Sword of Justice Part 2

Chapter 7: The Crypts

“So no bucket,” I offered looking back down into the crypt.

“You will find that improperly tailored armor is more of a hindrance than a help,” said Justice as I checked the surrounding area then went back down intot he crypt.  The spent torch was at the base of the stairs, illuminated by Justice’s light.

“That was in the other room, something moved it,” I said out loud, looking around.  With my back to the door, I hoped I got rushed.  That was a confined space and would make killing more zombies easier if I could go half way up the steps.

Unfortunately they didn’t bite, yet at least.

“I do not expect more ghouls,” said Justice.

“And you’ve been spot on so far,” I grunted, pulling out another torch from storage.  It popped into existence and I lit it on Justice.  That was taking some getting used to, but I managed.

After all, it was just as mundane as pulling a torch out of nowhere and lighting it with magic.  Those were common place activities.

I smacked the sword against the stone.  “Be careful.”

“I thought you were indestructible,” I said.

“Yes, but now I will require a polishing,” said Justice.  “Proper maintenance of a Magic Sword Knight’s Magic Sword is paramount!”

“Fine, when we get back,” I said stepping into the main chamber cautiously.  Aside from the spent torch, it was just as empty as before.  I threw the lit torch into the same room as before, but harder this time and was relieved when it smacked into the back wall and fell to the ground.  I could see how big the room was, and count the empty slots on the walls where zombies had broken out of their burial containers.

Which I’m sure had a word, but I didn’t care.

“Ready,” I said.

“Aim for the face,” said Justice, a wise saying if ever there was one.

I walked into the room in my kendo stance, blade at the ready and fully prepared to rock out against any undead I happened to see.  There were two, and they were all the way in the back.  The room itself was about forty feet deep, with slots for bodies three high running across both walls.  There were about eight sets of those on both sides, meaning this room held something like fifty bodies though at presently it looked like about half the slots were empty and the other half were unopened.

And there were the two in the back.

I slammed my foot down, loud enough that they both must have heard it.  I wasn’t trying to sneak up on anything, I wanted them to come to me closer to the door so I had an exit route.  Unfortunately they weren’t biting.

“No activity in the other rooms,” said Justice and I stepped all the way into the chamber, watching everything.  Still nothing moved.  Alas, I was here to kill zombies and the zombies were in the back.  I didn’t shirk a job.

I had to walk forward in kendo style because I didnt’ want to be out of stance if anything went wrong.  That was an odd gate where I advanced with the same foot and then brough the other foot up to match it.  It looked awkward, but kept my sword ready the whole time.  I was far more concerned with not being ready than looking awkward.

“This is sus,” I said as I got closer and Justice’s superior light started overpowering the thrown torch.  The undead were both the wrong size for zombies.  Then they both turned and snarled at the same moment.

“Be careful, they are ghouls,” said Justice as I prepared.

One rushed at me, but since I was already in position I simply swung the blade in a proper beat to the head.  I’m sure that wasn’t all the right sword terms, but Justice was a terrible teacher.  With my enhanced speed and strength I managed to smash the ghoul’s skull open before he could do anything, and that just left his partner.

She realized that they screwed up the instant her partner was re-killed.  She started scrambing towards the door out, but I wasn’t having that.  I moved to block her from a quick exit.  Everything looked so simple, which is of course why the universe laughed at me.

“There is one int eh hall,” said Justice and of course there was.  This was one of the fast tough zombies, and he started running towards me while the ghoul paused, waiting to see how effective he was.

By now I understood the mechanics of those zombies though and I struck with Justice ina  full force blow to his forehead, a bit too hard actually.  I was getting better with my sword alignment, which meant I was cutting deeper with every strike.  In this case, Justice pierced the creature’s skull so deeply he got stuck and the zombie was a big boy.

The ghoul realized the opportunity and she leapt at me.  Fortunately I was able to get my bracer in the way and her teeth snapped onto it.  She began chewing but biting through metal was well over her paygrade.  Unfortunately, that left a double handful of claws and they were slashing at me despite my efforts.

One thing they don’t mention about undead is how light they are.  Undead tend to run water light, so even a tough zombie wasn’t as heavy as you’d expect.  A ghoul was nearly ‘dry’ by comparison and I twisted my arm as I attempted to throw the small woman free.  She held one, but my friend physics stopped her from clawing at me for a few moments.

Unfortunately, the cruel mystress physics had a short memory and the ghoul was back on balance momentarily.  She slashed my shoulder and chest, causing large, deep gouges in my flesh while I stood there ineffectively rying to pull my blade free.

Then I saw the sharp edge of the doorframe and realized she needed introduced.  I was really hopeful he could teach her something about manners.  I was partially correct.  I slammed the ghoul neck first into the stonework with all the force I could muster.

If the ghoul was alive, that would have done something.  Probably stunned her at least momentarily.  Unfortunately, undead’s neural processes didn’t work like that and all slamming her into the wall managed to do was let her scratch at me from a different angle.

However she was in the air, so I kneed her in the gut twice.  The second time I heard ribs break, not the she cared.  Realizing that I didn’t need my leg on the ground, I pulled Justice as I planted my foot onto the dead zombie, then wrenched the sword free.

She was reaching for my eye when I slashed the sword into her belly, spilling something terrible out of her.  The ghoul switched to scratching at my face, but only managed to get in a few bad scratches when I shoved the sword between us and pressed it down hard onto her shoulder, separating the muscle from the bone.  Her arm went limp and I stepped back slightly and chopped at her hip.

