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A tortoise was kneeling in front of an altar, a two-handed hammer and a mace lying by his side and a full steel helm on the other. Steel armour covered the limbs, since they were unprotected by the shell. A belt was wrapped around his shell, which held various pouches and items, including a talisman. His eyes were closed, his head declined slightly.

A lion priest walked up to the kneeling tortoise, confident within the temple.

"Praying for forgiveness, Paladin?" The priest asked.

"No, Father. Praying for protection." The tortoise responded, never once opening his eyes.

The priest chuckled. "You've more than earned protection, Paladin. You deserve much more."

"A plate of decent food, then." The paladin joked.

The double doors burst open, revealing a fox priest. He was out of breath. They could hear the alarm bells ringing.

"Raiders are attacking the city, Father! The soldiers want us to run to the castle!" The fox announced.

The lion priest looked at the tortoise, neither concerned about the announcement.

"Are you ready, Paladin Fidel?" The priest asked.

"Give me a minute, Father." The tortoise responded.

The lion priest smiled and left the chapel with the fox priest and the many other priests and priestesses, leaving the paladin alone to finish his prayer. A minute passed, and Fidel placed his helm upon his head, placed the mace on his belt and picked his hammer up. A soldier, a wolf that the paladin barely knew, was thrown through the double doors of the chapel, bleeding from a gash on his head. A Raider leapt in, a salamander armed with an axe and shield, and hissed at the downed wolf. The Raider raised the axe up high, glaring at the now scared wolf.

The wolf grabbed the sword that lay at his side and caught the axe on its way down. Both Raider and soldier fought for dominance over the grapple. However, this grapple was interrupted by the salamander getting knocked over the helmet by Fidel's hammer. The axe fell harmlessly and the wolf soldier stood up, only to find the Raider's head and helmet to be caved in by yet another bash from the paladin.

"My thanks, paladin." The wolf said, blood coating his fur and armour and blocking one eye.

"No need to thank me right now. Ensure that the townspeople remain safe, and I'll find the Raider band's leader." Fidel responded, hefting his hammer over one shoulder, allowing it to rest on his shell.

"Aye." The wolf agreed, running off and sword in hand.

Paladin Fidel looked towards the city gate, seeing the wood burst open and a raider horde was soon charging through the street, all of different species.

He looked back towards the Raider he just killed. 'Must've been an infiltrator, then. And not just a band, an army.' He surmised.

He looked back towards the horde, now a lot closer than before. He reached around and pulled the talisman out from the back of his belt. He stared deeply at it, coaxing a power deep within.

"Heed my faith." He muttered, before raising the talisman up high.

A blinding flash of light emanated from the talisman, and many streaks of yellow lightning burst forth to attack the Raider horde. Some were killed on impact with the lightning, some became unconscious through their dead fellows being launched into them and others were unaffected by it.

Fidel placed the talisman back into its spot on his belt and hefted his hammer off of his shell. He stood steadfast against the horde, all of whom wanted his blood to be spilt.

Despite his shell, armour and weapons, his hammer was a death-dealer, killing those it hit with one or two hits. The Raiders, now skeptical about facing the paladin, all made a circle around him, the spearmen at the forefront and pointing their spears down so that he couldn't break through.

"Come on, boys! If you cannot take on one man, then what good are you?!" The paladin heard a gruff voice yell.

The voice pushed through the crowd so that he was just behind the spear-wall. A ram, a heavy scar running over one eye and half of his left horn was missing, wearing bulky leather armour and a bloodstained scimitar hung on his waist. He looked at the paladin from safety.

"So its the famed paladin, eh? Time to make this holy knight a dead one." He mentioned, pushing through his Raiders so that he was face to face with Fidel.

Fidel kept his eyes trained on the ram, who was obviously the leader due to the way he talked to the rest.

Both combatants held their weapons with confidence. They slowly circled each other, each sizing the other up.

The ram would be nimble due to his lighter armour and sword, but if Fidel could land one strike against the blade with any part of his hammer, then the fight would be his.

Little did he know that the ram was not thinking about his opponent's weaknesses too much. While sizing up the paladin, he kept on questioning on how he would kill the holy knight.

The ram jumped forwards, slicing at an opening near Fidel's neck. The paladin raised the haft of his hammer, stopping the blade and knocking it away. He took this opportunity to swing at the ram's face, but the leader ducked under the head and gave the paladin a good headbutt, dazing Fidel only.

The ram took this opportunity to swing at yet another opening, which he managed to nick just ever so slightly. Fidel turned quickly, coming out of the daze and swung wide. The ram jumped out of range and moved to cut at yet another opening. Although, he missed this time due to Fidel's shell. The tortoise swung at the ram yet again, only for the hammer's head to contact the ram's left arm. While the cracking of bone could be heard, it wasn't the skull that Fidel so desperately wanted to crush.

The ram ducked right, so Fidel turned right and swung low, the head contacting the scimitar's edge. The scimitar snapped under the forces. The paladin swung his hammer around his head and low once more, taking the confused ram's legs out from under him.

The ram outstretched a hoof, looking at the paladin with pleading eyes.

"Please, mercy! I didn't mean what I-" He tried to plead, but his plea was cut short with Fidel stomping on the ram's gut.

"Be quiet." The paladin tortoise ordered.

The soldiers of the city were charging from the castle, melee weapons held high and arrows raining from the sky. The raiders began to retreat, not bringing the ram along with them.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Later:

The dead had been accounted for and the execution of the nearby raider group leader was almost underway.

As a dumb prize for his hand at defeating the raider leader, Fidel got a front row viewing of the execution.

A sick prize for humble work.

The ram was struggling against his bonds and his captors, one of them being the very wolf that Fidel saved in the chapel. The ram was screaming both obscenities and threats, both as ridiculous as the other.

Only when his neck was lying against the block was when he had the guts to yell out one last threat.

"My band will have a new leader! They will gather the other bands once again and they will have this city and your duke's head! Do you hear me?! Do you-" He yelled, not finishing since his head was removed by the executioner's axe.

The facial expression was still one of shock and horror. The body slumped over and the head was placed into a small rucksack. The body was picked up by two guards and was hefted over and into the river that runs through this city, along with the head-in-a-sack.

The wolf soldier that Fidel saved came up to the tortoise. That was when the paladin saw the embroidery on the wolf's right arm.

That of Guard-Captain.

"Paladin, Guard-Captain Cahal, at your service. Our lord wants to pay his respects to you for your help." The wolf announced.

"Any reason why, Guard-Captain?" Fidel asked.

"Just to thank and feed you. I will take you to him."

Both walked through the streets towards the duke's castle. But one thought crossed Fidel's mind while they were.

'I was just joking about that decent meal. Might as well have it then.'