Lord Ronald’s POV

As soon as the tapestries started falling, I took a step forward to face the three royal guard between me and Duerse. Their armor was of a strangely segmented design, leaving very few openings for normal blades to exploit. Luckily for me I had a piercing blade. Between the blade’s length and my wingspan, a proper lunge from me could hit the next city over, or at least that’s what most joked. Until they were on the receiving end that is. But a lunge is a poor move against multiple opponents, so I theatrically unhooked my estoc and adopted a wrath guard stance. Unlike most weapons, mine was made of compressed mithril, which let it be lighter and more durable. Even better was the enchantment that allowed me to flood it with mana that would release in a wave in front of me while also reinforcing the structure of my blade.

“You are between a traitor and justice. You heard him admit it, your vows to defend him are null. Move out of my way.” I calmly said, though they didn’t move.

“MAY THE LIGHT OF SHALORA BLESS ALL WHO STAND AGAINST THE DARKNESS THIS DAY! LOSE NO HEART, FOR OUR GODS ARE WITH US! WE WILL SLAY THESE CREAURES THAT USE OUR KIN AS PUPPETS, AND THEN TURN OUR BLADES UPON THEIR MASTER!” I heard someone chant behind me, and felt blessed light flow over me and settle into my weapon. Odd, but despite the blessing the air felt a lot colder.

“Very well. You leave me no choice. CLEAN SWEEP!”

“FLASH FREEZE!” A feminine snarl joined my battle roar as two skills were unleashed, though mine might have been the slower one. My mind went into overdrive as I saw bits of frost start to form on the armor before being absorbed, then my sword blasted through in a two handed horizontal slash as it unleashed a wave of unstoppable force. The guards were thrown back several feet, where I heard the cracking of ice.

“So Sean was right, their armor can absorb even my immense cold.” I heard Elendria, if you could believe it was her, say. She stopped right next to me and looked me in the eye. “Lord Goldenlake. Your attitude will get you killed. These are not elves, they are meat puppets being used by a ruthless enemy that cares not about the strictures of war. If you keep attacking without the intent to kill, you will waste your energy on a foe who doesn’t deserve it, and falter at the wrong time.”

“I still can’t believe that our brethren can’t be saved.” I said, shaking my head sadly.

“Then you should bow out and let Lord Hemlock lead against my brother. Unless this sight is enough to change your mind.” She said, pointing to the armors that were just now raising back up. They moved oddly, and great rents opened up and spilled out bits of frozen bodies. I watched in horror as black strings tried to withdraw from the frozen chunks, but were eventually cut off by the armor itself. A set of eyes opened up above the eye slit, and the face guard opened to reveal a toothy maw.

“Ice burst.” Elendria calmly said, shooting a small ice spike into the mouth of the one on the right, as it was in the middle of roaring at her. The dart easily penetrated into the mouth, then started expanding. The creature’s eyes widened in terror as it’s jaws were forcefully pushed apart by the expanding ice, until the lower jaw exploded with a mighty crack, leaking green blood all over the floor.

“There you have it Lord Ronald. If it bleeds, it can be killed. I’ll leave the others to you. They shouldn’t take long as I immobilized them.”

Shocked, I looked up to see that there were now block of ice encasing each of the appendages of the creatures, though they were slowly being absorbed. She might be right about these things, but Duerse’s reaction at the end let me know that he might still be saved. “Piercing thrust.” I activated the skill twice, stabbing through the base of the neck before wrenching the blade to one side and ripping it out the opposite, leaving a gaping wound and a nearly decapitated creature behind.

Duerse waited for me at the top, graciously giving me the room to gain my footing. Ignoring the intense magical battles to both sides, I looked at our fallen king, my heart breaking. “You never could defeat me. Surrender now, and end this madness.”

“Ever the optimist. What happens when I surrender Ronald? Will you execute me in front of the masses as an example? My brother and wife as well? Or will you slip me the keys and spirit me out in the dark of the night?” He said sadly, shaking his head. “I took the only road I could to save my people. Our gods are weakening! Apophis is winning, and nothing we can do will stop him!”

“And so you betray your planet?” I shouted, my sword point dropping slightly. “What guarantee do you have that we will live through any of this?”

“I have the word of a god!” He countered. “No harm will come to the elves in the transition. In fact, he will help transport us into his world, that we may start life anew as he drains this world to a husk.”

“I see now you were a fool all along.” I said. “No harm will come in the transition?” I snarled the last bit. “You idiot! And what happens if we get there and there are no foods we can eat? No areas where we can grow crops? What if the monsters are stronger and our weapons can’t hurt them? The only thing you have bought is the ability to die on another world. All you had to do was sell the souls of your people and betray all that we have ever stood for.”

“Oh please, spare me the trite all we have ever stood for crap. We are the most egotistical bastards on this planet, and you know it as well as I. Even the commoners look down on the other races!”

I shook my head and took a fighting stance, “Yes, we are arrogant. But we would never abandon the other races! I suppose Elendria was right. This will only end when one of us is dead.”

