I fucking hate cities.
'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. . .'
It took everything within me to refrain from frying the ignorant and innocent bastard that was standing between me and getting a clean shot of my target. My offhand shoved the merchant out of the way, granting a clear sightline of the cloaked assassin brandishing a twisted longsword. The mistaken volts of magical energy had already built up to a point, flecks of lightning danced between broken fingers.
At one edge of my outstretched hand above my thumb was the face of a delighted crazed killer. The other edge held between my ring and pinky finger was Patricia's panicked visage, an arm clenched around Edelgard's shoulders. Putting herself before her daughter, shielding her from harm. Like my mo-
I forced my eyes shut to avoid flashbanging myself at point blank as electrical power began to arc.
'No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.'
The spells shot out of my grip before I could pull back on the power that I had tacked onto the bolt of lightning. Only left staring helplessly as the single eye of the assailant that I could see instantly boiled and exploded, while left over magic was unnaturally drawn into the blade in his hands. The metal glowed a bright white that dimmed as it cut into the queen's chest, the weapon failing out of the dead man's hands as his corpse collapsed under its own weight.
'Nononononononononononononononono-'
A woman's sickening scream lit the air afire, my own blood ran cold at the sound. Every detail became crystal in that solitary moment as superheated metal parted soft flesh and sturdy bone like butter.
'FUCK!'
Dropping into a slide to crouch down to provide some sort of aid, my right hand burned when it came into contact with the blade's edge. Plenty of heat remained, enough to cause my flesh to blister as I pulled it out. A tentative prod revealed there was fresh blood pooling around her head, a dark crimson coated the tips of my fingers. I hissed at the sight, greatly agitated as a weakness took hold over me from the anxiety that I quickly reigned back in. Working under a religious fever I repeated the only two words that I was capable of at this point while keeping pressure on the wound, "Protect her."
'Our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Heavenly father you are our healer, we pray that you heal this- I'm a fucking idiot!'
Edelgard lay unharmed beneath her mother's grasp, stuck stunned with a deer in headlights look written on her face. A palm went to her shoulder to bring her out of her thoughts, taking her hands to keep the pressure on it as mine went to the pouch at my waist. The smell of burning flesh was almost too much to bear, getting a nosefull after pulling the woman into a position resting against a wall. If her flesh wasn't so charred her condition would've doubtless been so much worse. Her silver circlet lay forgotten on the floor where she had initially been stabbed.
"Anna!"
My voice shook more than I would've liked, but given that the blade had seemed to go straight through her gut I hoped my weakness could be forgiven. Hands that would've shook under any other circumstances were dead calm now as I poured a potion down her throat. Fingers covered with leather clad gloves shone with a light shade of crimson, swearing at myself for forgetting this world had items like it at my disposal.
I felt her presence before I heard her weird fucking heels click against the cobblestone, and stepped away for her to watch over her in my place. She didn't stop to chat but she still mouthed the unspoken question on her mind, 'What the hell happened?'
The crowd had managed to create a flurry of initial confusion, it didn't help that I had picked up the damn murde- She's still alive, that much needed to stay that way. Even as the remaining stragglers attempted to break past the defensive circle that had formed and get a second shot at finishing Patricia off.
Looking back Edelgard was staring back at me, her gaze flickering up from the stained blade in my grip. The steel warm and wet against my palm.
Someone had gotten impatient, taking the opportunity as I joined the pegasus knights that formed a protective semi circle. A move that I likely would've taken had I been on the other side of this attack, but lacked the strength to follow through with the gamble. I didn't feel the slash made across my torso for the first few seconds while the adrenaline delayed the sensation. I grabbed the merc's arm as I drove the strange blade into their abdomen. The same sort of bubbling, sizzles and cracks erupted from the Soldier's chest with my retaliatory strike.
