[hider=Seaside Ambush]
The shores of the Sypius plains had been visible for a long time now but finally the shores of Scassia could be seen from the crows nests of the small transport fleet. On the lead ship Claus with Katriana and Roogel from his command staff stood and gazed towards the slowly approaching shores.

-"Long time no see." Roogels voice was deep and carried a lot of weight as always, still somehow Claus would always be easier to hear in the clamour of battle.
-"Oh come on, it's barely been a month. Not like when we were off in Beilokias for years." Claus added.
Roogel shuddered before saying.
-"Don't mention that place."
Katriana was still as puzzled as ever, she had been in the company for a long time now, but hadn't been able to get to the bottom of why those lands were so horrible to think of for some of the men.
Some parts were easy to hear of, like the battle of Shrooms, often jokingly even and that Dyril character she had seen, met and heard of was always referred to in at least some sort of positive light.
It wasn't the elves either, sure most of the corpsmen referred to them as a myriad of slurs and insults, like shorties, blueskins and clawies. They as well didn't instill the reactions she had seen on some of the veterans.
But she thought she had figured out what it was all about, and why not just simply ask?

-"So... i'm curious, what happened in the battle of Hymns?" Katrianas question was innocent and asked with a naivety expected for an outsider.
Both Claus and Roogel froze in place, stiffening up and going completely silent. Several long moments passed with Katriana realizing she had hit the reason for that continent being so horrid, spot on.
-"I... I am needed below deck..." Roogel simply walked off there and left the other two alone, Claus wanted to shout at him to not leave but in truth he wanted to do the same.
-"... be careful of that battle... it carries with it... a lot..." Claus words were slow and pained. But he pressed on.
-"I... i'll tell you some day... i will. But not today. Today we are busy." Finally being able to force his mind in a new direction, Claus got back to his more usual mood.
Katriana was frowning and was going to protest and demand an answer when Claus dropped all niceties and pointed in her face.
-"No!... not today." His eyes stared down Katrianas with such intensity that she simply cowered away, the darkness within them was intense and bore an unknown evil to them that she felt in her very soul.
Nodding, she was too afraid of looking away, Claus after only a few seconds relaxed and gave one of his usual smirks.
-"Let's begin planning landfall, lots of work ahead! Chief of logistics." Claus was leading her along with a arm over her shoulders, completely back to his usual antics. Katriana couldn't switch that way like Claus though, but tried her best to seem happy and easygoing like usual to the troops they met along the way.

Not before long Claus was stopped by the captain of the ships.
-"Sir advisor, there's been a complication." The captain was a bit shorter than Claus but carried himself with a great posture with a large triangular feathered hat finishing off his nice red and orange garb.
-"Oh, so what's the problem?" Claus stopped and turned to the captain, keeping his cool.
-"I've received word from a coastal patrol sloop that the harbor cannot accept our flotilla, apparently war with the Blackwells is using up all the harbor space. We'll have to make landfall outside port."
Claus appreciated the no nonsense attitude of the captain, he responded.
-"Right, here i was looking forward to the boon of being advisor and not having to walk into town, shows how important titles are." A smirk finishing off his statement.
-"Nothing to do about it, carry us ashore, you know the coast best, hit us up with the best spot captain." Claus ordered the transport flotilla captain, who simply responded with a quick nod and the words 'As ordered.'
With a heavy sigh Claus kept walking, now not pushing Katriana along.
-"Plan landfall, you're in charge of dividing the squads into the skiffs or landing planks depending on where the captain decides to make landfall. Get to it!" Claus order gripped Katriana by the spine and she jumped to attention before scurrying off.

