With all the pieces on the board, Nero left the castle under the cover of the night. His first task was to slip past Bast's troops safely. If he couldn't sneak past his own allies, entering an enemy camp that expected a retaliatory strike would be impossible. His first orange build was amazing anyway. He walked around a wolf-kin lieutenant and almost unbuckled his belt before he suspected anything. He was worried that his penalty to sight-based detection was lower but there was one glaring truth to sneaking around and being seen. You have to be in their field of view first. Sound and scent? Those were the ones truly troublesome.
He had two Agility knights specialized in infiltration with him. At his request, Tyre assured they were trustworthy and had nothing to do with Valanaegornif. Speaking of the devil, he and his knights were all in the savanna shelter. Almost all the knights were, about fifty of them. Nero shuddered at the thought of what kind of destruction they could cause if they went all-out.
And going all-out they would. To Tyre, retreating was not an option. Not only he was considered expendable but he also lost a province. He had to kill Honeywitch and defend the kingdom or don't bother returning home. For a person that donned pride as a cloak at all times, exile was anathema.
Prince Tyre didn't suspect that Nero broke his domination Skill. Why would he? He was pride incarnate, why would he think a level zero could break his domination, the domain of his Charisma?
Nero paused and searched around him. A second of standing still and then he was on the move. He'd learned from the infiltrators escorting him that he should ping [Detect Presence] every so often. They had a version of that ability and in the little game of cat and mouse they played on the way, they were evenly matched. They couldn't move at full speed like Nero but they were his lifeline and also - in a way - jailors. Nero did think of running away to the Dungeon and murdering all the knights by opening a portal to their shelter and let their limiters eat their lifeforce. He couldn't, and he also had an interest at stake. Giving Coriander free pass into Honeywitch meant they could visit Hom, and count Honeywitch definitely knew all about Nero.
They took a long time to go around the enemy camp. Their rear would be less defended than the front. Nero and the two knights approached a barricade made of crisscrossing wooden stakes. Some soldiers kept watching with torches at their backs to keep at least some of their night vision. The cat-kin knight went first. In Bast, any feline ancestry granted you a boost in status. Then the elf, and finally Nero. They moved away from the sentries, and Nero noticed the camp had grown on the last day. It seemed that reinforcements arrived.
Butterflies flew in the pit of his stomach. He was an Adventurer, not a soldier or an assassin. Fighting monsters was very different than fighting people and even fighting people in a Dungeon meant their levels were normalized. In that enemy camp, anything could happen. Someone on the fifth tier was something Nero couldn't hope to defeat in the foreseeable future.
If they had bet on who would be detected first, Nero would lose. A nereid knight in shining armor walked off a tent and stretched, his shiny silvery armor gleaming in the moonlight. He looked in Nero's direction and frowned. "Who goes there?" He asked without shouting. Slowly drawing his sword, he walked toward Nero's hideout between two tents.
Frozen in fear, Nero didn't move. A faint sigh was all he heard from the Nereid as a pitch-black dagger with gold filigree sprouted from his neck. In one swift motion, the nereid was beheaded and the body and head sent to a dimensional pouch. All that was left were a few drops of blood that fell on the dirt. And then Nero's Arbitrium lighted up underneath his buckler.
> Compatible Anima detected. Energy absorbed above the threshold. Processing upgrade. Weighing Attribute strain.
>
> For defeating a foe two hundred and sixty times your level, you gained +5 Agility.
The scouts glowered at him. One of them handed him a black handkerchief and a wooden board perfectly sized for the Arbitrium screen. "Tie it around your display," He mouthed and gesticulated. Nero did it.
They skulked around the camp and the two knights assassinated whoever they needed to. Even under the cloth, Nero saw the glimmer on his screen twice. Beheading was a ploy to make tall people fit in their dimensional storage. Nero was worried his pouch would burst but the pouch only counted his base Attributes. Since [Fool's Prowess] was a Skill, it didn't change the pouch's dimensions. While the knights went around searching for the command tent, Nero practiced straining his Perception.
A few long minutes later, they reached the command tent. Nero could hear inside perfectly, and the trio stopped to eavesdrop.
"... won't give your cousin the new province, Sung-Min. And you'll change your title. Honeywitch is stupid."
"I agree, master Calder," Honeywitch, or Sung-Min's voice replied. "You can't help the leonals' poor taste in naming."
They laughed along with other people. Were they so sure of their victory? Probably. Tyre's actions showed that he was desperate enough to think so. His attention shifted to the two infiltrators. They gesticulated between themselves and pointed at Nero, then made the letter T. Nero didn't know their sign language but he learned that it was the sign to wait. With the black dagger, the elf cut a slit on the tarp and entered the tent. The cat-kin pointed at Nero and he also went inside, following him right after.
They were in a room that had a water tank with some pillows inside. Probably a bedroom for people that liked to sleep underwater. The elf held the hands together in a rhombus shape and waved them around to show something expanding. Nero nodded and cast the portal behind the two infiltrators. The shelter's nights were too bright. The infiltrators broke their stealth and knelt. Nero imitated them, the last thing he wanted was to show Tyre he was free from his influence.
