Chapter 113 : A lord and his knights (Patreon)

Runar's arms spread to the side and runes of solid mana flowed from his gloved palms right as the golden and leather armors stepped forward, each one with its blades in hands and ready to strike down James. He melted back down into the darkness on the ground just in time to avoid the shortsword and daggers of Medraw's hollow suit, but Pierce Evil's rapier managed to tear away at his shadowy flesh before he fully disappeared, a part of him still wriggling on the rune-covered brass before it dissolved away. The speedster turned and went to stab at the ground at the largest shadows, each strike burning away at James' immaterial composition before he managed to fully form holes to avoid them, all the while the assassin lept from its spot to cut down at anything that tried to poke out of the flat mass of black, spikes and tentacles falling into pieces each time they tried to form.

Meanwhile, dark projectiles flew through the air, aiming at the unmoving form of Runar as more and more sigils manifested into existence at his will and flowed around him, slowly moving alongside one another to form greater shapes, but each of James' attacks was caught either by the steel of Karadok's shield, the mangled forearms of his armor still in good enough shape for his gauntlets to stay connected to the rest of the metal and for the hands to hold the weapon, or by curtains of water made by the twirling of Speareau's spear, the shaft now as white as its tip and the armor without the red cloth that once decorated it.

James had some of his shadows snake their way to the runemaster's feet, but before they reached the man in yellow they were cut off by something invisible, the blade of the now imperceivable fifth knight's armor. One or two cuts weren't enough to stop James' progress, but the sword of Karadok picked up on the other weapon's slack and slashed away large parts of the spreading net of darkness, and each wound caused by the blade left behind a green glowing trace that James couldn't grow more shadows from.

James ignored the stinging pain the runic weapons caused and instead tried to formulate a plan. Mesker's brief lesson had given him a lot of ideas, but finding a way to use them in an actual fight was different from the planning and practice he had done in the sewers. Still, something came to mind as he watched Runar still preparing something, and he thought back to the basic encyclopedia of runes he had read. He perfectly recalled the symbols and their uses, but again, there was a distinction between knowing how something worked and knowing how to successfully use it. Still, despite the pain, and despite being outnumbered...

I'm going to win.

As the golden rapier descended once more it was blocked by a rising black spike, and when the leather armor went to cut it off it clanged uselessly against it, a small cut in the dark flesh revealing the steel of the runic knife beneath, the one James had taken from Karadok's belt. The pause in the hollow suits' demeanor gave James an opening and this time it wasn't only at Runar that his shadow bolts were aimed, multiple of the projectiles firing off directly from the darkness beneath the golden and leather armors and hitting their bodies as tendrils rose and wrapped around their legs to drag them down, though when it came to Pierce Evil's suit they all bounced or slipped off. Medraw's on the other hand was quickly dragged to the ground and covered by the shadows swarming it, and when the speedster turned and went to free its fellow, as soon as its knee hit the ground and its blades went to tear the black cocoon apart, Karadok's stolen knife pierced through the brass that made its back, and slid down the metal as though cutting through weak wood, the material offering some resistance but failing to stop the weapon that descended with loud cracks and screeching steel, the runes of the back lost their glow as their connection was ruptured and the golden knight fell forward, slumping over the leather armor as both suits soon found themselves growing darker and darker.

James pulled out the knife and hid it back inside his larger mass spreading on the ground, the weapon narrowly avoiding being caught judging by the sensation of an invisible hand pulling at his body where it had been, and unfortunately for his aggressor now that he had made with it James wasn't about to let it go. Tendrils formed and spread over the imperceptible form, the humanoid figure quickly becoming distinguishable with all of the black goop that covered it, and Karadok's armor's attempt at freeing the invisible one proved itself to be more detrimental than anything as its large glowing green blade slashed through both shadows and metal, and the chainmail armor of Tristare fell to the ground cleaved in twain.

Runar's brow twitched but he said nothing, too busy mumbling words in his beard as more and more blue runes danced in the air around him, forming concentric circles filled with yet more scripts that formed yet more shapes, all turning like impossible gears as they glowed brighter and brighter.

Had James had a face, he probably would be grinning or grimacing now. On the one hand, he had correctly recognized the pattern of a "rune breaker" that the book he had read had described, a tool meant to destroy or disrupt runes that required simple symbols but a rare alloy, and Karadok's knife had proven itself to be worthy of the name, but on the other hand, Runar was still going forward with whatever spell or ritual he had in the works, and letting him finish him would mean bad news for James.

