“Regardless,” The dark knight stoically intoned. “The demonic horde approaches. This cursed one must yet again enter battle with impossible odds.”
“About that.” Alex tapped her chin. “Everyone is headed south for the winter. We are not going to fight the demons here, not when the winter court wants us gone.”
“The fey are not reliable allies.” The soot-covered man nodded solemnly. “Such is to be expected.”
“It is good news right?” Alex wavered nervously from one foot to the other. “You don’t need to rush headlong into battle.”
“The grudge of whole generations calls.” The undead shifted his head slightly, regarding her. “It cannot be denied.”
“Please wait.” Alex tries to reach out to the knight but the dirty soot repels her. “At least stay near the waterfront. They’ll come to us. And remember when you were fighting alone when we first met you would bait them into the water. Will something like that not serve you well in this battle as well?”
“I will try to control the bloodlust.” The knight gnced towards the road that led to the dock. “But the grudge must be satisfied.”
The soot-covered knight headed towards the dock and pointed to the sky at a toy ship floating by balloons in the air. “What is that?”
“That is Ariel trying out the clipper ship.” Alex followed after the knight.
“It is very small for a ship.” The knight looked toward the magical girl. “What is its purpose?”
“A clipper ship?” Alex pondered aloud. “They were designed to do long sea voyages quickly. That one just has some upgrades.”
“Its ascent is meant to be unending?” The knight noted the increasing height.
“Ariel,” Alex yelled. “You need to pull levers 24 and 25 to release hot air.”
All Alex heard from the distance was a tiny squeak. “Right, she’s not as loud as she was when she was a sea elf.”
They watched the toy boat continue to ascend, Alex worried she wouldn’t figure it out.
“Does she not comprehend the abyss into which she ventures?” The knight’s head craned further upward.
“She’s got a css reted to ships so I hope it counts.” Alex remembered that Ariel was a magical girl pirate. “If it is just water ships then she might need help.”
The toy airship’s bow tilted down slowly. Alex worried that if it became too uneven it wouldn’t be able to recover. She hadn’t tested flying much. Luckily, the stern went down after about a minute.
Alex let out a sigh of relief. “I hope she doesn’t crash it.”
“Should she truly possess the arcane gifts of a magical girl, then her aid shall prove invaluable in our dire plight.” The dark knight intoned. “Somehow.”
“The ship doesn’t have weapons.” Alex considered the demon problem. “She could scout but how is she supposed to communicate down to us from a safe height?”
“One might have considered such foresight during the genesis of this design.” The dark knight said.
“Look, I’m Alex, maybe we should start over. What is your name?” Alex deflected the critique.
“The darkness consumed most of my identity.” The dead man mented. “All that remains from my time amongst the living are fshes. I remember fighting demons, and the Hero’s betrayal. I was a padin of Catalina.”
“We can search the records at the temple.” Alex offered. “There might be some more information there to jog your memory.”
“Do as thy heart desires, for your will is your own to command.” The knight said grimly, while adjusting the doll’s armor, ruining the hard image.
By the time the enemy forces arrived, most of the humans had headed downstream. The river barge had made two trips. They unloaded some tools and food on an isnd down the river. Luckily, the river flowed swiftly downstream, and there was a good wind to sail the barge back upstream. Even better, a mist covered the area like when they were going to the capital.
The icy winds howled across the river. The retreating fleet of boats cut through the frigid water. The horde of ice imps screeched and scrambled to the conveniently departed humans. They scrambled along the earth, following the masts they could make out through the mist. Shards of frost cracked through the air, and a storm of ice formed in the wake of the horde’s advance.
At the river’s edge a dark knight held his ground, an unholy revenant soot-bck armor. His massive sword also did not gleam, it was dirty and soot colored. He looked dark and ominous but just barely.
He took the charge head on, sword swinging in a wide arc, shattering multiple imps like ice in a single strike. He comboed this by stabbing the bde into the ground and shouting “Ground teeth.”
Reddish bck bdes curved up from the ground like a giant mouth taking a bite out of the enemies that only took moments to surround and start peppering him with their cws, and ice magic.
