Chapter Six

The Battle of Ordon

The canon glinted in the light of the setting sun as Rusl watched the small group of Moblins on the ranch. They were a group of several large grey Moblins, bigger than average, and smarter but the looks of it. They hung well back clearly aware of the danger the canon posed. Sand approached Rusl as he watched.

"General Moblins" he spat and Rusl looked up but before he could say anything Sand continued: "Bigger, stronger, smarter Moblins. They were used as Generals in previous wars, makes sense it would happen again." His voice was even but Rusl could see that he was grinding his teeth, it was a bad sign. Before Rusl could say anything Sand started barking orders, "Everyone to your positions. Prepare for battle."The Hawks quickly moved to their areas, most of them went to the ranch entrance while the rest went to the creek with two of the canon.

Watching out over the wall with the Hawks Rusl was joined by Mayor Bo. He had a sword in his right and a metal gauntlet on his left; he was ready for the fight of his life. Sand was still giving out orders, "Ok archers, thin their numbers as they charge, this wall won't hold them forever, swordsman ready for when they get over it, save your pistols for when you need them and drop them." Sand walked over to Rusl and Bo, handing them a pistol each. "Very simple point and pull the trigger, they take too long to reload so just use them once."

The Moblins began their charge, Rusl had joined the archers on the wall and was picking off targets as they came running down the hill. A grey Moblin made itself visible in the crowd and Rusl loosed an arrow at it, catching it in the forehead and it dropped to the ground. Rusl loosed off another arrow before hearing Sand bark "Archers down." Rusl and the others dropped to their stomachs as the soldiers behind threw bombs over the wall, exploding on the Moblins closest to the wall and the canon fired, scattering the Moblins and forcing a temporary retreat.

Sand growled at the lack of commitment before he said "Won't be long they'll be back."The soldiers kept watch on the wall as darkness fell.

Bo was keeping watch over creek during the night sitting next to the second in command: Gorman. Gorman's eyes were fixed on a point halfway down the creek. He seemed to think there was something there. "Bo, what do you make of that shadow, next to the rock down there?"

Bo looked carefully and he could see the darkness was a little thicker there. Then as they both watched a small light appeared for a second then faded out. Gorman instantly knew what needed to be done. He got up and issued orders in a hushed voice.

"You two get that canon ready, you get the other, archers to the front bomb arrows only, wait until you see the boats then blast them apart, don't wait for my signal." He quickly raced to the back to grab his bow and supply of arrows.

The Moblins didn't know the creek well enough so they were forced to navigate with brief flashes of their lanterns to see any obstacles in their path, they lost the element of surprise but they had thought it would make little difference in the end. One boat left its lantern open a second too long and the canon on the left fired. The colossal boom woke the soldiers and its hot splintered the boat, drowning all the Moblins on board.

That shot signaled the start of the battle, the Moblins were now rowing as fast as they could into a deadly hail of canon fire and bomb arrows. The flashes from the exploding bomb arrows lit up the fleet for a moment and each shot was able to find its mark easier. The Hawks had a clear advantage, it didn't matter about killing the Moblins, just make the boat sink and their armour would drown them. Mayor Bo had little to do except watch as the hawks held off the Moblin fleet which after a short battle retreated back up the creek. They had survived the night.

Link's vantage point had given him a good view of both battles bas the Moblins tried to break into Ordon, with no success. He cared little for the Moblins that had been killed; they were serving a purpose after all. The defenders had left a major weakness in the creek area; they were too reliant on the canon to destroy the boats before they reached shore, a simple attack of Zora Stalfos would be enough to render the canons silent, allowing the Moblins to land their main force overrunning the village. Link gave a small chuckle as he went towards the new trebuchets, prepared to fire into the village at dawn, signaling the final attack.

"THIS IS IT!" shouted Sand as the first flaming boulder crashed into the shallow part of the creek and the Moblins charged. The archers had quickly leapt to the wall, firing as they went. The advancing Moblin force was so thick that the archers were almost guaranteed of a hit each time they fired. The arrows did little to slow them as each fallen Moblin was trampled by the ones following it. The first row of Moblins impaled themselves on the spikes of the wall, just as planned. The archers now drew their swords and hacked and slashed at the heads of Moblins, with bombs and the canon going off all around them, the soldiers looked as though they could hold the wall.

Halfway up the hill a group of Moblins stopped moving and drew out their crossbows, took aim and launched a hailstorm of arrows at the defenders on the wall. Rusl took one in the shoulder and dropped, avoiding the rest of the arrows, the other defenders were not as lucky: four of the six were killed outright with the other being taken off the wall with an arrow to the stomach. More defenders rushed to replace them, launching a return volley of arrows into the group of archers. Several Moblins had used the distraction to climb onto the wall and face the Hawks on even footing. The Hawks on the wall threw themselves at the Moblins, desperate to keep them out of the village.

Mayor Bo watched as yet another Moblin boat blew to pieces under the barrage of bomb arrows and canon fire and wondered, just what they hoped to achieve with this assault. The Hawks on the shore were more than capable of holding off a fleet of boats. They were losing a large number of soldiers, for no extra ground. Bo thought they would stand a chance until he saw the first Zora Stalfos emerge from the water.

The Zora Stalfos had barely gotten its head above water before a hole appeared in the front of its skull and it fell beneath the surface.

"Damn, ZORA STALFOS! Defend the canons." Gorman drew his blade and charged to the engage the Zora Stalfos as they emerged from the creek, other soldiers rushing to his aid, Bo among them.

