Julin stepped back in line with his squad of newly class-upgraded soldiers and left the manor’s guards looking appropriately concerned but the seeker’s face twisted into a snarl.
“That is ridiculous! Darian is no cultist!” The woman seethed,” Without proof of those accusations I will not simply allow you to enter.”
“You dare deny a prophet?!” Julin spat. The young man had barely received his class upgrade a week ago and had already become one of Hurius' most hot-headed dogs. He was still weak but his new class was truly something special.
[Julin Alagore | Warlord 26 | Human]
It was a rare class among warriors and to move up from an inferior laborer to a rare warlord was a mighty step indeed. Hurius allowed Julin to take the lead here purely because of his hate for The Freak.
He had muttered about killing the boy's family for days before Hurius had even become a prophet. Of course, he was still following Hurius’s orders and quite well. He would make a good officer.
“Final warning! Move or die!” Julin shouted and activated a skill that Hurius quite enjoyed.
His surrounding men all pulsed with golden light as Julin’s skill washed over them. All of them smiled and drew their weapons as they felt a rush of exhilaration.
The skill was called Warlord’s Command, those who followed the skill user’s command received a sizable buff to all physical attributes until the order was carried out. Hurius was too high a level to be affected by the buff but his surviving warriors were low enough to receive its benefits. Yet another reason to give the man his position.
The house guards pulled back and to Hurius’s surprise actually drew their weapons. He looked on with confusion as the guards moved into a defensive formation behind the gate and an alarm array activated. More guards gathered in the courtyard.
There was more than he expected but they had no hope of stopping them. Hurius alone could have dealt with such rabble but their experience would be wasted on him. Julin almost snarled like a demon on a leash but turned to Hurius for approval.
Hurius nodded, “Good dog…”, “Kill them all, but keep the targets alive for now.”
“What about the barrier Sir?” Julin asked as drawing his mace.
“I will deal with the barrier,” Hurius said as he stepped forward and drew his great sword. The moon’s light shone on its edge as he rose it above his head and brought it down with all of his strength activating his skill Sundering Strike.
His blade chopped through the metal bars of the gate's portcullis with an ear-ringing shriek and slammed into the barrier with a flash of bright blue light. The semi-translucent barrier shone blue as a large crack shot across its surface. Shouts of surprise muted slightly by the now fully active barrier barely reached his ears, making Hurius smile as he brought his sword back down on the barrier with one more Sundering Strike.
This time crack spread in all directions and a deep hum was audible as the array tried to keep the fractured barrier in place. Then it shattered with a roar as now structureless mana was released into the air. The portcullis and a large section of the wall simply exploded inwards sending pieces of debris over the waiting guards.
By the time the air had cleared, Hurius had stepped back to allow Julin and his temporary squad into the courtyard. The amplified soldiers charged through the gate with shields raised as the house’s surprisingly well-trained guards unleashed an onslaught of empowered arrows at them.
The men that had survived the demon attacks may have been some of the lowest-leveled people in his army but their tactics were far better than most. A wave of golden light washed over them as the four Shield Bearers activated Shield Wall and pulled the arcing projectiles into their shields while their own Archers fired back.
The guards were well-trained for hired guards but not so well-trained that they stood a chance against Dhinir’s chosen warriors. In an instant, the guard line was broken as a dozen of their Fighters fell with gaping wounds or disabled limbs as the empowered arrows pierced armor and tore flesh.
“Stop this! Now!” The words boomed across the courtyard with surprising volume, loud enough to easily be heard over the fighting, at the top of the stairs and the entrance to the main building of the manor stood a large middle-aged man with dark brown and gray speckled hair and a weary frown.
[Darian Lesta | Miner 42 | Human]
Hurius didn’t need to identify the man to recognize him immediately, there was no doubt in his mind that this was The Freak’s father. The man was slightly shorter and broader than his son but his severe face and pale blue eyes were nearly identical.
Curious about what his target had to say, Hurious raised his hand and commanded the men to stop.
“I will not allow any more bloodshed in my home, your kind has brought too much of that already, “ Darian stepped slowly down the steps with his arms out to his sides,” I will come willingly.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Where is the girl?” Hurius said as Darian approached.
Darian frowned but met Hurius’s eye easily which was either brave or foolish Hurius wasn’t sure,” I don’t know why you believe my daughter is involved in any of this but in response to your question, she isn’t here,” Darian shrugged.
The peasant gesture infuriated Hurius but he kept his blade away from the man’s throat for the sake of Dhinir. Instead, he stepped forward and snatched the man from the ground by his throat.
“Kill them all! Dhinir demands it!”
Darian’s face paled,” No stop, no more. She isn’t her.”
Hurius chuckled, the man was pathetic. Why would they stop now? All would be cleansed of the cultist filth. He tossed the man to the ground and ordered three men to stand guard before turning back to watch the slaughter.
