Sword Charmer

     Emergency Congressional Session

     Month 7 Day 19 Year 427

     Called by the right of Speaker Vansen.

     Open Call Speaker: General Theodore Winston Oberon.

     General Oberon, a high-ranking member of the military, has chosen to speak. Breaking his thirty-year vow of silence, all senior military officers must take. In Choosing to do this, Theodore Winston Oberon will be submitting his resignation to the council.

     “I speak to you now… As a man who has taken a vow of silence, not to protect any great valuable secret from our enemies. Not, to better serve the people of this country. Not, so I can allow true depravity like this to go unpunished.”

     “When they are first enlisted, all members of my armed forces must take an oath, passed down from Holy Paladin Cedric himself. To protect the peoples of this nation, human, slime, centaur, kobold, and beastman alike. This meeting, called by a false prophet, is nothing more than to step on the very scripture they founded this country on!”

     “I beseech you now, knowing full well that this committee has the votes bought and paid for pushing this action through the congress. I beseech you not to trample our mighty history, for we may still make something grand out of this country. Do not throw away our chances at coexistence just to line your pocketbooks!”

     “I have served, thirty years as a general or higher, forced into the vow of silence by the Green Church. They tell us it is to reduce the spread of violence, by keeping us silent no one else can pick it up. In reality, it is so we cannot share the experiences we have gained serving alongside those who differ from us.”

     “You may think the differences make us not trust each other on the battlefield. You may even think it causes deaths. Those who die would have died anyway from their own foolishness not to accept what is right in front of them. Every soldier I have under my command is PROUD to serve beside their non-human brothers and sisters!”

     “I came to this committee ready to beg you all. Ready to get on my knees and grovel. But no… The time for passively standing back is over.”

     “I come now to give an ultimatum. If you are to pass this accursed law, allowing for the ownership of non-humans. The Red City will fight you. We will not back down. We will be the line in the stand that you shall not step over!”

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     Record of Charlemagne

     Time of Activation 12:07:17:427

     Entry 1

     How do I use this blasphemous little thing, anyway? The note is simple, but… wait, there’s an echo in my head?

     Does this mean it’s working?

     “HOLY!” another fireball sailed past Grimalkin and I as I did my best to not freak out.

     ‘Protect Effigies’, a spell designed to bring power to the clockwork statues of the old defenders. Forbidden to all but the inner circle of the speaker. Its true purpose is to activate the defenders, to increase their size and fend off any outside intervention. However, when I saw that my friend’s puppets had the same shape, it was an easy decision.

     I hear clicking and ticking, this puppet isn’t just controlled by Grimalkin’s movements, I hear clockwork inside of it. I hug onto him from behind as another three fiery orbs sail past our heads. Puppet-Erinth could dodge them all however with ease.

     “It’s hard to drive with you clinging like that!” Grimalkin yelled back at me, I know he’s gotta be just now getting used to this, and I want to give him support.

     However, what came out was, “It’s hard to not cling with you driving like that!!”

     He shrugged and laughed at me; his tightly pressed suit was a mess. “Fair enough I guess, just hold on, I think I can send Varn back to give us some cover.” With that he slung one hand back, controlling the swordsman as it jumped off of the centaur’s back gracefully.

     The purple and black Varn was at full height, 5’6 with two swords to either side. I’d read of him in the scripture… I wonder if he will live up to the splitter of forests.

     Varn crossed his swords as I heard Grimalkin shout. “Thousand Butterflies!” His swords quickly uncrossed; sparks appear as metal scrapes along metal. But the Sparks do not fade off; instead, they come to life as small butterflies, all landing on the blades after the summoning was complete. Pointing the two swords in a V direction, the butterflies all flew out, dispersing within the cone.

     The orange butterflies danced among the trees for a while. Then, they started coalescing in one place. We heard screaming as we escaped. The butterflies might not be lethal, but they will light your skin, no matter the race, ablaze.

