Lugh Battles Balor

 Lugh rode before hisarmy of Tuatha Dé Danann warriors, his expression one of grim determination. Behind him, his legions faithfully followed in his wake over their island’s low-rolling green hills that sloped down to the sea. Many of them had battled by his side repeatedly against the Fomorians, as he was their Sun God and carried the day over their foes more often than not. As always, he rode his great white steed, Énbarr of the Flowing Mane. His stallion carried him faster than the swiftest wind, able to cross over land or sea without missing a heartbeat or a stride. This time, he drove his mount into foul Fomorain ranks.

With Ćroí Dàn, the sentient Goddess within the Heart of Destiny, pressed against Lugh’s chest,suspended on a golden chain, he lifted his magical sword, Claimh Solais, high over his head and linked it with the heroic magic of their Heart. The combined power of the Tuatha artifacts lit the sky ablaze, the color of a palered rose washing through it. The light provided his host of warriors a paththrough the darkness woven by the mages of his enemy. Through his Heart, Lughcast her magic, giving his warriors the courage to ride against the demonsarrayed across the field. Over each shoulder was slung Lann Dàn, two long, diamond-bladed weapons with oak hafts that cast balefire into the demons’ ranks, its power drawn to the dark magic flowing through thedemi-giants.

Lugh, breakingthrough their lines, swung his mount to the right to ride along the Fomorain’sflank, cutting off a sizable enemy section for one of his legions to fall on. The move staggered his opponent’s defenses as they could not save the demonshis men were now cutting down. He led another legion forward from the centerbattlefield, driving a frontal assault into their ranks without mercy. He let GaeAssal fly, the magical spear seeking out the misshapen, magic-twistedcreatures created by the dark mage-king Balor.

His foes held theenemy front lines, each standing eight to ten feet tall and swinging massiveclubs studded with iron spikes. Yet Gae Assal, being a semi-sentient magical construct, knew Lugh’s intent and dodged their swipes to deflect it, and it impaled first one, then another, and another until five of the dark, foul monsters had fallen before his spear slapped back into Lugh’s hand.

Seeing a sea ofenemy warriors surge nearer on his left, Lugh picked out his spear’s newesttargets before casting it, then swung his treasured sword first to one side andthen the other to clear a path, balefire flowing from its tip. Like Lann Dàn, Badb Catha had also created hisancient sword and endowed it with the same potent Tuatha magic; with it in hishand, he seized the void, the urghabháil an neamhní, and dealt out death likewhite-hot rain, cleaving even the most heavily armored of his opponents fromhead to heart.

Around him, the victoriousbattle cries of his fellow warriors joined with the dying screams of theFomorians. After countless years of fighting, years of throwing men and magicat each other, Lugh knew victory was close. As the Sword of Light sizzled, he calledhis golden spear back to him, and Gae Assal leaped across the battlefield, piercing Fomorian demi-giants in the back and out through their guts along its path. He rallied his Tuatha warriors again, leading them away to regroup for one final charge, his shining armor blinding his opponents as if they had gazed directly at the sun.

Lugh noted that the Fomorian leaders were reacting to the destruction of their mightiest fighters as they had in previous battles. One recourse could save the day for their side: wheeling out their monstrous, misshapen mage-king, the cursed Balor of the Baleful Eye. He had not always been this way, but when a powerful Fomorian sorcerer had caught him trying to steal a spell, he’d cursed the King’s eye.

Lugh knew this alltoo well because Balor was his grandfather, a Fomorian prince who had becomeking and was slowly corrupted by the curse, by the foul magic of the sorcerer.Balor was now little more than a wretched soul turned into a demon, a demon whowanted to see everyone who opposed him dead, and his baleful eye possessed thepower to carry out those desires.

Lugh cursed theking’s attendants as they worked to pull open his grandfather’s cursed and malevolenteye. Knowing what would happen if he did not change course, he called for his mento break off their assault and let his fleet-footed horse carry him away.

It was not in time to save all of them, as nearly a thousand Tuatha warriors withered and died under one sweep of that dark gaze. Such was its allure that the Sun God knew few could resist the draw of the evil demon’s glare. Even Balor’s warriors on the battlefield were lost, but it was the price they had to pay. Lugh could only watch in horror as his army’s front line crumpled under his grandfather’s baleful eye, and his brave warriors were suddenly just mounds of dead bodies.

As the foul Fomorions were unable to hold the evil eye open any longer, fury burned in Lugh over what Balor had done to his warriors, and without thinking, he sent Énbarr speeding back toward the battlefield, back toward the cursed mage-king, a protective shield of magic springing to life around him. As the Fomorians struggled to pull Balor’s eye open once more, Lugh set his enchanted sling, his cloich tabaill, swinging around his head. It pulled sunlight through the clouds, which parted to form a rainbow. Then, Lugh’s combined magics drew that rainbow from the sky, creating it into a sharp-faceted crystal. Hismagic-imbued tathlum dazzled the Fomorians as he let it fly. After yearsof battle, Lugh’s aim was true, and the stone drove Balor’s baleful eye intothe back of his skull. The king died instantly, and with that death, Lughfinally pushed the Fomorian followers from the land of Erin.

‍