I’m frozen in a state of horrifying shock from Garret’s failed surprise attack. Ulrika keeps her eyes locked on him without blinking. The moment her eyes move to me, I use all my force to lunge back into him. We fall back, but I perform a handstand to set myself upright. He kicks the side of my right knee, tripping me before I can grab my sword. I catch myself and roll away to get some distance. His relentless assaults follow me as he tries to strike me with his sword. One drive cuts down my chest, but the blade doesn’t reach my skin.

“Garret!” Ulrika screams.

Garret doesn’t look her way, but I notice he hesitates as he tries to hit me. I duck under one of his swings, place my hands on his stomach and blast him. He flies back into a mixed crowd of Paladins and cultists.

“Haleema, are you alright?” Ulrika asks, crawling over to her. I walk over to them, keeping my eyes on Garret.

“What happened?” I ask, taking a quick glance at Haleema. She’s clutching her ears.

“My ears can’t take the noise of Garret’s sword,” Haleema says, scrunching up her face from the possible terrible ringing she’s hearing.

“Ulrika, can you cover me for a sec?” Ulrika picks her swords up from the ground. She wields her right one while the other gets sheathed in the left scabbard.

“Be quick,” Ulrika says, twirling her sword. I cup Haleema’s ears, putting my index fingers on the top part of it. Her face relaxes, then her ears twitch a bit in my hands.

“Transmute,” I whisper. I can feel my spell flow out of my palms. The sensation feels like cool air being sucked from them. Haleema slightly panics, pressing her hands against mine, then holds them. “You’re okay. How’s that?”

“My ears... They’ve stopped ringing,” Haleema says. I help her to her feet and pick up her staff. “Kaioson, what did you do?”

“I’ve created a certain threshold of volume that your ears will hear. Loud noises won’t pass through.” She gasps with a big smile. Her ears perk up for a moment before resting back to their usual angle. I somewhat chuckle, seeing how happy she is.

“I’m grateful, Kaio,” she says softly before saying in a normal voice, “You’re full of surprises. I’m starting to believe you are more than I originally thought.” To make myself more mysterious, I give her a wink then walk over to Ulrika, who’s staring in Garret’s direction. No one is fighting over there, yet she’s tensed up.

“What’s going on?”

“I fear the worse is about to come,” Ulrika answers.

“You don’t mean—”

“Yup. It’s what I said. Prepare yourself. Haleema, get over here!” Haleema glides over to my left side.

All at once, the clashes of swords stop around us. There’s a massive surge of magic rising where Garret is. People around that area start backing away. Once they move just enough to give us a clear view, it’s revealed to be Garret. Lightning cascades around his body like wheels spinning. He stops about fifteen feet in front of us, glaring precisely at me.

“You are going to be a pain in my ass,” Garret says.

“So will I,” Ulrika chimes in, pointing at herself. “I’m ten times worse.”

“You? The castrated swain? You don’t scare me, beast.”

“I can’t believe he’s still on that shit. I’m kinda offended now,” Ulrika whispers to me. I’m fuming with indignation at his insults against her womanhood for the second time. I don’t want to respond to multiply my hate, so I bite my inner lip to remain calm. “Garret, your forces are nearly gone, and by the looks of things, you’re screwed.”

“Oh, am I?” Four purple lightning strikes around him appear for a split second. The so-called champions are back. More lightning spawns in, but this time it’s orcs with scarce armor on their bodies. Several of them wield two-handed battleaxes, one-handed axes, and hammers. I find it odd that none of them have swords.

“Ulrika... I see what you mean,” I say.

“Guys,” Rhyndac shouts, coming from behind us. She’s accompanied by Zadock, Hayden, Emdal, and Lyra. They all have some sort of battle grit on their clothing. Whether it be blood, dirt, or holes in their clothing. “I rounded up the calvary when I sensed Garret attacking.”

“That was quick,” I say.

“Good job, Rhyndac!” Haleema says. I’m relieved to see they’re still around, even Rhyndac.

“It seems like the same tactic Olly used is being deployed here,” Zadock says with a calm demeanor.

“Ugh. Now we have big scary-looking orcs to deal with,” Hayden says with a shaky voice.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Are you scared?” I ask. Ulrika looks at me, then turns around to face Hayden. He rapidly shakes his head no when looking at her.

“Rhyndac!” Garret screams.

“What?” Rhyndac responds.

“You lying seductive whore!”

“Ha! Me a whore? Oh please, I didn’t even get paid.”

“I trusted you. You’ve embarrassed me greatly from your betrayal at Tawaragata.” Rhyndac giggles in gap intervals. It sounds fake to me, but I’m not one hundred percent positive. She shrugs her shoulders, then the lightning around Garret intensifies. They become spiky as well as rotate faster around his body. “I’m seen as a nobody.”

“You are! You, the Paragons; Nite, are an enemy of this world. A virus that needs to be incinerated to nothing but ash.”

“Nite is the guiding enlightenment to a future free from the detestable gods who rein above us. Zadione will become the lord of this realm, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” Garret manifests his shield on his arm in a burst of light. “I hope you survive this, Rhyndac. I want to present you as a gift to Father Ivaran. I’m sure he’ll love you as a concubine.”

Father Ivaran? Is he a religious leader? Interesting. Hm, he’s also something to be concerned about, according to Olly’s threat.

