“The Dragon Tourney?” Jeriah asked. “It’s some Camelot tradition they have if I remember right.”
“You don’t know anything more about it than that?” I asked.
“Lady Kathleen would probably know more,” Jeriah said. “Kathleen the Warlord wishes to speak with you,” he called out.
The moon-elf I had rescued from the Ettercaps stood and approached us. She was as lithe as ever, but I noticed a swell to her belly. Jeriah noticed my look and coughed.
“I took Kathleen as one of my wives, I hope you aren’t angered by…” he began seeming nervous.
Waving him off I turned my attention to Kathleen. “They aren’t my women, while I’m not interested in starting a harem as long as what you do is consensual, I don’t have any issues with it. It was consensual right?” I asked him to give him a side eyed look.
“Of course!” Jeriah responded offended.
“Then we have no problem,” I said. “Kathleen what do you know of the Dragon Tourney?”
“It’s a ceremony held when the crown prince has chosen his wife,” Kathleen said. “Its to pay homage to when the first king of Camelot rescued princess Gwenfer from a great dragon and married her founding the kingdom.”
“Gwenfer? Not Guinevere?” I asked.
“The name was changed to that later in the histories but that was not her name when they married,” Kathleen explained.
“Interesting,” I said. “How do you win the Dragon Tourney?”
“It’s not a real competition,” Kathleen said with a laugh. “It’s just a chance for the nobles to make connections, alliances and show off their skills.”
“So only the nobles can enter into the Tourney?” I asked.
“Any noble of at least the rank of knight can enter into the tourney,” Kathleen said. “My mother told me that Tourney for the current king lasted for several months with the number of competitors.”
“So just to be clear,” I said. “Anyone knight of Camelot can join the tourney, how do they tell if you really are a knight.”
“Every Knight of Camelot has a title they can show in their description,” Kathleen said now seeming hesitant as I continued to probe this insignificant detail. “The only condition is they must be the same rank as the prince.”
“Excellent,” I said. “Thank you that was all I needed from you.”
Kathleen curtsied and left me and Jeriah be.
“What was all that about?” Jeriah asked.
“Lets just say I’ve found a woman,” I said.
Jeriah smiled. “That’s wonderful, when can we meet her?”
“That’s the difficult thing,” I said. “She is currently set to marry the prince of Camelot.”
Jeriah closed his eyes and leaned his face into his hand. “You don’t pick anything easy, do you?” he asked.
“Where would the fun in that be?” I asked. “Now where are other pieces of my armor located?”
“Once piece might still be within the royal vault of Dragonhold,” Jeriah said. “The Princess escaped before she could be made to open it, so Camelot has been having to try and break their way past its defenses for months now.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go,” I said definitively. “Enjoy the feast I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I left my vassals to their revelry. So many people all together after my months of speaking and sharing space with only one other person was jarring. Using Hell Dragon’s Armory, I made a cave in the side of a hill and sat in meditation. Closing my eyes, I breathed out a sigh of relief enjoying the isolation. My moment of peace was quickly broken.
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Congratulations, as the Champion of Kelesa you have been invited to participate in a new style of event. The event will take place in one month and will allow you to interact with the other Champions. During the event, you will be transplanted into another realm. During the event, you cannot suffer permanent death, or other effects such as mind control, domination, or crippling injuries or effects. You can still gain rank points from killing another champion, but they will not lose any rank points they have gathered; the amount of rank points you gain will be reduced due to having multiple lives. All participants will be given a number of lives during the event, when killed they will revive in their respawn area. When a participant has lost all their lives and is “killed” they will be teleported back to where they were before the last event and will only lose any materials or equipment gathered during the event. The goal and reward for the event will be revealed when you enter the realm. Do you wish to be entered into the Event?
I had missed the last Event do to being trapped underground. This notification looked different than the last one I remembered. I couldn’t recall the other notification perfectly but this one seemed to be on a bigger scale than what I had seen last.
