NOVEL NEXT 20. The Paladin's Stand
Justin and Lila found the platform easily enough, climbing to the top. There, they had a commanding view of the pass before them, along with the regiments of Valorian soldiers arrayed in a line. From the torchlight, it was easy to see that they completely covered the pass wall to wall. Purple standards with a silver stag were interspersed among the organized regiments, their bronze armor dull in the predawn light.
Along the ledges on both sides of the pass, contingents of archers, crossbowmen, and ballistae were stationed, and somewhere in there, mages were mixed in. Justin knew if the Valorians were wise, they would keep them hidden so that they wouldn't become targets.
They waited there in the frosty early morning for a very long time, even as the sun rose. Justin wondered why the Shadow Empire wasn't attacking yet, when their undead would be less affected by the sunlight, but maybe they were counting on the shade of the mountains covering the ground of the pass, at least through the morning.
Justin was wondering if the battle would ever start when there was a rumbling in the ground.
From around the bend in the pass, they came. Thousands upon thousands of black-armored foot soldiers, their collective dull roar filling the pass. The Valorian forces held their ground at the top of a slight incline at the narrowest part of the pass.
Soon, the Shadowist forces came to a stop just outside the range of the Valorian mages and artillery.
The dawn made details more discernible. Hundreds of black flags with a crimson serpent coiled around a golden sword waved in the cold mountain breeze, while on the Valorian side, purple flags with the silver stag stood ready to defend. Alistair was easy to pick out among the Valorian troops, standing in shining armor, his white cloak swept by the breeze, his war hammer seeming to glow despite the lack of sunlight in the pass.
Justin realized for the first time that he had never actually inspected Alistair's character, nor sought to form a pact that would allow him to see his skills and boons.
He set his thoughts upon it, having nothing better to do. There was a moment's pause, as if Alistair were considering the proposal.
But, after a moment, Justin received a notification.
[Party pact formed. You may now inspect Alistair in greater detail.]
Justin immediately looked at his information.
Alistair of Drakendale
Class: Paladin
Level: 25
Power: 18
Coordination: 13
Endurance: 15
Intellect: 13
Spirit: 15
Charisma: 16
Skills: Paladin's Resolve (0), Divine Strike (2), Heavenly War Cry (3), Leap of Faith (7), Invoke Blessing (11), Righteous Whirlwind (13), Arion's Shield (17), Arion's Hammer (19), Crusader's Stand (21), Lay on Hands (23).
Boons: Paladin's Sense (1), Holy Training (4), Consecration (6), Bulwark of Faith (9), Sacred Tactics (10), Paladin's Grace (14), The Blessing of Arion (15), Paladin Magery (22), Holy Fervor (25).
Party Tactic: Divine Aura (5)
"Holy cannoli," Justin said. "Did you ever look at Alistair's information?"
Lila laughed. "You're just now looking at that? I made a pact as soon as we left Silverton."
Justin shook his head. "How is it even possible to level up that high? It would take tens of thousands of experience points. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. And here I am, excited to get five hundred in one go. I don't even know what any of those abilities do!"
"It's hundreds of thousands of experience points," Lila said. "Men like Alistair are a rare breed. We might have actually been okay not chasing Darian, all things considered. That's how strong he is."
"Damn," Justin said. He did some mental math. If Alistair started with ten points in each attribute, like him, that meant he had unlocked thirty attribute points.
It should have been twenty-five since only one was gained per level.
"Is it just me, or does Alistair have extra attribute points? Is that from his gear?"
Lila shook her head. "He has thirty because once you adopt an advanced class, you get two points per level instead of one. We don't get to see what his gear is doing for him."
Justin's eyes widened. "Oh. Got it."
Lila smiled. "You're in for a treat. Just sit back and watch the show."
Justin hoped it was that simple. Thinking back, it was no wonder the goblins hadn't wanted to mess with Alistair that day on the road. He'd also noticed each of his boons had a number beside them. Justin supposed that was the level they were first adopted.
