Scottish Highlander Vs. Duppelsoldner Landsknechte

Two powerfull warriors face off in a battle where both opponents use large swords.


The Scottish Highlander Versus the Duppelsoldner Landsknechte










The Scottish Highlander

The background:
Scotland is known for many things. Its nature, the monster of Loch Ness and ofcourse, the Scottish Highlanders. The highlanders are known nationalists who wear their kilts with pride and glady tell you about their heritage.
The Scottish have a good reason to be proud because since long before William Wallace came into view, they were fierce and dangerous fighters.
It all started with the Picts who troubled the Romans and forced the Romans to build Hadrians wall. During the medieval ages, there were the wars of independence with England that showcased some of Scotlands most famous figured like William Wallace and Robert de Bruce.

With this match, I will focus on the Scottish from the early modern period, around the 16e /17e century.
They fought against the English for freedom and against each other for religious purposes. It was during that time, that the Scottish Highlanders seeked their own place and fought everyone who opposed it. Armed with gunpowder weapons and melee weapons, the Highlanders really showed what they could do on a battlefield.

To talk about the reasons the Highlanders lived and fought, I have to get into social, economic and political reasons and writing that would both be boring and would cost a lot of time.

I will therefore keep my story short and only militairy. I will also provide links so that you can read these things yourself if you feel the need.

During the late medieval ages and the early modern age, the Highland clans fought only to protect their land and claim independence. This battle was a lost cause and they soon had to give up.
The British then got the idea to use the Highlanders in Highland regiments and let the Scottish fight for the English in foreign wars.
The Highlanders accepted fighting in English wars because they were allowed to wear the traditional Scottish attire and wield Scottish weapons. They could gain honour in battle and practise their culture.
If you guys wonder why the Highlanders had to join the army to do these things, the answer is that England forbade the Scottish tradition and those who broke this rule were send to prison.
This tactic worked very well and the Highland regiment became some of the best regiments in the British army.

From this point forward, it got worse with the Highlanders. They got treaded poorly by english and some moved to the new america. They got poor, abused and tortured. From the proud Highlanders, nothing was left anymore.


The weapons:
The Highlander carried a lot of weapons and I have chosen four of them that I found most suited for this battle or for the warrior. I will give descriptions of other weapons that I did not choose but were used by the Highlander. Note that the highlander would not carry all these weapons at the same time but thats where squads come in handy.

The short range weapon is the baskethilt sword.
This broadsword has been in Scotland as early as the 16e century and was quickly adopted as one of the main fighting weapons of the Highlander. The sword thanks its name to the baskethilt that covers and protects the swordhand that could be decorated with Scottish motives. The sword is around 35 inches long and weights between three and five pounds. Obvliously a close combat weapon, the sword had two edges to cut and a tip to thrust the sword into a opponent. It was widely used in combat and there are many manuscripts on how to fight with this weapon.
On its own, the weapon was very deadly in the user's hands but many Highlanders combined the sword with the targe for more defence. These combination made the sword even more feared and dangerous.

The Midrange weapon of choise is the Lochaber Axe. The Highlanders used a lot of pole-arms but I chose for the Lochaber axe because it is a real Scottish weapon. This halberd was a heavy two-handed weapon that could be used against both infantry and calvery.
 As most pole-arms, the lochaber axe consisted out of two parts. The first one is the shaft. Made from wood, it was around 5 or 6 feet in total. The other part is the  blade, which was around 18 inches. The blade resembled a bardiche in looks and the point at the top end was usually sharp.
As if this is not enough, the lochaber axe also had a a hook next to the blade to hook a opponent to the ground or take down opponents from horseback. It also had a buttend spike as a alternative weapon and counterweight. The blade itself could be used in two different ways. Ofcourse, they can be used to cut a opponent down, using two hands to deliver a powerfull blow. The other way the sword could be used is in a thrusting motion, using the sharp end of the blade.

The long range weapon is a firearm, the flintlock musket. I have talked about the musket before in my battles and I will talk about it again.
The Scottish musket was a costly weapon and therefore only used by the wealthy Highlanders. This weapon was often decorated with Scottish figures and altough pretty, lethal on the battlefield.
This flintlock weapon shot small lead balls and had a accurate range of 100 to 150 yards.
The musket weighted around ten pounds and could only fire one ball at a time before it needed to be reloaded. I would like to say that because only the wealthy could get this weapon, it was not used much on the battlefield but one of the more powerfull weapons.

The special weapon may be the one most associated with the Scottish Highlander. I am talking about the claymore.
The claymore, or claidheamohrmor as the Scottish named it, is a big one and a half weapon used much by the Highlanders.
The claymore had the size of a one and a half sword, being 55 inches and weighting 5.5 lb. The sword had a  cruciform hilt to protect the hands and a metal pommel to use as counterweight and blunt impact weapon. Altough the sword has had different shapes and sizes, this is the look the sword had while the Highlanders fought in clanwars and against the English.
The sword had two sharp edges and could slash and cut with lots of power when the highlander swung it with two hands. It could also thrust to inflict damage and even the crossguard could be used to attack if the opponent was really close by.
The claymore was the proud and joy of the Scottish and altough it was also used by the lowlander mercenary's, The Highlanders used them up to the 17e century.

Other weapons used by the Highlander were the Bowis bow and dorcholis arrow, the culveringis cannon, the dirk dagger, halberds, glaives, axes and the dag pistol. A lot of weapons that I did not choose but which were all very lethal in combat.


Protection:

You all know the sight of the Scotsman, wearing his kilt but little is known that the Highlander actually wore armour when he went to war.
The brigiantifilis was light armour that looked like a padded jacket and was lined with metal plates. This armour covered only the chest of the user but did its job very well. Not only did this armour protect against the bladed weapons, it is also said that it could protect against musketbullets, flatting the small balls as they touched the armour.
The picture is not the best one I could find but it shows two underofficers.

The other defence the Highlander has is the targe.
The targe is a round shield made out of two layers of wood, leather, hide and a metal boss in the middle. It was around 21 inches in diameter, usually had one or two leather straps on the back and hads either metal studs or other bosses on it as decoration and protection.
Sometimes, the shield could be upgraded with a spike that would be placed in the middle boss. When not used, the spike would be carried in a small sheath.
It is a good protection that could enable a small spike for extra damage but the shield can only be used in combination with the basket hilt sword during this battle.


X-Factors:

The motivation of the Highlander was his Scottish Pride. They fought against each other because they were Scots, They fought against the English because they were Scots and they fought for the English because they were allowed to stay Scot. The Highlanders were really nationalistic and were proud to be Scots.
These battlehardened warriors were proud to wear the Scottish garb as a badge of honour and and loved to play the bagpipes. This loyalty to Scotland was fueled by the clans.
The highlanders in clans of big families. The clans usually fought together in clanwars against others and when they fought against the English, a unit existed out of one or more clans.
Having a heritage to be proud off is one thing but when you are fighting in battle with your family beside you, you will not back down.
This Scottish heritage combined with fighting in a clan structure made for a really good motivation to fight others.

Now for the Scottish tactics.
There was only one tactic the Scottish Highlanders used in battle and altough it was very simple, it was also very effective.
The Highlanders, who fought in clans, would peform a mass charge from as high ground as possible towards their opponent. They screamed loudly and when near the opponent, they would fire the muskets. When these ranged weapons had ben fired, they would throw them down and keep on running to take the opponents down using their melee weapons.
This masscharge would bring the battle in melee very soon and the screaming/yellling men also caused fear in their opponents.
It should be noted that because every clan had a different number of warriors, the groups had never the same number of soldiers and it could differ a lot how much men were fighting.

Finally, there is the experience to take into account. I could not find anything on training but I can assume that each clan trained the warriors in that clan.
The opponents of the Highlanders can be devided into three groups. The first group consists of other Highlanders. Clan warfare was very commen and the clans fought each other a lot, usually to show which clan was bigger and more dangerous but it could also be because of a feud or to take land.
The second group is the English. The Highlanders have fought a lot against their neighbours who seeked to take Scotland. This was the first time that they actually fought against non Scots. They were succesfull in a lot of their fights and the English quickly adopted them in their army.
This brings me to the third and final group. The opponents of the English.
English had a lot of opponent in the early modern age and the Highlanders quickly proved to be lethal units that dealt with the English opposition. They usually fought in America for the English but they also fought against Napoleon, Canada and Australia against English opposition.


