What is this? Is it a fata morgana? No it´s a chapter! Wait what? Eh???? Where did that come from? Let me enlighten you dear readers~
It seems like WriTE struck and made lazy old me write a new chapter... semi new. I already had half of it lying around somewhere hehe
Anyways, enjoy! I made plans to actually continue this fiction and I hope that will work out.
As always, if you find a mistake please tell me about it!
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"Maybe we should get you guys changed first." I said with a look at the lovebirds. Their green traveling gear stuck out like a sore thumb in this sea of red and black. It was hard to miss them. No wonder they had a hard time outrunning their enemies.
"Do we really have time for that, though?" BlueSky said with a grim expression. "We are surrounded. It doesn´t matter whether they stick out at this point." He picked a fallen soldier´s sword up and readied himself to parry an incoming attack.
"Hmmm I guess that´s true. Can one of you cast some more magic or are you out of mana?" I entrusted my back to the three and faced an incoming enemy. It was an old man with fierce gaze. He swung a stupidly big broadsword at me. I almost gracefully sidestepped. Maybe it looked more like a desperate dodge to the others so I played the bumbling fool for a bit.
"I have no mana left, sorry. Normally I could just bomb us out of here." The girl replied a bit vexed. She was busy beating up a soldier with a wooden staff.
"And what can your boyfriend do?" I asked.
"I´m a healer, I have enough juice for five heals left." the sprout replied. He stood at the center of our formation.
I tried to analyze the situation. There just had to be a way out of this. But I couldn´t come up with a proper plan.
"Blue, how are you holding up?"I asked as I couldn´t spare the time to look. This old soldier was a veteran. I should have gotten suspicious when I saw an old man swinging a giant sword like it was nothing. I guess I underestimated him. But even a veteran would let his guard down in the face of somebody who seemed to have no idea how to use a dagger in the first place. I ended the charade with a precise strike to his neck. He dropped dead just to be replaced by two more soldiers.
"Not even breaking a sweat yet." he sounded cheerful.
"Well if it´s so easy why don´t you make a path towards Midas?"
"Got it." I swear I could hear him smirking.
Screams and shouts could be heard behind me as what felt like a heat wave passed over me.
"Quick, before they recover." the girl shouted, alerting even more enemies of our location.
I glanced behind me to see more burnt people, well maybe to a smaller degree than before. With a feint I confused my enemy, who was expecting me to turn around and run after my comrades. A precise kick to his knee brought his chest into the path of my dagger. The dagger couldn´t penetrate his armor however, and was repelled.
Without hesitation I dove to the side and watched as another soldier´s sword that was aimed at my exposed back, dug into my former opponents shoulder.
The enemy began cursing like an old sailor. He retreated with his wounded comrade, giving me some space which I promptly used to make myself scarce.
I tried to slip into the crowd as I had done before, which proved to be difficult due to the fact that I was still dressed in the red cloak and surrounded by a battalion of black soldiers.
In order for my camouflage to work I needed at least some red soldiers around.
My enemies opposition didn´t slow me down by much as I was small and fast enough to slip through their ranks. It was a dangerous venture, though. Swords would slice the air in an attempt to shorten my lifespan. I had to constantly monitor all the enemies around me while searching for the best route and still keeping track of BlueSky and the lovebirds.
The others had met heavy resistance and proceeded at a slower pace than before. Blood ran down the healer´s arm as he sacrificed it in favor of keeping his head. It momentarily hung at his side before being engulfed in green light. There was no time to check whether the arm was fully repaired as the next attacker tried to end the healer´s life. This one was quickly dispatched by BlueSky´s fireball.
Without further worrying about my group I tried to spot Midas and his guard among the enemies. There was no sign of them.
