The Contention (16 page)

None of the knights hesitated, immediately dropping their shovels before climbing out of the trench to retrieve the armor they had discarded before beginning their labors. Garret needed no armor, and even though he had been laboring like a slave, his broadsword remained strapped to his back. Pulling it free of its scabbard, Garret climbed the wall of the trench and peered into the darkness, waiting for the riders to reveal themselves. What followed were the scariest moments of Garret’s life; the moments that let him know that in the days to come he would be outmanned, outclassed, outmaneuvered, outnumbered and overwhelmed to the point of breaking. What the young king saw that very night he would later realize was a clear message from the real rulers of Thurr, and they too were at odds with one another.

Garret watched as the great white charger bearing Horace exploded from the darkness beyond his vision, charging as fast as its powerful legs would go. Without altering his course, Horace aimed his mount directly for the king, and was bearing down upon the giant metallic warrior at incredible speed. Bracing himself for the impact, Garret bent his knees and leaned into the blow just as Horace did something completely unexpected.

Leaping from his mount at full speed, Horace, still clinging to the reins, forced the beast to falter as it crashed to the ground, bouncing and rolling, screaming as only an injured animal could. Horace too impacted hard, but managed to dig in his armored toes and fingers and slide nearly to a halt at his king’s feet. Almost unnoticed by Garret, as Horace and his white charger were both driven to the ground, several arrows struck his giant, steel thigh, either glancing off or breaking altogether with no effect. Horace had avoided the attack, but had been forced to injure both himself and his mount to do so. Hearing the clamor, Garret’s comrades rushed to his aid, each of them scantily armored, wearing only a few pieces of their gear as there had not been enough time to prepare. Even so, no enemy yet revealed itself, although the hoof beats continued to drum in increasing volume as the seconds passed. Anxiously Garret and his knights waited, even Horace, who climbed to his feet nursing more than a few sore ribs. All stood transfixed, staring intently into the darkness when their adversaries first appeared. Blackness born from blackness, four horsemen spewed forth from the darkness, each of them dressed in shadows.

Charging in on black stallions the four horsemen stood upon the beasts’ backs and each leapt high into the air, converging on one singular point, as if they would collide with one another as they flew towards Garret himself. Much to all of the knights’ surprise, as the four horsemen impacted each other, they dissolved into one another as the shadows encompassing their bodies combined. As they became one, they exploded in size; four normal-sized men, becoming one man, four times as large. Realization came too late of what was unfolding in front of him, as the now giant adversary twisted in the air and kicked out, driving both of his feet solidly into Garret’s chest. The man clad in blackness was just as large as Garret now, and all that weight behind the impact sent Garret somersaulting backwards to again land within the great trench that only moments before he had been digging. As Garret flew backwards, the horseman exploded back into four separate beings with what sounded to be a clap of thunder. Each of them landed upon the ground, and spun to face separate opponents, each of them seemingly choosing a knight that they would face alone.

The four did not all come at once. Instead three remained stationary as the fourth sprang into action with amazing speed. His was a speed that reminded each of the knights of their recently fallen comrade Philip. As the dark horseman gained momentum, his actions became a blur in the darkness. Before anyone knew what was happening, the man darted among them, slicing flesh here, stabbing there, and slashing all he could reach among the giant knights. Horace alone remained uncut, as a premonition warned him of the impending danger just in time to avoid it. However, each of these knights had also sparred with Philip in the past, and having realized their predicament, they changed tactics to deal with their opponent’s speed. Changing tactics did them little good however, as the enemy still had more surprises to share.

Garret regained his feet and clambered out of the trench once more. He could hear his men’s curses and felt the earth shake as they moved on the ground above him. Pulling himself up over the lip, Garret expected to see his men engaged with a singular opponent, equal to them in size. What he actually saw however was completely different. At first Garret could not believe what it was he was seeing. The precision and decisiveness of the enemy was astounding. But more disturbing were the multiple abilities granted to them by their god. It was a mismatched fight, though sadly, even with six against one, the odds were in the enemy’s favor.

