Disclaimer: I don't own CT!
A/N: Ok, as this fic is coming to an end (as far as I'm concerned) I'd like
to thank everyone for your reviews and comments.
Chapter Eleven: War (Part Two - With Immortals) Crono, Marle, and Schala hiked down the trial until they came to a circle of earth that was darker than the earth around it. They skirted it and kept going. There were two trees that were about three feet apart in the trail a few feet away from the pit. Crono went around it but Marle tried to go in between the trees. It would have been a simple task, however, silvery-white fibers clung to her. She cried out and tried to walk through them but they were clinging to her whenever she moved. "What the-" she cried out. "Marle, watch out!" she yelled. She saw something black start crawling towards the princess. "Uh, Marle." Crono murmured. When the black shadow came into the light, Crono knew what it was. "Don't - look - up." He told her, but her was staring bug-eyed at the something above her. "What is it?" she hissed. "What is this stuff." She moved around anxiously. Schala looked up and screamed making Crono clap his hand over her mouth. "Marle!" Schala whispered through Crono's hand. "It's a huge.spider." She hissed. Marle's green eyes widened as she inched her head upward. "Marle, don't." Schala moaned. Marle saw exactly why Crono didn't want her to look up. A huge tarantula the size of a large horse was creeping around above her. Marle shrieked and desperately tried to get out of the web. The spider looked at Marle and discovered it had its dinner. Crono reacted in an instant drawing his belt knife and hacking at the web. "Hurry, Crono!" Marle cried. The tarantula was a foot away. Crono yanked her the rest of the way out of the web just as the giant spider put a hairy leg on Marle's hair. "Thanks." She gasped. The spider jumped down from the web; a very unspider thing to do. "We're in trouble." Crono told them. Behind them was a thud and a few clucking noises. The group whirled around to see another spider. It was just like the other one only this one was the size of a house! Two more flanked them on their sides and were similar in size to the giant one. "We are in very serious trouble." He announced, eyes huge.
* * * "Ok, Lady Gabrielle's directions state we should go straight until we see a fork in the road." Robo told Lucca and Ayla. They hiked forward and saw a tangle of rope and decided it best to avoid it. They went around it gingerly and continued down the trail only to tumble into a deep hole in the ground. "Ouch!" Lucca cried. "Good thing there's no spears in here." Ayla went to the earth wall and digging holes until she couldn't go any higher then climbed using the holes to climb. "Ingenious." Robo remarked. "Great thinking, Ayla!" Lucca cried as she began to climb up herself. Robo began his ascent when some small winged Dragons began to come out of the clouds and drizzle dollops of flames around them. "Robo, hurry!" Lucca yelled. "Grab my hand!" Lucca grabbed his metal hand and yanked him out of the pit. "Run!" Ayla shouted. They sprinted until no more fireballs fell. Robo took out the piece of paper and read it again. The papery sounds of Dragon wings came to their ears. "This way!" he pointed to a trail leading into a huge clearing. "That is the camp." "Not so fast!" a male voice rasped. "You're not going anywhere." Six men aimed their crossbows at them. "This is bad." Lucca murmured. "Very bad." Robo corrected.
* * * "Finally!" Magus muttered as he saw that the trail was getting wider and the bushes weren't hanging in the trail. Midnight squawked at him. "Ok, now we go right then left." Gabrielle whispered. "Then we'll be there." "Good." Glenn murmured. Midnight squawked a second time twice as loud. "Gabrielle, will you shut that thing up?" he hissed. "Or I'll be forced to." Magus muttered. "My way." "If you kill Midnight, I would be forced to kick your ass." Gabrielle snapped. "I'd like to see you try." Magus retorted coldly. "Shut up, both of you!" Glenn ordered. A twig snapped somewhere making them stiffen and stay very quiet. "We're extremely close to the camp." Gabrielle whispered. "Must be the sentries." "Great." Magus muttered. "Guardians!" someone shouted. "Alert the camp!" "Don't just stand there shouting you oaf, GET THEM!" another man shouted, his voice full of authority. "Run!" Gabrielle screamed when she saw Amazons charged at them from behind. They broke into sprints and thundered toward the camp to launch an attack thinking Crono, Marle, and Schala were probably already there. Gabrielle looked behind her to see where the enemy was only to trip on a tree root that was sticking out of the ground. She stumbled forward; her ankle gave an agonizing tug and went numb. Midnight squawked loudly and flapped about, urging Gabrielle to get up. She scrambled to her feet and hobbled as fast as she could. A rope looped around her torso stopping her dead in her tracks. Her ankle was throbbing and now the wind was knocked out of her as the rope tugged her backward and she fell. Midnight screeched as Amazons came to detain her. "Glenn! Magus!" she screamed. Glenn was twenty feet from her and turned around to see what was the matter. The Amazons hauled Gabrielle to her feet right when Magus and Glenn arrived to help. Magus slammed his foot into the soldier's belly then head, and then punched him in the chest. Glenn untied Gabrielle's hands; Midnight pecked his hands as if to tell him to hurry up.