HOW? I have to make sure they survive. Just how are they supposed to survive two armies at once? Let´s just lie down and feign death, hehe. With my luck they would chop of our heads to check whether we are really dead or maybe to take as trophies, if we did. The only thing that finding Midas and the bearman will do is kill them along with us. This is a game! How can it be unbeatable? Did I accidentally activate hard mode or something? No it would have to be unbeatable mode if any. So maybe there is a time limit? Maybe an event? Do we have to take the two to a certain place? There are too many possibilities and time is running out. Sadly meeting up with those two is the only hint I have.> I employed my usual tactics of throwing sand, kicking knees and diving behind meat shields. I did what I could to survive the onslaught but this situation was way worse than when I fought in my battle trance. I could still activate it now but I was incapable of thinking and using it at once. That´s the reason why it was easier to play here while I didn´t have a group to worry about. When I finally caught up with the group we had only covered about half the distance to the place I had last seen Midas in. The situation grew increasingly desperate as we worked hand in hand to keep our heads attached to our shoulders. Suddenly the crowd before us parted as a dwarven woman made her way towards us. Her eyes were cold as a glacier, but only if the glacier was located in outer space and it´s warmest tip reached absolute zero. She wore the black uniform of the darkness faction with the kind of pride only naïve recruits or fanatics could display. One look and I could tell that she was the latter and would fight us to the death. With her approach the onslaught of enemies subsided. The soldiers backed off and warily kept a distance from the dwarf. “Traitorous disgrace, you shall die!” she shouted as those subzero eyes were firmly locked on Nathan. “Get ready! She is my lieu-, she was my lieutenant. Be careful” Nathan hissed. A bloodthirsty grin overtook my face. I charged at her and barely evaded a chop of her battle mace. She had already expected that much and stepped in for another attack but a wooden staff hit her arm so the mace harmlessly passed by. I took the opportunity to slash at her with my dagger but it uselessly scratched across her armor. A fireball chose this exact moment to hit the dwarf from behind. She stumbled forward but there seemed to be little actual damage done by this attack. Maybe she had an enchanted armor. Actually that was very likely now that I thought about it. My foe took a moment to glance around her and decided to go after the weakest link, Nathan. Obviously the healer had to die first, when was this not the case? Nathan however was battle hardened and prepared to defend himself with a magical shield. It would cost him some precious mana though. The dwarfen lady rushed at him and her mace crashed mercilessly into his mana shield. I immediately followed her and went for her exposed back yet she expected it and instead of beating the mana shield to mush swung her mace at me. This time there was nobody to intercept her attack and I was easily knocked back, my health plummeting. This lady could pack quite the punch. Felicity took my place and attacked with her staff. The greater reach came in handy here but as a mage she simply didn´t have the necessary strength and finesse with her staff. I struggled to catch my breath, unsure how to proceed. My attacks were obviously useless against the madwoman and I wasn´t particularly keen on turning into mashed mermaid. At this moment BlueSky who had been quietly chanting for a while finished his spell. Spheres of fire materialized in a circle around him and started to condense from melon sized fireballs to pin sized lava shards. He then shot the shards with perfect accuracy at the gaps in the dwarf´s armor. For the first time in this battle she let out any indication that we could indeed beat her. “Good job!” I shouted and then decided that our healer needed someone to play meatshield for him. Nathan´s shield was taking a real beating and would soon give out after all. With my fastest speed I dashed around the woman and parried her mace with my dagger. Nathan understood my intention and stepped behind me, quickly filling my health up by a good margin while he was at it. My arms hurt but I grit my teeth and endured it. I only had to hold on until Blue roasted this woman to the point of no return. Hit after hit I was forced to parry as my clumsy dodges would have exposed Nathan behind me. He was busy healing me and… what´s her name? Well, the mage girl gathered mana to join Blue´s barrage. The soldiers around us were growing restless, as was the dwarfen woman. She seemed to be considering a target switch but whenever she looked like she was about to charge at the others I showed an opening to draw an attack out of her. The frail balance was, however, crumbling. When she finally turned around while ignoring my exposed side I went all in. An inarticulate shout was heard as my dagger slid into the gap between her helmet visor and the lower part of the helmet. