Chapter 10

Brothers till the End

Jasorick and his army travelled from town to town, village to village, re-claiming each of town and village, as well was gaining some more reinforcements along the way, decimating Mavork's forces. Along the way, they stopped off at Guythax's parent's village. He told them he wanted to stop at the village's cemetery, since they couldn't find their bodies. He visited an angel statue in the cemetery that commemorates the fallen people of the village in any war.

He knelt on one knee and mumbled to the statue while looking down in sadness and despair "Guy's, I'm sorry I couldn't be here at home for you" Forcing back a tear and looking up to the statue's head "But you're with the rest of the family now, that's home yeah?" Looking across to Jasorick and the rest and pointing them out as if he was showing the statue them and trying to put on a humorous tone "Look, Jasorick...is out saving the world again so...I gotta be there for him"

Now looking down, he now really looked like he missed them. Looking down at his feet but looked back up and said "Sleep tight Mum and Dad" he then stood back up, took his service tag off his neck and put it on the neck of the statue and then left the cemetery to re-join the rest.

They rode again doing the same as before, but Jasorick and his friends, and little family he had left, knew something wasn't right. Jasorick's friends and family were Artix, Robina, Waric, Zhoom, Cysero, Louise, Galanoth, Rebecca, Siobhan, Alina, Rolith, Guythax, the Pentagonal Knights, Adam and Matilda.

Matilda was an old acolyte when she was in the military, and was going to be Sophia's mentor until the "incident" but she did still knew a few spells.

They noticed that all the forces in the villages were only small groups of skeletal warriors, no more than two squad sizes. Jasorick began to become suspicious of this, but ploughed onward to the fortress.

On the way, whilst passing Bludrut Keep, they had picked up some skeletal and dark reinforcements who were still loyal to Gravelyn, but it was still only a small number guarding the places that the resistance attacked. Artix began to question Jasorick's motives "Jasorick?" said Artix
"Yes, what is it Artix?"
"I know this...Mavork guy has broken the truce but..., why are we going after him? I mean we should have stopped at the borderlines of the kingdom..., so why?" Jasorick sighed
"Gravelyn was taken by him and well, me and Gravelyn, ever since I went on that mission to go and comfort her, I...I've fallen in love with her and after a few months we ended up being a couple. And if she ever comes to harm! I'll make sure the person who did it never sees the light of day again!"

Jasorick then thought he was going to act in shock, but instead, Artix laughed and comforted Jasorick "Its ok Jasorick. Look, you and I have been friends ever since you first got a place in the King's knights, there's nothing to be frightened of"

Just at that moment, they noticed a complex wooden structure a few miles away from the keep. Upon arrival, Jasorick gave the order for the army to cease their movement and sent his squadron to investigate the structure, as it was an odd building that felt out of place.

When they reemerged from the building they shouted "We have found the Empress!" as it turned out, Mavork lied about Gravelyn being in his fortress and just wanted Jasorick to come to the castle so he could kill him since he was expecting him to believe it.

Jasorick leapt down from Lex in excitement and entered the building. From the immediate he broke into and entered one of the many rooms it had, he saw Gravelyn who was pleased to see him too. "Jasorick!" She shouted in glee
"Gravelyn!" said Jasorick in a glee and relived voice. They both hugged each other with Gravelyn almost crying "I thought I'd never see you again, Gravelyn"
"Well, I'm just glad you came for me, that's never happened before for me" the two then stopped hugging and both looked at Jasorick's friends, who were all looking back at them, happy.

Jasorick then looked back at Gravelyn and asked "Gravelyn, how far is it from here to the fortress?"
"Only a few miles away, he wanted you to ignore this structure so that when you were dead he could tell the world of my 'disappearance' and claim my throne, he-" just then they heard something, off in the distance. They wandered outside to investigate what the sound was.

It was the sound of a thousand feet, marching "Undead! Five o'clock!" shouted one of the knights and this time it wasn't a small squad it looked like it was a quarter of an army marching towards them, all screaming "AAAARRRREEEEWOOOOOOOOO!" as skeletal warriors could not speak properly.

