by Galen Wolf
As I fight, I think that if the bad guys take the Throne Room then it’s only be a short step to the Caer Milestone within the central castle keep. If they control the Courtyard and take the Milestone, the city will come under their zone of control and Caer will fall. If that happens, evil will have triumphed here.
Another of the Knights of the Round Table dies. We are taking more of them with us, but there are more of them anyway and now they’ve got the Magic Mirrors as a portal to the inner castle, they’ll keep coming.
I groan at my carelessness. If I’d taken the time to hunt Deathknife, rather than thinking he was a distraction from my mission and he couldn’t do any harm, then there would be no Magic Mirror in King Arthur’s Throne Room and we wouldn’t be about to lose Caer.
I didn‘t see that one.
I sip potion. Gearhart’s smiling. He thinks he’s got me.
I yell over my shoulder, ‘Retreat to the castle courtyard. The King has resurrected there. We can’t let them take the Milestone.’
The surviving Knights hustle out the door, forced back by the tide of enemy but Gearhart steps between me and the way out.
That’s thanks to my Ouroboros Necklace that I got at the top of the Ziggurat. Seeing my chance, I counter attack.
His smile fades and he grabs for his potion. I see another chance and I thrust my sword.
He’s on the back foot now. I see him panic and panic makes him lower his defences. I jab. My sword flashes blue.
Bernard stands at the door with Tye and Sir Dagonet beckoning. Dagonet swings his sword and kills a Fang. ‘Come on, Gorrow!’ Bernard yells.
I nod. There is now a gap. I run out the door. I can’t see Fitheach so he’s either dead or gone in front with the remaining Knights. I clatter down the stairs, Tye fires a fireball and Bernard lobs a flask of smoke potion and fills the whole staircase with thick smoke. It slows the pursuit just a bit, but it’s enough. We leap down the stairs. I follow Dagonet who knows the place better than I do.
‘Where’s Fitheach?’ I ask Tye.
‘The old guy’s dead. Back at where he bound at Tarvin, I guess.’
That’s bad news, but I don’t really have time to think because we’re at the bottom of the staircase and running along a wide passage.
There is a huddle of Knights at the door; I recognise Sir Kay. ‘Hurry!’ he yells and I follow Dagonet and Bernard, with Tye behind me.
The Fangs and other black-clad thugs are now in the passage and coming or way. Bernard chucks another flask and Tye stands there like some Western hero blazing off Flaming Rays and shooting fireballs into the smoke in the hope of killing some more of them.
‘Come on, come on, come on!’ Kay shouts.
I’m out the door into the courtyard before I realise what’s happening. I stare about me. The courtyard is big and open to the sky. Whatever defences we had stopping aerial invasion have gone. Arthur must have resurrected at the Milestone and he stands in his blood red armour with Merlin, but they’re fighting for their lives. The huge black dragon that is Satanus has landed and is standing dominating the City milestone. If he occupies the milestone for long enough, the city will fall. There are others there too. The sky is thick with cockatrices, Nightgaunts and other flying monsters.
I see a knight go down to a Nightgaunt. Then Sir Ector dies. He resurrects immediately but before he’s got his defences up, a cockatrice kills him. Satanus breathes out a torrent of acid and I see Merlin die. Behind us, Maligon and Reza of the Fangs of Koth burst into the Courtyard, killing Sir Kay.
I see Merlin die for the third time. This is shit.
I’m attacked from above. I raise my shield and see at Nightgaunt clawing at me. I stick my sword through its guts and get xp, but that isn’t important. I dodge and I Shieldblock and turn to face Maligon and Reza, all the while hoping the beasts from the air don’t jump on my back.
Tye takes an axe in the chest, but he doesn’t die. Bernard tosses him a potion and I hear a cry of, ‘Thanks, uncle!’ Bernard doesn’t even bother to protest as he fights off two Fangs of Koth.
I twist round. A resurrected Gawain is fighting off monsters and trying to get to Arthur. I must admit Arthur looks kingly in his armour and he’s not going down to Satanus.
It looks like they’ve got NPCs and evil players camped at the Milestone and as soon as our guys resurrect, they’re killing them in that few seconds of vulnerability.
Then Gawain dies again. There are just a handful of Knights of the Round Table left. Arthur can’t get Satanus away from the Milestone and time ticks down.
Reza and Maligon both come at me. I fight them off, but it’s hard and I’m pushed back. I’m within the range of Satanus’s breath weapon now but I hope it’s still on cool-down.
Bernard is bloody and battered but he kills one of the Fangs that was attacking him. Tye yells, ‘More potion,’ and that distracts Bernard who takes a bad sword blow. He has to take potion himself so Tye disengages and jumps back towards me.
Satanus smashes Arthur to the ground with a blow from his foreleg. The King struggles to get up, but he raises to his knees, lifting his shield to protect him from the dragon’s snapping mouth. I see him slash Satanus, but Arthur can’t win this on his own.
A Nightgaunt dives at him from behind and he spins and one-shots it with a sword-blow, then turns to defend against Satanus.
Satanus has been dominating the Milestone for minutes now. The clock is ticking down. We are going to lose.
Then I remember the Egg
I have the Crystal Dragon’s Egg in my inventory. I step back and duck a swinging axe while I check my Inventory. It’s there.
I take it out and drop it. Instantly the egg explodes and a baby dragon comes out. I watch as it grows fast into a fully fledged Crystal Dragon, pushing us to the edges of the Courtyard. There is massive confusion among the enemy and I hear the cries of their flying monsters. The Crystal Dragon jumps into the air and shoots its breath weapon and a cloud of thistledown drifts down from where Nightgaunts and cocktrices were before.
