The Knightpunk Code

by Kory Shen

  He looked over his men, finding me in the crowd. His choice of words wasn't lost on me.

  Lexley cried out again and spurred his horse forward at a full gallop. The knights responded with a rallying cry and followed.

  "Shouldn't we approach cautiously?" Kuri asked. "We don't know the enemy's strength or numbers."

  "Lexley seems to have other ideas," I said. I looked over my shoulder. "Lady Dyann's division is holding back."

  "Do we follow Lexley?" Kuri asked.

  I wanted to stay back with Lady Dyann, not because I was afraid, but because it was the smart thing to do. Then again, I was in a suit of Sentinel-class, if not better, armor. My gaze swept over several lumps on the ground. More bodies.

  Maybe brute rage wasn't such a terrible thing at times.

  "We follow," I said, kicking my own horse into a gallop.

  Kuri and I raced along with the rest of Lexley's division, an angry swarm of steel and sweat, thundering round the town's outskirts in search of our enemy.

  We had gone a quarter of the way counterclockwise around the town when a horn sounded to our right. The land sloped gently upward here. Shapes appeared at the crest of the hill.

  Men on horses. Knights. The enemy knights charged down the hill towards us with raised lances and spears.

  There must have been at least a hundred knights charging down the hill, and possibly more beyond it. Their armor was painted a dull gray and bore no markings or heraldry.

  How did over a hundred armed men march into the heart of the Elderlands?

  Lexley pointed at the oncoming knights. "Kill them! Kill them all!"

  My breathing grew faster, more shallow. Something in my head throbbed in time with my pounding pulse.

  Seconds before the first enemies reached us, I slid off my horse. A knight on horse had the advantage, ordinarily, but I had neither weapons nor experience fighting on horseback. I would fight as I knew best.

  I glimpsed Kuri still on top of her horse.

  The battlefield exploded with screams. Screams of anger. Screams of pain.

  A Sentinel in front of me cut cleanly through a knight's midsection with his blue blade, as if he was cutting a toy doll in half. The dead knight's upper half fell off his horse, dark liquid spurting out. The frantic, riderless horse reared up, but the Sentinel plunged the point of his sword into the creature's neck. More blood.

  To my left, a gray knight crashed into a Sentinel, his lance splintering against the Sentinel's shield. The Sentinel swung his shield as the gray knight rode by, knocking him off his horse. The Sentinel leaped off his own horse and landed on top of the fallen foe, grabbing his helmet and twisting. The gray knight stopped moving.

  We were fighting ordinary knights in plain armor. It was a slaughter.

  I stared in a daze at the carnage around me.

  "Jakson!" someone cried. Kuri. I looked up to see a gray knight on a horse bearing down on me with a short lance.

  I raise my left arm. My triple shot would cut cleanly through unenchanted metal. The oncoming horse and its rider were as good as dead.

  But I hesitated.

  The knight exploded in a fireball. Out of instinct, I raised my arms to protect myself from the fiery debris, even though they bounced harmlessly off my armor.

  "Jakson!" Kuri cried from behind me. "What're you doing?"

  More fireballs exploded on the field around us as Kuri kept busy. She leaped feet first, delivering a fiery kick to another knight.

  I had never hesitated on a job before. I had faced risks and leaped straight into the mouth of danger without batting an eye. And now I couldn't kill an enemy that had slaughtered innocent townsfolk?

  I clenched my fists in anger. What was wrong with me?

  No, there was nothing wrong with me. Something was wrong with this fight.

  I scanned the battle. Already, the ground was littered with clumps of broken gray armor. We were annihilating the raiders without mercy.

  I needed to find one who was still alive. Nearby, a gray knight on foot raced toward me with a mace. Kuri made motions with her fingers at him.

  "No!" I yelled at Kuri.

  Kuri stopped in confusion.

  "He's mine!" I shouted.

  I ran to meet the gray knight. He swung his mace, pitifully, at my armored chest. I caught the weapon and wrenched it out of his hand with a flick of my wrist.

  It was like fighting a child.

