3rd Task: King Frederic's Army (Part 2)

3rd Task: King Frederic's Army
Part 2

The great sun, Bellcrone begins to peek from beneath the eastern mountains casting a shadow over Camuji Fortress. The fortress seems desolate on the surface as the only movement is what the wind blows. Gris is kicking her legs off the edge of the wall with a Sanctuary Bunny sitting in her lap the triangular window floats behind her.
"Bellcrone is coming up Gris," the bunny says looking up to her, "Are you guys sure about this plan?"
"Are you worried about me Perfect?" Gris asks playfully
"It's Fect, and of course I'm concerned about you. You'll be closing off our back home. If something were to happen to my swarm is abandoned here."
"Hm, well at least your honest," Gris says, "I'll be fine, how many of these have we made it through?
"Enough," Fect says rolling his eyes, his ears begin to twitch.
"What can you hear?" Gris asks excitedly, as she throws her arm in the air.
 Fect closes his eyes, his voice changes and he begins to say, "My soldiers, you have endured the cruelty of the Bazz Mountains. You have lost your brethren, even your children on this journey. Today, we stand before our goal, the treasure of Bazz Mountains, Camuji Fortress!" The soldiers respond with a roar, and the King continues, "Today, we will storm through the front doors of the fortress and declare the kingdom mine! Raid the Camuji Fortress kill all the men, take the women, and enslave the children! On this day, you will claim Camuji Fortress the territory of King Frederic XCVII."
Suddenly, the ground rumbles with the response of the army as King Frederic finishes his speech. Gris smiles and whispers, "It's show time!"
Almost instantaneously the rest of the Outside Counsel appear beside her standing on the wall. In the distance, a large blue tent glows at the armies flank.
Fect looks up at her, she hugs him, and he whistles. Thousands of Sanctuary bunnies of various colors pour from the triangle window and surge into the Fortress like a waterfall. Gris stands up and does a quick dance, the gold balls transform into a massive halberd. Nigel looks to her and clears his throat. Gris shrugs and replies, "I was inspired."
Together they step off the wall and land in front of the heavy metal doors of Camuji Fortress. In the distance, the army kicks up a dust cloud as they approach full of rage and excitement. The five members of the Outside Counsel calmly await their arrival. As the sun lifts higher in the sky the first soldier's approach, Mineko huffs, and with a quick thrust from her hip, a shockwave ensues obliterating them.
"I hate fodder," Abraham says, "Let's make a game of it."
"I'm listening," Gris says with an evil grin on her face.
"Good, whoever reaches the big blue tent first is the leader for the next Task."
Franc turns to him, and shrugs, "I think it's fair. Good luck everyone."
With that Franc disappears, and his voice booms over the cries of the soldiers, "Is anyone else going to participate?"
Gris's halberd splits in two and transforms into twin swords, and she joins the fray. Mineko seems to teleport, and Abraham looks to Nigel.
"Only way to win is to move forward," Abraham says, he takes out his revolver and points it towards the sky and pulls the trigger. There's a loud explosion and bullets rain down from the heavens stealing cutting down soldiers.
Abraham runs toward the nearest group of troops and engages them with a barrage of bullets that send them flying backward.

Nigel looks around and doesn't find anything to put in Lefnard, he drops his scarf in the bucket and uses it to climb over the wall again. He finds Abraham's safety bullets on the ground outside the remaining half of the castle. He puts them in his pocket when he sees Ian sneaking out of a building dragging a Gatling gun on wheels.
"What ya doing?" Nigel asks, and Ian nearly leaps out of his skin at the sound of his voice. He lets a sigh of relief out when he turns to find Nigel.
"I was going to support you guys. I know you said you guys could handle this, but I can't hide while someone else defends my home," Ian says tapping the gun.
"Where are the bullets?" Nigel asks pointing at the Gatling gun.
"Oh," Ian looks at the weapon and then smiles, "I don't know."
"I figured that. What else you got?"
Ian opens the door of the building to reveal an armory of discarded weapons, Nigel's eye's sparkle.
"This is going to be fun," Nigel says, as a mischevious smile etches across his lips.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the rest of the Outside Counsel engage several of the enemies troops. Gris's twin blades decapitate two giants, and she dives headfirst into the fray with the other soldiers. Her movements are deliberate and apparently lethal as soldiers who clash with her collapse almost instantly. A large round soldier charges towards her clad in armor too small for his body. He squeals with two swords raised over his head. Gris smiles and waves her hands in his direction. Her gold blades zig zag through the fodder soldiers and soar towards the fat man. She's impressed when he manages to deflect the blades. As he gets closer to her Gris sticks her tongue out and does another dance the gold swords swirl into the Halberd. She bows and the Halberd splits the man in half.  She sighs and looks for more opponents.

