They walked in the front gate. Out in the open, as if they didn’t have a price on their heads. Anton and Kelsey just walked in with the rest of the crowd. They did cover their faces, but Kelsey’s considered opinion was that they didn’t need to. It did threaten to be more trouble than it was worth, though, so she wore the hood.
Everyone else was already in the arena. Anton and Kelsey were last, to give them a chance to get into position before the trouble started. They came out of the entrance tunnel and paused on the main concourse to get their bearings.
“There,” Kelsey said, nodding in the direction she meant. “The nobles’ section, where all the guards are. That’s where he’ll be.”
Anton was looking for Aris. Soraya and Tyla were too notable to have their heads uncovered, but she was just another dark-skinned girl. Third pylon, go back… and there she was. She’d been keeping watch on the entrance and their eyes met. She smiled and Anton couldn’t stop himself from smiling back.
“I found Aris,” he reported. “She’s—”
“I see her,” Kelsey said shortly. “You ready?”
“Yeah,” Anton said.
It was a long walk to the nobles’ section. While you could get there from the main entrance, the rich had their own entrance, far away from the one the rabble used. The fights weren’t due to start for another hour, but the stands were already crowded, Anton and Kelsey forced their way through, until they came to an obstacle that wouldn’t be moved. Guards, blocking the way forward.
“Al-Kadir,” Kelsey said. “We’re here to see him.”
She threw back her hood, and Anton could see the moment when half the guards recognised who she was. The other half must have been asleep at the briefing or something, they just gaped at her unusual skin colouring.
“Don’t start no trouble, there won’t be none,” Kelsey said in response to the tightened grip on spears and the cautious half-steps backwards. “He wants to see us, we’re here.”
She waited patiently for the courl in charge to figure out what to do. After a brief pause, he stepped forward.
“Hand over your—”
“No,” Kelsey said firmly.
The courl looked uncomfortable. Anton looked him over.
Hazan Khetar, Level 23, Courl, Steadfast Sentinel, Warrior/Trustworthy Guard/Steadfast Sentinel, S: 31, T: 29, A: 23, D: 23, P: 24, W: 22, C: 5
That was a little bit higher than most of the other guards. Anton was pretty sure all the guards were Tier Three, but not too many levels higher than him.
Kesley wasn’t carrying any visible weapons, but Anton had his sword, and his hand was on the hilt. He could take one or two, but Kelsey’s guns would be the wildcard in that fight.
From the look on Hazan’s face, he had been warned about the guns.
“Farl, go warn the Captain. The rest of you, contain them. Carefully.”
He paused a moment to make sure his instructions were obeyed. Then he addressed Kelsey again.
“Follow me,” he said abruptly. Turning on his heel, he walked slowly forward, leaving the guards to shuffle sideways or backward as they maintained a ring around Anton and Kelsey.
Kelsey matched Hazan’s pace and Anton followed her lead, moving deeper into the noble’s section. Richly dressed courl and humans looked down at them as they walked slowly toward their destination, a walled-off section of the stands.
Just before they reached the wall, Hazan spun to face them again.
“Halt!” he barked.
“Let them through,” a deep, silky, familiar voice called out. Hazan winced.
“Sir, they have not been checked for weapons,” he protested.
“As if that would have any meaning,” the voice said. Anton could tell that the speaker had stepped forward and would soon be coming into view.
“The girl has her own dimensional storage,” al-Kadir said as he stepped around the corner. “So your search would do no good.”
He looked scornfully at Anton. “And while the boy is armed, his blade will not serve him against mine.”
He held out his hand and a sword appeared in it. It was long and thin and flickered with a green iridescence. Anton couldn’t help identifying it.
Viper’s Edge, Enchanted Weapon, Excellent Quality, Tier 3
“Very nice,” Kelsey said. “I’d say we look forward to taking it off you, but I’m not sure poison would fit with the theme Anton has got going on.”
Al-Kadir’s face curled up in disgust. “What are you, puppet? Where is your master?”
“Still haven’t figured it out yet, huh?” Kelsey smirked. “But that’s not the question you really want to ask, is it?”
“The reason I haven’t killed you already,” al-Kadir agreed. “I will have an answer. Necromancy is a rare evil, but not an unknown one. Priests with power over the undead have been found and stand ready to bind you. The answers I seek will be torn out of your flesh!”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Al-Kadir controlled his anger with some obvious effort. “I only hope that there is a mind in that shell to feel the pain it causes. Now. Where. Is. My. Bride?”
“She’s right over there,” Kelsey said, pointing across the arena.
Anton looked where she pointed. He knew where to look, and what he was looking for. It was a long way away though. He could barely make out Soraya, hood off, standing upright, looking right at them.
Al-Kadir had a much higher Perception than Anton did. The Tier Four Champion growled deep in his throat as Soraya jumped down off her seat, and started to run.
“Capture them alive,” was all al-Kadir said before blinking away. His teleport didn’t take him far, only to the edge of the stands. Anton had one last glimpse of him jumping down into the main Arena before he had to focus on the guards.
“Here! Catch!” Kelsey said, tossing a metal cylinder at Hazan. He didn’t catch it, of course. His spear was in his hands and he used it to bat the item away. That didn’t help, of course, as the item was already spewing a cloud of white, toxic smoke.
Anton was already donning the mask that Kelsey had provided at the same time. Kelsey was doing the same. She didn’t have to breathe, but if she didn’t, she couldn’t talk, which was an unacceptable condition.