  I wrapped my left arm around his neck and pull his head under my armpit. Exposing a weak joint like this might have been foolish, but these knights weren't a real threat. Fists pounded on me, but I ignored them.

  With my right hand, I grabbed the visor of his helmet and twisted until it ripped off.

  A terrified young face stared back at me, screaming. He was about my age, his face contorted with hate and fear.

  "Why are you here?" I shouted at the knight. "Who sent you?"

  The young knight wouldn't stop screaming.

  I slapped the knight. "Stop that! Tell me who sent you. I'll spare your life."

  The young knight screamed even louder.

  The point of a wide black blade burst out of his face and neck, splitting his upper body in two. I jumped back in shock, dropping the now dead knight.

  Lexley held the other end of the sword. He withdrew it, flicking the gore off his blade. He pointed his sword at me.

  "You shouldn't play with them," Lexley said. "It's cruel and not very chivalrous."

  "I was questioning him," I replied. Now that I had recovered from Lexley's surprise intervention, I found myself angry again. I looked around the battlefield. Only Knight Sentinels still stood. The raiders had been slaughtered to a man.

  "Did you kill them all?" I asked. "You idiot," I mumbled under my breath.

  Lexley's oversized blade whistled through the air, its point stopping an inch from my neck. "What did you say?" he growled.

  I took a deep breath, remembering Lady Dyann's warning.

  "This damn idiot wouldn't say a word." I kicked the corpse. "Just kept screaming." I fired a triple bolt into the unmoving body for good measure.

  Lexley nodded approvingly. "So, Jakson. How many did you kill today? I killed seven. Not counting this fellow. You can have him."

  "Enough," I said.

  "No, really, I'd like to know how our newest recruits are coming along," Lexley prodded.

  The only one I wanted to kill was right in front of me. A triple shot to his head…

  No, I wasn't a murderer. Lexley was trying to get under my skin.

  "How many?" Lexley asked again.

  "I killed eleven." It was Kuri. All heads turned towards the female voice.

  Kuri walked up to my side. "I killed eleven, with Jakson running a blocking pattern for me," she said. "Altogether, that averages out to nearly six each. Is that acceptable, your Highness?"

  Lexley stared at Kuri for a moment, then laughed. "I think I'm starting to like this one," he said to the knights around him. They laughed forcefully, the ass-kissers.

  Lexley turned away. "Enough. We ride back to Evercrown to report our success."

  Kuri whispered to me as Lexley left. "No scouting for more enemies, no looking for survivors to aid. What kind of battle plan is this?"

  Lady Dyann's division lingered at the edges of the battle. They had only arrived when the fight was nearly over. I spotted Lady Dyann in her pale armor making a beeline for Lexley. She caught up with him in the distance and exchanged words.

  We were too far away to make out what was said, but Lady Dyann wasn't happy with the outcome, judging from the rough, sharp movements of her body afterward.

  Soon, both divisions were heading back to the capital, leaving behind the blood and smoke of Holden.

  Was this what it meant to be a knight?

  CHAPTER 18

  The rest of the day was a blur. Lexley had returned to my father and declared a great victory. Within an hour of Lexley's return, heralds were trumpeting the news throughout t
he city. Two hours later, before dinnertime, my father addressed the public.

  I stood with the other Sentinels from Lexley's division along with Kuri in her red outfit. We were on display, although whether to inspire awe or fear, I wasn't sure. Possibly both.

  "Last night," my father began, "a disgraceful, cowardly enemy slaughtered the innocent citizens of Holden. Men, women, children—all put to death by their shameful hands. Holden is no more." My father lowered his head for a second.

  Many in the crowd gasped. While they had heard of the battle, the extent of the destruction hadn't been made public until now.

  "But these men!" My father pointed at us Sentinels. "These honorable Knight Sentinels, led by our very own Prince Lexley, cut down those monsters."

  I shared a glance with Kuri. Well, men and one woman.

