Chapter 56: Desperate Straights_The Warlord

Arthur led the counter-charge. The army of Dracon had arrived and immediately surrounded then attacked. They were outnumbered four to one, but they held the superior position. Arrows flew over Arthur’s head as they were bombarded by the enemy and his own archers atop the hill fired volley after volley into the enemy ranks. Their elevated position let them easily aim and fire over their own troops without fear of accidentally hitting them.

Excalibur cleaved a man at the base of his torso the now riderless horse plunging into the fray causing chaos. Arthur had a plan, it was simple, desperate, and foolhardy but if he succeeded it would save many lives. He’d offered to duel the leader of the army who to his surprise was a woman. The daughter of King Palamedes she was not an unattractive woman, but she was all edges and brutality. The only remaining child of King Palamedes, if she could be captured then she could be leveraged to force the army to surrender.

Kay and Lancelot were to either side of Arthur as they plowed through the ranks of foot soldiers, their blades and abilities cutting a path that closed behind them as they rode through. Twelve knights rode with Arthur, each from the powerful and noble house of Camelot. Punching through the ranks of Dracon infantry was easy, most were ungifted, and those who were only had maybe four to five ranks.

A gap began opening up for Arthur as the army moved back. Princess Andromeda and her guards charged Arthur her army forming a parody of the lanes of a jousting tournament. For several seconds Arthur lost all hearing and everything seemed to slow as the seconds before impact came. Pure focus and attention filled Arthur’s every move in the saddle and with his sword practiced and perfected.

They struck an enchanted lance splintered off Arthur’s artifact breastplate. Excalibur struck down in a spray of blood. Kay and Lancelot did equal damage. Andromeda was not helpless, however, her own sword deflected three strikes with a rapid display of one of her abilities. Then she pierced one of his knights through the neck. Arthur and Andromeda were side by side astride their hoses now. Excalibur clashed against her sword but couldn’t cut through the metal of her blade.

The two artifacts clashed in a series of attacks until they rode past each other and were out of range. Wheeling her horse around Andromeda charged him again and he answered her. Their blades collided Kay, Lancelot and the rest of his knights devoted themselves to defending Arthur from the army pressing in around them. Lancelot conjured a shield of air to deflect a barrage of arrows aimed at them.

Kay conjured a wall of stone to keep back the foot soldiers and they held the line as Andromeda dueled from horseback. Andromeda was a master of the sword likely trained since she was old enough to walk but Arthur was the Duelist. In a one-on-one fight she’d never really had a chance. Excalibur cut through the neck of her horse, and she fell its wait pinning her to the ground.

“Yield,” Arthur commanded.

Andromeda spat. “I’m not some Camelot dog to beg for your forgiveness.”

The body of the horse was suddenly flung up at Arthur. He cut down with Excalibur parting the corpse in two but was blinded by the shower of blood. He barely caught the glint of metal and parried counterattacking instantly in automatic response drilled into him over his entire life. Andromeda staggered back blood dripping down her face a deep fatal wound in the side of her head from where Excalibur had pierced her left eye. Despite the wound, she did not give up but attacked again. Arthur blocked and shoved her back and she fell to her knees.

“Yield!” Arthur commanded.

“Death first,” Andromeda spat.

Arthur grimaced, there was no way to take her alive surrounded as he was. He raised his sword to finish the job. A crossbow bolt took him under his armpit. Arthur staggered back blood collecting in his lung where the bolt had pierced.

Dracon soldiers pushed forward and grabbed the now unconscious body of Princess Andromeda and dragged her back into their ranks swallowing her up and disappearing her away. Sir Hector landed beside Arthur, his left hand glowed as he yanked out the crossbow bolt and used this healing ability to repair the damage.

“What now my lord?” Hector asked.

“We fight back to our side,” Arthur said. “They are leaderless now; we regroup with the main force and route this army like the rabble it is.”

---

I began using Dominion to bring the assembly under my control. The citizens of the Dragon Clan lined up and knelt before me as I raised my hand, adding them to the followers whom I could trust and who would benefit from my ability. Thanks to half the city being gone it only took seven hours but it felt like it was twice that long with how much pain I was in. I remained sitting with my teeth gritted for the whole ordeal able to heave a sigh of relief and sag in the throne when they had all dispersed, ordered to go back to their duties. Finally, I stood up and stumbled over to where I’d trapped Astrel’s spear.

“Compress Earth,” I said and dragged out the spear. Holding it up I examined it more closely able to read its description now.

