Midnight in Mistral

AN: I'm back with the next chapter!

The Battle for Mistral rages on, and our heroes are still fighting.

Treebeard had just finished talking with his fellow Ents in the Entmoot and walked over to the three women who were waiting on him. He then spoke softly, "We have just decided…"

Weiss and Blake stood up from their picnic to listen to what he had to say, but to their complete confusion, it looked like he was starting to fall asleep while standing up. They didn't say anything for about thirty seconds before Weiss spoke up, "Well?"

Treebeard suddenly inhaled a snore and woke up, "I have told them of your names and who you two are to the others and they have agreed… you two are not our enemies, and should be allowed traverse our land as much as you want."

Both Blake and Weiss waited for a second thinking there was more, but he didn't continue, Weiss then replied, "Well, that's good news, I guess."

Blake rolled her eyes, "What about Saruman, and the war? Have you come to a decision on what you'll do?"

Treebeard held his hand out in a calming motion, "Now, don't' be hasty, Miss Belladonna."

"Hasty? HASTY?!" Blake grips her hands and looks Treebeard hard in the eye; "We're sitting here, doing NOTHING while our friends are out there fighting a war that WE could be helping them out in."

Treebeard hummed in understanding, "War. Yes, it affects us all; tree, root and twig, all the same. But you must understand, Ms. Belladonna that speaking in Old Entish is an old practice. The only time we say it is when something is worth talking about, and sometimes talking can take a long time, whether we like it or not."

Back at Helms Deep, the battle has reached its peak. The Uruks have shown no sign of slowing down their assault, and the defenders have been holding their own pretty well against the army.

"17! 18! 19! 20!" Nora stood on the rampart of the wall, right between two ladders that Uruks were climbing up. She swung her hammer, aiming for their heads, instantly killing them with every swing of her hammer. But no matter how many she killed, more continued to climb the ladder. Not that Nora cared, though. "21! 22! AND 23!"

Along the wall, all the other hunters and Vacuo Knight have been holding their own as well. Jaune and Ren had kept the central turret defense guarded as the gunner continued his fire on the army behind the wall. The same can be said for the other hunter defenders, protecting the turrets is one of the few priorities the wall defenders have.

Meanwhile, the snipers stationed on the cave entrances on the mountainside did their best to pick off targets like berserking Marauders and Warlocks before they can do any lasting damage to the soldiers on the wall or the mortar teams that were behind.

Back at the main keep, the Mistral soldiers and their volunteer militia continued their constant barrage of bullets, mortars and dust attacks on the bulk of the army that was within range. On the main causeway, soldiers could be seen with body shields stacked up and placed in rows, covering the soldiers as they walked up the ramp to the main gate.

The soldiers at the main gate started shooting at the column, but it would appear that the body sized shields the Uruks were holding were extremely resistant to gunfire. There was barely a dent in them, let alone a crack. However, some shots were lucky enough to make it in between the armor plates and hit a few Uruks. But for every Uruk that fell, another creature in the column took its place and continued marching forward.

Robin looked at the approaching column, he took it as an insult; the method they were using resembled that of the phalanx tactic that had been used in Mistral for centuries. However, he noticed that the side of the column was mostly exposed, "Arc, do you copy? The gate is about to be hit hard with a force, do you have any turrets to spare?"

Jaune kicked an Uruk off the wall as he heard the message on the radio, he looked and saw the column and quickly cursed under his breath, "Turret's 2 and 3, shift your targets to the causeway, hit them with whatever you got!"

Both turret operators rotated and fired immediately with their chain guns. Their shots were cutting down a majority of the column at the front; however, the Uruk's quickly shifted the positioning of their shields to compensate for their opening. Their shields were holding against the chain gun's bullets, but a lot more lucky bullets going between shields went through and killed Uruks.

At the top of the keep, Theoden looked over the battle, he had a bit of a proud smile. Pride over his troops, in spite of the odds, they are doing it, they are holding. "Is this it?" He asked out loud, "Is this all you have, Saruman?"

In the bulk of the Uruk Hai army, Alpha stood on his perch, watching the battle progress just as he was expecting. "On to phase two." Alpha thought to himself as he immediately howled as loud as he could over the gunfire. His orders commanded the Uruks to bring up the bombs to prepare to blow the wall.

Pairs of Uruks, holding large metal spiked spheres. Two of them were brought to the drainage pipe right between turret's 2 and 3 under the wall. The Uruks placed them down, some of them started to growl a chuckle.

Jaune looked over the side briefly and saw two Uruks walking though the hoard; they were carrying something big and metal. If Saruman and Locus managed to give these things guns and dust, something big and metal could only mean one thing.

He drew his pistol but was immediately knocked out of his hand by an Uruk that got the drop on him. An unseen sniper then shot off its head. Jaune could see the smoke trail from the rifle's bullet. He turned to see that his Desert Eagle had fallen off the wall and towards the ground behind it.

Jaune quickly turned to Pyrrha a few yards, as she was shooting her rifle at some Uruks that were climbing up a nearby ladder. "PYRRHA!" Jaune shouted over the gunfire and metal clashing, she looked to him as he points to the ground. "BOMB! TAKE IT OUT!"