To everyone's surprise, they stopped. A mage of the skeletal warriors casted a spell, which made Gravelyn vanish before everyone's eyes. And soon their archers started to fire so many arrows that it blocked out the moon's light. "Incoming!" shouted Jasorick and everyone either took shelter or raised their shields.

Some of the men, almost half of them, died or became seriously wounded from the arrow shower. The many crimson blood spilt of Jasorick's army, now blanketed where the former alive and the injured men once stood. "My army! Find some place to take refuge! Artix, Robina, Waric, Zhoom, Galanoth, Alina, Rolith and Guythax! Stay with me and fight!"

The squad of nine then did battle with the undead. They were doing battle on twin hills, next to the structure, which now suspiciously was full of powder filled tubes. They were making good progress, but they were soon surrounded. "We're surrounded!" shouted Robina
"There's too many! We're not going to make it!" shouted Guythax
"Hold them off! Just hold them off!" ordered Jasorick, but Guy was soon cut off by thousands of undead, he could not get back to Jasorick or the squad and they looked as if they were going to lose. To Guythax, there was only one chance left...

Jasorick noticed Guythax looking around like he was looking for his sword as he was being surrounded by undead "Guy!" exclaimed Jasorick.
"Get out of there! Jump!" Guythax shouted looking back at Jasorick. He slew a skeletal warrior riding on a doomhorse and rode it himself off towards the other hill, opposite to the one they were fighting on. Jasorick saw this and got out a special stone called a comms stone, a stone that allowed people to communicate to each other. He shouted into it "Guy! Guy where are you going?!"

Guythax then stopped when he reached the top and took a few deep gasps of air. Jasorick then demandingly shouted into the stone "Guy! What the hell are you doing!?" Guythax replied yelling
"Pulling the plug on them Jas! JUMP WILL YOU?! DO IT!" He then leapt off the horse, high into the air with great beam of light trailing him. This was the only spell he knew and he never wanted to use it.

They all noticed this and everyone apart from Jasorick jumped over the undead to the bottom of the hill who swiftly chased after them. Jasorick was just looking in horror. Guythax then pointed himself at the wooden structure, aiming for it as he planted explosives in it when the undead showed up. He neared the structure and said to himself while looking up to the heavens "Never thought it would end like this, Hu? Hu? Mum and Dad?!"

Jasorick now knew what he was doing. He looked horrified and shouted "Guy! NO!" but it was too late, as Guy braced for impact.

The structure, when he hit it, exploded. The flames and fire quickly engulfed the battlefield. All the enemies that were in the way, were soon set on fire and turned to ash. Jasorick just missed a flame by jumping from where he was, covering his head and rolling into a ball when he landed, protecting him from the explosions happening all around him.

The others had already got to safety by finding cover nearby. The enemy's bones were quickly consumed in the fire and a few being crushed as the structure came down on the rest of them. The scale of the explosion's effect could be seen from Bludrut Keep, which was about two miles away from the battlefield.

When there was just the fires of what was left, Jasorick crawled in desperation towards the burning pile of where the wooden prison once stood, hoping that Guythax was still alive. The others rushed to him. Robina grabbed him and shouted to him "Jasorick! He's gone! Jasorick, he's gone, there's nothing you can do-!" Jasorick struggled and interrupting her shouted in desperation
"Get off me! God dammit! Let me get him out of there!" but just then, the last of the explosives, went off as it was engulfed into the flames.

Jasorick and the rest looked in horror but none were more horrified than Jasorick, who kept starring at the rubble that had just sealed Guythax's fate. Looking at Jasorick, Alina then said in a comforting voice "It's ok Jasorick, its ok. Come on, we've got to go now, Gravelyn still needs you"

Jasorick just looked blank but mortified. It had sunk in. Guythax was dead, he was no more. Jasorick then spoke his last words to the flamed covered grave of Guythax, before heading to the refuge where the rest of his comrades were, which was to call his name, one last time "Guy"

And now, Jasorick and the rest just wanted vengeance on Mavork. He had killed Jasorick's family, kidnapped his lover, and now, taken the life of the one Jasorick would call a brother and a best friend.

Jasorick & Guythax, brothers till the end.