RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Vanguard International [Issue 15] World of Darkness

Seven red soldiers were closing in on Danny and Sam, having identified these two as some of the worst threats on the battlefield.

"Well... shit," Danny said. No reply came from Sam except for some mumbling under his breath.

"Sam, are you...?" Danny said, but was cut off when Sam raised his hand in a 'shut the hell up, I'm trying to remember something' gesture.

Sam's face lit up and it seemed he'd remembered the right words. A blast of energy suddenly shot out from Sam and knocked the seven red soldiers on their arses.

"...could you always do that?" Danny asked.

"Not reliably," Sam replied.

Justin galloped past them, trying to shake loose an opponent's head that had lodged itself on the tip of his sword.

Danny's squid tentacles wrapped themselves around a red soldier's head, blinding him and constricting themselves around his neck. The man fell unconscious at Danny's feet, and Danny then ducked a sword swing and drove his claws deep into his attacker's stomach.

"We need to get inside this damn castle!" He said, standing up and addressing Sam who was currently wrestling with a red soldier. He drove his sword arm into the man's throat, then turned and nodded at Danny.

Adem slid down the ladder from the top of the outer wall as if it were a fireman's pole. He had his hands and feet against its sides and was disregarding the individual steps.

He hit the bottom and found Zarch waiting for him.

"Is Brianna okay?" Zarch asked, a worried expression on his face.

"She's fine. Ozzy caught her," Adem replied. Zarch looked relieved.

"This way," Adem said, grabbing Zarch's arm and walking quickly. They were headed for the point inside the outer wall from which the drawbridge was operated.

A single guard stood there, his hand resting on the lever. Everyone else nearby had either gone outside or to the top of the wall to defend the castle's perimeter.

"What?" The guard said, turning to notice Adem and Zarch, still in their red soldier uniforms, approaching him.

"We've been sent to relieve you," Adem said.

"I didn't hear any order."

"You're to head up to the wall. We're manning the drawbridge now," Adem continued.

The guard seemed flustered. "Look, this order better have come from-"

He was cut off by Zarch punching him hard across the jaw.

"That works," Adem said. They both grabbed the lever and pulled.

A sound from behind Danny and Sam caught their attention. They turned to find the drawbridge lowering towards them, it's chains groaning under the strain. They dove out of the way as the top of the bridge met the ground on their side of the moat.

Looking across the bridge, they noticed Adem and Zarch waving them in.

Grimm suddenly galloped past them and thundered across the bridge, disappearing into the castle without acknowledging any of them.

Danny and Sam ran across the bridge, and Sir Justin soon followed, still riding upon his horse.

They caught up with Adem and Zarch, and the five of them quickly disappeared into the main hallway of the castle.

Sam turned to see six red soldiers follow them in, swords raised.

"Shit!" Sam yelled. Danny turned his head just in time to see a massive black foot destroy the drawbridge.

Another statue had awakened.

Zarch raised his bow and sent an arrow straight into the heart of the lead red soldier. The other five kept running at the group.

Danny ran headlong at them, tackling one around the midsection. They struggled on the floor for a moment before Danny sank his claws into the man's neck. He looked over his left shoulder to find Sam impaling one of them against a stone wall.

Justin rode right into the centre of them, and his horse stood up on it's hind legs before driving it's powerful front legs into another red soldier's skull. Justin's sword met another's head, separating it from it's body and sending it tumbling down the hallway.

Justin, Danny, Sam, Adem and Zarch surrounded the surviving red soldier.

"Where is Godbolt?" Danny asked.

"What?" The soldier replied nervously.

Justin levelled his sword at the man's neck.

"Gaovulte. Where is he?" Justin asked coldly.

Ozzy helped Brianna up off the ground and the two of them quickly surveyed the scene around them.

The arrival of the zombies had quickly levelled the playing field, turning the tide of battle. The red archers weren't at all defeated, but at the very least they were evenly matched.

The two Vanguardians turned to find a squad of red soldiers closing in on them, all with their swords raised.

Brianna clamped her hands over Ozzy's ears and screamed at them, sending them all crashing to the ground with their hands held to their heads. Three of them were bleeding from the ears.

"That scream is damn useful," Ozzy said. "Grab a sword."

Brianna picked up a sword from one of the disabled soldiers, then turned and ran headlong into battle. Ozzy stood still for a moment, impressed by her bravery.

"Girl's got guts," He said to himself, before picking up a sword and following her.

Ozzy marched calmly and purposefully into the battle. He had no need for quick movements, as he felt no need to dodge any blows aimed in his direction. He picked off red soldiers as he passed them, driving his sword forcefully into the sternum of anyone stupid enough to threaten him.

Brianna wielded her sword with rudimentary effectiveness. She had enough instincts to keep it in front of her and parry any attack with the side of it's blade, and she was confident enough to be ruthlessly offensive when necessary.

But her real weapon was her scream. No soldier could come near her without his auditory canal being assaulted by her powerful vocal chords.

"Bree..?" Came Ozzy's voice from behind her. She turned to see what the problem was, and found him pointing at the castle. Her gaze followed his finger, and she gasped in alarm.

Another statue had awakened. It destroyed the drawbridge with it's massive right foot, then stepped forward into the battle.

Eleven zombies were crushed beneath it's first step, their brains spread across the muddy ground. The statue was being devastingly effective simply through the act of it's slow movement.

Brianna ran out of the way as it strode towards her. She turned and watched in horror as the great foot came down... and stepped on Ozzy.

She couldn't help laughing.

Blue watched as his master Earl wrestled with the great stone statue.

Earl had grabbed it around the midsection and driven it to the ground, then uprooted a tree and begun to strike it across the head.

The statue shot out it's arm and grabbed the tree, throwing it back into the forest. It kicked Earl in the stomach, and Earl tumbled to the ground.

Blue barked at the statue. It turned and looked at him, then back at Earl. Earl drove his huge feet into it's midsection and sent it crashing to the ground.

That's when Blue noticed another one of the statues getting up and walking around as if it were an ordinary person.

Blue didn't like these things. He turned and ran at it, barely noticing hundreds of men, both dead and alive, scurrying out of his way beneath him.

He barked at the second statue. It didn't seem to notice him.

Well, this wouldn't stand. Blue would make this his territory.

He found a spot where the statue had just stepped, cocked his leg, and marked his territory.

Ozzy stepped out of the giant's footprint, trying to wipe the shower of dog piss off himself and swearing loudly.

He looked at Brianna, trying to stifle a laugh.

He looked at Blue, wagging his huge tail.

"Bad dog!" Ozzy yelled.

Fashionably Late

Priest was starting to worry.

Thus far, he and the others - and their myriad of allies - had been dishing out what should have been more than enough punishment to penetrate Gaovulte's defenses. Grimm, Sam, and Danny had managed to sneak in somehow, and Brianna, Ozzy, and the others were busy dismantling the Red Archers. Giants and zombies ran up Vanguard's tally almost as rapidly as Gaovulte could put fresh forces on the battlefield.

Almost.

But try as they might, they just couldn't batter through the ring of defenses surrounding Gaovulte's fortress. The opposition just... kept... coming.

"This is too big," Priest murmured.

"What's that?" Ozzy asked as he disemboweled a nearby Archer.

"There's too many of 'em," Priest said. "We're barely making a dent. Those statues are neutralizing our heavy firepower, and Godbolt's zombies and archers just keep pouring onto us." He shook his head. "We need something big."

Brianna soared above the treeline and wheeled around to make another pass on a formation of Red Archers. She spotted something that just about made her topple from the sky.

"What is it?" Ozzy called as he pummeled an Archer.

Brianna landed behind him and gaped.

Baxter set his jaw. "There's... something moving... in the treeline?"