Garret watched as one of the horsemen leapt high into the air at an amazing speed. As his body rocketed upwards, his limbs immobile, another horseman leapt as well. Within seconds all four horsemen lanced through the air at great speed. Garret realized the horsemen had each timed their assaults to attack one of his knights, one after the other. As the first horseman struck Noah in the chest with his body, driving his small blade to penetrate the giant man’s armor, the second horseman impacted upon the first and something terrible happened. The first horseman’s blade was like a dagger in comparison to the knight’s massive size, yet, being so small it easily penetrated Noah’s armor. As the first horseman clung to the blade he had driven through Noah’s armor, the second horseman joined with him. Instantly the horseman doubled in size. So too did his blade double in length and size, biting deeper into Noah’s flesh. Then the third horseman hit. They moved at such speed, with such unpredictability that Noah had no time to react to the assault. As the third horseman melded with the previous double-sized one, he again increased in size just before the fourth impacted. The fourth horseman wasn’t even required. For as the final horseman combined with his brethren, Noah was already toppling over backwards, a blade protruding from his breastplate where behind it lay his heart. Blood ran from the immense knight’s armor like a crimson river, a torrent that seemingly had no end. The horsemen, using tactics and abilities unlike anything Thurr had seen before, had felled the largest knight upon the world in a matter of seconds, and injured three others.

Garret had no time to panic, but realized that they were outmatched. Noah was already dead or at the very least in his final moments. Seeing no way to get an advantage, beyond that of numbers, Garret gave the only order that he thought might in the least buy them some time.

“Keep on the move!” he shouted as he sprang the rest of the way up and out of the trench. “Don’t let them...him repeat that performance!”

His knights obeyed without a word, and managed to circle around the giant horseman before he could recover from Noah’s falling body. His blade had become wedged in Noah’s armor, but only for an instant. The giant black mass of swirling shadow and darkness quickly split into two men, each doubly as tall and powerful as a single man. The now-shrunken sword released from the armor, and now it was a battle of two versus five. Even surrounded and outnumbered  the enemy horsemen were quick to begin evening up the odds in a flurry of devastating strikes.

Rushing towards those surrounding them, the horsemen faked an attack in two directions. Then turning to face towards one another, one of them split once again, creating two average-sized opponents, and one double-sized. Racing towards the center of the knights, the first horseman collided with the larger, double version of himself, thus creating a man three times his normal size. The larger one squatted as the smaller horseman leapt towards him, freeing up all speed and strength. What happened next was not only unbelievable, but in the very least, it was an unholy act to witness.

Catching the smaller version of himself within his hands, the giant horseman spun on his heels, using the momentum provided by his comrade leaping into his hands, along with every fiber of strength within his own muscles. Hurling the smaller version of himself with all of his might towards the nearest knight of Valdadore, the giant enemy froze as if a statue, watching the flight of its smaller self. As the small horseman shot through the air, in the blink of an eye he curled into a ball and began to glow before erupting into unnatural white fire that consumed him in a great blaze of unholy energy. For just a moment, the white ball of light shot through the air appearing to be an open-mouthed skull before it hit Griffin, another of Garret’s fabled knights.

The Knight of Valdadore had stood no chance. There was no deflecting this blow, nor could his armor have protected him even had he been wearing all of it. As the white ball of seemingly demonic energy struck him, it melted straight through his armor into the cavity of his chest where it blazed bright for an instant, charring all organs within to ash. The shell of the giant man collapsed, shimmering slightly, as he became his unblessed size once more.

Garret had lost two knights in under two minutes, and though the horseman had seemingly sacrificed one quarter of his abilities and strength, if he repeated it three more times, only one soul from Valdadore would be returning home. However, Garret believed he now understood how the blessing of the horseman worked. Each separation of the horseman shared the combined powers of them all. Four men could move at normal speed and had normal strength. However if three remained immobile, then one could move at four times the rate with four times the strength. This also worked when they combined. If two joined the resulting person was twice the size of an average man, with twice the strength and speed. So on and so forth. Now, having sacrificed a quarter of his power, the horseman was diminished, though Garret still did not know how to bring him down. But it seemed that Horace had an idea. Garret watched his only average sized knight present rush in to attack the horseman, three times larger than himself.

