The Story

Rin stood waiting with his white armor on except his helmet, which he held tucked under his left arm, and in his right he held his sword, the War Prophet. He stood looking out at his newly formed army, the Tide. He formed this army, his armor and his sword because his brother, Sorrin had turned to madness. Sorrin had left the town at age sixteen. Then four years later he returned garbed in black, skilled in magic and at the head of an army of slugs he called the Swarm. He used his new overwhelming power to take over the region. His brother Rin rised up to stop the tyranny. Now the battle divided the region in two. Those in the north either supported Sorrin willingly, or were forced to. The south consisted of those who had escaped Sorrin and joined Rin. Many of those formed the Tide. Both sides used mightily dangerous weapons enhanced with salt. Sorrin was far more advanced. He armed the Swarm not only with salted swords, but powerful and dangerous salt blasters. Some of the Tide had scavenged salt blasters from fallen foes, but no one was able to figure out how they worked, so only the elite of the Tide got to wield them. The elites were called the Saltscarred. The Saltscarred were handpicked by Rin himself. However there were many powerful individuals who were not Saltscarred, preferring just to be members of the Tide than elites and commanders. Rin was preparing the Tide for an approaching wave of the Swarm, possibly with Sorrin leading it."Slugs of the Tide and Saltscarred," he began his speech in confidence. "The Swarm is coming. They will reach our border soon. This is why we were formed. To tear down my brother's tyranny. Are you willing to fight for freedom?""YES!" The response was overwhelming."Good. Then we have more than a chance at keeping them out of our free region, a sanctuary we built to free the average slug from Sorrin. They would need a miracle to win. Unfortunately that miracle may come true. Spy reports say that Sorrin himself may come. If so then we will need to fight twice as hard. I will fight Sorrin alone. None of you are a match for him. I wish I could say otherwise, but even I am somewhat weaker than him. He is powerful beyond most slugs' dreams. We shall win however. We have to. If we don't, then Sorrin will, and this we cannot allow. Should my brother win, he will gain power enough to overthrow me with the flick of a wrist."
A murmur of agreement spread through the ranks like a disease. They all knew it was true. Rin was already barely strong enough to stand a chance against his brother. What would happen when Sorrin became more powerful? Did anyone stand a chance of suriving him then? Everyone doubted it. Not out of pessimism, but out of realization of the truth.
Rin's best Saltscarred warrior walked from the ranks and stood beside Rin. His name was Eithri. "Rin makes an excellent point," Eithri said. "If we lose this battle, then Sorrin has won the war. Unfortunately, the chances of victory are low. But will we let that stop us?" No response. "Let me tell you something. We can't. We can't aford to. Otherwise, all of our victories and defeats from the past will mean nothing. It would be almost as if we never decided to resist, and Sorrin will live on and on, supported by his magic throughout the years. So, I'm going to ask you again, are we going to let that stop us?"
This time the response was overwhelming. "NO!"
"Good. Then we have a chance, justlike Rin said."

Four weeks later, a huge portion of the Swarm was at the Tide's borders. Rin armored up and drew his sword. He was thankful he replaced the Liberator with this new blade, the War Prophet. Rin looked among the Swram's ranks, but luckily found no sign of Sorrin. This would be a victory. Sadly, it would be a salty one. The Swarm made the first move, they fired their Salt Trebuchets, which fired glass orbs filled with salt. Upon impact with any surface, the ammunition shattered, spraying salt everywhere. The Tide's ranks thinned before the armies clashed. When they did, salt coated blades and saltwater dipped arrows and bolts flew and clashed and stabbed and slashed. Rin was at the head of the army riding a loyal ant. The ants made an alliance with the Tide after the spiders, working now for Sorrin drove them from their massive Nexus Hive, the hive at the center of the world, connecting all other colonies. Rin's ant was named Kaykura. Kaykura was the Queen's best warrior. The last Queen died in the spider raid, but a young Queen runs the scattered and broken nations of the ants from a new Nexus Hive, situated under the aegis of the Tide's primary fortress.

The battle wore on and things were looking bad, until Eithri called "ANTS!" When Rin looked behind him, almost forced to by Kaykura's excitement, sure enough a tide of the Queen's Hive Wardens was pouring out of a new Hive entrance in the ground and overrunning all of Sorrin's soldiers. It was a massacre.

To be continued.......