Challenge to a Duel in All Out War

It was a cold winter and All Out War had broken out all over the land. The fighting was bloody, grueling and all consuming, but no one had it as hard as the Shadow warriors. Shadow, was comprised by MBL, SIN and NWL/R11 and they had the northern corner of the map. In vain they tried to seek warmth and shelter by occupying southern villages and towns. Lordsbane, whose warriors were from the clans of TQL, AVO and FVG, were determined not to allow them and they kept pushing them up and up till only a very small part was theirs.

One by one, Shadow was losing its towns, and over and over they suffered humiliating defeats. If that was not bad enough, Lordsbane was determined not to even allow them camp in villages to obtain some supplies and kept ousting them from any place they dared to go and find shelter. Lordsbane had many fearsome warriors like Ganicus, Drachenprinz and HankHill but none was so fearsome as the dreaded Dreadeye. 

Dreadeye, with his armored infantry soldiers, was ceaselessly patrolling the land, punishing hard any Shadow warrior that made the mistake to fight. His kills were so numerous that he was holding first rank in eliminated soldiers in the entire land outranking by 100M the second rank.

Shadow warriors were living in despair. They posted scouts and were trying to fight but it only took one appearance of Dreadeye for hours of work to be destroyed in seconds. 

PinkyOr was looking at Stage 9, which was the most south part of Shadow, but you would be hard pressed to guess this, as it was surrounded by orange villages. Every time a village dared to raise the Pink Banner of Shadow was immediately engulfed in flames and the shadow warriors and builders slain. 

• No more, he thought to himself, no more.

PinkyOr was a great warrior, and had won all the possible honors that one warrior could claim in the entire land. He had withdrawn from action as his age did not permit him to fight 24 hours a day like young Dreadeye could, and had barely fought in All Out War. But even if his old bones did not relish the prospect of standing guard and fighting in the open freezing villages, his heart was young and was burning with indignation of the plight of his people. Aided by a young Cavalry warrior called Oinky and with a few other younglings who had more bravery than sense, as their armies were not strong enough to withstand Dreadeye they set off to reclaim the Shadow Land.

When Lordsbane saw Shadow warriors emerge, they moved as a matter of course to rebuff them. To their great surprise though, they couldn’t. For the first time, Shadow was holding its own and was refusing to give ground. On and on they fought, and Shadow was not running away, but was actually advancing. Lordsbane swiftly took action. They sent out warriors of different troop types, especially cavalry warriors that countered PinkyOr and spears to take out Oinky. Dreadeye also appeared. It was all in vain. Shadow had been oppressed for too long. The Shadow warriors attacked not caring about counter, not even caring if their own troops would survive. And amidst all this fighting stood PinkyOr, like a rock that could not be moved. 

Lordsbane to their credit, kept trying and trying. Feints, traps, and every knowledge of warfare they possessed, was used to stop PinkyOr and his band of warriors, but the tide had turned, and Shadow after two weeks of continuous defeats, could not be beaten. Dreadeye had to seek shelter in a nearby Lordsbane village that Shadow could not turn as they still needed to reconstruct the won villages. So in the end, Dreadeye, decided to solve the situation.

• Hey, PinkyOr, he called out, do you want to solve this between us? One or one?
• You will just run, said PinkyOr, who had spent the last hour chasing Dreadeye around.
• No, you and me, no one else. Both with full fresh armies in village 102, but no minions, no healers. First to die is out, said Dreadeye, dictating the rules to the duel.
• I will bring my infantry warriors, replied simply the old warrior.
• Yes, i wouldn’t want to kill your spears again, taunted Dreadeye, referring to a past incident.

PinkyOr sent heralds to all of his faction.

“I will fight Dreadeye alone” he warned them. “Do not let me see anyone near”.

PinkyOr, as his camp was nearer, arrived first at the village. He was holding himself upright but hours of fighting had taken its toll. Dreadeye sent him a raven warning him he had equipped himself by habit with a combat chariot while PinkyOr had none.

• I can go back, but it will be another six minutes’ wait, Dreadeye warned him.
• Is fine, said PinkyOr. Will not make much difference, he said with a small assured smile.
• Almost there, replied Dreadeye.

Indeed Dreadeye had arrived. He refilled his resilience to one hundred and approached PinkyOr. Both Lordsbane and Shadow warriors were watching breathlessly. For a moment that seemed to last forever the two opponents just looked at each other. Who would strike the first blow and lose the advantage of the armored infantry counter attack? And suddenly, PinkyOr took a decisive step ahead, and they were upon each other. 

The fight was swift and brutal. Both were strong warriors, the damage they were dealing to each other was frightening. With no healing and no resilience refilling, the duel was exactly what they had said. A duel to the death. Blow after blow, neither relenting, neither running. They were well matched, and had many similarities in their fighting. And as the duel approached its end, a bloodied and severely wounded PinkyOr emerged victorious. Dreadeye and his big chariot had vanished to thin air. Loud cheers broke out in the entire faction, and just this once, Shadow warriors held their heads high, and shouted and cheered for their warrior that won back their honor and pride.

PinkyOr heard the cheers as he was being healed and helped to his tent. He smiled to his friends, and said simply, ignoring his many wounds “Let’s hunt tomorrow again”.