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The doors and drawbridge of Fort Duran closed just as Calaf dragged Karol inside. Magical artillery rained fire into the bailey, causing the civilian refugees to scatter.
Bows and arrows were the purview of Scout-types. A few of these were among Joan’s legion, and they were all on the walls, towers, and ramparts. Spellcasting proved more useful for warfare under the Menu, and all available Battlemages were summoning meteors, thunderbolts, and miniature twisters from atop the fort’s towers. Elemental magic was usually weighted toward offense rather than defense. While the anti-magical properties of the fort prevented the church from blowing a hole clear through the wall, it still left the defenders disadvantaged.
A Towering Inferno XIII landed directly to Calaf’s right, sending a fire tornado spiraling around the bailey. Calaf fell to his feet, and when he next came to Karol was nowhere to be found. Yell out Karol’s name though he tried, there was simply too much noise and chaos to hear.
Calaf ran into the interior banquet hall. All food had been scooped up and the tables rearranged to serve as blockades in a pinch.
Meanwhile, Bishop Cayo stood in the center of the room.
“Faithful, stand firm,” said Cayo. “Dread not. The enemy crowds around us, but with the holy child and Lady Joan’s protection, we will defend you to our dying breaths.”
Cayo brought forth blessings of protection and restoration, granting the crowd buffs.
This seemed to allay the crowd’s fears.
“Where is Joan?” asked a refugee.
“Leading our forces even now.” Cayo nods.
Magical artillery burst against the walls, causing the fort to shake. Despite this, spirits remained high. Calaf pushed his way through the crowd.
“Where’s Jelena?” he asked.
“Sister Turandot?” Cayo said. “She said she was going to secure an avenue of escape.”
Probably with Enkidu then. She’d be in safe hands.
The holy child, Zilara, stood beside the kindly monk. She held onto his hand.
“Can you do it, child?” Cayo asked.
Zilara nodded. “Sure thing, Hoss.”
A soft glow came from Zilara’s twin-Brand eyes as she glanced about. The room was gone to her, a façade. And in its place…
“There are so many elements of the System that have been cut off.” Zilara’s fingers twiddled and flicked at random. “Some were never used. Not by human hands.”
As she worked, Calaf noticed a special status appear in his Interface.
Name:
Caelus, Wayward Refugee
(Recording…)
Rank:
Shielder (Squire)
Level
12 (40)
Status:
36/36 (120/120)
Weapons:
- Refugee’s Walking Stick
- Plain Travelers Clothes
“What… is that?” Calaf asked.
Looking around, he saw the ‘Recording…’ status displayed in most Interfaces.
“Should be transmitting,” Zilara said.
“What’s ‘Recording?’” Calaf asked. “Is someone writing down everything I say?”
“Everything you all see is now being sent out to the world at large,” Zilara said.
“People of the Menu,” Cayo said, looking out into the middle distance. “Behold, the work of your church hunters. On but a rumor of rebellion, they have laid low the region near the Battletower, slaying many who were but faithful pilgrims not long ago. The Hammer of Faith put the Battletower itself to the sword. And now they have done the same to Autumn’s Redoubt. The citizens of this idyllic slope have been run out of homesteads and hamlets and seek refuge now at Fort Duran!”
“Help us!” yelled a random refugee.
Cayo scanned the crowd, his ‘recording’ feature catching their frightened faces.
“We are barricaded in the fortress. Church hunters close in on our haven even now. But the brave knights of Lady Joan of the capital plateau will defend these innocents with their lives.”
Sounds came from the bailey now. Fellmarsh platinum against capital steel. Shouts and commands were bellowed from the ramparts.
That Hush spell from Perarde had not gone into effect. Spells were still flying. The Church must want to fire off some spellcraft still. Despite this, the crash of magical artillery died down as the battle went on.
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“How do we know if these recordings are having an effect?”
“We don’t,” Zilaria said.
