1: Recruits.

" Now listen up all of you. I know for certain that by now news about the witch master should have reached you. Normally such things shouldn't matter to a small village like ours but news about his advances has begun to reach south." Town elder Walter said with his eyes moving across all the new young faces he was seeing, " how about you all start by visiting captain Angmar and following his orders. You will find somewhere around the entrance to our fine village."

There were about twenty of them: recruits who had been enlisted in the town's defense. The land's perilous times had quickly emerged and everyone was on guard for what could happen next.

" Oh, so you're the new recruits." The captain said the moment he saw them.

He was a man who seemed to be in his seventies. He had a helmet over his head with some plates over his arms, a brown cloth, and strides with a sword held firmly in his right hand.

" How about you start by sparring with me, here are swords for all of you."

One by one they all went on to spar with him but were all easily defeated. After a few minutes, it was finally Sina's turn to face him.

He slowly walked forward with his sword held tightly in his trembling right hand. The pressure of everyone's gazes on him was far more intimidating than he imagined.

" Begin." The captain said as soon as he came close to a few centimeters away from him.

He quickly stepped forward after that and placed his feet slightly apart from each other with his right leg slightly in front. He then proceeded to place his left hand around the blade as well and swung down with as much might as he could muster.

His attack was easily blocked but immediately after that, he spun to the side and swung his blade once again but it ended up in the same outcome.

While his sword was a thin rectangular blade with a curved end, the Captain's was a much thicker blade with a pointed end. While his was made for slashing in close-quarter combat, the Captain's was made for thrusting and piercing, which meant that he was the one at a disadvantage.

When Sina's next attack came, the captain had parried it away and then went for a thrust towards his opponent, however, Sina was quick to shift to the side while moving backward as well.

While he was still in the middle of regaining his balance, the captain charged towards him and went in for another thrust which he managed to block in the nick of time while staggering backwards.

It wasn't long before he fell to the ground and was now at the mercy of the Captain's blade. Another thrust came moving straight toward him but before anything else could happen, he dodged the attack instead of trying to block or parry it.

Now with his opponent open for an attack, he swung his blade while quickly moving to the side. The captain was able to block the attack easily but he was on his feet once again.

He quickly c, charged straight towards the captain, and began to rapidly swing his blade at him but all his attacks were easily blocked. After a few swings, the captain parried away his attack and thrust his blade upwards towards his neck.

He quickly shifted his head away as lightly as he could and bent down ever so slightly before trying to slash at him once again but that was his birthday big mistake.

Before his strike could make it to the captain he pulled away his sword and thrust down at Sina's blade. His attack was precise and pushed his sword away and out of his hand.

He was left shocked as he watched his blade fly out of his hand and drop straight to the ground. Before he could do anything else after that, he felt the edge of the Captain's blade right against his neck.

" Had that been an actual battle then your head would have been lying on the ground a few seconds ago. What you did was careless charging in like that, be careful neck time. After all, you never know when you might be on an actual battlefield.

After their daily training was over he began his daily activity of strolling around the village. While he was doing that, he saw a guy leaning against his hut call to him.

" Psst, you come here." He said, waving his hand towards him.

Sina stood there for a moment as he looked closely at the shady figure that was calling out to him. He then proceeded to slowly walk towards him but as he came close, the man reached out and instantly pulled him closer.

" You're one of the recruits right?" The man asked, forcing Sina to pull away due to how terribly he reeked of booze, " I just need you to help me... deliver this package to... grandma, you can do that for me right? Just follow the road out of the village behind Sava's house, and one of the guards will deliver the package to... grandma. Don't tell the deputy will ya?"

" We'll... See..." Sina mumbled as he looked closely at the package which the drunkard quickly handed over to him.

It was a bag filled with grains that were obviously going to be used in the making of wine. For the moment he decided to report it to the village's security.

He managed to a member, by the name of Deputy Maria. He had known her quite well ever since joining the village's resistance but for some reason, she seemed quite troubled.

" Seems like you came to visit me as usual Sina." She said, trying to force a slight smile on her face.

" You seem troubled ma'am, is there anything I can help you with?" He asked with due consideration.

" Wow, now aren't you as perceptive as always. My job as a deputy has been rapidly increasing as of late. The wolves are becoming more frequent, the rats are getting bigger and the insanity is beginning to affect some of the villagers as well. I have a wolf that was sighted around the village this morning to deal with, see if you can deal with a few crazy farmers for me, the workers should give you more details on the situation." She said, before slowly walking away.

He turned to the package he was holding due to his surprise that she didn't notice it which meant that the situation around the village was quickly becoming more dire for everyone to handle.

His village was a rather very small one by the name of Gaal which had its main parts surrounded by wooden walls. Outside the village was another which was

was surrounded by a cliff, leaving a single entrance to the village which was heavily guarded by the little forces they had.

Outside the main part of the village was the farm which was cultivated by the capable members of the village who weren't part of its security.

That was his destination and he was able to arrive there in a few minutes. There he met a few of the farmers chatting, more like they were arguing with angry looks on their faces.

" Seriously? How useless can they be? All they had to do was stand by and watch the farm and they stood and watched those madmen go about the farm as they pleased. And even at that, they have yet to deal with them."

" Stop talking like we're not partly to blame for this. Those young men are trying as hard as they can to see to the betterment of our village. Had we issued a request for the farm to be fenced then our crops would have been safe but no, we kept seeking temporary solutions which had little to no assurance of meeting our intended results."

" Sorry for the wait all you hard workers. Deputy Maria sent me in response to your complaints." Sina said as he slowly walked forward towards them.

" Took you long enough you moron."

" That's enough Val." The other man said, turning towards him with a dark glare before turning his attention back to Sina, "Thank you for hearing us out. A few days ago two of the farmers ran away and decided to build their hut close to the cliff surrounding our village, we didn't know why they did it and so decided to report the case but it appeared that they were fine. Not long after that, they both stopped visiting the farm and working with us and that was when our crops started going missing each time we visited it the next morning and it was only recently that we discovered it was them. We asked for some guards but they were only rookies so they were easily hurt and overpowered by the crazed farmers and ever since two days ago when the incident happened, no one has come to our aid. You don't seem that experienced yourself either."

" No need for you to worry, if it's only two of them then I should be fine even without my armour or sword." He said with a smile as he slowly walked forward towards the place the farmer had pointed out to be where the two were both living.

It wasn't long before he arrived there and just when he was a few dozen meters away from their huts, multiple arrows fired towards him.

Luckily, he was able to see the arrows coming and was quick to parry them away with his sword before quickly running forward.

A few meters away from the hut, he heard the cry of a person, a girl to be more specific, " Someone please help me!"

" Shut your mouth, you bastard."

" You heard her voice, didn't you boy? Any closer and whether or not she lives isn't something I can guarantee you."