The last man standing is visible, behind one of the trees. I’m not willing to wait for him to attack me first, so I take the shot. Unfortunately, my aim was not good enough, and the crossbow bolt flew past his head, without harming him in any way.
That was it. That was my last shot.
Given that I don’t have the time to reload, I decide to rush towards my target, with the ice dagger in my right hand. The man is surprised by my speed, and he doesn’t get the chance to take aim properly. When I get close enough, I stab him in the neck, drenching my hand in his blood, and killing him on the spot.
That was the last of them. I’m done here. It’s time to move on.
I take the liberty of swiping the ammunition of the first guy I took out, and then I go on my way, without looking back.
What I need to decide now is how I’m planning to take care of all these trained soldiers and mercenaries. I take a glance towards Kate. Her dome is still standing, but it’s taking a lot of damage. All of the crossbowmen seem to be focused on her at this point, and they’re not giving her any chance to retaliate.
This means that I could try to take them all out by very quickly moving from one to the other, while they’re distracted. Judging by the speed that I managed to pull off earlier, when I rushed towards that last crossbowman, I think that I might just be able to take them all out this way. However, taking out every single one of the men attacking us would take too much time, and I don’t know if Kate can last much longer.
I have a better idea. If I make my way towards the leader of these crossbowmen, instead of trying to fight every single one of them, I could try to capture him, and then to force his troops to surrender. This should definitely help me end the fight faster.
I start heading deeper into the forest, in order to avoid being detected, and I follow the general direction of where I first heard their leader talk. I doubt he had the reason to move from his original position, since he probably believes that he’s already won this fight.
As I run through the forest, I get spotted by a group of about ten men. Since they’re relatively far away from me, they have to get closer to me in order to be able to aim their shots properly. I rush towards them and try to use my speed to outmaneuver them.
This is not an easy task. Not by a long shot. When I first rushed towards them, I almost got shot by three crossbow bolts. They already greatly outnumber me. Closing in on them with a melee weapon when they’ve all got crossbows seems almost suicidal.
But speed and reflexes are all I’ve got right now. I’m not confident enough to shoot my crossbow while moving, and if I stop for even a second, I’ll get a crossbow bolt through my skull. I have to make it work. First of all, I need to single them out. I can’t fight them all at once.
I use my superior agility to quickly distance myself from them and make sure that they’ve completely lost my trace. I then start shooting my crossbow at several trees that are far apart from each other, in order to distract my attackers. A few of them take the bait and get closer, to investigate the source of the sound.
These are not trained soldiers. At best, they could be some lowly personal guards. There’s no way an organized group would ever break their formation because of a cheap trick like this.
I start by targeting the splinter group with the fewer members. In a split second, I reach behind them and stab the first man in the back of the neck with my dagger. Before the second one even has the time to figure out what’s going on, I kill him as well, and then I hide behind the next tree. Fortunately, the other crossbowmen are too focused at what they’re doing and haven’t noticed that their allies have been taken out.
This is perfect. It means I still have time to take out another group before they realize what’s going on. I see my next targets, cautiously advancing towards one of the trees I shot earlier. There are three of them this time. I’d better be careful.
Just like before, I wait for a moment when they’re all with their backs at me, I arrive behind them almost instantly, and before they have the chance to realize what’s going on, two of them are already dead. The third one, however, managed to dodge my hit, and is now trying to aim his crossbow at my stomach. I slash at his hand, and he is forced to drop his weapon. He tries to reach for his own knife, but I am too fast for him. One slash of my dagger is all it takes to take care of him as well.
Two of the other men saw what happened and are rushing towards their fallen comrades. I take advantage of this to quickly circle around them, and I take them out without giving them any chance to retaliate. I take out two others just as easily, and in the end, there’s only one man still left standing. Seeing what happened to his comrades, he abandons his post and makes a run for it, trying to get as far away from the battlefield as possible. I decide to let him go. He’s lost his will to fight. He won’t be bothering me anymore.
I have to say… I never would have expected that speed stat to be so useful. Who would have thought that only three points invested in that stat could make me so fast? I might have underestimated the effects that are granted by this stat device a little bit.
But still, I can’t afford to keep running into enemies like this. My priority is their leader, and I should not forget that. I start moving more cautiously, making sure that I have a clear view of my enemies before getting detected. This way, I manage to avoid any further resistance until I reach their leader’s location.
I see that he only has a handful of guards surrounding him… I suppose that he was not expecting an ambush.
I take my time to silently neutralize all of the enemy’s forces that are within hearing range of their leader, and then I quickly take out his personal guards, before they get the time to react. Their leader just realized what happened and is now screaming like a little girl. By the looks of his fancy garments, he appears to be some rich noble from one of the more prosperous cities from the Western Continent. That would explain how he could motivate so many people to follow him on this suicide mission.
“W-W-What are you doing here?” he asks. “How did you get here? Guards! Guards!”
“Nobody’s coming to help you,” I tell him. “All of the crossbowmen in hearing range of you have been taken care of. It’s just you and me.”
