Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 9

On the fields of Beruna, the air is ringing the sound of clashing weapons and death cries. The armies of Aslan and the White Witch continue their deadly clash, fighting for the fate of Narnia. The initial attacks by Aslan's army, including the dropping of boulders by the gryphons and Galen's Force lightning, had given the free Narnians a great advantage. Now, Aslan's army continues to press that advantage. The Witch's advance army is taking heavy casualties. Far more than they are causing to Aslan's forces.

And of course, a major part of that is because of Galen Marek. The general of the Free Narnians has not let up since his first lightning attack. In the midst of the White Witch's army, the brilliant red and blue lights of Galen's lightsabers flash around the man as he cuts his way through one enemy after another.

The creatures of the Witch's army are beginning to genuinely fear the warrior wielding swords of light, weapons that can cut through anything no matter how strong. The design of the mask of his helmet only makes him all the more intimidating. Some of the weaker willed creatures of the army are beginning to break ranks and flee, fearing Galen even more than they fear the Witch.

Galen can see the morale and will to fight of the Witch's army beginning to waver, and knows he cannot let up. The more casualties he causes, and the more he shows off his skills and powers, the greater the advantage he gives his own troops.

Galen lunges into a group of minotaurs, spinning his sabers around him as he cuts down each one before they even get close to him. As he does, he can feel his strength surging. The lightning attack at the beginning of the clash had taken a lot out of him, and limited Galen to small Force pushes since then. But now, he can feel his strength returning.

"Alright. Let's show 'em," Galen mutters to himself.

Galen takes a running jump, boosting himself with the Force and soaring several feet in the air. As he is going up, Galen throws his red bladed saber. As the saber carves through one enemy after another, Galen draws in Force energy around him before unleashing a massive Force repulse around him. The few creatures closest to him, including several minotaurs and a tiger, are disintegrated by the Force of Galen's attack, and many others are sent flying.

Galen lands again, somersaulting to break his fall before bringing himself up on to one knee. Looking up, he sees a minotaur approaching him with its axe raised. Galen raises his free hand and knocks out the beast with a quick burst of Force lightning. He then immediately summons his red bladed saber back to himself. The saber carves through several more enemies on its way back into his hand. As soon as the hilt in his hand, Galen charges forward, cutting down several minoboars before sending out a wave of Force energy that sends half a dozen dwarves flying through the air.

Seeing Galen unleash more of his Force powers, more of the Witch's advance army begin to break ranks and flee. A few of the braver ones try to charge Galen, only to be dissected by his sabers.

Across the battlefield, the Witch can see the effect that Galen is having on her army. His sabers are visible even at this distance, and his lightning and Force repulse were even more visible. Although the lives of her soldiers mean nothing to the Witch, she also recognizes the dangers of her army taking so many casualties. She can also see that some of her troops are fleeing the battle. It's clear that the time has come to enter the battle herself.

The Witch whips the harness she has connected to the two polar bears pulling her chariot. The bears roar and begin to charge forward. Seeing this, the rest of the Witch's army, including her most dangerous servants, follow their queen into the fight.

In the midst of the battle, Peter is engaging surviving minotaurs from the back of his unicorn. As a brown minotaur charges him, he raises his sword and brings it down onto the minotaur's head, carving open its skull. He then quickly looks up and across the battlefield, where he sees the Witch coming in with the rest of her army.

"Galen!" Peter shouts. Even though Galen is caught up in his own fight, he can hear Peter's call. Putting away one of his sabers, he raises his hand and fires a bolt of Force lightning into the air.

Seeing the lightning, Edmund knows that's the signal for one of the army's secret weapons. Turning to one of the centaur archers behind him, Edmund gestures forward with his sword and orders, "Fire!" The centaur draws back her bow, which has a unique arrow with a flaming head fitted to the string. She fires the arrow, which soars out about 50 feet before it bursts apart in a burst of flame, and from the flames emerges a phoenix. The rare bird had been summoned using the arrow, which Aslan himself had helped to create.

Now, the phoenix swoops around to the side of the armies as its body begins to catch fire. Soon, its body is completely enveloped in flames as it dives down towards the ground. The phoenix finally flies between the ongoing battle and the second half of the Witch's army. Flying only inches above the ground, the flames coming off the phoenix's body ignite the grass of the battlefield, creating a small wall of flames between the rest of the Witch's army and the ongoing battle.

