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New Reality: 31 August 1525, Paris Suburbs
Once the situation secured, Ardent went back to the courtyard, to check on the elven princess. She was still unconscious. Martin knelt near her, smelling her hair, covering his face in the princess tresses.
"Stop that, you pervert. You don't smell an unconscious woman's hair without her consent… never mind," he stopped, realizing his words made no sense.
"Do you know what soap they use?" Martin asked. "I never smelled such a nice fragrance. It's amazing."
"You ask her when she wakes up. I don’t have time for this shit, let's move." Ardent threw the princess on his shoulder, put Meanwood back into storage, and beelined to the exit, followed by the priest. The French gendarmes opened the gate for them, and the two began running. The streets were almost empty, the commoners had a sixth sense for trouble and kept indoors.
On the way, Ardent took a minute to transform his available Fate Points into Attribute ones, pushing his INT and WIL to thirty-five, inspecting his stats on the go.
Name: Ardent the Morlako, Lvl. 41 Class: Jack of All Trades
STR: 51 / DEX: 51 / CON: 51
INT: 35 / WIL: 35 / CHA: 60
For his size, Martin moved very fast, barely slowing the younger man, so they made the three miles to the edge of the Boulogne forest in fifteen minutes. Stopping after entering the woods, Ardent put his index over his lips, signaling the Priest to be quiet, then let the elven princess down, improvizing a restraint from a bit of rope he had in storage.
[Ardent to Martin]: The portal is about six hundred feet farther, at the edge of the village, after the forest. There are strange noises between us and our objective. I can feel Ana in the vicinity but we're not in chat range yet.
Martin snorted. "I can smell Ana, and hear the noises. It's a fight."
"Idiot! Shut up, we could be heard."
"How can they hear us, if they're fighting, you little dumb dick?" the priest objected, not without logic.
They advanced with slow steps, and a hundred yards later, the indicator that signaled the availability of the chat turned green.
[Ardent]: What's up?
[Ana]: I was just returning from shopping, not even ten minutes ago, when I saw a group of hostiles led by Dark Draconics, approaching the villa. I'm barely holding them back, take the girls and run, I'll follow.
[Ardent]: They took the portal, they're already in Rome.
[Ana]: So what do we do, we run?
[Ardent]: I have a feeling they're after the portal. This is too much of a coincidence. We can't let them go through to Rome.
[Ana]: Then I could use a hand.
"Let's help Ana." Saying that Ardent summoned both Meanwood and Meantongue and entered Stealth and Silence.
[Ardent]: You two go due west and jump them, I'll cull some from the rear then join the battle.
The priest nodded and started running, followed by the trunk. Ardent moved obliquely, taking a slight detour eastward. On the way, he met dead bodies, about ten knights in full armor. All had vines around their necks, Ana's doing.
Soon, he saw shapes moving between the trees. Some were humanoid, and some were animated trees, trashing their branches around. Ardent couldn't see Ana, but logic dictated she was hidden in some oak nearby, directing her minions in battle, instead of directly confronting the more numerous foes.
Axes or halberds in hand, about a hundred knights and gendarmes were trying to cut the trees attacking them, striking around haphazardly. In the middle, a group of ten magic users enveloped in dark smoke, their bodies barely solid, shades of their own amid the ominous fumes. They were shooting magical missiles at the animated trees and ivy. When a projectile hit, it rotted the wood, making it break into dust. Nevertheless, the main effort of the evil magicians was to yell at the soldiers, trying to make them move orderly and not panic.
Where the hell is Popa?
Replying to Ardent's unworded question, Martin dashed forward. The line of soldiers was thinner on his side, and he broke to the inner circle without a sweat, starting to swing his war axe with abandon.
Maybe my father-in-law is not so stupid after all…
Meanwood jumped into the fray as well, helping the priest. Everyone had their backs turned at Ardent, and he profited from the moment, lashing out with Meantongue, killing a few soldiers every other second. His Stealth got dismissed in the process, but it didn't matter.
"Sauve qui peut!" a knight yelled, and all the surviving troops ran away. There was no point in chasing them, so Ardent concentrated on the dark magic users, who were already battling the priest.
There were bad news. None were hurt. Martin was cutting them into pieces, but the dark smoke floating around was patching them back together the next second. Meanwood was lashing its tongue at them too, with the same futile results.