Links:
Here a few links for the Highlander

http://www.scottish-history.com/clearances2.shtml
This site gives a lot of history on the Scottish Highlanders and explains the background way better then I ever could.

http://www.tartansauthority.com/highland-dress/highland-weapons
This site gave me lots of info on the weapons and armour that the Highlanders used in battle. If you are interessed in one of the weapons I named but not used, I reccomend that you read the info on this site.

This youtube video I found gives information on the kilt and the weapons of the Highlander. It is a very entertaining little video.




The Duppelsoldner Landsknechte


The Background:
The elite mercenary's from the German empire are known about three things. Their long pikes, their massive swords and their strange clothing. These fashionfighters are blooded veterans of several wars and some of them even got a higer rank and became duppelsoldners.

The Landsknechte first appeared around 1470. The Swabian alliance needed a army and so they created this elite german soldier. Landsknechte means servant of the country.
Partly because pikemen and halbadiers were in need during this time, the Landsknechte found  their way in the european battlefield. With their massive pikes and huge two-handed swords, they were feared by calvery and other pikecompagnies alike.
Altough they are mercenary's, they never fought for opponents of the German empire and those who did were hunted down and killed. This happened to a group of Landsknechte who served the king of France and from the 4000 soldiers, none was left alive.
They fought against many opponents but the most fearsome were the Swiss. These were feared on battlefield as much as the landsknechte were but because they did not improve on technology, they were soon outmatched and beaten by the Germans in several battles.
The landsknechte fought for food, money, beer and religion. They got payed money and were allowed to take everything they could find from their dead opponents.
The landsknechte usually had only one pair of clothing and when the warriors needed replacement, they took it from the dead opponent, which resulted in their brightly coloured rags.
The landsknechte saw a lot of battle while serving the the empire and some of the people who served the Landsknechte were: the emperors Maximilian I, Charles V, Ferdinand I and Maximilian II. The Herzog Wilhelm IV, Albrecht V and Wilhelm V. Others were Georg von Frundsberg and Peter von Hagenbach Goertz.

Within a compagny of Landsknechte, there were a few elite soldiers. Within every four Landsknechte, ine was a duppelsoldner. These were the backbone of the Landsknechte compagny and were called duppelsoldners. They were the most experienced and best fighters of the the group and they took the most risks, hence the name Duppelsoldner (double pay)
The zweihander that most people associate with the Landsknechte was wielded by the duppelsoldner and also the fire-arms that got used were wielded by the duppelsoldner.
Because of the fact that the duppelsoldner was the better fighter and used a bigger arrey of weapons, I choose the duppelsoldner over the ordinary Landsknechte for this fight.

The weapons:

The short range weapon was the Katzbalger. This arming sword was around 33.5 inches long and had a s-shape or 8-shape crossguard. This was meant to form a protection of the user's hand in combat.
As a arming sword, it was a bit broad near the guard and become more narrow near the tip of the blade. Having two sharp edges to cut, it also had a sharp point to use for stabbing.
The Katzbalger was used primarely by Landsknechte as a backup weapon for pole-weapons, bows and crossbows.
Katzbalger means catfur if you translate it and so the story went that this weapon was kept in a scabberd of catskin but this is highly unlikely. Instead, most people now believe that this close combat weapon was like cats fighting and therefore might be more meant as catgutter.

The midrange weapon is the halberd. This might be a odd choise seeing as pike is the weapon most famous for the Landsknechte but I chose another weapon for a few reasons. First of all, the pike was usually carried by the normal Landsknechte and the duppelsoldner would use other pole-weapons such as the halberd.
Secondly, the pike works very well in a army battle but I believe that it does not work that well in a squad battle where the soldiers could easily be surrounded by the opponents.
The halberd also was used alongside the pike to push other pikes away.
Now for the weapon itself. The halberd is a versatile weapon, used in close to medium range to take out knights and fight against pikes.
This weapon could be between 10 and 14 feet long and consisted of a pole and a axe.
The pole usually had a spike on top to stab a opponent or finish a downed opponent. The axe could be used to hack or slash at the opponent and deliver powerfull blows.

The long range weapon is the Arquebus. This fore-runner of the rifle was muzzle loaded and had a matchlock. It had developed from the handcannon and could take out plate armour from a short range while longer ranges only delivered a dent. The weapon had a trigger mechanisme like a crossbow and because of the muzzle, was easy to reload. It had a accurate range between 109 and 130 yards.
The arquebus found its way all around Europe, Japan and Russia around the 16e century and it got lots of improvement. Maybe the most famous improvement was the volleyfire. This technique where the users would stand in a line and step back in the line to reload was created by the Dutch Willem and Maurice of Nassau but I did not find anything that indicated that the landsknechte used that technique and will not factor that in.
Because the arquebus was a heavy weapon, it was usually used with a stand to rest the weapon on but the Landsknechte did not use these stands. They believed that a real warrior should just keep them in his hands. Altough it is easier to shoot that way, it will cost the duppelsoldner in accuracy.
It should be noted that the arquebus was not mass produced and each one was different from the other. That means that there was no real standard.

The special weapon of the duppelsoldner is the zweihander. This two-handed sword was around 6 feet long, had two sharp edges, a sharp point, a straight crossguard and a pommel. This sword was used in a short period of only the first half of the 16e century. It started off as a large sword but later become more like a pole weapon meant to take out spears and pikes. As a sword, it was still very lethal and many manuscripts are written about this sword.
The sword weighted around 5 lb, was sometimes blunted around the ricasso so the user could have one hand on the blade and it had parierhaken. These were small guards on the blade of the sword that would prevent the sword of the opponent slip towards the base of the sword.
The zweihander could stab, slash, cut but also by using all the power of two hands, deliver powerfull blows. If that was not enough, the landsknechte could also use halfswording techniques and they could use the pommel and crossguard as weapons.

Other weapons used by the Landsknechte were the pike, glaive, broadsword, short sword, axes and maces.  All very known weapon types that would include an arrey of weapons themselfs. However, I chose the weapons most commen used by the Landsknechte but they would be dangerous with the others.


Protection:

As for armour, the Landsknechte wore something named Almain rivet. It was armour that found much use by both the Swiss and the Landsknechte mercenary's because this armour gave protection as well as flexibility.
This armour consisted of a breastplate with backplate that included tassets (tightguards) and shoulderprotection.
The metal plates overlapped each other, which gave good protection altough the armour was of low quality because it was a cheap set of armour.
The soldier would also wear a helmet of iron or steel for good head protection. The helmet did let the face free for optimal vision.
Over the armour, the Landsknechte would wear the colourfull clothing, made from all sorts of materials. Over their helmet, they would wear a big hat with feathers on top.


X-Factors:

I have already touched upon the motivation of the Landsknechte. They would fight for money and even take risks to earn more money. Altough the main reason to fight was to get paid, the Landsknechte also fought because of religious purposes and for the German empire.
The Landsknechte were true christans and would have no problem slaying others because they did not have the same faith.
They also found fighting for the empire very important. Its fine to get paid to fight but not as long as it was against the Holy roman empire and those who did got brutally slain.
Finally I would like to say that altough they got paid to fight, honour was important also and they have shown  to keep fighting to the last man, not fleeying when the battle went souer.

As for tactics, the Landsknechte usually used pikes in army battles where a lot of pikemen would stand close together, with some duppelsoldners wielding zweihanders and the arquebus. Now that they do not fight in army on army but in squad level battles, the Landsknechte would keep the same sort of fighting where they would all keep close to each other apart for one duppelsoldner who would attack from another point.

Finally the point of experience.
As with the Highlander, I was unable to find any comment on their training and will go into the opponents they fought.
The Landsknechte fought a lot of battles all over europe. Examples are the swiss, the french, the Italian, the dutch and the Spanish. They would also fight each other on  rare occasions.


Links:

And here are some links if you want to research these warriors any further. I would suggest that because the Landsknechte are very interesting.

http://www.landsknecht.com/html/history.html
This Link goes more into the history of the Landfsknechte and if you liked the tiny little bit I wrote, you guys will like this. It also describes some of the weapons used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almain_rivet
This wiki entree is good to see the armour without all the clothing over it so you guys have a good idea what the armour consisted off.

A nice german song about the Landsknechte is in this youtube video. For you guys with a nice video and english subtitles.



