Chapter 6: Chapter 5: Sword Tuning

“Summon Skeleton!” I yelled and summoned skeletons. One of the skeletons grabbed the leg of a guard, but was quickly cut down. I ran as the group of 4 knights and 2 clerics chased me.

“Kill the undead!” One of the knights yelled, followed by the footsteps of the rest of the division. I kept running straight, summoning another set of 3 skeletons. The gate was still a good distance from me, but I liked my odds of making it.

The knights and cleric chased me for about three minutes, until the cleric tried to hit me with a light spell. The blast of light just nearly missed me, I realized it was time to drink the speed potion.

I had enough base mana left for one more skeleton summon. “Summon Skeleton!” I yelled. The skeletons rose and temporarily pushed back the two front knights, giving me an opening to drink the speed potion.

After I drank the potion, I wiped the residue off my mouth as I continued to run. I was confident in the plan, but I didn’t know how long I had before the speed potion wore off. As my mind pondered the thought, I saw words in the air again.

[Potion Longevity: 24s]

“Uh, thanks words,” I said confusingly. Still running, I thought about how the potion lasted longer than a minor potion would have, Starch must have raided a really good place for the loot.

“The accomplice is in sight!” Shouted one of the knights as they gained on me. “Fuck!” I said in my head. This really wasn’t the time for my lack of physical ability to show. I didn’t feel exhausted by I knew that my stamina wouldn't last this entire chase at this rate.

I tried to dodge another light spell but missed, it hit me and the number appeared again.

[Health: 620/1020]

“Shit, shit!” I thought as the realization hit me as hard as the blast. I was still at a major disadvantage because of the type of magic used. I still had the mana potion and scroll. I could use the scroll and foil the rest of my part of the plan, use the mana potion too soon, effectively causing the same foil. My options were extremely limited.

[Stamina: 40/100]

I saw the numbers again, “Damn it! Also, why the fuck was Casey’s build dependent on his armor? Why did he have warrior armor as a mage to begin with?” I had to save the questions for when I wasn’t in such a dire situation.

“Foil the plan, or foil the plan differently, what do I do?” the most important aspect of the plan was my ability to get to the gate and use the scroll, as long as I could make sure I do that, I could probably make alterations to the plan, key word being ‘probably.’

The knights were pretty much at my throat at that point. All they needed was a few seconds and they would have claimed victory. That thought wasn’t assuring of my situation at all, but it still lingered as I ran.

[Stamina: 13/100]

“Yeah, I have to think of something. Using the potion won’t help me, those knights don’t rely on dealing light damage and those physical attacks will get the job done. Fuck it, I’ll drink the mana potion right now. It might foil the plan, but I’ll take that risk over dying.”

I drank the mana potion, summoning another wave of skeletons before I could even finish drinking it. I was almost at the gate, just a little longer. All I needed to do was use the scroll and th-

Before I could finish my thought, I was on the ground, I looked down and saw my leg. I looked up and saw a man with long blonde hair, blue eyes, clad in knightly armor with a yellow glow. His sword had my blood on it as it rested to his side.

“This is the culprit’s accomplice?” The man asked while pointing his sword straight at my face. I turned to the knight that the guard has questioned. He was restraining someone in his arms who had a potato sack over their head. They removed the sack, revealing Starch’s face.

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“Run, you have to go!” He yelled.

The man turn to him, “You best be quiet, I have no patience for more nonsense today.” He swiftly hit Starch in the stomach with the blunt end of his sword. His sound of pain was brief but clear. “Now, I would be happy to leave this up to Saint Excella, but I need to know what you and your little friend were planning,” The man said as he turned back to me.

“Planning?” I said

The man sighed, “I’ll be clearer, tell me what you were conspiring or your friend loses his annoying tongue.”

“Don’t t-” Starch started to speak, but was stopped with another jab to the stomach.

“Okay, now he gets to lose his tongue and eyes, or you can speak,” The man’s eyes looked dead-serious.

I cleared my throat before speaking, “We were going to escape.”

“Escape?” The man asked.

Right as we was going to continue, a giant cloud of smoke appeared. “Captain Lancaster!” One of the knights yelled. Suddenly, I was face to face with Cardinal.

He tilted his head towards me, “As you can tell, there’s been a change in plans,” He said while chuckling a bit.

“Understatement,” I said.

“Do you still have that scroll?” Cardinal asked me.

“Yeah,” I said.

