Alistair activated his Inspire ability first. The magic swept into the black knight by his side, strengthening her. Without the Sight, he had no way to tell whether or not his Living Shield could affect these vampire creatures. Given their supposed power, he doubted it, as the taunt was only able to affect common monsters and not the higher elites and leaders. In which case, the Aegis user had no further magic to prepare, and all that was left to do was fight.
He noticed movement at his side and found Brianca had disappeared. Alistair could hear light footfalls as someone ran across the cobblestone ground, away from the center of the square. The vampires, sensing something was amiss, readied their weapons and hurriedly looked around, trying to find the missing paladin. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped and the square plunged into a tense silence.
The vampire that had been speaking earlier froze, his face etched into a look of sheer surprise, mouth agape. He fell over backward as if pushed by some unseen force, black blood spraying from a previously unseen wound to his head. His body fell into a shadow cast by a nearby building, and Alistair swore for a moment he could see the outline of a dark figure get off the creature’s body. Again, they disappeared into the shadowy blackness of the night, and a second later all hell broke loose.
Alistair forced himself into a sprint, still astonished by the abruptness and style through which he could only presume Brianca had taken the vampire down. The other undead were scattering themselves around the square, eager to put some distance between them and the invisible Shadow paladin.
This distraction gave the Aegis all the time he needed to close with a trio of vampires, and he thrust his pike forward at their vulnerable backside as they were running away. His attack struck true, piercing the undead’s robes and hitting the soft flesh beneath. For whatever reason some of them wore robes over armor, a poor choice for this one and it howled in pain. Alistair wrenched his pike back out of the undead man’s flesh, disappointed to find it still clung to unlife.
He readied another attack, but the robed one’s compatriots had now turned around to face him. They were armored and both wielded swords and shields, a more traditional match of strength. The first one launched itself at him, lashing out with its blade. Alistair easily blocked it with the tower shield, barely even feeling the impact, the power of his defense so great. At the point of impact, he was overwhelmed with a lingering sense of something with his shield, an idea of the power stored within it now after the strike. He had almost forgotten about the reflection ability.
The other vampire came at him from the opposite side, and Alistair shifted his weight to bring his heavy shield to bear. Again he managed to block the strike, and again he felt power surge into the shield as it absorbed part of the hit. He thrusted his pike out again at the offending creature, but he was blocked in time. Alistair began to smile when the vampire suddenly winced, not from the block, but from the Internal Damage ability kicking in as he suffered a portion of the attack’s strength regardless.
Foul incantations began to fill the air and Alistair looked to see another group of vampires, a group of the robed ones, conjuring some kind of dark magic. Arms outstretched, they were working together to summon some sort of monstrously-sized ball of energy. Unfortunately, he was still occupied and on the defensive as the heavily armored pair kept him busy, forcing him back.
Of Brianca, he still couldn’t see her, but the opposite side of the square seemed to still be in chaos. Vampires shouted and screeched, calling out at every shadow. Midspeech, one would be cut off as the Shadow user struck, forcing the rest of them on their backfoot. The supplicant had talent.
Another glance spared at the encroaching spell told Alistair he had little time to waste. Tired of this game, he summoned all of the strength he had into his right arm and lashed out with his shield at the nearest vampire. The creature brought up its own shield and prepared to weather the blow, but it hadn’t counted on the magic resting within. Like some sort of bomb, an explosion of energy radiated out of the tower shield, all of it directed at the vampire it had been pushed against. From the smoke he watched the vampire fly across the market square, skidding along the cobblestone, skin and armor both smoking from the energy of the attack.
He had little time to revel in his newfound power as the spellcasters finished their work. All of them looked exhausted from the amount of magic each had expended. This ball of dark magic floated effortlessly above the trio before it very suddenly shot out like a bullet toward Alistair.
The Aegis barely had time to ready his shield before the attack hit him, incidentally vaporizing the other vampire that had been standing too close. Such was the momentum of the attack that he felt himself be pushed back, each time steadying himself only to lose his footing a second and third time, inching him back and up against a building.
Still, with this overwhelming attack bearing down on him, Alistair witnessed something amazing. At first he was too distracted to notice as his vision was entirely filled with this blackish-purple undulating sphere. It was thanks to how large the magical phenomenon was that he noticed it slowly shrinking. For a moment he believed it to be a natural sign of the magic faltering, but he soon realized it meant something more than that. He could feel more power transferring into the artifact shield. The spell itself was being absorbed!
Before, he’d thought the shield’s power was limited to physical attacks, but now he knew it to be capable of much more than that. It took some time, but the shield eventually consumed the entire ball. That tingling sense of strength, used to measure the power stored within his artifact, was an almost overwhelming sharpness poking at his mind. If the shield had a stomach, it was almost assuredly full.
The vampire spellcasters, utterly flabbergasted by the failure, summoned smaller spheres around themselves and thrust their arms out toward the Aegis. These smaller balls were more numerous, but lacked the same punch. Alistair ran forward with his shield out, the magical spheres plinking off its surface like rain on a window. From behind his shield, he noticed his vitality had so far been barely scratched. Having a shield the same size as his body had really changed the effectiveness of his defense.
He closed the gap with the vampire spellcasters and swung his pike out at the closest one. It tried to build some sort of arcane barrier in front of itself, but failed to finish it in time before the pike forced itself into the creature’s chest. The vampire froze as his Knockout stun ability, a rare but welcome treat, activated. Alistair used the opportunity to pull his weapon back with a sickening crunch, and readied it against another of the creatures as it spoke in foul tongues.
