DD 203 Ch 27

Chapter 27

The Dwarven Queen slashed down, warding me and anyone else away.

Penny came back up, frost trailing off her sword again as she exposed herself, stabbing into the Queen's armored thigh. Her sword barely penetrated a gap in the chitinous armor, but the contact was enough to freeze the armor before Penny was forced back.

I used [Shadow Ambush] to reposition myself and struck the now brittle armor with a fist. The Queen's armor cracked, and I followed up with several slashes using my claws, causing the Queen's leg to buckle as it struggled to support her weight. 

The Dwarven Queen screamed and slammed her sword down into the sand intentionally. Dozens of blade edges that mirrored the part of the sword that had just disappeared under the sand exploded around the queen in all directions, cutting up my thigh and taking off several of my toes.

More of Charlotte's healing came down on me. I ignored the pain in my feet and legs, making fists with each hand and punching rapidly into the frozen patch of weakness that Penny had given me. The chitinous armor shattered further, and I got a claw underneath to rip off even more of the armor. My claws raked down her leg as I ripped the armor off to the point that the Queen dropped to a knee, still trying to fight. 

At this point, every dwarf had pulled away from the Naga and were rushing back to save their Queen. The only reason they hadn't mobbed me yet was that the rest of my class stood between the group battle with the Queen and the rest of her colony.

With the Queen down on one knee, her neck was in reach. I grabbed it with both hands, twisting my hips and trying to bring the Queen down to the ground.

Penny hit the Queen’s shoulder using her frozen sword, icing over the carapace. Working alongside Penny, I spun and with all my might slammed my big demonic fist into the hilt of Penny's sword, trying to help it go deeper.

It was my best impression of a chisel and hammer.

Penny's sword broke off the chitin and stabbed into the Queen's flesh, making her scream as it turned a frosty blue. Penny wrenched her sword, breaking off the Dwarven Queen's arm in a shower of frozen fleshy shards.

The Queen, having several exposed spots on her body, was on borrowed time. Felin came flying in from the side, a spear wreathed in storm and lightning, stabbing into one of the existing wounds, and locking the Dwarven Queen up for a moment. The newly presented opportunity was all I needed. 

As I paused time, I dropped [Metamorphosis] to get my blades back. With the Dwarven Queen's neck exposed, my two blades slashed down on the chitinous collar of her armor three times as I activated triple breach. The collar shattered on the second strike. I cut deeply on the third, and then I brought both swords down together and severed the Dwarven Queen's head as I deactivated [Liminal Space]. I still had some stacks of [Liminal Speed], but by that point I had lost much of my advantage. 

I was panting and looking around at the rest of the party, the Dwarven Queen now black smoke. Everyone had grins of satisfaction.

Now that we had defeated the Dwarven Queen, there was still work to do, but the hardest had been done. The smile on my face faltered as I twitched in reaction to some unknown danger.

The instincts to dodge bloodlust were so hammered into me by my grandfather that I reacted immediately. I flattened myself to the ground as a giant arrow shot through the space where I had just been standing. It skewered Penny next to me, shattering both the ability that created an ice arm around her and her heart guard, before blowing her away. 

I rolled to my feet, drawing my swords to see what had caused that attack. It hadn’t come from the direction of the battle.

I immediately spotted the prince dropping a bow like it burned his hands as the Royal College crested a sand dune behind him.

In that instant, I regretted not killing the prince earlier. More than that, I was filled with a deep fury towards myself, my inability to protect Penny, and the prince's ridiculous attempt to kill me.

All these emotions bundled into one, but I stood for a moment calculating my next move. Many scenarios filtered through my mind in mere moments, but ultimately, the one that was the most satisfying ended in my blade being dyed in the prince's blood. I bent low and then sprinted forward.

Prince Albar smirked, drawing a saber from his CID. All of his equipment, the epic gear from the raid, glowed twice their normal brilliance. There was more than I expected, including a pair of gauntlets, a cuirass as well as leather pants, belt and boots. Not to mention the glimmer on his fingers.

