Unbound

"Beef has them fully engaged. Proceed to the Overlord's Manor," the sharp-winged matriarch said as she landed beside him.

Kevin, on Harn’s left, shuddered. "God, that's creepy. A voice like yours shouldn't be coming out of a giant skink."

"Hmm," Hallow mused. Then the water bubbled just feet away, and a shambling corpse rose from the muck. Their body was half-decayed and mostly bones until it welled with a blackened green light and was clad in chitinous armor. "Would you rather this form?" she asked from within.

Kevin jerked in surprise, and Archie grimaced. "Necromancy's gross."

Harn grunted in agreement before gesturing ahead. "Hallow, pave the way."

The armored corpse inclined its head before turning to the old Chanter at the sidelines. "Mauvim, your assistance, please."

"Of course, Hallow." The old lady lifted her hand, and a welling of multicolored light poured from it, along with the hands of all the Chanters at her back.

"Entropic Paradigm," Hallow intoned, and her voice echoed as if it were down a long, empty tunnel. Power rolled through the Risen, striking at the shoreline and manifesting into a chitinous pathway that stabbed deep into the poisoned waters. It rose above the muck, shedding water by the bucketful, and didn’t stop until it extended a solid twenty feet ahead of them. The Chanters’ power sparked off of the construction, giving it a strange, ethereal quality that Harn wasn't sure the purpose of, but was a benefit, no doubt.

Harn lifted a cloth mask over his lower face and pointed his axe toward the rocky island and the Overlord’s little headquarters atop it.

As one, they moved ahead, the entire army running from the ridgeline as Hallow's Risen channeled more of Beef's power. The road ahead of them built with each step, and their boots beat hard against its dry, ridged surface with an inexorable gait. Behind Hallow, Harn ran at the front, followed closely by the three Unbound, the forward scouts, and the still-humming Chanters.

The fumes were awful, each step wafting more up at them. Everyone wore cloth masks, their lengths soaked with some sort of mixture the Kobold kids had whipped up. Shadow had said it'd last them twenty minutes, if they didn't breathe too fast. Harn had been around Felix long enough to recognize the way they counted time. A little over a quarter of a glass. He could work with that.

They moved at a double-time march across the Poison Fields, not outright running, but their combined Tempers made it so that they covered more ground than most might. It was a sustained pace designed to keep them ready for the fight that lay ahead of them.

The island loomed ahead, topped by walls that were covered in vines and broken masonry. A bell rang, and in the distance, Harn saw armored guilders shouting and pointing in their direction. They had been noticed.

“Take ‘em out!”

The forward scouts fired their bows, arrows laden with deadly Skills. Guilders fell by the dozen, but many others took shelter behind massive tower shields that rebuffed the projectiles with their own gleaming Skills. The shields, however, did not withstand Harn, nor those that followed. Waves of legion forces, Blade and Fist and Bone, smashed into the guilder guards around the Overlord's Manor, beating them to the ground and ending the threat they posed with extreme precision.

Harn burst easily into the inner portions of the ruin, where the ground had been swept clean between the broken walls and the newly-made tower. Before him, standing between Harn and the unblemished tower wall, was a man in full plate armor. A crest of blue feathers sprouted from his head, and two massive swords were in either hand, each approximately eight feet in length and thick as a broadsword.

"The Overlord must not be disturbed,” the man said, brandishing his blades. “His work is too important.”

Harn considered his foe. The Adamant was alone. No serpent waited in the wings as the fight with the guilders raged at the periphery. However, Harn didn't think this was going to be an easy fight. “Analyze.”

The warrior barely flinched as Harn’s Intent swept across him.

Name: Adamant Guard Kade

???

???

Can’t get a read on him. High Adept at least, though. Maybe Master Tier.

Harn limbered up his shoulders. "Archie, take care of the rest of the guilders and secure the ruin."

The Delven hesitated, glancing at the Adamant. "What about him?"

"I got it."

Archie laughed. “Fine. Don’t die, old man.” He gave a lazy salute and slipped into the earth, vanishing.

