by Kevin Culp
“Just be ready for me to ask for your permission a lot.”
She rolled her eyes and hugged me.
“That's a really pretty dress by the way. You look good in it. Why have I never seen it before?”
She looked sad again for a moment then spoke, “My mother gave it to me for my birthday about a year before she disappeared. I know I've outgrown it, but I still like to wear it when I'm feeling sad.”
“Well, I personally think you should wear it more often.”
We sat on the edge of the bed, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. She picked up the mirror and looked at us in it. Eventually, she told me she was tired and asked me to tell her father she was going to take a nap. I guess the stress had really worn on her. I stepped out of the room, closed the door, and began to prepare myself for the battle to come.
Chapter 8
The next week flew by in a flash. The day before the noble was supposed to show up, I picked up my weapon from the blacksmith. It was the epitome of nothing special. It was a long sword that had just never been sharpened, so I guess you would call it a practice sword. I mean in the real world I’m sure I could do a lot of damage even with a blunt sword, but hopefully, this would deal non-lethal damage, and I wouldn’t kill anyone by mistake.
The noble arrived just after I finished breakfast, but instead of coming to the tavern, he went to a local field. He obviously had a bigger entourage than the first time, and they seemed to be setting up a makeshift arena and stage. Shortly after his arrival, a few other knights rode into town in complete full plate, but they were bearing a different crest than that of the noble.
I was standing next to Stephan when they arrived, so I asked, “Who are these other knights? I mean I know I said he could bring anyone to challenge me, but shouldn’t that at least be limited to knights who work for him.”
“They aren’t challengers, they’re witnesses, knights of the crown. The challenge you issued must be being viewed as one of one noble to another. Given that you can’t own a territory, town or otherwise without having a noble title, this is a good thing. Their very presence means that they are recognizing this as a valid challenge.”
Suddenly, someone took my hand. I turned and saw Christina. She had actually been doing this a lot over the past week. Said that it helped make her feel like I wasn’t going anywhere when she could hold a part of me. I didn’t mind of course, she was the only thing I had in this world that I could consider a friend. Even if it gave people the wrong impression of us, it was fine by me. Though, apparently, when word of it got to her uncle, he started claiming he was going to force us to marry if I survived this fight.
“Is there anything I should know about a formal duel? Like rules on what I can and can’t do.” I asked.
“It depends on the duel, but it’s typically the person being challenged who has the right to set the rules of the duel. Given that you pretty much gave him free rein to bring as many people as he wanted and let them fight you all at once, I think he just went with it and assumed anything goes because that suited him.”
“Yeah, what kind of idiot challenges someone like that,” I mused.
Christina punched my arm.
I feigned injury, “Ow, I hope they don’t have anyone as strong as you. I might be in some real trouble.”
She gave me a murderous glare. I think it was actually the scariest anyone had looked at me since I’d been here.
“I think I’m more worried about what you will do to me if I die than I am about what they will have done to me to kill me.”
“You better be because if you die I won’t forgive you,” she said.
I wandered around with Christina and Zeus until lunch. Throughout the week, people in town had been showing me support and telling me about how much of a tyrant the baron was. Now they were avoiding even looking at me. I guess if I lost they didn’t want to be in the baron’s bad graces, and most of them probably expected me to lose.
“I wonder how long it will be before the fight,” I questioned.
“Well, it didn’t look like they were setting anything up too fancy, so why don’t we head that way and check,” Christina said.
We walked over to the area where they were setting up the stage. It really wasn’t anything special. An area about thirty feet in diameter enclosed by a fence that looked like it could just as easily be used as some kind of enclosure for a farm animal.
The more extravagant part was the seating that was being set up for the Baron. It was a platform about five feet high with stairs on both sides and a canopy roof. They had giant fans set in holders for someone to wave on either side of him when he got hot. The seat looked like a throne with its intricate carving and a high back. There was a young girl probably not more than seventeen years old standing on the side of the chair wearing a plain white dress.
Someone approached me. “So you must be the foolhardy challenger I’ve heard so much about.”
I looked at her.
She was short, probably only about 5’1,” and looked more like a character out of an anime than anything else. Her blonde hair was in a bun on the back of her head and she had a thin angular face. Her frame was slight, but I would say she had curves in all the right places and was showing it.
Part of the reason I say she looked like a character from an anime was because of her armor. I’m guessing you would call it half-plate armor. It covered her chest and back as well as pretty much all of her outer extremities assuming she was standing at attention. However, her inner thighs, underarms, and sides were completely exposed. One shoulder had a thick plate covering it but the other just had a strip of leather. She was holding a Glaive.
“I guess I am the foolhardy challenger if that’s how you see it. And you would be?” I questioned her.
“The name’s Rin, but you won’t be alive long enough to remember it. No hard feelings though, I’m just doing my job.”
I actually kind of liked that kind of character in the genre. Just the real practical warrior. She probably enjoys fighting but doesn’t really carry emotion into it about what she’s fighting for. Finds something she can do that allows her to fight, then lets the politicians figure out the details of what’s right and wrong. I could respect that.