     Rushing out of the forest, Grimalkin stops Erinth and I look around. There are people moaning in pain in front of me. There is not much blood on the floor, but more keeps leaking out of the poor souls in front of me. I hear crashing in the distance as I pull out the leather case Napoleon had said was for me.

     “Grimalkin, GO! I’m needed here, I’ll be fine.” Tears come freely, showering my face as they always would. A crybaby, that’s me, and I’m damn well proud of it! Looking back at him right before he leaves the interior of the destroyed saloon we found ourselves in. “Make them dread.”

     Grimalkin bowed to me, opening his leather box and changing out his puppets. I turned back to the eight people strewn around the floor in front of me. Their arms and legs had gashes, two of them were bleeding pretty badly from the thigh so I had to go to them first. Cupping the blood pouring out of their wound, I started my prayer.

     "Oh Holy force, return this life to its body.”

     The blood disappeared as my hands grew a lime green color, pressing them to the beastman’s thigh. The disgruntled antlered man tried to push me away, but considering the blood loss, it was a light tap. “Hate me later!” Ugh, just hold still, all of you hold still!

     I could see it in my mind as I pushed my fingers into the wound, finding the artery I pressed it together and my fingers grew warm. Spreading up my arm through my body and his, I could feel our strength become one. Using both of our power like a thread, I reconnected the torn flesh.

    “M-M-My wife…” He hoarsely moaned out.

     He pointed to the centaur woman across from him; she was bleeding out; the blade had struck her lower body. Taking my backpack off, I leaned over her and spread what strength I had left from the husband over to his wife, hoping to stop the bleeding. Taking the organs out of the cupboard that I would need to sacrifice to heal hers. “None of you are dying today, you got that? If you give up on me, I will crawl into your bodies and yank your souls back in place!”

     It is time for the church to change.

     And I’m starting with myself.

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     Just a few minutes earlier.

     This is bad, really bad. I was expecting at worse he would laugh at me, but instead, the crazy swordsman had sent one of his now multiple blades right at my armor again. But this time, it hadn’t held.

     Snaking between the weakest parts, the whip-sword had pierced my shoulder and was now pulling the blood out of my body. My legs get weak and they buckle out from under me. I look up at the fire-eyed man, unable to lift my arms. He looks down, smiling, swishing his sword back and forth, causing me to cough and sputter in pain.

    “Had enough?” he said as his tongue snaked out from his lips, a look of unhindered sadism in his eyes.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

     Themis jumps in the fight from off somewhere in the distance, slamming her shield-gauntlet into one of the blades, shattering it. She stands between the man and me, her shoulders broad, her stance feral. Riding into battle like an avenging angel.

     “He’s not your mark.” Fangs bared, a growl in her voice.

     Lunging at the man he quickly pulled back the multiple whips, once it had recalled all of them the sword retook its original shape… Kind of.

     There were chips, cracks in it now, Themis was pounding at them any time he would block. The cracks grew larger and larger as the fire-eyed man was forced back with every step Themis took. He was barely able to block and deflect fast enough; however, Themis, wearing her shield gauntlets, was holding back.

     Every punch, every swing, a new crack spread throughout the evil sword. The swordsman then pulled the sword close to his gut, bracing it like he was ready to lunge.

     “Themis, Move now!” I let out a yell. All of my time with anything fantasy related gave me a bad feeling about his pose.

     She heard me just in time, doing a full flip backward. The sword tip was still in my wound, still in my shoulder. The blood had stopped though, meaning I can’t take this thing out until I have a doc ready.

     Two blades shot out from the sword, more alive than ever. “Sword as Limb.” the man announced as one blade was circling around us like a hungry snake. Yet, that was not the blade we should have worried about.

     The other blade struck into a saloon in the middle of the city. Destruction was everywhere as a red aura spread from the blade, appearing out of the dust pile to the handle.

