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Chap. 60: Hateno's Last Stand

Zelda gasped from pain and lack of breath as she threw herself forward, tumbling in a bloody, sweaty roll into the dirt. She landed flat on her stomach, driving most of the rest of the breath out of her already ragged body. She wasn't stunned though, and immediately started scrabbling forward, her raw fingers pulling at the rough, churned, bloody dirt of the path. All around her, there were bodies. Bodies of Hateno's soldiers, its farmers, its women, mothers, wives, sisters, brothers, uncles, fathers. But far, far more, outnumbering the defenders fifteen or twenty to one, Bokoblins. So many that the air was thick with more than just the scent of blood, feces, urine, and death.

It was thick with the scent and odor of the darkest, foulest magic.

Bokoblins and even Moblins dissipated into black, cloying smoke and ash, with wisps of malevolent, violet magic that shone dimly through the haze. It was so thick that the dead had slowed their normally rapid decomposition. She could assume it was simply because the smoke was already so dense in the air it simply took longer to intermingle and dissipate.

But really, that didn't matter. In addition to the bodies of the dead and dying, arrows and stones fell with startling rapidity. Hateno Village had lost perhaps fifteen total defenders, most of them right around her. Two hundred or more of the Calamity's foul servants had died. Any general would say that was an astounding victory…

Only the victory had not yet been won. There will still hundreds more to come, most of them stronger, smarter, and tougher than the weaker fodder. Even the weakest Bokoblins had hierarchies in strength, after all, with the strongest and smartest among them taking leadership roles.

Which meant the weakest had died first, by the dozens, to her and Purah's explosives, and the many arrows of the Hateno defenders, leaving the strongest to fight now, when they had retreated half-way up the mountainside, and were running low on fighters and ammunition both.

One knee got under her, squelching more viscera and dirt into the laceration the princess already had there. A hand- she was almost there, almost through the gap!

A weight hit her back, hard, and sent Zelda face-first into the muck again. "Sorry!" she heard, and the sharp pressure, the boot, was gone after a moment more strain. A second later, just as the chattering yelps of the Bokoblins behind her got a bit to close for comfort, a glove wrapped around Zelda's hand. She was hauled unceremoniously to her feet, and she found herself looking into the soot-blackened, dirty, blood-stained face of Koyin.

Somehow, by some miracle, the girl was still alive.

Somehow, thank Hylia, she was, too.

Koyin threw her arms around Zelda and pulled her close, not only to share their relief at their current state of survival, but also to pull her out of the way of the barricade that Hudson, Karson, and Bolson threw into position and started hammering into place while the fingers and claws of Bokoblins scraped and ripped at the wood. "I'm sorry," Koyin gasped, "I didn't mean to step on you!"

"It's alright," Zelda murmured as she awkwardly patted the woman's back. "It didn't hurt, just pressed down. I'm glad it was you, not a Bokoblin."

"That- that would've been bad," the ranch-girl agreed quietly, "I can't believe we made it out of there!"

Zelda nodded fervently into Koyin's shoulder. The last hour or so had been harrowing. So many monsters had died in the first ten minutes of the battle that Zelda had almost started to believe they would be able to hold that first, wide barricade at the bottom of the cliffs below Kitano Ridge. But when the horde had just kept coming, more and more seeming to sprout up from the rocks no matter how many they killed, her outlook had changed quickly.

The second barricade had lasted just ten minutes. Somehow, the Bokoblins had piled up on each other so quickly that they had simply spilled past the wooden walls and tiger's teeth to get a dozen of them past the barricade. Claws ripped at flesh, teeth bit down, and the defenders lost fingers… it had been bad.

The third and fourth had lasted longer, about twenty minutes each. The path was narrower, and Bolson and his men had been able to extend the walls from the cliffside to the drop on the other end, leaving only the small gap where each of the retreating fighters could move back through, and small arrow-slits.

It was at the fourth barricade that they had lasted the longest, and the one they had just fled from. "Longest", she estimated, by about two minutes. Their arrows had run out in the first two minutes. Their rocks in the third, since only Hudson was strong enough to really through them hard enough to kill. Zelda's Slate was still above twenty percent of its full charge, but her bombs were too dangerous to use up close.

She and Koyin had stayed back, then, to give Hudson time to get the other wounded to safety. He had hesitated a moment, no doubt convinced by then that she was who she said she was. He had, at least, cast a mourning, sad look in her direction before hoisting two soldiers, a man and a woman, onto his broad shoulders and calling for the retreat.

Koyin had been heroic, standing tall (for her) and firm, stout and strong, next to Zelda. Her spear had lashed out hundreds of times, driving one Bokoblin after another either back, or to their death with the point or over the edge. She had been wounded a dozen times, but thankfully her light leathers protected the young woman well enough, and nothing was fatal.

Some of that was due to Zelda herself. She was no great fighter compared to the knights of Hyrule that she could not remember, she was sure. But somehow, armored, with a scavenged knight's sword in one hand and a soldier's round shield in the other to replace the Sheikah-crafted one that had been lost at the second barricade under a Moblin's crushing blow, she had blocked at least two arrows and one spear-thrust intended for the young woman's body or face. Her arms had been flagging already, but Zelda had forced herself to fight on.

