I woke up inside the castle much better rested than before. I sighed in relief as I stretched my long-overworked muscles and planned to stay in bed for most of the day. Almost as if I'm cursed for eternal struggle, someone knocked on the door. Wait a minute! I'm in the castle! Where's my bucket!? I noticed that my gauntlets were taken off and that my makeshift bandaging was replaced with a proper bandage along with treatments for my various other bruises, scrapes and cuts. I groaned out "Come in!" as I pulled my right arm behind my back in a stretch. A man stepped in with traditional Redmane armour.
"You have been asleep for a whole day." I frowned at the harsh tone he took, so far I'm doing better than most of the army just by breathing. "I'm sorry but who are you?" I asked as I wanted to be clear if I should take this guy's bullshit or not. "I am Lieutenant-" I fucking dare this guy talk about my sleeping habits again! "-David, I have come to inform you that General Radahn had regained self-control but chose to isolate himself on the eastern shore." I'd do the same, absolutely no army is willing to swim and then have to deal with getting decimated by his ferocity and skill. Witnessing his prowess first hand leaves me confident in him. I continued to listen to Lieutenant David talk. "All Redmane soldiers affected by the rot are encouraged to join Radahn in isolation and protect him. The obvious risk is that if he loses himself again then we are all probably going to die. Are you willing to join us?" He finished speaking and I stared shocked.
It's not like I have any other choice. "I'll join. I refuse to stay in the castle and doom whoever is left with my rot. If I die, I'll die with glory!" I passionately spoke "Do we leave now?" I asked David. "Nah, we get another couple hours in the castle then we all get kicked out." He replied "Ok, I'll go answer the call of nature then I'll head to that shitty beach." There's truly no other way to describe the eastern shore. I grabbed my sword, my only true belonging, went off to do my business then looked around to find a shirt. Someone gave me some worn t-shirt with a couple rips in the front but I wore it all the same. I was getting cold as hell in this castle anyways. I didn't see the feminine heart designs on the front until I wore it but it's too late now. Least I'm dying while in style. I made my way out of the castle, catching giggles from the women and smirks from the men.
I marched to the final battle, this time sure in the consequence. All or most of what's leftover from the Battle of Aeonia will die here. Thankfully, since there wasn't almost a hundred thousand people fighting, we can return to more advanced forms of warfare. Whatever men I found on the way, I recruited. They joined wordlessly as the rot had taken their voice. Others joined of their own volition. Before I reached the beach, everyone had started following my group and it quickly expanded to what looked like every survivor of the battle. The rest either dead or rotting away within the wilds. The army of what looked like almost 2,000 followed until we reached the river splitting us from Radahn, who could be seen raging on the beach and most noticeably without a horse. I turned to face them, gathering up the courage for a speech.
"I am Captain Khirza, Proud Redmane soldier. I think we all know why we are here. We either die tonight or never... I'll let you decide which one you want to choose but I dont plan on going quietly into this eternal night. One last battle! One last battle for Radahn! One last battle for Caelid!... AND TO GIVE RADAHN A BETTER FIGHT THAN THAT ROTTEN MALENIA!" I shouted the last part with all the emotion and hatred I've been witholding. This very same hatred resonating with my fellow soldiers. All our lives have been ruined by Malenia, her rot has destroyed us all one way or another. They cheered along to the notion of doing something better than her and seemed to be in a much better mood than the sad lot earlier. Now they look like the proud Redmanes they should be.
"Ok, we can't just run at him like we did at Aeonia. Everyone, get in formation! Anyone with long-range weaponry should come in a couple minutes after those without do! Your job is to obviously to shoot General Radahn and weaken him further while we distract him. The plan for us guys, limited to melee, is to surround Radahn and give him no space to breath while also making sure not to stick too close! If we stay too close for too long, we will all get clumped together and then he summons a big rock and we all die. Spread out. Keep mobile. Hit and run. Any objections?" I finished laying out my battleplan which looks good inside of my head. It allows for sustained combat because everyone isn't fighting at once, keeps constant damage on the enemy and against any other guy, the plan would result in almost no losses. We are fighting the man who stopped the stars spinning though so the losses are going to be massive. The couple hundred men who could still speak loudly cheered my plan and I nodded. "7 minutes to sort all of you guys out. Remember to hand over all bolts and arrows you have to the guys with bows for obvious reasons." Never thought I'd be leading my own personal army... I was thinking I'd have grey hairs by this point but guess I'm going to die early to make up for it. 7 minutes pass, everyone looks ready and everyone in the back looks like they have a bow.
"It's time! Start moving!" I jumped into the water and started swimming. They really need to build a bridge here, this water is cold as hell! My army followed me through the river, the splashing sounds sounding like the rush of a waterfall. I took the first step on land and I heard a roar. A purple flash glinted and I saw the shadow of the Golden Lion, Radahn charging right at me. Fuck! Got a minute before he shows up and fucks everything. Buying time for my men, I rushed forward to meet Radahn. If I survive this bullshit somehow, I better spend the rest of my days living on the beaches of Limgrave and getting massaged by beautiful women. Especially a goddamn massage. By beautiful women. In contest to these thoughts, the hulking beast of a man swung his left greatsword below my waist which forced me to jump over it. He spun, generating an insane amount of force and swung both greatswords at me in mid-air. The only thing that saved me was instinct as I let my claymore take the brunt of the blow, which shattered like pottery, and I was sent flying half the way I ran. I lay stunned on the floor until I looked up seeing two greatswords held high up into the air. I rolled along the ground desperately, the blades came down and and I felt the wind blow my hair back. I stared at the blades for a couple seconds before I rushed back up to my feet and leapt onto his back, throwing hooking punches against the sides of his helmet and punching his tusks every now and then. I heard the warcry of my army coming to save my sorry ass as I held on for dear life. Radahn roared again and I floated off his back before being thrown all the way to the middle of the beach.
I crash into the ground and hear something snap in my chest. I writhe in pain. I can't even scream as the pain is too much. It took 10 minutes of long suffering before I gathered the strength to stand up. Pain. Pain. Radahn. Deep breaths. Focus. The world snaps back to reality. I can feel the remainder of my Claymore in my hand and I take a step forward. I bite back a scream of pain and push on. I somehow managed to make it back to the battle. Thankfully, some guys in the army did my job for me and took Radahn away from the river and therefore closer to me. I limp my way over and and shout a command over the chaos. "KEEP HIM SURROUNDED! GIVE HIM NO REST, NO QUARTER!" I dropped to my knees and let out a strangled scream after the shout as it agitated whatever is broken. I gripped the lower left side of my body as I tried to keep my screams in. I am not enjoying life right now...
Radahn sliced through my men like a knife through hot butter, each small action resulting in death. Have they even struck him yet? He crossed his greatswords together in his signature attack. "ALL ARROWS FIRE!" I shouted with the last of my strength. He should pull the arrows in with that attack. The rain of death descended upon us and he raised the swords to his sides and roared. Something was wrong. Everything seems to slow down and speed up at the same time. I felt myself being pulled in but it wasn't an instant thing. A black sphere formed around Radahn slowly but surely pulling everything in. The arrows sunk in to no effect, my men being consumed by the ravenous maw of death like morsels. I slammed the remainder of my sword into the ground, desperately trying to keep myself from being pulled in. The black sphere, spinning but staying perfectly still at the same time, began sparking purple lightning that erased whatever it touched. The pull grew so strong that the rest of my sword snapped and I flew towards Death. Before I was consumed, a purple bolt shot from the black hole. The fracture of space-time consumed me and then I knew no more.