(A/N): Well, this is quite the record! Two chapters in one day and one of them the longest one I've ever written. Enjoy the ride, ladies and gentlemen.
Disclaimer: I own the characters I create, not the Overlord series.
Chapter XIII: Reds and mops
Assira awoke when a ray of sunlight slid across her face, causing her to wrinkle her nose and open her eyes, yawning. The first thing she noticed was that someone in armor was standing right over her. She rolled over, relieved that she was still fully clothed.
Hanson looked down at Assira, a small smile playing on his lips. "Get up," he said in his most commanding voice. She rose, stretching like a cat. "It seems that you are quite resourceful and a little too free-spirited for your own good. Thus, in punishment for your attempted escape yesterday, you will dust what's left of the Throne Room. Gnarl can't direct the construction if he's sneezing more than he's talking."
Assira looked up at the Overlord in shock, his armored figure betraying no emotion. "You can't expect me to dust the entire Throne Room by myself, can you?" she asked incredulously. "I do," was the emotionless reply. "Gnarl will give you a mop and bucket, and you are to work until I return." With that, Hanson turned and walked out of the room, his steel armor clanging with every step.
"Sire, I have located the red minions at the old armory a few miles south of Spree. I do not know who or what holds them there, but they undoubtedly sense your presence." "Good. I can only hope that this enemy puts up more of a fight than the looters" With that, Hanson stepped into the Tower Portal and teleported to Spree.
Assira descended the stairs glumly, looking for the aged minion master. "Ah, young lady," she heard his voice from somewhere behind her. Gnarl was standing on one of the scaffoldings, directing the browns in repairs. "Mouldy, bring Assira a mop and bucket." "When's breakfast?" Assira asked as the brown ran off. "Whenever you finish mopping the floors," the minion master answered. "But, the floors are full of-" Assira cut off as she noticed that the floors had completely fixed and the rubble removed. The pristine marble floors seemed to be winking at her as she groaned, took the proffered mop and bucket and began to mop the floor. Gnarl allowed himself a small grin as he turned back to the minions repairing the ceiling. "Higher you idiots! Up…UP!"
Hanson marched down the road leading south from Spree with fifteen browns, ready to unleash death and destruction on anything in his path. Within a few hours, Hanson reached the old armory, a derelict building that had been abandoned since the death of the Old Overlord. If Gnarl was to be believed, the red minions were somewhere inside.
As the Overlord reached the entrance of the old armory, Assira had finally finished mopping the floor of the newly-rebuilt throne room. In reality, Assira was in awe. The minions had completely fixed the ceiling and the columns that lined the side of the Throne Room in the time that she had taken to mop the floor. "I'm done," she said, putting the mop into the bucket. "The kitchen is down the stairs closest to your left," Gnarl replied, waving her away. Assira stumbled down the well-lit white marble steps, her legs sore and tired from hours of work, until she found herself in a well stocked larder.
Hanson kicked down the door to the old armory, drawing his axe at the same time. Behind him, the browns fanned out, weapons ready. As his eyes adjusted to the torchlight, Hanson noticed what looked like a hand cranked conveyor belt with several shining jewels lying on it. All around it, crates were stacked high, some even brushing the ceiling. Hanson assumed that those were all filled with jewels. While he normally would have searched every crate, the red minions were worth many times their weight in valuables.
The Overlord heard voices further down the hallway and decided to investigate, stepping softly, instead of announcing his presence. "Those red devils we found make the process of pressing fake jewels so much faster," one of the figures said. "Will we be ready to ship tonight?" the second figure asked.
Nobody ever heard the answer, because that was when Hanson chose to leap around the corner and end the lives of both conspirators. "That first one was talking about 'red devils,'" Gnarl's voice rang in Hanson's ear. "I assume that they would be the ones that heat the forges enough to produce the mixture from which these miscreants manufacture their fake jewels."
Hanson continued down the hallway, looking for the door that would lead him to the forges. Once he found it, he entered a long and winding hallway, full of coal dust and bars of metal. The air steadily grew hotter as the Overlord continued down the hallway until he found the door that read "Press Room."
Hanson knew that there would most likely be anywhere from ten to a hundred workers in there, so he decided that speed, tactics, and stealth would help him more than brawn. As the Overlord crept forward, he realized that he shouldn't have bothered. The thirty or so workers were too busy with their furnaces to notice Hanson sneaking up behind them. "Sire," Gnarl said. "That valve at the end of the room controls the flow of whatever material these wretches use to make their fake jewels. If you were to open the valve fully, the amount of molten material would kill everyone in the room.
Hanson sent a minion to open the valve as far as it would go, while he made himself scarce. As the brown came running back, the Overlord heard screams as large amounts of molten liquid poured onto the presses, spilling to the floor in molten rivers.
Hanson carefully opened the door, but whatever resistance the workers might have offered had been annihilated by the river of molten liquid that lay cooling on the floor. The Overlord carefully made his way across the chamber, the browns following him in single file. The browns weren't the brightest minions, but they were smart enough to avoid the certain death that stepping on the cooling mixture.
While most of the workers were running back and forth, trying to figure out what happened in the press room, the Overlord snuck past them, the steadily hotter air leading him to the door labeled "Forge Room."