He turned back towards the direction of the knights, “I think you might have a little mana left, summon 3 skeletons,” With those words, Cardinal threw my leg towards me. It landed right towards its original place. Within seconds, it had reattached itself to my body.

“How di-” I started to asked.

“Explanations can wait, do the summon now!” I nodded and went along accordingly.

A gust of wind cut through the smoke, I assumed it was from the sword of the captain. “Summoned Skeletons!” I yelled as the last remnants of smoke were leaving.

As I began to run, I looked back and saw that Cardinal was frozen. I looked further down and saw why… Starch had been impaled by the captain. His body was sliding off of the sword. “B-but captain, I thought we were only supposed to take them alive and kill the undead!” Spoke a small Dwarven healer.

“I’m the captain, I’ll do whatever I need to to complete Saint Excella’s goal.”

I looked around- We were surrounded. Every inch of the area was covered in knights and clerics, there was truly nowhere else to go.

“You bastard,” Cardinal said while gritting his teeth. He started clenching his dagger tighter in his hand. “You fucking bastard!” while yelling angrily, Cardinal shattered a speed potion in his hand and darted at the captain as his ears tilted back.

The captain braced himself, but was still pushed backwards by the force of Cardinal’s lunge.

“Feisty little cat,” The captain said while pushing back. He swung for another hit but missed, leaving room open for Cardinal to land a hit.

“It appears I’ll have a challenge after all!” The captain started increasing the speed of his attacks, repeatedly swinging horizontally before landing a hit on Cardinal, or so he thought. Within seconds of the hit, Cardinal had already moved.

“You aren’t fast enough,” Cardinal said before landing on a brick wall with his knees crouched.

“Wanna bet?” The captain asked as a smile grew on his face.

Cardinal went at full force, landed a small hit, jumped from a wall, then repeated.

“-10 -10 -10 -10 -10”

The numbers appeared again. “Holy shit!” I thought. Cardinal was really giving the captain a run for his money.

It dawned on my still, This was only capable because of the speed potion Cardinal drank, and the assumed stamina potion as well. He’ll be dead when that runs out.

Cardinal leapt downward from the awning of a building while throwing 3 daggers at the captain.

“Nice trick,” The captain said while flicking the first two. As he was about to flick the last one Cardinal slashed him right before he could.

“Shut up already,” He said while flipping his dagger for another slash. The worst came to pass- The potion ran out and his speed slowed right as he was going for it.

“Argh!” Cardinal yelled out as the captains sword pierced his shoulder. He jumped back and tried to hold his shoulder as the blood seeped through his hand. “Shit!” He said.

Within that same moment, the dwarven healer from before ran to his side. “Hold on!” He said as he started healing the wound with his raised staff.

“What are you doing?” The captain yelled angrily.

“I’m saving someone who needs it!” Said the healer.

“Then you’ll all bleed!” The guard yelled. He rushed towards them, but I couldn’t let that happen. I was done standing around.

My mana was recharged enough, I could do something. “Summon Skeleton!” I yelled. Before the skeletons could even finish rising, I took out the scroll. “Scroll: Viobee Swarm!” I yelled as I unraveled the scroll. The summoning sigil on it flashed green, then yellow, before the scroll blew up in a swarm of Viobees.

“Ahh! Help!” The knights yelled.

“Damn insects!” Another pair yelled.

“Come on!” I yelled to the healer and Cardinal. They nodded and quickly followed me. We were already close enough to the gate.

“My shoulder hurts like hell, but I got it!” Cardinal said as he hit away the arrows of the archers stationed on top of the northeast gate.

“I’ll help too!” The dwarven healer said as he shined a light on ahead of us that blinded the guards stationed, making them easy for me to push aside.

Cardinal in his last bag of tricks, threw a smoke bomb and yelled, “Push through the gate!”

I nodded and ran, summoning 3 skeletons to distract the guards from the gate as Cardinal picked them off. We busted through the gate, and right as we did, the words appeared again.

{New Skill Unlocked: Skeletal Archer}

“Uh, fuck yeah?” I said confusingly. Even so, I yelled, “Skeletal Archer!” Within seconds, the skeletons I had summoned created bows out of their bones, and started using them shot at the archers. We ran as the distracted archer's aim wasn’t directed towards us, barely managing to get out.

I turned back and looked at the chaos that had happened. “We did it,” I said as I turned to the healer and Cardinal.

“I guess we did,” Cardinal said.

The plan was over, even if it costed the life of someone we cared for.