Arthur II Book IV Chapter 29

 29.

“I will wait no more. If Octavia will not arrive, his men may choose to leave or stay with me.” Mordred grew tired of the delay of the young knight.

His army was complete with the latest arrival of King Lot’s knight hundred on the west side. He assessed his strength; his soldiers with Erec, Owain, and a hundred and fifty horse knights. Slaine with two hundred Sarmatians with Octavia Meleagant fifty soldiers alongside Lord Cnut with two hundred soldiers on the west side. Lord Bern had camped on the east side with the Elders army of two hundred and fifty soldiers.  

Mordred had assessed the terrain of the area and reckoned that it will favor his victory. He knew that Arthur held half his numbers and made worse, he held not many knights.

“The land here is soft and the streams will hinder the movement of the knights on horses. We need to be careful not to get the horses stuck there.” Mordred had fought on the peatlands and knew his strategy. “We need to tread on the hard surfaces. I had my scouts out there.”

Arthur had fought on similar grounds. He knew his lack of mounted knights will hinder his impact on the other. He needed to balance his strength out. He was concerned about the riders from King Lot which was on the east side of his. The knights could do a flanking move and used the hill to charge from. He has seen the Anglo Saxons, and their number could also do the flanking. If both sides attacked in the formation, Arthur’s army could be encircled.

“Belvedere, take fifty soldiers and set the hunter’s trap there on the hills on the eastern side. The knights are familiar with the battle on the wide plains where their riders will move swiftly. We will snare their movements.” Arthur told Belvedere.

“Aye, I will have the hunters with me. We will snare them in.” Belvedere roared his approval.

It was not so with the Green Knight.

“Green Knight, you have to handle the Anglo Saxons alone. Take the riders; whichever you can garner and form a cavalry to attack them. Start the battle before us so that you can startle them in their camps.” Arthur told the knight.

“Arthur, I am not a leader of the soldiers. Can you send someone instead? Like Tristam.”

“No, Green Knight. I am short of leaders. I need Tristam to handle another task. You will do fine. Trust in your judgment.” Arthur assured the knight and then looked at Tristam.

“Tristam, you and me will take Mordred’s army forward but we won’t meet them on the streams. We will battle them when they reached our foothills. We will charge from here.”

“I got a dozen archers and scouts stationed hidden in the huts to fire flaming arrows into the flat land. There is tar spread there and will be lit from the arrows. It was used in the battles at Gaul before.”  Arthur had strewn hay and dried grass there over the tar. He had them taken from the bales of hay at the farms.

“Hopefully, my traps will work.” Arthur smiled. It was   Belvedere's ideas from his hunting days to draw out the animals from the forest. He had also seen the effect of fire on the horses and knew it will work.

Back at the lake, the traps set by the ladies of the lake were triggered but it did not stop the onslaught of the undead soldiers. 

“The stakes did not stop them.” Vivian had set up the sharpened stakes at the path towards the domain. The undead just removed sections of it and marched past it. Nymue had used the spell of the freeze on the undead but the effect was shaken off by their mistress Morgan who marched behind them.

“Retreat, ladies. I will not be stopped from taking the domain.” Morgan called out while the undead marched on towards the domain chambers. She was dressed in the dark body-hugging suit with the web laced cloak on her back and her headpiece was the spiked wide piece that sailed to the rear of her head.

The spell of a flaming fire by Ninianne impacted the undead but the fire did not stop the undead while the fire burned at their dead flesh. The fire spread but it was stopped by Morgan who used the freeze spell on it.

“You ought to learn more, Ninianne. The fire does not go well with the freeze.” Morgan mocked the other ladies.

“Retreat to the artifact chamber. We will defend it there.” Ninianne made the call when she called on the spell of the barricade to place a shield on the undead. With Morgan’s assistance, the undead had breached the shield placed there.

“Morgan is impacting on it. I need help.” Vivian had assisted to strengthen the shield but these undead soldiers were cracking the shield with their fingers. They soon pierced the shield with the aid of Morgan Le Fay.

“Call on the spears.” Ninianne call was to rally the ladies to go on the offensive. The ladies lashed out with the magical spears at the shields.

“Come forth the spears of Gungnir.” The ladies chanted the spell to invoke the fabled spear of Odin’s spell. The spears appeared in sets of three and impacted on the undead but it took more than a few strikes to bring them down the warrior. The ones not impacted moved on ahead.

“We are losing it,” Vivian called out. “The spell is exhausting. We can’t keep up. We need to retreat.”.

