The knight called Sir Gilbert, seemed rather ordinary. From the distance William was spectating from, he couldn’t discern a face. What he could see though, was a young man clad only in metal armour. On top of his shoulder sat a... Trotash?

Talbot who could view the same creature was stunned silly, “Wha-.. Wha-hahaha! He bonded with a trotash!? He bonded with an actual pest!? And they sent him out alone to face our team of warriors!? Is this some kind of disguised execution!?”.

Talbot wasn’t the only one having that kind of thought pattern. The same ridiculing tone flashed in lord Blaise’s son.

Down in the conflict, the lord’s son: Brice. Made his dinosaur take the lead. It menacingly stepped forward to overshadow its puny opponent. The dinosaur wasn’t like the bird-structured ones William had seen up till now. This one looked more like a giant komodo dragon. The size fit for riding.

On its head there was rougher scales that protruded, compared to the rest of its body. It had no teeth but a flexible mouth, like a snake. Along it’s throat were something like gills, that seemed to emit smoke.

With each breath the dinosaur took, its ‘gills’ turned redder and redder. A faint glow along with some sparks, whirled up into the air within the strange smoke it emitted. It puffed and panted, while it took a readying stance. Then suddenly, a wave of fire came out of its mouth. Engulfing the brave knight that took the initiative.

Nothing could be seen of him, for his whole body, including the trotash on his shoulder, were hidden by the flames. Brice had to boast, “Haha! Don’t kid yourselves! Who can survive our fire of passion? There is nothing more destructive than our flames!”. *Splish*.

A sharp metallic ring, broke the proud facade of both father and son. For in that instant Brice’s dinosaur died...

While hidden in the flames, Gilbert unsheathed his blade and struck it right through the dinosaurs wide open mouth, deep into its brain-matter. It took merely a few seconds before its body began acting weird. Twitching and convulsing as though it was still alive. But it wasn’t…

When Gilbert finally emerged from the flames unscathed, both sides were overcome with emotions. Windamere’s side was cheering with astonishment, while Blaise’s side was shocked and shouting in dishonor.

Then lord Blaise asked, “What trickery is this?..”. To this, lord Windamere could only grin as an wily old tiger, “REJOICE MY FELLOW MEN! FOR TONIGHT BLAISE CASTLE WILL BE OURS!”.

At the castle, many other peasants had begun spectating the clash between lords. Unease and puzzlement filled the crowd. For although they couldn’t hear everything that was said on the battlefield, they could see that the son’s dinosaur was a goner…

Talbot stood for a while gawking. Something seemed oddly familiar about this situation. Like he had seen or heard of this phenomenon before… “OH no! Oh no, oh no, oh no… SHIT!!!”. William looked on, as the tall boy pulled at his hair in disbelief.

Talbot continued muttering, “This is what they call heavenly retribution, isn’t it!?”. William was totally confused at first. Then he looked down on the situation again as he pondered: Strange… That Sir Gilbert didn’t get cooked by the fire?.. Like his fireproof or something… Fireproof?.. Fire-... Resistant?.. AH!

Now both children were lamenting in regret. Talbot stared at William and William stared back. The beanstalk trembled, “We’re screwed!.. I know what that scene was all about! It’s my mother!.. Mother she… She sold fire resistant cubs to some random lord… Turns out it was to lord Windamere! No wonder she got a sack filled with gold! Lord Windamere was probably laughing his ass off, looking forward to ransacking the whole island!.. ARGH!”.

The scene down below, only grew worse and worse.

Brice’s dinosaur went havoc with its dying breath. Its body stumbled backwards and toppled some of the knights behind it, straight into the lake. With their heavy equipment on it took a lot of struggling not to drown, even though the waters were shallow…

However, there was no reason to lose hope yet. Lord Blaise unsheathed his sword and held it high, before he rallied, “There is nothing to fear! Even without fire, we can still beat you with our raw power alone! Besides-”. The lord along with his dinosaur, acted like a unit and slayed Sir Gilbert. While the young knights head fell to the ground, lord Blaise continued, “-Do you really think that one measly warrior can withstand my wrath!?”.

Lord Windamere smiled wryly. Then he placed both his hands around his mouth. Upon them were gloves, but they weren’t ordinary gloves. Intricate metal was inlaid on each finger. Then lord Windamere opened his mouth and out came a distorted order, “FIRE!!!”.

The sound wave grew louder than ever before. Traveling into the eardrums of the knights and destroying them ruthlessly. Only some, along with all of lord Windamere’s warriors, managed to understand the situation in time, protecting their ears from annihilation.

When the booming echo, faded beyond the horizon’s border. Half of Windamere’s folk, that stood in front, loaded their bows and started shooting arrows. It was like a pincer attack on castle Blaise’s defendants. They were shot at from both sides. Luckily for Brice, he had long since been evacuated back towards the castle, since he was now useless.

That’s right. When your bonded dinosaur dies, along with it dies the shared abilities...

The situation was dire. For lord Windamere kept using his voice to distort and bleed the soldiers’ ears dry. The only hidden blessing in it, was that every time he used his attack, the archers had to stop firing, to be able to cover their own ears.

Meanwhile lord Blaise guided his men with spears forwards. They were given the task to try and push back the cork, on the bottle-like-path they were caught on. As swords and spears clang and smashed against each other, both lords found themselves nearing each other. As soon as lord Blaise saw the chance, he commanded his dinosaur to spit fire onto lord Windamere. What he hadn’t noticed was that two diligent knights stood in his way.

Both, with the same annoying ability… Fire resistance!

Lord Blaise were filled with rage at these pesky flies! So much so, that he didn’t notice when lord Windamere raised his hands for another blast. Lord Blaise was astonished at the power of his voice. From a distance it could shatter your ears. But up close!?

It only took seconds, before lord Blaise felt nausea cramp his innards. He saw his world whirl around in undistinguishable blinding dots and then… *Thud*! A heavy body fell off its mount.

When the people saw this, panicked screams and whispers filled the castle. It was truly chaos now…

Talbot who saw his hero fall to the ground, cried out in fear, “No! No! All hope is lost! We’re all going to die!!! That dog will never let us live in peace! He has come for blood! BLOOD!!!”.

William who stood in near vicinity to this awful shrieking, couldn’t figure out if his eardrums were hurting because of lord Windamere’s voice… Or this giant pansy!? He couldn’t help but comment, “Stwop acting like a chicken! It won’t helb us escape death, now will it!?”. Talbot ignored William to seek safety with his mother. To this, William could only shake his head and sigh. Then he returned his attention to the battlefield.

It was very frustrating to watch the battle not being in their favor… Especially when his dear brother: Joss, was in the midst of it…

It was clear as day, that if someone was going to die first, it wouldn’t be those who hid behind the castle walls...