"Move," Tyre whispered across the portal.
One by one, Bast's knights walked out into the room. They had zero stealth and metal armor.
"INTRUDERS!" Someone shouted from the tent's main room.
The fight was on. Tyre, Mayleefa, Valanaegornif, and the other captains were the last to leave the shelter.
The prince found Nero and gave an order. "Keep the portal open and stay hidden. Don't go away."
Nero nodded and reactivated his stealth, moving behind the portal to hide in the shadows cast by the moonlight coming out of it. At least he was safely hidden inside the tent. Alas, the tent didn't last a minute. The gruesome attack started to break and tear the very ground. Fifty warriors at the fifth-tier of Classes, going all out to cause the maximum amount of damage possible. The wind caused by some abilities and explosions threatened to buffet Nero away. His shelter's portal actually helped in that aspect, as the dimensional passage led any attack or object flying his way into the shelter.
Deaths started to pile up, not from the high-leveled people but from the cannon fodder that rushed to repel the invaders.
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Tyre's form blurred from one point to another, his twin shortswords cutting bodies as easily as a scythe cuts through wheat.
Mayleefa was a bulwark. With a tower shield as tall as he and a huge maul held in one hand, he was keeping Honeywitch and the nereid commander at bay.
He didn't see Valanaegornif and that worried Nero. Where would the elf be? He wasn't trustworthy.
There was only one thing Nero could do. Survive. And to achieve that, he needed to stay hidden. He moved around, dodging stray shots and staying away from people. The distraction from the flashy combat helped in that aspect, as the attention of everyone with enough Perception or Skills to sense him were focused on the attackers.
An hour into the battle, the campsite was destroyed. Nero would kiss Glom for suggesting to modify his buckler to add elemental resistances. Fireballs, blizzards, lightning snakes that scoured the ground. Lots and lots of spells caused untold collateral damage and even some of them found Nero's inside their indiscriminating area-of-effect. He moved away from the portal, now a window into another world visible to anyone. Nero saw Count Honeywitch staring at the portal and then searching around. It was obvious he knew Nero was nearby. Fortunately, he didn't even scan over his hiding spot, which Nero abandoned for a better position further away from the raging free-for-all.
The rank-and-file soldiers also stayed well away from the fight. They would only become casualties in that battle among titans. Another hour of combat went by and they decided to stay very away from the fight, in fact they were fleeing toward Coriander. Maybe the siege was over, but it would be a pyrrhic victory for either side. The first knights on both sides, those weaker fourth or fifth-tier ones started to die. Nero's display lit up five times as the combatants fought for their lives and didn't try to conserve their strength or escape. It was obvious to everyone that only one side would survive. Surrender was not in either side's dictionary and they would die before that.
More combatants on either side died. In this cruel world where a high-grade potion could bring someone from the brink of death, people took the extra step to make sure their enemies were dead. Storing a corpse in the dimensional pouch was one of them, as living creatures could not be stored. Quartering and butchering the body was another and most bodies didn't hit the ground with their heads attached. The stench of blood, viscera, urine, and feces permeated the whole battleground.
The culling left only the really strong on their foot. Tyre, Mayleefa, some other senior knights on one side. Honeywitch, a nereid in golden armor Nero identified as Calder and a few other fox-kin and nereids. Less than a dozen standing up on either side. Hundreds of corpses on the ground. Both sides stopped to catch their breath and recover. The lull in violent combat was jarring.
Still no sight of Valanaegornif's perpetual scowl.
"So we came to this, rapist," Calder spat in Tyre's direction. "You will pay for what you did to my mistress with your life, leonal scum."
"I don't think so, your failure of a knight. I took your princess's virtue away while you watched the door, unaware of anything. And she liked it," Tyre laughed.
If Nero could use [Empower Attack] now, he would take a shot at the prince. He almost screamed his outrage. Tyre had to die, his heart whispered to his mind.
"Don't let the poor lion cub taunt you, Calder. I know where your princess is and we are going there as soon as we're finished here. Some troublesome Adventurers are protecting her but they will be no match for our combined strength."
Scratch that, everyone there had to die. Even Mayleefa, although he was the only decent knight in the entire entourage.
"Care to duel me, Honeywitch?" Tyre spat back. "Let's see who's stronger, a lion or a tiger."
Tigers, obviously, Nero thought. At least one-on-one. That had no impact on people's performance. Nero was sure that both beast-folk's physical traits were almost the same, their only difference the fur pattern.
"My name is Sung-Min, leonal scum!" Honeywitch screamed and charged.
The others made room for the duel. Tyre was faster, but Honeywitch had more expertise and a balanced build. The oriental tiger-folk fought with two claws attached to his hands with long points that went over his forearm and tapered to sharp blades a foot from his fists. He used these to stab, slash, and block attacks.
