“This is it,” Arthur said. “He’s down to his last life, kill him now and it doesn’t matter how many more points than us he’s gotten, he still loses.”
“We’re all down to our last life too,” Lancelot said.
Of the hundreds of champions at the start and the eighty or so the day before, now only seven remained. Arthur looked at his six companions, Lancelot and Kay were still with him. Ammerila was gone now but the Seductress was still there and had taken her place in the party. Mira, Torvin and Vone made up the last three, they had stood by him before, but he wasn’t sure if they would be enough to take on the Warlord has his two enforcers.
“We have no other choice,” Arthur said. “Even if we die, we at least need to be able to say we tried. I’ll challenge him again; he’ll try to use your attacks to break the duel so use as few AOE attacks as possible. Mira keep your shots short so he can’t intercept them. Mira gave each of us the last of her protection charms for the dragon’s breath. We can do this.”
Heartened by his words they rushed down the bridge of the tower. The dragon didn’t fly out to meet them this time. With a shout Arthur slammed his shoulder into the doors. They rattled but held, slashing Excalibur down the middle of them the beam holding them fell in two pieces to the ground. Shoving them open again he saw the Warlord and his Valkyrie waiting for them, their weapons in hand as they stood unmoving.
Arthur shot forward with Gryphon’s Flight, Mordred blocked with his own sword and the two flew across the room slamming into the wall opposite.
“Face me,” Arthur snarled.
---
“Yes,” I responded pushing aside the notification.
Arthur slashed for my throat and I barely pulled back in time its tip just brushing my Adam’s apple drawing a line of blood. His attacks were especially violent and aggressive and I could recognize the anger in him as he tried to batter me into defeat with sheer speed and power.
“I take it you weren’t a fan our little get to gather last night,” I said.
“Your attack was dishonorable,” Arthur said slashing my thigh drawing another line of blood.
My leg moved back as I twisted to the side using the momentum to drive Clarent into his chest. It couldn’t pierce his armor, but it did send out a coursing wave of lighting through his body. “Oh please,” I said rolling my eyes. “You’re just mad because it worked. Lets not pretend there are limits as to what you would do to kill me, no cost to great remember. When the bodies of your own men lie at your feet and the orphans on your streets look at you remember those were your words.”
“How could someone end up like you?” Arthur asked in disgust.
“You’re already down the path to become me,” I answered him. “I was raised by a monster who despised me, I grew up surrounded by broken and violent souls. I’ve seen evil, heart break and all the monsters that man creates.”
“So, you’re just a product of your environment,” Arthur said derisively.
“There’s an expression a philosopher on my world created,” I said. “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
“You think fighting evil will inevitably corrupt me like it did you?” Arthur said. “I’m not like you Mordred, I fight for my people to defend them from people like you. Not to conquer land in the pursuit of power.”
“I’ve been to Dracon,” I reminded him.
“That was my father’s idea,” he admitted seemingly legitimately ashamed of his actions for the first time that I’d ever seen.
“But you still did it, which makes it your sins,” I said.
Our swords continued to clash back and forth. I’d let this play out for as long as I could, the longer I could keep Arthur in the duel the worse his backlash would be when it ended.
--
Guinevere blocked another arrow from Mira as she spun under Vone’s glaive. Lancelot hit her in the face with his shield, but her Attributes were higher, and she shoved him back. A crack from above made all but Guinevere freeze as they looked up. Exar’kun clung to the wall like a bat. A torrent of fire blasted out, but Lancelot intercepted it, his shield blocking it. He should have still died from the heat but other than heavy sweat pouring down his face he was unaffected.
Mira shot an arrow and it hit the dragon in the neck thorny vines exploding out from it to bind it in place. Vone shot forward a blast of air from her feet propelling her into the air. She landed on Exar’kun’s neck her Glaive shining with the light of a star making everyone look away for an instant. She hacked down her glaive cutting through several layers of scales. She hacked down again and went through his spine. The dragon’s body fell from the wall crashing to the ground sending out a shockwave that made everyone stumble for a moment.
He writhed in place still not dead but Vone’s feet remained in place as if she were glued there. She hacked down with her glaive one last time and Exar’kun went still. Lillyn stepped in front of her a vicious look on her face.
“You’ll pay bitch,” she snarled.
“Some people just can’t learn,” Guinevere said slashing out.
The Seductress spun under the slash a punch dagger in both hands as she lashed out. Guinevere blocked the attack on her vambrace stepping forward and slashing out with the spiked tips of her left gauntlet drawing four red lines down Lillyn’s face.
“There now your face matches what’s inside,” Guinevere said.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Lillyn said. “Your just some girl whose latched onto the strongest man you can find, you think he loves you, but he’ll abandoned you as soon as he’s done with you.”
