLAPSING!"

"WE NEED REINFORCMENTS AT THE CNTER!"

"HELP ME!"

"DIE!"

Screams echoed all around. Hundreds of men yelled over one another. Communication had long collapsed, and Kacper didn’t try to give commands. There was no point. All he did was swing his sword. His brown hair had long gone stiff from the amount of blood and dirt littering his body as he drowned out the sounds of the pained yells around him. Nothing mattered more than staying alive. Everyone knew they had to storm the fort. What would be the point of telling them to hurry it up? He hadn’t even reached the walls.

The determined faces of the men before him were enough to know they were going to the last man. Retreat wasn’t an option. "ahhhhh!" Kacper yelled out as he pushed his shield forward, knocking a man over. He tried to raise his sword, but his arms had gone tired from the continuous swinging of his sword. Another quickly covered for him and delivered the killing blow before pushing Kacper back seeing he was useless right now. Rank and titles didn’t matter anymore, only the desire to win.

With a chance to get his breath back, he fell back, pushing through the lines of men like many others. "Where is he?" Despite everything. Despite trying to survive. Despite his sole concern being to break through, Kacper noticed. There is a lack of an Ammary soldier, and, more importantly, Marcus isn’t here.

He didn’t know what he looked like but had heard stories of the man. The first one in and last one out. A commander who fought on the front. He looked down the walls, and while some Ammary soldiers filled the ranks and shot arrows from above, no one seemed like Marcus. None had the dominating presence he had come to expect from the man he had heard so much about.

"Where is he?" Had he left already? ’Was it all to buy himself time to escape?’ He couldn’t help think to himself as he looked around. Where was the one who orchestrated everything? What was he missing? It felt like his head would split in half. What was Marcus’s goal? He couldn’t think.

Looking into the treelines, his breathing slowed down as he finally could have a proper rest, being just out of range from the arrow fire. He could still hear the brutal fighting behind him, but Kacper looked around, trying to find something, anything. But it was completely empty.

He froze on the spot. His eyes looked into the distance. t was empty, no sign of life, but he knew better., The first attack wasn’t the same thing he thought last time. Looking back at the battle, he looked up at the fort walls that had yet to be breached. ’He’s buying time. That’s what it has always been. So why not this time?’ Kacpers covered his mouth and looked into the treeline again.

’He doesn’t care how much it costs as long as he wins. He will sacrifice lives to destroy his enemy. He brought us deep into his territory.’ The thoughts came out like a machine gun, overlapping one another. The picture was sin head.

"Oh, Sol." Kacper gulped, finally realising. He wasn’t fighting an army but a man. A man who viewed the battlefield as nothing more than winning and losing. Why would he purposely lose three battles, then? "It’s a trap," Kacper whispered to himself, his voice full of dread, as he glanced between the fort and the trees.

Marcus didn’t want to survive until the Empire arrived. He wanted to win the war himself. Fear was all he could feel. But he had time. Looking at his men, who were had gone crazy from the fighting, he knew they wouldn’t be able to follow orders properly. Even if he prepared the flanks, what good would it do? The enemy was in front of them aswell.

Running further into the back line, he grabbed a man by the collar and pulled him in. "SEND WORD TO WHOEVER IS REAMING BEHIND! TELL THEM TO COME IMMEDIATELY!" He screamed in the man’s face, but Kacper didn’t have time to care. He needed something. It wasn’t much left behind, but hopefully, it was enough.

He wanted to yell at his past self. Why did he commit nearly everything for this attack? How could he have been so foolish as not to think of something so basic as a trap? "Fuck it." Kacper couldn’t think like that. He knew it. He had to prepare for the worst and didn’t have time to worry about the past.

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The man keeping Kacper on edge looked through the forest with a telescope. He could hardly see the battle, but the moving objects in the distance, combined with the raging sound, were enough for him to understand.

Looking up, Marcus could hardly see the sun through the thick forest of leaves above. Instead, he looked to the ground and watched the shadows. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.

Grabbing the horn, he blew hard, and the hundreds of troops with him started to march forward to begin the encirclment. He knew it was risky to leave the other side to calculate with him, but he placed the one Commonwealth rebel he trusted to lead them. Arek was the only one who truly understood the reality of war. He fought on the front and had been leading things not because of his title but because he was the only one willing.

Rushing forward, Marcus was nearly in a full sprint. He couldn’t let the enemy have a single chance to escape. He needed to end things now, even if his body broke down because of it. If the other side failed to react on time, he alone would have to be enough. He had to prove he was worthy to take William’s place.

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Alfred and Isra took to the front and met with Henryk. The old duke looked at him with hard eyes. It was obvious to anyone how long the man had been fighting in his life and how much the current war was weighing on him.

"Your Majesty." Henryk bowed toward the duo, making sure to show respect. He knew the entire civil war was for them and the Empire, but he needed to show the other nobles this by being servile. He couldn’t risk the camp fracturing now. not when their lifeline had just come.

Ordering his to rise, Alfred looked at the long river separating the East and West. He could see the enemy forces waiting. "How many troops have you got?"

"4000, Your Majesty. Snowid has, at most, double." Alfred nodded and turned to Isra.

"Do you think you can lead an attack yourself?" The smile on her face was enough of an answer.

"Just tell me where." He could see how excited she was for the war, and he happily chuckled. How long had she been waiting to finally get back onto the battlefield? Henryk frowned at Alfred, letting her lead an attack, but didn’t say anything. He knew it wasn’t his place. He just hoped Alfred wasn’t letting it be because of personal feelings but because Isra had some capability.

Looking at her, Henryk felt slightly relieved. He could at least tell she was someone who was heavily trained. He just hoped that she had experience, knowing the difference between training and a war. "Okay," Alfred called, his hands in the air. He looked at the river again.

"We will begin an assault on the three main bridges simultaneously. I’ll take the main one with my Unyeilding. Isra, you take the south and Henryk, you take the North. We need to spread Snowid’s forces, but it will also tell me how hard the attack will be going forward."

Henryk frowned. "Your Majesty, is this all you have brought? Forgive me for being blunt, but it won’t be enough."

"The Unyeilding are better then any one man. They can fight odds double them. As for the rest of my force, they are heading to the southern Island. We won’t beat Snowid head on, so we have to go around."

"That is fine then." Although he said it, Alfred could tell Henryk had doubts about the Unyeilding. No amount of words would clear his doubts, and Alfred knew he would just have to wait until the battle came to prove it.

"We have another plan if everything fails. Do not worry, Duke. The Empire does not fight war it won’t win." Flashing a friendly smile, he patted the old man on his shoulder and walked back to prepare. Henryk watched, unsure how well he could trust the young Emporer. Maybe if it was William saying it, he may have been put at ease, but from Alfred’s mouth, it sounded arrogant without much thought. He knew better than to think that, but it was hard to trust someone he had alongside or against.