“He wants to marry me?” Helen asked angrily.
“No, he wants his son to marry you,” Chritor said wincing as she glared at him. The djinn had been sent to be their ambassador to the Dragon Clan.
The Dragon Clan had actually offered simple terms for an alliance. Hellen would marry his eldest son and they would be recognized as an independent nation and faction. In return, the Dragon Clan would cease all raids on Lunara and its allies and aid them in military conflicts in return for the same freedoms and assistance as Lunara’s other allies.
“I’m still not sure why you felt the need to seek an alliance,” Jamis said. “We already have a plan for growing our army.”
“It’s not the worst deal they could have offered,” Guinevere said.
“I have to marry a barbarian!” Helen shouted at her.
Guinevere didn’t blink as Helen got in her face, just placed a hand on her shoulder and with much greater strength than the mortal champion forced her to sit.
“This is what it means to be a princess,” Guinevere said her voice cold refusing to show the sympathy that she felt for her cousin. “You told me you were willing to pay any price, the bill has come due, now you need to decide. Either you take this deal, or we have to tell the others and retreat out of the forest.”
“Tell us what?” Jamis asked.
All the champions were there, and Guinevere looked them over before turning back to Helen.
“The Warlord isn’t in the fortress,” Helen said. Her words meet silence before everyone began speaking at once asking questions, making demands or just shouting to be heard.
“Enough!” Guinevere snapped her voice cutting through all the rest of their voices. “I attempted to assassinate the Warlord a few nights ago, while there I learned the Warlord hasn’t been there the entire time, we have laid siege to it. He somehow can make some of his vassals appear with his description in place of their own. He has been securing alliances with the Myrmidon clans to expand his army to crush us."
There was silence again as everyone absorbed her words.
“I’ll do it,” Helen said.
“Are you sure my lady?” Felrick asked her concerned.
“I am the Princess of Lunara, it is my duty to protect my kingdom no matter the personal cost,” Helen said. “However, let the Dragon Clan know that I will not be a part of some harem. If his son wishes to marry me he cannot take any other wives or mistresses. If they agree we can marry immediately, we need to crush this part of the Warlord’s army as soon as possible.”
“This is what it means to be a woman with power in this world,” Guinevere whispered to Mira as she nodded at Helen. “Not even Princesses, Gifted or Champions are free of it, remember it.”
----
My feet crunched on the gravel as I ran along the beach of the river. I was running along the shore as I headed upstream. I only had another day and a half of travel until I reached the swamps. Taking off running I began to practice different ways of moving. I jumped from one tree to another pushing off them trying to keep from touching the ground for as long as possible. This actually worked, however, the damage I did to the trees when my foot slammed into them was a little excessive.
Backflipping before I landed just for the fun of it I sped through the forest alongside the river. I kept going until about nightfall when I reached a bend in the river. Across from the bank, I saw willows and some sort of freshwater mangrove, a permanent fog covering the water on the opposite side of the river.
Making a bunker I settled down going through my katas and forms with the spear and club. The movements got easier with every repetition as Troll Hide healed the damage to my muscle helping me build the necessary muscle memory faster.
Sitting down in a cross-legged position I began work enchanting some more spearheads. As I worked, I noticed a marked improvement in my work. As I finished the first spearhead, I got a notification from the system.
You have completed a hidden objective and earned a title. Objective, craft an enchantment of Apprentice level.
Reward: Apprentice Enchanter.
*Apprentice Enchanter: You have gained the minimum amount of experience and skill in enchanting to be considered an actual enchanter rather than a dabbler. The minimum grade of all your enchantments is now apprentice and the skill in applying and understanding enchantments is increased slightly.
I hadn’t even had a title for being a novice enchanter, apparently, the system didn’t consider it an achievement worthy of its attention. Holding up the spearhead I had just created, I examined it to see what differences me making an apprentice-level enchantment had done.
Spearhead of Bleeding (rare): A compressed spearhead made of an alloy of uncommon metals and stone, it has serrated edges and is enchanted to deal a moderate amount of additional bleed damage on a hit. Hardness: 16.
An exquisite quality spearhead enchanted by an apprentice enchanter. Can only be damaged by weapons or objects with a hardness greater than 16.
Durability:
35-35.
Without my Divine Smith title raising the quality of everything I smithed this spearhead would have been uncommon rarity. It was a satisfying achievement to have reached and see my titles working to boost my progress further.
I remained seated in the lotus position. Because of my immunity to exposure and Troll Hide, I could sleep in any position without much discomfort. I focused on wrangling the beast of rage that was building inside. I had so many abilities, items, and even mutations that increased that rage that the control I’d had over it before had been working less and less. I needed to reassert myself and gain self-control. Too many times in my fights, I’d been overcome by my rage and it had made me overextend myself and leave myself open to attack.
