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21. An Ambush of Horrific Proportions
🕑 Added 2022-01-22 19:35:23 +0000 UTCUnder the guidance of Fay, Damien emerged from the basement and was led outside. A cool winter breeze carrying the damp smell of rain assaulted his nose. In the front garden of the mansion was a group of twenty elves, all with long silver hair in ponytails. One elf that Damien recognized from previous playthroughs stepped forward and stood below Damien.
“By Royal Decree, I am here to escort Sir Damien Karles and Miss Fay Karles to the Princess, where a meeting shall be held between Sir Damien and the Princess this afternoon. Failure to comply will result in the use of force and potential imprisonment.”
Damien stood with a slight smirk on his face as he looked down at the small elf. He found it rather ridiculous how pompous he sounded when he had to look almost vertically up to meet Damien's gaze. The man was wearing iron-plated armor with a silver-colored cape attached. This is the formal armor of Princess Emilia’s Royal Guard. Her house's color is Silver instead of the deep green of the Greentail family. The silver color represents both the Silvermoon clan, their distinct hair color, and also Princess Emilia’s Luna magic, which often manifested itself in a silver glow.
To his credit, the elf seemed completely unaffected by Damien's intimidating gaze, and still read out the Royal Decree with the confidence befitting a Captain of the Princess’s Royal Guard. He had to confront many important people every day, so he was likely used to withstanding the intimidation of a noble aura.
Damien grinned, “Royal Captain Beldroth, it would be a pleasure to be escorted by such a capable group of soldiers.”
The elf seemed a little confused about how Damien knew his name, but quickly shook it off.
“Sir Damien, please follow-”
“Captain!”
Beldroth scowled at the young elf soldier, “What?”
The poor elf soldier recoiled under his captain's gaze but stuttered out, “Elaith used Clairvoyance on the surroundings and found a Druid in the woods to the north.”
Beldroth frowned, “Do we know his affiliation or motives?”
“Elaith concluded that the Druid has been tasked with watching Sir Damien’s movements, he could be a forward scout for an ambush as well.”
Beldroth nodded to the soldier in agreement.
“It seems you are rather popular around here, Sir Damien, it's not every day a rare class like a Druid is used to monitor someone ordinary.”
Damien just let out a long sigh, “So the sentinels of Oshal finally made their move huh.” he muttered just loud enough for the Captain to hear. Beldroth gave Damien an odd look but ignored him.
“Sir Damien please enter the car, we will escort you to the Capital as soon as possible.”
Beldroth then led Damien and Fay towards a car, Fay seemed amazed, but Damien had seen these before, both in the game and back on Earth.
“This is the latest Magi tech from the Research Institute here in Kassinki. There are only five that have been constructed so far, and the Princess owns one of them.”
Damien looked at the wheels and almost couldn’t hold back his laughter. They were literally water wheels. The wheels had grooves carved out along their surface. The car moves by high-powered water being pushed against the grooves on the wheels, kind of similar to how Damien moved his carriage with Psychokinesis, by applying some kind of force to the top of the wheel to make it turn.
The rest of the car was very similar to a saloon car back on Earth. It had 4 wheels and doors, the car’s body was made of some type of black metal that Damien recognized as Dark Steel. It's a magically enhanced version of normal steel that naturally repels magic-based attacks.
An elf wearing a butler uniform stepped out of the car and bowed towards Damien and Fay.
“Young Master and Miss, I shall be your driver today.”
Damien and Fay entered the back seat of the car and sat down on the white-colored seats that were made from the hide of a Snow Bear. Imyrll also entered the car but sat in the front seat, clutching a piece of parchment as if it was a treasure that would float away. The driver sat in the seat directly in front of Damien and to his amusement and Fay's amazement, the driver placed his hand over two open pipes.
“ᚹᚨᛏᛖᚱ ᚲᚨᚾᚾᛟᚾ (Water Cannon)” the man muttered in runic language and two powerful jets of water shot from his hands and down the pipes. The car lurched forward and began moving. The speed was slow, allowing the elves to walk alongside to protect the car from external threats.
Damien still found it weird hearing someone talk in the runic language, it was clearly English but when it came out of his or anyone else's mouth the world seemed to translate it into some weird rune language that nobody is supposed to understand. Deciding to think about it more at a later date, he laid back and closed his eyes.
Damien knew the car could reach high speeds if the water mage driving it was powerful enough, from Damien's estimates this man was a C grade in Water Magic as his Hydrokinesis skill was rather lacking.
Despite the ridiculous cost of creating one of these cars and the need to hire a dedicated water mage to drive it, Damien could appreciate the suspension and soundproofing of the car, the climate control was also a nice extra during these cold months.
Suddenly the car came to a halt, so Damien lazily opened his eyes. The car had small glass windows that had been reinforced with runes, allowing Damien a view of the outside.