He shifted his form once more, and this time when shadow bolts went after Runar they were followed by spikes and tendrils. Karadok's suit having stepped forward to help the now three fallen armors, only Speareau's was left to catch the attacks and protect their master, and the namesake weapon's water flowed through the air to block the incoming projectiles while its sharp ivory tip grazed the ground to cut off the shadows connected to the greater mass. The armor lit by green magic on the other hand continued its crusade against the darkness, its large weapon sweeping left and right in erratic movements to slash away at as much of James as it could. Metal rang as it lowered its shield to intercept James' knife, and this time the rune breaker didn't do any damage to the enchanted weapon. It was unfortunate, but it made sense: Karadok was the one Runar trusted the most, and therefore the one with equipment specifically made to fight off runic items, in case any of the other knights turned. If his weapon could cut through runes, then his shield could withstand them.

The massive sword swung and cut off the tendril holding the knife, though luckily James managed to catch it in the air before it was lost, and immediately threw it toward Runar. Speareau's suit twirled its spear and water rose to catch the incoming object, a much larger bubble than usual forming, but when something entered the magical water it wasn't a blade but a leather pouch full of coins. The white knight didn't have time to register the oddity before the knife slashed through its ankles, and the armor fell to its knees, barely catching itself from falling flat on the ground with its spear, but all that did was leave it open to more damage. Once more metal creaked as the knife tore through one of the hollow suits, and the magic animating it failed as its back split in two and its helmet fell off for the second time that day.

Right as James was done retrieving the knife and turning the weapon to stab Runar, just in case his yellow clothes hid more tricks, massive metal boots crashed down on the weapon, shattering the blade. Karadok's suit stood up from its landing after its leap, and it resumed slashing away at everything black in its sight. The loss of the rune breaker hurt, but in the end, it was just one armor and one still-busy mage against an elemental shapeshifter with corruptive properties. The sole still functional suit was enough to stop the volleys of shadow bolts and various dark appendages that rose from the ground that went after Runar, and finally, transformative shadows landed on the runemaster.

They did nothing.

The black bolts splashed uselessly against the yellow three-piece suit, a thin shimmer of a transparent blue shell appearing before the dark projectiles and limbs could touch the cloth. Before James had the chance to fire a truly charged shadow bolt to test this defense, the blue runic shapes all around Runar flashed, magical power shined so strongly and with such power, it managed to overwhelm James' senses, a feat he had yet to experience in this life.

James did his best to spread and hide, to ensure some part of him could survive whatever attack would be unleashed... But nothing came. The light faded, and Runar stood there, the same as he was before, but with something in his hand.

A shaft with a slightly convex shape, ending in a round bulge at the bottom. A large yet thin guard, a small crescent whose tips quickly curved upwards, to the point they didn't fully cover the hand beneath. A triangular blade with a wide base and perfectly pointy tip, shaped in such a way the lines of its sides were completely straight, as wide as a human's palm at its thickest as long as Runar's arm from the wrist to the shoulder. The weapon wasn't fashioned out of metal, but instead raw blue magic, dozens if not hundreds of runes standing side by side and over one another to form its body, with yet even more glowing with a bright white light visible through the rest flowing in lines through the core of the blade, from its tip to its pommel and vice versa.

The magical sigils forged into a weapon slashed through nothing as the runemaster rolled his wrist, and James swore he saw the very air split in two in its wake, fading runes flaking off and dying in its trail, replaced by another as soon as they left the collective mass.

James fired off more basic shadow bolts and all of those that weren't intercepted by Karadok's equipment were promptly annihilated by the blue blade, the offensive darkness falling into pieces before stopping to exist as soon as it was cut. For the first time since his preparation began, Runar spoke, his fixated on the light within his grasp.

"Magnificient, isn't it? Years of work went into the making of this beauty. A weapon I can call upon at any time, that cannot be lost or stolen, a weapon that can surpass any physical blade, a weapon with runes that do not need outrageously rare or expensive materials, a weapon I can rely upon even cast away from in exile, rejected by the Arthen family and the Wicked Witchcraft cabal."

A smile formed on his lips.

"A weapon fit for a lord."

He shrugged.

"Though I will admit the casting time still could be improved. Every minute is of the utmost importance in a fight, as you have demonstrated."

The glowing tip danced in the air before pointing at roughly the center of the mass of eel-like shadows on the ground.

"I hate repeating myself, especially when copying the words of another, but surrender now Silhouette. You have no hope of victory. Your shadows have no hope of felling me, and my masterpiece can cleave through flesh and darkness alike. You have no organ to fail you, no blood to lose, therefore I won't have to worry about killing you, so long as enough of you is left. I will be free to cut you into pieces again and again until your body will reform with its mind broken."

