Chapter 22-First Battle

Hans' horse dove into the water, only to resurface a few seconds later with Hans back on. He was coughing, roughly choking out the water he'd swallowed. "Ack-ach—gack—! Nightmares, attack!" He spattered viciously. His own Nightmare was about to charge, but halts when a few blazing arrows were shot in front of its path, forcing the beast to change its course of action. It turns and dashes off to the right, giving Merida the chance to give chase after it and Hans. The battle has only begun, and she wasn't going to allow them to engage the sisters quite yet.

The army of Nightmares charge, with the only thing to batter against them was a charging spirit, Jack Frost. There was a boom, a bolt of bright blue light, and then the sound of thunder. Jack was zipping right through the masses of nightmares, all the while emanating bolts of frosts from his staff in all directions. With each blast they sounded like a static shock that's been increased twenty-times in volume. With each hit that connects to a nightmare, the frost would spread forcing the sands to bust and shatter, sounding like thin needles falling on clear glass.

Despite Jack's attack having a tremendous effect on the nightmares, there was still s great number of them. He had only managed to create a drift in their formation. Instead of clashing into the port, the army was split into a clumsy fork in the road before breaking apart and scattering all around, rushing into town."

"What are we going to do?!" a council man cry, "There's too many of them! If they scatter like this—"

"That's good!" Rapunzel shouted.

"Outrages, how is that?!—"

"If they are scattered then they can't form massive attacks—it's hard enough trying to hit them at the speed they're going. Hiccup!" she cried while waving a hand, "Over here!" She quickly dash out of sight but soon returns with one of the remaining sailors. They were bringing up one of Hiccup's barrows. Once they got it standing, something black swiftly took it away and flew into the thickest mass of nightmares.

"What was?!—"

"Explanations later," Rapunzel said as she gathers her hair into her arms. "For now, we need to go and protect the citizens."

"How far have the evacuation gone?" Elsa asks.

"If they're lucky, they should be in the forest by now," said another of the councilors. There was a sudden explosion in the sky. From where they last saw the black thing flew, there was now a line of fire that was continuing to be ignited, following a thick green ghastly trail. On Jack's side, he was doing something—forming something big, high over the battle waging in the sky. Whatever it is, it didn't seem as though he's quite ready to use the attack yet. Merida and Hans was nowhere to be found.

"Well they're not lucky enough," Rapunzel said, returning everyone's attention to their discussion, "There's no doubt that the civilians saw that massive dark wave, they're probably panicking now, if not even more than before, and that is the last thing we need."

"What do you mean?" ask Lukas.

"These are Pitch's nightmares, they can smell fear. If the citizens are afraid then they will just track them down." Reaching the dock, Rapunzel made to run towards the town but stops short. "Someone, take me to the evacuation group—now!"

"We'll do it," Eugene said quickly, volunteering himself and the doll. The two gather the remaining hair that was trialing out of Rapunzel's arms into their own, and then they took off with Eugene leading.

Elsa runs after them, with Anna not too far behind. Lukas made to follow but was held back by the council men. "Your Majesty—Princess, wait!" one of them cry. The seven private guards all went after their Queen and Princess, not so much as proceeding to stop them, but to join them.

"Lukas will be in charge of the army in town for now!" Elsa shouted, as she continues to run. "Have them protect the town and castle and provide assistance to our ally Beings as best as they can!"

"Great, so I'm being left out again," Lukas complained, but wasted no time in breaking free from his hold, and started making his way in the direction of the castle.

"But Your Majesty, you and Princess Anna must be taken somewhere safe!"

"The people are in danger, as Queen I must protect them!"

XxXxXx

The quickest way to get to the evacuation rout was by first going through town. The deeper they went, the more hysteric the fighting gets. Soldiers all around were doing the best they could to fight the nightmares; however, none of them were faring well. For every attempt the men made to destroy a nightmare, the creature would either evade their attack, be too fast for the men to even swing their weapon, or the attack proves pointless and the nightmare would just ram them. There were maybe only two successes out of five for each time they try to destroy a nightmare.

It was a horrific and valiant sight to behold. Compared to Hiccup's memory of Vikings and dragons, this battle was too one-sided. During the fight between Vikings and dragons, Elsa saw that both sides were equally strong—the Vikings fought just as wild and viscously as the dragons. None of them gave way to the other. But the battle before her, her men and allied soldiers are being knocked about, ram, trampled, toss through the air, slam against walls, buildings, the ground, through windows, through doors, over and over and over, it was relentless. Elsa did her best to fight some of the nightmares while running, saving as many of the soldiers along the way, but that made no dent to the fight. Overhead, she sees a cluster of nightmares heading towards the forest; no doubt they have located a group of victims to terrify.

XxXxXx

Elsa and the others could tell they were nearing the evacuation group, for there were screams and shouts the further they went. In the distance, they could see lanterns and torches, but couldn't tell the difference between the civilians and soldiers. All abled body men were fighting, some shield their wives, their children, the elders; some women were fighting, shielding their lovers, their younglings, the elders; while the young and old hid and cling, but all was scattering around for their lives.