Edges:
As always, I will jugde the weapons based on three things: Weapon for weapon, weapon against armour and skill. But this time, I will add something else to it. To make it easier for me to decide who wins the match, I will be adding something to the edge given.
There are three sort of edges that I can give. The first one is the small egde. With this, the egde is narrow and the two weapons are very close. The second one is the medium egde. With the medium edge, there is a good difference between the weapons on some points but nothing big. This brings me to the last one, the large egde. As the name says it, one weapon is completely overpowering the other weapon.
Now my judging system works very well when comparing weapons but when I will try to compare x-factors, things won't work out that well. For the x-factors, I will only look at the x-factors and how well they will peform against each other.
Now I have explained all that, I will start with the edges.


Baskethilt sword Vs. Katzbalger
- The Scottish sword is 35 inches and weights between three to five pounds. Its lethal in both cutting and thrusting and has a basketshaped hilt that fully protects the swordhand. To make things worse, the Highlander has a targe to aid him with the baskethilt sword in battle in defence and a small bit in offense because of the spike.
The Katzbalger is around 33.5 inches long. It can both thrust and cut, using its narrow egde it can get into the flesh easily. This arming sword can have either a s-shaped or a 8-shaped crossguard. It gives good protection against slashed to the wrist.
Both swords can thrust and cut with devastating effects. They are almost as long as each other, with the baskethilt being 2 inches longer. The Scottish sword also has a baskethilt that cover the whole hand while the katzbalger does not have that protection and only has a S or 8 shape for protection.
Lets also not forget that the Highlander has his targe to help him in the battle while the German fighter has to only his sword to fight the duel.

- Weapons against armour is the next part to look into. The baskethilt sword is a great sword but I expect that it cannot penetrate the armour of the Landsknechte. This means that the only targets its has are the legs, arms and face. The spike on the targe will not be able to penetrate the armour either.
The katzbalger also has armour to deal with but of a different sort. The Highlanders worde padded jackets studded with metal plates. This armour was said to be very tough and would stop any bladed weapon. I am shure that it would stop the sword as well. But the jacket only covers the upperbody, leaving the rest of the warrior bare. The Scottish warrior does have a shield to help himself. The targe can block any attack, the opponent throws.
To me it is hard. The German warrior is slightly more armoured while the Highlander has a shield to aid him. There is one more thing I have to account for. I found that the almain rivet was in poor condition because of the use of cheap metals. This will make me think that it will break down faster then the brigiantifilis if the fight drags on. If i consider this last piece of information and think about the fact that the shield can block attacks that are aimed all over the body and can protect parts that are not covered in armour.

- Now comes the skill. Both warriors were great swordsmen who had a lot of training. Usually I cannot see much difference in this part but this time, there is a difference. Altough both warriors had training, the Landsknechte used the katzbalger as a backup weapon. This means that the would spend less time training with it then the Highlanders did with the baskethilt sword, as the highlanders used this sword as main weapon. Not only the training is less, but the fighting with the weapon itself will be less then his opponent.

- To conclude this all, I can be rather simple. The katzbalger is a great and dangerous weapon. It is very good in close quarters and will be very functional when the duppelsoldner looses his weapon but the sword of his opponent is just better. The baskethilt sword itself is already better but the combination with the targe is just overwhelming. This first edge is already a large edge and I think I do not need to explain more about that.
Large egde: Highlanders


Lochaber axe Vs. halberd
- The Lochaber axe is a weapon to be proud off. It is around six to seven feet in total and has some lethal potential. It looks likes a big axe and can be used as such. But the top point is very sharp to enable thrusting attacks and it has a hook to take a opponent to the ground. If that is not enough, this weapon has a buttspike as counterweight and backup use.
This weapon could be used to take down both infantry and calvery using powerfull attacks. This weapon is two handed, that allows for striking with more power but disables the use of a shield.
The weapon of the doppelsoldner was the halberd. 10 to 14 feet in total, it was a destructive weapon that could take out a opponent in different ways.
First of all, there is the axe that could slash and hack any opponent down with ease. Then there is the hook on the other side to take somone down or pull shields away. Lastly, there are the two spikes. One on top of the weapon to thrust and one at the bottom to be used as backup weapon and counterbalance.
Altough the two look nothing alike, they are very similair. Both weapons have a axe at one side and a hook at the other. Also both have the buttspike. But where the lochaber axe has a big axehead, which is sharp at the top, the halberd has a small axehead and a spike on top of the weapon. also the hook is completely different in both weapons. Now the halberd is a good 7 feet longer then its counterpart and that is a very usefull advantage. The other good advantage is that the halberd has a spike to stab a opponent. Altough the lochaber axe can use the pointy end of the axe to stab as well, it is not as good as a real spearpoint.
The lochaber axe has its advantage as well. It has a bigger axehead, which means it can give a stronger punch.

- Now for the weapons against armour. First of all, I would like to say that i can see that both weapons will be able to defend as well as attack. Ofcourse both weapons have hooks to take weapon of the opponent out. Not only could the hooks pull weapons away, they can also pull on armour and bring the opponent down.
Both weapons can thrust but I doubt with much effect. However, since the halberd does have a actual spike and the lochaber needs to use the upperpart of the axe i can say that the halberd will be better at thrusting into the body of the opponent. It should be noted that both warriors can hit the face, while stabbing and kill instantly.
Each weapon has a axe head that can deal much damage. Altough I believe the cutting egde will not do much damage in against either set of armour, it is interesting to note that both weapons can deal blunt damage with the great power that is delivered by the hit. I should say that the armour will still protect well and the blunt damage will not kill on itself but it can take out the armour of both warriors after several hits.
Now to ask, which axe head will destroy the armour of the opponent earlier? This question is easy to answer by looking at the axe heads. The Lochaber axe is clearly bigger then the axe of the halberd and therefore, it will have more of a punch behind it and can destroy the armour of the opponent sooner.

- Here comes the skill. Both warriors were good in using these polearms and could take out a opponent with them. However, the halberd was used as one of the many weapons by the landsknechte. And altough they were used a lot, the duppelsoldners tended to use other weapons a lot also. The Highlanders were proud of their Scottish weapons and they used the lochaber axe as one of their main weapons.
Because the Scottish warriors used their midrange weapon more then the Germans did, I believe that the Highlanders have a tiny edge in skill.

- Now for the hard part. I have made a  good comparison between these two weapons and it is very close. The halberd scored points because its longer and it is better at killing, considering that the attachments work better. But the lochaber axe works slightly better at armour and it has more skill behind it.
If I picture a fight between these weapons, I think that the halberd has a slight egde, just because the better hook and the spike work in its advantage. Also, it has more lenght.
Because it was such a close comparison, I think I will surprise nobody by saying that it is a small edge. The reason why it is a small edge and not a medium edge is, because lochaber axe has somewhat more power behind it and nobody will suspect the sharp point on the axe for actually being able to thrust.
small edge: Duppelsoldner landsknechte


Flintlock Musket Vs. Arquebus
- Now for two firearms in this battle between giants. I should say directly that the flintlock musket is the more modern weapon. That it is the more modern weapon does not mean that the musket has the egde.
First of all, the ways of fire. The musket uses flintlock while arquebus used a matchlock. The flintlock is obvliously more modern but that is mostly in the technique. it would fail less then the matchlock. Both have a trigger to fire but with the flintlock, the gunpowder was ignited in the weapon while the match for the matchlock was outside of the weapon.
Both weapons had the same problems though. They could only fire once before being reloaded, they could misfire or fire by accident. Loading each weapon took a long time and everything had to be done carefully, which is extra hard in a combat situation.
The musket had a maximum range of 150 yards while the arquebus had a maximum range of 130 yards. This means that the musket could hit the opponent earlier. The musket seems to be the better weapon now but I will remind you that only very few Highlanders could afford such a weapon and it was very rare in battle. That means that only one Scottish Highlander will be able to use one in this fight.

- Now for the weapons against armour. I can be very short about this because i found some very good sources on this. The Scottish brigiantifilis is a jacket with metal plates and it was meant to stop musketballs. This means that the arquebus has little chance of killing when the germans aim at the chest and that they will need to fire at the head directly for a kill.
The almain rivet was a good defence and if you count the helmet, the plates will protect well. The problem is that the quality of this armour was less then perfect and I'm shure that if the armour would stop one bullet, a second would kill. That is if the armour stops that one bullet at all. The helmet will protect the German against headshots but i suspect that it will work little better then the body armour.

