Leave It All On the Battlefield! The Peasant Versus the Prince!

Benny was knocked onto his back. Only a quick flick of his arm kept an errant sword from plunging into his exposed neck.

The knight who swung the sword moved to bring his foot down on Benny’s face. A magic staff smashed into his helmet and knocked him off the bandit.

Kari pulled Benny back up, setting up a pink barrier around them to give them a moment to breathe.

“We’re falling apart on this end,” Benny grunted. “Where’s our ‘fearless leader’?”

Kari buckled as swords and arrows rained down blows upon her barrier. “I am not sure.”

The barrier had cracked and spread across the entire spell. Kari commanded it to explode outward, creating a wave to knock down everyone around her.

Battle still raged around them but they’d bought themselves some breathing room. “I know the other group summoned the reserves and Sir Kyle was giving us support earlier. We just need to hold on a little further.”

A golden gauntlet struck Kari across the face with a backfist, sending Kari to the ground. Benny went to her, only to hear someone whose voice he recognized taunt her.

“If it isn’t my erstwhile fiancé.” Prince Demerius was there, dismounting his horse and pulling out a longsword. “You’re proving to be a bit too much trouble for my taste. Perhaps another elvish bridge will be more suitable. Of course I can’t exactly return damaged goods…”

Benny interposed himself between the Prince and Kari, his blue arm clutching his sword tight.

“I will offer you your weight in gold,” said Demerius, “if you get out of my way.”

Benny looked back to Kari, then to Demerius. “There are some things you can't buy.”

Demerius brought up his sword. “It could've bought you a better funeral.”

Benny prepared to parry the Prince’s strike, but he never had to. Someone else’s sword got in the way.

Kyle had entered the fray, wearing his own metal gauntlets and a pair of boots whilst hefting a sword like Demerius. “Benny, get Kari and go help the others!”

Benny couldn’t believe this guy, of all people alive, was the one to save his skin.

“Benny, DO IT!” He moved forward and forced the Prince back.

With a grimace, Benny helped Kari up and started towards the forest road.

“Their blood is on your hands,” Demerius chided. “All you had to do was the noble thing.”

“This is the noblest thing I can think of.” Kyle clanged his gauntlets together and began to invoke a magic incantation. “Power. Boot. System Start.”

Pieces of armor that Fiona had cobbled together screamed into view with batteries everyone else had built for just this occasion. One by one, a suit of powered medieval plate armor assembled itself around Kyle.

In moments, Kyle was unrecognizable. Demerius’s opponent was now a fully armored knight.

“Execute.”

The power of the batteries flowed throughout the armor and Kyle, making it feel lighter than air. A single punch to the gut might’ve been shielded by Dermerius’s plate mail but it knocked the wind out of him all the same.

Kyle grabbed Demerius by the throat and dragged him on the ground, flying through the air just above the ground. The ground split where the Prince was dragged at speeds far faster than a horse. He could have sworn he saw little nozzles dotting the armor, propelling the armored peasant with magical thrust.

Demerius felt himself be let go at a good distance away from everyone, finally able to see his attacker in full. Kyle was in that armor, but hefting a sword glowing red.

At that speed, Kyle came back in again with an overhead strike and Demerius could only just block it. All of the skill he’d built up and he was barely keeping up with whatever insane advantage this lowly moron had schemed up.

Demerius pointed a garnet ring at Kyle, shooting a golden beam at him. Kyle easily weaved out of the way, only to linger when he saw what happened to the area that had been hit.

When the dust settled, everything Demerius’s ring had hit had turned into solid gold. That must have been the divine power he received, Kyle realized. Some kind of instant alchemy that turned anything it touched to gold – a fitting match for Midas.

Demerius continued to fire at Kyle from his garnet ring, never even coming close to hitting. After a while, Kyle started wondering if he’d ticked off Demerius so hard he was lashing out at the world or if there was something he didn’t know.

He didn’t have time to worry about it. The fight needed to be finished before he ran out of juice. But Kyle kept having to dodge Demerius’s ring blasts and his own attempts at a counterattack.

What was really concerning was that Demerius was starting to catch up to Kyle in speed and strength. And with those advantages gone, Kyle had lost the upper hand.

It was now almost an even match. The martial skill Kyle had acquired from the amulet of wisdom was about the equal of all the years Demetrius spent sparring with the best trainers gold could buy.

“The heck are you pulling?” asked Kyle as they clashed. “You were nowhere near this fast when we started!”

“You underestimated the blessings of Midas.” Demetrius grabbed Kyle’s wrists, keeping them in place in spite of his struggles. “You see, it’s not just that I can turn things into gold. It’s that it fuels me. The richer I am, the more power I acquire. The longer a fight goes, the more power I can draw!”

From where Demerius had grabbed Kyle’s wrists, Kyle’s armor began to turn into gold.

“It’s a really nice idea you’ve got here. I think I’ll take it.”

Kyle couldn’t free himself from Demerius’s grip. He’d only one thing to try. “Control. Alternative. Delete. Cycle.”

The back of Kyle’s armor exploded, his body being shoved through – but not before he felt a jerking motion around his neck snap it around. Kyle rolled around on the ground and came to a stop. When he finally got a look at what had happened, he was horrified.

Demerius was gone. In his place was a knight in golden armor, cape floating in the air. Around his neck was Kyle’s amulet of wisdom, and an endless amount of laughter echoed from beneath his gilded helmet.

“You fool. After I’ve killed you, I will remake this world in my image,” Demerius crowed. “With your amulet, I can reinvent the companies I used to run. I can dominate the markets! The world will be ruled by a Grand Company, extracting the maximum amount of value from every single worker. Because in my world… everyone is a lifetime employee.”

Demerius flew at Kyle and grabbed him by the ankles, slamming him into the ground again and again and again…. With the power of Midas and the gold, Kyle barely weighed a thing.

Kyle could feel half of his bones break. He couldn’t move, only look up at his victorious foe.

“And you’re fired.”

He raised a fist to bring down on Kyle’s face, only for a sphere of water to wrap itself around his helmet and in it. Two round eyes appeared atop the sphere, wobbling as a sort of wave to Kyle.

Demerius sucked the sphere out using his ring, throwing Blooby out of the way but not before a scalding stream of water struck him in the chest.

“Step away from him,” growled Abagail.

Demerius winced from the heat, seeing more join Abagail. Kari, Fiona, and Meredith were all there, standing between the prince and the peasant.

“We beat your army,” growled Fiona.

Meredith’s wand was at the ready as well. “Whoever’s left are willing to leave us alone. Knock it off.”

Demerius chuckled. “He even got you, you vicious hag?”

“I prefer the term ‘seasoned’.”

Kari knelt besides Kyle, waving her staff over him. “I’ve got you, Sir Kyle,” she whispered. “Hold strong for me.”

Demerius kept laughing. “You’re that determined to throw your lives away after garbage like him? Fine.” He crackled his knuckles through his golden gauntlets. “Your funeral.”