The only thing that felt more stifling than the tunnels we were building into Freiweld was the sense that something was being missed.
We’d arrived in the city untouched, which left us even more uncomfortable. I wanted to feel happy about it, knowing that we had somehow gotten here with our full numbers and without any interference that could have alerted Arlin. At the same time, every single step we took in the direction of Freiweld made the city feel more and more like a trap.
Yet, when we’d come up to the walls of Freiweld, they looked normal. Still guarded with men on wooden towers, but not like they were preparing for us specifically. While our group hid on the edge of the roads or Freiweld, in that area where the forest didn’t fully claim territory, I was sent in to scout out a location where we could enter. One with a basement to set up in.
It was a house that belonged to a grain mill which ended up having the best basement. We needed secrecy, which meant getting rid of the old man who was living inside of it alone.
Cedric proposed killing him. I proposed to not do that. I still didn’t like what I had to do. I did the only thing I could do to incapacitate him, which was to use pure mana.
I hovered behind him like a ghost, letting pure mana radiate out of my palm while I was invisible. Maintaining both invisibility and a flow of pure mana was extremely difficult and something I couldn’t maintain for long, but even just a few minutes in his presence caused him to collapse onto the ground. All that was left was a light conk on the head, and he was out cold.
My first thoughts in the immediate aftermath was how to explain to him that the reason I had assaulted him was a good one, and that he shouldn’t be made at being hogtied in his own basement. After realizing that we were also going to be tearing apart his basement and using it as a base without his permission, I gave up on doing so.
I didn’t go to see the process of tunneling, but once the hole opened on the side of the basement, I could see a line of people behind Elm and Jay who seemed very terrified. It was only one tunnel out of several.
Which meant I had to repeat the process of giving people radiation poisoning and locking them in their basements.
I dreaded the thought I was going to have to tell these people that I was going to be their king.
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After only three days of preparation at Freiweld, we were ready. Many citizens now sat tied up in their basements, including an entire family. However, I’d made sure to promise all of them complete safety once this was over.
The tunnels were the perfect size for just a single person, although individuals such as Mell had to be extremely careful and twist their bodies in unnatural ways to make it through. It was why he was waiting ahead in the house we’d planned to be the castle infiltration team’s exit ahead of time.
The leaders of every group sat in the basement with me alongside with the individuals they’d put the most trust in. Alex, Silva and Jay stood on my right while Cedric and Elina stood on the left. I took a deep breath and prepared my quiet and short speech.
“This is probably the riskiest thing we’ve done so far, which says a lot. Move quick and fast, and stick to the plan. I want as few Corithians to be killed as possible. Once you’ve done your part, start moving back to the castle. If everything goes well, we’ll have Bernard in our clutches. Got it?”
I got a collective nod in response.
“Good. Let’s make Arlin hurt.”
We split off into our individual tunnels. The air felt stiffer and stiffer with each step until we finally broke through at the other side. Mell’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw us, and we quickly ran up the steps of the house of an unlucky potter and into the streets of Freiweld. We only had a small window of time before the streets would be a combat area. Deborah led the way with ease, almost too fast for us to keep up.
We moved in and out of alleyways towards a destination she’d only briefly described. When she stopped, putting a hand in front of me and Elm, I saw the reason she’d been so coy.
“A bathhouse?” I said, puzzled and intrigued.
“Yup. We’re aiming for what is beneath it, though. The royal family always loved this place, and the old king would sometimes use the royal passage to get to the bathhouse without anyone noticing.” Deborah said.
An explosion rang out in the distance behind us, which was the sign that the roads were already under attack.
“Looks like it’s time.” She grabbed my arm and dragged me inside, shutting the wooden door behind us with force. We scampered our way down to the basement past the nice looking baths that seemed untouched by Arlin.
Wonder if this would break the little researcher’s mind.
Deborah began making her way around the moss covered stone walls of the basement, tapping on stones until Ruby grabbed Deborah on the shoulder and pointed to a further corner in the back.
“That one. There’s a draft.” She stated confidently. Where she was pointing was directly at a large wooden cupboard. She and Mell made their way over and got on different sides of the cupboard, pushing it out of the way and revealing a gaping hole. The musty smell of mildew and wet stone filled my nostrils.