- Now the skill. First of all the Scots with the musket. The musket it a hard weapon to master. Loading, aiming and shooting is very hard if you are not trained enough, especially in a warzone. Now I have said that only the most wealthy of the highlanders could afford this weapon, which means it was treasured and cared for. But that also means that this weapon saw little action on the battlefield and because of its price, I doubt there will be a lot of practice with it. On the other hand, the user of the weapon does have a certain pride with the weapon and will try his best to prove the worth of the musket in battle.
The accuracy of the arquebus is not good either. It does not have a good aim on it and usually, it would be shot from a standard but the landsknechte shot it from the hand, making the accuracy even worse.
Now i do think that the landsknechte practised with their weapons. The arquebus was cheaper and they would have more of them but considering that each arqebus was different from the other, I think that if one warrior had learned how to use one of them and got another one in his hands, he would begin training with it again all over.

- Overall, even though these are the most advanced weapons, they are less then impressive. These early firearms misfired a lot and one small messup in loading or aiming and you can start over again without having fired a single bullet.
Now for these two weapons, it is clear that the musket is the better weapon. It is more advanced and it will do better against the armour of the Germans. There is however one small problem. They were very rare on the battlefield.
Now it is obvlious that the Musket gets the edge but i need to see what kind of edge it gets. Under normal conditions, I would give the musket a big edge but because it was rare on the battlefield, it will only recieve a medium egde.
Medium edge: Highlanders


Claymore Vs. Zweihander
- This may be the battle between the most famous and most dangerous weapons of these two warriors. Both the claymore and the zweihander were big swords that could kill a opponent with ease and may be the most famous one.
The claymore was very simple in design. This one and a half sword was 55 inches long and weighted 5.5 lb. The sword consists of a blade with two sharp edges and a tip for thrusting. Then there is the crossguard that protects the hands and can dish out some damage as well. Finally, we have the grip and the pommel. The pommel was used as a counterbalance but could also be slammed into the opponent for some blunt damage.
The zweihander is a lot the same, with a few differences. The zweihander is around 6 feet long and weights around 5 lb. It also has a small guard on the blade that prevents from the opponent sword slipping towards the handguard. it can also be used to push the blade of the opponent away to create space.
I should also note that because the claymore is a hand and a half sword, it can be used with one hand and even used with a targe. Having said that, I have found no evidence that this sword was used with in combination with the targe but it is possible and I will keep it in mind.

- When we put these weapons against the body armour of both warriors, we see the same results as earlier. Both warriors will be protected against cutting and thrusting but with the power behind these weapons, the sword can crush both pieces of body armour. And again, because the armour of the duppelsoldner is weaker, it will fail first. As for the helmet of the Landsknechte, it will hold on for some time but fail and break in the end.
Now there is the possibility that the Highlander will use the targe along with the sword. The targe is a good defence but will not work that well against the big zweihander.
First of all, If a Scottish warrior would hold both the claymore and the targe, he cannot get as much power behind the blow as when he would use both hands for the swords. Furthermore, the targe is rather small the sword can attack past the targe with ease. It does provide some defence though and it will not break down.

- As for skill, i can be very simple. Both warriors had a lot of skill wielding these weapons. There is a reason why both warriors were famous with these weapons. They trained with them and used them in almost every battle. Both types of warriors would have know how to wield these weapons expertly and I cannot honestly say that one would have mastered his weapon more then the other.

-  Now to decide which weapon gets the edge. Both swords do a great job at that what they are meant for: killing. But which of these great swords does its job a tiny bit better.
Overall, the zweihander has a advantage. It is longer, it weights less and the guards on the blade does not do it any harm either. However, claymore can take care of the armour of the opponent better and has the possibility to be used with a targe.
I have talked about all the advantages and disadvantages, so I will not repeat myself. It comes down to what i think is more important: weapon or armour. For this instance, I will be going with weapon. Armour is great and that the german armour is weak will hurt him badly but these swords are very good at blocking and especially with the zweihander, there are some nasty techniques. If the sword blocks good, then the claymore will not be able to reach the armour. I also have talked about how the targe can get overwhelmed by the lenght of the zweihander.
I will be giving my edge to the zweihander but it is a rather close edge and the claymore follows not close after.
Small edge: Duppelsoldner Landsknechte


X- Factors

Motivation:
Pride, loyalty to Scotland, heritage and family Vs. Religion, honour, money and the German empire
Both warriors have good reasons to fight. Both fight for their country, with the Highlanders fighting for Scotland and the Landsknechte fighting for the german empire. They both have honour and pride while they fighting but where the Highlanders fight with and for their family, the duppelsoldners fight also to gain money.
Now it might seem a bad thing to fight for money, but the duppelsoldners actually got extra money for taking extra risks. Both warriors have clearly good reasons to fight this battle.
As for who gets the edge in motivation, I have to ask who would keep on fighting to the last man. Who would keeps the spirit up when the battle turns souer.
This question is harder to answer then it looks since both groups are known to fight to the last man.
Hoewever, if i take into consideration that the Highlanders fought in clans, which means that they fight with family and they knew that the family back home was in peril if they lost then the Higlanders have a very strong case. The Landsknechte have good reasons to fight but The Scots just have a edge because they fight for their family and the safety of their country.
Medium Edge:  Highlanders


Tactics:
Charge Vs. keep together and surprise
- Both warriors use a totally different tactic when they fight. The highlanders keep their faith in charging ahead while screaming loudly, while the Landsknechte group together and wait for the assault, to counter it and have one man apart from the rest to inflict damage.
Now it is directly obvlious that the tactics of the Highlander will fail when when its facing the Landsknechte.
While the Scottish warriors will charge towards their opponents, the Landsknechte will simply wait and allow their opponents to get closer while keeping in formation. The landsknechte then can start killing while their enemy's are running towards them.
When the Scots are close by, the Germans can keep in formation and support each other while fighting.
Large Edge: Duppelsoldner Landsknechte


Experience:
Clan warfare, English and opponents of English Vs. opponents of holy roman empire
Both warriors fought all over europe and have encountered similair foes. They will know most of the weaponry and know how to deal with it. The same goes for the armour altough the Scottish do get a few pointers extra because they carry two weapons that is not very well known outside of Scotland, the lochaber axe and the targe. This is only a very tiny edge though, because the lochaber axe has similarities to other poleweapons and the targe looks very similair to a buckler, only bigger.
Small edge: Highlander


The fighters

Highlanders:
Malcolm (leader)- Claymore
Bruce (son of Malcolm) -Baskethilt sword, targe
Ewan (son of Malcolm) -Lochaber axe
Alan (Brother of Malcolm)- Musket, baskethiltsword
Angus (Brother in law of Malcolm)- Claymore
Duncan (son of Angus)- Lochaberaxe, baskethiltsword


Duppelsoldner Landsknechte:
Hans (Leader)- Zweihander, katzbalger
Gerhard- Arquebus, katzbalger
Johan- Arquebus, katzbalger
Frederick- Halberd
Herman- halberd, katzbalger
Andreas- Zweihander


The fight:

The rain and thunder came down over the small group of men. These six soldiers had set up camp near the english coast two weeks ago and were still waiting for the strangers to show up. England was close to war with the Roman empire and the king had convinced some of the best warriors of this empire to come and fight for the English. Now the king had send these Scottish Highland warriors to guide the these men towards London where they would be fully installed as new soldiers.
'Will they ever show up?' Alan asked Malcolm as the man entered the main tent. Malcolm had been assigned the leader of this welcoming party because he was the head of the clan of the Flying Swines. 'Not shure.' was all Malcolm could say. 'We just have to wait a few days more and otherwise send word to the king that nobody has shown up yet.' Malcolm disliked sending a negative message to the English king, the Clan of the flying Swines had always furfilled their duty's and shown loyalty to the crown, hence why they got this special job.
Just as Angus was about to say something, the tent got pushed open and the wet face of the young Duncan appeared. 'A man is coming up the narrow pass.' The three men inside the tent quickly got out and allowed Duncan to bring them to the pass. 'Armed?' Angus asked his son. 'No father. I could not see any arms, nor any other men.' At hearing this, both his father and Malcolm cursed, hoping that it was just a lost farmer and nothing else.
As the four men arrived at the pass, they saw a bloodied man in ripped clothing walking towards them. Malcolm could spot a few wounds from away and as the man walked closer, more damage on the man got visible. 'Are you English?' The stranger asked. 'Close enough.' answered Alan with a bitter smile. The stranger got a surprised look on his face and Malcolm decided to add: 'We fight for the English. We are Scottish.' Now the man showed relief on his face and he started speaking. 'I am persued. Our group was towards you when we were ambusss... attacked by some of our former friends.' The English of this man was not good but the Scottish got the general idea. ' They follow me.' The man continued. The stranger then was about to speak again when he collapsed on the ground.
Malcolm saw the unconcious man on the ground and knew they had to take action. 'Alan and Duncan. Bring this man into the main tent and then come back here. I think we have a fight on our hands.' The two highlanders moved to obey orders as Malcolm set a horn to his lips and blew a loud deep sound. This would call his two sons from their guardingposts. The Clanhead knew he would need all his men now.

