As usual...

Darrinia: Yeah, you know how much I love a good seblaine friendship, so it's also here... They're adorable! Besos

Mildlifecrissis: Well, the battle surely is not going to be easy, so i can't promise there won't be any casualties... No, Blaine (or Legolas) doesn't wear much of an armor, I don't really know why, I guess it's because he doesn't need to protect himself so much because of his elven abilities. Thank you, honey!

CHAPTER 8: THE BATTLE OF HELM'S DEEP

"Prepare to fire!" Sam shouted at men and elves at the top of his lungs from his position on the top of the protecting wall while the Uruk-Hai ran powerfully towards the fortress, with a loud fighting yell to make themselves even more fearful and undermine the men's morale that way.

"Their armor is weak at the neck and beneath the arm" Blaine informed his fellow elves, who were ready to fire next to him.

"Release arrows!" Sam shouted again, and his warriors immediately obeyed, sending hundreds of arrows towards the Uruk-hai troops, killing a good number of them thanks to Blaine's advice.

"Did they hit anything?" Sebastian asked desperately, as he was unable to see what was happening at the other side of the wall, due to his lack of Elven sight, but Blaine could not take the time to even answer to him as he kept shooting arrows without a break.

Dozens of Orcs kept falling due to the arrows fired from the top of the wall and from behind it, giving the men some hope for the battle (although they knew it was only the beginning).

"Send them to me, come on!" Sebastian shouted, getting anxious to fight with all the commotion going on around him without him being able to participate.

Suddenly some of the Uruk-hai produced some crossbows and started shooting towards the top of the wall, instantly killing some of the elves standing there.

Sam's heart started going faster and faster when he saw some of the elves around his lover falling, victims of the Orcs' weapons. Blaine was, of course, in the first line of fire –his previous fear had never been about his own integrity–, well within the reach of the Orcs' arrows –not so much Sebastian, as he wasn't shooting and therefore he was a few steps behind–. Sam feared one of those arrows was going to hit his lover, and he was going to watch him fall and lose him forever. But Blaine didn't seem to be thinking of that, as he just kept shooting and shooting, one arrow after another, never missing a target.

"Ladders!" Sam warned the men, as the Uruk-hai were getting ready to climb the wall with some huge ladders they were lifting from the ground to rest them on it –something that cheered Sebastian up greatly, as he was going to be able to fight, at last.

"Good!" he exclaimed, eliciting a small smile from Blaine.

Dozens of ladders were lifted up against the wall, and Sam knew the real battle was about to begin, as once the Uruk-hai would reach them on the wall, the only advantage Rohan had – which was position–, would be gone.

"Swords! Swords!" he yelled, ordering the men and the elves to get ready to hand-to-hand combat.

Finally the first Uruk-hai started arriving to the top of the wall, and Sebastian took the honor of slaughtering the first one with his axe, feeling strangely satisfied with it. Then hundreds of Orcs started arriving too and there was no time to think, only to fight, to attack before being attacked.

Not a lot of time had passed before Sam lost sight of both Blaine and Sebastian amongst orcs, men and elves, and he could only pray they would be alright, and luck would be on their side that night.

Blaine and Sebastian, though, were still fighting next to each other, grateful for the fact of having a friend near. After Sebastian killed another Uruk-hai, he turned to the elf proudly.

"Blaine! Two already!" he yelled over all the racket from the battle.

Blaine turned to him for a second and smiled.

"I'm on seventeen!" he responded ingeniously, without trying to show off.

"What?" Sebastian asked, indignantly. "I'll have no pointy-ear outscoring me!"

Sam, meanwhile, kept fighting orc after orc, trying to make the ladders fall to avoid more Orcs climbing the Wall, but as soon as he got rid of one ladder, another one landed on the wall. The number of dead men and elves was augmenting too quickly. He prayed his lover wasn't among the corpses already.

