Trial by Combat

Aedric defends the honor of Queen Eioldth

30.

Trial by Combat

 

He actually hated jousting, not because he was a coward, but mainly because it was such a violent sport that someone usually got hurt.   He had mastered it though and yet during all his training, he had not flaunted the skill he had at it, but instead had just been consistent and average.

 

Thus, he had been thought of as a lack luster tilter by his foster parents and his fellow knights-in-training.

 

That had changed about a year ago when Duke Dullerm had brought the knights-in-training from Westmark to Dullerm so the two groups could have a jousting contest.  

He had burned with hatred for the Duke and his son, so he had decided that he wanted to unhorse the Drow youth.   The problem was his foster brother, Aaron along with Gamel, were the top tilters of the group and he was thought to be one of the poorer ones.

 

So he had really shown them what he could do, surprising everyone by fiercely winning each match until he was finally matched against Gamel.   To his dismay, he had not been able to unhorse the young man, and Gamel was equally surprised that he was unable to defeat him.   They each broke four lances against each other’s shields until Duke Dullerm and Sir Aeric called it a tie.  

 

Of course this also meant that they now knew he could apply himself when properly motivated, so he decided to excel at all he did for the last year of his training.

 

Yet he had never dreamed he would be defending the Queen’s honor at a tournament before a crowd of spectators from all over Northmarch and neighboring regions.  

 

 

Through the narrow slit in his helm, he saw Leos astride his warhorse, waiting for the trumpet signal to begin the charge forward.   The young dandy had fancy armor and a feisty horse that seemed nearly to be too much for the young man to handle.  

 

Aedric knew as soon as he looked at Leos on his horse that he could unseat the boy.   Horse control was the first lesson a knight was taught, and Leos obviously had not mastered it.   This meant that he would be more focused on his horse than positioning his lance and that would give Aedric a definite advantage.  

 

The crowd that could be seen through the slit of his helm was now all standing, glancing up at the Queen’s pavilion and he knew that the trumpet would soon sound to start the joust.   He adjusted himself in the saddle, wanting the whole business to be over with as soon as possible.  

 

Staring straight ahead, he heard the crowd grow suddenly silent and a moment later the clear sound of a trumpet blast sounded.

 

Instinctively he spurred his horse forward.   His horse, ‘Rwalaer’ (which meant ‘Lusty One’ in common Elven), sprang forward at once, building his speed up slowly and steadily.  

 

Leos’ horse was sent forward in a full sprint - which was a common mistaken notion; that speed made a jouster more successful.  

 

As Aedric had expected, Leos was fighting to keep his horse in a straight line, while he desperately struggled to stay on the steed’s back.   His lance was pointed at an angle toward the ground as they closed in on each other, and the dandy tried at the very last minute to adjust his aim.

 

But by then it was too late.   His lance only grazed the edge of Aedric’s shield, the force of impact extremely weak and unfocused.

 

Aedric’s aim, however, was true, and he hit the youth’s shield slightly to the left of center, counting on Leos’ ineptness at tilting to do the rest.

 

His hunch was right and his lance splintered against Leos’ shield, the blow sending him sliding left and backwards off the horse.   Aedric pulled Rwalaer’s reins sharply to the right and avoided trampling the fallen knight.  

 

The crowd roared with approval as he slowed and turned around to check on his opponent.  The boy was laying flat on the ground and for a terrible moment, Aedric feared that he might have killed him.   All at once the youth seemed to come alive, rolling and wobbling almost comically as he tried to get to his feet in his jousting armor.  

 

Aedric rode over to him while working on the bolts of his helm.   To his relief, he was able to free the jousting helm from his armor, just as he reached Leos, who was now standing on wobbling legs.

 

“Surrender, sir, you are bested!”  He called loudly to the young man, using the formal language of the joust.   He obviously had won the contest, and he saw no need to humiliate the youth any further.

 

Leos pulled his helmet off angrily, his dark eyes blazing as he pointed at Aedric, “You cheating Elven maggot, I’ll show you who your better is!”

The young man suddenly flung his metal jousting helm at Aedric’s head.   He ducked, but the helm grazed the side of his head.  

 

The crowd hissed with extreme displeasure at the conduct, but Leos seemed not to notice.   Throwing off a gauntlet, he put two fingers to his lips and gave a shrill whistle.

 

There came a trumpet-like roar from somewhere in the crowd around the end of the tournament field, followed immediately by screams and shouts.  

Aedric couldn’t believe what he saw.   Crashing forward through the spectators, which were scrambling to get out of the way, came a huge Mammoth with curved ivory tusks capped in sharp steel blades.   But it was what was riding the beast as a steed that caused him the most concern.

 

He was huge, probably nine feet tall with ugly dark yellow hide-like skin and black hair.   He wore something like a tabard but made of chainmail that left him plenty of room to use his massively muscled arms, and he carried a huge metal shod club.  It was an Ogre, and he was focused on getting to Aedric.

 

Three of the Queen’s elite Orc Bodyguard tried to intercept the brute, but the Mammoth tossed one of the Orcs out of the way with his tusks, while the Ogre pounded down the other two with his club.

 

“Joust him, Elf!”  Leos taunted as he backed away from the quickly advancing Ogre and Mammoth. 

 

Knights and guards were scrambling into action, but Aedric was far too near to the brute to receive aid in time.

 

He spun his horse around, pulling his long sword from his saddle scabbard, and then gave the spurs to Rwalaer, who, true to his training, did not hesitate, but charged forward into the path of the Mammoth.  

 

His daredevil move surprised the Ogre, giving Aedric time to close in before he could adjust.

 

Rwalaer dodged the tusks of the Mammoth at the last instant and Aedric slashed at the Ogre’s unarmored leg as they raced past.   His sword bit deep and the brute let out an injured howl of pain while he swung his club awkwardly due to his weapon’s huge size and Aedric’s close proximity.

