"…did Korbin just fucking bail right now?" Cassi whispered to me over her shoulder, as we stood back to back facing the surrounding soldiers. The 3 Kings guards were circling us slowly, like predators around wounded prey. By all logical respects, they indeed befitted that role.
Cassi was level 5, at least to my knowledge her class was. However, all 3 of our opponents were level 6, like myself. Not to mention Cassi was level 4 when we got here, implying she was putting off her evolution until after the siege. Meaning we lacked in both power individually and in numbers. Of course, that's based on the assumption they've spent as much time training rigorously for the fuck of it, not even knowing the system would snatch us from our comfortable little world.
The first Kings guard to make a move was a shorter fellow, wearing black and green cloth robes that swayed loosely through the air as he darted about. His rear hand was hovering low at his hip, however he appeared unarmed. The same rear hand suddenly flung forward, a large metal blade sliding out from his sleeve, gliding along his palm and hurtling towards my head.
Luckily he'd chosen me as his target, given I'd doubted Cassi had a skill like Flow Inverse to defend projectiles with. My eyes narrowed focusing on his movements before his hand finished its toss, detecting the incredibly consistent Flow of his long projectile wriggling through his sleeve. The tip of my lead blade flicked across my face, slapping the end of his metallic mini-spear. Its path was redirected activating Flow Inverse, flying by Cassi's head and nearly hitting the hooded Mage that stood in front of Cassi.
The towering fellow adorning massive knights armor attacked me from the side. His armor was decorated in insignia and swirling designs I couldn't recognize but appeared ancient based on its crude and jagged aesthetic. The shield covering half his body nearly concealed his swinging morning star, Water Step pulling me just out of range.
The presumed tank of the Kings Guard's weapon slammed into the ground below, cracking the stone floor with a thunderous smack. His hunched over posture left his midsection exposed, which I happily capitalized on lunging forward a Lightning Strike. The odd symbols on his armor flashed a bright tan and white hue just before my twinblade connected.
My attack barely left a mark in his armor, meanwhile my arm vibrated to the bone from wrist to shoulder. The energy from the strike shot back up the blade, and in turn my arm. It felt like I'd hit a concrete ball going 80 MPH with a metal bat, forcing me to kick off his chest to make distance from his outstretching Morning Star. Barreling at my head.
Cassi darted between the magically armored tank chasing after their mage. The walls of stone randomly erecting out of the castle floor kept Cassi at arms reach as she pursued. My head turned back just in time to dodge another incoming metal blade, courtesy of their little rogue.
The same iron tossing rogue slid forward on his hip entering melee with me, using another metal blade held high to stab forward. His tank comrade was closing from the other side, leaving only enough time to front kick the rogue away rather than slice his hand off.
My foot barely fell back to the ground after launching the rogue back through the air 3 feet before crashing hard to the ground, when a spiked ball flew in from my peripherals. My muscles flexed hard spreading the blade hilts apart wide, angling the Morning Stars steel ball away from my body between my tightly taught chains. Another slash toward the tank's neck resulted in a loud tink as my blade bounced off harmlessly.
Not willing to get too frustrated yet, I switched my focus into the metal flinging rogue intermittently tossing shit at me and now Cassi. Leaning out of range of the tank's follow up swing, my foot smashed into his chest activating Flow Strike. My boot bashed into his chest armor, only I didn't fully extend immediately.
After a milliseconds pause to achieve footing on the behemoth of a warrior, my leg extended hard sending the tank stumbling back while launching me toward the rogue. His arm tucked to his hip again, which was already an established 'tell' of his next move now. My lead leg planted hard changing direction and dodging diagonally, his metal blade missing my face by mere inches.
I'd closed within 6 feet of the rogue when a giant stone wall manifested in front of me, my extended arms having to slow my impact to avoid slamming head first into it. The tank I'd left behinds loud pounding steps alerted me to his full speed charge from behind. Deciding to take a gamble on my speed, I waited for him to thrust his Morning Star forward hoping to kick off of him again. Panic shot through my nervous system realizing he wasn't going to stop, leaning into a shield bash.