"Try again," Brianna breathed.

Ozzy's eyes widened. There wasn't anything moving in the treeline.

The treeline was moving.

"Shit!" he exclaimed as he backpedaled.

Brianna put a hand on his shoulder. "Wait!" she whispered.

"Are you nuts?" Baxter was terrified. "Godbolt's done something to the damn trees! They're coming after us!"

The trees seemed to be slithering along the ground on freshly-unearthed roots as they slowly made their way toward the two Vanguardians.

Brianna shook her head. "No. They're not."

The trees came closer.

"How do you know?" Ozzy demanded.

"I just know," Banshee insisted calmly.

"That might be good enough for you," the prizefighter insisted. "You can fly."

"Godbolt hates trees," the bird-woman explained. "They represent the one thing he can't defeat."

"And what's that?" Ozzy asked, still nervously eyeing the approaching trees.

"What's the opposite of death?" Brianna asked. "How do you cancel out death?" She smiled. "With life. He can try to dominate life, but it won't willingly serve his purposes."

Priest started to piece it together. "Then somebody must've figured out a way to harness nature without hurting it."

Brianna nodded. "Three guesses."

"Oh." A faint smile crept across Ozzy's face as the trees began sweeping past them.

A huge, lumbering mountain troll began charging toward the line of trees, brandishing an enormous axe and roaring menacingly.

He never covered half the distance.

Without warning, an immense tree trunk slammed into the ground directly in front of the troll, and another immediately behind it.

Everyone on the field looked on, aghast, to see that the twelve-foot-tall troll was standing beneath a seventy-foot-tall tree. Or what might be a tree, but looked more like a giant, vaguely man-shaped figure made from four or five huge trees. A particularly perceptive onlooker might notice that this enormous composite being was knitted together with the trees' roots and covered with a profusion of other plant life of all sorts.

Where its 'head' might be, the foliage of three oaks came together to form a dense tangle of branches and leaves, and nobody could quite make out what was inside. But whatever the thing was, it had massive trees for legs, massive trees for arms, and was apparently the ringleader of this army of trees.

The troll looked up.

The tree-being looked down.

The troll let out a low, resigned growl just before one of the being's 'feet' ground it into the earth under tons upon tons of living timber.

That was all the other trees needed. They swarmed onto the battlefield, and wherever they found a troll, Red Archer, or zombie of Gaovulte's, what they left in its place was scarcely recognizable. The giant tree-being swung its long arms and smashed one of the animated stone statues to bits as Godbolt's minions scattered in all directions. A few daring souls attempted to stop the inexorable rush of the forest with a well-placed axe blow or a torch, but whenever this happened to succeed, it only enraged the trees all the more and redoubled their frenzy.

Priest looked at Ozzy. "Apparently," he quipped, "they're on our side."

"I'm still staying out of the way," Baxter insisted.

The seventy-foot tree-being strode over to the edge of the moat, reached down, and scooped Priest up with one of its branch-and-root 'hands'. The hand lifted Priest up to the tangle of branches at the being's head. He strained to see into this miniature forest in the sky when suddenly two of the larger branches parted to reveal a man sitting in a 'basket' formed from several leafy branches.

"I hope I'm not too far behind schedule," Phil Smith said calmly. "Just tell us what needs done."

"You love to make an entrance, don't you?" Priest said, shaking his head.

Phil smiled. "Well, me and my friends here."

"Trees?! Cursed trees?!" Godbolt yelled to the one guard left in his private room at the top of the tallest tower.

"They're... uh... moving, My Lord," The guard replied nervously.

"I noticed that," Godbolt said, seething.

"What is to be done?"

"I still have control over most of the undead forces of this world. Beyond humans, beyond animals... there are other, far greater creatures that have left corpses strewn across this land."

A nearby mountain began to shake. Trees toppled off it to the ground and the formation itself rose. Dirt and plant roots were shaken off and for miles around the ground trembled.

At the battlefield, Brianna and Ozzy stood together watching in awe as Phil's trees devasted the opposition.

When, on the horizon, appeared three undead giants under Godbolt's control. They thundered towards the battlefield, shaking the ground and leaving the forest devastated in their wake.

"Those... those are some big zombies," Ozzy said to Brianna and Priest, who were standing just in front of him. They both nodded in agreement.

"Duck!" Brianna yelled, and Ozzy dropped down low. Brianna drove her sword into the chest of a red soldier who was running at Ozzy from behind.

"I wasn't in any danger, you know..." Ozzy said.

"I know. I just told you to duck because you were in my way," Brianna said, withdrawing her sword from the dead man's chest with a sickeningly loud 'thwuck' sound. And yes, I know that's not actually a word.

Ozzy looked to his left, to the west side of the battlefield. There, Earl was still wrestling with his stone enemy. The trees, however, had decided to help out. Powerful roots and branches had wrapped around the statue's legs, and they pulled downwards with all the effort they could muster. The statue stumbled, trying desperately to free itself from the tangle of flora.

The statue collapsed to the ground, the trees keeping a firm hold around its legs. More shot towards its arms and head when it hit the dirt, keeping it pinned tightly to the ground. The statue writhed and squirmed beneath the strong grip.

Still, no expression showed on its face.

Earl lifted his mighty foot and drove the heel of his boot into the statue's face, finally crushing the great stone head.

The trees tightened their grip around its arms and legs, not stopping until the stone made a satisfying cracking sound. No, I don't know how the plants were able to hear the cracking sound. Yes, I know they don't have ears. But they're fucking walking around, okay? It's magic.

Early jumped high into the air and drove both feet down into the statue's torso. It snapped into five smaller pieces, and Earl laughed loudly in triumph. The pieces of the statue were motionless.

Ozzy spun his gaze around to his right, bringing his sword up and across with him then driving it into the chest of a red soldier. He withdrew the blade and used it to parry an attack from his side, driving his fist straight into the bridge of his attacker's nose.

From the east, just beyond the clearing, came the three zombie giants. They were at least a hundred feet tall, perhaps more. They dwarfed any other figure on the battlefield.

The only thing that came close to them in stature was Phil's Voltron-tree.

Phil, wearing his tree suit, charged forward across the battlefield, clearing the width of the castle in four massive steps. He dove forward at the lead giant, sending them both crashing down into the forest. They disappeared amongst the trees.

The other two dead giants found themselves at the edge of the battlefield, and completely under Gaovulte's control.

With one sideways sweep of a decayed foot, one of the giants cleared a twenty square foot section of the battlefield of a squad of zombie soldiers, who had until moments ago been keeping a tight box formation and repelling any attack from red soldiers.

The giant stepped down onto the pile of fallen zombies, crushing all their skulls beneath it's giant foot.

All the red soldiers on the battlefield suddenly ran for the relative safety of the castle, abanding their close quarters combat and forming a defensive line along the moat.

Ozzy, Priest, Brianna, the zombies, and Justin's knights suddenly found themselves in the open, separate from the red soldiers, and very easy targets for two undead giants.

A second mighty step from the giant who had crushed the zombies decimated the outer line of Justin's knights. Some ran valiantly at the creature and swung their swords uselessly against it's ankles.

The other giant took one huge step towards where Priest, Ozzy and Brianna were standing.

It brought it's huge foot down on top of them, Ozzy and Brianna diving out of the way.

Priest held up his arms and pressed them firmly against the ball of the giant's foot. He cut off the behemoth mid-step, and the giant found it couldn't lower it's foot to the floor.

Priest stood beneath the foot, pushing upwards with all his strength. He tried to topple the creature, but found that the giant remained resolutely vertical.

He dived sideways as his grip gave way, rolling in the mud and narrowly avoiding being crushed into the ground.

"Priest! How strong are you feeling?" Ozzy yelled.