'Why couldn't they leave for a hot country?' Gerhard asked out loud after he spat some rainwater in the grass. Nobody answered but Hans gave a soft grunt. They were following the last of the traitors and Hans knew that he had to be taken out quickly. Just before their emperor was about the start this war against England, some Landsknechte had decided to turncoat, probably for the money. Hans hated these type of cowards. You either fight for the holy roman empire or you do not fight at all, was his idea. He hated this bunch especially considering that they had belonged to his group and he felt responsible.
After finding out the turncoats had left for England, Hans had collected his five best duppelsoldners and started the hunt against his former friends. Most of these traitors were dead now but one still lived and was trying to reach England.
The group of six walked another few miles without saying anything, when Frederick called out. 'Tracks in the mud.' Hans looked at the tracks that obvliously belonged to a man and considering the blood that was all around the footsteps, he knew they had the last traitor in sight. 'Speed march.' He commanded and the others doubled their speed instantly.
The duppelsoldners ran, following the trail of the traitor when they saw men on a hill above. 'Halt.' came the command and the other stopped. Two men were standing up the hill and neither man looked like the traitor. These men were armed but considering the Landsknechte were with six and these men only with two, Hans was ready to take these down. Then Hans saw how two others joined the first two on the hill and a few seconds later another pair came to join in. It would now be six against six and Hans now knew that it would be a tougher fight.
'Men stand close. Johan, up in the bushes.' Hans commanded. 'Weapons on ready.' he added. If they were gonna fight, he would let those strangers get to him.
(Highlanders 6- Landsknechte 6)

The Scottish charged. A few moments after Duncan and Alan had left, the opponents that the stranger warned aout had shown up and Malcolm had waited patiently for his sons to join and for his brother and nephew to come back before he gave the command. When they were all collected on the top of the hill, he had given the command to run downwards. The Scottish yelled and screamed as they ran down like mad swines. When they were nearly down, Alan stopped and fired is musket at these German opponents. He then drew his baskethilt sword and ran on.
The landsknechte were ready for the attack and they were only a little surprised by the chosen methode of attack that these opponents used. Clearly, running headlong into them was not the best of ideas but Hans did not mind. The Germans stood ready to recieve this attack as a gun was heard and Herman suddenly fell on the ground. Hans saw a bloody mess in the neck of this duppelsoldner and ordered his gunmen to shoot.
Gerhard aimed his arquebus and fired it at one of the young fighters. None of them was wearing a helmet and he aimed at the face but his shot was off and instead hit the chest of this young fighter. The young fighter fell backwards on the grass but no blood was visible.
Before Gerhard could load again, he saw that the opponents were to close and he dropped his gun in order to draw his katzbalger.
The battle then really started as the men clashed against each other. Gerhard immidiatly faced Bruce, who blocked a attack using his targe and slashed the german at the swordarm. Gerhard dropped the sword in pain and could not avoid a thrust that pierced his throat. As the young clansman drew his sword back, a weapon went off and he fell backwards in pain as his face teared open. Johan, who had missed his first shot had managed to reload quickly and keep his gunpowder dry in order to kill one of the opponents. He did not have time to enjoy the kill as he saw that someone with a big sword that looked much like their zweihanders was running towards him.
( Highlanders 5- Landsknechte 4)

Johan dodged the attack from Malcolm by stepping backwards. Another step backwards made shure that the blade only hit the cheek of the duppelsoldner lightly and when he stepped away another time, he hit a tree. He knew he was lost when the Scotsman attacked him with fury and the big sword ended his life.
On the other side of the battlefield, Hans was fighting Angus. The two big beared men fought with all their power. The rain was still pooring down heavily and it clouded their sight.
Hans slashed at Angus but missed his attack. Angus then countered and rammed his sword against the chest of Hans. The colourfull clothing teared away and the dented armour became visible. Angus saw that this armour could become a weak point and aimed another attack. This time he was the one who missed and Hans countered with a blow to the head that the Scottish could block just in time. Both men attacked and the swords locked in a powerstruggle. Neither appeared stronger then the other and the two men tried to force their way into the defence of the other, when Hans suddenly used his crossguard to push the blade of his opponent away and he landed a solid hit in the face with his pear shaped pommel.
Both men heared bones crack in the face of the Highlander and Hans moved to the side. Angus shook of rain and blood and could not spot the german, who then used the zweihander to slash into the back of the skull of Angus. The man died before his face hit the mud.
 On another spot, Frederick and Duncan were fighting for their lives. Both men used polearms and tried to gain on his opponent. Frederick used his longer halberd to get more into range while the younger Duncan moved around and slashed the weapon of his opponent away. Another stab from Frederick was countered by the axe of the lochaber axe and Duncan pushed on, hoping to use the sharp point on his axe-head to finish the fight. Frederick stepped out of range and slashed with his axe but missed completely as Duncan moved away. Duncan then used the hook on his weapon to try to pull the halberd away but he only managed to pull his opponent towards him. As Frederick almost collided with Duncan, he moved his halberd in front of him. He then used the buttspike to stab his opponent in the foot. Duncan screamed in pain and before he knew what was happening, he got pulled down by the hook on the halberd. Frederick then stabbed Duncan with the spike on top of his weapon and ended the life of the young Scotsman.
Frederick was used to killing and did not take a second notice as he stepped over the body, looking for another opponent. That opponent found him and before he knew what was happening, he felt the cold steel of a axe in his neck and his vision became black. Ewan, who had been shot in the chest earlier had stood up, thanking his brigiantifilis for stopping the bullet.
He had then watched the battle unfold and as his nephew was losing, he came into action. He had been unable to save Duncan but at least he had killed the murderer.
As he turned to watch the battle again, Ewan saw how his uncle Alan was fighting a man with a sword that looked alot like a slightly bigger claymore.
Alan knew he was at a disadvantage with his one handed sword and at this point, he wished he had invested money in a targe. The german slashed with the big sword and Alan was just able to block the attack, altough the blade glided over his handguard. He then jumped into the guard of his opponent, seizing the moment to kill his opponent but his sword hit the helmet of the German and before he could land another blow, he recieved a crossguard in his stumach. He stepped backwards, where he had to block another powerfull attack. His sword almost broke in half but it survived. Alan then stepped aside as quick as he could and attacked the German with one of the most powerfull slashes he could pull off. The man simply blocked the attack with the zweihander and turned the block into a stabbing attack. Before the Highlander knew what was happening, the big sword rammed itself into his mouth and throat. He fell on the ground, where he tried to breath but failed and in seconds, he was dead.
( Highlanders 2- Landsknechte 2)

