Chapter Two: The Son's Flare
The Knights rushed around the camp as they frantically ran, grabbing their equipment so that they were ready to fight. Ornstein, Artorias and Ciaran went to get Gough and had to cut through the medical tent and saw Gwynevere tend to the few Knights that were lucky to survive what most of their comrades had not.
The three Knights stopped and looked at the Knight, who had the worst injuries in the tent. His right arm was slashed at the bicep, most likely from a Dragons claw; he would never use it again. His left hand was also missing, as were his legs. He was bleeding from his eyes and head, meaning that he most likely had suffered damage to his Brain and was now blind.
Ornstein knew how this happened to the Knight as he was one of the ones who were not as fortunate as he to have been saved from the crash of The Dragon; he could not help but feel guilty that he had been saved and this Knight had not. Ornstein looked to Gwynevere; she shook her head, meaning that the Knight would be put out of his misery and be killed rather than continue to live the rest of his days; however long they may be in excruciating pain. The three left, remembering they had a task at hand before executing the Firstborns plan.
They soon arrived at the tent that Gough and the Giant Smith were; before Ornstein had the chance to speak, Artorias stopped him
'Let Ciaran do it. She haveth been friends with the Giant for longer than us two.' To which Ornstein nodded in response.
'Gough, thou haveth been placed under the command of First Knight Ornstein, as have me and Artorias under the Firstborns command.' Ciaran told her friend.
Gough responded by looking toward Ornstein, then picked up his quiver full to the brim of his custom made arrows and placed it on his back, done the same with his Greatbow. He walked over to Artorias and Ornstein and waited for them to start to go so that he could follow.
When Gough had finished walking to Ornstein and Artorias, Ciaran walked over to them, and Ornstein began to leave to the tent, signalling that it was time to go.
After walking back through the camp, Ornstein saw The Firstborn finish talking to his father and went over to him.
'Sire.' He said to get The Firstborns attention.
The Firstborn responded by looking at Ornstein, Artorias, Ciaran and Gough before speaking
'Good, now before we do anything else, there is one final matter that is to be attended to.'
'Father!' The Firstborn shouted to Gwyn. Gwyn walked over to his Son, to which the Firstborn whispered something in Gwyn's ear.
'Of course, it only makes sense.' Gwyn said as his Son moved away from his father's ear. 'Gough.' Gwyn continued. 'Take a knee.' To which Gough did.
Gwyn unsheathed his sword and looked to the Giant. He then thrust his sword into the ground before the Giant. 'Touch the hilt of my sword.' Gwyn instructed Gough to do, Gough complied and touched the sword hilt.
'From this day, thou shalt be a Knight of Gwyn. Now arise, Hawkeye Gough.' Gwyn said as Gough released the hilt of his sword.
Gough arose; he could hear the chatter of some of the Silver Knights.
'He is just a Giant. A brute!' some said with a lack of fondness to Gwyn and the Firstborns decision. Others did speak, but Gough could not hear them. Some, however, were pleased with the decision to make Gough a Knight, Ciaran, Artorias and Ornstein being just three of the many who were.
'Now! We still have an attack to do. Enough talking about if thou art displeased with me and my father's decision.' The Firstborn said.
With that, the Knights began to disperse into their companies and form into the large group that would stay together to attack the Dragon in one precise spot to slay the beast.
'Ornstein!' Gwyn shouted to his and his Son's First Knight.
'Yes, Sire?' Ornstein asked when he walked over to Gwyn.
'Thou art to take a position where Gough can fire his arrows at the Dragon, and art not to move until my Son summons you. Doth thou understand this?' Gwyn asked.
'Yes.' Ornstein replied.
'Good. Move alongside the Battalion in support so thou can find a spot to go to so Gough can do what he needs to.' Gwyn told Ornstein.
Ornstein nodded, and Gwyn walked away to the Battalion's front that had formed into a large, organised mass of his troops while he spoke to Ornstein.