Priest thought for a moment. "Pretty damn strong." He'd been absorbing magical energy throughout the battle.

"Throw me," Ozzy said, running towards his teammate.

"What?"

"The only way to kill them is to cut off their brain activity. Throw me!" Ozzy said, pointing at the giant's head.

Priest looked up at the giant, who turned around and kicked several zombies, sending them flying fifty metres across the battlefield.

"You're insane," Priest said, and held out his arms.

In the forest, Phil was tackling giant problems of his own.

The giant fought through any attempt to restrain it. Trees grabbed at its arms and legs, trying their hardest to keep it down. To keep it from moving.

The giant tore them from the ground effortlessly. He uprooted majestic oaks as easily as if they were week old saplings.

Phil's tackled the giant around the midsection, and they both crashed to the forest floor. Animals went scurrying in every direction and a flock of birds took flight as their natural habitat was thrown into chaos by these two titans.

The giant drove a huge fist into the heart of Phil's coating of trees. The plants moved around the first, Phil's outer layers staying constantly fluid. The giant's fist met with no resistance, finding nothing solid against which it could strike.

It grunted with frustration and pushed Phil away from it, towards the ground. The giant stood up and drove its immense left foot into Phils' covering of trees.

Phil's huge arms shot up and wrapped themselves around the giant's leg, then yanked hard. The giant lost it's balance and toppled, finding itself swarmed upon by what must have been nearly every tree in the forest.

Phil's foot stomped down upon the giant's neck, and his huge arms grabbed at the giant's head. He tried his hardest to decapitate it, then tried for a different tack.

Phil drove downwards with the force of every tree his mind could reach. They poured towards the giant's head, sharing their strength and their fury.

The giant's skull buckled beneath nature's power.

Its brain was crushed. the softer parts spraying out and coating the ground nearby.

Ozzy hurtled through the air, his sword gripped tightly in his left hand and a knife stolen from a corpse stuck in his belt.

What may have passed for a shocked expression crossed the giant's face as Ozzy grabbed hold of it's bottom lip. Ozzy drove his sword into the soft, decaying flesh of it's chin while he searched for a handhold. He hauled himself up onto it's lower lip, and brought his sword up with him.

A huge hand was coming up from below to brush him off. He dove into the open mouth as the hand passed the face, and the mouth closed shut behind him.

The first thing that struck him was the smell. Not surprisingly, it stank inside a giant zombie's mouth. The second thing that struck him was that it was rather dark in here.

He slid down the giant's tongue then rammed the knife into the soft flesh, gripping the handle hard to avoid slipping further down the gullet.

Ozzy began to hack at the soft flesh at the back of the giant's throat with huge sword strokes.

Brianna watched in awe as a wave of trees threw themselves at the third giant. The entire scene was unnatural. She felt almost as if she were watching some sort of bizarre computer animated film. It seemed unreal, out of place in the natural world.

The trees pushed with all the force they had against the giant's feet, trying to bring it to the ground. It swayed once to the left, then again to the right. The trees wrapped themselves tightly around it's feet.

"How very Empire Strikes Back," Priest observed.

The giant finally fell.

Dozens of red soldiers scurried out of their positions as the huge zombie came down above them. It struck it's head against the castle turret, causing a decayed eyeball to pop it's socket and fly down towards the battlefield. It crushed a section of the outer wall beneath it as it crashed to the ground.

The zombies swarmed upon it, hacking away at its head and neck with all the weapons they'd either stolen or kept with them when they died.

Priest looked up at the giant that was still standing. It wobbled on it's feet and clutched at its throat. He couldn't help but laugh.

Brianna looked desperately at the red soldiers that remained at the edge of the castle. She then turned and surveyed the resources still available to her.

About seventy of Justin's knights remained, huddled together in a group. None of their horses were left, having either been killed or ran to safety when their riders conveniently dismounted.

Brianna turned to address them.

"We are not finished yet! An obstacle to your freedom remains," She yelled, marching up and down in front of them. Priest watched, amused and bemused.

"The tool of Gaovulte. The instrument of your oppression," She said. She turned and faced the roughly one hundred and fifty remaining red soldiers, lined up along the edge of the moat with their swords raised defensively.

"Them!" She said, then turned to spread her gaze across Justin's men.

"...well?" She said, and they charged forward screaming.

Priest looked up at the standing giant. If his eyesight had been keener, he would have noticed a sword tip sticking out from the back of it's throat and pulling sideways, leaving a huge tear in the creature's flesh.

The giant's head suddenly wobbled at a strange angle, tearing in several places at once. Priest noticed it coming apart around the neck, pieces of its flesh ripping off and hurtling towards the ground.

The head suddenly came apart from the body completely, rocketing towards the ground.

The giant's body stumbled backwards and fell into the forest, coming to a completely still rest there on the forest floor.

Priest heard a huge 'thud' as the head impacted suddenly with the ground. He heard a second 'thud' as Ozzy impacted with the ground.

Baxter stood up, sword still in hand, and tried to wipe himself off.

"This is the most disgusting mission ever!" Ozzy yelled, frustrated.

Ed was flying at the tail of a dragon named C'Thar. She had accepted Ed's help reluctantly, his reputation as a dragon slayer still foremost in the great creature's minds.

Still, the two of them flew to a village that the dragon knew to be somewhere to the south, near the ocean.

What Ed had recently seen disgusted him. Mountain trolls had been summoned, presumably at Godbolt's command, to bolster the ranks of the red archers and keep the villagers from pursuing their own freedom.

This was most likely happening at every village across the continent. So the dragons had dispersed in every direction.

The village appeared on the horizon, and the dragon tucked it's wings in slightly and went in for a landing. Ed followed.

The sight below was a startling one. A family of peasant villagers was being forcefully thrown out of their home and their belongings roughly taken straight from their own hands by red soldiers.

The father was driven beneath the huge, powerful foot of the mountain troll. His children watched, screaming in horrow.

C'Thar roared at the troll, who looked up to see a great red dragon diving out of the sky towards it. It roared back, then picked up the man beneath it's foot and hurled it at the dragon.

C'Thar ducked to the left, avoiding the human projectile. The man kept hurtling through the air until he was suddenly caught by Ed.

Ed held the man firmly in his arms and listened for breathing, trying to confirm that the man was still alive. A soft sound came from the man's lips. He was alive, but barely.

Ed landed softly and deposited the man on the ground, then turned to face the red soldiers.

A bow was raised and an arrow fired. Ed tore it out of the air with his hawkbill axe, sending the arrow clattering to the floor.

He ran forward at the man, swinging his axe in a wide arc. Two of them were struck hard in the chest and thrown to the ground, the bows in their hands sent harmlessly flying across the ground.

Another man lunged at Ed with his sword. Ed ducked, grabbed the man's arm, and yanked it hard to his left, driving the sword into another red soldier's shoulder.

C'Thar landed forcefully on top of the mountain troll, driving the claws of her hind legs into the troll's shoulders. The troll screamed and grabbed one of the legs, pulling the dragon down out of the sky.

C'Thar's neck lunged forward and snapped at the troll's shoulder, teeth finding tough flesh and clamping down. The troll squealed in pain and drove it's powerful right arm hard into the dragon's ribs. C'Thar let her grip go and stumbled across the ground.

The troll uprooted a nearby tree and swung it like a club at C'Thar. The dragon scurried backwards, out of reach. The troll swung it's huge club again, meeting the side of the dragon's head. C'Thar yelped, loudly. The troll raised it's great club and lowered down towards C'Thar's head again.

