Love At First Battle

At long last, the final battle is upon us.

It has been close to a year since I have been charged with the task to bring peace upon this realm.

It was spring when I suddenly found myself in a world of swords and sorcery. The seasons have come and gone, but it wasn’t without trials and challenges fighting against monsters and magic beasts that have led me to this day. Now, it’s spring again and I am closer to fulfilling my mission of defeating the Demon Lord so I can finally return home.

A month ago, the Human Army broke through the defenses of the Demon Army and is now at the Demon Lord’s last line of defense, the titanic walls of its capital city Qosheigh.

Unfortunately, these walls are near impregnable. It was a hundred feet tall. There was no man-made implement that could scale it. Legend tells it was giants who built these and it may possibly only them that can safely go over these defenses.

Trying to destroy the walls by catapulting it with boulders doesn’t work as they are intercepted by long-range magic.

There is currently an operation to undermine them, but, as our camp is quite a distance away to avoid the demons’ ranged attacks, our engineers are unable to give a proper estimate on when they will be able to reach the base of the wall.

The best we can do for now is siege the city and pray they surrender or starve to death. The army had the land passages blocked, and the navy had control of the seas. The city had no way of importing food. It was the plan we thought would work best if we were patient.

However, patience was what was lacking among the human leadership. The war had been going on long before I came to this world. They wanted it done and over with as soon as we reached the capital. That has proven to be more of a challenge than anyone has thought as all of our attempts of breaching the walls were met with failure.

But, no matter how good a defense is, there will always be a chink in the armor.

There is this one small port built in a small inlet in the northeastern part of the peninsular city. The walls were built over its mouth, and the entrance was blocked by a large wooden gate. But, once you pass that, there won’t be any more barricades and you’re free to roam inside the city.

It was still being defended so an army or a ship coming close would alarm the defenders. But, it was possible to infiltrate through there with a few men under the cover of the night.

The gate had a straight bottom, but the seabed was not flat. One side was more elevated than the other, leaving a gap underneath. Moreover, the gate was only shallowly submerged due to this. It was a mere ten feet dive.

That is where I and a handful of men infiltrated the city.

Of course, as we had to go into the water, none of us were wearing any armor. Otherwise, we would never surface on the other side as the heavy gear would have sunk us into the bottom and drowned us.

We were only in hooded shirts to hide our faces, and all we could bring were our swords.

But, we weren’t infiltrating for an assault anyway. Not with our numbers.

Our objective is to kill the Demon Lord.

We went straight for his palace, which was located atop a hill in the middle of the city.

As we were making our way, we were surprised that the city was still bustling with commerce and activity even in the middle of the night. It didn't feel like it was under siege. It felt discouraging as it seemed like our siege did not have any effect on the city, but it also made us think what we are about to do is more urgent.

The Demon Lord’s palace was enclosed by stone walls with its entrances heavily defended. The only way to enter without fighting is to scale the walls, which are ten feet high, but the inclination of the hill makes it more daunting to climb over than it looks.

Well, I could jump over it easily.

When I was transported into this world, the wizard who had brought me here gave me a gift that lets me enhance physical attributes. This was some form of magic spell I could cast and strengthen my physical abilities to superhuman levels, or fortify a weapon to make it stronger. I could make my body sturdier to take on blows without taking too much damage. I could make myself run faster. I could also make myself jump higher with this gift.

However, if I jump over the walls, I won’t be able to take anyone with me.

There is a limitation to this gift. I can’t cast the spell on my entire body. If I need to strengthen one area, the rest of my body returns to normal strength. So, if I need more power in my arms to give stronger blows, I can’t simultaneously strengthen my legs so I can have quicker footwork. At the same time, if I need to run fast, I can’t strengthen my arms to carry more weight than I normally can.

Although, this rule doesn’t apply to objects so I could strengthen one part of my body while holding a magically fortified weapon.

In any case, the soldiers who had followed me were tall burly men weighing around two hundred pounds. While I have developed a bit of muscles during my stay in this world, I would still have difficulty carrying one of them with my normal strength.

But, we had a mission. I, myself, am wanting to attack the Demon Lord. After all, I was already this close to him. And so, we agreed I would go alone.

Of course, I wasn’t just going to storm in. I may have superhuman strength, but, with its flaws, there isn’t much I can do once the guards surround me.

I skulked my way around the palace. I knew my way around because the intelligence from the Human Army was able to gather information about the building. Otherwise, none of us would have agreed to this objective as it would have been suicide to sneak in blind.

I went straight for the throne room as the information we had stated he holds strategy talks with his advisers well into the night.

Finding him and his council there, I opened the door, which made a heavy groan. That was unintentional. I wanted to get closer to them before anyone would notice, but that’s no longer possible as all their eyes are now on me with that mistake.

“Who goes there?!” the Demon Lord asked in a booming voice.

He stood atop the pedestal of his throne, looking down on me through his visored helmet.

In response, I rushed towards him as fast as my enhanced legs could and tried to slash him with my broadsword.

Unfortunately, he was able to draw his own weapon, a flamberge rapier with a bright red blade, to parry my attack.

He then swung his sword to push me back down on ground level.

As soon as I landed, he was on the offensive. He rushed down the steps to take a stab at me, but I moved out of his path.

This gave me an opening so I swung my sword upwards, aiming for his head. But, I was only able to cut open his helmet as he retreated backwards, revealing his face.

Or, rather, her face!

I hadn’t realized the Demon Lord was female, much less a beautiful woman!

Seeing how she looks has sent me into a fluttery daze.

I only snapped out of it once she started to move again, in which I immediately shouted at her, “Wait, time out!”

“Begging for your life, human?” she taunted.

“Just one second”, I said. “Gimme one second.”

Then, I ran for the door. I could hear the confused voices from the people in that room as I rushed towards the city to buy something.

I didn’t keep time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me I was actually gone for a second. There was still a trail of dust clouds when I returned to where I stood before.

I returned to see perplexed faces looking at me including the lovely Demon Queen, who seemed like she wasn’t sure how she should proceed with the situation.

Seeing this, I told her, “Let’s continue.”

This despite my sword being sheathed and a small box in my hand in its stead.

That didn’t deter her from attacking, though.

“I hope you have made your peace during your brief disappearance”, she said as she swung her sword down on me.

At the same time, I kneeled on one bent knee, opened the small box I had in my hand, presented it to the Demon Queen, and said to her, “Will you marry me?”

Revealing to her a ring made her pause, her expression completely bewildered.

Meanwhile, I simply waited for her answer with a smile and without breaking eye contact.

Once the Demon Queen gathered herself, her brows furrowed and flames enveloped her free hand. Then, she shouted at me, “Are you mocking me?!” as she unleashed a strong whirl of fire on me, which violently launched me from my feet and out through the roof.