Guinevere laughed. “You don’t know Mordred at all, I think those words are just your own fears.” She drove her sword forwards knocking aside the other woman’s attempts to block and following her as she tried to dodge. The sword impaled her to the wall, Lillyn looked up with pain filled hateful eyes.
“I’m going to find your man in the real world,” she promised her. “And when I’m done sating all his darkest desires, he won’t even remember your name.”
Guinevere ripped out her sword spilling out the woman’s intestines. A sharp slash of her throat decapitated the woman finishing her off.
“I doubt that,” Guinevere told the corpse.
She blocked an arrow going for the back of her neck and rolled under the hooves of Torvin’s steed as he attempted to hit her with his lance than ride her down. She slashed up killing his summoned mount and sending him crashing into the wall. Another arrow came for her, but Mordred grabbed her lifting her back to her feet as he spun letting it hit him in the back.
--
“Damn it!” I heard Mira swear as I let go of Guinevere and spun around again.
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“I’ll take Arthur for a bit,” Guinevere said. “You take these ones for a bit.”
Nodding I blocked a strike from Lancelot as I raised my hand hundreds of spearheads rising into the air and shooting forward. Lancelot stepped forward slamming his sword into his shield, another force equal to my own grabbed and dragged the spearheads towards his shield. They hit, the shield held but the force sent Lancelot flying back into the wall and I heard bones in his forearm cracking even from where I stood.
A roar ripped from my throat as I blasted Torvin back as he stood up. The debuffs from Helheim’s Scream began taking effect but they all managed to resist the fear effects. I summoned twisted horn into my hand and blew, Arthur ran Excalibur through my chest, but I had foreseen that and already calculated the risk. My hounds appeared all around us and I twisted to the side ripping Arthur’s sword out as I retaliated. Blood poured down my side but the severe wound while damaging me healed Guinevere of all the damage she had taken so far.
Kay rushed in to assist Arthur who was being beset on all sides by my hounds. I intercepted him dodging the thrust of his spear. Kay’s body blurred and a phalanx of spears stabbed forward, I tried teleporting away, but the effect wouldn’t work and the air felt like molasses. There was no way to dodge even half of the spears and they punched through my skin like armor piercing rounds blood falling like rain to the ground.
Mortal wound taken, reduced from instant death by Survivor III, time until death 12 seconds.
Kay stepped forward ready to finish the job until one my hounds hit him from behind staggering him for only a moment. Teleporting inside his guard I rammed Clarent up under the jaw of his helmet where he was unprotected. Sir Kay fell in single blow his body crumpling to the floor.
24 rank points gained.
Arthur screamed in rage behind me, bodies of Hounds lay all around him as he charged towards me. Killing Kay had restored me and I wasn’t at risk of dying from my wounds in the next few seconds; now I was just at risk of dying from Arthur. Using Storm Fall I flashed across the room appearing next to Guinevere blocking the swing of Vone’s glaive intending to hit her in the back of the neck.
“You,” Vone spat.
“That would be me,” I said. “You think you’d be a bit more friendly with the only other earthling since you’ve gotten here.”
“You’re an embarrassment to our world,” she said. “I came here to be a hero you came her to conquer, your just a nazi expanding your empire.”
“Ah yes, the classic my opponent is a nazi argument,” I said with a sigh as I blocked a series of strikes from her as I advanced pushing her back. “Now I really know you’re from Earth.”
Arthur rushed in and we collided like two comets.
“He’s mine,” Arthur snarled. “Deal with the woman.”
Arthur slashed at me, and I ducked under his strike. He was still suffering backlash and was slower than he normally was.
---
Arthur and Mordred began to circle and lunge in and out like a pair of wolves. Guinevere tore her gaze away from them as a glave cut for her neck. She slid backwards and reposted the other woman blocking the sword on the haft of her weapon.
Gliding to the side an arrow skidded off her breastplate as Guinevere pressed in pushing Vone back. Lancelot joined in his wounds, having mostly healed. He flanked Guinevere, she dodged a stab from his sword going for her lower back.
“Sundering Edge,” Vone said swinging her glaive.
Unable to move backwards Guinevere blocked the glaive as best she could with her sword, but Lancelot took this time to slam into her with her shield knocking her off her feet. She rolled across the ground dodging the gleaming edge of Vone’s glaive. She couldn’t dodge the barrage of arrows, feeling several punch through the cracks in her armor.
Her foot spun out taking out Vone’s legs from under her and dropping her to the ground. She rolled over her lifting her up and using her as a shield to block the next arrow from Mira. The arrow struck and exploded, blasting a chunk out of Vone’s torso. Tossing her to the ground Guinevere staggered, feeling incredible pain coursing through not her body but her soul.
“That’s a little gift the Assassin gave us to deal with the Warlord,” Mira said. “But I figured it would work just as good on you.”