The dragon turned sideways and stuck out it's huge, scaled tail, whipping the tree trunk out of the troll's grip in one huge motion. C'Thar leaped forward and sunk her teeth savagely into the troll's neck. Brown troll's blood sprayed out violently, and the troll collapsed to the ground. C'Thar raised one huge claw and sunk it into the troll's chest. More blood poured out of the creature. A huge puddle was beginning to form beneath the two.

Ed was face to face with the final red soldier left in the village. He held out his hawkbill defensively, and the soldier kept his sword raised.

They stood there for a moment, evaluating each other.

The red soldier acted first. He brought down his sword in a fast motion, which Ed parried with his axe. The sword went flying out of the man's hand and crashed to the ground. A look of terror crossed over the man's face.

Ed slammed the side of the man's head with the handle of his weapon. The man yelped in pain and fell to his knees, clamping his hands to the side of his head. He looked up at Ed, and the look in his eyes spoke of a man who knew he was about to die.

Ed stepped to his side and picked up the soldier's sword. The soldier watched him, a look of detached curiosity on his face now that he was resigned to his face.

Ed turned around to see a mother cradling her two children in her arms. All of them looked terrified, even though the red soldiers were now defeated.

Ed gestured for the mother to come over. He handed her the sword, then stepped aside to allow her access to the red soldier on his knees.

He turned his back to her and walked towards the dragon. He didn't see it, but he heard the sound of the frail women driving the sword into the man who had oppressed her village. The blow was delivered as much by pain, anger and fury as it was by physical strength.

Ed just kept walking.

The Will of Gaovulte stretched out across the land, calling towards him and his fortress any creature, alive or dead, who could be summoned to his defence.

He felt a stirring deep beneath the waters of the great lakes. The crocodiles, the great reptilian creatures.

Somewhere in the forest, he felt a mammalian tug at his consciousness. This was... the bats. The huge bats.

Wild boars pricked up their ears at the suggestion placed into the ether by Gaovulte.

The deadly creatures. The savage creatures. Godbolt smiled.

This battle was not yet over.

"What the hell are they?!" Brianna screamed, pulling her sword from the stomach of a red soldier.

Priest turned at her words. He noticed at the same time as Ozzy a pack of wild boards charging out the forest towards them.

"Is this really the best time...?" Ozzy said out loud to nobody in particular.

Brianna screamed at the oncoming creatures as Ozzy and Priest hastily covered their ears. The first few boars squealed and fell to the ground, convulsing. Priest charged forward and tackled one, driving his powerful fist into the creature's skull and crushing it with one blow.

Another boar caught Priest by surprise and rammed him in the ribs with it's powerful front tusks.

Ozzy ran in and drove his sword into the boar that had rammed Priest. He withdrew the blade then pushed it into the creature a second time, twisting it once to make sure the damn thing was dead.

Priest stepped to the side as a boar charged at him, driving his boot into the thing's ribs as it passed.

Brianna looked up to see a huge bat appear in the sky above her.

"Damn it..." She muttered.

Sam looked up at Justin upon his horse. The man had been through a lot to be here today. Justin had been working for years towards the only goal his life had ever known; vengeance against Gaovulte, and the freedom of his people.

Now, here, they were Gaovulte's castle. The hour of Justin's justice may soon be at hand.

"You will lead us to Gaovulte or you will die," Justin said, pressing the tip of his sword against the neck of the guard they had captured. The guard walked ahead of them, Justin just behind still upon his horse. Danny walked next to Justin.

Behind them Sam, Adem and Zarch walked in a row. Zarch kept his bow raised and his eyes darted from side to side, as if expecting an attack at any moment, from any direction.

They passed the headless body of a red soldier as they walked. Sam looked down at it curiously. The party then turned a corner and found the head about twenty metres further up the hallway.

"Grimm's been here," Sam said.

"This way, this way..." Their capture guard kept saying. He was pointing forwards furiously, leading them onwards guided by his terror.

"Here, here!" He finally said, and pointed forwards.

Before them, carved from the wood of what must once have been a great and majestic tree, was a pair of huge wooden doors, thirty feet high.

"Very well. Open the doors," Justin said, prodding the man's neck with his sword.

The man ran forward and slid a huge bolt across the front of the doorway. He pushed with all his weight, and the door swung open.

It opened onto a huge room, decorated at the sides with elaborately woven tapestries and with beautiful designs painted into the roof. Long wooden tables stretched out before them, with seating for hundreds of people. This was some sort of meeting hall.

And it was empty.

Justin and Danny led the group cautiously into the great room, keeping the guard in front of them.

He suddenly ducked and ran to the side.

"...the hell?!" Danny exclaimed. The doors suddenly slammed shut behind them, and they all turned.

Two dozen guards spilled out from behind the doors that had a moment ago been closed. Their swords raised, they quickly surrounded Justin, Zarch and the three Vanguardians.

"Shit," Sam said.

An even larger shape swooped onto the bat, a massive silver-scaled dragon. Argent ripped into the bat savagely, finally dropping its limp form to the ground. Then, the dragon headed for the ground and, at a height higher than any sane man would jump off, Drake Marshall jumped off. He rolled expertly as he hit the ground. Argent flew off to head off the approaching bats, vastly powerful but vastly outnumbered.

"After all that time you only brought one dragon?" Brianna was exasperated.

"You're one to talk." Ozzy commented.

"I got more dragons than that. They're just busy. There's fighting all over the world and the dragons are defending villagers everywhere. Ed and I got separated and then Argent and I ended up a nearby village. I got him to take me the rest of the way."

"We've had an awfully long time to talk, considering we're in the middle of a massive battle," Ozzy observed.

"Yeah," Drake held his sword ready, "time for action."

Argent held off as many bats as he could, but many still got by. One swooped down on Ozzy, but he just punched it repeatedly in the head. "Brianna! Try screaming at a high frequency, you don't need to damage them, just go for a wider range. It should throw off their radar."

Brianna didn't have time to be taken aback by Drake's attitude, she just did as he said and the bats were badly thrown off, making them easier targets as Drake and Ozzy slashed at bat after bat.

C'thar, the dragon, was soaring over the ravaged land, cutting across dense, violet clouds, revealing now and then the path of destruction of the mountain trolls.

The booming voice of the dragons, which was shaking the sky like a summer thunder, kept the contact between the flying reptiles across the continent.

"They are swarming out of their tunnels like ants in May" said C'thar. "All over the land. Everywhere. At the command of Gaovulte"

Edulcore Cicciotto had landed back over the beast. "Like ants? Are they answering to a King or a Queen, maybe? Someone to attack, to force them back in their holes?"

"Sadly, not. They live on their own. That's why usually are not a menace. But now, the call of Godbolt drives them" roared the winged animal, vomiting fire over a squadron of trolls.

"There is something not quite right, but I can't seems to remember... ehy! The trolls should be turned on stone by the sunlight! Why they are around by day?"

"That's not exact, Dragonslayer! They are turned into stone by sun RAYS. These clouds, that surely are a product of Godbolt magic, blocks the sun purposefully. The trolls are all converging toward the fortrress of Godbolt from all over the lands. And when they will get there, there will be no chance for your allies. See them! They are millions."

Drake, riding Psidon, arrived from west. "Euro, Euro! Our frinds needs us at Godbolt's frotress! But I have seen so much trolls on my way here. They are too much even for a hundred of dragons. I can't see what we can do!"

"We just need to let the sun hit them, they would turn into stone, Drake".

The young ex-vigilante looked to the sky. "You are joking, right? These clouds are nearly black. There is no way we can dissipate them!"

"I have done it before, actually. During the Hurricane in La Perdita, before you joined. I was possessed by memories of being Thor. I had Mjolnir, and I made the sun broke trough the clouds!"

Drake frowned. "Can you repeat it?"

Ed shook his head. "By then, the memories were random, but I had Ladnikia to focus them. Now I can remember at will, but without the sword, it seems I can summon the power only when in dire need."

