Guinevere raced over the plains the champions hot on her heels. She skidded to a stop as she reached the bridge spanning the chasm to the tower. Turning around she planted her feet and prepared to fight. She checked her timers in the corner of her vision, Curse Crown had one minute left on its cooldown before she could use it again. She’d led her pursuers on a chase zigzagging and back tracking across the plains. She’d ambushed a few groups dealing casualties here and there. She had twelve specters under her control now and they hovered in the air around her.
An arrow buzzed past her face as she tilted her head to the side. Letting its fletching zip through her hair. Six burly men in heavy armor and assorted weapons charged her position raising her hands she fixated on the ground in front of them.
“Fridged Thorns,” she said.
Red and black vines grew from the ground ensnaring and tripping them as they ran past fires igniting across their bodies and clothing as the thorns dug in. Signaling them Guinevere sent her specters to deal with the entangled champions as she deflected three arrows with her sword.
Guinevere didn’t have a good way to deal with ranged attackers, it was one of the weak points in her abilities. She envied Mordred’s numerous ranged area attacks but she also knew he’d put himself in life and death fights to get those. Fights like the one she was in now. Teleporting behind the burning net of thorns she dived into her ranged assailants.
Teleportation abilities were not uncommon, but they were all different, having different effects and limitations; hers would create an icy point of damage and slowing effect in the area she disappeared from. With the enchantments she was wearing that ice effect was now converted into a blazing inferno.
A hammer glanced off her breastplate, but her retaliatory strike was much more effective.
“Agonizing Strike,” she whispered as she slashed across the man’s face.
She only managed to graze his cheek, but he fell back screaming as if she had plunged it into a vat of acid. Ducking, she dodged the thrust from a halberd. Sliding under the weapons shaft she rammed her sword up through the stomach of the woman who had just attacked her. Her sword’s edge blazed with fire as it went through the woman’s kidney and up into her heart. Ripping out her sword Guinevere let the dying woman drop as she spun blocking the strike of an axe to her back that would have felled an oak.
“Mirror Block,” Guinevere muttered.
The damage she would have taken was instead transferred and reflected back through the weapon into the hands of the axe wielder. He dropped his axe as every bone in his hands shattered as the perfectly timed counter ability turned the force of his own ability enhanced strike against him.
An attacker blazed forward their body glowing with silver light as they moved with a speed Guinevere could barely follow.
“Bypassing Blade,” the blur said.
A sword rammed through the right side of Guinevere’s chest, and she staggered back. The blur stopped moving revealing a smug looking woman with a long silver rapier.
“I don’t know how someone who isn’t a champion got into here,” she said. “But even if you’re a rank above us you should have known better than to pit yourself against a champion. We are your betters, chosen by the gods themselves.”
“You talk too much,” Guinevere said lunging forward. “Royal Blade, Curse Crown.”
The woman expression changed from smug to shock as Guinevere tackled her to the ground. Mordred hadn’t been the only one to gain titles while they were underground. After surviving the assassination attempt against her thanks to Mordred, Guinevere had gotten the infamous title, Survivor III.
Survivor III: You are resistant to death itself proving over and over again that you have what it takes to continue; mortal wounds are less effective on you and require damage stages three higher to occur.
Purple flames coursed along the woman’s body as Guinevere’s sword plunged into her shoulder. Guinevere ripped it out and while the woman was still screaming and disoriented by the pain brought the glowing sword around to decapitate her.
43 rank points gained.
Ability Gained, Void Beam (Rank 1): Channeling the utter oblivion of the void you create a beam from your hand 1ft wide and 30ft long dealing Moderate Void damage to any creature struck by it. The void beam persists for as long as you continue to channel it and will follow the direction of your hand.
Cost:
1 mana per second.
Cast Time:
Instantaneous
Upgrade this ability to increase the range, width, and damage of the beam. Each rank of this ability increases your Mind attribute by 1.
A grin spread across the visible section of Guinevere’s face. She hadn’t understood what Mordred had meant about dancing on the edge of death, but she was starting to. She had risked death before but there had always been others as a safety net to fall back on if she faltered, now it was just her. Heart pounding with fear, adrenaline and excitement, her gaze turned to her next victim. She had work to do.
---
Clarent pierced through the back of the archer as I dispatched the last of the trio atop the hill. The last two capture points I’d come to had been occupied, there were still more out there but I was out of clear targets now.
Turning to the west, I looked at the tower on the horizon. My vision telescoped in and I could see flashes of light as abilities were discharged. Guinevere must have fallen back to the tower as planned. The other capture points would have to wait; I needed to help Guinevere defend our own capture point. I had faith in her, but enough Champions would overrun anyone.
Turning to the sky I launched myself into the air, I teleported three hundred feet forward than darted forward with Storm Fall again as I shot towards the tower. Hovering in the air above the tower I spotted a group of champions launching various ranged attacks towards Guinevere. Guinevere was fighting off the attacks of five melee attackers assisted by what looked like wraiths.
