Chapter 17

The lobby was very quiet. From time to time someone would throw another log onto the fire and poke it, or shift a little, but no one really dared move. Outside the sky was getting darker. The lamps in the inn were not lit, so as the hands of the clock on the wall steadily moved to the mark labelled six the room gradually darkened.

Valkron was sitting next to the window. He could see people arriving and talking in small groups. Emeth was leaning against the mantelpiece above the hearth, fingering the head of his staff, but his eyes gazed into empty space. Iruna had replaced her blindfold and was keeping her head slightly bowed. The rest either sat or stood, looking everywhere except at each other.

The warriors outside were in trouble, Valkron thought. It would be too cold for them to even think properly once it was midnight. It was what the portal wanted - more lives, more souls. He could feel its hunger through the frost on the window.

Eni shivered. 'It's getting colder now,' she said, chafing her arms. 'I can't believe those people out there can stand it.'

'Eventually they won't,' said Emeth.

Valkron kept his gaze on the guilds. Every one of their members had a badge on their chests. He could see flags being carried into the city and snorted quietly. They wanted to do a raid to curb the monsters of Geffen and they still needed morale.

There was a flag he could see, being carried by a rogue. It was black and edged wtih gold, dangling vertically as all guild flags did. On it, drawn in white, was a ship.

'The Odyssey guild is here,' he said, making people jump behind him. 'They've gathered near the tower.'

'How'd you know?' said Aldev.

'Once everyone's present they'll raise their guild flag,' replied the knight. 'The Seven Eyes has gathered too. So have Apocalypse Ultima and the El Midor.'

Emeth went over and peered out. 'You're right. I think the Blue Cross is gathering-- ah, there's its flag.'

After a few minutes or so there was a thundering on the door. Valkron rose from his seat and opened the door. A cold draught blew in, bringing in with it a few snowflakes.

A crusader stood in the doorway. It was so dark no one could see his badge, but they could see he was wearing a horned helmet and was smoking a pipe.

'Valkron! What are you doing here?' he said, nearly dropping his pipe in surprise.

'Waiting,' replied the knight.

'For what? I thought this city was cleared out.'

'Mercenary business. You know the laws.'

The crusader looked around at the silent party. 'I see. It's not going to be a nurturing experience for your party members here, though.'

'Who said we were in for a nurturing experience? We're just waiting for the attack to begin.'

'You can't go anywhere now, though. The gates of Geffen are locked shut. No one can leave the city until morning.'

As Aldev made a sound very similar to a whimper, Valkron closed his eyes and smiled. 'That's what we're doing. We want to know something. Don't worry, Adiemus, we won't join in the fighting unless we're forced to.'

The crusader gave him a look. 'I hope you know what you're doing, Valkron. You used to be a reckless swordsman back then, please don't be so reckless now. I still remember a lot of things you did for odd reasons.'

'Odd, but good, reasons, Adiemus,' said Valkron. He clapped the crusader on the back with a resounding clonk. 'Good luck with the raid. May Odin's spear spell victory for you and may Tyr be on your side tonight.'

'I certainly hope so.' The crusader returned the good-natured slap on the back and left. Valkron, still gingerly massaging his back, shut the door.

'Adiemus? Isn't he the leader of--'

'Yes, the Exodus Faction.' Valkron sat down, wincing. 'Tough, experienced and a solid fellow. Maybe a bit too solid. I don't know what these crusaders do for their training, they become harder than wood.'

'Valkron, what you said just now before he left...' began Iruna.

'Yes?'

'That was no ordinary send-off.'

'Well, Emeth said we were at war.'

The others were watching them like spectators at a tennis match. Iruna got up from her chair and walked over to the knight, her skirt rustling in the silence.

'But still...'

'I said, we're at war.' Valkron looked up at her. 'Is there something wrong?'

Iruna sighed. 'You sent him off with a warrior's blessing. It's not...not...'

'Not right?'

'No, it's not that. It's just not...good. A warrior's blessing for a raid?'

