Family Business 40 (Patreon)

Family Business
Chapter 40

-VB-

I frowned as the day grew visibly darker.

“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” I asked as I stood next to my brother, who I have been sparring against for the past hour.

“Yes,” he grunted as he helped me up. “We must ready ourselves.”

And so, despite my exhaustion, I ran and grabbed all of my gears and accessories I left behind in the sidelines of the training grounds and joined Garen as we burst onto the main street.

People, who recognized the sign, quickly dispersed, finding whatever boltholes that they might have found prior to today or towards recently fortified locations like the hospitals and public buildings.

“BLACK GUARDS!” I roared as I took to the middle of the street.

My guards teleported down from wherever they have been hiding or walked to me from where they had been disguised.

With two dozen Black Guards and Garen by my side, we could probably take on a lot of things.

“Demacia finds itself in trouble again! The Black Mist descends and our people are vulnerable!”

I saw some people pause to hear me.

“We will stand as the vanguard! We will attract the attention of the foul abominations that sicks to devour our brothers and sisters!” I declared as I stomped my feet, activating all manners of minor and major runes etched into my skin with enchanted oils and potions. I glowed brightly in cyan blues. The mere act of making declarations and empowering with sacrifices in my mana activated the occultic triggers needed for my greater mysteries. “WE ARE THE FLESH AND BONES THAT IS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR NATION!”

And brought out a thick glass bottle, brimming with my fresh blood, and shattered it on the ground.

By means still unknown to me, my spilled blood rose up and formed a smooth armor on me and a ridiculously long sword - somewhere around three meters in length - in my hand.

“We are the flesh and blood that holds up the wall of steel!” my Black Guards chanted along side me.

Garen looked disturbed and out of place, but he saw.

Trickles of my spilled blood - multiplying beyond what little volume I spilled - traveled around the ground and formed a circle.

This was … it wasn’t my magnus opum, but it was very close.

This was my Ring of Shattered Blood, a ritual circle that redistributed any damage someone suffered as long as they were within it. Complete with potions all of us but Garen had that I made specifically for regeneration, anything less than a one-kill strike was useless against us.

And then the Black Mist descended upon the city.

And to the ghouls and abominations that walked out of the mists, we lit up like an all you can eat buffet with how much magic we spewed out.

My Black Guards drew out their weapons, whether they were swords, axes, bows and arrows, spears, or … is that a scythe?

“WE STAND!”

“We stand!”

The ghouls ignored everyone else and raced towards us, screeching and screaming for our souls and magic.

“WE FIGHT!”

“We fight!”

“STRIKE TO KILL!”

“KILL!”

With a roar, we met our enemies in the middle of the street of Demacia and shed our blood.

They crashed into us in the hundreds, filling up the street densely enough to make the ground disappear from my vision.

I roared as I landed a vertical down strike, slicing right through a ghoul, and brought it back up to behead another. Garen tanked hits like a boss next to me, and slashed away at anything that got close.

We, along with my Black Guards, formed a circle with the melee fighters and the ranged fighters remained at the center, launching off elemental blasts, arrows, and hail of fireballs.

Lauren, one of the Black Guards, screamed momentarily as a ghoul slashed at her hand, and I winced as a small cut - a scratch, really - appeared on my hand as we all shared the damage, but even that disappeared as soon as each of us popped our regeneration potions.

But not there was only so much damage the Ring of Shattered Blood could share.

I grimaced as I failed to kill enough ghouls before trio of them slipped through and cut open someone’s throat. I felt a scratch form before it stopped as they collapsed forward.

My Guards fell. One by one.

Hundreds and hundreds of ghouls in their unending numbers eventually found a hole in the defense for a kill strike. Sometimes, someone was too overwhelmed and got dragged out of the ring before being mauled to death.

I grimaced as I took a sharp hand thrust into my shoulder, but the damage refused to be shared; everyone was already on their last legs. Garen was the only one still going, but even he looked exhausted.

‘So much for making a republic out of Demacia,’ I thought sardonically as I raised my tired arms up and brought down the sword for another bisecting strike. Another ghoul fell to me, and I looked to see how our enemies were doing.

It did look like they had thinned, but it hadn’t thinned quickly enough.

We were going to be overrun.

“I’m so glad I spent yesterday fucking my wife,” Quentin, one of the oldest members of the Black Guard, chuckled tiredly as he staggered next to me. “Tis was an honor serving you, your grace.”

“We’re about to die, Quentin. Just call me Marris!” I grunted as I sliced apart another ghoul.

“Oh, are we friends now?!” he asked as he punched, and a ghoul splattered onto the cobblestone street. “I think I like that!”

Someone else chuckled.

Someone else screamed.

Garen paused for a split second before he made one last clearing slash to keep the ghouls at bay before jumping back into the circle.

There was a twinkle in the edge of my vision.

AND BOOM.

Rainbow-hued light, thicker than most statues, burned through the ghouls in front of me.

I turned to look in shock, because I recognized that attack.

“Lux…?” I muttered quietly as I spotted my wife on top of the steps of the Grand Palace, looking down with the staff I made for her in her hand.

She also looked pissed. Sona was next to her, and the two of them were surrounded by the Black Guards I’d assigned to them.

“Finally, reinforcements!” Quentin cackled. “We’ll get to live after all!”

I laughed, too, and fought with renewed strength as Lux and her cohort burned through the ghouls while we killed the last ones we were facing before turning towards them to kill the ghouls between us.

And then the mis cleared, and we … stood victorious.

Quentin collapsed onto his ass and panted. “Damn. Action’s not good for these old bones.”

Some of us chuckled, and others laughed.

I survived.

I let my blood armor fall apart, and the Ring of Shattered Blood finally collapsed.