The ghoul screamed, and I took that moment to roll on my back with her still holding onto my forearm.  She slammed to the ground hard enough for teeth to go flying as the grip on my bracer broke.  The ghoul attempted to stand, but I’d cut through too much muscle on her leg and she just ended up falling over.

I got back to my feet and thrust Justice into her skull.

“Heals,” I muttered, trying to get the blood out of my eye as shock started setting in.  An instant later I was hale and healthy again.

Several of the burial slots were cracking open and more zombies were coming out.

“Retreat,” asked Justice.

“Not worth it,” I said walking down the side of the chamber and slashing zombie after zombie in twain.  Several managed to get all the way out to the floor and were trying to collect themselves as I walked by and ended them.

Two even stood up and were prepared for combat, for all the good it did them.  By now unless you had some new zombie trick, I could end you in an instant and I found that very few of the undead were all that creative.

Clearing the chamber took less than five minutes and I walked back to the main room looking for which chamber the other zombie came from.  There were six more zombies in here, but they didnt’ react to me instantly.

“What’s going on,” I asked.

“I have not cleansed you and you are covered in zombie guts,” said Justice.  “These poor creatures do not realize you are alive.”

“Cool cool,” I said walking over to the first zombie and smashing in it's head.  The other zombies reacted at that moment, realizing I was a threat, but I was already close enough to three of them that when I activated my Magical Strike I was able to bisect them.  Then it was just a point of stamina for the next and the final one I beat down normally.

“That was very efficient,” said Justice.

“Yup, let’s clear out the other chambers,” I said and started to somewhat cautiously go through the rest of the crypt.

After the first, I cleared out the next two, leaving only the largest one remaining.  I had notifications about more skill increases and I was back in the  clean graveyard fresh air.  It smelled like wet clay and rot.

“Anything good,” I asked as Justice reviewed our inventory.

“We found several pieces of armor, and some weapons,” said Justice.  “The weapons are obvious garbage, but the armor could be useful.”

“Any ranged weapons oh sword of mine,” I asked.

“A Magic Sword Knight does not use a ranged weapon, they have Magical Swords,” said Justice.

“Lets pretend that I run into the unlikely situation of a ghoul running away from me towards the townfolk and all I can do is throw my sword at it,” I said.  “Are there any ranged weapons.

Justice was quiet for a moment, “There is a broken hand crossbow.”

“Let me see it,” I said and the crossbow materialized in my hand.  It was missing a string but that seemed to be about it.  A crossbow string was just a heavily reinforced bow string, they still had those in the general store.  “We are keeping that, give the rest of the weapons to the townsfolk.”

“But we could sell them for coin,” said Justice.  “It is our right as Magic Sword Knights.”

“We could, but the town is chronically unarmed.  I think having more people with weapons will help us more than having more coin in this situation,” I said.

“Townsfolk are no match for Magical Sword Knights in combat,” said Justice.

“What about orcs,” I replied.  “If there is more than one of them, I’d prefer to have some backup.”

“They might die,” said Justice.

“They might get killed by spiders, or undead, or anything else too, at least if they are armed they have the choice,” I said.

“That’s not how we do things,” said Justice.

“That’s how I do things, otherwise I can leave,” I replied.

Justice mulled that over, “Fine, but we can sell weapons if the situation is not as dire as here.”

“That, I agree with,” I replied looking down to the final crypt.

It was the largest, by far, of the crypts and now that I knew what to look for, had the most traffic.  Lots of undead were coming out of this crypt.

“Wonder if the boss is down here,” I offered.

“Possibly, but fear not, with the power of Justice, you shall triumph!”

Well, he was at least good for a pep talk.  I started down the stairs into this crypt, they were longer than the previous stairs.  Before I was underground, now I was buried.  This must be what a dungeon felt like and I can’t say I cared for it over much.  This room was as well, there was only one door and a large, terrible looking statue was standing in front of it unmoving.

“This is why I wanted a crossbow,” I said, summoning a torch.

“He looks big, but not as big as Justice!”

“Justice is more of a concept,” I said, tossing the torch at the statue.  It bounced off and for a bare instant I thought that it might not actually be a monster.  It could be a statue, a glorious statue to evil tucked away in this dank dark crypt that felt oppressively evil.

Of course, then the statue’s eyes started glowing, and it took one step towards me, crushing the torch underfoot.

“Hey, I paid a good silver piece for that torch, well five torches,” I said doing the math.  “You owe me two coppers, or a torch!”

The statue continued coming towards me, so I moved into the room slightly.  The stairway was just big enough that I was pretty sure he could follow me out, and fighting up stairs while moving backwards was risky to put it mildly.  I needed this guy to die, quickly.

Fortunatly, I had a trick for that.

I activated Magical Strike and swung for the statue’s chest even as he swung for mine.  Our blades met in the middle with a mighty clang and I was knocked back onto my ass.

“He can block Magic Strike,” I asked.

“Yes, any enchanted sword can do so,” said Justice.

I got back to my feet and assumed my stance.  The statue hadn’t gotten off without a scratch, but the slightly wound I’d given him with our swords clashed was not a life threatening one.  I stumbled slightly before getting back into position, noticing that my own leg was bleeding.

“You want me to heal that,” asked Justice.

“Not yet,” I hissed.  Activating two points of stamina, one for Dexterity which allowed me to move in far faster than the statue could react and another for power which allowed me to strike at his knee with maximum force.

I didn’t get off unscathed.  I went all in on offense and that left a gap the statue exploited, slashing deep into my upper arm as he pulled his own sword around.  I rolled away before the shock took over and I numbly looked at my ruined arm as the statue moved to block the door.

