Legendary Weapons

by Andrew Bardsley

  “He’s not the only one with a powerful weapon now,” said the king as he patted his sword.

  “Yes, I know, but this has brought a whole new level of danger to the kingdom,” said the queen, with a glance at Ceras as if he was responsible.

  The agent had reported back that it was Moryam, the Duke of Riverwind’s wizard who had gotten away with the staff on the flying monster. The king was going to pursue the bird to the duke’s fiefdom with Ceras; it could only be Ceras, as only he would be able to keep up with the pace of another legendary-level warrior and the king wanted to surprise them by the speed of the attack.

  Without another word to his wife, he raced out of the palace with Ceras following him. Both ran like the wind, enabled by the boots they were wearing. The path to the elevator platform had been cleared and the platform was ready to take them to the lowest level of the city. The king and Ceras passed the gates of the platform building, the guards keeping out of the way of the two men who would clearly not be stopping for anybody in their path.

  When they stepped onto the platform the king said to Ceras, “Place a shield around us. It’s going to be a sudden stop at the bottom and I’m not sure you would survive if you are unshielded.”

  Looking at the king in a questioning manner, Ceras cast a spell. This caused a bright blue, powerful shield to form around them which gave Ceras some reassurance that the promised impact would not kill him. The elevator platform they were standing on just dropped, as if there was nothing slowing its descent down the slope. Then, when Ceras thought it could get no worse, it started to accelerate even more as if there was a force driving it downward. The levels flashed by so quickly that Ceras only caught a glimpse of the shocked people's faces as they descended at breathtaking speed.

  At the last moment before they smashed into the ground level, the platform decelerated rapidly and threw both the king and Ceras to the ground. The shield took most of the energy out of the collision with the ground but it still jarred, throwing them against the shield at the edge of the platform.

  As Ceras let the shield fall the dust was still settling from their impact, but the king was already running toward the city gate, which stood open with guards holding back crowds of watching people wondering what was happening.

  Ceras picked himself up and sped after the king, who was outpacing him in full armor while he only wore a light wizard cloak. He tried to infuse more magic into the boots of air he was wearing, hoping that a more powerful boot could propel him forward at a greater speed to catch up with the charging king.

  With the added energy, Ceras was able to power himself forward and catch up to the king who was running up one of the roads from the city. The two runners started to pass in between the fields, as the farmers looked on with curious expressions, clearly wondering how the two men were travelling so fast. To Ceras the king seemed to find the running effortless, and wasn't even breathing heavily with the intense pace he was setting.

  “I’m wondering how you are keeping up with me and using so little magic,” said the king curiously as he continued looking ahead at the road, focusing on placing his feet correctly so as to not fall at such a speed.

  At first Ceras wondered what the king was talking about, since he was now at the legendary level and did have high stamina, but then he remembered that most wizards would not have the advantages of the forest wisp’s blessing that had increased his warrior stats. While they ran along, he explained his situation to the king who listened attentively as the miles quickly passed by.

  “That’s an interesting blessing to have. Now you’re a legendary wizard it may just give you an advantage that I’ve never known anybody to possess.”

  “What is that, Your Majesty?”

  “Ceras, you can call me by my name, Kolcos, as we’re really at the same level of power now.”

  “Yes, Your- Kolcos.”

  “Back to the advantage that you have. It's always been a problem that as you gain levels in one of the classes, you of course place the stat points to benefit that class. This leads to a detrimental effect to the other attributes. So, high-level wizards would be unable to run like this unless they enhanced themselves magically. For you, though, all of your stats have been increasing as you'll have been placing every point into the non-warrior stats. Because of the blessing you still increase the warrior stats anyway. The only real disadvantage is that you are not gaining all the skills and training needed for being a warrior, which shows in your fighting style as it still very basic and has a heavy reliance on magic.”

  “But I still win battles with magic alone,” said Ceras defensively.

  “Yes, that is definitely true. You have provided ample evidence of this and it is highly impressive, but what I’m talking about is something unique that you have the opportunity of becoming. All the legendary-level people that I know about are only in one class, but you have the opportunity of gaining the legendary level in two totally different classes, one magic and the other a warrior class. It could make you something exceptionally powerful.”

  “Don’t I already have the stats in the warrior attributes? So I’m already a powerful warrior?”

  “You do have the stats, but none of the skills or training that make a warrior. That is what you would gain if you took a warrior class from level one and worked your way up again to legendary level. It will of course be easier for you, but it’s the training and skills that count in the end with any of the warrior classes, not just pure strength or speed. You should think about it as it would be truly interesting to see how powerful you can become.”

  The two lapsed into silence as they continued to run through the roads between the fields. Soon they were starting to run into the foothills of the mountains, heading east along a paved road that had carts transporting goods across the kingdom. The king was so light-footed, despite being a large man in heavy armor, that it was easy for him to move around the carts quickly. For Ceras it was a lot harder to keep up the speed and avoid any collision. This required him to add more magical power to the boots to keep up with the speeding king with all the carts on the road that blocked his path.