* * * "What do we do, Crono?" Schala demanded. Her voice was full of panic. "They're spiders..what could they possibly do?" Crono wanted to know, his voice shaking a bit. "Bite us, eat us, spin us up and make us into mummies!" Marle put in. "Hey, look." Crono pointed to a large gap between the spiders on their right. It was a huge gap and if they ran fast enough they could probably get away. How fast could these huge tarantulas crawl anyway? "Ready? GO!" he bellowed they ran for all they were worth through the gap. "Not so fast!" a slithery voice rasped. A hairy tarantula leg punched into the ground before them, blocking their escape path. "Why in such a big rush?" "Uh, what the hell d'you say to a spider?" Crono demanded out of the corner of his mouth. "We need to get to the Amazon camp so we can stop them from attacking Guardia Castle." Marle blurted out in one breath. Schala gave her a sharp elbow in the shoulder and Crono clapped his hand over her mouth. "Marle!" Schala hissed. Crono gave a nervous laugh, "Y'know, she's a little off today. Doesn't know what she's talking about." "Yeah." Schala added. "We're just taking a walk. Through the forest. Don't know anything an Amazon camp or them attacking Guardia Castle." "Do you think we're fools?" The spider that blocked their path screeched. He raised the leg it had in front of them and gave them a quick kick. The force was so powerful it threw them a few feet, nearly into the spider on their left. Crono was the first to stir. He rubbed his neck where he hit the ground and tried to wake up Marle and Schala. Marle jumped up and scrambled next to Crono. Schala crawled to them with a yelp. "What now?" Marle gasped. Crono usually had a cool head in a fight but now panic was swamping him like it hadn't had been in years. Schala grabbed one of the throwing stars she had thrust in her belt and lobbed it at the nearest and smallest spider. Her deadly accuracy helped it bury itself in the spider's head making him shriek. The spider's shriek snapped Crono out of his shock and he stood and drew his sword in a lightning fast motion. The tarantula on his left cackled, "Look at the spike-head and his mortal stick of metal!" "And the little girl with her pea shooter, oh this is too much!" Another one laughed when Marle readied her crossbow. They really didn't seem to care that their friend was clawing at his head and finally collapsed on the ground. "What does this little morsel consider her weapon?" a third tarantula inquired looking at Schala. She whipped out another one and grinned grimly. "This." She hurled it at the spider that spoke to her and watched as the exact thing that happened to her last victim happen. "Nice shot." Crono said. "Thanks." Schala replied and took out the last one she had. "This has gone far enough! Let's show them what an immortal can do!" the largest spider shouted. He lunged at Crono, who slashed at its incoming legs with both hands on his sword hilt. The spider screamed and Marle had to duck to avoid being hit with the spider's flying leg as the end joint was chopped by Crono. It screamed and jerked its abdomen and silvery-white streamed out toward Crono. "Crono, watch out!" Marle shouted. Crono cried out but wasn't fast enough to evade the flying web. It slammed into him making his sword fly out of his hand and pushing him into a tree ten feet away. Marle ran to him and shot a volley of arrows into the last small tarantula that was coming to finish Crono off. After she killed it, she grabbed her last arrow and started scraping at the thick, sticky silvery-white mass that held him to the tree with it. Schala who was behind the giant spider, grabbed a big rock in both hands and lobbed it at the tarantula hitting a leg making it snap. He snarled and whirled around to see who threw it. Crono's sword was lying on the ground three feet from her. She made a quick lunge and snatched it up. "Sorry, Crono. I need this." Schala called to him. "Be my guest." Crono replied dryly. Schala tried to lift it higher with difficulty. How in the world does Crono lift this wretched thing? Schala thought bitterly. She slashed at the spider awkwardly nicking its front leg. "The stone-thrower thinks she's a swordsman now, hm?" the tarantula towered over her. Marle frantically yanked and tore at the web trying to free Crono. She was looking at Schala as she was trying to fend off the spider with the heavy sword when the arrowhead of her arrow snapped off. She cursed and tried to use the shaft and the arrowhead as tools to try and free Crono. "I've had enough of you pesky mortals!" it barked. "It's time to teach you not to tangle with immortals!" its fangs twitched as it leaned closer to Schala.