Justin watched the Paladin, who now had an aura of divine light surrounding him. The other men around him were laughing and joking, taking heart from his mere presence.
And then, with no warning at all, low horns blew, and the Shadow Empire's armies charged en masse, with no regard for life. Well, at least from what Justin could see, they had no regard for unlife. The unmistakable stilted shambling of the first wave of attackers was something he'd seen countless times in zombie films. Only these zombies were wielding weapons and wearing black spiked armor. There were even skeletons mixed in, glowing with a shadowy aura. Death Magic, Justin could only assume. The hordes of undead ran past woodpiles the Valorians had prepared in advance.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The Elementalists began their attacks at once, shooting fireballs at the woodpiles, instantly lighting them up and creating a wall of fire, cutting off the attackers from further support. Many of the undead were instantly lit with flames.
Alistair was a beacon of divine power amidst the chaos. His war hammer gleamed as the undead attackers crashed into the Valorian shield wall. Alistair swung his hammer, which somehow spread curious, golden flames upon each strike, reducing the zombies to ash. The undead around Alistair recoiled. They didn't seem to fear anything, but something about those magical flames clearly terrified them.
"The Flames of Life," Lila said in awe. "It's a kind of life magic that wreaks havoc on the undead."
Alistair pressed forward, his hammer a blur of righteous fury. Each strike was accompanied by a flash of light, the impact sending shockwaves of the Flames of Life through the ranks of undead, many of them even being set ablaze. Those not set aflame were instantly reduced to ash.
The undead shrieked and writhed as the sacred flames consumed them, their decaying forms crumbling to dust even as they spread the holy fire through their ranks far beyond Alistair's position.
A group of skeletal warriors advanced toward him, their bony fingers clutching rusted weapons. Alistair met them head-on, spinning in a tight circle, war hammer sweeping out in a deadly arc. The skeletal warriors shattered under the force of his attack, their bones disintegrating into a fine powder.
A giant zombie, twice as tall as Alistair, lumbered toward the Paladin, its massive frame covered in tattered remnants of black armor. Alistair was not intimidated, wailing on it with several hits, driving it back before swinging his weapon with all his might, the head of the hammer glowing like a meteor about to make impact. The hit was cataclysmic, the zombie's chest caving in with a sickening crunch before the divine energy erupted from within, obliterating it entirely.
The undead forces continued to pour in, attempting to overwhelm Alistair, but the Paladin was relentless. Even as the Elementalists continued to rain fireballs from above, Alistair let out a mighty war cry.
"Arion's Light, guide my hands!"
The shout and its echoes reverberated within Justin's very bones. If he were on the other side of that, he would have pissed himself.
A golden wave of invigorating energy spread out from Alistair, boosting the strength of nearby Valorian soldiers. Emboldened by the Paladin's presence, they fought with renewed vigor, surrounded by a golden aura, cutting down the undead with ease.
Alistair's armor deflected blows from the few undead that struck him. The mages' fires had somewhat died down by now, allowing more Shadow Empire forces to pour through, with human regiments now mixed in among the undead.
Alistair summoned a shimmering golden barrier. During this time, in between knocking back a fiercer breed of undead that attacked with feral tenacity, he focused on healing his comrades.
The Elementalists' fire spells were slowing. According to Lila, it seemed they were working with a pool of aether they all started with, which they had to wait to recharge.
The archers and crossbowmen on the slopes of the pass, along with the ballistae, rained death on the enemy. Some missiles even seemed to be enchanted with fire magic, exploding on impact. Justin watched as one burst among a cluster of zombies, scattering their remains.
Justin could hardly believe his eyes as Alistair went right back into it, rallying the beleaguered Valorian troops. He was a one-man army. The undead that dared to come near him were swiftly dispatched, their ranks thinning under his relentless onslaught. The Shadowist humans seemed to be more cautious, and when they did attack, they threw a volley of javelins first before charging ten at a time, pikes extended. Alistair still held his own against them, usually supported by some Valorian soldiers or missile fire from above.