The stone stairwell it led to was dusty and unused. Deborah grabbed my arm and threw me in front of her, nearly directly down the stairwell.
“Light the way, little rebel.”
I groaned and let out a lantern’s amount of light from my palm to illuminate the path. I stepped forward carefully, making sure not to slip on the wet stone. The walls were dirt and shook with each step our group took downwards until we eventually ended in a long stone hallway. We were deep underground, and could only feel the slightest rumblings of the combat outside.
“What’s with this place?” Sera quietly asked, taking a peek forwards from behind Mell.
“It’s an escape route and a few other things.” Deborah whispered, “The entire thing is stacked on top of itself, kinda like a tower built downwards. The next two rooms before we enter the castle’s lowest floor are a wine room and an armory.”
“That explains it.” Ruby said, her eyes shut tight while she made her way forward, “It looked like people on the next floor up, but they’re perfectly still.”
We made our way forward, into a large rectangular room with a stairwell at the far end which led upwards to the next floor of this ‘inverted tower’. The air made me want to sneeze with how musty it was. We quietly moved up the stairwell and into the winery. Massive wooden barrels surrounded us on all sides. I looked up and saw that the stairwell up to the armory was on the opposite side.
I shushed everyone as we moved forward, since we were getting closer to the actual interior. We carefully made our way up the steps as I dimmed my light slightly.
I peeked over the floor of the next room and saw the suits of armor lining the walls. They looked Arlinian instead of Corithian, which gave me a bad feeling in my gut. As the last of us made it up the stairwell, I noticed something on the armors.
A bead of sweat rolling down what should have been a mannequin. A torch flickered to life from the stairwell, revealing eight soldiers all lining the walls of the room. A voice I didn’t want to hear forced a shiver down my spine.
“Hello, North.” called out First Lieutenant Keagan, standing on the stairwell with a torch in hand, “I suggest you and your friends don’t make any moves.”
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We’d fallen into their trap. Easily fallen into his trap. Now, the eight soldiers were pointing their burners on us. We were all huddled in a circle in the center of the room, staring down the face of their barrel’s. My eyes were only on Keagan, which clearly was what he wanted.
“Throw your weapons down, and slowly. No sudden moves.” He ordered. I reluctantly did as he asked, and everyone else threw down their weapons.
He’s not killing us?
“But, I saw mannequins…” Ruby trailed off, disappointed in herself.
“I’d expected a wind attuned to be scouting. These soldiers here have been standing still since we’d heard the first signs of an attack. I’d also expected that if there was going to be anyone to put themselves on the frontlines and attack the castle, it would be you.” Keagan said smugly, as his gaze slowly drifted over to Elm, “I wasn’t sure you’d come along with him, but I’m glad to see you. Now, I can make sure I get rid of you two myself.”
“Seems Arlin’s military academy has improved.” Elm dryly remarked.
“I wouldn’t say that. It’s just my intuition that a man like you would never allow your pupil to do something as stupid as a full frontal assault. All other passages into the castle have been blocked off, meaning I could funnel you right into my hands.”
Stolen story; please report.
“And what if we’re just a distraction for you to let others invade the castle and take Bernard?”
Keagan cackled like a mad man. Now that he was holding a torch, I could see how much he’d changed. His body looked dirty and unwashed, his eyes both tired and filled with rage. He looked less like a man and more like a monster.
“You don’t have the numbers or the mind for that. And even if you did, I have other plans to ensure that this rebel group and any other like minded individuals never attempt something like this for a long time.” He said sinisterly.
I scanned the room for anything, looking at the guards and walls for any sign of weakness. My gaze eventually landed on the floor beneath me. I had to hide my grin as I turned back up to face Keagan. I needed him mad and distracted.
“Why not kill us now?” I asked him, while focusing my attunement on the torch he was holding. I began to make its light more dim, darkening the room.
Keagan cocked his head to the side in a mocking manner, pulling out some painfully familiar cuffs from behind his back.
“Believe me, I would love to. You killed Theodore, the love of my life. I deserve vengeance. However, my better judgment prevails. I plan on killing everyone else here except you and Grayson. You two will be heading back, wearing cuffs, to Vyris. I imagine the Emperor would love to make a public display out of your execution. And Grayson’s, of course. After he spends some time in the Hollow. I imagine a few days in there would be enough to get you to tell us all about how to manufacture the cuffs.”
