"Sta-Stay away!!" Crawling desperately away with his arms the once polished set of armor he wore was now torn and dirt from dust and blood. "Please! Please don't kill me!," With desperation only one who was facing death could have he inched forward slowly, behind him twin trails of crimson was painted on the ground.
"This was so disappointing," A jester strutted closer playing with a dagger that was in her hands, "I thought you were elite troops, but to think you didn't even make it half way through our game." It was just a toss, a careless toss, but the dagger that was tossed in a way akin to how one would throw away trash found it's mark in the back of the half dead soldier, adding to the number that was impaled in his body.
Screaming pitifully the soldier continued pleading for his life as he made his way forward little by little hoping to get away from this demon. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Please don't kill me!"
Joker sighed as she looked at the disgusting bug wiggling upon the ground, "Well it's about time to end our game." From the sounds of explosions she heard from a while back the fighting outside was getting more violent. It was definitely more exciting out there than in here down in the ancient tunnels that showered her with dust, dirt and other disgusting particles every time it shook.
"No, Please! No!!" The cries fell upon deaf ears as Joker casually pulled another dagger, this one cracked from over use from out of the air.
"Bye~" Before the dagger even landed Joker had already disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the broken corpses of the soldier and his squad scattered inside the moldy passage.
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Tarbalt and the rest could only watch from the sidelines as Gwyn fought with the summoned dragon kin, they would only be in the way if they tried to help. The two were just blurs and every time their weapons collided a wave of air would come bursting forth from the point of contact, evidence of how strong both contenders were.
However, even though it may look like an even fight if you were looking from afar Gwyn herself could tell that she was getting pushed back. Rio was superior in both strength and speed, if anything the one thing Gwyn was better at was that she could think. If Rio had incorporated feints and other attacks that weren't as direct as swinging her sword full force at Gwyn the battle would've ended quite quickly. Even so Gwyn was just barely able to keep Rio's attacks away from her vitals and the armor she had saved her many times, the dull pain she felt all over her body a testament to that.
"NO!!! Rio!! WHY!!! I was so close!!! I just needed a few, no only another year!" A mad man is what you would call the disfigured and raving minion master.
"Damn it!" Kicking off the ground Gwyn tried to gain a little bit of distance from Rio who was aggressively keeping close to Gwyn striking with her much more mobile weapon. For Gwyn maneuvering her great sword in such close quarters was incredible taxing as well as difficult, never mind attacking she could barely defend herself. Gwyn snapped her head hard to the right as Rio chased her with a thrust that was aimed for where Gwyn's head used to be, the follow up slash was barely blocked by Gwyn who had used the hilt of her sword to keep the blade from biting into her neck.
Gwyn almost regretted her choice of weapon, the large size and heavy weight of the sword made it very bad match up against Rio who used quick precise strikes. This was made even more apparent because Rio didn't seem to tire even as time went on but Gwyn could feel her arms screaming for rest, her movements made clumsy by the exhaustion of this prolonged high speed fight.
*Snap
A strange sound was released after Gwyn blocked another one of Rio's attacks. At first Gwyn thought she had just imagined the sound but Rio's attacks were slowly getting slower, it was a minute difference but one that Gwyn who was the one who was in the closest proximity to Rio wouldn't miss.
*Snap, snap ,snap
Again the sound rang out in quick succession and this time the speed of Rio's attacks were greatly reduced, even the strength behind them seemed greatly weakened. Once again Gwyn kicked off the ground to buy her some time and space but this time Rio didn't follow as fast as she did before. Taking the moment to breathe in precious air Gwyn observed Rio who was relentlessly pursuing her but with great difficulty and at almost a walking pace. The origins of the sound was immediately found, Rio's limbs were twisted at weird angles. The reason the speed of her attacks dropped was because Rio's arm had broke near the elbow held together only by flesh and muscle, the fact that she hadn't dropped her sword was a wonder. As for why Rio wasn't moving even remotely as before was because her legs were in a similar situation to her arm and she was plodding forward in a forced fashion that would likely cause a normal person to faint in pain.
