Idali shuffles nervously behind me, attracting my attention. The woman is suspicious, connected to Aisha. Yet, she chose to fight with me so I can't ditch her for no reason, it wouldn't be right.
“We have to tell everyone. What if it attacks?” She asks, jittery.
“Tianeels don't sink ships, only really small boats. We'll be fine as long as we don't get in the water.” I reassure her.
“I've heard stories.” Idali contests.
“And I heard of Tianeels from fishermen.” I reply. “There are more dangerous things after us right now, Idali.”
“Right. Focus.” She nods.
We head to the upper deck, finding complete chaos. There are warriors, former galley-slaves, and soldiers fighting across the ship, three groups trying to slaughter each other with little to no pity towards their opponents.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
I search for the Templars, wanting to avoid them but knowing that it won't be possible, distraught by the idea of killing Emperor Rasaec's temple guards. I see none on our ship, but the workers are all dead and there are no dead soldiers near the bodies. Those who took them out didn't suffer a single loss.
Vikiana. The woman is once again in my way, possibly still an insurmountable obstacle. I suppress my anger, the Exemplar is Lance's Mother after all and she did do all she could to save her daughter, I can't begrudge her that. But where is she, where are they? Did they descend into our galley's lower decks? Why?
Now that I think about it, the Templars I saw all wore hard leather armor with a slight golden glow, like they were filled with energy before the battle. That, along with the soldier's liberal use of their energy, means that they have large reserves of flow available to them.
Like they need that advantage. I shake my head and focus on the battle. There are only a couple dozen soldiers left now. Not enough to deal with the handful of Rykz and forty galley-slaves. Yet, they're not beaten as my warriors are fighting both groups.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
I run between the Rykz and humans I just freed, shoving either species aside until a clear demarcation is drawn between them. A bulky man with a hairy bare chest tries to knock me out with two-thirds of an oar. I block and punch him in the stomach. The man doubles over, paling, trying to regain his breath.
The soldiers pull back towards the bridge, before their two enemies can unite and overwhelm them. As they do, dozens of golden energy streams arise from beneath, passing through the wooden deck to link up with them and replenish their reserves.
The former galley-slaves charge the soldiers, rage and despair giving them the drive to push onward. My nine warriors, on the other hand, form around me and Idali. The ship is too narrow to allow us to fight alongside them so I stand aside, thinking about my next move.
This galley is dealt with, to a point if I ignore the thirteen Templars, the second one is... I throw a glance at the one under assault by the Rykz and find that most of its starboard hull is now on fire, the flames quickly spreading to the rest.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
That ship's crew is lowering their two lifeboats at sea, which might be able to carry a fourth but no more, the rest will have to swim in a sea infested by Rykz and a Tianeel. It hits me then that the pitiful criminals, chained to their benches, will either burn or drown.
Either way, it's sad but not my burden to bear. The last galley, the one that carried the Templars, is maneuvering towards it to help but is keeping its distance from the flames. They're clearing the Rykz out as a priority, making use of long perches and the fact that they can't swim to kill them without risking their lives. Of a thousand drones, only a few hundred are left, and their numbers are going down fast.
“We're screwed, aren't we.” Idali says, frightened.
“Regret siding with me?” I ask.
“Yes.” She replies frankly.
I blink, astonished. At least she's being honest. If I can handle the Templars, then maybe... No, there are thirteen of them while I have nine warriors and one Idali. I'm not going to win that fight.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
The breathing cry originates from behind us, a warrior's flat head emerges above the side of the hull. I approach, detecting a dozen of them climbing from two rafts. They are planting their pointy legs into the wood and using their claws to stabilize themselves. We link up with them, a larger group will help but it isn't enough.
“I order you to go back!” The young Odo yells at the slaves from the bridge. “You were lawfully convicted!”
I watch the battlefield, looking for a solution, yet all I find is Vikiana and the twelve Templars returning from their search in our galley's lower decks. Empty handed and swords clean. The lack of blood means that they didn't fight, not that I expected Rasaec's Order to slaughter unarmed sailors. What did they want down there?
The Exemplar leads them towards us at running pace, leaping over the guardrail. She throws a glance at the galley-slaves doing battle with the soldiers, currently winning the fight thanks to the blades they stole from the fallen and their superior numbers.
