Chapter 10: The Battle for Haudemer

That disloyal minion!   “You thankless traitor!” Vainqueur lambasted Minion Victor in front of the terrified kobolds, the sheer power of his voice making him fall down on the sand. “You, you… you goblin, how could you do this to me?!”   “I swear, Your Majesty, this is not what it looks like!”   “It is exactly what it looks like!” Vainqueur replied. “I turn my back on you for five minutes, five minutes, and you cheat on me with another dragon! And a wyvern at that!”   A horse-sized wyvern with lustrous black scales, and shiny ruby eyes that would lead any minion astray - and did - stood next to Victor. The pony to Vainqueur’s pegasus, all pretty looks and nothing else. Wyverns were as dim as cattle, and couldn’t even breathe fire!   Vainqueur had caught his minion riding that shameless creature’s back, caressing the scales behind her horns. He felt disgusted just by remembering it.   And worse, the minion had brought an iron necklace adjusted to that flying rat’s neck! The minion had intended to replace Vainqueur and then dress her up!   Of course, the treacherous minion tried to play dumb, “I was just testing the [Horn of Wyvern Summoning], I swear!”   Vainqueur was too pissed to care, “You fool, she is all pretty scales and nothing else! What, she let you ride on her back? Was it worth it?!”   “Your Majesty, I don’t—”   “No Majesty, you maggot! I spend all my time being the best dragon master for you, and this is how you repay my kindness? I thought we had committed to a special, fulfilling master-minion relationship!”   “I swear this is not what it looks like,” Minion Victor repeated, even if Vainqueur had caught him in the act. The wyvern looked at Vainqueur with a dumb, smug look.   Vainqueur would have eaten that filthy creature if it hadn’t been cannibalism.   “And you cheat on me after I gave you custody of our first minions!” Vainqueur pointed a claw at their kobolds. “After I promoted you!”   “Master, chief, please stop fighting,” sweet Pink cried.   “Your Majesty, I really, really don’t like the wording of this conversation.” Victor found the strength to rise back up, dusting sand off his cloak. “And I climbed on her back just once!”   “I know your species has a shameful fixation on dragon riding, but climbing on my back is a very special privilege. You know I can never give you that, minion. But it does not matter. What matters,” Vainqueur stressed that word, “Is that you are a dirty, shameless master-chaser trying to replace me with a wyvern!”   “Wait, no, of course not! It’s part of a plot to trick the Scorchers and get you richer, I swear!”   “Then what about this necklace?!”   “It’s not a necklace, it’s a ring! For you!”   Vainqueur froze in surprise. “Truly?” he asked, his greed getting the better of him. Indeed, that necklace did look like the rings he often saw on princesses’ fingers…   “I hope I’m not going to regret it, but…” Victor sighed. “Here’s a dragon-sized [Ring of Invisibility]. Just say ‘blink’ while wearing it, and you will become invisible. Remember when I sent the Kobolds on an errand? I asked the local blacksmith to craft that ring, and he was glad enough for your protection not to ask for a payment.”   His… his first, dragon-sized magical item?   No, wait, that was a trick to get back in his good graces! “Why would I become invisible, when I am perfect the way I look?”   “It’s a trick to use on the Scorchers, Your Majesty,” the minion replied, “So you can take them by surprise.”   Ah. Ah… “Like when kidnapping a princess by swooping in in front of knights?” Vainqueur asked, well-versed in that timeless strategy.   “Like princesses with knights,” Victor replied with his usual strange, pitiful tone.   At long last everything made sense, much to Vainqueur’s satisfaction. “I cannot believe I doubted my own chief of staff’s loyalty. Why did you make me doubt you? I could have eaten you for it.” Vainqueur grumbled at his manling’s mishandling of the matter. “I will forgive you for this misunderstanding.”   “I am forever in Your Majesty’s debt.”   “Of course, since I own you,” Vainqueur stated the obvious. “Now, give me that ring before I change my mind.”   And so, under the twilight sun, Vainqueur accepted the minion’s gift of reconciliation. Manling Victor put the ring on his master's left fourth finger, while the minions clapped in happiness and the wyvern sulked in a corner.   His very first magic item!

+60 HP, +10 SP, +1 STR, +1 SKI, +1 AGI, +2 INT, +1 CHA, +2 LCK!

[Noblesse Oblige]: You gain a temporary stat boost to all your statistics when you defend your vassals from outsiders.