     “Now, why don’t you let me kill you, before all these innocent people all die because of you?” The psychopathic swordsman asked. When the dust cleared, there were roughly six or more people in there, either not moving or wounded badly.

     “Mother Bird, activate second wind.” My body felt restored. But the agonizing pain in my left shoulder would not go away, I was forced to put away my electrified sectional staff.

     Mother Bird Storage Capacity at 48%

     I press my hand to Themis back. “Mother Bird. Restore Energy.”

     “Just what are you talking about back there? We need to do something about this guy, and those two brothers can’t be far behind.” I press harder and a warmth escapes my hand.

     Warning, Restoring the power of a beastman such as this will require all remaining stores.

     Do you still wish to restore beastman: Themis?

     “Do it.” I close my eyes, waiting for the inevitable rush of power leaving my body as it did earlier with the golem.

     Consent: Confirmed

     Emptying Mother Bird Storage.

     For half a second I felt like I could lift a mountain. For half a second I felt like even this demonic blade in front of me would be nothing to me. For half a second… I felt like Themis.

     “Thanks for the top-up, all that running and getting bashed about takes a lot out of a woman.” She laughs but then looks at me sincerely, her other senses never letting the snakelike whip fall out of vision. “Can you still fight?”

     Gritting my teeth and holding my left arm, I stood. “Evil must be destroyed.” The Paladin’s sword appeared in my hand, glowing brighter than ever before.

     Evil must not grow. We must cut it off at its source.

     Huh, that’s the longest string of words it’s said since I got here. “Hey, uhm, Themis… the sword just said to cut it off at the source.”

     “Well, of course, it said that it’s just obvious. I’ll do that while you take care of our little friend here.” While we had been talking and planning, the mad swordsman had not been idle. Drawing a massive circle in chalk and standing inside it, he began meditating. Chanting something in a whisper so quiet I could barely hear the words, "… Of the soul-forged blade…”

     Themis rushed him anyway, only to be confronted with the other blade, slithering around, tip pointed right at her heart. Blocking the strikes with her extended gauntlets, she tried to find a way around the blade. Yet every time they found an opening, it was quickly closed with a resounding clink of metal hitting metal.

     I was fairing not as well, while I blocked many of the strikes in quick succession, many of them got through. Without my left arm…. Wait, I used to do this all the time. “Heh, I guess you reminded me.” I gripped the blade with my left arm, small trickles of blood coming from the wound as I prepared myself. “GIVE IT TO ME!.”

     Had it truly been so long I forgot who I was? Two weeks ago, this exact same kind of pain would have just been an average Tuesday! No, if Themis is going all out, I have to as well. For the people of this town, for my new friends, and for my own soul, I will not back down.

     The world slowed down. Everything slowed down, my mind was flooded with the pain of my shoulder, the stabbing, burning pain of a blade stuck in the wound. Yet my grip stayed strong. It felt like the blades dancing in front of me were in slow motion; I deflected the slow strikes one by one until it overextended itself.

     With its final thrust forward, trying to pierce through my armor, over five feet of sword was shot behind me. Before it could recover, I had brought down the Paladin’s sword, shattering the coiling serpent.

     Themis was raging, pounding away at an invisible force field. However, the once manic swordsman was now calmly holding his palm across the blade. Suddenly I had a spark of clarity, “Wait… Soul-Forge?! Like my powers soul forge?!”

     “Themis, get back! This guy has another trick up his sleeve!” Just as I announce it, he slams the blade into the dirt, the parts of it I can see show me it’s in it’s extended state. Like tendrils of an old god coming through the ground, over eight blades came out, surrounding us both. I can hear a hissing sound from all of them as they close in, curling around like they are alive, encircling their prey.

     “If we don’t make it outa this… Just know that you’re somebody I don’t mind dying beside.” She smiled a wild, crazy smile I have never seen before.

     “Uhm, thanks?” Was all I could mutter. The two of us could barely deal with three, much less eight.