Neither she nor the others waver, they don't even seem to even consider helping the soldiers put the revolt down. Two men and a woman have disgusted expressions, clearly directed at the Nobles on the bridge.
“Mingle with the slaves, Idali. You'll have a better chance of making it out alive.” I tell her.
“I'm no coward.” She slams her Vuskyt shield with her spear, her expression determined.
“Go, Idali.” I shake my head. “This isn't your fight.”
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
The blond woman hesitates, but ends up taking my advice. She slowly walks away as the Templars approach. A bitter laugh escapes me. I can't run or ambush them, the only saving grace might be the fact that they don't have shields.
Thinking of which, my warriors form a wall with theirs and face the temple guards who stop a few meters away. Vikiana stands at the center, glaring at me with cold light blue eyes.
“Where is the Princess?” She asks authoritatively.
“What Princess?” I respond, frowning.
“Don't play with me, girl!” The Exemplar snaps. “These Rykz wouldn't be here without a Princess to lead them! Where is the Princess they sent to negotiate, is she crossing on another ship?” She questions authoritatively.
“Is that what you're trying to do?” I utter with anger. “You set a trap to capture another? Have you learned nothing!?”
“I am losing patience. Do yourself a favor and answer me now, before I get my hands on you.” Vikiana responds, unfazed.
“I will not, ever, help you escalate this war.” I respond, furious that she would try this after the consequences brought about by Caeviel's kidnapping of the first one.
“So be it, Elizabeth Vil.” Vikiana nods, raising her sword.
The Templars charge in a line, the Exemplar follows one step behind. They collide with the shield wall, using their non-dominant shoulder as rams. My warriors buckle but hold, losing very little ground. That doesn't last as the temple guards then stab over the shields with their swords.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
Two warriors fall, their flat heads pierced by blades. The other ten manage to parry with their sabers or angle away, letting the swords harmlessly fall on their Vuskyt breastplates. Vikiana makes use of the hole in our line to swing her sword, slaying a third.
The Rykz replace the fallen and start expanding their formation to encircle their numerically inferior opponent. I put a stop to that by slamming my hammer on the wooden deck. My warriors reverse course, tightening their ranks around me.
I start walking backward, towards the galley's bow. Hoping to take up a defensive position but fully aware that it will not be enough. I could possibly slowly whittle down the Templars' numbers until they can't hold a line and are forced to back off, without killing any of Emperor Rasaec's Order, of course.
The Rykz handle the fighting retreat without losing a shred of their discipline, giving no openings for them to exploit. Yet, despite that, two more fall under Vikiana's deadly blade. The temple guards advance carefully and without taking risks, apparently adopting the same strategy as I am.
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Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
With sixteen Rykz left, two rows of eight, I don't stop moving back when we reach a point where my warriors have to further close ranks as the deck narrows. The six front-line Templars suddenly launch lion strikes all at once, with no prior signal or audible communication.
Their golden glowing swords slice through shields and sabers alike. They don't kill them with this first blow but the follow-up obliterates those with damaged shields. They don't press the attack, instead they make use of the lull to recharge their reserves with flow emerging from the decks beneath.
“Fuck me.” I swear.
“Tell me where the Princess is.” Vikiana demands from the back-line.
“Fuck you.” I respond.
I rush in to hinder their preparations, the Rykz split to let me pass and reform to cover my flanks. A few drop their sabers as they were cut short and are of less use than their claws. I assemble lion strikes in succession, ensuring that my hammer swings are synchronized with the construct's activation.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
The six temple guards evade us, falling back to let the other six take over for them. They demonstrate organization and discipline in no way inferior to the Rykz'.
Part of my focus remains dedicated to the Exemplar, my other sense making the task relatively simple. Luckily, she had to move away to make space for them to reorganize so she isn't a factor yet.
I raise my hammer overhead and bring it down, aiming at a woman's shoulder. She is two heads taller than I am and that means that the attack is coming at her from the front rather than above.
She underestimates my strength and tries to block, losing her weapon as a consequence. Her expression tightens and she retreats, holding her wrist but without crying out in pain.
