The warship sailed calmly on through the river, shooting any stray fish-frogs. Now, the trees and foliage were starting to thin out, and be replaced by pale green tall grass. Soon, the warship came to an open bank and grey knights leaped out, carrying folded tents. They started to put them up among the tall grass and repair their weapons. One knight was using his wrench to repair a catapult and another was hammering a tent peg into the ground. It seemed all too peaceful.
Chapter 3, Level 1: Tall Grass Field
Yes, indeed, as a green fish sailed through the air and impaled a grey knight through the arm. "ARGH!" he yelled, and despite his shattered arm, he managed to draw his bow and fire a flaming arrow in the general direction of the missile. To everyone's surprise, a cry was heard and the mists cleared to reveal a white fur-covered bear, not unlike the one that had been riding the cat-fish earlier on. The grey knight's arrow had pierced his thigh, cutting the main artery. Running up, Angmar grabbed the bear and incapacitated it with a bone spear. With an almost sadistic smile, Angmar slowly and methodically sliced into the bear's flesh with his axe, enjoying its last mortal screams of torment. As the very life essence of the bear flowed into the axe, Angmar's seemed to glow redder and blacker. He did not stop until bone remained. "Anach kyree," he spat, dropping the skeletal remains to the ground. The Maw now radiated with an ever-redder mist. "Netrezaar has consumed, but his hunger worsens." Angmar deadpanned. "What?" Jock asked. "Never mind, let's move on." Angmar said. The eight knights advanced onwards through the tall grass field until they came to two roundish mud huts, with four bears lying outside of each hut. Suddenly, they flipped over, stood up and attacked, carrying wooden maces and fishes. The Castle Crashers found these new foes to be quite a challenge.
One of the bears clipped Joe around the head with a fish. "That's for Sigurdsson and his pet cat-fish!" He yelled. Joe whacked him on the head and However, the bears were not so much of a challenge as having to listen to Joe singing his war songs extremely terribly. Even the bears clapped their paws over their ears to block out the sound. That gave the knights a chance to press the attack. Three bears fell under the attacks but the five others sprang away, shooting from their bows long green fish. The team put out their shields and blocked the shots, then Caleb, Meredith and Jack ran in and under fire, killed three of the bears. Samuel sliced the second last in half with a laser beam and Jock dispatched the last with a hammer blow to the throat. "Right! Where to next?" Meredith asked, over-cheery. "Your enthusiasm and constant cheerfulness is starting to get on my nerves." James growled. "Can't help it, James! It's my element!" Meredith said happily. "Irritating annoyance." James grumbled as he pulled his axe out of the last bear corpse.
Another wave of twelve bears came on, and this time they were harder, using their element of wind or electricity. They hurled balls of electricity. But none could stop Angmar, who whirling around with The Maw, cut them down as if they were straw dummies. The team watched, casually leaning on their weapons as blood came splashing around, followed by the squelching of metal axeblade on flesh. "Shaza'kiel!" Angmar roared, smiting and slashing. In thirty seconds flat, he was done. He stood tall in a pool of gore and bits of white fur. "Bash'a no falor talah!" he said, letting the blood run off his axe. "Come on!" he said, marching off. A short while later, they came to a single bear boss with a flag on his back and an orbicular ram floating beside him. "Hmm…Owlet looks like him." James thought before attempting to sandwich the boss between two walls of flame. The boss, however, deflected the fire and tornadoed out, literally, in a white wind twister.
The bear boss now summoned to himself his bear minions. Yelling and swearing vengeance for the one called Sigurdsson, they bore down upon the Castle Crashers, who fought as best as they could. They all dealt mighty strokes, cleaving bears in half or splitting skulls and heads until the pale grass was soaked with red. The bear boss hung back, although he occasionally sprang in to fire a few electricity balls. Jack was hit once and tumbled off the cliff, and the bear boss grabbed one of his minions. "Gudjonsson, finish him!" The bear sprang down with a mace in hand. Now, the bear boss decided to finish off the rest of the knights. His eyes glowed white and he tornadoed out in a huge white twister.
He sent James and Caleb sprawling, and out swept his mace, sending Samuel flying. He hurled three electricity balls, incapacitating Jock, and slammed two fists into Joe's back. Next, he kicked Meredith in the midriff, sending her sprawling, and finally engulfed Angmar in a electricity surge, taking him out for the time being. The boss stood solitary and upon seeing that no knight remained standing, laughed an evil laugh. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Now, none will get to the Master!" However, there was a crackle of lightning, and the now-recovered Jack strode slowly up from the cliff's edge, dripping water and the head of the bear called Gudjonsson in his left hand. Rage and lighting burned in his eyes. In his free hand he gripped his newly-acquired Sheathed Sword. The bear boss was slightly taken aback by this red knight's durability and belligerence, but he threw down his flag, cast aside his mace, and roared tremendously at Jack. The bear boss then attacked with two iron-clad fists.
Under his helmet, Jack smiled. Did anyone not know of his status as best fistfighter in all of Richard's lands? He noticed his seven comrades inaudibly groaning and twitching. He had to buy them time. He threw aside his pack and weapon, and charged forwards, shouting, "A fair fight, this is, then!" They met in a flurry of fists, each landing hits at the same time. Jack punched the bear boss as hard as he could in the stomach but instantly received a clip to the base of his helmet by the bear boss' gauntlet. The two laid into each other, yelling war cries and smiting with their fists and feet. Jack noticed the bear boss charging up a ball of lightning and did so as well. The two balls met each other in a flash of lightning. The resulting explosion cast both bleeding and senseless upon the grass. Finally, Samuel, who had recovered, tackled the recovering bear boss to the ground, held him down with his laser traps, and stabbed him through the heart with his Laser Blade.