“Well Rin, I promise I won’t have any kind of hard feelings one way or another but know that I don’t intend on anyone dying here today.”
She looked angry. “Those are the words of a coward, and here I was thinking I was here to fight a man. It’s insulting enough that I wasn’t given permission to fight you on my own, and now I’m finding out that you aren’t even a real warrior.” She stormed off.
“That went well,” I commented to Christina.
“She’s a brute that doesn’t understand loss. Just ignore her.”
Another hour passed, and it seemed that it was time for the fight to begin. A man who looked like a butler stood next to the door of the baron’s carriage with a soldier on the other side. The butler cleared his throat loudly as if to quiet down a crowd, but there really wasn’t much noise.
“Presenting the officiator of today’s duel. Baron Sir Geoffrey Eric Ludvig Lyndmire the third.”
The soldier opened the door to the carriage and the plump noble finally showed himself. Today he had decided to go with a toupee rather than his thin comb-over, but it actually looked worse since it didn’t match his hair color. It was a solid black in contrast to his white hair. He still had the waxed up handlebar mustache but had added a monocle to his look. He kind of looked like a fat monopoly man but meaner and with a bad wig.
“Also, the challenger Sir Archaeus Alexander Velnir,” the butler rushed through that statement.
I walked up to the baron and extended my hand. He looked at it as if it were the most disgusting thing he’d ever seen and walked towards his seat.
“Challengers to the arena,” the butler called.
There was one gate into the Arena, and I was the first to enter. About six other people followed
behind me and then someone closed the gate. I was in the center and already they had all started to circle around me.
There was the girl from before, but she was standing there glaive in hand looking bored. There were three men in full plate armor with long swords and heavy steel shields, as well as a man that looked like the stereotypical gladiator wearing basically just leather straps that randomly crossed his body and wielding a trident and net. The last man was holding a staff and wearing robes. He had a shaved head and a foo man chu. I’m guessing he was a wizard of some kind.
The baron stood up and motioned for the young girl to stop fanning him. “Do you have any last words ‘Sir Velnir’?” He said it with a mocking tone.
I stepped forward. “I do have something to say, actually.” I cleared my throat. “Those in power should never abuse that power or take advantage of their strength over others. Doing so is an insult to all the work that went into gaining that power to begin with. People in power should be the ones that inspire others. That being said, I want to win this fight only with my own power only and not with a power that can be bought.”
I walked to the side of the arena to where Christine was. I took off my breastplate, my belt, my headband, ring, amulet, and cloak and handed them to her. I took off my shirt, wanting everyone to see the scars on my body. I handed her my magic sword and drew the practice sword as I walked back to the center of the arena.
“Kill this imbecile who would belittle your strength!” The baron shouted in a rage.
I waited for them to make the first move.
Suddenly, I heard a voice in my head ‘get on your knees and surrender.’ I was under no obligation to comply probably due to my impressive will save.
I looked at the guy in the robes and saw that he was casting a spell. I couldn’t identify it because I had no training in spell knowledge, but I knew it was him. I was on him in an instant.
One of the men in full plate armor made an attempt to step between us, but I bull-rushed him and he was pushed back several feet. The caster started to chant another spell, and I'm not sure if it was somehow still part of my charge or a free attack trigger due to him casting in melee range, but I brought my sword down hard on his right shoulder. There was a sickening crunch, and the man wailed in pain as the spell fizzled.
I felt something try to poke me in the back, but it didn't appear as though it did any damage to me. As a level 20 paladin, I had damage resistance 15 unless the attack was evil, so it would be hard for these guys to wound me unless they had evil weapons. Taking off my armor, ring, and necklace, I would be easy to hit, but I still didn't think I was in much danger.
Suddenly, a net flew over my entire body, and I felt something heavy hit the ground next to me. It was the trident. This was a pretty old trick for gladiators, catching your prey in a net and then anchoring it down with the trident. Normally it would be difficult to escape but not for me.
I focused on the spell I wanted to cast. It was a free action spell called break bindings, so I'm guessing the verbal and somatic components happened faster than I could have comprehended. I'm sure there was a required concentration check that I made easily, but when it resolved, I was out of the net and standing behind the caster. They all stared at me in surprise.
This time I was going to take a full attack action, so I swung my sword in from the side and it crashed into the man’s staff. It hit the staff and continued on in force crushing into the man's side. He was thrown off his feet and fell to the ground seemingly unconscious.
My body was still moving due to my full attack, and the soldier I had previously bull-rushed was in my reach. I swung my sword at him three times from all different directions in a blur. His plate armor was crumpling like a tin can beneath the weight of my blows. After the third hit he dropped to his knees then fell forward dropping his weapon.
When I turned back to my other enemies, I noticed Rin was just staring at the sky looking like she would rather be anywhere than here. For a moment, I hated that it seemed she was underestimating me. Then, I remembered that I was fighting her and five others with no armor and a blunt weapon, so I guess she probably felt the same way.
