Ancient Empire Calendar, Year 1833
In the time following the annihilation of Marco Kislavein's armies, the Ashterah armies under Rian Ashterah's command were resisting the Arfas forces with their dwindling numbers.
The Ashterah armies had been pinned against the coast, being pushed towards the sea.
While the total number of Ashterah soldiers barely exceeded two hundred thousand, the Arfas armies, reinforced with legions, had grown to eight hundred thousand.
Rian, with his dazzling sun-yellow spells, fought in the front lines shoulder to shoulder with his comrades Qian and Cheng.
As the battle dragged on, everyone's nerves frayed.
"THESE BASTARD SOUTHERNERS HAVE NO END!" Rian shouted.
"THEY'RE LIKE COCKROACHES, THESE MOTHERFUCKERS!" Qian cursed.
"SHIIIIIT!" Cheng cursed.
As the battle raged, the commanders of the two armies inevitably came face to face.
"I AM AYAAN, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARFAS ARMIES! FACE ME, QIAN ASHTERAH!"
Seeing Ayaan, who had fled cowardly in the previous battle, Qian scorned his enemy.
"HAH! ISN'T THIS THAT LITTLE COWARD, AYAAN ARFAS? LAST TIME YOU WERE SCREAMING AND RUNNING AWAY LIKE A BABY! WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE DID YOU FIND THE COURAGE TO FACE ME?"
Ayaan easily succumbed to Qian's provocation and attacked, cursing.
"YOU DISHONORABLE WRETCH! COME HERE!"
Ayaan lunged forward with all his strength, channeled mana into his arms to strengthen them, gathered his aura in his sword, and completed all preparations for a lethal strike.
"DIE!"
Qian was still underestimating his approaching enemy.
"Look at his airs, acting like he can actually kill me."
Rian, the Ashterah Commander-in-Chief, sensed Ayaan's power from afar. He channeled mana into his eyes, enhancing his vision.
With his enhanced eyes, Rian saw Ayaan and Qian, kilometers away.
When he noticed Qian's careless demeanor against Ayaan's furious, all-out attack, he was horrified.
Without wasting a moment, he channeled mana into his vocal cords and amplified his voice.
"QIAN! PROTECT YOURSELF WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH! DON'T UNDERESTIMATE HIM! RUN!"
Qian was shocked when he heard Rian's voice, but he couldn't react. Ayaan's full-powered strike cleaved Qian's sword and body in two.
"Damn it, I shouldn't have underestimated him."
When Qian's bisected corpse fell onto the sand, fear gripped the surrounding Ashterah soldiers, while the Arfas soldiers were jubilant.
"VICTORY WILL BE OURS!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The Arfas soldiers, trampling the dismembered corpse of the enemy commander, attacked their foes with renewed ferocity.
Rian suppressed the pain of his friend's death and continued fighting.
"Idiot! How many times did I tell you not to underestimate your enemies? Shit, shit!"
Even as he tried to suppress his emotions, Rian couldn't hold back his tears.
"HAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Rian's cries, filled with rage and pain, echoed across the battlefield, grating on the ears of the Arfas soldiers.
As the battle continued, Cheng Yuan, severely wounded from all sides, could no longer even turn his head.
He had killed three Arfas commanders, but death was approaching him too.
"Hah... hah... this is the end, I suppose. I wonder if historians will write about me in history books? Will my name be remembered for centuries? What do you think, Rian? Qian? My friends, my kinsmen, my comrades... Let us meet again in the Garden of Eternal Light."
As Qian breathed his last, the soldiers under his command scattered and began to be hunted like partridges.
The left and right flanks of the Ashterah army began to collapse. While the Ashterah armies suffered heavy losses, the Arfas army's casualties were very light.
"AYAAAAAAN! FACE ME, YOU COWARD BASTARD! FACE ME!"
Rian decided to resort to his last option.
"We're going to lose. My only chance to win is to kill Ayaan in single combat. If I can kill him, I might break the Arfas army's morale and force them to retreat. Just a little more time, just a little... The Dynasty Lord, Marco, is coming with his armies. I just need to buy a little more time," Rian thought.
"AYAAAAAAN! FACE ME! Agh!"
Rian was struck in the shoulder by an aura arrow.
"What's this? An arrow? Who shot it?"
"I HAVE FACED YOU, RIAN ASHTERAH! ATTACK ME, IF YOU HAVE ANY STRENGTH LEFT!"
"Ayaan... I must kill him."
As Rian prepared to attack, he lost his balance and fell face-first to the ground.
"What's happening? My whole body is going numb... I'm cold... in the desert... Could this aura arrow be poisoned? You honorless wretch, Ayaan! Did you poison your aura arrow?"
The thoughts racing through Rian's mind could not escape his numb lips.
Ayaan, strutting as if he had won a grand duel, puffed out his chest and approached Rian's motionless body.
He drew his sword and cut off Rian's head. He knelt, grabbed Rian's severed head by the hair, and impaled it on the tip of a spear he had shaped from his aura.
He stood up, strengthened his vocal cords with his mana, and declared his victory.
"I, AYAAN ARFAS, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARFAS, HAVE TAKEN THE HEAD OF RIAN ASHTERAH!"
The remaining Ashterah soldiers had lost their last reason to fight.
"RUUUUN!"
The Ashterah soldiers fled desperately towards the sea, trying to swim away in hopeless desperation.
The Ashterah soldiers' desperate final struggles drew laughter from Ayaan and the Arfas soldiers.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! LOOK AT THEM! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Ayaan shaped his aura into a brown bow and arrow.
"SOLDIERS! PUT THESE WRETCHES OUT OF THEIR MISERY!"
The Arfas soldiers obeyed the command, drawing their bows and nocking their arrows.
"AS YOU COMMAND, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF!"
The Arfas soldiers shot arrows at the Ashterah soldiers trying to flee into the sea.
"AHHH!"
"AAHHHH!"
"AHH!"
The Ashterah soldiers perished, thousands of arrows piercing their backs, heads, arms, legs, and necks.
Their lifeless corpses floated in the sea. The fish and birds feasted that day.
That night, the Arfas army held a great victory celebration.
"VICTORYYYYY!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Hehahahaha!"
"LONG LIVE THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF!"
"LONG LIVE THE DYNASTY LORD!"
"THANKS BE TO MAH EHRAM!"
Unaware of their impending doom, the Arfas soldiers celebrated their victory all night long.