“Have faith.” Cayo rested his hand on a frightened refugee’s shoulder. “The world is our witness. This will give them pause.”
“W-what’s the plan?” asked another.
“With the truth revealed to all, the ecumenical council and Archpope will surely have to call off their dogs. Popular uprising will erupt across the pilgrimage route, where we are strategically located to march up to the capital plateau, unite with friendly nobles, and march through Fellmarsh to the Grand Cathedral of the Menu.”
Sounds of battle grew louder still. At the great door, in auxiliary halls, and even from the nearby kitchen.
The crowd grew quiet. Then, there was the sound of shattering windows from high above. Stained glass sprinkled across the crowd. And in the rafters – no, standing on twin barriers above the rafters – was Baldr.
“There’ve been rumors of a rogue Bishop, who forsook his vows to run off with some rebellious noblewoman,” Baldr said. “You match the description.”
Cayo urged the throngs of refugees behind him. Meanwhile, Baldr took his time picking out prey from his high perch.
“They say the apostates hid behind a levy of human shields. Civilians with no combat experience, even." Baldr grinned. He provided no indication whether or if he noticed Calaf in disguise amongst the crowd.
"The world is watching your actions,” Cayo said, defiant.
“Oh?” Baldr’s face did not change. “Well, that makes very many assumptions.”
With a flourish, Baldr activated his unique barrier-crafting abilities. Gold and greenish barriers in oblong and slender shapes manifested in and around various refugees' vital spots. Two even appeared on Cayo’s eyes. Whether anyone had the special ‘recording’ status or not, it made no difference.
Calaf did a quick spot check on his person. He was unaffected. This was a form of execution he’d seen used to tortuous effect not long ago, though.
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Baldr held his fingers aloft and prepared to snap.
“No,” Cayo yelled with uncharacteristic baritone. He stomped the floor, casting:
Bishop Cayo Casts:
Spell:
Aura of Dissipation
Effect:
Dispel the effects of all spellcasting in a fifty-foot radius up to a height of ten feet. Cast time is near-instantaneous.
Description:
This spell proved useful in navigating the fell miasma that surrounded the Demon King.
“Keep pressing! Though it may have Shackled us to this accursed life of slavery, we need not fear the magic of this foul demon!”
All at once, the barriers dissipated harmlessly.
“Well.” Baldr’s lips pursed. “That’s a spell I haven’t seen in a while.”
“Found the scroll in the Fellmarsh,” Cayo said.
“Ah. Well, that makes sense.” Baldr performed an acrobatic leap down to two more manifested barriers. “Still, you cannot protect the entire room and yourself.”
Cayo grimaced. “Even with your actions revealed to the world, you threaten a defenseless flock?”
“Again, you greatly overestimate human nature. Heretic. Apostate. These labels terminate thoughts and designate you as outside the law. People need not hear anything about you to pass judgment, and will not care if they do happen to learn facts about your cause against their will.”
“We won’t let you touch a hair on the flock’s head!” Cayo said, defiantly.
Baldr’s smile grew wider. “Brother, a pack of dire-wolves tear through a flock in a few minutes if you let ‘em.”
“True. But if your church hunters are dire-wolves in this analogy, you may wish to mind the dire-sheepdog,” Cayo said.
“The what?” Baldr’s smile faded.
Joan, Paladin, and defender of the reformation movement personally spearheaded by her, burst through another pane of stained glass at Baldr’s back.
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The hunter and Paladin fell to the floor. Joan landed on her feet and planted her shield firmly on the ground, sword drawn. Baldr went sliding and stopped his momentum with a well-timed barrier at his back.
“The men hold firm at the walls!” Joan declared.
“Eh, pawns in a game.” Baldr shrugged. “Off the king and queen and see how they rout.”
A barrier tried manifesting itself along Joan’s trachea, and again at her wrist. Joan smashed these with a mighty wave of her shield, then charged forward with a shield bash. Five barriers, each thicker than the last, were manifested in front of the Paladin, but she burst through each one with no loss of speed. The shield smashed into Baldr sending him reeling backward.
