CHAPTER 24: URA
Gawain and Galehaut dashed through the plains. It was night now, and the light of the moon and the stars gave light to the vast plains. When Gawain reached the top of a hill, he saw dozens of underworld knights gather in position. He turned to his comrade to announce that they were getting close.
"We are close! There are enemies up ahead!"
"ENEMIES AHEAD IMPLIES POSSIBLE FORTIFICATIONS." Galehaut examined. "THESE FORTIFICATIONS ARE MOST LIKELY BUILT TO STOP US FROM TRAVELING TO THE STONE SHRINE."
"Inside a fortification?" Gawain repeated. "We'll just have to smash our way in there! Get over here!"
Willingly, Galehaut rushed over to Gawain's side. Gawain picked his slower fellow knight up, and began to run with him on his shoulders.
As the enemies drew closer, the Red Knight reared back his hand, and yards away from collision, he tossed Galehaut over the underworld monsters. Just as quickly, Gawain withdrew his axes and slashed at those in his way.
Gawain dashed to try to keep up with the flying friend of his, but the knights of the underworld had slowed him down. He hacked at those in his direct path and kicked their bodies into the others before they had a chance to disintegrate into purple and black smoke.
Gawain had just finished a third row of enemies when Galehaut landed a row ahead of him, impaling a foe with his heavy broad sword. As the creatures turned to attack him, the large knight's feet began to hover over the ground as fire spat out of the bottom. He effortlessly moved to from side to side and slashed, smashing through the victims.
Gawain caught up to Galehaut, and they continued under the massive archway of stone, slaughtering those who entered their way.
Dozens and dozens of fallen enemies later, the fortification came within sight. The front of it was huge, and on either side of the door rested two large wheels, implicating that this huge base could move. Upon closer examination, Galehaut realized that the 'front side' of this 'fortification' was not a wall at all, but a series of humongous wagons, lined up with each other.
"Even a camp ends up looking like a fortress!" Gawain shouted.
"INDEED," Galehaut agreed. "REGARDLESS, IT WILL FALL BEFORE US!"
Gawain smirked and looked back to his friend. "That's the spirit!"
The knights charged into the camp, slashing and attacking all of the camp's opposing force in between the wagons in the caravan. Creeping under another large cart, Galehaut remembered something related to the subject.
"IF LANCELOT JUMPS OUT OF ONE OF THESE CARTS..." Galehaut began.
Gawain felt bad for laughing. "Hahaha... oh blast you... Did he ever tell us what that was all about?"
"NEGATIVE."
"Oh. Shame, then. Rest in peace, Knight of the Cart..."
Bors and Galahad saw the black smoke rising from the sea of lava as they drew closer to the Molten Mines' front gate.
"This is it." Galahad began, ready to charge into the hordes of monsters that were bound to be up ahead. "Molten Mines? From here, looks like 'Cauldron' would be a better name."
Bors stuck a hand in front of him to stop him from doing so.
"Stay behind me." Bors ordered calmly. "If I have trouble, feel free to help."
Bors ran ahead. Worried, Galahad chased after him, withdrawing Percival's rapier. "What do you mean by that?"
Bors raced into the mining town, where people hid in their homes, under siege by the monsters that had taken control of the camp in order to stop the knights from stopping the spread of the underworld gate. He could see that said monsters had warped in front of him to do so. He did not withdraw his sword.
As the Brown Knight approached the knight of the underworld, it raised its sword. Bors rolled into a ball, and swerved to the right a yard away. Catching the larger knight off guard, Bors unballed and kicked the being of the underworld off the path and over the shops. He flew over a shop or two, and landed elsewhere.
Shocked from Bors' choice of combat, the next few enemies rose their swords as if they were harpoons. Bors dashed toward the next one. As the knight lunged his sword at the armadillo, he swatted it away and sent a roundhouse kick to the side of his enemy, sending it flying over a counter.
The next knight of the underworld ran toward Bors before he could start running. The monster was mid-swing when Bors had noticed him. Unable to counter correctly, he turned his back to the attacker.
The Brown Knight's armor was like his shell. It had many plates along the back so it could bend, roll, and protect the user. The defensive power of the armor added on top of the armadillo's already hard as metal back, creates a nigh-impenetrable piece of armor covering all of Bors' blind side.
