I couldn’t stop myself from staring blankly at the way Crook was breaking us out of the overpowered chains that held Dusk, Thirty-Two, and I together.

With her bare hands.

The masked woman, who I had last seen retreating with the injured form of Wisp after the battle in the garden, was grasping each length of chain in her hands and snapping them in half. She didn’t even look to be trying very hard, as shattered lengths of tinkling chain fell around us.

I had no idea Crook was either that strong, or that high in level. Still, I was happy to see that at least one other Agent that I knew had escaped the chaos of the warehouse battle.

By not being there in the first place.

However, even though Crook was in the process of freeing those of us in bondage, with me being the last in line, there was still a problem.

My arms were still dislocated.

I grunted when the chains finally fell off, staggering to my feet. As I did so, my arms swung uselessly at my side. I could barely even feel them, from the combination of the injury and being bound for so long.

Crook had brought the three of us, plus Sylvia, to what looked to be a small armory not far from the courtyard. It was the farthest we could go with the red dome shield that Rhiannon, or rather ‘Nerexxa’, had cast over this section of the palace. I had heard her boast about her true name, as we were being carted off of the balcony.

We weren’t the only ones in here, as well. Huddled and scared inside the relatively small room were dozens of both civilians.

And Loyalist soldiers.

The soldiers were huddled into one of the far corners of the room, nearly piled on top of each other. Both groups were keeping a distance from the four of us for the most part, but I had caught a few dirty glances from some soldiers who bore the heraldry of the Herztalian 4th.

Longstripes division.

Heh, I guess they might have been at the warehouse. There’s a chance I could have killed some of their friends. Fairs fair, though. They had done the same to us.

I was knocked out of my observations by Dusk approaching me from my left side. I only managed a glance at her before I felt the Gnoll woman grasp my hanging left arm, and with a twist and shove, pop my dislocated arm back into its socket. I still had my pain dampened, so the only thing that I felt was the disquieting sensation of bone grinding against bone. I shuddered at the feel of it.

I turned to give Dusk a tired, irritated look. “You could at least give me a warning,” I grumbled.

She just ignored my whining and approached my right side, quickly doing the same to that arm. Once I had control over both of my arms once again, I turned to face the others and opened my mouth.

Only to be interrupted.

Sylvia, who had already been freed from the blood ropes Nerexxa had bound her with earlier, marched right up to me and slapped me across the face.

Hard.

I actually stumbled back both from the force of the both, and the tiny bit of pain that had leaked through my block. Her solid Mithril hand hadn’t pulled any veritable punches from her expression of displeasure. Before I could even ask what that was for, she preempted me. Reaching forward and clamping down on both of my swollen shoulders, she pulled me in until the only thing I could see were her two sapphire blue eyes, staring furiously into mine.

“Don’t you ever,” Sylvia hissed at me. “Try and sacrifice yourself for me again. Do you hear me, Nathaniel Hart? Never. Again.”

Ah.

Last night, I’d left Sylvia with barely more than a kiss and the map Nerixxa had ‘gifted’ me with. I hadn’t told her what I was going to do, in the heat of battle, and I hadn’t exactly asked her opinion about my off-the-cuff plan.

I had just…acted.

I can see how that would piss her off.

I nodded wordlessly to show my understanding of her demand. Sylvia studied my face seriously for a moment before she returned my nod. Her arms slid down from my shoulders to grab me in a hug, clutching me tightly.

I returned it, just as glad to see that she had survived the battle at the docks. I heaved a sigh, my face buried in her golden hair.

Our little moment was interrupted by the sound of a throat being cleared pointedly. Looking up, I found the other three people we had arrived with watching in various degrees of patience to impatience. The impatient sound had come from Dusk, who was looking antsy to get moving.

“Now that you’re done with your little moment,” She said testily. “We can get down to business.” She abruptly dismissed us, as Sylvia and I separated from our reunion. “Crook, status? How many are here?”

