BS8 Finale!
And so it was. Bella of Brockhall, Lady of Salamandastron, her husband and Lord, Moonrock, and their friend Bracken the hedgehog had made it to the finals. Opting to fight each other in a free-for all finale, the three beasts kept their word to each other until the end. At last it was time that they should be forced to turn on each other, or face a wrath unknown.
The place of battle had been set, and so each of the three creatures and their mercenaries marched to that location. Each of them had been given a map, but what lie at the end was marked with a large red X, and nobeast knew what therein lay.
Bracken arrived from the south, Moonrock from the east, and Bella from the north, but the reaction from each was the same. Each one of the three beasts looked up, awestruck by the grandeur of the secret location. It was Castle Floret. The castle had gone through several alterations since the days of Joseph the Bellmaker, and was now left abandoned, but was no less magnificent for it.
One of the aforementioned alterations was that gates with drawbridges had been set up on each side of the castle, bridging the treacherous moat that encircled it. Each beast entered the gate nearest his or her location, and none passed over the same gate. This was to be a most memorable finale.
Bracken carefully navigated the corridors of the ancient castle. Arriving at a set of heavy double doors, the hedgehog gave them a tug, but they were hard to budge. The hedgehog tightly gripped a handle and then pulled with all his might. After a few seconds the door swung open, sending Bracken tumbling. Collecting himself, Bracken marched into what was once the dining hall.
As Bella entered from the north, she promptly met a flight of stairs, and thus decided to ascend them to the higher levels of the castle. Upon reaching the second floor, she too began her exploration. The Lady's mercenary charged down the hall and headed straight for a set of doors like those Bracken had met and promptly shattered it, sending echoes of splintering wood throughout the castle as Bella walked onto the balcony of the castle's main chamber.
Moonrock jolted at the sound of Bella's mercenary smashing down the doors, confirming his enemy's arrival. Carefully meandering the hallways of the first level, Moonrock and his mercenary finally met with a set of double doors just as the other two had, and thus he also decided to enter. The chamber within was expansive, huge like the main chamber of Salamandastron itself. It was exactly this that Moonrock was thinking when the first arrow thudded into his shoulder.
Bella's mercenary had hit his target! The badger was a large and easy target for the lizard who stood beside Bella, a story above Moonrock and his vixen. Moonrock quickly dove to the side before the rest of the arrows could strike, hiding behind a large column while his mercenary went about healing the wound.
With the column providing cover, Moonrock and his mercenary quickly started firing back upon the Lady and the lizard. Likewise taking cover behind a column, the two above began a standoff.
Bracken heard the sounds of battle not too far off, however the corridors were a maze and there were many chambers, none of which contained Moonrock or Bella. Taking to a flight of stairs, Bracken began his search again, and then he spotted Bella. Bracken quietly made his charge at the Lady and her mercenary, both with their attention turned to the enemies below.
From his vantage point below, Moonrock actually gained an advantage. As Bracken's bunghammer slammed into Xalax's head, the hedgehog was met with an arrow shot from below. Recoiling in pain, the hedgehog stumbled backwards as Bella spun about. Surprisingly, Xalax rose from the stone floor, head trapped inside a crumpled helm, and charged after Bracken.
Knowing he could not face Xalax and Bella and succeed, Bracken exited the room in haste, but Xalax continued his charge. Bracken was about to use a healing potion when he heard the monitor and saw the lizard charge around the corner. Not wanting to face the enraged lizard while injured, Bracken took off again, this time climbing flight after flight of stairs, all the while with Xalax in hot pursuit.
Moonrock chuckled from below, "It looks like you've no bow of your own, milady, while we have two," just then stones crashed to the floor from a story above as Bella bashed through the balcony's railings. Just as Bella hit the floor, she was struck by an arrow, but Bella was unphased, charging directly at Moonrock and his mercenary with axepike to the ready.
Moonrock hastily retrieved his own axepike as his mercenary tried to slow the badger down with more arrows, to no avail. The castle jolted as Bella's axepike slammed into the stone column, after passing clean through Moonrock's vixen mercenary. Rock rained from above as the column began crumbling under the Badger Lady's massive blow, and Moonrock was left scrambling to get out from below the balcony.
Bracken had reached the end of the stairs, and Xalax was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he had gotten lost several flights back, Bracken mused, as he used a healing potion. Turning to look out the window, Bracken was amazed to feel the castle shake, and then a crumbling sound followed. It was then that he could hear Xalax's clawed paws striking the stone floor, no more than a story below. Bracken was at the top of the north tower, and there was only one way back down… or was there?
