Chapter6
In no time the small gorge was filled with battlecries and the clatter of blades. The attackers were everywhere and so the knights found themselves surrounded by a bunch of these criminals Arthur and his knights were looking for. But soon the surprise gave way to the knights' fighting spirit. They draw their weapons and just a few moments later the first thieves fell dead to the ground pierced by Tristan's arrows.
Arthur drew Excalibur and brought the man standing in front of him down in one swift motion. A deep cut covered the criminal's throat.
Dagonet fought his way through the crowd, slaughtering every criminal who tried to stop him. He left bloody traces.
Gawain and Galahad also killed man by man.
Bors brought every attacker down who dared to attack the knight.
Lancelot dismounted and unsheathed his twin swords.
He swung his right blade around and stroke a deep wound in his opponent's stomach. The man collapsed, his hands cramped to his midsection. Blood was steadily flowing out and seeped away in the ground.
Lancelot lifted his blades to block an axe which was aimed for his chest. The criminal who was wielding the weapon lost his balance and stumbled.
Lancelot seized the opportunity with both hands by cutting the man's throat with a swift motion of his right sword.
Soon the next thieve decided to try his luck against Lancelot. But a few moments later he joined his dead comrades on the ground. A fatal wound appeared on his chest.
The criminals slowly realized that they were going to lose this battle against Arthur and his Sarmatian knights, like the smaller part of this gang did just a few days ago. But this time the thieves had another ace up their sleeves. A deadly rain of arrows went down on the battlefield.
Luckily these criminals were bad archers and so no knight was hit.
Tristan raised his bow and shot two arrows all at once. On top of the rocks two archers fell to the ground, death.
But despite their dreadful hit rate and the two dead archers the thieves continued the fire.
Lancelot decided this was the right moment to take cover as all his fellow knights had already done. He noticed a ledge in the rock face behind him.
He crossed his swords to block the attack of another enemy once more and slowly backed away until he felt the cold rock in his back.
His enemy sneered on the assumption that the knight in front of him was running away from his skillfully sword fighting. He lifted his blade and started to attack Lancelot once more. But he didn't reach the knight. He made one step towards Lancelot, froze suddenly and fell over, an arrow sticking in his back.
Lancelot looked up were the hostile archers had hidden.
"Thank you very much for your aid but I would have managed to cope with him on my own!" he shouted.
But suddenly Lancelot noticed that he was separated from his horse - again. All other horses had gotten away to safety but Melyo was still standing were Lancelot had left him behind. This was going to remind Lancelot of the fateful fight just a few days ago.
The main emphasis of the battle had moved down the gorge but the arrows still came down were this fight had begun. Miraculously no arrow had found its target by now.
Suddenly the memory of Toros came back to him. He saw his horse lying on the ground, dying.
"Not this time. Not if I can prevent it!", he said to himself.
He gripped his twin swords, ready to kill every person who was baring his way. His left blade clashed with the short sword of another opponent. He used his drive to ram his right blade in the man's midsection.
Filled with horror Lancelot saw two men approaching his horse. The blades of their raised swords flashed in the sunlight, ready to kill the mount at least as a kind of revenge for the dead thieves. But the fight had taught them that they could never beat the knights.
Lancelot reached the two criminals just in time to block a deadly stroke which was aimed for Melyo's throat. A heavy blow of Lancelot's left blade hit a deep wound in the first man's calf and put the man on his knees.
Lancelot crossed his twin swords and cut the man's throat.
The second attacker watched in horror as his comrade fell. But before he could recover he joined his dead friend on the ground.
In his great relief Lancelot didn't realize that he had made the same mistake as the man who tried to follow him when he had taken cover under the ledge.
He looked at Melyo and said: "I hope you know that I saved your life!" The horse snorted.
Suddenly his vision became blurred and he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder.
He felt a stream of warm blood running down his back.
The last thing he saw was his horse finally leaving the battlefield before erverything went black.
Down the gorge the fight came suddenly to a stop.
One by one the criminals gave up and laid his weapon down. As soon as the two remainig hidden archers noticed this fact they stopped shooting and joined their comrades in the gorge.
"A good choice. Dagonet, keep an eye on them!"
Arthur, Excalibur still in his hand turned around looking for his knights.
Dagonet and Galahad were standing beside him.
Tristan put his bow away and started picking up arrows from the ground. He took one of the criminals' arrows, scrutinized it and then throw it away.
"Dreadful work!" he detected.
Bors joined the knights.
Gawain was gathering the horses to bring them back.
Arthur hesitated. Were was Lancelot?
He looked over to the horses. Melyo was there, searching the ground for some blades of grass. But no sign of Lancelot.
Arthur went back down the battle field. Nervously he scrutinized every corpse on his way, being afraid that he could find his closest friend among them.
Arthur made his way back to his knights.
"Did you find him?"
Arthur could hear the fear in Galahad's question.
"No. In any case he's not among the deads, thank God."
"The last time I saw him he was fighting under this ledge down there", Gawain remarked.
Nobody had noticed that Tristan had gone back to the place were the fight had begun. He knelt down and looked for clues in the soft sand.
Suddenly something caught his eyes.
"Arthur, can you come here a minute? I found something interesting" , he called.
Arthur turned around and came across. Gawain and Galahad followed while Bors and Dagonet guarded the prisoners.
"What did you find?", Arthur asked.
Tristan pointed to a red puddle on the ground. "It's blood", he explained. "But there's still another thing which could be of interest to us." With these words Tristan stood up and took a few steps before he knelt down again.
"Look here. These traces look like someone was draged. And I found this"
He strechted out his hands and showed them what he had found: a necklace.
They all reconginzed it.
It was Lancelot's!
Tbc
Drakcir: Thank you. Next cliffy is at hand ;-) I hope you liked this chapter despite this little cliffhanger but I couldn't resist.
Loopey-Laura: Thank you very much for your review.
Eshlyn Kar: Thank you! I'm glad you like it.