The runemaster's head shook from side to side.

"Save yourself the agony, and give up now. Unlike others, I do not enjoy the game of domination so rampant in our circles. Disciplining you with Caligraph will not amuse me."

James said nothing, instead trying to figure out how to go from now on. Karadok's suit would be hard to deal with, but without the experience of the orc warrior's guiding its movements, it should be easier to defeat. Runar... The fact that he had bothered to use a shield to block his shadow bolts meant he wasn't as confident with his defense as he claimed to be, and that his suit's shield could be overcome... Or that his new sword somehow protected him, which, given the sheer number of runes within, could be plausible. Either way, if he got rid of the towering armor beforehand, then he could just steal its sword to do the job, just like he had done with Glapissant.

Wait, if the sword's here, doesn't that mean... No, I can't worry about that now. The others can take care of that, right now I must focus.

"If you hope a single sword will change things, you are heavily mistaken, Runar. There's only one armor left to guard you."

The runemaster scoffed.

"Yes, that. You did ruin quite a lot of resources and hours of work."

The old man tilted his head.

"It appears I stand corrected. Cutting you to pieces will bring me some joy."

Runar stepped forward, and shadows converged to overwhelm him. Every step of his was accompanied by a swift flick of the wrist that sent his blade dancing in a mesmerizing way to slash through the incoming darkness. It wasn't the slow yet precise powerful blows of Karadok, neither was it the overwhelming speed and arrogance of Pierce Evil, no, but it was something vaguely similar, Runar's style of wielding his sword was one of elegance and efficiency, more active than the orc's but more controlled and mastered than the blond's. The way the flaking and fading runes flew off in the wake of the blade further emphasized its beauty, and were it not cutting through James' flesh one could almost forget it was a weapon.

James for sure didn't forget with how much it hurt.

The pain brought by this Caligraph had to be second only to Sydakors', the stinging agony surpassing everything else James had ever felt. He had to give Runar some credit, making a weapon that hurt as much as a demon's soul-ripping attacks was an achievement few could claim, at least he hoped so. He really didn't want to have to deal with more people with that kind of thing on them.

Of course, the magical blades drawing arcs of blue light in the air wasn't the only thing to worry about, and as annoying as the pain it brought was he was sadly getting used to being hurt and torn to shreds. Seeing how useless his attacks were against Runar James had his tentacles focus on the rampaging hollow armor instead, while he kept sending shadow bolts at both of them.

But the dark orbs of shadows weren't the only spell James knew.

As one of his limbs managed to slip past the defense of the suit covered by a green glow and made contact with it, James unleashed a spell he had been charging for a while, and black electricity coursed throughout his entire body. Dark energy rose in arcs over his entire form and found its way to the walking metal, and the light of its runes struggled against the invasive darkness. The two forces opposed one another as the armor froze, the magic of its runes too busy fighting off the electrical corruption to keep animating the suit, and though the green glow appeared to be winning the struggle and overcoming the creeping black all of its efforts were futile as, without the necessary energy to move, the armor was rendered a sitting duck for dozens of black orbs to hit it, the runes' temporary success coming undone as too many transformative shadows covered its form.

The now black humanoid shape fell, and without magic powering it the armor split into pieces, each one hitting the ground with a loud crash. Runar hadn't been idle during this time, and though he had been somewhat slowed by the shadow bolts and the loose sparks of electricity that reached him he was unscuffed. The runemaster got back within range of James' expanded mass, and his blade resumed its agonizing slicing of every shadow in sight. Within a few seconds, however, a black wall rose to protect James, his own shield spell he had been able to use for a while but never had a reason to use.

The blade cut right through, as though the protective bubble didn't exist.

James ignored the pain of losing yet more parts of himself and instead picked up Karadok's abandoned sword and swung it at Runar, and their weapons clashed - until Runar's flared with yet more power, and the runic construct cut through the enchanted metal of the stolen blade. James hadn't expected that. The runemaster kicked away the upper part of the blade that had fallen while James readjusted the guard and what little sharpened metal was on it to block the following strike, but once more the weapon of light cut through what was left of the sword, the guard and handle falling to pieces too small to be of any use now as the magic cleaved through James.

None of James' uncharged shadow bolts went through the thin film of magic covering the yellow cloth of Runar's suit, and neither did the black electricity James unleashed once again. The bearded elvish man's face stayed unflinching before the hordes of projectiles that went after him as he casually ignored all of them as he slashed away, though a small wrinkling at the edges of his lips seemed to hint that he was fighting back some kind of grin.

