Maria had fought dirt dolls before. It had been to demonstrate the combat capabilities of her guns—gehrmans—to knights who would have been using them. She had feared that they would fail the test, as bullets weren't really meant to break stone, but it turned out the limbs were only hard-packed dirt at best, and could be broken by her pistol's bullets.
Lord Keith's dirt doll was NOT made of dirt. It was, in fact, a rock doll, its body drawn from the stone floor of the ballroom, which was thick and reinforced to be able to support large numbers of people. Even with a thick layer ripped out over a wide area, the floor was able to support the weight of the fifteen feet tall beast of Earth Magic. The limbs were pillar-like and elongated, the feet wide circles, and the hands were crude balls of stone with stubby fingers. The latter seemed unnecessary, as the stone doll gripped nothing, merely swatting with wide swings of its arms. Its appearance in the midst of the mob of the La Sablicans destabilized their lines, keeping them from performing a proper massed charge that might have potentially been a danger to the king standing at the forefront of the Sorcieri.
Those directly before them still charged despite Maria silencing the one giving orders. Those fools burned, both the king's black flame and the Third Prince's more familiar fire magic, causing the leading forces to stumble, but those behind them kept pushing them forward. Screams of pain filled the air, soon join by the familiar pork-like scent of burning human flesh. Maria kept herself from charging into the fight, even as the lords and knights behind them moved forward to strike, slash and pierce. As much damage as she knew she could do, that wasn't her duty. Her duty was to protect the king despite his insistence of leading from the front.
The La Sablicans were trying to force their way towards the king and the other monarchs—or prince, as in the case of Ethenell—no doubt believing that was the most damaging option available to them. They had no doubt massed together to be able to push and break through any defenses in their way. However, Keith's rock doll had disrupted their cohesion, preventing them from doing as they had planned. They all seemed to be trying to go after all the monarchs, diluting the concentration of their forces, especially since the monarchs had all spread outward, drawing them out in different directions.
It was bloody. Even with just formal armor, or no armor at all, the knights from New Catarina, Hallig, Xiarmah and Ethenell protecting were forces to be reckoned with. Even with only Dame Finlay wearing full armor, the formally dressed knights of the Golden Order fought as a unit, striking decisively and trusting in their comrades. They were bloody from blows that they hadn't been able to avoid, but none had yet fallen. Those injured withdrew to their king, who healed them with his Light Magic before sending them into battle once more. The armored Dame Finlay used herself as a wall to cover gaps in their formation from injured knights withdrawing for healing, acting both as a solid defense and fiercest point of resistant, since she also had her spear in addition to her sword.
Behind her, King Miquella was not content to stay behind. The golden knife in his hand burned with a sun-like flame, and when there was a gap in his knights' defenses that the La Sablicans were exploiting, he would swing the blade, and a crescent of gold flame would fly forth from his weapon. It was undoubtedly one of the magic tools the king was famous for making, and it was standing him in good stead now. La Sablicans burned and fell.
The knights from New Catarina had slammed into the La Sablicans head on, wielding hammers, maces and some swords. Unlike many, they were all wearing heavy formal armor, which stood them in good stead against their similarly armored foes. However, unlike their foes, their weapons were very well-suited for inflicting damage through armor. Queen Siegmidala herself was an intimidating force, swinging her hammer by a short chain as if it were a flail, the weapon's momentum knocking swords aside or even snapping blades. Those even less fortunate found themselves with broken arms as blows that they might have been able to deflect with their armor if they faced opponents with swords rushed armor and shattered what lay beneath.
The Xiarmen, in contrast, moved almost like hunters. Their silk robes and dresses offered no protection, but they were also negligible in weight, letting them dash and roll about the battlefield. The lack of armor meant that any solid blow on them would be decisive and fatal, should be decisive and fatal, but the Xiarmen weren't allowing such blows to land. The attacks of the enemy were avoided with almost unnatural flexibility, or deflected using the few metal knives, knuckles, or even wooden rods that they had at their disposal.
This was rare, however. The Xiarmen preferred to attack, using the minuscule openings from the La Sablicans committing to a swing to strike with quick barehanded attacks, the blows staggering their foes as punches and kicks struck vulnerable joints and unarmored locations. Normally, this would only be a delaying tactic, but none of the La Sablicans were wearing helmets, rendering their heads completely unprotected. Fists and feet struck exposed faces, the damage ranging from broken noses and split lips, to being blinded as eyes were gouged out, to removing the La Sablican from the fight entirely. The fortunate were merely rendered unconscious and concussed. The rest had faces caved in, necks broken, and skulls shattered.
With each fallen La Sablican, the Xiarmen acquired a sword, and their already deadly attacks gained ranged and edge. Despite only a few of their delegation being armed with swords, many Xiarmen appeared very proficient with their use, making Maria wonder why they were not so armed. Their tactics allowed them to control a wide area of the battlefield despite their limited numbers, and attempts by the La Sablicans to mass together to overwhelm them with weight and numbers were disrupted by Po the Black charging into their ranks to show that his weight was greater than theirs, while those now armed with swords put their reach and sharpened points to good use.
