Trollhunters: welcome to the darklands

Chapter 14:THE HORDE UNLEASHED

"Across the Dunes of Desolation, Gunmar watched his legions of Gumm-Gumms descend upon Skarlagk's nomadic castle. Even from this distance, he could hear his line of catapults smashing the fortress walls.
"The siege goes as planned, Dark Underlord," Dictatious reported as he clambered up to the top of the same dune where Gunmar stood. "Soon, Skarlagk's rebellion will be extinguished, and your rule of the Darklands shall be absolute."
"That's not enough," Gunmar said. "I want that traitorous grunt to suffer, just as her father suffered. Release . . . my Horde."
"By your command, Warbringer," said Dictatious before he cupped his four hands over his mouth and blew a piercing whistle that carried over the dunes.
At the frontlines of battle, the Gumm-Gumms heard Dictatious's signal and wheeled"

"forward several oversized cages made from those same orange crystal spikes. The spikes retracted and the Gumm-Gumms stood clear as Gunmar's Horde burst out of their confines. Hundreds of Helheetis, Stalklings, and Antramonstrum galloped, flew, and spread across the battlefield toward the rebel fortress.
"Sire, it's . . . breathtaking!" exclaimed Dictatious from their dune. "After centuries of planning—of smuggling young Helheetis, Stalklings, and Antramonstrum from the surface through the Fetches—your Horde runs wild!"
"And they say nothing grows in the Darklands," Gunmar mused as the rebel alarms rang.
The airborne Stalklings were the first to strike Skarlagk's stronghold. With earsplitting screams, the Vulture Trolls dive-bombed the rebel base, nearly knocking down the tallest tower—and Jim along with it.
The Trollhunter hung on to the side of the spire from a pair of brand-new whips. Crackling with neon green energy, they first appeared in Jim's flailing hands as he fell"

"toward certain death. The whips had surged out of the Eclipse Armor, courtesy of the emerald gem in his chest plate. Reacting on pure survival instinct, Jim swung the whips blindly, managing to wrap them around the flagpole atop the tower. He dangled there, breathless, but alive.
"Seriously?!" Jim shouted as another Vulture Troll buzzed him. "Stalklings? How could this day get any worse?"
Looking down, Jim saw scores of Gumm-Gumms grappling up the tower toward him.
"Boy, I really fell into that one, didn't I?" Jim asked rhetorically.
Left with nowhere to go, the Trollhunter saw another incoming airstrike. Jim loosened one of the whips from the flagpole and lashed it toward the swooping Vulture Troll. The fluorescent whip cracked through the air and fastened around the Stalkling's beak. Releasing the second whip from the flagpole, Jim held on to the first for dear life. The Vulture Troll pulled him off the tower and away from the Gumm-Gumms who had nearly snagged him.
As the Stalkling spiraled out of control, Jim started to feel airsick. Ignoring his nausea, he"

"arced the second whip forward and wrapped it, too, around the creature's beak. Jim pulled himself onto its back and started to tug left and right on his whips, piloting the Stalkling as he had seen Skarlagk pilot her Nyarlagroth.
"Oh, Tobes, if you could see me now!" Jim exclaimed, finally feeling in control again.
But Jim's smile faded just as quickly as it had appeared. Once again, he forced himself not to think of his best friend or any of the others he'd left behind.
No time for stuff like that, Jim thought as he looked at the chaos below him. This is war.
Pulling down on his whips, Jim drove the Stalkling lower. They skimmed across the top of the battlefield, with Jim staying low on the Vulture Troll's back to avoid detection. Using the whips as reins, Jim guided the Stalkling over Gumm-Gumms' armored heads, under swinging catapult arms, and between barrages of blazing arrows. Now yanking up on the whips, Jim arced the Stalkling over Skarlagk's besieged fortress.
"Thanks for the joyride," Jim shouted. "But here's where I get off."