---
A shadow fell over the walls of Dragonhold. Enchanted ballista bolts fired up into the air and Exar’kun spun avoiding the enchanted armor piercing tips as they flew above the city. What remained of the Camelot forces in Dracon were gathered here defending the walls against my army. I didn’t allow Exar to breath his fire out on the walls since it could spread to the nearby buildings too easily. The same applied to my chain lighting, since killing a creature would let it chain indefinitely if it got into a crowd of regular people, it could eradicate the cities entire population.
Rising up Exar’kun folded into his wings and went into a nosedive. We plummeted through the air towards the palace at the heart of the city. A hundred feet up from the ground Exar’kun snapped out his wings, we struck the ground in a blast of dust and broken stone. Men cried out as his tail swept about him. A blast of ice and razor-sharp sleet cut towards us.
Exar snapped forward with his jaws, but the mage rolled to the side stabbing forwards with a spear tipped with an ice blue blade. Positioned right behind Exar’kun’s head I blocked the spear and kicked out, breaking the mage’s nose. Sliding off his neck I dropped down my body surrounded in black mist.
“Is this all the defense that Camelot can muster against me?” I taunted the remaining soldiers and knights. My voice came out as deep as a well reverberating as Voice-of-the-Chasm and my helmet altered it.
A brave soldier lunged forwards and plunged his spear towards my chest. My feet unmoving, I twisted to the side letting it pass by. Grabbing it I yanked the man forward and knocked his legs out from under him. His head hit the stone and he lay stunned on the ground.
“You are brave I’ll give you that,” I said and held my hand down to him. “I will give you this chance, join me as my vassal and you will not die this day.”
He rolled out from under me drawing a dagger and slashing at my leg. His blade slid off my skin and I looked down on him with pity. “You lack the strength to defeat me, there is no shame in this defeat.”
The man shook with what might have been rage or fear. His blade clattered to the ground and he fell to one knee. The other knights looked at him with a mixture of fear or disgust.
“Traitor!” one of the knights snarled and lunged forward to kill the man.
Clarent extended out and cut off the head of the knight’s pike. He flew towards me as I gripped him with telekinesis and drove my sword through his breastplate. I dropped the dead knight to the ground and looked at the remaining men and woman arrayed before me.
“There remains only one more chance for the rest of you,” I warned them. “Kneel or fight and die, these are your only choices.”
Six knights charged me. Teleporting in between them I slashed out cutting off one’s leg.
“Hell’s Talons,” I snarled my voice distorted by rage and my helm.
Slashing open the man’s throat with my claws I spun taking the strike from a glowing sword on my Pauldron. Clarent drove through my attacker’s stomach, and he collapsed, not dead yet, but out of the fight. The other four backed off a bit trying to circle me and strike while another distracted me. The earth began to suck me down as the ground beneath me turned to an unnatural mud that sucked and pulled with much greater force than it should have. My remaining attackers struck and stabbed at me with their weapons; I either just took the attack if it would do minor damage or blocked.
My clawed left hand struck out grabbing a female knight by the front of her breastplate. Dragging her forward I pushed her down into the mud using her back as a stepping stool to step out of the ever-deepening sinkhole and left her submerged and suffocating in the earth. A pillar of earth shot towards me, and I turned incorporeal.
“Phantom Form,” I said.
A black spirit I struck forward with a spectral version of Clarent into the chest of another knight. He fell to the ground screaming as his soul was ripped open and exposed. Only one knight remained, and he dropped his mace and raised his hands. Clarent decapitated him and his head tumbled out of his helmet.
“He surrendered!” one of the other soldiers shouted at me.
“Only after attacking me again,” I reminded him. “To fight me is to die. I have shown enough leniency today, give me your choice now or it shall be made for you.”
Those that remained all dropped their weapons. Some shook with fear, others with rage but all that mattered was that they served me.
“You are all part of my army now,” I said with a smile. “Welcome to the army of the Blood Sworn,” I held out my hand before me as I brought them all under my will. “Dominion.”