Crook sighed, reaching up remove her mask. Underneath were the tired features of a perhaps thirty-year-old woman, streaked through with stress wrinkles. Rather than an assassin, Crook struck me more as a worker, with broad, square, strong features. Right now, they were sagging with exhaustion. “Everyone that’s left,” She said wearily. “Which isn’t much. In one fell sweep, the Loyalists, apparently controlled by that thing, managed to nearly wipe out both the Division and SED.” She spared a glance for Thirty-Two, who had been standing off to the side and watching our discussion with a frown on her youthful features. “You guys got hit too. It was even worse for the SED ambush, from what Hook told me. Both of our organizations…we’re pretty much defunct, after this.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Thirty-Two closed her eyes, but didn’t say anything while Crook continued.

“The Solstice classers were assigned to the meeting between Hook and the SED remnants, while obviously we were hit at the warehouse by the Loyalists. It was-”

She was abruptly cut off by the sound of crashing and cracking stone from the courtyard outside. A murmur of terror swept through the civilians inside the armory, while those of us of a more martial persuasion listened tensely to the obvious signs of high-level battle.

It sounded to me like the fight between Baldric and Nerexxa was heating up.

The crashing stopped, but the boom and clashing of blades didn’t. Crook continued, with one final wary glance at the door. “It was a bloodbath. While I gather there were more soldiers hitting you at the warehouse, there were higher quality classers at Hook’s meeting. The results were that although Hook won out in the end, I’m not sure more than three to five SED Agents made it out alive.”

Thirty-Two couldn’t help a small, choked breath escaping her pursed lips. She slapped a hand over her mouth and turned her back on us, but not before I saw the beginnings of tears in her clear green eyes.

A slightly awkward pall hung over us for a moment, before a loud crash interrupted it and reminded us we were still in danger. “After that, Hook gathered up everyone left from both groups, learned about what happened to you kids, and then through together a quick plan.” She paused for a moment. “To be honest, quick is an understatement. We…knew we didn’t have much time, if we wanted to save you from that…thing.”

“And now Hook is trying to take her out,” I said with a frown. “Can he?”

Crook looked unsure, which to be fair, I shared the sentiment. Exactly how strong was a Vampire? Dusk had told me that they were weapons from the time of the gods, but what did that even mean?

My attention was drawn when I saw that Thirty-Two had composed themselves and turned back around to face us. I could still see the redness in her eyes, however. “Unlikely,” She said bluntly. “Your leader is well renowned for his dueling prowess, but that creature out there is more than his match. Unassisted, I do not believe he is capable of slaying her.”

Unassisted, huh. That...was the key word.

I took a deep breath, as I saw resolve start to grow in Dusk’s eyes to my left. Without a word, she turned away from the group and ventured out into the stacks of weaponry here in the armory. She didn’t pay any attention to the civilians in here who cringed away from her presence. I…could guess what she intended from her relationship with Baldric. And it didn’t seem like she wanted to rely on her fists like she usually did, when confronted with someone like Nerexxa.

“Then we need to make sure he’s not unassisted,” I said grimly.

Answering nods came from Sylvia and Thirty-Two, while Crook still looked hesitant. “Hook asked me to get you kids out of here safely,” She said quietly.

Thirty-Two scoffed. “Safety?” She said scornfully. “There is no safety to be found. We’re all trapped here in this shield, and even then! Even then I’m sure not anyone is safe for hundreds of miles, maybe even the whole of Vereden. That psychotic thing is trying to summon one of the old gods back to our home. If she steps foot on Vereden again, it’s over. There are no gods left to protect us from her influence. Nothing else matters now. Not the war, not you rebels, and not the hordes of monsters roaming the countryside.”

“We have to fight,” Sylvia said with resolve, having calmed down from her earlier fury.

Something happened then that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up straight. Another voice piped in, one I was extremely unhappy to hear.

One that belonged to a man that had nearly killed me last night.