“N-N-No!” he shouts. “Don’t come closer. Stay back!”
I grab him by the tunic, to make sure that I have his undivided attention.
“Listen to me,” I say. “I don’t care what country you’re from, or how you got so many men to follow you here, but you are my hostage now. If you don’t tell all of your troops to step out of the forest, drop their weapons and surrender, I am going to murderer you right here and now, and then I’ll do the same to all of your guards.”
“No, wait! I can’t!”
“Of course you can. That horn you’re holding in your hand also doubles as a magical voice magnifier, does it not? Now hurry up. I think my trigger finger may be slipping.”
The noble reluctantly puts the voice magnifier to his mouth, and he calls out to his troops.
“Attention, all men!” he says. “This is the duke of Bagelberry speaking. I have just been captured by the enemy. I repeat, I have just been captured by the enemy. You are all to step out of the forest, throw down your weapons and surrender!”
The forest falls silent, as the crossbowmen’s relentless attacks towards Kate suddenly come to a halt. They are confused, that much I can tell.
“Didn’t you hear me?!” the duke of Bagelberry shouts. “As your ruler, I command you to come out of that forest and drop your weapons! Now!”
After a small delay, the first couple of crossbowmen start stepping out of the shadows, followed by a wave of a few dozen more men. Eventually they all step out of the forest and throw their weapons at Kate’s feet, declaring their surrender.
“There, I did what you asked!” the duke says. “Now will you let me go?”
“And why would I do that?” I say. “The way I remember it, all you offered us if we surrendered was a quick and
painless death.”
“No!” he yells in his girly voice as he’s starting to cry. “Please! I only wanted to become famous by winning the tournament! I’m sorry I attacked you! Please, don’t kill me! I have a lot of money! Here, you can take it. You can take it all! Just spare me my life. Please!”
He throws a bag of golden coins on the ground and then he throws himself at my feet. This is quite a lot of money. I could easily live most of my remaining life in luxury with just this amount.
After considering his offer for a few moments, I eventually decide to spare him. With the way he’s acting, I doubt he’ll ever muster up the courage to attack us again.
“Very well,” I say. “I’ll take your money in exchange for your life. Now get out of my sight. I never want to see you again.”
“Y-Y-You’ll never see me again!” the duke of Bagelberry says. “I promise!”
He then scrambles to his feet and runs away as fast as he can, without looking back. I watch him go until I make sure that he’s gone for good, then I grab the bag of coins and head towards Kate. As I approach the battlefield, I am shocked to see that all of the men that came out of the forest to surrender have since been summarily executed.
“Kate, what did you do?” I ask her.
“I offered them a quick and painless death,” Kate says. “Isn’t that what they said they’d give us if we surrendered?”
“But did you have to kill every single one of them?” I say.
“Yes, I did,” Kate says.
She sighs.
“Listen, Barry,” Kate says. “I know you might not be used to this, but you have to understand. We’re not in a situation where we could realistically hold such a large number of prisoners. And it’s not like they’ve done anything illegal, so we couldn’t turn them over to the local authorities, either. If we had tied them up and left them here, then they would just have died of hunger or been killed by someone else. If we’d simply let them go, then they were sure to come after us for revenge at a later date. There was no other way.”
“I… suppose you’re right.” I tell her, hesitantly. “I guess we’re done here, then. Let’s go back to our cave.”
“I’ll be honest,” Kate says, as we make our way back to camp. “I didn’t really expect you to pull it off.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Neither did I.”
“I owe you one, Barry,” Kate says. “I won’t forget this debt.”
We spent the rest of our trip back in silence, but I didn’t really find it awkward anymore. After all we’ve been through this morning, a bit of quiet is more than welcome.
Chapter 4
Daren was waiting for us in front of our cave. The moment we get in hearing range of him, he starts to rant about how we shouldn’t have went off on our own, and about how we should stick together at all times.
Kate simply waves him off and goes inside the cave to get a bit more sleep, after telling him that this morning’s events have tired her out. When Daren asks me what she meant, I tell him all about the duke of Bagelberry and his merry men, and how they ambushed us.
“You were lucky that you managed to get out of there alive,” Daren says to me. “Why did we even bother to have a strategy meeting yesterday if we were all going to ignore it afterwards anyway?”
After he cools off a bit, the two of us resume our guard duty, posting ourselves in front of the cave’s entrance.
As we stand guard, we start discussing about the tournament, and its organization as we’ve seen it thus far.
“I just can’t understand it,” Daren tells me. “What are the organizers thinking? They’re letting people without any trace of magic join this contest, and they don’t even bother to enforce a rule that prohibits fighting before they announce the objectives. It’s like they don’t even care about all the lives that are at stake!”
“I don’t think they do,” I tell Daren. “Do you remember what they made us agree to before joining the tournament? Whoever wins this championship will be obligated to come to Varathia’s aid in case of an outside invasion. People only agreed to it because there hasn’t been an attempt at invading Varathia in thousands of years, but I don’t think that’s the point. They just want the most powerful mage in the world to serve as their own personal scarecrow. They probably only care about whoever’s going to win.”
