Over the next few hours, further scouting reports reached us. The Knights Of The Realm weren’t just heading out to put an end to the leaders of the resistance—us—but were also part of an effort to intimidate the people of the Gentle Tundras into forsaking the cause. Niamh knew what she was doing; she knew the people were the real power in any region, provided they had someone—or something—to spur them into action.

Duchess Yua wasn’t happy to let these Knights Of The Realm come to us, as there was no knowing what damage they might do to the cause before then. We’d have to go to them, and there were only so many of us with proper combat experience who even stood a chance. And that was including me, so we were really scraping the barrel.

This was how it was, then, that each member of the Slayers was given a squadron of farmers, a bunch of light armour, and as many blades as they could carry. Our mission? Take down a Knight Of The Realm.

* * *

Our target knight had last been seen heading southwest from Aptleed—Niamh’s base of operations—and based on the most up-to-date maps, we could get a pretty good idea of where they were heading, assuming they were going to continue going from town to town. We’d set course for a point further along their journey, one far southwest enough that we were sure we’d be there first. After all, my plan depended on us catching the knight by surprise.

We arrived in the small town of Pelry to find that everything, so far, had gone according to plan—the residents hadn’t seen a Knight Of The Realm pass through, and were shocked, even, to learn that one was coming. We had a few hours to prepare, so I set about telling the locals to hide inside their homes, before Sir Claudia Fastus, Knight Of The Realm, Second Order, could arrive. Because once she did, I said, there was a chance they’d all be in danger.

Ordering the locals about was one thing, but ordering around my battalion of armed farmers was another thing entirely.

‘My niece has a higher level than you,’ one of them was saying. ‘Why should I be taking orders from you?’

‘And I assume your niece has experience taking down heroes, then?’ I asked. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t put her forward for the job, would you?’

‘My point is,’ the farmer continued, undeterred, ‘you’re level 15. I’m level 24. Maybe it’s best I take this one.’

‘Yeah, but my level is all combat skills and magicks. What skill is it that most of your levelling has come from?’

‘...agriculture,’ the man replied.

‘Agriculture,’ agreed another farmer.

‘Necromancy,’ said a third. Everyone looked at her.

‘Seriously?’ I asked.

‘No, it’s agriculture.’

‘And that’s why I’m in charge,’ I replied. ‘Levels? They’re a vanity metric. I could be level 100, but if all I had was experience in, I dunno, Wordsmithing, then I wouldn’t be much help, would I?’

‘Maybe you could talk them to death?’ one of the militants asked.

I ignored this suggestion. ‘Besides, if everything goes according to plan, then all you lot need to do is stand in a group with your swords raised in the air.’

‘How will that help?’

‘You’ll see.’

The mutiny-in-progress now put to bed—was it still a mutiny when it wasn’t on a ship? probably not, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from calling it that—we took our positions around the town. The armed farmers took shelter in a barn that opened onto the main road, ready to charge out on my signal, whereas I stood in the middle of the road, in plain sight. I had some doubts about the plan; I didn’t know that these knights didn’t attack first and ask question later, in which case I was a goner, but it was still the best plan I had.

The Knight Of The Realm came before long. She rode in on a huge, brown stallion, galloping fast at first, but slowing as she entered the town. When she put her eyes upon me, in the middle of the road in the otherwise deserted town, she slowed to a stop. The knight stared at me through the visor of her heavy metal helmet, considering me for a moment, before stirring her steed into action once more.

‘What is this?’ she cried out to me.

I remained quiet, still, baiting her with my silence.

The Knight Of The Realm drew closer. At this distance, I could make out the fine quality of her armour. This had been crafted by a high-level blacksmith, but still there were weaknesses in it—there had to be, for the woman to be able to move. I just had to hope that one of the many farmers’ blades would find one of those cracks.

I glanced at the barn where my fellow soldiers were waiting to pounce. I couldn’t help it, my glancing happened before I really knew I was doing it, but the knight didn’t seem to notice. For all her combat strength, she wasn’t the most observant.

