Michael
“Dittrich,” Michael greeted him, carefully ignoring the knight's remark. “I assume you are looking for me?”
Dittrich nodded while still smiling and came a little bit closer, “Oh yes. Everyone is looking for you. Of course, no one is looking here anymore.”
Michael held his gaze firmly on the knight, his demeanor made his intentions clear as day, he would have never dared to call him a demon spawn if he expected Michael to walk away from this alive. Michael had three choices, scream, run, or fight. Screaming was a win-or-lose situation, if someone was near then his survival was basically ensured if not then he would prompt the knight to kill him right now.
Running was a good option; he had more mana and was generally quite quick on his feet but Dittrich was at least twenty centimeters taller than him so he would probably be faster. He could also not defend himself well while running away, which was bad if the knight managed to catch him.
Fighting had little chance of success. Michael had never won a fight against a knight, of course, his life had never been on the line but neither had theirs.
“I would recommend you think about what you are about to do,” Michael said, trying to stall for time while thinking. “You will not get away with this.”
“Oh, I have been thinking a lot about it. I have been thinking about it since that commoner dog Geron threw me off the wall all these years ago and he will be next. Don’t worry, I will make it painless and then just leave your corpse for the animals, if you are lucky then the others will find you before the animals or monsters do. Either way, I will be long gone before anyone comes to check here again.” Dittrich laughed loudly with a tad of madness in his tone.
Michael wasn’t sure if his daring to laugh this loudly meant that he didn’t care or that there weren’t any knights nearby.
“You are not risking it all for some petty revenge. You are too smart for that.” A little bit of flattery couldn’t hurt right now
“Heh, of course not. You are not worth the risk but with you gone no one will be left to inherit your throne and we will be able to take everything you owned,” Dittrich boasted, ever the idiot.
“So, it is your father’s plan,” Michael concluded. He doubted seriously that Baron Redric Plon would be able to sway a vote in his direction for the inheritance, but he didn’t know what kind of leverage the baron had on his fellow nobles. Everything was probably better for him than having Michael be his superior.
“It is OUR plan,” Dittrich snarled from between fletched teeth.
Inferiority complex huh, Michael thought and a plan formed. He didn’t like his chances of calling for help, but he would of course do it because why not? Running and fighting were both risky, but he could try to increase his odds.
“Really? I would have taken Lord Plon for someone to keep his plans to the trustworthy people and not someone who would spill it to the target at the first opportunity,” Michael acted thoughtfully.
“You are gonna die anyway,” Dittrich retorted but Michael could see him getting angrier.
Michael smirked. “You sure about that? You always were awfully slow.”
The knight looked like he was about to burst as his muscles tensed up, he would attack, and he would do so recklessly. Michael had one shot to injure the knight and then make his escape, he would like a leg injury, but he couldn’t be picky.
Dittrich grabbed his sword as Michael did the same and both of them exploded into movement. As Michael had guessed Dittrich could traverse the distance faster than he could have and his sword fell like a meteor onto Michael’s head in an attempt to split him in half.
Michael’s scream echoed through the forest strengthened by his mana as he snapped his fingers to create a shield of light to block the knight’s downward swing. The quickly conjured plane of light could never hope to stop Dittrich’s attack but it could look like an honest attempt and also take the knight’s line of sight.
The blade crashed through the shield as if it wasn’t even there and Michael could see the look of triumph on Dittrich’s face which quickly changed into confusion when he saw Michael having angled his head to have the sword bounce off the rounded top.
A mundane helmet would have been smashed in by an augmenter of his strength even with just a normal sword even if the sword wouldn’t have survived, so it was reasonable for him to think his magical sword could do the same to Michael’s magical helmet, but Michael knew who had made this particular piece of armor and he would put his life into Farel’s capable hands every day.
Michael struck with the confusion still being fresh, but Dittrich was still a trained knight. He instantly jumped back to avoid a fatal wound, but Michael wasn’t looking to wound him fatally. His sword found Dittrich’s upper leg and cleanly tore through the normal metal to draw blood.
