Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Zelda: The Ballad of Fallen Angels ❯ The Battle Of Clock Town ( Chapter 21 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Chapter 21: “The Battle Of Clock Town”
Cremina was at the forefront of the first wave of defenders. When they reached the first line of Horders, she struck out with her trust javelin. The sharp blade cut into the armor of a Horder, ripping a chunk out of him. Another Horder swung at her. Cremina ducked and pulled her javelin out of the Horder she had struck. Swinging up, she blocked a sword thrust from another soldiers before rolling away.
Keeta's warriors crashed into the lines of Horders and fell upon them like piranhas scenting blood. The Horders, terrified by the sight of the living skeletons, fell back under their assault. Keeta himself was like an army; his long arms and sword blade lanced out and struck down Horder after Horder with deadly accuracy.
Takeru and Mikhail were surrounded by Horders. They stood back to back, Mikhail with his pike and Takeru with his sword, using each other for support as they battled against overwhelming odds. Takeru slew a Horder, only to look up and see one of Mikhail's Guardsmen get his throat cut out by another Horder.
The Zoras found themselves having trouble keeping up with the others. Reguge found himself and a half-score of his warriors backed up against the outer wall of Clock Town, trying to fend off the soldiers who kept leaping out and trying to impale them with blades and poles.
The pirates fared much better; their long pikes and bayonets making them hard targets to get close to and hit.
Localo battled close to his Kaiser, desperately battling against the Horders. He looked up to see Hikari fall under a pair of Horders. “Hikari!!” the agonized Zora screamed as he lost sight of his daughter. Then Cremina was there, stabbing into the Horders, yelling like a madwoman. She pulled Kari out of the pile and hurtled with her to the wall, ducking beneath a protruding ledge on the lower part of the wall.
Localo fought his way over to them. One of the Horders' swords had ripped a chunk out of Kari's right leg. Cremina had ripped off one of her sleeves and was applying a tourniquet. She looked up and locked eyes with Localo. “She's hurt but she'll live. She might lose that leg if the bleeding doesn't stop soon.” When the Zora didn't answer, Cremina snapped, “Okay, I get it. You hate me, you wish I were the one lying here losing blood. So let's try this; you take the stick out of your butt and stay here with your daughter, and let me run back out there and fight. Or would you rather do the fighting. But then again, you don't trust me to defend her, do you?”
Glancing up, she suddenly grabbed Localo and bore him to the ground. A lance stuck into the wall right where Localo's head would have been. Cremina straightened and hurled her javelin at the Horder who threw the lance. The javelin slammed directly between his eyes, protruding halfway through his head before it halted.
Cremina yanked the lance out of the wall. “Can you use this?” she demanded of Localo. Although he didn't speak, the Zora nodded. “Good,” Cremina said, thrusting the lance into Localo's hands. Grabbing his long sword from him, she also reached into his belt and yanked the short-sword from it's sheath. “Take care of her,” Cremina told Localo. “Even though you feel you are the only one who should be saying this, if anything happens to her, you and I will cross blades when this battle is over.”
Localo felt himself overcome by astonishment. Cremina raised herself up and strode to the nearest Horder. He saw her coming and struck at her with a downwards sword-swipe. Cremina crossed her blades in an `X' and caught the Horder's sword in mid-swing. Keeping the long-sword up, Cremina released the short-sword and stabbed the Horder through the middle with it. The Horder collapsed without a word.
Takeru slew another Horder as more piled on from every direction. Mikhail shouted to him over the din, “Looks like this is it, don't it T.K.?”
“Don't start talking like that,” Takeru admonished him as he dueled with a Horder. “I wouldn't stand for it from my troops, and I won't take it from my commanders.” He backpedaled and rammed his sword through the Horder's chest. Pulling the blade free, Takeru looked up in time to see a face dart through the crowd. A very familiar face.
“Jasper!!”
Takeru bolted from the circle of Horders, hell-bent in his pursuit of the traitor.
The battle went on for what seemed like hours. Cremina's arms were numb with exhaustion. Each clash with another sword or pole make them vibrate painfully. Her blouse and skirt were covered in crusted blood. She had fought a long ways into the middle of the melee before returning to check on Kari. Cremina had found her standing upright beside her father, using a broken spear shaft as a weapon. Marin has joined the pair of Zoras, trying to block Kari with her shield as well as strike out at any nearby soldiers.