"So?"

"Plan B" said Euro.
_________________________________

The place was a tall peak, flat on top, and surrounded by a dense forest. There was the rest of a campfire, and one person moving around, like a mad puppet.

Two dragons were flying directly above.

"That's the place of the camp when we arrived here!" said Drake, looking at the place where Euro had drove C'thar to. "Who is that man?"

"Don't you recognize him? He's Epicentre"

"Epi? He's dead! Wait! You mean that's the zombie of Epicentre?"

"Exactly. He has risen to Godbolt call. Luckily for us, with the attack at the village Sam forgot to burn the cadaver, like his intention was."

"Luckily for us? What you have in mind, Ed?"

"Just the craziest thing I ever though"
__________________________________

Psidon took the zombie between his claws with the grace of a Murano glassworker.

The undead was twisting and shaking like mad, but separated from the land was pretty harmless.

The two dragons and their Vanguardians riders headed straight toward a big chain of mountains right in the middle of the continent. The backbone of the land, as the dragons called it.

"I hope Phil will not get the biggest headache of his life" muttered Drake.
__________________________________________________

The Epicentre zombie was standing on the flat surface of an old, silted lake. All around him, twenty four dragons were chasing him like the cat (or, better, a whole colony of cats) and the mouse. They were charging at him, spitting fire at him, tail whipping him.

And the dead metahumans was not simply taking it all. Powerful shockwaves emanated from his feet, as he was crying each time a boiling spit of burning dragon saliva reached his body.

He was growing tired of that game. His white, dead face turned angrily red, and fianlly he exploded.

Literally.

The continent, the whole continent, began to tremble. The crust of the planet shook, twisted, and broke.

Lakes of lave reached the surface. Mountains fell, and new one were born.

Nothing man made survived that day. From the poorest hut, to the biggest fortress, everything crumbled down. Powerful earthquakes cut across the planet, from one side to the other, under the thick, magical mantle of clouds.

On top of a mountain, Euro was laughing madly at his creation.

Drake, riding Psidon, was looking at him alarmed. "Sometimes you scare me, Ed", he observed.

That day, six continents were born out of one. And the Trolls, unable to resist the call of Godbolt, enbded in the ocean like lemmings, finding their death. From the forest where had fled, forced out of their homes, to survive the Troll hunts, humans and people of other races happily rejoice at that sight.
_______________________________________________

On the acme of the earth crushing event, the transformation happened. The familiar, white haired, half bald form of Edulcore Cicciotto disappeared, replaced by a tall, red haired viking. with a big hammer in one hand.

"Wow. Thor!" said drake to Psidon.

"where are you, serpent of Midgard. Your awakening signs the beginning of Ragnarock! Filthy beast, come out of your hide! meet the wrath of Thor, son of Wotan!

The god of thunder hammered Mjolnir over the ground. Lightings cut across the clouds, and then a pouring rain washed the newly formed continents, wiping away all the blood that was versed that day.

And then the clouds teared up, and the sun rays finally bathed the land again.

And the last surviving trolls were transformed into everlasting stone statues
____________________________________________

Drake looked at the exhausted face of Euro. "Ed, we have to see if Danny saved some fun for us. Let's go, friend!"

A hundred of dragons took flight, directed toward Godbolt fortress.

The newly formed continents sported familiar shapes, miles below Drake and Ed.

"You know, Ed, maybe after all this is not a different dimension. Maybe we have just forged our past!"

Glug-Rump was mad. Glug-Rump was also very, very drunk. Glug-Rump was an angry drunk.

Glug-Rump was also a Giant: The tallest, biggest, toughest giant in the world, taller and tougher than ANYTHING in the world, taller than the skyscrapers of Vanguard's Earth and as tall as many mountains. The villagers worshipped him and called him the "World-Strider"...

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

THOOM!

"What the fuck is happening NOW?" Ozzy shouted, still trying to get the stink of giant-dog piss off of himself.

"Hey..." Danny muttered as he saw the giant appear on the horizon, moving closer and closer and becoming larger and larger, "...isn't that?"

"World-Strider," Sir Justin breathed, crossing himself in what must have been some kind of religious gesture to ward off evil.

"That is the giant which destroyed the Stormloader," Adem remarked matter-of-factly.

"And he looks mad..." Danny added.

The Giant shouted in a verrrry slow, booming voice that could be heard across the continent: "STOP MAKIN' SO MUCH NOISE!"

"Looks like he's coming this way," said Zarch.

Brianna said, "And he's not taking any sides."

"...oh crap..." someone said.

Adem said to no one in particular, "You know, the cube-square law should actually disprove the existence of anything that large."

"Shut up and run!"

Adem, who had been inside the castle the whole time and unable to see any giants or talk to anyone who had seen giants despite what may have been written before, stood with the rest of the characters, Danny, Sam, Sir Justin, and Zarch who were in the castle and unable to witness giants. The guards surrounded them. There was nowhere for them to go. Godbolt appeared before them. He was bigger than they remembered. Then again, they had never seen him up close. Only from a distance. He was as monstrous as his legend had lead everyone to believe, and more so. "Your revolution ends here," he said in perfect English, and a fierce tone. One could only guess that his magic had something to do with it. "A noble effort, but do you think that I have waited and planned for over two millenia without taking mere giants and dragons into account." He sneered at the last bit in distaste.

The massive walls surrounding them began to pull away and disappear. The tower became open from all sides. Only the pillars, ceiling, and the entance wall were left. "The time to end this has come." He stepped to the far edge and gazed into the dark, forbodeing abyss that lay behind the castle. A roar escaped from the depths. Godbolt's body lept from the ledge and into the darkness.

"Well," Danny said, half hoping that his next few words would be right. "That was easy enough."

As if on cue, the massive form of an unholy beast the likes of which none had ever seen escaped from the abyss. On its shoulder stood Godbolt. Its ape-like arms and torso displayed horribly great strength. "ATTACK!" the evil master ordered as his voice boomed over the din of battle.

Ozzy Baxter scanned the scene around him.

Grimm's zombie forces were decimated by the attack of the three giant zombies and the determined efforts of the red soldiers defending Godbolt's castle. Or, what remained of the castle. Only a hundred or so remained, and they swarmed across the torso of the remaining zombie giant. The giant itself was fastened to the ground by the strength of countless trees, having swarmed forward from the forest.

The red soldiers had moved forward at the destruction of most of the castle, to challenge Justin's knights head-on. Justin's men were outnumbered but fought valiantly, keeping the red-clad men at a standstill. The echoes of thousands of swords clashing rang in Ozzy's ears.

Earl the young giant found himself set upon by a pack of wild boars, the creatures attacking his legs relentlessly. Some leaped as high as they could, managing to snap at his arms and torso. Earl's limbs flailed wildly, swatting them away.

In the sky, seven dragons fought savagely against two dozen giant bats. The opposing forces snapped ferociously at each other, and the dragons managed to keep the creatures from diving downwards and entering the battle.

Glug-Rump looked down at the tiny figures playing out their scene below. He burped once, and the land shook.

Gaovulte's creature suddenly thundered towards Glug-Rump, the necromancer himself perched upon it's shoulder. It's huge arms shot out and grabbed Glug-Rump firmly by the hips, lifting him bodily off the ground then hurling him backwards at the spot where once there had been thick forest. Until, of course, the trees had joined the attack on the castle.

Glug-Rump hit the ground hard, and stared up at the creature confused.

Godbolt's pet was a terrifying sight. Ozzy stared up at it in amazement. It was huge, at least as big as Glug-Rump himself. It's arms each stretched down almost to the ground, like a gorilla's. It was coated in thick, coarse hair, each strand almost as thick as a man. Three misshapen horns grew out of its head, each curved at an unnatural angle and snaking out from it's head in a different direction.