"You do not wish to test me, warrior," the Adamant said as the Unbound left. His stance was unchanged, despite the heft of the long, brutal-looking swords. They were extended outward in guard positions, as if he intended to fight all of them at once.

Harn tilted his head, his helmet similar to the one that hid the Adamant guard's face. Two swords, solid armor and…shit. Around the blades there was a sheathing of blue, as if they were clad with magic, and a similar bubble surrounded the guard. Let's see if I can break it.

Harn shot forward. He swung an axe and was easily met by the Guard's first blade. Axe met sword, and both blows bounced off one another. Harn swung twice more, each time pivoting into attack Forms he'd trained most of his life—and the Adamant Guard matched him.

An old Form. Dual Serpents, I think. Harn ducked beneath a strike. Blade length is different, though. He’s unpredictable.

“You're good," the guard said, as if echoing Harn’s own thoughts. "Where did you train, warrior?"

Harn ignored him. "Let us through. Our fight’s with your boss, not you.”

“You've killed innocent men to stand here. Justice calls for your punishment."

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"Innocent," Kevin nearly spat. Harn had almost forgotten that the Kobold was still there. "You're abducting people and forcing them to pick roots in a death trap!”

"A fitting punishment for their crimes." The Guard's voice echoed from his helmet. "Just as you will receive punishment for the crimes you have committed this day."

"Are we talkin’, or are we fightin’?" Harn asked before blurring forward again. "Wrath of the Twin Fangs!"

Arcanite axes crashed into dual swords, and the stone courtyard cracked beneath their feet as Harn truly pressed himself. The Guard grunted in surprise before leaning forward and meeting his Strength for Strength.

"You will not succeed here," he snapped.

"Hmm." Harn hooked his axe over the sword's edge and yanked down hard before spinning forward with a backhand strike. Adamant Kade flipped his second sword and met it with the flat of his blade. Blue force Mana flared around the weapon as if encased in its own shield. Harn's blow stopped in a shower of sparks.

"Not bad." Harn rammed his arcanite knee into the Adamant's gut, bending him double before dropping his second axe onto his head. Kade rolled forward, axe skidding off the back of his armor. He fetched back up to his feet.

"Trickery! You have tarnished the rules of comabt!"

"Ain't no rules to a fight," Harn said. "Just winnin’ and losin’."

"That is the motto of a criminal. I'll cut it out of your heart."

"With what?"

Kade stared, only just realizing his offhand was empty.

"Lost somethin’?" Harn taunted, stepping onto the Adamant's lost sword. It lay on the ground where Kade once stood, and though he wore a helmet, Harn had a long history of reading fully armored men. The guy was pissed.

Good. An angry enemy made mistakes.

Harn ground his foot into the sword, pitting all his Strength against it. The force shield that coated it spat sparks against the stone floor. "Fine blade. Pity you can't take care of it properly."

Harn knew his way around weapons now, especially enchanted ones. He felt the weak points like divots through his arcanite foot. Without the Adamant holding it, the protections were fading fast. With a twist of his heel and a surge of his considerable strength, he shattered the force shielding and cracked the stone beneath it.

"Colossus of the Everflame." Harn’s axes ignited, and he brought them down.

Panoply of the Halcyon Champion is level 98!

Silver flame and gleaming axe snapped the blade in two.

"No!" Kade cried. "Stance of the Lone Soldier!"

The Adamant rushed at Harn, blade held in a high guard before lunging. Harn twisted, letting the sword pass him by before knocking it askew with his axes. Kade followed, preserving his momentum as he swung for Harn again… and again, each strike faster than the last, until blue Mana trailed the broadsword as ferociously as the wind it created in its wake.

Harn moved, flaring his own Agility as much as he could, but the Adamant was fast. More than once, he took a blow that would have leveled a less-armored man. He took glancing blows on his pauldrons, vambraces, and even helmet. His arcanite came back scored, but whole.

"Impressive," Harn grated between movements. "I imagine it’s really somethin’ when you got two blades, huh?"

