“No, Leo, that isn’t how--”
“The council has decided!” Sharles’ voice came across the arena and cut off the blonde woman. “Sir Lennox has beaten Lady Kayleic and will be awarded four points. This brings his total to eight, and he is the overall winner of the first three challenges!”
Quest completed. You have been awarded 10 attribute points. You have 14 unspent attribute points.
“I guess that settles the matter then,” Cesnie sighed and looked at me. “I don’t agree with the council, but I will admit there is little I can do on the board. The official rules don’t say you won, but you have. Well done, Leo.”
“Thank you,” I said as I bowed to the woman.
“How did you learn that strategy? I have played thousands of games, and have never seen anything like it. I’m sure it will change how we all play Castles moving forward.”
“I play a lot of games.” I smiled at her and shrugged.
“You’ll have to tell me more about that later. Perhaps over dinner?” She raised an eyebrow. “They are having the rest of the challenges after this match, so the queen will be selected, and then we can put this contest behind us and speak of other interesting things.”
“I would like that, but let’s see how the contest progresses. I might have other commitments. If not tonight, then tomorrow,” I said as I thought about the dinner I might have promised Moryana.
“That is fair.”
Sharles had announced Tia’tor and Moryana, and the two warriors descended the stairs of the arena to battle over the third position. I walked back up the stairs with Cesnie, and we gave each other a nod before we parted to sit with our teams.
Before I could reach my seat, Chrysa threw her arms around me.
“You won! By the Light! You won! Leo, do you know what this means?” she asked.
“You are probably going to get chosen,” I said as I returned her hug.
“Yes! Yes! Leo, you are amazing!”
“I told you so! He is!” Allurie clapped from her seat next to us.
Cornalic also clapped his meaty hands, and the man winked one of his yellow eyes at me.
We sat to watch the match between Moryana and Tia’tor. Moryana made short work of the minotaur using a strategy that was similar to my missile Blitzkrieg one. The crowd cheered after she had beaten him, and then Sharles congratulated the sword dancer.
“Citizens, the tallies for the first three challenges have all been added. The champions have finished their commitments to their causes. Now the council and the chosen contestants will adjourn to separate rooms so that they may vote,” Sharles’ voice boomed across the arena, and the gathered crowd clapped.
The challengers, council, contestants, and their supporting families all rose from their seats. A ring of guards circled us, and the group moved down the rear stairs of the box and into the hallways leading under the walls of the palace.
There were about sixty guards around us, but as we walked through the emberbrand lit tunnel, I realized everyone that had any sort of power in the entire country was right here, in the forty foot wide corridor, with no way of escaping.
“Sir Lennox! Might I speak with you a moment!” Rodin was in the front of the group, and the man raised his hand to shout over everyone’s head.
It must have been the signal for the guards to attack because nearly all of them pulled out their swords.
Then the hallway erupted into a screaming chaos of steel, magic, and death.
Chapter 28
New Quest: Prevent the assassins from murdering Chrysa.
New Quest: Apprehend or kill Sir Rodin Worred.
“Guard Chrysa!” I yelled to my friends as I ripped my longsword out of my sheath with my right hand and pushed her against the wall behind me.
She let out a shout of surprise when I forced her back, but my movement was just in time. The guards around my small group hadn’t pulled their swords first, so I guessed that they weren’t part of the conspiracy, but practically the entire group around Cesnie had drawn blades, and the eight armored traitors turned to attack the Queen, Cesnie, and her two party members. Yrisi was carrying her baby in her arms, and the woman attempted to shield the child from the attacking men. Cesnie managed to pull her own sword out in time to block an attack aimed at the Queen’s head, but another assassin stepped to the blonde tactician's back and punched his sword into her.
I saw his blade pass through, but her health didn’t go down, and her image shattered into a bunch of purple glass. It was the last piece of attention I could spare them though. A wave of traitors had slammed into the four guards that I guessed were loyal to the kingdom, and I stepped forward to assist them.