  "We avenged the people of Holden!" my father roared. "And I swear, as king of the Elderlands: we will not stop until we find the source of this savagery and root it out. I swear it!" My father pounded his fist on the dais before him.

  The crowd was awkwardly quiet.

  Lexley raised his fist and shouted. His men followed suit. I shared another glance with Kuri, then shrugged, raising my own fist.

  Hurrah. What a joke.

  There was scattered applause from the unimpressed crowd now, slowly growing, then dying away.

  My father looked unfazed. He raised his hands, indicating for us to quiet down.

  "But I have more news," my father continued. "While the townsfolk of Holden are no more, by the grace of Yora, the farmlands and pastures were untouched."

  I wasn't a military strategist, but wasn't destroying croplands the obvious thing to do? Nothing the invading knights had done made any sense. I listened, even more puzzled than before.

  "We will need people to tend to the crops and cattle. I will grant a boon of land to the first to take up this cause," my father proclaimed. "Together, we will build a greater and stronger Holden."

  This time the crowd cheered more earnestly. My father was giving the people free land. Holden's loss was their gain. What was he doing?

  Mira chirped into my ear. "Jakson, I'm detecting unusual patterns in the crowd."

  "What?" I whispered back. "What do you mean?"

  "I'm highlighting the outliers," Mira said.

  Blue halos appeared in my vision around three individuals in the crowd, as if they were lit with magic. A squiggling line behind them meandered deeper into the back of the crowd.

  "These three are converging towards the front of the crowd," Mira said. "The lines indicate their past progress."

  The three men, from the looks of it, had started at three roughly equally spaced positions on the back edge of the crowd and inched their way forward. Were they sent by this mysterious enemy?

  I took half a step forward, then stopped. What if this was all in my head? Or Mira's head?

  "Are they a threat?" I asked. For all I knew, they were planted there by the king himself.

  "I'm detecting unknown metal-based signatures, similar to what the others use, on all three of their bodies," Mira replied.

  "Armor?" I couldn't tell clearly, but it didn't look like they were wearing armor. I watched the three men drift closer to the front, towards my father.

  "No, the amount is too small to be armor. More likely a weapon," Mira said.

  A row of Knight Sentinels stood in front of my father, who was himself on a raised platform. There was no way three men without armor could get past the guards and approach my father. I had just seen the Sentinels slaughter fully armored knights. A footman would be minced meat before he took one step.

  But I had routinely trounced Sentinels with a team of ragtag street urchins, hadn't I?

  I pushed through the Sentinels, making my way towards my father. Someone tugged on my hand. It was Kuri.

  "Possible danger," I said. "Stay ready."

  She nodded and followed me as I moved closer to my father. I positioned myself about ten feet away from the platform, not wanting to alert any of the intruders beforehand.

  I checked for the three blue markers, but could only find two of them.

  "Where's the third?" I asked Mira.

  "Obscured by your current field of vision," Mira said. "All three should reach the crowd's periphery in approximately fifteen seconds."

  Fifteen seconds. I held my breath and counted.

  Two men stepped out from the crowd. The king's guard didn't move, except for one Sentinel who stepped towards them. He gestured for the men to return to their places. The men turned around, but not to obey. They instead addressed the crowd.

  "The king is a traitor!" the first man shouted.

  The crowd gasped. All the Sentinels guarding my father moved forward.

  "The king killed the people of Holden!" the second man shouted.

  "Quiet down, scum," the closest Sentinel said, reaching for the first man.

  "For Holden!" the first man screamed in an even higher-pitched voice than before. He held a dagger in his hand, stabbing it at the Sentinel.

  The Sentinel laughed. A dagger was nothing to someone in a full suit of armor. An ordinary dagger, that is.

  I stared in disbelief as the dagger pierced the Sentinel's armor.

  "What…?" The Sentinel grabbed the dagger. He appeared unhurt, even with his damaged armor. He punched the man in the face, sending him skittering to the ground.

  The dagger pulsed with a purple light.

  "Mira!" I screamed. "Where's the third man?"

  "Incoming, incoming! To the king's left!"

