Tournament Lord
Page 10
No chance of that happening when a suit of armor was giving our orientation. “Just wanted to chat for a bit.”
Leesha nodded in agreement.
“Quite fair enough! Now, if you’re ready for me to go over the logistics, I am sure my mistress would be happy for you to commence with your task at your earliest convenience.”
Leesha leaned against the stone wall. “Hit us with your worst.”
Francois cleared his throat, though I didn’t think he actually had one. “Castle Kronan is, as m’lady mentioned, currently occupied by a warlord who calls himself Lord Loki. Our spies currently estimate he commands an army of around one hundred soldiers, half of whom are on rotation at any one time, and another quarter who patrol the surrounding areas. This leaves just under forty soldiers within the actual castle itself to deal with.”
Just forty. And all of them would no doubt be higher than Level 4. “That’s much more favorable than one hundred.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm from my voice.
“Well, yes,” the chamberlain said, sounding somewhat confused. “To get past the patrols, I have a route charted out on a map just here … Now, where did that get off to …” He dug through a pouch tied around his waist that I hadn’t noticed before and produced a ragged piece of parchment. “Aha! Here it is.”
Leesha took it with a raised eyebrow. “And when we gain the castle?”
“Your route through the castle is sketched on the back.” Francois’ big metal finger pointed to the back of the ragged parchment.
My companion flipped it over to look, revealing a crude drawing — rough lines drawn this way and that across a caricature of what was probably the castle. It didn’t look like it’d be intelligible enough to be useful, but maybe our automatic mapping system could make use of it.
Leesha was apparently able to decipher enough of it. “So through the kitchens, down the servant corridors, and up the tower. Seems simple enough.”
“There are two checkpoints along the way that are unavoidable,” Francois said. “I’m afraid you’ll have to sneak your way past, wear a credible disguise, or incapacitate the guards to make your way through.”
A notification appeared in my vision — the quest prompt for Overthrowing the Overlord, but an additional sub-bullet had appeared:
Current Quest:
Overthrowing the Overlord
- Retrieve the banner from Castle Kronan and deliver it to Lady Vash.
- Decide whether to use stealth, disguise, or force to get past the guards within Castle Kronan.
It felt a bit unnecessary — I obviously remembered I needed to do that, since it had just happened — but I guess it was good in case I somehow forgot.
“Fine,” Leesha said. “And this Lord Loki’s chambers are at the top of the tower? Where is the banner in his room?”
“We can’t be sure. I would suspect he would display it as a point of pride, but perhaps he has hidden somewhere within. All our reports indicate it is in there, though. It was seen entering and hasn’t been seen exiting.”
“But if they transported out a chest or something, you wouldn’t know if the banner was inside or not,” I pointed out.
Francois shook his head. “Nothing of the sort has left the chambers. I assure you, Mister Zane, the banner is still within those chambers.”
It had better be, if I was risking my neck going in there. Not that I could die. But experiencing the pain of what should be a mortal wound was worse to me.
Leesha rolled up the parchment and tucked it into her satchel. “I think we’re ready. Unless there’s anything else?”
The suit of armor noisily shook his head — or helmet, in his case. “I have assisted you as far as I am able. I hope it will serve you well on your mission.”
I hoped so, too, though I wasn’t entirely sure about that map. “Thank you, Francois.” It never hurt to be polite, especially to supernatural suits of armor.
“You’re welcome, Mister Zane, Miss Leesha.” The chamberlain bowed, then made his noisy way back down the hall toward the room we’d left Vash in.
I looked at Leesha. “This will be … interesting.”
“At least you can’t die,” she muttered.
“Oh, because suffering at the point near death is so much better.”
She let the point slide. “Come on. As I said before, we have to get you some proper sneaking equipment. Stealth is the obvious way to go.”
I looked her up and down. “I could say the same for you.”
But she smiled mysteriously back. “Oh, don’t you worry about me.”
I wondered for a second what she meant, until I remembered what I’d seen of her stats. For someone armed as a blunt weapon warrior, she had unusually high skills in sneaking, lockpicking, and related realms. I wondered if I had her pegged wrong after all, and the long con idea wasn’t far off.
Before we visited the outfitter’s shop, Leesha took me aside in an alley to go over if we had anything suitable already in our inventories. As it turned out, we did. By putting on some of Henry the Rogue’s attire and filling it out with the elf’s armor, I was able to put together a complete set of stealthy leather armor. But when I was wearing it all, Leesha stepped back and eyed me critically, a frown settling into her expression.
“What?” I looked down at myself. As far as I knew, I had everything I needed. I even had a knife for backstabbing if I didn’t trip before I got that close. But I could tell it wasn’t enough.
“The boots,” she muttered. Then, slightly louder, “The boots.”
“What about the boots?”
“They’re —” She shook her head. “Who am I kidding? You’ll make too much noise even with shoes enchanted to be silent.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Can we go now?”
She nodded. “Just as soon as I equip my own gear.” Her eyes unfocused, then before my eyes, her clothes disappeared, leaving her naked except for her underwear and bra. I blinked, staring until I thought to look away, but by that time a blur of pixels had covered her again.
