The entire army stretched to the left and right of Captain Lenric's unit. With the enemy across the field from them. As the center, the entire battle plan relied on them to break through the middle of the Volancian army. Once the enemy army was split in two, they could easily be flanked and defeated. Good thing we have superior numbers or this plan would not work. But there is no unit better unit to trust your entire strategy to than my men, Lenric thought. The battle field was perfect for a melee, just another piece of the barren wasteland found between the Mega Cities. Mostly rock and dirt with little to no plant life. None but the most fearsome creatures could survive out in the wasteland. Wouldn't want to meet them anyway,never mind fight them, Lenric shivered at the thought.

As he looked to his men, Lenric noticed they were eager to test the enemies skill, confident in their own. Although it saddened him that some would not make it back, he felt safe with them at his back. Suddenly with a loud cheer from the entire army, Commander Igniv strode out to meet with the enemy Commander. From what Lenric could see, the enemy Commander was many years Igniv's junior and not dressed in any armor. Dressed in what looked like a synthetic trench coat, heavy boots, synth-denim pants and a white shirt. Looks like an armchair Commander, typical egghead, Lenric chuckled. The meeting was over faster than he thought and both commanders began walking back to their respective armies. Commander Igniv came Lenrics way, barely containing a laugh. "Cocky little bugger told me this was our last chance at surrender. Stick to the plan Captain, this is going to be even easier than I thought." With a grin Lenric replied, "Affirmative Commander, lets show these eggheads not to mess with the men of Vaiperth."

As the Commander returned to his personal guard unit, Lenric faced his own unit. "Seems the eggheads are very much overconfident. It looks like the rumors they are spreading did their job." Lenric said to a wave of laughter. "Now most of you know that im not a spoil sport, but I would really really like to burst their bubble. So lets put the fear of Vaiperth into them men!" The unit began cheering with great 'whoops' of excitement. Turning back to face the enemy Lenric held his fist up in the air. Immediately his unit began their usual intimidation tactic of stomping their feet on the ground. Not long after the entire army followed his units example and the resulting noise became deafening. With ten thousand feet stomping in unison, the ground began to vibrate even across the four hundred meter distance to the enemy army. Almost as soon as it began, the noise stopped and the ensuing silence was even more unnerving.

With that, a bellow came from further down the line where Commander Igniv was situated, "CHARGE!" Captain Lenric's unit was the first to take off at a sprint towards the enemy with him at their head. With exoskeleton enhanced strides, Lenric began pulling away from his men. He sighted his opposing Captain at the middle of the enemy army and drew his sword pointing at him. The enemy Captain, outfitted similarly to him, changed course slightly to meet his challenge. Sprinting at superhuman speeds, Lenric gave a warcry just before they collided. The opposing Captain gripped his sword in two hands, aiming to strike a powerful first blow. At the last moment his eyes gave away where he was aiming, at Lenric's neck. In that moment Lenric reversed the grip on his sword, and dropped to his knees, sliding to avoid the killing blow. With all his exoskeleton aided strength he slashed at the enemies torso as he slid past and cut him clean in half. Lenric slid to a stop and there was a great cheer from his men as the two armies crashed into one another.

As the men picked their targets and broke off into individual duels, Lenric spotted a woman to his left pointing her sword at him as she approached. He returned the gesture accepting the challenge. With a glace he noticed a familiar sigil emblazoned on the right chest of her breastplate, five platinum slashes and a star, A Blademaster of equal rank. Well, it looks like this might be an interesting battle after all, he thought with a grin. They began circling each other, looking for a weakness in the others stance. Lenric had no idea who this woman was, but her stance was perfection. She must have seen the same in him, because without warning she darted in with a quick stab of her slender sword. Lenric artfully adjusted his footing and the blade glanced off his breastplate. In response he gripped his sword in both hand and brought it down in a mighty blow. With blinding speed she did the unexpected and got inside his reach, punching him with an uppercut to he jaw. Momentarily dazed by the exoskeleton enhanced punch, he stumbled back and she pushed her advantage.

Before she could reach him, Lenric reversed the grip on his sword, greatly reducing his reach but increasing his flexibility. He parried several quick jabs and slashes. With the next jab, Lenric diverted the blow along his sword to his right and punched her hard in the chest. The woman flew ten feet through the air and landed on her back with a massive dent in her breastplate. Quickly regaining her feet, she again did the unexpected and threw he slender sword with all her might like a spear. Before he could react, the sword collided with Lenric's shield with a blinding flash. Before he could recover, the woman sprinted back in and kneed him in the face, cracking his jaw and leaving him on his back. By the time his vision cleared and he had returned to his feet, she had her blade back and was coming at him again.

After trading a flurry of blows without any clear advantage, Lenric decided to change his tactics. He disabled his SILiq armor with his neural implant to give him more flexibility. As soon as he blocked her next slash, Lenric attempted to stomp down hard on her foot. Wise to the trick, she was none the less forced to take a step back. With her off balance Lenric again gripped his sword in both hands and brought it down hard. As before she darted within his reach and stabbed at him hard. Twisting his torso slightly, Lenric took the hit. The blade punctured clean through his breastplate but due to the adjustment, it only grazed his side as it passed through his SILiq armor. At that moment he mentally re enabled the armor and it hardened around he blade.

Lenric looked into the woman's stunned eyes and smiled, "You fought well." With a precise movement he brought his sword down in a reverse grip between her neck and shoulder. With the fight over, Lenric looked up to see how his unit were doing. They looked to have taken very few casualties and had almost broken through the middle of the enemy army. Awed by his skill in defeating a top ranked Blademaster, many of the enemy began to waver. At that moment Lenric spotted the enemy Commander. Having stayed out of the fight so far, he was heading right to the center of the battle. With the enemy Commander still dressed in the same clothes as before, Lenric pointed his sword at him in challenge. Noticing the challenge, the enemy Commander pointed his clenched right fist at him. Oddly Lenric noted a bulky device on the enemy Commanders arm and black smoke rising from it.

That was when Lenric heard the screams. Not the typical battlefield shouts of pain or rage, but rather ones of sheer terror. He looked to his right where the screams seemed to be coming from and could not believe his eyes. Starting right at the end of the line, the men and woman of the Vaiperth army seemed to be dissolving molecule by molecule. It took less than a second for a person to disappear completely and hundreds were disappearing at a time. The Vaiperth army were being decimated by an unseen force and in that moment, Lenric knew, The rumors were true. He looked back to the enemy Commander, a Nanomancer and knew there was no point running. As the men to his right began to come apart, all Lenric could think of was how he would never see his wife and son again. To his surprise there was no pain, only a slow loss of feeling and then nothing.