"Enough!" a voice thundered.
From the middle of the enemies, the darkest and biggest shape advanced, transforming into a giant, equal to Martin in size. Instead of armor, he had scales, and long claws replaced weapons. The monster charged, covering the distance in a blink, and the fight degenerated into wrestling. Better armored and armed for close combat, the Dark Draconic Shapeshifter soon had the upper hand, Martin was trying his best to stop the hits, but it was not enough.
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At the same time, the rest of the monsters attacked Ardent. Some rushed forward, in their shadow form, trying to hug him in a sinister embrace, and others solidified into a human form, unsheathing rapiers, with fine tendrils of black smoke running over the blades, coating them. The huggers were trying to spread over his body, and to his dismay, their smoke ate at the multilayered shields like a hungry goat a bunch of flowers, and the poison entered the young warrior's nostrils, making him cough and trash Meantongue wildly around. The energy coating made the immaterial enemies retreat, but the ones in solid form entered melee range and attacked.
The bad news was they were good. Not as good as the Elven Duelist, but as good as the best fencers on Earth. Alternating between their smokier aspect and a solid form, they were starting to land thrust after thrust, stabbing his arms—the most exposed parts—and taking a toll on Ardent's Regeneration.
[Ardent]: Ana, what the fuck are you doing? Throw some trees at them!
[Ana]: Sorry, I'm almost out of Mana. You two should be immune to their poison, but only Light and Divine magic can truly kill them. Or physical, if you manage to make them stay in physical form long enough.
So that's how Elisa killed that thrall… She already had a trace of Divine magic in her, Ardent thought while jumping all around.
Martin was faring for the worse, covered in blood, he slowed down and fell on his knees. As the dark draconic boss was preparing to deliver the killing blow, Ardent had only one choice. Ignoring the lesser enemies, he plunged Meantongue into the Shapeshifter's back, using the Whip technique that accelerated the ribbon's tip to supersonic speed.
Screaming in pain, the Boss made a turnabout and grabbed the weapon, pulling. Ardent had to dismiss Meantongue to storage, but drew two revolvers in its place, shooting all bullets in a flurry. Precise Shot did marvels. Black blood sprayed out of the monster's torso. An Insight showed Ardent's attacks had taken about a quarter of the enemy's health bar. He dismissed the revolvers and summoned another two from the phone's storage.
That did a good job of taking the pressure off his back, the rest of the cultists put themselves in the line of fire, protecting their boss. Two went down for good, with headshots, and the rest turned back into shadows. Their boss changed back to his smokier aspect as well and regrouped with his minions. Ardent and the group stared at each other for long seconds.
He had eight bullets left and a Winchester in store, the question was if the monsters were confident enough to go against him. In the Boss's place, he would have put the minions to attack first, a distraction, then dash and go full melee in that super tough lizard form. Yet, it appeared his foes were not prepared to take the risk. The shades started to retreat, slowly, step by step, keeping their eyes on him.
"Shield me for ten seconds, and I'll take him out!" The elven princess, now back to her senses and free, ran into the middle of the shades. Heading her call, the dark draconics surrounded her, protecting the woman and themselves with a forcefield while she started chanting.
Traitorous bitch!
Dismissing Meanwood and Meantongue, Ardent Shadow Stepped and grabbed Martin by the arm. "Run!" he yelled. Martin looked at him with dazed eyes, bleeding profusely from tens of cuts, then collapsed on the grass. "Fuck!" Plunging behind the priest, to have more cover, Ardent raised his forcefield to the maximum, covering his ears and eyes, saying a short prayer and hoping for the best.
The blinding light went through his eyelids, like a thousand burning suns, unbelievably intense and hot. He ceased breathing for a second, expecting to die. But he didn't, and finally, the light subsided. Patting himself in disbelief, Ardent rose to his knees, supporting himself on Martin's large belly. The priest was alive as well, his stomach going up and down in slow breaths.
"What the fuck…" Ardent whispered, shaking his head to chase away the bright afterimage.
"You should be grateful I didn't smite you too," the princess sneered, offering him a hand. "I was so tempted…" Painfully, feeling exhausted and drained, and wobbling, Ardent got up, staring at the woman. His peripheral vision encompassed a vision of destruction, all trees around burnt to a crisp in a radius of thirty yards. However, there was no secondary fire, and the woods were safe.