But then his ears picked on someone counting "seventeen, eighteen, nineteen" over all the noise, and he thought he recognized Sebastian's voice. That stupidity, though, filled his heart with hope, as it meant two things: that Sebastian was alive and fighting, as it was his voice; and that Blaine was still alive too, for he was sure that Sebastian's counting had to be some kind of competition between him and the elf. The relief of knowing they were still alive filled him with renewed forces and he grabbed his sword even more strongly to kill all the Uruk-hai around him.

"Is this it? Is this all you can conjure, Sue?" King Burt asked to no one in particular, as he saw his men fighting bravely the Uruk-Hai.

But he shouldn't have talked so swiftly, as he was unaware of the explosives being dropped under the wall by a couple of Uruk-hai, which had been provided by Sue. Sam, though, much more prudent than the King, saw an orc running towards the Wall with a torch, and he immediately imagined what was happening, though he didn't know how to stop it. He looked around desperately, trying to find a solution, and he caught a glimpse of his lover at last –which again caused him a great relief to know he was alright.

"Bring him down, Blaine!" Sam shouted at him, pointing at the bearer of the torch and bringing Blaine's attention to him.

Blaine immediately obeyed his lover and put an arrow on his bow to shot at their enemy. He aimed as carefully as he could, but just when he was about to shoot, a body bumped into him and deflected the arrow, so it imbedded on the Orc's shoulder but didn't stop his running.

"Kill him!" Sam shouted again, sorry about putting so much pressure on his young lover, but they needed to stop that Orc from reaching the explosives at all costs.

Blaine aimed again and shot, this time hitting him in the neck, killing him instantly. But the orc had been too close to his target already, and as he fell down, the fire reached the explosives nevertheless and a big explosion broke, bringing down half of the wall and, with it, dozens of creatures standing on it, including Sam and Sebastian, who impacted the floor with force.

The Orcs took advantage of the situation and started making their way in through the massive hole that had been opened on the wall, while others had crossed the narrow bridge that lead directly to the castle inside the fortress and were trying to open the gate with a battering ram.

With Sam being out for the count for the moment, King Burt took control of the situation and started giving orders from his privileged position, still far away from the battle.

"Brace the gate! Hold them! Stand firm!"

Sam immediately came back to his senses and ordered the archers behind him to shoot at the orcs making their way to the fortress. Then they all grabbed their swords and threw themselves at the assaulters, Sebastian and Sam amongst them.

Blaine, who had managed to stay on the wall –or what was left of it–, refused to stand and watch his lover and his best friend being killed in front of him if he was not there to go with them, so he took a shield from someone who didn't need it anymore and jumped on it, skillfully making his way down the stairs to join them by sliding on it, so he could shoot arrows without a pause as he descended, killing orc after orc, apparently effortless.

The fight kept on, but the number of Orcs coming through the gate was increasing by the minute, and the elves and men fighting were becoming quickly outnumbered.

"Sam! Fall back to the keep! Get your men out of there!" Sam heard King Burt's voice calling from above, and he hurried to obey.

"To the keep!" Sam shouted at the top of his lungs. "Pull back to the keep!"

The men started making their way through the Uruk-hai, and Sam caught a glimpse of Mike, still fighting bravely on the top of the wall.

"Mike!" Sam shouted, getting the elf's attention. "To the keep!"

"What are you doing?" Sam heard Sebastian shouting, and he had to chuckle when he saw him being dragged away from the battle by Blaine and another elf. "What are you stopping for?"

Sam looked up again and to his horror he saw Mike being wounded while trying to get his elves to follow him to the keep. Sam ran up the stairs to him, but he was too late: another Orc came behind him and gave him a mortal wound on his back, so when Sam reached him, he was already dead. Sam sighed sadly and brought his hand to Mike's face to close his eyes.

When he lifted his gaze from the dead elf, Sam discovered Blaine standing there, having gone up the stairs after him, eyes full of tears for his fallen friend. Sam craved to embrace Blaine and comfort him for the loss, but they didn't have the time, they still had to retreat to the keep. So he stood up and caressed Blaine's face with his knuckles for a second before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards one of the ladders.

