Survival in a Strange World

Chapter 19: Battle of the Tower

An axe sliced through the air aiming at his neck. Stephen caught the glimmer of the iron head from the corner of his eye and dropped to the floor, legs kicking out behind him, hands shooting straight down to catch himself as his golden sword, Honour, clanged to the ground. The Illager's axe swung wildly overhead. Before the Vindicator knew what was happening, Stephen whipped his legs round in a spinning kick and slammed his armoured foot into the Illager's legs, tripping them over. Then Stephen straightened his arms and pushed up, using his momentum to carry himself back to his feet, and retrieving his sword from the ground in one quick motion. Finally, he flipped Honour into a reverse grip and rammed it into the Vindicator's back. The Illager cried out until Stephen twisted the blade. Then the enemy fell silent and still.

That made nine of them. Stephen had startled the night watch by attacking them from inside the tower. The small group had scrambled to ready weapons, but Stephen had hacked them down before they could do him any harm. One of them had managed to fire a crossbow bolt. It had hit Stephen in the shoulder, but his glowing golden armour had held the arrow back and, while it had left an obvious dent, the armour wasn't seriously damaged. Despite that Stephen did mentally reprimand himself for getting hit by such a sloppy shot.

Now that the first floor had been cleared, Stephen could hear the bustling noise of movement from the floors above. The cries of the night watch having alerted the rest of the troops upstairs that something was happening.

To gain a moments rest, Stephen quickly ducked under the stairs leading up to the armoury floor, pulled another glass vial from inside his armour, this one containing a bright pink liquid, and drank it down in one gulp. A pleasant warmth swam through his body for a few seconds, and he discarded the empty vial. Then he heard footsteps overhead. Could he have charged up there and tried to attack the other Illagers before they were able to arm themselves, sure. But that wasn't the plan. He needed to draw them downstairs and out of the way.

A voice came from the top of the stairs. Booming, and twisted with anger.

"Show yourself!"

Somewhere deep within, Stephen thought he recognized that voice. He felt the anger surging from it. Readying himself, he stepped out from under the stairway and looked up to the opening of the next floor. An Illager stared down at him. This one had golden threads woven into the arms and chestplate of his armour. Two thick black eyebrows sat above two fierce eyes conveying the rage of seeing someone invade his tower. Iron sword in one hand, iron axe in the other. Stephen had been told about this man. It was their boss. Mason.

"So, you finally came back?" Mason said, slowly walking down the stairs. "And what a fitting scene for your return." Mason gestured to the bodies of the fallen night watch, but Stephen didn't know what he was talking about. He'd never been inside the tower before, so he chose to ignore the question.

"I'm here to see you brought to justice!" Stephen retorted. "No one has the right to go around killing innocent people and destroying entire villages for their own gain." To his surprise Mason let out a hearty chuckle, his lips stretching into a sinister grin.

"What gives you the right to condemn anyone? You! And the Realm Knights abuse and steal the natural resources of this world just as we do. What makes you any different from us!?"

The rage in Mason's voice had been building the longer he spoke and, without waiting for an answer, he launched his axe at Stephen. Raising his sword to block and sliding to the side as an extra precaution, Stephen deflected the axe away and it clanged to the ground. Stephen's gaze shot back to Mason. But the Illager boss had already leapt from the stairs.

Mason arced through the air straight towards Stephen, sword raised. Stephen jumped back and Mason landed, nearly on top of him. The boss' attack barely missing Stephen's chestplate. And then Mason, with sword clutched low in both hands, and seeing Stephen without a proper guard, lunged forward. Thrusting his sword towards Stephen's chest. Stephen barely managed to parry the thrust, pushing Mason aside to create some distance between them. Unfortunately, he had parried on his right, his stronger side, and pushed the boss back towards his fallen axe.