B4 Ch49: Intruders! (Patreon)

Arthur got to the top of the stairwell and looked out. A handful of rough looking men and women all surrounded the edges of the pavilion, staring back at him.

However, none had stepped on the slate rock platform that was under the roof. It likely had to do with shield – almost completely translucent except for a soup bubble haze – that wavered right on the edges. Arthur hadn’t noticed it before. Then again, he hadn’t had strangers practically on the doorway to his territory before.

Arthur’s hand slipped into his jacket pocket where he felt the territory card which held everyone’s names who was allowed in. Whoever these people were, they were too late to take over his territory.

“Well,” said one man who had the air of the group leader. He wore a dark wide-brimmed hat in the style of the locals, and a long coat with hems that brushed the top of his boots. He grinned at Arthur, unafraid. “You saved us the trouble of announcing ourselves. Thank you. With all the fun we’ve had today, my throat was starting to get a bit dry.”

The rest of his group chortled.

“What do you want?” Arthur asked flatly.

“Simple: Your cards and your shards, and then we’ll agree to leave you in peace.”

“You dare challenge us?” Brixaby boomed. “Go away before I teach you a lesson about respect.”

Arthur frowned. “We have several dragons with us. This isn’t a fight you want.”

“That’s what that thing is?” the man nodded to Brixaby who buzzed almost to the height of the roof with anger. Though he was smart enough to keep within the boundaries of the shield. “A dragon?”

Narrowing his eyes, Arthur moved away from the trap door, watching the man's face closely as Sams poked his head out. Not being intimidated by Brixaby was one thing, but Sams was a large dragon. Several of the would-be bandits stepped back, clearly intimidated as the giant dragon emerged. It was a lucky thing that the pavilion was so large because Sams still fit under it, but only with his tail tucked in. Joy came out next, causing additional murmurs. Obviously, some people did not know that he had three dragons with him.

Arthur let the moment play out. It was one thing to be brave in front of people you were trying to rob. It was another to do the same in front of giant beasts with teeth and claws. Joy looked around, saw the group, and grinned, showing her intimidating green teeth.

Horatio, Cressida, Soledad and Marion filed out next.

Including the dragons, the bandits were outnumbered.

"I don't know what you think your plan is," Arthur said. "You can't cross into my territory, and my retinue aren't stupid enough to go out and fight you," he said, pointedly. Brixaby looked like he dearly wanted to. So did Joy.

"Well, I'll give you this... You have quite the colorful... What did you call them? Retinue?" The bandit leader said.

"And they have the cards to fight, too. Move along," Arthur said.

"No," he replied calmly, "I don't think I will, but I'll tell you what. I'll give you one more chance: your cards or your lives. And just because you didn't comply the first time, you get to forfeit your heart cards, too."

"Ruffians," Soledad said, and spat to the side.

His gaze landed on her, and his smile became downright sunny. "Soledad Bourdeaux, right?" he said, and she froze. Everybody looked at Soledad. "Yep, I heard that you had been spotted with these dragon riders, too."

He looked at Arthur. "Add the girl in," he said, "and I'll let you keep your heart cards."

"You aren't in a position to negotiate," Arthur said.

He was about to tell Brixaby to give them a taste of his Stunning Shout when Joy warned. "Arthur, I just got a quest to rescue a princess!"

"I'm not a princess," Soledad snapped.

"I'll take that as a no," the leader drawled, and suddenly, the territory card in Arthur's jacket felt hot with power. And the invisible barrier that separated them all rippled like the rainbow edge of a soap bubble, and fell down.

One of the bandits, the one with bright blonde hair, flickered. Suddenly, he was right in the middle of their group, slashing with a dark blade at Horatio's neck. 

Why him? Arthur thought in shock. Why not me? But the answer was obvious. As his rider, he stood next to Sams, and the yellow Sams looked to be the most threatening.

An instant before the knife hit, a mana bubble shield appeared between Horatio and the blade, cast by Cressida. The dagger hit against the shield and bounced back with equal kinetic force, nearly striking the blonde man. 

Sams roared and swiped a giant paw at the man who’d threatened his rider. But the man blinked away before the paw hit.

Then it was pure chaos as the rest of the bandits took the distraction to charge forward. Only the leader stayed in place, still grinning and occasionally making small movements with his hands. 