The mayor brought his Iron Gauntlet down on the head of his first opponent, shattering it and causing the body to crumble. He brought his sword up to meet a blow from another and was forced to step back as a third joined the fray. The battle with the boats had just been a distraction while these soldiers came underwater to try and take them out on the shore.

The rhythmic pounding of the canons had changed; Bo risked a look over at the nearest one. It had been overrun and then, it suddenly exploded. The explosion took out all the Zora Stalfos that had been around it. Bo watched in amazement as more soldiers poured from the creek, they had no chance. He was brought back to the fight around him by a spear to the leg, slowing him to a limp but bringing his mind back into the fight as the Moblins landed their first boat on the shore.

Link watched as the Moblins started to force their way into the village. Link watched as Rusl battled hard against an unstoppable army, at length he gave up defending the top of the wall. The wall still slowed the Moblins which was giving the defenders some hope. Link gathered a ball of energy in his hand and launched it at the wall, blasting it to pieces, with grim satisfaction Link strode into the chaos unleashed in the village.

Smoke stung his eyes as Rusl brought his sword through a Moblin, blood sprayed up onto his face. The village was fully alight now; the unseen trebuchets had ignited every building, even half the grass of the village. Rusl's muscles screamed in protest as he struck his sword into another Moblin that died with a horrible gurgling sound. Panting heavily Rusl looked up from his fallen foe, what he saw filled him with dread: Link was walking towards him.

Looking around Rusl saw only Moblins and the bodies of his fallen comrades; he would have no help against the greatest opponent he would ever face. Exhausted and bleeding Rusl had to do his best to protect Ilia, their greatest hope in the war. He drew his pistol and fired a shot; it went into Link's shoulder, causing him to drop his shield as Rusl charged him.

Link had done no fighting to get to this point and so easily blocked Rusl's tired attacks. The older man did not give in, coming at him from all angles, trying to find a way past Link's black sword that flashed with greater speed than ever. Rusl picked up the speed of his own slashing before Link's sword crackled with black lightning as he slashed. The black blade cut Rusl's sword in two; Link followed it up by burying his sword in the chest of his old friend. Link wrenched his sword out and Rusl's lifeless body dropped to the ground.

Bo barely gave his opponent a second thought after his fist cracked through its skull. The battle was basically over. The canons were silent; Gorman and Sand were dead, brought down by one of the many Moblins now in the village. The Zora Stalfos had retreated once the canons had been silenced, their grim work done, not that it made any difference. There was an air of hopelessness amongst the half dozen soldiers with their backs to the wall, defending the exit from Ordon, giving Hyrule as much time as possible.

As Bo looked from a corpse to find his next opponent he saw link standing there, black blade pointed directly at him, crackling with lightning. The lightning flew towards him, flinging him through the air as the lightning burnt his skin, and ripped through his insides. He slammed into the barricade and blacked out.

"Well, well, well" Bo came back into consciousness to the sound of Link's casual gloating, "Bo here as well. I can't say I was expecting you here. Why did you come to a battle that you knew you couldn't win? Is it just because you're too sentimental to leave this place anymore? Your daughter is making things difficult for me, running around all over Hyrule. She got the Triforce piece didn't she?" Bo hadn't answered a single question so far which was making Link angry. "Answer me when I'm talking to you" black lightning struck Bo as Link yelled out in anger, causing Bo to black out again.

"Bo it helps if when I'm interrogating you, you stay awake makes this much easier for both of us." Link grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, holding him by the collar "I'm going to ask one more time, does Ilia have the Triforce?"

Mayor Bo looked down at the young man who was turning his daughter's life upside down. There was no trace of the gentle ranch hand anymore, first replaced by the hero, now he had been replaced by the darkness of the Witches. "I don't know I haven't seen her since she left. She could be anywhere. Now what are you going to do about it?"

Link seemed to think for a moment before driving his sword into Bo's chest. As he died Bo saw that he was the last soldier left alive in the village, they had all been slaughtered. Link ripped the sword out and blasted Bo's corpse out of lingering anger.

Hooves pounded as Ilia and the Cavaliers raced across the southern end of Hyrule field. Ilia's mind was back in Snowpeak, Ashei had had that she cared about all of the warriors who accompanied them but after five of them died, she didn't seem to care. Was Ashei always this hard and unforgiving? Was this what war did to people? Would Ilia end up like her when it was all over?

"Ashei, I thought you cared about your warriors, why haven't you said anything about them? Even now that we are safe for the moment, you haven't shown a touch of sadness, I thought they were your friends. Why should I fight in this war if I'm going to turn out like you?"

Ashei didn't say anything for a long moment, she was just looking south, towards Ordon where smoke could be seen. The battle for the village had begun; it might even be over already. Ordon was gone.

"That column of smoke is why. We are racing an army, we can't get bogged down by emotions, I do care. I make a note of everyone that has fallen and when this war is over I will mourn them properly but right now we need to move. If the Moblins get to Kakariko first, then we can't get to Death Mountain. Our best hope in this war is to get there before them." Ilia realized where the smoke was coming from.

"Ordon has been attacked? It's already started? They didn't have enough men did they?" Ilia felt the loss of her village, and those who stayed behind. It hurt tears were forming at the edges of Ilia's eyes.

"Ilia as much as it hurts, we can't deal with it right now, we have to ride to Kakariko." Ashei knew she was being hard on the young girl but seeing the smoke had made her realize just how close they were cutting it. Looking south she saw Moblins starting to leave Faron woods, heading west: towards Kakariko.

"Let's ride." The race west was on.

Ok a note on the delay, this was a chapter I was actually looking forward to, I just hope I did it justice. Reviews on this chapter will be greatly appreciated; I would like to know that I did the battle justice.

Serenity searcher