It roared at Glug-Rump.

Ozzy suddenly felt a sword strike his back and fall away harmlessly. He turned to see a red solder raising his sword arm for a second blow. Ozzy stepped forward and punched the man in the face, watching the soldier fall to the ground unconscious.

Ozzy swung his sword, now covered in the decayed tissue of a giant zombie's neck, to his left in a huge arc. He cut another red soldier right through the thigh, causing the man to yell in pain and fall to the ground, unable to support himself. Blood poured out and sprayed up Ozzy's silver body.

His right foot shot out and caught another guard underneath the jaw. The man's head snapped back and he twisted in mid air, then fell onto the ground in a crumpled heap.

Brianna looked on in horror as the boars waged a relentless attack against Earl, the young giant she had led to the battle. She felt somewhat responsible for his wellbeing, and couldn't bear the look of terror that was currently plastered across his face.

She ran forward, her wing still damaged from the arrow. When she neared Earl, she screamed at the boars.

Several of them fell to the ground and convulsed wildly. Most of the rest of them scurried back into the forest, confused and scared by this new kind of attack that they had no way to expect or prepare for.

Earl stomped on a few of their heads, a satisfied smile creeping across his face.

Blue licked Brianna from head to toe.

One of the few remaining support pillars of Godbolt's castle buckled under the force of a red soldier striking it hard, and left the pillar standing at a sixty degree angle.

The man had been thrown by Priest after he foolishly tried to attack the Vanguardian with his broadsword.

Priest yelled at the man as he threw him, then turned around just in time to see another red soldier run at him, sword raised. Priest parried the blow with the palm of his hand then drove his fist into the man's sternum, sending him falling to the ground in a lifeless heap.

A wild boar tried to gore his leg with one of its tusks. Priest grabbed it and snapped its neck.

He noticed Brianna running quickly from one side of the battlefield to the other, leading Earl and Blue.

He shot her a glance, and she pointed at the remaining zombie giant. He looked over at it, and found that it was still alive, despite being held to the ground by trees. Grimm's zombies were having a hard time decapitating it.

"Earl! We need to stop it's brain working! Crush it's head!" Brianna yelled at the giant.

Earl nodded, and raced to the side of the giant, undead creature. He jumped into the air, then came down with all his weight upon the head of zombie.

Its body ceased squirming beneath the mass of trees as its brain was crushed into a paste by the force of Earl jumping on its head.

The trees came away from their target and turned their attention to the red soldiers.

The zombies spilled down off the decayed torso.

And upon the battlefield, spilling in from the nearby rivers and lakes, were dozens of thirty foot crocodiles like the one Danny had encountered in the lake. Their jaws were snapping threateningly and their tails thrashing wildly as they made their way towards the castle remains. They charged through the ranks of the zombies, snapping at whatever limbs were nearby.

Brianna found herself in the midst of an all out zombie-crocodile fight.

In the sky high above the battlefield, C'Thar and her fellow dragons were tangling with the giant bats who were under Gaovulte's command.

She craned her huge neck to the left and snapped at a bat, her teeth tearing through it's wing and sending it careening wildly towards the ground.

She felt a bat's claws swipe against her tail, and she turned angrily in mid air. Her huge right front claw shot out and tore at the bat's flesh, and it shrieked at her. Her neck darted forward and she bit a chunk out of it's chest. Blood sprayed across her scales and the bat fell through the sky, dead.

C'Thar wheeled around the sky in a huge loop, surveying the scene around her. Some of her comrades were having similar bat troubles.

But she had confidence that these winged rodents posed no threat to her and her kind.

Her tail whipped out sideways and struck a bat in the right wing, causing it to lose control and wobble in mid-flight. She shot out a claw and tore at it's flesh, and the bat shrieked at her. A second strike to the chest and it was dead.

It joined its friends in falling lifelessly to the ground.

Drake ducked and rolled out of the way as a bat carcass fell from the sky and hurtled towards him. He was grateful that the dragons were helping out, but they were making a hell of a mess.

Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed Brianna set upon by a pack of thirty foot long crocodiles. They snapped at her and the zombies that were behind her, going for whatever limbs they could.

Drake sprinted across the battlefield to aide her.

Brianna aimed her scream at one of the crocodiles. It stopped in it's tracks and looked confused and pained for a moment, but another approached her from the side and snapped at her injured wing.

She shrieked and pulled away from it's huge jaws.

From her left, Drake appeared. He jumped as high as he could, and flipped in mid air. At the mid point of his flip, where his legs were up and his head facing the ground, he drove his sword downwards. The blade disappeared inside the skull of the crocodile, and blood spattered across Brianna. The creature thrashed wildly where it was.

Brianna's sword drove through the creature's face right between the eyes as Drake withdrew his. It finally stopped squirming, and sat there dead.

The two Vanguardians stood side by side, their swords raised. The herd of crocodiles swarmed around them.

Drake turned his head to see the zombies being set upon by the reptilian attackers. Many of the zombies survived being snapped at the by the creatures, but they squirmed on the ground ineffectually, their legs having been separated from their torsos.

It was a horrible sight.

A crocodile charged at Drake, opening its jaws and lunging at him. He drove his sword into its open mouth, plunging the sword into the soft flesh at the back of its throat. Blood squirted out and sprayed Drake's flesh as he withdrew the blade.

Brianna drove her sword right through the creature's eye, and a deep growl emanated from somewhere in it's body.

Drake jumped over its head and landed on his back, sinking his sword into the back of its neck.

The thing finally died.

Glug-Rump was confused.

He found himself sitting there on the ground, having been thrown to the forest floor by this giant ape that had jumped out of the ground. All around him, tiny creatures waged their tiny war and were making far too much noise for things that were so small.

Dragons and bats swarmed around his head.

He didn't like this big ape. Nor did he like the bug that was perched upon it's shoulder.

Glug-Rump stood up and punched the thing in the chest, then again in the stomach. It lashed out with its left arm and punched Glug-Rump in the kidney.

Glug-Rump grunted and drove his left foot into the demon's stomach. It stumbled backwards but didn't fall.

Hundreds of trees were demolished beneath its feet.

"I ainnafraida you," Glug-Rump said in a drunken voice to the demon, which, though it was strong, only stood waist-level to Glug-Rump. "I've shit bigger'n you."

He burped again, shaking the world. "Ahh," he finally groaned, "I ain' goddime fer this... Geddoudam'way." At that, Glug-Rump began his usual walk towards the South Pole.

The demon looked confused for a moment, but then realized he was free to fight all the tiny creatures around it for its master without any further hindrance from the World-Strider. It decided to go for the dragons first, and then maybe squash that kid Giant. There was nothing left that could possibly stop it.

This was going to be fun.

“You! I need you!”

Edulcore Cicciotto turned on his feet, the hawk-bill axe dripping blood of disgusting, slimy animals from the underground, summoned by Godbolt from forgotten realms. In front of him was standing the mage, Ghaelon, pointing his index finger at him.

“Me? What do you want from me, mage?”

“Your help. To turn the tide.”

Euro frowned.

“Look!” The finger of the mage was pointing at the zombie forces, at all the undead things, men, animals and other beings, whose corpses rised at the call of Gaovulte. Or Grimm’s. “They keep coming. Millions more, lying under the surface, can still awake. You must stop those things!”

“Me? You are mad, wizard?!”

“Those are mindless beings, answering to the call of the one which yells louder. Godbolt or Grimm, there would be no difference. Both seeks power. They are hungry for power. You must stop this. You who know that lust…”

Euro was hammering madly one of the crocodile, while listening at the mage. When the croc finally died, he turned red in face to Ghaleon. “How I can tell you! I don’t know how I could command to those zombie! It’s something I never did. In all my lifes!”