Now only four fighters were left, on either side two.
Malcolm was fighting Andreas. The two men with their big swords kept each other on a distance and hit either each others weapons, armour or nothing at all.
While they were busy, Hans was fighting Ewan. The sword of the duppelsoldner was as long as the polearm of the Scottish and the two kept each other at bay. Ewan attacked and Hans blocked the attack. The then tried to push the lochaber axe of his opponent away with his crossguard but Ewan retreated just in time.
The two looked at each other, both faces having a white colour. The two then clashed again Ewan retreated after this. He swung his weapon around him, which Hans mistook for a opening. Hans jumped in to deliver the final blow while Ewan stepped backwards and used the force of the swing to ram the zweihander out of his opponents hands. Hans looked surprised for a second but reacted as Ewan came to kill the disarmed opponent. Hans stepped away from the axehead and grabed the wooden pole in his hand. The two then started to pull on the lochaber axe but Hans was clearly stronger and was winning. Ewan let go of his weapon and stepped towards Hans. The landsknechte was ready for such a surprise attack and he let go off the poleweapon also. He blocked a punch dealt by the young Scotsman and delivered a vicious blow in the face himself. Ewan felt how his nose broke and he stepped backwards, only to stumble over a rock and fall down.
Hans grabbed his zweihander again to finish this fight as he glanced to the other two combatants. He saw how Andreas slided over some mud and lost his balance. The seasoned warrior fell down on the ground and Malcolm used that moment to kill him. Hans let the young Scotsman be for the moment, planning to finish him off later. He stepped towards Malcolm and as the older Scotsman turned to face this new foe, Hans slashed at his legs, cutting the hamstrings. Malcolm fell on the ground as he screamed in pain and Hans swung his sword, decapitating the leader of the Scots.
Ewan saw how his father died and considered running for a moment. But he knew that with running, the battle was lost for shure and that he had to avenge his family and protect the family at home.
He ran towards the body of his fallen brother and gathered the sword and targe, trying not to look at the missing face.
Hans walked confidently to the younger opponent and launced several attacks that Ewan was just able to block.
Another attack pushed the baskethilt sword out of the hand of the young Scot and Hans made ready for the killing blow. Instead of stepping away, Ewan stepped towards the German and rammed the spike on the targe into the left arm of the Landsknechte, hitting both muscle and nerves. Hans dropped his sword in pain and Ewan drove the spike into the chest of Hans. The armour gave way the spike struck flesh. Enraged and in pain, Hans pushed his opponent away and then threw the targe on the ground. While Ewan grabbed the baskethilt sword, Hans chose the katzbalger. Due to the damage on his left arm, he was unable to use the twohanded weapon anymore and had to fight with his backup weapon, now wishing he had trained more with it.
The two exchanged blows again and it was now Ewan who was superior. He moved around his opponent and dealt some harsh attacks bot recieved them as well. The two fought on for a few seconds, when Ewan managed to get past the blade of his opponent and slashed at the fingers of Hans. The attack worked and Hans lost grip as he lost two of his fingers. He tried to grab the sword with his pained left hand but Ewan put all his power in a thrusting attack that got past the armour and hit the chest, close to the spot where the the targe had hit earlier. Hans fell down in pain, his eyes watery. He struggled to stand up and continue and failed. Ewan walked up to him and spoke the last words that Hans would ever hear. 'This is for my family!'
(Highlanders 1- landsknechte 0)

Ewan walked away from the body of his opponent and made it straight towards his father. 'I will continue our family and bloodline father. People will remember the clan of the flying swines.' After these words, he took the claymore from the ground and walked towards the camp. There was no time to bury the bodies now. He still had to finish the task set out by the king and as new head of the clan, he had to do it.
As he made it into the tent where the german lay, he noticed the man was dead. He had died from his injuries.

Winner: Scottish Highlanders




The aftermath
In this battle, I used a new system of deciding the winner. I have explained my small,- medium an large edges already but what I did not explain yet was that i coupled these edges to a number of points.
A small edge is 0.5 points. A medium edge is 1 point and a large edge is 1.5 points. Then it was easier for me to count the points and decide on a winner.

The highlanders recieved
Large edge:    1.5 points
Medium edge: 1.0 points
Medium edge: 1.0 points
Small edge:      0.5 points
Total:               4.0 points

The Landsknechte recieved:
Small edge:     0.5 points
Small edge:     0.5 points
Large edge:     1.5 points
Total:               2.5 points

This conclusion actually makes sense to me because altough the landsknechte had a far better tactic, they come short in weapons. When they got a weapon edge, the highlander was close behind and when the highlander got such a edge, the Landsknechte could not get close behind enough. What hurt them as well was their cheap armour. If the Landsknechte would have bought good almain rivet, this battle could be completely different.
The targe helped the Highlanders a lot in this battle, as did the baskethilt sword. In my opinion, they deserve the victory.


Next battle:
The next battle will be one of bending versus technology as Avatar Aang faces Robin the boy wonder in battle

More Info

As I have told you guys, I am going to put my energy into writing a story. But I have found out that I need to do projects beside my story to keep myself entertained and my mind fresh.

These projects will be in the form of both historical and fantasy matches. I will describe these matches later in this blogpost and will first describe the things I will add to the battles to improve them.
As everyone who writes battles, I always try to improve my writing and make the battles more believable.
This has let me to include not only more information but also a new categorie in which I will judge the coming battles.

First of all, I will be using squads of six people with one of them being the leader for these matches. I do this because the effectiveness of the weapons can be shown and I can bring a bit of tactical warfare in the match. This will all enhance the battle-experience and make these battles more realistic.

As for the weapons. As you guys know, I select four weapons and judge them weapon for weapon, weapon on armour and I look at the skills.
Now I am not going to change that format because I like it and it works pretty well. What I am going to do is write down and describe some of the weapons that I did not include but that were used by these warriors.

Now for the most important new announcement, the new categories.
I will go deeper into the X-factors and devide it into three different categories.

The first of them is motivation and loyalty. I will look at what drives the warrior to the battles and how well will morale survive when the battle turns against the warrior in question. Will the motivation be enough and hold on or will the squad of warriors break and lose the battle.

The second one is experience and training. I will look at all the training and experience that both warriors have gotten and which warrior has the wider range of experience/training. If possible, I will also look at who faced the more dangerous opponents to give this egde.

The last one is tactics. Because I am writing squad on squad battles, I cannot include large army tactics and some warriors will use different tactics then they would use if it was a army battle but in the end, I will give a egde on which squad tactics proves to be superior.

now I have announced the changes, I will repeat the matches I will be writing and the order they appear in there is the order in which they will be written and posted.

The Scottish Highlander Vs. Duppelsoldner Landsknechte









Two warriors who are very similair. Both have very long swords, both use early firearms and both have a strange sense of fasion. The patriotic Scottsman will fight the most elite among the Landsknechte, the duppelsoldner. When two powerfull fighters clash their long swords, only one will stand to claim victory.

Captain Hook Vs. Captain Jack Sparrow
 










Two piratecaptains cross blades and guns. One who hunts down a magical boy for the rest of his life while the other is born for bad luck. In a battle between two pirates, who proves to be the better captain and who becomes sharkfood or get forced off the plank.

Attila The Hun Vs. Vercingetorix










Two powerfull leaders who rode big warhorses and guided their men to victory. These two ancient warriors battled Rome in different timeperiods and with different results. Vercingetorix battled one of Rome's finest generals and lost while Attila fought decent roman generals and won.
When these two leaders meet in battle, only one can prove his superiority and take out the other.

Avatar Aang Vs. Keyblade master Sora










Two boys who are drawn into action and fight to protect that what they love. Which of the two boywarriors survives when the the forces of good collide. Is it the Avatar and master of the four elements or is it the Keyblade master who traveled across the whole disney universe and uses the keyblade as his main weapon.
I will note that this is battle will be slightly more different then the rest because both boys are cut off of any help and will face each other alone. That means no Sokka, Katara, Zuko, Toph, Goofy or Donald to aid in the fight.

Hassasin Vs. Ninja







The very last battle is also a very special one. This is a battle of shadows where tools and poisons are used as much as weapons and stealth is as important as fighting abilitie. Both groups of warriors were feared and respected. The Hassasins managed to scare even the great Salah Ad-din and almost killed Edward Longshanks while the ninja's took out the famous samurai and spread fear in Asia.
This will be a different battle for a few reasons. There will be squads of ten instead of six warriors, there will be multiple weapons per categorie and the fight will take several days and nights before a winner appears.


I hope you guys will like all of this.

AresHuls

information

In the world of Kelan lives a young boy. A streeturchin without a family or a home tries to survive every day by stealing untill he is found by a member of a very special guild.
Soon after, he is trained by a guild of assasins to become one of them and his live changes completely.


Since I was a young little Areshuls I always wanted to write but I lacked any skills in writing and story making.
When I saw the deadliest warrior forums, I saw a oppertunity to practise my writing and write some awesome battles.

Every single battle and every story I have done thusfar have prepared me for the story I am about to begin.
Its a own original story and I try to write it as much as a book as possible.
this means that there will be more story and less fighting and I might change a chapter after I have published it for any reason.
I willl post the chapters because I may want to have some test readers, some advisers and just opinions of my writing friends.
this book may take years to make and I will just see where it ends, having no deadline yet.

