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armor and armed with various weapons ranging from swords to bows and arrows to staffs. “The weak old man with his stupid sense of honor.”
    “You've got no honor. I have always known this day would come and I'm prepared, as all warriors should be, to live by the blade and die by the blade.” The thirty soldiers charged at the lone master. He eyed each warrior with no fear and in turn met their attacks, striking the first soldier in the chest. One by one, he slashed and cut his opponents. Luray saw movement behind him but was unable to defend against the cowardly attack as a sword pierced his back. With the little strength that remained Luray managed to kick out, sending Nicolson into a tree, making the general cough up blood.
    “You will die painfully, old man, from the slow-acting toxin on my blade. There is no antidote that can help you now,” gloated the general as he got up from the last attack, still unsteady on his feet. The field was littered with the bodies of twenty-nine soldiers, the one remaining alive was struggling to breathe through his wounds, only to be silenced by the general after he regained his composure.
    His work complete Nicholson hands gestured through the air, seemingly forming some kind of intricate message. A black portal appeared, and Nicolson walked through, leaving the carnage behind.
    Alexander had stopped in a clearing a short way away to think about his next move. Hoping he was not too late he turned and ran back to the fight. Greeted with a scene of utter devastation he knelt down beside his master, carefully turning him over.
    Luray’s breathing was labored. “Why did you return? That was foolish!” Luray admonished in a raspy voice that betrayed the immense pain he felt.
    “Master, let me get you to a hospital maybe they can still heal you?” said Alexander.
    The old man reached up with his one good hand, his left hand lying limply at the side. A long cut ran from his wrist to his elbow where one of the soldiers had caught him, making it useless. “It won’t matter, my student. He hit me with a powerful poison that has no antidote. I have five minutes or so of life in me.” Master Luray flinched a little from speaking.
    Alexander started to cry. “Stay with me, Master!” His master smiled back, sure that he had prepared Alexander as best he could for the battle ahead.
    “I have nothing left to teach you, but I have one last request," the dying master coughed as he tried to get all of his message out.
    “Yes, Master?” said Alexander as he tried to put on a brave front.
    “Find the other Masters of the White Rose and learn all you can. Do it not for revenge but for peace. Honor my request, Alexander, please?” The Master implored his student.
    “The medallion will point you in the right direction of the nearest Master, known to our kind as a Guardian. If a Master dies, one of the pieces in the artifact will turn black and crack. If they're mortally wounded, it will crack first. You were my greatest student and it was an honor to teach you all I know,” he says with pride.
    Alexander took out the medallion given to him by his master on his last birthday. Holding his Master close and sobbing from sorrow, Alexander implored his teacher, “Don’t leave me, Master, please.”
    Luray coughed. “Promise me, should he regain his freedom, that you'll defeat the Lord of Shadows and bring peace to this world once again,” His message passed on, he closed his eyes and passed away before his student could reply. A weak ‘Yes, Master’ stuck on his lips, never to be heard.
    The cracked crystal piece in the medallion that signified Luray’s life force turned black, signaling the Master’s death.
    Alexander held his masters' body as further tears ran freely down his face. The bodies of the soldiers killed by Luray dissolved in the clearing as though they had never been there. Strange magic was happening.
    “I'll do as you have requested, Master,” Alexander said, this time