Torith a litrpg adventur.., p.36
Torith: A LitRPG Adventure (System Universe Book 2), page 36
If they waited until morning, they could attack in a big clearing, and it would be hard for anybody to sneak away. Plus, it was easier to lose sight of them at night. After calculating the city lord’s army’s marching speed, it would be a little after dusk when they marched on the clearing. Once they made it to the clearing, there was nothing but open land until they arrived at Wilmette.
‘Let’s wait until daybreak, then we’ll take them out. I count about 300 regular guards in front, plus some elite guards protecting the back. We’ll attack once to begin with. Let the guards who run or don’t fight back live. Do what you want with the others. Well, everything except eating them. We don’t eat humans.’ he finished as he explained his plan to Silvi.
‘Got it,’ she replied.
‘If Malcolm runs, cut him off and keep him from escaping.’
‘ ‘Kay.’
With that, Derek and Silvi stalked the small army through the night, thinking of various plans and contingencies. It wouldn’t do just to assassinate Malcolm and Clay. They were going to make a show of power. Any soldiers who survived would spread rumors about what happened when you messed with Derek and his people.
Time gradually passed, and soon the sun began to rise. The army advanced out of the forested roads and into the open. They were on the home stretch.
Derek and Silvi hid in the woods and waited for them to get far enough out that it would take some time to escape back into the forest. When the army was around a mile out, Derek acted.
He rushed past the army and stopped in front. He would hit them head-on. It may not be smart, but it would make a statement.
The soldiers halted as they saw the pair standing before them. Some guards stared wide-eyed in recognition while others stared in confusion.
“Get out of the w—” One soldier up front stepped forward and began to speak, but another grabbed him by the shoulder and shook his head. He then whispered something into the first soldier’s ear. Which made the man turn pale and hurriedly step back into place.
“What’s going on? Why are we stopped?” a voice all too familiar to Derek called out from the back of the troops.
Hushed whispers sounded throughout the army until they reached the ears of the city lord.
“What are you scared of? There are over 300 of you, and only one of him,” the voice rang out again.
Derek decided that it was finally time to speak up. With some power in his voice, so everyone could hear him, he said, “You can all rest assured, I won’t harm you if you just give the city lord and his son up. However, if you take up arms against me, it will be the last thing you do in this life.”
His booming voice fell over the army, causing some to flinch and even more to fidget anxiously. Unfortunately, none stepped aside. This caused Derek to wonder about the contracts and oaths the guards were under. Still, he gave them a chance.
Derek stepped forward.
“Attack! Kill him. It will all be over once he’s dead. Whoever brings me his head will be rewarded by my father!” Malcolm screamed from the back.
Derek shook his head. In the end, it was greed that won out. The hesitant soldiers firmed their resolve and drew their weapons.
“Go,” Derek said one word, but it signaled the end.
The slight weight on his shoulder disappeared. Derek stared into the army. The army that had failed to charge.
A small white and purple light flashed throughout the crowd. Blood and gore exploded into the air, covering guard after guard. Soon, the white and purple flash became a red and purple flash as Silvi’s fur became covered in the gore.
Derek stared in amazement at the destruction and confusion his beast companion caused. He was especially impressed at her skill in using all her abilities in tandem. Of course, Silvi didn’t have many abilities, but it was still impressive.
Every time she hit a soldier, it was a critical hit with no chance of survival. Every guard who drew a sword or cast a spell was her target.
Silvi would fly through the air, horn first. Every person she hit would have their head exploded or chest pierced through, leaving no chance of recovery. When her momentum slowed, or she ran out of enemies in a straight line, she would vanish.
From there, she would appear on the ground or on top of one of the soldiers. She would kick off from there, sending her flying back through the air like a rocket. It was pure mayhem.
Derek watched as notification after notification appeared in the corner of his vision. He pulled them up and dismissed them as they came.
