AO 5 Ch 38

The hall was a bloody mess. Lord Valken stared down Lord Tybalt's apprentices, a smile overtaking his face. It had been some time since he'd had an opportunity to really let loose.

Most of his work was mundane—guarding Eva or attending court as a protector for the Zinov royal family. His fight against Colin had ignited some of his ferocity once again. The young blood left in him was boiling. But it was here, in the hallway, facing down a tide of mage forged and a handful of mages that really got his blood pumping.

He spun around the heavy spiked mace before exploding down the hallway towards the mages.

One of them launched a serpent of stone that snapped at Lord Valken's ankles.

He twisted his leg out of the way and smashed his knee into the serpent's head, sending it away from his body. Normally, a move like that would cripple an anchor or even a Val'shae's next step. However, with the life magic flooding through him, he had no problem landing sure-footed on his next step and coming into striking range of the apprentices.

An anchor jumped out from behind them, shield at the ready, blocking Lord Valken's first strike.

But the block was only a momentary setback. Lord Valken’s mace came down with enough force to crumple the shield and break the arm of the anchor. Death magic roiled off of him as he spat it in the anchor's face.

The magic removed the man’s strength as Valken carried him off his feet and smashed him against the wall cracking the thick stone. Even if his ruptured organs didn't kill him, the death magic eating away at his face would seconds later.

"Stop him!" one of the apprentices shouted, like it would make a difference. Youth was often wasted on the young. Their inexperience was showing as they shouted rather than acted on the intruder.

But the one that was the earth mage seemed quite capable. Spikes came out of the wall, much like scorpion tails, trying to catch and drive Lord Valken away from them. Another mage finished the adept spell he'd been cooking in his hands, and a ball of fire exploded like a roaring lion’s head, trying to consume Lord Valken.

But Lord Valken’s hand reached through the flames, grabbing the young fox mage and ripping him nearly out of his boots. Lord Valken flung the young mage into one of the scorpion tails, letting one mage pierce his fellow.

 As the fire cleared, the effect was obvious. The remaining young mages had lost all of the color from their faces, their blood draining away. Their amateur antics had caused the death of one of their own and in the wake of that mistake they made a second and hesitated.

In that pause, Lord Valken tore through the remaining mages in the blink of an eye. Such hesitation never went well, especially not with a powerful foe within arm's reach. Lord Valken tapped the head of the mace against the masonry as he rolled his neck, staring at the double staircase before him. It was dotted with mage-forged and anchors, filling the space just for him.

It was a poor place for him to fight, but a quick glance backwards showed the mage-forged had made a shield wall, pushing down the hall.

At the very top of the stairs was a portly mage exuding far more danger than any of the apprentices had shown.

"I always thought using your apprentices as fodder was a rather cowardly act," Lord Valken said, swinging the mace from side to side as he took a step into the room.

"And I always thought killing barely trained mages was," Lord Tybalt, presumably, scowled down from his place atop the stairs. "May I know the name of the man who's come all the way to die?"

“Lord Valken.” He held the mace low, but still at the ready and carefully caught his breath as life magic ensured he was at peak condition.

Lord Tybalt waved a hand. Mage-forged spread out around the room to surround Lord Valken, even as more filled the hallway that he had just been in.

But Lord Valken didn't mind a little chat, not to mention at least one of the surrounding men would probably live. Or maybe it would be a second floor guard with a crossbow that ran. Regardless, he needed at least a few people to survive to tell the tale.

"Lord Valken, your reputation proceeds you. Alas, you have trespassed on Garrish land, and I hereby sentence you to death," Lord Tybalt made a grand gesture of sweeping his hand aside before quickly drawing his thumb across his neck.

It seemed he wasn’t in a chatty mood.

Lord Valken kicked the mace up to a horizontal position before taking a strong stride forward and hurling the mace with all of his power.

The throw was strong enough that his shoulder warned him, even before he'd let go, that he'd likely injured it.

But that didn't matter.

The mace flew as if it had been launched out of a ship's cannon. The spiked cannonball smashed through a quick anchor that had tried to put herself in front of Lord Tybalt, only to clip another anchor who had a similar thought. The anchors didn’t survive, one lost a shoulder and the other’s chest caved in. However, they had been sturdy enough to redirect the mace, which in turn spun the handle, smacking Lord Tybalt across the chest and flinging him backwards as all hell ensued. 

Mage-forged anchors and even guards began to attack. Crossbows bolts filled the air, even as mage-forged rushed Lord Valken, some of them even taking crossbow bolts themselves. However, none of the moves mattered.