The blow that was aimed directly for Bors' spine simply bounced back. Feeling the blow get shot back, Bors spun around and swiped his legs at the underworld knight, sending it on its backside. Bors quickly grabbed its shoulders and tossed it aside.
Galahad ran up to his brawling friend, confused.
"What was that all about? Why didn't you just slash them?" Galahad asked, wondering what his reason was for this.
Bors opened his mouth for a long winded explaination. "These creatures are demons. Demons come from the underworld. Right now, there is a portal to the underworld directly over the castle, and several miles around it. What do you think happens to a demon that dies?"
Galahad blinked. "... Back to the underworld...?"
"..."
"... Oh, I see." Galahad said. "We kill these guys here, they're going to come back elsewhere."
"Right! They'll be a bother to us later. We leave them alive here, they can't warp to us later. Let's go, now, the portal is getting bigger."
And they dashed off deeper into the molten mines.
Lamorak marched through a grassy meadow toward the forest. The darkness of the gate widening and sunset aside, the sky in front of him was exceptionally dark. Pushing the thought to the back of his mind, he continued to walk. Over the hill, he knew, the forest would be there, lying in wait, like it always had for the hundreds of years it had been there. Sure, it will be crawling with demons, monsters and other vile creatures, but the pedestal will stay in the same place it was always; deep into the forest.
As Lamorak climbed the hill, he heard loud noises. Crunches. Sounds of wood bending and breaking. Not too excited about finding out what it was making that noise, he didn't rush to the top of the hill so he could see over the horizon.
Until an Ent climbed on the top of the hill and screamed. The Ent was on fire.
"Dear lord!" Lamorak shouted in a hushed tone.
The Ent glanced at Lamorak, but before it could do anything, it fell down, and began tumbling down the hill, leaving many branches and imprints behind.
"An Ent on fire..." Lamorak noted to himself. He grew anxious as he approached the hilltop. "Well, you know what they say..."
As he reached the top of the hill, the hawk scanned the forest. It was on fire, even worse than how the Ent was.
"You can't see the forest from the trees..." Lamorak sighed. "Fantastic. Just fan-tastic."
Lamorak walked toward the forest, with great hesitation. Finally, Lamorak ground his boot into the dirt, and charged.
Immediately, a ten by ten grid of knights teleported in front of him.
Lamorak was not ready for the sudden drop of enemies, and began to skid. "FFFFFFFFFF-"
When he was at a preferable combat speed, he jumped at the first monster swinging Lamorak's sacred sword, and one of his bladed fans. Within a moment, he was through, with a ten by two hole through the ten by ten grid of soldiers. Those who weren't slain turned to see how far the hawk had gone, but they could not see him through the fire and smoke. They could hear the blades clang against armor, however. The armor of their allies.
Sonic This time, there were special enemies, and not just underworld knights. There were people who had gone to the underworld after their death, their bodies looking like how they would a month later. -If I run into a zombified Fang and his group, I am going to make so many fire related jokes.- The poor souls who came across included vikings, Romans, elves, dwarfs, and barbarians. And, there were other creatures, such as goblins, creatures composed entirely of slime, and amphibious creatures with squid-like heads. There were hundreds, thousands even. When they were defeated, all the same, they turned into a purple and black cloud of smoke, and disappeared.
While smashing through a dozen more of these creatures, Percival saw something over the crowds.
"What is that thing?" She shouted.
Sonic smashed the goblin mage that was in his way with the blunt side of Caliburn to look. Above the crowd hovered a giant floating eye. The eye had tentacles sprouting out of the lids, each emitting balls of magic and throwing them.
Sonic gasped in fear. "JESUS CHRIST!" As a ball of magic flew his way, he grabbed the goblin mage in front of him and pulled him into the shot. In a moment, the mage was reduced to nothing but smoke and air. Sonic then put Caliburn in his left hand.
Caliburn began to suggest otherwise. "Now is not the time to deal with the floating eye, Sonic! Deal with the minions first!"
Sonic readied his hidden gun. "It'll only take a..."
"...ura, ura urA, uRA, URA, URA! URA!"