"You… killed them?" he asked, supporting himself on a burnt stump, then taking his hand off because it was very hot.
"Did you believe that we, the High Elves, would ally with dark draconic magic users? We just pretended, but no oath was sworn. "
"You don't say…" Ardent felt so unwell that he sat back down, on the patch of grass behind Martin's body, spared from destruction. He used his father-in-law's arm as a pillow and sighed. "Give me the short version."
"So be it," she said, coming in front of him. There were no more leaves on the trees and the sun's rays made her dress transparent, revealing her shape. She… wasn't ugly, he concluded. But definitely not his type. Too bitchy. A Mega Karen. To be considered only as a last resort, if stranded on a remote island. "Hmpf…" she puffed, noticing his gaze. "It took a while, but we managed to persuade the dark draconics to work together. It was not easy, as we're mortal foes."
"How did you convince them to ally with you then?" Ardent squeezed his eyes.
"It was self-evident. Telling them there's a greater enemy in this Realm that could take both our groups out if we don't join forces."
"Who?"
"You, idiot!" She said that with hate, throwing a kick in his ribs.
"Is this Elven foreplay?" he said deadpanned. "I'll pass."
She ignored his joke and continued. "You're level forty, beat a full Elven team, and made ten dark draconic retreat. Imagine what you can do at max level. Your regen is what, one percent per minute?"
"Five… The second threshold in Constitution perk."
"I rest my case…"
"Tell your pals I'm sorry, but I didn't know you were just pretending. Next time, send me an SMS or something… Ouch, stop it!" he complained under another kick. "They rezzed, right?"
"They'll be fine. Now, I'll take my leave." The princess hesitated between kicking his ribs again and bowing and settled for a short nod.
"Moment. Are the evil guys gone for good?"
The princess closed her eyes, smiling bitterly. "With the Boss gone, the thralls die, no matter how many they are. That's how their magic works. There are nine more corrupted Heroes out there, though. Some might come looking for revenge… We should be prepared."
"I see… And what about Henri of England and—"
"I don’t really know, we don’t meddle much in human politics. But Charles of Spain, Henry of England, and the Amboise family are allies, that's about all I'm aware of. The Amboises were thralls, their plan was to capture Francis and the woman you fancy—"
"What woman? I don't know nothing about any woman," Ardent blurted, looking at Martin to see if the priest was still out.
"—to make you come to their rescue, and ambush you. And while at that, we would have turned on them."
So they were after Elisa, not the portal, after all…
There were no more goodbyes, she turned and left. Her walk was strange, her steps slow and small, yet the landscape distorted itself around her; at the third step, the princess was a hundred feet away, and after three more, she was gone.
Waiting to regain energy, Ardent went through his notifications. A disappointment, a bit of XP, and that was all. He wondered what were the princess's rewards if she didn't have the System. The satisfaction of a job well done?
A minute later, the dizziness and the headache were gone, and he was able to get up. He gave a gentle slap on Martin's cheek, adding a Heal, and the next second, the priest opened his eyes and looked at him, yawning.
"Those weren't Vampires," the priest said. "More like werestuff. Not nice guys."
Then, Ana appeared as well, wobbling. "Sorry, I fainted," she complained. "That bitch's attack took out all my remaining Mana… I thought I was a goner."
"Oh… my Mana's lower than it should be…" Ardent noticed. "Because of the elf's spell?"
"Yeah… Light Magic Ultimate. Turns your own Mana against you, making you burn…"
"Good to know. Get into storage, you'll regenerate faster," Ardent said.
"Thanks…" She gave him a tired smile and vanished into the monster storage.
Your master-monster relationship with Ana the Dryad has improved to +20.
Just by sending her to storage? That's strange… Whatever.
"Come." He patted Martin's arm, heading toward Elisa's villa. It felt like their meeting was not weeks, but moments ago. All the desire and passion hit back with renewed energy and had to struggle to keep his calm.
The house was empty, and the entry door was left wide open. Inside, there were signs of people leaving in a hurry, he noticed the silver cutlery on display in the dining room was gone. His phone's app showed the portal to be on the rear terrace. Seconds later, they arrived in Rome.