Lord Valken’s hands, like wicked claws, carved through the first two bodies to reach him. Freeing new weapons, a pair of short swords, he spun in the hall like a ballet dancer. His arms extended as he twirled the two short swords, making quick work of anything that came near. 

This was far from Lord Valken’s first dance. He could read each and every one of his opponent's movements, like they were a book laid out for him, the details of their strategy, a simple glance to confirm.

Swords came perilously close to leaving critical wounds on Lord Valken, and many of the attackers scored deep gashes, but the cuts were not deep enough to stop his momentum.

As Lord Valken twirled through the hall in a bloody ball dance, what seemed like only a moment stretched into two minutes as he came to a twirling stop, his clothes tattered and his skin healing over. 

He finished his dance with a bow, as he flicked blood off of both blades, and a stone pincer crushed down just where his head had been a moment earlier, only for him to slide out of the way and step on the first step of the stairs. 

"Lord Tybalt, is this how you greet a fellow lord who walks into your home? Truly, the Garrish people have lost all veneer of civility. Once upon a time, you people belonged to Zenovia," Lord Valken waggled his finger at the other lord. 

The mage was terrified. With a force of will, several more adept spells, different claws and pincers of various animals of the region sprung out of the stone of the steps or the castle walls. The attacking stone animals tried to find purchase on Lord Valken, however, the Vel’Shae punched out, his body wreathed in life magic, shattering the thinner structures while sidestepping those too large to easily break. 

"You're a monster," Lord Tybalt said. 

"Of course." Lord Valken could only grin so wide that his canines enlarged into fangs were on display. "Some might say I'm more monster than man. However, I disagree. I'm a man with the power of a monster," Lord Valken smiled. "There's a very distinct difference. I've seen the abominations that your King Martin has made, and I can only assume he doesn't understand the difference. Because rather than granting men the power of a monster, he has instead made monsters of men. That's not only those hideous creations, but the nobles underneath him." 

Lord Valken gestured at the other Lord, scowling. "Am I not correct? For I have trouble seeing you as a man."

Lord Tybalt laughed, clearly not taking being called a monster seriously from a man who had fangs.

“I’ll give it to you. You are powerful. We all seek to grow, after all that’s just part of being human.” He began reaching for something in his pocket and Lord Valken kept his eyes on the man’s face, giving him the opportunity to pull it out.

The hunger for a fight had been stirred in Lord Valken, yet it hadn't been satisfied. Lord Tybalt's men were incredibly weak. The acolytes seemed like the greenest he could find. The mage-forged were their typical rabble, easily defeated in the fight in the hallway. Meanwhile, the guards who had fired their crossbows were long gone. They had run as soon as they fired their first shot.

Lord Valken could only smile and wait to see if there was something that Lord Tybalt could do to satisfy his hunger for a real fight.

Lord Tybalt pulled a rough-cut gemstone from inside his robes, pointing it at Lord Valken. 

Lord Valken examined the gem for a moment, squinting at its crude form, before realizing that each and every surface had been intricately carved and enchanted far beyond anything he'd ever seen. 

Suddenly, Lord Tybalt screamed at the top of his lungs. Stone shot up all around Lord Valken. The earthen insects that had previously appeared in parts now came in full. Half a dozen giant stone scorpions exploded out of the ground, while giant tarantulas dropped from the stone ceiling onto Lord Valken all at once. 

Regretting his decision to throw his mace, Lord Valken swung and punched the first stone scorpion. His hand ripped over in a dozen places as his skin ruptured and his bones fractured.

The scorpions were even harder than he had expected; his punch only cracked the shell of the earthen monsters rather than shattering them outright as he had hoped. 

Lord Tybalt scooted away during the onslaught, laughing from the top of the stairs as he watched. The crude gemstone in his hand shone with a dull, golden light. "You're doomed now, Vel’Shae," he taunted. More of the earthen monsters swarmed at Lord Valken. 

Lord Valken threw himself over the back of one of the scorpions, letting the stinger of one smash into another. He then picked up a sword from a fallen mage forge and swung it with all his might at the legs of one of the scorpions. He managed to break the leg and crack the blade. 

Lord Valken twisted and threw the sword end over end towards Lord Tybalt, only for the mage to wave his hand. A small swarm of stone mosquitoes got between the blade and himself, brushing it away as the swarm flew past. 

"You're going to have to do a lot better than that to get anywhere near me," Lord Tybalt sneered. "This was a gift from King Martin himself." He held up the crude gem, admiring it. "It enables me to create complete golems and give them a functional list of rules to adhere to, rather than forcing me to control each and every one of them myself." The man laughed, staring into the gem as if he had gone mad with the power that it represented. 

