This would be no cakewalk once we reached the top and sneaked into the duke’s chamber. Therena was ready to die before she’d ever flee and, of course, those seraphs were all powerhouses.
But I liked our chances. Gorrok and Sir Lucien gave us plenty of brawn. Erhoff was no slouch in melee, but his magic would complement Esmerelda’s destruction skills. Hingar and Layla could hassle our enemies from afar with their bows, plus draw their amber swords if needed. Sephara could provide support with her restoration magic, all while me and Pandora led the charge against Therena herself.
It was about as even a fight as I could think of.
As we neared the top of the tower, where we could sneak through the windows into the duke’s chamber, I cast a muffle sound spell on all of us.
“These seraphs are no joke,” I told my companions. “I know you’re all seasoned warriors, but a few of these guys beat the shit out of me earlier.”
“Aye,” Pandora said. “But you were alone earlier.”
I grinned. “Everyone, keep the seraphs off us while me and Pandora go for Therena,” I said.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Greenbeard craned his neck slightly, but carefully, so he didn’t shake any of us off. “We near the window, tiny Champion,” Greenbeard said.
I nodded. “You just be careful on the climb down, big man,” I said.
Now, we were at the top. The seraphs patrolling the skies were circling around us, right at eye-level. Carefully and quietly, we began to slip inside the window, with me leading the charge.
Therena sat proudly on the duke’s throne, a sight that turned my stomach. Four seraphs were guarding her, with the other four hovering in the sky just outside.
I drew my longsword. Pandora drew her daggers. If we could, I wanted to sneak right up on her and ram my sword into her throat.
But Therena was smarter than that.
She rose almost casually from the throne. “Oh, Earthman,” she said. “Cast off those useless spells.”
I laughed bitterly. She must have used a detect life spell to spot us. I shrugged off my invisibility and scowled at her. “Step away from the throne, lady,” I said.
She laughed right back at me. “I assumed you’d be grateful, Champion,” she said. The seraphs moved to draw their weapons on us, but she gestured for them to hold off. Her smile was bitter, but sad. “I know your mind better than you think. What, you thought you’d take me by surprise by having that lumbering driftwood carry you up here?”
“If you knew we were coming, you should have told your men,” I said.
She waved me off. “If you capture me, I die,” she said. “But that matters very little to me, Champion. You see, I’m already dead. I’ve failed in my endeavor and now, my wonderful Emperor will have my life eventually.”
“Then make this easy on yourself and stand down,” I said.
She spat at me. “You dare dishonor me by calling me a coward?” she said. “No, Gamelord, just because I’m a treacherous elf doesn’t mean I’m a cowardly one, or a stupid one. Though I’ve lost Homehold, and so brought on my own demise, I can still smile. Yes, I’m sure killing you myself will bring me quite a bit of joy in these last days of my long, long life.”
“Therena, you’ve caused all this death and destruction for the Emperor, and he doesn’t give a single shit about you,” I said.
She grinned a knowing grin. “He never has,” she said. “And I never expected him to. You see, Earthman, I owe my life to that old wizard. In the worst days of the first war against the Necromancer, before the False Champion slayed him, the war had been raging in my homeland. I was but a young elf, starving and rendered homeless by the fighting. By chance, the Emperor crossed paths with me. He used to hold court with the elder mystics of my homeland…ah, but I’m digressing. He saw something in me. Even as I lay there dying in the street from starvation, he saw that I had a greater purpose. So he took me under his wing.”
“So you love him,” I said. “You want to repay some fucking favor, or whatever.”
She scowled at me. “No living man or mer could ever love that cruel bastard,” she said. “He tortured me, the Emperor did. Or, that’s what I thought as a girl. What he was truly doing was making me strong. Yes, he’d recruited me, but he’d also made it so that I’d never be some starving, ragged street urchin ever again. He gave me power, Earthman. He made me what I am today.”
“A snitch?” I asked. “A traitor? A double-agent? An asshole?” I laughed. “Nothing to be proud of there.”
