The remaining Dragonbreakers stood over the wreckage of the battlefield, they had fled underground with their forces when the Hell dragon had arrived. Now they stood over the spot where their brother and he had gone down into that gaping pit. There were no longer any enemies to stand against them, but it had been weeks without word from the Warlord.
“What do we do?” Tobias asked. That was a phrase that had been asked a lot recently and no one had an answer still.
A horn sounded from the woods, and they turned their hands, all going to their weapons. Two men one riding a large silver-furred wolf and the other a stone armored bear entered the clearing. They dismounted and approached Jeriah giving a nod of respect.
“Are you the Warlord’s second in command,” the man who had been riding the wolf asked.
“I am,” Jeriah answered, he looked above the man’s head and read his description.
Korsis the Moonwolf, Gifted- humanoid/Moon-Elf, Hero Rank 599
“I am Korsis, Chief of the Wolf Clan,” he said stepping forward and clasping Jeriah’s hand.
“And I am Kas’tu, Chief of the Ursine Clan,” the massive man who had been riding a bear said clasping Jeriah’s arm. “I applaud your family’s bloodline it is good to see men their proper size.”
Jeriah was suddenly the center of everyone’s attention clearing his throat as he spoke. “The Warlord promised to return my family’s ancestral lands to me; I am from the Kingdom of Dracon. We have heard of the war there and how Camelot, one of the same kingdoms that came here to attack us, has laid claim to it.”
“It is time to remind these people why they do not venture into these forests, we shall flow out like a tide and take the lands of Dracon for the Warlord,” Jeriah said his voice growing with fervor and confidence as he spoke. “Mordred has one of the pieces of the armor of Ares, Dracon has another one taken by the Lion Clan.”
At the name of one of the clans that had turned from the ways of war, the myrmidons spat and growled.
“We shall take back the artifact of Ares and give it back to the Warlord where it belongs, we shall remind these ‘civilized’ kingdoms not to overreach as they have here,” he said gesturing around him.
“These woods belong to those who reject their laws, and they have no place here!” Jeriah shouted.
There was a roar as all the factions that had gathered under the Warlord’s banner roared in a combination of rage, fanaticism, and bloodlust.
---
Guinevere found me in the tower and sat across from me looking nervous.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“This place just makes me nervous,” Guinevere said. “I grew up hearing stories of the magi and how dangerous they were.”
“Who were they?” I asked.
“They were an order of ancient humanoids who rebelled against the gods when they created the system,” Guinevere said. “They believed they could ascend to godhood without becoming a champion.”
“Don’t you just need to raise each attribute to five hundred?” I asked.
Guinevere gave me a look. “How would you do that without being a champion? You’ve got a quest from the system which makes you special, but most people, even the most powerful and gifted, never receive a single quest in their life. Occasionally a god will give a quest to one of their priests but without quests, you have to get your rank points from killing gifted monsters.”
I nodded catching up with her. “And the System only spawns monsters when there are champions so the rate at which you can gain rank points makes it impossible to farm them except for the bosses at the end of dungeons.”
“Exactly,” Guinevere agreed. “My father owns over twelve dungeons, five of which are heroic rank, and it took him almost three decades to reach Exarch rank.”
When she talked about her father, I noticed her expression changed. She didn’t look sad, angry, or afraid, instead, she just went blank, icy, and cold with no expression whatsoever.
“I don’t want to pressure you or anything,” I said hesitantly. “But you seem to go all go cold whenever you talk about your father. You don’t need to tell me anything but if you need to vent, I know better than anyone the problems you can have with your father.”
Guinevere looked me cold in the eyes. “Did your father kill your mother?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “But he did abuse her.”
“My father did as well before he…” She didn’t finish her sentence.
She’s feeling a great deal of pain and anger, Voidra said.
I didn’t need you to tell me that, I responded.
“Did you try to stop your father?” Guinevere asked me.
“Yes,” I said. “But it didn’t go as I intended. She took his side; I was separated from them by the state for my and their safety; I did hear that he got better when I was gone but it was too late for me.”
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“Never tell anyone what I’ve told you,” Guinevere said. “If my father didn’t kill you for knowing I would.”
“Understood,” I said bowing my head to her. “Why did you tell me? I’m not exactly the type of person people confide in.”
“I think I can trust you,” Guinevere said. “You seem too blunt to stab me in the back, if we ever come to a fight, we’ll both be facing each other when it happens. There is nothing I hate more than a liar.”
She turned her back on me before she could see my expression change.
I think it’s going to become personal when you fight next time, Karnen said.
“You’re probably right,” I agreed. “But we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.”
---
We set out again down a passage in a direction I felt was north. My inner compass was pretty good but, in the twists, and turns of the tunnels no one could be sure of anything. The air was becoming thicker and thicker with humidity and the smell of subterranean flora and fauna. It was on the third day since leaving the Magi ghost town that we encountered the shadowy monsters again. This time everyone heard them coming at the same time; we didn’t need an advanced warning from Voidra as a roar echoed down the tunnel behind us.
I could hear pebbles rattling as the thundering charge approached us. Stepping up to the back of the group to meet the coming threat I gave a jerk of my head for the others to continue.
“Keep going,” I said. “We aren’t stopping.”
“You want us to try and outrun them?” Kira asked disbelievingly.
“There is no way we can outpace those monsters,” the tank agreed.
