"I don't like this one bit." Sylvestra said as she watched the all too kind villagers bring food to all the soldiers. She refused to eat, resulting in quite an angry scowl from the villager, which only deepened her suspicion. Then, the illusion came apart. Blood everywhere, with men dying left and right from poison. [i]Mages![/i]
"AMBUSH! On your feet soldiers! To arms!" she yelled, lunging for her halberd. She spun around, Halberd in hand, cleaving a mage almost in two before facing her lieutenants, scrambling for their own weapons. "TARFIELD, shieldwall with your men, clear the front! Deflect their spells! Highwielder, bring your men around, get outside and call for reinforcements!" Sylvestra yelled, commanding men left and right. "Ma'am! There's fighting outside aswell! The whole village is an ambush!" Hugh said as he returned with a dozen men from outside. "Then protect our flank, we'll root the mages out piece by piece!" she responded, running up front with Danas Tarfield. Raising a fist in the air, light sprung forth like a beacon, and Danas' men's shields began glowing faintly. Sylvestra was empowering them so that the mages' spells would deflect or have lesser effect.

Then she saw her. Alicia, spinning through the fray, flowing like water. Her blades cut true, her light-spells striking with precision. It was beautiful, in a way, Sylvestra thought. To her, war was all about the tactics, the strategies, how to outmanouver your opponent, but watching Alicia... She almost forgot that it was actually throats being cut open and just watched the dance for but a moment. It was like Alicia wasn't even noticing, like she had forgotten about everything else than the dance. Finally, Sylvestra had to wrench her gaze away to continue ordering her men around to outmanouver the mages. The battle wasn't won yet.

Eventually, all that was left of the mages were bodies, and quite a few paladin ones too. Wiping blood from her forehead, Sylvestra drew a heavy breath. Danas and Hugh came up behind her. "All clear, ma'am." they said. She turned and nodded. "Well done lieutenants. What are our casualties?" she asked. Danas spoke first. "Five from my squad, ma'am. They were good men, but I hardly knew them. They aren't from our company, after all." he said. Sylvestra nodded, and turned to Hugh, who cleared his throat. "Only two from my squad. But it would've been more if Danas hadn't had his men up quick in that shieldwall, ma'am. We worked well together."
The two lieutenants nodded at each other. Sylvestra eyed them. "Very well. We'll have to--"
One last mage appeared in the building. He was unlike any mage Sylvestra had ever seen, and she quickly ordered the men back into formation. The mage spoke. "What a bother you lot are. Now we will have to do it the hard way."
Suddenly, he was gone, and the bodies started rising like a nightmare. Their bones protruded, creating disgusting and horrifying figures of the people they once were. This, Sylvestra thought, this is the reason mages should all be eradicated. This is an abomination to life itself. But it was when she saw the Paladin corpses rising that she clenched her fists. This time, the magi-scum had gone too far. Levran seemed to share her thoughts, for he had recovered and was dispatching of the husks in quick pace. Quickly she ordered two squads of men up on Levran's flanks to take care of the stragglers, and protect him as he went for the mage responsible for this. But seeing as the bodies were everywhere, she didn't have time to stand around. Her Halberd was heavy and large, so she threw it aside and drew her sword to be able to move easier when fighting the husks. They were proving to be tougher opponents than the mages had been. Empowering her sword with light, she blinded the husks with the glow. One strike, and the mana holding them together burned away, and so did the body. Striking down the corpse of a Paladin, Sylvestra quickly knelt down and picked up the dogtag left in the dust and armor that had fallen to the floor. She wouldn't let any soldier dead go without honor to the afterlife.