The army held for much longer than Derek would have liked. He had expected the guards to break and run after just a few moments of Silvi’s indiscriminate slaughter. He realized his mistake too late.
Derek knew of Silvi’s strength, but others did not. What others saw was a cute bunny wearing a purple cloak and a nose ring. So, when Silvi flew forward, it didn’t intimidate them and caused mass confusion.
Derek also underestimated Silvi’s ability to kill. Dozens of soldiers were dead before others even realized. Technically, it was their fault for standing in such straight lines. Straight-line formations were not good strategies to use against a projectile with extreme piercing potential like Silvi.
Every now and then, a flash of lightning would streak out from Silvi’s horn when she ran out of momentum, but there were still guards in front of her. It was when the guards began seeing her seamlessly cast magic that they snapped out of their stupor.
More and more soldiers began looking around the battlefield, seeing their former comrades laying headless in pools of their own blood. Well over a hundred soldiers were dead before the first ran. But, when the first broke, the rest were sure to follow.
And follow they did. Of course, there were still some soldiers who were stubborn and some who were just downright loyal to the city lord. That was something Derek couldn’t understand based on his meetings with the man.
Silvi obviously remembered Derek’s plan as she made no move to go after any soldier who tried to escape. Realizing this, more soldiers turned tail and ran.
In the distance, Derek could now see Malcolm as there were no longer huge numbers of soldiers standing in between the two. Only he and his personal guards were left.
Derek watched as his fierce figure gradually paled, and his face went from anger to confusion to extreme fright. While Malcolm Torith viewed the gory scene in fright, Captain Herrett was shaking his lowered head.
On the man’s face wasn’t fright or defeat, just acceptance. Derek knew that Captain Herrett had no love for Malcolm Torith. He was most likely a man in an unfortunate situation. Derek could only shake his head at the man’s predicament. The other guards were one thing. They had all perked up after hearing about getting a reward for killing Derek, but Herrett only smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Around the time Derek was thinking about Captain Herrett and the situation he found himself in, the city lord turned and gave some orders to his personal guards. Derek was still watching them as he saw them all turn away and take off in the opposite direction.
Of course, it was already too late for them to even try to escape. Their only chance would have been at the beginning of the chaos Silvi had created.
‘The city lord is trying to escape,’ Derek sent to Silvi.
‘Got it,’ he heard back.
With that reply, Silvi vanished from in front of a frightened soldier and appeared behind the army, in front of the escaping city lord and his people.
Derek slowly walked forward, through the battlefield littered with bodies, blood, and guts. The few guards who had yet to flee or had not yet been slaughtered by Silvi took him coming into their range as an opportunity to end the battle and receive a great reward.
If they could deal with Derek, his companion would lose most of its powers, and it would be easy to take down. Everyone knew how the companion contract worked. Unfortunately, they were wrong, very wrong.
The nine remaining guards signaled to one another and attacked all at once. Derek let the blades fall on his body, catching the one that threatened to pierce his eye. With a clang, the blades bounced off his newly improved body. Unfortunately, the sharp edges still cut into his clothing.
Derek channeled the void and, very quickly, hit each guard in the head with his palm. Unlike Silvi’s bloody killing, Derek’s killing with the void was relatively bloodless and graceful. Well, other than the occasional blood dripping out of the corpse’s nose or ears.
With no remaining ordinary guards or soldiers, Derek continued walking forward. A little over seventy guards had chosen to escape the battle after seeing the carnage and destruction. It wasn’t as many as he had hoped for, but at least some still had the sense to run.
Looking ahead, the frightened city lord had stopped in front of Silvi. The group turned back around to run away from her, and Derek smiled. Using Void Shift, Derek moved forward and appeared in front of the group out of nowhere.
The city lord stopped at the sudden appearance of Derek.
Suddenly, the weight on Derek’s shoulder increased, and a blood-soaked Silvi appeared.
Derek reached over and cast Cleaning, and Silvi was soon back to her original appearance as a majestic silver and purple Void Rabbit.