The house guards had time to regroup but it didn’t matter. They were overwhelmed and quickly began to fall back towards the manor. The wounded were given space to retreat first as they fled. Julin ordered the Archers to torch the building while the Shield Bearers and Fighters pushed into the building after the houseguards.
The building quickly caught alight and brightened the sky with the sweet sweet flames of conquest. Darian was thrown to the ground after he tried to rise by one of his watchers. There was no doubt the girl was in there somewhere with the man’s reaction.
Dhinir was truly great, even in the city of another prophet he could do as he wished. None would intervene. If they did it would mean their destruction.
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“Come girl! There is no time to waste,” Mr.Ren grabbed Lillian by the wrist and dragged her away from the window,” We have planned for this. To the cellar.”
Lillian couldn’t get the sight of her father being thrown to the ground out of her head as her instructor urged her forward. No! She had to be strong. Mr.Ren was right they had planned for this.
She shook herself free of her instructor's grasp and grabbed his arm to drag him instead. The man had a terrible limp from- from the last time something like this had happened so she easily outran him. They had been in the second-floor study overlooking the courtyard in the hopes things would go peacefully. Her dad knew something was happening the day Kal went missing from the city but to think it would come to this…
As she moved, Lillian stopped at each main support beam on the second level to check the tiny arrays carved into each of them, only moving on if the array was in its correct configuration. A cold sweat wet her brow as she checked the last one before the stairs. She almost didn’t want it to work but it needed to be done.
The two of them flew down the staircase onto the ground floor before dashing down the hallway toward the cellar stairs. The fighting had already broken through the main entrance and several wounded guards limped after them, occasionally using ranged skills to harass the coming shield wall.
Tears welled up in Lillian’s eyes as she ran. It was too much like that day. The day her mother died and the day Kal had been lost to them.
“Stop it, idiot!” Lillian thought to herself as she ran down the next set of stairs but a gasp, tussling of her hair, and cracking of wood made her turn just in time to catch Mr.Ren’s falling form, throwing her off her feet and down the last flight of stairs.
“No! Mr.Ren!” Blood spurted from a fist-sized hole in his chest, his face was already milky white. Her mentor’s blood soaked through her simple dress as she rolled his body off of her onto the ground and flinched at the memory of her mother’s corpse beneath a pile of bodies.
She staggered to her feet just as someone thundered down the stairs and tore off a dented silver helmet, “Damn it, Lilly! Move! We will mourn him later,” Katrina said as she wiped the sweat and blood-soaked red hair from her face, wincing as she revealed a dark bruise on her scalp. Her normally brown eyes flashed green as she activated one of her skills.
Katrina’s eyes focused and she turned back and drew a pair of daggers from the middle of her back,” You have two minutes! Move!” She leaped back up the stairs as another guard tumbled down the stairs to fall in a bloody heap.
Lillian took a deep breath and ran for her father’s display tunnel, the moment she crossed the threshold into the magically lit tunnel the sound of several dozen worried staff trying to remain calm reached her from deeper in. She counted her steps as she ran and on the thirteenth step, she turned right into the wall.
Stepping through an illusion array was like stepping in a large bubble as all the blocked or muted sensory information hit you all at once. Now she was out of her dad’s display shaft and into a secondary shaft that led deeper under the earth of Farninghold. After the last time and the deaths of so many house staff, Darian was going to allow anything like that to happen again.
Simple candles lit the way down into a large open chamber where the rest of the house staff had already gathered. If she had done as her father asked of her, maybe Mr.Ren would have made it. Lillian didn’t have time to grieve as she heard the sound of fighting getting closer having already reached the display shaft so she pushed her way through the worried staff to the opposite wall.
On the wall was a series of different array switches that had been put in place by one of Katrina’s associates. All she had to do was activate all the switches by hand at the right time and everything would be ok.
Lillian listened carefully over the ruckus of the terrified staff and the closing combat even as Mr.Ren’s blood stung her eyes, making them water.
*hummm*
“There!”
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Hurius smirked as he walked past the trail of dead houseguards. It had been almost too easy. His forces had outnumbered theirs but quite an amount but they had decently high levels for simple house guards.
They retreated like cowards from the start. Real soldiers would have fought to the last to defend their lord. But instead, they had allowed him to offer himself up and would die anyway. Many wore the blue bands or trinkets of quotz but that was disgustingly common in Yarnus, especially Farninghold.
*hummm*
Hurius stopped in his tracks as he heard a sound at the very edge of his hearing,” What was that?”
An explosion shattered the manor all around before he was surrounded by blinding blue fire as the roof above him shuddered and fell. Hurius was taken aback by the sudden explosion but was at no risk of injury from it so he simply braced himself and let the structure collapse around. The ground shook and a moment later it fell out from beneath him and fell into the lower level.
As Hurius grunted from large timbers and stones slamming down on top of him, the cries of weaker, lesser men being crushed by the falling wood and stone echoed out of the rubble of the Lesta Family Manor.