“But even so,” Daren says, “if their goal is to get their hands on a powerful mage, why have they still not announced the objectives? Wouldn’t it be in their best interest to get this tournament finished as quickly as possible?”
“Maybe they encountered some unexpected technical difficulties,” I say. “Maybe they’re working to fix them as we speak, and we’ll receive our objectives before noon.”
“I really hope you’re right, Barry,” Daren says. “I just can’t bring myself to believe that they’re doing this intentionally…”
Before we get to continue our conversation, we sense someone approaching our location. Kate’s barrier spell must have worn off.
“Keep your guard up, Barry!” Daren says.
As this person approaches, we can sense his magical aura more clearly. His magical aura is just as weak as that of the crossbowmen from before. Is this a survivor from our last battle, looking to avenge his fallen comrades?
When he gets within visual range, we discover that he is rather young for a warrior, and he isn’t wearing any protective gear. He seems to be somewhere in his late teens, but no older than twenty, and he’s wearing loose pants and a loose tunic, not much different from clothes one would normally change into before going to bed. The fact that he’s walking with his eyes closed and his hands in his pockets is not really helping his case either. He looks like he just got out of bed to get a midnight snack, and definitely not like a participant in a deadly mage tournament. However, he can’t be one of the locals either, since we would have been immediately notified to not harm him, if that were the case.
“Good morrow, lad!” Daren shouts after the boy. “Lovely day for a walk, isn’t it? What business would you have with us? If you are lost, we’d be more than happy to give you directions!”
With Daren, it’s hard to tell when he’s being sarcastic or sincere, since there are no hints in his look or his tone of voice, and as I’ve known him so far he’d be capable of either of those things in this situation. Our young visitor doesn’t seem to have taken offense at Daren’s remark, and he smiles politely with his eyes still closed.
“There’s no need,” the boy answers. “I was looking for some old friends of mine when I sensed there was a fellow stillwater nearby, so I just had to stop by and say hello. There are so few of us nowadays that it would be a shame to not at least greet each other in passing! My name is Eiden. Pleased to meet you!”
My whole body freezes for a second. An actual stillwater? Here? No… No. I should calm down. It’s likely just some other guy who came up with the same idea as I did. I refuse to fall for my own trick!
Seeing that I don’t say anything, Daren replies in my stead.
“Don’t mind him!” Daren says. “Barry’s a little shy. I’m sure he’s also pleased to make your acquaintance. My name’s Daren.”
“Oh?” Eiden says. “Then you must be the healer in armor I’ve been hearing so much about! And it seems that you also have a third member in your party. A survivor of the Beacon of Hope, no less. I did not know any of them were still alive.”
“What’s the Beacon of Hope?” I ask him.
“You mean she didn’t tell you?” Eiden says. “Well then, I won’t spoil the surprise. Why don’t you ask her yourself when she wakes up, my stillwater friend?”
“I’m going to stop you right there, Eiden,” Daren interrupts. “I don’t think it’s necessary to carry on with this charade anymore. You and I both know that Barry is an ordinary human and not a stillwater.”
“What, you told them the truth?” Eiden asks me. “I honestly did not think that you managed to make it this far without bluffing. I mus
t admit I’m impressed!”
“This stillwater bluff isn’t going to get you very far, you know,” Daren continues. “Especially since you’re blind. Who ever heard of a blind stillwater?”
“Hmm?” Eiden asks. “What makes you think I’m blind?”
“You’ve been keeping your eyes closed ever since we first saw you,” Daren says.
“Oh, this!” Eiden says. “I actually can see just fine. I first closed my eyes long ago, when I got tired of seeing the ugliness of humanity. I mostly only open my eyes in completely unpopulated areas nowadays. My magical sense is a more than adequate replacement for my eyesight. I can feel every creature’s and every object’s magical aura, which tells me where they are, and I get the added benefit of not falling prey to illusion spells. I don’t need an extra sense to constantly remind me of why I despise humans so much.”
“Aren’t you a little young to be worrying about humanity’s sins?” Daren says. “Or is this some kind of phase you’re going through in order to get your parents to notice you?”
Eiden smiles.
“You of all people should know better, healer in armor,” he says. “Surely, you must have seen all of the world’s suffering and injustice throughout your travels. The anguish. The agony. You’ve seen them all, over and over. Tell me, healer… You’ve spent a lifetime trying to right the wrongs others have made. Do you feel like the world has become a better place because of it?”
“Just because there is a lot of evil left in the world doesn’t mean there’s no good worth fighting for,” Daren says. “As long as I don’t give up, I will find a way.”
Eiden’s smile widens, but his eyes remain closed.
“Oh?” he says. “So you’re an idealist, then. But tell me, hero, what happens when your pure ideals clash with the cold hard truth of reality?”
Suddenly, Daren falls flat on his chest, and I can tell he’s being pressed against the ground by a very powerful force.
“What happens when you meet a force so great that it simply squashes you against the ground, as if you were an insect?”
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 5