Lion's Quest: Dual Wield: A LitRPG Saga

by Michael-Scott Earle

  The purple wave of electricity shot from the bottom of the black bone staff like a circular ocean swell. The magical energy raced across the floor of the library and climbed up the legs of the ten armed men in the room. They all screamed with surprise, but then their cries metamorphosed into panicked gurgles of agony as they spasmed against the onslaught of electricity crawling over their bodies. Their health bars all started to drain by a tenth each passing second, and I counted to “five Mississippi” before I used Death Burst again.

  The men in the room had no chance. Their bodies smoked, fried, and smoldered like pieces of meat left in the broiler for too long. Their skin turned black, their armor melted a bit, and then all of their bodies seemed to peel away like blown ash. Then there were eleven skeletons in the room. Including the gnome baron that had, only ten seconds before, spoken the command to murder me.

  The skeletons were standing in twisted positions of agony, but they all turned to me simultaneously, as if following an unspoken command. Green health bars appeared above their heads, along with the names of Skeleton Minion followed by a number. Their bars also appeared on my UI display under Cornalic’s red health bar.

  I had forgotten about the undead control aspect of The Darkest Death, and I panicked for a few seconds as I tried to figure out what I should do with a small force of undead creatures at my command. Part of me thought that it would be kind of cool to go through the mansion and use the creatures to take care of the rest of Baron Yinnia’s guards, but that the only reason I could use The Darkest Death was because I was hacking the staff with the Never, the Earring that I had borrowed from Cornalic. I had roughly 35 seconds left on the clock before I couldn’t use the staff again. What would happen then? Would the skeletons still be under my command? Would I lose control and then they would attack me? Would the control I had over them count as using the staff, and since I didn’t actually have the magic attribute, did that mean that I would die? There were too many unknowns, and I’d already used the staff for its intended purpose. Baron Yinnia was dead, as were a bunch of his guards, and I guessed that Lady Feeyaz was innocent of trying to murder me. I needed to play this safe so that I could get the loot.

  Then get out of here.

  “Uhhh. Be gone. Or return to death, or whatever. I unsummon you,” I said to the skeletons as I waved the staff. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and I started to fear that I might be stuck with them for the rest of my career in Ohlavar Quest, but then their bones started to lose connection to each other, and the skeletons each tumbled down into scattered piles of ivory sticks.

  I moved to the chair and started digging through the clothes and bones still smoking there. I knew that the man carried a key to unlock his display cases, and I found what I was looking for after a bit of digging. I also found an amulet and ring, but I knew that any other guards in the mansion had probably heard the screaming, and I guessed that they were running in this direction. I put the key ring and two pieces of jewelry in my pocket without examining them, and then crept to the door out of the library.

  I heard shouts coming from the other side of the door, and I jumped behind the closest shelf before three guards ran into the room. The men all wore nice looking chainmail, and had small sword blades drawn. The weapons looked like rapiers, but a little thinner, shorter, and much faster. They were the perfect type of sword to use in hallways because they were much more responsive than broadswords, sabers, or the heavier longswords. The men hadn’t seen me when they ran in, and they stared at the smoking pile of bones with obvious confusion.

  “Where is the baron?” one of the men asked.

  “Is that him? On the chair?” another guard asked, and his voice was filled with terror.

  “What could have done this? It was that adventurer! He must still be in here! Stick together, and search the room,” the third guard said, and he gestured to the bookshelf that I stood behind.

  Damn it.

  The man approached the area where I hid, and I moved deeper into the aisle. From my position, I could kind of see where they walked over the crackling fireplace, and I shifted over to the next row of shelving before the men peered onto the first column. This wasn’t good. Eventually, the men would see me, and I doubted that I would be able to take them all out in the tight space of the library. Even if I had been in the hallway it would have been challenging. I wasn’t wearing any armor that would stop their fast moving blades, and I doubted that I could take on more than one at a time.

  Then again. I was also wearing Never, the Bracelet.

