Chapter 21

Toka was a very smart beast, and knew that battling for Redwall would let his guard down. So when the attack on the abbey began, he made sure that not everyone one of his horde was in the abbey battling. Some were still outside on the walls, keeping guard, making sure no outside attacks came there way.

But even still, Toka's defenses were vulnerable, and the guards that had been left did not expect to see hundreds grappling hooks fly into the air and latch onto Redwall's eastern wall, did not expect to have to face the full forces of the Guosim, did not expect to have to confront the wrath of the two beasts that lead the attack. A mouse with a magnificent sword, and an otter, with an almost equally magnificent dagger and a sling.

Within an instant, Toka's guards were all slain.

Mattimeo perched himself on the battlements of the wall, and surveyed the abbey grounds below. They were empty, and void of any life. Everyone was in the abbey, battling each other.

"Every beast to the abbey!" Mattimeo yelled. "The battle's already begun! We need to help before it's too late!"

No one needed second bidding, and soon the reenforcements raced for the main building of the abbey, yelling war cries and brandishing a wide variety of weapons. Weylan was right in the lead of it all, right up until he crossed the halfway point of the grounds, and stopped by Toka's catapult.

He stopped Flugg, who was passing by. "Flugg, ye see this catapult?" he said.

"Aye." Flugg answered.

"Get a group together an' burn it!" Weylan ordered, "Me an' Matti will lead the attack force!"

Flugg nodded and set off to do Weylan's bidding, while Weylan raced to meet up with Mattimeo and begin the attack...

Things were not going well for the Redwallers inside. Only half of them had managed to retreat back into Cavern Hole, then Toka had blocked off the room with a wall of vermin, half of which faced the entrance into Cavern Hole and holding off it's attack, while the other side faced the other half of the Redwallers that hadn't escaped into Cavern Hole, slowly picking them off.

Toka was right there at the front of it, helping his horde fight. He had received wounds, and his footpaws had been cut up pretty badly by treading on all of the broken glass that littered Great Hall. But he ignored them, caught up in the thrill of the battle, in the excitement of winning, in the exhilaration of seeing that after all of these seasons, he almost had his goal completed...

Then he heard something that sent a chill down his spine.

"Redwaaaall!"

Mattimeo's war cry was picked up by the hundreds of the shrews that were now clambering through the broken windows, and the main entrance of the abbey swung open to admit even more of the creatures, come to save the abbey.

Toka's plans ground to a halt as his horde began to panic and fall under the onslaught the shrews brought upon them. Toka quickly went about, urging his horde to regroup and confront the attack, knowing that his horde still had the element of strength on their side.

However, the shrew reenforcements had the element of surprise on their side, and it seemed that was all they needed. Toka's horde risked being wiped out.

Knottail suddenly appeared at Toka's side. "We need to retreat!" he advised. "The shrews are crowding in on us, there's no room for us to fight back! Stay, and we will fall, but if we retreat, we can live to continue this battle on better grounds! Agreed?"

"Oh yes, it's time for us to leave." Toka replied, his eyes falling on the group of Redwallers that had been trapped in the middle of the hall, and were there still, "But let's see how many of these abbeybeasts we can take with us."

Knottail grinned, liking the idea, and together they charged the group of Redwallers, other members of the horde catching on and following suit, attacking the group, trying to kill as many as possible.

Most of them were warriors, and were still armed, and thus resisted. But then Toka spied one creature in the group that was neither...

Tess was desperately looking for a way out of the battle to safety, knowing she had neither the knowledge nor training to fight Toka's horde. She pushed her way through the battle, avoiding the enemy, trying to reach Cavern Hole. She turned when she saw a Redwaller fall behind her, then turned back to find that her path had been blocked off by Toka.

"Miss Churchmouse, I presume?" he said, and then, without waiting for an answer, slapped Tess's face with the flat of his sword, knocking her to the floor.

He brought his sword up over his head, then swung it downward for the kill.

"NO!"

Another sword flashed out of nowhere, stopping Toka's mid-swing. The warlord looked up to see Mattimeo's face, eyes alive with hatred.

"To kill Tess, you'll have to kill me first." he challenged.

"Ha!" Toka spat. "I can take the likes of you!"

"Then take on two."

Tess stood up, picking up a fallen weapon, and brandishing it at Toka.

Toka laughed. "You? Fight me?" he said, mocking the idea. "Listen, you two..."

"Try three Toka."

Toka turned and saw Weylan approaching him from behind, dagger held out in front of him in one hand, sling twirling in the other.

Toka quickly surveyed his situation, and despite the grim situation he found himself in, he grinned.

"You have me surrounded on three sides, mouse." Toka said to Mattimeo, "But not four. Who will take up that spot?"

"I will."

Toka turned once again, and for the first time since the battle had begun, his confidence began to fall, and his rage reached an brand new peak.

Marigold had filled in the fourth spot, gripping the wooden stave in her hands, ready to do battle.

Toka saw that he was completely surrounded, and there was only one way out of this. He chose the least experienced warrior, Tess, and attacked. Tess blocked the assault, but was forced backwards by the force of it, allowing Toka to charge forward just in time to avoid a stab from Martin's sword by Mattimeo and block Marigold from charging.

