We continue up the stairs, without much trouble. There were a few stragglers here and there, but they were easily taken care of. By the time we were climbing the last stretch, I was exhausted. I had never climbed so many stairs at once, and was sweating terribly. The torches heat was not helping. Alistair and the other two seemed to zoom right past me, as if I was standing still. Oh, wait. I was standing still.

"Hold on, Al," I called out. "I need a breather."

Alistair stopped and looked back at me, as I sat on one of the steps. I was taking in long slow breaths , trying to relax my muscles, which were screaming at me. I felt a large hand on my back, rubbing comfortingly. "You going to be okay, Darrian?"

I looked up at Alistair and smiled. "Yah, I just needed a bit of rest." I looked past him and noticed the other two were gone. "Where did they go?"

"They went on ahead." His hand reached toward the flaming torch in my hand. "I can take that if you like?"

I gave him the torch and immediately felt like I was cooling down. I took a couple more breaths and stood up. "Okay, let's finish this."

Instead of running up, like we had been, the two of us walked. We almost reached the top when we found the other two crouched down and peaking over the top step. The mage heard us and turned, putting a finger up to his lips to silence us. Alistair and I shared a worried look and crept up to join them.

As I looked over the edge, I could see bodies of soldiers and mages, everywhere. Blood caked the floors and walls, and limbs had been torn off and thrown about. And then, I saw it. The largest creature I had ever seen. It was at least 30 feet tall with horns on its head, each one as long as I was tall. It's face was flat, like an ape. Its biceps were as thick as tree trunks. All in all, I was officially scared. It did not help my fear when it took one the bodies in it's huge hand and raised it to it's mouth, tearing the body in half. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from screaming.

"What, in the Makers name, is that thing?" the soldier whispered.

"It's an Ogre," the mage replied.

"Damn. And here I was complaining about not being able to fight, eh, Darrian?" Alistair said, jokingly.

I couldn't respond. I was to terrified to speak. I was afraid that if I did, I'd alert the creature of our presence. All I could do was watch this thing finish off the soldier it was eating. I must have been shaking with fear, because Alistair pushed me down into a sitting position, keeping his hands on my shoulders. "Hey, Darrian. Everything is going to be alright. You just stay here and shoot at it, alright?" I still couldn't respond. He shook me until I looked up at his reassuring face. "Just think of all the lives that are at stake, Dare."

He was right. I needed to stay focused. I took a couple more breathes before I nodded to him. "Good." He turned to the other soldier. "You, ser. Let's take this thing down!"

This was it. This time, I was definitely going to die. I mean, come on, it's an Ogre. I've never even heard of anyone killing one, let alone fight one. And yet, somehow, we had to kill it and light the beacon, or die trying.

... Probably die trying...

I pulled out my bow and the mage took out his staff. The other two had already engaged the creature and it was trying to squish them with its big fists. Alistair and the soldier could just barely dodge the creature and couldn't get close enough to actually hit it. The mage started building a ball of flame in his hands and threw it at the creatures head. The ogre turned to glare at us and roared its annoyance. Alistair took the opportunity and thrust his blade into it's calf. Screaming in pain, the ogre kicked backwards, forcing Alistair to fall before he could pull his blade out.

As the creature turned to chase him, I searched the room till I found another sword about the same size. There was one standing upwards in the back of a knight not too far from where Alistair was. I ran out to the far side of the room and took the sword and hid behind some barrels, and searched for Alistair, who was being chased around the room, suing his shield to block any attacks. I had to wait for the right opportunity. "Al!" I called out as he approached my hiding spot. He looked up as I tossed him the blade, easily catching it. He spun around to face the ogre again and stabbed it in the hand as it reached down to pick him up. the monster pulled back screaming in pain.

Alistair and the other soldier continued to attack it and the mage created another fireball to throw at it. This time, the ogre was able to dodge the flames as they flew past it and dissipated against the stone wall. I took out my bow again and was ready to fire when the beast reached down and picked up the soldier and started pounding him into the floor. From where I hid, I could hear the sickening sound of bones crunching.

The body was dropped lifelessly, and the creature turned its attention back to Alistair. He ran up to the creature and swiped his sword at it, missing barely. The ogre flung its arm at him, knocking him over and the sword slid across the floor, far out of reach. The beast was about to pick him up when I finally took aim with my arrow and hit it in the left eye. It screamed and started stumbling backwards, trying to swat at the arrow. I took my next opportunity and dropped my bow and came out of my hiding place and took out my blades. The ogre was still trying to catch it's balance when I leaped up and ran up it's legs and chest till I reached it's head and plunged my daggers into it's forehead and other eye.

The beast screamed and tried to swat at me , but I easily stayed out of reach. I then twisted the blades and pulled them free, blood spurting out and the beast fell. I waited till it's chest stopped rising. I couldn't believe this. I killed this incredible creature.

I slid off the dead creature and sheathed my blades, and turned to check on Alistair, who seemed to be alright and retrieving the bow I had left behind. The mage had come out of hiding as well and was over the body of the soldier, I suppose checking for a pulse. He shook his head and closed the dead man's eyes.

"Here," I heard Alistair. I turned to see him holding my bow out to me. He smiled at me. "Talk about an adrenaline rush."

I smiled back at him and took my bow. "Let's go light that beacon." We walked over to what looked like an old fireplace, where branches were laid out and oil had been poured over it. Alistair, who had the torch, threw it in and the branches burst into flame, the blaze traveling up the chimney. The two of us ran to a window to watch. We had a perfect view of the battle below, and in the distance we could see the torches of Loghain's men.

"Come on," Alistair said. "Move!"

We watched for a few minutes. Then they did finally start moving... in the wrong direction.

"Wha- No!" Alistair exclaimed. "Why are they moving away?"

I couldn't believe my own eyes. Our only reinforcements was leaving the army to it's death. I was speechless. Why would Loghain do this?

"We have to help them!" Alistair cried out. He turned to leave when I grabbed his arm.

"Al, it's a lost cause. There's no way we can help them now."

He looked horrified by my words. "You're such a coward!"

"No, But I'm not an idiot, either!"

Suddenly, my ears picked up the sound of an arrow whizzing through the air and plunging into flesh. We both turned to see the mage, who had the arrow in question, sticking out from his chest, and blood dripping from his mouth. As he fell, behind him a dozen or more darkspawn awaited the two of us, snarling at us. We both took out our blades and stood ready for them.

A few of the creatures came charging at us, weapons ready to meet ours. I parried a blade and sliced a genlock's throat and then another, and another. It seemed that when we'd take one down, two more appeared. I soon found myself back to back with the human Warden, surrounded by darkspawn. If I wasn't scared of the creatures before, I certainly was now.

I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder and looked to see an arrow sticking out of it. I reached to pull it out when I noticed debris falling to the ground and the darkspawn started to scatter. "What's happening?" I asked Alistair.

"I don't kn- ah!" The ground started shaking and we were loosing our balance. We then heard a screech so loud we had to cover our ears. "No, it can't be!" Alistair exclaimed.

"What?"

He looked at me, worry in his eyes. "The Archdemon."

The Archdemon. I had heard many stories about this creature. some say it's a dragon, some say darkspawn, other say demon. What ever this thing was, it was big, fierce, and nigh impossible to defeat.

I felt tow more sharp pains and saw the darkspawn that just shot me get crushed by stones that had fallen from the ceiling.

"Darrian, look out!" I heard Alistair call out.

I looked up and saw more of the ceiling fall right above me. I knew I wouldn't get out of the way in time, but tried anyways, failing as a stone hid my head. After that, the only thing I could remember was falling back into darkness and the sound of the creature's scream.