The Free Narnians cheer loudly and raise their weapons in triumph as they see the flames erupting and the rest of the Witch's army slowing down. This was the goal of using the phoenix arrow. If the rest of the Witch's army could be kept away until the advance army was wiped out, it would greatly increase their chances.

However, Peter is concerned. He raises the visor of his helmet and looks across the battlefield towards the flames. Sure enough, his worries are confirmed when the Witch unleashes a blast of her magic, extinguishing the entire wall of flames at once. Her army bellow their war cries as they charge forward to engage the Free Narnians. The surge of morale that had been brought to the Free Narnians from the phoenix is extinguished just as fast.

Peter turns and looks at Galen, right as Galen turns to face Peter, flipping his visor up with the Force as he does. The two look at each other before exchanging a nod. Peter then yells out, "Fall back! Draw them to the rocks!" He then closes his visor again as one of the centaurs sounds the army's horn. Hearing that signal, the entire army begins a planned retreat back towards the rocky dells that the archers currently control. As they go, Galen prepares to cover their retreat.

Galen moves to a better position and plants himself in place, ready to cover the retreat as the army moves towards the rocks. As the army passes him and the Witch's troops advance on him, Galen spins his sabers around in his hands a few times before he moves forward to engage them. A minotaur and two cyclopes rush him, but Galen cuts them all down in a second with three quick strokes.

The Witch's General, the tall black-haired minotaur, charges towards Galen with his axe raised, bellowing in rage. The general is the greatest warrior in the Witch's Army, and is determined to end Galen. Despite watching Galen's feat on the battlefield, he is still confident in himself that he can beat Galen in one-on-one combat.

Galen stares down the charging minotaur. "You are nothing against me," he declares. Then, deactivating one of his sabers, Galen extends a fist towards the minotaur and releases a powerful bolt of Force lightning. The general is frozen in pace as the lightning hits him in the chest. The minotaur growls in agony as the lightning courses through his body. Galen smirks a bit as he says, "Physical strength is nothing compared to the Force." Then, he pours an extra burst of strength into the lightning, and the minotaur is sent flying, tumbling across the ground before coming to a stop. Smoke is coming off his body, the lightning having fried him. The general doesn't rise again.

Galen doesn't stop there. He quickly cuts down several wolves around him before he summons the Force around him before letting out a powerful Force repulse, disintegrating a wolf that's close to him and sending about twenty more creatures flying away from him. Then, finally, Galen starts moving after the rest of the army, but always careful to stay at the rear of the army. The battle is just beginning, but Galen is nowhere near tired. And in the back of his head, he's looking forward to finally confronting the Witch directly.

Galen ducks under a wild swing from a minotaur's axe and beheads the beast with a single stroke of one of his sabers. Seeing two dwarves fire arrows at him, Galen does a combat roll to avoid them before using a Force push to send them flying. Galen immediately whips around to see several cyclops charging him from two directions. Galen quickly deals with them by channeling Force lightning into his lightsabers before driving his sabers into the ground, dispelling the lightning in a burst around him that knocks out the cyclopes. As soon as the cyclopes are dealt with, Galen whips his head around to take stock of the situation.

Things are not going so well for the army. At first, when coming into the rocks, the situation had gone perfectly to plan, with the army's archers showering arrows down on the Witch's army, killing several hundred. However, things had started to go wrong when someone had shot Peter's unicorn with an arrow, causing the animal to accidently throw Peter off. The unicorn had lived, but it left Peter without a mount, and right in the path of the Witch herself. In an attempt to protect Peter, Oreius had engaged the Witch personally, but that had only resulted in the centaur being turned to stone by the Witch's magic.

Since then, things had begun to level out in the battle. The second half of the Witch's army had begun to turn the tide more towards the Witch's army, and at such close quarters combat with the combatants spread out individually throughout the rocks, the Witch's army has a slight advantage.

Galen has been working overtime, trying to even the odds. While he has still managed to cause the lion's share of the casualties to the Witch's forces, casualties are mounting among the Free Narnians.