  It had been much easier to convince Cornalic to let me borrow the items than I had thought. Almost before I had finished telling him my plan over lunch, the man had been pulling his earring out of his ear to offer me. He hadn’t batted an eyelash when I also asked for the bracelet, and he’d agreed that my plan would make killing both the baron and the dark elf woman much easier.

  I guessed that Cornalic was listening in through the pearl I carried in my pocket, but his part of the plan involved snatching the glove and ring once I had taken care of Lady Feeyaz. I was supposed to give him the order by saying “Your turn, dear friend,” but I hadn’t actually “taken care” of Lady Feeyaz. I didn’t want to risk Cornalic setting off any sort of magical alarms she might have created in the gallery until I had a chance to talk to her and ensure we weren’t enemies.

  First I needed to take care of these guards, and the farther back I retreated, the less maneuvering room I would have when they did corner me.

  I needed to attack first, hope I could get them quickly, or—

  “I see him on the other side of this shelf!” one of the men yelled, from the next bookcase row over.

  I slammed my shoulder into the wooden bookshelf, and I heard the snapping of the ground anchors. I knew that I was crazy strong in the game, but I had half expected to feel a bit more resistance before the thing toppled over like a cut redwood tree.

  The shelf I pushed toppled into the next shelf, which also ripped free of the bolts keeping it anchored to the stone of the floor. This one topped over as well, and the empty space in the center of the library where the piles of skeleton bones lay was now awash in a wave of books. The man that had shouted that he saw me had gotten stuck in the mess, and he let out a shriek of surprise when the first shelf landed on top of him.

  I ran on top of the shelf and jumped toward the last two guards. The men already had their thin swords ready, but their eyes were fixed on the scattered books. The fall of the shelf had obviously surprised them, but these guards were somewhat skilled warriors, and the man on the left escaped the swing of my bone staff by throwing himself backward across the ground.

  I triggered Never, the Bracelet, and felt a thousand tingles of pleasure run through my arms when the UI flashed. There was a small icon of two open hands on the top of my visual, and I thrust the bottom point of my black staff at the standing guard. It felt as if the world was playing in slow motion, only my arm moved at normal speed, and the tip of The Darkest Death slipped around the guard’s sloth-like parry. The staff speared into the man’s head, and its strike dented the helmet in half. His eyes opened in slow-motion surprise after I struck, and his life bar instantly dropped to zero. The man was actually still standing upright, and his eyes looked full of life, but I figured that his death hadn’t actually reached his facial expression as quickly as the UI was passing me the data. It was a really cool animation effect, and I wondered if there were other magical items like this bracelet that would let me move faster than time for a few moments.

  I spun to the last man, and saw that he was still prone on the ground. He did have his sword pointed in my direction, but the tip of the blade didn’t follow me as I shifted to his side. I brought my staff down upon the man’s head as if I was playing whack-a-mole, and his armored skull exploded in slow motion like one of those watermelon videos.

  I didn’t know if the man under the toppled bookshelf was still alive, but I figured that even if he were, he wouldn�
�t be able to dig himself out from under the massive array of wood and books without a bunch of help. So I let him be, and ran through the exit door of the library.

  Right into three more guards.

  The one at the point dove toward me like a trained fencer. I slapped his small rapier-like blade aside with a sweep of my staff, and then spun the haft around in my hands to catch the other two swords against the length of my weapon. I could tell that my speed surprised the men, and I shuffled forward on my left foot to slam the pointed end of The Darkest Death into the chest of the first man. I felt his ribs crack under his chainmail when I struck, and he stumbled away in agony.

  His health bar dropped by half, but the other two men didn’t pay attention to his backward stumble, they just stepped to the sides of the hallway, reset their blade angles away from where I had knocked them with my staff spin, and the thrust toward me with a trained synchronization.