  A man rushed my father from the side. Everyone else's attention was on the two in front.

  I ran, shouting. My father turned to me in confusion.

  "Get down!" I leaped in front of my father. "Triple shot!" I screamed, pointing my left arm at the oncoming intruder.

  The man's upper body exploded into shards of bone and flesh. Something bright purple flew into the air. Another glowing dagger.

  I wasn't taking any chances.

  "Triple shot!" My aim was perfect. I struck the dagger, blasting it higher into the sky. At its peak, the dagger exploded into a purple fireball of arcane energies. I swiveled to cover my father with my armored body.

  Behind me, a man screamed. I saw another purple explosion in the corner of my eye, then heard the sound of metal thudding on the ground.

  The first Sentinel was down.

  There was a third explosion of purple light, but it was too chaotic to tell what was happening. More Sentinels swarmed my father and me.

  Then, everything vanished.

  * * *

  I shook my head groggily.

  "What the hell just happened, Mira?" I asked.

  "Unclear. A spatial anomaly. My sensors went offline for a moment," Mira said. "It appears we are somewhere else."

  There was more noise, and I realized I wasn't alone. I crouched down, ready to fight, but then saw it was a small group of Knight Sentinels.

  "Fucking hell!" It was my father. "What the fuck was that?"

  I glanced around. We were in a chamber with stone walls, some kind of mini-fortress or safe haven. The walls glowed with a soft blue, but I couldn't see the source of the light.

  Someone must have triggered an enchantment to whisk my father away. One of the expensive kinds I had made them waste after the Open Melee.

  Voices rose around me.

  "Your Majesty…"

  "Are you hurt?"

  The others fawned over my father. He ignored them and strode over to me.

  "You. Jakson." His cold dark eyes flashed in my direction.

  I faced him, ready for anything.

  "You were quick on your feet, weren't you?" he asked.

  "I suppose," I said, unsure if it was a compliment or not. The others shifted their stances to look at me. "Your Majesty," I added.

  My father glared at the other Knight Sentinels. "What were the rest of you useless lot doing? That farmer almost killed me!" He stabbe
d his finger at me. "This recruit, this boy, was the only one who saw the danger. And how did simpleton farmers get their hands on Sentinel weapons?"

  My father had a point. Those had been rogue Sentinel weapons. Why would some peasant from Holden get mixed up in something as deadly as that?

  And why did they accuse him of being a traitor?

  My father turned his gaze to me again. "How did you know what was going to happen?"

  I didn't want to reveal too much about Mira, not yet, not even to my father. "I was scanning the crowd. I saw a couple people pushing their way forward, acting strange. I had a hunch."

  "A hunch?" My father grimaced. "You acted on a hunch?"

  "Intuition," I said. "When you grow up on the streets, you learn how to make do with what you're given. Sometimes all you have is a hunch." I opened my helmet, meeting my father's eyes.

  "You had no prior knowledge of a plot to kill me?" my father asked.

  "What?" I blinked. "Of course not."

  My father frowned, studying me as if weighing a decision. For a second, it seemed as if his expression softened, but then the hard glare returned. After several more seconds of silence, he spoke.

  "You did well, Jakson. Meet me in the throne room in an hour. I have a special task for you."

  "Thank you?" I wasn't sure what he was getting at. "Your Majesty." I bowed, but my father had turned away already.

  "Open the damn doors!" he shouted at the others. The men scurried, using might or magic to unlock the thick stone doors.

  I watched my father leave the chamber, his dark silhouette outlined in the entrance by the brightness beyond. He paused there, turning his head slightly. Then, he left.

  I stared at the empty spot where he had stood, unsure if I should be proud or worried about what had happened.

  CHAPTER 19

  It turned out that my father's emergency shelter was in the castle's bowels, deep underground. I made my way out and left the castle, still in my armor.

  I had barely taken three steps from the castle's gates when someone called my name.

  "Jakson!"

  A woman's voice. Kuri.

  I turned. "Hey, Kuri—"

  It was Lady Dyann in her white armor. Damn it. That was twice now.