"Arrows!" Damond's shout came like the crack of a whip as they dove for cover. Immediately there came a steady whizzing sound, followed by the thunk of arrows slamming into wood or skipping dangerously off rocks.
Suddenly, a huge tree exploded into burning kindling, collapsing in on itself like a pyre. Lighting the night with his staff, the Vhurd-Aq's eyes burning like twin suns, Belloc turned his full might on the enemy, giving vent to his wrath. Heartened by the wizard's presence, and able to see at last, the men of Brand came to the elves' aid, along with Amrhost of Astargoth, Grol the Dwarf, and Anest. At Belloc's command, Lily stayed close to the wizard, but her ash bow was drawn, and she had no intention of staying out of the fray this time.
Several times there came a harsh cry from hordes of goblin throats as they came charging out of the woods waving wicked looking black iron swords with serrated edges. With them came a great host of gnomes bearing long spears.
Wielding his staff like a mace, Belloc sent blasts of fire into the underbrush, and soon the surrounding forest was in flames, casting ghastly silhouettes of battle on the glassy night waters of the River Grey. The sky was just beginning to pale with the approach of dawn when the battle came abruptly to its bitter end. The dead littered the beach, while the living mutely surveyed the carnage, wondering as the confusion of battle wore off, who was alive and who was lost. Of the original company of forty-six men and fifty elves, eighteen men would never again lay eyes on wives, children and farms in Brand, and eleven elves would never return to the forests of Normandon. About eighty goblins lay about, fierce even in death. Over a hundred gnomes lay scattered about like discarded bundles of rags.