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[Argonnek]

Hey, don't worry about it man. Expedience isn't extremely important so long as the quality remains as high as usual. Besides, as I said before, time spent with loved ones is never wasted.

[QuakeIV]

WELL IT IS FOR ME, GOOD GRIEF WE HAVEN'T HAD AN UPDATE IN LIKE TWO DAYS.

More seriously though, I'm not overly concerned.  Just don't get burned out or anything.  Take your time.  Its a story, nothing particularly time sensitive.

e: grammar yo

[RabidAnubis]

Goldenhold
Chapter 32: Burning Legion

   Argon packed his bags as quickly as possible- there was only a little time for him to escape.  Eventually the captain of the guard would check him out, even if it meant going through every single person in Goldenhold.  Well this sucks.  First I had to wait until morning, and now the siege is at the front door of the Baron’s hall.  I was alerted about this assassination, said I knew nothing about it, and the captian walked off.

   I might have a few hours.  As soon as the invaders get through the Baron’s hall, I’m going to slip out past them.  He packed a short sword that he had been given in the situation the enemy got through.  It was rather ornate, and probably not practical as a weapon.  It was completely gold, with a diamond edge.  This can’t be serious!  If I tried to swing this at a goblin it would break.  And the gold would melt against any sort of heat.  This is bullshit! However, he kept the thoughts to himself and continued packing up food and other stuffs.  Then he walked out into the king’s courtroom.  He waited.  He had to wait.

_______________________

   “OH MY ARMOK I’M ON FIRE!”  A burning soldier yelled with his last breaths.  Then he was silent.  His steel spear clattered to the ground, iron against silver.  The cling would have been heard if not for hundreds of others doing the exact same thing in a horrible burning symphony of death.

   The dragon had been attacking for about a minute, and already it had made quite the impression that it was not happy with this invasion.  Bodies were laying around torn in half, bitten in half, or burnt beyond recognition.  A few of the troops had ben swallowed whole, including the weapons and armor.  Later they would make fun of it, saying it was like eating a turtle in a shell.  But right now most of the troops were cowering for their lives, goblin or human, and only the bravest and the stupidest remained to stand up to the challenge.

   Of course, both commanders barked orders at their troops, irritated at their cowardice.  They moved towards the dragon, along with Kyle, Zeon’s champion knight.  Their example made a few hundred invaders turn around out of shame, but most continued to flee.  In the chaos hundreds went one way or the other.  Trolls simply stomped on the smaller humans and goblins, and the later two stampeded over each other in waves.  A goblin trying to charge at the dragon could easily expect to be run over by his comrades for being brave. 

   The dragon spewed fire into the crowd retreating, flames jutting out, setting over a hundred on fire in one sweep.  Soon, thousands were on fire from touching the dragon’s flame or from touching a different person on fire.  However, those brave enough moved forward without being harmed, the dragon distracted by those running away.  Half of the brave charged at the front of the enemy with Amud, the others flanked Zeon towards the back.  It took the dragon over a minute to realize it was surrounded.  As the invaders looked into it’s eyes though, they could tell it was not scared.

   It was just rising to the challenge.  It spewed fire onto Amud and his goblins, and they raised their shields and threw their spears.  The fire easily went around the shields, burning those who even bothered to raise them.  In their last few seconds of misery, there were cries of, “TO ARMOK I GO!”  Amud however, walked silently forward, a flaming pillar approaching a flamethrower.  He didn’t have an arm to raise a shield and even if he did he wouldn’t have raised it.  His muscle was burning off of his bones though, and he fell to his knees.

   In one last scream he yelled victoriously, “I have just begun!  Blood to the Blood God!”  He threw his sword at the dragon, landing in the beast’s right eye.  Then Amud Ikled, the goblin commander, rested in war for the time being.

   The dragon screeched into the air, all of the troops falling down to clutch their ears in order to make the horrible sound stop.  When the dragon’s screech finally ended, Zeon went for the dragon’s new blind side and Kyle stormed to the back.  Surprisingly, many of the goblins turned around to fight for their dead commander, going to the front of the dragon.  Several hundred goblins died, but the deaths were necessary.  Zeon’s forces started ramming spears into the side of the dragon, most bouncing off and away or shattering.  However, a few managed to pierce.  With a thousand troops, a few meant about a hundred.  Daggers clinked against the scales, looking for any weak points.

   The dragon tried to turn, but many of it’s leg muscles had been torn.  It’s head spun around on it’s long neck though, and soon a small portion of the human army was alight, burning.  However, spears came into it’s front from the larger goblin force, and the dragon was forced to turn away to deal with the greater threat.

   This gave time for Kyle to run up the dragon’s massive tail with his war maul, go up the dragons back, and slam the maul into the skull of the dragon.  The dragon started to turn, so Kyle grabbed one of it’s horns and held on.  Soon he was a hundred feet above the floor.  The dragon did not understand where it’s attacker was. 

   Kyle slammed his hammer into the back of the dragon’s head, and the dragon’s remaining eye closed.  It’s head started falling.........

   Slam.  Bash.  Dust flew into the air.  Kyle was injured, but alive.  He slid off the head of the dragon, yelling at everyone who fled to get back to the battle. 

[QuakeIV]

Awesome...

So what are the armies looking like at this point?  That dragon must have thinned them out pretty well.

