“As I see things, Captain,” Grey said deliberately, crossing his arms over his thin chest. “There are two ways this encounter can go. One, you can retreat, live to see another day, and conveniently forget you ever met us. Aided, of course, by a memory alteration potion brewed by my own hand.”
Captain Dallens took a deep breath and straightened his armor before speaking. “I don’t believe I can do that, Headmaster.”
Grey shook his head slowly. “Ah, but you haven’t heard your other options yet. You see, the alternative is that I and my compatriots slaughter every last one of you like dogs,” He said dispassionately. The tension in the air ratcheted up dramatically at the blatant threat. Several of the soldiers outright drew their swords, sending a ringing noise echoing through the fields around us.
Not the Captain, though. He took Grey’s threat in stride, not even blinking.
“I cannot allow word of my return to spread among the Loyalists just yet, you see,” Grey said, tapping his fingers on his arm. “And thus, your knowledge of my presence is…inconvenient.”
Captain Dallens shook his head slowly. “I swore an oath to the crown, Headmaster. I’m afraid I cannot break it by letting you pass. Surely, you can understand that. You were once a loyal subject yourself.”
Grey snorted derisively. “Loyal to the crown? Child, I am older than both the crown of Herztal and the Kingdom itself. Herztal has ever been naught but the land my Academy has rested on. I have tolerated its many faults over the years, as it has done more good for the populace than ill. But not,” He leaned forward menacingly. I couldn’t tell if it was just a cloud passing over the sun or not, but the surroundings noticeably dimmed. Meanwhile, Grey’s ecliptic eyes glowed brighter. “Not in this case. Not in this conflict. Captain, you seem like a fairly upright officer. Despite us ending up in this situation, I’m impressed that you resisted the bribe my apprentice offered you. It speaks well of your character. Surely, you can understand that the Loyalist desire to inflict de-facto slavery upon the Sculpted is the height of immorality.”
“It is not my place to question orders, my lord,” Captain Dallens said stolidly, eyes flickering over in my direction at the word apprentice. During their conversation, I’d drawn my latest completed project from its resting place on my hip. At a glance, it looked like nothing more than a leaf-bladed dagger with an unusually long hilt, maybe half a hand longer than a normal one. It was a bit more than that, though.
Grey shook his head, seemingly genuinely regretful. “So be it then,” He said with a sigh. At his unspoken signal, Venix drew all four of his curved blades, getting into a stance. Azarus banged his hammer against his shield, while Sylvia drew a short sword I’d never seen before. The blade itself was made from some kind of blue material, while the cross guard was stylized in the shape of a skull.
Myself, I activated The Scintillant Blade and Thorn Cloak at the same time. As the weight of my skill-born cloak settled over my shoulders, I took a deep breath.
With a ringing noise, Captain Dallens drew his longsword from its sheathe and pointed it at our group. “MEN!” He bellowed. “SUBDUE THEM!” At his command, his group drew their weapons, some more enthusiastically than others. With a cry, the group of soldiers started to charge us.
Grey sighed. “Pointless,” He said, raising a palm to point to the sky. From it erupted a ball of swirling darkness, larger around than a man, that shot into the sky. Some of the soldiers faltered at the obvious spell, while others continued charging. In particular, Captain Dallens made a bee-line for Venix, judging him to be the biggest threat among us.
Well. Other than Grey.
Venix contemptuously parried the Captain’s first thrust with his lower left blade, before driving his upper two blades down at the shorter man. The mustachioed officer dodged the two swords, but missed the lower right blade as it came from beneath. Captain Dallens only managed to avoid being completely disemboweled by the smallest margin, but still managed to come away from the exchange injured. He staggered away from the Antium man with a grunt, before snapping his blade up into reflexive guard to block a follow-up blow that never came. The Captain lowered his blade, only to find Venix back in his stance awaiting him. “Come,” The Antium said dispassionately. With a snarl, the Captain obliged him.
I didn’t have a chance to watch anymore, though. I was too busy dodging out of the way as two of the soldiers bore down on my position. With a cry, one of the younger soldiers, skin still pimply from youth, slashed his sword down at me, I easily parried his blow off to my left side, sending the soldier staggering that way.