The mage shook his head. “I didn’t ask you that. No one could overcome the call of those two. I want to give freedom of though to those zombie, so that they can choose to rebel to Godbolt. Or Grimm.”

“What do you mean, mage?”

“We need to ask to the souls of those men to rejoin their bodies, and stop to answer the call.”

“What do you mean? What I have to do? Speak wizard, stop with the riddles!” Euro was enraged, as the possible way to end that madness was beginning to surface in his mind.

“You went in the Land of the Dead so many time in your previous life. As Gilgamesh, Ulysses, Morpheus, Aeneas… so many others, so many times… return there, and bring back the souls!”

“I… I need the pass! Every time a pass is needed!” Euro was yelling like mad, scared and excited by the mission, as the different memories of hundred of different past lifes were mixing in his brain to create a cohesive vision of the way to the Elysean fields.

“I have the pass, Champion!” said Ghaleon, smiling. And from under his mantle produced a gleaming, long sword.

“LADNIKIA!” shouted Euro, at the sight of the sword. “But… that’s impossible! It has been destroyed!”

“It has. It will be. It never have been… who knows? Where are we? The past, the future, another place… Ladnikia baffles these very concepts. She lives outside time and space. Living embodiment of weapon and of man’s lust for power and war. She is every blade that has been forged. Sword of the champion AND of the adversary, enemy of herself, one, no one and one hundred thousands.
Take it, Eternal Champion!”

“It will be my damnation…”

“It will be the salvation of this land!” said firmly Ghaleon.

“I cant…”whispered Euro, but his hand, like moved by a proper will, went to the blade’s phallic hilt.

And grasped it.

The Raptor spouted his feathers, and raised Ladnikia once again, like he raised a sword thousands of times for each of his thousands lives.

“Death to Godbolt!” he shouted.

And disappeared.

Ghaleon smiled, and then morphed back into the form of Califron, the cursed warlock of Godbolt!

Twenty four years ago.

A seven year old Justin stared in wide-eyed horror at the scene around him.

His village was burning. His parents were dead. His sister lay weeping, raped and beaten. His home was looted of food and possessions.

And in the midst of this were the men responsible. The Red Soldiers, the agents of Gaovulte.

Justin swore revenge.

Now.

Justin watched helplessly as above him, Gaovulte and his demon demolished all opposition they found surrounding them.

His attention was suddenly drawn back to the castle that lay in ruins around him. Huddled around his horse were Adem, Danny, Sam and Zarch.

Surrounding them were twenty five red guards, their swords raised, poised to attack. The destruction of the castle didn't even seem to faze them. They were sworn to their duty.

The soldiers attacked.

Justin spurred his horse onwards and lowered his sword, thrusting it forwards and disarming the closest guard. The guard's sword flew across the room and crashed to the stone ground with clattering sound, and Justin swiped again with his sword to remove the man's head. He spun his horse around a hundred and eighty degrees and jabbed downwards to his right, striking another guard through the chest.

Behind him, Adem stood with his back to what remained of a great stone pillar. His sword was held out in front of him, desperately parrying any blow that came near him.

Justin watched as two red guards ran at Adem, their swords raised. Justin's horse dove forwards and he struck one of them in the right shoulder, sending him to the ground yelping in pain and coating Adem with blood. Adem twirled around and thrust his sword at the second man, his blade entering the man's stomach and drawing what seemed like far too much blood for such a thin blade.

Adem rolled on his right shoulder and disappeared behind the pillar. He returned to Justin's view a moment later, throwing a dead red guard down before him.

Spinning around, Justin noticed Danny tangled in a skirmish with three guards at once.

Danny thrust a poison thorn upwards into the conveniently available jugular of the man to his right. He grabbed the man's shoulder and hoisted himself upwards, vaulting over him and landing hard on a second red guard. His claws dug into the man's neck and Danny closed his eyes as blood sprayed across his face.

The third man grabbed Danny around the neck, yanking him violently backwards. Danny threw his weight upwards, trying to topple the man.

They both crashed to the floor, and Danny managed to drive his head backwards into the red guard's skull. He wasn't able to loosen the man's grip in time to dodge the sword that was rapidly coming at him from above, though.

Danny shat himself for just a moment.

Justin's horse came out of nowhere, diving over Danny's chest. Justin's sword thrust out from above the horse and speared Danny's attacker through the chest.

Danny extended his jellyfish stingers backwards and wrapped them around his captor's face. The man yelped in pain and let go of Danny, who scrambled forwards, under Justin's horse, and drove his claws into the chest of another red guard whose sword was aimed squarely at Zarch.

Zarch nodded his thanks to Danny and helped him up to his feet. Danny dove off somewhere to Zarch's left, screaming something about the claw being mightier than the sword. Zarch wondered momentarily if this was really the right time to be quipping.

He then stopped his wondering, notched another arrow in his bow, and drove it straight into the skull of a red guard who was twenty metres and seventeen degress to his left.

Another. Fifteen metres and forty-two degrees to his right.

Zarch rolled, tucking in his bow wielding right arm and reaching for an arrow with his left. He notched the arrow as he rose to his feet, then sunk it into the chest of his target.

Seventeen metres and thirty degrees to his right.

Zarch's right arm shot out straight and his left reached for an arrow. An instant later, it was lodged in the soft flesh of a man's neck.

Another. Nine metres and nineteen degress to the left.

This one only survived for nine tenths of a second after Zarch noticed him.

Had Zarch been possessed of three hundred and sixty degree vision, he may have noticed the man running at him with a sword from behind. And he may have been able to counter it.

But alas, Zarch had a sword driven straight into his flesh from behind.

"No!" Sam yelled, and dove forward as he noticed a man with a sword running at Zarch.

Sam jumped and tackled the man, wrapping his arms around the guard's soldiers. The guard toppled downwards, and his sword was pushed downwards, below it's intended target. It's blade sank into Zarch's thigh, and Zarch fell to the ground leaking blood at an alarming rate.

Sam's right arm morphed into a sword blade and pierced Zarch's attacker through the throat, then ripped a shred of fabric from the dead man's tunic.

Sam grabbed Zarch by the arms and tried hard to pull him towards the relative safety of somewhere away from the battle. Perhaps positioned behind some nearby rubble.

A man with a sword dove at both of them, but his attack was interrupted by a pair of squid tentacles appearing around his head as quickly as he himself had appeared above Sam.

Danny whipped his tentacles backwards and flung the man towards the ground, snapping his neck.

Sam grabbed Zarch's arms and hoisted him bodily backwards to the large pile of stones left when a nearby wall had collapsed.

Zarch raised his bow and pulled an arrow from his quiver.

"You're injured," Sam said, protesting Zarch's decision to keep fighting.

"I don't need my leg to shoot," Zarch said, then drove an arrow into the kidney of a red guard who was charging at Adem. A second arrow struck the man in the heart, and he fell to the floor in a puddle of his own blood, dead.

Phil charged at Godbolt's demon, though his tree suit was only half it's size. Phil's telepathically animated creature of flora tore into the demon's midsection, shaking it on it's feet but not yet driving it to the ground.

The demon roared, and grabbed one of Phil's arms. Not his flesh arm, but one of the big tree arms... you know. His "red lion".

The demon yanked with all it's might and tore the trunk of a mighty oak from Phil's form.

Phil raised a massive, root covered leg and drove it into the demon's chest, powering the kick with all the force he could gather. The demon toppled and fell, striking the ground with a thunderous sound and a visible shaking of the earth.

Four zombies, a crocodile, two wild boars, three red archers, one of Justin's men, and a particularly cocky pine tree died beneath the creature's right shoulder.

