Shadows and Kings.

[Rhalius]

With surprising speed, the Dread Baron attacks Sir Jory and Sir Lancelot.

Before they even know what is happening, Jory is beaten down by the Baron's shield and Lancelot is defeated in a brief sword fight.

Sir Stephen tries to attack him in the back, but it seems the Dread Baron is quick to use his sword to deflect the attack while picking up Lancelot's sword.

Sir Constantine climbs over the table to reach the Baron while the vikings come charging in as well!

While Jory gets back on his feet, the Dread Baron turns around quickly, his sword aimed at Stephen!

Jory looks in shock as the Dread Baron stabs his friend in his side, while fending off Sir Constantine with his other sword and being quick to grab Stephen's sword.

He kicks Constantine hard against the table, knocking him out as he beats down the first of the vikings and turns to fend off Jory once more.

Sir Jory: "We will stop you!"
King Ragnar: "Now you will face the king of the North!"
Dread Baron: "Muhahahaha! no one can stop me!"

Wasting no time, he takes down Jory once more and throws one of his swords at a Viking archer, taking him out as well.

King Ragnar: "Take him down!"

The kings and queens are getting quite scared in the meanwhile, their best knights are defeated by the Dread Baron one by one!

King Miguel: "I am getting out of here!"
King Raymond: "We cannot just leave our men behind!"
Queen Valeria: "Duke Alymere and Sir Godfrey will protect us, they are outside the gates."
King Oberon: "As much as it pains me, we must leave. There is too much at stake here. If they capture all of us, he will use us to get to our kingdoms."
King Phillip: "I agree.. I would not want to leave my knights behind but I will return with my troops. Hopefully Cedric has been cured of his poison."
Queen Dominique: "I will try to get King Ragnar to leave with us, he is too old to get himself into a fight with the Dread Baron."

Daring to pick his sword back up, Prince Edward's bodyguard attacks Sir Warren to free his master.

The soldier poses little trouble for Sir Warren, but it does allow Prince Edward to move freely again.
Prince Edward: "I cannot be stopped anymore, at this very moment my army are already moving to lay siege to King Phillip's castle. I heard Sir Cedric survived, they will make sure that this does not happen again. The castle will be burned to the ground!"

While the Dread Baron moves in on Sir Warren, Queen Dominique tries to plead with King Ragnar.

Queen Dominique: "Let us leave King Ragnar, you cannot defeat him. He was evenly matched with Sir Cedric the swan knight."
King Ragnar: "A king does not flee! I earned my throne with the sword, and I will not run off like a coward!"
Queen Dominique: "No you won't, King Ragnar. You will merely be retreating back to your island to gather your vikings, so they can share the glory of battle with you when you return here with them. They will be reminded once more why you are their undisputed leader."
King Ragnar murmured a bit. "Very well, I will assemble my army."

It seems Queen Dominique knows exactly what to say to the Viking king without hurting his pride, but will it be enough? will they be able to escape?
And could Sir Warren and the remaining knights stand a chance against the Dread Baron?

These answers will come soon.

((Will be continued soon.))

[Pynedor]

Great fight in the castle! The Dread Baron is quite skilled, despite his maniacal attitude. I hope that the other knights will be able to avenge Stephen and the others that were injured or killed!

[tahra]

(...)

Queen Dominique: "I will try to get King Ragnar to leave with us, he is too old to get himself into a fight with the Dread Baron."

Queen Dominique's posing is amazing on that pic

[PlaymoMan]

This story is simply fantastic, can't wait for the next installment!

[Rhalius]

((thanks again everyone, no one got killed but some are badly injured!))

After defeating the soldier, Sir Warren turns around quickly to block the Dread Baron's blade.

While Warren seems to be outmatched, he manages to hold his own for now.

In the meanwhile, the royalty is making their move to get out of the castle.

Queen Morina: "You know this won't work. The Dread Baron cannot be stopped by your knights, you won't get past him."
Queen Valeria: "We have to try, too much is at stake here."
King Miguel: "I prefer to get as far away from that dreadfull fellow as possible!"

Surprisingly, Warren seems to hold up quite well against the Dread Baron, who had become overconfident.