Derek looked over at the city lord and smiled. “Don’t you just love the Cleaning skill?”
49 CAPTAIN HERRETT
Derek had managed to make it through the battle without getting even a speck of dust on him. Of course, he was only responsible for a few cleanup kills at the end. Silvi had done everything else, and she had done it beyond his expectation.
As for the Cleaning spell, it was quickly becoming one of Derek’s favorite skills. It didn’t give him the same clean feeling he had after taking a bath or shower, but it was close. It also wiped away smells as well, both good and bad. If you wanted to be clean without smelling like anything, Cleaning was the way to go. The greatest example was the currently spotless Silvi perched on his shoulder.
Derek took a closer look around after praising his favorite new skill. There were only a couple dozen people left around the city lord. This included the city lord’s personal guard, Captain Herrett, and his son, Clay, who was lying in a carriage, still unconscious. The boy was also the reason their traveling speed wasn’t as fast as it could have been.
Currently, everyone was quiet. Nobody dared to make a sound.
Derek broke the silence. “So, it seems I have a decision to make.” He looked at the quivering city lord. “The question is if I should let anyone else live after I kill you.”
“No!” The city lord screamed. “Why would you kill me? I received your warning. I didn’t do anything else to offend you.”
Derek squinted his eyes. “Didn’t do anything else to offend me? What about the two villagers you had your men kidnap? The crafter girl and her mother.”
Malcolm’s eyes widened. “That girl? I… I gave those orders before your warning. I just forgot to cancel them. A mistake… It was an honest mistake. You can’t be mad over something like that.”
Derek laughed out loud. “A mistake? Your ‘mistake’ left one of my friends in a dying state. If I had been any slower, she would be dead now,” he replied. “Now, I don’t believe for a second that you forgot to cancel your orders. You had plenty of time to do it, and I’m sure I specifically said not to mess with that village or its people.”
Derek caught Captain Herrett’s minute nods as he spoke.
“Still. You plan on killing me? I’m a Torith. Do you know what my father will do to you if you kill me?” Pleading hadn’t worked, so Malcolm’s next step was to threaten.
“Send assassins? Talk about me to the king? Yeah, pretty sure there are already some assassins on their way to me. I’ve got a plan for them when they get here. It’s nice that your dad’s going out of his way to supply me with people. Say, do you think if I send him your head, he will send extra?” Derek chuckled and shook his head. “Nah, that’s too much, even for me. I’m sure word alone will be enough.”
“You… you…” Malcolm Torith stammered for a moment before he turned to Herrett. “Guards, Captain Herrett, do something!”
The older, scar-faced guard frowned at the city lord’s mention of his name. Still, he didn’t step forward. Neither did any of the other guards. Silvi’s spree of destruction was still fresh in their minds, so their feet stayed planted. Derek had just said that he had to make a decision. Perhaps they were putting hope in his words that he would let them off.
Derek could only smile at that thought. Those who he allowed to leave earlier were all that were going to leave today.
“Herrett! You know your oath! Do something!” Malcolm commanded again.
“Ahem…” Captain Herrett cleared his throat, his face still as stoic as before. “Derek, you said that you are going to kill my charge, yes?”
Derek furrowed his brows at the odd questioning but nodded.
“100%?” the man questioned again. “There is no possible way that he will live past today? Or even past the next hour?” he asked again.
Derek shook his head. “No, he dies today. His son may live. I haven’t made my decision on that. I’m not a big fan of killing someone in a coma. As for your ‘charge,’ he won’t live past the next few minutes.”
“Herrett! What are you doing? Attack!” Malcolm screamed again.
Captain Herrett nodded at Derek. “Would you receive my best attack? Think of it as a test of your strength.” The man smiled.
Derek couldn’t wrap his head around what the man wanted to do. Clearly, he was under oath to protect the city lord. He also clearly despised the man. Now, to ask Derek to receive his best attack. Is he trying to trick me just to get a decent hit in? Does he think his best blow will kill me? Derek had no idea what the man was up to. Still, he was very confident in his vitality and endurance. Especially after the upgrades they recently went through.
