[JonPop]

The Knights upon entering the swamp were appalled at the carnage and the amount of dead soldiers, fortunately almost all of the booby traps had been sprung, so they were able to make their way quickly to catch up with the rear of the soldiers.
Sir Kdub said, "We are very near the spammers nest now."

The Knights could make out the silhouette's of the large groups of soldiers converging on the nest site through the growth of the swamp.

Suddenly the were under attack, arrows were finding their targets in the unprotected soldiers and several hand to hand fights were ensuing.
Sir Uberschwanz took a steel tipped arrow to the breast plate of his armor and said, "Ugh" and fell to his knees.
It took a second to realize that it had only penetrated about an inch and that he wasn't seriously wounded. He broke off the arrow and continued on into the fray.

The battle had moved into the spammers nest itself and there was fierce fighting with the Moderator Knights deflecting blows with their shields and slashing with broadswords.

King Thunder and his Knights, arrived from the North end of the circle, as he'd figured something was wrong when too much time had passed and there was no sign of the spammers.
He and his Knights had entered on foot and as the spammers hadn't had time to booby trap the North end of the swamp, made good time, arriving at the height of the battle.
It was soon over, with dead spammers, soldiers and several Moderator knights strewn on the ground, some of the spammers were in pieces.

King Arthur and King Thunder met in the center of the spammers nest and conferred about the battle. They stood transfixed as the laptops, hand held devices, servers and processors, of the spammers, simply melted into puddles of hot goo.
A team of King Thunders intelligence solders were instructed to remain at the site to gather what they could and to secure the area.

The remaining soldiers and Knights carried their dead and wounded back out of the swamp to the wagons and the medical aid that was there.
King Thunder's and the Moderator Knights' squires, had brought their horses and lances from the North end of the swamp and joined them at the staging area.

Quartermaster corps was charged in counting and identifying the dead and dying.

The soldiers and Knights gathered around their Kings and all dropped to their Knees to give thanks for the outcome and victory in the battle against the spammers.

The count was a staggering 374 soldiers and 14 Moderator Knights killed. All the Moderator Knights that had been killed were one, from MOS and the remainder from Thunders.

The Moderator Knights from MOS had fought like demons in retaliation for the sacking of the Matters Of Size site and the death of their beloved King, Doublelongdaddy.

The best quick count of the wounded was over 500. A team had been sent back into the swamp to get a body count of the spammers.
The BetterMan Knights all came through unscathed except for some cuts and bruises and Sir Uberschwanz with the wound to his chest.
The magical clasps, luckily, allowed the breast plate to be separated from the sides and back of his armor as it would have been very tricky to pull the armor over his head with an arrow shaft stuck through the breast plate and his wound was treated and bandaged.

The Kings and the BetterMan Moderators and most of the Thunders Moderator knights returned to the castle to bring the news of the victory and report the sad loss of so many fine soldiers and Knights.

The Knights were besieged with shouts from wives, girlfriends, mothers and fathers for the identity of the fallen soldiers. There was much wailing and crying at the news. The Knights were not able to provide that information.
More wagons were sent to retrieve the dead.

Everyone that could pack into the great room listened as King Thunder spoke.
The soldiers that had returned to their camp outside of the walls were kept informed of the Kings words by word of mouth, relay.

King Thunder stood in front of his throne still in full armor and said, "My loyal soldiers and brave Knights, I salute you on the great victory over the spammers on this day. We suffered terrible losses of very fine men in the unanticipated ferocity of this battle. Yes, we had underestimated the cunning of the spammers and were counting on our new protection to carry us through with minimal losses. When we entered the swamp, we were not prepared for the traps that awaited us. But the bravery of everyone involved, guaranteed the outcome, which was total and complete victory over the spammers."

"Please accept my deepest gratitude for your bravery and the skill that you demonstrated in todays battle."

There were no shouts or beating of gauntlets on breast plates, this time, just Knights whispering amongst themselves.

Sir JonPop stood before the crowd and said, "You are dismissed to tend to yourselves and to eat and rest."

The many soldiers and Knights filed quietly from the great hall, except for the BetterMan Knights that had been assigned rooms in the castle.
__________________