His head was ringing from the impact against his head which was still massive, but he had gotten enough strikes against his temple in the past to push through it. Michael was already four meters away before Dittrich had even come to a proper halt.
He doubted that Dittrich would be able to catch him with that wound on the leg and a grin came onto Michael’s face. He took two more steps while reveling in his victory as something heavy suddenly hit the back of his head.
Michael stumbled as fragments of wood flew all around him and the next thing, he knew was his face planting into the ground.
“You nearly had me there, but you spent a little too much time in the training ring and too little on an actual battlefield to run from me,” Dittrich noted with a grin as he followed the improvised projectile and followed it up with a kick to Michael’s ribs which send him flying two or three meters. “Now I would really like to take my time with you, but you just had to scream. I don’t think anyone is close enough to save you, but I still have to put some distance between me and this.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Michael pushed himself up, staring at Dittrich as he approached. He had lost his sword either from the fall or the kick after. He was standing with his back to a tree and Dittrich was just in front of him
With a snap he conjured a shield on his one arm and began constructing a sword made of light in his other, ready to fight. If he could survive right now he could be saved, or maybe find another opening to run even if that was less likely now that his enemy knew of his intention.
“Oh, come on,” Dittrich chuckled.
With a loud crash, someone broke through the underbrush, a tall man, covered in armor and a haunted expression on his face. For one moment, Michael saw his father charging in to save him but then realized that his uncle Duncan turned his gaze at them and looked at them confused.
Dittrich blinked at the count with clear surprise on his face and seemed uncertain what to do.
“What in Idas’s name is going on here,” Lord Grim growled, completely understanding what was going on, that much Michael was sure of.
“He is trying to kill me,” Michael yelled before Dittrich could lie.
Lord Grim’s eyes narrowed as he began sizing up Dittrich with his eyes who took a step back and said, “Now hold up, milord. We can end what you started two years ago, just let me kill him quickly and leave. No one will know that we were involved.”
Michael laughed hysterically at that which turned into a series of coughs, “Is this a bad time to reveal that my uncle had nothing to do with the deaths of my family? Oh Dittrich, you are such an unlucky fool.”
“Wait wha…?” Dittrich asked but didn’t manage to finish his sentence when Lord Grim closed the distance between them in a heartbeat. He might be weaker than in the past with little practice, but he still was one of the strongest augmenters in the kingdom, having been just a step behind Michael’s father, and Dittrich was barely average.
Lord Grim crashed into the unprepared knight like an avalanche and instantly knocked him off balance. Dittrich defended himself with the desperation of a deer being attacked by a wolf, mostly blocking and swinging wildly. It took so much focus that he didn’t notice the block of light that Michael had sent behind him, over which he promptly tripped and fell.
“Keep him alive,” Michael quickly shouted as his uncle jumped after the falling knight, ready to finish him off. He hesitated for a moment and then simply stomped his foot down on Dittrich’s face. The knight bounced off the ground with the sound of air escaping and came to a rest a moment later.
Lord Grim kicked him slightly once and then nodded before turning to Michael. “Are you alright?”
“Uncle.” Michael simply stared at him, the adrenaline was falling off and the emotions returned. “Uncle, I am sorry. I have been so wrong. How could I have believed … I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Duncan stepped forward, grabbed Michael, and pulled him into a tight hug. “It’s okay. I never blamed you. I have made so many mistakes, but you did nothing wrong.”
“How can you say that? I cursed you, blamed you, threatened you, and worst of all I left you alone with your grief, no I even added to it,” Michael yelled into his uncle’s armor. It all felt like the few instances when his father had held him.
“You are just a child. You might be the weirdest child that ever existed, but you are still just a child thrust into the most horrible situation. Everyone makes mistakes even you, Michael.”
Michael fought free of the embrace and looked at his uncle with tear-filled eyes, “I will make up for what I have done.”
Duncan smiled, let go of him, and said, “I expect nothing less from Cedric’s son.”
