Tarhum Steelwall sat down after having exhausted his mana. They’d already cut a wide channel going about a mile towards the fortress. He wondered just how the Warlord had made that fortress so quickly, the amount of mana it must have taken….
Mordred is stronger than you; if you think you can take him, you will die.
Lancelot’s words ran through his mind, and he scowled. As much as he hated it, it already seemed true. The well of mana reserves he'd have to have to create that fortress would be staggering. He closed his eyes, activating his ability Cat Nap to increase his regeneration. Standing up a minute later, he got back to work carving the channel towards the black fortress.
---
I looked out over the wall as the hundreds of thousands of soldiers gathered. When I’d first entered this world, seeing another gifted had been a rarity, and speaking with the Myrmidons about the differences between them and the outside world had given me the belief that they were uncommon. But what I saw before me showed how limited my scope of the world had been.
Even if there was only one gifted to every fifteen people, if you took that number out of a few million people, you were still left with a staggering number of gifted. My vision telescoped and I could see that basically every soldier was male meaning the actual number of gifted in the world was even bigger since the woman weren’t even fully represented here.
The army stirred as a flock of griffons rose into the air. There were at least ten thousand of the creatures with a heavily armored rider on their back. In terms of aerial forces, I was heavily outnumbered as of all my vassals, only five-hundred or so, mostly from the Dragon Clan, had the ability to fly. However, I had a dragon on my side, so in terms of aerial superiority, I felt much more confident.
“Ready to do this?” I asked Guinevere and Exar’kun.
“I’ve been preparing for battles like this since the moment I broke out of my egg,” Exar’kun said, popping the vertebrae along his spine. Considering how long his neck was, it was a much more disconcerting sound than a person doing it.
“We will do what must be done,” Guinevere said as she took my hand.
We jumped off the side of the tower taking flight with our respective methods. My other vassals with flight also joined us in the air. Exar’kun roared and snapped his wings, his body blurring as he practically warped to his next location, crashing into the griffon knights. They spun and swerved around him, their weapons slashed at his scales and abilities lashed out against him.
I wasn’t too worried about Exar’kun. He was exarch rank now and I’d yet to see a substantial number of even Hero ranked warriors among Arthur’s army. A dark halo appeared over Guinevere’s head as she activated her Cursed Crown ability. Her face was obscured by the visor of her helmet, the black and silver armor she wore covering every inch of her body.
We dove towards the griffon knights. My weapons slashed out and I cut through a few of the griffons and knights. They all shyed away from engaging with me, and this made sense in theory considering the power difference between us, but I was suspicious. They had never been so cautious about engaging me with an almost reckless disregard for their lives I could only admire. I hovered in place letting Voidra and Karnen bat away the attacks that came at me as I looked around.
I saw it then, the deep trench making its way towards us. My eyes followed it and I could see the river in the distance putting the pieces together.
Incoming, Ares warned me.
I dropped down as the swing of a sword marked Excalibur’s passing over my head.
I turned and unleashed a bolt of scarlet lightning. Arthur hit the lightning with his sword, and instead of hitting and splitting on impact, all the lightning was drawn into the blade as Arthur turned. He leapt off the back of his griffon letting the scarlet and gold plumed monster fly free as wings of light emerged from the back of his armor.
“Modred, face me!” he shouted.
“Yes,” I said with a sigh before the prompt for the duel could even appear in my vision. “Aren’t you tired of this prince, doing the same show over and over again? One of you always escaping, the fight never truly won?”
“Stop running and we can end it now,” Arthur said. “And I’m not a prince anymore.”
“Not really fair for you to say considering how our last fight ended,” I said. “And yes, I did hear something about that. Congratulations…my king.” I ended it with a mocking bow.
Guinevere hovered in the air beside me. “Stop toying with your food,” she admonished me.
“I can’t believe what you’ve become,” Arthur said shaking his head.
“I could say the same, brother,” Guinevere said, causing him to flinch back. “You stood by as our father did all that to me along side Merlin. You have no grounds to judge me.”
I blocked the strike of Excalibur as Arthur lunged forwards. He moved back as my swords and spear slashed and stabbed at him.
“As the saying goes in my world,” I said. “take the log out of your own eye before the splinter out of someone else’s.”
He is creating a trench from the river to the chasm, I informed Jeriah mentally with the telepathic feature of my helmet. I don’t know why, but I want to you accelerate our plan now.
