Knight

Shin held the sword's hilt with his right hand,  the single-edged blade resting in a small divot in the blood-soaked earth from its weight, standing still for the moment to catch his breath as the conflict in front of him raged on. The body of his fallen opponent laid strewn out before him with a massive slash wound to the neck. The invaders were unknowns, an army that had appeared like rolling fog on a moor, a surprise attack that had left the army of the Middle Ground virtually no chance to prepare. That being said, the wave of bodies was being driven back whence they came by the relentless, dogged persistence of those they attacked.

Shin was one of them. An orange fox, Sir Kerron, one of the knights of the Middle Ground, at first appeared to be dressed for anything but combat, with a tan baseball cap resting backwards on his head over a pair of glasses for his eyes. Complete with a green T-shirt, blue denim jeans and sneakers, he would appear to be a random peasant called to the front line if not, perhaps, for a long, black, sleeveless trench coat that hugged his form loosely when it was open. Appearance aside, he was actually one of the king's most loyal subjects.

Out of the front lines, there came a sudden approaching battle cry from the fox's left. Darting full force with fury in his eyes came what appeared to be a rookie amongst the knights, evidenced by not only the stance at which he ran, but by the sheer fact he was announcing his approach to Shin from some yards away. Shin casually adjusted the spectacles on his nose with the middle finger of his left hand as the knight charged towards him, his eyes only about half open...

Of all things, the knight jumped into the air after Shin, evidently trying for a devastating overhead hack to rend his steel into the fox's skull. The attempt proved to be a brutal failure, with Sir Kerron countering the leap by gripping the handle of his blade with both hands, swinging his body weight with the weapon into a slight spin. The sharp end of the large sword ended up slicing straight across the lower torso of the inexperienced one with a metallic sheen ringing from the attack. The cut not only forced the young invader to abandon his swing, but drop his weapon when the force of his opponent's sword sending him recoiling backwards in midair, landing hard upon the unforgiving earth with the audible crash of his metallic armour.

The toil of swinging the weapon with all of his body's weight behind it, though, wore heavily on the already taxed muscles of Shin, laying the sharp end of the sword slightly back into the earth as gravity took the burden from his arms. His sword was a unique one in that it had two forms: large and small. A durable series of levers and gears could change his weapon into a larger, more devastating blade that cut deeper, harder and with greater deadliness than its normal use. However, it was more vulnerable to taking damage left to a blacksmith to repair in such a state. And the extra weight meant that Sir Kerron often saved it for a deathblow, promptly unable to pull it back from the ground with how worn out he was.

The initial shock of being stopped midair wore off quickly on his foe, who grabbed his sword quickly from the ground before it was snatched away. He'd survived thanks to the multiple layers of outward plating, chain mail and a plate of iron across his stomach, so that not even his skin was broken. That did not bode well for the Middle Ground's knight, who was forced to sidestep a sudden thrust from the sharpened steel. He yanked the heavy weapon from the soil and immediately was forced on the defensive, bracing his feet against the ground as he used his sword to block the flurry of random hacks, slashes and stabs. At the moment, it was all the courageous defender could do to block the attacks, losing ground as he stepped backwards to avoid some of the more sudden moves.

Finally, Shin regained the upper hand with a lightning quick slash at the expense of yet another rookie move. The invader hacked overhead again, as if swinging an ax to split wood. That moment left his eyes vulnerable, and a swift slash from the fox with his blade had left a sudden red streak down his face. The burning sensation of his retina and cornea being filled with blood caused him to stumble backwards with a panicked, pained cry of agony, shoving his gauntlet-covered hand into his face, dropping his weapon and bending at the waist, streams of the life-giving liquid trickling between the fingers on his metallic protection.

Now, figured the fox, it was time to end this. With a few prompt shoves on his sword, the weapon slid and locked into place into its more brutal form. But it wouldn't be all. Shin gripped the handle of the blade tightly as a highly volatile mixture of light and darkness surged into the sword. An audible burning, crackling sound emanated from it as more flowed through the metal. A brief increase of light around the area let Shin know that the time was now, with his adversary still recoiling pitifully from the irreparable damage to his eye. With the last burst of strength his muscles would allow, the defending knight charged, swinging the huge sword over his head, finally bringing it down with a thunderous crash to the skull of his opponent.

The ground seem to shake beneath Sir Kerron's feet. An audible blast from the shockwave caused by the release of the light and dark energies colliding with the earth echoed. The attack's power, combined with the weight of the weapon and the knight who had laid the force behind it, had literally cleaved the hapless young rogue down the middle with sickening results. Two halves of the same man gushed away the pints of blood held in his body once they fell to the ground, staining the soil a darker red, already stained from the lives of his comrades that had fell where he once stood. The scene was near one of a butcher and his slaughterhouse from how the victim had met his end.

Shin's hands trembled as the sword fell from his hands down onto the earth. The build-up of energy was too much. He struggled to brace himself against the dull end of the sword, but to no avail. He collapsed, face down, onto the battlefield. His breathing, erratic and frantic, desperately tried to restore the energy he needed to stand and fight for his king, even as the battle was close to being won. For now, there was little use in fighting his exhaustion. He could barely even move. Sir Kerron silently prayed the enemy would think him dead and leave him alone. His face buried in the dirt, Shin could smell the coppery scent of his enemy's blood. He would be forced to endure it, at least until his allies could take him to a proper bed where he could rest his weary body.