Michael also smiled and then remembered how he had come to that realization. “Uncle, I have a lead on who really killed them,” Michael exclaimed excitedly.
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Lynx
The hooded augmenter jumped back, dodging a fan of knives. He turned and shot an arrow from his magically resonating bow, but Lynx had already ducked behind a thick tree. When he reemerged from it, he saw the long cracks from where the projectile had impacted.
If that hit me, I am going to be in trouble, Lynx thought and inspected his prey. He had seen him before, he was the man with the scar on his left cheek, the man who had taken the fabricated letters and brought them into the palace. Lynx also suspected from their short fight that he was the assassin who had made the attempt on Michael’s life two years ago in the capital. Lynx intended to question the girl Eydis about this at some point, which might prove to be unnecessary depending on this fight.
“What the fuck do you want from me, you masked creep?” the man yelled at him and drew another arrow.
“Who do you work for?” Lynx repeated the same question he had asked multiple times already.
The man sighed before answering, “Fine. I work for your mother; she wants to know if you will come to dinner today.”
Lynx didn’t react to the childish mocking of the man; jokes were nothing that resonated with the Faceless.
“You asked what I want from you, but if you do not speak truthfully then I will have to turn to a more violent form of questioning,” Lynx answered calmly. Normally he wouldn’t grace the man’s remarks with an answer, but it was always good to keep men like that talking, they thought themselves smarter and because of that revealed more than they should.
“More violent than throwing knives at a total stranger in the woods? I don’t know who you are, but that mask must have grown into your brain.” The man let his shoulders slump but then suddenly shot an arrow from the hip to surprise Lynx.
Lynx wouldn’t be tricked so easily; he had spent more time learning the mannerisms of other races than this man had been alive.
“You don’t seem like a man who would give anyone his loyalties, so I would presume you are an adventurer or mercenary,” Lynx tried to pry some additional information from the conversation.
“Impressive guesswork,” the mercenary answered honestly.
It wasn’t hard to come to that conclusion, this man was good, very good but he didn’t show any sign of formal training, and his personality would put him at odds with any superior.
“How about I pay you for the information then? That is how this works, is it not?”
The man laughed loudly. “Now you are speaking my language, man. Sadly, I doubt that your pockets are as deep as those of my current employer.”
Someone rich. That is not quite new information, whoever it is managed to get this mercenary access to the palace and there were few with that kind of power that didn’t also have vast wealth. It would narrow it down if the man knew that I am backed by the Radiant Soul but there is no way to find out without spilling the secret in case he doesn’t.
“How about you tell me your price and we can find out just how deep my pockets are.”
He could see a short glimpse of curiosity in the mercenary’s eyes but he extinguished it quickly. “I don’t think so. I have wasted too much time with you already as it is. I have things to do, people to kill.”
Lynx couldn’t gather much from his expression, but he would be surprised if it didn’t have something to do with the Radiant Soul, probably another assassination attempt or something even more sinister. He would need to send one of his students to warn him once he was done here, there could be more assassins lurking around.
“Enough with the words then,” Lynx said and rushed to the side, multiple knives appearing in his hand for just a moment before being flung at the archer.
He dodged faster than an unaugmented eye could follow but he didn’t shoot back, he rather turned and ran into the forest.
Lynx cocked his head as he began to pursue, he hadn’t taken the man for someone who would rather run than fight, but he was an archer so maybe he should have.
He dashed around an especially thick tree his dagger raised to ward off eventual surprise attacks. As expected, a projectile came flying his way just as he did, and he blocked it easily with his dagger before even realizing what it was. Ceramics broke and a liquid flew at him which ignited while still in the air and clung to him like mud.
An alchemical grenade?
To use something like this in a forest was beyond risky but it did its job to stop Lynx. Most others would have been in trouble right about now, but he simply pushed out his mana and with it the muddy substance. He formed his mana into a ball and choked out the fire.
All this took a mere few seconds but when Lynx was done, the mercenary was already gone.
“Hmm, very dangerous indeed,” Lynx mumbled before turning away and carrying the alchemical substance to a source of water to dispose of.