***
Evennis awaited near the coast with a host of five thousand men, hidden amongst the treeline/ The location was far enough from the city to avoid drawing attention from Nyhem citizens but close enough that Claus’s suspicion would not be raised. Amongst them were around five hundred De Reimer infantry and one thousand mounted mercenaries. The rest were Sypius men at arms, not as well trained or armed as the other men he had been given but formidable all the same. Evennis had been at the keep when Patrick had arrived back. He had expected him to treat the emperor (and more importantly his brother) with the same warmth and affection comradery he normally showed his siblings, but that had not been the case. Even from down the hallway Evennis could hear his king raised voice of anger and he had left the room in an even fouler mood than he had when he arrived. He never suspected one could talk in such a manner to a High King, let alone a self-proclaimed emperor, and get away with it. But that was exactly what Patrick had done. It seemed despite all the titles it was Patrick, not Alasdair who still ruled the De Reimer family. 
After he had met with his brother, Patrick had given Evennis two orders, both with the emperor's permission granted. The first had been to kill Alasdair’s bodyguard Alenius, which Evennis had done without hesitation. Evennis was disappointed that he had slit her throat when she wasn’t looking rather than be given that chance to fight her, but orders were orders. Meanwhile the rest of Patrick’s host had purged the keep of servants and guards from a list procured by Alasdair himself. Even a number of nobles had suspiciously disappeared from the court that day. Patrick had justified the killings as the purging of traitors and Blackwell conspirators, though Evennis knew the De Reimer’s were simply trying to cover up something, something big. Not that he cared. Evennis caught the view of sails in the distance and gave his men the signal to prepare themselves. 

The ships began to make landfall, the coastline was the kind that was shallow, but became deep very suddenly, becoming a deep sea port at Nyhem, the reason its location was chosen. Because of this the ships were able to stop and lower the landing boats very close to shore, just a couple of dozen metres.

Claus was completely cool but Katriana was anxious but she couldn’t put her finger on why, eventually she figured that it was because of her question to Claus and his subsequent glare. She tried to not think about it as she was full at work planning what units were going on which boats and where the provisions were being loaded.
Someone who was not as busy during all this was Uneiuss Imazz, the battlemage lieutenant.
For him the unloading was very simple, since he had been given priority to unload by command and all his men and gear fit on a single landing boat, so after landing and organizing his small unit he had a lot of time to marvel at such a force moving in such practiced ease.
He still had a hard time getting used to the drill of the Steel Fist and was relieved that being a battlemage gave him and his men some leeway in that regard, but it was obvious he was supposed to follow suit soon, this graze period was alas not to last forever.

As he stood there and saw the scouting section begin to head out he had a nagging sensation of something being wrong. The birds were too silent, the clouds had an eerie presence to them and honestly he felt spooked by something.
-”Master Forrin, perhaps you would know why I feel this tingling sensation of something being off?” Uneiuss spoke to his restoration expert, with a stiff tension to him. Forrin on the other hand simply shrugged and literally spat a huge harkling glob on the ground before answering.
-”No idea chief, you’re probably anxious something will go wrong since you are still a virgin to war, you’re very young... and can honestly be a bit of a wuss. I’d say you’re worrying about imaginary dangers.”
Uneiuss was appalled at this comment and had to actively stop himself from dropping his jaw in shocked amazement but could not stop giving him a stern death glare which Forrin haplessly didn’t even notice since he was busy looking at the loading procedures of the other squads.
-”... right… perhaps.” Uneiuss tried to keep a sense of authority to his words, something he was beginning to realize wasn’t overly important since the others didn’t choose him for authority but for his intelligence, or perhaps another reason, he honestly didn’t understand why they wanted him in charge.

Evennis’s men were in position. The De Reimer soldiers would act as the vanguard. Leading the charge from the front while the Sypius soldiers would support them from behind. The mercenaries would attempt to flank them from the sides, making use of the horses to move quickly before they could muster a proper defence. Enough of Claus’s men had made landfall that escape would now be difficult. While some of his men were still on board, if Evennis waited any longer the fist’s men would soon discover them. He have a single to his lieutenant, who blared his horn, commanding the army to emerge from the trees and make their way towards the fist. 

The entire fist was now aware of the presence of some force, who were these guys? It didn’t take long until some of the De Reimer soldiers left the treeline, their high quality expensive gear easy to recognize, but why was one of their contingents here? There even were other groups within the force.
Claus was just going to approach and hail the force when on his left flank, he suddenly noticed several corpsmen scouts being driven from the tree-line by horsemen, one reaching out before being cut down from behind by a rider.
For a moment a chilling freeze came over the Steel Fist, questions began to spin in their heads and suddenly there was no doubt.
-”AMBUSH!!!” Claus booming voice sounded over the entire battlefield, a shoreline near some woods, a poor position if there ever was one. Only a moment later he pressed the mouth of his horn to his lips and began to execute horn calls to order his men to make ready and to form lines.

