Struggles and Triumphs (yes that is the title to my Dragon Age fic) pt. 5
Elissa took a look at her teammates. They all looked about like she felt. Blooded, bruised, exhausted and beaten up. However none of them seemed too badly hurt and would probably be able to fight well enough to get through this last leg of the journey. Alistair she noticed was having the same grim thoughts that she was. Gone was his customary smirk, replaced with a thin implacable line. His hazel eyes had darkened and turned violent in expression. Without much more haste Elissa pushed open the final door.
As they stumbled through the doorway they came across a huge Ogre. He was feasting on the body of one of the men who was probably supposed to help them light the signal fire. They didn't have any time to lose in defeating this monster. Alistair charged first stabbing the gigantic monster at the ankles and heals severing blood vessels along the way.
Elissa and the other two joined him in trying to take down the giant bit by little bit. It seemed that their tactic was working as the monster seemed to slow and become less quick to pick them up. They kept hacking away at the Ogre until eventually the creature seemed to drop from exhaustion. Alistair delivered the deathblow while Elissa raced to light the signal fire. She hoped that they were not too late and that Loghain and his men could make a difference in this battle.
***
The beacon was light in time, but Loghain had other plans. He was not going to risk his life in this hopeless battle. There had never been any doubt in his mind that he would not fight this day.
“Sound the retreat.” He said staring at the signal fire.
“But...what about the king? Should we not--” asked his second hesitantly.
“Do as I command.” Loghain growled.
“Pull out! All of you let's move!” barked his second.
He took one last look at the lighted beacon as his soldiers marched away from the battle towards safety.
***
Meanwhile the battle raged on. Duncan and the other Grey Wardens fought vigilantly, but there were simply more darkspawn than they had anticipated. Had they more time to prepare things might have gone differently, but alas he knew that he would probably die this day. Along side the king in a glorious battle, even if it would not end the way that King Cailan had intended.
The roar of battle filled his ears as he killed one darkspawn after another. He could feel the Ogre sneaking up behind them. Quickly he turned around to find that the Ogre had snatched up Kind Cailan and had impaled him with a sharp claw. He saw the king's neck snap back at an odd angle as the Ogre threw him to the ground.
With a primal roar Duncan drew both of his swords and charged the beast with all the strength he had left. He took a mighty leap and stabbed at the Ogres chest with both blades, using them to climb his way up the foul beast. Once he was near the head Duncan began slicing at the Ogre's throat, riding it's corpse all the way to the ground. When he stood up he noticed a sharp pain in is abdomen, but he could not take care of that now. He saw his king lying prone and likely dead on the ground and ran to him as quickly as possible. Sensing no pulse Duncan turned back to the battle at hand. He looked up to see that the beacon had been light. Loghain's army should be coming at any time. That was the last thing he saw before a hurlock smashed his face in with a battle ax.
***
Alistair watched as Elissa backed away from the stone hearth a small triumphant smile on her face. She brushed the back of her left hand across her brow to wipe away some of the sweat that had accumulated during the battle. It left a soot streak in its wake. It gave her an odd sort of cuteness in a way.
“So much for no heroics eh?” She said with a wary sort of laugh.
“Yeah it's safe to say that was one order we couldn't follow.” Alistair said.
“So now we wait?” Elissa asked clearly frustrated as he at the prospect of not seeing battle.
Alistair knew all to well that level of frustration. It was hard as a Grey Warden being able to sense the darkspawn hoard just beyond where they now stood and not being able to do anything about it.
“It won't be so bad. Duncan will send word for us if we are need.”
“Maker protect them.” Elissa said almost inaudibly.
Alistair began to recite the last bit of that prayer. “In the name of Andraste so let it--”
He found himself unable to finish. A cold almost nauseating feeling had formed in the pit of his stomach. By the look on her face and the way she had suddenly shifted, her blades at the ready he knew that Elissa had felt it too. Quickly Alistair picked up his own blade and shield readying himself for another battle with the darkspawn.
Before either of them could react however a hail of arrows filled the room. Alistair had been able to raise his shield just in time to deflect a potentially fatal arrow. Elissa hadn't been so lucky. She had been stuck three times once in the thigh and twice in the chest. With a sickening thud the back of her head hit the stone floor. That was where she lay still and unmoving. With a roar of helpless anger Alistair dove in front of his fellow Grey Warden's prone body.
He stood over her protectively. Somewhere in the back of his mind Alistair knew this was a lost cause. That he was risking his life for someone who in all likelihood wasn't even alive anymore. But something inside him refused to give up hope. He had to believe that she could be saved. Alistair clung to the hope that somehow his friend and Grey Warden still clung to life with the same tenacity he had seen her show in battle. He threw his blade out in a wide arc slicing as many of the darkspawn that were closing in on them as possible. Alistair was grimly pleased by the way their lifeless bodies sounded when they hit the cold stone floor. He had received a few minor cuts and a couple of cracked ribs for the effort but these injuries just spurned him on. He shook with fury and growled defiance at the ever closing horde that surrounded him and his fallen friend.
Normally these injuries and the exhaustion of fighting up four floors filled with drakspawn would have caused him to crash. This time however he was too filled with adrenaline and fury to care about the damage he was taking. So long as he drew breath he would not give in to the temptation of unconsciousness. More arrows like the ones that had felled his fellow Grey Warden came flying at him, but he was too quick deflecting them all with his shield. He lowered his head and growled gutting the nearest darkspawn. The blood from the mortal wound of his enemy sprayed everywhere. Some of it landed in streaks down his face.
Alistair saw out of the corner of his eye a dagger flying towards his left temple. He dodged just in time and the blades edge grazed his temple leaving a trail of blood down the side of his face. It mingled with the sweat and darkspawn blood he had already been covered with. With a wordless cry of fury Alistair decapitated the closest darkspawn using the momentum of that move to slice into the shoulder of the next monster cutting it's arm nearly off. His vision was starting to go black around the edges and he was having a harder and harder time breathing around the cracked ribs. He growled and kept on fighting.
Another blow rained down on him and struck him across the side of his face causing him to stumble a little bit. He roared his rage at the darkspawn until his throat became raw as he charged them his hands a flurry of blade and shield beheading and dismembering the foul creatures left and right. He could feel his actions slowing however. That fickle mistress called conciseness was starting to leave him. Alistair responded by fighting with even more urgency. Dimly he could hear a loud bird caw somewhere above them. Though he did not have the mental energy to wonder what that meant.
It was then as the giant bird scooped him and Elissa up in its talons that time seemed to slow down. From the vantage point of dangling precariously from the creatures claws he could see clearly that the human forces were losing the battle. The stench of burning bodies and heavy wood smoke stung his nose and nearly caused him to vomit. For miles and miles it was nothing but humans being slaughtered. Loghain's forces were nowhere to be seen.
He felt a new sense of rage build up inside of him. Alistair had not thought that he had any anger left inside of him, but seeing all the carnage below certainly stirred something inside of him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see something dangling in the bird's other claw. As he turned his head to investigate his heart seemed to stop beating in his chest. The world froze as he saw the limp and lifeless body of Elissa Cousland dangling from the talons of the monstrous bird. His control snapped and he raised his head towards the heavens and roared out one last scream of rage and utter bereftness. He screamed into the sky until his voice could no longer make noise. And with that he finally submitted to unconsciousness. He had lost everything this day.