As you command, Jeriah agreed.
The ground beneath Arthur’s army exploded upwards. Like ants pouring out of their tunnels, my vassals began swarming out into the center of Arthur’s forces. We couldn’t take them all on like this, but that wasn’t the plan.
Arthur blocked Clarent and his head jerked around looking down as he no doubt got his own silent communication from someone on the ground. Fires were raging as my troops set tents and supplies ablaze. The supplies had been spread out so we couldn’t take them all out in one hit, but every bit helped.
Arthur began slashing at me with a furious series of arcing strikes as we spun through the air, each of us trying to get behind the other like two dogfighting aircraft. Arthur was getting stronger, but I wanted to let him work it up a bit more before I ended it to increase his backlash. Arthur seemed to realize this and he grimaced.
“Duel yielded,” he growled.
Duel has been ended by the other party with no penalties occurred on either side.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
He dropped down straight towards my assaulting force.
Return to base, I commanded Jeriah through our link.
I dived after Arthur, the black and silver form of Guinevere joining me as we sped towards the ground. I didn’t bother slowing down hitting the ground like an asteroid using Storm Fall to cancel out any fall damage. I emerged from the dust cloud, my smoking black form like a demon as I smashed against Arthur when he charged towards my retreating vassals.
We rolled in the dirt and bloody mud before he kicked me off and we shot back to our feet. Attacks lanced into me from all directions, but I ignored most, letting them do minor damage that was quickly repaired by my regeneration.
“I’m curious how you survived,” I said. “After our duel you looked like you were at death’s door, but at the wedding you tried to force Guinevere into, you were standing on your own strength.”
Arthur blocked my attacks as his forces encircled us. Guinevere stood at my back, engaged with multiple opponents at once.
“I’ve seen the Void,” Arthur said. “I know what kind of power you’ve allied yourself with.”
I sighed. “I took power from it. There is no alliance as I owe the Void nothing. Doesn’t the moral superiority ever get old?”
“I could ask you the same,” Arthur said. “You might pretend to not care about morality, but you always seem to have a justification for your actions.”
His attacks came at me quick and fast. He was more prepared to face my advantages given to me by Void Asura, but there was only so much one sword vs. five weapons could do.
We’re out, Jeriah said to me.
“Good talk,” I said to Arthur. “But I’ll have to kill you later. Honey, lets go.”
Guinevere and I kicked off, launching into the air. Scarlet lightning lashed out from my fingers as a parting gift to Arthur and his army. I grabbed the arrows and spears hurled after us with my telekinesis and returned to sender as we flashed back towards the walls. I got dozens of more kills and the Systems decided to reward my massacre.
Draining Fangs: (Rank 1); Your teeth transform into vicious fangs that can pierce through hardness four material and inflict Moderate Piercing and Curse damage. On hit, you steal an amount of stamina and mana from the target in accordance to the amount of damage dealt by your attack.
Upgrade this ability to increase the damage dealt and the resources stolen by it. Each upgrade increases your Might by 1.
Cost:
5 stamina per second
Casting Time:
Instantaneous
The ability was totally useless. I wore a helmet and wasn’t planning on stopping just so I could put my head in a vulnerable position as I tried to take a bite out of someone.
I watched the trench they were creating finish its progress. A flood of water cascaded down in a waterfall. Despite the downpour, it would be an hour or so before the chasm was fully filled.
My boots alighted down the wall and Guinevere took off her helmet, brushing back the stray hairs that had escaped her braid.
“What do you think their planning?” I asked. “Are they going to use boats to cross or something?”
“No,” Guinevere said. “They have a lot of champions so they’ll either transmute the water into something, or freeze it over to let them cross. My question would be what they plan to do once they do cross over, I don’t even see any siege equipment on their side.”
“I see a bunch of living siege engines walking around,” I said. “The abilities we have are more powerful than any catapult could possibly be.”
“What’s our solution for handling that then?” she asked.
“We kill them all the best we can,” I said. Ares, ready the men for defending the walls.
---
The waves crashed against the glass smooth surface of the walls. Kajia, the champion of Zima, walked up to the edge of the newly created lake. She raised her staff in both hands then slammed it down on the ground.
“Will of Winter!” she called out.