“Your Majesty just needs to say blink, and—”

Victor somehow lost his way so badly, he ended up right where he wanted. He guessed these new luck points had worked out for him. While struggling to see within this dense mist, he had spent enough time at Lynette’s inn to recognize its shape. Victor guessed the mayor gathered the townsfolk here when the fog began to spread, for their own protection.   A very good decision, for the inn was under siege.   A dozen men armed to the teeth with bows, swords, and axes surrounded the place while led by an armored knight and a priest. Victor instantly recognized them as Vilmain and Gustave; much to his horror, he also noticed Henry Bright, gagged and chained to a horse near Vilmain. The scholar had sword scars all over his body, and lost a lot of weight.   Thankfully, the Scorchers hadn’t noticed Victor yet. “Rangers?” Victor’s voice lost itself in the fog. Damn, he had lost the kobolds. He hoped they were fine; monstrous critters or not, he couldn’t let them get killed by bandits.   Victor noticed Lynette and others through the inn’s windows. The townsfolk had barricaded themselves inside, watching the encroaching bandit band with apprehension.   “Hello, friends,” the priest announced himself. “I am Vilmain, François Vilmain. We come in peace. If you open the door and let us ransack the inn, we will let you leave unharmed!”   Victor hoped Lynette wasn’t dumb enough to believe him. After a minute of waiting, without the door unlocking, it turned out she wasn’t. “I will break the door,” Gustave said, carrying a heavy claymore with one hand and a large shield with the other.   “No, no need for that hassle, my friend,” Vilmain replied. “Since they have barricaded themselves in, I will set the place on fire with a [Fireball] and cook them alive. You and your men can kill those who try to escape.”   “Not fair, you will get all the experience.”   “I want my next Bowman Perk, sir,” one of the archers complained to Vilmain. “I will never miss anymore with it!”   “Yes, I understand, but it will be quick, and we have to move before the dragon finds his way in.” The priest turned towards Victor, apparently seeing him fine within the unnatural weather. “Well, would you look at that?”   Victor sighed, as a dozen Scorchers looked at him. He might as well try to buy time until Vainqueur could blow the fog away. “That’s the [Disorienting Fog] spell, isn’t it? Pretty high level spell. I didn’t expect a level thirteen Bishop to have access it. The last spellcaster I saw use it was in his mid-twenties.”   “Familiar spell? I would expect a Nightblade to know of it.” Vilmain insisted on the mention of the criminal syndicate. “My class, Fell Bishop, allows me to cast powerful spells by sacrificing people to my dark god. So we nabbed a peasant on our way here. ”   Disgusting.   “That’s your fault by the way," Vilmain said, "We hoped you would leave the town to rescue poor Henry from us, but you didn’t, you shameless, honorless fiend. Abandoning a civilian to his death? How unheroic.”   “Yeah, trying to lure the brave knight away from the town you want to loot. That’s Outlaw trick number one. I was almost sure you already killed him.”   “Henry? No, it is always good to have an emergency sacrifice on hands, just in case. Don’t give me that glare, he sold you out first.”

Vilmain incanted a spell, moving his free hand against Victor’s torso. Cackles of dark energy built around his fingers…   And then five Kobolds jumped out of the fog from behind, grabbing Vilmain’s arms, legs, and head. “For His Majesty!” they shouted at once, biting the priest’s flesh and interrupting his spell.

At least no civilians had died.   “Ah, clear as day,” Vainqueur said. “I can at long last hunt the thieves.”   Victor glanced at Gustave's remains, stuck under Vainqueur’s left foot. The dragon hadn’t even noticed. “That won’t be necessary, Your Majesty,” he said, as Lynette and the townsfolk exited the inn, the danger now gone. “Except stragglers, most fled at your coming.”   “I will have my stipend!” Vainqueur complained, before hunting for Scorchers, leaving blood behind with each step. “Sweet manlings, where are you? Come out, I do not bite… not always…”   “Victor, are you alright?” Lynette rushed to the Squire’s side, forcing a green potion to his lips before he could answer. As Victor drank it, finding the taste sweet, he felt the pain vanish, and his shoulder could move again.   Unfortunately, the kobolds hadn’t been as lucky as him, mourning their fallen comrades. “What do we do?” Black said, tears in his eyes. “Yellow… Yellow was the best minion out of us all… I should have died…”   “We sell them,” Red cried. “That was what they would have wanted.”   …   “Come again?” Victor asked, blinking.   “We sell them to make Master Vainqueur’s hoard bigger,” Pink said, Black and Red nodding with sorrow. “That way they will be part of it forever…”   Victor figured out he had experienced a strong culture clash.

+120 HP, +70 SP, + 5 STR, + 4 VIT, + 4 SKI, +5 AGI, +6 INT, +6 CHA, +7 LCK!

You earned the [Monster Lifeforce (Red Dragon)], [Monster Rider], and [Monster Insight] Perks!

[Monster Lifeforce (Red Dragon)]: the blood of your dragon liege flows in your veins. You gain the additional creature Type: Dragon, which is both a blessing and a curse. You gain immunity to Drain, Paralysis, Fatigue, Insta-death, Disease, and resistance to Fire and Aging. You gain vulnerability to Frost, Fairy, and Dragonslayer.

[Monster Rider]: You can now ride monsters with medium proficiency. If the target is a minion, your proficiency increases to good.

[Monster Insight]: When you observe a monster, you gain a vision of their strengths, weaknesses, and tidbits of information.