I love how she manipulates them, Voidra sighed contentedly.
What? Karnen asked.
“Do you hear it?” I asked Guinevere ignoring the separate conversation going on in my head.
The healer, she’s got those three men wrapped around her finger, Voidra said. They’re all in love with her and she’s been sleeping with them all.
That comment nearly broke my entire line of thought but I kept going. Watching Guinevere as she cocked her head to the side listening to the oncoming horde. Her eyes widened and she nodded.
“That’s at least six times as many as there were in the other waves,” she said.
“How are there so many of them?” Kira asked her skin paling.
“I think these are the defenses for the Anti-System Formation,” I said.
“So these waves are just going to get worse?” the mage asked angrily.
“Sometimes you have to walk through fire to reach safety,” I said. “I’ll slow them down, Guinevere, you kill any that get past me.”
There was no more time or need for words, Guinevere nodded to me in acknowledgment and the black abominations swarmed down the tunnel.
I buried myself into their ranks activating my ring of Stone Skin just as I plunged into the thrash of claws and teeth. Shadowy claws ripped along my flesh drawing only pinpricks of blood, but enough pinpricks can kill anyone. I was a tornado with my clubs gutting, bashing, and ripping apart any creature within reach. They still tried to limp past me even as black ichor spilled out from them, and their entrails hung out from their stomachs.
Beasts latched onto my arms trying to drag and pin me down. I was deep in their ranks and couldn’t see any of the others with how far I was into the mass of creatures.
“Voidra reactivate Black Rage and Magma Hearts,” I snarled as I ripped open a hyena-like creature’s throat.
You sure? They might still see you, Voidra cautioned me.
“I can’t keep them alive unless I risk it,” I said. “Do it.
Rage flooded my system as the black mist began seeping out of the pores of my skin and flowing out of the hundreds of wounds across my body. Red light shone from my wounds as my blood shone with a brilliant red luminous sizzling on contact with anything it touched. Power flooded my limbs as my Might attribute began increasing with every wound I inflicted, my mana and stamina rapidly refilling as well for every hit I made. I spent a sixteenth of my total maximum stamina and mana to activate eruption.
The creatures began to be pulverized on contact with my weapon. Their bodies hit the wall liquifying their internal organs as I pushed through them. Troll Hide kept me on my feet repairing the damage that I took as I stormed through them in a mad need to slaughter and kill.
The rage from my cloak, black rage, and the inner fury I always kept in me drove me to abandon my defense completely. I could barely hear anything past the thudding in my ears when Black Rage suddenly shut off, I was so surprised and drained I teetered before falling. A pair of hands caught me and lowered me to the ground.
Guinevere looked down at me concerned, she looked battered, and her silver snow hair was stained with red and black blood.
There was still a thudding in my ears, and I couldn’t hear her as she spoke. I could hear Voidra.
I kept trying to tell you Guinevere was headed your way, but you wouldn’t listen, I had to shut down your Abilities to keep her from finding out, Voidra explained.
“Are you all right?” Guinevere asked me.
“I’ll be fine,” I croaked. My throat was ragged from roaring and screaming all through the fight and I spit out a bit of blood that I didn’t think was actually my own.
Guinevere looked relieved. “I thought you were just committing suicide when you ran into them like that. How did you survive that?”
“I don’t even remember most of the fight,” I responded dodging answering the question. “Your party still alive?”
“Yeah, though some of them got a bit torn up when a few monsters made it past, they handled them,” Guinevere said.
“As comfortable a spot as this is,” I said. “We should really get going,”
Guinevere blushed when she realized she’d laid my head in her lap and stood up as soon as I sat up. I wiped my face with my cleansing cloth and handed it to Guinevere. She wiped her face the sweat and blood disappearing from her face and hair. She wiped it over her armor, and it returned to its silver gleam although I noticed a few rents in the chainmail and dents in the metal plating.
“How’d you do?” I asked, accepting the cleansing cloth and putting it back in my pouch when she handed it back.
“It was rough, but they mostly focused on you, I only had to deal with the sneakier and faster ones,” she said. “You think we’ll see another horde that size?”
“I think we’re going to see even bigger ones,” I said. “We’ve been on the outskirts of the beach before, and now the tide is going to come in.”
Guinevere expression hardened with resolve. “We’ll find a way, I’m sure of it.”
--
Five days later we were burned ragged. Even though I was on the edge of a physical and mental breakdown, Guinevere expression was as icy as ever, but I’d learned to pick up on the signs of her distress. Day after and days of battles that dragged on for an hour, sometimes with only five at most hours in between the next wave. I had my own inner dread as I felt us draw closer to the end. Who I was would soon be revealed one way or another and Guinevere was going to kill me for lying to her. I’d learned more about her in the handful of conversations we’d managed to steal in between the battles, and she had her own sense of honor. Lying to her was not going to go over well and I had my doubts about beating her in a straight-on fight.
Pushing aside my worries I continued on. After another day of travel, we finally came to another subterranean village, this one was overgrown with white vines, but a central tower remained intact at the center of the cavern surrounded by the ruins of other buildings. Cutting our way through the foliage we managed to shove open the door and break inside. Barring the door behind us we collapsed with exhaustion. I watched as Guinevere sagged back and made my decision; I would have to handle her now.
“Guinevere, come with me,” I said standing up. “I need your help.”