From the Embers

"Battering ram push forwards to the gate, Catapults on my mark, Fire."

The battlefield was a chaotic mess, the mercenary army stood defiant in front of their professional counterparts, Archers lined the walls, looking at them as if they were fish in a barrel. A man slowly made his way from the haggard siege weapons towards the front lines, the mercenary army split in two as the man walked through them, each man forming an honour guard for their captain.

The catapult shots flying overhead as he walked, the sound of stone wheels turning as the battering ram followed his path to the cities gates, the man stopped still in front of the looming castle walls, the city's nobility looking down at him with a smile, feeling confident the King chided" You will be dead soon, the Tusont Empire will be here to attack you from the rear, your catapults are not effective against our enchanted walls and your battering ram will be destroyed before it can get close to us. What next 'Dragon' King? Going to throw more mercenary lives at us until we relent?"

The Man in question smiled at the King, his toothy smile displaying his supreme confidence in himself, reaching into a magical storage bag, the man pulled out a severed head, looking at the king he remarked "Your son said the same thing"

He threw the head on the floor, crushing it under his boot, raising his hand to the sky he whispered:" Honey it is time for you to make an appearance."

A Monstrous roar met his whispers as a huge shadow covered the battlefield, blocking out the sun for those below it, a majestic black dragon dove down from the sky, igniting the impressive ramparts with fire before turning towards the mercenary king, swooping at him, the dragon slowed its pace until it landed on the floor.

Moving towards the man, the dragon slowly lost its scales and rapidly decreased in size, a small woman stood next to the man, smiling at him she asked" Did I do a good job?"

The man smiled, lifting the woman's face towards his own, he lent in and gave her a quick kiss before he whispered" You did well my love, now it's my turn to prove myself worthy of you."

Looking at the king the man smiled and shouted" This can only go way if want to fight this is how it goes, if you want to kill, heads will roll. If you want to win, blood will spill, we can play. This is war, everything is fair game."

"Archers fire, kill him, kill them all."

The few remaining archers looked down from the wall, the man looking back at them brought fear to their hearts, the beating of their chests could be heard by the sensitive ears of the Dragon and her husband, the man looked at them and said" Now is the time to pick aside, if you choose wrong your wife will be telling your kids that their dad will not be coming home today. Simply kill the king and let me through the gates, no one else except the nobility have to die, are you willing to lose your life so that theirs can survive for 5 more minutes? Believe me, I will kill them, the choice as to whether you die with them or not? You have 20 seconds to choose before I decide for you."

Nothing changed, the archers panicked and began to look between the man and the king they were sworn to protect, seeing that they couldn't decide, the man turned around and shouted" Load the catapults, aim over the walls, begin destroying the inner city. We can just rebuild it later, the people who die there do not matter to us."

Hearing that their families were to be Killed instead, a few of the archers broke and drew their bows, aiming at the king to their left...

*Twang*

The sound of a single arrow being shot was heard, and the world froze as people waited to see the target of the arrow...

Break

Screams of shock filled the ramparts as the queen and princess saw the arrow go straight through the king's head, the archer who shot it fell to his knees, his mind consumed by the act he had just committed. Following the death of the king, the bubbling walls of the city faded, replaced by worn stone, seeing this the commander of the mercenaries clicked his fingers, instantly, flaming rocks slammed into the areas of the walls that no longer had people on them, the walls began to heavily crumble.

Seeing that the repeated assault leads to a gap big enough for his army the commander turned to his men and said" Today the continent will learn what happens when you stand against the Ebony Dragon, We march for our freedom, we march for Justice, We march for our Reward."

Seeing that the situation was vastly deteriorating, the remaining nobility, the Princess and the Queen retreated to the main fort, their speed increased by the space magic mage that opened a portal to the throne room, once there a noble grunted" We have lost, the best thing we can do is take the remaining gold and flee the city, the man leading the army outside is Known as the Iron Commander, he treats his enemies the same regardless of their rank, as soon as they take arms up against him, they die."

The Queen rose from the floor, looking the noble dead in the eyes, she closed the distance between the two before thrusting a small dagger into his chest, turning to those remaining she snarled" Our kingdom will not end here, our family has spent thousands of years building this city to where it is now, I refuse to allow a random mercenary to take what is ours."

Thundering shouts came from the city, the Army had begun filling the city, as they slaughtered their way to the keep they chanted"We march for our freedom, We march for Justice, We march for our reward."

Leading his army, the commander was silent as he cut his way through any man who stepped in front, his iron coloured armour stained red, blood dripping from the tip of his two-handed sword as it hanged over his shoulder as he walked. Making his way towards the market district, the commander shouted"Leave the civilian goods alone, we are not here for them, they are innocent, we are here to replace the leaders of this place, not the normal folk. Press towards the bridge."

What surprised the invading army the most was the little resistance put forward by the citizens of the city, most simply returned to their homes, avoiding the army, no one attacked, insulted or attempted to slow them down. This was rare, in the countless sieges and battles that they had fought before, the civilians were harder to break than the enemy's army.

"Gremory, to me."

A tall, skinny man approached the commander, bowing slightly he said" My Lord we have pushed up to the bridge, the lower town is ours, we have yet to lose a man. We have captured 300 enemy troops, they have surrendered their weapons and are chained at the back of the army, what are your next orders, milord?"

"Now we push into the keep, how heavily is it defended?"

"The wooden gate is quite weak, the mage corp should be able to destroy it instantly, I suggest we do this and then send in the heavy infantry to seize the courtyard."

"A very good suggestion Gremory, I will lead the heavy troops in the final push, I want you to gather up the rest of the men and do a deep sweep of the noble quarters, I want all of their loot in my hands by the time I get to the throne, is that understood?"

"Yes Captain, we march for Freedom and Reward."

"We march for Freedom and Reward."

Gremory began to marshal his troops, preparing to do the sweep while the commander turned this small unit and the mage corp, avoiding the eyes of Emily, the leader of the Corp. He began to speak "This is the end, for weeks we have been at war with a greedy city-state, today is the day we take a city for ourselves, this is the birth of our empire, our control of the world begins today. Infantry as soon as the gate is gone, we charge. Emily if you would."

Emily smiled, turning to her fellow mages, she began to count down from five, each time a finger went down, she took a step closer to her commander, on zero, she leapt at him kissing him strongly, her body began to glow pink, with a click of her fingers, flames began to swirl around her, the flames cast from the other mages joined hers in an azure coloured dance, painting the nearby scenery in a deep blue hue.

Suddenly the flames stopped dancing, swelling into a giant fireball and when a small whisper leaked from Emily's mouth "Ignis"

The giant fireball slammed into the wooden gate, ripping it apart, shrapnel went flying in every direction, the commander stepped in front of Emily, protecting her from the flaming wood as the infantry did the same for the rest of the mages, upon seeing Emily faint due to a lack of Mana, the commander told one of the other mages to carry her to a safer location.

Turning to his infantry unit he shouted" Men on me, storm the breach!"