Cayo continued to cast buffs over the entire room. Joan’s offense, speed, and vitality were all increased in a field that happened to help the rest of the refugees as well.
As if on instinct, Calaf cast a buff as well:
Calaf Uses:
Spell:
Tautological Defense
Effect:
Provides a Party-Wide Buff Equal to 25% of Caster’s Defense.
Description:
Developed during the early Church era out of deference to the martyred Paladin of Yore.
“Mia, behind me!”
Paladin Joan’s already prodigious defense was buffered higher still! She gave a knowing look Calaf’s direction, then returned to battle.
“That was unwise.”
A voice came from directly behind Calaf. He froze and hazarded a look behind him. There, dressed in a long church hunter’s duster, was Walter. His long, long scimitar was covered in the blood of reformist knights.
Without another word, Walter sidestepped Calaf and joined the fray. Baldr suddenly had a second, faster, more offensive partner to handle the offense while he concentrated on defense.
Still, the battle raged. Joan kept the pair away from the refugees while Cayo kept a protective barrier on both his beloved and the flock.
Joan blocked, struck out, stabbed, thrust, and parried, from two sides at once. And she was holding her own! Slices from Walter’s unwieldy longsword did but scratch damage to her over-buffed defense, while she whittled the barely-armored Walter and even the barrier-mongering defenses of Baldr down, slowly but surely.
The crowd of refugees began to cheer as she blocked again, redirected Walter’s swing into Baldr, then kicked a barrier protecting both of them away and sent the barriermeister sprawling about on the floor.
An uneasy pause was had. Walter on one end of the room, Baldr on his knees on the other. Joan standing in the middle with her towering shield and greatsword held in one hand each.
The System battle record appeared thus:
Name:
Walter
Rank:
Hunter, Church of the Menu
Level:
93
Status:
950/1245 HP (Scratched Up)
Weapons:
- Fell Skewer Longsword +5 (x1)
Name:
Baldr, Hunter of the Church.
Rank:
Barriermeister
Level:
89
Status:
438/777 HP (Positively Fuming)
Weapons:
- Fists
- Barrier Talisman.
And, the star Paladin:
Name:
Joan, Paladin
Rank:
Paladin
Level
81
Status:
986/10001 (Hero of the Reformation)
Weapons:
- Greatsword of True Faith (x1)
- Tower Shield of the Capital Ramparts (x1)
Joan’s HP ticked up a few points courtesy of a restoration spell from her beau.
“How the hell is she holding her own?” Baldr smashed one of his own barriers with his fists. “She’s just an ordinary human.”
Spittle fell from Baldr’s mouth.
“That is the power of faith and love,” Cayo answered simply.
“Indeed.” Joan smiled, self-satisfied.
Just before the pair of hunters reentered the fray, the banquet hall front doors were blown off their hinges. In emerged a figure in demon-bone mail and an unfathomable pool of hit points:
Name:
General Perarde, Hunter of the Church, Hammer of Faith
Rank:
Paladin
Level:
95
Status:
25566/25568 (Indomitable)
Weapons:
- Claymore of Gold (x1)
- Shield of Impenetrable Defense +15 (x1)
Two Paladins in reformist colors stumbled in, heavily injured, while another lay skewered on the golden claymore. Perarde wiped his greatsword clean with one swing, dispatched the barely surviving soldiers with another, and then advanced, shield up, into battle.
Again, Joan fought on, though she was vastly outnumbered now. Her defense was peerless, and while she’d yet to land a blow on Perarde, she continued to keep Baldr and Walter at bay and left them too pressured to attack the flock.
“Ah, if that damnable bard would hurry up and get in here to buff us,” Baldr said, still drooling an inhuman amount of spittle.
“We will wear her down,” Walter said, patiently.
A door at Cayo’s back opened up. Out ran a tall woman with a familiar eyepatch.
