I gritted my teeth as I read the notification I’d received after being hit with the lighting.
65 maximum mana gained.
You are stunned for the next five minutes, reduced by Troll Hide to 5 seconds.
Pushing myself to my feet slammed one end of my spear into the battlement.
“Compress Earth,” I said.
The spearhead was stuck in place and stone flowed over my feet holding me in place. I gripped the top of my spear holding me up as Setules Palms activated grabbing and holding me up. Jeriah and Tobias looked around them, their weapons in hand as they scanned the battlefield.
“Which one of them do you think is controlling the storm?” Jeriah asked.
“No one’s controlling it,” I grunted. “I just attract lightning.”
Tobias and Jeriah turned their attention to me.
“Why?” Jeriah asked.
“Seemed like a good idea at the time starting to regret it now,” I said just before another bolt of lightning hit me.
65 maximum mana gained.
You are stunned for the next five minutes, reduced by Troll Hide to 5 seconds.
While my body was stunned my mind was still active. I began to levitate hundreds of my stone spearheads and flung them at the army below.
--
Guinevere looked up at the man on the battlements who stood tall as the storm twisted above his head a torrent of lightning raining down on his head. It was as if he had displeased the god of storms and thunder herself and she was throwing all her wrath at him. Despite everything that hit him, bolts of lightning that would have sent her flying, he barely swayed in place.
“That’s the Warlord,” Guinevere said, sure of it as she looked at him. “Everyone!” she shouted. “Focus all your attacks on that man!”
There was no confusion about who “that man” was. Everyone couldn’t help but look at the man who even under the constant assault threw out his own bolts of lightning and controlled razor-sharp blades that cut down anyone attempting to fly or jump over the walls.
She rushed forward her sword snapping out deflecting a trio of spearheads that shot toward her. She jumped forward her superior attributes sending her flying. Midair she activated Ice Flash teleporting to the battlements next to the Warlord. Guinevere sent back as a sword passed overhead. Snapping forward she lunged forward only to have another of the Dragonbreakers step into the path of her blade.
She needed to be sure this was the real Warlord this time.
“Confessor’s Sight!” she said.
The name above the figure in black mist did not change, he was the Warlord.
Mordred, Champion of Kelesa; Gifted- humanoid/human, Veteran, Rank: 360
Her sword skidded off the breastplate of the man in her path and she rolled to the side dodging the strike from his maul. All the while the Warlord ignored her focusing on keeping the army from gaining any foothold on top of the walls.
“Could use some help with this one Mordred,” the man with the maul grunted.
Guinevere examined one of the men who had been disguised as the Warlord for as long as she had seen him. Now the false description above his head was gone, replaced by another.
Jeriah Dragonbreaker, Gifted- Veteran, humanoid/human, Rank: 283
Guinevere ducked under the next sword strike and rolled past the next hammer strike from the maul, her sword flashed home. The Warlord didn’t move but her sword skidded off of him. She cursed; he must be wearing plate armor like the rest of them.
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“Agonizing Strike!” Guinevere said and lunged forward rolling past the two Dragonbreakers.
Again, her sword struck the Warlord and skidded off. This ability caused unimaginable pain even if it didn’t pierce armor or flesh; she’d used it countless times to incapacitate foes but this time it did nothing. Mordred turned his head to her; she couldn’t see his face through the black mist that surrounded him.
“I think you have overstayed your welcome,” he said his voice a savage tambor that rolled like thunder.
“Then why don’t you fight me?” Guinevere asked, deflecting the strike of a sword from the two Warlord’s two bodyguards.
“I’m busy,” Mordred said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
A thunderclap originated then not from the storm above but right next to her as a roar tore from the Warlord’s throat. The soundwave struck her and with no way to dodge, duck, or block it she was tossed clear of the wall. She fell down and down to the ground below. Rolling in the mud she turned to see the Dragon Clan falling back their dead lying in the mud of the trench beneath the walls staining the ground red as the rainwater began to form a moat. Electricity crackled over their bodies and prevented others from getting to nearby wounded.
The lightning strikes from the storm were coming less frequently as if the Warlord were absorbing the ire and power of the storm with each bolt of lightning that struck him. Caked in mud Guinevere considered another assault on the Warlord looking about she spotted her team racing over towards her.