The blue magic flowed over me and the wound was gone.  I got back to my feet and watched the statue.  I was out of tricks.  Next time I’d have to use the mana point with dexterity to get in for a good strike.

I stood motionless as the statue stepped towards me.  The glowing red eyes watched me as I held Justice in the perfect kendo stance and I waited.  Waiting was my preferred trick at this point, I would recover a point of stamina soon enough and could potentially get past him.  Unfortunately, the statue figured that out or was just enough of a bastard to go after me anyway.

He stepped forward, holding his own sword low.

“Prepare to defend yourself, keep the blade high and beat back his attacks,” said Justice as the statue swung the blade the first time.  I smashed Justice into the attack, causing a terrible bell like sound to fill the room.  The statue was strong, but not strong enough and I sidestepped his attack.

The statue growled, and stepped up again swinging.  I beat that strike as well, but as my sword bounced back I realized I was in position to follow up.  I struck, slamming the blade of Justice into the statue’s forehead with a mighty gong.

“On a helmet, aim for the temple,” said Justice.

The statue attempted to swing and grab this time, but when I beat back the strike I counter attacks the creature’s outstretched palm.  The hand broke free, revealing a hollow underneath.

“This statue is not pure stone, you can do this!” said Justice.

“It's not a statue,” I replied, sniffing the air.  Yesterday I might have panicked, but that was hundreds of zombies ago.  When I saw how big this guy was and the fact that he was armed, I miscalculated.  For all of this creature’s advantages, in the end it was just another undead.

The creature attacked again, this time more slowly because it was missing a hand.  I beat back that strike as well and activated a stamina point right as I swung Justice at his temple.  The rotted leather straps shattered, spinning the helmet ninety degrees even as the metal deformed under my attack.

For a moment, the statue seemed to wobble then it fell with a boom.  Because I was a firm believer in double tapping, I stepped up and flipped off his helmet with Justice revealing another zombie.  I slashed off the creature’s head.

As I took the creature’s head, the body glowed briefly and the heavy suit of armor vanished.

“This can be cleaned,” said Justice.

“Yup, let’s do that.  I would like some armor,” I said, checking my shirt.  The wound was healed, but the damage to my clothing was becoming a bit extreme.  It took more than a decent shirt to hold up against a horde of zombies.

I listened for a long moment, waiting for a sound that never came.  Finally my Mana and stamina tapped back off and I was ready to go again.  The back door to the chamber beckoned, and I wanted to kill whatever was back there.

“What’s with the crown,” I asked as we got closer to the door.

“I do not know the local customs,” said Justice.  I glanced at the stonework, and it was at least newer than the other materials there.  It looked like a late addition rather than something that was here for hundreds of years like the normal rocks.

“I’m sure it is fine, there can’t be anything worse down there,” I said as I started walking.

“There certainly can be, liches, undead wizards, skeletal mages,” began Justice as he recited a list.  I listened to all of them.  The sword was annoying, but if properly motivated it occasionally said useful things.

“Stinks down here,” I said.

“I cannot tell, I have no nose,” said Justice.

“I know, that’s why I mentioned it, smells like a chemical dump,” I said.

“That might mean alchemy is a foot, it is the vile cousin of potion making,” said Justice.

“Can it be used to make undead,” I asked.

“That is the least of the evil that it can be made to perform,” said Justice.

We continued down until the oppressive stench of alchemy was making breathing hard.  I decided that the air wasn’t causing me to die, but that was about all I knew.

“The air is safe to breath, I shall alert you if there are problems,” said Justice.

“You don’t have a nose,” I said.

“I have a magical sensor for toxins,” said Justice.  “Because I’m awesome.”

“Cool cool,” I said and continued towards the end of the stairway.  There was a door here and all the nearby stonework was caked in something I suspected was dried alchemy residue.  I worked in a factory once, down wind of the processing area was a section that would do that if it wasn’t cleaned often.  This place didn’t look like it was ever cleaned.

The door was well used though, and I pushed on it.  It opened silently, and I was treated to a sight out of a horror movie.  A cheap one.  There was a cauldron in the middle, bubbling and green with a odd light shining out of it that didn’t feel right.  A large, throne like chair sat in the back looking menacing.  Several tables were around the room, each covered in a variety of ingredients that appeared to be mostly mushrooms.  A very gaunt creature, that must be undead, was moving around it and throwing in handful of mushrooms every few seconds.

“Worst pasta sauce ever,” I muttered.  The creature heard that.  He, and I was being generous there, glared at me and shrieked something unintelligible.  I stepped towards him and he flung something at me.

I dodge, of course, as one is want to do when someone throws a hissing, smoking ball at you.  It splatted into the door and promptly exploded, peppering my backside with splitters.

I really need some armor.

He was flinging another one when I started rushing towards him forgetting my stance.  Stance was good, not getting hit by bomb was better.  I blew a stamina point to really get the point across and covered the distance so quickly that no human could have responded.

Unfortunately, the undead mixologist wasn’t alive and not really constrained by human reflexes.  When I got close he backhanded me hard enough to shatter my jaw and sent me flying over a table.

I was pretty sure I was unconscious, but one blue flash later I wasn’t.  I rolled to the side just as anothe rbomb landed where i was and then a second bomb landed where i was going.  I was correct that getting hit by those bombs was incredibly painful, and I got to feel my chest collapse.  That was new.

I dropped to my knees, and I was pretty sure my guts falling out and then I flashed blue again.

“How many times can you do that,” I asked.

“Three,” said Justice.

“I should be able to kill the undead with three more lives,” I said.

“Total, one left,” said Justice, like a bastard who hated everything I loved.  Like not dying.