Derek smiled. “Your best attack, huh? What are you thinking? Do you want me to take it without fighting back? Without blocking?”
Herrett shook his head, and a smile finally appeared on his face. “It’s not like that. You can block if you wish. You can fight back, as well. Though I would prefer to be alive after attacking you, I’ve pretty much accepted the outcome if you attack back.”
Interesting, Derek thought. Then he took a few steps back and held out his arms. “Have at it.”
Captain Herrett stared at Derek, wide-eyed. “Really? You accept?”
Derek smiled. “Why not? I’ve been itching to see what that blade of yours can do.”
Oddly, the scarred man let out a breath of relief. “Thank you,” he said before stepping forward.
‘Hop down,’ Derek told Silvi. The bunny did as she was told and jumped off his shoulder onto the top of the carriage. Derek chuckled. ‘Getting a good view?’
“Get ready,” Herrett interrupted. The man took a step forward and drew his blade. Holding it across his chest, he closed his eyes and muttered a few things. A red glow fell over his sword, then yellow. After that, his sword burst into crimson flames. A few more seconds passed, and the same happened on the man’s body.
The fire fell over the man’s body, then moved until it was all concentrated in his hands. With both hands on his longsword, he pushed the flames into the sword, causing the flames to violently burst out until the flames took the shape of a greatsword.
Then the man opened his eyes. Derek had always wondered what it was like when other people saw his purple eyes when he used the void. Now, he had a pretty good idea. With a scar running down his face, a flaming greatsword, and crimson red eyes, Herrett was the most intimidating opponent Derek had ever seen.
At that moment, Captain Herrett leaned forward, then kicked off the ground. At a rapid speed, he appeared before Derek. The man swung his newly formed fire greatsword at a wide arc, looking to split Derek just above the waist.
Derek, for all his composure, almost jumped backwards. However, he promised to take the attack, and he would do so. In fact, since the attack wasn’t heading towards his head, neck, or heart, he believed that with his current vitality, he would be able to heal through any other damage done, even if he happened to get split above his waist.
Instead of taking a step back or moving his arms to block, Derek held his hands open to the sides, almost as if he was ready to receive Captain Herrett in a bear hug. The guard captain’s blazing sword reached him in a flash.
When the flames on the blade reached his shirt, it went up in flames. Derek frowned as the blade dug deeper into his body. It was a strong attack. The crimson blade tore past his improved skin and into his flesh.
With Captain Herrett’s full strength, the blade pushed deeper. It ripped through Derek’s flesh, moving past his muscles. Then, as if hitting a steel wall, the blade stopped. It had made contact with Derek’s ribs.
The sudden collision between bone and metal surprised both Derek and Captain Herrett. Herrett’s arms rebounded with the sword, and Derek was sent sliding a few meters back.
At this point, Derek’s entire shirt was up in flames. He quickly reached to his chest and ripped the blazing shirt off his body. Another one gone. He sighed. Derek inspected his new wound. It was quite deep, cutting all the way to the bone, but surprisingly, it wasn’t bleeding. That’s one downside of using flames on your blade, I guess. Instant cauterization.
Derek watched as the charred flesh moved rapidly, pushing all the char to the tip of his skin. It was unsightly. As the scarred flesh moved, the flesh beneath healed perfectly. This happened until the damaged flesh was pushed out of the wound and fell to the ground. Then, his wound closed and healed as if he was never touched.
Derek wiped some blood off his abdomen before using Cleaning on the area. I wonder if the Repair skill can fix shirts like it fixed that table. Derek put that on his list of things to ask Alanah about later.
Finally, Derek looked up into Captain Herrett’s eyes. They were no longer red, In fact, all color had left the man, and he was leaning forward, panting, on his longsword, which was stabbed into the ground.