“One of us? I guarantee far more than one of you will fall to my blade today.” Duerse said, as his armor molded over his head. He drew a pair of scimitars, and started loosening up his wrists with a flourish. “What do you think Ronald? Can you pierce a vital place from that distance? Or will you risk my blades up close?” A pair of glowing red eyes opened above his own, and his armor grinned at me.

“Skewer.” I said, activating one of my most powerful skills, and starting the battle. My body blurred across the fifteen feet between us, my entirety focused on his right shoulder joint. He brought a blade up to defend, but it was too late for his parry.

*CLANG*

“GAAAAH!” I cried in pain as I overshot my mark, somehow my strike never finding his shoulder. He responded by drawing a slash across the left side of my abdomen, not quite deep enough to be life threatening but deep enough that it was bleeding.

“Ah, first blood to me!” He giggled, and I saw a piece of his armor folding back into place.

“So that’s how it is. Your armor lashed out to knock me off point, saving your arm.” I said as it clicked into place. “If you had the ability to create armor like that, that could protect your body, why then did you need to slaughter your guard and use creatures to puppet their bodies?”

“Give armor befitting a king to mere guards?” He scoffed, holding up his blade so that his armor could send out a long tongue to taste my blood. “How ridiculous. Tell me, would you fit conscripts with full plate?” With that, he leaped forward and unleashed a flurry of blows coming from all angles. His wrists moved in figure eights, but he would change his feet and dominant hand at random, keeping me on guard and preventing any sort of counter. “This armor does more than protect, fool! It grows with me, strengthens me, and can detach to protect me! It is far beyond the likes of you to defeat!”

“REPULSE!” I cried, sending a vertical blast of mana through my sword and buying myself some much needed distance. I had to use the ricosso just to give me enough leverage to defend from his blows, and several times came incredibly close to losing my fingers. Taking stock of myself, I noticed that he was concentrating on my left hand, looking to disable it from the amount of slashes my hidden bracer had taken.

“It’s only a matter of time. Save your life and join me, Ronald. We have the means to heal your wounds, and soon the last champion of the gods will be destroyed. Help us strike him down, and Apophis will grant you a major boon. There is a standing reward for his head.” Duerse tried to tempt me.

“You mock the honor of the Goldenlakes, thinking I can be bought so cheaply.” I said, once more regaining my stance. I reset myself, both hands safely on the hilt as I adopted the Ox stance.

“Even if you manage to get past my blades without being deflected, you’ll never pierce me with a thrust.” Duerse taunted, noting my stance. To counter me, he bladed his body with his right shoulder forward, blade forming a wall as his left hand blade stilled to deliver a counter attack.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed my body as I prepared my strike. “Piercing lunge!” I cried just as his upper blade reached the midpoint of its downward trajectory as I activated my feint skill. As I expected, Duerse leaned to his backside, trying to bring his blade up to parry by thrust. Instead, my back foot stepped forward as I rotated my right wrist clockwise, initially to guard against a leading thrust from his blade before turning it into a crossing overhead slash that was reinforced by mana. My blade came crashing down onto my true target, his front blade, and I smiled as his shattered under the titanic forces we had just unleashed and I ended up in a Fool’s guard. As his back blade came forward to strike I moved through a hanging parry and retreated back to an Ox guard, smiling at my opponent.

“And here I thought I had beaten listening to your opponent’s skills out of you.” I said as Duerse glared at me.

“What manner of estoc is that? How is it still straight?” He demanded.

“This is my favorite blade, I call it my swordbreaker estoc. For obvious reasons.” I said, nodding to the discarded blade he had tossed away. “Now, let’s finish this.” I said, lunging forward without using a skill this time.

To my surprise, Duerse led with his open hand, trying to grab my blade. I shifted my trajectory a bit, but it was useless as strips of his armor shot out and wrapped the tip up in moments. He wrenched it to the side, and did a rising slash that forced me to let go of my blade and back away. I mentally swore as he examined the blade for a moment before a hand reached from the back of his armor and grabbed the blade, allowing him to face me with his remaining scimitar.

“You never were any good with magic, and now you are weaponless before me. Pity you couldn’t see my point of view, but this is how it must end. Farewell, old friend.” He said, before starting to launch forward just as a crossbow bolt embedded itself in his thigh. “GAAAAAH!” He cried as he stumbled forward, glaring at me as I retreated a bit.

“Blast. Launched the bolt a moment too soon.” Lord Hemlock chuckled from beside me.

“Thanks for saving me.” I said, nodding at him.

“Bah, don’t thank me. If you die here you become a martyr, and that’s no good to me. Besides, then I would need to pit my scion against yours, and mine isn’t quite ready yet.”

“Aww, if we’re done with the heart to heart.” Duerse snarled, ripping the quarrel from his thigh. Surprisingly, the hole healed immediately and he grinned. “It’s time to die.” Before we could react, he blurred forward and slashed an X onto my chest while my own estoc was used to smash the crossbow and start bludgeoning the both of us. Once he had a shin broken on each of us, he smiled and backed off.

“Any last words? I wouldn’t bother with anything for your families, as I am going to have to make examples of them.”

“Stop gloating and fucking do it.” Hemlock snarled, and Duerse’s face fell.

“If that’s what you wish.” He took a step forward, preparing to slash off his head, when something slammed into his chest and knocked him backwards.