Episode 30: Part 2
The flat plains just outside the town of Somerset Valley thundered under the pounding of horses' hooves and the boots of thousands of Faerie soldiers surging forward. The lighter armed Fomorian horde responded and charged forward in a mass of ferocious screams and cries while closing the distance between them and the Elven armies. From the rear ranks of the Alliance line, hundreds of archers loosed volleys of arrows which filled the skies and rained down on the monstrous enemies that approached. Several walls of arrows crashed down on the Fomorians mowing down countless raiders but the horde pressed on in berserk fury. They had come to fight and lusted for unrestrained violence against their fellow fey enemies.
The Summer and Winter infantry halted and formed a combined phalanx of spears and swords around their shield wall. The spriggans crashed into the front line like a terrible wave biting, hacking, and pushing to try and break the disciplined Elven ranks. Despite the shock of the assault, the disciplined Elven soldiers stood their ground and held their dense formations. On the wings, the centaurs and Wylde Hunters clashed against squadrons of Fomorian cavalry. Furious whinnies of the horses echoed as the sounds of clashing steel, colliding bodies, and war-cries filled the air. At the center of the melee, the five Hibernian Knights hacked and slashed their way through the press of bodies, trying to forge ahead and break the enemy's spirits.
As he watched the advancing front ranks of the Alliance forces press ahead, Seamus growled as the Fomorian line wavered. From his vantage point he could see the Elves following the lead of the five human knights in the front and center. Searing flares of fire ripped through several ranks of spriggans as Connor spurred his mount and sliced through his enemies with his blazing sword. At his sides Laura and Stephen fought in close order. The Silver Knight sat atop his mount shooting down enemy troops with the pinpoint accuracy of his bow while Laura waved her icicle rapier and channeled her rings wintry power. The frigid air spread forward and slowed enemy soldiers with debilitating icy energy making them more vulnerable to attack.
Meanwhile, Quinton and Noelle covered the flanks of the knights' advance. The Spring Knight swept his sword and sickle around in whirling strikes while throwing spriggans back with bursts of thundering electricity while Noelle swept aside her opponents with powerful gusts of wind that knocked them over or disarmed them. Any foot soldiers the knights didn't cut down were taken down by the two Druids riding close behind. While Kristen rode in formation, she kept her staff raised radiating a green shield of energy to help ward off attacks from the knights. As she focused her power on protecting the others, O'Doyle swung his staff like a club, bashing in the skulls of any Fomorians that tried to attack them. While he hammered away at the stray enemies, the other knights turned and noticed before giving the old Druid a cheer, "O'Doyle rules! O'Doyle rules!"
From the other end of the field, Seamus watched as the advance guard of the Fomorians buckled and began falling back against the steady onslaught of the Alliance army. He turned to one of his lieutenants and waved the secondary line forward, "Send in the reserves. The Alliance front line is close to overextending itself. If they're tired, we'll try and turn their exposed side."
"What about their archers and cavalry? They're tearing us apart out there," the lieutenant said.
Seamus reached for a bone horn at his side that had been given to him by Balor, "You let me worry about that. I've got something that will keep them occupied. Now get me a weapon."
The redcap stretched his neck with a few cracks before a spriggan soldier came over and handed him a large glaive. As Seamus began to walk forward, his lieutenant stopped and called out, "General, are you sure about going out there? You'll put yourself at risk."
The troll snarled and gripped his polearm tightly, "Lord Balor is depending on us to keep this ground secure. We might not have been able to attack the Faerie Realm first, but I will not let the Alliance army take this field."
"But General, the knights..."
"To hell with the knights!" Seamus roared furiously, "They've made a fool of me enough, but no more. One way or another, I will deal with them for good. This ends today!"
The redcap joined in with a fresh wave of Fomorian soldiers and led them forward to check the advance of the Alliance forces. As the knights drove back the first wave of Fomorian enemies, they caught sight of Seamus and wheeled their mounts around to urge a continued attack. Seamus smirked and slowly put the horn to his lips before giving a powerful blow. The sound of the horn trumpeted out and echoed across the valley, reverberating along the hills and mountains. Moments later, the Alliance forces were surprised as several towering figures erupted from the grounds before them. As the earth and soil sloughed off the giants, the knights and their allies could see they were colossal humanoid monsters carrying large morningstar maces.
