Chapter Three: The Founding of The Four
The company of five walked a short while, moving past bodies of Knights that had came here to kill a Dragon and had succeeded, but at the cost of their own life. They had left to go and kill the largest Dragons, a feat that would take millions of men to accomplish, and they were only five.
Gwyn's son turned around to see if his father was moving back to the main camp, if he was, and if he needed help due to injuries. But Gwyn had started his walk back to the camp a while ago and could not be seen.
The Firstborn had told the Four Knights to stop as he had a plan:
'If he hasn't already, this Dragon we are going to kill will make his way here from that.' He said, pointing to the carnage that was the crash site and massacre of the Dragon and Knights.
'So what we will need to do is hide in these Archtrees. Gough will hide in one on his own and will fire his arrows at the Dragon while Ornstein and I hide in a separate one, while Artorias and Ciaran will hide in another.' He said.
'What do I have to offer? I do not have a weapon.' Ornstein asked.
'Take this.' The Firstborn told Ornstein as he held out his Sword-Spear for Ornstein to take.
'I cannot take this.' Ornstein said.
'I am not asking you. I am giving thou an order.' The Firstborn responded.
Ornstein took the Sword-Spear and held it firmly in his hand.
'I will attack the Dragon with my Lightning while you, Ornstein, attack it with my weapon.'
The Firstborn said. 'Gough will shoot at the Dragon with his arrows.' He said.
'Ciaran, you will not attack the Dragon.'
'Then why am I going with Artorias?' she enquired.
'To ensure he does not do anything foolish, such as getting himself killed.' The Son of Gwyn said, looking toward Artorias as he finished his sentence.
'There is no room for failure this time. This our ultimate chance to finish this War. This is our last chance, and I shall not see it wasted; under no circumstances will we fail this.' The Firstborn said with aggression and hatred in his voice that grew toward the end of his sentence.
'Why art thou angered?' Artorias asked.
'I am angered as this is personal to me. This Dragon we art going to kill has murdered thousands of my men and left me alive so that I could witness as others died in my stead.' The Firstborn responded, his fists now clenched and so enraged that he could nothing could stop him if he wanted it dead.
So is his nature as the God of War, inheritor to Sunlight and Firstborn to Gwyn, born only to kill Dragons, a truth unbeknownst to The Firstborn.
Gwyn's son collected himself to keep a cool head while he was making sure that his plan's elements were correct.
'Do thou understand what we art doing?' He asked.
The Four Knights nodded in response to The Firstborn.
'Good. Then we shall all get to our places.' He said.
'Gough, go into that Archtree there.' He said, pointing and Gough went to where he was instructed.
'Artorias and Ciaran, go to this one over here.' He said again, pointing to where they were to go as they left to go for it.
He turned to Ornstein and asked:
'Art thou ready?' To which the First Knight of Gwyn and The Firstborn nodded without hesitation.
'Then we shall go to our position.' The Firstborn said.
When everyone had made it into their respective Archtrees, The Firstborn had specifically picked the positions so that he could see where the others were, with them being able to see him as well.
Gough sat down and made sure he had enough arrows and checked to see if his bow had the possibility of breaking, patiently waiting to attack.
Artorias and Ciaran sat down and talked to one another whilst they waited
'What do you intend to do when I attack?' Artorias asked.
'I do not know.' Ciaran responded.
'Do you remember what we planned if this Archtree starts collapsing with you in it?' Artorias queried.
'Yes, I am to either go back out the way we came or get out another way.' She responded.
'Good. I do not wish for you to be hurt while we do this.' Artorias told Ciaran.
'Why not?' Ciaran asked the Knight beside her.
Artorias took a breath.
'Because thou art my friend, and I do not wish for you to harm yourself needlessly'. He said, now facing Ciaran and smiling at her.
She smiled back at him.
'I am grateful for your concern of me, but I will be fine.' She said to Artorias in response.
'I am aware of that and that you have killed a Dragon on your own, but this one is far stronger and larger than the one you killed.' Artorias said with a touch of worry and compassion in his voice.
'I do not want one of my friends to be hurt or killed because of me, or me knowing that I could have stopped it.' He finished.
'I am no fool. I know that I would certainly perish if I were to attempt to assist in killing that Dragon or at least be very badly injured.' She finished as Artorias turned his head to the landscape of the grey-ness that lay below them.
'But I am thankful that thou have taken a concern to my wellbeing.' She added.
Artorias turned back around to face her.
They both smiled at one another and continued talking while they waited for the Dragon to arrive as a large bolt of lightning was thrust into the air with Thunder that was so loud, anyone or anything in a hundred miles would undoubtedly hear it.
Meanwhile, Ornstein and The Firstborn stood in their tree and waited. There was silence for a period in their tree that was abruptly broken.
'What will happen if we fail here, Sire?' Ornstein asked.
'We will not fail.' The Firstborn replied.
'What if we do fail? What will happen then?' Ornstein asked again.