"I have been waiting to use Berserker's Rage!" Brixaby cried.

Arthur yelled. “No, wait—”

But his dragon's eyes grew from his normal blood red to a shining, unearthly glow. Brixaby launched himself head-on at a bandit with his claws out.

But just before he struck, the whole pavilion swung around them in a way that did not make sense. It was as if invisible angles had just come into being for an instant before everything popped back into place. But now there was a pillar between Brixaby and the man where there hadn’t been before. Brixaby hit it so hard that he left a dent. Thankfully, his toughened scales kept him from getting hurt. He swung about, roaring in rage to target another bandit instead of chasing the one he had been after.

He should have used his stunning shout at the leader, but he did not seem to be in his right mind.

Meanwhile, Horatio cast a burning light ray at another advancing bandit who slid out of the way with an almost bone-cracking grace. The bandit instantly popped back up, still advancing forward. Arthur didn’t worry too much about him. Cressida was near him and would be able to provide another shield if needed. 

Arthur turned away and his eyes locked on the head bandit. He activated his Nice Shot card and Knife skills. The man was easily 40 feet away. Arthur charged his shrapnel and fired them. What was good enough for a scourgelings was good enough for a bandit. But every time he shot one out, something rose between them: a tree, a rock, another pillar.

Then, the man made a sweeping gesture with his hand. Suddenly, all of them were down underneath the main pavilion.

Brixaby, who had been mid-dive on a bandit as they teleported, caught the man by the shoulders, lifting him up into the air. But he was so full of rage that he didn't even kill him properly, or steal his cards.

He just shook him, the man's head flopped back and forth. His arc upward was too steep and he was too focused on the bandit he was punishing.

Brixaby hit the ceiling and staggered in the air, so surprised he let go of the bandit. The man fell and managed to land with natural grace.

"Brixaby," Arthur snapped, "turn off your Berserker Rage."

This was falling apart. Even taken by surprise, they should have had a handle on these bandits. But Brixaby was out of control, his group was scattered, and while they were coming together and starting to work as a team – Cressida was covering Horatio and Marian -- Soledad was just standing there, glaring at the bandits as if they’d done her personal wrong.

It was up to Arthur and Horatio to try to kill them at range, but they kept missing because of the weird object repositioning power the leader had. This was a mess.

And abruptly, the man who could teleport in a blink was next to Soledad, his dark blade against her throat.

"Stop," the leader said boredly, and his voice echoed out with the authority of another card skill. "I'd like to have her as ransom—her family is paying a good price, but I'll kill her if I need to."

Family?

"I'm not going back there," Soledad yelled, "that place is a charnel house."

"Now, that's not up to you, missy."

Arthur shot a look at Brixaby, and saw that his eyes had dimmed to normal. Though, to Arthur's eye, his wing beats were more labored. The anger had overtaken him and left him exhausted.

“You’re not taking her anywhere!” Cressida yelled and sent out Whicker. The fire bear charged forward with a crackling roar.

The bandit leader started to move his arm, probably to reposition them again with his weird teleport power, but abruptly... Whicker started to fall apart, mid-charge. Within a few steps, the flames disintegrated away.

Arthur did not understand until the man who held Soledad screamed as his clothes caught on fire. He ripped the dagger across her throat, but that throat was now red hot and encased in liquid lava.

Oh right. Her cards needed a source of heat.

Suddenly, the room was full of Marions, all screaming and running at each one of the bandits. The bandits attacked back, killing the illusions, but it was impossible to tell which was the real one.

Arthur ran behind one of the illusions, and when it was dispelled by the extra flexible man, Arthur was revealed.

He didn't bother with his Nice Shot card, as everything he had fired so far had been unexpectedly blocked. Instead, he threw a wild punch that must have looked overt and ridiculous. The man barely had to flex to catch his wrist. He smiled.

Arthur grinned back and took the final step forward, reaching to rip out seven cards he felt in the man’s heart.

The man staggered back with a gasp and fell down shaking hard in the beginning of a seizure.

Suddenly, Cressida and Joy erupted out of the shadow of another bandit who had been standing back, probably for mana support. Joy bit down on him, and it was impossible to say what killed him -- the dragon jaws or Joy's venomous teeth. 

In an instant, Arthur’s retinue had taken back control of the fight.