"Ready?" Sam asked as they both grabbed the ladder strongly, and Blaine nodded, trusting Sam a hundred per cent, as always.

Sam just nodded back and pushed the ladder from the wall, so they both would fall to the ground again and go back to the keep.

"Jump!" Sam yelled, and both he and Blaine jumped from the ladder just in time so as not to hit the ground with their bodies. Blaine, due to his Elven abilities, landed more gracefully than Sam, so he grabbed the blond under the arms and helped him to stand up and run towards the gate.

Meanwhile, the Orcs had started breaking the door to the castle from the bridge and they were trying to make their way in by killing the men protecting it. The King ran to it to defend it, and a spear embedded on the side of his chest, leaving him wounded and weak, so a man took him a few feet away from the door.

"We cannot hold much longer!" the man said to the King, but Sam and Blaine picked that moment to finally appear and take control of the situation.

"Hold them!" the King asked Sam as he started fighting the orcs to stop them from getting it.

"How much time do you need?" Sam asked.

"As long as you can give me"

Sam nodded and looked at his surroundings. He saw Blaine was doing a great job at keeping the Orcs at the other side of the broken door with his arrows through the holes on the wood, so he decided he was needed there and took Sebastian instead and pushed him through a passageway that leaded them outside, very near to where the Orcs were standing but from where they couldn't be seen by them.

"Come on, we can take them" Sebastian enthusiastically offered.

"It's a long way" Sam warned him, knowing Sebastian would never be able to jump such a distance to the bridge, as dwarves weren't known for their agility.

Sebastian hesitated for a second, his pride getting in the way of his thinking. But he finally understood it was not the time for nonsense.

"Toss me" he told Sam, blushing with embarrassment.

"What?" Sam could not believe his ears.

"I cannot jump that distance" Sebastian admitted. "You'll have to toss me!"

Sam nodded and grabbed Sebastian's shoulders, getting ready to throw him, when Sebastian turned to him and, with a lot of humiliation that elicited a chuckle from Sam, asked him a big favor.

"Don't tell the elf"

"Not a word" Sam promised amusedly, though if he had to be honest with himself, he didn't know if he would be able to keep his word.

So with all the strength he was capable of, Sam threw Sebastian as far as he could, making him land on top of the orcs and making some of them fall from the bridge leading to the door through which they were trying to enter. Then he jumped too, and between them, on their privileged position, they were able to stop any more Orcs making their way inside, throwing them off the bridge instead, while the men inside could barricade the door again.

"Sebastian! Sam! Get out of there!" the King ordered once the gate was secure again.

Sam looked around them, trying to find a way out of there, but they were surrounded by orcs and he didn't know what to do. Fortunately, a voice that sounded like celestial music to him rose above all the noise to offer them a solution.

"Sam!" Blaine yelled from the top of the wall again, as he threw a strong rope for them that Sam was able to grab, as he held Sebastian with his other hand.

Blaine started pulling them both up, with an enormous strength that surprised even himself. His hands were getting red and raw from the friction of the rope on his soft skin, but he couldn't care less: he had to get his lover and his best friend out of there at all costs.

As Sam and Sebastian went higher up the wall, Sebastian couldn't stop being both grateful and surprised at the elf's strength, as he and Sam were not a light burden.

"Your elf is surely a strong creature" Sebastian told Sam, who smiled proudly –both at his lover's strength and about the fact that Sebastian had referred to him as his elf.

"More than he gives himself credit for. And if strength is not enough, his perseverance and love will do the rest, rest assured" Sam answered, not doubting for a second that Blaine would get them safely to the top of the wall, but worrying some orc would attack him on his back while he was busy pulling them up.