“Cremina!” Kari called as she approached. Cremina stumbled up to the trio and sank to her knees. Marin pulled Cremina behind her and moved to shield her as well as Kari.
“Your leg, how is it?” Cremina weakly asked Kari.
“It's fine, love.” The Zora replied. “The bleeding has stopped.”
“We're finished, aren't we?” Cremina mumbled.
Kari dropped beside her. “Don't say that.”
“Kari, tell me the truth, how bad is it?”
Hikari bit her lip. “It's bad, it's really bad. If we don't get help-“
Before she could finish, a wild keening descended upon the battlefield. Cremina and Kari turned to look. Small, plant-like shapes were hurling themselves at the unprotected backs of Horders. The Dekus that Melondia has promised had arrived. And riding up on a horse, her bow already in her hand, was Romani. She carried a familiar Deku on the back of the horse, and Tael flew right behind her.
“Romani!” Cremina yelled.
“And the Queen herself too.” Kari stammered in astonishment, as Melondia dove off the back of Romani's horse and tackled a Horder.
From the opposite side of her, a rumbling vibration shook the earth. Horders began to scream as what appeared to enormous boulders bounced into the frenzy and uncurled themselves to reveal brute monsters.
“Are those Gorons?” Kari asked.
Cremina strained her tired eyes to see through the creatures. And suddenly Saetoushei was at her side, throwing his sword arm out to stab a Horder through the ribs.
“Reinforcements have arrived, my dears.”
Takeru finally caught up with Jasper on the fringes of the battlefield. The traitor was trying to run for it and hide at the back of the army. Takeru seized a rock on the ground and hurled it at Baldwin's back. The rock caught him right between the shoulder blades, knocking Jasper to the ground.
Jasper himself was trying to scramble to his feet when Takeru launched himself onto the traitor's back. The pair wrestled around, each one gaining and losing the upper hand, before finally rolling apart and leaping to their feet.
“You!” Jasper screamed.
Takeru giggled like a madman. “Come to me Jasper, I've been waiting nearly five years for this moment.”
Takeru threw himself at Jasper. Jasper barely had time to unsheathe his sword and parry Takeru's thrust before the young man was upon him, hacking and striking with his sword. Jasper blocked the thrusts and came back at him. Takeru stumbled backwards, throwing his sword up to block Jasper's downward strike.
“You've hunted me all these years, little boy?” Jasper taunted Takeru. “Why don't you fight like a man, or are you still a sniveling little kid hiding behind his big brother?”
Takeru's blood burned at the remarks. “This is for my brother!” he screamed, attacking Jasper with the sword for all he was worth. Jasper's eyes widened in fear as he found himself being forced backwards by Takeru's maddened strikes.
Takeru brought his sword downwards, but Jasper backpedaled and the sword's blade stuck into the ground. As Takeru tried to pull it out, Jasper bent over and scooped up a handful of dirt and grit. When Takeru straightened up, Jasper threw the mess into Takeru's eyes. Takeru yelled in pain and dropped his guard as he tried to clean his eyes out. Jasper hurled his sword like a spear at Takeru. It caught the young man through the middle of the ribcage and Takeru fell.
Jasper threw his head back and laughed. He strode to Takeru's fallen body and bent over to pull his sword out. As he did so, he saw Takeru's lips move, but the sound was too faint to be heard.
Jasper bent closer to Takeru's face. “What's that you're saying? Pleading for help? Let me here it, I love it when they beg for mer-“
Takeru's right arm, still holding his sword, flew up. The sword buried itself to the hilt in Jasper's black heart. The traitor fell nerveless upon the ground next to Takeru.
Takeru whispered, “I was saying that one should never throw his blade away like that. It should always be kept close to him, for he will never know when it will come in handy. Rest now, friend, it is all over. I will join my brother, Randal, and Nicolas, and together, we will laugh for all eternity as we watch you and Godrick burn in Hell. Das va danya, Jasper.”
Turning his head away from Jasper's dead body, Takeru looked up at the sky. He was startled to notice how deep blue it was, with a few puffy white clouds dotting it. Takeru took in this wondrous display of nature's simple beauty even as his vision began to darken. “Oh Ryojen, this truly is the day to die. I can hear the sounds of battle, the screams of men and women of all races going to their Makers, but, the last thing I will ever see on this earth is the sky, undaunted and clear. It is so beautiful. Oh Ryojen, I wish you were here to see it with me.”