Six stories below, Bella and Moonrock were engaged in a battle of titans. The Lord had a slight edge in his size, but the Lady was giving no quarter. After clashing axepikes, Bella tripped Moonrock with the shaft of her weapon, sending the heavily armored Lord hard to the floor. The Lord rolled aside to avoid the ensuing strike from above, which left a crevasse several inches deep in the stone.
Bracken was now out on top of the castle's highest tower, and in plain sight of the monitor as he turned about and glared out the window. Xalax was determined his quarry would not evade him. Leaping out of the window, Xalax drew his scimitar and grinned. He'd taste hedgehog before nightfall.
Bracken drew his rapier as the monitor approached. The lizard licked his chops and spoke arrogantly, "Zpikeyhog tazte nice with zome zoup, sssss…" The monitor charged. Bracken was now standing near the very edge of the castle roof, and as Xalax made his charge, the hedgehog quickly sidestepped. To the hedgehog's dismay, he was met with a slash to the side as the monitor had stopped several steps back of the castle edge, and hadn't toppled off as planned.
Recoiling in pain, Bracken could feel himself falling backwards into space. The hedgehog quickly unwrapped his bolas from around his belt and flung it over the monitor. Bracken hung on to one end of the bolas as the others tangled about the lizard's head and neck. Swinging himself back onto the ledge, Bracken yelled, "Now!"
Screeching from above, a butcherbird flew directly for the monitor at top speed. Stopping halfway though a swing towards the hedgehog, Xalax turned his head just in time to see the bladed claws of a massive bird. Xalax toppled backwards over the ledge as Bracken's mercenary slashed once at the lizard's face with his bladed claws.
Peering over the edge Bracken sighed as he used a healing potion. A few seconds later, the lizard hit the moat with a splash and Wrathbeak, the butcherbird, cackled joyfully, "Perhaps lizardworm be fishy." Wasting no time, Bracken and his mercenary began a rapid descent.
Moonrock was now on the defensive, and was quite fearful that Bella's mercenary might return. The badger Lord managed to return to his footpaws after a check with the butt of his axepike's shaft send Bella backwards several steps.
The two continued a fearsome battle, striking blows that would have sent lesser beasts to the Dark Forest. The badgers swung and parried each other's blows with the axepikes, seemingly all in slow motion as the weapons' massive heads made them hefty to swing.
The two were locked in battle, blade pressed against blade as Bella made her move. In a flash, a set of blade claws sprung up from the back of her paws. The Lady's axepike was sent flying by Moonrock's, just as Bracken entered the room.
The hedgehog ducked as the massive weapon flew overhead, the blade sliced off a large piece of his armor and several back spikes, but the hedgehog barely noticed. He drew his rapier and was ready for battle.
Moonrock, however, had been caught off guard by the Lady's quick weapon switch. With the advantage of speed, Bella was able to score several devastating blows upon the badger Lord and parried his every stroke of the axepike, forging her blade claws was obviously a smart choice.
Seemingly the odd beast out, Bracken changed that with a swift thrust to Moonrock's side, catching the already stunned beast well off guard just as his mercenary let out an ear-piercing shriek, wheeling about above in the massive chamber before taking his dive at Bella.
Moonrock stumbled and fell backwards, letting the blade slip out from his side as it streamed like a fountain of blood. The badger could feel he was done for, but quickly reached for his healing potions in hope of recovery. Bracken, however, would not let this be. Quickly smashing the potion bottles, Bracken grinned mercilessly in the heat of battle.
Just as Bracken smashed the Badger Lord's last healing potion, he was struck by a feathered assault. The bird hit Bracken with such a blow that he fell backwards and landed with his back against a rock column. Fearing subterfuge Bracken quickly stabbed at what was already a dead mercenary, flung at him by Bella. The bird gave Moonrock all the time he needed to seal the hedgehog's fate. With one last swing of his axepike, Moonrock cleaved straight though the hedgehog just as Bella had done to his mercenary what seemed like hours earlier.
The castle shuddered once more, and the column, already cracked from the collapse of the balcony on the opposite side earlier, began to crumble. Moonrock struggled to get back upon his paws, but it was no use. Bella smiled in triumph, licking blood from her lips. She knew victory was hers, and with a slash of her broadsword, she made it certain.
Bella looked about her and realized the severity of her situation. She was in the dead center of the massive castle, and it was about to crumble around her. What the badger did not know, though, was that her fate was already sealed.
Bella had used a healing potion following her battle with Wrathbeak, before she flung the bird at Bracken. But what she failed to notice was that when she flung the bird she was cut, ever so slightly, on the paw by the dead bird's claws. With six healing potions still in her pack, the badger crumpled to the ground, breathing heavily. Reaching for a potion in her pack, Bella turned and faced upwards, just in time to see the massive stone that would crush her a moment later.