Keep your shield high! keep your shield high! someone yields from the back of the line. I barely have time to push the big slab of carved wood over my head. swish… swish… thump… thump… arrows pass by and some hit hard on the shield.

I slash with my right hand and the sound of breaking bone and the high-pitched shriek confirm that my sword has hit the mark. The beast falls down, jerks and then goes limp. Humans that send these demons to do their fighting are not humans, they are a disease to this land.

Again, I slash and my sword meets a claw I quickly spin around and slash again higher, this time, the metal meets the neck of the monster and falls down while his head rolls down in the opposite direction.

I gaze up to see and interminable army of cursed creatures that are gladly giving their life to break our line and head to our rear where everything we hold dear is. Well, not tonight, not while me and my brothers still have the smallest breath of life, we will keep slashing, poking and bathing in their blood until the land is cleansed of these horrible monsters.

Keep your shield high! Keep your shield high!…

-Stein