Lord Valken couldn't help but frown as he was forced to dodge another of the stone tarantulas leaping at him. He searched for a heavier weapon amid the ground, knowing he would need something far sturdier and heavier if he was going to break these golems. 

It seemed Garrish's magic may not be as archaic and backwards as he had thought. The people of the eastern country had always relied on passing down knowledge person to person as a form of power, rather than the accumulating knowledge and teaching that Zenovians had adopted with the Enclave in its original iteration. 

Then again, it was long thought that King Martin was the Hollow Mage, and in that case, perhaps he had knowledge that far predated, even the Zenov line, before they lost some of their knowledge. 

Lord Valken dodged a tarantula's limb, only to see an opportunity as he grabbed it and braced it against a scorpion, twisting and pulling with all his might until it snapped off. Then he swung it high, only to crash it down back on the tarantula itself. The limb, despite being severed from the golem, seemed to retain its hardness, though it was frozen in the shape it was in when it had broken off. 

Lord Valken grinned and spun with the limb, smashing it against everything around him, chipping the leg and the golems in one blow. However, Lord Tybalt was not idle, and with a flick of his wrist, the ground below Lord Valken sank ever so slightly, his footsteps becoming sluggish as they stuck in the mud.

The golems, however, seemed to have no such compunction, no such difficulty. They powered through the mud with ease, like a tarantula rearing up its venomous fangs. Lord Valken knew that with the size and strength of these golems, they could surely punch through him as if he were made of tissue paper. 

He threw what remained of the tarantula limb, knocking the back legs of the rearing spider. It slipped in the mud, and its fangs landed short, allowing Lord Valken to reach into its maw and rip them out. He used them to block a scorpion tail and divert it towards another tarantula. 

Lord Tybalt waved his hands and a swarm of stone mosquitoes raced down the hall. “I’ll finish you.”

Perfect, without those protecting him, there was a chance to end this.

Lord Valken twisted and threw the fang in his hand with as much force as possible. The stone spike shot through the distance between the two of them in the blink of an eye.

However, several stone mosquitoes attempted to intercept it and brought it off course. It tore out a chunk in Lord Tybalt’s shoulder, wrenching it back in a grotesque display. 

Lord Valken was nothing if not incredibly strong. That fang would have punched through steel armor if Lord Tybalt had been wearing any at the time. Lord Valken chuckled as he continued to dodge the many-legged terrors that Lord Tybalt had created.

At first, they had been somewhat intimidating. Their stone bodies and strength had been a concern. However, now that he had been fighting them for a moment, he had adjusted to their patterns.

Both creatures only had three patterns of attacks. Thankfully, Lord Tybalt had gloated and explained that the gem in his hand had predetermined functions inside of it. This allowed Lord Valken to quickly pick up that these creatures would have a limited number of attacks. 

Lord Tybalt leaned against the railing as he clutched his ruined shoulder.

"There aren't any more life mages in this kingdom. Now, whose fault is that?" Lord Valken gloated as he grabbed a scorpion's tail as it speared towards him, only to shove it in the face of one of the tarantulas. This cracked its maw and allowed him to steal a pair of fangs to defeat yet another scorpion.

With a wound that bad, Tybalt’s death was sealed, it was just a matter of time.

The real problem now were the stone mosquitoes that swung back and forth. Each of them was about the size of the nail on his thumb and equipped with razor-sharp blades of stone. Individually, they would be completely negligible, but as a swarm, they managed to shred him every time, slowing his movements down to dangerous levels while fighting the much larger golems. He needed to end this part of the fight. 

Lord Valken grabbed one of the stone fangs and quickly separated from the mob of golems. He rushed up the steps in several bounds before he loomed over Lord Tybalt, ready to deal the finishing blow.

However, the mage clutched the stone in his hands more tightly, injecting all of his magic into it. The defiant glare in his eyes spoke volumes, but those stone golems weren’t fast enough without the mosquito swarm.

Lord Valken bore down on him with the stone fang and killed the Lord of Fargo. Lord Valken panted and snatched the gemstone with a smile. He held it in his hands, wondering if he could get a vast reward for bringing this back to Zenovia.

But at the last moment, he twitched as a stone scorpion tail passed through the space he had just been in, catching his shoulder and ripping out a large chunk of his back. 

Lord Valken staggered, turning and staring down the stairs where each and every one of the golems that had previously been damaged had been restored. The swarm of mosquitoes circled menacingly overhead. He stared at the golems and then down at the gem in his hand. He had a very tricky decision to make.