(Author's Note: Still don't own Merlin or the Arthurian Legend.)

Part 6 The Semi-Finals

(Merlin's POV)

I barely slept that night. Morgana had survived. It was lucky I had come back to Camelot when I had. I had felt her attacking Arthur and had acted purely on instinct, entering and disrupting her spell.

I would not let him be harmed, ever. Had he recognized me? Somehow I didn't think so. I was sure now that no matter how this tournament ended I would be staying in Camelot.

I woke up a few hours later and got ready for the tournament. The semi-finals. If only Arthur knew, I could imagine the surprise on his face. How many times had he called me a coward or a girl?

Today's fights would be even more difficult, I might have to resort to my magic, but I had to fight. If I didn't Arthur would be in danger. I would have to fight twice more before I reached the finals. My first opponent of the day fought with a strange combination of weapons. A hatchet, designed to be thrown, and a broadsword. He was strong and didn't talk much. He had killed one of his three opponents yesterday and gravely wounded the other two. He was the most likely suspect.

As we faced each other on the field I could feel it. Magic, heavy in the air. This had to be him. I dropped all pretenses and swung my staff in a wide arch, clipping him on the shoulder. The skin where my staff had made contact began to smoke and flake off.

He hissed and snarled. The crowd seemed frozen. Only Lancelot and Gwaine moved, pushing people out of their way in an attempt to get to Arthur and help protect him. The shifter glanced at his flaking shoulder and his eyes turned bright red; he, it, was furious.

It lunged and I danced out of the way careful to keep myself between it and Arthur.

"Puny human! Get out of my way! You're not the one I'm here to kill." He snarled snakelike.

"I know exactly what you're here to do, Shifter, and that's why I'm here. To put a stop to you!" It lunged and I smacked him in the face hard with my staff. His skin smoked and flaked revealing grey scaly skin beneath. It howled.

"You! I know you! You killed my brethren!" It was in a rage. Good. That meant that its focus was centered on me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Gwaine and Lancelot had reached Arthur and Gwen. Better. I could now focus fully on the fight.

"Yes I did. They believed in using their skills for evil, so I stopped them." It hissed and lunged, mad with rage. Unfortunately his rage also made him faster. He sliced down with his sword as I dodged. The tip of his sword caught my right arm and cut deep. I gritted my teeth against the pain and struck out with my staff. I clubbed it on the ear, which fell off. Bringing my staff back around in a half circle I smashed it into its side, knocking the air out of it.

That was my opening. I swung hard knocking him back toward the center of the field. I jabbed him hard in the chest forcing him even further back. It hissed all pretense of humanity forgotten.

Forcing the pain down, I gripped my staff in both hands. I knew what I had to do. I had to catch him and hold him just long enough for the staff to do its job.

His balance was off just enough to slow him down. I took my opening and got around behind it locking it into my grip with the staff pressed to his throat. Its arms went slack and the shield he had worn slipped off landing on my foot.

"You may kill me but I will still succeed in my last mission." I realized what it had planned a split second before it acted. There was no way I could stop him in time. Unless…

I kicked the shield into the air then toward Arthur, Lancelot and Gwaine. Not caring who saw I forced it to speed toward them with magic.

"Gwaine! Catch it!" He caught the shield. Milliseconds later the hatchet that the shifter had thrown at Arthur was deflected by Gwaine. It bounced anticlimactically off the dull metal surface of the shield and landed near his feet.

I pressed the staff harder into the shifters throat and it choked as its power failed. His disguise peeled off like an old snakeskin. He choked one last time then went limp, his skin flaking and blowing away.

Once I was sure he was dead I dropped him. I felt hollow inside. I never liked violence or death but even I couldn't deny that sometimes both were necessary. That didn't mean I had to like them.

It took the crowd a moment to process what had happened. Then they exploded. Cheering and applause burst out everywhere. I swayed on my feet. My arm was still bleeding. Gaius ran forward and Lancelot and Gwaine jumped over the partition and caught me as I passed out.

(Lancelot's POV)

Gwaine and I caught Merlin. Gwaine looked shocked and confused but I honestly wasn't too surprised. Merlin had always had potential as a warrior but never liked the prospect of hurting others. He had taken no pleasure in killing this Shifter. There had been pity and sadness in his eyes as he had finished it off.

"Is he ok?" Gwaine asked Gaius who was examining Merlin's wound.

"We need to get him to my chambers. NOW!" We wasted not a second on Arthur who had followed us over the partition. He overtook us, ordering the crowd out of the way. They parted silently, worry etched on every face. They couldn't know the full extent of the situation but they knew that this mysterious stranger had saved their king and that was enough for them.

Arthur opened the door to Gaius's chambers and we lay Merlin down on the cot. We backed up and Gaius went to work. As he began to stitch up Merlin's shoulder Arthur turned to me and Gwaine. He looked like he was still trying to process what had happened.

"Who is this boy?" Was the first thing out of his mouth. I elbowed Gwaine and spoke.

"His name is Robin Ealdith."

"Yes I know that. That's not what I was asking. I was asking how he defeated that thing. What was that thing?" Gaius spoke up this time still stitching up Merlin's shoulder.

"That creature was known as a Shifter. They are creatures of dark magic. They have the ability to change shape as they wish, with certain limitations. They tend to travel in family groups."

"You mean to tell me there are more of them out there?" Arthur sounded like he was getting ready for a fight.

"No sire. From what that shifter said during the fight Robin killed his 'brethren'. It sounds to me as if Robin here averted a crisis before it even began." There was a definite note of pride in his voice. Arthur sighed and nodded.

"I have to go oversee crowd control and the end of the tournament. When he wakes up let me know, I want to thank him personally." With that he left and Gwaine turned to me.

"Why didn't you let me tell him that that's Merlin?" I sighed.

"Because that's for Merlin to tell, not you. Don't you think there's a reason for him not wanting Arthur to know he's here?" Gwaine paused.

"There was. But I've realized something." We all jumped. Gaius almost dropped the bandage he had been preparing.

"Merlin! You're awake. How do you feel?" He looked deeply concerned.

"Little dizzy but good." Gaius bustled about putting together something to ease the dizziness.

"What did you realize?" Gwaine asked curiously. I was curious too. Were we about to get the elusive reason why Merlin left in the first place? Or did this go deeper than that?