Uneiuss was still in shock, as arrows began to gently rain down upon the shores with increasing intensity, this didn’t make sense, why were they being attacked? These are imperial forces, there must be a misunderstanding.
-”MAGE CONTINGENCY! Four groups, protect the ships!” Claus roared out to Uneiuss as he passed trying form battlelines with hostiles nearly upon them already.
Uneiuss managed a nod before following through on the orders, he already had a good idea who to send to which group, he also ordered Orvel to set up aid next to the ramp of the closest ship.

Barely in time, the line of halberds were formed towards the De’Reimer heavy infantry ran the last dozen or so metres charging in as the vanguard, flanked and supported by the main force consisting of Sypius men at arms, wearing chainmail armour, shields and spears.
The clash was deafening, and at the core it was the bloodiest since the De’Reimer vanguard was focused against the monstrously drilled Steel Fist corpsmen, managing to keep the worst of the charge at bay, but quickly becoming more and more outnumbered.

In the thick of this, a single green tinted blade sang and descended upon the vanguard, glittering in the sun.
Claus strike cleft the head of the man from the top down to the lower jaw, helmet and all, a sickening crunch followed as he twisted his sword parting the two sides of the head releasing his sword which he pulled back, swung into an upwards arc which easily lopped the right arm of another plate armoured soldier followed by a downwards slash that hit a shoulder of another, cleft him in twain down to his bowels before he died messily in a pile of gore.
The sudden intensity of the assault had caught them off guard, but now the De’Reimer men pushed harder, noticing the enemy leader fighting from the front.
Several sword strikes bounced and clattered upon Claus armour, a strike bit into the steel upon his arm, sending him off balance.
Using the momentum, he spun clockwise arcing out the blade which lopped off the head of one man, smashed hard into the head of the next which was sent reeling from the impact to the side, possibly his neck broken or his head crushed.
A heavy shield strike to his stomach sent Claus coughing and gasping for air as he let himself stagger backwards where he was let through by his men.

The dragon bone sword was close to dwarven steel in potency and its large heft combined with its sharpness made it a devastating weapon, with a skilled user like Claus wielding it some would claim it was unstoppable.
Claus however knew that as falsehood as he stood behind his men whom he had bought a hard earned respite to in the midst of the tumult of the wall of polearms.
Winded and bruised, he knew he could only do short forays like this into the enemy formation. Coughing and spitting out a hearty glob of phlegm, he regained his posture and made a six-toned horn call while holding his sword straight up into the air.

Uneiuss was keeping track of the intensity of the arrow barrage and how much his men were using their energy, the archers in the enemy force was relatively few, letting his mages keep calm at the moment since his standing orders were arrow and magic protection.
As he heard the horn-call he realised it was an order for him, for Claus position. He calculated it in his head, called out specific men from his group to begin incantation.
Within moments, they had formed and lobbed a giant fireball into the formation in front of Claus.
The intensity of the heat was immense, several Corps-men instinctively shielded their eyes as many men were burned alive in front of them, some of the blood on their polearms boiling off in smoldering steam which smelled horrible.

Evennis swore as he saw the fireballs hit his forces. He hadn’t been told that the fist had acquired a mage battalion since the battle of Telmarion. This made his job significantly harder. Still it seemed they only had a small number of mages and it was likely that with enough relentless waves of arrows they would be overcome. Evennis turned to his lieutenant.

“Order the archers to focus on the mages, once they’re down they should make short work of the rest of them”. The lieutenant nodded in agreement and relayed the order.  

Uneiuss felt an arrow bounce off his helmet as he and his men returned to provide missile cover, he realized that the enemy was focusing their fire towards them, it was here that he became increasingly grateful for the equipment as the mage battalion hunkered down behind their pavises and from a kneeling position resumed making gusts of wind and temporary shields to protect the corpsmen in front of them.

They however were not faring so well, sure that massive fireball had hit the enemy vanguard hard and the demoralizing effect lasted for several moments, giving much needed respite. The fist was still outnumbered badly however and each corpsmen fighting pair had to fend off three to four enemies at once.
The situation was not great and the Fist was being steadily pushed back, slowly but steadily suffering casualties along the way. Claus was beginning to feel desperate.
-”Start boarding the ships! One team at a time! Seniority first.” Claus decision was as he saw the best option.
They were already being pushed back towards the ships, getting away any other way would not be feasible and the ships were close by, sure it was a bottleneck with no equal but what other option did he have?

