“Deal with the rabble,” Warden Leonard said, eyes fixed on Grey. He lifted his free hand and gestured forward with it to his forces arrayed behind and on the barricade. “I’ll deal with the Headmaster.”
“Oh, will you now,” Grey said dangerously, lifting Stellarum. He began to advance on the Warden. “We’ll just see about that, won’t we.”
Venix followed after Grey, from where he had been watching the confrontation silently. It seemed as if he had been cleaning his blades while the two bantered. Unexpectedly, Woodrick stepped up as well. I didn’t know how strong he was in comparison to the two of them, but he certainly seemed to think that he could compete.
The Warden didn’t seem concerned. I watched as his eyes flickered over the extra two combatants before sneering slightly. He raised his crystalline staff, and his three opponents seemed to take that as a cue to begin.
Venix and Woodrick dashed at the Warden, but skidded to a halt before they could reach him. A bright, icy blue flash of light had erupted from the ground in front of them. A misty haze appeared over the large Monster Core on the ground, and from it, something emerged that caused the trio facing it to either curse or tense up.
The Neptaurian Prime, restored. The sea-borne Centaur reared in front of Venix and Woodrick, letting out a warbling whinny of victory.
However, it seemed smaller than it had been before. Lessened, somehow. That didn't make it any less intimidating.
The trio didn’t bother with any more words. What they needed to do appeared obvious.
Venix and Woodrick split off from their collision course with the Warden and attacked the reborn Prime. It met them eagerly, clashing its talons against their blades.
Leaving the Warden to Grey.
I wasn’t able to watch any more of the confrontation between the two of them, however.
I had my own problems.
At the same time that our three strongest members began their attack, the forces of Caer Drarrow began their own. Guards began to stream out of the opening of the barricade, skirting the battle between titans to rush in our direction. In the immediate, however, I was more concerned with the archers on the walls of the makeshift rampart. They had raised their bows, crossbows, and slings and began to bombard our forces. Hell, even the Frostbrine spiders up there began to shoot streams of web at us.
I had never let go of Sylvan Vigor, only dialed it down, so I was able to dodge out of the way of the quarrel that nearly skewered me. Narrowing my eyes as I did so, I assessed our situation.
Bluntly, I thought we were screwed.
Between the Warden, the somehow reborn Prime, and the Guards of Caer Drarrow, I don’t know if we had the numbers or strength to overcome these odds. However, we didn’t have a choice but to try. Not only did I not want to fucking die, but we had to get our freed hostages out of here if the Uprising had any hope of victory in greater Herztal.
Speaking of them, after a quick look, I saw that the group had retreated to the far wall of the entry hall. It seemed as if one of the adults had either a skill or a defensive spell ready for a situation like this, as they had warped the stone of the floor into a dome to cover their position.
I didn’t need to worry about them, at the very least.
Instead, I let myself meet the charge of the Guard rushing my position. Dodging out of the way of his thrust, I retaliated with one of my own, using my still brilliantly burning spear. The Guard wasn’t able to react in time. My blade pierced through the mail throat guard around his neck, and emerged out of the other side in a spray of blood and gore. Yanking my spear out quickly, I blocked the strike of another guard with the haft of it with a grunt of effort. The Guard bore down on our clashed weapons, nearly causing my legs to buckle underneath me.
Thankfully, we finally caught a break.
Beyond the other side of the barricade, the massive main doors of Caer Drarrow exploded in a haze of equally massive splinters. They rocketed across the hall in a thunderous riot of wood on stone, hopefully injuring some of the Guard forces behind the barricade. In fact, the explosion from the door was so powerful that a massive chunk of it ripped right through a portion of the makeshift wall, squishing one of the Frostbrines.
The splinters even traveled far enough to help me out.
I blinked, as a spray of blood erupted from the chest of the Guard bearing down on me. A massive, jagged length of timber had erupted from his chest, skewering him through the torso. The Guard only had time to stare downwards disbelievingly at the oversized splinter in his chest before he went slack. He tumbled to the ground, dead.
I straightened up, to look in the direction of the door. What the hell had caused that?
The answer was the crew of the Thorny Reef.
They charged through the ruins of the main door with a riotous cry, smoke and debris trailing their wake. In a dead sprint, I saw them clash into the disoriented back lines of the Guard forces arrayed on the other side of the broken barricade.
The Guards were now trapped between the jaws of two different pirate forces. Our side saw the chance given to us, and counter-attacked fiercely.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The battlefield before us descended into even further chaos.
Meanwhile, I saw my window of opportunity.
I sprinted over to where Sylvia was locked in battle with a guard of her own and ambushed him. Before he could react my spear slid straight into his back, piercing his heart. The Guard jerked in agonized surprise, before falling limp on the end of my blade. I shook him off, locking eyes with Sylvia as I did so.
My Sculpted friend opened her mouth to thank me, but I didn’t give her a chance. I rushed in close to her, cutting off her words. “Stealth, quickly,” I whispered furiously. “We’re getting Honoka.”
Sylvia’s crystalline blue eyes widened in response before she nodded. With a nod, she glanced around, making sure that nobody was specifically paying attention to us in the chaos of battle. She made a gesture with her free hand nod holding her short sword, and visibly concentrated. With a shimmer of light, she disappeared from view.
At the same time, I cast my own Thorn Cloak causing me to blend into the background. I may not have been nearly invisible like Sylvia was, but I was still an indistinct blur. I was counting on most people being too busy fighting for their lives to pay attention.