My feet exploded off the ground leaping to the side. The monstrous tank of a man blew through the wall entirely, stumbling over the broken rocks. The rogue was down on a knee, clutching his side and completely clueless to my whereabouts. My feet glided across the stone floor sprinting toward the rogue. Of course, another wall erected in front of me, now between both of my targets and myself. Anger billowed in my chest seeing the mage wasn't even focused on me, instead evading Cassi effortlessly creating rock platforms to jump onto.
Fucking hate mages.
Officially fed up, I abandoned the two asshole Kingsguard to help Cassie eliminate the most royal pains of them all thus far. She clearly shared my frustration having been chasing this slippery mage for the entire duration of the fight. The mage must've caught a glimpse of me closing in from the corner of her eye, as she quickly launched a large jagged rock towards me with a rigid wave of her staff.
Dodging to the side, I continued across the training area our fight was quickly spilling out into. Cassi closed in on the mage sooner, only for a rock sliding under falling step, causing her to slip back onto back with a hollow thud. The mage smirked under her tan hooded robes as she retreated further into the training grounds, leaving walls of stone popping up behind. My eyes locked onto the ground trying to evade her stone walls launching from below.
Dodging around another wall, a metal blade clanked off it beside my head. My temper had completely removed the previous two combatants from my mind, an urgency to prevent us from being pinched together replacing my hatred. The mage was too quick with their defenses anyhow, but they had to be running low on mana. The best we could do now is let Cass keep her busy while I handled the other 2. Exhaling a disappointed sigh understanding my role, my feet skidded under me turning back toward a voluntary 1 versus 2.
The tank was the first to meet me, and nearly halfway as he'd never given up his charge regardless of the distance I'd created. Not fully interested in disheartening metal noises right now, I feigned a lunge goading him to counter attack. Lurching my head back and watching his Morning Star glide by my face, my skipped around the tank slapping his head with the flat side of my blade.
His angry growl faded behind me continuing straight for that pesky ranged rogue. The man's body language had long devolved from oozing confidence to nervous uncertainty throughout our battle, nearly freezing up seeing me rapidly closing in. His arms stuttered at his hips before firing a rapid barrage of long metal blades at me.
The sheer quantitative fuck-ton of sharpened steel firing out of the mages hands forced me to divert my path around him entirely. My arm facing the rogue flicked frantically blocking as many metal blades as I could. Two blades flew in simultaneously, blocking one while the other grazed my shoulder. The forced stills caused me to spin out, needing slow my pace to gather my footing. Every muscle clenched hard bracing to be turned into a human pincushion.
Looking up, the rogue was back down on a knee, looking utterly exhausted and unable to stand. No doubt he's hit mana exhaustion, probably having ignored the pain of being out of mana casting those steel blades out of fear. His tank companion didn't have time to cut off my approach, nor did a stone wall rise before 2 tapered Lightning Strikes pierced through the rogue's back, blowing a small hole through his body after the second strike.
*ding*
*ding*
A surge of energy came over my entire body as my blade left the rogue's back, the two notification sounds confirming my suspicion of leveling up just now. The tank's raging charge snapped me out of my euphoric moment. My body lurched back, his mourning star smashing into the stone in front of me.
My fist smashed into his face guard, blade in hand. The shot of pain through knuckles and wrist was minor compared to the opening it provided, the tank's head snapping back violently. My foot flew up, smashing into the tanks wrist,
The pain in my shin definitely outweighed that from the punch, however it proved just enough to force the tanks hands open. His heavy mourning star clattered to the floor at our feet. The tank swung his fist wildly at me, making for an easy evasion stepping under his lunging punch.
The towering tank's leg was stepping back from having advanced for the punch, when I slipped my foot just behind his ankle and hooked it around. My leg yanked back, pulling the tanks leg out from under him sending him crashing head-first onto the stone floor.
"Ah FUCK!"