Outside the Dark Tower, night had fallen and Assira had finally finished cleaning the now fully rebuilt throne room. She had collapsed near the throne and was fast asleep when Gnarl woke her up by prodding her with a fork.
"Dinner," he announced, producing a plate of what looked like sausages with potatoes. Assira hadn't eaten since breakfast many hours ago, so she threw herself on the meal, finishing it under five minutes. "Do you know where I could bathe?" she asked the diminutive minion master when she had finished. "There's a door behind the rightmost pillar that leads to a room right above the Tower Forge with a water basin. The water won't be too hot now, but it should be warm enough for your needs." Assira nodded her thanks and slowly stood up, her legs burning from the effort of being on her hands and knees almost all day. She slowly walked towards the pillar Gnarl had pointed out and pushed the door open. As Gnarl had described, there was a stone basin with heated water. She drew enough water for her bath, undressed and sank in, the warm water easing the knots in her muscles.
As the Overlord opened the door to the forge room, he took in what he saw. The red minions were in a sort of sewer system under the grate-like floor and were shuttled to where they were needed with metal spikes. The crude way the reds were being controlled made Hanson very angry, and he charged forward, his boots ringing on the grate, the fifteen browns behind him. The workers in this room were protected by twenty armored figures that looked like rogue knights. As the Overlord charged, they fanned out into a semi-circle, swords drawn and shields raised.
Hanson's initial charge was unsuccessful in breaking through the defensive lines, and he was repulsed despite cutting one of the knights' shields in half with a sweep of his axe. Focusing on the half-shielded knight, the Overlord charged, this time slaying the knight. As soon as he was through their line, the knights caught Hanson in a U formation and suddenly, he was being attacked from three sides. The knights, in their zeal to kill Hanson, forgot about the diminutive creatures he commanded. No doubt they considered them harmless. Their misjudgment became apparent when five of the knights were felled with quick slashes to their necks. When the knights turned to face the new threat, Hanson struck out with his axe, killing two knights with just the blunt force of his weapon.
The last eleven knights formed a square that made them impenetrable to conventional attacks. The Overlord retreated towards the smelter, making sure the knights were still following him. When they were close enough, Hanson ordered the browns to tip the smelter over, spilling its molten contents onto the advancing knights.
Their shrieks of pain were music to his ears as he watched them burn. Then, the world seemed to turn upside down, and there was a bone splitting pain in his left bicep. Hanson whirled to see that one of the workers had snuck up on him and stabbed a dagger deep into his left arm. Harnessing his pain, the Overlord let go of his axe and struck out, quick as a snake with his right arm. The steel gauntlet broke the man's nose and sent him staggering backwards. Hanson picked up his axe and drove the spike at the top through the worker's neck one-handed.
Dropping the axe again, he pulled out the dagger imbedded in his arm and inspected it, looking for signs of poison. Finding none, he dropped the dagger and picked up his axe once more. "It seems you've found the Durium smelter sire!" Gnarl's voice sounded in the Overlord's ear. "Grab it and take it back to the Tower along with the red hive." Hanson reached down and pulled up a section of the grate, allowing the red minions to climb out and guide him to the red minion hive.
All the workers had fled the facility by the time Hanson had freed the reds, so his progression to the red hive was unopposed. The Overlord ordered the reds to pick up the hive when his vision blurred and he stumbled. Holding himself up with his axe, Hanson slowly made his way to the waypoint gate and teleported to the Tower after the red hive and Durium smelter.
Assira had just finished her bath when she heard Gnarl's voice with an edge to it she had never heard before. "Hold him up! Keep his arm lower than his heart and move him to the throne. Assira slipped on a robe made from some fluffy animal and hurried out the door, curious to see what was going on.
Hanson was sitting on his throne with his helmet off as the minions removed his armor from the waist up. Gnarl was too busy pouring some foul-smelling concoction down his master's throat to notice Assira enter. "What happened to him?" she asked, noting Hanson's pale expression and feverish eyes.
In her mind Assira was fighting a mental battle with herself. On one hand, the Overlord had made her clean the Throne Room, but on the other he had saved her life and taken her into his home.
"He's been stabbed with a poison blade," Gnarl replied tersely snapping Assira out of her thoughts, too busy trying to save the Overlord's to pay attention to how Assira was staring at Hanson's well-built body or the surprise on her face when she noticed that the wound on his left arm was smoking.
"What's going on with his arm?" she asked, rushing over. "The Tower can heal all physical injuries," Gnarl replied. "I'm more worried about the poison than the wound." Suddenly Hanson sat up and coughed, breathing heavily. "Sire," Gnarl said with obvious relief. "You had us worried for a moment there." Hanson's eyes cleared and he nodded to Gnarl and Assira before closing eyes and falling asleep.
"Loon, Lumpy, and Dribble carry the Overlord to his bed," Gnarl commanded. The three browns snatched up the unconscious form of their master and began to climb the stairs to his private quarters. "There are plenty of couches in the private quarters," Gnarl said. "We'll sleep in turns. If he starts to get worse, wake me up." He turned and began to shuffle up the stairs, looking as old as he felt. "Why me?" Assira asked. Gnarl turned and smiled wryly, "because you're the only one in this tower that I'd trust with his life besides myself."
(A/N): Well, the plot thickens and we have our first near-death experience. Thanks for reading. Please review and provide constructive criticism where necessary.
~Russian Overlord~