Realm of Monsters - Chapter 707: Fatal Mistake

Chapter 707: Fatal Mistake

  Gale drew her sword and stared Lord Corvus Morrigan down. “I am the Shield of Veres. Be it Monster or Man, here I stand, and I shall not falter.”

  Corvus looked her up and down. “The Shield of Veres? You must be Lady Gale—”

  She didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence and charged at him. Her silver steel blade swung down at his neck, but met the bone-white blade of Feather instead. The small jagged teeth on Feather caught her sword and stopped it in place.

  As soon as the blades met, Gale could feel the wicked aura flowing out from Feather. The greatsword of House Morrigan was said to be from a fang of Fraxinus, a blood wyrm of legend from the Scarlet Realm.

  For a moment, Gale could hardly breathe as the fang’s aura threatened to overwhelm her mind. A bronze sheen wrapped around Corvus’ arms, the telltale sign of Brown’s might magic. He tried to push Gale down with sheer strength, but she channeled Brown too, and dug in her heels.

  She could sense his own spell was greater, but she was more than a mage. She was a grand swordmaster. Lifeforce flowed into her muscles and she pushed Corvus back.

  He stared at her, his amber eyes slightly widening in shock. “I’ve never met such a young grand master.”

  “And you never will again.” Gale drew her sword back and flicked her narrow sword out in three quick strikes.

  Corvus stepped back further as he was forced to block with his larger and heavier greatsword. Gale swung her sword in a wide arc and Corvus shifted away to block, but instead of attacking him, she turned on her heel and finished her swing upon his men behind him.

  Her sword cut down two of them as a blast of wind erupted from her blade, pushing several more battlemages and soldiers away, and opening a path in front of her.

  Refusing to give them even a single moment, Gale leapt into the fray. Several more fell before they could react. Suddenly, a dozen swords and spears were coming down upon her from all directions. And yet to the orcs’ surprise, Gale managed to block every single one of them. In fact, the more she fought, the quicker she became; a gust of wind building up around her with every strike.

  Corvus watched in silence from a distance.

  Blue mana poured out from Gale’s heart. Lightning crackled upon her blade in streams of blue and swirled around the wind. She became a living storm of steel and thunder, untouchable and bearing destruction upon all around her.

  Battle mages hurled all manner of spells at her. The swirling wind and lightning around her pulled away the incoming flames, water, and electricity. Her sword met the shadow tendrils and green vines that tried to grab her limbs.

  Grey curse sigils tried to latch onto her, but she was too agile. The beams of light were too fast for her to dodge. The light hit her true, but her cloak, forged from the magic of Agony, dissipated the light into harmless sparks. Green mages channeled their energy into the stone floor underneath them, but Gale danced across the sudden cracks and jagged spikes like a leaf in the wind.

  Gale was no longer just defending herself. Her sword found fatal openings here and there. And little by little, the enemies all around her began to fall. She worked quickly, her eyes darting in every direction, her sword moving in a blur no orc could react to.

  Yet her thoughts were somewhere else, on someone else. She needed to make an opening and get back to Stryg. She was fighting on the 2nd floor, which meant the structure of the floor had been weakened by all the green magic. She only needed to find the weak spot.

  There.

  A thin crack, almost invisible to the eye, ran through the hall’s stone floor. Gale blocked a strike from the back and replied in kind with a riposte to the orc’s throat. She spun, ducking underneath another attack.

  The brief moment gave her all the time she needed. Gale dashed past her enemies and raised her sword high, the wind and lightning swirling and condensing around her weapon. She plunged the blade into the fracture, channeling all her force into it. The ground exploded, the floor collapsing, and sending shrapnel flying everywhere.

  Screams of the dying echoed in the hall as the orcs tried to escape, but Gale ignored it all, and dove into the fall. With a roll, she landed harmlessly on the 1st floor beneath them.

  Dust and debris fell from above, blinding her, but she knew the direction Stryg and Tauri had gone. She went to stand when a piercing bite ripped through her back. Gale glanced down and saw a bone-white blade protruding from her gut.

  Her mind went blank, but her years of training under Gian took over.

  She spun around and slashed at the neck of her attacker. Corvus evaded the strike and ripped Feather out of her gut, the jagged teeth of the blade tearing through her innards.

  Gale staggered backward and held her side with a grimace. Blood pooled over her tunic and seeped through her fingers.

  “Your House’s sword style lives up to its reputation. Even with all the might of my men, they could not penetrate your defenses. Yet, even the greatest sword has the same weakness as the most dull of knives.” Corvus stared at her with cold eyes, “The person wielding it.”

  Gale dashed forward and her sword lashed out like lightning from a cloud. Feather came up to meet the blade and diverted her strike. Before she could make another attack, he had backed once more. She went to chase, but faltered from the sharp pain in her side. Reckless movements would cost her. She needed to end this quickly.

  “You are the greater swordmaster, of that there is no doubt,” Corvus noted. “House Gale truly is a wonder in producing swords masters of renown, but you all make the same mistake. You didn’t try to defeat me, Lady Gale. You simply tried to protect your lordling—”

  Gale kicked off the ground and went for a lunge, but Corvus saw through her attack and kept his distance. With every step she took forward, he took one back.