I had no idea what this hollow was, but I turned to Elm with a sly grin that wasn’t visible to Keagan.
“Well, sir. Looks like we have no ground to stand on.”
Elm looked at my face for a moment as a realization formed in his eyes. He gave a one sided grin as well and turned to look at Keagan.
“You’re an unlucky man, Keagan.” Elm said, before clenching his fist, and the ground beneath us began to crumble. The entire floor of the armory collapsed downwards, onto the winery below it. The light in the room from Keagan’s torch had shrunk almost entirely to the point of leaving everyone who was falling below in darkness.
“No!” He shouted as the soldiers fell down into darkness. Screams and blasts of burners could be heard from below.
Keagan cursed several times as he watched in futility from above, unable to see what was occurring. Something in his face shifted, from rage and frustration to calm acceptance as he began to walk backwards and up into the castle through a hallways that was hidden in the walls
He stopped as he heard footsteps behind him and a soft light fill the room. He turned back and saw my body slowly appear out of the darkness, my invisibility fading away. The lights in my hands illuminated just how serious my gaze was.
I could see his anger return and ripple out like a fire through his body. His hand reached for the burner at his hip, as he now seemed intent on simply killing me. It made me feel…
Disappointed.
“You’re going to get vengeance like that? I threw away my own burner, and you know the limits of my attunement. Are you really going to fight me in such a pathetic manner to get revenge for your lover?”
He stopped mid motion, glared at me, and grabbed onto the burner. I prepared to have to dodge the beam only to watch as he tossed the burner away down the hallway behind him.
“You’re right. I don’t need magore to kill you.” He growled as he placed the torch into a holder, “You deserve a far more… personal death.”
“I know I do.” I said with a grin. My hands were both filled with the sickly blue glow of pure mana, “Because Arlin is going to burn if I’m left alive.”
Elm’s words had given me the path I could choose to follow. Arlin would never accept me, no matter what. I could never be everyone’s hero, because Arlin had made sure that there was only one hero in their narrative. Their hero was their Emperor. I could never live up to him and never reach the same level of respect.
I needed to focus on saving those who I could. What I needed to do was to fight for the people who Arlin had left without someone to fight for them.
Keagan, for some reason unbeknownst to me, let out a sudden and boisterous laugh that died as quickly as it began. His eyes locked onto me with the precision of a predator animal.
“Let’s begin.”
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I had barely gotten the chance to react when Keagan pivoted forward and launched his first punch. We were limited in space by the narrowness of the hallway, so I could only barely move my head out the way. His right jab whistled past my ear like an arrow.
This guy isn’t attuned, right? That was nearly as fast as Mell!
My small frame was normally a hindrance, but in this case it was helping me stay mobile. I pressed my palm against Keagan’s arm, flooding his system with mana. I couldn’t take him down in one go, I knew that. However, as long as I could get a few more pumps of pure mana into his system, I believed I could take him down. It was a fighting strategy devised by Cedric to work with my physical limits.
His face twisted in pain and sickness as the mana entered his system. His right arm convulsed briefly as he had to regain his focus. It was only a few seconds before he returned to the offense with a left hook.
He was already too close for me to back up and his punch was too fast for me to dodge, which meant I had to block. I raised up my right arm just as he shook off my left hand’s grasp and felt it slam into the bones like a hammer. Each knuckle felt as hard as iron pressing into my forearm, sending a shock throughout my system. I staggered backwards as he continued to close in.
His face was enraged, and he seemed to be holding back the symptoms of mana sickness with sheer rage. But he was still being affected by my mana, which meant he wasn’t attuned. He stepped forward again and led with his left hand, aiming directly at my head. I quickly ducked as I felt it fly over me.
I only had a second to look down as I saw that I’d been baited. His right foot was raised and straightened out into a powerful kick. His boot landed onto my stomach with force and launched me down the hallway.
I slid back on the wet stones gasping for the air he’d forced out of my lungs. My vision blurred temporarily as I looked up and saw him grimacing.
“Pathetic.” Keagan angrily declared, his slow steps thundering in my ears. I grabbed onto one of the jutting stones of the wall and helped myself back to my feet. The mana exiting my palms flickered back to life as I started to breathe.