'Follow me.' Ornstein said as he turned to face the three Knights under his command. They all began to walk over to the side of the Battalion, roughly in the middle of it so that they would have enough time to get into position before the attack began.
After a short walk from the camp, the mass of Knights had moved twelve miles away from the Base camp. The Four Knights had found themselves near the middle, yet still outside of the leading group of Knights. They had been mainly walking in silence, with one of the four letting the others know that they were to watch their step.
'Ciaran, might I ask thou a question?' Artorias asked.
'That depends on the question.' She responded.
'Seeing a woman amongst Gwyn's Silver Knights is quite the rare sight as most of them do not wish to be a part of... this.' Artorias said, finishing with a gesture that meant here.
'So why did thou choose to become a Knight?' He asked.
'I chose to become one of Gwyn's Knights as I did not wish to sit around and do nothing while thou art here fighting the Dragons. I may be smaller than the Knights here, Thou and Ornstein especially, but that is no excuse for not fighting.' Ciaran told Artorias.
'As I said, it is an unusual sight here. I meant no disrespect.' Artorias said.
'None was taken, Artorias.' Ciaran responded.
Just as she had finished speaking, The Firstborn was walking over to the four Knights and began to speak:
'You four. Not too far from here is a hill where you can be. It is not that far from where we shall be, and you can easily see what is happening.' He finished
.
'Understood. Come on; we shall go there now.' Ornstein said in response.
As Ornstein, Artorias, Ciaran, and Gough started to walk to the hill. The Firstborn blocked their path by holing his sword- spear in front of them and spoke:
'Stay safe.'
They all nodded to him, and he raised his weapon.
They had moved away from the rest of the Knights and made it to the hill. They sat and watched as the other Knights had gotten into position. After which, they sat down on the ground, waited and rested. They didn't get to rest for long, as the Firstborn of Gwyn had blown his horn, meaning that they were to get ready for attack.
Gough stood up and un-slung his bow from his back, after which he grabbed an arrow from the quiver on his back and readied it on his bow but had it loosely on his bow so he wouldn't accidentally fire it and hit the Knights.
Soon the Dragon had appeared, and the Knights, as well as Gwyn and his Son, began throwing their lightning spears, with Gwyn's and his Son's being the easiest to identify as theirs had the power and size of 100 Sliver Knight lightning bolts.
Gough started to fire his arrows at the Dragon simultaneously, never missing a single shot. Artorias and Ornstein stood in wonder at Gough's unbelievable accuracy. Ciaran, however, had seen Gough shoot at Dragons before but was still amazed that his arrows always stayed true even at this distance.
The massive barrage of Lightning and Arrows had utterly peeled off the stone scales off of the Dragon's head, revealing the bare head that lay beneath the scales. Gwyn threw a lightning bolt of immense size into the sky, missing the Dragon and disappearing as if it had never existed: A deliberate act. A few seconds after he had thrown the bolt into the sky, a large mass of lightning came hurtling toward the Dragon from the point where the missed lightning bolt had disappeared.
The Dragons skull had been cracked, and part of the Brain had been exposed. It knew that it would die here, so it began to crash itself into the Knights who were close to it. It still had a small distance to fly, so Gough tried to stop it by shooting his arrows through the wings; which only made its descent faster, but it was still aligning itself with the Knights who were now trying to move out of the way of the Dragon by hiding behind some of the nearby Archtrees.
'Go for its Brain!' Artorias told Gough.
Although when he went to fire at the Dragons Brain; A Lightning bolt that dwarfed any of Gwyn's lightning had already hit the Dragon. The damage dealt was unknown to the Four Knights on the hill that overlooked the Knights' central mass.
The corpse of the Dragon plummeted to the ground, but instead of sliding in a forward, crashing motion, it just fell and began to roll. It even knocked down some of the Archtrees that provided cover for the Knights.
Ornstein and the other Knights on the hill stared at what had happened for a few seconds. Then Ornstein ran down the hill and began to sprint to the site of the crash to look as fast as he could. Artorias began to run just after Ornstein reached the bottom of the hill and quickly moved into a full sprint keeping pace with Ornstein. Gough and Ciaran followed after the two Knights.