As for the title, I will be using the working title of: The shadow

During the writing process, I also will write some short matches just for the fun of it. These matches can be both historical and fantasy.
Matches that will come out some day:
Atilla the Hun Vs. Vercingetorix
Hassasins Vs. Ninja's
Avatar Aang Vs. Sora
Landsknechte Vs. Scottish Highlander
Jack Sparrow Vs. Captain Hook


I hope I have informed you guys enough and If you have questions, let me know

I.O.F Chapter 8: There can be only one

Batman and the Hero had gotten to know each other very well by the time they had arrived at the base of the tower. They had talked about their pasts, the reasons to come to this island and the strenght that both of them possesed. They had agreed that Batman would use his cunning and guile to be the brains of this attack while the Hero would be the main defence of both of them and the brawn. They also had decided that should one fall, the other would continue to fight and take out the host of the tournament.
Neither fighter knew what to expect in the tower and both of them prepared for the worst.
After having arrived at the building, Batman had spend the full night to find a hidden entree or weak point to the tower but he was unable to do so.
Knowing that time was of a issue, the two needed to get into the tower before the host would find out where they were.
"I am going to regret this.' Batman spoke as he put explosive gell on a wall.' 'regret what?' The Hero asked. 'Fighting alongside you while you kill people.' Came the answer. It was something that had gnawed at him the whole night and he wished he had thought about that earlier. The Hero chuckled. 'Either we kill them or they kill us. Now you do not want to kill and I am fine with that but that does not mean that I won't kill.'
Batman thought about it and even though he did not like it, he had no other option. He now wished that other members of the justice leage were here. Together, they would have be able to take out the leader without resorting to killing. But the justice leage was not around and Batman had to manage on his own.

'Ready?' Batman asked. As a response, the hero only nodded. He was holding his sword and stood stood ready to jump into action as soon as the wall got blown away. The Bat then pushed on a button and a explosion took part of the wall away. The hero stepped into the hole a second later and saw stunned soldiers in front of him. He first slashed at the opponent most close to him and hit the unmasked guard in the neck. He then speeded forwards to the middle of the room and rammed his fist on the ground. A ring of fire erupted from  the flour and took out the other three guards.
Batman stepped into the hole in the wall and saw that they had entered the sleeping quarters of some soldiers. As he made his way towards his ally, the door opened and two guards appeared. Batman quickly threw two batarangs that disarmed the clones and the Hero moved in. The Hero slashed the first one in the neck, just below the helmet and delived a thrust into the chest of the other one. The two clones went down quickly and Batman grabbed one of the rifles. He had never seen such weapons before and after shooting a wall, he found out that the weapon fired beams of energy instead of bullets. Batman was not shure if his armour would deflect these bolts and he was not planning to find out the hard way. Suddenly a alarm sounded throughout the building and that gave the two warriors a painfull realisation. The opponents knew that they were in the tower.
The two walked into a long hallway and Batman opened a door, only to see the barrel of a rifle close to him. Batman reacted swiftly and pushed the weapon into the face of his opponent and then pulled the weapon away. He followed up with a punch to the face that send his opponent to the ground. Batman pulled the mask off and delivered  a knock out blow.
He looked at the face and it struck him again how all the soldiers looked alike. He had seen this oddity when entering the tower and was really suprised by it. Batman quickly reminded himself to research these strangers and their weapons more as soon as he had taken out the leader and then continued.
As the two walked around a corner, they saw a full squad of guards with their weapons aimed at the two heroes. The clones fired the weapons and the duo was just able to turn around the corner they just came from again to avoid being shot. The Oakvale warrior held up his hand and suddenly, a fireball formed in his hand. As the warrior held the fireball, it become larger and gave out high sounds whenever it became bigger. When the fireball was very large, the Hero stepped around the corner and fired it. As the ball hit the group of soldiers, the clones fell on the ground. The hero took out Skorm's bow and fired arrows at the clones that survived the fireball. These three soldiers went down also and the journey could continue.

Shang Tsung walked down a pair of stairs. One of the two surviving warriors had managed to enter the tower and was causing havoc.
When the sirene had sounded, Angst had ordered Shang Tsung to deal with this person. 'Shut the alarm off.' the sorcered commanded a guard as he entered the dining room.
There, he met up with another clone who saluted and told Shang Tsung about how Batman and the Hero of Oakvale were thrashing the place.
Shang Tsung realised that these two were forming a larger problem then he thought. They were destroying the plan of Tsung and if he did not act soon, he would not be able to betray his master.
These two also proved more of a problem then Shang Tsung anticipated and he suddenly got scared that they might overwhelm him. He had five clone soldiers with him in the dining room and knew that he could not take any risks now. Shang Tsung took the orb and looked into it. He then moved his hand while he muttered. The first soul he took into him was that of Eric Cartman. He had aimed for another one but this one popped up for some reason. After the soul was fully consumed, Shang Tsung got slightly fatter and he suddenly got a hatred of jews, hippies and redheads. Shang Tsung then consumed the second soul, which was Sub-Zero. He felt the powers of ice entering his body while his arms got a blue colour. The third soul was that of Reaver and Shang Tsung noticed that his eyes became more narrow and he could see sharper.
Shang Tsung then reached for the soul of Ryu Hayabusa but before he could consume it, something hit his hand and he dropped the orb.
The orb shattered and Shang Tsung yelled in anger as he saw how the souls escaped their prison and fled through the ceiling.
Shang Tsung looked at the ground and saw a black metal object on the ground. Realising who threw it, he turned and saw the two enemy warriors running towards him. He fired burning skulls at Batman and the Hero and saw how they hit target and send the two backwards. His new powers really helped well. He then froze the Hero with a freezeball while Batman turned a table to hide behind.
Shang Tsung was happy with his new power and knew that he would have absorbed the souls sooner if he had known that he could chance the effect by simple magic. He would first kill these two idiots and absorb the souls. He would then walk up to Angst and kill the master of fear once and for all.

Batman spoke quicky to the Hero and outlined his plan. Just as he was finished, the table and got shattered when a burning skull hit it.
'let us do it now.' Batman spoke as he threw a smoke grenade at Shang Tsung. When the smoke surrounded the sorcerer, the Hero of Oakvale ran towards him with a sword in the hand and yelling loud.
Shang Tsung could not see anyhing and knew he had to act soon. He morphed into the blind swordsman Kenshi and used the telekenetic powers of Kenshi to slam the Hero in a wall. Shang Tsung then stepped out of the smoke and morphed back into himself. Just as he was himself again, a batarang with a rope connected to it flew around him and tied Shang Tsung up.
Shang Tsung burned the rope and was free seconds after being tied up but did not see that Batman flew from the ceiling and hit Shang Tsung in the chest. While the Hero was distracting Tsung, Batman had been able to his grappling hook and get a height advantage on the opponent. Now it his turn to distract the sorcerer.
Shang Tsung fell on the ground with a suprised look on his face and as Batman was walking up to him again, Tsung used a freezebeam to cover Batman in ice. Shang Tsung stood up and before he could deliver another blow to his frozen opponent, he felt a pain in his back. The pain soared through him and he saw how the tip of a sword came out of his body. Batman thawt out as Shang Tsung fell to his knees. Just after the Hero had pulled the sword out, green energy started to leave Shang Tsung as all of his victims were finally free.
After the souls had left, Shang Tsung started to change. He become older with the second and stopped when there was only a skeleton left, that collapsed to the ground.
'Damn. I have seen some skeletons but this one is the ugliest.'  The Hero commented. Batman smiled slightly. He was happy that the plan had worked perfectly and they had now taken out a dangerous opponent, altough he still regretted that the man had to be killed for it.

The two heroes stepped through the other door of the dinnerroom and as they enterered another room, a clonesoldier saw that the sorcerer had failed and raised his weapon to fire it. Before hey could accomplish it, Batman grabbed the weapon and forced it out of the hands of the user. He then hit the clone trooper with the gun he just took from the same opponent.
After having walked through another room, a hallway and two sets of stairs, the two fighters came walking into a large room where 8 clone soldiers waited for them.
The two ducked away to avoid being hit. The Hero then rushed towards the guards and when he was near, he used berserk. The guards got knocked away as the Hero grew in size and strenght. He then slashed at the guards around him and took them out one by one. The last one died when the clone recieved a thrust with the sword in the back of his head.
After the Hero of Oakvale was done, the two warriors continued their travel.