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. She collapsed as I freed my weapon and instantly turned around, prepared to face the rest of the army. They seemed dumbfounded as the small and weak looking bumbling fool My group might have been shocked as well but their survival instincts must have told them to think about it at a later time. The soldiers soon regained their wits and attacked once more. “Haaa~ where are they?” I sighed while looking around me with tired eyes. There was no point in hiding my skill with the dagger so I didn´t bother and simply cut down anything that dared to stand before me. “Maybe they are already dead…” Nathan said in an even more tired voice. “Hey, aren´t they your friends? How can you just kill them off like this?” I asked impishly. “I never killed them off! How could you say that?” He looked quite shocked as he said that. “Well you called them dead~” “I´m just being realistic! But I would never harm them!” “And I´ll-“ “Stop fooling around Murphy.” Blue joined in to ruin my tease. “Oh Blue, I would never ever play around in a life or death situation like this~ How could you think so low of me?” “But you are, like, right now!” He dryly replied. “Oh come on, I´m just making some small talk!” “Yes… small talk… surrounded by an army out for our blood.” “I don´t see your point?” “The point is… you know what? I should be chanting.” And thus he did and I was once more left without anyone to annoy. That´s when a glorious idea struck me like lightning. First I needed to do something else though. “Hey what are they called again?” I asked in between two kills. “Midas and Eisul, why do you ask?” Nathan answered. “Oh just curious~” I smirked then shouted “HEYYYY MIDAS AND EISUL WHERE ARE YOU??? NATHAN IS HERE!!!” The others stared at me like deer in the headlight. “Are you an idiot? If they weren´t exposed yet they sure are now!” Blue said and I just smiled at him innocently. Seconds later a boom heralded the arrival of Nathan´s friends. I started laughing in relieve as Midas blasted through rows upon rows of enemies. He looked like hell and so did Eisul but their faces almost glowed with happiness as they closed in and spotted my group. The last stretch was crossed in a jiffy as our groups finally joined up. “Nathan, we finally found you! I already thought you were dead!” Midas said with tears in his eyes. “Nathan.” Eisul just nodded, a broad smile on his lips. “Guys, I´m so sorry I dragged you into this-blablablablabla“ That´s when I started ignoring this oh so touching drama scene of reunion. I needed a moment to compose myself or rather to suppress the urge to barf, then went about killing some more soldiers while my group was busy chatting away. This place was a pretty good hunting ground with easy kills and exp basically charging at me. The soldiers were growing extremely wary of me though and tried to bully me by attacking in groups, not that it helped as I was far too slippery to get caught in their maneuvers. In this manner I waited until the drama scene was over and done with, and then started listening to a more interesting conversation. “…even so, we are still stuck in the middle of an army.” Was how Nathan aptly put it. “Not necessarily! There is a spell I have been studying for a long time… with some luck I might be able to pull it off today.” Midas said, determination written on his face. Nathan exchanged a look with Midas then glanced at Eisul who slightly nodded. He seemed to see something in their facial expressions as he simply said “I´ll leave it to you”. Midas started chanting immediately. I was growing curious of this spell Midas wanted to use and edged closer to him. After a short while Midas´ chant ended… in a failure. Zap I looked around in confusion. “Wait a second… where did the army go?” “Hmmm I have no idea.” “Eh?” “The hell?” “…” “Oh my precious exp… this great power leveling spot. Ahhhh!” I lamented. “What… just, why? I executed it perfectly, though?” “Midas… what was that spell of yours meant to do again?” I asked as I surveyed the empty field before my eyes. “It was meant to teleport us to my laboratory…Oh no…” His eyes widened. At this moment I couldn´t bottle the laughter up anymore. “Hahahahaha, you sent an entire army... wait no, hahahaha, two entire armies