"Singular Cut," the Adamant snapped, voice ragged with rage. He thrust, and the sword expanded rapidly, a phantom blade that thrust outward twenty strides—and took Harn in the chest.

Noctis’ tits! His arcanite breastplate turned it, the bend of its form angling it away from center mass, but it was enough to knock Harn on his ass.

"Axe guy!"

Harn split his legs, narrowly avoiding the follow-up slash from the phantom blade. It sliced into the stone, inches from his groin. "What?"

The phantom blade slashed back up, but Harn was already rolling backward. He came to a stop on his hands and knees before hurling himself sideways. The blade thrust through his previous position, scoring a deep line across his arcanite rerebrace.

"We need an opening," Kevin cried out.

Harn glanced at the Kobold, exasperated. "What do you think I'm doing?"

The green-gold Kobold idly spun his sickle on its chain, and the thing sparked with illusory vines. "Rolling around?"

Harn's gaze caught on a faint shape above a crumbling buttress. Shadow was hiding, his dark bow drawn taut. Harn grunted, rising to his feet. An opening. Alright.

The Adamant guard's Skill had lapsed, thankfully, and it left the armored knight standing there, oversized sword held in a guard position. It clearly had a time limit on its usage, or else the man didn't have enough Mana to keep it active. Either way, it gave Harn some options.

"That was a surprise," he said, circling the Adamant. "How many more you got?"

"Enough to handle you, criminal."

"Show me." Harn rushed in.

Kade slid back into his Stance of the Lone Soldier, and Harn tracked it as it took effect. The man's arms blurred as he moved, snapping his weapon about in fluid arcs that left guarded as much as advanced him forward. The stance was fast, and it enhanced the edge of his blade. The longer the guard fought with it, the faster he grew, and it was almost insurmountable, despite Harn's many years of experience.

The Adamant was good…but he was predictable.

His stance made him move faster, but his weapon mastery Skill was no doubt made to wield two weapons at once. The Adamant was already on his back foot. Harn just had to push him.

Kade came for him, sword low before swinging high. Harn flipped his axe, deflecting the blow with the force of his Colossus of the Everflame, and silver fire spat upward in a liquid arc. Kade flinched as flame fell on them both, and that was all Harn needed. He kicked out with his arcanite leg—the Adamant Guard intercepted with the flat of his blade.

Blocked or not, he couldn't evade the force of it.

Arcanite met steel and shield, and the Adamant blasted backward, fully off the ground, only stopping when his armored back slammed into the tower's wall. The wards of the tower flared up, bright and red where it met Kade’s blue. Blood spurted from between the holes in his helm, and it burned in silver flame as Harn launched into his chest with a flying knee. The wards flared harder, both now screeching audibly, like bells crashing in the distance.

Wrath of the Twin Fangs is level 92!

Colossus of the Everflame is level 95!

His axes smashed against the Adamant's neck, their edges finger spans away from the metal surface. Sparks cascaded from the contact point, and silver flame ate into metallic blue shielding.

Kade’s body shook, but his voice was steady. "You cannot defeat the gods!"

Harn slammed his helm into the Adamant's bloody head, and the man's personal shield exploded. The arcanite axes continued through, unimpeded, and cut into the Adamant's gorget with a meaty thunk.

"I don't need to," Harn growled.

Kade gagged and fell against the tower wall as Harn yanked his axes free in a spray of blood and silver.

"I've got Unbound for that."

Arrows, three all at once, speared into the bloody, torn-up gorget, before they sprouted with a deep, noxious fume, and thorned barbs grew rapidly around Kade's neck and torso. The Adamant struggled to stand, straining the vines that held him bound to the floor, even as the thorns melted into his sundered armor.

Kade gurgled through the pain. "You are not worthy—"

A dark metal sickle sprouted from the Adamant's throat, glowing with green-gold vapor.

"Shut up," Kevin hissed. He tore it free, and Kade fell.

You Have Killed Adamant Guard Kade!

XP Earned!