NOVEL NEXT Chapter 198: Castles Siege.
Given the sudden seriousness of the situation I quickly took a sword from one of the two guards and followed my sister as she trotted into the castle courtyard over the unconscious bodies. “Servs them right for having to ask who we are when we are wearing our family crest.” She said with a chipper voice. Almost skipping, making her dress sway back and forth as she walked.
‘Somehow I think you would have found some other excuse to fight even if they did recognize us…’
“INTRUDERS!” A man yelled, ringing a loud bell-like an alarm.
‘Things are getting pretty dangerous aren’t they?’
I focused my senses and zoomed out my vision, hearing the tightening of a bowstring. “LU LOOK–”
The arrow flew right past her as she simply turned her torso a bit to dodge. The arrow cleaved through the air sticking into the wall near me and creating a burst of wind that blew my hair, making me freeze up. “LU!” I growled, my worry turning to agitation as my body tensed and my senses continued to sharpen even further out of reflex, reaching new heights.
“Calm down it’s fine.”
“WHAT ABOUT THIS IS FINE!” Guards started barreling towards her and I gripped tighter onto my sword, unsure of what to do. ‘Let’s see, first, we need to de-escalate things into a standoff–’
Lu was already another three guards in, throwing one off a staircase as she scaled up to the castle's wall towards the archer. ‘Or… maybe we can just explain things after she wins?’ The man she threw hit the ground with a loud thud, his armor denting from the impact, and painful groans coming from the wreckage where he landed.
“Try not to hurt anyone!” I yelled, nervously cupping my hand next to my mouth.
Dodging a strike she kicked another guard, sending him tumbling down the stairs all the way to the bottom. A few moments later, after deflecting an arrow with her sword… She took out the archer. ‘I knew she was a pretty good fighter… But, aren't these guards too weak?’
Several more came out from various doors surrounding me, weapons drawn.
‘It’s not like I’m even in a position to watch Lu’s back anymore… “I surrender!” I yelled dropping my sword to the ground. They didn’t stop though, each one still rushing at me. ‘Fairy dust… Did I not do it fast enough? That always works in movies…’
I wasn’t about to let them tear up my nice dress with their swords, and I didn’t want to get hurt either. I felt my body shudder as I froze time and went into third-person view, seeing everyone around and reading their exact movements. To put it bluntly… They were slow, really slow… At least compared to the demon, and even some of the zombies I had fought in the lower floors.
Time resumed and I began dodging their strikes, deflecting others by smacking the flat of the blade with my bare hand as I weaved through them. With every strike memories from the dungeon came back. For a moment I was right back in the midst of a zombie horde, separated from my weapons and crushing skulls with my bare hands, trying desperately not to get eaten alive.
I took one of their swords and nearly slashed a man's head off before freezing, both of us locking eyes with a shock covering our faces.
Realizing I was still in danger my body instinctively froze time again just before I was skewered. ‘I can’t very well start killing people… Let's think…’ My mind went blank as the memories continued to flood through me, but after long enough I managed to calm down. ‘There aren’t many left and, oh, actually, this should be easy.’
Time resumed. “BONZAI!” I heard as I pulled my sword back to block an attack from behind, kicking the guard I nearly killed while Lu landed on the third, having jumped from the wall.
“Lu! We need to have a serious talk when we're done here…”
“Ok, but hold up a minute, this is the fun part.”
‘Why am I not convinced…’
Four knights came walking out of the barracks, each one wearing full plate armor, fully adorned, and wilding unique weapons. One with a greatsword, one with a hammer, one a halberd, and the last, clearly the leader, holding a curved greatsword in each hand.
“This doesn’t look very fun Lu…” I slowly swallowed as I finished catching my breath. ‘I admit, it does feel a bit like a game level though… But games that make you fight multiple bosses at once suck…’
I checked their stats, feeling my eyes spin and rotate as they changed focus. they varied, but each one had STR and AGI over 120, matching Lu’s. The difference was that she had much higher mastery over her weapon.
‘I can boost my stats with magic, maybe I should help her… No, what am I thinking, there's only one course of action here.’ Lu stepped out in front of me, ready to face them. “Lu, you’re just going to make Mom worry about you if you keep doing stuff like this.”
She twirled her greatsword in her hand. “She’ll worry either way, what’s the difference?”
“I’m telling you to stop, please. You can still fight them, let's just explain ourselves first.”
“Think of this as a test of the barracks, I mean, if they can’t beat me alone they aren’t very good at their job of defending the city right?”
“Yeah… I mean… You know that’s probably true… but that’s not the point!” I growled.
“Of course it–”
“WE SURENDER!” I yelled, waving my hands in the air. ‘If we fight under this context theirs a serious chance one of them could really hurt her, even if she does win in the end.
“What are you saying!” She yelled back at me, covering my mouth with one of her hands. “How could you say something like? And while you’re wearing the family crest.”
She backed up and cleared her throat. “SHE DIDN’T MEAN THAT!”
‘Is she for real? I’d really rather not have to resort to choking her out…’ Before I knew it we were surrounded. “Hey guys… So… How about we call this a draw, and we explain who we are, and why we are here.”
Seeing it coming, I grabbed Lu’s collar and yanked her back as she tried to charge.
“I am Siyasavide Nayanathulu, and this is my sister Wayalusayo, we are the only daughters of lord Keigan, lower you’re weapons.” ‘Our names might be a mouthful, but if I say them with confidence… I-it should be fine, right? Even if does sound like I’m hosting a comedy a skit…’
The knight with the wide great blade sheathed her sword and took off her helmet. “I thought you looked familiar. You look all grown up now, Lu.”
I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief, thinking it had worked.
The knights lowered their weapons, and eventually, Lu did the same. “Did you two see what happened here? Where are the intruders?” A large man’s voice echoed out from below his helmet, and a long scaly tail swung between his legs as he slammed his halberd into the ground.
‘This from the guy with the highest speed in the room…’ “Right… You see… About that…”
Before I could explain Lu launched into an unexpectedly detailed critique. “The positioning of the guards was terrible, and the response was not only slow but uncoordinated. The guard's training was clearly lacking as well, look at that one.” She pointed over to the man still struggling to try and get back up. “He just let me throw him down the stairs, it was like he wasn’t even fighting back.”
I slowly hid my face with one of my hands as a dead silence fell over the courtyard. ‘I mean… She’s not wrong…’