  “Allow me to teach you this one vital lesson in your final moments,” Corvus began to circle her, a shark smelling blood. “Nothing matters in a battle except killing your opponent. That is how you survive. That is how you win. You were so focused on getting back to your lordling, you failed to notice Feather draw near your back.” He hefted his greatsword and ran his fingers across her blood that still dripped from the bone blade.

  “Because of your fatal mistake, you will never leave this room, Lady Gale.”

  She spat on the floor in derision, her saliva a bright red. “Then why haven’t you killed me? You’re stalling.”

  “Indeed, I am.”

  “Coward.”

  He gave her a wry smile. “You will find that unlike most people, I have nothing to prove. I don’t need to try and best you. I simply need to wait for you to bleed out. My battle mages will find your lordling for me.”

  She thrust her hand forward, palm outstretched, and released all her remaining blue mana at once. The room filled with branches of lightning, all coalescing upon Corvus. Feather glowed bright with a baleful red aura and attracted the electricity to itself.

  “Mm. Impressive. You still have so much strength left in you,” Corvus admired the show of lightning crackling around him. After a few seconds, it died out and he lowered his sword, unharmed. “Unfortunately, you’re getting slower by the second. I can see you’re already struggling to stand upright. Is your vision swimming? It’s because of the lack of blood reaching your brain.”

  “Shut up,” she huffed in panted breaths.

  “Soon you’ll be too slow to parry and then this will all be over. But do not worry, your precious Veres will be in good hands.”

  Gale screamed and charged him. He batted her sword aside and stepped forward, plunging Feather into her lung. Gale sucked in a deep breath, stunned. Before she could recover, Corvus headbutted her, breaking her nose in a crunch and splash of blood.

  Her ears rang and the ceiling swam above her. The jagged teeth of Feather ripped out of her lung and for a brief moment, she was weightless before slamming into the cold stone floor.

  “How easily you are manipulated by your enemy’s words,” Corvus clicked his tongue. “I tell you that I only need to wait for you to bleed out and suddenly you grow desperate to end this fight as soon as possible, instead of simply taking the time to find an opening. A swordmaster of your skill could have done it. You could have tried to wound me and escaped, even with that first injury, but now… Well, as I said, the greatest sword still shares the same weakness as the dullest knife. You.”

  Gale sputtered up blood. She rolled onto her side and tried to reach her sword with a shaking hand. Corvus kicked the blade away. “Unlike you, I do not underestimate my opponents. I study them and wait for the moment to strike. You are no different than any other Gale. All it took was a few taunts about your lord and you attacked me like a wild animal, leaving yourself wide open.” Corvus sighed and gave her one last look, “Farewell.”

  Gale stood up at the ceiling. Her body felt numb. She could hardly feel the pain anymore. The world began to darken at the edges of her vision. She thought of Stryg and lamented being unable to protect him until the end.

  Forgive me… Clypeus…

  Darkness enveloped her vision. The light faded from her scarlet eyes and she knew no more.

~~~

  A surge of heat punched her chest like a hammer. Gale sucked in a deep breath and her eyes shot wide open.

  “She’s awake!” Callum was kneeling over her, his fingers inside her chest cavity. White healing magic poured out from his blood-soaked hands.

  “Get her up! Kegrog, carry her!” Freya yelled from somewhere Gale could not see.

  “Wait, she isn’t ready!” Callum said.

  “Hurry up! Kitty and I can’t hold off all these bastards for long,” Freya snapped.

  “I’m trying!” Callum said.

  Gale barely registered their words. She could feel nothing save for the agonizing fire burning a hole in her chest. The taste of iron filled her lips. She tried to speak but could form no words, save for a shallow wheeze.

  An explosion rocked the floor. “Belle, no!” Nora shouted.

  Gale’s head lolled to the side from the explosion. She saw Nora and a smoking crater in the wall a few paces from the latter.

  “Gods damn you!” Nora hurled a bolt of lightning at Corvus. He blocked it with Fraxinus, the sword hungrily eating up the blue spell.

  Cracks spread from the crater and the wall shuddered as Belle shot out, an arrow flying straight at Corvus. He parried her punch, the sword’s teeth ripping the skin on her knuckles.

  “Is that all you’ve got!?” Belle pulled back her arm and punched the sword again, sending Corvus flying into the wall. She laughed and licked the blood off her hand. “You fucked with the wrong pack, asshole.”

  A pair of wolfen ears stood atop Belle’s mane of red hair. Each strand of hair was alight with golden flames that flowed down and over her warm brown skin.

  Corvus stood up and narrowed his eyes. “This does not concern you, daughter of Bellum. I’m trying to protect this city. I’d really rather not fight you.”

  “Fuck you, old man!” Belle roared and barreled at him.

  Gale’s vision swam and she groaned weakly.

  “Shit, I’m losing her!” Callum cursed as her world went black.