She grinned lopsidedly at me. “Caught you staring.”
I knew I was beet-red, but I wasn’t about to apologize. “You didn’t warn me!”
“Calm down, Z. I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve seen a scantily-clad woman.” She rolled her eyes and turned back toward the alley exit. “Time to go. Or don’t you want to get that token?”
I followed her, though I kept at a distance. I didn’t like how she kept me off balance, or that she was so comfortable stripping in front of me. I mean, wasn’t I supposed to enjoy that, no matter the circumstances? And especially when it wasn’t real?
Leesha had exited the alley and turned back onto the street, so I shook the thoughts from my head and hurried after her.
Castle Kronan came into view as late afternoon bled into evening. Because we needed to remain stealthy, we’d left Charlotte in the stables back in Nest, much to my relief. Still, we’d made decent time running across the rolling hills and forestlands and had arrived at our destination.
Unlike the sandstone blocks of Vashs castle, this one was a slate gray so dark, it could pass for black. Its design was blocky, an uninterrupted cube, with a few austere towers erupting from the top. I knew a few rock climbers back in reality, but I doubted they would have tried scaling its face. Castle Kronan was not to be fucked with.
My apprehension was reflected in Leesha's expression, but she just shook her head and pressed on. “We stick to the plan.”
I followed her down the hill on our steady course toward the castle.
We were no more than half a mile out, about to enter the home stretch — fields of waving grass spread around the dark behemoth — when we heard the pounding hooves. I froze, then darted a look at Leesha.
“Hide!” She dove into a bush.
I followed suit, ignoring the branches burning lines across any exposed skin. Something on me caught, and I thrashed in silent frustration for a few seconds before ripping f
ree and crouching among the shrubbery. Not a moment too soon — the trampling hooves came closer, growing louder, until they stopped just moments after I'd settled into my hiding place.
I didn't know why they had stopped. It seemed there could only be one reason — we’d been spotted. It was all I could do not to make a run for it then, as I heard the sounds of men dismounting thens crunching through the underbrush. They came into plain sight a minute later, and as I peered between the branches of my bush, which barely rose high enough to cover me, I was sure they'd see me.
“All right,” one of the guards said. “This looks like as good a spot as any.”
“Aye, aye, captain.”
I couldn’t see the other guard, but his tone was resigned.
The captain came closer and closer to where I crouched, and though he wasn’t looking at me, he had to know I was there. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. It took all my resolve not to leap out and attack him.
Then the guard sauntered up to the tree next to me, unlaced his britches, and started pissing with a sigh of relief. I swore I could feel the hit and spray, and somehow, this guy had the worst smelling urine. I thought to Danny, You've really made a pisser of a game.
His business concluded, the guard shook, laced up, then ambled back through the forest. “All right then,” he said, and after the rattling of mounting again, the hooves started pounding the earth, taking the guards away.
As soon as the sounds faded, I rose and stretched, the blood rushing to my head. When the fuzzy vision cleared, I saw I had a notification waiting for me. Incredulous that I’d gotten anything out of that, I pulled it open.
New skill learned: Camouflage! Use your surroundings to hide from enemies. Attacks from camouflage deal 100% more damage. Damage bonus is in addition to other multipliers, like Backstab and Ambush.
“Well, well, well.” I gloated as I meandered over to Leesha. “Looks like I’m not such a bad rogue, after all.”
My companion, who was standing and stretching as well, snorted. “What, you learned Camouflage? I’d believe it. You blended in perfectly with the brush that guard pissed all over.”
“Come on.” I stalked in the direction of the castle. “Quit wasting time.”
Though I wouldn’t let her see it, the grin on her face made me smile, too.
We made it to Castle Kronan soon thereafter. Now, as I understood it, came the tricky part. We had to sneak through the delivery gate somehow to make it into the courtyard. “And how exactly do we do that?”
She shrugged. “We’ll see.”
In other words, she had no fucking clue.
But now that we were in camouflage on a hill overseeing it, I was second-guessing our decision even more. Only one wagon had gone through the gate in the half-hour we’d been watching, and it had been thoroughly inspected by the guards. Sneaking through seemed a pipe dream.
But having no other option at this point, we headed further down the road in hopes we could catch a caravan earlier. This time, we weren’t disappointed. After only a few minutes, a wagon came bumping down the road. I was open-topped and heaped with straw. Other than the driver, it looked to be flanked by one guard on horseback and another bumping along on the back. I glanced at Leesha, and she nodded. We were going in.
Keeping to the line of trees that descended to the road, we snuck along the brush toward the wagon. There was a bridge near the point where our cover met the road, and Leesha pointed to it, confirming the conclusion I’d already made — this would be a good spot for an ambush. The guards didn’t look wary, perhaps confident that no one would dare ambush them now that they were in sight of the castle. But a slight rise at the point of the bridge hid them from view just enough to obscure our attack.
Managing to escape notice during our descent, Leesha and I found a pair of suitable hedges to hide behind while we waited for the wagon. “Here’s the plan,” she whispered to me. “I’ll take out the guard on the horse while you charge the wagon and make sure they don’t get away. Once you have it stopped, I can swoop in and kill the other guard. Got it?”