“We all have to fight,” I heard a rough, ursine voice say in a pained growl. I froze for a second, before turning to face the direction it was coming from. The far corner that held the Loyalist forces hiding in the corner, nearly stacked on top of each other, seemed to have been hiding someone from our sight.

Atticus Longstripe.

The Loyalist soldiers shuffled away, revealing the injured form of the Loyalist General sitting in a chair that looked ready to collapse from his weight. Longstripe looked…rough. The bandages over the wound I had given him last night were stained red with fresh blood, and the high-level soldier was covered from head to toe in fresher wounds. Bruises and cuts dotted his massive frame, while a much more glaring injury stood out on his left side.

It looked like his left arm was broken. Badly.

It was twisted and bent at an odd angle, with the bone almost looking ready to tear through his tough skin. The entire area looked to be filling with blood, from the deep, nearly black bruise that colored the entire limb. Some soldier had snapped the haft of a spear in half in order to wrap it around the limb as a makeshift splint.

I’m guessing it had happened when Nerexxa had kicked him away, before engaging with Baldric. I certainly hadn’t seen the spymaster do that to him, in the lightning-fast engagement between them. He seemed coherent, though, and not the raging beast that had tackled Baldric out of midair at Nerexxa’s instructions. I’m guessing Hook’s knockout blow had freed him from her influence.

Longstripe spit out a mouthful of blood to one side, eyeing us with only one eye. The other was crusted over with blood that dripped from a head wound. He took a deep breath and stood up with a pained wince, before starting to limp over to tower over our group. The group of soldiers that had been trying to tend to him followed in his wake.

I met Longstripe’s one good eye fearlessly, already starting to feel my hackles rise from being in the presence of the man who had all but wiped out the Nocturne Division.

He met my hostile look with one of his own. “The girl is right,” He growled. “None of you matter right now. Rats and cutthroats can be dealt with after that bitch has been killed.”

I sneered at him. “Oh, and you’re going to help us fight her, is that it?” I said scornfully. “Big talk from a man who was already under her spell.”

As Longstripe returned the mutual animosity with a sneer of his own, I was startled to feel a cool, metallic hand lay itself on my shoulder. I followed it to see that although Sylvia was giving him a hostile look as well, it was more restrained than my own. “He’s right,” She said reluctantly, before meeting my eyes seriously. “He can be dealt with for his sins after Nerexxa.”

“I’ll like to see you try, little girl,” Longstripe said menacingly. Syliva ignored him.

I did my best to ignore his provocations and let out a heavy breath, looking around at everyone else. Crook looked like she was nearly ready to jump him, and I was surprised at the animosity in Thirty-Two’s eyes considering she used to be a Loyalist. But neither looked ready to argue with Sylvia’s point.

Reluctantly, I met Longstripe’s one good eye and nodded. “Later,” I still promised, meaning to keep it. “We can settle this later. But for now we need to deal with the damned Vampire.” I paused for a moment, a thought occurring to me. “Where did you put my weapons?” I said, taking a look around the armory. “Don’t tell me you already handed them out to your flunkies.”

Longstripe scoffed, as we heard the sound of masonry crumbling outside in the courtyard. “They’re in Fort Duality,” He said, referring to the castle that was co-owed with the Orcs. The one in between both Elderywyck and Tlatec that housed the Portal Stone. “You’re just going to have to make do with honest Herztalian steel, cutthroat.”

Dusk rejoined us then, eyeing Longstripe with suspicion. She looked to have requisitioned a suit of Loyalist armor and the accompanying weaponry. He just returned the look, eyeing her with contempt. “If we’re doing this, then stop standing around talking about it and get ready,” She said curtly, eyeing us impatiently.

With one last exchange of hostile gazes with Longstripe, those of us still unarmed ventured out into the stacks of armor and weaponry to kit up.

I did my best to squash any of my doubts as I did so.

Whatever else was going on, we needed to take out Nerexxa.

I’m not sure Vereden had a future if we didn’t.