The battle was going well for the imperial forces and Evennis knew that victory would soon be his. However, the fist were starting to reboard the ships and if his key targets were to escape then this assault would have been for nothing. Evennis cursed under his breath, had it not been for the fist’s scouts he could have waited until the ships had sailed before attacking.

“Send in the rest of the reserves, stop them from escaping. I will lead the charge” Evennis said with a gleam in his eye. As always he looked forward to the thrill of battle.  

Uneiuss was one of the people with best idea of how the battle was going for the Steel Fist, the quick definition was poorly, the long one was that their right flank was quickly failing, the left flank was either annihilated or were fighting on the ramps to the ships.
The centre line was the only one really holding on with any force, a lot thanks to the mage detachments defence and occasional attack upon the enemy.
Realizing the enemy archers are too few to focus any kind of dangerous barrage upon him or his mages, he decides to strike back again.

-”Group three, form a solid barrier upwards, one and two begin orb incantation!” Within a second the barrier was up, arrows bouncing off the solid near invisible wall over the mage section, the defence was near impervious but could only be facing one direction and took a lot of energy to hold up.
Meanwhile below it eight mages were incanting a white bluish orb which crackled with violent electricity, it grew over roughly fifteen seconds until about the size of a large warhorse where it began to undulate and spark with the barely contained power.
-”Lower shield! UNLEASH!!!!” Uneiuss tried to be as loud as he could, but the mere sound of the orb unleashing was enough to drown out all sound.
It reached out a lightning bolt contacting the imperial lines near the vanguard, where it thickened into a beam of zig-zagging energy which with stuttering quick movements which forced itself over the enemy ranks scorching a lightning bolt pattern into the ground leaving a foot deep molten score in the sand.
Anything the beam touched it annihilated, soldiers screamed as half of their bodies, arms, legs, and all combinations were simply annihilated or sheared right off by the sheer power.

Evennis got a quick scare when it passed with a stuttering jolt towards him but turned to cleave about ten men in half beside him to his left.
As quickly as it began, the orb simply imploded upon itself leaving a sort of silence behind it. But ringing ears and the noises of battle soon caught up.
One of the mages immediately fainted, only one of the two four man teams had enough stamina to stand up and still did so with a strained posture and heavy breathing.
-”Focus on defence!” Uneiuss knew that such a stunt took a lot of their juice, so he called out.
-”Orvel! We need to load team one and two on the ships! Get to it!” He got the attention of Orvel Forrin, whom turned and nodded, finished his small stamina restoring spell which left a dancing puff of green mist in front of a corpsmans breastplate, seemingly moving into the soldiers.
Orvel and his aides ran back to the mages and his aides helped the exhausted mages while Orvel simply heaved the unconscious one over his shoulders and was off up the ramp.

This is why Claus loved mages, allied mages that is.
But knowing their strength, he also knew this had drained them, and wasn’t surprised seeing them beginning to retreat.
He smirked as he knew that many normal squads had already buggered off under such circumstances, but it was something with mages and the utter dedication to their art of destruction that they rarely fled at the sight of danger.
He used the utter chaos within the enemy ranks to join in with his vanguard and just let rip upon them. Hacking, hooking, breaking necks and backs with practiced ease.
In the carnage Roogel met up with Claus and fought by his side.
-”Situations bad Steelhead, don’t think we can….. HNNGH!!! Hold them!” Roogel took a hit mid sentence on his cuirass and responded with slamming the hammer side of his pollaxe into the head of his assailant.
-”Not much to do, we need to hold them off so as many as possible can get out of this mess!” Claus imbedded his sword half way through a poor De’Reimer soldiers head with such ease it didn’t even seem he had a helmet.
A sombre-ness fell over Roogel, the situation was dire, men were dying in droves upon both sides, this was the fiercest fight the Steel Fist had been in since the battle of Hymns, and for the new guys the hardest fight of their lives.
He smiled, gave a hearty shuckle.
-”Understood boss!” He boomed out, with a skilled swing he hit Claus in the back of the head, such a completely unexpected strike from his rear and with Roogels strength immediately knocked him out.
-”Harper, Goyle! Drag him off, bring the rest of your group. We’ll hold them!!!!” The two corpsmen took one of Claus arms each and retreated after a quick salute to Roogel. Goyle taking the dragonsword with him.
Harper and Goyle gathered a couple of the vanguard and began a fighting retreat.

