Princess Knight of the Rebellion: Reborn to Destroy the Monarchy

The dim light from magical torches gleamed on the walls of the grand hall as they flickered from the aftershocks of the short exchange. 

Both Intruders sat frozen in shock, watching the cloaked figure that had just cut the head off their ally.

For a moment, everything was silent. Then, the traitor's helmeted head clanged off the ground, and the world exploded into motion.

"Damn you!" Came the cry of the enemy on her right. "INFERNO!" A bright light, greatly surpassing the torches, lit the room with murderous intent. 

That was the signal for Elise to dive forward just in time to dodge a conflagration of flames aimed at where she had just been standing. The sheer heat of the beam of fire could be clearly felt even through her layers of magical protection. 

Fortunately for her, the flamethrower petered off rather quickly. It wasn't apparent whether it was just a limitation of the weave the enemy had woven rapidly into existence or a matter of her using their ally's corpse as a shield.

Quickly hopping back a few meters, Elise let the concentration she was using to maintain the two active spell weaves fade. Turning her sword back to normal and allowing the now headless body of the traitorous guard to fall to the ground. 

That brief intermission finally gave the princess time to switch the Shadow Crest from stealth to defense, causing her to sigh in relief as the defensive barrier wove itself across her body. 

"Assassin!" The enemy who hadn't thrown the fire spell called out from where he was readying his blade. "Show yourself in the name of His Majesty the King!" The man made a show of activating his Crest's barrier with a surge of magical power. 

The other scowled at the traitor's corpse before following in his allies' footsteps, engaging his barrier with a rather impressive burst of power. 

That might have been intimidating to anyone else, but to her, it only confirmed the earlier suspicion that these men were not created equal; it seemed like taking out the Royal Guard with a surprise attack had been a good plan. 

Elise quirked her head and chuckled lightly to herself while silently examining her opponents. If they were going to give her a chance to talk, she would gladly take it. 

"Oh, no real guards are left alive, so why the act? Why bother with keeping up the charade?" She asked.

Elise could see the stiffening of their muscles as they processed what she had just said. That she could see those tells meant these weren't trained infiltrators. 

Sure, she could tell that these individuals were powerful; their simple presence was enough to determine that. The Crests they had in their possession outputted enough energy to comfortably place them as members of the nobility or at least the more competent members of a nation's military. But how they reacted to the surprise attack and what came after just screamed inexperienced.

They might have made it into the holding chamber, but getting out with the sword would have been much more difficult.

Maybe their ally was supposed to pull it all together? He had been rather impressive, after all…

Huh… or maybe–

Her thoughts were interrupted by the same man from before. "A charade, you say?!?! You are talking to a genuine-" 

"Don't bother pretending. It seems our little operation has been compromised." Mister Flamethrower interrupted, his words sounding like they were forced out through gritted teeth. 

Holding his hand up, and without a word, the fire mage quickly created what Elise recognized as the weave of a first-level fireball spell. Ensuring that all he would have to do was pass magic through it to activate the attack. 

"If you tell me where you got your information from and who sent you, I might consider killing you quickly." The intruder spoke out like one rather used to being obeyed. 

Silently preparing herself for battle, Elise responded slyly, "What a coincidence. I was just about to ask you the same. What employer can afford to pay a traitor enough money to make them as rich as a Baron or were you just stringing that poor man along?" 

Referencing something she couldn't have known without having been following them for a while clearly shook the man. "That is no concern of yours, coward!" He shouted with blatant hostility while releasing his chosen attack. 

Effortlessly dancing out of the fireball's way, Elise was forced to quickly repel a surprise sword thrust from the fire mage's ally. 

"I guess the interrogation has failed," She lamented to herself while parrying multiple blows in succession as her enemy pushed forward through the opening his ally had created. 

They must have been used to working together because as sparks flashed from their rapidly escalating sword duel, Elise could almost feel the deliberate way her enemy placed himself between her and his ally. 

The frustrating thing was that she couldn't seem to push through to stop whatever they had planned. The opposing intruder was obviously trained as a knight and noticeably stronger than her. She guessed that whatever weave he used to enhance his physical abilities focused on strength, but it also could have been due to the sheer difference in size and build. 

Elise appreciated her body in this new world. Its beauty, strength, and even energy almost had her believing in the divine right to rule the Drachen family loved to talk about so much. Unfortunately, her relatively slight build and being just over 5 feet tall gave her a noticeable disadvantage in battles between knights.

Pushing his advantage, the knight battered her defending blade with a series of strikes from every angle. While his blade work steadily increased the pressure, Elise couldn't find a way to slip through his barrage of attacks to land a solid blow.

Every small opening she exploited only earned her a glancing cut against the enemy's barrier.

Wearing down the barrier would have been fine if she had been fighting one-on-one. But because she could feel his ally forming a larger-scale magic array, something had to be done quickly.

Having more than recovered from her excessive use of magic to begin the fight, Elise flooded her engraved cloak with mana, overloading the subtle barriers she had used to change its color and causing it to light up as a simple flashbang. 

"Gah!" The next swipe of his sword missed by a wide margin.

Finally breaking out of her opponent's flurry of attacks, she reapplied the monomolecular barrier to her blade. "Hah!" With a cry of effort, she sheared her shining red blade clean through the enemy's sword, which he barely managed to raise in defense. 

With her opponent disarmed, Elise closed in for the kill– Only to quickly retreat after her magical sense warned of incoming danger. 

"Damnit," She cursed as a rain of lightning-fast fire spears perforated the ground she had just been standing on.

Instantly examining the second-level weave floating in the air behind the fire mage revealed an incredibly detailed web of magical power, and this one didn't seem like it was going to burn out after a single use.

"Just like my partner said, if you give up your employer, we will grant you a swift death." As if to punctuate his words, the formerly disarmed intruder strung together a weave that grew himself a new blade made entirely of ice. It wouldn't be durable enough to engage in prolonged combat, but it would still make him dangerous, and that was only if he didn't have anything else up his sleeve.

Ignoring the pointless threat, Elise thought to herself. 'Well, don't you guys have a fun little icy hot dynamic going on?'

Having already dismissed retreat as an acceptable option, her mind quickly analyzed her foes. While their elements would typically conflict with one another, these two seemed to have worked up an acceptable compromise.

Have the ice user delay the enemy in close quarters while the fire user readies a powerful but, most importantly, pinpoint long-range attack. 

It wasn't an unbeatable strategy… but it was apparent she couldn't afford to take them lightly.

"The plan has failed. Every second we waste dealing with this filth makes our escape less certain." The fire mage called out to his ally. "Let's end this quickly."

'Well, there goes making a plan,' She thought as the two enemies readied themselves to attack her simultaneously. 

Shaking those thoughts from her mind, Elise brandished her sword in retaliation, a slight smirk on her shadowed face. "I'd like to see you try!" 

The hall erupted into combat.