The Darkness of Old; The Ancient Crown; The Winged One

by Hans Bezdek

  Just as quickly as it ignited, some orcs dumped large buckets of water on it from above. I watched as they passed the buckets on to some goblins, who quickly disappeared from sight. It looked like they had prepared for something like this. Burning the gates down might prove a bit more difficult than I had hoped.

  Fire was set to another gate to our left, and again water was poured down on it. Before the orcs could pass the bucket, however, two black bolts of energy crashed into the wall beneath them. There was a large explosion and the orcs tumbled to the outside of the castle, where the dwarven forces quickly pounced on them.

  “Got em!” laughed Braun wickedly.

  “Good job!” I shouted over the fight. “Keep targeting the orcs with the water along the other gates!”

  I summoned fire to my hands again and chucked them at the closest gate. The orcs from earlier went to put them out, oblivious to what had just happened to their comrades down the line. Before they could tip the buckets over, a barrage of dark energy exploded next to them. The orcs flew forward and back, their buckets nowhere to be found.

  At the same time, the Collective’s dragons flew overhead. They were back with more boulders and started to drop them on the Dar’Ka forces again. The Greeners weren’t content to idly sit around and get squashed this time, however, and shot darts and arrows up at them. I couldn’t help but smile at the futility. There was no way they’d hurt our dragons. The Greeners didn’t have access to the Zorikium arrows like we did.

  My smile faltered as I watched a blue dragon begin to flap his wings slower and slower. Within a few seconds, the blue’s head hung low and the dragon plummeted into the castle. Several other friendly dragons showed the same effect, although a couple of them were lucky enough to make it to the outside of the walls before they fainted.

  “The Greeners must be using some kind of poison!” shouted Cassandra, having witnessed the same thing I had.

  I shouted as loudly as I could at the dragons that made it over us, jumping up and down while waving my arms and shaking my head. Most of them couldn’t see me over the fight, but Kiera did. She nodded at me, then roared at the other dragons that were heading back for more rocks. They halted, and the Collective’s dragons made for the back of our line. It was going to have to be up to the ground troops to get into the castle walls before the dragons could be used again.

  Greeners began to jump over the walls in large groups, taking out some of the dwarves and humans as they landed. They were particularly successful at this in front of a gate to our right, and managed to push the Collective back. The gates opened just enough for a steady stream of Dar’Ka ground troops to run out and join the fight.

  “More people to the right!” I shouted to those behind us, running in that direction myself. I was happy to see several dozen fighters of all races pushing after me.

  As I got to the front line, I pulled my right fist back. Punching out, the goblin-made fist rocketed me forward, driving my dagger into the side of an unsuspecting goblin’s neck. I pulled the blade out, spun around, and shoved it into the back of an orc that was trying to overpower the elf next to me. The orc let out a roar, then the elf finished it off with his own sword.

  A strong backhand sent me reeling back, nearly causing me to drop my dagger. A troll stalked toward me, a nasty smile on his face. I brought the Time Shield up as I shook my head, trying to get my wits back.

  Before I could, Beatrix ran between the troll’s legs, dragging her dagger up at his thigh. The troll let out a howl of surprise and pain as he stumbled back, blood pouring out of him. The gnome must have hit an artery, but the troll wasn’t going to walk away and die. With another shout, it swung its axe down at her.

  She jumped between his legs again, this time spinning around and chucking the dagger up. The troll’s eyes went wide as he took two steps forward and dropped his axe. He crashed down onto my Shield, and I shoved his lifeless body off.

  “Looks like you can do more than summon,” I smiled at the gnome.

  “People like to pick fights with me,” she shrugged with a grin. “Had to learn how to defend myself.”

  Beatrix’s eyes flashed blue, and four fire elementals popped into existence in the place of the dead troll. This got the attention of the Greeners nearest to us, several of whom tried to rush the creatures before they could get an attack off.