My longsword cut into one of the assassin’s arms near the shoulder, and the man shouted as his skin turned white with the chill effect. The guard nearest to me was a halfway decent swordsman, and he punched the tip of his blade through the chilled attacker. I risked a glance to my left and saw both Bolverk and Cornalic battling against four attackers.
I also saw Tia’tor and Moryana fighting against at least eight assassins each while their teammates protected the rest of the families of the girls against another eight assassins. I winced as Tia’tor took a massive cut in his leg. It looked as if it should have chopped the limb off, but the leg stayed on, and the man brought down his axe to cleave the heads off two of the assassins.
But then two more took their place.
It actually looked like the four men standing next to us were the only non-traitors. The rest of the entire group of guards were all attacking the challengers, and I dodged a sword strike from one who sprinted over from Cesnie’s group.
Then a crossbow bolt slammed through the man’s helmet and into his skull.
I jumped up next to the defending guards and stabbed my longsword through his stomach as another bolt passed an inch or so from my face and took the man right between the eyes.
“Thanks, but watch it!” I yelled back to Allurie. The silver-haired elf was standing in front of the crouching Chrysa and loading another bolt into her crossbow. I hadn’t seen the weapon on her when she sat in the stands earlier, but then I spotted the Medium Bag of Holding tied to the belt she wore on her yellow dress.
“Sorry, Leo! Could you please duck?” she asked with wide eyes, and I threw my body to the ground half a second before the bolt passed over my head. I heard someone scream behind me, and I spun to my feet with a swing that disemboweled the man Allurie had just tagged in the chest with her projectile.
A salvo of lightning magic flew across the hallway from someone in Rodin’s group, and then a return blast of fire erupted from where Moryana’s group fought. Ice, acid and other magical effects began to fly through the chaotic melee, and I used Minor Heal on Bolverk and Cornalic to heal the damage.
“Leo!” Cornalic shouted, and I guessed his intentions.
“Do it!” I shouted in return as I blocked the sword strikes from two men that had just finished killing one of the council members. There were other burgundy-robed men and women lying dead on the floor, and I saw Sharles on the far end of the hallway. The man held his hand over a gash across his large stomach, and he was trying to back crawl away from an assassin.
“Get Sharles!” I yelled as I used a Minor Heal and Spirit of Stone on the large man. The protection ability landed on him just in time, and the sword strike from the assassin just bounced off.
I saw Cornalic’s image shift out of the corner of my eye, and the mirror image of the half-orc began to race across the hallway toward the glowing herald. Six assassins were fighting Tia’tor between Sharles and us, and the half-orc whipped his twin blades around as he passed through each of them. The assassins screamed as their bodies were sliced in half a dozen places, and a rain of blood filled the air.
I turned to my right and used a Minor Heal on Cesnie. The woman was at 50% health, and I used Guardian of Fortune to enchant her. She was fencing with three assassins, and her party member with the spear and shi
eld was fending off two assassins while he blocked the blonde queen. The other man in Cesnie’s party lay dead on the floor.
The four guards standing with me had killed the last of the assassins that attacked them directly, but Bolverk was still swinging his pair of axes against one of the traitor guards. The assassin suffered from multiple cuts across his armor, and his health was at 50%.
“Fight on brothers!” I heard Rodin’s voice echo across the ceiling of the tunnel and every single assassin fucker started to glow with a teal light. Bolverk’s opponent’s health bar jumped up 20%, and then it started to make small ticks upward of about 5% every second.
A quick glance around showed me that about fifteen of the sixty or so assassins were dead, but Cesnie and Tia’tor’s party had each lost one man, and it looked like most of the Sanduport council was dead. There was just Sharles, an older woman, and a man who looked to be in his thirties. Cornalic had made it to the trio, and he was mercilessly butchering any of the assassins that got near him.
One of the men in Rodin’s group used a crossbow, and I saw him level the weapon at my green-skinned friend. The knight fired before I could shout a warning, but the bolt passed through Cornalic’s mirror image. I knew that my friend only had a minute of use from his powerful magical items, and I guessed there was maybe 45 seconds left on the clock.