Lancelot yells out in triumph. The enemy fall back in panic, and the Crystal Dragon swoops down on the monsters that surround the milestone. It snaps and claws, slaughtering them like a dog in a rats’ nest. The enemy players try to fight back, but I bet very few of them have light damage on their weapons and so the Crystal Dragon is pretty much immune their blows.
But Satanus still dominates the milestone. We have minutes left before we lose Caer, maybe seconds.
I turn back to my own fight, engaging Reza and Maligon, fighting with a cold fury. Their previous confidence is fading as they see the Crystal Dragon making mincemeat of their friends. I get Reza, finally killing him with a vorpal that had to come.
Then I hear a scream and see Satanus flap up with leather wings. I can only guess King Arthur has badly wounded him and he’s going up to heal.
My Crystal Dragon flies up after Satanus and the two monsters wrap round each other in snake-like combat up above the Courtyard. Arthur comes over to join me in my fight against Maligon.
As he fights, Arthur mutters, ‘Good move, Gorrow. Though you could have summoned that Dragon sooner.’ But he’s smiling.
I fight beside the King and we drive back the Fangs into the passage. Maligon and his guys aren’t quitting. Then I hear a commotion behind them. My heart sinks. I thought we had this, but now they’ve got reinforcements. All they need to do is dominate the milestone for three minutes.
I turn to Bernard. ‘Slow them! More smoke!’
Bernard nods and throws a smoke flask behind the Fangs to fill up the corridor and slow down their reinforcements. I see armed figures in the
smoke but I have to try to deal with the Fangs right in front of me. I hear Merlin’s voice through the open door from the Courtyard behind me. He’s managed to resurrect safely. I hope the others do too.
Maligon swings his weapon at me, then he turns. I see the doubt on his face. Armoured figures run through the smoke. I can’t make out who they are, but it must be more bad guys. I turn to Arthur, but instead of despair, I see him laugh.
What the heck is going on?
Then I realise who the armoured figures are.
‘Mercurius and Luc!’ King Arthur cries. ‘About time!’
They were our reinforcements. Seeing that, the remaining Fangs of Koth break and try to run, but they only run into Sir Mercurius and Sir Luc and the NPCs they’ve brought with them. Mercurius kills Maligon so easily that it’s like he doesn’t even have to try.
The enemy die and go back to their bind points miles away. There’s a cheer of victory. People put their swords down.
I can hardly believe it. Despite everything, we’ve won. Caer has not fallen.
Mercurius grins at me. 'These vorpal weapons are good. We’re killing ten or twenty to one. And better still, it’s put the fear of God into them and they’re routing outside.
But I’m still puzzled. I ask Mercurius, ‘How the heck did you get into the inner Castle?’
He tilts his head. ‘It’s the Enemy we’ve got to thank.’
‘Eh?’
Luc laughs and says, ‘They finally knocked a big massive hole in the inner wall, so we came in through that.’
36
Camelot Resurgent
We leave the courtyard and ascend the red sandstone steps of the Inner Keep at a run. We burst out onto the top and into the smoky, sooty air. I stand next to King Arthur on the battlements of Caer. Merlin is by our side. It’s true what Mercurius said, the enemy are on the run.
As we gaze over the routing enemy. The walls of Caer are a mess, they are blackened, burned, and the enemy has pounded huge holes in them.
Merlin comes and gives me a hug. ‘We’ve won!’
Arthur turns to me. ‘The vorpal weapons made a big difference. Our men chopped through the enemy and all the insta-kills broke their morale. Look at them run.’
‘The Crystal Dragon helped too.’ Merlin laughs and points at the crystal dragon harrying the enemy retreat and turning them to thistledown with its breath weapon.
I frown. ‘I’m sorry about the Hazidic Mirrors. It was a judgement error putting them I my dungeon and them being so easy to get for high level players.’
Merlin smiles kind. ‘Don’t worry son. We all make mistakes.’
Arthur mutters, ‘Even you, Merlin.’
I say, ‘What happened to Satanus?’
King Arthur shrugs. ‘Not been seen. I think he did a rage quit when he got killed and hasn’t logged in since.’
‘Hasn’t logged in?’ I shake my head. ‘So his whole army’s going to ruin?’
Merlin says, ‘There are other players high up who can lead their troops, but seeing Satanus die and then him not coming back has hurt their morale.’
‘So they’re fleeing,’ Arthur says, standing there in his red crystal armour. I almost hear him sigh in relief.
‘We won the battle of Caer,’ I say. I can’t help smiling.
King Arthur nods grimly. ‘Next we retake Camelot!’
Merlin frowns. ‘It won’t be easy. It’s much closer to their main base at Hellsmouth. They can resupply better than we can. Not like down here.’
King Arthur claps Merlin on the shoulder. ‘We will do it. And soon.’
I look at Bernard, who’s wide-eyed. I whisper, ‘We’re going to retake Camelot!’
Arthur hears me and smiles. ‘Yes, Gorrow. Next we retake Camelot. And I want you by my side when we do.’
Tye rubs his sooty ginger hair. ‘Yeah, but let’s not forget about Silver Drift. We need to get back there.’
The little fire mage is right. But I hadn’t forgotten about Silver Drift. I never will.
‘Hey,’ I ask Merlin. ‘Did you ever hear about a guy called Mr Treacle?’
The mage shakes his head. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
Tye says, ‘He’s weird. Lives down a mine.’
I say, ‘Something about him bothers me.’
Arthur smiles. ‘Don’t be worrying about that now, Gorrow. We’ve got a war to win.’
Also by Galen Wolf
Camelot Overthrown
Camelot Dungeon
Camelot Defiant
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight