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Chapter 16

As expected Morgana sounded her charge immediately, too blinded by her fury to even consider the possibility of magical traps. However, unlike her brother, she stayed at the very back of the advancing masses and only occasionally contributed a spell or two of her own to the attack, which was always aimed directly at her dear brother. Arthur though simply side-stepped most of the spells, but even if one landed a direct hit nothing happened to him. His armour simply glowed slightly and absorbed the magic.

The oncoming sorcerers soon realised that none of their spells actually hit anything and stopped to regroup and find a new strategy. The defenders, who had taken cover to evade the lightning bolts, fireballs and similar attacks, promptly regained their positions.

It was then that, while the sorcerers were huddled together in small groups, discussing or rather fighting over their further actions, King Arthur began to retaliate.

"Crossbows at the ready," Arthur shouted. "Take aim. Fire!" On his command the sky was filled with the small, dark bolts and only moments later the missiles hailed down on the sorcerers. As Arthur anticipated they immediately erected shields to protect themselves from the deadly shower.

'Shield charms are among the most difficult,' Arthur recalled Merlin's lecture, which he had received after he'd complained about a failed shielding attempt. 'If conjured incorrectly they absorb an enormous amount of magical energy without actually doing anything. And in the worst case it kills you...' Since that day the king had made a point of asking about the consequences of certain spells, before he let Merlin do anything, which annoyed his court sorcerer to no end. But that was just a small factor in why he kept asking, and that he sometimes didn't grasp the concepts the first time around had absolutely nothing to do with that as well. Really.

While the blonde was lost in thought, the sorcerers abandoned their discussions and hastily combined their protection barriers to form several large shields. But true to Emrys' word they were unable to produce a perfect, impenetrable one. Therefore seemingly at random the protection failed and let some of the bolts through, which killed or injured several of them.

Even more enraged by her incompetent followers Morgana ordered them to 'stop fooling around' and to kill the defenders. Apparently most were more afraid of her than of the crossbows, as they abandoned their defences and charged the castle walls.

Screaming and jeering accompanied their advance and occasionally some were struck down by well aimed arrows. Still, none of them faltered, which brought them the grudging respect of King Arthur.


Dragoon the Great was sitting on an old barrel and was overall quite bored. Up till now his king had had no real trouble holding the city by himself. There was no immediate need for him to participate in the battle yet and while many would call him a coward or twit for not helping, he knew that Arthur wouldn't want him to. Not yet anyway. His traps were effective enough and his presence would most likely do more harm than good. Because as long as Morgana believed him dead, she would be careless and overconfident. And the more supporters she lost before the final confrontation between them and Emrys, the better were his chances to take her down for good.

So till then he would stay where he was and spring his traps, which could have been placed before he 'died'. Speaking of which, it was about time to activate the next one. Chuckling madly Dragoon murmured the necessary words and leaned back to enjoy the show.


The very moment his incantation was finished trap number two manifested at the left flank of the attackers. A small green ball of light flared up and bounced up and down mischievously, before it exploded with a bang and bathed a good quarter of the enemy's force in a similarly green mist.

From his vantage point Arthur watched, curious about what kind of pitfall Merlin had created there. Then as the mist retreated his left eye started twitching rapidly.

'That irritating, brainless imbecile,' he thought angrily. Merlin would pay for that! 'Trap my arse.' However, while Arthur fumed, his men were laughing uproariously and they would later on call this particular trap 'a stroke of genius'. Of course, none of them remembered or rather had knowledge of a certain goblin's prank. That was one secret Arthur guarded like his very life depended on it.

Subsequently, only Arthur was put out by the herd of adorable donkeys, which now stood in place of about a dozen magic users. Braying happily as they munched on the fresh grass, unaware that they ever were something else entirely.

For a single moment all battle spirit seemed to leave their remaining comrades, while they stared silently at their lost friends. But then one by one they reclaimed their wits and renewed the charge with more vigour, intent on getting revenge for their friends.

In their haste to reach the knights, they ignored Morgana's shouted orders, who tried to warn them of follow-up pitfalls. Cursing her followers for their thoughtless action she desperately tried to deactivate any hidden traps from afar, but she was too slow. Before she could even finish the needed incantation another one was triggered by her stupid followers.

This time there was no mischievous ball of light; no physical presence that announced the effect. There was only a sudden stillness, as if time itself had stopped for a moment... And when it resumed again, half of her remaining army was gone. They'd just disappeared, without a trace, as if they'd never existed at all.


Arthur watched the decimation of his enemy by an invisible foe in silence. After a few more moments of observing the handful of sorcerers and Morgana he sharply turned to his knights and bellowed, "Let's go. It's time to end this."

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