Prologue
I was going to win this fight, and I knew it. I grabbed my long, heavy, iron sword and swung using all the strength that was left in my body. My arms were aching with pain from my last fight with a Despion soldier, and it was getting harder to move them every time I swung, but I had to fight this war that was dividing our people and turning all our capitals against each other. As I swung I saw something strange. When I looked at my target, who was lying on the ground in front of me weak and half dead, he vanished. It was terrifying, a blackish-red smoke flew through the air in a swift motion to another area on the battlefield in Despion, which was a very dark and gloomy place filled with fire and death. I was surprised that he had vanished, because a gift like that was very rare, and I hadn't seen it performed until now. There he stood by his undead horse. His skin was dark like ash, his eyes were white, hair black, and he was very slim, but that didn't mean he was weak. Although Despions were blind they could still sense movements through the vibrations from the ground, and they were very good at it. I saw him staring at my direction from a distance, deathly looking. I couldn't help but notice that his eyes had turned red, which meant he was a powerful soldier, with a lot of energy, and was trying to tell me to stand down, but I wasn't ready to give up. He started towards me on his horse, and I stood my ground. I was ready, ready for him to charge at me so I could drive my sword through his heart, and finish this fight. He wasn't far now, so I tightened my grip and positioned my body so that the charge wouldn't bring me to the ground. I brought back my sword and angled the blade slightly upward. The horse was only feet away, so I pushed the blade forward with all my strength cutting off the horses head, not only covering my sword in blood, but also myself. The blood was in my eyes, and I couldn't see; I was at a disadvantage, so I tried to wipe the blood away giving me little vision. I caught a glimpse of a shadow, knowing that he had vanished again. Expecting him to be behind me, I turned around, but nothing, nothing was there. Where could he be, I turned around again hoping to see my target, but still nothing. I was going insane. I felt a sharp, agonizing pain in my upper thigh, and fell to the ground. He was playing with me, but I wasn't done, I wasn't about to lose this fight. I got up and he was circling around me swiftly, but I saw a slight drag of his right foot, knowing that he had hurt it in battle. I swung at his ankles, knowing that he would vanish once again, but soon he wouldn't have enough energy to use his powerful gift, to wich he posessed, so I repeated and repeated and repeated, wearing both me and my opponent out. We were both breathly heavily, and our backs were slumped over; I didn't know how much more of this I could take, but I swung again, and wasn't about to give up. He hadn't vanished this time , but instead jumped over the blade, and when he came down on his foot. He fell hard, screaming. It seemed to me that he had broken his ankle, and now I had my chance. I slowly walked toward him my leg still bleeding and limp. I was standing above him, and his eyes returned to the white-foggy color, meaning that he's weak. I held my sword up, pointed the tip towards the ground and sent my sword right through his chest. His blood was very dark almost black, and once again my sword was full of it. I stood up weak, and pulled my sword completely out of this dead Despion soldier. When I pulled it out I flung some of the blood off by swinging the sword away from me, creating a line of blood and the ground, which was lit by fire. I then ripped off some of the cloth that was hanging around my waist in order to stop some of the blood coming out of my leg, which was bringing me so much pain. The soldier had almost stabbed the dagger through my leg, but I've have gone through worse, so I delt with the pain and looked for my next target.
"Yaaa," screamed a girl. I quickly glanced over and saw Yira, a girl from my clan in Inglanuu. She was a beautiful women with long, soft, black hair, and it carried down to her lower back. As her head turned I saw the scar that she had gotten as a child next to her bright green eyes that shone like emeralds. She was twelve winters old and was attacked by a bear with claws the size of a head, teeth as long as someone's third finger, and the body the size of a whale. Not even a grown man could have killed a beast that size, but she wasn't afraid, and I knew it because I watched her eyes sparkle and her hands tighten on the grip of her sword as the bear lunged at her. Her eyes narrowed and she lifted her sword in the air and as the bear came down it scratched her face and she fell. The bear fell on top of her, but the sword went through the beast's stomach, making pools of blood flow out of the bear, like our breath flows into the wind. At that moment I thought the bear had killed her, but when I saw the sword move I knew she was alive and so I ran to help her, and get her out from under the ginormous bear, only to see that the only damage done was the mark on her face. From that day she was destined to be a warrior, it was written in the stars and her talent of fighting quickly grew into something much more. She led her sword with swift and powerful motions that were so accurate and meticulous that it could kill any soldier in an instant. Every man in our village knew not to mess with Yira, the slayer of all beasts.
As I was admiring Yira, a soldier came running towards me dragging his feet making it seem like he had been running for hours. "Espon", he yelled my name while panting heavily, he was obviously exhausted. "Espon, Espon, we need to retreat something bad is going to happen if we keep fighting, Dhruve Adaya spoke to the council and said that he has the power to separate our capitals by taking mine, yours, and everyone's inner power if we keep fighting. We need to surrender and end this war or there's a chance we could all die."
Umaas was the soldiers name that ran up to me. He was a short but bulky, and knew his way around a sword and shield. I was his captain, so I knew him and his family fairly well. He was a very brave man who faced many excruciating battles like the one happening now, and was very willing to fight for the tribes of Inglanuu. Umaas was a member of mine and Yira's tribe, he was training to become a captain himself, but the death of his daughter stopped that from happening. The death of his daughter was very troubling, and affected not only Umaas, but the whole tribe.
