Speech Increased To 2.5

by EdBoii

Battle of Hollow Shades Part 4

The Battle of Hollow Shades Part 4
Speech Increased To 2.5

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But it was then that it happened.

It began as a rumble all along the treeline. A low murmur, like so many droplets of storm rain in the distant horizon... yet it grew, louder, stronger, and fiercer than the greatest hurricane. The world seemed to stop for everyone in that glade, and even the cave troll halted in its charge as the very air came alive with the powerful thud! thud! thud! that came from beyond the forest.

The sound was not enough to distract the mudcrabs, however. The first one—its mind too simple to understand what had happened—snapped its claws shut around Juniper’s foreleg...

...only to have it slashed! clean in half! It reared back, shocked by the sudden pain and loss of its limb, and never realized what it was that killed it. Next anyone knew, a mighty toad in shining plate armor landed on the mudcrab and crushed it under its weight.

“You came!” Jelly Squish screamed in happiness, as her mighty toad warrior of legend opened his mighty mouth and used his tongue to cleave another mudcrab in half! Then a third, and a fourth, and soon they fell back in awe of such a mighty being. For even those as simple as the mudcrabs knew majesty when they witnessed it.

The toad used that brief lull in the fight to turn to his fair maiden and extend his long, slimy appendage to stroke her cheek and dry her tears.

*Ribbit* he said, and she knew with all certainty that he meant it.

But the mudcrabs would not stop forever. Soon they rallied and marched forward again, and all together against our toad, they knew their victory to be assured...

But he was not alone.

From the treeline came the rumble in a volume and magnitude beyond even the grumbling of the Machine, and the underbrush parted to reveal a great caravan of armored opossums in heavy plate and maille. They hissed! and aaaa’d! as they marched forward, and on their backs they carried together a mighty castle of wood. Upon its battlements there marched him, the Great Grandmaster of the Knights of Toad and lord of all toadkind, encased in a suit of armor so magnificent and gilded in gold and silver, encrusted with precious jewels...

...and behind him emerged from the underbrush the army of the swamps. Banners fluttered in the wind, warhorns sounded deep in the forest, and the shining reflection of the moon gleamed off of hundreds of suits of polished armor. Lances and spears shivered in anticipation under the mighty roar of the storm-fueled winds, and upon the eyes of every toad present, there was the thirst for battle.

The mudcrabs turned to face the arriving force of toads and clicked! and clacked! their vicious claws in excitement. For they knew nothing but the thrill of the fight and the promise of flesh to consume. They knew no fear, and would not surrender nor run. This was to be a battle to the bitter end!

The Great Grandmaster then bid his opossums halt and stood upon his throne. He turned from one side to the other to face all his forces, and as his mightiest knights and champions took their place at his side—all mounted on armored opossums, raccoons, and skunks—he spoke.

*Ribbit!*

And his army, all as one voice, roared back in response, *Ribbit! Ribbit! Ribbit!*

...and he turned to face the foe and our mighty toad of legend, already engaged in fierce combat. Then, with one mighty lash of his powerful tongue, he signaled the charge to commence.

*Ribbit!*

...and there was only the sound of armor, and the hisses! of war-opossums, and the great war cry of thousands of amphibians as they leapt into battle. There, in the middle of the field they met, and the uproar of their clash was thunder unlike any the sky had ever known. The first lines of mudcrabs were crushed! and beaten to a pulp under the great weight of the strongest and mightiest of the toads and their steeds, but there were so many... soon the toads found themselves ground to a halt.

And the melee commenced.

***

Pierre watched in horror as the battle developed before his eyes. Helpless, he knew that it was over, even if he wanted to deny it. He knew on a deep level that there was no way forward. Not after this. Forces beyond his control were now involved and even if he should win here, there was no future left for Pierre du Montblanc in Equestria...

He knew he must run.

