Under The Emperor's Eye

Beyond the Southern Border

The sounds of weapons clashing rings throughout the young man's ears as he slowly looks down at the battlefield. His army has been engaged in battle with the southern tribe for many weeks now and they're finally gaining an advantage.

"AHHHHHHH" He groans as he grabs his eyes in pain. A crown-like symbol appears inside his eyes and then a series of images starts to slowly follow. He sees an opposing general appear on the right side of the army with a huge weapon and starts decimating his army. By the time he reached the opposing general, his army already lost half its forces.

The Young Man's eyes turn cold, are you trying to take my people by surprise? You must be dreaming. He then rushes his horse towards the right side of the army where he saw the General appear in his vision.

"Commander Lance! Where are you goin-" A young soldier tried to say before the horse disappeared from his view.

"He probably saw another Vision Damian, you know better to just let the commander handle these things," said another young man who was close by.

"Allen, you're the smart one in our group of three, why don't you come up with a plan to help the commander then?" Damian says rhetorically.

"The plan IS to not get in his way. He has the emperor's eye, he doesn't even need us. Don't worry, he'll be fine. He headed towards the right side so something important might happen there soon. Let's take care of the other sides for him instead" Allen says while preparing to head towards the central and left region of the battlefield. 

Damian looks back at the back of Lance who disappeared and then slowly follows Allen to support the other sides of the army.

The Horse gallops methodically through the battlefield, at a firm but consistent pace. Lance looks up slowly while enjoying the scenery. Ever since he was 10 years old, he has been thrown on the battlefield. The battlefield may be violent but this is almost like a second home to him.

"It's been 10 years..." he says to himself while thinking back on his life.

He is now the commander of his army and has made great contributions to the empire. After this battle, they would be one step away destroying the last stronghold of the southern tribe. After that would just be cleaning up the remnant soldiers and unifying the lands. 

"I can't let anything get in the way of the glory of the Kadence empire!" He says while his eyes turned cold while thinking of the images he saw through the emperor's eye.

He approached the battle with his soldiers and the enemy soldiers. He was slaying and cutting all the enemies who dared to stand in his way. With as much fighting experience as he has, it would be very difficult for a normal soldier to ever pose a threat to him. He finally reaches the place where his vision took place. He looks over at the horizon and sees a figure slowly come into view. It would have been impossible to figure out such a powerful opponent would show up in the middle of the war and just like what was shown in the vision, he would have slaughtered many soldiers by the time a high-ranking commander on our side would reach him.

Lance knew he owed almost everything he achieved to the Emperor's eye. He felt like with this eye, he could reach the pinnacle of his life. He then thought back to the first major vision he had seen through his emperor's eye and smiled, 

"How could I not be confident after seeing that? In this life, I refuse to be anything under than first place!" He says confidently as he marches towards the opposing figure.

He reaches the opposing general and they both stare at each other without moving a muscle. Both their horses and long swords stood still as if frozen in time. There was a bit of confusion on the opposing general's face as if he did not expect someone to find him so quickly.

"There is no need for any more words, this is where you will die," Lance says as he charges forward. He grabs his sword and swings sharply downward to the general as his horse passes by him. The general blocked it while using both his hands to support the sword but still got pushed backward a little.

is that all? Lance said with a smirk as he turned around and charged again. The opposing general lets out a roar and then charges towards Lance. Enraged by being at a disadvantage to Lance, the opposing general prepares to end him quickly. Lance's eyes glow once more as a Crown-like symbol appears as more scenes flood his mind. He smiles as the opposing general gets closer to him.

The opposing general starts building up his power and raises his right arm holding his weapon high into the air, wanting to strike and kill Lance in one blow. Lance, who already saw the opposing general's overextended attack lunged forward quickly with his sword aimed at the opposing general's chest. This move is risky because if you guess wrong and the opponent can react in time, not only will the lunge be blocked but you can easily be counter-attacked. But for Lance, the inheritor of the emperor's eye, this is not an issue at all because he knows EXACTLY what his enemy will do beforehand and can easily take appropriate countermeasures to guarantee his success.

The opposing general, with a sword stabbed through his heart, stares at Lance with a face full of shock and incredulity. Lance then pulls out his sword and the general falls.

The remaining enemy soldiers ran away after seeing the scene. Lance ignores them and heads back towards where the army was originally fighting. The fighting slowly died down with the victory leaning towards the Kadence army. After losing many soldiers, the southern tribe retreats, and right before the army is about to follow them, Lance signals for them to stop.

"Today is already our victory, Do not let them lead you into a trap. Just let them go for now. We will regroup, rest, and pursue their last stronghold tomorrow." Lance says in a loud and demanding voice.

"Yes, Commander!" The army resounded as they headed back.

Back at the camp

"Do you think that kid will be fine?" Marquis Flamor says as he pours himself and Duke Zenat a drink.

"You know what eye he has, he's quite talented too. We need to hone his potential for the betterment of our empire" Duke Zenat says calmly as he grabs the drink and takes a sip.

Marquis Flamor continued, "That does make sense. I'm surprised he was the one who got the eyes. I always thought-"

"Marquis!", Duke Zenat said coldly, "Don't speak so carelessly about the matters of our imperial family".

There was a brief silence. "My apologies Commander, It's my duty to fight for the empire. I'll just focus on my part and leave the complicated matters to others" Marquis Flamor says while taking another sip.

Duke Zenat smiled at the response and they continued drinking while having small talk. 

A servant comes into the tent, "Commander Zenat, Commander Lance would like an audience".

"Bring him in"

"Good Evening, Commander Zenat, Good Evening Commander Flamor," Lance said while bowing his head slightly

"Don't be too polite, we may be your superior now but you technically outrank us. It seems you have been successful on the battlefield Lance" Duke Zenat says with some expectation in his voice.

"Yes, we have pushed the enemy towards their last stronghold. It's their last line of defense so if we can defeat them here, it would be easy to unify the remaining parts of the territory into our Kadence empire" Lance says strongly.

"It's going all according to plan. You and your soldiers should get some rest, tomorrow will be a busy day. We can't afford any mistakes that'll happen if the army is tired" Duke Zenat says.

"Thank you, commander," Lance says as he bows his head slightly again and walks back to his tent.

"The kid is truly promising" Marquis comments with an appreciative look on his face

"He'll have a bright future for sure, I'm just worried about tomorrow, will things work out as well as we think? We do not know how many soldiers are in that stronghold or what it's even being used for and our supplies are running low. If it wasn't for Lance's Emperor's eye to discover that big Lake while we were stuck in this foreign land, we would've had to go back by now to resupply and give the southern tribes even more time to regroup and counter our offenses" Duke Zenat says in a stressed out voice while holding his head in support.

"Don't think too much Commander, You have Me, Yourself, and Young Lance, no matter how many soldiers they have, we won't be too much at a disadvantage. We can win any head-on battle with the southern tribe" Marquis Flamor says confidently.

Duke Zenat smiles without refuting anything Flamor said.

After a brief moment of silence, he says "You're right Flamor, maybe it's my old age making me worry too much. I'll head out now, have a good rest".

While walking back to his tent, Duke Zenat couldn't shake away his bad feeling. It's not like he didn't have confidence in what Flamor said but the problem was what if the southern tribe DOESN'T fight a head-on battle with them? What guarantee did they have to be able to win the battle with their limited supplies?

The duke sighs as he heads to his bed. "I'll just deal with it tomorrow, I only hope that the heavens will be on our side when the day comes"

He then closes his eyes in slumber as the new day slowly approaches.