The blade's wavy edge split the thin layer of leather armor like it wasn't even there to begin with. Metal ignited and took on an orange hue as I felt the life get sucked out of me to fuel the blaze that coated the blaze. All the instincts that screamed at me to shy away from fire were muffled, a bead of rolled off my brow as the assassin was executed on the spot.
Damn thing wanted to keep going after I removed it, wisps of purple smoke fell to the floor as I tightened my grip and starved the fire sword of fuel. Half of the blade was still coated in a layer of black from where it had been plunged into her highness's chest, a light shade of red painted to rest from where it reached the crossguard.
A part of my brain objected to the idea of referring to the street we'd been caught with our pants down in as a 'battlefield'. Unfortunately, that was apt for the situation that had formed quite the predicament that we had found ourselves in. Christophe seemed to have put himself at the center of things once again.
Even though I'd spotted the group of armed men and women trailing behind us, I more or less caulked them up as a mercenary group. It had been a common sight while traveling through the few other cities that I'd been to, who would've thought that it wasn't so common here. Admittedly that should've been the first sign that I should've paid more attention to them. Or perhaps not with how out of place a man wrapped up in a thick winter's cloak in the middle of summer ended up being. Conveniently on an intercept course with the queen, of a sort that was making the hairs on the back of neck perk up.
Either way the growing paranoia was going to kill me.
Khris simply took it in stride, dragging me out of the chat that I had been having with Feird and Mégi; Nicknames we're easier to keep track of than actually memorizing full names. To point them out to me. Divide and conquer was the strategy, the whole thing kicking off just as Christophe was in the middle of one of his god awful recruitment pitches.
He was trading blows , a long gash along one of his forelegs forced him to take a more defensive posture. The idiot brought a snort out of me by offering a 'so-so' motion with his hand when we locked eyes. He still managed to get on my damn nerves whilst in the middle of an ambush, "Pay more mind to your own fucking fight, moron."
"So [everything's] not gone [perfectly] to plan Al, but I have the [situation] under [control]. Tsk. Yeah I get your point," Christophe stumbled over his words, my magic let off a sharp crack as he reappeared behind me with his shadow flashing white as he rematerialized. I raised an unbelieving eyebrow at him before motioning to one of our fellow knights lying on the floor with a hole through her chest. Passing him a vial of murky starlight before I parried an incoming blow from another greedy mercenary. I caught a look of relief on his face at the sight of a healing potion and downed it with a grimace on his face, "You are a goddess-sent. . . but- fuck, I hate how these things taste."
"Deal with it, and just catch your breath- God damn it," My attacker cut me off with a follow up to the previous failed strike, the blood in my sword hand boiled under my skin. I desperately wanted to just drop the damn thing already, instead pulling the heat away as I cast a fire spell with my offhand. Point blank melting the man's knee for an execution when he fell to the floor, "Just fucking die already."
"How is the Queen," Khris questioned upon popping up to my left, cutting a Fighter down that had been intent on taking a lunge at me. Someone that would've caught me off guard if he hadn't intervened. A spazzing pegasi took up the majority of my attention as it collapsed trying to reach its deceased rider. Something in that sight disturbed me greatly, a familiarity that unnerved some part within me.
I glanced back at the safe zone, behind the line of knights that we had formed the tip of. They weren't entirely undefended, my wolves growling at anyone who dared to make any sudden movements if the curled lips into snarls were anything to go by. All while the medics went to work in relative peace. My reply was hard to find in the short moment that I had spaced out, "The children, are they alright?"
They're good pups, don't even need me to order them to behave half the time anymore.
"Don't know how Tri and Burni are, are they not with you or? . . . fuck- Edi is no worse for wear," My words we're an effort to spit out, more focused on the fight and unsure of the exact status of those who we we're protecting. It would be the first time that I'd check up on after this mess was over and done with. Another axe bearing Brigand had her arm cleaved from her body as I delivered the worst bit of news, "The queen, the queen is still alive, but she is hurt. Badly."
"Shit! Ann-!"