Ninianne regretted that they don’t have the physical weapons to battle the dark magic there. She followed the call and retreated.

“We need to get the artifacts. Morgan is well versed on how to counter our magical speel.” Nymue directed her quaking spell to create a rift in the ground. It delayed the undead who had to go around it but Morgan had stood in and created a magical bridge.

It was then Ninianne heeded the call by Vivian.

“We have to use the weapons here. It’s impossible to stop them. Our magic is ineffective. We need more magical weapons.” Ninianne looked to the shelves and picked up a sword. It was Dáinsleif; the sword made by the dwarves and was fabled to cause a man’s death every time it’s drawn. It was once the sword of King Hogni of the Norse.

Nymue picked up another fabled sword, the Angurvadai who was an ancient sword with Runic letters. It was a Viking sword. Vivian picked up the mace made from the small stone that created Mjolnir. The last lady Nimue picked up the sword named Ridill once wield by the dwarf Regin to slay the dragon Fafnir’s heart.

They stood in a row to face the oncoming undead soldiers which were still at half their numbers. Morgan stood before them to face the four ladies.

“Yield and I may yet leave you to survive here,”  Morgan spoke up.

“Nay! We won’t.” Ninianne replied.

That was what Morgause said to Merlin when he had breached the walls of Camelot and reached the Hall. It was a mounted attack by the Centaur providing cover to the dwarves which stormed the main gate.

“I was told there will be dragons but here we are storming the gate.” The dwarf fretted on the different battles while he hacked with the pick at the gate. 

“Stop your bickering, Grumpy. We did not volunteer for this task. We were nodded onto it.” The other dwarf named Happy snapped in. “Makes want to laugh at our leadership.”

“Well, Dopey was the elected one this time. And he ‘dopes’ on any call.” Another one named Bashful while his pick had broken through the wooden gate. “I am embarrassed that they accepted such flimsy material for their gate.”

“Frown no more, shorts. We are through. That was Grumpy when his blow of the pick broke open the gate.

“Make way, dwarves.” The Centaur on their four legs galloped through with the archery skills displayed. The arrows released on the bow by the Centaur were swift and precise.

The defenders of Camelot had their grievances not so much on the Centaurs but the smallish pixies which reached the rampart on their small wings and exerted injuries at the wall. Their aim was at the joints and when impacted there, it disabled the soldier.

“Retreat!” The defenders of Camelot called out, and it was then the reinforcement arrived. The creature swooped from the skies with flashes of red and blue, with the yellow streak of flames impacting on the attackers of the castle. The Centaur withdrew to the cover of the walls, while the pixies flew into the castle inside where they were safe from the dragon flames.

“The dragons are here.” It was Merlin who raised the alarm to the attackers. The attackers looked to the skies and saw the two dragons swooping at them. The dragons roared their breath of flames at the attackers.

“Seek shelter!” Merlin called out. He called to the dwarves.

“The heck we will!” Grumpy called out to the other dwarves. “We got a dragon to fry today.”

The dwarves tossed their picks and waited while Doc who was at the outside of Camelot castle pulled with the wagon that was mounted the ballista. The demurely sized dwarf heaved the wagon as if he was pulling the cartloads of gold.

Dopey jumped onto the wagon and pulled at the gear cranks to tighten the rope on the bow while Happy merrily affixed the three feet length of the arrows on it. The ballista had a set of three metal arrows notched on with a spread of two feet to be released which was then handled by Grumpy.

“Hi Ho! Here they come.” Grumpy called out when he saw Doc pulled the wagon into Camelot’s yard. “About time too.”

The ballista base had a crank and levers to adjust the front height of the weapon to aim at a higher level. That was handled by Sneezy and Bashful working on both sides of the ballista.

“Crank the gears, Bashful.” Grumpy taken on the role as the leader called out the command. The weapon leveled upwards at an angle and was soon facing the skies as it cleared the wall rampart.

“Here it comes now!” Doc hollered out from the front of the wagon. The dragons flew overhead and the dwarves released the spears. The spears barely missed the dragons on its bellies.

“Load up. We are getting another shot at it.” Grumpy called out. “And be fast with it. We ain’t got all day.”

It was then the Red Dragon turned and roared its flames at the ballista. The dwarves jumped off the wagon just in time. The ballista was aflame but Grumpy was not to give up. He jumped on the wagon and despite the flames there, he aimed the ballista. He released the notch on the burning ropes and saw the arrows shot off. Two of the arrows impacted the Red dragon’s chest and caused it to fall.

“I have done it!” Grumpy roared into a cheer.