A heavily fatigued Duke Aldan sat behind his Fireoak desk within his study. It was one of the few materials that could withstand his rage and was therefore a perfect gift from his missing wife on one of their earlier anniversaries. As he flicked through casualty reports in front of him patiently stood his chief of household, Michael and Rhys, his newly promoted General. He’d given Rhys the long overdue promotion after moving Cedrick to a training role.
“Give me the household news first Michael please.”
“Certainly, not much to report, all nonessential staff were moved away from the estate an only those pertaining to Crius’s care or Lady Alicia’s pregnancy remain, all others are here on combat matters.”
“How is my boy doing?”
“At almost four months he is showing incredible progress. Lord Cedrick and Lady Alicia spend a lot of time caring for him while they await the arrival of your niece.”
“And they are both okay? Has Cedrick forgiven me?”
“As you know, he has lived for combat his whole life and, while Lady Alicia is happy that you have basically forced him to be by her side, he is taking a bit longer to come to terms with it.”
“So, he hates me.” Glumly spoke the rhetorical question.
“No, he doesn’t.” Rhys cut in. “He knows you are putting him at the heart of the battle especially as you had wanted to be away. Just with you being here he feels he can’t step forward to fight yet.”
“Really? After this meeting tell him he’s on active duty tonight with me.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Anything else of interest Michael.”
“You also received an invite to the wedding of Duchess Esmeray Huntington and Earl Jericho Whitlock.”
“Interesting, I understood him to be firmly within the royalist faction while Esme is anything but.”
“Agreed. It’s either love transcending political ties or something else has taken place.”
“We’re too busy to watch him unfortunately. Arrange an appropriate gift please Michael.”
“Certainly , Your Grace.”
“Thank you Michael.” He said as Michael left the room. “Now Rhys what news do you have for me?”
“I’d imagine I don’t have much to tell you besides what you’ve read within those reports. We have a mounting list of casualties although luckily fatalities is still quite low we have forty three men and women unable to fight tonight.”
“Forty Three, with the fatalities that puts us down over ten percent of those here on the estate.”
“Yes, Your Grace. I believe if we can’t deliver a decisive blow tonig…”
Knocking interrupted Rhys and Duke Aldan allowed the person to enter. It turned out the person was his brother, Cedrick.
“Brother, I know I’ve been childish but allow me to explain. I just want to be able to protect our family too.”
“He knows, Cedrick.” Rhys cut in “He’s already given me instructions to ask you to fight by his side this evening.”
“Leaving you in charge of the estate and giving Rhys command over the troops wasn’t to stop you fighting Cedrick. It was to focus your fighting on protecting those we love. I. Need. You. I need you to make this place a fortress. An impenetrable fortress to keep Crius, you, Alicia and your unborn child safe. Only then can I go and turn the world upside down to bring back Eluna.”
“I understand brother. I’m sorry for letting my emotions get in the way.”
“Don’t be daft. Emotions give us fire and fire gives us strength. We’re going to need as much fire and strength as we can get today. After the last few days of fighting I feel like my core is close to accepting another bloodline skill. If that happens you are the only one who will be able to fight by my side.”
“You mean?”
“Yes ‘Aura of Immolation’ will be my sixth core technique. Not only will it boost all my other techniques’ power by a considerable margin but even the air around me will become a weapon that burns the lungs of our enemies.”
“So tonight, we are fighting not just to defend but also to push you to the sixth tier?”
“Exactly. That’s why I’ll need you to protect me.”
“I’m here for you brother.” He said offering his arm.
“Your Grace!” The door flew open.
“Micah!” Rhys called out after all three within the room had drawn on their powers ready to attack only to have to stifle their attacks at the last second.
“Sorry General. We’re under attack though. They’ve come again with twice the numbers of the previous wave.”
“Rhys, I’ll leave the organizing of our men and women to you. Cedrick and I are going to claim some retribution.”
As Cedrick and Henrick exited the house they saw black garbed fighters everywhere attacking their family army. Cedrick in his rage immediately swung out a flaming sword strike. These were his people, he’d trained them, been their General, fought and suffered alongside them seeing multiple bodies lay on the ground his anger boiled over and he unleashed attack after attack at the assailants. Henrick called out to try and pull him back, but Cedrick stepped forward beyond the frontline and just continued to cut down one enemy after another.
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As Cedrick found himself a good twenty paces within the enemy line, flames began to cascade out from his hair and down his back.
Henrick witnessing this chuckled while cutting down another foe. ‘And to think I wanted him to cover my breakthrough.’
Cedrick also laughed and turned to Henrick. “No wonder I could never get near you brother. The defensive boost from the ‘Lion’s Mane’ is fantastic. I can sense all attacks within several feet and my skin feels…thicker is probably the best word.”
Lion’s Mane was the bloodline skill that both Henrick and Cedrick had worked on for the fifth tier of their core. It created a defensive aura that increased awareness of all going on around them while also increasing resistance to physical damage.
“Just be careful Cedrick and don’t step too far away. I feel like my own breakthrough is not far away.”
They continued to battle for another twenty minutes when it came.
“House Aldan step back.” Cedrick called out and Rhys was quick to order the same. The order came just in time too as immediately after they had stepped back rolling flames pushed outwards in circles from Duke Aldan. The enemies caught within these pulses of flame that swept out from Duke Aldan were quickly incinerated. The shrieks loud and short as skin and bones quickly turned to ash. Even the weapons they held became nothing but piles of slag alongside the small mounds of ash. The only one who could stand near was Cedrick, the family bloodline and his skills offering protection although it still made him sweat.