The evil fey giants had purplish skin covered at random by patchwork pieces of chainmail armor. Each of them bore a steel patch over one of their eyes in resemblance of their blinded lord and they gnashed their teeth menacingly. The knights immediately reared their mounts and paused the advance as the cyclopean giants formed a battle line to give their Fomorian allies time to regroup.
"What in the bloody hell are those things?" Laura exclaimed in dread as the titanic enemies approached.
"Cyclops! Cyclops!" came the frantic shouts of many Elvish soldiers in the Alliance army.
"Not good!" Stephen shouted as he waved to their allies, "Spread out! Spread the formations! Archers focus fire!"
In no time flat, the giant cyclops were among them and they brought down their maces in thundering blows. The earth shook as the giants smashed their weapons down into the ranks of their smaller Elven foes. The Alliance line reeled and began to buckle for a moment as scores of allied soldiers were sent flying with the sweeping blows of the towering Fomorians. The Alliance archers turned their fire on the giants and unloaded volley after volley of arrows, every once in a while killing a cyclops. Still, at that rate, it would not be enough.
"Crap! What do we do now?" Quinton shouted through gritted teeth as the knights rode through the chaotic melee of the battle. If this kept up, the center of the Alliance line would be shattered and vulnerable.
Connor growled and raised his sword as he spurred his mount forward, "We hamstring these giants and cut them down to size. Stephen?"
"Way ahead of you!" the Silver Knight called as he fire his bow to get the attention of another cyclops. While he did that, the other knights split off and rode across the length of the field.
Here and there, they'd trample a spriggan straggler while they wove through the clubs and legs of the giant one eyed Fomorians. Once in position, they counterattacked and rode close to the cyclops' ankles while slashing with their blades. Because the giants wore no armor or protection there, they roared as the human knights rode down the line wounding them and crippling their mobility. Several of the cyclops staggered or collapsed to one knee, writhing in pain which gave some of the Alliance spearmen time to regroup and strike at the downed titans.
Meanwhile, Stephen picked at some of the cyclops in the center with his arrows. Once he had gotten their attention, he fired several well placed shots right in their vulnerable eyes to blind them completely. Upon being struck, several of the giants staggered and swung their weapons in a blind fury occasionally slamming them into their own allies instead. As Stephen rode around to rejoin his friends, he saw Quinton paralyze several cyclops with his Spring Thunder attacks and saw them topple backwards getting knocked back by Noelle's follow up wind attack.
Despite foiling the surprise giant attack, the Alliance army had been pummeled and momentarily disorganized. That moment of weakness was taken advantage of by the fresh wave of Fomorian backup troops who moved in to try and counterattack. At their head was the fearsome troll Seamus who waved his weapon and howled a fierce battlecry.
"This looks like it's going to go either way at this point!" Connor called over to Laura and the Winter Knight nodded.
"The Elves will have to do this part by themselves. Let's take Seamus down once and for all!"
Quinton wheeled his mount and urged his friends on, "Come on! If we take out their general, we can disrupt the grunt troops!"
Amid the fresh round of fighting between the Elves and spriggans, Seamus waited patiently as the five knights rode over to confront him. They dismounted their steeds and unsummoned them before facing down the last general. Seamus chortled and held his glaive with a smirk, "I heard about what happened to Leanansidhe. Seems she died alone and in disgrace."
The Summer Knight scowled but maintained his composure against the taunt, "Not as disgraced as you're going to die on this field. You've never beaten us before. Now there will be thousands of your own men to watch you humiliate yourself."
Seamus roared in fury at the insult and stomped forward with murder in his eyes, "You'll pay for that! All of you!"
The troll clashed with Connor first and the knight barely parried away the weapon strike filled with raw anger behind it. From the flank, Laura rolled in and attacked with her rapier. A few slashes followed by a flurry of icy thrusts. Seamus staggered but his thick troll skin negated most of the damage from the attacks. As he shrugged it off, he prepared to strike back but two silver arrows hit him in the other side. Seamus scowled and pulled the two arrows out, seemingly just annoyed by the distraction. He slashed his glaive down but Stephen tumbled away. Just as the troll turned his weapon to try and clip the knight with a sweeping horizontal cut, it was deflected by three swords.