“You can’t just rush off like that!” Kira scolded her.
“I had a shot at the Warlord, and I took it,” Guinevere said. “But he must be wearing plate armor under that black mist of his. I stabbed and slashed but I didn’t draw blood.”
--
I was incredibly thankful I’d activated my Ring of Stoneskin before the fight started. Those sword strikes had cracked my ribs and cut through the first few layers of skin but luckily hadn’t gone deeper than that. That woman had been incredibly fast and skilled, I’d dismissed Jeriah’s and Tobias’ words at first but after seeing her fight for myself I had to admit she was much better than me. Even the leader of the Dragon Clan hadn’t had her skill even if he had been more physically powerful than her. Another bolt hit me, and I nearly bit my tongue.
65 maximum mana gained.
You are stunned for the next five minutes, reduced by Troll Hide to 5 seconds.
How many bolts of lighting is that now? I asked.
About fifty-two, Karnen said. I’m impressed you were able to take all that.
I think I’m about to pass out, I replied. Voidra if I die again what happens to me?
What do you mean? Voidra asked.
I mean do I get dragged back again or is it permanent this time? I asked.
My parents would eat us, Voidra said.
Us? Karnen asked. You mean Mordred and the two of us? Aren’t you their daughter? They’d seriously eat you?
If I couldn’t make my host powerful enough to survive then I would be worthless in their eyes, Voidra said. I have dozens of siblings; they have no need of me if I cannot prove myself.
But still, their your parents, Karnen insisted.
The worst betrayals come from those closest to us, our parents are no exception, I said the stun breaking off again.
Turning my head down I saw the army was retreating now. “Guess they had enough,” I said.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 467 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.
“That was incredible!” Tobias said. “How many area effect abilities do you have like that?”
“About four,” I replied. “I need to hide underground before I get turned into a smoking pile of meat.”
Saying that I teleported away, turned incorporeal, and ducked inside the castle and down into the dungeon below to wait out the rest of the storm. I’d gained three-thousand-three-hundred-and-eighty mana from the storm, but I hit the ground face-first. Even with my titles and Troll Hide, I was wiped. There was only so much a body could take in a short period of time before it had enough.
--
The champions sat around their battle table looking dejected.
“How are we expected to fight someone like that?” Helen asked. “It was like he was drinking in that storm, and he didn’t even seem to care how much it hit him.”
“I don’t think a single one of our abilities hit him once,” Jamis said equally despondent.
“Enough!” Guinevere said stepping forward and pounding her fist on the table. “You are champions of the gods, it’s time you stop pretending to be generals!”
“What?” Felrick asked, raising his head from the table.
“You will never match the Warlord with your army,” Guinevere said. “It was foolish for any of us to even try. If you look to the histories, you will find how many times the Warlord has ever been defeated in a military engagement.”
“How many?” Chritor asked.
“Five,” Guinevere said. “And only after massive loss of life to both armies and they’d been ground down to almost nothing.”
“So, what are you suggesting?” Felecia asked. “That we just charge him and defeat him with our courage and weapons?”
“Yes,” Guinevere said. “The Warlord is not his army he is the head of it. Cut the head off the snake and the body dies. It may cost some of us in this room our lives, but we have to ask if we’re willing to pay that price?”
“I am,” Mira said. “But how are we going to do it? We couldn’t even get close to him last time.”
“I have an ability that lets me gauge what a person is like and see past falsehoods,” Guinevere said. “I saw in the Warlord pride and anger. I believe we can trick him into a duel if we challenge his ego.”
The rest of the night was spent carefully planning how they would arrange their trap.
Hattel approached his brother in the back of the command ten the artifact weapon still strapped and wrapped in canvas on his back.
“If it comes down to it and it looks like we will not succeed I will use the weapon on the Warlord,” Hattel said.
“That would affect anyone within fifty yards of him though!” Atrel hissed, looking quickly to the champions around the table to see if any of them were listening.
“Then make sure your wife is not among them,” Hattel said. “We cannot let our father’s death go unavenged or his legacy be destroyed.”
Atrel hesitated then nodded. “If you have to, but,” he placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Only if you have to.”