Pyrrha turned to see what he was referring to and started shooting. She kept firing until one of the Uruks carrying the bomb was killed, forcing the other to drop the bomb.

Jaune looked down and saw some of the Uruks moving away from the wall right under his area, he then turned around to Ren, who was right beside him and hugged him tightly.

Alpha had no idea whether all the bombs were in place, just that there was enough to do what it was meant for. He held the detonator, flipped the switch that turned on a yellow light, and then pressed the red button.

KABOOM!

The two bombs that were already in place went off in an explosion of fire and lighting shooting straight up, thrusting thousands of tons of concrete, rebar and solid stone into the air. The one bomb that didn't reach its intended placement went off near the front of the army, setting fire to a few dozen Uruks.

The explosion sent thousands of rock fragments like bullets in almost all directions. Dozens of soldiers were caught in the blast, most were dead instantly from the explosion, while others hit the ground hard and found themselves with broken limbs due to the impact of their landings.

The explosion could have been heard beneath the fortress, in the cave system below. It echoed for a whole minute before dissipating. Outside, the falling debris from the wall landed on the army of Uruks and Grimm, but not enough to cause any real damage to their overall force.

Alpha looked on his work and showed a dark smile on his snout. He then howled new orders, move into the breach and take the fortress. It was evident he was enjoying himself as the commander of this attack.

Sun and Neptune were close to turret three when the explosion when off, fire and shrapnel hit them both causing major injuries. Sun's left arm was burned badly from the flash-fire. Sun lifted himself back up with his non-burnt hand and moved to Neptune, "Hey, Neptune, you ok?"

Sun rolled him over and saw that Neptune's left eye was impaled by a sharp piece of stone that hit him. "Oh my god, bro, you hear me?" Neptune groaned in pain, but he was alive.

Scarlet and Sage got back up from being pushed over by the shockwave, they saw their team mates in trouble and instantly stated running to their aid, Scarlet started shouting for a medic to tend to Neptune's eye and Sun's arm.

Grun and Nora were both knocked off their feet, like all the others that were on the wall but didn't get hurt by the direct explosion. Grun looked to see that Macht was fine but Leere had a fragment of stone in her leg.

Pyrrha and John were fine as well, little shaken up to what just happened, but they were alive. Unfortunately for some that were close to the explosion but not enough to be thrown over the wall, were on fire due to the fire dust that spread outward. Seeing the men on fire scared Pyrrha, her arms quickly began to tremble at the sight of fire spreading and people being burned by it.

Being at ground zero, Jaune and Ren were both thrown high up and hit the ground hard just a couple yards inside the wall. They were both out cold, and covered in scrapes, bruises and small burns. Were it not for Jaune's wings that showed up briefly and surrounded the two, they would have been in worse shape that they were now.

Over by the main keep, CRDL and all the other defenders stared in terror as to what just happened. One minute there was a wall there, now there was a big gaping hole in it.

Theoden looked in horror; he had so much hope that the fortress would be enough to handle these beasts. But he had no though for a possibility that they could have the technology to break the wall, let alone blow a hole in it. All he hoped now was that his niece Pyrrha was okay down there, and that at least one of the Star Knights down there was still in the fight.

Megara quickly used her abilities to fly towards the river that was flowing behind the fortress; there she started gathering water.

Theoden looked down at the causeway and saw something happen to the column of Uruks; something was coming up between some of them. Just then a battering ram emerged at the front of the column, "BRACE THE GATE, NOW!"

Jaune and Ren were starting to wake up, they tried to get their hands and feet underneath them, but their bodies were sore. Both their ears were ringing, completely unable to hear for almost thirty seconds before they started to hear the sounds of gunfire and monsters roaring in the distance.

Just then, the Uruks were starting to make their way to the breach, as if on cue, Megara unleashed all the water she held back and made a brief tidal wave that swept a few dozen off the Uruks off their feet and into the ground. But even this was proving to have little effect to their overall forces.

Nora got back on her feet and saw Jaune and Ren down on the ground, right in front of the breach where many of the Uruks were making their way. Without thinking she started running towards the hole in the wall. She jumped up high and slammed her hammer down hard while firing an explosion into the water.

To Nora's surprise, the water was slightly electrified from the explosion, so she was able to swing her hammer as easily as a piton. Crushing skulls, breaking chest plates and blasting foes away. She did her best to give Jaune and Ren time to get back on their feet, but she was quickly knocked down by a sudden ice blast to the chest by an enemy Warlock with an ice staff.

Ren and Jaune saw her hit the ground in front of htem. "NORA!" Ren shouted as he wanted to get in there to help, but Jaune held him back and pushed him down to his knees.

Jaune put his left finger in his left earpiece and spoke orders, "All snipers on the mountain side, concentrate your fire on the breach, RAPID FIRE!"

Jaune and Ren could then hear dozens of 'whizzing' sounds of bullets traveling over them and impacting the troops that were entering the breach. Once Jaune was sure that the snipers were done firing and reloading, he stood back up, while grabbing his sword off the ground and shouted, "SOLDIERS! BAYONET CHARGE!"

