Helenia threw her body back onto her horse as a burst shot whizzed over her head and impacted a shadow demon which had leapt to attack the princess. The demon was flung into the air by the force of the blow, a trail of smoke billowing from it. It screamed as it landed on top of her horse, wildly clawing at itself to free the burning shot within. The horse whinnied and took off galloping through the warzone, taking her deeper among the Forces of Darkness. Faowind took chase, charging through and dispatching enemies in the direction of the princess.
Helenia scurried back as far as she could and shielded her eyes with her arm before the shadow demon exploded violently. The power of the explosion launched her completely off the back of the horse, and she landed roughly on the ground below. The horse’s ear piercing screams filled the air and it fell to the ground with a gaping wound on its back, bleeding out. Helenia groaned with the pain as she rolled onto her stomach to regain her footing, her entire body aching. Luckily for Helenia, her armour took the brunt of the explosion and saved her from certain death.
Faowind came to her aid and pulled her up to her feet. Karven and three other dragons flew over their heads, setting more skeletons alight. The heat of the flames singed the hair on their skin. In the confusion, the screams of a few elves and humans escaped the flames.
“Be careful, princess, and stay close to my side!” said Faowind.
“Behind you!” she cried, spotting an undead knight closing in on their position, its shiny sword pointing forward as it charged.
Faowind turned just in time to cross swords with the attacking knight. He narrowed his eyes. Both of them held their swords in position, using all of their strength, and growled at each other. Helenia’s sword flew upwards into the undead knight’s head and connected with the metal of its decaying helm, sending it high into the air before it landed on the ground with a solid thud. They caught sight of the undead for the first time and were sickened by the sight. Its flesh was horridly decayed, rotten muscles holding its form together; its body was animated only by the spell Kassina had cast to raise them.
“Die!” yelled the undead knight, its voice a deep guttural sound.
Faowind spun to the side; the attacking knight’s sword fell hard into a pool of blood on the ground to splash blood into the air around them. The undead knight fell forward and dropped to its knees, screaming with anger. Before it had time to recover from the fall, Helenia swung her sword down with her full body’s weight behind it, and took its head clean off. Faowind saw a glint in the corner of the knight’s eye; he crouched down and raised his shield high to stop a volley of arrows from the headless, but still animated body.
Rumble…
The earth quaked and knocked them both down to the ground, as well as the Dark Army in their close vicinity. As the dust began to settle, Helenia recognised the body of the Dragon Queen lying in the middle of the battlefield. She could see that the dragon was not breathing and appeared lifeless.
Karven's growling voice boomed over the battlefield, “No! Nymira!'
The Dragon King marched with furious intent, ignoring the weapons raining down on his armour and scales as he powered on through the destruction. Nothing else mattered as he made his way to Nymira and nudged her now- lifeless body gently with his head.
Andrielle came into their view as the dust continued to settle, her armour covered in splashes of blood. She knelt down and grunted as she ripped her sword out of a downed skeleton warrior. The Queen of the Elves approached the dragons, small fires around them reflecting off her shining armour.
“I am so sorry, Karven,” began Andrielle. But Karven would have none of it.
“Our queen has fallen — there is nothing left to say! She must be avenged!” growled Karven with a shaking voice, his eyes fiery.
His power appeared to affect the other dragons as their eyes also grew fiery and narrowed. His voice rang over the battlefield. 'Dragons,” he screamed, “it's now or never… Show them our fury!'
The King of Dragons entered into an uncontrolled fit of rage, as he flew with purpose into the middle of the Dark Army and wildly began to attack anything that came within his reach. The remaining dragons landed around him and they fought from the ground as a unified group. Finn and Karven both leapt on the attacking golem, absorbing the powerful blows from its fists as Glaucus pounded into their scaled flesh. Tails swung viciously into a group of shadow demons, sending their bodies flying high into the air, and the dragons breathed fire over them as they fell back to the ground.
“Take down those dragons, now!” ordered Kassina in a booming voice.
The Dark Army closed in on the dragons as the battle continued fiercely. The sound of laughter was heard over the screams, and Kassina emerged from the smoke. She stepped over the dead and dying as if they were discarded rubbish on the battlefield. Andrielle and Faowind stood together beside Helenia. They gripped their swords tightly as the sorceress came to a halt a short distance ahead of them, the wind blowing her hair across her face.
Vartan, where are you? Helenia desperately sent out her call.
“Oh please,” snarled Kassina, pointing a long finger at them all. “Your precious boy should be well and truly dead by now, along with his pathetic excuses for parents. All of you are next! You will all die here tonight.”
“No! My love! You lie!” Helenia cried.
The princess took a few furious steps towards the sorceress, but stopped herself in her tracks as Kassina raised her hand and attempted to throw lightning at the elves. A few sparks flickered at her fingertips and she shook her hand in annoyance. Kassina sighed, reached down to her hips and drew out both of her swords to her sides, adopting a defensive stance. She smiled, revealing her pearly fangs as her fingernails grew into claws and her eyes narrowed. “I guess I will have to kill you all with my bare hands.”
Andrielle snarled. “Do you seriously think you can defeat the three of us without your magic?”
“Everyone always underestimates me! I am somewhat used to that. Why don’t you come closer and find out by how much?” taunted Kassina.
Suddenly a man’s voice yelled from behind her. “Why don’t you turn around, wench?” Kassina half turned to see Vartan and Leon standing beside Nymira’s dead body, their weapons drawn.
“So here we all are by fate's design. But these odds are hardly fair, are they? It is time to even them up a little,” giggled Kassina. She sheathed one of her swords, brought a small horn to her lips and blew hard. Andrielle cried, “Watch the battlefield!” and they turned to face all directions, waiting for whatever reinforcements Kassina was calling in.
“Oh, were you expecting your vampire army?” Vartan's voice was lathered with sarcasm.
“Let’s just say that their energy is all burned out and couldn’t make it here tonight,” said Leon. “Are you so afraid of us that you need all of your vampires to help you? Enough talking — let’s get this over and done with.”
The men approached Kassina, as Helenia and Andrielle circled behind the sorceress. Vartan took a quick moment to glance over at the dragons that were still battling the large remainder of the Dark Army. Some of the dragons had fallen, but the majority of Kassina’s army was being defeated.
The catapults were in pieces now, uselessly lying on the battlefield surrounded by countless dead. Some of the downed warriors from Andrielle’s army cried out in pain as they lay on the ground bleeding. Without warning, a handful of silver daggers rained down on their position.
“Take cover!” shrieked Andrielle as she crouched down to avoid the falling weapons. Suddenly the sound of choking was heard from Faowind, who had a dagger’s hilt poking out of his throat. Blood burst from his mouth as he collapsed on the ground, clawing at his flesh and staring at them with desperation in his eyes.
Leon cried out in pain, “not again”, and he fell to the ground with two daggers half embedded in his legs.
The seven attacking vampire assassins charged out of the forest, drawing their swords.
“It seems you didn’t manage to kill all of my faithful servants, now did you?” snarled Kassina as she drew her other sword and ran at Andrielle.
Kassina swung both of her swords in a circular motion, bringing them back together with full force at Andrielle’s neck. The queen leaned back as far as she could in her armour, and the blades only sliced through the air in front of her face. Andrielle kicked forward with all of her might into Kassina’s stomach. The sorceress was thrown back by the blow, but quickly recovered as she turned to face Vartan’s sword now stabbing at her face.
Kassina swung one sword with just enough speed to knock Vartan’s out of the way and brought her other sword up to slash Vartan’s chest, drawing a trickle of blood. She quickly returned to her defensive stance.
