Why Are They Green?

'Ah. There they are.' The Green Guards made their presence known on three different sides. One was attacking the left flank of Briggs' battle line, while another was doing the same on the opposite flank. And then, there were two Green Guardsmen approaching Shiv and Briggs from behind and one from the front. 'This might be a problem.' The Green men were shredding through Briggs' soldiers like they were made of paper.

"Take out the one in front, I've got the two behind us." Briggs ordered and turned around, putting his back against Shiv's back.

Shiv didn't acknowledge Briggs' order. He was too busy defending himself from the normal elite guards. Now he was going to have to take care of a green super elite guard? Joy.

Shiv flicked the whip, controlling it with his Abilities as much as with his arm and hand, and wrapped the thick part of it around a man's arms. The man was holding his arms above his head with a large hammer in his hands, and was about to bring it down onto Shiv in a crushing blow, but the whip put a stop to that. Shiv jerked on the whip and threw his opponent into the man next to him. They both tumbled to the ground where small spikes shot up and penetrated their heads.

Then Shiv was on to the next challenger, who was stabbing at him with a long spear. Shiv swayed to the side, intending to sidestep the spear, but remembered Briggs was behind him, counting on him, so he stepped forward and bashed the spear to the side with his open hand. Then he cracked the whip with his other hand, sending the tip of it into the spearman's eye.

Shiv yanked it out and made the whip as rigid and durable as he could as he swung it with every ounce of strength he could muster into the side of the tower shield charging at him.

His strike achieved his goal - barely - in knocking the Green Knight off course just enough that he slammed into one of the elite guards moving to attack Shiv. The guard was sent flying toward Shiv, who whacked him with his stick then stabbed him on the ground with the snake-like whip.

By this time, the Green Knight had regained his balance and was holding his shield in a ready position. Shiv looked at his opponent with grim determination, his mind racing desperately in its search for a quick solution to the problem that was standing menacingly before him.

The Green Knight charged before any strategy made itself known to Shiv, so he simply stomped on the ground and manipulated the earth into jutting out and slamming into the shield. He didn't turn the earth into spikes, but instead made a single flat surface in the hopes of dealing blunt damage.

It worked.

The Green Guardsman was halted abruptly, and Shiv heard a muffled groan from within the man's armor. He tried to step back with his shield, but the shield was stuck to the column that had hit it, the metal having dented and curled slightly around the earth. So instead, the man just let go of the shield and stepped around it, creating a metal hammer and shield. He held the hammer in his left hand, and cocked it back as he stepped forward, no doubt about to swing with all of his might.

Shiv was rooted to the ground. He didn't want to take that strike, but he also couldn't let Briggs get hit in the back. So he did the next best thing: He yelled at Briggs to turn around.

"I can't!" Came the immediate reply, along with a crash.

Left with no more options, Shiv threw the whip at his opponent, then followed it with his body. He slammed into the knight and wrapped an arm around the man's neck, and set himself on fire.

The knight screamed as his armor began to heat up, especially the gorget protecting his neck. He tried to hit Shiv with his hammer, but his mobility was restricted by his armor and the farmer wrapped around him.

It quickly became too hot for the knight and the gorget melted into his neck, killing him.

Shiv stumbled to his feet when he felt a rush of power, and grabbed the elite guard about to stab Briggs in the back. He threw him to the ground and stomped on his head, ending his life as well. He lifted his head and found himself face-to-face with Briggs. Or chest-to-face thanks to the commander's lack of physical stature.

"I killed mine. What happened to your two?" Shiv asked and took a step back. Behind Shiv was a burning corpse with a sword of ice stuck in its faceplate, with another corpse stuck to the wall with seven javelins holding it there.

"Killed 'em." Briggs replied and also took a step back, checking out the corpses Shiv had made from living men. Then, without speaking, they both turned to their respective left, and headed off in opposite directions. They had to kill the last two Green Guards.

As he ran along the battleline, Shiv killed several more elite guards, and actually got a bit of power from one of them. He didn't kill all of them, as he simply had to get to the Green Guard, who had begun to run toward him, killing some of Briggs' men along the way.

They clashed in an empty space in between fighting soldiers. The Green Guard had lost his shield somewhere along the way, and so swung a spiked mace at Shiv, who deflected with a stone greatsword he'd grabbed during the run.

They were both knocked a few steps back from each other, but immediately threw themselves forward again, crashing their weapons together.

Right as their weapons touched, a roar from the men over where Briggs was at was heard. Shiv, with his back to the men, couldn't see what had caused that roar, or who's men were making the noise. The Green Knight couldn't see either, as battling men were obscuring his vision.

They exchanged strikes several more times before Shiv took a few steps back to catch his breath. He had packed on quite a bit of muscle over the past several months, but was still more on the lean side. So swinging a greatsword around was exhausting for him, a fact that he had trouble remembering in the heat of battle.

"Why are you here?" The Green Knight spoke, causing Shiv to look at him with surprise.

"I'm here…" Shiv lunged forward and stabbed the Green Guard in the heart. "To destroy the world." His dead opponent slid backward, off of his blade and onto the ground.

Shiv hefted the greatsword into a more comfortable position in his hands, and ran toward Briggs. As he went, he noticed the men under Briggs' were finally winning, defeating most of the guards and moving on to fight a few of the nobles, who had created a wall separating one half of the room from the other and were positioned on top of it.

When Shiv next saw his short companion, he somehow wasn't surprised to see that Briggs was already attacking the wall. The Green Knight was a corpse with a spear of ice sticking out of his chest, straight into the air. Lying near to him were the rest of the elite guards that had been on this side of the room. It looked like Briggs had won the initial charge, causing his men to roar in exultation and attack their enemies with renewed fervor.

With that done and the other flank of the battle rapidly ending in his favor as well, Shiv ran to a portion of the wall that was made of earth and put his hands on it. The noble above threw something at Shiv, but missed by a wide margin.

'I've had to deal with a ridiculous amount of walls by now.' Shiv noted as he ordered the wall to slide backward.

And it did. The portion of the wall that was made of earth slid backward all the way to the wall, where it came to a stop with a loud noise. It had caught several people during its journey, but they were all dead, stuck in between both walls.

Shiv stepped through the barrier on the floor that had been cleared by his wall, and made direct eye contact with the princess, who had been sitting on her throne trying to see the battle over the wall. Evidently, she hadn't yet realized that she had lost.

When Shiv winked at her, the realization came crashing down on her: she was about to die.

Shiv warily attacked the nearest noble, remembering his fight with noble Wells, and was somehow unsurprised when the fat man took off running. 'Stupid nobles are all the same.' Shiv swung his sword at a different one, only for the same result.

And then Briggs followed in Shiv's footsteps. He also made eye contact with the princess. When he did so, he smiled. He was about to have his revenge.