Cassi's angry yell diverted my attention, turning to find her putting her dislocated shoulder back in next to a pile of broken stones.
Shit, she got hit.
Finally having evenly matched numbers was way too comfortable for me to let crumble to my friend dying to her pride. I exploded toward the mage, who was still throwing walls and clumps of stone to avoid being closed in on. Cassi saw me coming, and weirdly decided to run around the mage, to her other s-
Ohhh!
My pace quickened seeing the mage raising her staff, multiple chunks of stone being ripped from the ground hovering beside her before launching toward me. The jagged earthy projectiles were much smaller than what I'd dealt with earlier, these ones being the size of a football rather than my entire torso.
The Flow on projectiles in general was easy to read, which made dodging the barrage of stones a breeze. The mage followed with another earthly volley, their arm waving more aggressively this time. Then another. Her face contorted into one of absolute rage watching as I dipped, dodged, and slashed away all of her ranged attacks. She lifted her staff for another round of rock-toss when her body violently thrusted forward chest first.
Cassi certainly took her time sizing up the mage before bursting pouncing on her from behind. Clearly, the mage was none the wiser to Cassi's flying front kick to the mages spine, sending her flying through air before crashing hard to the floor, rolling a few times forward.
Coincidentally, the kick brought the mage tumbling to my feet. The lumbering tank I'd swept earlier was sprinting towards us with reckless abandonment, forcing the finishing blow to be rather unceremonious. Both of my blades danced with blue light plunging into the prone mages body twice in succession. A spray of the unfortunately familiar red mist nearly hit my face as I dashed away, narrowly avoiding tanks shield bash.
Clearly the big fellow expected to land that attack, not even noticing he'd absolutely trampled the mage along his path. At least, not until after his weight fully shifted onto her back, a disgusting cacophony of cracks drawing his childlike attention to her crushed corpse under his boots. The dim witted giant arched his head toward the ceiling letting out a rage filled guttural roar before sprinting toward us yet again.
I shuffled and dodged away from his wide arching swings until I could get past him, hoping to get his back turned to Cassi. The over armored meathead fully obliged, fighting as if his purpose was absolutely smacking my head off. Once I had him turned around, my pace sharply rose counter attacking in and out of range.
None of my strikes broke through armor, but all of them equally pissed him off to no end. Over his shoulder, Cassi was closing in looking to land another devastating flanking attack. Energy pulsated around my blades launching a Lighting Strike forward. My other palm slammed into my wrist, Flow Inverse activating sending the energy into a kick to the behemoth's chest.
The tank's body lurched back, sending it straight into Cassi's foot barreling into his spine and increasing the force of impact. He stumbled forward hard, barely keeping his balance. My fist flew toward his head, however his arm flinging up at the last second to catch his balance blocked my angle. Adjusting my elbow lower turned the head shot into hook to the rib.
My knuckles ricocheted off his impregnable armor, throbbing just enough to distract me. My arm barely lifted in time to take the brunt of his gauntlets slamming into me. The tank blindly swung out with a backhand, still launching me a few feet away exhibiting the man's incredible strength.
Cassi pressed forward, hoping to get a grasp on his wrist for some kind of hold leaping over his shoulder. The tank flicked his arm down hard as she clutched onto his arm, slamming Cassi straight down to the floor with a loud thud. I barely had time to land a sprinting front kick to his ribs to interrupt his stomp aimed for Cassi's head.
Speaking of , Cassi was out cold. Her chest was rising still, indicating she's still alive and allowing me to focus on the tank clambering to his feet after I'd kicked him over. I resolved myself to keeping between him and Cassi, hoping she'd wake up sooner rather than later. Surprisingly, the tank started casually walking toward me.
"Just me and you, little man. Better hope she's dead. She'll wanna be." The giant man sneered through a malicious grin, yellow jagged teeth showing through his face guard.
"…yeah, I'm gonna enjoy this way more now." I shot back after having processed his sinister attempt at mind games. He clearly wasn't one for banter, now dropping his vile smirk and attacking wildly.
