A/N: Hey guys! Sorry I know I promised a week and it's been more but homework, and essays, and concerts, and you know the important thing called sleep, I'm updating as fast as I can. I think we're nearing the end, this may be the last chapter, or maybe second to last, and then an epilogue. Let's see if I can write fight scenes, I've never really tried so enjoy my first attempt! Chapter 8 here we go!
The knights were hesitant to attack Mordred, and the druid boy used that to his advantage. This boy, who had become skilled in both magic and sword fighting, could probably take on all the knights and remain unscathed.
It was all Leon could do to block Mordred's blows, he struck with such force that each swing nearly knocked the copper-haired man off his feet. And that was nothing compared to his magic. Disgust churned his stomach when the young knights eyes had first burned gold, and then pain. Pain like he had never felt before, it stabbed at his guts like white hot knives causing his knees to buckle and his vision to blur. Blackness threatened to overtake him, and Leon would've welcomed it if he hadn't known how fatal a mistake that was. That had been the druid's scheme, let him fall unconscious and kill him when he couldn't fight black. So he sat there, writhing in pain, keeping the blackness at bay.
Mordred didn't understand, no man could undertake so much pain and still be conscious, and yet here he was, the brave Sir Leon, fighting 'till his last breath.
'So be it.' Mordred thought to himself grimly, he had not wanted to kill this knight when his eyes could watch. This man had been his mentor, his friend, as much as it pained him to admit it he liked Leon. But he served Arthur all the same, Arthur the murder, Arthur the tyrant. So he would die.
Mordred raised his blade, bringing it down with such force that it was sure to strike a mortal blow-
CLANG.
Percival threw himself over Leon, blocking the strike and getting in a blow of his own effectively breaking the boy's concentration, quenching the fire in Leon's veins. Mordred gave a yell of frustration and pain clutching his arm, blood steadily pouring through a large gash in his shoulder. The big man grimaced, preparing himself for whatever horrors Mordred would concoct for him. But they didn't come. Mordred smiled slightly and leaned back as if in surrender. And that's when Percy knew how bad it was going to get.
Arthur didn't want to leave his knights. Not like this, outnumbered, overrun by Morgana's men, but he didn't have a choice. Merlin led him through mazes of tunnels that seemed to lead forever downward. The spaces were cramped, dusty, and smelled like a thousand animals had crawled in and died.
'But it will be worth it.' He told himself, making his body move forward when all it seemed to want to do was turn around and run for it.
'Is this Merlin's instincts?' He thought to himself 'No wonder he's such a coward.' It was hard not to be with a fight or flight instinct so heavily weighted towards flight.
Ahead of him Merlin scoffed, shaking his head.
'Still think I'm a coward eh?'
'MERLIN! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!'
'Actually this is my head and I'm very comfortable here, thank you very much.' Arthur got a mental image of him crossing his arms and leaning back in a chair
'Okay then Clot-pole.' Arthur smirked and started thinking about Gwen, going into detail of every time they had kissed…
'AAAHHH! DID NOT NEED TO SEE THAT!' Merlin's disgusted voice screamed from inside his mind, and then everything in Arthur's mind was silent.
They crawled along in silence, the only sound the occasional squeal whenever Merlin's hand, (Arthur's hand) brushed against something it shouldn't have, sounding very odd coming from the king.
"Stop." Merlin whispered, holding a hand out to Arthur. They had reached the place where the crawl space had opened into an actual walk way.
"This is it." He remembered the place from Mordred's head. "It should be down this corridor."
Arthur nodded, wanting desperately to get back in his own body. The hallway was eerily quite, all the guards were outside fighting or just, not there, and so master and servant crept in uncomfortrable silence to the largest cell on the left. The only one, of course, that was still guarded.
'Magic?' Merlin questioned inside Arthur's head.
Arthur grimaced, looking around at the solders. There were at least fifteen, too many for Merlin to take on his own, even with his new fighting ability.
'I hope so.'
Arthur took a deep breath, tapping into his magic, almost immediately he felt the power boil up inside him, just waiting to be released.
'It's okay Arthur.' Merlin thought reassuringly.
The king grimaced, bracing himself. Then with a raw animalistic scream the magic burst out, sending over half the knight flying and making several of them dizzy. Merlin handled the rest. The knights were well trained but not nearly enough to hold a candle to Arthur. With his strength he easily (although he felt guilty in doing so) killed them.
The door creaked open, and inside, the dank and dark room was the four bottles, laid out on the table, two helpful, two meaning certain death.
Percival turned around eyes widening out of fear. The witch before him smirked evilly,
"Hi Percy." She cooed
The big man only gripped his sword tighter, making a low growling sound in his throat.
"Oh, no need for that." She pouted, then her smile returned. A flick of her wrist sent Percival flying with a sickening crack as his head made contact with the stonewall. Mordred grinned coming beside Morgana.
"Aw look." He purred, almost like he was talking about a puppy. "He's hurt."
"Oh not badly." Morgana said half smiling.
"But Morgannnaaa." Mordred whined, "After what they did to me! They have to pay, all of them."
"Do you want to do the honors?" She said waving a hand towards the dazed knight.
Mordred smiled and said a few words, his eyes blazed gold and Percy let out a scream. Just one. And then fell silent.
"PERCY!" Gwaine screamed from across the courtyard. Fighting his way through a sea of enemies he ran over to his friends side. "No!" he gasped, as he checked the knights pulse, it wasn't there.
Letting out a scream of rage the gruff knight charged the druid, blinded by grief he mindlessly struck, not caring how easily Mordred sidestepped, just striking.
Morgana giggled at the scene unfolding before her, she didn't need to get involved Mordred could handle this, but it was amusing to watch how the knights rage took over his body. With the knights so outnumbered and scattered nothing could come in the way of her victory, not even Emrys, it wouldn't matter if she had a little fun in the process.
"Four bottles?" Arthur questioned, it should have been only two right?
Merlin nodded gravely, "Two potions, two poison." He answered.
"How do we tell which is which?" They looked identical.
Merlin closed his eyes in concentration. 'Think Merlin, think! Which one was it? He was silent for some time before,
"YES!" He exclaimed looking at Arthur excitedly. "Poison, potion, poison, potion." Merlin said pointing at each bottle in turn.
"You sure?" The king raised an eyebrow so high that Gaius would've been proud.
Merlin deflated a bit "No.." He said hesitantly.
Arthur sighed, took hold of one of the bottles that Merlin had labeled as an antidote, and said, raising his bottle to toast Merlin "Bottoms up."
Bright light shone all around Merlin making him involuntarily close his eyes. Sharp pain coursed through his body, and when he opened his eyes he was staring at the blonde head of the king.
"It worked!" They gasped, hugging each other in joy
"It worked, it worked, it worked, it worked!" Merlin mumbled into Arthur's chainmail. It felt so good to be in his own body again.
"Um. Merlin? This is weird." Arthur said pulling away from his servants embrace.
Merlin nodded "We should probably go help."
"No need." Two new voices said. They turned and saw Morgana and Mordred with a few unconscious knights floating in midair.
"We brought the party to you."
A/N: Oops. I killed Percival. Sorry! Look for the update this weekend perhaps earlier. Love you guys.