Justin and Lila found the platform easily enough, climbing to the top. There, they had a commanding view of the pass before them, along with the regiments of Valorian soldiers arrayed in a line. From the torchlight, it was easy to see that they completely covered the pass wall to wall. Purple standards with a silver stag interspersed the organized regiments, their bronze armor dull in the predawn light.
Along the ledges on both sides of the pass, contingents of archers, crossbowmen, and ballistae were stationed, and somewhere in there, mages were mixed in. Justin knew if the Valorians were wise, they’d keep them hidden so that they wouldn’t become targets.
They waited there in the frosty early morning for a very long time, even as the sun rose. Justin wondered why the Shadow Empire wasn’t attacking yet, when their undead would be less affected by the sunlight, but maybe they were counting on the shade of the mountains covering the ground of the pass, at least through the morning.
Justin was wondering if the battle would ever start when there was a rumbling in the ground.
From around the bend in the pass, they came. Thousands upon thousands of black-armored foot soldiers, their collective dull roar filling the pass. The Valorian forces held their ground, at the top of a slight incline at the narrowest part of the pass.
Soon, the Shadowist forces came to a stop, just outside the range of the Valorian mages and artillery.
The dawn made details more discernible. Hundreds of black flags with a crimson serpent coiled around a golden sword waved in the cold mountain breeze, while on the Valorian side, purple flags with the silver stag stood ready to defend. Alistair was easy to pick out among the Valorian troops, standing in shining armor, his white cloak swept by the breeze, his war hammer seeming to glow, despite the lack of sunlight in the pass.
Justin realized, for the first time, that he’d never actually inspected Alistair’s character.
He did so, having nothing better to do. There was a moment's pause, as if Alistair were considering allowing Justin to see his character.
But, after a moment, Alistair must have agreed, because the Paladin’s character sheet appeared before him.
Alistair of Drakendale
Paladin (Level 25)
Proficiencies:
War Hammers, Heavy Armor, Holy Relics
Attributes:
Power: 18 (+1)
Coordination: 12 (+1)
Endurance: 22 (+1)
Intellect: 14
Perception: 14 (+1)
Charisma: 15 (+1)
Skills:
(Level 0) Divine Strike: Basic strike that deals physical damage. On undead enemies, inflicts a Life Magic burn that damages target over time.
(Level 1) Paladin’s Resolve: Receive 10% less damage from physical and magical attacks and reduces the duration of all debuffs by 30%. (Passive)
(Level 2) Consecration: Increases Power, Endurance, and Charisma Attributes by 5%. (Passive)
(Level 3) Leap of Faith: This powerful melee attack deals double physical damage, allowing its user to leap up to thirty feet toward a target. High chance to enrage surrounding enemies. (Cooldown: 30 seconds)
(Level 5) Divine Aura: Boosts the Party’s Power Attribute by 5%. (Passive)
(Level 7) Heavenly War Cry: An encouraging shout that increases the Power and Endurance of nearby allies by 50% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: three minutes.
(Level 10) Holy Training: Gain one point in Endurance for every five levels (including one point for Level 5). (Passive)
(Level 11) Bulwark of Faith: Increases armor by 20% when wearing all heavy armor. 20% resistance to Death Magic. (Passive)
(Level 13) Sacred Tactics: Increases Coordination and Perception by 10%. (Passive)
(Level 15) Arion’s Hammer: Deals triple damage with a high chance of staggering an enemy. If this attack one-shot kills, it instantly refreshes. Cooldown: one-minute.
(Level 17) Paladin’s Grace: Increases the speed of all attacks by 15%. (Passive)
(Level 19) The Blessing of Arion: Heal minor wounds slowly over time. Detect Death Magic in characters of equal or lower level. (Passive)
(Level 20) Righteous Whirlwind: Spinning attack that hits all nearby enemies for significant physical damage. Percentage chance for blinding enemies temporarily. Cooldown: one minute.
(Level 21) Paladin Magery: Can now cast Lesser Life and Harmony Magic. Gain one Spell Charge per level.
(Level 23) Arion’s Shield: Reduce incoming damage by 50% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: one minute.
(Level 25) Lay on Hands: Completely restore the health of an ally and remove all status effects (only if you out-level the enemy that inflicted the status effect). May only be used once per day.
Equipment:
Weapon: Hammer of the Divine Tempus: Reduces all cooldowns by 20% and increases attack speed by 5%.
Armor: Mont Elea Chapter House Armor: Full set bonus reduces physical damage by 10%.
Footwear: Mont Elea Chapter House Boots: Full set bonus reduces physical damage by 10%.
Helm: Mont Elea Chapter House Helmet: Full set bonus reduces physical damage by 10%.
Gauntlets: Mont Elea Chapter House Gauntlets: Full set bonus reduces physical damage by 10%.
Accessory 1: Ring of Minor Healing: Cast Bind Wounds thrice per day.