After a few minutes of sprinting, Ornstein and Artorias had made it to the crash. They were slightly out of breath, but they did not let that stop them from looking for any survivors as soon as they arrived.
'Check over there!' Ornstein told Artorias as he pointed to where he was talking about. 'And I will look over here.' He said as Artorias began to leave to where he was asked to look.
Ornstein moved toward the Dragon to look for anyone who may have lived through the crash. When he had gotten to the Dragon, he could see what had happened to it. It was effortless to tell the lightning and the impact, as the parts affected with lightning still were sparking from the blast.
The head had been completely ruptured, or where the head would have been as the beast's neck had exploded and a large shaft that went through the Dragon was visible upon closer inspection. The lightning, which had made the new shaft in the Dragons neck, had exploded inside the chest of the Dragon, causing its heart to be flung from the chest and make it die instantly. The bolt had also exploded into smaller bolts creating holes in the wings of the creature.
Ornstein took off his helmet and put his hand over his mouth, trying not to be sick at what he saw. He looked around and saw that The Firstborn had somehow survived. He rushed over to him and saw him trying to push the Dragons corpse off him, but to no avail.
Ornstein immediately started to use his spear to lift the corpse slightly so the Firstborn could move.
'Damn it!' He yelled as his spear snapped, causing him to fall back.
'Artorias!' Ornstein yelled as he tried to lift the Dragon with his hand while the Firstborn attempted to push it off.
When Artorias got there, he threw his helmet to the ground as running in this armour had made him unbelievably warm. After throwing his helmet, he moved in to help lift the Dragon off of Gwyn's Son. They could not get it.
Gough and Ciaran arrived at the scene, and Gough lifted the Dragon off the Firstborn and then lay it threw it away from any of the bodies of the Knights.
'Where is my father?' The Firstborn asked as soon as he stood up and grabbed his weapon.
'We are not sure.' Ornstein said in response.
'Find him, please.' The Firstborn said to Ornstein, to which Ornstein nodded.
The Four Knights began to look for Gwyn while the Firstborn sat down and gained his breath, as well as inspecting himself for any injuries caused by being crushed by a Dragon.
A short search later and none of the Four had found the Lord of Sunlight, so they returned to The Firstborn;
'Did thou find him?' He asked, more worried about his father than himself.
'No.' Ciaran responded.
The Firstborn sighed.
'Where did thou see him going to last?' Gough asked.
'That way.' The Firstborn said, pointing to one of the collapsed Archtrees.
Now with the last sighting of their Lord, the Four Knights moved to the Archtree they were told Gwyn had been seen heading toward.
After moving to the Archtree, they moved to the other side of the tree and saw Gwyn sitting beside one of his Knights with blood on his hands. The Knight next to him had blood coming from his abdominal region, and a large piece of wood could be seen next to the Knight with blood on a sharp edge of it.
Gwyn's Son had regained his breath and had run over to where the Knights headed. He saw his father, who looked at him with slight fury.
'Every Knight who attacked that Dragon is now dead!' He yelled.
'We came here with 100 000. It is good that there is still 5 000 left at the camp who stayed in case something like this happened!' He added.
'We still killed it! A now only one more of their biggest Dragons remains.' The Firstborn said.
'Yet it is their biggest. And we haven't the men to take it on.' Gwyn told his Son.
'I can kill it.' He responded to his father.
'You had better. Or all this...' Gwyn gestured to the surrounding area, 'Will have been for nothing.'
'I need only myself and these Four Knights.' He told his father.
'Sire, my weapon is broken.' Ornstein told Gwyn.
'I have a solution to that.' The Firstborn told Ornstein.
'Go. Kill this final Dragon so that we may win the Everlasting War.' Gwyn said, and after which, The Firstborn and the Four Knights walked off to kill the largest Dragon ever to exist.