'This isn't just any raid, Iruna. Think about it.' Valkron jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the window. 'Those people are going to freeze to death out there. Those who are tough for the weather are going to change into beasts. And those who have enough willpower to prevent that from happening to them are going to be tormented. Well? Don't you think a warrior's blessing is appropriate for such an occasion?'

'You make it sound like they're doomed from the start, Valkron. Don't you trust them to finish the raid in one piece? Maybe they'll lose some people, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to fall to the monsters of Geffen.'

'When you think about it from a realistic point of view, Iruna, it does.' Valkron calmly turned his head towards her. 'This is war. We're not some stupid mercenary party looking for something that no one knows exists. We're out to find what's happening to our world, what's forcing its way into here to rule us all. Do you want to know why, Iruna? It's because we're warriors of the world.'

'There's no such thing as that anymore these days,' said Samaroh, from where he was sitting. 'Even the king forbids anyone to declare themselves as--'

'Shut up, Samaroh. The king can go and rot in his dungeons for all I care.' Valkron got up from his seat and faced Iruna. 'He doesn't have the right to say so. We do. We chose to be warriors. What do we fight for? Money? Love? The kingdom? None of it matters. From then on we're treating this as a real war, so if I say those people out there need a warrior's blessing then they can have it from me. Although I may not believe that they will live through the night, I believe that they will fight bravely to the end, and they'll have the strength to understand that whatever they did, they did for the world. Do you understand?'

The silence in the room was only broken by the crackling of the weak fire in the hearth. Then Iruna bowed her head.

'I see your point, Valkron,' she said softly. 'I cannot counter it. But you do realise that they're only human.'

'So are we. Who cares? We can't live forever.' Valkron looked away. 'All we can do is try to live longer. But in a time like this...we have nowhere to turn to. We'll welcome the blessing because when we're all alone in the cold and dark it's going to be the only thing we have that will accompany us and warm us and give us light.'

This time the silence was much longer and deeper. None of them wanted to prove Valkron wrong. Everyone knew he spoke the ultimate truth. And for the ultimate truth, there is no ultimate lie.

Iruna returned to her seat, and Valkron sat down. He looked out of the window again. Torches were blazing to life. The clock hands moved towards eight.

The knight propped up his chin with his hand and sighed. He'd always wondered about the warrior's blessing. No one had told him its true purpose. But he had found it out himself, when he had been lying in bed and remembering the last words that were spoken to him by the people who cared for him the most.

Be strong, Valkron. Whatever happens, may Odin's spear spell victory for you and may Tyr be on your side, wherever you go.

He sighed. It had been such a long time ago, but the memory was as fresh as if he had recently obtained it. He still remembered the silent crowd, the wall along which they stood against, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, the archers releasing their arrows all at once--

Suddenly there were screams from the outside, followed by shouting and explosions. Everyone in the room sat up immediately and stared out of the window. They could see torches waving frantically about, some being thrown and some being dropped. Light flashed in the distance, illuminating the heads of a struggling crowd. Weapons were being wielded high in the air. Occasionally there was an explosion which made the floor tremble.

'What the...' said Khan.

Valkron turned to them. 'Get upstairs, now,' he said urgently. 'Emeth, put out the fire. No one make an unnecessary sound. The raid's started earlier than we expected, and that does not sound good. What are you all staring at me for? Go!'

The party scrambled for the stairs. Emeth extinguished the fire, and both of them ran up the stairs after the rest, two steps at a time. The inn was three storeys high, so they opted for the higher floor. They didn't need to be told.

When they peered out from between the heavy curtains on the windows, they could see a dark mass crowding around the doorway of Geffen Tower. Silhouettes detached themselves from it, or joined it. It was too dark to see anything much.

'Oh my...' said Eni, looking up. Valkron followed suit.

The sky was reddish-black. Deep purple clouds swirled around the top of the tower, with dim flashes of lightning within them. There was a horrible gale whipping through the city, as the trees bent before it and a thin howling began. The crystal monument near the tower was glowing white.

Valkron suddenly became aware of the floor shaking beneath his feet. Emeth had felt it too, and was trying to look for its source. The shaking intensified until everyone had to grab hold of something to stay steady. Valkron looked out of the window just in time to see the doorway of the tower erupt outwards in an expanding cloud of bricks, cement and wood, forcing the people down below to back off.

