The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

"I told you all the balloon was a terrible idea," Eight grumbled, pounding on the control console. "Told you I could get us a more stable solution that didn't involve relying on a magical object we knew nothing about with a mind of its own. But no, nobody wanted to go out and get the materials for me."

"Hardly even seems worth the trouble at this point," Three sighed. "Midnight's ripping things apart and it's not as if we've got any way to chase her off. Best we can do is keep her away from the infirmary and attempt to minimize the damage when we hit the ground."

"I'm working on it! But that's not very easy when she keeps knocking out our secondary engines."

As if to emphasize the point, there was a loud explosion a moment later.

"That's engine number seventeen down. I don't suppose you can get Twelve to keep her away from the engines, too?"

"He's already got his hands full. Just focus on the engines closest to the infirmary."

"We don't have engines close to the infirmary. That would be a safety hazard."

Three sighed.

"Then I suppose I'll have to take care of it. Which engines do you need the most?"

"Losing any more is a big problem. But if I absolutely had to, I could barely manage with engines thirteen, seventy-two, and ninety-nine." Eight pointed to a map of the castle. "Seventy-two's right under us, so we've got problems if it goes out anyway. Ninety-nine is far enough along the underside of the castle that she probably won't go for it. Thirteen, however... it's right over by seventeen, and we already know she's in that area."

There was another loud explosion.

"That was eleven."

"Point made. I'll lead her to the other side of the castle."

Three hopped on his horse, leaving Eight to damage control. As usual.

Midnight was growing bored. Only three knights had been dispatched to fight her. Three! If they were in such poor shape, it was a wonder they'd launched an attack at all. Perhaps it was sheer desperation, or perhaps they wanted some semblance of a heroic death.

Whatever the case, they were merely annoying. She had fought dozens of knights without any trouble, and while these three were admittedly better-trained than most, they simply didn't have the numbers to actually threaten her. Assuming they even had weapons sharp enough to pierce her scales in the first place, which was doubtful.

At first she had thought the knights a mere stalling tactic, but they'd been fighting her for a good fifteen minutes now and nothing had happened. If anything, they were keeping her here longer than she had planned; if it weren't for these pests she had to swat, she would have flown back some time ago and waited for the castle to plummet.

But she couldn't leave now. The knights would think they'd won. Three knights defeating the Midnight Queen? Quite aside from the humiliation, that was bound to lead to hope. And hope, as she well knew, meant trouble.

She'd worked hard to destroy hope the last time around. She did not want to go through that trouble again.

Midnight crushed another tower with a wave of her tail as she watched the knights circle her. If these fools weren't going to fight, they could watch their precious castle fall under her might.

Then she felt a sharp pain on her underside. She howled, and glanced down below.

So it had been a stalling tactic after all. A fourth knight had flown up and struck her in the belly with a lance while she was focused on the other three.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't nearly enough to do the job. Midnight pulled the lance out of the wound and snapped it in two. Without the element of surprise or his weapon, the fourth knight did nothing to aid their chances now.

As if to drive the point home, Midnight reached for him. But Three had already expected his attack to fail, and was flying off as fast as he could. He hadn't even bothered to hold onto the lance; he only wanted to draw the Midnight Queen's attention.

In that regard, his plan had been a success. She was already chasing after him, only pausing to swat away the other three knights if they dared draw close.

Twelve did not dare. He had caught on much sooner than the other two. They needed to draw her away from this part of the castle. That was more important than anything.

Including their own lives.

From miles away, an eager pair of eyes watched the raging battle with a smirk.

"Looks like that kid was right," the Duke of Desire said, handing his telescope to Razz. "They've only got four knights out there. And there's smoke all over the place! It's not staying up long at this rate."

"Don't see why you're makin' such a big deal outta this, boss," Razz said, putting the telescope away. "Sure, it's a lotta scrap, and we can make some sweet stuff with it, but it ain't changin' much. Midnight's still runnin' things, only without the Knights gettin' in her way."

The Duke laughed heartily.