The undead flung another bomb, but this time I was smart and rolled under a table.  The explosion destroyed the table and peppered me with splinters but I could manage those for a short time at least.  I finally got close and slashed at the alchemist.

His hand came free, but that didn’t seem to bother him overmuch.  He grabbed me by the collar and then threw me into his scaling hot cauldron.  I dented it and the resulting shower of boiling liquid didn’t do anything for my complexion and I dropped the sword.

“Stupid fool, do you realize what you have done,” shrieked the undead.

I didn’t care, I was burned, badly.  All over.  I spent a point of stamina as I grabbed the still scaldingly hot cauldron and slammed it down over the undead’s head.  Without stamina to assist my lifting, the caudron became incredibly heavy and it slammed down onto the floor.

I staggered over to Justice and picked him up.  Instantly I was well again, and aware that I couldn’t do that again.

The cauldron shrieked several more times as he tried to lift it but the bottom was the hottest part and the undead had his limits.  Finally I activated magical Strike and swung down, carving the cauldron and the undead in two in one swing.

“Job well done,” said Justice.  “We have defeated the undead menace that plagued this village.”

“I guess it was a decent side quest,” I said walking over to the still standing tables.  They were all covered in mushrooms of various types.  I didn’t know what they did, but presumably they did something for alchemy.  I spotted a book and tried to make out the cover.  Surprisingly it read a Necromancer’s guide to Alchemy.

“Are they writing in english here,” I asked before Justice could get worked up.

“No, as long as I am on your person, any language I can read you can read, and vice versa, that is a book of necromantic alchemy skill book.  It will teach the alchemy skill,” said Justice.  “We must destroy it.”

I flipped open the front cover and spotted a table of contents.  The recipe for all fo the zombies was there, and there was also a section on the proper maintenance and care of mushroom gardens.  There were a few poisons at the end of the book, but nothing approaching a potion that would cure even the sniffles.  I closed the book and tossed it into the fire.

The chair was knocked over and I righted it.  When the chair fell, all of the nonsense on the outside was knocked off revealing a well made chair.  There was even a mostly intact cushion for your seat.  I bushed it off, feeling something inside.

“Hidden treasure,” I chuckled, tearing open the cushion revealing a crown, and a ring.  “These should sell for a lot.”

“Yes, though the crown of a king is a hard thing to sell,” said Justice.

“I hear they are heavy when you wear them,” I said spotting several other books.  I sat on the chair and flipped through them.  One was a hand scrawled journal, complete with a map to the local region.  Apparently this undead left in a city called Therown in the past.

“He was building an army,” I said.  “Wonder why, any ten of those advanced undead would have taken the village without issue.”

“There are undoubtedly other cities on this world, perhaps they were going to be used there,” said Justice.

The second book was a journal about the undead’s life prior to leaving.  His handwriting was much more precise, making reading much easier.  The man was a high ranking noble.

I snapped the book shut, “Shit.”

“What is wrong,” asked Justice.

“Who was the original quest giver,” I asked.

“King Narosa, of Therown,” said Justice.  “He requested the aid of hte Magic Sword knights in retaking the city and saving his kingdom.  He was trying to assemble an army to do so.”

“Well he was already dead,” I said looking at the body.  “Upshot, I think I slept with a princess.”

“I told you, these sort of things happen,” said Justice.

Chapter 8: Preparations

I left a lot out in my conversation with Nadia.  So much.  So very much.  I gave her the sane dad journal, and kept the crazy rambling journal all to myself.  In that special place you lock up all of the horrible things you never want to think about again.

That journal was a decent into madness where the only option the king felt he had was to take his own life and become an undead so he could build up a mighty army and retake his kingdom for the good of everyone.

Except that a number of the dead were villagers who got dragged off to become undead even if they were alive presently.  I initially wondered at the intelligence of burning the skill book, but now I realize that alchemy was bad news.  I wanted to avoid anything that resembled bad news.  Bad news got my ear torn off my head.

“So did I level,” I asked Justice.

“Yes, that last fight was just enough,” said Justice.

You are a level twoMagical Sword Squire

Strength: 17 (+1) | Endurance: 15 (+1) | Agility: 16 (+2) | Reason: 12 (+1) | Logic: 11 (+1) | Willpower: 17 (+1)

Mana: 2 | Stamina 3

Skills: Dexterity (rank 3), Power (rank 3)

My level had increased, granting me higher stats.  Those were incrimental so I barely noticed the difference, an eleven wasn’t much different than a twelve.  The extra point of Mana and Stamina were both good though.

Neight of my skills had advanced in rank, apparently each rank too progressively more skill points to push through and I was only mid way through both.  I killed hundreds of weaker monsters to advanced a single level, now it was going to take thousands apparently to get up to level three.

I didn’t earn any new skills from leveling, but there were another Mana based thing I could learn.  I glanced through them while Justice began speaking.

“The four new abilities you can chose are all Mana augmentations, they are more powerful than your Stamina based improvement,” said Justice.

“I took Magic armor, it repairs and reinforces my Armor,” I said as I glanced back down at my armor.

“But I haven’t even discussed the pros and cons of that with you,” said Justice.

“They all look good, this looks like it keeps my guts in my torso,” I said, pressing on a sharp piece of my and pushing the edge outside the place where my soft, easily damaged, skin was.  Then I focused mana into it and the sharp points just folded back into the metal so smoothly it looked undamaged, because it was.

“Henry and I always had a rousing discussion about this before we chose an ability,” said Justice.

“Wow, that sounds really boring,” I replied.  “I just took something.”

“That is not done, we will discuss this next time,” said Justice.