They were surrounded by over a hundred people, all wearing similar black cloaks. They advanced towards the car with weird postures and steps.
“Protect the car, form a defensive line on me!” The small elf Captain bellowed.
“Don’t be afraid Mr and Miss Karles, this car is heavily enchanted, and the guards are well trained. We will be fine.”
Damien looked deeply at the mob surrounding the car. Something seemed off about them.
The encirclement slowly got tighter until they got within 10 meters of the car. One of the black-cloaked figures suddenly lunged towards an elven knight. He quickly parried the attack with his sword, then calmly chanted a skill, “ᚠᛁᚱᛖ ᛋᚹᛟᚱᛞ (Fire Sword)” and his iron sword glowed red hot.
“Hmm, a C tier sword art… should be rather effective.” Damien muttered to himself as he watched the fight.
The elven knight swung his sword in a vertical arc and smashed into the black-cloaked person's head, sending the figure flying a few meters before crumpling on the floor.
“Huh?” Damien couldn't help but be confused, “Why didn’t he protect his own head, that swing was so obvious yet the cloaked figure did nothing to stop it?”
The elven knight also looked rather confused, but quickly blocked an attack from another opponent. This one was also defeated rather easily.
“See Sir Damien? The Royal Guards of the Princess are rather impressive.” The water mage remarked while watching the fight from his seat.
“It seems so…” Damien absentmindedly agreed. They were rather impressive as the knights battered and smashed the figures away with their swords and skills. Apart from the Captain, who was utilizing B grade Wind Magic to enhance his speed, leaving a mere blur as he moved. His fast sword swings also knocked back his opponents over 10 meters away, the rest of the knights used C-grade sword arts of varying affinities.
Although their skill grades were rather low, their skill with their swords and extensive and well-trained teamwork easily filled in the gaps.
Within 30 minutes, the last of the black-cloaked figures fell to a brutal sword slash from a young elven soldier.
“It seems the battle is over.” the butler commented.
Damien didn’t answer but continued to observe. Something felt terribly wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. The fight felt a little too easy for his liking.
The group of soldiers all crowded around a nearby corpse and peeled its black cloak from its face.
“Huh?” they all said in unison as a man with yellow and rotting skin was revealed.
“Zombies!” Damien shouted, surprising everyone in the car. He tried to open the car door to warn the soldiers, but the car was locked.
“Please remain seated Sir Damien, it may still be dangerous outside.” the water mage commented, not knowing the danger he was in.
“No, I need to-” Damien was interrupted by a scream from outside. The Psychic mage Elaith was lying on the ground with a dagger through his neck. He desperately gasped for air, but his windpipe was filled with blood, creating a weird gurgling noise.
A black robe figure who was missing an arm stood over Elaith, its lifeless eyes gazed over the group. A young elven soldier charged towards the zombie, activating a skill as he ran.
“ᛖᚾᚺᚨᚾᚲᛖᛞ ᛋᛏᚱᛁᚴᛖ (Enhanced Strike)” Just as his sword was about to impact the zombie’s head, a nearby ‘corpse’ moved and grabbed his leg, causing him to trip. Another ‘corpse’ rose up and rammed a dagger into the fallen knight’s head. This all happened too fast for anyone to react.
Then, much to the already exhausted elven guard's horror, all one hundred black-robed figures rose once again. Some were missing limbs or even heads, yet they began their march once more.
Comments
Mr. Bigglesworth
*cheer*
XKARNATION
I have been thinking over your feedback and it has given me a great idea for tomorrow's chapter, hopefully, I will give a good backstory as to why they are so incompetent and it matches with the rest of the story as well. I really appreciate this kind of feedback since you see the chapters before other people so you can help me spot things I missed out such as this!
Mr. Bigglesworth
Seems like a massive gap in 'elite' guard training to ignore the potential threat of risen dead when it's known that necromancers exist. Standard training to burn bodies from a distance would become common just to stop a situation like this. Skills mean nothing without skill.
XKARNATION
Also, zombies are not common as they have to be raised by necromancers which is very rare as it's illegal to be one. This group of young soldiers have never been trained to deal with zombies because of this and therefore didn't think to be cautious when approaching 'dead' bodies.
XKARNATION
well all the bodies have been lying lifeless on the floor for the last 30 mins without moving and they "crowded" around the nearest corpse to themselves. They were distracted and didn't notice that one of the corpses had stood back up behind them. Also although they call themselves "elite guards" they are similar to Imyrll in that they are all the weaker of the Queens guards that were gifter to the princess on her 18th birthday. Real elite guards would all have B tier skills but this group is filled with young soldiers with C grade skills.
Mr. Bigglesworth
Like, what elite guards crowd around dead targets without making sure of the kills? If zombies are a thing this scene makes 0 sense for so-called elite guards.