All the Sky Knights that were stationed behind the wall abandoned their mortar positions, pulled their rifles and/or melee weapons and ran with Jaune and Ren as they charged at the breach.

Jaune and Ren were the first to reach the army; Jaune switched back to Sword and Shield style and shattered a few Uruk spears with a shield charge, Ren slipped between some of the spears and cut them off at their staffs so that they wouldn't stick soldiers that came behind him.

There were a few unfortunate soldiers that were stabbed by the tall spears, but a majority was able to clash in close quarters with the enemy. The Vacuo Knights may not have been the most known for their combat skills, but they showed no fear in this fight, a lot of them worked in pairs, keeping each other safe while others were more on the offensive.

Jaune and Ren's main priority was to reach Nora that was currently under the water somewhere. They had to move quickly and find her before she drowned or was trampled on by either side.

Pyrrha kept trembling her hands at the sight of all the fire, but she was quickly snapped out of it when John called out to her, "Hey, you with us?"

Pyrrha shook her head, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" she shouted over the roars and gunfire.

John pointed down at the fighting below, "Jaune'll need you down there, get going. I got it up here."

Pyrrha nodded in understanding, she started running towards the stairways that lead down to the ground behind the wall. She more fire down at the breach, despite the water all around it, she shook her head hard, "Damn it, not now!"

Even though she was staring at the fire while running, she realized the fact that she was still moving. Most likely, she could ignore it if she had something more important to think about, like the safety of her team. Helping them was enough to allow her to move. She dropped the empty clip from her rifle and reloaded as she was running.

Pyrrha then saw that Grun was using an Uruk's shield as a bat to knock a Beowulf off of Macht. She called out to Grun, "Shield!" he quickly looked to her and knew where she was going from the direction she was heading. He then tossed the shield to her and she caught it, there she slid it out in front of her and jumped on it.

Using her polarity, she made sure her feet were planted to the shield to ensure she wouldn't fall off. As she was sliding down the stairs she stared opening fire with her rifle at some of the Uruks that were coming around behind Ren and Jaune as they were looking for Nora. Her shots were on point, each one knocking over or knocking Uruks off balance enough to fail at their attempts to hurt her friends. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs she jumped high and allowed the shield to fling forward and decapitate a Warlock that was about to unleash his fire dust.

Jaune and Ren quickly found Nora and pulled her out of the water, and boy was she mad. The full team started fighting together as the Vacuo knights moved in to join the fight.

Team SSSN's two members were hurt too badly to fight, so Sage put both of them over his shoulders and started running up to the keep to get them medical help in a safer location. Having to run down the side of the wall that was the furthest to the Keep, they also had to run around the main battle at the breach that was taking place. Once Scarlet knew Sage was safe to take them on his own, he moved towards the fighting and joined in.

Grun and Macht did their best to hold off the enemy troops that were still climbing on their section of the wall. Even with the breach, they still tried to take the wall itself. Blitz was helping Leere tend to her own wound, her telling him how to set her sprain and to help her back on her feet.

John was alone when it came to hunters; he had troops around him as he ensured Turret 1 was still in the fight. But one turret alone wasn't going to keep this fight in their favor for long.

Over by the Keep, the battering ram started pounding hard against the steel doors of the main gate. It appeared the ram was made out of a harder material and tipped sharply to leave large dents in the door. Soldiers above continued shooting at the Uruks holding the hammer, but the Uruks had others shielding them overhead with their body shields.

Theoden spoke into his radio, "Hold them! Stand your ground!"

Robin meanwhile was doing his best to shoot at any major Uruks or Grimm on the field, like Warlocks, Ursa and a few Deathstalkers.

Theoden quickly realized he spoke too soon to think the army Saruman sent against them was primitive. Now it was a matter of survival instead of patience.

Weiss, Blake and Vernal stood at the center of the Entmoot, as requested by Treebeard. Once they were there he gave them their verdict on what to do, "The Ents cannot hold back this storm. We must weather such things as we have always done."

Weiss gave a confused look, "You mean just do nothing? You want to sit in your forests and do NOTHING?!"

"HOW COULD THAT BE YOUR DECISION?!" Blake practically shouted over them all. Her words almost echoed in the forest.

Treebeard squinted his eyes and lowered his head to Blake, "This is not our war."

"YOU ARE A FOOL TO BELIEVE THAT!" Blake shouted again, surprising Treebeard, even Vernal. "This world needs you, now more than ever! Yes, we've almost forgotten you, but now you have a chance to show the world that you exist and that you matter just as much as Humans AND Faunus do!" Blake turned and looked to all of them, "We can't win this war on our own, no matter how much our people want to think that… you have to help us!"

Treebeard began to feel sorry for Blake, he could tell that she wasn't the kind of person to beg, and yet now here she was. Begging for the Ents to help save her people and Weiss'. "You are young and brave, Blake Belladonna… But our place in this world has been forgotten, and so it will remain because that is what nature wants."