Rapunzel stops suddenly dropping to her knees. She let the hair fall from her arms before swinging her rucksack off placing it in front of herself. "Go on, I'll catch up to you soon."

Elsa wanted to ask what she was doing, but wasn't given a choice when Anna shot ahead of them. "Kristoff?!" she calls, "Kristoff?!" No matter how many times she calls for him, there was no answer.

"Anna wait—Anna!" cry Elsa after her sister. It wasn't too long before the two got separated, cut off by nightmares and panicking citizens. Anna continues to dive head-on into the chaos in search of Kristoff, while Elsa did her best to destroy as many of the nightmares as she could.

With her magic, she was able to somewhat even the fighting field. Her private guards did what they could to aid their queen, including some of the evacuation soldiers: three from Arendelle, four from the Southern Isle. The men block or strike at any incoming nightmares that tried to hit Elsa in her blind spot, or when both her hand were occupied with attacking. This fighting strategy lasted for about a good three minutes before all her soldiers were strip from her, and none of them could recover quickly enough to return to her side, nor can any new soldiers get close to her.

Once she was bear with no guards, a nightmare attempted to ram Elsa in her blind spot. She manages to move away from the attack, but was caught in a second incoming. Elsa was airborne a few inches off the ground, sending her crashing near by a tree. The fall stunned her long enough as a flush of pain filled her mid body, stretching to the edge of her knee. She saw another nightmare, wolf form, was diving her way. She tries to move but her body still hasn't stop shaking from the pain, confusing the strengths in her arms and legs.

The nightmare bares its fangs and stretch forward its claws. It was an arm length away—but something peculiar happen. There was a sound and the nightmare was pushed away along with many others. Landing on its feet, the nightmare stood growling with hostility at Elsa; however, it was hesitant to move. When it made to leap at Elsa again the nightmare was pushed back once more, further this time with even more of its comrades. Elsa recognize the sound belonging to a violin, but was confused as to how that could be, and how is it repelling the nightmares? She turns in the direction of the violin from where the sound was produce, and found Rapunzel with the instrument in hand.

Eugene and the doll were no longer by her side, her rucksack was gone too, and somehow all her hair has been tie beautifully and neatly into a breaded ponytail. Rapunzel wasn't looking at Elsa, not at the civilians, not at the soldiers, not anyone or anything in particular. But all who could spare to look away and let their mind wonder from the chaos, they were looking at Rapunzel, and they couldn't look away. She begins tapping at her violin, so gently and quietly, and yet the sound could still be heard over the noise of the battle. It was making all the nightmares uneasy. They growl and hiss and howl and neigh and croak louder with anger, but none made to attack Rapunzel, they were hesitant. Some even stopped fighting and backed away.

Rapunzel stops tapping for a moment, looks at Elsa, and smile a tranquil smile. The nightmares rush at her. Swiftly she brought up her bow and begins to play, and just like before, the nightmares were immediately repealed by the music. With each stroke Rapunzel made, the sounds produce from them became visible, as yellow as the color of corn, starting from the center of the instrument before expanding like water ripples.

The music was foreign to Elsa along with all the people there; they have never heard any such style of it before, and yet there was a certain beauty to it. Maybe it was because she was dancing to this strange music; at times swaying gently as she stroke the strings, or twirled herself from one foot to another, or spinning on the tip of her feet before leaping onto the next. She dances so smoothly—not as to be call elegantly, but enchanting. Her music was wild yet contained, not like during a festival or what one may find further out in the country side. It couldn't be called upbeat, no, the better term Elsa could best describe the effect of it, was uplifting. Inspiring not so much as hope, but to seek after hope, to fight harder for it.

Elsa made the first attack that initiated the others to join her in the counter strike. Subconsciously, she started to notice how they were all falling into a rhythm of fighting; striking hard when the music was empathize, destroying a nightmare on the beat, or at any other time that would serve to add to the music. Even when shouting, hold for a short or long moment of time, their voice was added to Rapunzel's music. It was no longer a solo performance; it was a small orchestrated band, with Rapunzel as its conductor and lead performer.

The nightmares no longer have the upper hand in the fight, even if there are still fear among the people, there was hardly any chance for the nightmares to take advantage of their fears and attack. A few successes here and there, but, when a nightmare manages to strike its target, Rapunzel's music would repeal it long enough for the target to recover and strike back, or someone else would deliver the blow.

The climax to the end was coming. Elsa could feel it, everyone could feel it. Elsa created a small snow storm around herself, keeping off any more nightmares form getting close to her, and waited. When the climax was reach, the men made a final charge. When they exhausted their final strike, Elsa releases her storm. Though her people and the soldiers felt the sudden touch of coldness, it soon bypasses them and went after the nightmares, destroying majority of the creatures. The remaining nightmares tries to flee, but Rapunzel finished them off with a final long stroke of her bow. It was so ever a soft and quiet note, producing one single ripple that shot thickly fast. expanding towards the nightmares. When the ripple touch them, the creatures turn to the color of corn, their darkly features all gone. They did not move, nor did they make any sound. When the long note came to an end, the nightmares just vaporize out of sight, as though they were nothing more than a bad dream.