In an impressive show of either stubbornness or resilience, the heavy knights leading the line were only pushed back lightly by the magic of the Paladins. What might have been lethal to their lesser armored comrades seemed to be little more than annoyance to the burly men, as they raised their shields again and charged against the Paladins who were now ready to meet them.

There was little finesse or tactics in the charge of the heavily armored knights as they slammed into the elves with their heavy shields, somewhere even simply running them over. Although the elves may have been the first to strike back at them when they came into range, their weapons seemed to only glance off their heavy armor, and even moreso their impenetrable shields.

The Captain, although he had been in a charge, suddenly became a lot more cautious when he saw Rae'liel coming straight for him. Stopping right on the spot, he instead raised his sword to defend himself against the first vicious strike from the Blood Elf!

However, rather than attempting to swing his sword in another strike against the Blood Elf, the Captain instead stepped back as he reached for his belt. Grabbing his officer's flintlock pistol with one hand while stepping back, he quickly whipped it up against Rae'liel and in a cowardly move snapped off a quick shot right below her midriff; penetrating her armor and leaving a gushing wound!

Behind them, a fierce fight was still going on between the heavily armored Knights of the White Hand and the Blood Knights of Rae'liel. The White Hand knights had succeeded in dispersing the Blood Elves, leading to the whole fight looking much more like a mush-pit of individual duels between the fast and furious Blood Elves and the slow but impenetrable White Hand knights. Whenever her knights struck a blow, it was easily absorbed by the armor and shields of the knights, but whenever they moved to strike a countering blow, it was easily dodged by her knights.

But what had looked like an even fight was soon interrupted as an arcane spell flew through the air, hitting one of her knights in the back and pushing him forward! This distraction was enough for his opponent, the White Hand knight, to raise his mallet and bring it crushing down upon his head, shattering the Blood Knight's skull and causing his body to fall limp to the floor. With one Blood Knight down, the White Hand knight moved to gang up on a lone Blood Knight already involved in another duel with another White Hand Knight. While the Blood Knight gracefully stepped out of the strike from her opponent, she did not see the other Knight approaching her from the back who sweeped his mallet into her lower leg, shattering her knee and causing her to flop around and fall onto the ground like a rag doll! As the Blood Knight cried out in pain, she was quickly shut up as her original opponent raised his heavy metal boot and stomped it down on her face, shattering her!

The fight was quickly turning in favor of the White Hand, the Blood Knights's numbers having been reduced to only three fighting a desperate fight against the five White Hand knights where they struggled to not get isolated and overwhelmed.
The only thing that really seemed to be in their favor was that further away, the rest of the White Hand chevaliers who had not been victim to the initial ranged attack from the Blood Knights had not joined the knights in the fight, and instead seemed busy tending to those of their wounded comrades who had not been immediately killed and dragging them away from the fight.

"You elves are all mentally insane!" Sneered the Captain from through his visors as Rae'liel reeled back from the shot, temporarily stunned. Lifting his sword, he stepped towards her, the Captain clearly more cautious than that of his men as he seemed hesitant to engage Rae'liel. 
"I would be doing the world a favor by putting you down!"

Behind him, it was possible to see the battle mage who had fired the original spell that had tipped the fight between the knights of Rae'liel and the White Hand in the favor of the latter. The battle mage watched Rae'liel and the Captain from a safe distance of twenty feet, before she started conjuring on a spell that created a humming blue barrier around the Captain in front of Rae'liel. Emboldened by the newly gained magical protection, the Captain put his empty flintlock pistol away and pointed his sword against Rae'liel, ready to attack.

Below them, they gained a clear view down to the courtyard of the fortress. The main gate to the castle had been opened, and the bridge to the mainland fortifications had been lowered. Riding across the bridge at a thundering pace were two dozen chevaliers arriving as reinforcements at the courtyard below them. Although they did not seem to know anything about the immediate battle taking place over their heads, one of the stable hands could be seen running across the yard to approach the first rider and pointed up at the battlements. It was, however, a long trek up a series of stairs and buildings that would delay the reinforcements before they could join the fight up above.

Noticing the reinforcements as well as he glanced down into the courtyard, the Captain's head quickly returned to face Rae'liel; and this time his smile could almost be seen all the way out of his helmet!

"You have lost this fight! Stand down!" The Captain called out to Rae'liel as he held his sword out threateningly, still not having dared to attack. Another cry could be heard behind them as the White Hand knights succeeded in ganging up on a third Blood Knight, reducing their number to only two who now fought back to back against the incoming knights.