Unity: A Tale of Arcadia

by Kieva Lynn

Book Two: Chapter Eleven

Book Two: Wizard Quests

Chapter Eleven

Jim Lake had to hand it to Twilight: The little unicorn really knew how to put a plan together. They had found Gunmar and Drall, with the former dragging a clearly out of the battle Angor Rot, about two hours before sunrise. With Angor not a concern, Twilight crafted a strategy for freeing Drall with minimal risk to anyone else. Central to the plan was the clear fact that Gunmar wasn't going to make it to the Janus Order base before sunrise. He would need to shelter somewhere. So, let him do so, wait until the sun was up, attack when the dictator's options were limited to staying in the shade of the trees.

Rainbow Dash would go first, Twilight had decided. As soon as the sun was up the pegasus would approach Gunmar, pretending to be a friend of Drall. Hopefully, this would cause Gunmar to send Drall after Rainbow, allowing her to lead him to a prepared ambush, where she, Toby, and Blinky would keep him busy while Twilight used the memory restoration spell to break Gunmar's control. Meanwhile, Jim and Claire would confront Gunmar himself, keeping the dictator too busy to take direct control of Drall once more. And Aja would wait, in reserve, for the best moment to strike.

As soon as Drall was himself again, they would return to aid in the fight with Gunmar, hopefully driving the evil troll out into direct sunlight, where he would turn to stone. From there, it would just be a matter of hoping Drall did in fact remember the way to Merlin's Tomb, and of course finding a way to get there, seeing as it was almost certainly half a world away in England.

Gunmar fell perfectly for the first part of the plan. Rainbow Dash had been forced to push her speed to the limits to stay ahead as Drall curled into a ball and rolled off after her. Jim waited a minute, two, to be sure Drall wouldn't turn and come right back, then nodded to Claire. They approached Gunmar together.

"Trollhunter." Gunmar rumbled as he caught sight of them.

"Gunmar. Round two." Jim answered, and leapt to the attack.

The Daylight and Decimar swords met with a resounding clang, Jim pushing off Gunmar's chest and flipping mid air before landing next to Claire just as she opened a portal to catch the enormous stones Gunmar was throwing from the safety of the shadows. Jim ran, jumped into the portal, and Claire closed it behind him and opened another, directly above Gunmar's head. The stones fell down atop the troll who batted them away, then looked confused as Jim didn't also fall from on high to attack. Claire, meanwhile, had to dodge several stones as Gunmar had the presence of mind to redirect several of them back in her direction again. Then Jim appeared, from behind a stone that Gunmar had simply cast to the ground near his feet, and came within a hair's breadth of cutting the evil troll before being knocked away.

"You have improved Trollhunter!" Gunmar bellowed. "I acknowledge your skill. But it is not enough. You have slain my son and I will take your life in vengeance!"

"Come on out here then." Jim taunted, motioning to the sunlit patch he and Claire stood in.

"A generous offer, but I decline. Come now Trollhunter, you cannot actually expect this to work? You cannot force me into the open, nor am I so clouded in the mind by rage to come willingly. Your skills are better, that is true. But I remain better still. You will have to flee before the sun sets, or it will go poorly for you."

XXXXX

"Twi! Start casting!!" Rainbow Dash's voice echoed through the forest, and Twilight began to channel the needed magic through her horn. Half a second more and Dash appeared, Drall close on her tail. As planned, Toby made the first move, jumping down from above and smashing Warhammer down in Drall's path, the seismic shockwaves tossing the troll end over end until he smashed into a tree and uncurled.

Drall's eyes glowed bright blue with the magic Gunmar had used to control him, and he let out an ear-splitting roar before charging at Toby who was saved by Rainbow Dash grabbing him and flying straight up. Then Blinky, lurking in the deeper shadows behind a tree, started throwing Dwarkstones. The explosive rocks pelted Drall's back and he turned to face Blinky instead. Rainbow, having deposited Toby high in the branches, dived back down and tried to engage Drall with her 'Broken Wing' martial arts moves. It kept the mind controlled troll busy, as she was too agile for him to land a blow barring luck, but her own blows did no harm.