Launching forward, my foot slammed into his shoulder with a Flow Inverse. His winding swing stopped dead in its tracks, however he was hardly affected by sudden halt of momentum. Instead, he punched at me with his free hand, which I dodged and caught between my chains. Lightning surged through my weapons into his armor before I quickly unwrapped the chains from his gauntlet and retreated.
The surge clearly hurt him, his quivering vocalizations during the shock giving plenty of evidence to that. His hips began twisting however, indicating I was about to get tossed like Cassi did, and his swinging arm that whiffed at air supported that assessment as well.
In truth, I didn't need to use so many abilities in one go, but I couldn't give him an angle to Cassi. Not until she could defend herself. His reckless onslaught of attacks continued, as did my liberal use of mana to defend and counter strike to save face. I felt myself tiring, knowing damn well that wasn't due to my endurance getting low. Quite frankly, I wasn't sure I could use all of my stamina.
Feeling my mana clock ticking, Cassi was still adrift deep in dreamland while I desperately fought to keep this metallic bear of a man at bay. He showed no signs of slowing, his rage and glowing insignia decorating his armor rendering every strike utterly useless. There had to be a way for me to beat this guy.
My mind raced with solutions as I dodged and redirected his blows, leading to a wide angled punch to my side catching me off guard. The tank's falling morning star triggered a shift in my stomach, my legs obliging as I shuffled out of the way with a Water Step.
Without missing a beat, the tank lifted his weapon again, headed straight for Cassi's incapacitated body. Against my throbbing ribs' better wishes, I sprung toward the tank as quickly as I could.
Focusing on the Flow of his strike, I realized quickly I couldn't just shove him away this time. His weapon would still follow through, moving the user wasn't going to cut it.
Wait.
The Flow continued working along his shoulders, now traveling down his arm flickered a light white glow as I approached. My arms screamed in pain swinging one of my blades upward, my eyes locked onto his Flow. The familiar flash of Flow-energy ignited in front of me in a network of lines surfing along his body, connecting to his large Morning Star. My sword impacted under his wrist cuffs as they slammed his weapon down.
The typical arm-shattering impact hitting the tanks armor was replaced by a sensation similar to cutting butter, as our clashing Flow flared on impact at the tank's hand. His hang flew through the air detaching from his arm, with the morning star still in its grasp. Seeing it clang to the floor safely away from Cassi, I forced my body forward with another Lightning Strike, aimed straight for the tanks nub while he stood frozen in shock.
The tank was still screaming, staring at his lack of a hand when I'd impaled my blade down into the exposed socket. Blue light erupted from his gauntlet, blood and chunks of skin and bone pooling out from it. My towering opponent smacked me hard with his shield, launching me across the room, just missing Cassi's unconscious head with my foot.
Looking up, the man was screaming a bloodcurdling screech staggering around, his arm gushing red liquid all across the training facility. The man's steps weakened, as did his bellows, before dropping to his knees and collapsing into his face. Not willing to get out of Flow just yet, I immediately sprinted towards Cassi. I'd just begun lifting her from the floor when she wriggled, then elbowed me hard in the sternum forcing me to drop her onto her back.
"Fucking ow Cass. Quit fucking around, we gotta help Korbin?!" I snapped at Cassi, who frantically glanced around the room from the floor. There was no time for celebration, the mission wasn't over yet. Knowing Cassi was safe, I left her to decide whether to join or not and darted for the ladder headed to the King.
After climbing up and sprinting down the hallways I'd seen Korbin sprint toward, the clanging of steel guided my way until I'd reached an hallway exiting from the castle. As my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, Korbin's figure came into focus catching the dual bladed King's guards descending wrist. Korbin twisted around the final Kings Guard cranking his wrist, forcing the guard to contort his body and drop his sword.
The King lurched from behind a pillar with dagger in hand running towards Korbin. Korbin had just stabbed the last Kings guard through his throat using the sword in his other hand when a loud thump echoed against the building walls. Behind Korbin stood the great King Nathaniel, his eyes rolled into his head with blood dripping from his head. A metal ball attached to an incredibly large chain was embedded into the back of his skull, holding him up like a puppet.