Spear of Janus, Type: twin-spear, Rarity: Artifact I, Hardness: N/A; This weapon can only be destroyed by a god. Deals an additional moderate amount of Curse damage on each hit.

Made from remnants of a Death Knight’s armor after its destruction and infused with the remnants of its spirit.

Durability:

N/A.

This was the first magic weapon I’d found that I could use. Gripping it I used it like a walking stick. Turning back to the temple, I was going to ask Remara about the Dragon Clan’s dungeon. Suddenly I felt something, the number of my followers was falling. I could passively sense how many people I could dominate at a time, and it was rapidly growing as spots emptied in my available roster.

Looking around the city for something that might be killing my vassals. It’s not here, I realized. They’ve started attacking my vassals back at the fort. I wanted to just start sprinting in that direction, no one attacked what was mine. I stopped, I was in incredible pain right now and it would slow me down considerably. It would be at least a day even running at full speed to get there so I wouldn’t arrive in time to do anything anyway. I needed to aid my vassals from afar.

I knew a way to do that, of course, that didn’t mean it was a good way.

“Karnen,” I said. “My spirit is already in Exarch.”

We’ve noticed, Karnen said dryly. If I had a body, I’d be roasting in here.

“Would raising it any further have worse effects on me?” I asked.

Probably not, Karnen said offhandedly. Wait! Why?!

I ignored him and immediately sat down in the lotus position. I focused on my anger, with Wrathful Meditation not working the way it was, this was probably going to suck, a lot.

“Raise Dominion to Max Rank,” I told the system. I didn’t care how much it cost, I had so many rank points I could afford to spend them, and I could always earn more.

The pain in my soul grew but it was like adding fire to more fire, at a certain point you just couldn’t notice a difference. I skipped the first four notifications, with every second spent, more of my vassals were dying.

Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank thirty-five, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

· You gain temporary a bonus to your attributes whenever one of your vassals is slain near you allowing you to avenge them.

· Your vassals can move tirelessly without fatigue and are able to march for leagues without rest.

· You can Scry on the nearby surroundings of your lieutenants.

I picked the second option since it was the only one that would directly buff my vassals. I wasn’t sure if it would be helpful in a battle, but it was the best I could do for them now.

Dominion (Rank 35): Ten-thousand times per day plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 145. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 36.

The larger your Dominion is the more it grows in power, all Attributes of your vassals are raised by 4 when they are in a group of fifty or more, every fifty vassals increase this bonus by 3 to a maximum possible Attribute score of 45.

You can share your Foresight with five creatures to serve as your lieutenants. The creatures you share this with are not required to be your vassal and will have the exact same version of the ability as you.

(Warning this cannot be taken away from a creature once given and will remain with them until they or you die).

Four times per day you can pick an ability from one of your vassals and gain access to it. You will continue to have access to this ability until you pick another ability or the vassal holding the ability dies. (You must be close to your vassal to select an ability they have).

You can designate three creatures as your generals, with authority over your other vassals, all vassals must obey them as if they were you and your chosen authority’s attributes go up by 11% for every ten miles between the two of you to a maximum of 37%. You cannot select another vassal for this role for a week after using it. The creature’s title description also changes to mimic yours when you are farther than a mile from them.

Your vassals will gain the Enraged status in battle numbing them to physical pain and boosting their damage by two stages for 3 minutes with a 5 minute cooldown.

Your vassals only require a tenth of the amount of rest to be fully recovered and can go for three days with no sleep on a forced march with no ill-effect on them.

Cost: 7 mana per five creatures.

Upgrade this ability to increase how many creatures you can dominate per day as well as the multiplier for how many creatures you can have dominated at a time. Each upgrade increases your Spirit Attribute by 1.

Dismissing the next four notifications.

Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank forty, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

· Your vassals are like you embodiment of war and benefit from battle wounds closing with each kill they make.

· You gain a bonus to your effective Attributes based on the size and closeness of your army.

· Your lieutenants have the ability to create an aura of fear around them.

Looking over my options quickly I chose the one that would best help my vassals survive.

Dominion (Rank 40): Ten-thousand times per day plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 145. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 41.

You can share your Foresight with six creatures to serve as your lieutenants. The creatures you share this with are not required to be your vassal and will have the exact same version of the ability as you. (Warning this cannot be taken away from a creature once given and will remain with them until they or you die).

Five times per day you can pick an ability from one of your vassals and gain access to it. You will continue to have access to this ability until you pick another ability or the vassal holding the ability dies. (You must be close to your vassal to select an ability they have).