  That proved particularly fatal. The fire elementals let loose pillars of fire, nearly disintegrating the foolish Greeners that got too close. The rest of the Dar’Ka forces decided now would be the right time to return to the castle, and made a mad dash for the gate.

  Unfortunately for them, the Greeners controlling the gate saw what the fire elementals just did, and immediately closed it. The rest of the Collective backed off and let the elementals make quick work of the Greeners still stuck on the outside of the wall. After that was done, the summoned creatures turned their attention to the gate itself. All four of them sent their pillars of fire up the gate, melting it before a measly bucket of water could be poured on it.

  “Into the castle!” I shouted, as all of the Collective’s forces nearby cheered and rushed into the gate. I looked to the left and saw the middle gate was on fire, too, and we’d soon be able to rush in from more than one spot.

  There wasn’t time to celebrate, though.

  “More Greeners be coming!” cried out a nearby dwarf.

  I tried to locate him to see where he was seeing this, but quickly realized that wouldn’t be necessary. A horde of green and gray creatures swarmed over the left and right side of the mountain. The two sides of Greeners connected behind us, cutting us off from an easy retreat. They slowly and methodically marched for us.

  We were completely surrounded.

  Chapter 15

  I pushed my way back to the others as quickly as I could. The Collective’s ground troops were backing up to the castle’s walls, keeping a wary eye on the large number of Greeners stalking toward us. Our fighters couldn’t rest, though, as the Dar’Ka troops from inside the castle now attacked with renewed fervor after seeing their backup arrive.

  The Collective’s dragons took a few threatening steps toward the flanking Greeners, but the Dar’Ka held the line. Darts and arrows shot out from them at the nearest dragons. Several silver and golds collapsed after being hit, paralyzed like earlier. The rest of the dragons grabbed their downed allies and pulled them back. None of them risk making any more moves toward the Greeners.

  “Reimar!” I heard Dhot shout over the madness. I turned in the direction of the voice and reached my three friends a few seconds later.

  “Did yer blasted red dragons tell you about this?!” demanded Braun, pointing angrily at the Greeners coming behind us.

  “No,” I admitted. “But the plans probably changed, or they didn’t know everything about the Greener’s movement.”

  The dwarf didn’t look particularly convinced but didn’t push the matter. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “That’s why I came back to you guys.”

  “We need to push into the fortress,” said Cassandra. “This can all end once we get to Ulrich.”

  “Hopefully,” said Dhot, his tone reminding us all that was no guarantee. It was our best chance at ending this fight, though.

  “If we get in through the gates, it’ll also limit the amount of Greeners our people have to fight at a time,” I reasoned. The others nodded. Deciding this was our best bet, I cupped my hands over my mouth and raised my voice. “Through the gates! Fight them through the gates!”

  The bulk of the Collective pushed to the open gates, while some worked on the remaining closed one. Up ahead at the middle gate I could see Tad stepping in and out at the front line, whacking a few orcs that tried to keep our people from pushing into the castle. Some cries followed by a burst of flame let me know Beatrix was making good headway with the Greeners closest to her gate, as well.

  Still, the gates proved to be strong bottlenecks. While some o
f our army was getting through, most of them wouldn’t be inside the walls of the castle by the time the Greener’s behind us got into fighting range. When that inevitably happened, we would be attacked from every angle. A large number of Greeners still stood on top of the walls, not that concerned with the fighters entering their gates.

  “What are we going to do when the Greeners reach us?” asked Cassandra.

  “Blow em up!” said Dhot. “Not like there’s any other choice!”

  I continued to watch the line of approaching Greeners. If the red and black joined the fight when they reached us, our forces would be done for. I scanned the enemy, looking for a weak link in their chain to expose if it came down to that. The line held steady. At least, it did until an orc fell forward in the middle.