Weylan let loose a stone from his sling, which struck Toka in the back. Arching his back in pain, Toka twisted around, swinging his sword at Weylan. The otter dodged the swing, but the sword sliced through his sling, cutting it in half. Toka then swung around once more and brought his sword down on Marigold. She deflected the blow by bringing her stave up in front of her, using it like a shield.

Mattimeo then charged in, slicing his sword at Toka's armor. The ferret quickly turned his attention to the mouse and they parried each other's attacks for several seconds. Then Tess, finding Toka's back to her, began hacking at it. Toka's armor deflected most of the blows, and as a result, he forced Mattimeo to back up and rammed the hilt of his blade at Tess's head. He felt the jolt as it connected and Tess crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

This infuriated Mattimeo even more, and charged at Toka, battling with renewed vigor. Toka was so preoccupied in defending himself against Mattimeo that Weylan was able to sneak up on the warlord and drive his dagger into Toka's shoulder, piercing the ferret's armor. Toka let out a roar and threw Weylan off of him. The otter crashed into three shrews that had broken off from the rest of the battle to help.

Mattimeo charged Toka again, only to be driven off by three quick whacks from the hilt of Toka's sword. Marigold slapped her stave over Toka's head, which caused the warlord to stumble. But the ferret recovered quickly, and turned all of his furies on his former spy. Marigold could do nothing but block the attacks with her stave until the stave broke in two under the stress. Knocking the pieces from the squirrel's paws, Toka wrapped one arm around Marigold's neck and held her tight.

"You're coming with me, traitor." he whispered in her ear darkly.

Seeing his horde already start retreating back out the way they came in, and seeing Weylan and Mattimeo charging towards him, Toka began backing up to one of the shattered stained glass windows to climb out back onto territory he knew he could hold. Ignoring Marigold's desperate attempts to wiggle free of his grasp, he took on the attack from his two enemies single handedly, knowing escape was near by.

Weylan tried to battle against Toka's sword with his significantly smaller dagger, but only ended up in having the dagger knocked from his paw, sending Weylan lunging after it. Mattimeo took up the fight then, as Toka lept up onto a nearby table then onto the ledge of the broken window. Mattimeo swung his sword at the ferret, but Toka nimbly dodged it, and before mattimeo could get Martin's sword back into position to block any attacks, Toka stabbed his sword at Mattimeo.

The mouse dodged it, but not without getting the side of his face cut open. Mattimeo recoiled in pain, giving Toka the chance to kick Mattimeo to the floor. He started out the window, pausing long enough to look back at Mattimeo.

"You've won nothing today." he spat at the mouse, "you've only prolonged Redwall's fall another day."

And with that, he leapt out of the window out onto the grounds beyond. The instant he did so, his archers immediately began firing arrows into the Great Hall, to keep the Redwallers from following, while the rest of his horde chased off Flugg's group who had successfully lit Toka's catapult aflame.

Toka watched his horde work while allowing himself be pulled to safety by a group of bodyguards Knottail had quickly put together. Flugg's group escaped into Redwall, and soon thereafter, the Redwallers rebuilt the fallen barricades. His horde put out the blazing catapult, but it was well beyond recovery, and he had not the resources to rebuild it for a third time. Knottail reported that they lost over fifteen beasts in the battle, and several more were wounded. All of the guards he had on the walls were gone to, and to put more on there would begin to stretch Toka's forces thinner.

But Toka did not care at the moment, because even if he ended up with less than he had when he began the battle, there was one thing that he did have.

He looked down at the still struggling Marigold, and grinned darkly. "Prepare yourself, my precious," he told her, "Because tonight I will show what I do to traitors..."

As the sun set, Mattimeo surveyed the damage that had been inflicted upon the abbey. Great Hall showed all of the signs of being a war zone. Not one stained glass window had been left intact. The debris from the fallen barricades, shattered windows, and the boulders Toka's catapult had launched. Blood stained the floor, but was slowly being cleaned up by several volunteers.

The dead had already been moved out, but Redwall's death toll had totaled at ten, with the addition of thirteen from the Guosim.

"All things considered, though, we faired pretty good." Basil remarked to Mattimeo while they and others watched the cleaning process.

"Life lost unnecessarily is hardly good Basil." Abbot Mordalfus said.

"It could have been much worse though." Constance reminded them all. "If Mattimeo, Weylan, and the Guosim hadn't showed up when they did..." she trailed off, not needing to finish the statement.

"At least Toka faired worse than we did." Mattimeo said, flinching slightly while Tess bandaged his wounds, she herself having a similar bandage wrapped around her head. "If anything, he ended up with less than what he started with."

"That won't stop him." Tess said. "He's only here attacking us, because he believes doing so is simply to better train his troops. He'll view the battle as a chance to work out the problems and make his horde even better."

"Which means that 'e will be even 'arder to beat next time." Weylan added, staring at his footpaws.

"We won the battle though." Basil pressed, "That must mean somethin', wot?"

"It means nothing." Mattimeo said. "We won the battle, but we're still fighting the war..."