You can designate four creatures as your generals, with authority over your other vassals, all vassals must obey them as if they were you and your chosen authority’s attributes go up by 16% for every ten miles between the two of you to a maximum of 42%. You cannot select a replacement vassal for this role for a week after using it. The creature’s title description also changes to mimic yours when you are farther than a mile from them.

Your vassals will gain the Enraged status in battle numbing them to physical pain and boosting their damage by three stages for 4 minutes with a 4:30 minute cooldown.

Your vassals only require a tenth of the amount of rest to be fully recovered and can go for four days with no sleep on a forced march with no ill-effect on them.

Each time one of your vassals makes a kill, they and any other vassal within 10ft regain up to three stages of damage.

Cost: 9 mana per five creatures.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I dismissed the ability in a heartbeat only reading the full description of the new effect. My impatience helped to fuel my anger as I waited for the option to skip each upcoming chance to view my ability in between ranks.

Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank forty-five, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

· You can sacrifice one of your vassals within range causing them to explode dealing massive damage to all nearby creatures and structures.

· Creatures who kill one of your vassals gain the debuff Marked for Death.

· Your lieutenants are not freed from service even in death, your Dominion over their soul will resurrect them as a Death Knight under your command.

Picking the second effect since it was the only one, I could see that would directly help my vassals right now. The third one was tempting but I was trying to make sure my vassals survived not bet on them not making it. The first one was out of the question if I wanted to make things explode I had other much more specialized abilities to do just that.

Dominion (Rank 45): Ten-thousand times per day plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 145. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 47.

You can share your Foresight with seven creatures to serve as your lieutenants. The creatures you share this with are not required to be your vassal and will have the exact same version of the ability as you. (Warning this cannot be taken away from a creature once given and will remain with them until they or you die).

Six times per day you can pick an ability from one of your vassals and gain access to it. You will continue to have access to this ability until you pick another ability or the vassal holding the ability dies. (You must be close to your vassal to select an ability they have).

You can designate five creatures as your generals, with authority over your other vassals, all vassals must obey them as if they were you and your chosen authority’s attributes go up by 21% for every ten miles between the two of you to a maximum of 47%. You cannot select a replacement vassal for this role for a week after using it. The creature’s title description also changes to mimic yours when you are farther than a mile from them.

Your vassals will gain the Enraged status in battle numbing them to physical pain and boosting their damage by three stages for 5 minutes with a 4-minute cooldown.

Your vassals only require a tenth of the amount of rest to be fully recovered and can go for five days with no sleep on a forced march with no ill-effect on them.

Each time one of your vassals makes a kill, they and any other vassal within 15ft regain up to four stages of damage.

Each time one of your vassals dies the killer gains the Marked for Death debuff increasing all damage they take by two stages.

Cost: 11 mana per five creatures

I impatiently dismissed the description of the upgrade and the next four notifications until I got to the next upgrade.

Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank fifty, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

· Your lieutenants are all legendary heroes give them armored skin and a percentage buff to their strength and speed.

· The ultimate avenger of your army, whenever one of your vassals is slain you gain a short stacking moderate damage bonus.

· You are able to contact any of your vassals from any location as long as you are both in the same Realm of existence.

I was unsure here if one ability would help my vassals, but one would let me gather crucial intelligence and perhaps direction which might be even more valuable. I went for the third option, one more buff was unlikely to determine the difference between life and death.

Dominion (Rank 50, Max Rank): Ten-thousand times per day plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 145. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 55.

Your vassals will gain the Enraged status in battle numbing them to physical pain and boosting their damage by three stages for 6 minutes with a 3-minute cooldown.

Your vassals only require a tenth of the amount of rest to be fully recovered and can go for six days with no sleep on a forced march with no ill-effect on them.

Each time one of your vassals makes a kill, they and any other vassal within 30ft regain up to six stages of damage.

Each time one of your vassals dies the killer gains the Marked for Death debuff increasing all damage they take by three stages.

You are able to contact any of your vassals from any location as long as you are both in the same Realm of existence.

Final Rank Bonus: You and your lieutenants have a passive link that always points to the location of the other and gives an approximation of distance allowing you to find each other and cording attacks better.

Cost: 13 mana per five creatures.

Reaching out with my newest effect I contacted one of my vassals I considered the least capable but who just might be the key to everything.

“Juruk where are you right now?” I asked.

---

The battle was going well. They surged over the walls and were locked in combat with the enemy. The bandits weren’t pushovers, but they were outnumbered and facing professional soldiers. Guinevere and her party were cutting their way through a squadron of warriors protecting the gate. During their weeks of waiting, they’d constructed a magical ram that was battering it from outside, but it would take some time to break through. Guinevere hoped to move the beam, holding it shut and letting in the main bulk of the army.

