A black-clad goblin lets out a piercing roar and two lines of fighters pour into a shallow ravine, thrusting spears and waving axes.
It looks violent but take a closer look and the axe-blades are made of carpet and the spears and arrows have soft tips.
In fact, the clash is a re-enactment of the Battle of Five Armies, the climax of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit.
The battle pits men, elves and dwarves against goblins and wargs — evil, wolf-like creatures. It has become an annual tradition staged each spring on a lakeside in the north of the country.
“We have 805 people here now,” said Vojtech Ovecka, a 30-year-old sales manager dressed as Gandalf, the wizard from Tolkien’s books, as the armies gather to the astonished looks of bikers passing by in Doksy, the Czech Republic.
Over the twelve years since it started as a game for boy scouts, the course of the battle has diverged from the action detailed in The Hobbit – a prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga.
But few fans care as they walk to the battlefield in a pine forest.
In the romantic countryside near the ruins of a castle about 100 kilometres north of Prague, the participants fight for the treasure of the Dragon Smaug.
Before the first battle, the goblins gather in the forest, the young ones listening to their generals roaring orders in all dialects of the country, peppered with curses.
“It’s not about letting aggression out,” says Orfea, a female goblin wearing a cap adorned with long feathers, her face painted black to blend in with her roguish, fierce-looking kin.
“The main thing is to play and to let adrenalin rush,” she adds.
As the battle unfurls, scores of those stabbed by the soft points play dead by putting their hands on their heads or lying on the ground.
There are also real injuries, however. A young elf with long, pointed ears has blood flowing from his lip while a warrior of no more than sixteen is driven away by ambulance, his forearm in a splint.
“This happens. There are more injuries when it’s hot — three years ago, the ambulance kept coming and going with concussions, broken heads and fingers,” said one competitor.
“But I’d say nobody comes here to give somebody a trashing,” he added.
“It’s up to the players to settle disputes. If they can’t, we have veteran fighters and finally the organisers to decide. When the two sides clash, it’s 400 on 400, and they enjoy it and this is why they come”.