And so it was that the battle ebbed and flowed, stretching into the late morning. The initial momentum of the Shadowist forces faltered. The Valorians didn't gain ground, merely defending their position against the vastly superior foe. And despite the thousands of dead Shadowists, more kept coming down the pass, their numbers never seeming to end.
Most of the undead, it seemed, had been dispatched, and Justin recognized them for what they were: cannon fodder. Very few of the Valorians had fallen in the initial wave. Indeed, there were so many fallen Shadowists that they formed a wall of corpses. New attackers had great difficulty in even mounting an assault on the Valorian front lines because of this.
As morning passed into afternoon, Justin felt a wave of exhaustion. He had been up all night and all morning, and he wondered what Baron Valdrik's soldiers were doing, what seemed like another world away. Were they just waiting outside the Vault? It seemed so distant when the situation at hand felt so real. Justin had become fully invested in this battle, even if he knew it was a scenario set up by the Vault.
Of course, it was easy to be fully invested when one's life was on the line.
Justin glanced toward the hidden path, sighting a line of black-armored soldiers on the northern slopes. It seemed they were stuck about halfway; they were still clearing the obstacles the mages had set up, but too slowly. Justin knew the Shadowists must have diverted a lot of their mage resources to clear the path because so few mages had challenged the Valorians directly on the field of battle. Without that, this battle might have turned out differently. It seemed the Shadowists were still hoping to set up a flank before the Valorian reinforcements arrived.
Battle rejoined in earnest in the middle of the afternoon. The battle line was getting tired, and the Valorians had few fresh troops to switch in. Around late afternoon, a sudden volley of fireballs was shot by the Valorian mages, a pivotal resource that must have been kept in reserve for a surprise attack. It annihilated an enormous chunk of the Shadowist army. But that chunk was almost instantly filled in with fresh troops, of which there seemed to be no end.
"Come on," Lila breathed. "Survive. Just a couple of hours longer!"
To Justin's dismay, the Shadowists were making quick progress on the secret path, while the front lines were being pushed back in the main pass, slowly but surely. If the mages at the pass joined with the rest of the Shadow Empire forces, it would spell disaster for the Valorians.
"Where are those damn reinforcements?" Justin asked.
"We might have to fight ourselves," Lila said.
That was when Justin noticed a large boulder being hurled from the direction of the hidden path, sailing through the air, seemingly in slow motion.
Right for their watchtower.
"Run!" he shouted.
Seeing the danger, Lila reacted instantly, going for the ladder, with Justin close behind. One after the other, they slid down the rungs, never minding the splinters and pain. Justin brought up the rear, reaching the bottom just as the boulder made impact. The tower immediately started crumbling as he ran as fast as his feet could carry him. He just barely escaped being caught in the wreckage of the heavy timbers.
They didn't stop running until they had reached the command tent, which had been set up as a makeshift hospital. Mages with healing magic were doing their best to triage the wounded. There was more blood than Justin had ever seen in his life, men wailing in pain, crying for their mothers. It was a far cry from the neutered wars he had experienced in his video games and favorite movies.
Justin looked at his palms, scraped and somewhat bloody. The pain was very real. But, considering the situation, it could have been much worse.
"We stayed up there way too long," Lila said.
Justin was about to respond when he heard cries of alarm coming from the western portion of the camp. A massive fireball shot into the air, almost like a miniature mushroom cloud.
The Shadow Empire forces had gotten through the hidden path, or perhaps some mages had gone on ahead, seeing that time was limited.
Justin was about to run when, in an alley between two of the larger tents, he spied the last person he wanted to see.
It was the Arch-Mage Zaramund, his pale face bloodied and his eyes bloodshot, his black robes tattered. He gave a sinister smile that made Justin's skin run cold.
If this world had boss room music, Justin realized it probably would have started playing right now.
"The shadows may falter, but the darkness within us never dies," Zaramund said. "Today, Valoria falls."