The bear boss sank to the grass, sighing as his lifeblood drained out. At last, all was still. Exhausted, Samuel sat down upon the grass with his injured teammates, and that was exactly how Richard found them, sprawled upon the grass, bloody but victorious. It was noticed that the bear boss' ram orb had stuck to Samuel, just like how Owlet had stuck to James and Seahorse to Meredith.
They had decided to pitch camp at the riverbank for the night. Everyone needed time to rest and set broken bones, heal torn flesh, and soothe wounded minds. Absolutely winded, the eight knights sank down upon the soft grass and drank a rationed portion of their health potions. Apparently, it wasn't as effective as what the shopkeeper had said, but it was more than enough to kick-start the healing process and make the knights feel much better. The tents put up, watchfires blazing and sentries posted, the knights drifted off into a troubled sleep, filled with anxieties and the worries of what would come when the sun rose the next morning.
At dawn, the knights rose and quickly got equipped, then after a hasty breakfast of bread and cheese, marched briskly forwards. The corpse of the bear boss was now covered up with an earthen mound, the following words inscribed on a wooden tombstone: "Here lies the brave bear chieftain Nicholasson. May his strength and wisdom be remembered forever." James set the mound on fire without a word. Advancing forward, the Castle Crashers came across two pairs of beefy bears, six regular bears and two bear shamans. "YAAAHHH!" they roared as they got out from their huts and bore down upon the knights. However, the knights were ready for them this time. Only once was Joe grabbed and nearly pulled apart by one pair of beefy bears, but otherwise everyone was relatively unscathed. Stepping through the blood and gore, the knights pushed on until they came to a large stone patch where many arrows were flying. "Shields!" shouted Samuel as he raised his metal, laser-infused shield over his head. Two bears were pumping arrows out of large machine. "Death to bears!" yelled James as he threw a pyroblast out from under his shield and incinerated the bears and their war machine. "Aw, dang it. Javiersson, I told you that this contraption would never work." The first bear groaned as he lay fatally burned. "Shut up, Lionelsson. It was your idea—hurkh!" The second bear tried to counter, but then died. The knights now came to a large boulder covering a cave. Eight times they attempted to strike down the rock, but it refused to budge. Even their combined efforts could not lift it. "Never mind." Angmar growled as he glared at the boulder and motioned for the rest to carry on. The cave would keep its secret.
It appeared that the thieves carrying the princesses had stopped for the night. A hastily-abandoned campsite lay at the top of the cliff. Now as the knights watched, the horde of thieves handed over the two princesses to two creatures. One was completely swathed in a brown robe, save for his single huge eye. The other had two sinister red eyes peering out from his hood. The three spires of his Ice Crown jutted out from his hood. The Ice King took the Princess named Elsa, the Cyclops took Princess Jasmine. Then, the Ice King teleported away, and the Cyclops hurried into the cave. The mob now turned their attention to the knights. They regretted so, for in ten seconds flat, they all lay mortally wounded or dead.
The knights pressed on into the cave, where a flight of bats, similar to the ones encountered on the river, flew out, squeaking and squealing.
Chapter 3, Level 2: Pipistrello's Cave
The sound of blood and slime dripping echoed throughout the dank but vast cavern. "Um, does anyone hear something sticky?" Jock asked as he looked around the extremely dimly-lit cavern. "No—" Caleb started, but then ducked as a living blob of slime flew over his head. "Castle Crashers! We are under attack! Defend yourselves!" Jack boomed as he fried one slime to a crispy mess. Presently Jack set fire to a stray bone and threw it at another pile of bones, wet with blood and oil. The cavern was instantly lit up, and the knights saw that while they had journeyed in the dark, a whole mob of slimes had crept up upon them. The eight knights stood back to back in a rough circle, slicing, dicing and slashing at the slime blobs that came their way. The slimes were not tough to slice in half, but neither were they easy. Many a time one of the knights was grabbed by a slime and nearly had his or her head dissolved, but otherwise the Castle Crashers did pretty well. Advancing forwards through two waves of slimes, they at last came to the exit, and that was blocked by tonnes of rock as a huge bat with ridiculously small wings hovered out. It snarled as it dropped huge lumps of noxious organic waste. "Seriously? First, we have small bats, now a large one." Meredith sighed as she opened her hand, loosing a rainbow chain that restrained the bat in place. But what the cheery pink knight didn't expect was a large crimson band of acidic flesh lolling out of the bat's fang-filled mouth and sending her sprawling. "Oof!" she grunted as she picked herself off the rocky floor. "Seriously, Meredith. You're becoming just like Joe!" James chided as he hurled a few fireballs to scorch the bat. However, it dodged and dropped one lump of waste square on James' helmet. "AAAGGHH! GET IT OFF! GET IF OFF!" he yelled, frantically sweeping the poisonous gunk off his helmet.
Now, Angmar motioned for the rest to stand aside, and raised The Maw. Casting an ancient soul spell, he reached deep into the bat's soul and using the power of his ancient weapon, commanded it to detach from its shell. "Nooo! I…must…resist!" The soul cried as it tried to defy the power of The Maw. However, none could resist and soon, the light faded from the bat's red eyes and as the soul was absorbed into The Maw, the huge bat started to shrink and whizz around the cavern until it turned into an identical copy of the small bat and perched itself on Angmar's shoulder. "Castle Crashers! I hope you are all okay!" King Richard and Sir Thomas rushed into the cave with a platoon of grey knights. "We are fine, Sire!" Jack called back and let the grey knights pass with bombs in hand. A short minute later, the bombs detonated, blowing apart the rocky barrier and letting the fresh natural sunlight flood into the cavern. "Come!" Samuel said as he led the way. "I heard that Princess Jasmine was taken this way!" The knights and their king hurried on to the next area.
