Blood painted the snow crimson as the battle erupted across the vast courtyard. The pristine white ground disappeared beneath churning mud, gore, and the trampling of hundreds of feet as Luna's forces collided with the combined armies of Moonlight and Thornvale.
A Thornvale warrior screamed as three black-robed attackers overwhelmed her, their blades finding gaps in her armor with practiced precision. The first knife punctured her throat, silencing her cry to a wet gurgle. The second weapon slid between her ribs, twisting savagely to rupture her lung. The third plunged into her groin, severing the femoral artery. She collapsed to her knees in the bloodstained snow, eyes wide with the shock of her own mortality as her lifeblood pumped out in rhythmic spurts.