  I’d spent plenty of my life practicing high-speed fencing work with Bantog, and my instincts had been honed to be able to judge where the weapon movements would land just based off of my opponent’s footwork and shoulder position. If I hadn’t of just used Never, the Bracelet I would have still been able to tell where the swords were going to hit me, but I wouldn’t have been able to parry any of their attacks with the heavy staff, and probably wouldn’t have done much better with my broadsword. Since I was still enchanted with the haste effect, I could easily sweep my weapon across the tips of their blades, and I pushed their swords to my left side as I shuffled closer to the pair.

  My parry had moved both of the men’s arms together, and my quick step pressed my shoulder into the shoulder of the guard who had attacked me on my right side. The position put me within grappling range, and I slid the purple globed top of the staff past the man’s head a half-second before I swept the back of his legs. I twisted my upper body when I kicked him, and the staff forced his head backward at the same time as his feet were suddenly thrown weightless. The man cried out in slow motion, and he fell behind me. His sword was still locked up with his partner’s blade against the length of the staff, and his finger slipped loose as he tumbled.

  I carried my kick through the falling man’s legs, drew my knee to my stomach, and slammed the bottom of my boot into the crotch of the last guard. He tried to step away, but I’d moved too fast and his sword was still tied up against my staff. All of the air exploded out of his lungs with an agonized wheeze, and the man doubled over.

  I shuffled away from him with a spinning back sweep of the staff that would protect me from any counter attack. The hallway was almost too narrow for me to make the movement, but the other two men were both on the ground, and my staff didn’t encounter any resistance beyond the impact that the bottom part made with the standing guard’s knee. He gasped in agony when the joint shattered, and then I flipped the staff around in my hands to bring the ponderous top end down on top of his helmet.

  I kind of worried that the three purple globes on the top part of The Darkest Death might shatter when I smashed them into the man’s helmet, but the thing was an epic weapon that did 50% more damage than normal staves, so my target’s helmet crumpled like an aluminum can meeting a baseball bat. His health dropped to zero, and I twisted my torso around to smash the heavy globed end of the staff into the face of the guard I had tripped a second ago. The attack hit him just as he was starting to rise, and his head ripped free of his neck as if I’d just hit a homerun off of a tee ball stand. The helmet encased skull flew down the hallway, and then bounced three times off of the walls with a metallic pinball sound.

  The guard with the broken ribs was the only man left, and he was rising on one knee. His blade was pointed at me, and his other hand clutched his chest. The expression on his face was one of agony, and I recognized him as the young man I had spoken to this morning. He had stayed out front when I came inside, but I supposed that he’d come into the mansion when the screaming started.

  “Get out of here, I have no wish to kill you,” I said to the man.

  His eyes opened with disbelief, and he slid away on the one knee so that he could have more space to try and run.

  “I’m telling the truth. If you see any other guards, tell them to leave. The baron tried to kill me, and I was just protecting myself. I don’t want any more trouble.”

  “I’ll tell them,” he grunted as he stood.

  “How many more are there?” I asked.

  “The baron keeps thirty on staff at all time. He has a family, but they are in Iria for the month. So I think there are probably less on the property at the moment.”

  “Family?” I asked.

  “Aye. He has a son and daughter. They have their own children, and like to travel.”

  “Where is Lady Feeyaz?” I asked.

  “I am unsure. She normally doesn’t leave her rooms until the darkest hours of the night. Thank you for letting me go. Leo Lennox was your name?” he asked.

  “I worry about letting you live if you intend to tell the baron’s family that I murdered him.” I glared at the man, and took a step toward him.

  “No! I won’t say anything! Just that I didn’t see the attacker, and that the baron was already dead when I found him. Please let me live. I have a family myself and—”

  “Fine, get out of here,” I said with a wave of my staff.

  The man turned and stumbled away from me. As I watched him flee, the icon of the open hands began to blink on my UI screen, and then it faded from view. I didn’t know if the man’s count was correct, but if it was I had to expect at least another ten guards in the mansion. I still had the use of my healing and protection abilities, but I hoped that the man I had let go would be able to convince the others to flee.