And just like that, they were teleported again. They all stood in the same relative positions that they were before, but now they were outside at the edge of the pavilion.

A giant wall of earth roared up between the remaining bandits and Arthur's retinue. 

They're running, Arthur thought.

"You're not getting away that easy!" Horatio stepped forward. He glowed with every flashing color. Sams had once made a comment about Horatio getting better at his light-based cards, and now Arthur saw the result. He was not just flashing in the basic rainbow spectrum. The lights were running up and down his body in a geometric pattern, which was a stark example of how much his level of control of the Rainbow Knight card had advanced. 

Those lights streamed to Sams who took it up within himself.

The sun, which was a reflection of the pit of the Dark Heart, suddenly flared yellow and real. The bandits began to scream. 

"We surrender!" someone yelled from the other side of the wall. 

Sams looked at Arthur, his top lip curled up in a snarl. After all, one of the bandits had tried to kill his rider.

Arthur sighed and made a cutoff motion. The sun dimmed to normal. 

"The eggs," Soledad said. She had cooled down and black bits of rock flaked off her body, leaving her skin whole. There were deep cut lines in the soil where she had flexed out with a lava whip and killed yet another bandit. "We need to check on the eggs. If they were cracked in that fight--"

"Yes, go check on them," Arthur said. "You too, Marion." But he barely needed to tell them twice. The two ran back down to the pavilion's stairwell. 

Brixaby buzzed down next to Arthur. The moment Arthur was aboard, they flew up and over the top of the earthen wall. Brixaby was quiet, and Arthur could tell he was sulky and embarrassed. 

Three men and their leader ground, surrounded by black earth. A couple tried to pull shirts over their heads to keep away from the burning light.

Don't anger a yellow has the full force of a light deck, Arthur thought.

The leader looked like he had a high-grade sunburn. As Arthur dismounted and walked over, the man held up his hands which had welts on them.

He smiled at Arthur as if this had all been a joke taken too far. 

"All right, all right, we'll leave."

"Tell me what you did," Arthur said. Off to the side, Cressida and Joy, and Sam with Horatio landed at different points around the bandits. They were surrounded. "How did you steal my territory?"

"Nothing was stolen," the bandit leader said in a placating tone. "Look at your card."

He did and saw a whole host of names that had been added that he didn't recognize. The first was named Storm Wind Rick, who he assumed was the leader. This was followed by other names he supposed were the other bandits, as several of them were crossed out. 

"All is fair in the dark heart," Rick said. 

"You threatened to kill those of my retinue," Brixaby said, dangerously.

"That may be so, but only my men were killed."

"Fine,” Arthur growled. “I want you out of my sight.”

Brixaby looked outraged for a half second until Arthur added.

“But as recompense for my time, you and your remaining men are going to give me all of the cards left in your card anchor. My dragon will know if you keep any back.”

Joy growled and flexed her venom claws. Horatio activated his Rainbow Knight and lights spun all over his skin in ominous, dizzying patterns.”

Rick hesitated, and to Arthur’s surprise he looked around him at Brixaby. "I heard about you. You're the dragon that eats cards."

"I'll eat every one of your cards in front of you," Brixaby promised in a low hiss.

Rick smiled. "I also heard that dragon riders get their powers from their beast. Is that right?" Rick made a sharp gesture and a wicked dragger flew out from underneath the wide sleeves of his trench coat.

Arthur flinched, but the dagger curved around him and struck Brixaby right in the chest.

Arthur yelled out in shock, and the man whipped around to send another dagger at Joy. It immediately struck one of Cressida's shields, but the tip of the dagger hit the shield and stayed there, a scraping sound of metal as it was digging in. It was poised to strike right at Joy’s heart.

Turning, Arthur ran towards Brixaby. But Brixaby yelled, "Duck!"

Arthur fell forward and flattened himself on the ground.

His dragon let out a Stunning Shout. Leaving his mouth, it was shaped like a crescent blade and flew harmlessly over Arthur and hit Rick with enough force to knock him off his feet.

As Arthur looked up at his dragon’s puffed out chest, he saw that the point of the dagger was stuck at the point of Brixaby’s heart… but stopped at his toughened scales.

Then Sams called the power of the sun down again.

The bandits died, but Sams, who had more fighting experience than them all, made sure to keep the bodies intact enough to harvest the cards.