Cornwall
With one titanic strike, Rodney Kane severed the head of the last defender of the keep. It had been a long and hard struggle to reach the center of the gargantuan castle, but aided by the knights as he was, Rodney had managed it. The castle had been filled with thousands of suits of armor, made in a similar fashion to Rodney’s allies, save for the fact that they were wearing different colors. Rodney was sitting at the level cap of G Rank now, and he was waiting for the opportunity to break through.
As he slew the final knight, he felt himself coming ever closer. The knight commander that he had met in the camp strode up beside him, and stopped, surveying the central keep of the castle.
“The greater battle is still to come, Rodney. Those soldiers were nothing, but the Grail Knights are far more. This will be a great test of our resolve. Be sure that you survive.”
The main gate of the keep burst open in an explosion of white light, and thirteen knights walked out. Each of them was clad in a unique set of armor, and they all glowed with power to Rodney’s eyes. He gripped his sword tightly, and waited for them to advance. The only
thing that had kept him going for these past few days of fighting was the thought of destroying Sam Atlas and the Overlord once and for all. He needed, no deserved, the position of number 1, and he would be one step closer to it with the claiming of Excalibur. All around him, hundreds of knights stood in formation, waiting to charge.
“Intruders to our holy court, you shall never reach the sword!” One of the knights called out. “I, Galahad, will lay down my life to protect our king. Charge!”
The thirteen knights flew across the ground like arrows, their F Rank power making them like blurs to Rodney’s vision. As one of them came in towards him, Rodney closed the mask of his armor, and waited. As the knight swung, Rodney directed a blast of dark energy towards his hand, knocking it slightly off course. The knight’s sword skittered off of Rodney’s armor at an angle, and he swung his own weapon, crushing the other fighter into the ground. Rodney skipped back as the knight reached out with one gauntlet, and attempted to grab his foot. He brought down his sword once more, but the suit of armor caught it, with the sound of grinding metal as his gauntlet warped.
The armor pushed Rodney back up, and as a trickle of blood ran down its hand, Rodney realized that there was somebody inside this suit, unlike the other defenders. It swung its sword once more, and this time Rodney was not able to react in time. He was sent flying into the wall, landing in the midst of a storm of rock shards. Something cracked deep within him, and he groaned.
Pushing off the wall, Rodney narrowly avoided the punishing strike that came in moments later. As it carved off a large chunk from the wall, Rodney sighed in relief. That would have split his armor, and perhaps his body as well.
Over the next few minutes, Rodney and the knight danced around the courtyard, ignoring the battle going on around them. Both were taking heavy damage, but Rodney was taking far more. He possessed the strength to fight up a rank, but only by a few levels. It was almost impossible for him to defeat this monster of a man.
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As the knight prepared to skewer Rodney through a hole in his armor, the commander slammed the knight into the ground with his weapon. Rodney quickly took advantage of the reprieve, and thrust his sword into the knight's eye slit. With a gurgling groan, the knight died.
Rodney looked around the courtyard, and saw that he and the commander were the only two people surviving. All of the lesser knights had died taking down the thirteen grail knights, and their empty suits of armor littered the ground. Without a word, the two fighters walked into the keep side by side.
Within the building, two people, a man and a woman, lay at rest on a large dais. Between them a sword was buried in the rock. It was glowing faintly, and Rodney was instinctively drawn to it. The weapon itself was simplistic in design, with no decorations, but it was the most beautiful thing that Rodney had ever seen. Well, apart from his own face.
He walked up to it slowly, and the knight remained behind, completely silent. He laid his hands on the sword, and began to pull. Nothing happened. Rodney gritted his teeth and set his feet, straining with all of his might. As he did so, a light crack in the stone beneath him formed, and the sword shifted. He redoubled his efforts, popping his blood vessels.
As blood dripped down his eyes, Rodney pulled the sword out of the stone. Not because he had been worthy, simply because he had
been strong enough. He lifted it high above his head, and a pillar of white light slammed down on him from above. When it cleared, Excalibur was alight with ethereal flames. He had claimed the sword in the stone.
At the Dao Tree
Sam and his ten captains stood around the tree, listening as Eduardo spoke.
“It is time for us to seek out the next of the Seven Seals. If we are to hope to succeed, we need as much power as we can get. I suspect that at least one of the other Seals had been claimed, judging by the time that it took us. I am guessing that Rodney Kane will want Excalibur, so we are better off going for another one.”
“Yes, but which? We all agree that we need to continue with our forward momentum, but even with Excalibur, there are five seals to choose from. None of them fit our fighting styles either,” Pyotr said.
“There is also the question of who will go on the trip. If we are to increase our power as you said all of the captains need to be on an equal level. I will be going, obviously, but what about those accompanying me?” Sam asked.
“I for one am happy with staying behind here,” Lao answered. “I am at the level cap, and I need to break through soon. I doubt that going on another adventure will help me do so.”
One by one, the others who had gone on the first journey tapped out. This meant that Sam would be traveling with Claude, Ava, and Jane, as George gained essence from his crafting, and he didn't need to kill monsters. In addition, Thomas Aquinas, whom Sam had barely seen at all in the time since the tournament, was apparently working on something special in seclusion, and did not have the time to come. After a brief deliberation, it was decided that Rax would come too. The herpetopede did not progress like humans did, and he would benefit from fighting.
The only thing remaining to do was to decide on which of the Seals to go for. After a bit, they all realized that as Lao did not have a fighting style, he would adopt one to whatever weapon they found for him. The one that seemed the most suitable was Sun Wukong’s Staff, as it was lightweight, thus suited to Lao’s talents. With their ship, going to China would be a trivial endeavor. Sam still needed to investigate the motives of the sapient craft however.