Armor

By the time the king’s speech was to begin, we were all dressed in soldier’s uniforms. Because of how conspicuous I was, I needed to be on the edges of things. The plan was for everyone else to get as close as possible to the king and then I would act as a distraction to draw attention to myself.

The plan made me nervous. I was, even with all the improvements my allies had made, still the heaviest hitter. In spite of that, I trusted them, and this was the plan that made the most sense. I was also the only one who could potentially keep from killing any of the common soldiers who might choose to get in my way.

It wasn’t difficult to tell where the speech was happening. There was a stage erected in the middle of a group of soldiers thousands strong. I could make out Caedus’s golden hair and armor even from the outside where I stood. I wasn’t sure of where my allies were, but I knew they’d be in places once I began my attempt at distraction.

Around Caedus, I noticed more than a dozen guards, a few I could tell were wearing no armor. I guessed those without armor were likely children of Aurum he’d brought under his sway. I found a position near the top of a hill looking down at the stage, and waited. From where I stood, I could see a force similar in size to our own across a wide no-man’s land on which sat the border between Caedun and Sylfen.

Caedus took the stage and began speaking. I wasn’t expecting to be able to hear him and so was surprised when he came in crystal-clear, almost as if he were right beside me.

"Hello, my fellow countrymen. Before I begin my demonstration, I just wanted to say a few words to all of you loyal citizens of Caedun."

I saw many of those in the crowd looking around, trying to see where his voice was coming from.

"The elves across the border think I am here to speak to you before calling a truce. They think we are afraid of them, but they don’t know the power we here in Caedun hold. I will show them, and you, that power. I want you all to watch closely. The world will build statues of this moment."

Caedus turned away, and I saw a golden light begin to surround him. Runes I couldn’t make out lit up in a massive and complex pattern that covered the stage he was on. I could actually feel a vibration in the air as pure power started to condense around him.

"CAEDUS! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU THIS UNJUST WAR! WHAT YOU DO DOOMS US ALL!"

My voice exploded out of me, and those standing close actually fell to the ground clutching their ears. I saw some of Caedus’s guards point at me and heard a few shouts of “get him!”, but Caedus himself didn’t move an inch, too enraptured in the ritual he likely thought would grant him godhood.

Men nearby mostly parted as I begin running toward the stage, but eventually, enough got in my way with weapons drawn that I was forced to slow down. My strategy for handling them non-lethally was to simply turn on my energy-eating enchantment and keep walking. I’d experimented with it a bit and found that I could actually increase the effect it had if I made a conscious effort.

As men hit me with spears, swords, and even axes, they would simply collapse as I took as much energy from their bodies as I possibly could. Soon, there were more than a hundred collapsed men behind me.

By the time I’d made it halfway, two golden-eyed figures put themselves in my path. I recognized them from the party as the juggler and the firebreather, roles which they quickly lived up to.

The juggler closed in on me and began attacking with three shortswords, always keeping one in the air as he slashed and struck at me. I used two summoned swords to block his blows, but when I went to counterattack, he would dodge away, letting the firebreather unleash her breath at me.

The heat washed over me, but I heard the screams of soldiers around me as they caught fire or were simply incinerated. When the fire stopped, I was struck by two powerful blows that knocked me forward but didn’t manage to pierce my now elyrium body.

I twirled, dismissing my own swords to catch the one he had in the air, bringing it down in a smooth arc. My sight was clouded by the fire, but attacks from behind were generally pointless. I managed to cut the juggler across the arm before he dodged away.

I went to pursue him, but the firebreather hit me again, this time with some form of concentrated blast that had all of the force of her previous attack, but focused into a kind of beam. It knocked me down, and the steel I had placed over my elyrium melted away where it hit, but I pushed myself upward. I placed both my gauntlets out to block the beam and started marching grimly toward her. She kept it up, seemingly able to put out the blast continuously, vaporizing the poor men who were hit any time the beam deviated from me.

Just before I could reach her, the juggler reappeared and went to bring his swords down onto my back. I chose that moment to duck. The beam slammed into his chest, leaving him staring down at an empty hole, his expression one of surprise.

The firebreather’s roar turned to a cry of anguish as her blast ended. I quickly covered the ground between us, and just as she was managing to recover and send out another beam, I summoned a blade and buried it into her mouth, killing her instantly.