Trusting that Sylvia was following, I swiftly but carefully maneuvered my way across the battlefield.
Towards the breech in the barricade from the explosion of the main gate.
I didn’t have any other choice if I wanted to find where Honoka was being kept. Unfortunately, this hall didn’t have the convenient rafters that I had been using to get around the rest of the prison. Still, I managed to make my way across the battlefield, spying Azarus defending Aurum and Renauld as I did so. My dwarven friend was keeping the Guards away from the two healers, which was a good idea on his part. Honestly, I thought that pair were the only things keeping our rag-tag bunch on this side in the fight. I watched as he conjured into being a solid wall of chains in a rare use of an obvious skill, blocking a targeted barrage of arrows and quarrels.
I was very careful to skirt the battle between Venix, Woodrick, and the Prime, as well as between Grey and the Warden. Both of those were too dangerous to get anywhere near. Venix was relentlessly hounding the Neptaurian with precise strikes with his four blades, while Woodrick seemed to be playing ranged support. I saw the Sculpted leader fire multiple blasts of either green light at the Prime, and what looked to be…massive thorns.
Hey man, that’s my gimmick. Get your own.
Even if, you know. You probably had them before I did.
Anyways.
The fight between Grey and Warden looked more like a formalized duel than it did a wild battle. The two of them had somehow erected what looked like a massive, glowing blue bubble shield over their position. I don’t think it was out of any concern for the people around them, though. Instead, it was probably to keep the entire hall from collapsing on top of them.
The amount of power the two of them were throwing around at each other was frankly terrifying. As I watched through the veil of their shield, the Warden conjured two massive bulls made of solid crystal. With a wave of his staff, they charged at Grey with their gargantuan horns lowered. Concentrating, Grey lashed out with his sword, tearing open a swirling black rip in reality before him in response.
I nearly stumbled in shock, as I was climbing over the rubble of the shattered barricade.
Grey had just created a miniature black hole.
The crystalline bulls were unable to stop their charge in time and rushed headfirst into the singularity. They were instantly torn apart, shredded and stretched into nothingness in the blink of an eye. With a glint in eye that I could see from where I was, Grey gestured with his sword, sending the black hole spiraling in the Warden’s direction like a discus.
The Warden didn’t flinch. Baring his teeth, he instantly conjured up a bizarre edifice of four large crystalline hoops, set in a row before him in the path of the dark star barreling his way. When the black hole reached the hoops and began to go through them, it slowed down each time it passed through one, destabilizing more and more as it did so. By the time it had reached Warden Leonard, it was little more than a wisp of black smoke. He waved it away nonchalantly, causing Grey to visibly click his tongue.
I shook my head, turning away from the fight. I didn’t have time for lollygagging. Instead, I crouched on top of the barricade and focused on the fight between the crew of the Thorny Reef and the rest of the Guard forces. Honestly, it looked like they were tearing them apart. I think Bella’s crew was just stronger than McGill’s. At the very least, they were fully outfitted and not weakened from a stint in a horrific prison.
Still, not even they were my main focus. I needed to find out where Honoka was. From the slight movement of the indistinct form crouched next to mine, I could tell that Sylvia was scanning the battlefield as well.
I think Sylvia and I saw it at the same moment, from the nudge that I felt on my shoulder.
A door, set into the wall of the far left corner of the hall. It was just to the left of the shattered main gate and was oddly being secured by a group of Guards. However, they were pretty occupied by fending off a familiar trio of pirates from Bella’s crew. Curloch, Morlow, and Laryn.
Well, that was better than nothing. We’d start there.
Nodding in the direction of Sylvia’s blur, the both of us cautiously started creeping onto the other side of the hall. Near the barricade, the fighting was thin on the ground. It was only once you got closer to the destroyed gate that it picked up. We had to be more careful over here. Still, by sticking close to the wall, Sylvia and I were able to cautiously creep in that direction.
We were in sight of the fight occurring between the trio and the guards now. The three of them were doing a valiant job of taking care of the guards, but they weren’t making any headway to getting through them.
Well, I guess we need to change that.
I reached out and cast Grasping Roots, targeting the Guard that Curloch was fighting. The legs of the Guard were instantly encased in thorny wood that dug straight through the chainmail of his leg armor. He cried out in surprised pain, dropping his guard.
Curloch didn’t question his good fortune. He instantly moved in, and lopped the Guard’s head off with the oddly oversized hand scythe he was using as a weapon. He did briefly look around for who had helped him, but shrugged when he didn’t spot me. Curloch moved on, ambushing the guard that Laryn was already knocking around with a quarterstaff.
Seeing that the pirates were beating their compatriots, the last two Guards in front of the door abandoned their post to join the fight.
That was our chance.
I sprinted across the short distance to the unsecured door, Sylvia hot on my heels. When I reached it, I barely slowed down before throwing open the door wide.
That was a mistake.
Honoka was in the small room, all right. I could see her manacled form slumped over in a chair on the far side of it, seemingly still unconscious. However, that wasn’t the only person inside.
Standing in the center of the room was a massive man in full plate armor, with an equally massive greatsword bared in front of him. I could see the man’s eyes narrow in a smirk through the slit in his helm.
“Fool,” He rumbled, voice echoing oddly. The man pointed his blade in my direction and cast some kind of Skill.
A visible wave of force barreled my way.
My eyes widened, too late to react.