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Posted by Apostate on 03/24/17
Tales of Valor, Part III:

One would think the Tragedy of Sanctum would leave the Valadrin with nothing and no one. But Ansel Telmar proves that false. The Sword of the Telmarch could face a hundred shavs on his own. I swear to that or my throat was never slit. With a mind as sharp as his blade the Telmarine made their renown known, as if every shav that fell to their blades or Bringer that gave its last howl, was an answer to an ancient wrong that extend far back to the Reckoning. As long as that red wall stands, we shall not fall.

Ribbons. I have never seen so many Ribbons. Soaring griffons and ribbons. A sight that the Bringers or their mindless Shavs will ever forget. I watched as the horde swarmed forward, mindless in their intent to wipe us from Avrum and continue on to Arx. I watched as the horde pressed forward so thick that one could barely breath in the middle of that melee. The Ribboned War Banner gave a lurch and started to lean, daring to touch the ground and break morale. It was the Grayson Princess Reese her blade striking true and never stopping that beat the horde back again and again until the banner righted true and the charge was carried forward. Even the bellowing of the giant, which sent scrambling veteran knight and squire alike, did not halt the Ribbon Princess.

I have never met a more dour man. Ok that is a lie, I have, he might have given me this scar. But the Duke Rubino did not need any charm on that battlefield. Shrewd and efficient. He showed that anything more was a waste of energy, an unnecessary display. Where most get lost in the bloodlust of such a battle, Valkieri Rubino's clear and calculated leadership saw the Rubino forces crash against the mindless horde again and again, each advance of those discipline soldiers carving out large swaths of the abyssal minions. As they marched forward the ground behind their ranks was littered with the dead of the horde. And when the monster of the Abyss let out his cry, Truce, the sword of Gemecitta led the way until the Giant fell.

No one dared mistake that Shav'arvani Knight for the foe we fought. Princess Serafine Velenosa likely would have used them as a fresh scabbard for her swords if they did. Her blood soaked sword earned and proved its name at Giant's Fall. Pathway, for with it she cut a path through the Horde, cutting the chaff away to open those hulking creatures of the Abyss, the Bringers, to their untimely end by her blade or those who followed the path. So quick and so ruthless that at the end of the battle despite the mounds and press of thousands of shav bodies, where Serafine stood a distinct path was made from the hills to the Giant, the path ending with her blade in the Giant's head.

I saw more than one knight, with an arm hanging by a thread or blood gushing from their very eyes, try to return to the battle before the yelling and commands from the Lady Eirene Malvici set them right back onto their asses to be tended to by the lady and her skilled medics. That day she declared they would be legends, with bandages in one hand and Flame Mender in the other. And it was only due to Eirene and her healers that some knights lived to be such legends.