“Allurie! Take out that crossbow asshole!” I shouted to the silver-haired elf as I glanced around the tunnel again. We didn’t have anyone attacking us at the moment, and the closest group was Cesnie’s. She was a good thirty feet away, and I charged forward with my sword pointed at the back of one of her attackers.
My blade ran into the man’s back where his heart was and his health bar dropped instantly. My sudden appearance startled Cesnie’s two attackers and the woman lashed out with her rapier to slice open one of their throats. Then I shoulder checked the third one, cut his leg off with my longsword, and then brought my blade back around to take his head off as he fell.
“Thank you,” the pretty woman spared me a smile.
Then I saw Rodin fall from the air behind her like a diving eagle.
“No!” I screamed as I jumped forward and used Guardian of Fortune, but I was much too late, and the knight’s sword pierced through the woman’s armored chest just as it had during the first challenge.
“Die!” Rodin screamed as he tore his sword out of Cesnie’s chest. A spray of her blood splashed me in the face when he withdrew his weapon, and I hit her with falling body with a Minor Heal. Her health was at 20% though, and I knew Rodin had stabbed her with his End Cowardice with Despair attack. The woman’s health was dropping fast, and I would probably need to hit her with way more healing power than I had to keep her alive.
It also didn’t help that Rodin was thrusting his sword at me.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I screamed at the knight as I batted his sword away and used another Minor Heal on Cesnie. Her health jumped up only 10% to 25%, but then it ticked back down to 15% as soon as I had cleared Rodin’s weapon.
“My problem is you, Sir Lennox. You weren’t supposed to win this round. It doesn’t matter though, none of you will leave this tunnel alive.” The knight feinted a thrust with his sword that I fell for, and then he brought his shield around to knock my parrying longsword aside. I couldn’t get my sword out of the way quick enough, but I stepped forward past the man’s shield strike and then slammed my right elbow into his face.
“Mana,” I said to activate my new ring a moment before I used another Minor Heal on Cesnie, but her health bar only went up to 20% and then it dropped down to 10%.
“Leo!” Allurie shouted from behind me, and I spun to the side a second before her crossbow twanged. Rodin raise his shield, and the bolt bounced off the metal, but the break in combat gave me enough time to slide to Cesnie’s dying body. I used Healing Touch on her, and her health jumped up to 50%.
Then it ticked down to 45% as Rodin lashed his sword out at me. The weapon would have cut my face open if I hadn’t used Guardian of Fortune as I tried to twist away.
“Roach!” he shouted at me as he kicked his foot toward me. I threw up my right arm to knock his leg up, and then I brought my longsword across from the ground. I didn’t expect to actually hit the man with the strike, and I was correct. He blocked it with his sword and then danced to his left.
Just as Cesnie’s last party member was taken down by an assassin. Rodin seized the opportunity and jumped toward Queen Yrisi. The beautiful blonde woman let out a terrified screech and turned away from the man to shield her child. I used Guardian of Fortune on her and prayed that the enchantment would catch the knight’s strike.
But it didn’t, and the woman in the green gown was cut in half by Rodin’s sword.
“No!” I screamed and then jumped at the man. He spun to block my attack with his shield, and the assassin who had just killed Cesnie’s spear-carrying party member turned to attack me. This assassin’s eyes were actually glowing red, and his attacks moved with a speed I didn’t expect. I spun my longsword around in my hands to block his cuts, but a few got through, and I was only saved by Guardian of Fortune. I was forced to take a few steps back, and Rodin moved back to stand closer to the yellow-clothed Freelan family.
“Diiiiiiieeee!” Bolverk screeched as he jumped through the air and brought both of his twin axes down on top of the red-eyed assassin. The man’s helmet caved in as if it was a stomped aluminum can, and my friend rode the man’s corpse to the ground.
I glanced at Cesnie and saw that the woman’s health was down to 30%. I didn’t know if Remove Curse would work to keep her from losing health, but I tried it anyway. It didn’t work, and another assassin stepped toward me with a thrust that I almost didn’t parry in time.