“You’re supposed to be Major Grayson’s protege, and you’re barely standing after a single kick.” He gloated, seeming to relish taking his time.
“I didn’t exactly get a military education working in the mines.” I answered in between breaths.
“Which is where you should have stayed, instead of assuming your life had any fucking value.”
I took one final breath and got back to my feet. The blue light in my palms shimmered and suddenly switched its property into blinding light. It wasn’t as strong as I’d wanted it to be, but it forced Keagan to raise up his arm to protect his eyes.
I took it as my chance to go onto the offensive, darting forward and switching back to pure mana in both palms. He attempted to make a blind swipe in front as he heard my footsteps, which I ducked. My hands landed on his abdomen and flooded it with pure mana. I could hear his intestines gurgle as the unnatural energy ran wild in his systems.
Before I could back up, I felt his hand land onto my shoulder and tighten around it. I could only look up for a brief second as I saw his face contort as the contents of his stomach began to resurface. His eyes were still shut tight from the flash, but I’d given him my position by touching him.
Keagan had realized that the mana sickness was causing him to throw up, which he decided to use by puking onto my face.
The puke came out like a deluge, a disgusting projectile vomit that immediately filled my nostrils with the scent of alcohol. I closed my eyes to stop it from getting into my vision. Before I could pull myself from his grasp, I felt his other hand land on the side of my head.
Keagan pushed and smashed my head directly against the wall of the hallway. My vision went red, and my ears started ringing. My brain rattled in my skull, reeling in shock as I stumbled backwards. Keagan followed it up with another swift kick to the rib cage which toppled me onto the floor.
I gasped for air like a fish out of water while my foe reoriented himself. I could feel the blood dripping down my head. I tried to sit up just as Keagan’s foot landed on my rib cage and slammed me back down onto the floor, shattering my ribs.
Keagan looked down at me, the corners of his mouth still tainted with puke, smiling. I was gasping for air, but each breath came with the disgusting wet gurgle of blood forming in my lungs. The corners of my vision were growing dark. I raised up my left hand to grab at him for another kick to land upon it. He held down my arm and twisted his boot into it, the bones in my forearm breaking under the pressure.
“Let’s make sure this hurts.” Keagan said, getting down on his knees and straddling over me. He wound up his fist and threw another punch at my face, directly at my nose. My head slammed back against the floor and my nose snapped. The ringing in my ears grew louder.
Keagan laughed maniacally as he stared down at me. I couldn’t stop him as he started to place his hands around my neck.
“You should have never rebelled.” He said as he began choking me. He wanted to watch me die slowly.
I couldn’t fight him. My punches were too weak and my legs weren’t strong enough to push him off. All I could do in those moments was focus on the flow of mana.
He seemed to be willing to power through the mana, but I didn’t know what else to do. My vision was growing darker as his grip tightened. I just kept focusing the mana into my right hand, making it tighter and tighter.
I was going to hit him with every single bit of power in my system. The mana was growing so dense that I could see the blue glow growing brighter on his face.
I needed it to be more mana than I’d ever used on someone before. I needed it all to come out in one last push. The power was growing so much that it felt physical in my asphyxiated mind.
My body was reaching its limit. I was on the verge of passing out, and Keagan’s only focus was watching my life fade away. With the last few embers of energy in my system, I tightened my fingers around the mana and slammed it into his neck.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, I felt blood begin dripping down onto my face. The darkness in my vision receded as I was able to look up and see Keagan above me.
His neck had been impaled by a knife of pure magore which I was tightly gripping onto.
Shock and mana sickness filled his system as Keagan struggled to comprehend what was going on. He looked into my eyes as a final bloody word exited his mouth.
“Slave…”
Keagan’s eyes rolled backwards as he leaned over to his left side and collapsed onto the floor, dead.
My body shook awake as I began to cough up the liquid that had been pooling in my lungs, spitting it out into the air and directly back onto my face. My body was broken and shattered, my own blood painting the walls and floors of the hallway.
I’d killed Keagan, but it’d left me on the precipice of death. My determination and adrenaline was holding me back from feeling just how much I’d been injured.
That was until I began screaming, as I felt the first of my many shattered ribs start forcefully healing itself back into place.