Monsters streamed out from the gaping hole, their hideous shapes silhouetted against the burning fires that were now spreading. Valkron was strongly reminded of the time when he and Emeth had been in Geffen being administered by Samaroh. But now he knew this was the real thing, happening in front of him. This wasn't just a raid, whether it was led by monster or human.

'They're trying to break down the gates,' said Eni, her face illuminated by the fires burning across the street. 'The monsters seem desperate to get through.'

'They can feel the life force from outside,' said Emeth, peering out. 'It's much stronger than what the ten guilds can offer them. It's why the monsters are even abandoning the idea of attacking the guild warriors first.'

'Don't you think we should go down and help them?' asked Aldev nervously.

Samaroh gave him a look. 'And you were the one who said you wanted to leave.'

'I see Adiemus,' said Valkron.

'What?' chorused some of them, before they joined Valkron near the window.

The crusader had staggered out of the chaos and was clutching his head as if it was going to burst. Several others had followed suit, although there were some who were standing motionless around the tower. Yet others were still attacking the monsters charging at the main gates.

All of a sudden Emeth yelled out in pain and fell to his knees, clutching his head like they had seen Adiemus do. He seemed to be struggling with some internal battle in his mind. Valkron dropped to one knee, worried.

'Emeth, what's happening? Come on, tell me!'

The wizard opened his eyes. Valkron reeled back in horror at the sight of the glowing golden that was being emitted from them. Others cried out in shock or fear.

'Get - out,' gasped the wizard. 'I - need to - get out - of - here--'

Valkron looked up at them. He could hear voices whispering at the edge of his consciousness, and his vision was darkening, but he fought it down.

'It looks like we'll be running after all,' he said to the rest. 'All right, listen up. We're going to run straight out of here and to the nearest gate, preferably one not blocked by monsters. We'll have to break it down ourselves and let them loose, but there's nothing we can do about it. No one, I repeat, no one is to help the others. The ten guilds will be fine on their own.'

'What about Adiemus, at least?' asked Aldev nervously.

Valkron turned his green gaze on him. 'Since when did you become so concerned about him? And why are you so keen on staying on in the city? If I say we're leaving, then we are! I'm the leader here! Get going!'

'But--'

The knight leaned so close to him that their noses almost touched. 'Remember who I am, Aldev? I am a Prontera Chivalry knight. I have the right and the power to write your discharge papers so if you still think you can defy me then you can kiss your mercenary career goodbye! Do you understand?'

Aldev decided to listen to the voice of authority. 'Yessir!' he said, saluting.

'Move it! I want out in thirty seconds!'

People fell over themselves to get downstairs as fast as possible, or maybe to get away from him as quickly as they could. Valkron turned back to Emeth, who was still clutching his head. His eyes were wide. The golden irises shimmered.

'Let's go, Emeth,' said Valkron, taking the wizard by the arm and hauling him up. 'Come on, use my shoulder. We're getting out of Geffen.'

He had just reached the top of the second floor stairs when there was an explosion that shook the foundations of the inn, before a massive fireball took off the third floor. Valkron bent his head, feeling the dull thuds of the wood hitting the back of his neck and hoping he would not get splinters.

It was not easy to support someone who was one foot taller than him. Valkron nearly tripped halfway down, and only saved both of them from falling by grabbing the banister with his free hand. Emeth was no longer responding - he was like a very heavy straw doll. Cursing and swearing under his breath, the knight got him to the door where the rest were waiting.

'Open it, damn you!' he said breathlessly.

'They're waiting for us, Valkron,' said Nocturne helplessly.

Valkron rolled his eyes. 'Come here, Samaroh. Get hold of this guy. It's your job for now. I'm going to have to use violence.'

The priest nearly sagged under Emeth's weight, but all eyes were on Valkron. He drew his sword and concentrated. The blade began to hum until it was consistent. Then he opened the door.

A sandman loomed out of nowhere. The knight swore and gave it a kick, which sent it sliding backwards over the cobbles. It was immediately replaced by a maddened anolian. It hissed threateningly at Valkron.