Pale blue and white lines of frost spread out from her staff. The ice spread over the surface, the ice stilling the lapping water as it spread deep and across. She gasped and strained, and a knight held up a mana potion to her lips as she channeled the ability. She chugged the potion, never stopping the casting as she was fed more and more. The ice spread, growing thicker and creeping towards the wall with each passing second.
Arthur moved onto the ice; he took one step, then another. A pace after him, ten thousand boots stepped onto the ice, the ringing of mail and clanking of armor sounding like a chorus of bells. Tarhum, the dwarven champion, was protected by a wall of shields that covered him like a turtle.
A boulder struck down bouncing off a shield as the shield flashed with light when an ability activated. The sky darkened as rocks, spears, and arrows began landing down on them from atop the wall. The hailstorm of arrows pinged off steel as the army marched forward in a defensive shield formation. It was only three-hundred yards to the wall, but it felt like a mile as the attrition of attacks wore on them, blood slicking the ice as devastating attacks occasionally broke through their defenses.
They kept pushing forwards, stepping over the bodies of the fallen. A tiny figure atop the wall jumped down, their size growing larger and larger as they plunged to the ice below. That increase in size soon revealed itself to be no optical illusion as Mordred struck the ice, towering twenty-feet over the soldiers. His spear struck out, impaling a man through the chest. Black mist rose over Mordred’s body hiding his form behind a wall of shadow.
Arthur grimaced, there was no point to even challenging Mordred now.
“Attack,” he commanded, knowing he was sentencing hundreds if not thousands to death.
They had to buy time for Tarhum to weaken the walls. Arthur rushed towards Mordred, sliding under the humming red flickering tongues of lightning that made up Clarent. Jumping up, he slashed with his sword at Mordred’s knee. His blade slid through flesh but Mordred moved his leg preventing critical damage from being done.
A clawed fist struck Arthur but he managed to twist to avoid being grabbed and was instead sent sliding across the ice, bowling over a group of his own men. Ice powered under Mordred’s feet as he charged forward, knocking armored knights aside like children as he brought down all his weapons on Arthur’s position.
Arthur rolled to the side, the ice cracking and shattering where he had been, filling the air with snow as the ice shattered into powder. Arthur dodged and blocked, holding out for as long as he could, his men dying around him. Mordred grew stronger and stronger with each passing second. He suddenly realized he was on the opposite end of what it was like to fight himself, an opponent who grew stronger and stronger the longer you fought him.
Its done, Tarhum said over the link between the champions.
Hit it now, Arthur commanded.
Mordred’s head snapped around as if he had somehow heard their message. He disappeared with his teleportation ability, appearing by the wall. Shields broke and shattered under his attack and Tarhum went flying, his breastplate caved in. He wasn’t dead yet, but would be if he didn’t receive immediate healing. A blast of lightning from Mordred killed the dwarf and the healer who rushed up to heal him.
Mordred turned as Merlin stepped forward and raised his staff. A beam of energy stabbed forwards, and to Arthur’s shock, Mordred caught it. He didn’t dodge or block, he just stretched out his hand and gathered the energy in his palm, condensing it there.
Another champion stepped forwards and another beam shot out. More attacks came his way and Mordred held his ground, but he couldn’t stop them all. A boulder moving with the speed of teleportation shot forwards, just managing to get past the swing of Mordred’s gauntlet sword. The boulder struck the wall, and for a moment, it held. Then the wall for a hundred feet in each direction fractured and shattered into a mound of shards of stone.
Screams of men atop the wall came as they fell and died or received massive injuries on impact with the ground, some buried in the rubble.
“Press forwards!” Arthur shouted.
The army surged forwards, funneling towards the gap and the Warlord who stood in their way. Mordred cocked his head to the side, then disappeared.
---
“What?” I asked, appearing on the wall beside Jeriah.
“We need to retreat,” Jeriah said. “We don’t have the numbers to combat them inside these walls.”
“We won’t have such a strong position again,” I argued.
“This isn’t Camelot!” Jeriah snapped. “My wives and children are HERE; we can’t put them in the direct line of attack for just a chance at victory.”
I opened my mouth to condemn him for his cowardice, then closed it when I saw Guinevere. I was a father now too; I wasn’t the same man who had stepped into these woods filled with rage and self-destruction. I had to think about others besides myself now.
“Fine,” I said. “Start moving the woman and children through the tunnels into the forest. For now, we hold the fortress to give them the time they need.”