“Got a back door. Everyone, through here!”
“Jelena?” Calaf asked.
A blur ran out the door at her back. A rusty and ancient sword met Walter’s long skewing scimitar. The battle was joined by a wild-haired, bearded man with no Menu designation at all.
“Oh, this guy again?” Baldr wailed.
“That godawful scent,” Walter said, sword locked with Enkidu. “I’ve smelled it before.”
The two hunters broke off to try and fail to keep this sword-wielding unbranded menace at bay. Perarde and Joan dueled now, chipping a dozen HP off each other here and there. But Perarde’s HP pool was double hers. His level range was peerless, and attrition is a game he would inevitably win.
“Does the world see us?” Joan asked. “How the hunters of the church are kept at bay? How we’re defending the innocent from their purging inquisition?”
“It’s all recording, Hoss!” Zilara said.
Perarde said nothing, focused entirely on the fight.
“The more we fight, the longer we last, the more the public shall surely rise in righteous fury!”
With an escape route open, Jelena urged some of the civilians out through the back door. Many more wanted to stay, though, and began to cheer for Joan.
“Fight, my love! I believe in you, and our plan!” said
All the while, Calaf stared on from the sidelines. Any more buffs risked bringing the Hammer of Faith down on him instead, and participation on any side of this battle wouldn’t even deal a single HP’s worth of damage.
Cheers bolstered Joan with twin buffs: The Power of Faith from the crowd and the Power of Love from Cayo. With her strength, health, and defense all buffed, she fought Perarde on an equal footing.
Meanwhile, Enkidu continued his whirlwind assault. It was unclear whether he knew who or why he was fighting but judging by the smile on his face he was enjoying it all immensely.
“They keep coming,” Zilara said.
“Sister Turandot, please get Zilara to safety,” Cayo said.
“Who, me?” Jelena asked.
Cayo nodded. “If any harm befalls us, any hopes of reforming the church fall upon her shoulders. Keep her safe. You have experience in keeping valuable relics out of church hands, yes?”
With a nod, Jelena took Zilara by the hand and rushed off through the door.
Still, the rest of the faithful stood firm and even more raucous in their support. Enkidu kept slicing HP off his foes here and there, while Joan kept the Hammer of Faith at bay with naught but her steely-eyed mettle and a bevy of buffs.
Calaf couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Joan was holding her own. No, for a foe as peerless as this, she was practically winning!
A member of the crowd brushed up against Cayo.
“Fret not, child,” said the Bishop. “Oh? One without a brand? An excommunication? Fret not, we will protect you with our dying breath. Yes, the blessings of the Menu extend even to the most forsaken.”
The figure – a younger woman with short red hair that had recently been cut, shuddered.
“Is there… any salvation? For those who die without brands? Or without bodies to consecrate.”
Cayo turned away from the battle and put a hand on this wayward soul’s shoulder. “But of course, child.”
That voice… Calaf turned. He saw a woman in plain traveler’s robes and a Scoured Brand on her upper shoulder.
Out of her robes came a reforged silver dagger.
“Karol, no!” Calaf reached out, too late.
With a mighty scream, Karol thrust the dagger out at Cayo’s neck.
Joan turned.
“Cayo!”
If this were done via the System, under the governance of the Menu, Cayo would have a defense stat, multiple buffs, and his paltry armor to protect him. But with a Scoured opponent, that did not apply. The knife jabbed into his throat, again and again, growing red with blood after each stab.
All at once, the many buffs the Bishop had been keeping up dissipated. Joan pushed Perarde away with one last shield bash and took off toward Cayo’s position.
Taking one last blow from Enkidu, Baldr stumbled back, then refocused on his new target.
Twin barriers manifested at Joan’s heels and ankles.
Enkidu threw his sword at Baldr, landing a blow square through the chest. Another 100 HP loss, but the barriermeister was still alive. Alive and grinning wildly.
Baldr snapped his fingers.
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