My conflict with them had cleared away a large swath of the soldiers around me, who had taken that moment to cut and run. Up by the stage, I saw my companions locked in conflict with still more golden-eyed beings, as well as dozens of guards. Luckily, their battle had proven too much for the common soldiers, as well, and so all those nearest to the stage had fled. Caedus himself was untouched and continued to stand, exuding a kind of golden light.

I began to run, moving as quickly as I could for the stage. A few common soldiers attempted to stop me, but were knocked out by my enchantment, and in one case, my fist as I continued forward. I reached Kyren on the edge of the battle. She was shooting out bolts of holy light, just in time to intercept a dozen guards, one of whom had golden eyes. Kyren pushed out a wall of force, knocking away four of them, but only slowing down the other two.

I slammed into them, tackling them to the ground before rolling up and summoning a multi-sword. The golden-eyed one launched himself at me, swinging a large axe similar to Hrig’s down at me, but I dodged the blow and rolled backward in front of Kyren. I turned my gauntlet into a claw and quickly scratched a few runes into the ground behind me before the golden-eyed axeman reached us.

I jumped toward him, surprising him in mid-air, then spun my body around and slammed him into the dirt where I’d placed the runes, activating them as I did so. By softening the earth with runic magic, I was able to bury him head first up to his feet. I made a few more quick runes and resolidified the earth from there, his feet flailing as he struggled. A few hits from my pommel and a solid kick later, and I’d cleared out Kyren’s attackers. She returned her focus to aiding our allies.

With all of the remaining guards occupied, I climbed directly onto the stage without interference. Another golden-eyed figure tried to stop me, but Hrig slammed her axe into his head, throwing him out of my path. While I approached the king, I noticed Jade and Dorsia holding their own against a man with a single golden arm. Stone was hopping between guards, a blur with a sledgehammer knocking them off balance or braining them as he went.

I reached Caedus, summoning a multi-sword as I did, and I swung down. Just before my blade reached him, all of the runes surrounding us flew from the floor onto his skin, covering him in golden draconic. I was hit by an invisible wall of force and flew backwards, just barely keeping myself on the stage.

Caedus was laughing, a roaring, maddening laugh that seemed to vibrate the air around him. I rushed him, swinging multi-swords at his throat. He turned and caught the blades in his hands, still laughing. I looked into his eyes and saw that his golden irises had expanded, turning his entire eye gold, and around his eyes, small cracks were forming with golden light spilling out of them.

He shattered my swords and kicked me, launching me from the stage and onto the ground. He then leapt and landed on me, slamming into my chest. Thin trails of golden energy were flowing in the air toward him, and I realized that it was coming from the children of Aurum my allies had been fighting. They had caught fire, but they continued to fight as everything they were bled into Caedus.

Caedus started slamming his fists into me, hitting me so hard that the ground beneath me began to crack and give way. As he began another rain of blows, I activated a rune I’d begun just before he’d landed on me. A massive explosion sent us both into the air, and I managed to wrap myself around him before we landed.

I began to squeeze on his neck with all my might, hoping that the strategy I’d so successfully implemented with Donyin and Talen would also work here. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Caedus’s laughing only grew louder as I squeezed.

He launched us into the air and slammed his elbows backward into me, separating me from him. When I stood to face him, I noticed that while his lips were curled up into a cruel smile, his eyes were wide with fear. The cracks on him were spreading, breaking into the runes on his skin, and his flesh was burning away at the edges of it. His siblings that had continued fighting had stopped, the damage to their bodies too much to allow them to continue on. The laughter coming from Caedus’s ruined face also seemed to be mixed with sobbing.

He stumbled toward me, more pieces of him burning up as he did so. It seemed as if he were being pulled toward me by puppet strings. I caught him as he fell toward me. I could feel an intense and fiery heat emanating from him, and the air hummed with power. He looked up at me and opened his mouth to speak.

"Help me."

At that moment, all the power that had gathered within him exploded outward, throwing me across the battlefield. My senses were suddenly overwhelmed by golden light, heat hotter than anything I’d ever felt, and the smell of metal. When they returned, I almost wished they hadn’t.

Occupying nearly half the battlefield was a tremendous golden form. Its scales shone blindingly in the sunlight, its teeth and talons ivory white, the inside of its wings a deep red, the color of dried blood.

Just as I was beginning to understand the sheer scale and power of what was in front of me, it lifted its head and roared, unleashing flames into the air and shaking the earth itself with the raw force of its bellowing.

Aurum had returned.