"There is nothing you can do now, Silhouette."

His sword went down...

And one of James' tentacles caught it. The runemaster's eyes widened.

"What?"

The tentacle tightened its grasp, and black fumes began to rise from its points of contact with the blue runes. Runar kicked away at the shadows and pulled until his weapon was freed, and let out a sigh of relief as he saw that it was free of any blackness.

James rose from the ground as a humanoid once again, but this time it wasn't in his usual guise of Silhouette. The most notable difference was that he had legs now, though his feet were still connected to the darkness on the ground, and that he had a sword in his hand - it was just his body shaped like one, but with how solid and sharp he could make his body, it might as well have been a real one. Not only that, but James' latest trick further improved his shapeshifted limb's use as a weapon. Within his body, just finished getting infused and bent and modified, were the broken pieces of the rune breaker, each one reshaped to form one of the runes necessary for its effects to take place since the initial pattern on its blade had been damaged by the knife's shattering.

Before Runar could try to make sense of what just happened, James rushed forward and swung with his black sword, and the runemaster had no choice but to focus on the fight as he raised his blue blade to block the blow. The two weapons clashed, but unlike before the runic construct couldn't cut through the opposing weapon. James knew he had no hope of matching someone with years of experience as a swordsman, so instead of trying to continue the duel, he used the opportunity of standing so close to the runemaster with no hope for Runar to push him back easily to put in motion the last part of his plan.

So close to one another that their faces were almost touching one another, Runar tried to end the struggle to pull back his blade and put some distance between him and James, but the black sword he had formed was bending to circle around the blue surface of the many solid runes to trap it in its grasp, and so close to his enemy, James fired off a fully charged shadow bolt from his face onto Runar's.

The force of the burst of shadows that followed was strong enough to push the two men apart, and though James had no trouble catching himself as soon as he hit the ground by merging back with the darkness on the floor, Runar was sent tumbling, his body bouncing a few times before it rolled until it stopped. The man grunted before standing up, and James was quite shocked at the sight before him. Runar's once grey hair and beard were now pitch-black with purple highlights where the light hit them at the right angle, much like the fur of Mischief's rats was, but the runemaster's visage was totally unscathed from the experience. No bruise, no spot of corruptive darkness on his skin, only incredible rage.

"You..."

He raised his hand to point at James as he rose from his dark puddle with his weapon, but it was at this point Runar realized Caligraph was no longer in his hand.

"A magical creation like the one you made must require at least some degree of focus to keep active, no?"

Runar gritted his teeth before letting out a sigh and adjusting his now messy hair with his hand.

"Yes, but not enough for me to have to keep thinking about it, at least so far as I don't get blasted point blank."

"And with no desk and no armor around to keep me distracted, you won't be able to recast it."

"Not in a timely fashion, no. Which is why..."

Runar's hand reached behind his back and pulled a small crystal from a hidden pocket at the bottom of his vest, and neither of the men needed to look at the object to know it was a teleportation crystal.

"I must now bid you adieu. I thought I had stopped underestimating you, Silhouette, but you surprised me once again."

James said nothing as his shadows, cleared from the floor around Runar by his own attack, were now growing back toward the runemaster's feet.

"I won't do that mistake again. You have ruined years of work, and now I might as well have nothing to my name. Next time, I won't hesitate to rely on my friend."

The darkness grew even closer.

"You might have heard of him. Abrakaboom, one of the top three Villains in Zalcien."

Tentacles and tendrils emerged from the shadows to try and drag him down, but a blue bubble formed and shielded the man from the appendages.

"I will happily stand by his side as he destroys everything you built with you at my foot."

Black swirls appeared in the bubble's magic, much like it had happened before Speareau fled from his attack on the warehouse, and both men knew Runar would use his escape card before they finished their job, the crystal already letting out cracking sounds from the way it was lightly gripped, greatly weakened by the impacts following the fight.

"Any last words before we part ways?"

"You should look at your hand."

Runar raised a brow before following along, and his composure fell apart as horror invaded his features.

His body, bearing his hair, was free of corruption. His crystal, on the other hand, was now almost completely black.

Runar couldn't do anything but scream as the already fragile object shattered on its own, and this time the man didn't disappear in a flash of light but in a pillar of darkness whose tip pierced through Runar's bubble of a shield and impacted the larger one acting as the roof of the office, its blue quickly turning to black.

A few seconds later, under a clear sky, James was alone on the roof, victorious.