And a big part of that is because the Witch herself has entered the fray. Dismounting from her chariot, the Witch has now engaged personally in the battle. Wielding a sword in one hand and her wand in the other, she has been rampaging through the Free Narnians. The rocks are littered with bodies of soldiers she's slain and statues of those she's turned to stone.

Galen has momentarily lost sight of the Witch. He's been trying to find her to engage her for the last few minutes, but it seems like every time he gets his eyes on her, he gets swarmed by other creatures, and as soon as he finishes them off, he's lost sight of her.

Suddenly, Galen hears Peter's voice yelling, "Edmund!" Galen whips around, and sees Peter, who has a monetary reprieve, is yelling to Edmund, who is standing about ten yards from him, having just killed an ogre himself. Peter continues to yell at his brother, "There's too many! Get out of here! Get the girls, and get them home!" He then turns his attention back to the fight to attack a minotaur rushing him.

Galen is about to call out to Peter to try and reassure him that things are not so bad when several ogres rush him, and he turns his attention back to the fight.

Then, as he's cutting one of the ogres in half, he spots her. The Witch, about a hundred yards from him, heading straight towards Peter.

Galen growls and cuts down the rest of the ogres before he starts trying to rush towards the Witch. However, as he does, one of the giants in the Witch's army comes rushing towards him. Galen scowls at the giant.

Galen reaches out with one hand and grips the giant with the Force. The giant freezes in place, powerless against Galen's Force grip. Galen then begins to compress the giant's arms and legs, and his chest, causing the giant to cry out in pain. Galen then releases a bolt of Force lightning, causing the giant to bellow in pain and anger before slumping a bit in Galen's grip from the pain and exhaustion. Galen then sprints towards the giant as he releases his grip on him, then drives one of his sabers downwards through the giant's head to kill him.

As Galen pulls the saber out of the giant's head, he quickly turns his head back in the direction he last saw the Witch. As he does, he sees, to his shock, Edmund standing right in front of her. Clearly, Edmund had not listened to Peter when the older boy warned him to leave and go home. And as Galen watches, the Witch thrusts her wand forward to try and turn Edmund to stone. However, ready for this move, Edmund sidesteps and brings his sword up in one clean move, then brings it down right onto the end of the Witch's wand.

With an ear-splitting crack, the end of the Witch's wand shatters. A brilliant blue light burst out of the destroyed crystal as the pieces fly apart. The light can be seen by anyone close by, and the massive cracking sound can be heard from an even greater distance.

For a moment, Galen feels a surge of pride in Edmund. Clearly, the young boy had been taking his lessons in swordplay under Oreius and Galen to heart, and now he had just destroyed the Witch's greatest weapon.

However, that feelings does not last long. The Witch, angered by the destruction of her wand, thrusts her sword forward. Edmund tries to block her blow, but the Witch uses this to entangle Edmund's blade with her own. Twisting her sword around, she keeps Edmund's sword entangled and forces it up. And in that gap, the Witch lunges forward with the shattered remains of her wand and drives it right into Edmund's lower stomach, right in a spot where his armor doesn't protect him as much. And from the look on his face, it's clear that the shattered end of the wand has penetrated the armor and gone into Edmund's stomach.

"Edmund!" both Galen and Peter yell out almost simultaneously as horror floods through them. Oblivious to the yelling, Edmund and the Witch look at each other for a few moments before Edmund finally falls to the ground. As he does, the Witch throws her shattered wand away, it's usefulness gone.

Galen is still for only a moment longer before a surge of anger floods through him. With a scream of rage, Galen unleashes a massive Force repulse around him, disintegrating half a dozen enemies around him and sending many more flying. He readies both of his sabers before he screams, "JADIS!"

The Witch, who has picked up Edmund's sword, turns to face Galen. Her face shows no fear as she faces him down. She grips the swords tightly as she readies herself for battle.

At last, the White Witch and Starkiller are about to meet in single combat.

And, I'll end there. I'll save the battle between Galen and Jadis for the next chapter, and the end of the battle. We'll see a bit more of Jadis' power in that than we did in the movies or even the books, I think. But, I'm sure you can guess how it'll go.

Next chapter should be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!