The knight swung his sword hard. There was a bright flash of light before the anolian screamed in pain, a deep gash appearing on its chest. In one swift movement Valkron plunged his sword into its chest, before pulling it out. Fire blazed along the length of the metal. The sandman was duly given a powerful blow over the head. It instinctively shrank and withdrew.

'All right, path's clear. Run!'

They ran for it, all of them. Khan took the lead as he was the fastest of the group, followed by Nocturne. Valkron hit out at any monster that attempted to strike out at them, at the same time keeping an eye on Samaroh, who was running with Emeth over his shoulder. Iruna, who was the slowest, was behind all of them.

If he wasn't wrong, Valkron thought, she would have brought the Pecos outside and hidden them somewhere in the forest. As a knight he had too much armour to run, but he made the effort. Later his legs would present the bill, but for now they needed to do as much work as possible.

They sped past menacing, horrific forms, only intent on getting to the northern gate. The shadows, human and monster alike, gibbered and shrieked at them, hitting out in an attempt to stop them. Iruna had to use her healing skills from time to time, both to heal and drive away monsters. Samaroh was getting out of breath but at least he was ahead of Valkron, who felt like he was forcing his feet.

Nocturne leapt over a seething mass of fighting monsters and fitted an arrow into his bow. Without aiming he fired at an anaconda poised to strike them, which reared as the arrow went into its eye. Blood and filth were flying through the air, but the Raulus party ignored everything. They had only one aim in mind.

As they neared the northern gate a Jakk rose out of the shadows and made a beeline for them, cackling as it raised its black cane. Valkron suddenly realised Khan was next to him.

'Let me use your back,' said the assassin breathlessly. Valkron nodded, too out of breath to answer, and slowed down. Khan took a leap. A soft shoe thudded on Valkron's back for a second before the assassin descended from above and dealt a series of swift, powerful blows to the apparition's neck, severing its pumpkin head from its body. As the headless body ran around aimlessly Khan caught hold of the head and hurled it over the crowd of fighting monsters and humans. It disappeared into the darkness.

'Good trick,' remarked Valkron, panting.

'Assassins' Guild lesson,' replied Khan before he ran to the front to help Nocturne dispatch a particularly vicious rideword.

Valkron looked around hastily. Samaroh was falling behind, clearly out of breath. The knight ran to him and gave him a shove in the back. 'Come on, you can make it!'

'The - the gate,' gasped the priest. 'It's locked - too well--'

Valkron looked ahead. The gate had a large talisman pasted across it, and no matter how much the monsters bracing it tried to charge at it the gate held fast.

'Here, I'll try,' said Eni. She took out a potion with the label DANGER FLAMMABLE SUBSTANCE and lit the wick sticking out of its cap. She hurled it with her might at the gate. There was an explosion that shook the place, but when the smoke cleared the gate was still standing, albeit sans monsters.

Valkron felt something behind him and spun aside. He was just in time - a great two-hand sword came down at where he had been a few seconds later. If he hadn't had moved he would have lost an arm.

He looked up into the mad eyes of Adiemus.

This time he moved too slowly. The blade plunged into the gap between his shoulder plates and his chain mail. He felt the cold, cruel metal cut into his flesh and a suppressed grunt of pain escaped his lips. Adiemus was grinning horribly through a red mist.

Valkron looked down at the sword in his shoulder. Blood was dripping off the blade. His blood, he thought.

He reached up and grabbed hold of the blade. twisting his hand so that the edge would not cut into his palm. Adiemus' grin left his face as the knight gripped it and pulled it out, causing a little blood to spray out. Then Valkron lifted his own sword and hit the crusader in the solar plexus with the hilt.

Adiemus doubled over. Valkron whispered, 'I'm sorry, Adiemus,' before turning around and shoving a clearly shocked Samaroh towards the gate.

'We can't get through this damn gate!' Nocturne was yelling in panic. 'Amaru, help us destroy it!'

It came as another shock when Emeth suddenly jerked to life. He got off Samaroh's shoulder and strode up to the gate. Pointing his staff at it he shouted a string of words.