Phil pushed his entire self downwards, driving all the branches he had available into the creature's chest.

It grabbed him by the trunk and threw him almost a full kilometre backwards. Phil struck a mountain and caused a crack to appear in it's side. This would, in years to come, divert the flow of water down the mountainside and lead the creation of an all new river system upon which the natives of this world would rely for their very survival.

Phil's body pushed itself down the mountainside as the demon leapt at him, Godbolt still astride it's shoulder. The man had unnaturally persistent grip, you could say that about him.

Phil's roots pushed themselves upwards and wrapped around the demon's leg, pulling it downwards. It roared in anger and grabbed the roots hard in it's right hand, pulling Phil back up to meet it.

It thrust it's might hand into the core of the tree creature's entire form, wrapping it's huge hand around Phil's physical body.

The trees fell away beneath him and Phil was left alone, trapped in the grip of Godbolt's pet demon. It squeezed, and Phil felt all the air escaping his body. He was seconds from passing out. And, as was even more likely, dying.

The demon raised Phil in it's huge hand, and threw him as far as it could.

Mason whispered something in Erasmus' ear and coaxed her downwards when he saw the figure appear in his field of vision.

Erasmus dove under Phil's falling form and positioned her considerable bulk underneath him. Phil landed hard against the great bird's back, and Mason extended his right arm to grab Phil and keep him from sliding off.

"Phil! Are you okay?" Mason asked. He turned to glance at his new passenger and found that Phil was lying motionless.

Mason pressed his finger against Phil's neck and felt a pulse. Smith was alive, but unconscious.

"Rest, lad. You've earned it," Mason said, then pointed Erasmus in the direction of the battlefield.

Priest grabbed a red soldier around the neck and drove the man firmly into the ground, slamming the man's head against the hard packed dirt. Priest relented when the man went limp in his hands.

A shadow swooped low over him, and Priest looked up to see what it was, dreading the arrival of a huge bat.

He found, to his not-unpleasant surprise, Mason and Phil making a soft landing atop Erasmus. Mason jumped down off the bird's back, carrying Phil's limp body in his hand.

"Is he...?" Priest said, rushing forward to check on Phil.

"He is alive. Just unconscious," Mason answered, calming Priest's fears.

Priest extended his left hand and slammed it into an oncoming red soldier's face, sending the man dead to the ground.

"That thing is kind of freaking me out," Priest said, pointing with his other hand. Mason's gaze followed Priest's finger, to find Godbolt's huge demon towering above the huge battlefield.

It grabbed a dragon from the sky above it, snapped it's neck, took a bite out of it's side and threw it to the ground.

"Aye, 'tis a threatening beast... but I brought help," Mason said.

Brakk, the giant, stepped into battle and launched a huge right hand towards the demon. He connected with the demon's face, and the creature went toppling to the ground. Brakk lifted a huge boot and drove it down into the demon's neck, twisting his foot for the added pain it brought.

The demon wrapped it's huge, clawed paws around Brakk's lower leg, and pulled the giant down to the ground.

Brakk slammed hard against the ground, crushing seven zombies and three crocodiles beneath his great bulk. A crater formed beneath him that measured several hundred metres in diameter.

The demon stepped over him and kneeled down, driving both its fists into Brakk's chest with unrelenting fury.

"NO!" Brakk heard Earl scream from somewhere across the battlefield.

Earl ran across the field as fast he could, and soldiers scurried away beneath his feet as he covered the great distance of the battlefield in seconds. Earl jumped up and wrapped his arms around the demon's shoulders, throwing Godbolt off and sending him to the ground in the process.

The demon staggered beneath Earl's weight and fell to the side, sending them both to the ground. They rolled several times, forming new rock formations beneath them that would last for centuries.

The demon shifted its weight, positioning itself on top of Earl. It lowered it's head and drove its horns down onto Earl's head with all it's might. It repeated the mighty headbutt a second time, and then a third.

Brakk grabbed the demon by the shoulder and hauled it off the young giant, but he was too late.

Earl, his skull crushed and faithful Blue sniffing at his pool of blood... was dead.

The corpse of a giant; even a young one; is a humbling thing.

Drake took a moment to reflect on this as he vaulted seven feet off the ground, spun twice in mid air, twirled his sword elaborately and unnecessarily with his left hand, then drove the blade through the skull of the last remaining wild boar.

"Show off," Brianna said to him as he hit the ground. He turned around and smirked at her, only to find her unleashing her sonic scream upon an unsuspecting crocodile. It stopped in it's tracks, dazed and pained. It whipped it's tail around once, and thrust it's jaws forward. She pushed the blade of her sword into it's mouth as Drake drove his as hard as he could into it's neck.

A zombie suddenly crawled slowly between them, dragging itself along the ground hand by hand. It's legs had long ago been made off with by a crocodile.

"Jesus, that's just sad," Drake said. Brianna chopped off it's head. It seemed better that way.

Above them, Brakk clased with Godbolt's demon. Thunderous noises echoed around the battlefield as they traded blows, driving their fists into each other along with any handly implements that came their way. Tree trunks, boulders, the corpses of bats... that sort of thing.

Liam, the Red Soldier who was forty-ninth in line to be the next Commanding General, charged forward, his sword raised.

The attack of the trees had relented. Liam didn't know why, but he guessed it had something to do with the giant, magickal tree-man's defeat at the hands of Lord Gaovulte. Whatever the case, the trees had returned to their dormant state. They had been possessed by stillness and planted roots all around the battlefield.

And so the remaining red archers fought with renewed intensity. They were few, but they fought ferociouly. Their castle was gone, beyond the need for defending, and their master was caught up in the battles of giants and demons, far above noticing the actions of his human soldiers.

But they fought because fighting was all they knew.

Liam looked to his right and then to his left, scanning the battlefield.

A dozen or so reptilian beasts remained, sinking their jaws into any available flesh, alive or dead.

Approximately thirty of the men who had fought under the misguided command of the enigmatic Justin still lived, fighting until the last breath for reasons that would forever remain a mystery to Liam. They were assisted by a handful of strangers who seemed to be gifted with demonic abilities. Liam had to admit to himself a certain amount of fear when it came to dealing with these strangers.

Above him, the dragons capably dealt with the few remaining bats.

Two dozen or so zombies spread themselves throughout the battlefield, tackling any crocodiles or red soldiers that got in their way.

About seventy of Liam's comrades remained, the rest either dead or too injured to continue fighting.

And towering above them all, fighting on a scale that was incomprehensible to one whose training was as limited as that endured by Liam and his comrades, were Brakk and Godbolt's demon.

Liam spun right, to avoid running into a tree that had just recently rooted itself to that spot. His sword darted out to his left and sliced through the neck of a zombie, sending it's head thudding to the ground. Liam withdrew his sword and thrust it forwards, sinking it into the chest of one of Justin's men. At the same time he raised his right foot and slammed it into the jaw of another of Justin's men.

Liam ducked and rolled, avoiding an attack from the large, dark man with the seemingly unnatural strength.

Priest dove for Liam again, grabbing the red soldier by the left shoulder. Liam thrust his sword at Priest, aiming for the kidneys. Priest stuck out his hand and parried the blow, sending the sword harmlessly the ground.

Liam's eyes widened in fear as Priest's grip tightened.

Liam lived just long enough to hear the sound of his own neck snapping. But only just.

Gaovulte picked himself up off the ground, brushing himself off. He cursed under his breath. That giant had taken him by surprise.

No matter. Nothing was a match for his demon. Gaovulte had poured a lot of energy and concentration into summoning that beast, more than he could usually justify expending. He wasn't about to let some giant from the north ruin it now.

He turned around, and fourteen seconds later had decapitated two zombies and killed three of Justin's knights.