Accessory 2: Ring of Holy Immolation: When striking an undead five levels or lower, send out a circle of Flames of Life ten feet from the point of strike.
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“Holy cannoli,” Justin said. “Did you ever look at Alistair’s character sheet?”
Lila laughed. “You’re just now looking at that? I looked as soon as we left Silverton!”
Justin shook his head. “How is it even possible to level up that high? It would take tens of thousands of experience points. Maybe even hundreds of thousands! And here I am, excited to get 500 in one go!”
“It’s hundreds of thousands of experience,” Lila said. “Men like Alistair are a rare breed. We might have actually been okay not chasing Darian, all things considered. That’s how strong he is.”
“Damn,” Justin said.
Lila smiled. “You’re in for a treat. Just sit back and watch the show.”
Justin could only hope it was that simple. Thinking back, it was no wonder the goblins hadn’t wanted to mess with Alistair that day on the road.
Justin watched the Paladin, who now had an aura of divine light surrounding him. The other men around him were laughing and joking, taking heart from his mere presence.
And then, with no warning at all, low horns blew, and the Shadow Empire’s armies charged en masse, with no regard for life. Well, at least from what Justin could see, they had no regard for unlife. The stilted shambling of the first wave was unmistakable from the multitudes of zombie films he’d seen. Only these zombies were wielding weapons and wearing black spiked armor. There were even skeletons mixed in, glowing with a shadowy aura. Death Magic, Justin could only assume, which Alistair resisted. The hordes of undead ran past woodpiles the Valorians had prepared in advance.
The Elementalists began their attacks at once, shooting fireballs at the woodpiles, instantly lighting them up and creating a wall of fire, cutting off the attackers from further support. Many of the undead were instantly lit with flames.
Alistair was a beacon of divine power amidst the chaos. His war hammer gleamed as the undead attackers crashed into the Valorian shield wall. Alistair swung his hammer, Life Magic imbued in each attack from his Ring of Holy Immolation, reducing the zombies to ash. The undead around Alistair recoiled, their instinctive fear of Life Magic overriding their mindless aggression.
Alistair pressed forward, his hammer a blur of righteous fury. Each strike was accompanied by a flash of light, the impact sending shockwaves of the Flames of Life through the shattered ranks of the low-level undead, many of them even being set ablaze. The Paladin invoked Divine Strike after Divine Strike, and the hammer glowed even brighter, every hit setting the zombies aflame with golden light. Those not set aflame were instantly reduced to ash.
The undead shrieked and writhed as the sacred flames consumed them, their decaying forms crumbling to dust even as they spread the holy fire through their ranks far beyond Alistair’s position.
A group of skeletal warriors advanced toward him, their bony fingers clutching rusted weapons. Alistair met them head-on, activating Righteous Whirlwind. He spun in a tight circle, his war hammer sweeping out in a deadly arc. The skeletal warriors shattered under the force of his attack, their bones disintegrating into a fine powder.
A giant zombie, twice as tall as Alistair, lumbered toward the Paladin, its massive frame covered in tattered remnants of black armor. Alistair was not intimidated, wailing on it with several Divine Strikes, driving it back, before invoking Arion’s Hammer. He swung his weapon with all his might, the head of the hammer glowing intensely. The impact was cataclysmic, the zombie’s chest caving in with a sickening crunch before the divine energy erupted from within, obliterating it entirely.
The undead forces continued to pour in, attempting to overwhelm Alistair, but the Paladin was relentless. Even as the Elementalists continued to rain fireballs from above, Alistair activated Heavenly War Cry. Despite the distance, his primal shout easily carried in the pass.
“Arion’s Light, guide my hands!”
The shout and its echoes reverberated within Justin’s very bones. If he were on the other side of that, he would have pissed himself.
A golden wave of invigorating energy spread out from Alistair, boosting the Power and Endurance of nearby Valorian soldiers. Emboldened by the Paladin’s presence and the sudden surge of strength, they fought with renewed vigor, surrounded by a golden aura, cutting down the undead with ease.
Alistair’s armor deflected blows from the few undead that struck him. The mages' fires had somewhat died down by now, allowing more Shadow Empire forces to pour through, human regiments now mixed in among the undead.
Alistair summoned a shimmering golden barrier, his Arion’s Shield ability, which Justin remembered reduced incoming damage by half for a crucial ten seconds. During this time, in between knocking back higher-level undead that attacked with feral tenacity, he focused on healing his comrades, even using Lay on Hands to restore the health of a grievously injured soldier, the man’s wounds knitting together under Alistair’s glowing palms.
The Elementalists’ fire spells were slowing; from what Justin understood so far, it seemed their magic worked not with the “mana system” he was more familiar with, but a system of charges. As soon as they were out of “charges” on a particular spell, or perhaps a particular level of spell, they had to wait for them to refresh.