*****

Horace had been a Knight of Valdadore for over a century. He had watched hundreds of his friends die in battles, buried men far younger than himself and fought many an enemy who was more powerful than he was. Horace was unique in his gift however. Size, strength and speed were virtually useless against him. Horace only got hurt when he chose to, and only out of necessity. He lived every moment of his life twice, and in doing so, could alter his own future but only by a few moments. Thus he had avoided nearly every injury during every battle in over a hundred years of service to Valdadore. Even so however, he had never faced an enemy like this one. This black harbinger of death was unlike any unholy foe he had ever before encountered but Horace knew that if anyone could face the horseman, it was he. Praying to Gorandor, Horace leveled his silver eyes on his enemy and charged the oversized opponent, prepared to bring him down.

*****

Garret watched as Horace rushed the giant of a horseman, his red hair trailing loosely behind him. It was a peculiar sight, one seemingly from a children’s tale where a small hero charged in, fearful of nothing, against a larger, more formidable foe. One on one, Garret believed that Horace stood a chance against the shadowed giant, as dodging a single opponent’s blows was fairly simple for him. However, it appeared the horseman had already realized this as well. As Horace bore down on him, another clap of thunder sounded, and with a flash and a shimmer, where once stood the giant horseman, now stood three normal-sized versions of the same. The change did not even give Horace pause. He continued his charge, and with twin swords drawn he clashed with his enemy as the ringing of steel upon steel filled the air. Garret and his two remaining knights raced to join Horace who now fought valiantly in a battle of one versus three. Joining the fray, Garret was happy the odds were finally in their favor: four knights of Valdadore versus the three black riders. For many long moments the knights attempted to slaughter the horsemen, but the trio of black demons refused to be injured let alone slain. Again and again the knights swung their mighty swords, and again and again they struck only air as time after time their foe either moved with incredible speed or jumped impossibly high. It was almost as if they were toying with the Valdadorians, landing non-serious strikes, yet never once being injured themselves.

On and on the fight raged for over a quarter of an hour, as the valiant knights looked for their opportunity to end the fight, yet none presented itself. Then the horsemen decided to up the stakes as they again launched themselves into a flurry of attacks that were almost too fast to witness, and unbelievable if you could see it all. Like a symphony of thunderous booms the night air began ringing with explosion after explosion as the horsemen joined and split over and over again, attacking from seemingly everywhere at amazing speed. One was in the air striking at Garret’s face as an average sized man, another was kicking out at Horace with a massive black-armored boot at the same time that apparently two of the horsemen were fighting another of Garret’s knights. One moment a vassal of Gorandor fought a normal man, the next a giant like himself. The enemy was down upon the ground at one instant and then he leapt through the air. For each moment of the battle it was as if the enemy was everywhere at once, drawing blood again and again. Even Horace bled now, having taken a small wound in an effort to avoid a more serious one. Garret alone remained unharmed. It was not until Horace yelled, fear evident in his voice, that Garret realized that the enemy had indeed simply been toying with them.

“Duck!” was all Horace managed to yell, as he himself dove towards the ground.

 Any warning from Horace was one that needed to be heeded instantly, but this time no one would be fast enough. As they began to react, the now-familiar thunderous explosion sounded yet again and three horsemen issued forth from where before had stood only one. Their bodies cloaked in darkness, the three shadowed men ran towards one another then leapt into the air. Meeting in the air, each man twisted to face outward as they collided, their eyes falling upon a target before their bodies connected. As the three made contact, they again erupted out from one another, moving too fast to truly see. They began to glow unnaturally as they shot through the air, then flared into a wicked inferno of white fire before becoming the visage of a burning skull with open jaws, ready to consume their targets.