God, I was glad that those sparring sessions with Azarus had never stopped. I don’t know how long this kid had been training, but I was just better.
Seeing my chance, I aimed my left index and middle finger at the staggering soldier from under my blade arm.
Poisonthorn Shot.
My thorn shot from the tip of my fingers, aimed directly at the soldier's face. He didn’t have time to react, only barely registering the oncoming skill with eyes widened in horror. His head didn’t quite explode, but there was a large explosion of blood as his face essentially caved in. I didn’t get the chance to confirm if he was down though.
I was too busy frantically diving out of the way of the second, more experienced soldier’s thrust. He’d come upon me from a blind spot while I was busy with the other soldier, and I only barely managed to see the stab in time to avoid it.
I was on the ground from the dive now, though. I looked up just in time to see that the older soldier wasn’t going to wait for me to get up, and was charging at my downed position for another stab. Frantically getting my still burning dagger up and pointed at the soldier seconds before he reached me, I pressed down on the activation rune on its hilt with my thumb.
The dagger extended instantly into a short spear, aimed directly at the charging soldier. His eyes widened in alarm, but he wasn’t able to react in time to avoid running straight into it. The burning blade of my spear pierced straight through his chainmail armor and exploded out of his back in a spray of blood. The soldier clutched uselessly at the segmented steel spear haft, blood running from his mouth.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Scrambling to my feet, I yanked my extendable spear out of the soldier. Gripping the spear with both hands, I spun in a circle and swung the blade at the soldier's neck with a shout of effort.
His head went flying, while his body slumped to its knees.
The entire exchange with both soldiers had only taken maybe a minute. Maybe.
I breathed heavily from the rapid exertion, searching wildly for anyone else who was trying to attack me. My quick glance found that Azarus was fending off four of the soldiers himself with wide swings of his chain hammer, while Venix was casually deflecting the blades of four other soldiers in addition to the captain. A quick glance at the wagon saw that Aurum was taking potshots at whatever soldier he could, sending balls of blue Mana flying from the end of his staff. My attention was stolen, though, when another soldier noticed me and started charging in my direction. I raised my blade, but I needn’t have bothered.
A blue short sword erupted from the front of the soldier, sending him staggering. His blood sprayed far enough that I felt some hit my face. Looking down in disbelief and clutching uselessly at the sword embedded in him, the soldier let out a weak cry.
Sylvia materialized behind him in a shimmer of light, emerging from a cloaking skill of some type. Yanking her sword out of the soldier, she finished him by slitting his throat with a dagger clutched in her left hand.
I blinked the blood out of my eyes at her. My Sculpted friend spared me a quick smile before a booming noise from above stole not only our attention, but everyone else’s on the battlefield. Nearly everyone’s neck craned up to watch as the black ball that Grey had launched only seconds ago exploded into an artificial night sky that hung lowly over us. Within it, I watched as dozens of ‘stars’ began to form in the blackness, burning ever brighter. Seconds later, at a gesture from Grey, the stars began to fall from the sky, unerringly seeking out the soldiers.
When one of the ‘stars’ reached a soldier, they were blown off their feet in an explosion of light and fire. I hadn’t noticed, but not all the soldiers had engaged our group yet. Many of them were waiting off to the side of us, waiting for a chance to dart in and attack.
That only made them easier targets for Grey’s stars. In seconds, over half of the attacking force had been wiped out by my mentor’s celestial spell. I think the only reason the rest of them hadn’t been killed was because they were too close to Venix or Azarus. Still, they were being hemmed in by the stars that were being directed by Grey with hand gestures, circling the individual melee’s like sharks seeking a meal.
Exchanging a glance with Sylvia, I pointed at Azarus’s group and nodded at it. Sylvia nodded back at me and shimmered out of view, but not before I saw her start moving towards Venix’s group.
