I blocked the strike of Vone’s glaive and swayed to the side slashing out with my gauntlet sword slashing her across the thigh. She was sweating and panting as I hooked her leg with my foot and yanked it out from under her sending her down to the sand. She was a good fighter but I’d been trained by one of the best and Vone lacked the necessary speed, strength and aggressiveness to take me down.
Holding out a hand I helped Vone to her feet. “Better,” I said emotionlessly.
I stepped over to the corner where Exar’kun stood in his human form smoking a pipe.
Vone brushed the sand off of herself and came over to us. She looked me over and smiled.
“I have to say you’re really good, do you have a party?” she asked.
“I fight alone,” I said trying to stop this before it went any further.
“Really?” she asked. “That’s a bit unusual.”
“I’m just not a social person,” I said trying to extricate myself around her I didn’t want her bringing me in contact with even more champions.
“You seem nervous,” she said with a tinkling bell laugh. “Do I scare you?”
“You should,” I said. “Your dangerous.”
“And why is that?” Vone asked.
“You’re a champion,” I said playing to my cover as just another knight. “You’re all dangerous, you literally spawn monsters all around you, you shouldn’t even be allowed in a city. You’re a threat to every non-gifted here even many of those with the gift wouldn’t survive if a raid spawned to challenge you.”
“You mean like when the Warlord got killed?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked confused now.
“You didn’t hear?” Vone asked. “The Warlord got hit by series of raids and World Bosses and was killed in the fighting.”
“No, I didn’t hear that,” I said. Although not having people on the lookout for me will be useful for as long as that rumor keeps going.
“I didn’t realize you had such a low opinion of Champions,” Vone said her hands on her hips. “Its not something I get from most people.”
“That because most people are trying to use you to advance their agenda’s, are too afraid of you or are trying to get into your pants,” I said.
“And your not?” she asked raising an eyebrow.
“No,” I said firmly. “I’m here to win this Tourney and the hand of Guinevere.”
“That’s a little barbaric,” Vone said. “Taking a women as a prize, I didn’t realize you were that sort of person.” Now she seemed a little angry which actually made me like her a bit.
“I agree, but I didn’t make the rules if it were up to me, I’d let Guinevere choose as she wants,” I said. “If you want to get mad at someone point your ire towards Prince Arthur and his father, they are the ones who benefit from and support the traditions of this society.”
“You don’t seem like the people around here,” Vone said, and I realized I may have said to much. “Where are you from?”
“A long way from here,” I said. “Your up again, Exar, run her through her paces.”
Vone and Exar squared off against each other, she held her glaive, but he didn’t wield any weapon. She swung at him, and he bent under her attack than grabbed her weapon by its shaft and swung it with her still holding on and spun her like a frisbee into the wall. Vone slid to the ground and for a moment I was worried Exar had just murdered her, but she pushed herself back to her feet groaning.
“What was that supposed to teach me?” she asked, rubbing her backside where she had hit the wall.
“To not try and out muscle someone a higher rank than you,” Exar said. “There are two rank gaps between us when I grabbed your weapon you should have let go and pulled a different weapon.”
“I don’t carry another weapon,” Vone said.
“Than you should start,” I said.
“I don’t see you carrying anything beside that gauntlet sword,” Vone pointed out.
“You don’t see,” I agreed.
Vone looked at me sideways before shrugging. “Well, I think I need to put some ice on this, I’ll keep an eye out for another weapon in the meantime. Are you training tomorrow?”
I wanted to say no but then she might come seeking me out later, better to control when we interacted. “Yes,” I agreed. “After my lessons tomorrow, I’ll come here to practice.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said flashing me a smile and turning to sashey away.
I turned my back on her to talk to Exar’kun. “So you decided to use the shapeshifting power I see.”
“It took some getting used to,” he said with a nod. “There were some… problems at first.”
My eyes narrowed. “You forgot you had to wear clothes didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I didn’t realize your species was so insistent on that.”
“It depends on the culture,” I said. “So how is everyone else?”
“They’re moving through the Ancient Forest to launch a surprise attack against the forces of Camelot still in Dracon,” Exar’kun said. “They’re much stronger now than before the raid, they were a lot of materials they harvested from the monsters there.”
“How long do I have before they attack?” I asked.
“It could happen any day now,” Exar’kun said.