"The Trollhunter slid his whips off the Stalkling's beak and jumped clear of its back. The Vulture Troll watched Jim land safely on one of the obsidian ramparts—right before it flew smack into the rebel flag flapping on the tower. The flag ripped from the pole and enveloped the Stalkling. Unable to see, it crashed into one of the catapults which, in turn, knocked into another catapult.
From the fortress's roof, Jim watched more catapults tip over and into one another, like a row of dominoes. The Gumm-Gumms manning them fled in terror as the catapults' flaming boulders set fire to the overturned war machines.
"Um, that works," Jim said of the chain reaction he had accidentally started.
Looking into the fortress's inner ward, Jim spotted Skarlagk. She fought off a bunch of Gunmar's soldiers with one hand while keeping Rob in a chokehold with the other. His flames flickered as he started to pass out.
"I can't believe I'm about to do this," Jim moaned to himself.
He wrapped one of his whips around a nearby parapet, then used it like a rope to rap-"rappel down the fortress wall. Reaching the ward, Jim unfastened his whip, only to be nearly devoured by a lunging Helheeti.
The large fire-cat dug its blazing claws into the turf and spun around for another attack. One of Skarlagk's rebels foolishly tried to stab the Helheeti with his long ax, but only succeeded in splitting it into two separate beasts.
"No!" cried Jim. "The only way to defeat a Helheeti is to put out its flames!"
But his warning came too late, as the pair of Helheetis pounced on the Gumm-Gumm. Jim turned away from the grisly scene and surveyed the area. He spotted a bunch of those stone bowls the rebels used to boil Nyarlagroth eggs—right under a sturdy trough filled with water.
The Helheetis licked their burning chops as they pawed closer to Jim. He wanted to lead them closer to the trough, but how? Jim looked down and remembered the whips in his hands.
"I really hope this works," Jim said as more explosions and shouts sounded behind him.
He flicked his whip at one of the Helheetis, and the neon line cinched around the fire-cat"

"as if it were solid.
"Now that's crispy!" Jim shouted before whipping the second Helheeti.
The flaming felines struggled to break free of their new leashes, but Jim didn't let go. Pulling as hard as he could, the Trollhunter dragged the fire-cats over to the trough and kicked it over. The water splashed over the Helheetis and converted them to steam.
"No!" Rob wheezed under Skarlagk's chokehold. "That Helheeti was my momma!"
Jim rolled his eyes and broke into a sprint toward Skarlagk. Several more of her armed rebels tried to stop Jim. He just whipped them away, never breaking his stride.
Skarlagk single-handedly flattened another phalanx of Gunmar's soldiers before she heard a loud CRACK in the air. Skarlagk turned and saw the Trollhunter behind her, readying his emerald whips for another swing.
"That first one was a warning, Skarlagk," Jim said. "Believe me, I don't like Rob either. But if you don't let go of him now, my next whip won't miss."
Skarlagk released Rob, who collapsed to the ground, unconscious. She and Jim then began"

"circling each other, weapons at the ready. Their bodies reflected on a massive chunk of obsidian beside them, which had fallen from the shattered rampart above them.
"We don't have to do this," Jim pleaded. "We can still team up and stop Gunmar without hurting any innocents."
"There are no innocents in the Darklands," Skarlagk said before she thrust her spears.
Jim dodged, spun around, and swiped with his whips. They noosed around Skarlagk, pinning her arms to her sides. She strained to reach her quiver of spears. But the whips sizzled with a fluorescent charge of electricity, stunning Skarlagk.
"Please," Jim said. "I don't want to fight you."
Jim let his whips go slack, and Skarlagk shrugged them off. She fixed an angry glare at the Trollhunter.
"I know you hate Gunmar," said Jim. "I hate him too. But if you destroy the nursery, how does that make you any better than him?"
Skarlagk's eyes softened as Jim's words hit her. She looked at the war around them. Her"

"rebels clashed against Gumm-Gumm soldiers. Nets fired from the parapets and downed more Stalklings. Helheetis multiplied into greater and greater numbers and burned everything they touched. Skarlagk had spent most of her life preparing for this confrontation, yet she felt no satisfaction.
"Where does it stop?" Jim asked. "With your own destruction? Because Gunmar definitely had a hand in making you the Troll you are today, whether you admit it or not."
"I . . . I don't . . . ," Skarlagk began to say, before the weakened wall behind her detonated. Fire and debris rained down on the ward, and the impact knocked over Skarlagk, sending her spears flying out of their quiver. The entire fortress ground to a shuddering halt as the Nyarlagroth queen stopped moving altogether.
Jim and Skarlagk coughed, until they saw something else start to move in the smoke. Two Antramonstrum probed into the breech like a pair of living clouds. They passed over fallen rebels and Gumm-Gumms alike, reducing the bodies to skeletons under their acidic touch."

"Skarlagk's eyes widened as she saw the Antramonstrum drift in her direction. She crawled under a pile of Gumm-Gumms she had beaten, but Jim had nowhere to run. He backed into the chunk of obsidian behind him and tried to climb it, but his hands found nothing to grasp on the smooth black surface. Jim was cornered.
And the Antramonstrum surged closer, dissolving everything in their paths."