‘I asked you what this was,’ the knight tried again. ‘I am a knight of the realm, and you will—’

‘Not of this realm, you’re not,’ I said, and I readied my hands. ‘Soldiers?’ I cried out. ‘Now!’

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The barn door burst open, distracting the Knight Of The Realm in the same moment that I opened a portal below her horse’s feet, paired with one high in the sky above. The horse cried as it fell through, clawing its front legs on the dirt road as it tried to stop itself from falling. This gave the knight just enough time to realise what was happening, and she swung her long sword to smash against the side of the portal. I thought for a moment that she’d meant to attack it—and figured she really wasn’t the sharpest blade—but then something new happened.

The purple glow of my portal magicks crept onto the blade, as though being absorbed by it. The portals themselves began to close as the Knight Of The Realm extracted the magic from them, shutting around the horse without any regard for it still being in the way—I won’t go into too much detail on that bit—and soon all of their magick flickered around the knight’s blade like a raging purple flame.

Oh well, I figured, I’ll just open another one, then. She’ll be falling onto raised swords before she knows what hit her.

But when I raised my hands once more… nothing happened. I realised then what was going on. For the purposes of my Worldbending magicks, I still had a portal open. And I was only ever allowed one pair. My portal magicks were going to be useless while that sword remained enchanted.

‘Is this part of the plan, sir?’ the farmer who had questioned my orders earlier asked.

I was forced to improvise. ‘Attack!’ I shouted.

To their credit, the farmers all charged, not a single one of them hesitating on the order for more than a second. They knew what they were getting in for, it seemed. Either that, or they didn’t want to be shown up in front of their fellow villagers.

I charged the knight too, my Blade of Samal in hand, very aware that even one good hit of the enemy’s blade could be enough to kill me. After all, my Warped Shield only covered off low-level melee weapons—for now—and I had sneaking suspicions that a Knight Of The Realm, of all people, would not be carrying a low-level blade. Besides, this ability used a portal to deflect the attack anyway, and I suspected for that reason it wouldn’t work anyway.

So it was a good thing—for me, at least—that the knight chose to focus first on the swarm of armed farmers rather than the one guy with a knife. She swung her now-enchanted blade at the soaring farmers, and purple magicks flowed out of the sword. The magicks formed a circle as they passed through the air, splitting into two. As each of these circles formed portals, a group chunk of the charging farmers suddenly found themselves falling from the air. At least it was only a few feet.

Enough of the farmers remained charging—though admittedly they seemed a lot less enthused about the whole matter now—that the knight’s attention remained on them. I instinctively reached to open a portal between me and the enemy, to close the gap, but of course that wasn’t an option. I had to rely on plain old feet.

The knight sliced her blade through the air once more, this time having more of an idea of how to use its newly imbued powers. Some of the farmers dived out of the way of the purple magicks, but still a couple were caught, and this time they tumbled from a portal high above them. I heard bones crunch as they landed on their arms and yelped from the pain.

But I was close enough now. The enemy was just in reach. I arched my dagger through the air towards them, activating Execution, hoping against hope that they’d been distracted enough that it would work, and that my Stealth Attack passive would kick in. I aimed for the gap in the armour at the woman’s neck, between helmet and cuirass. The world seemed to slow. I was nearly there. I nearly had her. The blade tip was just inches away from its target.

And then the Knight Of The Realm turned.

My knife slipped on the metal armour, clinking. I was at risk of dropping it from the impact, but I scrambled my fingers around it just as the woman’s elbow came around to knock me in the stomach.

I fell backwards, winded, my vision blurry from the knock.

I blinked my sight back into focus just in time to see the knight’s Worldbending-imbued sword point squarely at my face.

"Styk"

Level 15 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 36

Intelligence — 145

Dexterity — 87

Strength — 68

Wisdom — 54

Charisma — 33

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 41

Knifework — Level 33

Stealth — Level 17

Needlework — Level 12

Identification — Level 10

Abilities:

Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Stealth Attack II — Passive. 80% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +900%