Gwyn had been puzzled as to why the minion master was so angry at having to use Rio, the answer was gruesomely revealed to her as Rio's immaculate face started melting off. "There's a time limit." Either that or a limit to how much power the body can use up before it starts breaking down. If that was the reason it would make sense why he was so mad about it to the point of ignoring his own body being burnt by his surroundings. It wasn't uncommon for people who have lost loved ones to turn to necromancy but without a doubt all who attempted it ended up in one of three ways. They died when they tried to use mana beyond what they had, they died to their loved one after they successfully resurrected them but as an abomination and a monster, or they turned in a lich losing their humanity and thoughts in the progress.
"You can't bring back the dead." Despite all he had done all Gwyn could feel while looking at the dejected mess of a man was pity.
"What do you know! If I just managed to kill 25 of them, just 25 I could have her back." The man started laughing brokenly while tears streamed down his face. "The world should just end. Yeah it should just be destroyed." He grabbed the bag that he had slung over his shoulders and started pouring the contents out. Countless miniature heads covered his legs up to his knees in a pile around him as he continued his maniacal laughter.
Like from a nightmare green mist started surrounding the area as bodies dyed green started pulling themselves up over each other with only a single aim, kill everyone. "Tarbalt! Signal the retreat, fall back to the palace." Painfully Gwyn started making her way towards the palace, even if Rio was out of the fight so was Gwyn. As it stands she could barely walk never mind fight an army of those monsters.
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From within the shadows of the crumbling remains of the wall Joker stepped out lazily, "I was told to look after her just in case but... ain't she doing fine by herself?" Suddenly a pillar of green fire rose up into the sky basking the surroundings in a green glow. Looking towards the source Joker sighed and put a hand on her forehead, "Of course it isn't this easy, but to think they could use their abilities even when in that state."
With a voiceless roar what emerged from the flames was a giant dragon, a true dragon, with large wings spread out like it was claiming the skies and scorching flames flying out of it's mouth. That was Rio who had upon collapsing due to decay and turned into the massive dragon, a glittering emerald in the shape of a diamond embedded inside her chest where within the picture of flames could be seen.
"Ah, she's looking at the Princess." Joker grabbed her head with both her hands and started screaming out to the sky, "Why is it me!!!!"
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"Don't worry about me and go!" Gwyn swore, a dragon of all things, what is with all these things that are completely blowing away all the common sense she had.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"But!"
Gwyn glared at Tarbalt as he hesitated, "I'm immune to the flames thanks to this ridiculous armor, now GO!" Seeing Tarbalt off Gwyn turned around to face the dragon who had turned to face her. How do you even go about killing a dragon? "Well I only know one way of doing things anyways." Taking a deep breath Gwyn lifted her sword, even if it's a dragon she somehow felt that her sword can still cut through it.
"Stop making my job harder you stupid lizard!!!" As Gwyn was about to dash forward Joker appeared screaming some ridiculous things and throwing several vials of light blue liquid towards Rio.
"Eh? Joker? Why are you he-"
"Shoo shoo, you're just in the way." Joker started pushing Gwyn away as the Rio opened her mouth and released a torrent of flames in their direction. Upon colliding with the vials it released winds so powerful Gwyn was tossed into the air and back several meters, the same happened to Joker except she did several twirls and tumbles while in mid air. "Guess the failures weren't enough. How about this one? Or this one? Or how about this one?" Pulling out vials of different sizes with colours that were across the entire spectrum Joker continued to throw them at Rio who in return continued to shoot out green flames.
Gwyn was gradually shot further and further away from the scene as the collisions between the flames and whatever the liquids were created varying sizes of explosions. "Was that... Ice?" Sometimes there was ice that formed for a fraction of a second before being melted instantly by the hot flames, sometimes it was something that looked like poison and yet sometimes flames themselves seem to petrify before being liquefied in a molten mess that fell down towards the ground. "I can treat this as a dream right? Yeah when I wake up this will be all gone." Gwyn started walking towards the palace a hand massaging her head as she sighed deeply, no matter how you view that scene it looked like one out of a comedy where a clown was actually fighting evenly with a dragon. There wasn't much Gwyn could have done anyways even if she stayed there.