Meanwhile, I had broken out into a sprint in the direction of the soldiers assaulting my dwarven friend, activating Sylvan Vigor at full power while I did so. I vaulted into the air when I was close enough using my spear as a crutch, flying maybe ten feet into the air. The height I’d reached made my eyes widen, as I’d never tried this before, but I put it out of my mind. Below me, I was rapidly closing in on the exposed back of one of the soldiers harassing Azarus. I maneuvered my spear downwards, point first.
With a shout, I fell on the soldier, skewering right through him, pinning him to the dirt road beneath us with a crash. That distracted the other two remaining soldiers, leaving them vulnerable.
Azarus and Grey took advantage of that.
Two of Grey’s stars closed in on one of the soldiers at a sharp gesture from him, engulfing him in light and fire. The soldier was only able to let out a brief, tortured scream before falling silent forever. At the same time, Azarus sprang forward with a roar, forsaking the chain attached to his warhammer to instead use it as it was intended.
He brought it down on top of the helmet-clad head of the soldier, caving it in with an explosion of gore.
Staggering to my feet off of the soldier, I yanked my spear out of the dead soldier and retracted it to dagger-size. Breathing heavily again, I felt it as Sylvan Vigor ran out of strength. I nearly blacked out at the sudden loss of strength, but I was knocked back awake by a heavy gauntleted hand falling on my shoulder. Blinking my eyes back open, I saw that it was Azarus.
“Ya okay?” He asked me gruffly.
I tried to take a deep breath, but it was interrupted by a coughing fit that caused me to double over. When it passed, I looked back up at my friend. “Yeah,” I said raspily. “I-I’m good.” Looking around, I saw that the battle was over. All of the soldiers that had targeted Azarus and Venix were dead barring the Captain. It looked like he had just been defeated instead of killed, and was being guarded by Venix. Everyone else had been taken out by either Grey’s stars, Aurum’s balls of Mana, or Sylvia and I.
A shuddering breath escaped my chest. It had just now hit me that I had killed three men in as many minutes. I shook it off though. I didn’t have time to brood about killing more people, even in the thick of battle. It looked like everyone was gathering near the captive Captain. Azarus and I wandered over, being careful not to step on the bodies of the dead.
I watched as Grey hopped off the top of the wagon where he had stood the entire battle. Once on the ground, the artificial night sky above us winked out at a sharp gesture from him, dissipating the rest of his stars. The three of us reached Venix and the Captain at the same time that Sylvia shimmered back into view and Aurum jogged over.
Captain Dallens wasn’t in good shape. It looked like other than the slash across his stomach, Venix had decided to carefully dismantle the man. Somehow, it seemed to me that the Antium had carefully slashed the Captains tendons, leaving him unable to stand under his own weight, much less control his arms. He was breathing heavily, while losing copious amounts of blood.
Aurum broke the silence. “I…can heal him,” He said to Grey hesitantly. “If you’d like, Headmaster.”
The Captain broke in before Grey could answer. “I wouldn’t accept…healing from a…Sculpted,” He spat, in between labored breaths. “Just…kill me.”
Grey gazed down at him in pity. “Was it worth it, Captain?” He gestured to the blood-stained fields around us, strewn with the bodies of the dead. “If you had taken my deal, both you and your men would have survived. What did you accomplish with this farce? None of us are even injured.”
Looking around, I saw that he was correct. We may have been splattered with blood, but none of it looked like it belonged to any of us.
Captain Dallens sneered at Grey. “You wouldn’t…understand…schoolteacher. Honor…oaths…loyalty. It’s foreign to…rebellious scum like you. My men…died upholding…the honor of the crown. I have…no regrets.”
“You’re right,” Grey nodded slowly. “I don’t understand. All that you and your men were, all that you could have been. It’s gone now, like dust in the wind. And for what? To fight for an unjust cause?” He shook his head. “What a waste. Venix, if you would?”
Venix looked up from where he had been wiping his swords clean of blood and nodded sharply. Sheathing three of them, the Antium man gripped the fourth with his lower set of hands. He stepped up to stand at the side of Captain Dallens and raised his sword over his neck. Even though he was about to die, William Dallens didn’t break eye contact with Grey. Grey at least did him the honor of holding the Captain's gaze.
I looked away, as Venix slashed downwards with his sword.
I still heard the thump, though.