“Cool cool, so next time,” I offered looking around.

Most of the new armor was still getting mended, well at least as mended as the local village could muster.  I had parts, but not enough of a suit to fight in.  The helmet was still dented, and the gauntlet was basically wrecked, but most of the rest of it was mostly okay, if you squinted, and didn't’ have to wear it.

“This is still pinching,” I said, causing Justice to make the armor vanish again.  I glanced down at the bleeding spot and grabbed a leather patch, thick needle and started sewing.

“You are quite skilled," said Nadia as she watched me.  She was wearing the crown, and only the crown.  It was a sign of her lineage, but her father took it with him when she was a child.  Her lineage had a nice butt.

The king went a bit batty when no Magic Sword Knight came.  Eventually he took his loyal retainer and began plotting revenge against the world.  That ended up badly for everyone.  His undead army was raiding the village, and not doing a whole lot to stave off the evil person who ransacked his kingdom.

Not that I wanted to tell her that, she was after all laying on her bed only wearing that crown.

“So are you going to be able to stop the orcs from pillaging the village tomorrow,” she asked.

“Of course, I’m a Magic Sword Knight and this is what we do,” I said confidently.  At least that’s what Justice claimed he did, and I did need that potion.  “I will have to interrogate their leader so he can tell me where your captured people are.”

“You are so concerned about them,” she smiled, then looked away.

“What’s wrong,” I asked, finishing the patch on my leg.  Hopefully it would prevent the pinching, but the armor really needed a skilled armorsmith to fully repair.  So far I’d tried pushing the edges out and fixing the joints, but nothing was really working all that well.

“It is just, we had given up hope,” said Nadia sadly.  “There was just no chance for us, no chance at winning, and no real chance of long term survival.  There are so few of us left, and when you showed up like a Knight from legend it is hard not to be… hopeful, for once.  I’m not used to it.”

She smiled, she was quite pretty, but I needed to save my sister.  I’d say whatever I needed to say to do that.  Then she looked sad.

“Tomorrow will be hard,” she said.  “We have never tried to stand up against them, since the incident.”

The incident was when the resistance attempted to stop the orcs, and were either killed or captured.  That is where all the trainers, and most of everyone else went.  The current village was holding maybe a quarter of it's capacity.  The only reason Nadia hadn’t been involved was on the off chance a Magic Sword Knight appeared.  She was to keep me fighting no matter what.

She had a great technique.

“Yeah, but you said there were never more than ten of them, so I can handle that many in my sleep, especially with the townsfolk so much better armed,” i replied.  I mean, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her, or the town.  I could certainly do something to help them while I found out where the other people were, those were her people after all.

But I wasn’t going to save the world, that clearly was going to be too hard, and dangerous.

“What if there are more,” she asked.

“Well, that’s what knights do,” I said with a smile, “More.”

She smiled again.  “Well, that being the case, is there any reward you might request?”

“I think I have been pretty well rewarded,” I said, “But if you are offering more rewards I will happily take them.”

“I am sorry, Sir Knight, but yesterday was a bit risky, tonight I fear you may have to deal with a problem if you are not careful,” she said a bit sadly.  A lesser man could manipulate her into doing something we’d both regret later.

But I had a spell for that.

“A Mage Knight never leaves a squire in the field,” I offered, trying to come up with inoffensive terms.

“Truely,” she replied.

“Have you ever heard of a story where that happened,” I asked.

She pondered that for a moment while I started summoning and dismissing the few parts of armor that I had.  None of them were pinching at the moment and while I looked ridiculous, I at least looked more defended than I was.

“Tomorrow will be a dire battle,” said Justice.  “Your first opportunity to show the world your power.”

“Yup,” replied.  “Gonna kill me some orcs.”

“You will not simply be able to kill orcs, they are skill combatants with many skills to use in battle,” said Justice.

“And I’ll kill them, except for the leader so I can figure out where their base is,” I said.

“I’m glad you are so optimistic,” said Justice.

Seriously, how many could there be?  I dismissed my armor because it was time to sleep and found Nadia had rolled onto her back.  She was watching me finish my preparations and waggled her eyebrows at me.

“You knights must have a contraceptive spell, show me,” she said.

And I did, it was good to be the knight.

Chapter 9: Orcs

“There are forty of them,” said Frank as he looked down at Nadia.  She was holding a bow and looked less confident than she was last night.  Last night she knew what she was doing and was skillful in handling everything that came up.  Now, she was trying to project confidence and failing.

“Let us in, or we will kill everyone,” said the orc boss.

“Do you want me to talk to them,” i asked.  She nodded.  I checked my armor, it look ridiculous.   Most of the suit from the undead guarding the alchemist was here, but parts weren’t and I had substituted other armor that I had in place of the missing bits.

I looked like a MMORPG character who cared more about stats than cosmetics, which was sad because if I had stats I wouldn’t care what the armor looked like.  As it was, I had a great combination of no stats, plus ridiculous looking armor.

“The shiny metal bits counteract the dark black bits,” said Justice.  “Do not fear, the righteousness of our cause will sway them.”

“Okay,” I said, then stood up, looking at all fourty orcs.  They ranged from a half dozen scrawny orcs, to all the other ones being huge.  Some of them were extra huge.  One I was pretty sure was an orge.  He was in charge.

“Are you in charge?” laughed the ogre.

“Yes, please leave, you are scaring the goats and they want to remain virgins until marriage,” I stated.

An arrow wizzed by me.  Well, more correctly an arrow zipped towards me and I sidestepped it causing it to miss and stick into the wall of a nearby house.  Arrows were great weapons, except they didn’t move fast enough.  I could see them coming from the distance and just avoid them.  Hopefully the orcs would leave.