Then Drall got his lucky blow, knocking Rainbow Dash back and onto her back on the ground. Drall raised both arms to strike down hard, Rainbow trying to roll out of the way, when Toby entered the battle again, cracking Drall over the back of the head, then jumping down and helping Rainbow to her hooves as Drall stumbled backwards holding his head. "Thanks." Rainbow said.

"Eh, you did the same for me." Toby answered.

Drall roared and lunges towards them again, but as he did so Twilight finished casting. The memory restoration spell slammed into his body and flowed through his brain, breaking Gunmar's control and restoring his mind. Drall fell to his knees, breathing heavily, but when Toby approached he growled menacingly. "Whoa! Easy Drall! It's me!"

"W... What...? I'm... Free...?"

"Thanks to a new friend." Blinky said, approaching. "Drall, this is Twilight Sparkle. She cast the spell that broke Gunmar's hold."

"Then I am in your debt." Drall bowed slightly to Twilight. "Though I am also surprised. Where did you find a unicorn Blinkous? I thought they were myths."

"That's a long story big guy." Rainbow said, flying back down from the tree tops. "What matters is, do you remember what happened when you were under?"

Everyone looked to Drall expectantly. "I do. I remember attacking the Trollhunter. I tried to kill him. I have lost my honor."

"But... It wasn't your fault." Twilight said.

"Yeah man, don't blame yourself for what Gunmar did." Toby agreed.

"But he did it through me. Because I was not strong enough to resist."

Twilight stepped forward and laid a hoof on Drall's arm. "I couldn't disagree more. Everything I've heard says no one can resist that blade, except maybe the Trollhunter in full armor. But even if it were true, as long as you're alive there's a chance to make amends and set things right."

"Perhaps... Though, where is the Trollhunter?" Drall looked around for Jim.

"He's um, back that way with Claire keeping Gunmar busy." Toby answered.

"What!? They fight Gunmar alone!?" Drall was running toward Gunmar's cave as quickly as he could, the others following close behind...

XXXXX

Aja was perched in the crown of a tree, serrator weapon in hand, waiting. Her role in Twilight's plan was to cover Jim and Claire if needed,otherwise watching for the best opening to do some damage. So far, no good openings had appeared. This Gunmar was every bit as big and tough as Jim and his friends had said. And now Jim and Claire were safe in a patch of sunlight, while Gunmar taunted them from the safety of the cave. "Think Aja!" The girl whispered to herself, "There has to be a way to use the broad daylight against this guy, to get him out into the sun."

The question was how. Blasting away the forest canopy would just cause Gunmar to hide deeper in the cave. Collapsing the cave would only trap him for a few hours. If she could get behind Gunmar, somehow, she could possibly try to drive him out of the cave, but how...?

Aja's ruminations were interrupted by the return of Drall, who surged out of the forest to slam into Gunmar hard, knocking the dictator off his feet. "Drall!" Jim and Claire cried out, and the named troll was distracted just enough for Gunmar to throw him off, though thankfully not out into the sunlight.

While Jim and Claire ran to check on Drall, Rainbow Dash and the others returned. "Drall destroy them!" Gunmar bellowed, but Twilight merely smirked.

"Drall is no longer under your control."

For perhaps the first time in his life, Gunmar looked flabbergasted. "You broke my control!? How can this be!?" He shook his head. "No matter! Still I am more powerful! I will destroy you all, find the Pale Lady, and bring the Age of Trollkind under the Eternal Night!"

"Well you're sure of yourself, I'll give you that." Rainbow snarked.

"You can't attack in the day." Twilight said. "And we've got all day to do something with that."

"If I were to give you the chance, perhaps!" Gunmar exclaimed, and he began throwing rocks again, big ones, boulders really, holding everyone back from attacking.

It was then that Aja saw her opening. She jumped from tree to tree until she saw Twilight sheltering behind one particular tree trunk and slid down to join her. "I have an idea!"

