Forever Knight (The Champion Chronicles Book 3) (40 page)

The solders and knights who had been manning the catapult stood their ground.  Many others did as well.  Those with bows began shooting all they had at the exposed face of the ogre.  Those with swords drew them.

While its companion continued to bash the wall next to him, the wounded ogre reached over the opening of the wall and began crawling over it.  Amazingly enough, the wall held its weight and was not crushed as the ogre fell over the wall and into the city.

Soldiers who had stood their ground now felt panic overwhelm them.  Many of them joined the flow of masses running into the city.

Most of those who remained had been warriors who took the oath of knighthood and deemed it their honor to die for their kingdom.  To a man, they accepted the fate that this might truly be their last stand.  It was one thing to go up against a man or machine, but another to go against a beast far beyond their wildest dreams.  With Marik marching forward to their front, the remaining Knights of Karmon drew their weapons and prepared to defend their city.

From the front of the formation, Marik called out, “Stand fast!   We attack as one!”

Toknon turned to the queen and said, “You must run!”

“This is my city,” she said, eyes on the ogre that was picking itself up from the ground.

“The city will soon be lost,” Toknon said.  “I can protect you in Thell.  We can win back your kingdom in time, but until we can do so, we must get you to a safe place!”

She shook her head.  “No!  These are my people.  I will not leave them!”

Toknon looked over at Conner, and walked up to him.  In a sharp whisper, he said, “You must convince her to come with me.  It is the only way to save the kingdom.”

“I have tried,” Conner replied.  “This is her city and she does not want to leave it.  Trust me, I have tried to get her to go.”  Then he realized the words that Toknon had used.  “What do you mean, the only way to save the kingdom?  And who are you, anyway?”
Toknon glanced back at Elissa, ensuring she was out of earshot of his whisper.  “I am King Toknon of Thell.  Please trust me when I say that Taran will not attack Thell.  The Taran army will stay to the south.  All they want is Karmon.  If she comes with me, then we can get her to safety where they won’t come after her.  Even if she goes to Tyre, they will still come after her.”

“I am not letting her out of my sight.”

“You must be the Conner I have heard about.  I thought you were dead.”

Conner did not like the man who stood in front of him.  Even if he hadn’t been Thellian, he knew he would not have liked him.  But being Thellian, it made it that much easier to hate him.

“I know how much you care for the queen,” Toknon continued.  “If you care for her even half as much as I think you do, then you will convince her to come with me.  It is the only way for her to survive this day.”

Marik, sword in hand, interrupted them.  “Whatever you two are whispering about, forget about it.  The creature comes.”

Conner drew his swords and followed Marik, who pushed his way once again to the front rank of knights.

Toknon turned away from them and walked up to the queen, grabbing her by the arm and pulled her out from the middle of the street.

The ogre started walking towards them at first, but after a handful of steps, it started running directly at the knights.  Bowmen who still manned the top of the walls fired arrows at the stone ogres, even though they knew by now the arrows had little effect.  As the stone ogre approached, all the knights braced themselves for whatever was to come next.

Using its two giant arms as weapons, the stone ogre swept them back and forth through the ranks of knights.  Some were able to dodge, while others were not so lucky.  Those that did not were catapulted far across the street and landed hard.  Many of those did not get up at all.  Those that survived tried to stand and rejoin the fight, but their bodies had been broken in many places and no longer worked.

While dodging the tree trunk arms, Marik and the knights tried to attack the legs.  But their weapons simply bounced off the creature’s thick skin.  After many vain attempts to bring the creature down, Marik called for the knights to spread wide.  The stone ogre swiped at the knights, but the big arms were slow enough that they were easily avoided.

Conner ran in between the stone ogre’s legs and tried his swords.  It was like striking at stone.  There was no mark or scratch to indicate that he even touched the creature’s leg.  He continued running past, out of range of the wild, swinging arms.

Some of the knights took up long halberds, but they were of no use, either.  The stone ogre just grabbed them out of the knight’s hands and crushed them into pieces. 

With the knights dancing just outside its range, it ignored those that were trying to attack it and it went after the machine that hurt it.  It jumped up onto the center of the catapult, crushing the wooden frame.  Then it began ripping it apart, piece by piece.

Conner ran up to Marik, who was standing behind it.  Its wide back was exposed directly to them, but there was nothing that they could do.  Their weapons were ineffective against it and it knew it.

“How do we kill it?” Conner asked.

“A few more hits in the head, and it might go down,” Marik replied.  “But unless you know someone who can toss large rocks, I don’t know what else to do.”

“What about its eyes?  The eyes don’t look armored.  Maybe an arrow through it might kill it”

Marik watched the stone ogre for a moment as it finished tossing the pieces of the catapult around.  The knights had completely backed off, giving it plenty of room.  There was no reason to continue to attack it, as they could not even hurt it, much less kill it.

“It would be a miracle shot,” Marik said as he watched it jump around.  “We can try.”

He turned to the bowmen that had been crouching in hiding along the wall and yelled, “The eyes!  Aim for the eyes!”

A moment later, arrows filled the air.  Each and every one bounced off the skin just as before.  One actually was on target for an eye, but right before it struck, the stone ogre closed its eye and it just bounced off the eye lid.

Conner had watched the attempt, knowing it was going to fail once the arrows started flying.  This creature was simply not meant to be killed.  A dangerous thought came to him.  Maybe there was one last chance, but it would take a lot of luck and some good timing.  It was actually a somewhat simple solution, usually reserved for small rabbits in the forest.  But if it worked in the forest, maybe it could work here, too.  He quickly explained his idea to Marik, who was obviously skeptical, but they were out of other options.