Sonic heard a chant coming from behind the sea of creatures and the giant eye. Suddenly, dozens of bolts of magic and arrows flew at the giant eye and the batch of enemies in front of himself. Within seconds, the eye was ripped to shreds, and Sonic could not see beyond the sudden smoke screen caused by all the dying creatures that stood before him.
"UURRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The angry mob shouted in unison as the sound piercing armor became much louder and much clearer as they pierced enemies' personal defenses and began turning into smoke by the rows.
"PERCIVAL, GET DOWN!" Sonic ordered, curling up to avoid taking damage from friendly fire. Seconds after he curled over, he heard arrows and magic bolts fly over him for a good moment, until someone finally saw through the smoke.
"Hey! Stop shooting! Stop shooting!" A voice broke out over the crowd. "We found a couple knights!"
The arrows and magic missiles had ceased a moment later. Relieved, Sonic looked up. He saw an aged, moustached man. -First human other than Merlina. Surprised he doesn't look like Eggman. Well he kinda does, but, kinda... Weird... but also oddly familiar...- In his hand was a wand, and under his arm was a holy tome. He offered his free hand to Sonic.
"Hello, Sir Sonic." The man said, a smile growing on his face. "I believe you came here in an attempt to save us?"
"Well, saved you some effort!" A smirking archer replied, walking next to the priest.
Sonic took the priest's arm, and got up.
"He's right. We saw the darkness coming, and got ourselves prepared. Many of us were taken away from our homes once before. We've felt the pain that is the underworld's wrath. But never again." The old man lectured. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the district's priest and doctor, Gerald." -HOLY SHI- you know what, don't react. Jus-JUST roll with it.- "I organized this band of fighters."
Percival walked over, scanning the crowd of armed civilians. There were many different types of them; some had swords, some used daggers, others managed to get archery and spellcasting equipment. One person had a large paper in his hand, and was looking at it with wide eyes. -What's on that paper?- "And you did a fine job." She looked back at Gerald. "Now, what was that... thing?"
"We've taken a liking to calling it a 'Beholder'." Gerald answered. "Beauty, or, more fittingly for this situation, death, is in the eye of the Beholder."
"Hah, funny." Sonic said unenthusiastically. "Quite a nice pack you got there, doc."
Gerald looked back at the group, and laughed. "Ah, yes. Seventy-three people. Quite a swarm."
"Anyway," Sonic began. He stepped in front of the crowd. "Me and Percival came here for a couple of reasons. One, to tell you that the Knights of the Round Table are using Sacred Swords to stop the darkness in its tracks. Two, we came to get a resistance ready to fight the self appointed Dark Queen, Merlina."
"I've already amassed a resistance force, as you can see." Gerald said, proudly looking back to his group again. "We're sure to be victorious."
Smiling, Sonic turned and was about to usher the crowd to follow him, but Gerald stopped him.
"Wait." Gerald began. "This isn't a very important thing, but it's been an interesting topic for a while now."
Sonic faced Gerald again. "Alright, go."
"We all know that, if successful, we will be legends. Heroes. Some people want a name. No one can agree on a single name."
"Uh, yes, indeed," The man with the large paper in hand confirmed. "And can I have some time to make some weapons instructed by this plan?"
Sonic, wondering what he could be referencing, walked over to the curious man and grabbed the paper from him, and examined the sheet.
It was the blueprints for the Moist Nugget.
"You raided houses?" Caliburn shouted.
"Well, he was my rival," the inventor claimed. "And he's been missing for days."
Caliburn continued to chastise him. "You shouldn't be looting."
"Okay, sure. But whatever, it's a good thing he did, actually." Sonic interjected. "If we get a couple dozen people working on the guns and ammo working now and work until the barrier's up, we should have enough for everyone without a ranged weapon already."
There was a silence.
"Well?" Sonic asked powerfully as he turned to the masses. "Get workin'!"
"Yessir!" The blacksmith saluted.
Sonic began tossing out orders. "Everyone, get some scrap metal and wood lying around. Mages, heat the metal for the blacksmiths to bend and work with. Go go go! They're getting the barriers up as we speak! And you have to make stuff to shoot!... Also, where's a flag?"
"Sonic." Gerald coughed to get his attention. "Naming?"
After a moment of thought, Sonic turned to the man and opened his mouth.