“Some people might look just like everybody else around them, a peaceful and kind member of society, one that never resorted to violence in their lives when they could avoid it. Yet those very same people sometimes turned to literal demons when placed on the battlefield, and once they had gone through such a change, often found it difficult to return to their previous peaceful life.

Many such people often tried and failed to acclimate themselves to peace. Many turned to violent crime, while yet others sought more of that excitement in their lives and went on to be adventurers or mercenaries, despite the risks those professions entailed.

For some, once they had tasted the excitement of battle, there was no going back.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Dean of the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, Circa 691 FP.

To an outside observer, the beginning of the battle between the two small detachments might seem lackluster and boring.

After all, no sane person would run themselves right into a waiting wall of spearheads, and similarly no commander was stupid enough to give such a command unless it was out of desperation. As such, the Algenverr troops halted their advance just beyond the arrayed pikes of the Warforged, as they tried to use their shorter spears to shove aside the longer pikes.

The Warforged naturally refused to allow them to do so, and they thrust with their pikes in retaliation. Most of those thrusts were deflected away or met with sturdy shields, though a few managed to slip past and find purchase into flesh. Even so, their opponents stoically shifted the injured to the rear and had fresh soldiers take up their spots on the line.

In return, the troops from Algenverr pelted the Warforged formation with arrows. The large tower shields held by the shieldbearers at the front stopped most of the arrows. Out of the few arrows that went past them, most were blocked by the smaller circular shield the Warforged pikemen hung against their left arms. Only a few caused injuries, and in most cases the injuries were light.

Some projectiles like javelins and throwing axes were also hurled from the Algenverr side, again to little effect, as the two armies faced off in a relative stalemate. The Warforged were very well trained, but mostly had little actual combat experience. In contrast, the people from Algenverr might have worse training, but the frequent beast incursions they had to deal with meant many of them had life and death battle experience.

The two armies struggled to gain advantage over each other for a while, as they attempted to break the other’s formation and form gaps they could exploit. Neither side’s attempt succeeded, and from where he stood, Alvaro noticed his commander apparently discussing something with the other noble commanders present amongst the squads.

When dozens of Blademasters from the other squads came to the frontlines, Alvaro understood what their commanders wished for them to do. Sure enough, a command from above arrived, an order for the gathered blademasters from the twenty squads to brave the enemy lines and break their cohesion for the rest to exploit.

Alvaro lowered the visor of his helmet as he waited for the order from the senior Blademaster put in charge of the mission. He exchanged a look of reassurance with Njeri to his right, as well as a couple other blademasters from their batch to his left as he waited. After what felt like both an eternity and a brief moment, the shouted command came.

The moment the shieldbearer in front of him angled his shield to the side just enough to let Alvaro pass through, the young Warforged rushed out with his greatblade in hand. The first few steps he took were uncontested by their foes, who were probably caught by surprise by the sudden rush. Then he saw one of the enemy warriors hurl an axe to his direction.

Reflexes took over as Alvaro raised his two-handed blade in a sweeping motion in the room afforded him between the pikes of his comrades. The curved blade of his weapon struck the flying axe by its handle and lofted it above his head, allowing him to pass beneath it safely. He saw Njeri to his right deflect a javelin using the parrying stick integrated into the buckler she held on her left hand as well.

After he took another three steps, Alvaro was close enough to strike at the enemy frontline with his weapon, and they could do the same to him. A spear stabbed at him, but he struck it down with his greatblade, the sharp edge of his curved blade biting deep into the wooden shaft of the spear. Before his opponent could recover from the blow, Alvaro twisted his wrists and struck at the topside of his opponent’s shield with the false edge of his blade.

The weapon’s curve allowed the tip to land behind the shield and its tip even noisily scratched his opponent’s helmet, which sent the man flinching back in surprise. Alvaro took that moment to pull his weapon towards himself, the small bit of sharpened blade at the back end of his weapon’s tip acting like a hook as he wrenched his opponent’s shield away.

Then he thrust forward with his blade and stabbed directly through the chain mail worn by the Algenverrian soldier, directly into the man’s gut. A length of the man’s intestine was ripped out from the wound when he pulled his blade back once more, and sent the man down to his knees as he clutched at his wound.

To his left, other Blademasters similarly struck the Algenverrian frontlines with varying degrees of effectiveness. One unfortunate young Blademaster – probably from the batch before Alvaro’s own – laid face down between the two armies, with an axe embedded into his face.

Njeri to Alvaro’s right already made her way into the enemy formation, though. She used the buckler/parrying staff hybrid on her left hand to defend herself as she tore through her opponents with the sickle-like shotel she held in her right hand. With her as an example to chase after, Alvaro squeezed himself into the gap he opened, and started swinging his two-handed Khopesh in wide, circular motions.

The swings were fast and measured, and were not meant to slay his enemies but more to make them wary and prevent them from closing in on him. They did their job, and some of his enemies took an involuntary step back as the blade whizzed past just before their eyes. As a result the tight formation scattered slightly near where Alvaro was.

His fellow Warforged behind him latched on to that opening as their long pikes stabbed enemy soldiers to the left and right of where Alvaro held his ground. The same scene could be witnessed up and down the lines as the Warforged started to break the Algenverrian formation and pressed their advantage.