There was no other viable alternative, after all.

But once the others had been clear, Hudson had shouted just loud enough Zelda could hear it over the horde, and her and Koyin's desperate battle-cries.

She and the other woman broke at once, but Zelda had been just a little bit faster. She had been terrified, worried too for Koyin, because the Bokoblins had already been breaking through the barricades. They were mostly torn down, in fact, leaving just the two of them on a path wide enough for perhaps four people to walk beside if they quite cozy.

But they were safe, for now.

Tentatively, anyway, for even now she could hear the Bokoblins already ripping, tearing, and hacking at the stouter walls of this mid-point fortification. Her eyes scanned the battlefield on their side quickly.

Furthest back, a dozen and more walking wounded were assisting the more grievously-injured survivors up the path. They were strung out between the two nearer barricades, mostly, with some of the supply-runners still dropping off caches of arrows for the six archers on the edge of the path that were still raining death down on the monster army from a position of relative safety.

Most of the supplies, including the infirmary ones, were being loaded onto two hand-pulled carts. One older gentleman, a man she had seen working the fields, was protesting being loaded along with them while clutching at a hole in his stomach.

Closer, archers, stone-throwers, slingers, and anyone else with the ability to do any kind of damage at range were assembling into groups of five or ten behind the thick, stout walls. Ahead of them, even more nervous-looking lancers piled their weapons, mostly long spears and pikes, into rows and set them into logs with divots cut out to help steady them, forming more mobile, and more reactive, tiger's teeth.

Behind her and to either side, those with skill in shorter, hand-held weapons like swords were already fighting the fastest Bokoblins. This was not good… but they hadn't lost yet. "Stay here," she ordered Koyin."

"I'm going with you!" the girl protested.

Zelda shook her head sadly, "I'm not going far. These people need every person they can get on the front line. I'll be right back, I promise."

Koyin swallowed, then nodded firmly as she let go. "Alright. I'll hold you to that."

Then she stepped away, already scooping up a wounded soldier's worn, chipped spear to replace the one she had just lost. "Hold fast," she shouted, "We have to hold here as long as we can, but be ready to retreat on the signal!"

Zelda smiled sadly, then turned away. All around her, people bustled too and fro, keeping a wary eye on the too-close fighting, or for stray projectiles. Two women were on either side of the hand-cart as Zelda reached it, both pleading for the old man to stay still while they got moving.

But they froze as Zelda laid a bloody hand on the man's shoulder. "You know," she said quietly.

He followed her gaze down to his belly, then nodded. His voice was pained, gruff, "They don't listen, none. I'm already dead, they just don't want to admit it."

She swallowed. The stench of battle, of blood, was horrible… but this man's stomach was already turning with sepsis. He was one of the first hit an hour ago, and it was extremely unlikely he would last the night even with real medical care. "Do you want to go out with a bang?"

The women both hissed.

The man grinned widely, almost maliciously, "I'd like nothing better, Yer Highness."

Zelda nodded. "What's your name?"

"Farmer Roe," the old man replied quietly. "Camden Roe."

"I'll make sure you're remembered, Camden Roe, farmer of Hateno, and hero." Then she turned to the women, her face filled with regret at what she was about to say, and the determination to do it anyway. "You: Get him off this cart. Get two of those barrels there, and help him tie the fuses together. You, take the cart up the path now. The supplies will be useless if we don't hold here anyway. And Camden?"

"Yeah, Yer Highness?"

It felt strange to be called that, especially now when she was covered in blood and gore and shit, but Zelda turned her attention to the man anyway. "Come find me when you get your barrels ready. I'll help you light them, just in case."

"Will do, Princess," he nodded with a savage grin, then turned to the younger of the two women, "You hear that, daughter o' mine? The Princess has a special mission! So get movin'!"

Well, fuck.

She hadn't known she was ordering the man to a suicide mission right in front of his daughter, but… it was too late now. And Camden Roe, simple farmer or not, seemed delighted to be given the task. She couldn't take it back now.

Zelda hurried back the two-dozen or so steps it took to reach the archers, and pulled out forty of her own supply, handing twenty to the nearest on either side, "Distribute these to the best shots on your end. I haven't much to spare, so make them count."

Then she was there, right beside Koyin and Hudson again, with her shield and sword in hand. The big man was burned, bloody, and bruised as well, but he was just as stout as he looked.

She could not track time. Time was useless, fleeting, and any instant might be her last. It might have been Koyin's, or the muscled Hudson's, or anyone who stood beside her in that desperate several minutes while the people beyond their defense evacuated further up the cliffside.

All Zelda knew was death, and the desperate struggle to keep that from afflicting her and those she cared for.

Her sword wove back and forth, up, down, left, right, diagonally in all directions. It thrust, parried. Her shield too, danced and moved, her already-numb arm careless for any impact, whether from hulking Moblin or fierce blue Bokoblin.