Roogel grabbed a soldier and proceeded to throw him into his allies knocking a few to the ground giving enough room to taunt.
-”Keep em coming! I haven’t eaten this well in years! Small fry like you go right down! Ha ha ha haa!!!!” The towering Roogel standing out on the field of the battle.

“Then perhaps face a man who can match you sir” came a yell from the imperial ranks and before Roogel knew it, Evennis was upon him, wielding two short swords with skillful finesse and speed.

It wasn’t like Roogel knew who Evennis was, but seeing his double short swords he knew this guy was some sort of leader. Since at least he but certainly Claus would have scolded his men for not following weapon regulations.
Seeing Evennis closing, he reacted quickly. He knew if his foe got past his reach, he would be in big trouble, so he began to stab at the closing Evennis with repeated spear-thrusts.
The vicious spike on his pollaxe threatening Evennis greatly.

After the first vicious thrust of the pollaxe Evennis knew he needed to close his distance on Roogel if he hoped to defeat him. Roogel had the reach, but Evennis had speed. He continually used his left sword to parry Roogel’s weapon away from him making use of small deflections at first, before making a large parry against his weapons making use of the opening to move in closer to Roogel with his other sword. 

Evennis speed and ferocity had him push the pollaxe aside and move in on Roogels left side. The stab was skillfully aimed at his armpit but the large mercenary twisted his torso so it went into his arm instead, hurting him. Evennis followed up with the other blade but it simple slid across the cuirass of Roogel whom crosschecked Evennis regaining some distance. Roogel was gritting his teeth and had a focused fury filled gaze which was fully fixed on Evennis.

As Evennis was pushed back he couldn’t help but smile. This man was far more skilled than even the best of the steel fist as was proving a worthy challenge. Not since he had fought Beatrice Blackwell in the grand tourney had he faced such a challenge. Once again Evennis tried to counter Roogles blade, this time making a circular motion around his sword, waiting for the opportunity to strike forward. 

Roogel was no fool, this guy was a pro, so he began to fall back to his men, trying to join in on the now backing wall of halberds.
All around them was dying men, screams and clashing weapons. But both sides tried to engage those who would engage their leaders so Evennis and Roogel had a strange loneliness to their duel. Which Roogel was now trying to fix while constantly stabbing at Evennis with his pollaxe.

This was now Evennis’s chance, the rest of Roogels men were distracted and he needed to kill him now before they formed back into formation. Evennis parried hard around Roogles polearm, catching the head of the axe with the hilt of his sword and pushing it away. Once again Evennis advanced, driving his sword into the underarm of roogels dominant arm, driving it into the gap in his armour. 

The strength in Roogels arm instantly ran out, like a bucket being emptied. With an angry roar he simply dropped his weapon and grabbed Evennis throat with his left hand, his immense strength enough to lift him from the ground and now he was staring the much smaller foe right into his eyes.
Roogels strained expression showed a hint of fear, which he tried to exchange for anger, but Roogel was honestly never an angry man.

Evennis gasped for breath as he felt Roogel slowly start to crush his throat. Evennis wasted no time in saving his neck as he plunged his sword upwards into Roogels neck. As Roogel let go Evennis fell to the floor massaging his throat as he gasped for air. 

The large bearded man fell to the floor, trying to clasp his neck which was now violently wounded, gashing blood badly. The strength in his hand not able to grasp at his wound more than a moment.
Looking up at Evennis, Roogel felt sorrow overtake him, he looked over to the ships behind seeing Claus being shipped aboard one of the ships, he let out a small smile and looked towards Evennis once more.

Evennis looked to where Roogel had been looking, a scowl growing across his face. While he had been busy fighting Roogel the rest of the steel fost had escaped. No doubt his two key targets were among those who had boarded. Despite killing over half of the corp, Patrick would not be pleased. He looked back down to Roogel, though by that point he had already passed from this world. Evennis had nothing but respect for him. He had fought well and sacrificed himself for his company. Evennis turned to his company lieutenant who had walked up besides him.

“Gather out wounded and loot the dead. We leave for Cawanor”. 
[/hider]

By
[@Klomster] and [@TheDuncanMorgan]