  Or maybe Lady Feeyaz could talk them down once I spoke with her.

  I turned in the hallway and moved away from the direction that the man had escaped. I guessed that this corridor would exit out on the side of the main floor gallery near the stairs leading down to the drow woman’s living area, and my hunch was proven correct a half minute later when I reached the end.

  I saw the dark stairs on the other side of the open gallery space, and listened carefully for the sounds of guards. I didn’t hear anything, so I dashed across the fifty foot wide exposed area of the mansion, and then sighed with relief when I got to the first descending step. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I should just run up the stairs with Cornalic and grab the loot, but I felt better about meeting with the beautiful woman after what the baron had said, and I didn’t want to burn any bridges.

  I also didn’t want the dark elf coming after me if I ended up being wrong about her. It made the most sense to deal with her now; when I was prepared.

  I took a few deep breaths to steady my nerves, and then I walked down the stairs into the darkness of the woman’s lair.

  Chapter 23

  It seemed as if the stairs were longer than I remembered. I recalled them being a bit long when I had first descended with the baron this morning, but it had only taken half a minute to get to her room during my first visit. Now it seemed as if I had walked down the stairs for twice that time, and I had still not reached the bottom. The emberbrands still glowed on the walls of the staircase, and the light was more than enough for me to see with.

  “Lady Feeyaz?” I called out down the stairs. “It is Leo Lennox. I mean you no harm. The baron tried to kill me, and I wanted to make a trade with you.”

  There was no answer, and I debated just turning around and getting the hell out of here.

  “Leo!” Allurie called from below, and I felt my heart jump out of my throat. I hadn’t seen the elf girl since she had stormed out of Artus’ house a few hours ago. Had the drow woman captured her?

  “Leo! Is that you? It is dinner time,” I heard Artus’ voice call up from below. His words confused me, and I took the remaining few steps down the stairs.

  Then I stood in my fenia friend’s kitchen.

  “I thought we weren’t going to se
e you until this morning?” Gratia was sitting at the table where we had shared our meals, and the dwarven woman gave me a look of surprise.

  “I missed you!” Allurie jumped against my chest and I found my arms circling her slender waist. “I thought that I would never see you again. I’m sorry for running off like that. Does this mean you aren’t leaving?” Her turquoise eyes pleaded with me.

  “I uhhh…” This didn’t make any sense. Had Feeyaz teleported me back to Artus’ home?

  “Did you hurt yourself?” she gasped as she pulled the hood of my cloak back.

  “It was just bandaged to make them think I was injured,” I said.

  “But what is that lump on your head?” the pretty elf girl asked as she pulled on one of the wraps.

  “It’s the crown I found in the dungeon. I kind of tied it to my head so that I could use the staff better. I didn’t want it to be obvious, or fall off,” I explained through my own confusion. What were they all doing here?

  “So you aren’t hurt? Thank goodness. My heart did all sorts of flippy flops when I saw the blood.”

  “Allurie, help me set this food on the table. Leo can tell us about what happened while we eat,” Urllia called out from the kitchen.

  Artus was helping her cook, and the tabby colored cat-man set a pot of what looked like chicken soup in the center of the table. The scent of the soup came to my nose, and my mouth started to water. I felt famished, and I hadn’t eaten that much when I had lunch with Cornalic earlier.

  “Sit down, Leo,” Artus gestured to my seat after he had set the soup down.

  “What are you all doing here? I’m still in Baron Yinnia’s mansion, aren’t I?” I turned around in the kitchen and saw the door to the tiny room that Artus had let me use. I saw the edge of the small chest under my bed that Cornalic had given me, and I took the few steps into the room to open it. The bags of gold were still inside, and I could feel the wood of the chest in my hand.

  “Where is that over-muscled half-orc?” Gratia asked from behind me. “Did everything go as planned? I liked that greenie, so I hope he’s okay.”