The archers on the slopes of the pass, along with the ballistae, rained death on the enemy. Some missiles even seemed to be enchanted with fire magic, exploding on impact. Justin watched as one burst among a cluster of zombies, scattering their remains. The mages continued their assault, switching instead to other elemental spells, including ice spears, forks of lightning, and hurling heavy boulders. Justin assumed they’d started with fire, since it was most effective against the undead, and now they were using charges for other spells they had in reserve.
Justin could hardly believe his eyes as Alistair went right back into it, rallying the beleaguered Valorian troops. He was a one-man army, his every move a testament to his skill and power. The undead that dared to come near him were swiftly dispatched, their ranks thinning under his relentless onslaught. The Shadowist humans seemed to be more cautious, and when they did attack, they threw a volley of javelins first before charging ten men at a time, pikes extended. Alistair still held his own against them, usually supported by some Valorian soldiers or missile fire from above.
And so it was that the battle ebbed and flowed, stretching into the late morning. The initial momentum of the Shadowist forces faltered. The Valorians didn’t gain ground, merely defending their position against the vastly superior foe. And despite the thousands of dead Shadowists, more kept coming down the pass, their numbers never seeming to end.
Most of the undead, it seemed, had been dispatched, and Justin recognized them for what they were: cannon fodder. Very few of the Valorians had fallen in the initial wave. Indeed, there were so many fallen Shadowists, human and undead, that it formed a wall of corpses. New attackers had great difficulty in even mounting an assault on the Valorian front lines because of it.
As morning passed into afternoon, Justin felt a wave of exhaustion. He had been up all night and all morning, and he wondered idly what Baron Valdrik’s soldiers were doing, what seemed another world away. Were they just waiting outside the Vault? It seemed so distant when the situation at hand seemed so real. Justin had become fully invested in this battle, even if he knew it was a scenario set up by the Vault.
Of course, it was easy to be fully invested when one’s life was on the line.
Justin glanced toward the hidden path, sighting a line of black-armored soldiers on the northern slopes. It seemed they were stuck about halfway; they were still clearing the obstacles the mages had set up, but too slowly. Justin knew the Shadowists must have diverted a lot of their mage resources to clear the path, because so few mages had challenged the Valorians directly on the field of battle. Without that, this battle might have turned out differently. It seemed the Shadowists were still hoping to set up a flank before the Valorian reinforcements arrived.
Battle rejoined in earnest in the middle of the afternoon. The battle line was getting tired, and the Valorians had few fresh troops to switch in. Around late afternoon, a sudden volley of fireballs was shot by the Valorian mages, a pivotal resource that must have been kept in reserve for a surprise attack. It annihilated an enormous chunk of the Shadowist army. But that chunk was almost instantly filled in with fresh troops, of which there seemed to be no end.
“Come on,” Lila breathed. “Survive. Just a couple of hours longer.”
To Justin’s dismay, the Shadowists were making quick progress on the secret path, while the front lines were being pushed back in the main pass, slowly but surely. If the mages at the pass joined with the rest of the Shadow Empire forces, it could spell disaster for the Valorians.
“Where are those damn reinforcements?” Justin asked.
“We might have to fight ourselves,” Lila said.
That was when Justin noticed a large boulder being hurled from the direction of the hidden path, sailing through the air, seemingly in slow motion.
Right for their watchtower.
“Run!” he shouted.
Seeing the danger, Lila reacted instantly, going for the ladder, with Justin close behind. One after the other, they slid down the rungs, never minding the splinters and pain. Justin brought up the rear, just reaching the bottom when the boulder made impact. The tower immediately started crumbling as he ran as fast as his feet could carry him. He just barely escaped being caught in the wreckage of the heavy timbers.
They didn’t stop running until they had reached the command tent, which had been set up as a makeshift hospital. Mages with healing magic were doing their best to triage the wounded. There was more blood than Justin had ever seen in his life, men wailing in pain, crying for their mothers. It was a far cry from the neutered wars he had been experienced in his video games and favorite movies. If this world had a designer, then he had to have been a cruel monster to allow this.
Justin looked at his palms, scraped and somewhat bloody, the pain very real. But considering the situation, it could have been much worse.
“We stayed up there way too long,” Lila said.
Justin was about to respond when he heard cries of alarm coming from the western portion of the camp. A massive fireball shot into the air, almost like a miniature mushroom cloud.
The Shadow Empire forces had gotten through the hidden path, or perhaps, the mages had gone on ahead, seeing that time was limited.
Justin was about to run when, between the alley of two tents, stood the last person he wanted to see.
It was the Arch-Mage Zaramund, his pale face bloodied and his eyes bloodshot, his black robes tattered. Seeing Justin, he gave a sinister smile that made Justin’s skin run cold.
If this world had boss room music, Justin realized it probably would have started playing right now.
“The shadows may falter, but the darkness within us never dies,” Zaramund said, his voice echoing with malevolent intent. “Today, Valoria falls.”