Fractured: Eternal War

Chapter 2: The Fall of the Stronghold

Adrian's POV

I run across the battlefield with my sword in hand, slashing wither skeletons right and left. I stop to see Herok and Steve fighting. I try to make my way towards him, but it feels like when I kill one wither skeleton, three more take its place. It's a never-ending horde of them, and I tell the soldiers to retreat and defend the Stronghold at its walls so archers have an easier time to shoot the wither skeletons down. I'm just in time to see Steve get thrown into a wall but before I can reach him, I get blocked by wither skeletons. It's as if they were making it so the Titan and Steve fight it out alone, and I'm more surprised to see that no wither skeleton is helping their leader. I plunge my sword into the ground, blasting all the nearby wither skeletons back a good distance to recover from the onslaught. The cleared view allows me to see Steve teleport at Herok and fight each other until Steve falls onto the ground, about to be killed by the Titan. I charge ahead, slaughtering the wither skeletons, behind me, fellow soldiers followed.

"Get back to your position, we cannot lose the Stronghold!" I shout at them to go back.

"Never, sir! With all due respect, we're in this together!" Shouts a zombie.

The other soldiers shouted in agreement and we fight our way through the horde which has dwindled to a few dozens.

"We're winning sir!" Shouts a soldier.

"No, we just won the battle, but not before suffering a great loss..." I say in sorrow.

We stand to look at the dead bodies of Steve and the Titan, locked in combat. I see a white light go from the Titan into Steve's body before Steve's body dissolving in bright light.

"Why did that guy disappear?" Asks a random skeleton.

I command the soldiers to gather the fallen comrades while we fight against the remaining wither skeletons. Soon the remaining ones were killed and we begin to rebuild the destroyed parts of the stronghold.

"Sir, what do you mean we won the battle?" Asks the soldier that fought with me.

"I suspect that this will not be the last attack..."

"More are coming?! But we killed hundreds of them!" Exclaims the soldier.

"Well then maybe they'll bring thousands! We cannot let our guard down, we have to stay vigilant and prepare for another attack." I reply with anger at the soldier's safe pretense.

I jump down from the wall and head towards a meeting of the head council which consisted of me, the organizer of the patrols and the forgery leader. We discuss what we should do if there is to be another attack on the Stronghold.

"At our current state, we wouldn't be able to hold against another attack, I'd say we focus on rebuilding the stronghold, defenses, and traps," suggests the forger.

"I agree with Hank, but we do need to dedicate some resources to utilize our terrain in order to better defend ourselves," I add.

"Then it's agreed, we go on the defensive," says Soren, the organizer of the patrols.

We all nod at the council's table, so we stand up and begin placing markers on the 3D layout of the stronghold, placing markers to put additional small fixes. After the meeting, we all tell the soldiers our plan at a small stage and we begin to rebuild the damage. We built a very deep moat using enchanted shovels made by the forgery, pitfalls with iron spikes in it covered with fake land.

By the time all of this was done, the Stronghold had been decently repaired. That's when the trumpets sounded, indicating another imminent attack. Immediately I grab my special set of armor that's gold and white and remove my sword from a stand. It's a beautifully made blade with a circle near the end of the hilt, representing eternity, a blade of infinite power. I feel it's strength echo through my bones, that this could be my last fight, perhaps even the fall of the Stronghold itself. I made a last minute change that I did not reveal to the other Head Council members, a final resort if the intruders get too far into the Stronghold.