"I'm listening." Twilight said.

"If you can teleport me inside the cave, I can drive Gunmar back from the entrance, perhaps even all the way into the sun."

Twilight pondered the idea. "Hmmm... It's risky. But I've got nothing better. Let's do it."

Twilight and Aja vanished as the unicorn teleported them into the cave. Meanwhile, Gunmar was still throwing rocks with one hand while holding his blade with the other. It was a difficult situation for those trying to fight him; The rocks kept them from getting close, and given the blade's mind-controlling enchantment it wouldn't be a good idea for anyone but fully armored Jim anyway. Claire blocked the rocks with portals, Jim and Toby deflected what they could with their weapons, and Rainbow Dash was dropping Blinky's explosive dwarkstones from high above, but nothing seemed to be working.

For his part, Gunmar was starting to become, well, not worried. He was Gunmar. But concerned, at least. At first, Claire had been using her portals to send the rocks back, trying to hit Gunmar with his own projectiles. She had realized quickly though that all this accomplished was giving him unlimited ammunition and stopped. And now he was running short of rocks small enough to throw and big enough to be worth the trouble. He never thought he'd say it, but a little help would be useful.

Then Gunmar heard movement in the cave behind him, and a smile crept over his face. Perfect. "About time you recovered Angor Rot. We have a situation-" Gunmar never finished the sentence, as he was blasted away from the cave entrance by a combination of Aja's serrator and Twilight's magic. Another pair of blasts drove him further away, and then a third. Burning sunlight touched his hand, two fingers turning to stone, and he jumped back out of the light as quickly as he could, taking the only shelter he could now reach: A widely spreading, heavily leaved tree.

With Rainbow Dash still hovering above, and Blinky and Drall now taking the cave for their own shelter (Drall unceremoniously tossing the still out of it Angor Rot out into the sun), Twilight, Jim, Claire, Toby, and Aja surrounded Gunmar and the tree. "You've lost Gunmar. Make it easy on yourself." JIm said.

"No. I am Gunmar the Black and I will never yield. This tree will protect me until the sun falls."

"A tree's a lot easier to take down than a rocky cliff." Toby said. "We could whittle the branches away 'til he's exposed."

"Or I could just keep shooting him." Aja suggested.

"Both good suggestions." Twilight nodded. "But I've got a better idea." She tilted her head back, looking up. "Rainbow Dash! How's your speed?"

Dash grinned. "Let's find out." Without another word, Rainbow flew high into the sky, and then dived, going faster and faster. Just before reaching the tree, she changed to a 'Broken Wing' attack position meant for surviving high speed impacts, and deflected herself off the upper branches of the tree. Just as the Rainboom shockwave hit, stripping the tree of leaves and exposing Gunmar to the sun with nowhere to run.

And Gunmar the Black, terror of trollkind for over a thousand years, was turned to stone.

"We did it." Toby said, eyes wide. "Jimbo! We did it! We actually beat Gunmar dude!" The teens (and also the trolls in the cave) erupted into cheers.

But the cheers were not long in keeping. For even as they celebrated, Twilight felt something. Something she'd felt before. "Guys!" She exclaimed, "Something's wrong!"

"Gunmar! Look!" Aja shouted, pointing. At Gunmar's petrified feet, a fire was burning. It didn't burn the surrounding grass or fallen leaves, only the stone Gunmar had become, flowing up the legs, over the body and arms and head, enveloping and consuming the statue. And a voice, familiar to those who had confronted Usurna spoke. "Gunmar the Black... Come..." A few moments more and Gunmar was gone.

"Well horseapples," Rainbow Dash mumbled...

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

Author's note is incomplete. Whether this is deliberate or not, I don't know for sure.

[Kieva Lynn]

9846998
Okay that's weird. There wasn't even supposed to be a note. I'll remove it.

[badninja]

In the first part of the chapter it is talking about attacking after sunset but the whole plan takes place during the day. I think you intended sunrise.

Otherwise I think they may regret this as their enemy just gained a lot of knowledge.