The two Templars flanking her attack me in retaliation but are blocked off by my warriors who interpose their shields in-between me and them. The action of protecting me above themselves leaves a breach in the wall.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
The temple guards attempt to exploit it but my Rykz flawlessly reorganize before they can, each protecting their neighbor. The warriors left and right of the line don't have a comrade to do so for them but those behind still manage to cover for them by climbing over the guardrail.
I keep assaulting the Templars, trusting my warriors to compensate and rearrange their formation accordingly. The constant shift in our ranks destabilizes our opponents who most certainly did not expect such fluid unpredictability from the Rykz.
The front-line stabilizes in a momentary stalemate as the Templars catch up. I throw a quick hammer swipe at a man with dark hair. He raises his left forearm to block, the glow of flow on his hard leather armor's sleeve intensifies.
At the same time, he brings his dominant right hand back to stab me with his weapon. The angle of his sword informs me that he's aiming at the glaring hole that Vikiana sliced in my chain-mail.
My hammer impacts his limb, it is stopped but his painful cry tells me that it wasn't enough to protect him. Yet, landing the hit obviously didn't shatter his focus as he counter-attacks without forgetting his target. As expected, a Vuskyt shield blocks for me once again.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
Vikiana flashes forth, moving so quickly that my eyes miss the movement. She grabs his collar and pulls him away from a Rykz' quick retaliating saber strike. I take advantage of the gap they left in their line, swinging my hammer through it towards a woman's waist-bone.
The woman sees it coming in time to concentrate her armor's energy there. My weapon hits but has no effect beyond making her stagger a little. I hurriedly leap back to avoid a hurried jabbing attack from a Templar who steps in to fill the void.
“Get it together!” The Exemplar roars. “They're Rykz, not Lisilese!”
Her call wakes the Order and, within seconds, three Rykz fall to their coordinated attacks, unable to keep up. The overall battle turns in my disfavor, not only are the Templars going through flow like they have an unlimited supply but Vikiana's every flick of wrist means the fall of another warrior.
Rh-hyyyyy, kszz.
“Surrender!” The Exemplar speaks up. “We seek peace, just as you do.”
“This war began because King Cenwalh took a Princess! You expect me to make it worse by helping you take another?!” I yell back.
A shadow of guilt seems to cloud her expression for a moment but it fades before I can be certain. I intercept a Templar's slash, saving one of my warriors. Only a handful left and all of them are injured in some way.
Vikiana raises her hand and the temple guards fall on the Rykz, butchering the remaining few around me. Defeated, I retreat along the bow until my buttocks hit the guardrail at the very end of the ship.
“Tell me where the Princess is. It's the only way to end this!” Vikiana exclaims, frustrated. “To save...” She stops, squinting her eyes. “How is my daughter?”
“Depends.” I chuckle. “Does she have anything to do with this?”
“No, I lied to her and Yvonne.” She replies with a difficult expression.
“Lance is confined to Meria's keep. She's as safe as can be.” I tell her.
Vikiana's traits relax, relief apparent on the hard veteran's face. She approaches alone, the galley's bow is too narrow to allow anyone else. I bring my hammer in front of me.
“You only have to tell me where I can find the Princess. I swear that her capture will put an end to the war.” She says, sword laid low and non-threatening.
“Even if I trusted you, and I don't, the Rykz will never back down if you do this. In a month, a year, or a century, they will retaliate and there will be no quarter.” I tell her, closing the distance between us to bring her in reach of my weapon.
“You have no way out of this, Elizabeth Vil.” She says, frowning.
“So be it, today I die.” I utter.
I start laughing, to mask the pain in my chest, to chase the sadness and regret. The death of my hope, my future. Leomi... I wish we could have spent longer together. I should have listened to her warning and turned back.
I will not let them capture me alive, Nobility will not get the satisfaction of hanging me. I gather the rest of my flow and assemble a single lion strike with an extended timer segment, beyond what I experimented with before. I activate it with my entire upper body as a target and rush at Vikiana, still laughing like a madwoman.
She meets my hammer, diverting the path of my strike like Leomi did. Except instead of merely deflecting my blow, her sword continues downwards to circle back around and slash at my chest, effortlessly slipping inside my guard.