  At first, I assumed the creature slipped. The constant rain made the floor slippery, even for those that were used to it. The Greeners on either side of the orc also continued to march forward without stopping or paying the downed orc any attention. But the orc remained on his face as the rest of his allies pushed forward. Then I noticed the glint of an object in the back of his head.

  I tapped Dhot on the shoulder and pointed at it. “What’s that in the back of the orc? Can you see it better with your Goggles?”

  “It’s got three prongs and…” said the goblin, trailing off as he adjusted his Goggles. He suddenly jumped up and down and pointed at the orc. “Maha! They finally made it!”

  “They?” I asked.

  “Our reinforcements!” nodded Dhot.

  “We have reinforcements?” asked Cassandra, her face as confused as I felt.

  Before the goblin could further explain what was happening, a troll ran up and seemed to fill the line. It pulled the sai out of the back of the orc’s head, then spun around to shove it into a different troll’s side. Fulco chucked his other sai at a goblin a few feet away, dropping that creature as well. This finally got some of the Greener’s attention, but before they could move toward the enemy troll, a horrifying shout fell across the battlefield.

  Large men with their faces painted gray rushed forward through the rain, their second terrifying battlecry causing even the biggest trolls and orcs to take a step back. The Greeners shifted their attention from Fulco to the Deathbringers, quickly shooting their poisoned darts and arrows at them. The Deathbringers brought their massive claymores up before them, blocking all of the projectiles. The line of Greeners started to waiver as a few of them broke and ran away.

  They were the smart ones.

  The first of the Deathbringers reached the Greener line. With a single horizontal swing of his claymore, nearly a dozen Greeners were cut in two. Before those next to them could respond, the Deathbringer was already bringing his claymore back around for another slice. This was soon repeated by all of the other Deathbringers joining the fray.

  The Greeners scattered, running in every direction imaginable. Those that got too close to Fulco or a Deathbringer didn’t know what hit them before they collapsed, while the ones that got within range of the elves’ bows met a similar fate. Even those that ran away from Chundar and the battle didn’t seem to get away. Terrified screams were cut off in the rain behind the Deathbringers.

  “What else could be behind them?” asked Cassandra.

  “Maybe there are more Deathbringers?” I wondered.

  The answer was the most surprising of all. Roughly fifty nine-foot tall creatures followed behind the Deathbringers, their log-like arms reaching out to the nearest Greeners. Vines sprang out of them, wrapping around trolls, orcs, and goblins. Some of the treekin threw their victims high and away, while others squeezed the life out of them. A smaller treekin ran forward, tripping a goblin that tried to run away then knocking it out with a whack of its vines.

  “What in the world be those?” asked Braun, bewildered.

  “It’s Barky!” exclaimed Cassandra, shaking my arm in disbelief.

  “They’re barkies?” asked Dhot.

  “No, they’re treekin,” I said, not believing my eyes. “The small one is Barky. Well, his name is actually a lot longer than that. They helped us reach the Shattered Sword.”

  “Ah, so they’re also partially to blame for this war,” nodded Dhot.

  “Funny,” I said dryly.

  Now that we no longer had to worry about the Greeners flanking us, we turned our attention back to entering the castle. The Greeners on the wall saw what became of their friends and had disappeared. This made pushing through the gates a lot easier. When we finally reached the courtyard inside of the walls, we found an infinite supply of dead Greeners and a large number of boulders.

  The Collective had already broken into the first floor of the castle, and were in the process of fighting into it. The four of us maneuvered our way to join them. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed to find nothing but more Greeners. I figured that the black and reds would be waiting for us in the castle, but the first floor was filled with the Collective fighting nothing but more goblins.

  The battle inside the castle was lighted by torches flickering on the walls. Couches and small tables lay everywhere, or at least what was left of them. It looked like the Greeners had piled many of these objects together close to the entrance in order to create a barricade, while the rest must have been destroyed during the fight that ensued once the Collective made it inside.

  “It seems like they’ve got it handled in here,” I said, noticing that the Collective’s troops far outnumbered the Greeners that remained.