“I do not believe they will leave,” said Justice.  I ducked down.

“Why are there so many,” I asked.  No one said anything, so I stood back up and asked the question to the orcs.

“We are here to deal with the undead problem in the graveyard,” he retored.

“Oh, I already killed all of those, you can leave,” I replied dodging two more arrows.

“What do you think you are, a Magic Sword Knight,” laughed the ogre.

“Yes,” I said as I drew Justice and smashed an arrow into flinders as it raced towards me.  “I have this magic sword and everything.”

“So do I,” laughed the orge, showing his belt where a hilt stuck out.  Justice hissed.

“Backbiter, no,” mourned the sword.

“I thought magic swords were indestructible,” I said sidestepping another arrow.

“From traditional means, but if you drain us of magic our blades are just as fragile as anything else made of steel,” said Justice.  I ducked behind cover.

“Well, they aren’t leaving,” I said.

“We heard,” said Frank.

“Our village cannot stop that many orcs,” said Nadia, fear creeping into her.  It was not a pretty look.  For a brief moment she found hope, and now that was gone.  I didn’t really want to save the world, but I didn’t mind saving her.

I summoned my hand crossbow and activated a stamina point as I popped up.  I fired the crossbow and the bolt sailed through the air and slammed into the slit of one of the armored orc’s visors.  “Look there are 39 of them, we can do this,” I said.

“What,” asked Frank.

I spent another point of stamina as I reloaded and spun up to shoot another orc.  That one also went down, and I ducked behind cover.

“Like I said, thirty eight of them.”

“That one is getting back up,” said Frank.

I repeated the trick, “Thirty eight.”

“Yup, both eyes,” said Frank.

“We can do this, all of the townsfolk will hold the main gate and you can kill the rest of them,” said Nadia.

“Remember, I have to deal with the ogre myself,” I said, then considered. “We think he’s the one who knows where the camp is, right?”

“Yes, and it is so glorious that you are concerned about our people,” said Nadia.

“You know me, I’m all about saving those people,” I said.  Specifically the class trainers.

So as soon as the orcs figured out I’d killed two of their guys, they had a long discussion and decided that this town was too tough of a nut to crack.  They left in good order and no one else died.

I kill me, no they charged.  Right at the gate, screaming obscenities.  Something about an asshole with a crossbow, so I gave the crossbow to Frank.

I was out of bolts anyway.

Nordrin had a city wall with gates and everything.  That wall was designed to stop spiders and the occasional zombie.  I twas not designed to stop a full on raiding party of orcs, at least without considerable support.  Support Nordrin didn’t really have to give.

When the first ladder came up and spent a stamina point and chopped Justice into it.  This caused the entire side of the ladder to split and the three orcs climbing it all fell to the ground below.  One even was minor hurt.

The other two ladders made it up just fine though and the orcs started climbing the wall immediately.  Yesterday that tactic would have worked, because the entire compliment of weapons in the village consisted of about 10 poorly made spears.  In my battles with the zombies, I’d found everything from knives and cheap staffs all the way up to one magical sword, which Frank had.

Because he was the second best fighter here.

He chopped down on one orc and the orc’s helmet deflected the magic sword into his shoulder.  The magical blade gouged deeply into the pauldron and the orc roared, right as two people jammed spears into his chest.  They tried to push the orc and the ladder away, but the ladder had a metal hook that sat over the wall, so just the orc went.  He tumbled down the ladder, striking all of his friends as he fell before slamming tot he ground.

Where he probmptly got right back up.

The other ladder was closer to me, and I ran over to it with justice.  The first orc was already on the wall and slashed at another guard.  That man collapsed, probably dead.  The orc was getting ready for the second guard when I kendo chopped his skull.

With my strength and Justice’s inability to break, the strike the head was enough to brain the orc outright.  He just collapsed, the next orc was on the wall right after him and he laughed at me.

“I’ve always wanted to see one of you Magic Sword Knights fight.”

I struck at him, but he stepped to the side, causing me to miss his skull an dinstead I only managed a glancing blow off of his armor.  He thrust back at me with a short metal sword that glanced off of my armor.  If I hadn’t been wearing it, that attack would have killed me.

“You must feint, pretend to attack to cause him to move,” said Justice, which sounded reasonable.  The Orc’s buddy was just about over the wall so I made to attack the laughing orc’s head.  When he jerked to the side, I adjusted my blow an dslammed him on the top of his helmet.

The helmet dimpled and there was a splatting sound.  The orc collapsed even as I advanced and struck the third orc in rapid succession.  He collapsed down the ladder so I brought my sword up and activated a stamina point as the next orc got to the top.  His eyes went wide, but he wasn’t my target.

I slashed into the side of the ladder, splitting the wood down a dozen feet causing the rungs to fly loose.  The orc fell down to the point where there were still rungs, and shattered those as well.

Switching back to the remaining ladder, I spotted Frank as he went down and there were five orcs holding the ladder.  Two of them were down, and the remaining guards were being pushed back.

“Are those magic weapons,” I asked.

“Yes,” said Justice.  “All fo their weapons are made of a cheap magical alloy so then can block your Magic Strike.”

“Is their armor,” I asked as we got close.  The nearest orc moved to block me but I feinted and then smashed him in the head.  He stood dumbly for a moment, so I smashed him again.  This time he dropped.

Another orc managed to get to the top of the ladder, but more importantly two of the othe rorcs were moving to get to the remaining guards, meaning their backs were to me.  I activated Magic Strike and slashed across both orc’s backs.  They came apart, and suddenly there were only three orcs.