* * * Robo, Lucca, and Ayla were led into the Amazon camp and thrown into a makeshift tent and bound with thick rope. Six guards stood by the tent to discourage them from escaping. Their hands were bound behind their backs and Lucca was busy sawing her ropes off with a blade she kept at the small of her back. She got loose and began to cut Robo's. "No, you go and get help. They'll rescue us. An army is better than just nine of us." He said. "All right. I'll hurry." She said. She lifted the backend of the tent up and sprinted silently into the trees where she caught her breath. The journey was nerve racking; anytime there was a single noise the inventor would jump to the moon and back. She tried to keep a cool head but it was just too dangerous to be careless. She finally made it to the edge of the forest and Guardia Castle was in view. "Finally!" she cried. She ran into the first door she found and shut the door behind her. It was an armory and as she crossed it to the other door, she heard some clicking noises. Lucca spun around and saw nothing. But then she heard that sound again and saw a shadow cast on the wall where the small window let in some light; Lucca had company.
* * * "Who's there?" cried Lucca as she whirrled around to see just who was in there with her. "I mean it! Who's there?" she said louder. She grabbed the torch on her right out of the holder on the wall and held it out in front of her. Suddenly a large black creature leaped out from behind a barrel full of wooden practice swords, spilling its contents all over the floor with loud clanks. Lucca gave a gasp of horror when she saw what it was. It had a head of a man but below his neck was a totally different story. It had a body of a large lion, with huge claws, and whipping behind him was a thick, scaly, scorpion tail. A Manticore! It lunged! Lucca threw her torch at the beast and ran for the door. Grabbing the knob it snapped off as she twisted and yanked it to open the door. She cursed loudly and vividly and turned back around to face the Manticore. It looked at her with a demonic purpose in his eyes and his tail was dripping with a silver liquid. Poison. She looked frantically along the walls for any weapon in the armory that was in her reach. She saw a longhandled doubled bladed war ax on the wall. She seized it out of its brackets and dropped it with a yelp. It was definately for a strong warknight's use; clearly not designed for the teenage inventor's use! Lucca ripped it out of the wood floor and faced the Manticore again, keeping the blade between her and the immortal. The Manticore lunged with a snarl; Lucca chopped down with the ax but missed as the Manticore evaded her blow. She yanked it out of the floor again and got it up and slashed just in time as the Manticore leaped at her. It hit him and made him fall to the floor with a loud thud. As it was getting up to attack Lucca again, the girl chopped the deadly weapon onto his head nearly cracking the immortals skull open. When she tried to rip the ax out of the Manticore's skull she found it was to deeply embedded and was stuck. She looked at the gore and the mess she made and vomited. When she was done she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grabbed a short handled mace from a rack. She slammed it into the knobless door until she got a hole big enough for her to squeeze into. Lucca readjusted her glasses and ran down the hallway and eventually found the Great Hall. The tired inverntor burst in and bowed her head to the King and Queen and told them all about the Amazon camp and what had happened. Alarmed, the King began to assemble the knights.