Nero couldn't follow the combat. Tyre was a blur and forced Honeywitch into defense. But Tyre's style didn't prioritize endurance. Ten minutes into the fight, the prince was visibly slowing down. Sung-Min seized this opportunity and doubled his efforts, using a surge of stamina he was saving for this very moment.
He slashed deep into Tyre's exposed leg. Limping, the prince froze for a moment. Nero felt pain in his heart, his Adventurer's instincts telling him to get away if he was in Honeywitch's place. Why would Tyre freeze? Because he was charging a Skill, that's why. The count didn't do that. He went in for the kill.
"[Thousand Cherry Blossoms]!" Tyre shouted and sprang into action. Faster than ever, he roared and devolved into a raging beast, delivering a flurry of strikes that drew a bit of blood each. Honeywitch silver-and-black fur became covered in his own blood as Tyre probably delivered a thousand cuts into his body. The prince finished with both shortswords through Sung-Min's eye sockets, sprouting from the back of his head like two bamboo shoots coming out of the earth. If the earth could bleed and leak brain matter.
"Thanks for helping me get rid of the traitor," Calder said, calm. "One can never trust a turncoat, can we?"
Tyre retrieved his weapons from the count's corpse and wiped his forehead. "Val, now it would be a good time," He said calmly to the night air.
Valanaegornif appeared behind Calder and struck, driving a thin longsword through the nereid knight's heart. Nero grimaced. Of course the elf was a [Rogue]. What the fuck did he expect?
"[Deathbloom]," Valanaegornif said on Calder's ear-fin. The nereid's body shriveled and mummified instantly.
"Wipe them out!" Tyre shouted and roused his knights into a frenzy. A literal one, as they fought without regard for their safety.
Soon even more deaths piled up on each side. Tyre, Valanaegornif, and Mayleefa were the only ones standing up in the end. Even the two infiltrators that came with Nero died. His Arbitrium lit up like crazy and Nero didn't want to look. He craved Accolades, but not at this price.
"VICTORY IS OURS!" The prince cheered. "To home and glory, my friends," He smiled and gloated, without regard for his dead companions. "To the shelter. Let's go."
Tyre walked ahead. Valanaegornif went after him and Mayleefa closed the line.
"Nero, where are you?" Tyre asked. "Glad you learned to hide properly. Mayleefa?"
The buffalo-kin took a device like a communicator he gave Nero and pointed straight at him. Was the thing a tracking device? Nero cursed. "There he is."
Nero came out of stealth. There was no use trying to get away and there were no threats around him.
"Good. Now every piece is where it should," Valanaegornif grinned at Nero. It was a smile too creepy to bear. Nero flinched and looked away.
Tyre put one foot through the portal and the elf acted. He stabbed Tyre and used the same Skill as before. "[Deathbloom]," He drained Tyre's vitality. The prince's necklace broke and Valanaegornif's weapon vanished into motes of Essence.
"Bastard!" Mayleefa screamed and swung his maul. Valanaegornif deftly dodged the overarching blow.
Tyre fell through the portal and into the shelter.
"What's wrong, 'Leefa? Coriander paid me dearly to deliver Tyre's head, and I intend to cash in that reward. I did my duty, the invaders are gone. Defeated. Routed. And I'm leaving Bast for good." Valanaegornif taunted.
The buffalo-kin huffed and dug the ground with his foot. "No you are not," He growled. "[Death Oath] - I'll kill Valanaegornif. [Inexorable Life Bond]." His vow backed by a sixty-tier Skill settled a weight upon the world that even Nero felt. Tendrils of purple magic linked both knights. A dome sprung between them, breaking the portal as it washed over it.
"Fool! You are going to die!" Valanaegornif gasped with anger.
"And you are coming with me to the grave. Unless you got twelve hundred Vigor," Mayleefa exulted. "Now, come and die slowly."
The two of them fought inside the purple dome. Nero used stealth again and watched. For every wound Valanaegornif caused on Mayleefa, he suffered the same wound. Mayleefa's maul only needed to connect once. The blow broke the elf's delicate skull, splattering the inside of the dome with the traitor's brains.
The purple dome collapsed and the backlash hit Mayleefa. He fell to a knee. "Nero, hurry," He called.
The camp was devastated. Nobody else was alive but them. Nero approached Mayleefa, now weakened and on his knees.
"Can you be saved?" Nero asked.
"No. The price of using my Skill is my life. It did give awesome Attribute bonuses though," He chuckled and put a card on his device, summoning something into his hand. "Here, take this. It is proof you did your job." He handed a medal to Nero. "That can only be freely given. Now please, take the prince back home."
Nero didn't answer. He found he was unable to promise that. Instead, he put a hand on the buffalo-kin. "Goodbye, brave knight."
"Finish me, please," Mayleefa grasped Nero's hand. "The pain is too great. Let me die with honor."
Nero nodded, changed his Class to [Archer], and pointed the gun at the knight's forehead. He charged forty instances of [Empower Attack] along with [Piercing Shot] and pulled the trigger.
Mayleefa's corpse froze and shattered.
Nero's screen lit up. He screamed.