Guinevere bit back a scream as she fought through the pain barely blocking an attack from Lancelot.
“When we get back to the real world, I’m going to hunt you and the Warlord down,” Mira promised as she loosed a dozen more arrows. Three found their mark as Guinevere moved stiffly her body unable to move as she normally would, Lancelot raised his sword high as he charged her.
Teleporting behind his shield charge Guinevere raised her hand pointing it at Mira.
“Void Beam,” she said.
The blast took Mira point blank in the chest and slammed her into the stone throne of the room.
“You can really be a bitch sometimes,” Guinevere said as Mira disintegrated to a pile of ash under the relentless onslaught of the ability.
14 rank points gained
Lancelot charged her again from behind. She turned her body moving slower with each passing second.
“Frigid Thorns,” she whispered.
Burning vines grew around Lancelot ensnaring his legs and holding him in place. She slammed forward driving him to the ground, putting a knee on his shield she pinned his left arm to the ground. He tried to block her sword with his other arm, but she knocked it aside and drove it through his neck.
16 rank points gained
She staggered to her feet swaying in place, her head spinning. Guinevere turned to help Mordred and her legs collapsed out from under her. The red from her vision began to fade overcome by darkness. The last thing she saw was Mordred blocking the heavy strikes of Arthur unwilling to back down even as his body began to break from the force unleashed upon him.
---
Blocking Excalibur again I was once again hurled against the wall. Bones cracked as I hit the stone and Arthur drove his sword through the stone by my head as I barely moved my head to the side in time. Lightning wreathed my body as I shot forward. My fist caught Arthur up under the chin shoving his helmet up blocking his vision. He stumbled backwards blindly as I stabbed forwards with my left hand the claws of my hand passing through his breastplate over and over again.
Leaping backwards Arthur ripped off his helmet clearing his vision and blocked the swing of Clarent as it came down for his head. He pushed back and I slid under his guard.
“Hell-Dragon’s Armory,” I said.
Stone began to flow up his legs locking him in place as I spun around him attack from behind.
“Break Point,” Arthur said the blast wave radiated out from him.
I had already teleported a hundred feet above him and descended on him like a meteor. My feet connecting with his back and sending him skidding across the blood-stained stone. Keeping up with the momentum I followed after Driving Clarent down towards his unarmored head.
Arthur rolled to his feet blocking the strike and throwing me back with his greater strength.
“Why do you fight as if you can win?” Arthur asked. “We’ve fought three times and never have you come close to beating me. Why do you act as if the outcome will ever be different?”
“You’re a one trick pony, Arthur,” I spat at him. “Sure, your ability is powerful, but you’ve got no spirit! Where is your desire to push yourself? To experiment? To put your life on the line and prove yourself? You don’t have it, that’s why no matter how many times you beat me, you’ll never win. You smack me down today, but I adapt, and you stay the same, soon I’ll evolve, and you’ll still be a neanderthal.”
Even if Arthur didn’t understand the reference the insult was clear, I felt a little bad I was at least six or seven years older than him but at the same time I didn’t feel bad at all. This was a boy barely out of puberty who had never been humbled or had to suffer. He’d been given whatever he wanted his whole life without ever having to sweat and bleed for it.
It wasn’t his fault that he’d never been tested but he was like the smart kid in class, he was so used to his talent and innate abilities, winning the day he’d never learned how to study. I’d had to kill monsters with my bare hands and teeth to survive, at every turn I’d been tested and forced to grow and change.
“Maybe I’d adapt if you required me to actually extend myself,” Arthur retorted. “Gravitation Forces.”
He struck forward his sword coming down on my shoulder severing my right arm. He kicked out at me, I tried to dodge but my movements were slow, as if I was wading through molasses. His foot connected with my chest as he knocked me down on my back half a dozen feet away.
My body stained against the force of gravity as I tried to get up. I was pinned as if I had a mountain on top of me and I could barely move a finger. I gave up on moving my body for now. Straining with Telekinesis I summoned the blue crystal I’d worked on this morning into my hand.
“Hell-Dragon’s Armory,” I croaked out.
“And now,” Arthur said limping towards me panting as he lifted Excalibur up. “You die.”
“You first,” I spat straining against the gravitational forces.
I raised my remaining working hand holding the blue crystal as rune lines spread across it. Arthur’s eyes narrowed in confusion than he saw the expanding runic lines with slashes running through them that spread across the crystal. His eyes widened and he slashed down. Excalibur sliced through my neck just as the crystal exploded as the deliberately made improper enchantment destabilized. I’d been told once that experimenting making enchantments was a good way to kill yourself, luckily it was also a good way to kill someone else. The shards of crystal smaller than grains of sand shot out faster than the speed of sound and vaporized Arthur’s head from his torso. We died simultaneously both our visions going dark as the Event ended.