Unlike the other knights present, the Dread Baron had never seen him fight but just assumed he would be no match for him.
Sir Warren manages to hit his helmet off and tries to push on, trying with all his might to overpower the Dread Baron!

Prince Edward finds it takes too long for his liking however and he draws his sword. "Stop fooling around, this ends now."
He walks up to Warren from behind and stabs him in the back! He falls down wounded, unable to get back up.

The Dread Baron is quite angry about this though! "I don't need your help, he was stronger than the others but I would beat him!"
Prince Edward: "Not nearly fast enough, now go make sure that no one escapes!"
Dread Baron: "Fine, I'll keep them here. But you are on your own in this fight."
Prince Edward: "What fight?"

Prince Edward does not see that King Ragnar had climbed on the table and was leaping at him, sword in hand! He could just barely turn around before being pushed to the ground and forced to defend himself against the agressive attacks of the Viking king!

King Ragnar: "If you want my crown you will have to fight for it, boy! A coward like you can never rule the Vikings!"
The Dread Baron smirked. "That fight."
Prince Edward: "Gah! don't just stand there and help me!"
Dread Baron: "I am sure you can handle one old king. I'll take care of the rest of them."

He moves to block the way for the Kings and Queens. "You are not going anywhere. Anyone of you that tries to get past me will die."

King Raymond: "Have you no honour?! You are a knight, you should abide to the code of chivalry!"
King Phillip: "I am affraid there will be no reasoning with him, he has abandoned that path a long time ago."
King Miguel: "What about money? I will pay you whatever you want if you let me go!"
Dread Baron: "No one is leaving here, now wait here a moment while I go take care of your remaining troops outside."

The Dread baron moves to pick up Warren's sword and raises both swords to taunt Sir Godfrey and Duke Alymere, who are standing outside.
"Come on then, I am right here! Try and stop me if you can!"

Sir Godfrey: "We will charge at him together, we can't hold back."
Duke Alymere: "For Chivalia!"

[Rhalius]

While the two brave knights charge forward, Sir Fernando finally gets off his chair to help out.
"Don't worry, I will make sure these fellows here are not going anywhere!"


As the two knights charge forward to attack the Dread baron from both sides, the Dread Baron jumps forward in between their horses with both swords raised up, hitting both knights at their sides while narrowly managing to avoid Sir Godfrey's axe.


With these brave knights falling wounded off their horses, the Dread Baron moves past them only to find one drunken knight and a single soldier outside as his only opposition.

Growing bold now, Prince Edward's bodyguards pick their weapons back up now that no one is able to watch them anymore.
Sir Fernando: "You are out of luck fellow, the more I drink, the stronger I am! And I just finished a whole barrel!"
While it sure helps his confidence, it is quite clear Fernando is not going to last long against the Baron.

In the meanwhile, Sir Jory is struggling to get back up, fighting against the pain.
"Stephen? Can you hear me? speak to me!"

Sir Stephen responds weakly: "Protect the.. king and queen.."

Gently Sir Jory takes the sword from Stephen's side. "You are going to make it my friend, and I will protect them.. as best as I can!"


And it seems Sir Jory's sword will be needed, Prince Edward's bodyguards are charging into the castle and the Dread Baron has defeated Fernando and his soldier!


While wounded and weakened, Sir Jory attacks two of the bodyguards at once, preventing them from helping their Prince who is fighting a hopeless battle against King Ragnar who is clearly trying to kill the young Prince!

The two other bodyguards move in to prevent the royalty from escaping, fighting their last remaining guard.
Queen Dominique: "King Ragnar, we only need to defeat him, spare his life!"
King Ragnar: "Let him live and he will just try to stab you in the back again!"
King Phillip: "He won't get such a chance in prison, where he belongs."

While Jory fights bravely, will it be enough to stop the Dread Baron when he moves back into the castle? Or anyone else? Will anyone be able to escape?
These answers will come soon.

((To be continued soon.))

[Tiermann]

Aaagh SOON?? Not soon enough...
Excellent

[PlaymoMan]

Excellent story, this keeps getting more exciting!

[DrDalek6]

Uh brilliant stuff some great battle scenes I love that photo of the Dread Baron staring at the camera smirking  go King Rangar! look forward to seeing some more 

[sunflower]

I think this is getting better and better. Especially love the costumes.