“I will rather be burned alive than be subjugated to that human freak!” Her hands emanate a black foggy smoke. It’s demonic, yet I notice tiny white sparks of magic within it. Why does she have that power? Is it because of her race, or is there something deeper I don’t know?

“Fine then. I can arrange that. Champions!” The champions’ weapons ignite into blue fire.

“Paladins, protect this city! Protect our world!” Emdal shouts. Anyone in earshot of him chants in deep voices. My adrenaline pumps through my body once again. Ulrika pulls out her second sword, then the wind begins to pick up a bit around her feet. I’m happy to see my mana is being used. Before everyone explodes with the fury of the gods, I surprise my beloved wife with a moderately long kiss.

“Kaio?” Ulrika whispers, gazing her emerald jewels into my soul. The world around me solos us out of this battle. She becomes the shining star in my presence. No voices enter here, but the noise of her gentle breathing. “Kaio, why did you do that?” Her voice is clear; and soothing. My eyes tingle as they fill up with tears.

“If we die today, I want us to have something recent to remember,” I say.

“I can’t believe you said that,” she says, smiling and frowning at the same time. “Kaioson, how dare you say that to me.” Her mixed expression ends in a frown. “You promised, no, you made a vow we will make it through this,” she whimpers. Her voice builds more tears in my eyes. At the same time, our tears break free down our cheeks. “We will make it. Plus, I really wanna make you some more pasta.”

“Oh, Ulrika.” I give her another kiss. She pulls her frown back into a big wide smile. More tears fall out of our eyes. Our moment slowly fades back into reality as the screams enter back into my awareness.

“Attack!” Garret yells. I let out one of my most potent blasts at Garret. He takes the brunt of it with his shield but flies into the crowd behind him. Two of the champions get knocked down on their asses.

“Let’s go!” Emdal says. Everyone rushes ahead of me. Ulrika takes a couple of steps forward but stops to look at me.

“Kaio?” Ulrika says.

“I’m going for Garret,” I say, getting ready to leap into the air.

Right as I launch myself using my sword to pull me up, I hear her yell, “Wait for me!”

I ignore her plea to stay and come down on Garret with a downward thrust. He sees me coming just enough to block me with his shield. My sword impales it but doesn’t go through all the way. His electricity moves up my blade, stops at my handle, then comes up my arms. My hands lock as I get electrocuted. I can resist the pain just enough to push myself away from him. The cultist starts to gang up on me. I keep them at bay by burning their legs with a continuous stream of fire.

“Die!” Garret says, swinging his sword. I conjure my sword to block all his attacks. “This one is mine! Stand back!”

“That’s so kind of you. You’ve made this fight less stressful,” I say. I bring my sword back to my hand once the cultist gets a comfortable distance from me.

“Shut up, Paladin. I don’t want these idiots robbing me of my kill.”

“You’re the one who is going to die today!” He scoffs in a laugh.

“Do you not see the odds are against you? I am far superior to you.” He increases his output of lightning around his body. A bolt discharges, hitting my left thigh. The pain feels like it’s crawling in different directions. “Feel that? You’re done for. I doubt I’ll need to smite you with my sword.”

Fuck! This is troublesome. I’m not that resistant to lightning-based magic. If he keeps raising his power, I could end up getting killed.

“Thinking about surrendering?” Garret says.

“Never such a thought will ever cross my mind,” I say. We enter in a silent staredown. He plays with me by striking his sword on his shield.

“Come at me!” I’m tempted, but I want him to charge me. “Come at me, coward!” As my right foot inches forward, out of nowhere, Ulrika lands a foot in front of me. Her arms, back, and shoulders are drenched in green blood. She slowly looks to her left, right, then turns to me, squinting.

“When we’re done here, we need to have a serious talk,” Ulrika says in a low steady voice. Her lower jaw is shifted forward, her brows down into her nose, and her mouth is tight as it frowns.

“Am I in trouble?” I ask, moving closer to her.

“Very much so.”

“Oh... If it’s flying off, then I’m sorry.”

“Save your apologies for later. I’m so pissed at the moment.” I tighten my lips when I realize how mad she is. Now I’m more stressed about what she’ll do to me than Garret. She comes closer to me, then whispers in my ear, “What are we up against?”

“Aw, is that your backup? Stand aside. He’s mine!” Garret says.

“Hey, shut the hell up! I’m talking to my husband!” I can see his physical confusion when his head tilts and relaxes out of his combat stance. Her lashing out at him gives me such a scare that I kind of jump. “So,” she whispers with a gentle voice.

“His magic is powerful. He’s already shocked me twice,” I answer at the same volume as her voice.

“Damnit, Kaioson. You shouldn’t have rushed Garret alone. What were you thinking?” I’m afraid to tell her my anger was the reason, so I remain silent. In my silence, I realize another reason why she could be mad at me.

“Oh gosh, Ulrika. I know why you are mad. I said we were going to fight him together. I’m so s—”

“Kaioson,” she quickly cuts me off, clutching her lower stomach. She pauses with her finger angled at my forehead for a time, then resumes saying, “Just tell me, are you injured?”

“I’m sore, but I can still fight.”

“Good,” she sighs, looking back at Garret. “Now he has a bigger problem to deal with.” She sounds so confident, unfazed by his deadly power.

“Come at me!” Garret screams in a growl.

“Ready?”

“Yes!” I say.

“No quarter!”