The heavy clanking of armor met her ears and she turned to see seven massive men in plate armor charging her.

Mordred, Champion of Kelesa; Gifted- humanoid/human, Veteran, Rank 310

The false title hung above the two leading warriors. Guinevere and her party moved to intercept the squad of Veteran fighters. While a few soldiers here and there in the army had crossed into Veteran rank she and her party will still be the only Veteran party on their side of the battle. The Dragon Clan had apparently already suffered losses recently against the Warlord and Wolf Clan and lost the bulk of their elite fighting force. Their army outranked the soldiers in the Warlord’s significantly but their attribute strength was more equivalent to someone at the beginning of Veteran rank even if they lacked the abilities that came with it.

Stepping forward Guinevere raised her sword, its blade looking like it was carved from ice. “Stand-your-Ground,” she said activating an ability.

A massive maul swung down at her. She didn’t dodge or teleport to the side. Instead, she bent to the side and used the flat of her blade to push the attack to the side. She counterattacked her sword scraping off his thick armor but leaving a trail of white spreading frost that would make his armor more brittle in that section. He seemed somewhat off balance for a second and stepped back.

“I can’t see her with Foresight,” he said to another man disguised as the Warlord.

“She must have a counter of some kind to it,” the other man said his sword deflecting Edrick ’s daggers as the rogue appeared out of his shadow and tried to stab through a gap in his breastplate. Edrick dodged and ducked but the man’s sword tracked him wherever he went, almost intercepting him several times. Regald was busy tanking the rest of the Dragonbreakers, so Guinevere had to step in.

Breaking her defensive stance, she jumped in blocking a sword strike that would have cut Edrick in two. She spun and ducked as the two men flanked her their weapons coming at her from opposite directions and angles. Guinevere leaped mid-air spinning and rolling in a seemingly impossible display of acrobatics and grace.

“You have skill girl,” the man with the maul grunted. “But you can’t dodge forever.”

“My army outnumbers yours,” Guinevere said. “Surrender now and I will give you what leniency I can when you are free of the Warlord’s control.”

The man looked around. Guinevere couldn’t see his expression, but his body language seemed resigned. Her troops were steadily advancing their numbers killing his men at the rate of two to one. The outcome of the battle was already set and now it was just the bloody arithmetic to get there.

“I gave my word to the Warlord to serve him,” the man said shaking his head.

“Then so be it,” Guinevere said teleporting behind him.

Her sword couldn’t pierce his armor, but she had other methods of inflicting damage. “Agonizing Strike!” she said.

The man’s body spasmed as her sword struck his armor, waves of pure pain immobilizing him for a second. She didn’t have time to take advantage of his helpless state as the other false Warlord stepped in to defend him.

“Blizzard Breath,” Guinevere said blowing out an icy torrent of wind and snow. The ground was frozen and slick now and the man skidded for a second before stomping his foot down creating an imprint to hold him steady.

Their swords clashed again as all around them her army pressed forward. Then it happened, she didn’t notice immediately but the title above the two men began to change. The rank began to creep up in rapid succession. At first, Guinevere considered it good news, it meant the Warlord was secluded somewhere delirious on painkillers. Then the battle began to shift. A red aura surrounded the two men and began to spread through their entire army. They let out a tremendous roar of fury in unison that made everyone freeze for a moment and the sheer volume and fury in it.

Then they were striking again, their attacks came heavier with a savage bloodlust that hadn’t been there before. The two men fighting her lost none of their skill, but their blows seemed suddenly much more personal than they had before as if she had pissed them off. As the battle went on people on both sides had been flagging as battle fatigue set in then a second wind passed through the army of Warlord. They perked up and began to push forward slightly. They weren’t turning the tide of battle, but they were grinding it to a halt. A squadron of Camelot knights rushed the Dragonbreakers from behind to add to the battle. The Dragonbreakers had been taking hits and were steadily being whittled down many limping or having trouble holding their weapons with both hands. A knight stepped forward lunging with his longsword only to have one of the Dragonbreakers turn and decapitate him with his halberd.

Immediately all the brothers straightened their limps and difficulty holding their weapons vanishing. Guinevere was distracted by the sudden change and barely had time to block the maul swinging for her chest. It still hit with the force of a dragon, and she was flung off her feet and sent flying. She hit the wall of a cottage and went right through it. It hadn’t been made of the same construction as the fortress and walls and she pushed herself up from a pile of rubble.

