Lloyd was extremely concerned for his friend so he sprinted over to the
building, to help him.
It was almost totally dark when he reached the building.
Lloyd saw that Orren and the five other horsemen weren't far off, and
as a matter of fact, were so near that s he climbed up the stairs
inside the building, he could hear Orren's order to his men, to bring
him the head of the enemy leader.
Lloyd couldn't let this happen.
He finally made it to the balcony and he peered through the gaps in the
rock railing as the horsemen dismounted and headed towards the
entrance, below.
Lloyd couldn't bring Boyce to consciousness. Boyce had been hurt and
Lloyd knew that he was passed out because of the pain.
Boyce's entire left shoulder was bleeding through his armour.
Lloyd had to get Boyce back to the mansion and have him bandaged up
there. First, however, he had to make the squad below him less of a
threat. He drew his gun, leaned over the railing and started to fire
down on them. He managed to kill two of the men but the rest
retreated with Orren, out of range from Lloyd's weapon.
When they became calmed and after they regrouped, they charged the
building but then quickly turned and retreated back to Halls.
Lloyd was astounded then he looked up into the dark northern skies
towards the strange thunderous clapping and searing whistling. He saw
a great squadron of Kenttitian Eagles being led by Empal.
The eagles circled the city over the square.
The men controlling them weren't aware of Boyce and Lloyd below them,
but they did see Orren's squad (or what was left of it), quickly
withdrawing to the relative safety of Halls.
Some of them attacked Halls and others continued to circle.
This gave Lloyd the perfect opportunity to take his best friend back to
the Blue Mansion.
Boyce had luckily regained consciousness and got to his feet with
Lloyd's help.
"I saw you crash into this building." Lloyd told him, then gently
touched his shoulder. "Does it hurt very much?"
Boyce painfully looked into Lloyd's eyes and smiled.
"Just when I laugh ..." he said, then continued. " ... what do you
think?"
They smiled at one another and Lloyd helped Boyce to slowly descend
the stairs, while he watched out for the enemy.
For further protection he had Boyce keep his helmet on and his gun out.
The thrill of the fight and the accident was still with both men and
Boyce didn't really feel the pain in his shoulder because of it.
He was sluggish in his movement but he didn't have to be totally held
up by Lloyd. All he needed was to be steadied by his friend while they
rumbled up the road, back towards the Blue Mansion.
They were just about to reach the door of the mansion when there was a
sudden escalation of fighting centred around Canon's Butte, but slowly
spreading to the mansion's side of the city.
The Virunese were firing electrophora and lasers down at the monastic
army that had a regiment of archers that were quickly grouped by Orren
for the fight against the eagle power.
There was a huge, hot orange colour rising from behind Halls and the
butte.
Lloyd felt devastated because he knew that the colours could only mean
the unsuccessful landing of the Bestenese navy.
The great glow of the sky suggested to him that most of the navy was
burning.
Bursts of laser shot over Halls from the other side. At least some of
the force had landed and was engaged in a battle and Lloyd did so wish,
with all his heart, that his friends from besten would be triumphant.
He helped Boyce into a large room that faced Halls. The room was being
used as a hospital, to help those who were severely wounded.
Boyce was cared for by Cavander and it was good news for both him and
Lloyd.
Boyce wasn't very badly hurt, only having cut up his shoulder like a
deep scrape.
Cavander told him that he would have to take it easy for a few hours.
Lloyd agreed with Cavander that Boyce should get some sleep, promising
Boyce that he could handle the situation out there. Boyce was sure of
that and subsequently submitted to their request for his rest.
The fighting that was at the butte and the square had now spread to the
mansion itself. Several companies of men were inside the mansion, kept
there on the off chance that the mansion would be subjected to a siege
and they all readied themselves when they saw that the monastic army
was steadily moving closer to the building.
The Virunese, on their eagles, were dropping out of the skies, being
shot down by both electrophoric charges and arrows.
The fighting continued unbroken and soon those within the mansion were
trying to keep the ArchBishop's armies from getting within reach of the
doors and windows.
The outside of the building was pitted with holes and cracks, as well
as burns, caused by the bolts of electrophora and laser heat, from the
enemy.