She looked like she had the melee fighters taken care of, so I focused on the group of archers and mages. I used Storm Fall not to move up but to divebomb the ground. I expended a hundred-and-sixty mana to reduce the Extreme fall damage to zero my impact sent out a blast of force dealing that same Extreme damage I had avoided to the archers and mages. They were sent flying and I raised my hand blasting their still flying bodies with crimson electricity.
224 rank points gained from multiple kills.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 20,480 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 4,449 out of 20,480. When you complete this quest, you will gain 4096 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
A scream tore from my throat as I unleashed a combination of Helheim’s Scream and Voice of the Chasm blasting a group of men charging me back through the air. I advanced on the staggered and prone figures ready to finish them off. Black smoke billowed off my body from the few dozen stacks of Black Rage I’d gained from that single attack.
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“Mordred!” a voice rang out.
I froze and turned, seeing Arthur standing there his greatsword in hand as he stood thirty yards away from me. He wore a long flowing scarf around his shoulders, and it blew back in a sudden breeze.
“Face me,” Arthur shouted.
You have been given a Challenge, refusing the challenge will increase the damage dealt to you by the challenger by x10 for the next hour, reduce your Toughness Attribute by 25% and give you vulnerability to Holy damage. If you accept the challenge, you can only attack the target. Any attack that you make that strikes another target will break the challenge resulting in the above penalties occurring. If any allied creature that jumps into assist you will break the challenge resulting in you being penalized, any rival creature that assist the challenger will break the Challenge with no ill effect towards you; third party interference will have no effect.
Accept Challenge?
Yes/No
“Yes,” I said.
Clarent snapped into my hands from my belt, I didn’t extend the blade yet slowly approaching Arthur as we began to circle each other. Arthur staggered for a moment, his eyes flashing with surprise and pain but he collected himself almost instantaneously. I filed that away for later consideration as I focused on the here and now.
“That was a clever trick with the capture points,” Arthur said his voice sounding strained for some reason.
“I’m full of tricks,” I answered.
Excalibur swung for me and I stood my ground the crimson lightning of Clarent’s blade springing forth to meet the azure edge of Excalibur. I shifted my weight and angled Clarent to require as little force as possible to counter and redirect the incoming strike. Arthur’s eyes narrowed behind his helmet as he studied me.
“That fighting style…” he said. “I recognize it.”
“Guinevere taught me,” I said shifting my weight and launching a quick series of jabs and thrust towards him, he blocked three but two got past his guard Clarent clashing off his breastplate as I tested his defenses. It was definitely an artifact; likely every other piece of his armor was as well.
“Why would she help her enemy?” Arthur asked. “What did you do to her?”
I let out a sigh. “I didn’t do anything to Guinevere, we signed a blood pact…”
“You forced her into a blood pact!” Arthur snarled unleashing a trio of attacks against me.
“You can’t force anyone into a blood pact,” I said blocking his first two attacks and countering and reposting third. Clarent buzzed past the gap between Arthur’s neck and helmet, but he managed to twist out of the way in time.
“There are many ways to coerce someone into them,” Arthur said slashing out at me from a dozen directions as I took a step back parrying and blocking each of them.
“Your one to talk,” I snapped back. “Your father requires everyone to give him blood pacts to ensure their loyalty.”
“They have a choice to do that,” Arthur said he stepped in close hitting me with his shoulder as he tried to bowl me over.
I showed him the difference between the ridged stand your ground of the Camelot style and my fluid maneuverability. I slashed out at his thigh then went for his neck, but he blocked both attempts.
“Hypocrisy is always so hard to recognize in oneself,” I said. “You don’t think a king demanding you sign something is coercive?”
“They have a choice,” Arthur said. “That’s more than I can say for those under your Dominion, your ability gives you the power to enslave the minds of those you conquer.” His sword strikes came in pounding against my defenses, with every passing second his attacks seemed to be hitting harder and his body moved faster.
Harsh laughter spilled from my lips. “You don’t even understand what Dominion does, I don’t enslave anyone’s minds. I’m not some puppeteer, I give an order and if they disobey, they feel tremendous pain. The truth is if they could endure that pain, I would have no power over them. They could kill themselves to be free of it, they simply lack the will and choose servitude and obedience over death and freedom.”
“You’ll say anything to justify your actions,” Arthur said.
“If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black,” I said teleporting behind him in an attempt to sneak attack him. “You know when we first met, I thought my feelings on you might have been biased from jealousy. I’m happy to report that I’m going to feel no remorse from killing you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Arthur said spinning around to easily block my attack.
Our blades strained against each other as we tried to shove the other person off balance. Lightning from Clarent crawled across the metal of Excalibur blade and azure light shone bright from the spot where the two blades touched. There was an explosion and the two of us were tossed apart.
Shaking my head to clear it of the ringing I read the notification in my vision.
The psudosentience of you and your opponent’s artifact swords have recognized their wielders hatred for each other. They have become each other’s nemesis, no one person may ever wield both these blades at the same time, and they will refuse to fight alongside the wielder. The swords will deal double damage against the wielder of their nemesis.
“It seems our swords are in agreement with us,” I said standing.