"Way 'head of you," I commented, grabbing the man's ponytail to pull his body back into the fight and away from trying to search for the merchant. His antics brought a snort out of me, but we couldn't afford to break formation while in the thick of it. Gently shoving him in front of me as I preemptively blasted an approaching Thief as Khris finished them off, "Eyes up front, help me buy time for them to work their magic."
Literally working their magic now that I think about it, wonder if that phrase means something more here. Man I need to find out if puns function the same here.
"Hey-! I got it, let go already you made your point. Fight night is tonight it seems," His whines were met by my equally exasperated groans. This man's gibberish was going to do a number on my brain, "So a good old game of capture the hill, ready to run this operation like horse shit in on business."
"I do not quite know what you mean," Yapping was going to be the death of us during these skirmishes but I don't think either of us cared with how easily we were cutting through them. Even though he was older than me Christophe consistently convinced me that he was secretly a child, "But sure."
There weren't many left now. A few stragglers shouting about keeping up the attack, or something that I wasn't able to make much note of.
My chest was starting to hurt like a motherfucker, while the padding of the leather had taken most of the kick out of the hit. They had piled up to a point that my adrenaline wasn't able to fully mask anymore. Khris instead took charge, recovering faster than I had expected to be so eager to jump back into the mix. A couple of pegasus knights joined us for a final push to make them rout.
Half of me was convinced that he didn't even need me as magical backup, probably better off with handing him potions like a glorified waterboy. It would seem he disagreed with that sentiment. Herding wounded foes toward me like kicking one particular unfortunate soul in my direction for me to land a clean cut across their chest.
"Oh my poor little turtle duck. Next time we are with the rest of my [rangers] I'm going to learn you some shit," A wave of heat radiating off of the blade hit me as I pulled the blade back, forcing me to wince and wish for a normal sword instead. Some had decided to turn tail when Christophe chose to yell at the top of his lungs just as I reached him again, "RUN YOU COWARDLY DASTARDS!"
He's officially lost me, and blown out my ear drums. I did not think is was possible for him to be so loud, well, you know what they say about short fuckers and anger.
"Where you'd get the [Zweihänder] by the way," Khris' query lingered in the air while I patted the side of my head for my eardrum to pop, the question being repeated once I was done. I gave him a blank look, to which he motioned to the weirdly shaped longsword in my hands. Wiping his brow after fiddling around with putting his own damn sword away, "[Doesn't] look [standard] issue, and if it is. I need one in my life."
From the edge of my sight our guard detachment had kept up chasing our attackers down the main road, finally having enough legroom to take to the sky. An older woman rallied about half of the knights she had left under her command, with what was left taking up position behind us closer to the civilians and the queen.
Aside from the set of blue feather along her helmet there was a golden and blue cloth tied to her spear. If I was being honest the whole getup was pretty cool, not entirely ceremonially like I once thought it to be. The lack of armor did have some flaws if the four dead bodies of her subordinates lining the streets was anything to go by.
That not a single one of their steeds survived was another point of concern.
"Took it off of one of them," My tone had gotten quite curt by this point, far past the point of patience with his shenanigans. A far bit of sweat had made my tunic stuck to my back. 'Don't scratch that fucking thing it's a work of art man,' Christophe whispered at me when he saw me lean against the blade to rest. I waved him off with an eyeroll as he cringed at the shear disrespect on display, "Ah fuck, he uh, tried to kill the queen with it."
"This isn't from the royal armory- You found THIS on the bodies of one of our attackers?"
"Yeah?"
"So it's not like a gift from the queen herself. . ." His line of questioning utterly confounded me, but there was certainly something of concern if it got him to act this way. The man swung around wildly looking for something as his words became aimless, "Oh fuck, ah fuuuuck, uh shit shit shit."
His headless chicken act, while pretty funny, is going to make us look like a bunch of dorks if it continues. We are in the middle of the street, and people are starting to give us weird looks.