Her scowl turned sharper. Her eyes, once as golden as morning sunlight, suddenly flooded with gray, like storm clouds moving across the sun. “Stupid mortal,” she said. “The Emperor made me into something far greater than just some high elf mage.” She was beginning to grow, to contort. The fabric of her Imperial robe began to split from the bulk of her monstrous form. Her voice turned to gravel and her breath stunk of brimstone. “The Emperor made me more powerful than any elf or any Mananymph. Champion, he made me the Scourge of the Golden Isles, the Shadow of the Sunlit Beaches.”
Therena became something utterly grotesque, something unnamable in its unnaturalness. She was a writhing mass of flesh, muscle, sinew, tooth, and claw.
Lighting rippled in her storm-cloud eyes while golden spikes sprouted across her back. Her mouth opened like a massive blooming flower, with long curved fangs for petals and dripping saliva in lieu of any morning dew.
Her golden hair fell upon her monstrous shoulders and there was no hint of the seductive mer woman she’d been mere seconds before.
Her long tongue lolled out of her wet maw, slithering out like a moist pink snake.
Somehow, I found a way to pity Therena. The Emperor may have made it so she’d never again become an urchin begging on the streets but, in doing so, he’d turned her into something truly wicked.
She ran one clawed finger around her dripping maw and it curved into a grin. “I always wanted you inside me, Earthman,” she said. “Perhaps I’ll have you, yet.”
I drew my sword and channeled all the mana I could into the Soulguard. Around us, the seraphs – all eight of them now – drew their own weapons.
“This is for Duke Gladios,” I said, then threw myself at her.
The seraphs were taken aback by the combined skills of our party. Even the strongest seraph couldn’t handle Gorrok’s primal hacks and slashes with his war axe. Likewise, none could match Sir Lucien when it came to skills with a blade, even if the old knight was still weak from his imprisonment.
Hingar joined them, firing off arrows one second then stabbing at them with his amber shortsword the next. Layla was right along with him, rapidly firing her bow. She cast an ally beast spell and suddenly a loud flock of eagles flew inside, descending on the closest seraph and slashing his face with their talons.
Sephara was no slouch, fighting off the odd seraph who broke through the front of our party, but mostly she just cast healing spells on those who’d gotten wounded. Esmerelda was next to her, hurling spell after spell of elemental destruction magic along with Erhoff.
That just left me and Pandora, and we were only concerned about Therena.
I hurled a fire storm spell at her, but Therena’s magic resistance was impressive, and she easily absorbed the spell without taking any damage. Pandora threw open her palms, roaring as she cast a TK force bomb spell, but Therena shrugged off the telekinetic blast without breaking a sweat.
“Her magic resistance is incredible, Earthman,” Pandora said.
“Yeah, well let’s put some holes in her, then,” I said, then slashed at her monstrous arm as she brought her clawed hand down in an attempt to hack me to pieces.
I took off the tip of her forefinger then rolled to safety. Pandora teleported behind Therena, clung to her back, and hacked and slashed with her twin dragontooth daggers.
Therena howled in pain then used her elongated arm to reach behind her and swat Pandora off violently. Luckily, at the last possible moment, Pandora teleported
off her, and Therena’s claws came within mere inches of tearing Pandora apart.
Pandora reappeared next to me just as I charged the monstrous elf again. I charged the Soulguard with TK magic and created a force field right before she could bring her claws down on me. I shuddered from the impact as her claws impacted the shield, then shot forward and sunk my blade into her belly.
A sickening mixture of blood and black pus gurgled out of her wound. Therena roared then immediately knocked me backward with an explosive fireball spell.
I fell to the floor, burned and charred, and I awaited the awful agony of all my burns. However, Sephara was on point, and she was more than ready to tend to my wounds.
As I struggled to get to my feet with the flames ravaging my body, Sephara came backflipping over the surrounding melees, landing right in front of me, with her hands already glowing with bright blue restoration magic.
“Hold still, Earthman,” Sephara said, then hit me with an overpowered healing spell.