He shot forward and met my blades with a strength I had not expected. My hands went numb from the strike and the exchange of our blades. 

The prince, clearly ecstatic, spun away from our first exchange and tried to take my head with a lightning-fast swing.

He moved quickly, and so many of my abilities were on cooldown from the fight with the Dwarven Queen. I activated [Liminal Space], pausing time for just a second to get out of the way. But the pause was brief, barely enough time to dodge and counterattack at the prince's head as my stacks ran out.

He twisted in his glowing armor, taking a cut on the cheek and surviving to come back swinging at me just as hard. And this time, he was faster because I had lost my sacks of [Liminal Speed]. 

"I thought you were better than this," I scoffed, watching the prince's cocky grin as he charged at me again.

He shouted to the people from his college behind him, "Attack!" 

Honestly, I was confused. Not by the prince's actions, those came as no surprise to me. What shocked me most was that the rest of his college would joining him.

Spells and arrows began to fly over his head, blocking the rest of my group from coming to my aid. They had no reason to attack us after everything we'd been through. The others joining was the real betrayal to me. 

Tanks charged in and attacked us, even as we were still busy mopping up the dwarves. The group that had just been fighting the Dwarven Queen was suddenly sandwiched between the attacking royal college and the hostile dwarves

As one of the attacking tanks slammed into Fayeth and started screaming, the scene finally made sense. They were going off about something to do with taking all of their food. This group was starving and attacking to get back what they thought we had taken.

I blinked in surprise and turned back to the prince, who had felt so confident that he let me take in the scene without attacking. My instincts prickled once again, and I activated [Dodge], sliding to the side as Professor Gafar appeared with twin daggers in his hands.

The blades splashed poison on the ground where I had just been. The professor spun and tried to come for me again, only for Fayeth to block him with her shield, body checking him backwards and holding him at the point of her glaive. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned, my breath coming out ragged and my lack of mana pulling at my senses. The prince held his hands up. "My professor is probably far more able than your elf. Either of them," he smirked. "When all of this is done, I'm going to make that red-haired bitch my pet." 

"Careful, Princess Elysara might be out of your reach," I retorted. "Censor Neldra is going to make you regret those words." 

"The poisoned censor?" The prince smiled again. "I have it on good authority from Gafar that she was successfully poisoned with healers bane. Even if she killed those assassins, there’s no way she got rid of that poison. After all, it was brought down here specifically to get the Censor’s away from the princess." 

The prince was acting like everything was all going according to his plan as he stood there in resplendent armor, his saber pointed neatly at me. 

"You knew this whole time," I said. The prince nodded. 

"I also had my butler awake every night, waiting for you to make a stupid move," the prince said.

I barely believed that this man couldn't have actually planned that. Besides, how would I be stupid enough to not kill his butler first.

"You don't believe me?" The prince said. "I had him with a high-level gauntlet. It had a special effect to reverse one strike." The prince seemed prouder than ever. "I was just hoping you'd come in and slit my throat. Well, try to," he added. 

I shook my head in disbelief that he had thought he had won. "I'm happy to hear you were so prepared," I said sarcastically, readying my blades. "I'm afraid you won't find this as easy as you hoped." Talking was buying time for my mana to edge away from the dregs that threatened to knock me unconscious.

Meanwhile, the other students from the royal college were screaming about their food and throwing themselves against the rest of us who had been trapped down here in the dungeon.

The prince moved like lightning, activating an ability to close the distance between us. His saber swung down like a guillotine.

I stepped to the side, parrying his blow and feeling just how heavy it had been. Without [Liminal Speed], I knew I was at a disadvantage. 

The specter of the dwarven queen, however, peeled itself away from the corpse and rose behind the prince as he danced back, pointing his saber at me, staring down the length of the blade.

It was everything I could do to keep my eyes on the prince rather than the specter behind him. I did not want to give anything away as the dwarven queen wound up a punch and stepped into range.