But there was a deeper and more powerful madness in him that demanded blood for this affront. A visceral fury ground his teeth together and made his hooves shake, as he gripped the panel and furiously reconfigured it. He lifted his gaze to the Guard, then, and though he could not see it, he grinned.

“Whatever happens, monster,” he said, “there is no way you can win...”

He pressed the button then, and the Guard screamed silently as the Machine stabbed into him, and drained his very essence to summon forth a new horror onto the field...

***

The cave troll died in a swarm of mudcrabs. They ate into his legs, and toppled him with the weight of their numbers. It did not matter how many died. It did not matter how much it thrashed, even as they climbed over his back to bite at his neck... there were too many.

And the same would soon happen to our mighty toad. For even as he fought fiercely and drove huge numbers of the enemy into an early grave, more and more swarmed in to replace the fallen. Yet he fought on, alongside Juniper and Jelly Squish, though the two mares were beyond exhaustion.

Surrounded and with all hope fading fast, our mighty warrior of toad still had to come face to face with the new threat before any other...

The horker broke through the tide of mudcrabs without care or worry for how many perished trampled by its charge. It groaned in that powerfully deep voice of the northern frostlands, and stabbed! at our valiant hero! Its tusks missed by but a fraction of a centimeter, as the toad leapt back and out of the way at the last moment. It lashed out with its powerful tongue, and slapped the horker across the face. A fierce, bleeding welt was left behind, but unlike the mudcrabs, the horker held.

It turned back with a powerful hatred on its blubbery face and pressed the assault!

Reeling, about to shatter under the fierce opposition, the toad ceded ground even as he struck out with its tongue. Juniper and Jelly Squish did what they could to keep the mudcrabs at bay, but they too were driven back. Soon the horker would push them too far into the mudcrab tide, and all would be over...

But then came the sound of trumpets. Dozens of them, and they signaled the charge of the light cavalry! Our brave toad and the two tired mares soon found themselves surrounded by hundreds of frogs! Red, and green, and blue... every color imaginable—like a great amphibian rainbow—washed over them as the blowgun-armed frogs flanked the mudcrab formation and leapt over their ranks, far too nimble and quick to be caught in their pincers...

...and poisonous! Soon a storm of darts slammed into the mudcrabs, the ground, and the mighty horker. Most bounced off the thick carapaces of the mudcrabs, and the powerful blubber armor of the horker, but some found gaps... tiny crevices between plates, or the soft, tender flesh under the horker’s eyes. These darts sunk in deep, and deposited their payload.

The toad gave a mighty *Ribbit!* as the frog light cavalry darted away onto a new section of the battlefield, to deliver their mighty assault where it was most needed. For there before them, the great horker groaned and thrashed in pain as the poisonous glands of the frogs worked their wonders. It collapsed onto the ground, dead, and took out an entire platoon of mudcrabs with it!

All around the effects of the poison took their hold on those mudcrabs unlucky enough to have been hit, and they left many gaps in the crustacean phalanx. Our mighty toad turned to Jelly Squish and Juniper.

*Ribbit!* he said, and the two mares nodded. There would be a time for rest, to lament their wounds and try to recover, but it would not be this one. This was a time for battle!

“YAAAH!” the mares screamed alongside the powerful *Ribbit!* of our toady warrior, as they delved into the mudcrab ranks...

Author's Note:

YAAAH!

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

YAAAH!

[Pomp-Neigh]

My sides are killing me!
Just read through this from Chapter 1 and it is glorious.

[justheretoreadstories]

This is getting more and more crazy by the second.

[Valk]

[sykko]

I was there that day my grandchildren when the battle raged. I was there when the great legion fought against mindless monsters, bent only on eating whatever they could kill. I was there when our great hero gave his great battle cry to rally the legion. Now recite with me the battle cry of the great legion! *ribbit ribbit ribbit!*

[Dimmed Star]

It just dawned on me that the frogs are to be the Lizardmen from warhammer if I'm reading it correctly XD

[MinuetteColgate]

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

And Possible Memery. I dunno.