“Well I guess I’ll have to take advantage of being a dead man for as long as I can,” I said. “Why are you here though?”
“I’m not one of your vassals,” Exar’kun said. “I’m your ally I’m here to support you directly not your army, plus I think when things kick off most of the action will be here.”
Aisha ran into the training area panting and out of breath. I let out a sigh. “They did it again?” I asked.
She was so out of breath she couldn’t speak but just nodded.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Same place?” I asked and she nodded again.
I opened up a portal and pulled her in after me. Stepping into the arena the adjudicator looked at me in shock having just stood up.
“There a problem with your schedule?” I asked him.
“No,” he said recovering himself.
“Really? Because you seem to have double booked me,” I said. “I already fought today.”
“Yes well… we had to arrange some other fights and…” he said trying to find a good excuse as the crowd stared at him.
“Whatever,” I said waving his words again. “Lets get this over with though in the future if you don’t clear things with my assistant an hour in advance, I’ll break one of your fingers.”
“You can’t threaten me,” the adjudicator said rising back to his seat after halfway sitting down.
“Aisha,” I said calling back behind me. “Is there anything in the rules that would disqualify me for breaking this man’s fingers?”
“No,” Aisha admitted. “But he could fine you for…”
“There you have it,” I said to Adjudicator. “I can in fact break your fingers.”
“Didn’t you hear about the fine?” he asked his jaw dropping at my audacity.
I shrugged. “A crime you can get out of by paying money is only a crime to the poor. So, I guess you have to ask yourself which will run out first, my money, or your fingers?” I turned to my opponent and pulled my helmet on. Snapping my sword up in a salute he did likewise.
---
Guinevere looked down at the knight as he fought. He was good, very good maybe in the top ten percent of fighters in the world but he wouldn’t be able to beat Arthur. She let out a sigh, this had been the tenth fight she’d seen today, fighter after fighter had competed before her. The crowd cheered but she found the fights boring after all the battles she’d experienced with Mordred. The only thing exciting about them she found was that her future hung in the balance of who wone.
“Is this really the best you have?” She asked.
“This is but a sample of the fights we have in store,” her attendant said.
Guinevere’s ladies in waiting hung over the railing fanning themselves as they watched the fight. Some blew kisses to knights they knew personally one throwing a handkerchief as a sign of her favor to one of the fighters.
It’s all well for them to get excited, Guinevere thought sourly. They aren’t being married off to their cousin.
She found herself unconsciously putting a hand on her belly reminding herself why she was doing this. She considered just running away but the blood oaths she had sworn would make her drag herself back. There was only one way out of this for her.
“I need to see the best of the best,” Guinevere said. “It doesn’t matter their rank or standing show me someone with promise to make it the final ten of the Tourney.”
“Of course my lady,” he attendant said.
---
Night was falling by the time my final fight was done. I had fought in over twenty-five matches that day and the crowd was growing larger and larger. I stepped into the darkness of the prep tunnel and found Aisha there.
“Shouldn’t you have headed home already?” I asked.
“We’re not allowed to leave until our assigned fighter is done for the day,” she said.
She’s nervous about something, Voidra told me.
“Everything alright?” I asked.
“It’s just not safe on the streets at night,” Aisha said.
“Come on,” I said. “I’ll make sure you get home safe.”
We walked down the streets. The massive medieval skyscrapers began to look more run down and got less tall. I could feel the air of menace from every alley but it made me more comfortable instead of less. It reminded me of the Ancient Forest or the maze of tunnels under it putting me back in my element.
Aisha on the other hand did not look comfortable looking this way and that.
“Stop that,” I told her.
“Stop what?” she asked.
“Looking like prey,” I said glaring at a group of men hanging outside of a rundown building they met my eyes and faded into the shadows. “If you act like prey than that’s how your going to get treated.”
“Speaking from experience?” Aisha asked me skeptically.
“Only secondhand,” I said. “My mother acted that way and its how she was treated.”
My head jerked to the side as I heard a sound, a scream. Aisha didn’t even react, and I realized she couldn’t hear it with her normal Perception. I was left with a dilemma I could investigate the sound but doing so would put Aisha in danger. The scream came again, a child’s scream and my jaw clenched.
A horn appeared in my hands, and I blew dark mist surrounding us and disappearing to be replaced by thirteen three-headed hounds.
“Protect her,” I told them. “I need to check something out.”