From all those men shot down from the sky, Orren had commanded that
their weapons be taken and used on them. Soon the two armies were
closer to equal in their advantage over each other, but Orren's men
fought harder as if the devil was in each of them.
Boyce slept as he was asked to and he didn't seem aware of the trouble
that was breaking all around him.
Lloyd had gone through the wall in the viewing den, taking the short
underground passage to the cove exit, on the shore behind the butte.
He took off his helmet as he looked across the glassy ocean and saw
that a few ships retreating from battle, while most of them burned on
the rocks which rose out of the water.
The bodies of dead Bestenese were everywhere, with only a few of the
bodies being those of the monastic armies.
He noticed that the powerful weapons, made for Boyce's cause, were
nowhere to be seen, and he had no doubt that the enemy was now using
them.
He looked up at the evil shape of Halls, reaching to the pitch black
sky above him.
Monastics were no longer keeping an eye on the shore line. They
believed that the Bestenese would never come back to shore for more of
the same defeat that they had already suffered.
Lloyd was having doubts about seeing those who retreated, coming back
for another go at out-flanking the ArchBishop. He didn't blame them,
though.
He put his helmet back on his head and slowly walked to the base of the
butte and started to climb the rocks.
The take over of Pomperaque, which both Boyce and Lloyd wanted to
accomplish with the minimum of blood shed had become a blood bath.
Unknown to Orren's army, half of the Krolalin cavalry was held back
from the initial battle. Now, however, under Tucker's capable
leadership, the cavalry charged through Pomperaque from the north and
began to annihilate the army that had the Blue Mansion under attack.
Orren retreated, with a few other high cardinals, back to the Halls
Cathedral. They were soon followed by monastic lieutenants leading
their own battalions back to the relative safety of Halls' quadrangle.
The men, fighting from the inside of the Blue Mansion, were relieved to
see the cavalry because the energy charges that they did have in
reserve, for their weapons, were all drained of their power during the
battle around the mansion.
The cavalry spared a few dozen charges for the men within and a small
celebration was started to express their pleasure at still being
alive. Everyone took the opportunity to eat something while the
retreat armies stayed away planning their next attack phase.
Lloyd had found his way into the Halls Cathedral and trying to keep
himself from being see, he searched as many rooms as he could, looking
for manguino or someone that was closest to him.
Tucker had made a decision to attack the Halls Cathedral with the help
of Empal and what was left of the Virunese air support.
Word was sent to the Bestenese commander of the retreating naval fleet,
which was comprised of only five ships (from an original compliment of
fifty), and he agreed to give his landing another try, but farther up
the shore.
The attack was swift and they caught Halls by surprise.
Tucker's cavalry hit them straight on while Empal's air force struck
them from above, and the navy hit them from behind after the cliffs on
the butte's north eastern side.
The battle escalated into a full conflict, and soon, both sides no
longer had any power left in their energy cells. This didn't stop the
battle however. In fact it spurred the fighting into more of a
hand-to-hand mode, with swords and supportive cross bows.
As the fighting continued and turned more bloody, the moon began to
rise over the Joenine Forest, adding a silvery-blue light to the arena
of fighting, and giving the entire city the look of a necropolis, with
bands of demons fighting over its control.
Boyce was looking out the window of the hospital room and was wondering
how Lloyd was doing in battle.
Lloyd was wondering if Boyce was awake and fighting, but soon, this
wondering left him when he found the largest and most luxurious looking
bed chamber of those that he'd looked into.
He silently crept into the room, making certain that he wasn't seen,
and he slowly walked while he cautiously drew his sabre. He looked
ominous in his armour and parts of it did scrape and screech with
every step that he made.
"Come in!" said a ratty feminine voice.
Eckma was in the chamber with her and Manguino's only living child.
The child was less than a year old and there was nothing physically
wrong with it, and it acted normally but to Lloyd the child seemed to
have a presence of evil emanating from it.
It wasn't a weak presence of evil, either. It was much like the light
of a candle in a dark void, even seen for miles.
He followed the voice until he passed through some heavy blood-red
drapes and saw Eckma lying naked on a huge round shaped bed, with the
child beside her.