All the other Ents started to walk off, leaving the four of them alone. Blake started to walk away, with Weiss following her. "Blake, I'm sorry."

Blake stopped and gave her a confused look, "For what?"

"That they wouldn't help us… I could tell that you really wanted for it to work out…" Weiss said in a sympathetic tone. She then put her hand on Blake's shoulder, "Who needs trees as an army anyway? We can figure this out without them."

Blake shook her head, "It isn't just about that, Weiss… The old stories about the Great War would often state that Nature chose to side with us against the True Evil. And now, with are cities, our roads, our buildings, we, as the whole of Remnant, chose to forget about nature, and it's becoming our downfall." She glanced at Treebeard briefly as he was speaking with Vernal in the distance, "It wasn't just about getting a new army, it's about finding that redemption after all the bad we did to nature over the years."

Weiss stood there, thinking it over. Blake was right; being at the head of one of the greatest companies in the four kingdoms, Weiss knew that dust mining, and other major industries, have torn down thousands of acres of trees, forests and damaged whole ecosystems. If this war was to be anything, it was to help humanity understand that all business ventures have their own consequences if they aren't careful. And now, humanity is about to pay that price.

Blake turned to see Vernal walk up to them, "I'll go with you to the nearest city. If they aren't going to help, I will."

Blake smiled a bit, "Thank you."

The battle at the breach raged on, everyone that was behind the wall was now in this fight as well. The snipers on the mountainside did what they could with picking off Uruks that were surrounding soldiers, but they were starting to run out of ammo.

Only one of the four bushmaster chain guns was still shooting; 2 and 3 were taken out in the explosion and 4 was abandoned when the area on the far side of the wall was getting overwhelmed. John was doing what he could to protect turret 1, but if the rate of these Uruks continues coming up the ladders, they'll get over run soon.

Jaune switched to Longsword mode and swung hard and wide, he hasn't been able to cut their armor but he has been hitting their weak spots enough to take some out. Pyrrha switched her weapon into a spear mode, fighting a lot like how she did when she was fighting CRDL only this time with more lethal moves.

Ren slashed and shot so quickly that Marauder's could even react in time to him getting up close and stabbing them in the throat. He even made a quick take down on a Warlock, with Nora finishing it off with a hammer to its head. Nora switched her weapon to the secondary grenade launcher mode and fired all six shots into the breach, hoping to delay more from poring though.

Grun and Macht joined in the fighting down below while Blitz takes Leere to safety to get her patched up. Grun nearly went savage on the Uruks; pouncing on some of them, slashing their throats, stabbing between the plates, even some of their dead bodies at the others to slow them down. Macht switched his knives to whips and lashed in circles like he was at the circus. Luckily some lashes made some damage to the Uruks around him, but he couldn't keep up the speed forever.

Jaune was knocked to the ground by a berserking Uruk and suddenly found his desert eagle in the gravel. He rolled over to avoid the large blade as it came down, he grabbed his pistol as he rolled past it and then shot the Uruk in the face, blowing the head up inside its helmet. "Nasty."

Pyrrha ran over to him and helped him up, "We can't keep this up, Jaune."

"I know." He regrettably agreed, their force was small compared to the force beyond the wall, and they were still poring through the breech. Overhead, Megara collected more water and placed it over the breach, she then stabbed Weiss' rapier into the water and froze it solid. It worked mostly, enemy Warlocks stared shooting fireballs and lighting strikes form their dust staffs. The ice was holding mostly, but it wont last forever.

Jaune heard his radio tap and then heard Robin speak to him, "Arc, pull your men out of the keep! There's nothing you can do down there!" Jaune grit his teeth in anger at the fact that he was right.

Jaune then turned his radio to the open channel for all squad commanders and soldiers in the wall area to hear, "All troops defending the wall, fall back to the keep! There's nothing more we can do out here."

Most of the troops heard the message and started falling back. Troops running while those closer to the keep turned around and started providing cover fire for those in back.

Jaune looked up at the wall and saw John still defending the wall, "John, pull back, now!"

John tapped his ear, "Acknowledged." He then turned to the turret that he was protecting and called out to the driver, "You heard the order, soldier, get going." The turret driver followed his order and dismounted.

Down below, Nora could be seen being hauled away by Macht and Grun, both holding her by each arm. "What are you doing? Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!"

As John was helping his soldiers leave their section of the wall, he felt a pain in his left shoulder. The pain also came with a jolt that nearly knocked him down. He looked down to see a bullet hole in his armor; he looked at the aura meter on his forearm mounted scroll show that his aura was near depleted.

John pushed past it; luckily the adrenaline in his system was keeping him from feeling it. He swung his sword hard, cutting down as many Uruks as he can, providing time for his men to back off. He even swung his sword hard enough to knock some of the ladders near his position off. Just then he felt more bullets hit him; one hit behind his left knee, one hitting his back near his heart and the other hitting his right lung.

Down below, Jaune saw John getting shot and immediately started sprinting towards the nearby stairway that led up the wall. "JOHN!" He swung his sword hard, cutting down any misfortunate Uruk that tried to get in his way.