There was a flare of light as fire burst forth from his staff. It crashed into the gate as a massive meteor. The gate exploded outwards in an expanding red flower of debris and metal. Everyone ran forward, clearly relieved. Valkron had great presence of mind to grab hold of Emeth's arm and yank him along, out of Geffen.

There was a cacophony of monster sounds, before the creatures poured like a river towards the gate. Valkron turned to face them, raising his sword tiredly. Emeth was standing motionless just behind him.

Just then Samaroh, who happened to be standing in front of the oncoming river of monsters, took out a blue gemstone from his pocket and held it in his hands. It rose into the air and hovered between them, emitting pure white light. Then a ring of light spread out from it as the gemstone disintegrated. At the same time the ground beneath the expanding ring of light turned white. Monsters screeched and screamed at the pure light before turning back to the heart of Geffen.

'There,' said the priest, turning to face them. 'That should hold them off for a while. Now, are we going?'

'Not too tight, Samaroh.'

'Mm.'

The priest tightened the bandage on Valkron's shoulder. 'All right, it's done. You look fine other than that.'

'Are you sure? It looks bad to me.'

'Let's just say you were lucky, Valkron.' Samaroh wiped his hands with a piece of linen before throwing it into the fire. 'Adiemus' sword barely missed your lung. Any closer and you would be in a critical condition long before we get here.'

'What about him?' Valkron jerked his head to Emeth, who was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. If anyone hadn't known what the party had just been through they would have assumed that the wizard was merely meditating.

'Leave him be,' replied Samaroh. 'He needs a little calming down. The magical field wavelength increased back there, so it'll take him some time to readjust himself.'

'You don't seem to be showing any effect,' said Nocturne, nursing a cut on his face.

'It's my choice whether I want to expose myself to it or not,' retorted the priest, getting up. 'Emeth cannot switch it off, because a wizard must take stock of the levels of magic at all times. Priests, on the other hand, don't need to know. We are guardians of humans; they are guardians of the world.'

'I was just asking,' said Nocturne indignantly. Samaroh ignored him and walked off with his pack. Valkron shook his head at Nocturne to warn him that further arguing would be useless.

On the other side Aldev and Iruna were seeing to the others' injuries.

'It stings a bit,' said Eni, watching the crusader heal her. 'But it's cooling at the same time.'

'I think you're too used to drinking potions, Eni,' said Iruna calmly.

'Yeah, well, at least I don't have to depend on others--'

'Ow!'

'Sorry there,' said Aldev, hurriedly moving his hand from Khan's arm. 'Is it better now?'

'Ow! No! You're making it worse! Are you really a monk?'

'I'm good at fighting. Healing is my secondary ability.' The monk grinned apologetically at Khan's expression. 'Sorry about that.'

Valkron massaged his shoulder. He had removed the plates of armour from his shoulder to let Samaroh see to it, and now he felt exposed. They were in a quieter part of the forest, with their pecos securely tethered to a sturdy tree and everyone ready to take on anything else that came their way. Still, he felt uneasy.

He looked at Emeth. The wizard was still in the same position as he had been before an hour ago. If the knight hadn't seen Emeth's chest moving as he breathed he would have thought the wizard was dead.

Valkron looked up at the innocent stars overhead. They would have many things to deal with the next day. But for now, all he wanted to was fall asleep. It had been a long day.

Gradually he did.

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A note before I sign off:

The characters have been using some of their skills - yes, the in-game ones - but people wouldn't be able to recognise them because I don't like being conventional. Here's the list so far:

(Valkron) Fire blazing along the sword, before extinguishing, but the sword is still glowing - Magnum Break

(Valkron) A technique requiring concentration and where the sword hums to give an impact on contact - Bash (weird, I know)

(Eni) Throwing a flammable potion - in mRO we call it Demonstration

(Emeth) A ball of fire in the form of a meteor - a simplified version of Meteor Storm

(Samaroh) A spell requiring a blue gemstone, and causes the ground to take on a holy attribute - Sanctuary

I don't think anyone needs any explanation for the teleport skill.