* * *
"General Raoul, we've captured three of the wench's friends. And the sentries have seen her and more of her friends around the camp. The spiders have the last of them." Rian reported. "Excellant!" the general cried. "Thank you." he told the lieutenant. "I'd like to interrogate the three you captured." "This way, sir." the man lead his leader to the crude tent and bowed him inside. "What?" Raul cried out. "You said there was three! I only see one! And what's this heap of metal?" he demanded. "Sir, there was two human females and this metal man was with them." Rian explained. "It can talk, sir." he hissed. "I beg your pardon." Robo bristled. "But I can hear you quite well, and i'd appreciate it if you'd address me as a human." "Silence! You are in no position to dictate the forms of address here!" the general barked. "And who's this little morsel?" he touched Ayla's cheek. She snapped at him with her teeth. "Watch it, girl." he warned. "You no touch Ayla!" the girl snapped. "Snappy little thing."Raoul remarked. "But I know you're with that Amazon wench, and you're going to-" "Gabrielle is no wench!" Ayla retorted. "Ah, yes. Gabrielle is her name, isn't it?" Raoul murmured rubbing his chin. "Well, I know you're with her. And you're going to give me information about what she's got up her sleeve." "No." Ayla hissed. "I no tell." "Well, I think I change your mind." the general told her. "Really?" Ayla wanted to know, almost sounding like Magus. "Try me." Before Raoul could even touch her, she jumped up and did a swift round kick that caught him right on the jaw. She followed through with the kick and hopped and swung around with the other leg slamming her foot into Raoul's side. Robo gave the lieutenant a good shock when he tried to attack Ayla. "Now what?" Ayla wanted to know after she slammed her elbow into Raoul's face making him drop like a stone. "Maybe we could-" Robo was interrupted by the sounds of horns as hundreds of Guardian soldiers poured into the camp. Glenn, Magus, and Gabrielle barrelled in the clearing and were nearly plowed by the incoming mounted knights. Valient, Shadow, and Rebel thundered to them as if they knew their masters would need them. They mounted up and drew their weapons, which were hanging on their saddles. Midnight helped as he swooped from trees into the enemies' faces, making them fall of their horses. Gabrielle didn't care if these were technically her people, she was trained to defend the land and defend it she would...
to thank everyone for your reviews and comments.
Chapter Eleven: War (Part Two - With Immortals) Crono, Marle, and Schala hiked down the trial until they came to a circle of earth that was darker than the earth around it. They skirted it and kept going. There were two trees that were about three feet apart in the trail a few feet away from the pit. Crono went around it but Marle tried to go in between the trees. It would have been a simple task, however, silvery-white fibers clung to her. She cried out and tried to walk through them but they were clinging to her whenever she moved. "What the-" she cried out. "Marle, watch out!" she yelled. She saw something black start crawling towards the princess. "Uh, Marle." Crono murmured. When the black shadow came into the light, Crono knew what it was. "Don't - look - up." He told her, but her was staring bug-eyed at the something above her. "What is it?" she hissed. "What is this stuff." She moved around anxiously. Schala looked up and screamed making Crono clap his hand over her mouth. "Marle!" Schala whispered through Crono's hand. "It's a huge.spider." She hissed. Marle's green eyes widened as she inched her head upward. "Marle, don't." Schala moaned. Marle saw exactly why Crono didn't want her to look up. A huge tarantula the size of a large horse was creeping around above her. Marle shrieked and desperately tried to get out of the web. The spider looked at Marle and discovered it had its dinner. Crono reacted in an instant drawing his belt knife and hacking at the web. "Hurry, Crono!" Marle cried. The tarantula was a foot away. Crono yanked her the rest of the way out of the web just as the giant spider put a hairy leg on Marle's hair. "Thanks." She gasped. The spider jumped down from the web; a very unspider thing to do. "We're in trouble." Crono told them. Behind them was a thud and a few clucking noises. The group whirled around to see another spider. It was just like the other one only this one was the size of a house! Two more flanked them on their sides and were similar in size to the giant one. "We are in very serious trouble." He announced, eyes huge.