John turned to see the Uruk sharpshooter that was shooting at him, just as it was loading another bullet, John picked up a bayonet rifle from one of his dead soldiers and through it like a spear. The rifle ran right through the Uruk like a shishkebab. That throw used up the last of his adrenaline; he fell to his knees, unable to lift his sword.

Jaune decapitated an Uruk with his long sword, just as it was charging at John while he was down. Jaune ran up to John and knelt down to keep him upright, "How bad is it?"

John tried his best to smirk as he answered, "So far so good…"

"Damn it, you're loosing a lot of blood…" Jaune noticed the blood dripping from the bullet hole. The one in his back looked to be close to where his heart would be. "I need to get you to Leere."

"I wont make it…" John coughing up a mouth full of blood, one of his lungs was already filling up.

Jaune put his hand over John's back, "I'll give you some of my aura." But before he could do it, John asked, "What's your aura level at?"

Jaune looked at his wrist, "35%."

"That's not enough for wounds like this… plus, you'll need it for this fight." John said with a very serious look.

Jaune looked him in the eye, "John, I am not letting you die!"

John put his hand on Jaune's shoulder, "You AREN'T!" He gagged a bit of blood but was able to speak again a second after, "They need you in this fight… all of you…"

Just then they both heard the ice wall Megara put up crash down under the stress of all the attacks by the Uruk Warlocks. The flood of enemy soldiers is flowing again.

John sat himself against the rampart and laid the sword across his lap, Jaune took his hand as John put both of his hands on Jaune's, "Make sure my wife, Lozen, knows I kept my promise… I died fighting for a country… just wasn't ours."

"I will…" Jaune said, as he gripped tighter on John's hand.

John then looks to his sword, "And make sure this sword gets to my brother, Thomas… he's going to need it now…"

"I promise… By my family's name." Jaune said with a crack in his voice, first Boromir and now John. How many friends does he have to lose to this war?

John smirked, "I'll hold you to that…" John's hands went limp and one of them fell out of grip of Jaune's hand. His head fell forward, lifeless.

(AN: for the record, I hate writing death scenes of good characters)

Jaune placed both his hands on his sword and stood up from there. He turned around to see the wave of enemy soldiers running up behind the retreating soldiers. Jaune picked up his long sword and gripped it tightly. Just then he jumped out from the wall and made motion as if he was going to stab the ground.

His sword began to glow bright, so bright it almost blinded those that saw him come down. And at the moment of impact, a blast of light shot in out, blasting dozens of Uruks away. Some that were at 'ground zero' were obliterated instantly, while others were sent flying.

Once the light died down, Jaune could be seen running out from the crater and running to the keep, with eyes of pure fury in his eyes.

As the surviving soldiers made into the keep, Megara froze the gate like before, she even froze some Uruk's feet to the stairs they were climbing on.

At the Main Gate of the Keep was being battered and broken by the battering ram the Uruks were using. The stone battering ram started buckling the steel plates on the gate, so much so that it started cracking due to the stress.

Cardin and his team moved to the gate to help the soldiers defend it. When they arrived they saw a large dent from the repeated battering on the gate.

"I thought that gate was made of steel!" Russell exclaimed.

"It is," Cardin replied, "Whatever they're using must be made of harder metal."

After about the 50th pound on the gate door, a large segments of the gate broke off on either side, big enough for a body to get through. The ram kept going, hitting a few soldiers that were unfortunate for being in its way.

Some Marauder's swords poked through the hole but were blocked by Mistral shields. Then Marksman poked their rifles through the hole and began opening fire. The shields were holding, but this phalanx wasn't going to slow them down any more than the gate.

Some of the Mistral soldiers placed their rifles over the phalanx and started shooting back. The soldiers above the gate continued their rapid barrage of bullets and dust attacks but the shield walls by the Uruks on the Causeway refuse to give in. Those in front break off from the shields and attack the gate; while those in back, holding their shields up, make sure there are more soldiers to replace them.

Theoden draws his sword, "Enough standing around. All available troops to the gate, NOW!" he turned to Robin, "Do what you can up here." His subordinate nodded as he and his personal guard made their way to the gate.

Theoden was given a shield and ran up behind the phalanx that was guarding the breech. He saw a few Uruks move in and bash the phalanx, some even knocking over soldiers that were holding it up. Theoden moved in and cut one of them down, "SHEILDS UP!"

Just then the phalanx reformed, with the King in the center, "SPEARS!" just as a few Uruks tried to body slam the phalanx they were met by spears through the throat and/or chest plate. Any that were pushing against the phalanx were pushed back and then were shot by soldiers who opened their shield to fire their rifles at them, and then reformed the phalanx.

Theoden looked at the gate from his position, the hole was small, and it could be filled up. However, the Uruks weren't going to just stand by and wait as they make repairs. They needed someone to take the heat off the door for a small amount of time.

"I need someone in my place!" Theoden ordered, as he removed himself from the front phalanx one of his personal guard took his place.

Theoden backed off and turned to find Jaune standing there, his hands covered in blood. Jaune had a look of fury in his eyes but were quickly snuffed out when he saw the diminishing defense of the gate.