'Then all hope is lost.' The Firstborn responded. 'Why? Do thou not have faith in me?' The Firstborn inquired.
'I do have faith in thou my liege.' The Knight responded.
'Then why art thou so worried?' The Firstborn asked.
'Your last attack on a Dragon ended in a mass loss for us, and that one was significantly smaller than this one.' Ornstein told The Firstborn.
'I cannot assure you that this will go in our favour perfectly. I am the God of War, not a Seer.' The Firstborn said.
'But what I can assure is that no matter what will happen out there, no matter if one or all of us die, that Dragon will be slain.' The Firstborn told the Knight.
'Ornstein.' He began, 'You are my friend, and I will make sure that you will not die before me.' He said.
'Now, this is taking too long.' The Firstborn said as he conjured the largest bolt of Lightning Ornstein had ever seen and threw it into the sky with a loud crash of Thunder that would surely attract this Dragon.
'KNIGHTS!' The Firstborn yelled. 'GET INTO YOUR POSITIONS!'
After the order was given, The Knights with The Firstborn got ready; except Artorias and Ciaran, they continued to talk to each other despite being given an order.
Before The Firstborn could tell Artorias and Ciaran to get ready a second time, Gough began to fire his arrows at the Dragon that they had to kill that was plunging from the sky.
After a short few seconds of it being spotted, the Dragon had made a full plunge, from high in the sky to on the ground, landing creating a massive crater and shockwave that weakened the roots and bottoms of the Archtrees.
Despite the now weakened supports of the Archtrees, Ornstein, Artorias, Gough, Ciaran, and The Firstborn did not look away from their foe, which was about 20" below where they stood, and they were
'Hold this for me.' Artorias said as he handed Ciaran his shield. 'I will not need it.' He finished as he walked to the edge of the hole they were in.
Once at the edge of the hollowed out part of the Archtree, he stood and waited for the Firstborns signal.
'Art thou ready, Ornstein?' The Firstborn asked as they both walked to the edge of their Archtrees hole.
'Yes.' He responded, holding the Sword-Spear of Gwyn's Firstborn.
'Good. Now, time to kill this Dragon.' He said as he formed two large bolts of lightning in his hands, which he threw at the head and neck of the Dragon.
Gough proceeded to fire arrows to the point where the Stone Scales had been weakened on the head of the Dragon, slowly hitting away at the scales to reveal the flesh of the Dragon.
Gough started to fire at its head; the Firstborn made another bolt and threw it at the weakened part of the neck, which drew the Dragons attention away from Gough and to him instead.
To which after they were exposed, The Firstborn threw a large bolt of lightning at its eyes, blinding it.
With the beast blind, it resorted to attacking where it knew the Archtrees were in the hopes of making them fall.
After a mass flurry of attacks on the three Archtrees, they were mostly fine, except for Artorias' and Ciaran's, which was beginning to collapse after the Dragon threw itself back to the bottom of the Archtree they stood on.
With the Archtree about to collapse and the Dragon moving in for another attack of the tree, Gough and The Firstborn began to fire upon it to keep it away so Artorias and Ciaran could leave.
Ornstein jumper onto the revealed part of the Dragons neck, plunging the Sword-Spear into it, surging his small control of lightning into the weapon. This caused the Dragon to drop dead instantly, its tail breaking the remaining support of Artorias' and Ciaran's Archtree.
The tree began to fall forward, and Artorias' Shield fell onto the ground below them, bending beyond repair on impact. Before the shield left the hole to the hollow part of the Archtree, it managed to knock down an unbalanced Ciaran, causing her to fall with the shield.
Artorias threw down his sword to have use of both hands. When he reached the edge of the collapsing tree, he jumped and caught up to Ciaran quite quickly due to his size.
Once he caught her, he held onto her with his back facing the ground and Ciaran facing the sky.
After a brief moment of this, The Firstborn jumper from his tree with a running start and reached the two falling Knights. Artorias heard the sound of the powerful jump and passed Ciaran to The Firstborn as he passed them.
When he had Ciaran and landed on the ground with no harm done to her, the Firstborn looked to Artorias, who had now reached the ground, landing with a thud.
The Knight lay next to his mangled shield, motionless and not breathing.
The rest of the company that had slain the Dragon Artorias had landed on stood around the body of Artorias, doing nothing except looking.
After a brief few seconds of this, Artorias sat up quickly and tried to regain his breath.
The Firstborn offered to help Artorias up, which the Knight accepted.
'Art thou alright?' Ciaran asked Artorias.
'I am alive am I not?' Artorias responded.
Artorias saw the hilt of his sword amongst the pieces of wood that had come from the trees. When he went to pick it up, he found that the blade had snapped off and that the hilt was all that remained.
He threw it to the ground and looked at the Dragon.
No one spoke as they took in all that they had just done, something that most Knights could only dream of doing. They had just killed the largest of the Everlasting Dragons.