The blade finds the gap in my chain-mail and leaves a deep cut along the center of my torso. I ignore the pain and it is soon dulled by my limb who injects a little more of the cool substance.
As I recall my weapon to attack again, I attempt to elbow her face. She ducks and kicks my stomach in the same movement, throwing me back against the guardrail. I grunt and charge her again, hammer overhead, trying the same feint that got Leomi.
Vikiana angles away from me with a sidestep to the right. Whether or not she saw through the trick, it takes her body out of the downward stab's path. Her sword flashes at the edge of my field of vision, a thrust directed at my left flank.
I bring my hammer down and slap the blade away. Vikiana's light blue eyes widen in surprise, she had not expected me to see it coming. And for good cause since I didn't.
My right arm's muscles stir, they ache. I press on, wanting to defeat the woman before forcing my Emperor's Templars to kill me. The Lake won't let a failure like me within its fiery waters so the best I can hope for is a quick end.
Vikiana receives my next three attacks with poise, blocking them head-on with a small burst of flow or dodging them, holding off on retaliating. She's trying to let me exhaust myself, she isn't taking me seriously!
Furious, I still retain some self-control and wait for her to lay her right foot down before launching a swift swing at her right thigh, aiming for the moment when one's footwork is most vulnerable.
She immediately brings the leg back, having obviously held off on committing her weight to it until I attacked. I growl and forcefully interrupt my attack mid-swing.
A good call as, a split second later, she flashes forward with a full body lion strike to slash at my right side. Once more at an angle that my eyes wouldn't be able to catch because she makes use of the fact that my helmet hinders my up and down field of vision.
I block it. Vikiana's traits don't show surprise this time but incredulity. Yet, that doesn't seem to throw her off-balance as she quickly pulls back and follows-up with a stab at my right shoulder. The point of her sword, and that part only, takes on the golden glow of an armor-piercing construct.
Her maneuver was dazzlingly fast but wide so I have enough breathing room to stop the assault with my hammerhead, ensuring that my weapon won't get cut in half at the handle.
I distinctively hear a snapping sound and then an intense pain coming from my right arm. A mere moment later, her sword pierces my chain-mail and cuts through my right shoulder. Agony redoubles, throwing me into a daze.
Destabilized, I inspect myself to find out what went wrong instead of putting up my guard to stop Vikiana stop piling on. My arm is broken at the biceps, while my shoulder's muscles, under the armpit, are sliced and useless.
“I did not expect that one to land, I wanted to damage your weapon but I suppose this works too. You can't wield that hammer anymore with your arm in that state.” The Exemplar comments. I remain silent, taking in the pain. She continues. “Have you had enough? Are you ready to talk?”
I giggle and easily lift my hammer overhead with only my left hand. I turn so that my right flank faces her and deliver a quick but clumsy blow. She casually steps away from my weapon's path.
I struggle to recover my hammer and fall back into my stance, not from a lack of strength but because my ribs are protesting the treatment and, added to the flashes of agony coming from my injuries, it makes it difficult to push through despite my limb smothering the pain.
Vikiana leans forward, taking a low stance with her sword held back high. I reluctantly decide to concentrate on defense, at least until I find an opening in her that gives me a chance to win.
She launches her assault, neither fast nor slow, exerting supreme control over her sword as she works on breaking my guard with light and agile swings that force me to move left and right.
My strength wavers after I parrying those two strikes and I unconsciously lower my left limb to ease the strain on my torso. She launches a third that starts low to hit high. I barely manage to bring my hammer up and slap the blade further up, away from me.
Vikiana immediately reverses her grip on her sword as well as its momentum to stab at my back from above, the first time she abandons her gracefully deadly combat style and uses brute strength.
As it lowers, the blade seems almost ethereal to my confused mind. I observe it sliding down in a leftward diagonal, the point aimed at my left shoulder. I realize, bewildered, that it is impossible for me to block from my current position, with my hammer above my head.
My survival instinct wails at me, it tears me out of the stupor but much too late to evade. I leap forward, the only available direction, just as her blade cuts into my flesh. The metal slices through skin, muscle, and tendril alike. It leaves a mean cut that begins at my left shoulder, continues past my shoulder-blade, and scrapes the base of my ribs near the spine.