Teleporting back outside she ducked under a sword strike. Using Agonizing Strike again she spent the mana to catch it twice striking both warriors. Looking around she saw the Warlords army was pressing forward foot by foot, whenever they killed someone on her side all of them within a short distance immediately got back up from what should have been lethal wounds. It was as if the army had suddenly gained a contingent of gifted healers and they were getting all their soldiers back into the fight.

The next change happened a moment later as Guinevere held off the two false Warlords and the rest of her party struggled to help their knights push back the rest of the Dragonbreakers. One of the Dragon Clan killed one of the Warlord’s vassals, the next instant he was annihilated as every strike that hit him seemed twice as powerful as before.

The effect was doubled as people noticed and became less eager to be the one to finish off a target and suffer the same fate. Progress on their side of the battle slowed and began to reverse as the army of the Warlord pressed forward.

“I don’t know if you would care to surrender now?” the false warlord carrying the sword asked.

“You are far from winning this battle,” Guinevere spat.

“But your victory is not so assured now,” he replied.

It was true, where before the casualties had been two to one in her favor now, they had switched. That still wasn’t a winning hand for them, her army outnumbered theirs more than three to one and could withstand the losses, but this battle had grown much harder and victory wasn’t certain now.

The two men pressed forward but Guinevere had been trained to fight just like this by the best weapon masters in the kingdom. Her father had spent a fortune on forging her into a weapon that could take on the god’s Champions. These two men were probably two of the strongest warriors she had ever faced but her skill with the sword surpassed whatever weapon title they might have had.

Suddenly the two men stiffened as if hearing something she couldn’t. They both nodded at some unspoken command or agreement and took a step back.

“Fall back to the keep!” the one wielding the maul shouted his voice carrying like thunder across the battlefield.

Guinevere was confused. They were holding their own now, why were they retreating? Her party rushed to harry the retreating army. Reluctantly Guinevere followed but couldn’t help but feel they were walking into a trap. Slowly the Warlord’s army funneled into their castle archers on the ramparts firing at anyone who tried to fly up or scale the walls. It took an hour to get them all inside, the Dragonbreakers remained at the front of the army their presence like a rock that a stream flowed around. The two men Guinevere was fighting annihilated any common soldier or knight who tried to attack them. Jamis rushed them in his bear form only to have his massive form struck from below by a pillar of earth and sent flying.

Trying to attack higher than your rank was always a bad idea and the other champions learned from Jamis’ mistake and focused on beating down the other soldiers. They claimed maybe a tenth of their army before they’d retreated fully inside the castle. With possession of the town, they began to surround the castle bombarding it with abilities and retreating behind cover. It had been three hours since they’d called the retreat and now the army had mostly relaxed and were tending to their wounded.

Their siege had intensified but with them now holding the town their eventual victory was assured.

“I don’t like this,” Guinevere said.

“We’ve won!” Felrick said his armor bloodstained but a bright white smile flashed.

“Not yet,” Guinevere muttered darkly.

A horn blew from the north. They turned but couldn’t see anything from inside the town’s walls. Guinevere rushed forward teleporting every few steps leaving behind a patch of slick icy ground. Reaching the top of the wall she saw the Lunarens battling with a hoard of goblins. There had to be several thousand of the green menaces. Most of them didn’t look to be gifted but there was a group of goblins mounted on some sort of reptile. The mostly ranged archers and healers were being whittled down by the goblin hoard.

Guinevere made her decision. They’d been outmaneuvered, they couldn’t hold the town with enemies inside and without, and unless she acted now Helen and her entire army would be annihilated.

“Abaddon the town and help the Lunarens!” Guinevere ordered.

“You want to abandon our victory?” Chritor asked.

“This is hardly a victory,” Guinevere said. “We can’t hold this town; we’ve done enough for today we need to regroup and attack again tomorrow after we deal with those goblins.”

Her army and that of the Dragon Clan poured out of the town’s gates. They swept over the goblins who retreated as soon as they saw them. Those on the back of the raptors flanked their army then turned and rode straight for the town. The castle inside looked like a hive of bees as soldiers poured back out to retake the walls.

Guinevere could see two warriors atop the wall staring at her and the rest of the Champions. Despite having killed at least half of their number this was more a victory for them than it had been for her. They had repelled a force superior in number and quality of troops; she’d fallen into the Warlord’s trap. They’d lost a quarter of their army; they still outnumbered the Warlord’s army three to one.

“I’ll give this to you Mordred,” Guinevere said softly to herself. “You’re a cunning bastard.”

Chapter 56: Desperate Straights

目录