Takeru closed his eyes forever, lying next to the mortal enemy whom he had slain, with a smile on his face.
The battle was not going well. Even with the Deku and Goron reinforcements, the defenders of Clock Town were hard-pressed to keep the Dark Hordes from breaching the town walls.
“There are just too many of them!” Saetoushei gasped as he fought with Swiftstroke in front of the East Clock Town gate.
“No worries there, friend.” Swiftstroke returned. “Even if we die this day, there are still defenders inside the town walls, or so I've been told. The gates are all locked, and they are all made of metal. It would still take quite a long time for the enemy to breach the city.”
In the distance, a cannon was fired. Immediately the Horders began to fight even harder, as if their very lives depended on killing as many of the defenders as possible. Saetoushei blocked one Horder's thrust with his sword while blocking another's with his shield.
Suddenly the Horders in the back lines began to scream bloody murder. The ground began to rumble and shake, as if the Four Horsemen themselves were charging on their dark steeds at Descrod's army.
Except that there weren't just four, there might possibly be four thousand. Horses began charging out of the Ravine of Ghosts, falling upon the rear lines of Descrod's army and ripping it apart. Except that these weren't living horses, but the demonic-looking skeletons of what used to be horses. And riding on the most evil-looking skeleton horse of them all, swinging his broadsword over his head like a satanic rallying point, was-
“Keeta!” Saetoushei shouted joyously. “Keeta! Your lord and master has arrived!”
Keeta knocked a Horder flat before turning. “What? Saetoushei, what are you-?” Then he saw the rider leading the skeleton horses into battle. “Igus! Igus, my friend!”
Igus de Ikama, the last true Ikaylimu of Ikama, reared his steed onto it's hind legs and charged with his warriors into the midst of the Dark Hordes. Saetoushei saw a ball of light shoot past him, and turned to see Tatl alight on his shoulder.
“I hate you, I hate you, I absolutely hate you!” Tatl screamed in his ear. “Why the Hell would you make me do that? Never freaking again, I swear!”
Saetoushei turned to look at the fairy in astonishment. Tatl burst out laughing. “Oh, if only you could see your face right now!”
Saetoushei looked up to see Igus' steed stop in front of him, Keeta at his heels. The long-dead Ikaylimu looked down at Saetoushei. “Well, the little boy who bested me has grown to be a true warrior. I'm proud of you, my boy, so very proud.”
Saetoushei could tell from the look on Keeta's bony face that this was a compliment of the most prodigious size.
“Why thank you Your Majesty,” Saetoushei replied. “I do try.”
Igus frowned, “However, I must admit that your little fairy friend made this whole encounter out to be so much more. There's hardly five thousand soldiers here, and that's including the dead. The fairy was talking of fifteen thousand.”
“What?” Saetoushei asked. “We watched all of about fifteen thousand Dark Horde soldiers advance to the gates from the Ravine. What do you mean by there's only five thousand here?”
“He's right, Saetoushei.” Keeta cut in. “I've been counting along as we went. There's hardly any Horders left.” Turning around, Keeta remarked, “and there's only about ten left that I see alive.” He pointed to a clustered group of Horders vainly trying to hold off defenders.
Saetoushei was disturbed by this. “Then where are the rest of the Horders? And where the hell is Descrod? I know we all weren't hallucinating or something, there's got to be a reason-“
And then Saetoushei stopped, and looked, and felt like his blood had turned into ice water. For, as the last Horder fell dead, his eyes caught sight of a small blue building in the distance. A very familiar blue building…
“Oh no,” Saetoushei whispered, his voice catching in his throat, “the Observatory…”
And that's when the screams started coming from inside the city walls.
“Open the damn gates!” Saetoushei screamed as he spun around. “Open the damn gates!”
Everyone around him stopped celebrating their supposed victory and turned back towards Clock Town. Saetoushei looked up in time to see the archers defending the battlements fall over, pierced by arrows in their upper bodies. Saetoushei ran to the East Clock Town gates and hurled himself against it. “Open up! Someone open the Goddamned gates!”
Others tried to help Saetoushei pry open the East Clock Town gates, but to no avail; they were too sturdily build and locked shut. Members of the undead threw themselves like miniature battering rams against the door, but still it refused to budge.
