"Raaaargh!"

  A t brown Bovoid roared as he seized his oppo, lifting him effortlessly before smming him into the ground with a resounding thud. Cheers erupted from the gathered crowd, their voices eg through the dense forest. The victorious Bovoid puffed out his chest, his grin wide and fident. "I am the strohere ever was! Who dares to challenge me ?"

  Laughter rippled through the crowd, a chorus of deep, rumbling voices. Despite his taunts, no oepped forward. Instead, many of the Bovoids flexed their muscles, striking exaggerated poses, their pride and bravado filling the clearing.

  Their merriment was shattered in an instant.

  A thunderous explosion tore through the air, shaking the grouh them. The ughter died abruptly, repced by stunned silence.

  The brown Bovoid -clearly the leader- whirled around, his eyes wide with fusion. "What was that?!" he bellowed, his voice carrying an edge of arm.

  No one had an ahe Bovoids exged uneasy gheir earlier bravado fading into uainty.

  Suddenly, a smaller Bovoid burst from the forest, his hooves pounding against the ground as he sprioward them, his face torted in sheer panic.

  "The ants! They're attag!!" he screamed, his voice high with terror.

  Murmurs of disbelief rippled through the assembled warriors, but the distant sounds of battle, shouts, crashing trees, and the unmistakable hum of the Antari forces, firmed the truth.

  The brown Bovoid’s expression darkened, his muscles tensing. "Prepare for battle!" he roared, drawing his massive on. A two sided, two handed axe

  The air grew thick with tension as the once-boisterous Bovoids hastily ran for their ons.

  The Bovoid leader remained unfazed, standing tall amidst the rising tension. Why should he be afraid? This was the rgest and most heavily fortified of his territories, enough to tain his entire Bovoid force. Within its vast expanse, he had trained his stro warriors, all four thousand of them, If there ake a stand, it was here.

  A slow grin spread across his face, his sharp teeth glinting uhe dim light filtering through the opy. "So that Equinoid fool was right after all," he mused, his voice ced with amusement.

  He threw his head bad let out a deep, rumbling ugh, the sound reverberating through the air like rolling thunder. "Hah! History might as well be made today!"

  His eyes gleamed with anticipation, a feral hunger burning within them. Battle was ing, and he weled it.

  ---

  Aurina's frown deepened as she listeo the scout’s report. “Five thousand?... That’s a thousand more than Crimara estimated would be stationed here.”

  The scout, still kneeling before her, tinued without hesitation. “We’ve also found clear signs of a rge force marg in this dire from the other settlements. All indications point to the entire Bovoid army gathering here, nearly ten thousand strong.”

  A chill wind swept through the forest, rustling the leaves and sending Aurina’s long onyx-bck hair flowing behind her. She remained silent for a moment, sidering the implications. “Crimara’s strategy relied on the Bovoids being fragmented enough for us to strike multiple settlements before they could muster a proper response. But now...” Her amber eyes narrowed. “Ten thousand. That means we’ll be outnumbered twenty to one.”

  Aurina’s gaze shifted to the four Antari standing behind her, Anthra, Kyra, Mellira, and Vek. If the dire news ed them, they gave no indication. Kyra, in particur, wore a wide grin, her crimson hair partially veiling the dark gleam in her eyes. The others stood with quiet fideheir expressions unwavering.

  Turning back to the scout, Aurina allowed anust of wind to flutter her dark cape, the fabriapping lightly in the breeze. “Tell me, are you afraid?”

  The scout’s response was immediate, his voice steady and resolute. “Not at all, Lady Aurina.”

  Aurina nodded in approval. “Good. To retreat now would mean failure in the eyes of our master. And if we fail, the other monsters will see us as weak. Worse, they will see our master as weak.” Her eyes hardened, and an almost imperceptible smile touched her lips. “That is something we ot allow.”

  ---

  Aurina's hand dropped, and in an instant, the Antari struck.

  From the trees, the ground, and eveh the feet of the unsuspeg Bovoids, they emerged like a living swarm. The darkness of the forest seemed to pulse with movement as five hundred of Antari soldiers burst forth, their chitinous armleaming uhe moonlight. They struck fast, silent, and without hesitation.

  The Bovoid camp erupted in chaos. Warriors barely had time to grab their ons before the first wave hit. Antari spear formations pierced through thick hides, their bdes slippiween armor ptes and tendons with surgical precision. Bovoids fell where they stood, their bellows of pain lost in the cacophony of war.

  But the Bovoids were nothing if not resilient. Thousands of them roared in fury, their sheer size and brute strength crashing into the Antari like a living avahe ground quaked beh their hooves, and for a moment, it seemed as though their numbers alone would turide.

  Aurina stood tall atop a fallen Bovoid, surveying the battlefield with calm, calg eyes. "Reform," she ordered, her voice barely carrying above the din. The Antari obeyed without hesitation. They pulled back but for a moment, before striking once again.

  The Bovoids were powerful, but they were slow. The Antari flowed around them, slig tendons, crippling legs, and vanishing before the Bovoids could retaliate. The battlefield was bound to bee a sughter.

  Kyra ughed as she leapt onto the back of a massive Bovoid, her cws fshing in the dark. She drove them deep into his neck, twisting viciously before vaulting off to aarget. Around her, Antari forces moved with deadly grace, striking with a unity the Bovoids could not match.