"Stop," I slammed a fist atop of his head, knocking him out of his spiraling to get a straight answer out of him. Khris let out a girlish yelp at the strike, and made me want to hit him again just for that, harder too. Sighing I barked out the words for him to spit out what was making him panic so badly over what I saw as meaningless, "Calm down, focus, what's wrong? What does it mean to you, why is it so bad?"
"It's not bad, it's great, [fantastic] news [actually]. The [captain] should be [chasing] down the idiots who [retreated] and not too far off by now- Hey! Can I get a ride?! It's [important] I swear upon [Sothis herself]," My friend shouted out an appeal and got entirely ignored by a passing knight. Leaving me to catch my breath praying for a cold breeze as he ran off in the same direction where the knights were tending to the public, "I don't have time to [explain] but I [promise] that I will once I get back. I'll be right back so don't lose that thing! And don't break it!"
OK. . .
Well, this has been a pretty 'meh' kind of day. Can't say that it's been the worst, but it's up there. Definitely more confused than when I started today.
Not so much for the people who had decided to shop today, with the pegasus knights quickly approaching those who had been caught up to provide some reassurance. It was kinda funny watching Khris try to get a girl's attention without her thinking that he was flirting with her. Ok scratch that, it IS funny. Didn't last that long, so out the window went that excuse for me to slack off and ignore the obvious.
My levels of adrenaline had taken a huge nose dive, and with it my hand ached like a mother fucker. The skin felt it was being peeled off the boiling hot leather hilt, and probably warranted the use of a potion before it got worse. A dozen or so Holy Mary's went with it for the sort of swears and slurs that I shot off during the whole process.
Something is wrong about this sword, on an unholy level if my own flesh and nerves had anything to say about it. Piece of junk ruined my new glove too.
Even so I was still leagues ahead of the other casualties, our fellow blades for the crown were in bad shape. That much was true, but the damage had been minimal for those who survived. Christophe and I had taken things the farthest, some of the people I'd killed literally lay in two pieces. The sword proving itself to cut through flesh as if it wasn't even there, and bone like it was jello.
My stomach turned at the carnage, while I'd borne witness to some of the aftermaths to my fights. The bits of burning flesh, well, I think that's raised it to the next level of shitty. Personally I'd really rather not attribute the smell of cooked pork to that of humans, I would like to be able to eat bacon. Without feeling the need to hurl that is.
Dear fucking God, there is so much god damn blood on the street and too much of it is on my boots. What happened to cauterization, and why in the world is that dead horse bleeding from its eyes?! Ugh, I hope the kids didn't see all of this. Why couldn't I have ended up in some sci-fi dimension?
The King is going to execute us for incompetence at this rate.
Chapter ? Note:
Me: Go away
Evil Me: Use the clickbait title, you know you want to.
Me: Fuck it, we ball.
I would love to say that DJT surviving influenced how this was written and why it's shorter than normal, but I already had this planned out like 2 weeks ago.
Chapter's shorter than I'd like it to be, but is mostly combat. I want to be better about separating mostly calm chapters from the more hectic chapters. (this is foreshadowing for a type of nsfw chapter that might come at some point, being more organized will help either way) I did initially plan on making this longer but I want to leave some wiggle room given that the reboot might force me to change some things. You could call this like a 1.5 version. There's going to be no more levels ups (etc) and in game aspects are being toned down until the reboot because of how I'm handling it in the new version. It would be more work to continue keeping track of levels here if they won't line up with where the reboot is at the same point in the story.
Ugh, not much I can really touch on anymore, with the reboot and how much of this chapter would just reveal spoilers. I'll see if I can speed up writing the reboot chapters so I don't have to neuter the ones I'm writing rn. (I have no fucking idea how much access Aclides will have to the local language at the same point in the reboot so I wanna be careful with writing dialogue as I progress the plot)
Should've written Patricia's interludes as a 2 parter, and put in a couple of chapters of downtime/world building. Might've helped with the pacing. Might go back and do that to buy myself some time to develop the reboot.