Two of them looked normal, a third was wearing much nicer armor.

“He is probably an orc juggernaut, they are the elite of the orc ground forces, they will know skills,” said Justice.

“Shit,” I muttered as I slammed one orc twice on the shoulder with my sword.  I was aiming for the head, but he wasn’t having it.  Two hits later and he was standing, but his arm was clearly broken.  I sparta kicked him right into the juggernaut, and the massive orc just backhanded him off the wall.

The remaining orcs were wedged against the wall where the remaining ladder was.  No more orcs could get up here without one of us moving.  We stared at each other as his battle hardened companion prepared his human killing mace and mine point sticks with points on them towards the pair.

“Frank, please pick up your sword,” I said.

“I think something broke,” muttered Frank.

The juggernaut surged forward, and I found out having guys behind you is bad because you can’t pull back.  I activated power and attempted to block the strike, only to find that the juggernaut was actually stronger than the undead from yesterday.

I slashed down with justice even as the orc swung a massive mace into my chest.  There was an enormous clash and we both stumbled away from each other.

The orc had a minor wound, his well made armor had saved him from most of the damage.  My chest plate was compressed into my chest, making breathing hard not that breathing was much of an issue considering I was pretty sure both of my lungs were pulp.

“Quickly I must remove the armor so I can heal you,” said Justice as I activated Magical Armor.  The breastplate popped out, all of my armor fully repaired.  Justice cast healing and I stood back to my full height.

“How many times can you do that,” growled the orc.

“Enough,” I said, lacerating Dexterity and Power at the same moment before slamming justice into the orc’s already damaged arm.  The armor blocked most of the damage, but not enough and the limb shattered causing the orc to drop his mace.  Without his mace, he was having trouble defending himself and I slammed Justice into him over and over trying to find a weak spot in the armor.

The other orc managed to climb to the top of the wall, but now found hisself being crushed by the backpeadling juggernaut.  The juggernaut attempted to grab me, and I dodged under the strike finally spotting a hole in the armor.  The armpit was simply covered in heavy chain.

I drove Justice into the orc’s armpit until half of the blade was tucked in there.  Then I twisted the blade before yanking it out.  The orc bellowed, then slammed into a stone parapet before he collapsed.  The orc behind him, pinned under the massive orc’s bulk.

Another orc attempted to climb the ladder and I struck him down.  Then the one after him.  Then the next one.  Two arrows flashed towards me simultaneously, but they were still too far off and I simply dodged them both as the next orc attempted to climb.  I smashed him as well.  He slammed to the ground in the middle of the mass ove approaching orcs, his crushed face testament to the power of my strikes.

“Halt,” yelled the ogre, as I looked down on him from the wall.  Fourteen of the orcs were dead, including one of the well armored ones.  Well thirteen I thought, remembering the trapped orc next to me.

There was a scream. Back to fourteen.

“You fight much better than expected,” said the ogre.  “I will let this village live if you turn over the knight.  He cannot protect you forever.  No one else has to die.”

“You might want to say something, I think frank just died,’ said Justice.

Justice was correct.  Also three of the other guards, and a random woman who thought a pitchfork and gumption was enough to fight orcs.  At least she died doing what she loved, screaming while she flew through the air.

“I have sworn an oath to protect this place,” I said.  “These orcs will betray you at the first possible instant, probably the instant I am dead.”

Nadia looked pained, “The orcs are filthy liars.”

“Yes, and I am honest, like a Knight,” I said while trying not to obviously look at everyone to see who might be betraying me.  Everyone looked sort of okay.  I needed a skill that spotted people who were going to betray me, because that would be super cool right about now.

I stood back up, and dodged another arrow.

“Seriously,” said the ogre sized orc walking to the base of the wall directly below me.  “You cannot think that you can stop me.”

“I have the power of Justice on my side,” I announced, as I dodged another arrow.  The ogre laughed.  I dodged another arrow, jerking to the side and he laughed louder.  I dodged another one and he began to bellow.  The fourth arrow I dodged allowed me to slam my knee into the already damaged parapet and while the orc sized ogre bellowed, it snapped free.

And landed directly on top of his head.

He stood there stunned for a second as the hundreds of pounds of stone rattled whatever he had that passed for a brain, still he was standing, until I threw the Juggernaught on him.

One two hundred pound weight to the skull he could manage, two was clearly too many.  The massive orc fell onto his back with a might thud, and finally the arches stopped shooting.

“If you run now, I might not be able to catch all of you,” I offered.  They took me up on that.  “Tie him up, I’ll be back in a few.”

Chapter 10: Boss Garuk

(Editor: Tone, may be too dark)

“So how many got away,” asked Nadia when I returned.

“Maybe five or so,” I replied spending the point of mana to restore my armor back to factory spec.  It still looked stupid, but I was growing used to it.

And if I keep telling myself that I’ll eventually believe it.

“How did you get so many,” asked Bryon, the new chief guard.  He was about 17, and scrawny.

“Just chase them into the spiders,’ I said.  “Lots of spiders around here, and those orcs are good eating.”

“That’s horrible,” said Nadia.

“In my defense, they were trying to kill everyone,” I said trying to change the subject.  “How is the big orc.”

“He’s tied up, with all the ropes,” said Nadia.  “And some chains.”

And the big guy was.  After we got his helmet off it was clear that he wasn’t an ogre.  He was an orc whose father was brave or mother was stupid, no idea which.   We had not removed the rest of this armor though and the two guys with spears pointing at his face just looked sad.