  For every Bovoid that fell, another charged blindly into the fray, their brute force easily exploited by the Antari's superior coordination. The sheer numbers pressed in from all sides, but the Antaris would wiually, dismantling the enemy piece by piece.

  The Bovoid leader roared above the chaos, his massive axe cleaving through the air. "Hold yround, you weaklings!" he bellowed, his voice cutting through the din of battle.

  Aurina smirked. "There you are," she murmured under her breath. Without hesitation, she gave a silent signal. An Antari wielding a spear surged forward, leaping into the air to strike dow Bovoid leader.

  The Bovoid leader met the challenge head-on, pnting his hooves firmly into the ground. With a fierce roar, he swung his massive axe, aiming to cleave the Antari in two.

  G.

  Axe met cymore in a thunderous csh.

  In an instant, Aurina had sed pces with the attag Antari, her bde log against the Bovoid's on in a test of raw power. The impact sent a deafening shockwave rippling through the battlefield, powerful enough to hurl both Antari and Bovoids off their feet.

  For a moment, silence fell betweewo batants as they stared each other down, ons still grinding against one another in a violent struggle for dominance.

  The struggle ended with a powerful burst of force, bsting both batants apart.

  Aurina smirked, her golden eyes gleaming with anticipation before she vanished in a fsh of speed.

  The Bovoid leader’s eyes widened in surprise, but only for a brief moment. With a guttural bellow, he raised his massive right hoof and brought it crashing down. [Stomp].

  The grouh them erupted in a violent explosion of rod dust, f Aurina to falter mid-strike. She had been mere inches from cleaving his head from his shoulders, but the sudden upheaval blinded her, obsg her target ihick cloud of debris.

  Instinct kicked in, and she leaped back, but not fast enough. The swirling dust split apart with brutal force, revealing the Bovoid’s massive axe hurtling toward her with terrifying speed.

  Time seemed to slow as the bde bore down on Aurina’s neck. For a fleeting moment, she sidered whether her defenses could withstand the blow, but quickly discarded the thought. With a flicker of dark energy, she vanished into the shadows. [Shadow Movement].

  The Bovoid’s axe sliced through empty air, missing its mark, but the sheer kiic force of the swi a shockwave tearing through the battlefield, scattering debris and f nearby batants to brace themselves.

  With a huff of steam from his nostrils, the Bovoid leader spun on his hooves, instinctively swinging his axe in a wide arc, just in time to meet Aurina’s returning strike.

  BOOM!

  Cymore and axe collided once more, sending out another explosive shockwave that fttehe surrounding terrain.

  Aurina nded a short distance away, watg her oppo with newfound respect. 'He’s faster than I expected... and his instincts are sharp.'

  Her lips curled into a predatory smile as she tightened her grip on her cymore. 'Someone like him would make a fine addition to Master's forces.'

  Aurina leveled her bde at him once more. "Surrender now," she offered, her voice steady. "Swear loyalty to my master, and you may yet live to see another day."

  The Bovoid leader snorted, steam erupting from his nostrils. "Hah! As if! The Bovoids are the stro for all of Jura!" His deep voied across the battlefield, thick with fidence. "Bowing down to a so-called master? Don’t make me ugh! If this is all you’ve got, you and your pitiful army are about to be crushed!"

  Aurina chuckled in response, a sound that rang across the battlefield like a haunting melody. "Crushed?" Her amber eyes gleamed with amusement. "Yes, the Bovoids may outnumber us, but take a look around you." She gestured with a casual sweep of her hand. "Not a single casualty on my side... while you’ve already lost at least half of your forces."

  The Bovoid leader’s lips curled into a toothy grin, his sharp fangs glinting ominously in the dim light. "I know what I said."

  Aurina's smirk faltered, a sudden unease creeping into her expression.

  Distant shouting pierced the air, followed by a deep rumble beh their feet. The ground trembled violently, and before she could fully process it, Bovoids erupted from the forest, p into the battlefield like a releidal wave.

  The rest of the Bovoid army had arrived.

  The Bovoid leader threw his head ba booming ughter. "Let it be known that history has been made! Today, the Bovoids and the Equinoids fight as one!"

  Aurina's eyes widened in shock. "Equinoids?" she breathed, spinning on her heel.

  Emerging from the dense forest, a sed tidal wave of warriors thundered forward. The Equinoids -sleek, fast, and far more numerous than the Bovoids- charged with relentless precision. Their numbers dwarfed the battlefield, easily surpassing even the Bovoids'.

  The realization hit Aurina like a hammer. They had allied against the Antari. The bined forow numbered close to sixteen thousand. Against them, the Antari were like a handful of grains standing against an oning tide.

  Auri a cold weight settle iomach. "This is bad..." she muttered, instincts screaming at her.

  She barely had time to react as the Bovoid leader's axe came crashing down toward her. Twisting her body, she leapt into the air just in time to evade the devastating blow, but the danger wasn't over.

  A sharp whistle sliced through the air.

  "You lot overestimate yourselves. That makes you eveer fools than the Bovoids," came a cold voice from behind her.

  Aurina's heart lurched. The Equinoid leader had moved with unnerving speed, his spear thrusting forward with lethal precision. The gleaming tip was mere inches from her, and in that moment, she knew she couldn’t fully defend herself.

  SaberGlory