Arthur stood shaking the dirt and dust off his armor. A look of pure hatred shone from his eyes, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was about me and him but there was just something about him I couldn’t stand. Maybe it was the fact he was stealing Guinevere from me, or maybe I just saw to much of myself in him. Whatever it was I knew now for a fact that peace between us had never been an option.
I was starting to breathe heavier, I had almost unlimited mana, but my stamina pool was normal for someone of my rank. Normally refilling it wouldn’t be a problem with Magma Heart(s) but I hadn’t inflicted a single wound on Arthur and I couldn’t attack anyone else to refill my resources. My strength was in my massive amount of mana, so I had to try and use that.
Rolling away from another attack I lifted a boulder off a nearby hill and launched it at Arthur like a missile. Arthur slashed out with Excalibur turning the boulder to rock dust as he pursued me relentlessly as I backed away grabbing boulders and rocks ranging from the size of milk jugs to plow horses. Arthur either ignored them letting them shatter against his armor or turning them to harmless powder with his sword.
His armor was too durable, so I tried something else.
“Phantom Form,” I said surging forward in my incorporeal form.
A spectral version of Clarent swung down on Arthur passing through his armor. Arthur let out a scream but that turned into a roar as a bust of golden light burst from him in a ring spreading out. When the light touched my incorporeal form, it felt like I’d decided to swing from a power line. I was shocked out of my spectral form back into physicality and barely avoided being impaled by Excalibur.
“You’ve already lost, Mordred,” Arthur said stalking forward bringing Excalibur forward in a lighting fast downward slash. I narrowly slipped to the side my own counterattack easily blocked. “History has already been written here, you’re the dragon and I’m the hero. It’s a tale as old as time and we already know how it ends.”
I let loose a roar unleashing Voice of the Chasm. Arthur slammed Excalibur into the ground to anchor him in place as the force of my voice tried to send him flying. He pulled it out and continued to advance on me, his steps sure and his body conveying nothing but confidence.
“The hero doesn’t always win against the dragon,” I said striding forward to match his confidence. “They just don’t write about him when he loses!”
Clarent swung down towards Arthur. I teleported around him at the last second Foresight warning me of the instantly fatal attack that would have killed me. I doubled my Speed attribute with my boots. Arthur’s next slash, which had been too fast to follow just a moment before collided with Clarent as I brought it around to block. I was fast enough to face him again, but his strength was growing with every passing moment. I could only hope he would run out of resources soon because his power seemed limitless.
Arthur was breathing harder, and I could see sweat dripping down from under his helmet, but he gave no signs of slowing down.
I shot into the air with Storm Fall, I didn’t need to say its activation phrase since it was a lightning ability and one of Clarent’s enchantments letting me use those by thought alone. I pointed down at Arthur with my left hand. There were lots of targets in the area so I had to spend a massive amount of mana to make sure I wouldn’t hit any of them as I unleashed Chain Lighting against my single target.
Arthur blocked the lightning with his sword but some of it still traveled up his arm. He looked up at me hovering a hundred feet above him.
“Gryphon’s Flight!” he snapped his body blurring through the air as he flew above me. “Comet Strike!”
He hit me and we both fell back to the earth. I felt my ribs crack and break from the force, I had negated the fall damage, but I had still taken the brunt of Arthur’s attack as we created a crater in the earth. Arthur stood up and planted a boot on my chest pinning me down. I slashed at his leg with Clarent, but he kicked out knocking its hilt out of my hand and breaking my wrist before slamming his armored boot back into my chest.
“This is where you end,” Arthur said coldly. Excalibur slashed down and everything went dark.
---
Arthur breathed out heavily and staggered backwards yanking off his helmet and vomiting. The sudden rush of power he felt when he’d activated Heroic Blade had been overwhelming, the Warlord was a madman to have one of his attributes that high while still in Veteran rank. He hadn’t been prepared for the agonizing increase to his Spirit attribute as he matched Mordred’s highest attribute at the start of the duel. It had put him off balance for a while but as the other attributes rose, he had breathed easier.
He sagged as the backlash from losing all that strength hit him. He looked up and saw a woman in dark black armor with a halo of magenta flames floating above her and a wave of scarlet hair flowing out under her helmet. She stood over the body of Mordred surveying the red slash through his neck that had nearly taken off his head entirely.
“You killed him,” she said her voice emotionless.
“Yes,” Arthur said. “I’m sorry he’s enslaved you; I hope one day to be able to free you.”
“Do not speak as if you understand,” the woman snapped her eyes snapping up to meet his.
Arthur flinched back from the fury and wrath he felt fixated on him.
“There is someone who holds me in chains, but it is not Mordred,” she said. “He’s the only one whose ever given me any freedom.”
“You serve him willingly?” Arthur asked heat rising in his voice.
“Gladly,” she said surging forwards.
Kay’s blade and shield stepped in to protect Arthur as he took a guard position in front of him. She knocked him aside her feet striking the shield sending him flying as she landed in front of Arthur. He tried to block but he knew he was already dead; he was still suffering the weakness of all his attributes dropping and she was a rank above him. Her swords shot outwards piercing him through the neck and spine. He dropped to the ground lifeless only dozen paces from where he had killed the Warlord.