"Oh, no, no, no. The scrap is just the icing on the cake. Okay, there's a lot of icing here, and it's good stuff, but that's because we're looking at the biggest, sweetest, most delicious cake anyone's ever made."

"I think ya lost me there. What's so important about the knights losin' their castle?"

"It's simple, Razz. When Six For Gold goes down, this whole sky's gonna be mine."

"Uh, that's great boss, but I don't think the Midnight Queen's gonna let you do that."

"Oh, that." The Duke grinned. "That's just a matter of cleaning up. And I got just the mop for the job."

"I don't think a mop's going to help much against a dragon, boss."

The Duke sighed.

"I gotta teach you about metaphors sometime. In fact, why don't I teach you about this one right now. I got a solid plan and it's no fun if I don't explain it to anyone first."

Eight stared at the lights. They'd gotten the queen away from Engine Thirteen, but in the process they were leading her through about forty engines that would have made things quite a bit easier.

At least he'd slowed the descent most of the way. If they could chase off the queen, they'd be more or less fine... but as angry as she was right now, that wasn't likely to happen until the fight had a clear winner.

And, Eight reasoned, it was unlikely to be the knights.

He could worry about that when this whole mess was on the ground, he supposed. For now, he had a job to do.

Midnight finally grabbed Three in her talons. She crushed his steed in her other claw, and raised the knight up to her face.

"You think you're clever, don't you," she snarled. "Think you might have actually hurt me. But I'm afraid all you've done is earn yourself the privilege of dying first."

"I do not fear death or you, Grey Queen. I pledged my life to the cause of ending your tyranny long ago. Do your worst!"

"Tempting. But I haven't really got time for my worst right now, not with your friends still pestering me." She swatted away another knight, as if to press the point. "Fortunately, there's a very simple way to dispose of you that won't require too much of my attention."

She flew away from the castle as the other knights pursued her, grinned at Three one final time, and let him go.

Eight hadn't seen the Queen pull away, but it had made his job a good deal easier. He had enough engines available to slow the descent to a safe level, but still fast enough that they'd be on the ground before the Queen got back to wreak more havoc.

Hopefully, anyway.

Eight's hopes turned out to be well-founded. The castle touched down, and he promptly vented the dust out of every engine to produce as much smoke as possible. Hopefully, it would make the crash look like a crash. It already felt like far more of one than Eight was comfortable with.

"Behold!"

The Duke drew back a curtain, one that Razz had never actually noticed before, revealing a large, musty old stone.

"I don't think a rock's gonna be much of a mop, boss. Unless you were gonna throw it at her?"

The Duke lowered his sunglasses just enough to glare at her, then pointed to a large hilt stuck in the rock.

"There's a sword in there. A very special sword. It's got a fancy name and everything, can't say I remember it but that's not important."

"So what's so special about it?"

"It's packed with enough light magic to turn the Midnight Queen into the Noon Queen. Which, if you're still having trouble with metaphors, means it's going to fry her something good. There's just one little catch."

The Duke gave the hilt a tug and groaned.

"See, Razz, this sword can only be pulled out by the bravest soul in all the sky. Now, I'm no slouch in the bravery department, or any other department for that matter. But the thing is, there's a whole bunch of knights out there fighting Midnight even though they've got no chance. That's damn brave, and while they're around, I've got no way to use this thing. But, if their castle comes crashing down, and all the knights with it..."

"Then you're the bravest, boss?"

"Well, there might be a few stragglers to deal with." The Duke gripped the hilt with both hands and pulled repeatedly, gasping for breath before he continued. "But the basic idea's clear enough. Get rid of the competition, pull out the sword, take care of Midnight, rule the skies. Simple plan, and once Six For Gold's out of the picture, it'll be a lot closer to coming true."

Razz scratched her head.

"I think I get it, except for one thing. If there's still any brave guys left after the knights are gone, how are we gonna find 'em?"

The Duke burst out into laughter.

"Razz, honey, it's easy to find brave guys. All you gotta do is go out cruisin', make it clear you're lookin' for a fight, and see who turns up. And as it happens, I'm about to have a fine new ride for cruisin' in. I tell you, this day just keeps getting better and better."