They nodded.
"To arms!"Lancelot called out, and all around the keep came an echo of the words.
Leaving the keep, Lancelot made for the curtain right as Morgan and her army of shadow-filled NPCs slipped through the crevices of the curtain and swarmed the vanguard.She was dressed for war, as fierce as any Valkyrie, riding a black courser.Beside her, wearing full plate, riding a white courser, was Gawain.As Morgan's shadows went to war, he fought off all those who came for her, using lance and shield to drive them back, cut them down.
As they punched through the first wave, Mordred and Tristan came behind them, fighting through the second wave, clearing a bloody path, their attention exclusively for the man at the back leading the charge: Bertilak, the Green Knight, beloved of Gawain.As Galahad would fight with everything he had to rescue Galehaut, so too would Mordred give all that they had to save the man their brother loved.
Once, Bertilak and Gawain had been a threesome as well, but the woman Bertilak had married long before they'd met Gawain had died years before the battle of Camelot, murdered by a traitor after Bertilak and Gawain had been tricked into leaving the castle.
Once this battle was over and they'd managed to win, maybe someday the rest of their companions might return in some form, and they could have their beloved lady again.He'd have to ask Merlin if that was a possibility.
High above them, Arthur was battling the hydra, or whatever the hell it was.Golden sunlight had pierced the clouds, all but banishing them, and one by one enormous, bloody dragon heads fell to the earth.
As the vanguard finally fell, Mordred roared in triumph, pounding back through the chaos with something thrown across their horse.
The portcullis opened as they reached it and slammed shut again behind them.Though Lancelot wanted to see Bertilak for himself, that wasn't his place.Guinevere would attend the matter.
The main force had arrived.Enormous, towering inferno dragons, black as pitch, save where their inner fire shone through, creating lines of orange and red and yellow between their scales.Even larger than them were the golems, their claws nearly as large as a man's head, and they spewed fetid mucus deadlier than any venom.
"These shouldn't even be in the fucking game," Lancelot said bitterly.
All the way at the back, he could see Maleagant, in his black and purple spiked armor, the enormous blood-red horns on his helmet, sitting astride a literal nightmare stallion, its eyes glowing green, its iron hooves sparking wherever it struck.
An echoing scream of pain filled the air, and the body of the hydra, enormous and terrible, came crashing down, wiping out the NPCs on both sides, taking out some of the golems and dragons as well.
"Attack!"Lancelot roared.Almost as one, he and Merlin grabbed the crenellations and launched themselves over the curtain and into the battle below.Lancelot called up his horse, and immediately swung up into the saddle as he landed.Armor and shield covered him, a surcoat with his personal crest: the dragon of Camelot and the water lily of his homeland.He called up a lance, a far nicer one than he should have in the game at this point."Merlin, stay behind me."
Dred and Tristan reappeared, disheveled and bloody, but ready for round two.
Ahead of them, flanked by golems and surrounded by an honor guard of nasty looking goblins, was Bran."My turn," Dred said, and banished their horse and clothes.With a scream, they turned into their gryphon form.
When the transformation was finished, Tristan in his entirely predictable fashion, threw himself onto Dred's back.As he shared the element of fire, the fiery wings wouldn't hurt him.
They threw themselves into battle as Morgan and Gawain continued their own fight across the body-strewn field.
Is Arthur back in the keep?Lancelot asked.
We dragged him in here,Percival replied.He's wounded and exhausted, but he'll be fine.
Good.
Lancelot heeled his horse forward, and into battle he went.He blocked arrows, rocks, and balls of fire with his shield, used the far reach of the lance to cut down enemies attempting to take down his horse and drag him off it.Behind him, Merlin more than held his own, using his earthen magic to break and destroy.
Ahead of them, Dred and Tristan continued to carve a fiery path—until they encountered all three remaining golemsandthe remaining inferno dragon.Fucking fantastic.There was no way they'd get further in their quest without dealing with this lineup.
Lancelot had really been hoping he wouldn't have to transform, but there was no help for it.They weren't getting past this sort of threat without it.
I can come help, damn it,Arthur snarled.
He's not going anywhere,Kay said.I'll drag him into the lake if I have to.
Lancelot smiled fleetingly, then dismissed his horse, clothes, and everything else, and gave himself over to his serpent form right as the inferno dragon spewed fire and lava.He met it with water, filling the battlefield with scorching steam, knocking over goblins and more with his spined tail.
As Dred focused on one golem, and the others on the second and third, holding them back and keeping them busy, Lancelot summoned more water, keeping the inferno dragon too wet and cool to spew more deadly fire, then surged in and wrapped around it, his long, muscular body tangling and trapping the dragon, choking it.When the body went limp, he tore out its throat to be safe.
The golems, distracted by the smell of fresh blood and meat so close, gave Mordred all the opening they needed to rip the head off one and set fire to the other two, which in turn allowed the others to finish the job.
Shifting back, shoving away his exhaustion, Lancelot recalled his clothes, weapons, and horse, drawing Arondight this time instead of his lance.He turned his full attention to Maleagant and Galehaut, their honor guard of goblins—