"I need you to take some heat off the door." Theoden spoke with a questionable tone, not sure if Jaune was up for the task.

"How long do you need?" Jaune asked plainly.

"As long as you can give me." Theoden replied.

Cardin listened to them both; he knew a way to help. "Jaune, this way!" They both turned to a small corridor that was a few feet from the gate. There they exited to a small walkway that ran along the wall. It was originally meant to be a sniping position, but it was too exposed for anyone to be stationed there. Luckily, the Uruks were too preoccupied with the gate that they didn't even see them.

Jaune and Cardin put their backs to the walls to keep out of sight. Jaune leaned over to peak and saw the Uruks clumped up at the Gate. "Well?" Cardin asked

Jaune leaned back to him, "Remember Professor Port's exercise of 'great numbers but small setting'? It's a lot like that."

Cardin smirked, "We can do it."

Jaune gave him a look, "But it's a long jump…"

Cardin leans to see and saw he was right. He bit his lower lip and shook his head in shame, "Help me…"

Jaune turned to him, "What?"

"I'm too heavy to jump that far, you'll have to help me," he nearly yelled under his breath.

Jaune held his hand up, "Ok…" Jaune then formed his shield.

Before they started, Cardin grabbed Jaune's shoulder and lightly squeezed it, "AND… none of this will be mentioned to anyone! Got it?"

"My lips are sealed," Jaune winked.

Jaune then walked to the end of the walkway and knelt down with his shield in both his hands. Cardin then did a running start and jumped over Jaune, stepping onto his shield and jumped from there. Jaune pushed upward as hard as he could, even putting some of his aura into it.

Cardin practically flew to the causeway as he crash-landed with a blast of fire, having slammed his explosive mace down as he landed.

Jaune placed his shield on his hip but drew Joyuse, while also drawing Blake's katana, Gambol, and ran off the walkway onto the causeway. He landed in the newly opened area Cardin created with his mace and began swinging both Joyuse and Gambol as hard as he could.

Both were doing good to keep the Uruks from reaching the gate. One of the first things they did was push the Uruk's battering ram over the side, so it wouldn't be used again.

Cardin swung his mace hard and wide, blasting Uruks a few at a time off the causeway, and smashing others that got too close. Jaune had very little experience using dual wielding styles, but he remembered a few tricks his sister Carol taught him when she trained him for those two years.

Back at the main gate, Theoden ordered several men to move the leftover sheet metal plates to be placed over the hole. Some of the men started using dust crystals to flash-weld the plates together and use wooden 2x4s to act as ground anchors to keep the door closed.

Meanwhile in the main field were the bulk of the army has yet to join the fight, Alpha howled over the army's chants and gave them their next set of orders. Now that the wall was beaten, they shift their focus onto the Main Keep.

Following their commander's orders, several Uruks pushed a few large harpoon guns with spears the size of people. They aimed their harpoons at the main keep and fired two at a time; if a harpoon hit the keep it embedded itself in the concrete as the rope line that was tied to it began being tugged on. A second one was fired, it missed the building but latched onto the ramparts and gripped it's barbs in the stone.

Once the two were believed to be 'secure' enough, the Uruks began tugging on one of the ends of the rope. It could be then seen that a structure was being lifted up out of the legions of Uruks, several of which were jumping onto it as it was being raised up.

To Pyrrha's horror, she looked over the Keep's Ramparts and saw large ladders that were rising up from the army below. She and several other soldiers started opening fire on the ladder; they were able to kill several Uruks and Beowulves that were latched onto it, but their bullets weren't able to stop the ladder from landing on the side of the Keep.

Once it made contact with the Keep, the sword tips of the ladder came down and acted like grips to keep the ladder in place. Just as one landed, another made contact with the ramparts immediately after with a third one on its way.

Robin stood above a Rampart and aimed his arrow at the third ladder as it was slowly rising. He aimed for the parts of the ladder that were next to the ropes. He fired two shots, one on each side, with fire dust and blew them up, then a third one right in the middle of the first step of the ladder. The explosions cut off the lines while the third arrow's impact pushed the ladder back and landed on several Uruks.

Back at the main gate, Jaune and Cardin were holding pretty well. Jaune slashed with both blades as fast and hard as he could. To his surprise, Blake's weapon was a lot more effective than he initially realized. "This katana is awesome!" he exclaimed in a moment of excitement.

His excitement was short-lived when he saw Carding start to get overwhelmed by the Uruks. Jaune sheathed Joyuse and drew his pistol while also switching Blake's weapon to its pistol-mode, "Cardin, DROP!"

Cardin ducked down as a hale of glowing bullets mowed down dozens of Uruks before they could attack him while he was on the ground. Jaune kept firing until both guns were empty, placing his gun back on his holster and changing Gambol back to katana-mode.

Cardin got back up and ran over to Jaune, "Couldn't have lead with that?"

"Those were my last clips," Jaune replied as he pulled Joyuse out again.

Both turned back down the causeway at the hoard of Uruks that were marching back up like before, they weren't done with them yet.