[Eric Blank]

It's... difficult to imagine just how utterly enormous the fight and the armies are, while still accepting that they're indoors.

And I'm thoroughly impressed.

[Playergamer]

You asked how long it took somebody to read the whole thing.My answer is one hour and 40 minutes.

[Loud Whispers]

It's... difficult to imagine just how utterly enormous the fight and the armies are, while still accepting that they're indoors.

And I'm thoroughly impressed.

4x4 embark man. Massive.

[RabidAnubis]

You asked how long it took somebody to read the whole thing.My answer is one hour and 40 minutes.

Thanks! 

[RabidAnubis]

Awesome...

So what are the armies looking like at this point?  That dragon must have thinned them out pretty well.

It's... difficult to imagine just how utterly enormous the fight and the armies are, while still accepting that they're indoors.

And I'm thoroughly impressed.

Okay.  Remember the hall they are in is I think over a mile long, half a mile wide, and half a mile tall.  Also, they had some time to marvel at the place before all of the troops got in, along with the dragon.

However, here is what I would think the armies were looking like before the courtroom.  I said Amud brought 100k troops right?

Zeon- 10,000
Zandria- 5,000
Kyle- 5,000
Goldenhold- They have traps. Population- (Unless I mentioned elsewhere) 19,000,000  However, only a few are soldiers.
Amud- 30,000.  Many killed on the beach and reaching the halls
Valican- 3,000

*After*

Zeon and Kyle- 5,000
Zandria- 5,000
Goldenhold- Minus one dragon
Amud- 10,000
Valican- 3,000

Both Valican and Zandria were absent from the battle.

[QuakeIV]

Sounds about right.

[Loud Whispers]

R.I.P My Red eyed avatar of destruction.

[RabidAnubis]

Goldenhold
Chapter 33: Storm the Castle

   “Sir!  Sir!”  A private ran up to Zeon, stopping.  He was panting heavily.  A battering ram was moving up to the wooden gate, slamming it in further with every swing.  Sounds of troops beneath the hide cover were yelling “Heave!” once every few seconds.  They let the ram fall into the gate, finally bursting it down.  Defenders lined the battlements, shooting arrows down into the raiding attackers. 

   “What is it?  Is something wrong?”  He raised the shield in his left hand, deflecting an arrow off into the distance.  A frown was spread across his face and his voice was low and gloomy.  Even though the siege on Castle Imperia was going well, he felt an endless grief over coming him.  A few of his men had died since his most recent promotion.

   When he was a petty officer, the small squad could easily be managed, and at times he felt like he was leading a tiny underdog force against the powerful enemy tyrant.  They were unstoppable, fighting where they could, defeating those they fought.  If the enemy was too big or too powerful?  They would run.  It felt more like a game than reality until the truth set in that those who were murdered had families too, and at that very moment they could be praying that the loved ones they just murdered came home safely.

   But that could take several hours to realize what they had done to the men they just struck down with the blade of your sword.  He smiled for a moment as he remembered John pull out a flute and play a slow, mournful song.  Or how Hemlsman carried the holy book of the gods and quoted and preached from it.  Sure, when he was there he found it annoying, but now that he was looking back onto the good days, he missed it deeply in his heart.

   “They have boiling pitch!  They are pouring it onto the ram!”  The messenger cried, worried.  He was scared, terrified at the situation.  The ram indeed was on fire, flames from it heading up into the night sky. 

   In it’s own way, it was a wonderful moment.  The mystic way the flames danced, or how the noises sometimes formed into an eerie music, the ring of sword clashing sword acting as a drum, the high pitched screams of the dying a flute playing, the pleads for aid a low pitched trumpet.  The shrieks however were a truly high note, lasting until the sword was pulled out as the leftmost white keys of a piano.

   However, that is not to say the truth of the moment didn’t hit him.  Actually, it hit him more than before.  Before the moment when the ram was on fire and the arrows were hitting his troops, he believed he was unstoppable.  He was the raider, the rebel that risen from the ashes.  A phoenix waiting for his last moment.  After only loosing a few of his troops, he fled the scene with his platoon, his troops following him with no cheer or love.

   When he returned to the main camp with most of his men left, the army cheered, thinking it a victory.  Zeon remembered how he shook his head at them, trying to explain how he had lost so many.  In reality, he had lost almost none.  The higher commander tried drilling this into his brain, saying that he could have easily taken the castle, only receiving a few more casualties. 

   Zeon denied his superior.  The fifty whips of the nine tails taught him better.  He used to be a man of honor and warmth, in a way he still was as he looked at the bodies in Goldenhold’s halls.  But, he learned to be heartless when he had to be.  A savage beast doing whatever was necessary despite the losses.  “We push on!  I don’t care about the casualties.  Burn the dead.”

[Argonnek]

This... This is why I love this story and DF, for moments like these where events, memories, and emotions combine into epic storytelling.

[RabidAnubis]

Thanks man.  I'm actually trying to write this backwards, as in all the characters are the finished product of themselves, but I go along and reveal why they are who they are.

I was starting to wonder why no one else had posted and then I'm like

1: It's valantines
2: THE NEW VERSION OF DF IS OUT!

I'm not sure which one is bigger.

[Eric Blank]

DF.

Valentines day is an abomination.