The queen's blow caught him unaware. He was too busy imagining his victory apparently.

And the specter of the Dwarven Queen hit him like a gong.

His armor let out a clear, crisp note as he was thrown to the side. I didn't hesitate, darting in at that moment and stabbing at his neck. The prince's armor stretched upwards, the collar preventing me from piercing his flesh. It deflected my blow to the side, scraping off only some of his hair.

I came back around, trying to get him again, but he danced to his feet and blocked before stepping out of the way of the Dwarven Queen's specter. 

"You need help to defeat me, don’t you, Ken?" The prince mocked. Truthfully, he was in many ways my opposite. Whatever ability was allowing him to equip more gear and enhance it was an instant boost to his strength, meanwhile I needed to build up my [Liminal Speed] to hit my stride.

I came at him again, our blades ringing in a quick staccato. Despite me having two blades to his one, he was incredibly fast. That gear advantage gave him plenty of agility. 

"I don't think it's considered helping when it's one of my abilities." I timed my next attack with the Dwarven Queen so that we came at him from two angles, only for a shield of diamond to appear behind him, stopping the Queen's blow.

He then pushed harder into mine with his full focus and body-checked me with an ability that pushed me back and knocked me off balance. 

"This is the end," he declared, his saber raising high over his head as he came to finish the job.

I was off balance, but it didn't mean I couldn't use a skill. I stamped my foot back, activating Earth Stomp. The ripples underneath his feet stunned him long enough for me to regain my balance and meet his blade head-on. My vision wavered as my mana pool tugged at me again.

Our blades clashed, and once again I was reminded that his strength was clearly higher than mine. Much of my damage was dealt in a mixture of magic and strength, where the Prince clearly focused himself on simply high strength and agility. My blades bounced off further than his saber, and he came for another swing. This time I used Elemental Shield to catch his blade as I slipped around it and went for a side with one of my blades. 

The Prince took the cut on his cuirass, negating most of the damage I had tried to deal.

[Shadow Arm] stretched out from my shoulder and grabbed onto his arm holding the saber, stunning him a moment longer as I followed up with Triple Breach, trying to punch a hole in what appeared to be a powerful cuirass. I needed help penetrating. My sword rang out against that spot three times, punching a hole on the third swing before I stepped back and readied us for another round, breathing heavily as my mana continued to warn me that I was down to my last dregs.

Purple lightning danced out of my fingertips and wrapped around my wrists. A few stacks of [Liminal Speed] would definitely help me with the edge that the Prince had in stats.

The Prince swung wide several times, cutting off the [Shadow Arm] and buying himself time to check his armor with his other hand. It was cracked, and he knew he would have to guard that side more carefully. 

I came in again, focusing on his exposed side, and forcing him on the defensive.

Rather than take it, the Prince charged me again, his saber thrust forward, and at the last moment I used Dodge to have it hit off-center, scraping along my own leather armor.

My own blades danced along that cuirass as I tried to find the crack in his armor once again. But the Prince was crafty, twisting to the side and activating his own use of [Dodge], sliding a foot away before I could follow up with a more precise attack. 

"Don't think you can win," the Prince panted from the series of intense exchanges.

I, too, felt my breath coming out harder than it had before. Fighting the Prince was challenging, more challenging than I expected from the cocky man. I had expected that he had top-end gear, though I thought getting what I had from the raid would close that gap. One glance over the Prince showed that he was likely wearing more stats than I was. I frowned at the equipment. 

"Confused, are you?" The Prince said as we exchanged another series of blows, talking over our weapons. 

"How are you not suffering, mana burn?" I asked, deciding to let him talk as my mana edged away from dangerous depletion.

"Because," the Prince smirked, "I am an artificer, which means I am resistant to mana burn, I can equip more gear, and I can amplify it." 

It glowed once again, and the Prince slashed forward, his blade on fire, cutting an infernal wave through the air at me.

I rushed into the fire, holding out my hand to absorb the attack. The wave of fire was sucked into my hand as I dove through it.