Down below at the main army, Alpha looked up to see Jaune at the causeway. He began to growl at the sight of the one that killed his master, Locus. Alpha then grabbed one of tall spears from the Uruks and began running towards the causeway.

He ran as fast as his dog-like feet could run and stabbed the spear into the ground, pole-vaulting up high and towards his prey.

Jaune turned to see a large Beowulf bred Uruk Hai land on the causeway and extended its claws. "ARC!"

Alpha ran at Jaune with murderous intent, slashing and clawing at him. Jaune blocked his attacks but was starting to feel slow from fatigue. Alpha even managed to get a scratch on Jaune's left shoulder, knocking his shoulder plate off.

Meanwhile Cardin was fending off Uruks that were trying to make advances to the gate, but would appear only to try to distract him, allowing their Alpha to have his prey to himself.

Alpha jumped over Jaune and pulled out a pistol that was behind his belt. He then fired three shots, one at Jaune's exposed shoulder, one in the right thigh, and one in lower back on his right side.

Jaune was surprised the bullets even managed to pierce his skin, but then saw that his sword wasn't glowing anymore. "Obsidian bullets…"

Jaune turned around quickly, luckily he was able to block Alpha's claws from hitting him in the chest with both swords. He was pushing as hard as he could at Alpha, but the beast was appearing to be the stronger of the two, "We are the perfect soldiers… we are the future!"

Jaune grunted under the pressure, but was able to say one thing that proved to piss off Alpha, "Big talk for a mutant." Alpha forced Jaune to the ground and placed his paws on Jaune's chest while baring his teeth at Jaune's face.

The teeth opened and were about to 'feed', only for a needle like blade to protrude from the back of the throat and almost touch Jaune's nose. The blade was removed and Alpha fell limp on Jaune's body.

Jaune looked up to see Megara smile at him, but he groaned at her, "Get this thing off of me…"

After she helped him back up, they both saw Cardin running back towards them with the Uruks hot on his heels. Megara held her hands high and then rushed them forward, sending rain droplets at the Uruks, while also freezing them with Weiss' Myrtenaster.

The icicles that were flying towards them weren't lethal, but were enough to make them stop to shield up.

Cardin looked to Jaune and saw him bleeding, "What happened to you?"

"Got my ass kicked by a Beowulf," Jaune exclaimed with anger.

Just then, Jaune and Cardin both received a radio call from Robin, "Guys, get out of there, the gates are sealed up."

Jaune called out to Megara, "We need to go, now!"

Megara nodded in agreement; she then waved her hands below all three of them and created an updraft that lifted them all up in the air. Unbeknownst to them as they were floating up, a fourth ladder came up and took the place the third one was originally going to land.

The wind carried them all the way up to the top of the Keep and set them down a few feet away from where the fighting was taking place on the Ramparts.

The gate was more or less secure, but it could break at any moment. Theoden wiped the sweat form his forehead and looked up as he heard the soldiers above fighting for their lives against the Uruks that climbed up the new ladders. He couldn't see much, but he could tell by the sounds of men shouting in anger or screaming in pain from their enemies that it was a heavy fight up there.

With one Star Knight dead, another wounded, their soldiers at half strength at least and with only a Maiden that was a novice at best, their odds were not looking as good as before.

Theoden gripped his hands tightly as he grudgingly gave the order, "Pull everyone back…"

Russell looked to the king in confusion, "Sir?"

"Pull them back, NOW!" Theoden ordered with pain in his tone. He and his personal guard then started running towards the Main Hall.

Russell then sent an open channel radio message to all the soldiers that could hear him, "King Theoden is calling for a retreat! Fall back to the main hall, NOW!"

All the soldiers above that weren't engaging started falling back. The hunters that were still in the field were doing what they could to get as many soldiers into the Main Hall as they could.

Pyrrha was running to the gate and stood by the door, shooting at Uruks as best she could with Robin beside her. She then saw Cardin helping Jaune reach the Main Hall, she jumped down from her high rise and helped Cardin get Jaune inside.

They could hear some soldiers shout that the main gate had been broken open again, this time for good. More and more Uruks were flooding into the keep like a flood of monsters. Even without their commanding Uruk, they were still determined to fulfill his last orders: kill them all.

Once the last of the troops were inside, Nora fired several more grenades at the advancing Uruks, buying her a chance to back off and the gate to close behind her. The troops that made it in quickly began locking the door and setting several boards and planks to lock it up tight.

Theoden sat down at one of the tables in the hall and glanced at the men holding the door closed, some with their own shields. "We've fallen…" he whispered to himself.

On the other side of Mistral, in the middle of Fangorn Forest, Weiss, Blake and Vernal were traveling on Treebeard's back. He was nice enough to take them to the nearest village to Fangorn, as far as he knew, it was untouched by Saruman's war on Mistral.

"I will leave you at the southern boarder of the forest, you can make your way to the nearest village from there," Treebeard said as he continued his walk.