* * * "Ok, Lady Gabrielle's directions state we should go straight until we see a fork in the road." Robo told Lucca and Ayla. They hiked forward and saw a tangle of rope and decided it best to avoid it. They went around it gingerly and continued down the trail only to tumble into a deep hole in the ground. "Ouch!" Lucca cried. "Good thing there's no spears in here." Ayla went to the earth wall and digging holes until she couldn't go any higher then climbed using the holes to climb. "Ingenious." Robo remarked. "Great thinking, Ayla!" Lucca cried as she began to climb up herself. Robo began his ascent when some small winged Dragons began to come out of the clouds and drizzle dollops of flames around them. "Robo, hurry!" Lucca yelled. "Grab my hand!" Lucca grabbed his metal hand and yanked him out of the pit. "Run!" Ayla shouted. They sprinted until no more fireballs fell. Robo took out the piece of paper and read it again. The papery sounds of Dragon wings came to their ears. "This way!" he pointed to a trail leading into a huge clearing. "That is the camp." "Not so fast!" a male voice rasped. "You're not going anywhere." Six men aimed their crossbows at them. "This is bad." Lucca murmured. "Very bad." Robo corrected.
* * * "Finally!" Magus muttered as he saw that the trail was getting wider and the bushes weren't hanging in the trail. Midnight squawked at him. "Ok, now we go right then left." Gabrielle whispered. "Then we'll be there." "Good." Glenn murmured. Midnight squawked a second time twice as loud. "Gabrielle, will you shut that thing up?" he hissed. "Or I'll be forced to." Magus muttered. "My way." "If you kill Midnight, I would be forced to kick your ass." Gabrielle snapped. "I'd like to see you try." Magus retorted coldly. "Shut up, both of you!" Glenn ordered. A twig snapped somewhere making them stiffen and stay very quiet. "We're extremely close to the camp." Gabrielle whispered. "Must be the sentries." "Great." Magus muttered. "Guardians!" someone shouted. "Alert the camp!" "Don't just stand there shouting you oaf, GET THEM!" another man shouted, his voice full of authority. "Run!" Gabrielle screamed when she saw Amazons charged at them from behind. They broke into sprints and thundered toward the camp to launch an attack thinking Crono, Marle, and Schala were probably already there. Gabrielle looked behind her to see where the enemy was only to trip on a tree root that was sticking out of the ground. She stumbled forward; her ankle gave an agonizing tug and went numb. Midnight squawked loudly and flapped about, urging Gabrielle to get up. She scrambled to her feet and hobbled as fast as she could. A rope looped around her torso stopping her dead in her tracks. Her ankle was throbbing and now the wind was knocked out of her as the rope tugged her backward and she fell. Midnight screeched as Amazons came to detain her. "Glenn! Magus!" she screamed. Glenn was twenty feet from her and turned around to see what was the matter. The Amazons hauled Gabrielle to her feet right when Magus and Glenn arrived to help. Magus slammed his foot into the soldier's belly then head, and then punched him in the chest. Glenn untied Gabrielle's hands; Midnight pecked his hands as if to tell him to hurry up.
