New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

2017, 04-03

The Battle of Five Armies

I am in a place I don’t recognize. I look around to see if I can get some idea of where I am. The area around me is rather desolate. I see no sign of life, there are very few plants that are even alive. I see no trees except the burned husks that look like they’re left over from a raging forest fire. I walk through the desolate landscape for a bit, wondering what could have happened here. I walk for a short ways and then I hear a voice behind me. This surprises me because I was just there and I didn’t see anyone around me at all. I turn towards the voice and I see a man and a woman standing there. The woman is in a kimono and the man is in blue jeans and a t-shirt. The woman smiles at me and tells me to do a reality check. I look at her for a minute, for some reason my mind doesn’t want to wrap itself around that concept. But finally I do a reality check by pinching my nose, and I find I can still breathe. So this is a dream! I look between the woman and the man, Asuka and MoSh, wondering what to do now. I don’t remember what goals I am supposed to accomplish…

My thoughts are interrupted by the sounds of a battle not far off. I hear the clashing of steel, people yelling… I look in the direction of the sound but I can’t see very far due to a ridge. Asuka says something about training different techniques of fighting, but the first thing she had done was to bring MoSh here to see me. When I hear her mention fighting I comment that I hear a lot of fighting just over that ridge. Without giving much thought to anything else I head in the direction I hear fighting from. I look down into a valley below and I see total chaos. There is a large battle going on down there that appears to involve humans, dwarves, elves, trolls, orcs, and zombies, at least those are what I can see from where I am. I see a small group of dwarves have become separated from their main force and are quickly being closed in on by orcs. I have to help them!

Without thinking any more about MoSh and Asuka I head down into the valley, making a straight path towards the cornered dwarves. As I am approaching the battle I transform my right arm into an Alex Mercer blade and my left into an Alex Mercer shield and then I head into the battle. I immediately find myself under attack by orcs and zombies, but their attacks fail to break through the Alex Mercer shield. And the Alex Mercer blade cuts an orc or zombie down with ease, though I make sure to keep moving so I don’t get completely surrounded to the point where I am unable to make it to the dwarves in need. I can’t see where I am going any longer, so I just do my best to keep traveling in a straight line until I finally break through a wave of orcs and then I see dwarves in front of me. A dwarf attacks me at first, seeing the design of the shield and assuming I am fighting with the orcs. I move the shield enough for them to see I am a human and tell them I am on their side, here to help them reunite with their kin to make a united force against the enemy. They stop attacking me and one of them says he saw Dáin’s forces not far to the side. So all together, six dwarves and me, we fight our way into the throng of orcs and zombies until we reach the main force of dwarves.

Now I stop and think about MoSh and Asuka… I just took off and left them! I wonder where they ended up? Did they come down and get involved in the fight, or did they stay out of it? I head back in the direction where I saw them last and once again I am surrounded by orcs and zombies attacking me. Some of them are slain before they can get close to me because the main force of humans is trying to sandwich the orcs and zombies between themselves and the dwarves. Elves are on a hill nearby and they are picking enemies off from a distance with their bows and arrows. I get near the edge of the battle and I see where there are some wounded people lying there. I have found Asuka, she is tending to them. I see she is giving people what look like cookies! I get there and ask where MoSh went. She said he is out there practicing some of his fighting. She asks if I have been wounded, because she has cookies that will heal me. I don’t need healing… but I still want a cookie. So I take a cookie and look around, trying to find MoSh.

As I turn away I see MoSh is in plain sight on top of a hill at the far side of the battlefield. He looks like Ranma Saotome now, and he is fighting a man who is wearing black robes and wields a black staff. The man he is fighting uses his staff to fire purple rays of dark energy at some fallen humans and orcs on the ground near the base of the hill, and they stand up, returned to a semblance of life as zombies. I head in that direction, wanting to help out. That means I charge back into the fray, and I get immediately attacked from all sides. I swing my arm blade in wide swipes, slicing open any orc or zombie that comes in my path. A troll stomps into my path, barring my way from reaching MoSh and the man he’s fighting. The troll stomps up to me and swings his huge club weapon down on top of me. I crouch down and block with my shield. The shield holds, but I am pushed a couple feet into the ground. The troll seems confused as to why I didn’t go splat. He swings his club to try again. This time I jump up and onto the club, which is wide enough to run along. I run along the club and run my arm blade right through the troll’s neck. Blood spurts everywhere, all over me, I am grossed out, but the troll falls over dead. I look back towards the hill where MoSh was fighting, standing on top of the fallen troll to get a better view. I see him on top of the hill, but now he is holding the man’s staff and has used it as a spear to drive it through his enemy. I can see when the man dies, and at the same instant every zombie in the field drop dead. This leaves the orcs severely outnumbered without the dead assisting them. I turn to face orcs that are now charging at me, but everything fades to black as I wake up.