Arrows were fired from the tree line and those not blocked by Cedrick were burned up several feet from Duke Aldan who was calmly sitting on the floor under the care of his brother as he consolidated his new level of power.
From deep within the trees Duchess Huntington under her persona of Rex One was shaking. If they couldn’t stop Duke Aldan now, they would be unable to take him down and would have to retreat. They had already been pushed back following Cedrick’s breakthrough to tier five before they regained the advantage through overwhelming numbers.
“Send all those with water related abilities to attack NOW.” She screamed out to those commanding the attackers.
The Night Kings were a mercenary group and as part of the darker underbelly of the Capital they couldn’t recruit in the normal fashion so those with elemental abilities or magic were few and far between in the organization. Still, they’d managed to pull a few to their cause.
Seven assailants ran forward, the front two were mages and cast ‘Tsunami’ a wave type spell before stepping back and letting the five melee fighters through who had managed to coat themselves in a basic water type armour or conjured a water-based shield to protect from Duke Aldan’s new aura.
Cedrick was intercepted and pushed back by two of the melee fighters who wished to prevent him standing alongside Duke Aldan as protection.
“Not today you damn sewer wearing rats. It is time the Kingdom cleaned house and took out the vermin.”
There was no response from his attackers, but he didn’t really care. His sword arced out twice in quick succession, cleaving the limbs holding water-based shields from their bodies. As the pain ran through and they cried out the momentary distraction was sufficient for Cedrick to decapitate the melee fighters and step back to protect Henrick. The two had been felled in nothing but a few seconds meaning the other attackers hadn’t even managed to breach the first wave of Duke Aldan’s new aura.
“Brother, I think you have had plenty of time to consolidate your aura. It is time we counterattacked.”
“Not even two minutes to rest my weary shoulders, Cedrick?” Henrick smiled as he opened his eyes and stood up shifting his grip on his sword.
“Why the hell would I give you a break when I’m technically working twice as hard by only having one fully functioning arm?” Cedrick stared at his brother.
“Okay, okay. You win this time. Let me help you with your vermin problem then.”
“I knew you were listening.”
“It was hard to keep a straight face. I’m used to you using much more uncouth language to disrupt your foes.”
“Alicia says I need to curb the expletives before the baby comes. Oh, and she told me you must cut back on your temper tantrums too.”
“How did I get dragged into this?”
“Probably because she’s not happy she has to arrange crafters and decorators for the dining room again!”
“Ah, yes. Maybe I did go a bit over the top the other day.”
“A bit, if it wasn’t for Rhys and his quick shout out to the barracks for water buckets, I think we’d have lost our entire east wing.”
“It wasn’t my finest moment. Eluna would probably have me sleeping in the barracks for that.”
“Exactly, now do you think we’ve attracted enough rats to start culling?”
“No but we’ll take these out and then take out the mob pushing our people back.”
“Yes! Let’s go!” Cedrick said stepping away from his brother’s side and towards his first target.
There was no denying how formidable they both were on the battlefield, Almost, identical footwork followed as they both began the sword dance of the ember flame. It wasn’t a bloodline technique, but each movement allowed for a bloodline technique to be incorporated should they so choose yet in this instance they just used basic swordsmanship. Each strike deadly, it didn’t matter if it came from the left, the right, up, down, sweeping, or stabbing. Every single movement took a life from the enemy forces and as they met up again completing a small circle all those who had rushed to surround them were gone from the world.
Rex One screamed in fury as she witnessed the beginning of their counterattack. “Bring. Them. Back.” She called out to her subordinates trying to bring her rage under control for the sake of her remaining forces. “Order the retreat before we lose them all.”
As she said this Duke Aldan had shot into the air, leaping a good thirty to forty feet.
“Oh no, ‘Meteor Sword’.”
Duke Aldan’s arm had his sword pulled back almost like a javelin ready to be released and as he hit the apex of his jump his arm ripped through the air driving his sword into a crowd of Nox Reges forces set back and waiting to push forward. The sword hit the ground like its namesake. Flames and earth exploded outward from the epicentre, those closest were turned into lumps of flesh and bone while those slightly further away were impaled and wounded by the fragments of their former guild members.
“Sound the retreat now and then initiate omega protocol. Get everyone out of the Capital, tell them to take the bare minimum and to use their backup identities.”
“You want us to torch everything?” Two queried
“YES! NOW! There mustn’t be anything to link us or none of us will have a life moving forwards.”
As the members of Nox Reges began to retreat ranged attacks were launched at them including another ‘Meteor Sword’.
“Shall we pursue further?” Rhys asked over the din of ranged attacks.
“No, we will have time to remove them from existence later. For now, bring in all our dead and ensure any wounded are seen by healers. A short head start won’t save them.”
Rhys nodded to say he understood and quickly began issuing orders which the well-trained army quickly followed.
*****************************************
An hour later the Capital was rocked as nine synchronized explosions shook its very foundations. The explosions weren’t contained to the establishments under the control of Nox Reges either. They took out several surrounding businesses and homes along with their holdings to disguise the operations. The list of fatalities and casualties was in the thousands. Guards and combat medics immediately deployed to try and bring order to the Capital but people were already at the gates pushing to get out for fear of further attacks.
This was exactly what Nox Reges had hoped for. The mass exodus of citizens gave them a perfect cover to escape under rather than trying to explain to guards and customs checks why a few hundred people suddenly wished to move out of the Capital.