  “Aw,” said Dhot, his shoulders sagging. “I wanted to blow something up.”

  “Do me a favor and don’t blow anything up when we’re on the bottom floor of a building,” said Cassandra, shaking her head. “I’d rather not have the entire castle come crashing down on our heads. We’ve got enough things to worry about.”

  “Okay, okay…”

  “Stairs!” said Braun, pointing to a corner of the large hallway.

  We ignored the fight and ran for the stairwell. A few of the Collective’s troops were already running up them, and some dead Greeners were piled up to the left side of the steps. The four of us hurried up the steps to the second floor, looking inside to see more of the same. Dwarves, elves, and humans clashed with their Greener counterparts. The only difference was this floor had long wooden tables that must’ve been used for eating, along with what was probably a kitchen in the back of the room.

  “Want to keep going?” I asked the others.

  “Aye,” nodded Braun. “I wanna bash some dragon skulls in!”

  “Same here!” laughed Dhot.

  The four of us continued up the stairs to the third, fourth, and fifth floors. The third and fourth floors looked to be mostly sleeping chambers, and were in the process of being turned upside down by the battle going on inside of them. No dragons to be found there, though, which left only the fifth floor. We came to the top of the stairs with our weapons at the ready to find…

  More Greeners. More of the Collective fighting them. No dragons.

  “There’s nothing but foot soldiers in here!” I growled, taking my frustration out on the goblin in front of me. There was a large stone throne in the middle of the room that hadn’t been damaged yet, along with plenty of broken wooden chairs. This had to be where Ulrich spent much of his time, so why wasn’t he here?

  “Where could those dragons be?” asked Braun, swinging Grimkell’s Mace at a troll’s face and sending him flying.

  I took out a few more Greeners while I angrily thought through the different options. Had Lukas and Cecilia lied to us? Had the black and reds escaped once they noticed some scouts didn’t return? Was Ulrich always going to outrun us?

  “Maha!”

  Click.

  There was a large explosion on the eastern wall. The whole castle shook from the blast, causing the fighters inside the room to falter for half a second before resuming their battle. The others and I glared at Dhot, who looked very proud of himself.

 
“What did we just talk about?!” demanded Cassandra.

  I looked out of the hole in the wall, nearly freezing at what I saw. “Uh… Guys…”

  “You said I couldn’t blow anything up on the bottom floor!” argued Dhot. “This is the top one!”

  “Seriously, guys,” I tried again.

  “Ya can’t be blowin up chunks of stone so close to us,” said Braun, shaking his head. “It be dangerous.”

  “Maha! You want to lecture me about being dangerous?”

  “Guys!” I shouted.

  “What?!” they shouted back in unison.

  I pointed out of the hole at the several hundred red and black dragons flying for the castle.

  “I think we found the dragons.”

  Chapter 16

  “At least now we know what took them so long,” mumbled Cassandra as we watched the mass of red and black get ever closer.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “They’ve all got armor on,” she replied.

  I looked as hard as I could, then realized the elf was right. The dragons, every one of them, wore heavy armor. From our other fights on the island, they must have learned that we had a good supply of Zorikium arrows. It looked like most of the ground troops would be useless against the dragons.

  “Let’s get going,” I said, waving for the others to follow me.

  By the time we reached the courtyard of the castle, the Collective’s dragons were circling around us. Everyone had noticed the Dar’Ka dragons coming, and everyone with a bow was readying their arrows. Surely they all recognized that would do hardly anything, but I couldn’t fault them for wanting to help fight.

  “You’ve got to transform,” said Cassandra. “They’ll need you up there.”

  “You’re probably right,” I said. Admittedly, I felt kind of bad leaving the others down here. They had come all this way to fight, and now there wasn’t much for them to do besides watch. “Try to keep an eye on me, would you Dhot? I don’t know why, but I’ll feel a little safer knowing you and Helga have my back.”