Franc stands as still as a statue as soldiers surround him, a giant approaches him clad in armor wielding a massive shield and a sword. The soldiers cheer as the giant bangs the shield with his sword, he takes his stance and dances around for a few seconds before launching at Franc. The giant unleashes a barrage of slashes on Franc kicking up a dust cloud around him. The giant stumbles backward out of breath, as the dust subsides Franc is erect, unscathed and ticking. He lifts his arm over his head, and everything stops, as time begins again Franc is standing behind the giant. The giant's arms are liberated from his body, and his knees buckle. Franc spins around and slashes the monster in half. The soldiers around charge as the giant's torso collapses, Franc sighs. He can see the tent in the distance and continues to make his way.

A campaign of 200 soldiers clad in armor from head to toe charge towards Abraham, his bullets ricochet off the armor, he sighs and empties all his clips. He can hear the soldiers booming footsteps as they approach like a battering ram. Abraham starts to laugh and presses a button on the bottom of his revolver, a black bullet falls out, and he loads it into the chamber and pulls the trigger. The shot soars into the air and begins to expand, it transforms into a rocket and begins to plummet back to the earth. As the soldiers clad in armor approach Abraham, he disappears, and the rocket falls directly over them exploding on impact.

Abraham grabs Mineko's face and kisses her cheek as she dashes out of the shockwaves reach with him in her arms. She throws him in the air and from her hip she unsheaths her bokken. She cuts down a group of soldiers while running between the legs of a giant. A giant catches Abraham's body and hurls him at the wall of Camuji Fortress. Abraham is , and he by Lefnard's bandanna arm and slides to the ground.
"Nice catch Nigel," Abraham shouts
"Yeah, whatever, you messed up my grand comeback," Nigel drops several weapons into Lefnard and a massive arm comprised of several weapons lifts in the air from the top of Camuji Fortress's wall.
Lefnard points his cannon index finger towards the blue tent, and Nigel shouts, "Fire!"
Bullets and cannonballs fire from every part of the arm, riddling the battlefield with holes and explosions. The tent unfolds and becomes a heavy blue curtain that absorbs the attack. A billow of smoke rises in the air from the arm, as the smoke clears on the battlefield three golden shields protect Gris, Franc, and Mineko. Nigel waves at them and shouts, "Sorry guys!"
Abraham looks up at Nigel and raises his thick eyebrow, starts to laugh and shake his head.  A rustling sound ripples through the bodies scattered across the field followed by a loud hiss. The soldiers and Giants bodies begin to stir as the hissing subsides. Nigel leaps off the wall and is caught by Lefnard and placed gently on the ground. Abraham tilts his head at Lefnard and the hand waves.
The soldiers begin to rise, riddled with holes, gashes, and other mortal wounds. The giant Franc severed in half stands again with a snake binding the two halves.
"Now that's interesting," Gris says to herself before she starts to dance and the shields launch into the air and transform into her giant golden sword. She cuts down the giant, and the snake pulls him back together, Gris raises her eyebrow and whistles the sword is at her side in a split second. Franc and Mineko begin to make their way towards Gris. They cut down the soldiers that stand before them, but only for them to rise again. Nigel and Abraham stand back to back mowing down the soldiers with bullets, but they continue to rise. Abraham grabs Nigel and says, "Throw us towards the others." Lefnard scoops them up and throws them towards Mineko and the others. When they land, the bucket soars over the battlefield dumping the contents out. It lands next to Nigel with a thud. The dead soldiers surround the O.C as they stand back to back.
"So, what do we do?" Nigel asks
"We need a plan," Franc says, everyone touches Franc as he stops time.
"This is cool, It's like a timeout," Nigel says poking pushing soldiers over.
"It looks like necromancy." Nigel says, "These guys are dead."
"No witch chances Anitabin," Gris says.
"What's Anitabin?" Nigel asks
"We don't have time for explanations," Gris says, "This isn't necromancy, the snakes are manipulating the bodies."
"You brought it up," Nigel says, and everyone just looks at him.
"How can we defeat the snakes?" Abraham asks.
"We'll scare them out," Franc says blood stains the clock mask.
"You're holding too long," Gris says slamming her hand into Franc's chest.
Time suddenly begins again, and the soldiers advance. Gris starts to dance in the middle of the members of the OC. Her gold swords melt, and the three balls burrow into the ground successively. As Gris continues to dance she claps her hands five times, does a front flip and the ground starts to rumble. The OC leap in unison as a giant honey badger, the size of a lion, burst from the soil. The honeybadger starts to shake, and a silver dust begins to fill the air. The silver dust covers the badger in a silver armor, and it roars.
It's massive claws glisten in the sunlight as it sniffs the air. It starts to hiss at the soldiers around it. A soldier approaches and the badger jabs him with his claw removing the snake instantly and slurping it like a noodle. The badger lunges into the crowd of snake driven soldiers and Giants and rips them to pieces. The OC land in front of the blue curtain, in the distance they see a group of giants run from the badger and race towards the wall of Camuji Fortress. The first giant slams into the wall and explodes on impact.
The wall cracks and a chunk falls off.
Nigel shouts, "I got it!"
He takes off his peg leg and drops it in Lefnard. A wooden arm erupts from the bucket, and Nigel grabs onto Lefnard's handle and rides his bucket towards the giants.  Nigel scoops his mop up from the battlefield and drops a thick mop string in Lefnard. The thick braided mop strings launch forward like tentacles tripping up the giants causing them to fall and explode. Nigel leaps off Lefnard and onto a giant's shoulder. He pulls the giant's ear, and it turns towards three other giants. He flips off his shoulder as the giants collide and explode. Nigel is caught by Lefnard and shielded from the blast. Only five giants remain, and they are all too far apart to attack at once. Nigel quickly scans the battlefield to figure out a way to stop the giant;s. He throws his arm up in frustration and Lefnard launches into the sky, dumping its contents out. Nigel watches as Lefnard lands upside down on top of the wall. There's a low grumbling coming from the wall, and Nigel gets closer to it pressing his ear against it. The Giants get closer, and Nigel turns around, five giant left arms made of stone bursts from the wall. Nigel opens and closes all 5 of his fists and punches all the giant's simultaneously causing a massive explosion that sends him flying into the wall. As the debris clears, the wall is still standing unscathed and without its five arms. Nigel is unconscious at the foot of the wall with Lefnard covering his head.