     “Just sit back and see where all that strength went that you gave me went.” She dropped the shield gauntlets, the hair all over her back rising as she gets on all fours.

     With the sliver of blade in my arm still screaming at me, I get into as defensive a pose as I can muster. She, however, grabbed the blade in her mouth when it shot by. Her jaws coming down on the metal as if it was ancient porcelain. With pieces of broken sword cutting up her mouth, she spits them out, the same smile getting wilder and more ferocious as her own blood dripped out of it.

     She bounded toward him on all fours. The twenty-foot distance was a vast desert I could never hope to cross. Yet she made the strides with grace. Deflecting attacks with her claws or shattering blades with her jaw, she charged at him.

     “Wait?! What?! Hold on now, we only need to take out the Paladin, I have plenty of be…” He never got the last few words out, the blades attacking me had frozen in place. Themis’ hand was around the man’s throat.

     “Themis, what are you doing?” I say apprehensively. The hand not around his throat was showing the wild man its claws.

     “Putting down a criminal willing to slaughter a saloon’s worth of people. You can try to stop me. But I learned long ago not to let the monsters escape, they have a habit of just moving on and torturing someone else.” She looked at me. A cold sadness in her eyes as she lifted the man high up, her hand around his throat.

     The radiance was blinding. Her sadness was almost touchable. I did not have the heart and I look away, into the saloon as I hear a sickening “CRRAAAACK!” Then the blades that were still standing at attention, ready to strike any poor passerby? They fell, never to rise again.

     I see movement in the saloon, Grimalkin walks outside of it with two small puppets, only two-foot-tall, yet they were moving and walking on their own. Out of the rubble, I see a frantic green robe moving about with a speed that might make Themis jealous.

     “Charles has the wounded taken care of. I’m guessing that poor bastard over there was the one who massacred the place?” The dusty, well-dressed lynx-man looked at me as if I had just woken up from bed, like it was a normal day. Aside from the heavy breathing, sweat covered brow, and B.O. coming off of him of course.

     Themis piped in, “Yeah, hey Paladin, you should go back over to Charlemagne, you need that thing taken out of ya.”

     I agreed and walked toward the broken-down building with holes in the front and back. I heard Grimalkin, “Careful, I had the explosives one chase me around, but the level of his power is way different from the reports we got.”

     “Yeah, the more we’re here the more this looks like a set-up. There’s a pair of slimes that weren’t on any of the intel you all gave me.” She slapped Grimalkins back, nearly causing him to tumble over as she rejoiced at her own victory. “If only you had been here sooner!”

     I decided I’d had enough of that and found myself in front of a panicked, sweaty, crying Charlemagne.

     “Oh, Sir Paladin! You’re wounded!?” He ran toward me, but stopped and then shook his head. “I need you to get me as much of the blood leaking out from them as you can!” he pointed to the various people laying about, many of which were too heavy to move, beastman, centaur, human.

     Grabbing a bottle with the top broken off of it, I did what I could. I looked for broken boards dripping with the stuff, finding a few; I put bottles under the drips to collect the blood.

     “What happened?” Was all I could muster as I tried to find more bottles and more drips, bringing them back to him and replacing them as they needed it.

     “I’ve stabilized the worst of them, but this attack didn’t leave much in the way of reagents. I’m running out of my own supplies as well.” He was currently cutting some sort of liver open with a scalpel, I mean, I don’t know what good that will do the liver considering it looked like preservatives already pickled it.

     “I’m just going to shut up and help, just get this thing out when no one’s gonna die, okay?” I said, bringing back a full three bottles he immediately poured over the wound of a slime, which evaporated on the spot, being consumed by whatever high-level spell he was using.

     “No, I’ll take that out and patch you up when this slime is out of the woods, I know little about them. But I know enough that I should be able to help, NOW, can you PLEASE be quiet?” I shut up and let him get to work. Charlemagne, with his brow covered in blood and his hands as firm, set to the surgery he had commenced.