  The hills started to give way to the steep mountain pass which they started to climb. The scenery changed to large rocks of colored stone that were more common in the high levels as their journey continued. When it grew dark, Ceras produced a magical light to allow them to continue running into the night at the same pace. In the early hours of the morning, they started to crest the mountain pass that connected the central area of the kingdom to the eastern provinces.

  When the king and Ceras started the long trip down from the mountain, by both magical light and the remaining starlight, Ceras saw the shadows and the distant lights of cities on a vast plain in front of him. Further down the mountain, as the first rays of dawn started to light up the landscape, he was able to get a fuller picture of what lay before them. The plain was truly vast; he could see winding rivers across the plain with areas of large forest and grassland. At the intersection of some of the rivers, Ceras could just make out the large cities as brown and black dots on the landscape.

  “Is all of this area part of the duke’s domain?” Ceras asked the king.

  “Yes, he has a lot of agricultural land that produces most of the wheat for the kingdom and some of the nations surrounding us. It’s only my personal power and the rest of the legendary-level warriors that keep him from breaking away from the kingdom. If we didn't help when the next legendary-level monster attacked, this area could be laid to waste. That has kept him mostly in check for all of these years, as we all need each other to defend the kingdom.

  “With your creation of a legendary weapon, it could give him the opportunity to break away and set up his own independent kingdom. But I think he has his eye on the whole of the kingdom, so he will most likely try to attack the central part of the kingdom - if we let him.”

  Looking across the plain that they were descending into, Ceras asked, “How are we going to find the
staff in such a large area?”

  “That will not be the difficult part, as the staff will be very close to the duke. He’ll be wanting to keep an eye on it. The duke will be with his permanent army in the city where his ducal residence is located. What will be interesting is getting to the staff, as I’m sure the army will be guarding it,” said the king, as the view of the plain started to disappear. They were entering the foothills of the mountains on the other side of the range from the central kingdom.

  “How are we going to defeat an army?” asked Ceras worriedly.

  The king laughed to himself at what was a perfectly sensible question. “We don’t have to defeat the army, we just have to get to the staff and destroy it. This may mean that we have to go through the army to get to it, but not defeat it. Our main advantage is speed, as the duke will be expecting me to still be gathering my forces for an attack. I hope by moving so quickly we’ll catch him unprepared for battle.”

  “How long until we get to the duke’s palace?” asked Ceras.

  “We should be getting there in the early hours of tomorrow morning at this pace, if nothing holds us up. If anybody tries to stop us, we’ll take out everybody and leave no survivors. It’s important that we try to gain the element of surprise. My wizards are blocking any communication from the capital to this province, and the army is moving into the pass a few days behind us so we should come as a complete surprise to the duke.”

  As the day went on the two ran and ran, with Ceras casting disguise spells on them once they entered the plains of the duke’s province. To anybody passing them they were just normal farmers running along the long tracks between towns and cities. The king was keeping up the pace as they ran the distance to the destination of the duke’s residence. Ceras had to heal himself and the king at regular intervals, to keep the pounding of their feet on the dirt paths from causing too much pain that may have otherwise forced them to slow down.

  In the early hours of the following morning, the pair crested another hill and came into view of the outline of a huge castle. It was set in a landscape that seem to have been planted with trees and grass lawns that had been maintained to perfection thanks to the efforts of many generations of the noble’s family.

  To the side of the castle in several large fields was a gathering of tents, showing that the army had begun muster for a campaign. Ceras could see the light of their fire still aflame, even this early in the morning. Several windows of the castle were still illuminated with the flicker of magical light emitting from them. Surrounding the castle was a large moat with a single bridge across leading to a drawbridge that was up, adding protection to the locked gates that most castles had.

  Chapter 9 Breaking and Entering

  The king and Ceras had managed to stay undetected by the watching eyes at the castle by moving quietly to a grove of trees about a hundred meters from the castle’s drawbridge. The drawbridge was closed in the early hours of the morning with the residual light of the stars giving them some vision of the scene. Ceras could see watchmen on the gate tower moving along the ramparts, trying to keep themselves warm and awake by stamping their tired feet. Several of them were warming their hands by a metal stand with a fire burning in it.

  “Miserable job being a watchman,” said the king with a look of empathy at the men on the tower. “Bored to death and freezing all night long, only to be the first ones to get killed.”

  “Sounds like you know the life,” said Ceras.

  “Wasn't always the king, and a young adventurer sometimes has to take what pays well. Well, let’s get at it, lad. Can you detect the staff?”

  Ceras nodded his head as he cast a ‘Detect Magic’ spell, the waves of energy emanating from where he sat toward the castle. He started to feel sources of magical energy in their surroundings. His spell detected wards on the castle walls which were a significant magical highlight on the landscape, but he bypassed the wards and focused on the interior of the castle. Within the castle he detected multiple individual magical devices as if they were small pin pricks of light. Moving his focus like a searchlight around the castle, he continued to search for the staff. From within the largest tower, he felt the pull of a high-powered magical item and knew it was his staff. Zoning in on the location, he found that the tower was on the far side of the keep in the center of the second courtyard of the castle.

