Prowlers in the Night: Part 2

Upon reaching the ground, I immediately noticed two things. The knight was still alive, struggling to get back to his feet after the nasty fall, and the soldier guarding our tower was dead, stabbed through the chest. I ran up to the latter. His gun was still holstered at his shoulder, but his sword was dropped on the ground. Not wanting to waste any more time than strictly necessary, I picked the blade up and ran away. I still doubted my chances against the Chevalier and was in dire need of support.

I moved in the direction of the central building, where the King resided, figuring I would be guaranteed to run into some guards there. As I was approaching the large structure, another incident occurred – the night’s second defenestration. A white-clad shape flew out through a window, cracking the glass. The branches of the trees below broke its fall before it hit the ground.

I ran towards where the shape had fallen, trying to determine whether it was a friend or foe, alive or dead. To my surprise, once I arrived at the scene, I recognized Princess Odelia. She was unconscious and badly hurt, covered in shallow cuts from the glass, and it was to be expected that several of her bones were broken by the fall. I found myself once again in the unpleasant predicament of having to deal with a badly hurt person in a hostile environment, without an idea what I should do or anyone to ask.

Before I could afford to think about that, another person descended from above. It was a man dressed in unfamiliar dark garments, dropping at me from the branch. As I parried an attack from his dagger, I could mostly reconstruct the events leading up to this moment. On orders by Arthacyros, the Chevalier and an unknown number of assassins infiltrated the palace to carry out several tasks. These seemed to include capturing or killing me, and taking out some members of the royal family. One particular assassin was noticed by the Princess before he could finish the job, and, seeing no other route of escape, she leaped through the window. Her would-be killer followed after, to confirm her death, and ran into me.

After failing to ambush me, he didn’t stand much of a chance. He managed to block one attack, then I kicked him, opening him up for a lunge, and I ran him through. As he fell to the ground, I appropriated his dagger and, hoisting both weapons on my belt, turned my attention towards the injured princess.

Taking her anywhere would be too risky since, if her spine were injured from the fall, that could very well help finish her off. Running to get help posed the risk of other assassins getting to her while she’s alone. At the very least, the knight was unaccounted for.

My only option, therefore, was to stay with her until help arrived. Reluctantly, I decided to shout in the hopes of getting someone’s attention. Who knows, Annabel might’ve decided to follow me and could have levitated the Princess to safety without risking further injury. And even if the Chevalier was the first to show up, all I had to do was survive until someone else arrived, which seemed more plausible now that I was well-armed.

“Anyone?” I shouted, “Princess Odelia has been injured! I require assistance!”

A pair of guards was the first to hear me and check out the commotion. They were looking at me suspiciously.

“Why aren’t you in your cell?” one of them asked, pointing his rifle at me.

“As reasonable as your question is, I suggest one of you go fetch a doctor immediately. Some stretchers also. Assassins are about”, I responded, motioning at the dead enemy with my head, “The princess is injured. I was also targeted. Someone should go check if His Majesty is –“

As on cue, alarm bells began blaring. I sighed with relief. Now the entire castle would be on alert. The two guards, beads of sweat appearing on their foreheads, glanced at each other.

“You go get help”, one of them broke the silence, “I’ll keep watch here”.

The other guardsman ran off towards the castle. Meanwhile, the one who stayed with me was scanning the courtyard nervously. I was doing the same when I heard a sound of footsteps and turned around to notice Chevalier’s ominous armor approaching. “There he is!” I shouted, and the guardsman aimed and opened fire. He missed, and the knight took cover behind a large tree.

The guard was about to waste all his ammo suppressing the Chevalier, but I urged him to stop. “The moment you empty your magazine, he will jump out and be upon us before you can reload”, I said, “You don’t want to be facing that man in close combat”.

He listened and, with shaking hands, kept his rifle trained at the tree. Unfortunately, it turned out I was working with incomplete information and had miscalculated. Just as I thought, I could hear a faint chanting in the distance, the knight popped out from behind a tree, and I added two and two together. “Duck!” I shouted, diving to the ground. The guard wasn’t quick enough, and a fireball hit him head-on, mortally wounding him.

This was an unexpected complication. I never thought this ancient knight could have managed to learn magic after beginning his second life. Suddenly, getting into melee started looking like a good idea.

He wanted to get things done at a distance, however, and started preparing another spell. I had no time to close the distance. Quickly, I picked up the gun dropped by the deceased guardsman and shot. The bullet grazed him, glancing off his armor and breaking his concentration. He went back into cover, and I started pressing forward, unwilling to give him the opportunity to cast another spell.

I adopted a semi-circular path of approach, giving myself a few more opportunities to take potshots at him and force him to dodge. When the gun ran dry, I tossed it aside and charged into melee. Magic not being an option anymore, the Chevalier accepted my challenge and we clashed once again.