With my charred flesh mended, I popped to my feet, kissed her on the cheek, then turned back to Therena and made a quick save point.
Pandora leaped toward her, intending to slash at Therena’s throat, but the monstrous elf caught Pandora by the throat with telekinesis. Pandora clawed at her neck, as if she could peel back those invisible fingers.
“THERENA!” I shouted, wanting to get her attention.
Now I leaped at her, but Therena had cast a fortify speed spell on herself, and while I was still mid-air she thrust her claws at me. She caught me in the belly, running me right through with one of her claws, and I immediately felt blood rush up into my throat.
Her smile widened. “Failed Champion,” she hissed.
I felt the life force flooding out of me, but before I could revert to my last save point, I slashed hard at her wrist. My amber longsword dug through flesh and muscle and bone, taking her hand off at the wrist.
As I fell to the floor, I roared in pain as I pushed her claw out of me, and then the notification filtered across my eyes.
LONGSWORD SKILL INCREASED +1
WAR MAGE LEVEL 19 REACHED!
In leveling up, the Soulguard was able to completely heal my injuries. Therena cried out at her bleeding stump and she lost her telekinetic hold on Pandora.
Behind me, we were starting to turn the tide against the seraphs. One of them stuck Gorrok in the shoulder with his burning blade, but the orc flew into a berserker rage. He snarled, spit flying from his scowling mouth, and buried the blade of his axe into the seraph’s skull.
A few feet away, a seraph was getting the better of Sir Lucien. Though the knight was skilled and tough, his imprisonment had begun to catch up with him. A seraph knocked Lucien’s sword from his hand but, before the seraph could deliver the killing blow, Layla put an amber-tipped arrow right through the seraph’s eye.
But Therena was still the most dangerous foe in the chamber, and now I had her backpedaling, and I refused to let up the attack.
I charged a lightning storm spell into my Soulguard. When I blasted her with it, she only managed to absorb a fraction of the spell’s damage. She roared and screamed as the lightning shot through her, but I knew it would take me a long time to slay her with magic.
She swiped her remaining hand at me, but it was a clumsy attack that I easily dodged. She sprang forward, driven by rage and pain and adrenaline. She tried grabbing me by the throat with TK magic, but I blocked the spell with the Soulguard, then took another one of her fingers off at the knuckle.
Now, her tongue shot out from that wet maw and caught me by the ankle.
“Fuck!” I shouted as she upended me. I hit the floor hard and lost my grip on my sword. I was fumbling to get the enchanted orcish war axe from my back when she began yanking me toward her hideous mouth.
As I struggled to take hold of the axe, Therena’s tongue constricted painfully around my ankle, and I growled in pain as I heard my ankle snap.
Just as I got my axe free, one of the seraphs got past my allies and attempted to bring his flaming sword down on my face. I managed to parry the blow with the enchanted axe just in time, and his flaming magic crackled against the axe’s frozen enchantment.
I was in a bad spot, even considering going back to that last save point, but before I could, Pandora bailed me out.
She came up behind the seraph, roaring in anger, then plunged her dragontooth dagger into the seraph’s throat, killing him instantly.
Now freed up, I turned my war axe on Therena. I slammed the frozen blade into her thick tongue, splitting it and afflicting her tongue with a blazing bout of freezer burn.
She immediately freed my ankle. Quickly, I healed my broken limb, snatched the amber longsword from the floor, and pushed on ahead.
Amber longsword in my left hand, enchanted axe in my right, I fortified my strength and charged her one last time.
She swiped her remaining claws at me. This time, I took that hand off at the wrist, just as I’d done the other. She hissed, backing away, and launched a fireball at me.
Almost casually, I raised the Soulguard to absorb the spell, then launched it right back at her.
ENCHANTMENT SKILL INCREASED +1
The powerful fireball caught her in the face, blowing away half of it, and Therena stumbled backward, finally defeated.
“Mercy,” she rasped out at me, apparently not quite so resigned to her own demise as she led me to believe.
