The young officer was no stranger to battle. He had fought many devastating battles in both open and purposeful melees. His previous experience in each kind of battle gave him an advantage over the overconfident, adolescent mages.
The young boy held several powerful arms; spells to break heads, knock over towers, and puppeteer the arms of the Emperor's trusted bodyguards. He had magical protection, several powerful feet, and his icy blue eyes were always stunning in the deep violet of the shadows of the night.
However, the dragon scale armor that covered his silky black shirt and pants clashed with his light luminescent eyes. While the white, gold plated armor covered his torso, shoulders, arms, and feet, he had no protection for his head. The young officer fought with honor, but had more than once used some less than honorable tactics to protect the honor he lived for. But he had never done anything to harm his honor.
The dragon scale armor was developed by the Emperor's alchemist guild. It repelled all forms of damage, even the most masterfully cast spells. It blocked out all of the perceptions of the wearer, but offered no perception. It dampened the wearer's strength, turning the wearer into a soft, nerdy mage. The armor was a disservice, a horrible compromise that the Emperor had been forced to make in order to secure the alliances that all of the elite, military ranked mages were counting on for power. Armor that the Emperor only provided to the military ranked mages.
It was a dark day in the Imperial capital. The city was in chaos, and the mages and troops of the Emperor's army fought for their lives against the foreign troops of the warlord's armored knights.
The young officer knew it was all a lie. The warlord and the Emperor were in an alliance before the war began only a couple weeks earlier. The warlord could not claim much of the Imperial territory, and the Emperor held the populated, lucrative lands. Now the warlord wanted more than the Emperor would allow, and both sides blamed the other for starting the regrettable war.
The Emperor could see it coming. He was the one who broke the alliance, and he could have held it together, but he let greed and power seep in and corrupt the peace and order that the Emperor stood for and loved. The officers loved the Emperor and loved peace and order. But they were forced to kill and be killed by their brothers in the Emperor's army. It was an absolute travesty. It was the worst kind of betrayal. It was despicable.
The young officer recalled the first battle he fought with the dragon scale armor on. He was on horseback. His favorite horse. She was dark black, and she never stumbled once. She was the fastest horse on the battlefield, and he knew no one could catch her. He rode her on horseback through the dense forest of the plains, but several of the enemy's horsemen had formed up in formations around his position. They had placed some of their own foot soldiers behind the horsemen to block any attempt to escape. He looked around, not knowing what to do.