*** 

--- City of Dalko, Great Plains Region ---

Date: August 26th, 2026

Seeing an incoming demon, Krysist was forced to move back and take cover behind one of his guards' shields. Once the beast was stopped, he quickly outflanked it and cut it down.

As the group caught their breaths, Krysist looked toward his men. Only half of them remained and the ones who lived, their armor was shredded. Blades are becoming dull. And most importantly, the looming sign of defeat within their eyes. 

“Stay calm men,” Krysist said. “Everything is on the line. We hold here and-.”

Something large impacted one of the guards, forcing him onto the ground. Investigating, what horrified them was that it was a strange-looking organic sack latching onto the man. Tentacles burrowing into the skin, causing him to scream in pain.

The skin started to turn dark. The human element of the right arm faded away and slowly transformed into what a demon arm looked like.

Seeing that it was impossible to remove the sack as the tentacles were too deep, Krysist took his blade and killed his comrade. “I expect you to do the same. Now, keep your eyesight strong and back against a comrade.”

As another group of demons approached, two of them were picked up from rifle fire, leaving five.

Taking a frustrating breath as Krysist was forced to walk behind one of his guards with a shield. He would prefer to stand side by side, however, missing his left arm he struggled to be effective and were forced to rely on others.

The demons collided against the Royal Guards of which two were tossed away by the sheer strength of the demons while the others engaged the rest.

Seeing a demon that broke through, Krysist blocked the demon's hand with his blade. Malena swooped in from under and swung her sword up, cutting the beast wide open. She then hopped left and jumped on top of another, ramming her knife into the eye into it.

Seeing the opening, Krysist rushed toward the beast and cut down it.

Malena landed on her feet as the corpses dropped to the creep-infested ground. “We need to fall back.”

“No,” Krysist said. “The only place to fallback to is the airfield and we never would reach it. Even if we could the enemy would never allow the Americans ‘aeroplanes’ to take off. And Sharpe would lose any opportunity to kill Valker and Zufmuut.”

“I know you are his friend and he saved you but are you willing to die here for that?”

“The decision was made before we left Alnus, my dear. Such is the art of war.”

Malena smirked and faced the enemy. “I guess you do live up to your reputation. Few do.”

The two engaged another group of Demons and little by little, the Royal Guards and other Legionaries along with some American troops fell to the sheer strength of the horde.

Hearing from Malena that another pouch was incoming, Krysist was able to slice it in half before it impacted. Before he could recover a more giant demon with horns and a bulkier form attacked with a large hammer.

One of the Royal Guards blocked the hammer with his shield, however succumbing from the sheer strength and weight he died instantly as he was smashed into mush.

Feeling anger from witnessing one of his comrades be crushed, he moved behind and sliced against the giant horn demon.

The blade struggled to cut through the thick skin, which seemed to be a combination of bone armor and thickened skin. To Krysist's surprise, the demon barely reacted to the attack. Either not caring about its own wounds or unable to feel pain.

The demon smacked Krysist hard against his armor, making him fly back and hit the ground with sheer force. Once he completed sliding against the creep, he felt his armor pressing against his chest, exactly where the horned demon hit.

Seeing the demon rushing toward his position, he looked for his sword and struggled to find it. Then he saw it to his left.

His body instantly tried to reach it; however, he quickly remembered that he had no left arm. Seeing that the demon was almost on top of him he was forced to roll right, just missing the hammer.

Rolling back onto his feet, Krysist tried to judge how to get a weapon. Seeing Malena in the back with a worried look, rushing to his position he started to yell, making sure the horned demon was paying attention to him.

This had the opposite effect. The horned demon turned around and saw Malena coming. It was clear that this one was more intelligent than the others.

He took off his helmet and tossed it against the demon, which got his attention for a moment. This gave Malena the openness she needed to strike, cutting its chest.

While her blade did cut through the skin, like before, it did not cut deep.

Krysist rushed past the demon as his focus was on Malena. He slid and grabbed the sword and rammed it into the opening Malena made. This time, the blade went much deeper.

The Horn Demon thrust against the General, forcing Malena to catch him, and both fell onto the ground.

“The bastard won’t die,” Malena said.

Feeling frustrated, Krysist saw the shadow of the demon walking toward them, pulling the sword from his chest, and tossing it away. It swung its hammer above, in preparation for its strike.

Suddenly, the demon slowly turned into ashes, falling to the ground.

“What just happened?” Malena asked as she helped him up.

Looking around the battlefield, Krysist saw the carnage. Two Airborne soldiers are being attacked by a group of demons. Other swordsmen were cut down as they were overwhelmed.

A legionary, closer to a boy than a man stood face to face with a demon, shield, and sword at the ready. A demon moved up behind him and jumped to tackle him. But before impacting the boy, it also burst into ashes. Then the one in front of him.

“General!”

Hearing his name over the radio, Krysist saw Vanguard-5 approach as they engaged the demons.

Krysist saw demons randomly bursting into ash throughout the battlefield. He smirked as he realized that Vanguard-7 completed their mission and must have killed Valker and Zufmuut.

Noticing that the Demons stopped attacking, the monster also seemed to be confused about how their forces started to burst into ashes. Seeing one nearby, he could see the fear in its eyes as the demon next to it suddenly turned into ash.

Taking a sword from a dead legionary, Krysist got on his radio and said, “Legionaries. Terrans. Advance and kill them all.”

Reference:

------------------------------------------------