Cardinal Polis, the physician, hadn't given her a capsule of the age
retardant drug, because of his prior commitment to the war. Now, sores
were returning to many parts of her body and she picked at them.
Lloyd felt nauseous looking at her doing it and he didn't particularly
get very excited when she took to stroking the fleshy layers of her
vagina with her forefinger.
"The stories about you are true ... you are foul looking!" he said to
her.
She sat up quickly with anger on her face, only to recline again, with
a smile.
"Come to my bed, dear warrior. Let me touch you!" she called him to
her and almost unnoticeably spread her legs a little wider.
"Cover yourself, bitch. Man was not meant to fornicate with animals!"
She still smiled. She was apparently moved by him.
Besides Manguino, Lloyd is the only other man that she has felt like
taking into herself.
His toughness and gruff manner towards her made her quiver all over
with anticipation.
"You can hit me, if you so wish. You can rape me. I will not make a
sound even if you decide to bludgeon me!" she told him.
"You wretched evil hag. You sexless bacterial malignancy! One such
as you cannot be allowed to live!"
Lloyd grabbed the baby by its leg and cut the baby in half, in front of
Eckma's eyes. After he did that, he cut the halves in half and did so
again.
Eckma was terrified of him now and as he went for her, with his sabre,
she let out a curdling scream that carried above the battle noise and
throughout all of Halls.
Eckma became hysterical until Lloyd silenced her similarly to ridding
the earth of her evil child.
Manguino was watching the battle from his office window and Orren
called the battle tactics from a balcony, halfway up the side of the
cathedral.
Both men heard the horrific scream and both of them left their
positions and quickly went towards Manguino's bed chamber.
Lloyd had entirely hacked up the bodies of Eckma and the child until
all that was left of them was bloody flesh, severed bones, and pieces
of internal organs strewn all over the bed.
Manguino and Orren met one another in the long hallway that led to the
main chamber and they didn't say anything to one another. They just
continued on their way until they reached the ArchBishop's room.
They bowled through the door and pushed their way through the curtains
to where the bed was.
Lloyd, in his beautiful armour turned around when he heard the noise
and he saw the cardinal dressed in his battle garb and Manguino in his
robes.
Manguino didn't seem to be overly disturbed seeing that his wife and
child were mutilated.
"Thank-you!" Manguino said to Lloyd. "I was getting tired of her,
anyway!"
"May the true living God forgive me for murder but evil must be
destroyed. In my life I served my God and I served my earthly king and
friend, Boyce Loebh Scullion-Blue. In death I shall only serve my
God!" stated Lloyd.
"If you will!" replied Manguino to Lloyd's statement, the looked at
Orren and pointed his finger at Lloyd.
Orren raised his cross bow at Lloyd.
"The murder of my father, the Cardinal Allen, is avenged." he said
then he shot Lloyd.
Lloyd didn't fall though. He stood straight and firm; his blood
gushing from where the arrow penetrated his armour, right through to
his back, and he even spoke.
"Your father's death was its own revenge!" Lloyd said to Orren, with
blood spattering from out of his mouth. "You will not live Orren."
Lloyd fell to one knee and Orren shot him a second time, nearer the
heart, but lloyd continued before he fell forward. "You won't lice in
the next life!"
While Lloyd lay dead on the floor, in a pool of scarlet that spread
about him, Orren put another arrow into his cross bow and shot the body
once more time.
When he did that a surprising shriek was heard and Zoro flew around the
room three times.
Orren ran after it brandishing his sword, trying to hit it in mid air,
but Zoro flew out of the window and towards the Mansion.
There was a very long pole that kept a canopy of lace up over the round
bed, and Orren
pulled it down. He cut off Lloyd's head, after taking the gallant
helmet off of the corpse and he shoved the head onto one end of the
pole.
Orren and a party of men then made their way slowly from Halls to the
Blue Mansion, carrying the pole with Lloyd's head mounted on it.
The fighting had subsided, and the electric twang of the electrophore
weapons was no longer heard. Only far in the background there could be
heard the tinny sound of hand-to-hand sword fighting.
At the base of the cobbled walkway, leading up to the mansion, some
twenty meters from the main door, Orren and his men planted the headed
pole and left it there.