Heart Of Stone

Chapter Twenty-three

Thranduil managed to find his blades and runs up the mountain, pushing his pain aside and dispatching gundabad's. Halfway up the mountain a troll swings its club and Thranduil ducks in time. The troll roars and Thranduil roars in anger. He had to get to Fawn and this troll and all his friends will feel his wrath for delaying him. Thranduil raised his blades and charged at the troll.

It's club swung low and Thranduil jumped onto it. He ran up the club and sliced the troll's wrists. It roared in pain and released the club. Thranduil jumped his blades raised and sank them deep into the troll's neck. He yanked them out and did a backflip off it's chest, landing gracefully as the troll fell.
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Legolas suddenly feels the tower shaking. He frowns and looks down to see a troll smashing away at the tower's base.

Tauriel's grunts sound in his ears and he looks out and sees her rolling with Bolg down the mountainside. She lands on a broken staircase, gasping in pain. Meanwhile, Bolg has landed near her; he rises and prepares to kill her.

Legolas, seeing this, reaches back for an arrow, only to find that he has run out. Damn it! He angrily throws down his bow and pulls out Orcrist. He leaps off the top of the tower and plummets down holding his sword out. He stabs the troll in the head, and it hobbles around in pain. Twisting the sword, he makes the troll charge forward, smashing head first into the already-weakened base of the tower.

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Bolg looks up to see the tower fall over and make a bridge over the chasm in between Legolas and Bolg. He snarls. Elf scum! As the she-eld unconscious, Bolg and the other elf charge at each other over the makeshift bridge. They begin fighting. As they fight, Bolg swings his heavy mace at Legolas and misses, hitting the floor and causing it to crumble and fall into the chasm.

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Thorin stabs an orc in the knee; another orc rushes up and smashes into him, causing him to slide across the ice all the way to the edge of the waterfall, directly over Legolas and Bolg-right beside an unmoving Fawn.

Bolg knocks Legolas over, but as he raises his mace, Thorin knocks an orc over the edge of the waterfall; it lands on the bridge behind Bolg, breaking through the stones and causing him to fall under a pile of rubble. Another orc approaches Thorin, who is lying on his back, partially hanging over the edge of the waterfall, defenseless.

As it raises its sword, Orcrist pierces the orc's chest, to the hilt, killing it. As it falls over the edge, Thorin reaches out and grabs the sword, saving it from going over.

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Thranduil fights his way up Ravenhill, his eleves blocked off by gundabad. He had acquired more wounds, such as broken bones and stab wounds, but they didn't slow him. As a werebat flew toward him he leaned back, extending his blades into the air, slicing the pests wings off. He straightened and continued forward.

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As Legolas is watching Thorin, Bolg leaps out of the rubble and swings at Legolas, but Legolas dodges and pulls out his two knives, fighting Bolg with them.

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Thorin stands and looks in wonder at his blade that'd come back to him; he looks up and sees Azog, alone, facing him. Thorin looks down at Fawn and picks her up. He lifts her and throws her, her body landing in the snow.

Thorin looks back at Azog and approach each other slowly; suddenly, a horn blows, and Azog smiles as a hill in the distance behind him becomes covered with approaching orc help. By the fates...

Azog charges forward and swings a large rock attached to a chain at Thorin, who ducks under it. As Azog is unbalanced by the swing, Thorin manages to get behind him and slash him. Azog angrily swings the rock at him again, and as Thorin dodges, the rock smashes into the ice, cracking it. Shit.

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Bolg throws a huge stone at Legolas, and it smashes the bridge beneath him. In an amazing and inhuman feat of agility, Legolas runs up falling rocks and leaps at Bolg. As they fight, Legolas stabs at Bolg, but Bolg grabs the knife between his arm and armor, just like in their encounter in Laketown.

This time, though, Legolas smiles and uses the knife as leverage to swing atop Bolg's shoulder; he then stabs Bolg through the top of the head, killing him. Who's smiling now?

Legolas leaps back onto land as the bridge falls to the ground, carrying Bolg's body with it. Legolas turns and looks for Tauriel, but doesn't see her. He frowns. "Tauriel!"

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As Thorin and Azog fight, the ice continues cracking. They both pause for a second, then Azog swings again. This time, the ice actually begins to break apart beneath them, Fang's torn body falling into a splitting crack and floats to the bottom.

As Thorin stumbles over an edge of the ice, Azog manages to knock his legs out from under him with the chain. As Azog swings again, Thorin rolls away. He leaps behind Azog, who is off balance, and slashes him again. Azog angrily swings the rock and chain at Thorin, missing; this time, the rock becomes stuck in the ice, and Azog is forced to slash at Thorin with his bladed arm.

Suddenly, Azog looks into the sky behind Thorin in shock. Thorin looks over his shoulder and sees the Eagles, with Radagast riding their leader, swoop by.

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The eagles sail through the ranks of the oncoming orc reinforcements from Gundabad, decimating them. Beorn, riding atop one of the Eagles, throws himself off it and transforms into a bear as he falls to the ground, landing in full massive bear form right in the middle of the orcs. He smashes through them.

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Thorin suddenly throws his sword down. Reaching forward, he lifts the rock at the end of the chain and tosses it to Azog, who instinctively catches it. Azog looks at him in shock. Thorin jumps backward, off the ice floe that they were both standing on; without his weight to balance it, and with Azog at the other end holding the rock, the ice floe tips over and plunges Azog into the water below. He scrabbles at the edge, but the chain pulls him down. Thorin pants in exhaustion.