Suddenly a mocking laugh was heard from the upper battlements. Saetoushei looked up to see Descrod himself glaring down at the defenders from the top of the wall. “I appreciate your efforts to defend your position,” Descrod said mockingly, “but I'm afraid that they were all for naught. See you later!”
With that Descrod disappeared from view. Saetoushei cursed and slammed his fists against the door. With the pain that comes from punching a metal door as hard as one can, Saetoushei was overcome by a thought. He spun around to look at the Observatory in the distance.
“The Observatory!” he yelled, breaking into a sprint as he made for the building. “That's how Descrod got into Clock Town, the old passage that connects the Observatory with Clock Town; he's breached the Bombers' hideout!”
The entire combined defense force raced for the Observatory. Upon reaching it, Saetoushei ripped the door open and burst inside. The Dark Hordes had knocked the telescope from it's perch and broken open the trapdoor. Followed by the army, Saetoushei hurtled down the hidden staircase.
Running through the dank passages that connected the Observatory with the establishment, Saetoushei ran into the hideout. The Bombers' hideout had been an abandoned collection of drainage pipes and sewer canals that led from Clock Town to the hidden group of rooms underneath the Observatory. In the old days, the only person who knew of it's existence besides the Bombers was old Professor Mitchell, the scientist who ran the Observatory.
Now the hideout was destroyed. Old wall hangings and furniture lay shredded and broken. The little bits of things from old toys to weapons had been knocked helter-skelter every which way.
Saetoushei barely saw or registered any of it. He blazed through the old walkways and passages, his mind walking him through the winding, twisting corridors of the underground, taking him to the one place he needed to be; Clock Town.
When he emerged from the underground and through the camouflaged doorway that breached East Clock Town, Saetoushei took one step into the town and stopped dead. Cremina and Marin nearly walked into him. Behind them, the entire defense force stood crammed into the passages, wondering what had happened.
Clock Town was a sham. Windows had been shattered, stands and booths set fire to, doors ripped off their hinges and shops ransacked. But the most horrible part of all were the bodies.
What appeared to be a good-sized portion of the Clock Town populace lay in East Clock Town. A complete, horrific massacre. Men, women, and children were bloodied and dead, laying everywhere. Some appeared to have been dismembered. Death and destruction lay everywhere. The city streets had nearly literally been painted red with blood.
The defenders slowly walked out into the town. There were so many that it was nearly impossible to avoid walking on the corpses, but they tried.
The door to the Grand Pot Hotel burst open and Anju raced out, armed with a pair of kitchen knives. Saetoushei caught the blades before she hurt anyone and wrenched them out of her hands. Anju slapped Saetoushei as hard as she could across his face.
“Damn you!” she cried out, tears falling from her eyes. “You said you'd protect us! You promised you'd keep them away!”
Marin took her arms and led her away. More people came from the hotel, as well as some of the other shops in the square. More civilians emerged from Central Clock Town. Saetoushei felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Gabriel standing before him.
“They didn't come to the entire town.” Gabriel said. “Just East and South, mostly. They completely raided the Bomb Shop in West but that's it. It's like there was something that they needed in South Clock Town, but I'm not sure what it is.”
The army hurried to South Clock Town. Here, just like in East, the devastation was immense. More bodies lay everywhere, and the prepared decorations and attractions for the Carnival of Time were destroyed.
“We failed,” Reguge choked out, bowing his head. Saetoushei barely heard him. His eyes were locked onto the only pair of swinging doors in all of Clock Town.
The doors that led into the basement levels of the great clock tower.
“No,” Saetoushei cried out, running to the doors and bursting through them. “No, no, no!”
Saetoushei bolted down the wooden ramp that led to the bottom-most level of the tower. On the way, he prayed to every deity that he had ever heard of that he would not find what he expected down in the basement.
His prayers went unanswered, however, as he breached the basement and beheld the open passageway there. Looking through it, he could see the enormous cavernous room where he began his adventure. He could see into another world, into Hyrule.
“No, oh gods please, no!” Saetoushei screamed as he sank to his knees and let the tears stream down his face. “My God, Zelda, he's coming Zelda, he's coming to Hyrule. Descrod spoke of the “power of the gods”. I thought he was talking about Majora's Mask, but no, that wasn't it. Oh my God, Zelda, he's after you, Zelda. Descrod's after the Triforce!”
A/N: It would be nice to get some reviews once and a while!!!