The Summer, Spring, and Autumn Knights attacked together to try and force back the general. In spite of their effort, Seamus pushed back and slashed with a ferocious horizontal cut. The three knights raised their guards and blocked the blow, but the sheer force of it sent them recoiling backwards. Quinton gripped his sickle tightly, "I think that guy's been pumping iron or something."
"You really think you're strong enough to stand against me in hand to hand combat?" the redcap laughed with a mocking sneer, "You can't hope to overcome my skin and regeneration powers."
"We'll just see about that," Laura called as she gathered the knights together, "Maybe you didn't know, but we got a little stronger too. Sidhe Armor!"
The five called upon their greater powers and emerged from a golden light in their more impressive Sidhe wargear. Seamus stopped and stared in shock while the soldiers of the Alliance and Fomorian armies continued to fight around them. The troll shook his head and continued stomping forward, "It doesn't matter. I'll still kill you and dye my hat redder with all your blood!"
He was immediately surprised as he brought down his glaive and it was easily batted aside by Laura. The Winter Knight darted sideways and used a backhanded slash like she would in tennis to beat back her larger foe. Seamus growled as the wound stung with a layer of ice before it closed up and healed but it was immediately reopened as Connor struck him next and scorched him with a gout of flames from the slash.
Seamus staggered before growling in contempt, "Fine. I'll admit... I'm almost impressed. That actually kinda hurt."
"Not as much as this is going to," Stephen called as he took aim at Seamus and charged a shot. The troll raised his guard but at the last moment, the Silver Knight turned his aim upwards and fired a Silver Starburst into the sky. Before Semaus could shift his guard upward, a hail of silver arrows rained down on him and momentarily pinned him in place. Seamus gave a loud cry as both Noelle and Laura attacked again, this time together as one.
The redcap raised his guard and he blocked the attack, but the combined force was too much and his weapon shattered to pieces. As the two knights rolled clear away off to the side, Connor and Quinton followed up to land a finishing blow themselves. Seamus desperately raised his arm to shield himself and screamed as the Summer Knight brought his blazing sword around and hacked it off, much like Leanansidhe had done to the troll once before. Now crippled and defenseless, Seamus's eyes went wide as Quinton brought his sword in for a killing blow. The Spring Knight's blade crackled with as much elemental thunder as he could summon and he drove it clear into the general's throat.
A tremendous thunderclap erupted throwing all the knights back and deep frying Seamus in the process. As the blinding and deafening effects of the blast subsided, they could see the charred remains of the one armed redcap were cooked and no longer regenerating. Noelle clapped Quinton on the back and gave a smile, "Damn Quin! Overkill much?"
"Better safe than sorry," he replied sheepishly while picking up his weapons, "Scratch one more general, right?"
Connor nodded and sheathed his sword solemnly, "That one was for Leanansidhe."
As the smoke began to clear, the spriggans stopped at the sight of seeing their field commander get vaporized. To everyone's relief, the evil fey army began to break ranks and retreat. The last of the broken Fomorian forces finally turned and fled back to their underground rampart. Having lost their general and being driven from the battlefield, all they could hope to do at the moment was to try and regroup in their dark holes in case the Alliance forces meant to press its attack. Fortunately for them, the army of the Four fey courts had decided to pause and regroup. They had also taken a beating and needed to time to deal with their exhaustion and casualties as well. For now, the mood was jubilant as the liberating force took the field and next entered the town to begin freeing the civilian prisoners.
Amid the fading autumn light that broke through the smoke of the downtown area, the knights raised their shining swords to the air giving triumphant cries of victory. They were met by the sounds of their Elven comrades giving cheers and waving their flags in reply. The five knights were exhausted, sore, and bruised. They were covered in enemy blood, grime, and dirt from the battlefield, but all that didn't seem to matter at the moment. For now, they had scored a major victory over Balor. They had unified the people of the Faerie Realm and saw that the end of their long struggle was finally in sight. Most important of all, their home and the people of Somerset Valley were free once more.
A/N:
I wanted to reply to something a Guest reviewer had mentioned in a recent chapter because it made me laugh in a good way. I'm aware of the Sentai Jetman and have heard it is arguably one of the best series. I'm embarrassed to admit I've never actually watched it yet. If the death of Leanansidhe was very similar to that of the female villain in the Sentai, it was purely coincidental. If I unintentionally copied one of the best Sentai without watching it, I must be doing something right, huh? ;)