At the opposite end of the battlefield, the rest of the O.C watch Nigel's display of sheer awesomeness. The field is littered with the bodies of soldiers, on top of a mound, the honey badger lies on its back with a swollen belly in a comatose state. King Frederic applauds Nigel's ability and catches everyone's attention.
He smiles greedily at them and asks, "How much do they pay you for your services?"
Franc scoffs, and a large man steps forward equal in height to Frac, King Frederic clears his throat. The man stands down, and Franc says, "Our abilities happen to be in the favor of Camuji Fortress. They are not our employers, we have no allegiance to the people here."
King Frederic bursts into laughter and asks, "Then why? Why stand in my way?"
"You have something we want," Franc says approaching King Frederic's throne he stops time and has a chance to analyze the Kings guard. The largest man has a cleaver behind his back, the man that approached him is reaching for his morning star, a smaller man dressed as a jester has daggers, and the woman's eyes glow green. Time resumes, and Franc immediately bows, King Frederic's guards back down instantly.
"Ain't that something," King Frederic says, "You're standing in front of something I want."
"Let's make a wager," Franc says, King Frederic's eyebrows raise.
"What kind of wager?" He asks.
"A battle, my team versus your guard.," Franc replies.
The King bursts into laughter and says, "You want to face off against my personal guard? Do you have any idea who I am?"
"King Frederic," Gris chimes, the king's guard glares at her, and she smiles uneasily.
"I am King Frederic XCVII, of the Frederic Empire. My armies have conquered entire continents in Titanluxe, you all standing before me is naught but a hill to trample. You may have taken out my soldiers, my Giants, them revived as zombies even. But to say you can defeat my guard. That is insulting. I accept your challenge," King Frederic says.
"What about the wager?" Franc asks.
"I want Camuji Fortress, that's all that matters. My guard will decimate your team, and we'll use your long corpse to build a staircase," King Frederic says bursting into laughter. His guard laughs with him.
"One on one matches, you pick your fighter, and I'll pick my mine. The first one to submit or become immobile is the loser."
The king laughs even harder and says, "This guy is cracking me up, Titus rip 'em to pieces."
The jester with the daggers steps forward he licks his lips and glares at Mineko and Gris. His hair falls to his shoulders in greasy curls, and his outfit is unsightly ill-fitting.
"I'll make this quick for you, Abraham, you're up."
Abraham tilts his hat and steps forward, Titus sighs and asks, "Can I kill him sir? I want to play with the girls."
"Of course you can. I want to use the bodies to decorate the entrance  of Frederic Fortress."
Titus starts to laugh maniacally and turns to Abraham. He tilts his hat and smiles at Titus, he wiggles his fingers next to the hilt of his revolver. There's a loud bang signaling the beginning of the battle, Titus lunges, and Abraham pulls out his gun.

END!

The battle for Camuji Fortress is truly about to begin. Stay tuned for part 3 of the 3rd Task.

Release date: March 17, 2017, God Willing.