The gladiator was retrieving his trident, and the other two had already closed in on me and were launching a new wave of attacks. Their swords hit my body with little to no effect. One of them left a slight scratch, and a trickle of blood started running down from my shoulder.
“How tough is this guy?” The guy who had wounded me questioned.
“It's not right it's like he's not even human,” the other commented.
I smiled at that and launched into another flurry of attacks. This time I focused on activating mighty blow and gripped my sword with both hands. I hit the man who had wounded me in the ribs opposite his shield arm and could feel my sword crushing the bones as if his armor was only paper. As he fell, I lifted my sword and brought it down on the second man. He lifted his shield to block and when my sword hit it, there was such force that his arm slammed back into his face, and he still fell from the blow.
“Ah screw this it's not worth it.”
As I turned my attention away from the two men now passed out on the ground, I saw the man who had retrieved the trident throw it back on the ground, run to the fence, and jump over.
“You cowardice imbecile! I'll see you charged for desertion for this,” the baron shouted.
The man kept running.
Rin finally looked at me. “Well, I guess you aren't completely incompetent, but these idiots are weaklings, and you will still regret not keeping your armor.”
She charged me and swung down her glaive. I let the blade hit me on the shoulder and it erupted in flames as she did. Luckily, some of my paladin class options allowed me to get resistance to elements, so I had low tier resistance to all elements. This fire was no more effective against me than a warm breeze.
Rin smiled for a split second when the blade connected, which turned into shock when she saw the results. She wasn't wrong about being stronger than the others. The blade had cut into my shoulder, and a small stream of blood was running down my chest. It was probably a hit twice as strong as the one from the soldier that had wounded me, but to me, it was still just a flesh wound.
I swung my sword at her from the side with both hands still using my mighty blow. The results were truly sickening.
There was a loud cracking sound as the blade hit Rin on the side of the head. You could physically see her skull giving way to the steel. Blood poured from her nose, mouth, and ears. She fell to the ground and lay there motionless.
Rin was dead.
The crowd seemed confused. Some of them gasped in horror at what had just happened, a few of them cheered for my victory, and the baron roared in frustration about what this defeat had cost him not even caring about his dead comrade.
“Christina, listen to me. Please, go quickly and get my backpack from the tavern!” I shouted at her.
She didn't say anything back, just nodded then turned and ran for the tavern.
I kneeled down and picked up Rin's lifeless body. I had picked someone up before when they were asleep, but it was nothing like this. She was completely limp with no response from the muscles at all as I pulled her into me. I cradled her in my arms for what felt like hours, though in reality it probably only took ten or fifteen minutes for Christina to get back.
“Archaeus, I have it.” She attempted to hand me the bag.
“Open the main pouch and reach in with the goal to retrieve a diamond.”
“Ummm... how do I do that exactly?”
“Just think of wanting a diamond as you reach into the bag.”
She reached into the bag and pulled out a large diamond. She seemed shocked by the gemstone as did all the onlookers. Even the greedy duke seemed shocked by the sheer size and purity of it.
I gently laid Rin's body back on the ground and took the gem from Christina.
“What are you going to do with her?” Christina asked but was too a
fraid to look at the body.
I didn't respond, but I held the gemstone in one hand and placed the other over Rin's chest. I felt the power flow through me as if I was using healing hands, but the amount of power I felt was overwhelming by comparison.
Her skull began to take back its proper shape, and the blood on her mouth and head receded back into her body. She seemed to glow for a few moments.
She gasped and bolted upright coughing, “What... what happened?” She looked to me with a scared look in her eyes.
“Try not to move too much. You may feel drained in comparison to normal, and that's probably not going to go away easily.”
“I was... you.... um... was I dead?” she asked.
“Yes... You were dead, and I am truly sorry. I had hoped that no one would be severely injured during today's duel. The whole thing was completely unnecessary after all.”
She didn't seem to know what to say.
Christina spoke up, “Archaeus... How is that even possible? I mean, I've heard fairy tales of powerful clerics bringing people back from the dead but... That's just a myth isn't it?”
“No, Christina, it isn't a myth. Unfortunately, mankind often values riches over people’s lives and because of this, with the right amount of power the afterlife accepts trades of 'equal value.'”
After saying this, I opened up my hand that had been holding the diamond. There, where there had previously been a diamond that many would have killed their most precious loved ones for sat a pile of dust. I turned my hand to the side and let it slowly fall to the ground.
“So, what you bought her life back with that huge diamond?” Christina asked.
“That's one way to put it.”
Rin seemed to be catching on to the conversation, though still in a state of shock. “What do you mean he bought my life? Last I checked, I wasn't for sale. I'm no one's slave.”
“No one is calling you a slave Rin. You are a free woman.” I said.
“Imbeciles! You are all worthless imbeciles! You’re back from the dead Rin, so why aren't you killing that man!” The baron screamed in rage. His toupee was starting to fall to the side.