I was about to riposte, but a glowing red Moryana stepped to the man’s side, and she spun her twin scimitars around as if she was wielding two paint brushes. The man almost exploded with the force of her cuts, and his corpse fell to the ground looking as if someone had poured two hundred pounds of raw hamburger into armor.
That was the last of the guards, and Tia’tor, his two party members, Moryana, her two sword dancer friends, Bolverk, Cornalic, and I turned to face the group of Freelans. There was just the girl, her two parents, Rodin, and his two knights.
“Can anyone heal her?” I asked Tia’tor’s men as I pointed at the dying blonde woman. I guessed he had built his team to heal him, and one of the men nodded. I turned to look at the woman and saw her glow orange. Her health jumped up to 50%, and then 75%, and then it dropped down to 70% before stabilizing. I was glad that the man was able to heal her. If he hadn’t I would have used Shroud of Divine Light to recover my mana fatigue and then tried to see if the ability’s healing power granted by the enchantments would work through the Healing Touch cooldown.
But she was still unconscious, and my eyes drifted to the corpse of Queen Yrisi. I didn’t want to see the fate of her baby, but I couldn’t turn away. My stomach clenched, and my mana fatigued chest clenched. Damn fucking damn it. No.
“You killed a baby,” I growled at Rodin.
“Happens,” the knight shrugged. “I blame you, Sir Lennox, but you’ll pay. You all will pay.”
“You are a fool, Rodin Worred. We will rip the life from your body and then do the same to your traitorous family.” Moryana spat the words, and the woman’s dark hair seemed to float in the air behind her.
“No. That isn’t what will happen. Sorry to disappoint.” The man stepped aside slightly and then nodded to the young girl. Her face upturned into a strange smile and she held her hands out as if she was using two of those old string puppets.
“Riseeeeeee,” the girl said. Only her voice didn’t sound like a girl’s. It sounded like it was a blend of four men’s voices combined with one shrieking woman.
The dead bodies on the ground all began to shake, and then their eyes glowed a dark evil red color.
Their color matched the glow coming from Yeelee Fe
elan’s eyes.
“Death magic!” Moryana gasped. “It was lost!”
“Not lost, sword dancer. Just hidden by our family and others. You will soon know our power,” the girl’s voices said as she curled her lips into a sadistic smile. “You will feel the chill of our grasp. First, we will take Sanduport, and then the rest of the kingdoms on Rinniji will bend knee to our power. I will soon be the only heir left alive, then I will take my place on the--”
There was a twang of a crossbow from behind me, and the girl’s head snapped back as if someone had just yanked on her hair. There was a bolt sticking out of her forehead, and a glow of electricity pulsed from it half a second later.
Then the demonic girl’s head exploded. Brains, skull fragments, and blood rained down on Rodin and the other Freelan assholes.
The undead bodies had been half standing, and it was a small army of over seventy bodies. As soon as the girl’s head exploded, the corpses all collapsed back down to the floor of the emberbrand lit tunnel.
We all turned to look behind me. Allurie already had another bolt loaded up in her Thizzle Thrower and was pointing it at the Freelans.
“That’s mean! You don’t kill nice people, you mate with them! And when you kill people, you don’t bring them back to life again!” The elf girl shouted down the tunnel.
It had been almost an eighty-yard shot, and I was more than a little surprised that Allurie had been able to tag the girl in the head.
“I don’t suppose I can offer a surrender?” Rodin asked after he looked at the corpse of the necromancer girl.
“No. I don’t think you can,” I said as I stepped past the bodies of the queen and her innocent baby.
“Well then. I suppose I’ll just have to flee. You all should watch your backs. I’ll be coming for you. Especially you, Leo Lennox.” The man ripped an amulet from under his armor with the fingers of his sword hand. Even from eighty yards away, I could see the piece of jewelry had a large emerald in the center of a gold wrap. The man threw it to the ground, and a spiral portal popped into existence with a hissing sound.
Lion's Quest: Trinity: A LitRPG Saga Page 41