None of that really mattered. What mattered was that with every motion of the blade, and even some of the shield, a foe was either cut deeply, or knocked back out of the way to strike at her or her friends. Blood flew, cries of pain and anguish echoed, and always, the deep, clutching, acrid black smoke of magic and darkness filled the air.

There was an order given. Her brain, her ears, would not process it. She could barely even register that the defenders were scant, and growing scarcer.

Someone tugged at her shoulder, and she threw them off, to strike again.

"Princess, we have to go," she heard someone call.

Princess. She was a princess. Not… not death incarnate, no matter how many foes she had slain.

Wasn't she…?

This time, when the tug came, Zelda let herself be pulled back, away from the crumbling, burning wall, away from the Bokoblins, and the black- black!- Moblin leading the current assault.

Boom.

Only, this was not the boom of one of her Remote Bomb Runes, or even the deeper, louder, and more fiery explosions caused by Purah's many hastily-assembled explosives. It was more like thunder, deep, low, and accompanied by a delayed blast of wind and dry dust that knocked Zelda, Koyin, and a dozen other people to the ground, which shook and rumbled for several terrifying, horrible seconds.

Her head spun with lack of oxygen, lack of blood, and sheer exhaustion, not to mention one unfortunate club that had rung the bell of her helmet painfully hard not long ago, but somehow, Zelda was the first back on her feet. She couldn't quite make out the details, but thunder still rolled below their feet, and the shrieks of dying monsters overpowered even that.

There was a cloud of yellow-gray dust streaming down the mountain from about her eye level, just past there the upper encampment was at the crossroads.

Her green eyes widened. Purah had cut that close, whether intentionally or not. The researcher had been planning almost from the start to send a rock slide of stone and mountain down upon the rear of the army, both to cut off its retreat and to cut off reinforcements. Given the mass of monsters that had still been streaming up from the shoreline miles away, she must have thought it was time. But much of the mountain below the path, where the upper camp lay, had fallen with it.

Yes, thousands of Bokoblins had probably just been crushed and ground to dust, but it had nearly cost them the last of the defenders, and cut off their escape route, too! In fact, she could still see the edge of the bluff above them shrinking slightly as more rock and stone tumbled down without support.

One enterprising Bokoblin had been climbing around, and somehow missed the attention of the many archers… she watched him lose his grip as the cliff shook, and go screeching downward.

But it wasn't enough.

There were still about two hundred, maybe three hundred, and fifty Bokoblins and six Moblins on this side of the slope already.

"Back," she cried out, "Back to the next barricade! Koyin, with me! Roe! Camden Roe! Light your fuses! Everyone else, get out of here!"

Thankfully, most listened to her command. And when twenty or more fighters from the wall broke and ran, chivying people up the road, the rest quickly followed.

"Go," she commanded to Hudson a moment later when he started looking rebellious, "Get up there! We need you at the last barricade more than we do here! They're frenzying, and bombs will be more effective than you if you get surrounded!"

"Fine," the construction worker growled, "Karson, with me! We're heading back to the boss! You'll start by shoring up the crumbling edge of the cliff, and don't fall off or you don't get paid!"

It seemed to Zelda that it was the latter threat far more than the threat of gravity being quite lethal that spurred the younger man into action. With the last of the stouter holdouts fleeing, Zelda braced herself, dropped two more bombs at Roe's feet, then took her turn grabbing Koyin by the elbow, instead. "Come on, we've got to go!"

They really did. Camden Roe was laughing maniacally as he hefted two bright red barrels, one in each hand, with a sparking flash hanging from them, and moving inexorably closer, "Come get me, Calamity-spawn!" he shouted, voice ragged through the pain in his septic intestines, "Come and meet your death! I'd like to see a Blood Moon bring you back from this!"

Then they were all running, everyone except that one last, brave farmer who was perfectly happy to cut a night of feverish agony before he died down to a brief moment, especially if he could take a few dozen monsters with him.

She got behind the barricade quickly, and helped a couple dozen more defenders past before the Bokoblins reached Roe. She watched in horror as one clasped powerful fingers around his throat, and in the distance, his eyes bulged.

But it was too late for them.

The explosion was quiet. At least, it seemed so, next to the cacophonous sound of the last big one, but her eyes bore witness to its ferocity. Splattered remains of Bokoblins and one unlucky Moblin flew everywhere, and her ears rung, as she flinched back from the blast.

It wasn't enough.

In seconds, they were at this new barricade, too. It was small but sturdy, using a combination of techniques from the earlier ones… and it still wasn't going to hold.

But the Moblins and Bokoblins still died in droves to take it, and by the time Zelda and her allies were forced back again, she new the calculation was going to be enough.

There were only forty or so monsters left to assault the last, strongest barricade as she turned, even more exhausted than before, to join the defenders one more time.

As the equally tired monsters tore their way up the path after the Hateno citizens, though, the sky turned red.

In broad daylight, the sky began to bleed, and a deep, red moon began to rise with preternatural speed. "Oh… Oh, no…"

Below them, already, skeletal remains and fleshy zombie-like forms began to swell and move the moment the Blood Moon crested the horizon. In minutes, it would be high overhead, and the whole army would be back.

They were doomed.