My anger was a source of power to be sure but left to do as it pleased it would be like an unattended fire that burned down the entire house it was in. I breathed in deeply in and out, I wasn’t trying to find some inner peace or calm state of mind. No, I just needed to be used to the anger to be immunized to it so that it couldn’t overwhelm me.
Despite the ravenous emotion, I was struggling with I was eventually able to fall asleep like that.
--
“Why does daddy hurt you,” I asked my mom as she wiped a scrape on my knee clean.
“Your dad is just depressed,” Ellen told me.
“Why?” I asked pleadingly. “Why does he hate me?”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Ellen said running the washcloth over my face and wiping away a few tears.
“It’s just that I got pregnant very young, and your father had to give up on his dream to take care of you and me,” she explained.
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“He should just leave!” I shouted, pushing myself off the bathroom counter.
“Mordred!” my mother snapped a stern tone in her voice. “Don’t ever say that!”
“He doesn’t love us!” I shouted at her before running to my room and crawling under the bed.
My mother called after me, but I wouldn’t come out. Hot angry tears rolled down my face, as a child I couldn’t describe the reasons why I’d been angry. I hadn’t been able to understand why my mom would stay with my father. I couldn’t understand why my father hated me. I understood now, my mother had been too weak to stand on her own, my father had been weak too and he’d seen his weakness in me every time he looked at me.
--
My eyes snapped open a black mist surrounding me, my veins red as my nails cut into my palms. Bringing my breathing into control I got a grip on my fury and forced it down. Once it was under my control again, I stood up.
Why do you do that? Karnen asked.
“Do what?” I asked.
Focus on your anger like that? He asked.
“It’s how I control it,” I said.
Remember what I said about repairing soul damage? Karnen asked. Well, this is literally the opposite of that. Focusing on past wounds doesn’t let them heal only fester.
“You’d know all about that,” I jabbed at him.
I would, Karnen agreed.
“Then why don’t you let go of your anger, why don’t you find peace and move on?” I asked.
Because she doesn’t deserve my forgiveness, Karnen snarled his calm tone replaced with the savage voice I’d heard when I first met him. To forgive her would mean all that pain she caused me wasn’t that bad, that it wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen to me when she ripped my heart out.
“Then you know exactly why I don’t,” I said nodding.
Personally, I love how you focus on your rage, Voidra said. It’s like feasting on the energy of a star.
Ignoring her I opened up the way out of the bunker and started running. My feet crunched on the sand of the beach before slapping against the surface of the water. Running across the river I headed into the swamp. The forest in the swamp was very different, there were no trails only short stretches of land.
Creatures like fury crocodiles basked in the morning sun diving into the water as I approached. Red and yellow creatures that were stripped like hornets and looked like the cross between a lemur and squirrels ran overhead.
It wasn’t until midday that I saw my first sight of the Dragon Clan.
I dove to the side rolling across the water like it was a solid floor, a blast of fire made steam rise as a figure dove past gliding thirty feet above me with a pair of bat wings.
“Chain Lightning,” I said pointing splayed fingers at my flying attacker.
Arcing lightning converged on the flyer and his wings and body stiffened and he plummeted from the air hitting the water and skipping a few times before sinking under. I rushed in on his position he came up sputtering. I kicked him in the face knocking him back underwater before he could catch his breath. My right club snapped out deflecting an arrow aimed at the base of my spine.
Six-o-clock up above you, Voidra said pinpointing my second attacker.
Whirling about I looked at an attacker nested up in the top of a tree his body was covered in dark green scales that gave him some camouflage shifting colors to match his environment. Unfortunately, they didn’t prevent Voidra from discerning his location.
Hasru, Gifted- humanoid/myrmidon (dragon), Mortal, Rank: 74
He drew back his bow again and his arrow grew in length fire bursting along its length. Releasing it I stood there and deflected it away. It exploded on impact and a wave of water was pushed away in all directions. My hair was singed as my fire resistance took effect. The archer seemed surprised that I hadn’t been affected.
Spearhead flew out and circled the archer then struck from all directions and he went down.
17 rank points gained.
The first attacker came up for air and I shoved his head below the water with my foot holding him there. I was slowly starting to sink as I stopped moving and the effects of Heightened Speed wore off but I kept at it until he stopped thrashing and went still.
18 rank points gained.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 347 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
I checked their equipment but neither had anything worth taking. Orienting myself towards the northeast again I continued deeper into the swamp.
As night fell I came into sight of a city. That was the only way to describe it. This wasn’t a clan outpost carved into cliffsides or a grouping of tents. There were stone and brick houses, gardens, and fields outside stone walls. Some of the buildings looked new while others looked quite old. A ziggurat sat in the center of the city.