When Blaine pulled them all the way over the wall, and fearing his legs would not support him after the exhausting effort he had just done, he threw himself in Sam's arms and captured his lips in a quick but strong kiss, driven by adrenaline and the furor of the battle, to which Sam responded enveloping him with his arms, offering support until he regained some of his strength.

"You don't need to be so effusive with me" Sebastian joked, and Blaine grinned at him before extricating himself from Sam's embrace and hugged Sebastian affectionately, a gesture that warmed Sebastian's heart deeply, so he willingly returned the embrace.

"Your hands!" Sam exclaimed as he gently picked both his lover's hands, by now a bloody mess that looked very painful.

"Don't worry, they'll be okay" Blaine assured, taking his hands away from Sam's so as not to make an issue of it.

Sam was about to protest when the King ordered for all his soldiers to fall back, as the orcs had effectively broken in the fortress at last. So the three of them, as the rest of the warriors, obeyed and ran to the keep.

When they arrived, the soldiers were trying to barricade the gate more strongly, trying to keep the Orcs outside the castle now that they were inside the fortress, and Sam, Blaine and Sebastian ran to help, putting everything they could find against the door to stop the Orcs from breaking in.

"The fortress is taken" the King lamented. "It is over"

"You said this fortress would never fall while your men defend it" Sam reproached him, angrily. "They still defend it. They have died defending it. Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of the caves?" Sam immediately asked the men at the palace, as they still tried to hold the gate.

"There is one passage. It leads into the mountains" the King's right hand answered, while the King didn't seem to know what to do. "But they will not get far. The Uruk-hai are too many"

"Send word to the women and children to make for the mountain pass. And barricade the entrance!" Sam ordered, taking control of the situation when he saw the King wasn't doing it.

"So much death" the King whispered at last. "What can Men do against such reckless hate?"

"Ride out with me" Sam offered, and he saw as Blaine, who was helping hold the door, looked at him, apprehension clear in his eyes with the prospect of his lover leaving the castle, but Sam chose to ignore it or he wouldn't be able to commit his mission. "Ride out and meet them"

"For death and glory" the King sarcastically responded.

"For Rohan" Sam patiently answered. "For your people"

"The sun is rising" Sebastian added, looking through the window.

Sam then remembered Beiste's words from days before: Look to my coming at first light on the fifth day. At down, look to the east. Beiste was soon going to arrive, and he was going to be their salvation, he hoped.

"Yes" the King finally relented. "Yes" he repeated, louder still to convince himself he was making the right decision. "The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the Deep one last time"

"Yes!" Sebastian exclaimed, relieved, and he ran outside to make the horn sound all over the place.

"Let this be the hour when we draw swords together" King Burt told Sam, and he nodded as their horses were brought to them.

"I'm coming too" Blaine hurried to inform Sam, hardly giving him the chance to protest.

"No, look at your hands, you should..." Sam tried, but Blaine wouldn't even hear of it.

"I said I'm coming too" he interrupted, already mounting on Arod.

Sam chuckled in spite of himself at the elf's stubbornness and he climbed on Brego's back too, as they were joined by the King and his four most trusted men.

"Forth Eorlingas!" King Burt shouted as a cue for them to start galloping, and the seven riders started galloping and crossed the broken gates, killing as many Orcs as they found in their way with their swords, advancing along the bridge as well as they could between the mass of Uruk-hai warriors still standing after a whole night of fighting.

A loud neighing at the top of the hill as they descended the bridge caught Sam's attention and he looked up: there was Beiste, proudly riding Shadowfax, keeping the promise made to them five days ago. The burden that had been weighting down Sam's heart all night seemed to disappear as he noticed Puck arriving behind Beiste, with all his men at his side, ready to fight.

"To the King!" Puck shouted at the top of his lungs, just before he and his two thousand men started galloping down the hill.

Sam smiled, and turned around to look at Blaine, whose face was full of hope as he looked back at him, his gaze filled with love and devotion towards him, his heart full of happiness. They were still together. They were still alive.