* * * "What do we do, Crono?" Schala demanded. Her voice was full of panic. "They're spiders..what could they possibly do?" Crono wanted to know, his voice shaking a bit. "Bite us, eat us, spin us up and make us into mummies!" Marle put in. "Hey, look." Crono pointed to a large gap between the spiders on their right. It was a huge gap and if they ran fast enough they could probably get away. How fast could these huge tarantulas crawl anyway? "Ready? GO!" he bellowed they ran for all they were worth through the gap. "Not so fast!" a slithery voice rasped. A hairy tarantula leg punched into the ground before them, blocking their escape path. "Why in such a big rush?" "Uh, what the hell d'you say to a spider?" Crono demanded out of the corner of his mouth. "We need to get to the Amazon camp so we can stop them from attacking Guardia Castle." Marle blurted out in one breath. Schala gave her a sharp elbow in the shoulder and Crono clapped his hand over her mouth. "Marle!" Schala hissed. Crono gave a nervous laugh, "Y'know, she's a little off today. Doesn't know what she's talking about." "Yeah." Schala added. "We're just taking a walk. Through the forest. Don't know anything an Amazon camp or them attacking Guardia Castle." "Do you think we're fools?" The spider that blocked their path screeched. He raised the leg it had in front of them and gave them a quick kick. The force was so powerful it threw them a few feet, nearly into the spider on their left. Crono was the first to stir. He rubbed his neck where he hit the ground and tried to wake up Marle and Schala. Marle jumped up and scrambled next to Crono. Schala crawled to them with a yelp. "What now?" Marle gasped. Crono usually had a cool head in a fight but now panic was swamping him like it hadn't had been in years. Schala grabbed one of the throwing stars she had thrust in her belt and lobbed it at the nearest and smallest spider. Her deadly accuracy helped it bury itself in the spider's head making him shriek. The spider's shriek snapped Crono out of his shock and he stood and drew his sword in a lightning fast motion. The tarantula on his left cackled, "Look at the spike-head and his mortal stick of metal!" "And the little girl with her pea shooter, oh this is too much!" Another one laughed when Marle readied her crossbow. They really didn't seem to care that their friend was clawing at his head and finally collapsed on the ground. "What does this little morsel consider her weapon?" a third tarantula inquired looking at Schala. She whipped out another one and grinned grimly. "This." She hurled it at the spider that spoke to her and watched as the exact thing that happened to her last victim happen. "Nice shot." Crono said. "Thanks." Schala replied and took out the last one she had. "This has gone far enough! Let's show them what an immortal can do!" the largest spider shouted. He lunged at Crono, who slashed at its incoming legs with both hands on his sword hilt. The spider screamed and Marle had to duck to avoid being hit with the spider's flying leg as the end joint was chopped by Crono. It screamed and jerked its abdomen and silvery-white streamed out toward Crono. "Crono, watch out!" Marle shouted. Crono cried out but wasn't fast enough to evade the flying web. It slammed into him making his sword fly out of his hand and pushing him into a tree ten feet away. Marle ran to him and shot a volley of arrows into the last small tarantula that was coming to finish Crono off. After she killed it, she grabbed her last arrow and started scraping at the thick, sticky silvery-white mass that held him to the tree with it. Schala who was behind the giant spider, grabbed a big rock in both hands and lobbed it at the tarantula hitting a leg making it snap. He snarled and whirled around to see who threw it. Crono's sword was lying on the ground three feet from her. She made a quick lunge and snatched it up. "Sorry, Crono. I need this." Schala called to him. "Be my guest." Crono replied dryly. Schala tried to lift it higher with difficulty. How in the world does Crono lift this wretched thing? Schala thought bitterly. She slashed at the spider awkwardly nicking its front leg. "The stone-thrower thinks she's a swordsman now, hm?" the tarantula towered over her. Marle frantically yanked and tore at the web trying to free Crono. She was looking at Schala as she was trying to fend off the spider with the heavy sword when the arrowhead of her arrow snapped off. She cursed and tried to use the shaft and the arrowhead as tools to try and free Crono. "I've had enough of you pesky mortals!" it barked. "It's time to teach you not to tangle with immortals!" its fangs twitched as it leaned closer to Schala.
* * * Robo, Lucca, and Ayla were led into the Amazon camp and thrown into a makeshift tent and bound with thick rope. Six guards stood by the tent to discourage them from escaping. Their hands were bound behind their backs and Lucca was busy sawing her ropes off with a blade she kept at the small of her back. She got loose and began to cut Robo's. "No, you go and get help. They'll rescue us. An army is better than just nine of us." He said. "All right. I'll hurry." She said. She lifted the backend of the tent up and sprinted silently into the trees where she caught her breath. The journey was nerve racking; anytime there was a single noise the inventor would jump to the moon and back. She tried to keep a cool head but it was just too dangerous to be careless. She finally made it to the edge of the forest and Guardia Castle was in view. "Finally!" she cried. She ran into the first door she found and shut the door behind her. It was an armory and as she crossed it to the other door, she heard some clicking noises. Lucca spun around and saw nothing. But then she heard that sound again and saw a shadow cast on the wall where the small window let in some light; Lucca had company.