The Ethenell, meanwhile, had one of the skeletal undead among their number and they used that fact relentlessly. Dead Achmed joined the battle without fear, the dead giant of a man leaping into the midst of the La Sablicans with sword in hand, spinning in the air as if to mock them. He swung his great curved sword in wide arcs as he paid no attention to the blows being struck upon his bones, swatting swords aside with his bare arms. After all, what flesh was there to cut, what blood to spill? He served to ably harass them as Prince Cezar led his own guards, what few martially inclined Ethenelli had joined them and various members of the Sorcieri nobility who had joined their ranks to give them numbers. Maria spotted Lady Palin Dahl of the Medicinal Magic Department among them, healing with her own Light Magic to keep people in the fight. To her relief, Rafael seemed to be absent, and she hoped he had stayed with the non-martially inclined nobles around Duchess Claes.
In the middle of these formations, acting as the spear and spearhead that they were the crossguard to, where the forces of Sorcier. The king, princes, and nobles at the front lines unleashed their magic at the king's command—and the part of Maria that always found itself worrying for the country wondered if they'd have remembered they had magic if the king hadn't commanded them to use it—keeping the La Sablicans from unbalanced as nobles and knights charged forward. Earth Magic made the ground rise in spikes beneath the La Sablicans, while Wind Magic knocked them back and blinded them. Maria saw someone have the very blood ripped from their bodies, while others howled as their blood turned to steam in their veins. The latter was quite terrifying, especially given the implication that it was something Mary Hunt could potentially do. Those without magic fought with wood and steel, wielding their weapons with anger and ferocity, for this was their land, and the presence of the La Sablicans was an insult that needed to be answered.
Still, even with magic and skilled warriors on their side, some of the La Sablicans managed to press through by using their own burning comrades as shields to push through the king's fire and other magic. The screaming human shields took the brunt of attacks and acted as a burning weapon both for the brief time before the heat became too much for them to bear and they had to discard them. That was when Maria stepped in, interposing herself between them and the king and quickly dispatching them with violence. No one ever expected to lose their hand, and the shock of losing the appendage was enough to give her to opening to go for their throat.
Every so often, a long, spear-like arrow struck from above into the mass of the La Sablicans, Royal Guard archers in the rafters of the ballroom finally able to act now that there was less risk of accidentally striking an unintended target. While 'almost directly above' was not the best angle of attack for greatbows, which were designed to knock someone traversing rail-less mythic architecture walkways off the walkways and to their deaths through falling, the unexpected attacks were one more way to sow disorder into the La Sablicans ranks. The instances where Royal Guard were able to align their shots to take someone through the neck usually resulted in the target being impaled as the greatarrow tore through their body out somewhere around their hips.
At her side, her squire managed to hold her own. Maria had no time to turn and watch her, but every few seconds there was the familiar ring of a sword being parried by Katarina's elaborately-shaped metal club, the meaty sound of a head being struck, and a cry of "Sorry!". This repeated several times. Exasperating as the last part was—squire, these men were trying to harm you, you don't need to apologize when you strike them—her squire was clearly holding her own. In fact, from the "Uh, excuse me, I need to move you all a bit", and "Ah! Sorry I stepped on you!" and various other Katarina-like statements, she seemed to doing very well.
Despite the clear disadvantages to their position—trapped on all sides, with their backs towards a door they themselves had sealed and now could no longer be opened, Keith's rock doll rampaging, and being surrounded from all sides—the La Sablicans fought with stubborn tenacity. They fell and died defiantly, and even mortally wounded would try to take others with them, fighting to their last breath. Despite this, their fate did not change.
They Died.
When the way to the door was finally cleared, nearly every armed La Sablican lay dead on the ground, collapsed in undignified ways like discarded ragdolls. Many had been trampled, and those that had met the misfortune of being stepped on by Keith's rock doll had been smeared on the now-uneven ground. The part of Maria that dealt with the maintenance of her estate noted reconstructing that part of the ballroom's floor where the fighting had taken place was going to be very difficult. The stone would need to be replaced, which meant the old stone would either need to be removed or smoothed over with Earth Magic…
Cheers rose, but they were brief. Almost immediately the experienced fighters got to work. Weapons were taken from corpses, and bodies were searched for hidden blades before being dragged off to be stacked up like cord. Their legs and hands secured with strips torn from the La Sablican's own clothes, and kept under watch by a group of knights, in case any decided to go beyond death early. Some of the Xiarmen began talking loudly about how much easier it would be if they just cut off the corpses' hands and feet, and maybe their heads as well, so that they would be no trouble even if they revived. It was a barbaric practice that was no longer practiced in the modern day and considered a great affront to a knight's dignity.
Maria couldn't help noting that one of the Xiarmen who suggested it had a jagged scar completely encircling his wrist.
The doors of the ballroom were unbarred and finally opened, and Maria was disturbed to see less than a dozen members of the Royal Guard were outside, trying to hack at the door with halberds.
"Your Majesty!" one of the knights said as they were ushered inside, "the castle is under attack!"