Zamart's point of view.
I reach my room and let out a sigh of relief, this room is the only place in the castle where I can relax. I take a look around and realize there isn't much I can bring, just some books and items I've made.
I head to my closet and put on my best travel gear. Then I start packing the rest of my clothes into a dimensional storage bag. I pack my books and my few personal effects and, in the blink of an eye, I'm done.
Well, that's all that's of value, what's my next step? I remember hearing that the rebels are in the Fang Forest, though I've never been there. Let's see, the closest I've been is the port city of Durendall, which is only a few days walk from the forest.
So my best option is to teleport to the port and walk. However, teleporting takes a lot of power and I haven't gotten my magic back yet, but I don't want to wait, I need to leave while everyone is focused on the well.
I'm trying to remember a good way out of the castle, I know every inch of it because I've enchanted it at the king's request. I'm adding layer after layer of defensive spells because the king is worried about assassins and rebels.
'Wait for the enchantments! That's it!'
I can undo all the incantations and recover some of the power used, not only mine, but I also know the keys to the incantations my master cast. After all, the king will be my enemy now, so why leave him with a well-defended castle?
I enter my casting room and sit in the circle my master made so many years ago. I access the castle's magic and only then do I realize how many enchantments I can remove. Even if I restore my powers and teleport, there will still be a large amount of energy left.
I need to decide what to do with it before I start or I might accidentally destroy the city. Mmm, could I make an object? No, I don't have anything of sufficient quality to contain that much power, it would just explode.
I'm not sure what to do, I've never used such a large amount of power at once. I start thinking about the life of the castle and how I can affect it. Then I think about the court mages, not the ones I have chosen and trained that the king dismissed or sent to combat zones, but the actual court mages that were chosen by the king from the sons of the nobles who support him.
All those useless ones without any real talent for magic who dominate the common people. If I use half of this power to launch a massive dissipator on the castle, to eliminate its protections, and then the rest of the power to launch an attack against all of them. I could kill them all at once and leave the king without any mages. Not only that, but then there would be no one to come looking for me.
I decide and begin to unravel all the magic woven into the castle's defenses. I only recover about a quarter of the magic used, but it is still a staggering amount of power, as the enchantments have been building for the past two hundred years. I know that even incompetent court mages will sense this huge amount of mana in motion, so I have to act quickly.
First I recharge my own mana supply, then I prepare my teleport spell, then I cast the most powerful dispel spell I know with additional power, and finally I inject the remaining power into a spell aimed at the court mages.
As soon as I cast the spell to kill the court mages, I activate the teleport spell and in the next instant I am over a thousand miles from the capital, sitting on a hill overlooking the port city of Durendall.
I sit here for a while, enjoying the sun and the nice ocean breeze. I feel like I've lifted a weight off my heart that had been there since the queen's death. I slowly stand up, turn to the south and start walking towards the forest. As I walk, I can't help but laugh as I imagine the look on the king's face when he discovers that all his precious court mages have been reduced to piles of ashes.
As soon as I find the rebels, I must tell their leader all about the summoning and the king's secret army. If the rebels can get the message to the other kingdoms about the king's plan to attack them, they can begin to prepare to defend themselves. Hopefully, this will begin to atone for my actions since the queen's death.
At the well.
Tarrik sends twenty soldiers down the rope to the well before following them himself. He leaves another twenty surrounding the well as ordered by the king. He is convinced that it will be easy to kill the beastman with only the soldiers he has sent, but he was not about to disobey the king.
Even before he reached the bottom, the nauseating stench assaults him in the nose, he releases the rope with one hand to bring a perfumed smell, uses a handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth. When his feet touched the ground.
He feels the bones crumble to dust beneath them and sees his twenty men standing in a circle around the pile of bones with torches held high.
Even with the twenty torches the room is not well lit, so he pulls the enchanted torch from his belt and raises it high. The enchanted torch easily illuminates the entire room and even a few meters of each of the five corridors.
- Congratulations, the Stealth skill has advanced to level 5!
√ Stealth
√ Level 5
- MP cost 15 Agility +5
- You can sneak up on average beings.
It takes a minute for the soldiers to realize that their companion is missing. When they do, voices can be heard shouting and mingling. I wait patiently to see what they will do next. I don't know why the magic rope and torch failed, but I am thankful for it.
Knight Commander Tarrik shouts "SILENCE!!! !!!!"
Knight Commander Tarrik says, "Panicking will only kill you! You and you stay here and wait for reinforcements to arrive. The rest of you with me, we will hunt this beast down."
I watch as the leader and ten soldiers walk down the hallway towards the spiders' lair. They only stop for a minute at the corpse of the soldier. The two left behind have moved to stand below the pit and look up as if seeking salvation.
This allows me to sneak up behind them and end their lives with two quick stabs. I extinguish their torches and then follow the rest into the passageway leading to the spider's lair. When I look around the corner, I see the leader and two soldiers standing in the hallway.
'Enough of the cat and mouse, let's change the game!'
Four soldiers return from the direction of the tunnel to report nothing, while the other four return from inside the spider's lair to report six torches but only four bodies.
Knight Commander Tarrik shouts, "Where the hell is this stupid beast!"
"I'm here!"
As I step into the light, I throw three bolts of fire, one at the leader and one at each of the two soldiers closest to him. The soldiers don't react in time and are hit, but Tarrik is quick enough to pull one of the other soldiers in front of him and take the blast.
MP: 130/205
As the three soldiers go down in flames, I smile at Tarrik and run back towards the pit room.
Knight Commander Tarrik shouts, "After him! Don't let him get away! KILL HIM!"
The seven remaining soldiers hesitate for a few seconds as they stare at the burned corpses of their comrades. Then they visibly pull themselves together and run off after me.
Knight Commander Tarrik thinks, "How the hell can that thing use magic, especially when ours doesn't work, did it?"
Knight Commander Tarrik gasps as he runs after his men. Normally, his armor is enchanted to be lighter, so he's not used to running with full weight. He catches up to his men in the pit room, they are standing looking at the two corpses of the men they left behind.
Knight Commander Tarrik says, "Where the hell are our reinforcements, what's going on up there?"