  Strangely, Ceras could feel the staff being used again and again as he focused on the room it was in at the top of the tower. It was as if somebody was using it to cast spell after spell.

  “It's in the topmost tower of the keep in the second courtyard. It's also being used, even at this early hour of the morning, which seems strange to me. How are we going to enter the castle?”

  “With your magic. It’s a simple process of blasting any door or gate in our way. We need to keep moving quickly once we’re detected, so expect to be thrown around a bit. There’s no time like the present - would you do the honors?” The king pointed to the drawbridge ahead.

  Ceras put up a magical shield around his body and held up his legendary staff, pointing it toward the castle drawbridge. Since he had created the staff, Ceras had been charging up the magical reservoir of energy within it with any MP he had generated over the days they had been traveling. Now the reservoir had a significant charge of MP in his staff, ready for the coming battle with anybody who got in their way.

  From his hiding place behind a tree, Ceras formed a large ball of energy with the ‘Temperature Extreme Hold’ spell. The white and black swirling sphere of magical energy moved swiftly across the distance to the bridge, guided by his immobilization spell. It followed the lay of the land and reached the bridge. By now, the guards on the top of the castle’s gate tower had seen the magic sphere approaching and were running to raise the alarm. A clanging bell sounded from the gatehouse as the sphere of twisting energy flew over the bridge and across the moat, straight into the drawbridge that was closed in its upright position. Ceras watched as the tip of his sphere of boiling black and white energy entered the wood of the castle’s defenses as if it was not even there. Flames and smoke appeared all around the impact point of the magical attack. Soon there was a fully-formed hole going through the drawbridge and wooden gate into the castle courtyard.

  In a few seconds, a burning hole about twice the size of a man had been created in the castle’s defenses. The king started to run forward, drawing his burning sword and sending up fireballs of yellow and white flames, hitting the top of the gate tower where the guards were watching to see what was happening. A bell sounded and then stopped, as if the person ringing it had dropped dead, as fire swept over the gate toward the guards.

  Ceras was only a few footsteps behind the king, providing them both with magical shielding from any arrows that may fire from the wall, but none came. Running over the bridge, he stopped at the edge and looked into the moat. He wondered how he would cross the distance that the drawbridge spanned. Ceras did not have to wonder for long, as he was suddenly picked up by the king like he was a small child and thrown across the moat, through the hole and onto the ground on the other side.

  Hitting the ground, he rolled head over heels for a few seconds until he was able to get to his feet. Thankfully he had been shielding himself so he was not hurt by the crazy king. Looking back he was able to see the king make a running jump and practically fly across the moat, to land deftly on his feet. He was a lot more elegant in his touchdown than Ceras had been.

  Ceras’ sphere of magical energy was still burning away in the tunnel leading to the castle. Commanding it to press forward, Ceras used the sphere to clear the path of any obstruction preventing them from gaining access to the courtyard. When the king and Ceras entered the courtyard, arrows started to hit the shield around them. The king just pointed his glowing sword in the direction of the arrows and sprayed the area with small fireballs. The two fighters made their way through the first courtyard as the ball of energy cleared the path before them.

  The spe
ll energy reached the gates between the courtyards and burned another hole into the tall wooden gate, allowing an path for the king and Ceras into the second courtyard where the tower was located. Before they could go through the hole, however, guards started to run through it directly toward them.

  The king, who was ahead, disappeared for a second - and then suddenly, there were five kings all with flaming swords attacking the guards. For the next thirty seconds an intense fight ensued as the many kings fought off all the guards, seemingly able to coordinate their movements.

  Each of the guards and the kings started to blur in and out of Ceras’ vision, as if they were in a grand chess match moving around to get a better position for a killing blow. Off to one side of the mystifying battle, Ceras saw a king appear behind an unsuspecting guard to slice his head in two with the flaming blade as if none of his armor was there to defect the blow. As pieces of the guard's body fell to the floor, the king moved a step then disappeared, reappearing across the battlefield beside another king who was battling three guards. The reappearing king moved quickly to stab one in the chest with his sword; all Ceras saw was the burning sword on the other side of the man as the king pushed the dead body to the ground. The other king then took out the other two with a sweeping cut to their legs. As the battle continued, the number of guards fighting the kings depleted, leaving him and his counterparts to quickly kill the rest with amazing efficiency.

  When the final guard was killed, all except one of the kings disappeared. The remaining king ran forward into the second courtyard. Ceras followed him, amazed at the power of the warrior, and beginning to understand what he had meant about become a legendary warrior as well as a wizard.

  Only arrows met them in the courtyard, which were easily deflected by the shields that Ceras still had in place around the pair.

  Getting into the keep was no problem, as all Ceras did was shrink the ball of energy to man-size and send it through the wooden and iron doorway of the keep. When he and the king entered the keep’s first reception room, they found it in a state of confusion as people were running around in various state of undress. Some had armor on but most of the defenders just met the intruders only half-dressed with a sword in hand.