He fought without hesitation or any thought of his safety, tanking any and all blows, like the more punishment he took the more he could dish out.
The knight pulled the string on the hero doll who lept into action. He fired his tiny repeated crossbow at any imps that dodged the ground teeth. Usually a double tap to the torso was enough to turn an imp into a body that started evaporating into a light blue mist.
Alex stood on a small boat in the river, her three dolls danced with her. Lily fired a steady stream of tiny arrows that pierced ice imps with uncanny precision. Edelweiss ran up and down along the deck of the boat, knocking any winged imps into the water. Rose worked with Edelweiss knocking imps back that got too close.
Ariel’s new captaincy served as a beacon; she taunted the imps from a height too high for them to effectively target her. She kept the demons coming towards the dark knight, who thrived in heavy melee with a rge amount of targets.
Despite their efforts, the sheer number of demons threatened to overwhelm them. The temperatures dropped and the river itself began to freeze beneath them. The boats rocked, snow starting to cover their decks and ice creeping along their hulls.
After hours of a fighting retreat, the terrain shifted into a marshy biome. Hard ground gave way to thick sucking mud and tangled roots.
The dark knight took one step back, his greaves sinking into the mud and stopped retreating.
Alex’s boat kept going down the river and she worried he would get left behind. “Keep up, you are getting too far away.”
The dark knight lifted his metal-cd foot out of the mud with trepidation, as if expecting to see a disturbing result. Luckily for him, he was satisfied with the mud-covered armor footing and turned to face Alex’s sailboat. He leapt from the shore and nded with a thump onto the deck of the boat, causing it to rock and almost topple over.
The imps screeched in frustration from the terrible footing. They had to use more magic to freeze the muddy, waterlogged terrain to advance, slowing their pursuit. The boats, propelled by wind and currents kept getting further from their reach.
The battle was done, they could lose the imps in the swamps for now and continue into the nds of the Jass kingdom.
The three defenders sailed down to the isnd where they were going to meet up.
“That part of the pn went okay.” Alex wiped her brow and winced at the amount of arrows she had used up. “I must have killed a hundred imps.”
She checked her phone to see her progress.
[Requirements for level 6: Defeat 200 monsters, one of which needs to be tier 2]
[Progress 133/200 monsters, 1/1 tier 2 monsters]
“Getting close to leveling up.” Alex put her phone away.
Ariel spshed down next to them, the toy boat bouncing up and down out of the water.
Alex helped by dancing and bringing the sailor dolls to life to pull the balloons back into their storage areas so the little fairy wouldn’t have to do that all by herself.
“What was the hold up there?” She pointed her tiny finger at the dark knight. “You almost got left behind.”
The dark knight, who had the highest kill count by far pointed at his muddy foot. “Fear gnawed at me, for I feared I had sullied my boots in some unseen puddle, yet with the vanishing of the oppressive water, my dread dissipated.”
His darkness was severely diminished. Taking uncountable ice attacks in fact had removed a rger amount of the soot than stepping in the water ever did. And the one muddy foot was now the least radiant part of his armor.
“Don’t worry about it.” The little fairy chuckled. “We are increasing the gap between them and us. I hope that losing so many will make them retreat back to wherever they came from.”
The dark knight shook his head. “They are beyond retreat. Their very presence on this pne is a torment to humanity.”
“Can they not just give up and look somewhere else?” Alex asked.
"They could, but they won't. The next closest herd of humans grazes within the Jass kingdom," the dark knight rasped, a gauntleted finger gesturing southwest. "And I doubt the fire cn, or whatever wretched beasts are herding them, are inclined to share."
“Sounds like we need to pick up the pace then.” Ariel nded back on the deck of her little ship, grabbing the helm and hoisting the sails.
Alex danced a bit to get some of the sailor dolls to help her get at least one sail up on all of the masts. Eventually, Ariel’s ship passed them all and she sped off to catch up with the rest of the fleet.
The ship was much faster in the water, faster than it should be with the little fairy pirate’s skills.
melchi