The King's body flung back before the spiked ball dislodged, while Korbin dropped the last King's guards corpse from his hands. Walking quickly around the building blocking my view, Lonni's flail was reeling in the spiked metal ball along its comically extended chain. Behind him stood the rest of our soldiers and Steve, all looking a little banged up but in relatively good health.
Cassi slowed her sprint behind me, now processing the scene I'd just walked into. Korbin stepped between heading toward the soldiers, raising his axe in the air. Our soldiers cheered and laughingly embraced one another at our arguably flawless victory. Not one casualty suffered, not even the new guy from the Castle Pylon had a scratch on. Korbin spoke proudly addressing our success.
"Today marks our greatest victory yet ladies and gentlemen. Revel in the fruits of your efforts, you've earned it!" The soldiers erupted once more in cries of victory before Korbin calmed them down motioning his hands.
"But, this is only the beginning. Rest well tonight, for there is much more earth left to conquer, and levels for the lot of you." Korbin said with a sly grin, the soldiers now literally barked punching their fists in the air. Realizing how cold I must've came off to her not but 2 minutes ago, I turned around to face Cassi.
"Hey Cass I didn't m-"
"Sorry for el-" Cassi said at about the same time. We both paused waiting for the other to speak. After a couple seconds, I decided to take initiative.
"Me first, that's my bad just dumping you back there. I just didn't want to risk losing anyone, and Korbin was unaccounted for." I said, not willing to hang in the awkward silence.
"No no, it's fine I get it. Besides, you ended up taking down that monster of a man while I was out cold, I owe yuh." She said with a reassuring smile.
"Twice. That's twice I saved your skin." I teased.
"And I paid you back when you tried to fight an entire army by yourself. I'll get you back, don't worry." She shot back wearing a devious smirk before leaving to have a word with Korbin. Lonni was still celebrating with the soldiers when I noticed him, and I had to give flowers where they're due.
"Lonni, BROTHER?! What the fuck was that?!" I hollered at him, a shocked smile on my face. His face grew beat red before responding to my unbridled excitement in kind.
"I KNOW?! I've been working on that shit forever dude, this was only the third time I ever did it!" He announced with childlike vigor. Kind of alarming he whipped that move out when it hadn't worked yet but, who am I to judge honestly?
We discussed the battle, at least our perspectives of it. Apparently Lonni went on a bit of a rampage seeing one of our guys nearly get his head lopped off if it wasn't for Steve's intervention. Speaking of my favorite sea serpent, he'd already found some shade under the castle to take a coiled nap in. No doubt he must be drained from fighting in this heat.
"Tom, you and Cassi are coming with me to claim the Pylon. Don't feel like fighting a group of extra super secret Kings guard Elites or some bullshit alone." Korbin said in an annoyed tone. He had to have pushed himself today too, as I was right there with him in terms of being absolutely fed up with duals for the day.
Me and Cassi both followed him back through the tunnel descending into the lower levels, where this Nathan freak decided to put his Pylon gem. Korbin had just rounded a second obnoxiously large throne where the Pylon resided when he lurched behind the chair, the begging cries of a stranger following.
"W-wait please! I can help you, I-I'm not a soldier!" The voice frantically pleaded. Walking around the throne myself revealed a red, curly haired man. His face was peppered in freckles, and he looked to be somewhere in his late 40's.
"Yeah, I can see that. What can you do?" Korbin asked, standing back from the man now. The fellow stood up, brushing the dust from his clothes.
"Two things. One, I'm a cartographer. I was already in the works of getting this entire region fully mapped, and would be more than inclined to assist you, your grace." The man offered with a courteous smile. I already hated him.
"Hm, that's actually quite useful indeed. What was the second?" Korbin asked, crossing his arms now curious. The man's eyes narrowed, grinning wide with his pearly white teeth before responding.
"I can show you how to make the birdies up there work for their worm."