At first, the guards were put off by the cloud of smoke, but as Kelsey dropped more cylinders, they realised that their chance of capturing the pair was going to be lost. Shouting in defiance, they charged in.
That proved to be a mistake. The smoke wasn’t just smoke. It wasn’t alchemical, according to Kelsey, but it burned the mouth and lungs if you breathed it in, and it burned the eyes if you held your breath. The yells turned to choked cries and hacking coughs and the guards started falling to their knees. Anton had to use Uncanny Evasion, but only once.
“I’ve got this!” came a cry from behind. A wind sprang out of nowhere, blowing the smoke away. Unfortunately, it had already done its work. The guards were no doubt grateful that it had stopped, but they were still incapacitated, at least for the moment.
Anton used Quick Attack to send the tip of his sword through the throat of his closest opponent and looked back to see where the voice had come from. He saw a small crowd, four or five people in robes rushing forward. The one in the lead was clutching a glowing round object hanging around his neck.
“Oh, a wizard is it?” Kelsey said, speaking loudly to be heard through her mask. Screams from the crowd all around distracted her. The smoke that had been pushed away from her was now dispersed into the crowd. Even dispersed, it was still a burning, choking smog and the crowd didn’t like it. At all.
Anton could see that the guards rushing towards them were slowed, but the real victims were the rich spectators in the nearby sections. Unlike the guards, they weren’t motivated or trained to push through the pain.
“Bit of an own goal there, hey?” Kelsey said to the wizard. Anton wasn’t sure if he could hear her. The other robed figures next to him had started holding their hands out toward Kelsey and were chanting something. One of them spoke a little more clearly.
“Bind Undead,” he chanted.
Kelsey cocked her head to the side and waited a beat, but nothing happened. The robed figures started to look a little uncertain.
“Yeah, I’m not undead, sorry guys,” Kelsey said. Then her guns swept up and started firing.
Anton went back to executing guards as they started recovering. He slashed at Hazan, but the courl used a Trait to block. He was stronger than Anton, but he was still coughing and weeping from the gas. Anton pulled back, putting the courl off balance and used Uncanny Evasion to slip past the courls wild counterstrike. It put him too close to use his sword, but a shove and a leg sweep put the guardsman on the ground, his spear clattering away.
Another Quick Attack took the courl’s life and a decent amount of experience.
More guards were running up to replace them, though.
“Kelsey!” Anton called out. Kelsey had broken away from him and was bent over the body of the mage.
“Sorry!” she called back. “Couldn’t miss this!”
She held up the courl’s mage core before sending it away to storage. Another metal cylinder replaced it.
“Let’s get this party started again!” she said, throwing it at Anton’s feet. Smoke billowed around him as both Kelsey and a fresh set of guards approached.
Once she reached him, she handed him another cylinder.
“You can throw further,” she said. “Let’s spread the love, right?”
They had a few moments. The fresh guards were holding back, wary of entering the cloud. Anton took the smoke bomb and pulled the release as he’d been shown. Then he threw it, as far forward into the stands as he could.
Another canister, another throw. This one went in the opposite direction. People started to scream. People started to move. People started to panic.
“Let’s make for the nobles’ entrance,” Kelsey said. “If we block it off with smoke, they’ll have to flee through the commoner sections.”
----------------------------------------
Anton felt it when it happened. Well, he didn’t just feel it.
You have reached Level 5.
Please allocate free Ability points.
“He did it,” Anton told Kelsey. He’d been worried it wouldn’t count for him since he wasn’t the one who’d freed the prisoners. But he’d been a part of the plan and it couldn’t have happened without the distraction he’d provided. That was, apparently, enough to count. Added to all the deaths he’d caused, it was enough to put him up to the next Level.
Strength and Toughness, he thought, playing to his strengths.
Applying Benefits for Level 5
Strength + 2
Toughness + 2
Agility + 1
Dexterity + 1
Perception + 1
Willpower + 1
Charisma + 1
“Let’s get out of here then,” Kelsey said. They had reached the exit by then, keeping it clear by dint of a constant supply of choking smoke. Several attempts had been made to charge them but no one had found an answer yet. Even a Tier Four had been forced to retreat when a simple cloth mask had proved ineffective.
Anton knew they were running out of time, though. Kelsey had warned him that the masks could only be used for a brief time before the filters wore out. Changing masks was possible, but it would mean exposing his nose and eyes to the gas.
So they left. No one was willing to stay near the gas, so they didn’t have to worry about a perimeter. Anton was a little surprised there were no guards, but after they travelled a little further they got a view of the other entrance.
“Yeah, let’s steer clear of that carnage,” Kelsey said.
Anton nodded. He handed his mask to Kelsey and they headed for the rendezvous point. The kids had found the spot where the sewers entered the river.
“I don’t see the girls,” Anton said nervously.
“Don’t worry, they’ll make it,” Kelsey assured him.
There was a sudden, sharp, boom from nearby. Anton jumped in surprise, but he knew what the sound had to be. The sewers were kept locked off by a thick iron grate, with bars as thick as his arm. They were no match for Kelsey’s demolitions, though.
Anton looked over the wall that separated the sewer from the slightly less smelly docklands. It wasn’t long before he saw Zaphar, accompanied by the two kids and a host of other figures, stumble through the stream of waste towards daylight.
Kelsey threw a rope ladder over the wall. You could get out through the river, but you’d have to swim. Zaphar was the first one up. He was already complaining.
“Why do I always—always—get the worst jobs?”