“He’s going to eat those spears,” I said, kneeling down in front of the orc.  He tried to snap at me, but I expected something like that and yanked back faster than he could move in his limited range.

“So what’s your name,” I asked the orc, watching him closely.

“Garuk, I am the war boss, if you let me go then I will not report this travesty.”

I nodded, “Cool cool, so where are the resistance prisoners?”

“You want to know about them,’ laughed the orc.

“That’s the only reason I didn’t kill you, so yes, I am quite interested in where the prisoners are,” I said coldly.  The orc’s laugh faded slightly and he looked at me.

“You’re a Knight,” he said.

“So they tell me, but why don’t you tell me where the prisoners are,” I said.

“Tell the knight, this will go much easier on you,” said one of the guards.

The orc stared at me, his eyes opening wider as I inspected him.  Like I inspected things at my other job, not my knight job.  My knight job was nice, and had some fun benefits, but I had another job that I was really good at.  Inspecting things.

Inspecting things for butchering.

“I won’t tell you anything,” said the orc.

“Let start with the sword, how did you break it,” I said calmly.  There was a detached note in my voice and the guards picked up on it.  One of them stepped away slightly.

“My master broke it, i was given it as a trophy, let me go any you can have it,” said the orc.

“I already have it, I need you to helm me help you,” I said.  “You need to tell me where the resistance prisoners are, or this is going to get bad for you.”

“Where is the girl, I can talk to her,” said Garuk.

“No, she left, it is just me and these guys, why don’t you help yourself.  Please, tell me where the resistance prisoners are located,” I said.

“What are you doing,” asked Justice.

“Just asking questions, I like to ask questions,” I said.  “Like, where are the prisoners?”

The orc’s eyes got even wider and I realized one of the guards had left the room.  Good.

“I cannot tell you,” said Garuk.

“Will not or cannot, is there a spell on you that prevents you from telling anyone, or is it misplaced loyalty to someone who isn’t here and can’t help you, right now,” I said.

“Will not,” said Garuk softly.

“Oh, that’s not a good answer,” I said looking at the other guard.  He likewise stepped out of the room.

“This isn’t a knightly thing,” said Justice.

“Point, but also there’s my sister and he’s the one who knows where the person that can help her is,” I said, leaving Justice outside the room.

“Now, we are going to talk about where the resistance is located,” I said.

Chapter 11:  Leaving town

“He talked?” said Nadia.

“Yup, quite cooperative when I explained the situation to him” I replied.

“You were very persuasive, it appears,” she said looking down on the orc boss who was currently chained up in a horse stable.

“I can be quite forceful if the need arises,” I said pulling out my map.  “The resistance is located at a place called Tarrytown.  It was apparently an old hunting lodge but they now use it as a labor camp.  I will be going there to liberate the prisoners and sending them back this way.”

Nadia nodded, “I would never have guessed it would be that close, but the route there is treacherous.”

“A knight laughs at treachery,” I said.  Then thought about it and shrugged.

“Not your best saying,” replied Nadia.

“In any case, I will be departing shortly.  It is light out and I should be able to make a good distance before dark.  This will be a trip of several days, are there any other towns between here and there?”

Nadia looked at the map and traced my route with her finger.  “In a manner of speaking, yes.  This is the last ‘free’ city after the conquest.  That simply means we do not have an orc warlord running the town, particularly because we are too poor to merit the attention.  There are settlements as you move further into the kingdom.”

“Will they be friend, or foe,” I asked.

“It depends on how boldly you make your claims.  If you are just a traveling swordsman, you should get around just fine.  If you go out declaring yourself a Magical Sword Knight, then all the forces of the kingdom will be raised against you,” said Nadia.  “Without the resistance to back you, I fear you shall be captured, or slain.”

“Alas, a bold knight like myself will be hard pressed to remain stealthy, yet I will try,” I said.

Nadia snorted.  “Just rescue them.”

“As you will, princess,” I said and stepped out of the backroom of her shop.  The fact that I got the orc to talk had been impressive, the stories of how had hurt my local reputation somewhat.  Combined with my unconventional victory, I was on thinner ice here than I wanted.  It was best to leave and come back with the potion trainer, and the rest of the resistance.

That would solve one of my problems, and only leave the annoying one.

I grabbed the belt and tightened it.

“How dare you, Sir,” spat Justice.

“I didn’t torture him, I just implied that I would so I don’t see what your problem was,” I said.

“You left me,” yelled the sword.

“Garuk didnt’ believe a Knight would torture him as long as I had you, there wasn’t any chance he was going to tell me what we need to know to save this world,” I said.  “I’m playing it by ear here, I really want to help everyone, but this is my first time.”

Justice seethed, which was a good sign.  Hopefully he would decided that he was the problem and I could be retrained better.  I could, and I would if my sister wasn’t busy dying.  I needed to get her that potion, soon.  Heck, if it turned out I needed to come back after I got it to her, then I’d do that too.

But I wasn’t about to forget my sister.

“What loot did we get,” I asked.

“More armor, nothing you could wear without significant modification,” said Justice.  “A bow from that one orc who kept trying to shoot you in the face.  The big one was carrying a ring and the hilt of Backbiter.  We should give him a proper burial.”

“Did a different knight come here,” I asked.

“Not a full knight, Backbiter was more of a scouts weapon.  He was probably trying to figure out what happened to this world,” said Justice.

“Andy chance we could fix him,” I asked.

“No, once the blade is shattered, the mind of the weapon is destroyed,” said Justice.  “We should give him a proper burial.”

“We do have all those crypts,” I said.  Without an alchemist raising the dead, the graveyard was entirely safe and mundane again.

(unfinished)