into you laboratory? Hahahahahah~” “My poor lab…” Midas sank to his knees with a wry smile on his face, partly due to the relief of being out of danger and mostly because he might have been imagining the crammed state of his laboratory. “We´re alive?” Nathan´s girlfriend asked in disbelief. She had a dazed look on her face then slowly turned towards Nathan to execute another one of those detestable drama scenes. But I didn´t care as I was far too busy laughing about Midas. “How does that even work? I mean, teleporting so many people should have cost an immense amount of mana right?” BlueSky asked. “Good question… I´ll need to research this phenomenon all over again. Let´s just be glad that it DID work, even if it goes against everything I know about magic.” “This is so weird, hahaha” I rubbed the tears that had entered my eyes because of all the laughter away. “Well, I think the quest should be completed with this…” I murmured. “No, actually even if we sent the enemies away and saved Nathan and Felicity for now there will be more pursuers in the future.” BlueSky said with a grim face. “Oh, hmm you might be right. So how do we end this?” “Maybe… maybe we can take them with us? That´s what the text said right? Something along the lines of ‘save the fools they will be your tools’?” “Tools? For what purpose? What could we do if we have these people on our side… THE ROOM!” I said in excitement. “Huh?” Blue didn´t seem to get it. I grinned evilly. “Wanna know?” “As if I´d ask you! I´ll figure it out on my own!” He said and I felt as if he knew me too well for such a short term acquaintance. “Sure, have fun~ I´ll be taking a nap then.” My smirk grew even more as I took a seat in the ground, using a corpse as a pillow. “Why are you always so complicated?” He sighed resigned to his fate. “Maybe you´re too simple?” “Maybe you´re too short?” “Maybe you´re too repetitive~” “You´re one to talk.” “Says the person who keeps falling for the same tricks.” “Well, maybe I was just fooling around?” “It´s a game. That´s all I ever do!” “A game, eh?” BlueSky mumbled some more but I didn´t quite catch that. He looked at the others who were all resting or enacting drama scenes with sorrowful eyes. “What did you say?” “Nevermind.” “Hey Murphy, wake up and tell me already.” A familiar demon called out to me but I was drowsy so I ignored him. “Hmpf, you dare ignore me?”I could basically hear the mirth but even before my fight or flight instincts could warn me I was bombarded with snow. The cold stuff shoed any lingering desire for sleep away and replaced it with killing intent. “BLUE!” I was too shocked to even chase him as he ran away while giggling like a little prankster. In a rush to get rid of the snow before it melted on my skin and had the chance to drench me I shook myself like a wet dog. It worked quite well, though the others got some laughs out of it. By the way, my group was sitting around a campfire while happily chatting, as if they weren´t still on a corpse littered battlefield. Blue was still hiding himself so I approached the others and took a seat by the fire. “Hey there.” I greeted them and got some curious looks. “Hello, Murphy right? I never got the chance to thank you for your help.” Felicity said. “Oh, you´re welcome. I simply didn´t have anything better to do.” I shrugged and grinned. The others exchanged incredulous glances, as I would expect after such an airheaded statement. “So what are you guys going to do from now on?” I asked. “BlueSky said you had a way to take us to a safe place so we were hoping you could help us.” Nathan said. “A safe place… I have a hunch, that´s right. You shouldn´t just blindly rely on me though. What do you have that you can offer in exchange for my help?” A difficult expression crossed Felicity´s face as she said “We can´t pay you. I´m sorry. All we own are the clothes we´re wearing.” “And some nice clothes they are~” Her eyes widened and she was about to protest. “Just kidding, keep the rags. Sheesh, stop acting as if I was a bandit or something.” “Helping you will be a favor. So let´s trade a favor for a favor, alright? I think there is something I will need your help with in the future.” “That depends on the favor.” She said. “What could be greater than a life debt? Darling, I don´t think we can make demands right now.” Nathan interjected. “Now we´re talking. I still don´t know what the favor will be but I doubt it´ll be anything impossible or dangerous.” Felicity nodded at that. Nathan just looked at me with a warm smile. Was this really supposed to be the ex-leader of the Darkness faction? Shouldn´t he be a bit more on the dark side? Maybe if I ask him for cookies he´ll reveal himself. “Do you have cookies?” “…No.” “…” “…”