Angst sat silently in front of his tv, which was turned off. He hated waiting for he was used to get what he wanted as soon as he wanted. He now had no choise but to wait for his opponents to come.
Angst was completely unprepared. It had never crossed his mind that the warriors from the tournament would succeed into getting in the tower and it had flabbergasted Angst and he was really happy that he had decided to aborb the souls of two of the warriors. If the fighting would be brought here, these powers would help.
The master of the tournament had heard from a clone soldier that Shang Tsung had died and that the orb was broken. Angst did not care much about Tsung, the fool wanted to attack Angst anyway and this way, he did not need to kill the sorcerer himself. It was the orb he was angry about because that meant that the past months of preperation and this whole tournament were for nothing and that he needed to start all over again as soon as these two pests had been dealt with.
Angst heard a cry and less then a second later, his door exploded into his appartment. Followed by the door was the burned body of the clone soldier who had the job to guard it.
When the two intruders entered the apartment, Angst spoke. 'How dare you enter my domain, You fools. You will be destroyed.' Batman spoke in return. 'There are two of us and only one of you. You cannot fight both of us without your soldiers so I suggest that you surrender now and accept your punishment.'
Angst smiled after hearing Batman and used his newly found psychic powers to lift up the tv and throw it at the Bat.
The tv missed target and the two warriors instantly reacted to fight the creater of this madness.

Batman threw two batarangs at Angst but the former god used a shield of fire to protect himself. The Hero then closed the distance on Angst and let sword fly. The firewall blocked the attack and Angst grabbed his mace. He moved it downwards and the Hero fell on his knees. The Oakvale Hero suddenly saw his sister die and following her, he saw how Whisper and the Guildmaster died because he had not been able to protect them.
While the Hero was in trance, Angst attacked Batman with fire while the latter kept his face hidden in his cape.
When Angst stopped, Batman attacked. The detective started with disarming Angst and then kicked him in the chest. When the mace fell on the ground, the Oakvale Hero suddenly opened his eyes again.
Angst recieved the attack of Batman and used his psychic abilities to push Batman away and drew his sword.
The batsuit got some serious hits before Batman could respond and Angst then used his telekenesis to throw the dark knight into a closet. The Hero of Oakvale responded and attacked with his own sword.
The two warriors fought as beasts with their longswords. each blocked and attacked the opponent. Both of them also used their special powers to inflict damage on the other. \
Angst touched into the fear of the Hero and as soon as the man fell down, Angst unleashed a powerfull fireattack and followed up with some slashed and send the Hero on the ground. Before Angst could finish his opponent off, Batman flew at him.
Batman rammed his foot against the hand holding the sword while his left hand delivered a uppercut.
Angst fell on the ground and Batman closed in to finally take this monster down. Before he could do that, Batman suddenly saw his parents die in front of his eyes.
Using his psychic powers and the fire that was now everywhere, Angst manipulated the fear of Batman. Instead of seeing his parents die, Bruce now saw Gotham City burning. While his worst fears came true in his mind, Batman did not feel the punches that the mace delivered on his armour. Before Angst could slam the mace into the head of Batman, he got tackled.
The Hero had raised again and had used his bigger self to attack Angst. Angst avoided a first swordblow and took his sword in his free hand. Using a combination of weapons, Angst blocked a attack with his sword and attacked with his mace, hitting the helmet of the Hero.
Batman had also awakened again and the weakened warrior threw a batarang. The batarang hit the shoulder of Angst and the former god cried in anger and pain. 'You do not attack a god!' He yelled out and pushed the two away with his psychic powers.
Angst used his powers of fear to attack both opponents again but Batman had quickly broken through the illusions and had thrown a batarang that Angst was just able to block.
The almost god then used his psychic powers and the two weapons in his hand to enhance his next attack of fear.
While Angst was summoning his power, Batman took a batarang that had Scarecrow's fear toxins in it and the hero prepared himself for a will attack called devine fury.
As the batarang hit Angst and unleashed the toxins, the Hero used devine fury and Angst unleashed his power.
This strange combination of attacks made for a unusual result. The flames in the building became high and shadows suddenly appeared in them. It took very little time for Angst to see what happened. His own story, his only fear was played out in front of all three warriors.
From the fire leaped two people. One older person and someone who looked like Angst. The two, armed with a mace and a sword walked towards a throne where a third person sat. At once, the two started to attack the man on the throne but were held off by the man. Seconds later, other people appeared, dressed in various clothing. The two attackers were quickly surrounded and after a little struggle, the largest of the two attackers went down while the other was held tightly.
The man on the throne created a big black hole out of thin air and lifted the downed attacker up and the black hole sucked the man in. The black hole then dissapeared and left Angst standing.
One of the other men took a knife out of a sheath and after muttering a incartation, he ripped a rift, similair to those where Batman and the Hero came through. The man then grabbed Angst and allowed the man on the throne to finish a incartation. A blue appeared around Angst and when it dissapeared, he got dragged away by the man who created the rift. Before he could be thrown in, Angst took his sword while his captor was frozen in place. He then stabbed the man with his sword and ran to fetch the mace of his father. The other people were all stunned in suprise as Angst took the dagger from the dead man and jumped into the rift.

'Nooooo!' Yelled Angst and the people in the flames dissapeared. He pushed the Hero away with telekenetis but Batman threw two batarangs and disarmed Angst. After the almost god dropped his two weapons, Batman jumped towards him and kicked Angst in the stumach.
Batman then tried to grapple Angst while Angst himself took a dagger and thrusted it in the face of Batman. The dagger hit the lower teeth and cheek of the Bat and another thrust missed the big neckvessel by mere inches.
Angst took his mace from the ground and slammed it with all his power in the face of Batman while the bat himself thrusted a batarang into the arm of the master of the tournament.
Angst dropped his mace in pain as he looked at his wound. Before he could pick his mace up again, Angst got pushed away by a large fist that struck him. He dived for his sword and was pushed backwards by the now larger Hero who wielded his sword with ease.
As the tower started to shake, Angst teleported away.
the Master of the tournament landed on the grass just as the whole building collapsed.
Knowing that Batman was dead and hoping that the Hero was dead also, the master turned to look for his mace in the rubble. The fight had taken more energy then he had wished for and Angst knew he would have not been able to continue fighting any longer.

Suddenly, a man appeared from the rubble. It was the Hero of Oakvale. He was not shure if it was because he was a hero, the spirit of Batman that aided him or any other reason but he had survived. Feeling the spirits of Batman and Storm burning inside him, the Hero took his sword in a steady grip and attacked without mercy.
Angst got pushed backwards by this sudden but powerfull attack and lost space. He then changed the defensive position into a offensive one and the blades met with power.
The two fought very hard and put all their power in their strokes. Angst manages to slash the Hero across the chest but recieved a deep cut into his side himself, followed by a stab that took Angst in the left shoulder.
Feeling his power drain from him, Angst knew he had to act quicky or he would die. Dying meant that he would not see his plans succeed and he would never become the master.
In one last attempt to escape, Angst summoned fire that reached into the fear to distract his opponent. His powers of fear would not hold long and he would not be able to finish his opponent off. There was only one thing he could do now and that was escaping through a rift.
The Hero saw Oakvale burning but with the help of the two spirits in him, he managed to understand the illusion and it dissapeared in front of his eyes. The Hero then saw how his opponent was creating a rift and he created a fireball that hit the opponent in the back. He then followed up with a slashing attack and hit the exact same spot.
Because Angst had not finished his spell, the rift was open and unpredictable. While the two warriors were fighting, The Hero pushed a attack while Angst tried to defend himself with his dagger and sword. The dagger was dropped soon when his shoulder became too painfull and as the Hero pushed his attack again, both warriors fell through the rift.

The Hero fell through the rift and landed hard on his butt. He was weakened from the fight and he had entererd a strange world. His opponent was no-where to be seen and the rift had dissapeared also.
After he had been walking around this strange world with strange people and strange machines for a time, three men approached him. The first one had the upperhalf of his face covererd, the second was blue and very odd while third man had knifes coming out of his fist. 'We are the X-men.' The blue and hairy man spoke before the Hero could ask a question. 'You appeared from a portal that made a friend of us dissapeared in.' The man who had his eyes covered spoke.

Angst fell on the ground in pain. He did not know where the rift had brought him and he only hoped that it was somewhere where he would not have to fight soon. He was weak and about to collapse but he opened his eyes to see a red hairy think talk to a green hairy thing in a trashcan. Not shure which universe this was, Angst noticed that someone was walking towards him. He turned to see who it was and saw a coloured striped shirt, a long yellow face and black hair. The man that approached him had a large nose and a unibrow. Before Angst could do or say anything, he fainted.