Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire

The Battle of Le Pont Noir – Midday

War, in stories, often ends with a charge.

Here, it began with the collapse of breath, the crunch of bone, the rattle of screams beneath a sky still bleeding flame.

A Francian knight stumbled forward, armor blackened by pitch, his helm half-melted into the side of his skull.

He didn’t scream — he couldn’t.

The heat had scorched the air from his lungs.

Still, he lifted his longsword, teeth gritted behind a fused visor, and lunged for the nearest Romanus dog he could find.

The legionnaire met him with calm brutality — gladius rising, angled perfectly beneath the exposed plate.

The thrust didn’t hesitate.

It punched through mail, into gut, and twisted.

The knight fell backward like a dropped statue.

Cracked.