The prince's shocked reaction was worth it as I used the spell mirror at point-blank range, sending his wave of fire right back at him. He blocked my next attack, looking a little cooked. His armor bore scorch marks and his hair was singed at the ends. He came at me again, his armor still glowing brightly, trying to push me back.

However, my [Liminal Speed] was picking up stacks. Rather than focusing on trying to hit the prince with a lethal blow, I continued to rain attacks down on him as fast as I could, taking advantage of the momentum and seizing control of the fight as I grew faster. 

Between my enhanced speed and catching him off guard with the absorb, I pushed the prince back on the defensive. I went at him vigorously as more and more purple lightning gathered on my hands. 

"Gafar, help me!" the prince demanded in an imperious tone. His professor threw up a cloud of smoke, disappearing into it along with Fayeth.

I sensed the bloodlust prickle and dodged to the side, barely being scraped by Gafar's blade. I twisted out of the way before it oozed poison from the tip. 

The professor cursed and came swinging at me again, several more vicious blows with his poison daggers that I barely managed to avoid. The prince came in from the other side, his saber alight with flames once again, as the two of them caught me in a pincer. 

Though I couldn't help but smile as both of their blades closed in on me. At the very last second, I activated [Liminal Space]. The world around me shattered, fragments coming up at the edges, as Gafar and Prince Albar froze in time. I needed to be quick as to not use up enough stacks that would struggle once this was over.

Understanding that the prince relied heavily on his gear, the first thing I did was snatch his saber and rip it out of his hands. My blades cut off his gauntleted hand, and I stabbed Professor Gafar in the chest before [Liminal Space] collapsed. I jumped back, both of them reeling in surprise at the sudden damage they had taken. 

The prince screamed and grabbed at the space where his hand used to be.

"Looking for this?" I taunted, waggling his severed hand back at him. 

The prince, furious and full of anger, charged me without drawing another weapon. Professor Gafar was too stunned by the sudden bloody gash in his chest to follow up and protect the prince.

I came bearing down on the Prince once again. 

Without his weapons, the prince tried to use his armor to block my blades and headbutt me as a helmet topped with a blade appeared on his head.

I smacked his head to the side with one of my blades while the other came down on his shoulder. 

A dagger appeared in the prince's remaining hand. It glowed with far more power than the rest of his equipment, and I understood his intention as the blade sank into my ribs as if my armor was made of butter.

Activating [Shadow Ambush], I melted into the shadows before he could rip that high level dagger though me, reappearing behind the still stunned Professor Gafar. My blade drew over his throat, cutting him deeply as he jerked away, stumbled, and fell to his knee. 

Both of the professor's hands had forgotten their weapons and reached for his throat as it began to bleed profusely between his fingers.

Prince Albar was recovering from my disappearance and turning to me for another attack. The hand holding the dagger was beginning to smoke, clearly he wasn’t immune to mana burn. 

The prince screamed and rushed me. Whatever that dagger was, it provided enough stats to give him a clear boost. The last thing I wanted was to clash with that dagger again. It had gone through my leather armor as if it was butter, not to mention what it would do to my heart if it managed to reach it. 

I didn't have to worry though. Instead, I activated [Sprint] and stayed one step ahead of the prince, keeping out of his reach and using my longer swords to keep him at bay. 

His hand continued to smoke, his skin was turning black and cracking like used-up coal.

I only had to fend him off for a few exchanges before his hand was no longer able to hold the dagger.

His fingers broke off, and with them, the grasp of his dagger. He stumbled a step, a sudden loss in stats taking him by surprise. The Prince blinked down at his hand realizing just how bad it was.

I didn't miss a beat, stepping in and removing his head. With a [Triple Breach], the first attack shattered his collar, and the second dug straight through his neck. The third didn't even activate as I spun around and swished my blade, splashing his blood upon the sand.

My vision darkened, but I stayed on my feet, the adrenaline from battle still pumping through me.