 

The club missed him by inches, but he didn’t focus on that, instead, pulling Rwalaer around to pass by on the opposite side from the rear.  

 

The Ogre could not turn the Mammoth nearly fast enough, but tried to twist his torso around enough to ward him off with his club.   Yet he was certainly not experienced enough riding the clumsy animal to master combat while mounted, and Aedric again cut the Ogre deeply - this time on his forearm- as he rode past.

 

Unfortunately, the Ogre’s reach was quite long with the club, and as Aedric passed in front of him, preparing for another attack, the brute leaned across the neck of the Mammoth and swatted at the Elf with his weapon.

 

The club caught him in the back of his shoulder.   It was far from a solid shot, but it was backed with the Ogre’s great strength, and he found himself tumbling from his horse.

He crashed to the ground, rolling to avoid his horse’s hooves and ignoring the pain as he lept to his feet.

 

The Ogre had already vaulted off the Mammoth and was rushing toward him, his club held out in front of him.   Aedric quickly retrieved his sword off the ground as the Ogre charged forward.

 

His huge opponent was bleeding from his wounds, but was enraged, and Aedric knew he would not even get close to him while he was armed with that club.  

 

The Ogre’s first swing attempted to knock him from his feet, but he jumped backwards in time to avoid it.

 

Running was out of the question in the jousting armor, for the huge Ogre would easily catch him.  Aedric could not fathom why aid wasn’t arriving by now, but he dared not take his attention off his opponent to find out.

 

He had few options left to him.   He had to fight him.

Thankfully, his foster father had instructed his students on techniques against such brutes as Ogres, for they were commonly used as ‘line breakers’ by Orc or Hobgoblin armies.

 

“They almost always use clubs of some sort instead of sharp weapons, for they know that with their great strength, they can pound through armor and shields,”  Aeric had told them.

“Their techniques do not vary much: They try to knock an opponent down, breaking their legs with the blow if they can, or sending a crushing blow to the head.   When their opponents are prone on the ground, they will smash the skull to kill them.   Skull smashing is their killing stroke.”

 

Aeric’s words echoed in his head as he continued to back away, stalling for a small bit of time for him to figure out how to bring him down. 

“You have to fight your instinct to run from them.”  Sir Aeric had told them, “Their weapons are not as effective at hand-to-hand combat distance, though they still can easily kill you.  They need some room to swing their clubs.”

“But they tend to be dumb and won’t quickly put down their clubs to use their hands at close range.   Most of them will at least try to poke or punch at you with their heavy club and then move back so they can get a good swing at you.   If they are holding their club, get as close as you can so they won’t be able to swing it.   Or confine them in a space where they don’t have room.”

 

The words rang in his mind, but he didn’t know if he would be able to get that close to the monster.   The Ogre was injured and mad and if he connected even once with that club against his head, it would be all over.   But what choice did he have?

 

Still watching the Ogre advancing, he came up with an idea.  Leos' squire had placed a stand of lances at one end of the field, in case his master needed another one in his joust.   Aedric had bumped into the stand as he retreated from the Ogre, and it was at this moment that the idea came to him.     It would be a risky maneuver, but he was out of time.  

 

Aedric heard the sounds of shouts of alarm and the clashing of weapons that seemed to come from all sides and suspected that perhaps the Ogre’s companions had revealed themselves and the coup against the Queen had begun.

 

Yet he had his own combat to concern himself with.   Aedric pushed himself up against the side of the stand of lances, hoping to appear to the Ogre as if he had just stumbled against it as he backed away from him.   The Elf bent his knees slightly, preparing for what was to come.

 

He didn’t have long to wait.   The Ogre saw Aedric’s pause and quickly swung the wicked club at Aedric’s head.   Instead of ducking, he pushed backwards with all of his might, knocking over the stand of lances with him.   Fortunately, it looked as if the Ogre’s club had simply knocked both him and the stand down, for Aedric had timed it as close to the contact point of the club as he dared.

 

The Ogre’s club missed his head, but did slam into the stand, breaking one lance in the impact which sent splinters of wood all over the young Elf.   Yet it had the effect that the youth desired, for he and the stand fell backwards with the lances and pieces of the smashed wooden stand falling all around him.

The Ogre roared with success and paused for only a second to verify it.   Aedric lay still amidst the rubble, but his right hand had firmly grasped the grip of one of the lances as he had fallen backwards.

 

Seeing the knight sprawled out, seemingly unconscious, the Ogre raised his massive club over his head to smash his skull.

 

Aedric acted swiftly from his reclining position, pulling the lance up as the Ogre had the heavy club over his head in preparation for the swing.  The brute saw the movement, but before he could pull his weapon around, Aedric had rammed the sharp tip of the nine foot long lance under his chin, just where it connected with the monster’s neck. 

 

The Ogre gave out a horrid gurgling yell, dropping his club as he clawed at the lance.   Sickened at what he had to do, Aedric thrust the lance deep into the skull of the brute and he fell backwards, dead. 

Reviews

[Elina]

"...Gamel and, his foster brother, Aaron..." This gives the implication that Aaron is Gamel's foster brother, rather than Aedric's.
"...ignoring the pain as he leaped..." You want "lept," here.
"Still watching the Ogre advancing, he came up with an idea after he bumped into Leos’ stand of lances that his squire had placed at his end of the field in case he had need for another one." This is rather long, and could be a bit confusing for one not paying close attention to what's being said.
"...coup against the Queen had began." This should be "begun," rather than "began."

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks, Elina, another 'leaped' has popped up (or is it 'lept up'?). I was rather unhappy with the passage you mentioned as well. I'll work on it this afternoon.