* * * "Who's there?" cried Lucca as she whirrled around to see just who was in there with her. "I mean it! Who's there?" she said louder. She grabbed the torch on her right out of the holder on the wall and held it out in front of her. Suddenly a large black creature leaped out from behind a barrel full of wooden practice swords, spilling its contents all over the floor with loud clanks. Lucca gave a gasp of horror when she saw what it was. It had a head of a man but below his neck was a totally different story. It had a body of a large lion, with huge claws, and whipping behind him was a thick, scaly, scorpion tail. A Manticore! It lunged! Lucca threw her torch at the beast and ran for the door. Grabbing the knob it snapped off as she twisted and yanked it to open the door. She cursed loudly and vividly and turned back around to face the Manticore. It looked at her with a demonic purpose in his eyes and his tail was dripping with a silver liquid. Poison. She looked frantically along the walls for any weapon in the armory that was in her reach. She saw a longhandled doubled bladed war ax on the wall. She seized it out of its brackets and dropped it with a yelp. It was definately for a strong warknight's use; clearly not designed for the teenage inventor's use! Lucca ripped it out of the wood floor and faced the Manticore again, keeping the blade between her and the immortal. The Manticore lunged with a snarl; Lucca chopped down with the ax but missed as the Manticore evaded her blow. She yanked it out of the floor again and got it up and slashed just in time as the Manticore leaped at her. It hit him and made him fall to the floor with a loud thud. As it was getting up to attack Lucca again, the girl chopped the deadly weapon onto his head nearly cracking the immortals skull open. When she tried to rip the ax out of the Manticore's skull she found it was to deeply embedded and was stuck. She looked at the gore and the mess she made and vomited. When she was done she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grabbed a short handled mace from a rack. She slammed it into the knobless door until she got a hole big enough for her to squeeze into. Lucca readjusted her glasses and ran down the hallway and eventually found the Great Hall. The tired inverntor burst in and bowed her head to the King and Queen and told them all about the Amazon camp and what had happened. Alarmed, the King began to assemble the knights.
* * *
"General Raoul, we've captured three of the wench's friends. And the sentries have seen her and more of her friends around the camp. The spiders have the last of them." Rian reported. "Excellant!" the general cried. "Thank you." he told the lieutenant. "I'd like to interrogate the three you captured." "This way, sir." the man lead his leader to the crude tent and bowed him inside. "What?" Raul cried out. "You said there was three! I only see one! And what's this heap of metal?" he demanded. "Sir, there was two human females and this metal man was with them." Rian explained. "It can talk, sir." he hissed. "I beg your pardon." Robo bristled. "But I can hear you quite well, and i'd appreciate it if you'd address me as a human." "Silence! You are in no position to dictate the forms of address here!" the general barked. "And who's this little morsel?" he touched Ayla's cheek. She snapped at him with her teeth. "Watch it, girl." he warned. "You no touch Ayla!" the girl snapped. "Snappy little thing."Raoul remarked. "But I know you're with that Amazon wench, and you're going to-" "Gabrielle is no wench!" Ayla retorted. "Ah, yes. Gabrielle is her name, isn't it?" Raoul murmured rubbing his chin. "Well, I know you're with her. And you're going to give me information about what she's got up her sleeve." "No." Ayla hissed. "I no tell." "Well, I think I change your mind." the general told her. "Really?" Ayla wanted to know, almost sounding like Magus. "Try me." Before Raoul could even touch her, she jumped up and did a swift round kick that caught him right on the jaw. She followed through with the kick and hopped and swung around with the other leg slamming her foot into Raoul's side. Robo gave the lieutenant a good shock when he tried to attack Ayla. "Now what?" Ayla wanted to know after she slammed her elbow into Raoul's face making him drop like a stone. "Maybe we could-" Robo was interrupted by the sounds of horns as hundreds of Guardian soldiers poured into the camp. Glenn, Magus, and Gabrielle barrelled in the clearing and were nearly plowed by the incoming mounted knights. Valient, Shadow, and Rebel thundered to them as if they knew their masters would need them. They mounted up and drew their weapons, which were hanging on their saddles. Midnight helped as he swooped from trees into the enemies' faces, making them fall of their horses. Gabrielle didn't care if these were technically her people, she was trained to defend the land and defend it she would...