Imperials Vs. Sentinels- part 4- The Valiant and the Faithful

Part 7- The battle of Fronstfang beach

After only recovering a very small fraction of the escaped prisoners, the garrison was put on guard to stop a second escape attempt. Shade was furious.
"How dare he return here! He of all Pokemon! With his faithful sidekick, too. Oh, if I ever get my paws on him..."
Shade didn't know what he'd do. Something bad, he knew that much. Seramon was used to hearing such anger from Shade since roughly five minutes after Shade had taken power, so it didn't scare him much. He simply stood at his post and let Shade let out all of his rage, which is what he spent most of the day doing.

Meanwhile, Shade's army was preparing for the invasion of Tanashima, the samurai's homeland. Shade was determined to kill as many samurai as he had to to get to and cut down their leaders for planning such a covetous mission. To Shade, it wasn't invasion, it was righteous, justified revenge. How many Pokemon agreed with that was a different matter, however.

One thing that Shade had done in preparation for this was enforce mandatory conscription and increased training hours for all soldiers, making sure the army was large and well trained. He also had the flaming arrow's support after paying them a sum of gold. He had plans for them in the future, however.

Trebuchet production tripled in preparation for long range bombardment, and weapons production increased to equip the newly conscripted troops for the army. Shade's army looked to be a formidable force indeed, but by forcing Pokemon to fight and using increased taxes to fund armament, he was fairly unpopular as the nation's leader. Famine and increasing food prices made it difficult for the public to eat, causing the deaths of thousands due to starvation. Pokemon all over the nation were losing faith in him, and some had long before the trouble set in.

Shade used the army to suppress any resistance or attempts to overthrow him, which there were. Such attempts were mercilessly crushed, resulting in the execution of any leaders left alive. Shade planned to use terror for as long as he had to to maintain power.

After five long weeks, and as winter settled in, the invasion took place. Shade had wanted to get the invasion underway before winter, but he was still confident that they army would be successful.

Five hundred ships ships carrying two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers set course for the samurai lands, being the biggest fleet constructed since the Ornera empire's Venador fleet of one thousand ships, capable of carrying one million troops.

The samurai beaches were large and wide, meaning they wouldn't be easy to conquer. It looked even more futile when the knights saw the wall stretching down the width of the beach. Frostfang beach, as it was called, provided the shortest path to Tanashima's palace, Shade's ultimate goal. The beach got its name for one simple reason; positioned in the North,
It was always frosty and the cold temperatures were very difficult to handle without the right equipment.
Shade had prepared for almost everything, except for the fact that up to a mile away from the beach, the sea had frozen, meaning the ships had to stop and the invasion had to take place on foot. Crossing a mile of ice while dealing with the cold was bad enough, but when arrows began to rain upon the knights, it just got worse. The entire trip across the ice was perilous, and with knights dying and slipping the entire way, it wasn't made easy. The first knights began to reach the shore, setting foot on non slippery ground. Their next task was to mount the wall and neutralise the archers raining hell on the knights below. Shade, who was present at the battle, was escorted by his best troops, Seramon included, to the wall and was given a rope with a grappling hook. He swung it around a few times get some momentum in it and threw it, having it hit something atop the wall. He pulled on it a few times, the hook not budging. He then began to ascend the wall, reaching the top fairly quickly. Seramon and other knights followed, being met with tough resistance. Hundreds of samurai troops charged at them, but the knights stood their ground, holding them back temporarily. Things began to turn as more knights reached the top, and although the archers had been taken out, Shade looked at the frozen beach, seeing thousands of dead knights and a few injured stragglers. He and the rest of the knights began to head into the mainland as the luckily won slaughter of the Frostfang beach raid concluded.

As Xavier and Luca neared the end of the long, winding mountain pass, they talked about all they been through, when suddenly Xavier, with quick reflexes, brought his shield to connect with a blade. He didn't even see who the attacker was, who had sprung from around the corner, although it seemed out of nowhere. The attacker then hit Xavier with a hard punch to the face, causing Xavier to stumble backward and fall onto his back. Before the attacker could advance, Luca stopped him. Xavier the saw who it was.
"Rendan?!"
Xavier was shocked at the Gallade.
"You traitor! Why did you let that beast kill the queen? You didn't even try to stop him!"
Rendan shouted.
"Actually, I did, and he stopped
me. I fought as much as I could, only to have all of it be for nothing. So before you accuse me of something, make sure you're right."
Xavier shot back.
"You... did? I'm sorry; someone told me otherwise. They told me you surrendered like a coward."
"Who?"
Luca enquired.
"I can't remember who. It doesn't seem to matter if they were wrong."
Rendan replied.
"It looks like someone doesn't like you."
Luca told Xavier, who stood up.
"A lot of Pokemon don't like me, now that they're Shade's diehard disciples."
Xavier replied.
"Where are you going?"
Rendan asked.
"Away. We're not sure where yet, but Verana is in our past. We have no reason to go back."
Luca replied.
"Even in light of their invasion of Tanashima?"
Xavier looked at Rendan.
"What are you talking about?"
Rendan looked shocked.
"You really haven't heard? Shade increased the army's numbers to roughly one million troops. He took two hundred and fifty thousand to Tanashima to invade it. Seven hundred thousand were scattered across the region and one hundred and fifty thousand are defending the nation. Shade's attempting a full regional takeover, starting with the fall of the samurai."
Rendan explained.
"Then let's go back after all."
Xavier picked up his dropped sword and began to walk back.
"Where are you going?"
Luca asked, getting Xavier to look back.
"With or without you..."
He stated.
"I'm going to liberate Verana."