NOVEL NEXT 67
The gigantic stone hammer flies back to Laurelorn, leaving behind the fully crushed remains of one of the noblest warriors of the Old World. The first Grail Knight casualty in their quest in one month. Four Grail Knights left. Unfortunately that will be the least of their worries. As the questing knights began disentangling themselves from the glued net and fighting in chaotic melee, a giant flaming greataxe, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, cleaved through three steel plated questing knights. Druig appears and roared, dozens of other golden minotaurs appear directly into killing blows, their shimmering feathers mutation cloaked their presence until the last minute.
The already ambushed Bretonnian knights are now fully overwhelmed as even the two Grail Knights are pushed back. The two Grail Knights on the hill meanwhile have their return to reinforce delayed as there’s a risk the stone hammer will be thrown again. Their careful steps are eventually abandoned as the knights are getting slaughtered. Then as soon as they turn their back from Laurelorn and the north, one Grail Knights are immediately targeted with eight spears of pure light, too fast to even be dodged.
The other one dodged just in time by diving away as the gigantic stone hammer was thrown again. At this moment he finally admits that they lost, he won’t be able to help the others in time and there’s still a group of sorcerers still yet to show themselves. In one last attempt to reclaim some honor and avenge his friends, he jumps towards the stone hammer as it is lifted again. Hugging at its gigantic handle so that he are also lifted and taken to the enemy that have killed one of them in a cowardly manner.
The giant hammer flies through Laurelorn’s diseased trees. And as he glimpse at his enemy, a golden cygor, he leapt from the giant hammer. Using its momentum and all his might to a downward swing. In a gesture that belies normal Cygor’s blindness and sluggish movement, the golden cygor managed to put its hand between his only eye as the Grail Knight struck. He grunt in exertion as even with all his might and the momentum, he only managed to cut off one finger and his blade struck midway through the golden cygor’s ring finger. Its hide is harder than steel. He then uses the cygor’s hand to pivot as he jumps away, yanking his greatsword free before its other hand can grab him.
He decides as he lands that he will kill this golden cygor as it is undoubtedly one of the golden herd’s champions. At least there’s some honor left in their disastrous quest. He ran under the cygor’s leg, cleaving their achilles tendon and bringing it to heel. Jumping on its leg, he ran up, aiming to cleave its nape and again the cygor managed to protect it with its hand. This time however, his greatsword is stuck in the middle part of a hand and it clenches his hand, making it stuck even more. Then in one swift motion, the cygor flicked his arm to the left, throwing the Grail Knight dozens of meters away.
As he coughed blood and stood again, he felt warmth. His courage returned as he thought that the Lady had blessed him again before his shadow lengthened before him. He turns back, seeing no lady but another golden cygor, even bigger than the one wielding the stone hammer. A golden sun crested upon its only eye. It ‘s almost..
“Divine? A beastmen?” the Grail Knight, now without his weapon, with only his clenched hand, he charged again. Immediately cleaved in half as Dorn brought down his giant greatsword, sundering the land with its force.
Returning to the ambush site, only a handful of knights remain. The leader of the Grail Knight is dueling against Druig while the last one is steadily overwhelmed by three golden minotaurs. The one dueling Druig, the leader and the most experienced, stood on equal grounds against him. But even so, all his effort is put into dodging. As he knows that his blade will shatter and he will be dead if the golden minotaur leader in front of him ever hit him once. But even with all his blessing and power, exhaustion starts to set in. everything is lost, he knows this. Then with a characteristic Bretonnian last suicidal attempt, he took a chance to swing sideways to Druig’s exposed flank. Dismay is the last thing he felt as he saw another healed wound that cut deeper than his, made by Taurox, before his head cleaved through. The last Grail Knights fall soon after. So ends the quest to rescue Leslie Leoncoeur.
—
I listened through Lak’s report and finally managed to feel a little bit of relief even with my suppressed emotions. Those Bretonnian Knights are no more. At least for now. I don’t know if this would result in an even greater quest to vanquish my herd but I know for sure they won’t attempt this in winter. Then the end times are coming and they will be busy with their own problems.
Looking back through the report, it is good that my children learned well and tried to maximize their advantages. Only joining in after the knights have all been dismounted by Khazrak’s beastmen. Then Lak’s attempt in minimizing magic usage by just tagging the two Grail Knights on the hill so that the Cygor with my hammer can see them is a great decision. They still get surprised and late in response when one of the Grail Knight decides to hug the stone hammer as it flies back which prompts Dorn’s intervention. That one almost killed one of my cygor. Then there’s the spear of light. I wonder what the Old World thinks when they know my beastmen are using Light magic. I don’t know whether the beastmen did not use other magic in the lore because of their corruption and affinity to chaos or just they don’t want to. So at least this is a good start. Still need to mitigate the magical drawbacks. If only there’s a way to store casted spells like enchanted or soulforged items.
Saving that for later, Kal finally just planted his waystone. Finally redirecting the winds of magic back north. In return, despite him losing most men, he at least made sure to make plenty of fortifications first. Makeshift stone walls from dismantling abandoned Eonir settlement then currently digging a ditch on the outside of the walls. The stage is set, with my children work is done, now begin my part.