I growled down at the creature. “I'll show you as much mercy as you showed Duke Gladios,” I said.
I used all of my remaining mana to funnel fire magic into the Soulguard. Then, as her remaining eye shot open wide with horror, I killed her the same way she killed Duke Gladios.
I blasted her in the face with a sprawling gout of hellfire. As I reduced her head to cinders, I relished the sound of her final screams just before she died.
Behind me, I saw that there were only two seraphs left standing. As my allies closed in on them, the seraphs finally realized they were fighting a losing battle. At once, they both flapped their wings and took off, flying out the chamber window.
Gorrok looked down at the ragged, charred hole in his shoulder and laughed. “A victory for the rebellion!” he said, and we all let out a cheer.
Chapter Twenty-One
We didn’t remain in Homehold for long. We counted our dead, healed up our forces, and I allowed us a night to relax, but we got back on the road the following morning.
Riding on Buddy with Pandora behind me, I led our forces north, to Silverton. We rode at a steady, if cautious pace throughout the day. I kept expecting resistance. We encountered none, but that just made me a bit nervous about what we were going to face in Silverton.
Word had it there were seven-thousand Imperial Legion troops stationed there. Fewer than what we encountered in Homehold, but Silverton was a healthier city. The legionnaires there had access to the silver mines, which meant brand-new silver weapons. While Homehold had been ravaged by the undead siege, the Imperial occupation, and then our counter-siege, Silverton was comparably healthy. They had plenty of time to repair the damage from the Spriggan King’s attack.
When we made it through the Silverhome Woods, dawn was just starting to break. There was thick, gray cloud cover and the morning grew grim. A bitter chill fell over the land and the sky spat down intermittent rain, just enough to make the last leg of our journey north miserable.
Bella joined me at the head of our forces. She furrowed her brow. “Champion, all yesterday and throughout the night, I’ve sent my eagles throughout Silverton,” she said. “There’s no word of the Red-Hand Legionnaires rising up.”
“What about the loyalists?” I asked.
She frowned then pulled up a real-time vision of Silverton’s forces. They were grim-faced yet determined, every single man on the battlements staring grimly at our approaching forces. Standing by the city gates was a dour-faced knight who appeared to be in command.
“They don’t seem like
they’re going to try to flee,” Bella said.
I nodded then looked back to the city. Normally, on a clear morning, the sun would hit the silver city walls and light up the countryside. Today, though, Silverton didn’t shine at all.
“I’m sure their orders are to hold the city until the end,” I said.
“This could be a bloodbath,” Pandora said.
My plan was, more or less, the same strategy we used in Homehold, but this time I was expecting far more casualties. We formed up just outside the range of their archers, and I had to admit that we cut a fearsome silhouette against the horizon.
Thousands of orcs, wood elves, plus a handful of Imperial legionnaires with bright red handprints smeared across their chests. Our siege towers were rolling up behind us. Spriggan elders and spriggan sprites were divided up amongst our forces, as well.
Yeah, we were quite the sight…which made my stomach that much more sour. Because every single Imperial Legion trooper inside Silverton had a chance to get a good look at us before our attack. They must have known that eventually we’d overrun them, yet they were all standing their ground.
I grit my teeth and shut my eyes tight, fighting back the hints of a coming headache. I took a deep breath. “This isn’t going to be easy,” I said.
However, the moment I said that, the city gates opened. A small contingent of riders came out on horseback, no more than ten of them. When I looked through Pandora’s looking glass, I saw that dour-faced knight riding at the head of them.
I rode out to meet them with Gorrok, Sir Lucien, Erhoff, Hingar, and the Mananymphs. We met them at the halfway point. The knight nodded grimly to us as he brought his horse to a stop.
“Gamelord, is it?” the knight asked. He had a melancholic, yet determined tone to his voice. I could tell at once that this guy had no intention of throwing up any white surrender flags.
“Yeah, I’m Gamelord,” I said. “What’s your name, pal?”
Monstergirl Quest Book Three Page 16