“Yup.” We’d have to time it perfectly for this to work, though. If she killed the guard on the horse before I was close enough to the wagon, there was no way I’d make it there in time. But I couldn’t go too soon, as the mounted guard could easily run me down. This was a Hail Mary, and thinking of it that way actually got me kind of pumped. I continued to pretend this was just a normal pre-game psyche-up while we waited.
Finally, I heard the sound of wooden wheels rattling on wooden planks, and I glanced at Leesha. She nodded, then showed me a small knife that was half-hilt, half-blade. A throwing knife — of course she was proficient in them, if her true roguish stats were accurate.
The men were laughing as they approached, completely oblivious to the quick deaths coming for them. I grinned and made ready to sprint. There was nothing better than completely blind-siding your opponents.
“Now,” Leesha said.
I took off from my cover. The horses neighed and reared, startling the mounted guard. I sprinted to the point on the road where I'd intercept the coach, ignoring how exposed I'd left myself. My faith was rewarded, as the man gargled and fell a moment later.
The driver, meanwhile, had whipped the reins on the two stocky cart horses, and the wagon took off at a rattling charge.
But I was waiting. Leaping like I was going for a flying tackle, I jumped for the wagon. I managed to grab hold of the railing, fold over it, then hanging on for dear life, getting a face full of hay for my efforts. I couldn't see the driver from around the pile of straw, but I was more worried about the guard swimming through from the back.
Hauling myself over the side of the cart, I tumbled into the thickly-packed hay and had to brace myself so I wouldn't fall back out. There was a flicker of movement from around the high bale — the guard, trying to flank me. Suddenly, an idea occurred to me, and despite being in the middle of what qualified as a high-speed chase, I started scrambling up the hay.
Holding onto the twine that lashed the bales together, I managed to make it to the top, which I instantly regretted. Despite it being tied down to the bed of the cart, the tower of hay under me still swayed, and I held on for dear life. But falling off wasn’t my only problem. The guard had apparently seen my scrambling, or so I deduced when one piece of twine snapped and went flying by my face. I didn’t need to be Sherlock to deduce he was cutting the cord.
Watching the hay fly away behind me and knowing I had seconds before I went with it, I pulled my knives from their sheaths — wishing I had my battle-axe equipped so I had a bit of range — then moved toward the edge.
The soldier braced himself for a swing before he grunted, then his sword whipped by my feet, cutting through the ends of the bale on which I stood.
I wasn’t going to reach him that way, but two could play at his game. Crouching and looking around quickly, I set to sawing the restraints for the bales he clung to. As I did, another of the cords lashed through the air, both of us rushing to get the upper hand first.
I finished first, though every bump in the road threatened to throw me from my perch. Bracing myself on the bales, I forced my feet into the crack between them. Then, doing my best not to fall over the opposite way, I pushed, and a third of the hay toppled over — right onto the guard.
His surprised cry turned into a scream, which then truncated as a clatter of metal hit stone. He lay in the road, barely moving, until Leesha, riding the first guard’s horse, ran him over.
Moving carefully so I didn’t topple over with the guard, I peered over the front of the stacks at the driver. Though I couldn’t see his face, I saw his fear etched in every bit of his tense body. I felt bad for the guy, even if he was an NPC. Made-up or no, he was still a bystander to all this. But I knew Leesha wouldn’t spare him.
I hopped down on the narrow bench beside him. Balancing with one hand, I held a knife to the back of his neck with the other. “Stop the wagon!”
Leesha rode up to us moments later. “Finish him and take his clothes. You’re the driver.”
“Harsh.” Though I knew we should do it, I couldn’t. I just held the knife to the back of his neck, going further and further down as the man slouched over to get away from it.
“Please,” the man begged.
“They’re just code, Z.” She moved in a blur.
I flinched as a flash of metal spun past me, lodging into the poor man’s back. He gasped and spasmed, then slouched over completely. Then I glared at her. “I know that. But that doesn’t make it feel any less real, or this guy seem any less innocent.”
Leesha shrugged, leading her horse closer and holding out her hand. Begrudgingly, I pulled the knife from the driver’s back and handed it to her, not bothering to clean it. She made a face, but accepted it all the same. “No one’s innocent here, because there is no guilt. That’s the beautiful thing about MythRune that you don’t understand.” She wiped the knife on her leg. “This isn’t real life. Good and evil, guilt and innocence — it only matters if you want it to matter. It’s all in your head.”
It mattered to me. But I knew a lost cause when I saw one. “You’re a sociopath.”
She grinned at me. “I know. Now take off that dead man’s clothes and put them on, or you’ll be stuck with this sociopath forever.”
Dressed in our respective roles, I drove what was left of the hay up to the castle while Leesha rode the horse beside me. The guards at the outer gate to the castle watched as we approached, their frowns deepening and their brows furrowing as we stopped before them. I could imagine it looked an odd sight, especially if they’d known how many were coming.
“Run into trouble?” one of the guards asked, eyeing the much-lessened top of the hay mound.
I nodded, but Leesha spoke before I could. “Lost my fellow, but we drove the bandits off. Must have been ten of them.”