With the catapult destroyed, the stone ogre left the front gate area and moved off down the street, smashing and stepping into any building that was in its way.  While Marik ran to the closest blacksmith, Conner put the knights to work trying to herd the creature back towards the wall.

Although their constant barrage of arrows and spears did no damage to the stone ogre, it got its attention.  At first it tried to ignore the pesky little people, but they kept getting in its way of knocking down buildings.  It growled at them, then screamed at them, but they were undeterred.  Finally, it ran after them, chasing them through the street.

It caught a slow one and picked it up and squeezed it until he could feel its blood on its hands.  Then it shoved him into its mouth, crunching down on bone and metal.

Seeing their fellow knight come to such a horrible demise, a handful of knights kept running away.  Their threshold of survival instincts had finally been met and it was time to flee.  But many stayed, scared and fearful of the creature, but knowing their duty to the kingdom was more important than their own safety.

Marik returned on a cart pulled by a single horse.  As soon as the horse saw the creature, it bucked and tried to run, but Marik pulled hard on the reigns to gain control.  Conner, seeing the horse about to bolt, raced over to the cart and let the horse loose.  It ran off, its footfalls on the street echoing through the city.  Conner and Marik pulled the heavy chain from the back of the wagon, dragging it to an open area near the front gate.

Conner had never set a snare trap so big, much less with a chain.  But he had done it so many times, he was sure it would work even for such a large creature.  Plus, it wasn’t intended to hold the creature, only to knock it off its feet.

The end of the chain was wrapped many times around a large oak tree near the front gate.  The snare loop was set on flat ground some distance away.  Once Conner ensured that the trap was set, he drew his swords.  Marik had insisted on being the bait, but Conner would not let him.  Most importantly, Conner was much faster.

The city had fallen silent so that the only sounds were from one ogre trying to smash down the wall and the other smashing its way down the street.  With swords drawn, Conner walked down the street after the stone ogre.  He glanced back where the knights were huddled behind buildings and trees.  He looked for Elissa, but he did not see her.  He hoped that she had finally gotten a hold of her senses and was someplace safe.  Once this was all over, he was going to find a nice warm hearth to sit in front of until spring came.  He was tired of running, tired of being cold, and tired fighting.  But he had two more creatures to kill.  And an army of Tarans.

Forgetting about the future, Conner jogged towards the stone ogre.  It was in the middle of collapsing a two-story stone inn.  The top of its head was at the roofline and all he could see were arms and fists smashing into the building.  He shouted at it, trying to gain its attention.  But it kept working on destroying the building.  The stone ogre was only fifty feet from him, but its back was to him.  He picked up a large stone that had once been a part of the inn’s outer wall.  He threw it as hard as he could and struck the creature on the back of the head.  It let out a grunt and scratched at the spot where the stone hit.  Conner picked up another rock and threw it.  This one missed.  A third rock was thrown, striking the head at the same spot as the first one.

The stone ogre suddenly jumped around into a crouch and let out a loud roar, its sharp teeth, bloody with noble blood, exposed.

Conner backed away, picking up another rock.  He threw it and struck it right in the middle of the forehead.  The stone ogre let out another roar and crouched once more, this time, springing to run.  Conner turned and ran, the stone ogre in pursuit.

There was much that went through his mind in the hundred yards that he had to run.  First and foremost, was he really fast enough?  The creature was closing in on him.  He was sure that he could smell the scent of death right behind him, but he was not going to turn and look.

He crossed over the chain loop with his chest heaving and his legs burning.  He would not be able to keep up this pace much longer.  But he only needed to stay out of its grasp long enough for the trap to be set.

As soon as he left the chain loop, he could see that Marik sprung the trap, which meant that it was right behind him and about to catch him.  He dug down deep into his strength, pumping his arms, and pushing his legs even harder.

A glance back told him that he was in dire danger.  He could see the creature put its arm out, reaching for him.  But then the chain went taunt, yanking its caught leg back behind him.  It had not understood what the chain was doing around its leg, so it had ignored it when the chain loop closed around its ankle.  It let out a surprised cry as the chain held, pulling it to the ground.

Conner did not hesitate, he came to a sliding stop and sprinted back to the head, which was right on the ground.  He lifted the sword, aimed at the eye, and then pain exploded through his body.

He was unsure exactly what was happening, only that he was tumbling across the ground.  He had lost his swords and rolled over and over until he came to a stop almost a hundred feet away.  His entire left side throbbed with incredible pain as he realized that the stone ogre hand had struck him as he approached.  He tried to breath, put pain shot through his side.

They both tried to get up at the same time.  The stone ogre stumbled as the chain was still wrapped around its ankle and the tree.  Conner was dazed and could not get to his feet.  The world was blurry and he had a hard time focusing on the creature.  But he knew that there would only be one more chance before the stone ogre would get free, so he had to act fast.  He would just have to dodge the big fists of the creature this time.  With a shake of his head to clear his mind, he stood.

The stone ogre rolled onto its hind quarters and looked down at its leg where the chain was tightly wrapped.  It grabbed onto the chain, and pulled at it, trying to figure out what it was and how to get it off its leg.  With its back to him, Conner began limping as fast as he could.  With each step, pain exploded through his body.  He came across one of his swords and grabbed it off the ground.  The other could not be found.  Hopefully he would only need the one.

The stone ogre gripped the chain that ran from his leg to the tree and pulled hard once, and then a second time.  When it didn’t budge, it let out a loud roar and yanked with all its might.  The base of the tree exploded in shards of wood as the chain came free.  The end of the chain whipped back in its face, which caused it to let out another loud roar.  It shook its head and then turned just as Conner was about to jump onto its back.