Slowing to a fast walk I approached the city scanning for threats.
“Do you detect anything?” I asked.
Nothing stands out in the immediate future, Karnen said.
No strong emotions within the immediate vicinity, Voidra reported.
My eyes flicked from side to side. I pressed on towards the city gates my body on edge ready to begin the fight at a moment’s notice. The darkness of the night was lit by torches along the city wall and firelight from inside homes.
“Halt!” a voice called out from atop the wall. “Who are you, state your business!”
I stopped, I could see the man clearly, but I was too far away for the system to identify him and it must have been the same for me.
“I am Mordred,” I said. “I am the Champion of Kelesa, I have come here on a quest given by the goddess herself.”
“There was a great deal of murmuring at that.
A crowd is forming on the other side of the gate, Voidra reported.
Get ready for ranged attacks to start, Karnen said.
I tensed my fingers hovering by my weapons on my belt like a gunslinger ready to draw.
“Open the gates,” an old woman’s voice said.
There was silence.
“Priestess… the Chief said we were too,” the man in charge began.
“Does the Chief speak for the gods and spirits or do I?” the woman, a priestess apparently, said. “I must speak with the Warlord. Deny me again and I shall lay a curse upon you and your family.”
Her threat silenced any more descent and the gate swung open. Scaled warriors stepped back as I walked under the archway into the city. An old woman in robes made of some reptilian leather and with a headdress made of leather and claws and carrying a bone staff approached me.
She looked me over, her eyes settling over my head reading my description.
“Come with me to the temple,” she said and turned.
Not seeing a reason to not go with her I followed. I was still on the lookout for an ambush my eyes never stopping on one spot.
“Bestial Senses,” I whispered.
The scents and sounds of a city were nearly overwhelming but I kept my feet only staggering for a heartbeat. I could hear the sounds of fighting, fucking, children crying, a woman in labor, and the heartbeats of all the creatures within a hundred feet of me. I could smell the smoke in the air, the oily reptilian smell that seemed to coat everything here, and a sulfur order that hung over the water.
Scanning the priestess, I read her description.
Remara the Wise Woman, Gifted- humanoid/myrmidon (dragon), Hero, Rank: 470
She looked harmless on the surface, but her rank was as high as of Asmodrin’s had been and he had nearly killed me and would have without Korsis’ interference. I needed to tread carefully around this woman, she had power and in more than one sense of the word. The temple turned out to be the ziggurat. The priestess led me to a cavernous chamber at its center. A brazier sat at the center. Snapping her fingers, she uttered a series of arcane words and the brazier lit instantly.
“Have a seat,” she said sitting on a stone bench and gesturing for me to take my seat at any of the other benches arranged in a circle around the brazier.
----
The army of Camelot entrenched themselves in the ruins of an old hill fort. The land was just grassy pastureland for miles around leaving nowhere for an army to sneak up on them. Arthur stood at the top of a newly built tower that one of his knights with an earth-shaping ability had created. Lionor wrapped her arms around him from behind pressing her cheek to the back of his shirt.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You haven’t been yourself in a while.”
“I’m worried,” Arthur said.
“You don’t think you can win this battle?” Lionor asked.
“I’m wondering if winning is the right thing to do,” Arthur said. “I have no quest from my goddess or even the System to do this. All this bloodshed, the lives I have taken; it’s all for my father’s ambitions.”
“Do you want to return home?” Lionor asked.
“I’m not sure,” Arthur said. “Lancelot told me that I had to become stronger to defend Camelot against the other champions. Even those champions of Order don’t act out of selflessness, many are morally grey and some are as wicked as those who willingly serve the gods of chaos. The problem is by doing all this to become strong enough to face them, I become just like them.”
Arthur sagged leaning against the railing. “I’m just wondering what I’m fighting for.”
“I’m late for my period,” Lionor said.
Arthur froze.
“Your pregnant?” he asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m a week overdue. What are we going to do?” she asked nervously.
“You need to return to Camelot,” Arthur said.
“You don’t want me anymore?” Lionor asked, hurt in her voice.
“Lionor,” Arthur said cupping her face in his hands. “If you’re pregnant I don’t want you anywhere near this war. I will never put our child at risk like that.”
“Going back now would be just as dangerous as staying,” Lionor pointed out. “The ambushes on your supply caravans have only grown bolder. The safest place I could be is by your side. Besides we don’t know for sure yet if I am pregnant.”
“I’m not sure how I’m going to handle this,” Arthur said. “Guinevere might kill you if she found out. You’ll have to stay away from the capital for a while, at least until the baby is born.”
“Don’t worry,” Lionor said taking Arthur’s hand and holding it as he ran his thumb along her abdomen. “Everything is going to be ok.”