Weiss was still going it over in her head, "Saruman built an army that could challenge one of the most powerful kingdoms on Remnant. He obviously got their weapons from the Black Market and built from the resources that Haven Academy had to use… but how could they have fueled such a war machine." She then remembered how the Uruk's armor looked, they weren't cleanly forged, but they looked like they were classily done with hammers and heat-treating. And to build that many in a short amount of time would require a lot of fire, and a whole lot of wood.

"WAIT!" Weiss exclaimed, "Stop, take us north!"

Treebeard stopped, "North?" He thought about it for a second and then realized, "But that would lead you past Haven Academy…"

Blake and Vernal looked at Weiss in confusion as she replied, "Exactly. Saruman is focused on fighting armies, not hunting people. We could slip past him and maybe link up with any villages north of Haven. He would never expect it."

Treebeard thought about it for a second, "Hmmm. Doesn't make much sense to me… but then again, you are rather small. Perhaps you're right." He started nodding, "North it is, then." Treebeard then turned around and started walking north.

Vernal leaned in towards Weiss, "The only village north of Haven is a costal town, which has nothing."

"Besides, we'll get caught if we go North," Blake exclaimed under her breath, "What are you thinking?"

"We won't get caught," Weiss smirked, "Someone else will."

Meanwhile in the continent of Solitas, Ruby and Yang were being escorted to the city of Aletsch inside Atlas Bullheads. Ruby and Yang were cuffed to their chairs, but were able to see half the city burning from their windows.

Ruby looked to the cockpit to see Faramir standing there next to the pilot, listening to the radio chatter. They could hear things like, "Being overrun." "Sector 13 lost" among other bad news they could hear.

"Cut the feed," Faramir ordered the pilot, he didn't want to hear any more of the misery of his people right now.

Ruby could see the look of sadness and shame on his face, "I know how it feels, Commander…" She stood up from her chair while also keeping her hand close enough to the seat to not tug on the cuff. "To bare the weight of thousands on your shoulders, but still can't do anything to stop the darkness when it comes… But bringing the Ring here won't make things better. It can't save Atlas."

Faramir gripped his hands tightly, he walked over to Ruby and put his hand on her shoulder and forced her to sit back down. "We shall see, girl."

He turned around and walked back to the cockpit and closed the door behind him.

Treebeard continued his march north as Weiss had asked, he started talking about some of the funny stories he remembered to help pass the time, "And those little family of field mice that climb up sometimes, and they tickle me awfully."

It wasn't until he finished his sentence that Treebeard realized he reached a wide-open area, full of chopped up tree stumps. The large tree creature gasped at the sight.

Vernal was equally as shocked as he was at the sight, it made her feel extreme pain in her heart. Blake was just as shocked to see what was once a beautiful forest being torn down to a graveyard.

Weiss was hoping they would find this, she remembered seeing old pictures of what some of her family's mines used to look like before they stated digging. Thousands of archers cut down and mulched to make room for mining equipment, this was no different. She wasn't happy that she ended up being right, but this was something that had to be shown to someone like Treebeard.

Treebeard was in shock, "Many of these trees were my friends…" They could almost hear his voice buckle under the pain he was suffering. "Creatures I had known from nut and acorn; saplings grown to full barks…"

"I grew up here…" Vernal added with a painful tone that quickly turned to anger, "and its nothing but a wasteland now…"

Weiss' heart went out to both of them, "I'm so sorry, to both of you."

"They had voices of their own," Treebeard said with almost a sob in his tone. His eyes rose up from the ravaged forest to the plain sight of the altered Haven Academy, "Saruman… He above all should KNOW BETTER!" Treebeard then inhaled deeply and then let out a roar that echoed for miles upon miles in all directions.

All three girls could hear the creaking of the wood in Treebeard as he gripped his finger-branches in pure rage, "There is no curse in Faunas, Entish or the tongues of Humans for this betrayal."

Weiss looked to her left as she heard roars in the distance being carried by the wind. She then saw a lot of the trees along the boarders of the forest begin to move. "The trees… they're moving?"

"Where are they going?" Blake asked in slight worry.

Treebeard hummed, "As you said before, the kingdoms cannot fight this battle on their own, so they will save this one… But I have my own business with Haven Academy tonight, with a rock and stone."

All three turned around as they heard more growls and bellows behind them. They saw dozens of Ents exit the forest and walk up behind Treebeard. More than the ones they saw at the Entmoot; some appeared to be twice the size of Treebeard himself.

Blake then looked both left and right at their newly formed army of Ents and began to smile. She looked up to Weiss who simply winked at her teammate.

"Come, my friends," Treebeard said to those around him, "It is time the Ents return to this war. Even if this is likely to be our doom; may this be the Last March of the Ents."

Dozens upon dozens of Ents marched out of the forest behind Treebeard, and more continue to march out to join in this battle. They marched forward and with purpose, on an unsuspecting enemy that chose the wrong side.

AN: And THIS is where I leave you.
Another Star Knight has fallen in this war, as much as it pains me, I didn't want to do it, but it had to be done for the story.

I hope you guys like the story so far, please leave me some positive reviews if you can and tell me what you think.

As always, my friends ARKOS.