I teleported away before Aisha could say anything. My foot crashed in a door of a rundown warehouse and I stepped inside a group of children stood huddled in a corner. One of them a young boy was pinned under a large man his pants around his waist as he knelt over the young boy he had pinned to the ground. He turned and saw me but didn’t stop what he was doing.
“Get lost,” he snarled at me.
Maris Quick-Knife, Gifted- humanoid/human, Mortal, Rank: 47
His eyes widened as he finally bothered to analyze me and see my description. Rage filled me and a dark mist surrounded me as a drop of blood fell from nose. I twisted my fingers and he rose into the air as gripped his body with telekinesis; I had to fight the urge to make a fist and just crush him into paste. He tried to struggle against me but the difference between my strength and his was night and day. Just like the boy he’d been raping hadn’t been able to escape, neither could he.
“I should kill you,” I said finding my voice surprisingly calm. “But you haven’t’ done anything to me personally even if you are scum.”
I looked at the boy as he pulled up his pants his face bloody and wet.
“These kids are mine, I protect them without me they’d all be dead,” the man said.
“That enough out of you,” I said pinching my fingers and he gasped for breath.
“Has this happened before?” I asked the boy he had no description above his head.
“Yes,” he said looking at me with just as much fear as he had the other man. I could understand why, if you were afraid of one monster how would you view the thing that was infinitely more powerful than it.
I pulled one of my spearheads out of my storage pouch and handed it over to the boy. “Take this,” I said.
He did as he was told, looking at the spike uncertainly. “What…”
“Kill him,” I said.
The man’s and boys’ eyes widened in shock at my words.
“I can’t,” the boy said.
I knelt before the boy and removed my helmet. “If you don’t kill him I will let him go, this will happen again. Even if I were to kill him someone else would take his place,” I said my voice gentle. “You are weak, he is strong until you are strong you will always be at the mercy of people like me and him and there is little mercy to be found.”
The boy looked at the stone dagger uncertainly. “I’ve never…I’ve never killed nobody.”
“If you don’t take power now you will always be powerless,” I said looking at the other children huddled in the back of grungy warehouse. “If not for yourself, do it for them, they need someone to protect them; become the protector.”
The boy steeled himself, his hand trembling, I brough the man’s neck lower and he struggled against my grasp.
“Do it,” I said pointing to the spot on his neck where his vein was. “Right there.”
The stone dagger plunged down and scarlet blood sprayed across the boy’s face, and he stumbled back. The transformation was immediate as a description immediately popped over his head.
Kalin, Gifted- humanoid/human*, Mortal, Rank: 1
“Well done,” I said laying a hand on his shoulder and he flinched but didn’t pull away.
“Who are you?” he asked me.
“I am Mordred,” I said.
---
Arthur spun to the side dodging the holy spear as it thrust past his head. The angelic warriors in the dungeon dived in and out of combat. Lancelot and Kay were behind him watching his back sweat and blood dripped down their skin and armor as they faced off against the creatures of the Hero rank dungeon.
“We…really…shouldn’t….be….doing….this,” Kay said through labored breaths as he unleashed his spear skills to rain down spears from the heaven.
“We have to,” Arthur said. “You saw the Warlord, he’s way more powerful than his rank accounts for. I killed him again and again, but we were still the ones who lost.”
Arthur dodged the next angel and drove his sword through its back his blade ignoring their armor as if were just a hard cheese. Lancelot let loose one of his abilities, a glow surrounding him, Kay and Arthur boosting their defenses. They stopped to pant and rest as the bodies of the angelic beings around them bleed golden ichor into the stone of the marble halls around them.
“I’m surprised your father let you do this,” Kay said. “Even with all of us being Champions this is a bit suicidal.”
“There are benefits to being the crown prince and a Champion,” Arthur said. “I love my father but sometimes even he must bow to the will of someone else. Viviane herself gave me permission to do whatever I have to win.”
“But the Warlord’s dead now,” Lancelot said.
“Yes,” Arthur agreed though his words lacked conviction. Everyone was so sure Mordred was dead, but he harbored doubts that wouldn’t be stilled until he saw his body.
“Then why go through with it?” Kay asked.
“Mordred isn’t the only threat to our Kingdom, he’s not the only Chaos Champion,” Arthur said. “And his army is still out there, that dragon and women who fought with him. Mordred did teach me one thing; I need to be stronger if I’m going to save others.”