The golden soldier

Zarkhaïm awakened alone in the bed. He noticed Miroïr already left, it was almost like nothing happened. He went to the mess hall of the base. As he entered, he first noticed Jäwell eating, surrounded by many soldiers. Jäwell was loyal to himself, speaking loudly and explaining his fierce battles with pride and amusement with a good appetite. He was a tough warrior and Zarkhaïm had a feeling of relief to see him as usual. He turned on himself and noticed Miroïr about to join his brother. 

"What did you do all night in Zarkhaïm's tent?! Did you dare to do a party without me? Seriously! I am so jealous, you should have woken me to join you. That's not fair, brother," Jäwell said laughingly to Miroïr and Zarkhaïm who had joined him for breakfast. 

Miroïr became red as he thought back to the night he had spent and his first thoughts were: "Oh no, brother, you would not like to be there, believe me." 

He choked and coughed discretely trying to ignore him. Zarkhaïm could imagine what Miroïr was thinking and had a grin but he was too concerned by the situation.

"Jäwell, we have to discuss what happened," he said in a dark tone. 

Jäwell stopped himself. Miroïr was amazed to see that his brother could be so serious all of a sudden. Seeing Jäwell being responsible was something unique. Jäwell pushed what was on the table to make room and unrolled a plan. Zarkhaïm was listening carefully, holding his breath. 

"We started the fight normally, everything was under control. We were one man for five but we are more trained, we were winning then suddenly something happened. I don't know what exactly. I saw a light that burned my eyes for a while, and then they had reinforcement. There were ten men for one of us, these guys were different, they were real soldiers. They had good armor that we could not pierce and solid weapons as I had rarely seen before. Once the night fell and the fights stopped they went away to their camp and I was left for dead. Not many of our men had the chance to survive." 

Zarkhaïm made a sign to one of the soldiers to bring the piece of the spear that was in Jäwell's body. Once he had it in his hands he had a gloomy expression. He whispered to himself, Miroïr and Jäwell could barely hear him, and judging by the gravity in his voice they didn't dare to ask him to repeat louder. 

Zarkhaïm finally said quietly with a trembling voice.

"These are Archanium's weapons. They don't belong to this world." 

Miroïr threw an eye at the weapon. He sensed some magic aura on it that he hadn't noticed before, and he had a very bad feeling. The worried expression on Zarkhaïm's face was only confirming his fears. Something very wrong was about to happen.

In the morning, the troops prepared for the battle. The lines were front to front and an enemy general moved first, waiting for them in the middle of the field. 

Miroïr and Leïlana took place together in the back lines, they had built a platform for elevation and had all the battlefield in sight. The mages were ready for the battle. 

During this time, Zarkhaïm and Jäwell went to meet the general to discuss the terms of the battle. They hoped to convince the enemy to retreat after seeing that the King himself came to join the battle. This had the inverse effect. The general smiled and said mockingly, "he said that the dark brother would join. He was right. He said that today, all your dreams will perish as his hopes died a long time ago by your hands." 

Jäwell had no idea what he was talking about, and as they returned Zarkhaïm had goosebumps. At this exact moment, he knew who was leading the armies against him. Zarkhaïm didn't show it but Miroïr saw it. 

Zarkhaïm was afraid. 

The battle began as the leaders joined their ranks. Leïlana and the other mages used their spells to protect the soldiers when they fought, leaving Miroïr to focus on supporting Jäwell and Zarkhaïm. 

They were on the front line, and Miroïr was amazed to see how much they enjoyed fighting. The two of them were knocking enemy heads around them with guttural howls. They were two beasts, two dogs of war, happy in their element. Their soldiers looked up to them, they were a great source of motivation, pushing them to excel and become like them one day.

Jäwell had this in his blood since always, he was always strong, pitiless, and agile. Zarkhaïm was incredibly smart and he seemed to plan every enemy's moves. He was slicing throats so fast that his opponents had no time to realize they were dead. 

Before long, they were surrounded by bodies littering the ground, they were winning the battle. Jäwell turned towards the allied lines and waved to Miroïr from a distance. He was happy that Miroïr was here, jumping up and down while pointing at one of the enemies on the ground, proud of his hit and the way he had killed him. He was acting like a child. Leïlana saw him and laughed hard.

"What an idiot. Handsome but stupid," she commented, the situation was hilarious.

"Mother always said I took his brain when I was born," he chuckled as an answer.

Jäwell was the kind of soldier who hit harder if he could not pass where he was supposed to. It was a chance for him that nobody had enough force to stop him. 

Until now. 

There was a man in golden armor. He had a shiny aura all around him. The man pushed a soldier from his camp to the side so strongly that the man died under the impact. Miroïr felt a cold wave in his veins. He watched the man going directly to Jäwell without paying attention to anything else. He targeted him and nobody else, he didn't seem to care about allies or enemies. 

This was personal. 

Miroïr was horrified to see that the golden soldier had huge wings, invisible to anyone who had not mastered magic. He hastened to connect his mind to Jäwell's one to warn him. 

The man was incredibly powerful, and seeing this, Miroïr ordered Jäwell to retreat immediately, but he didn't listen. Jäwell was confident in his abilities even if he had no idea what was before him.

The soldier was a few steps from him and Jäwell was ready for the assault. He raised his shield and his sword. Then, he received the first hit without understanding where it came from. It was too quick, faster than the light. Miroïr focused on the fight and tried to understand what happened. The golden soldier was attacking Jäwell with his wings, the impacts were so strong that Jäwell was sinking into the ground after each shock. He was keeping his shield high and had a good defense, unfortunately, that was not enough. The shield broke in no time, and Jäwell was only protected by Miroïr's magical skills. Miroïr was doing his best but the spells he used to shield him were breaking after each impact and he started to show weaknesses. 

The power of this creature was incredible, Leïlana saw Miroïr in difficulties and tried to help him but she did not have enough strength to be effective. Miroïr's mouth started to bleed and he spitted blood after each breath. 

He couldn't stand more impacts, the fight had to stop but Jäwell was continuously attacking. 

Miroïr started to yell at him. In his mind but not only. 

"Jäwell! Retreat now!"