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"To think he even had a dragon with him." Several notable nobles were gathered in the room as well as representatives from both the vampire hunters and the mages council. The comment had come from one of the nobles with a large stake in this rebellion, Lord Velmark. His family had once ruled one of the countries that surrounded the royal capital and was highly dissatisfied with the treatment they got from the royal family. Over time as all the countries dissolved into this one kingdom his families land had shrunken down to a couple of measly cities, a family that used to rule as one of the strongest countries in the human lands.
"Someone was fighting it however were they not?" Elder Durmez of the mages council although old and weak looking was in fact one of the strongest among the humans. Seventy years of magic study and practice has made him absurdly powerful and knowledgeable, impressing even some of the elves that have come to visit.
"I find it hard to believe that someone dressed in a jester costume was fighting evenly against a dragon with a bunch of potions." Known simply as Silver, being one of the top hunters in the organization he had a presence that didn't lose out to that of Elder Durmez's.
"Hmm, it is hard to believe since our level of alchemy is rather low but it's not impossible; especially with all the interesting people that have shown up in the past four years." Durmez's eyes were glinting like he had found his prey, "If possible I would like to retrieve that person alive and to see what he knows." Durmez rubbed head of the winged horse that was carved into the top of his staff as he said so.
"To begin with it might not even be an actual dragon, it can be a cheap imitation that brat made." Silver played with the hilt of his sword impatiently, a man of action he really didn't have the patience for these meetings.
"Regardless of if it's real or not, can either of the two of you bring it down? We don't know what other tricks the royals have inside the palace and now that they've sealed themselves inside..." Velmark who was once a part of a royal family of course had some artifacts from that time, items that were powerful and left over from the war with the elves and dwarves; some even had the power to freely manipulate an element.
"Off course we can, these silver blades are able to kill anything." Silver stated in a loud voice as he unsheathed his sword to display it, the action causing the guards in the room to enter high alert.
"Put away that thing, it'll do you no good if you die before getting close. As for if we can kill the dragon or not..." Durmez scratched at his bald head, "It's probably possible but we have no idea what it's capable of or it's weak points. It will probably be safest if we observe for a bit longer."
"Unfortunately we can't afford to wait much longer, every hour we spend trying to take them out is another hour the Baron of the north has to get here. Our last reports put him and his army about two days away under normal marching speed." Man power wise Velmark and his allies obviously had an advantage but that was just numbers, the baron's men are tough and could be said as elites, especially since the old man had preferred to hire ex-adventurers who had tons of fighting experience. While it would be highly unlikely for them to lose, keeping control of the kingdom would be extremely difficult if they had to fight off the baron.
Silver lazily pointed at Velmark, "What about your elite squads, weren't they supposed to have cut off the king's head by now?"
"We... have not had any contact with them yet and any messengers we tried to send disappear. It would be highly likely that those groups have been wiped out."
"Doesn't that mean they were incompetent? That or Kaila sold us out." Silver waved one of his subordinates over. "Let the Black Dagger clan know that they can start exterminating those pests."
Durmez watched the hunter leave before turning towards Silver, "Is that fine without confirming it? As long as she's alive she's a threat you know. There's nothing more dangerous that a wounded beast that has nothing left to lose."
"She's going to die here anyways, I'll personally make sure of that." Silver stood up and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" At Velmark's signal the guards blocked Silver's way.
"I'm tired of all this talking, if you two aren't going to move I will. Get out of my way." Silver roughly pushed aside the two guards and kicked the door open before slamming it shut again after he left the room.
"Is everything alright Lord Velmark? I can almost see steam coming out from your ears." Durmez laughed lightly as he lifted a cup to his lips and sipped the tea.
"No respect at all!!! Are all the hunters like this? That unruly bunch is just a group of criminals with pretty clothes."
"It's strange how you and the royal family's opinion match up so well isn't it? Well it's fine, we can just use the hunters as a source of information." Durmez slowly got up from his chair, "I will excuse myself now, if you need me you know where to find me." With a small bow Durmez left the room leaving Velmark, several lower nobles and the guards in the room, in one of the dark corners where light doesn't reach two beady eyes were peaking out of the shadows, it's black body completely blending in with the surroundings.
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*Note: After several rewrites I've decided to settle on this version and basically from here on out it will be different than the chapter before the rewrite. The story is going in a different direction and you can mostly consider everything from this point just a continuation of the story.