From beneath his feet the ground turned to sludge and he struggled to find his footing. More dark magic, this time aimed to keep him from moving. He thrust his pike out, undeterred by their feeble attempt at buying time, but the spellcaster saw it coming and leaped back. Meanwhile, the third one ran around to the other side to flank him, and from its wrist a tentacle of magic launched out and wrapped itself around Alistair’s shield arm, immobilizing it. This was followed up by another tentacle by the sludge caster, grabbing hold of his pike arm, leaving him fully stuck.
Wounded, but not finished, the stunned member of their group was finally freed of the magic locking it in place. The vampire thrust its arms toward Alistair and began to chant again as it prepared to attack his defenseless form.
This doesn’t look good!
From behind, the vampire holding his pike arm screeched in pain. Sticking out of the undead woman’s chest was a blade slick with black blood. A moment later and the glint of steel shot out of her neck as a dagger was forced through. Behind her, Brianca Le Floch stood in full glory, her cloak of invisibility gone. Before the vampire’s body even collapsed, he felt the tentacle holding his wrist go limp and start to dissipate.
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Wasting no time, Alistair swung the blade end of the pike in a wide arc, decapitating the vampire still summoning its magic. Beneath him, the sludge disappeared as well, leaving only his shield arm restrained. The offending spellcaster, realizing it was the last of its kind on the battlefield, let go of its magic and transformed into a disgustingly large bat. It flapped its furry, leathery wings and made an attempt to gain altitude.
“We mustn’t let it escape!” said Brianca, dashing forward. It barely evaded her first attack, but before she could recover it had lifted well off the ground and into the air. “I can’t reach it!”
“I can.”
Light overcame Alistair’s body as he transformed into Wind’s green armor. Suddenly two feet shorter, he took a moment to adjust before thrusting his arm out toward the bat. From his palm a blast of elemental energy, in this case a powerful gust of wind, launched forward and battered against the transformed vampire. It faltered, momentarily stunned by this sudden attack, which gave Alistair the time he needed to fly up to it with his sword at the ready.
He struck it, somewhat clumsily as he felt out-of-practice with a proper longsword, but still the creature suffered damage all the same. Another strike managed to cleave a wing off and as it tumbled toward the ground he fired another blast, hastening its fall and increasing the damage it suffered as it hit the cobblestone ground.
The last vampire died pathetically twitching its single broken wing in a futile attempt to take off once again. Brianca ensured its death with a quick and well-aimed strike to the head. The monster fizzled and burned until only ash remained, just as the rest of its brethren did when they took their last breath.
Alistair returned to the ground triumphant. His heartbeat raced as the adrenaline slowly subsided. Each moment of the battle flashed before his eyes like a picture book. He hardly believed it to be real. The boogeymen of Isen, the all-powerful vampires of the undead, so quickly vanquished by someone like him, someone who only two months ago had been a simple peasant boy with not an inkling of power. He looked at the gauntleted hand that had summoned pure wind from it and marveled at his newfound power.
Not even Brianca seemed immune to the gravity of the situation, as she too remained silent and thoughtful, still staring at the smoldering ash at her feet.
Aegis Mantle
Level 7 Unlocked
Universal Damage Resistance
27.50% -> 30% total resistance.
Knockout | Passive
14% -> 15% Stun chance
Internal Damage | Passive
25% -> 27.50% Damage on resisted attacks
Adaptive Armor | Ability
1 use per day -> 2 uses per day
1 minute duration -> 5 minute duration
Dig In | Passive
5% bonus -> 10% bonus to shield defenses.
New!
Artifact Quest
Hunt down Arkaz
Description
The foul undead creatures have once again renewed their march against the living and, in an especially underhanded fashion, hidden themselves through dark magic. These scheming creatures seem to be led by a vampire known as Arkaz. Seek him out and destroy him, for the good of the realm!
Reward
Spear of the Aegis
Milestone Progress
Alistair hadn’t expected to receive any kind of notification or increase in power, given the magical barrier surrounding Adelgard, so he was surprised to find he’d leveled up. Perhaps the magic in the relic, the spirit of the paragons, were the ones who judged their progress and bestowed strength instead of the Lady herself. It was the only explanation he could think of, and he was thankful to have the added power in such a dangerous place.
As if waiting its turn, he received a similar message from his Wind relic.
Wind Mantle
Level 2 Unlocked
Flight
Speed and distance increases, vitality cost lowered.
Elemental Blast | Ability
Strength of the blast increased.
Chance of knockback increased.
New!
Elemental Damage | Passive
Coats the user’s weapon in a sheath of wind.
Blade attacks are considered ‘Magical’ for piercing certain kinds of damage resistance.
The blade will feel weightless, increasing the speed at which a Wind paladin can attack while wielding it.
Further levels will increase the added damage the wind sheath inflicts.
Two levels from one fight. It felt like an appropriate accomplishment, though he had to acknowledge Brianca contributed heavily to their success. Her natural speed, ability to hide herself from the vampires’ sight, and the damage behind her unseen strikes were invaluable.
Alistair turned to his partner. “How do you feel? Up for more?” He motioned toward the castle looming behind them. “Ilvara must be tired of waiting at this point.”
Brianca slowly sheathed her weapons, nodding as she did. “I’m prepared to continue. The Shadow spirit within my relic has granted me an additional tier of power, and it has emboldened me to continue. Besides,” she continued, voice softening, “I will not abandon Lady Rozena, not when I know there are more of these monsters waiting for us. They mustn’t be allowed to continue whatever it is they’re doing here.”
“Well said.” Alistair wished he had the noble ability to make even a simple response sound like a rousing speech. “Let’s go then, before the elf finishes them off for us.”
Together, the two paladins marched down the main thoroughfare, right toward the waiting gate, one conveniently left open for them.