To the Top

Ice spikes continued to fall, not letting a single opportunity for us to run for the tower through the bridge... Maybe the only way to win this was to patiently wait, the chance was bound to appear sooner or later... But maybe not soon enough...

"Dagger... We have to do something, now!", Jeffrey said, looking to the ground around us. The ice spikes had started to melt, becoming water... And it was behaving suspiciously, the wizards were most likely controlling it from afar.

"Alright, here's the plan... I will throw a piece of this uncomfortable armor, distracting the wizards for a time. When that happens, we grad the bodies of the soldiers and use them as shields from the ice spikes", I said to Jeffrey and he nodded, agreeing with the plan.

The fastest I could, I took off my armor... Wear armor that was not designed for your body was way too uncomfortable, so it was a great relief to finally be free from it. It remembered me a little of my old armor, which I lost in a very hot situation, unlike this cold one.

Once ready, I threw the forearm armor away, the farthest away I could and I don't know what happened with it, but my focus was on the plan, getting one of the bodies and raising it as a shield, doing exactly how Jeffrey was doing, with the fox on the shoulder bag.

The corpses were heavy, mainly when they were wearing Roseblood armor on them, but it was worth it, with the armor just adding more to our shield protection against the spikes.

When we were halfway through the bridge, the spikes stopped coming down at us, and I took a peek to see what was happening from behind our shield and at the top of the tower, a powerful jet of water came out, coming right at us.

"Jeffrey, run!", I shouted to him while dropping the body and hurrying to get to the other side of the bridge. Noticing me run past him, he did the same, abandoning the corpse there and running just right behind me.

The jet missed us by just a little bit, but we could see how strong it was by the way some of the bricks of the bridge's railing were taken away, together with one of the corpses... But it didn't stop there, the jet made a turn and was redirected at us.

"Get down!", Jeffrey shouted, and I did so, jumping on the floor while the jet passed right above me. It seemed like the jet wasn't continuous... It looked like a water snake-like dragon, flying through the skies, making continuous curves, just so it could hit us.

After countless dodges and near-misses, we reached the base of the tower... But of course, the large doors of the tower were locked and the water dragon was still coming for us.

The solution was simple enough, the dragon came at us and we jumped to the side, letting it open the door for us... The dragon managed to do a curve at the last minute... But instead of opening the door, it ended making a hole in the wall, which was already enough.

Quickly, I pulled Jeffrey with me to inside the tower, as he was too distracted focusing on the dragon, and in the door... Once inside, the dragon did a mistake, entering through the hole to chase but too fast to stop before hitting one of the inner walls. Having disappeared, it caused a second hole, through which water started to come out.

"Looks like a water reservatory... And we just made it leak its water...", Jeffrey commented while seeing the insane amount of water getting out, forming a layer of water over the floor, and leaving through the space under the door.

"We should get out of here before the wizards come... We don't want to fight them in a place filled with the element that the crystal powers them...", I suggested and ran away from there, getting up on the tower with Jeffrey and Beech right behind me.

The tower was strangely empty through the floors... But soon it was clear why, they had all gathered at the top, waiting for us with devilish smiles on their faces... I guess they wanted to take on us with all they had...

"It was impressive that you made through the bridge... But your foolish attack ends here!", one of the wizards said and then attempted to attack us, getting the water from inside what seemed to be a strange structure with pipes... No water came out, however.

"What the? What did you two do?", the wizard asked angrily to us, while another of them opened the structure and looked deep into it.

"There's no water here, sir... And there's a hole in the bottom of the reservatory...", just as he said that the fox sneakily and quickly got out of the shoulder back, pushing the wizard down into the reservatory.

The other wizards reacted by trying to throw water at Beech, but without their precious reservatory filled, it seemed like we had the upper hand and so we started our strike, clashing our swords against the magic staves. They were very high-quality, made out of some kind of metal that could deflect against our swords.

The upper hand, however, was quickly lost... Wanting or not, they still had the power of the crystal at their side and they started to use the water of the seas against us.

Fight so many enemies at the same time while also being careful to dodge the water was extremely difficult, we ended up losing ground and being cornered close to the edge of the tower... But just as one of the wizards tried to approach me, possibly planning to push me, I pushed him instead, leading him to his doom.

"Wait a minute...", a voice echoed... In the big crystal, a face appeared. A very unfamiliar face, but possibly famous among the Roseblood, as some of the wizards bowed in respect to it, while the others kept an eye on the cornered us.

"Look, the wizards told me what was the situation... And I was it how you held against them pretty well through this crystal. I am the emperor of Roseblood and your abilities have spoken with the skill of my warriors...", he said, with a slight smile and bowing his head a little, in respect.

"I will be very direct with you, if you can stand against my warriors like that, I believe that recruit you would be more than worth to cover the costs we had here... And it will be a great chance for you too... Learn about our great military, receive special training as the first woman in our army... Damn, imagine the riches and reputation..."

"Well, finished already? I am not interested in joining the Roseblood army... Not today, not tomorrow, not ever", I said, standing for my point of view... And his face turned into one of seriousness and anger.

"As you wish them... Kill her! And after that, take care of the rebels, they must not escape our waters!", he ordered and disappeared... But just as the wizards prepared to push us down the tower, an arrow hit one of them through the head. Enjoying the distraction it caused, we caught some of the wizards off guard, impaling them with our swords and throwing them off the tower.

After dividing into two groups, they panicked. The mysterious helped was an female archer and a winged knight, both on the same pegasus... The wizards were still processing why the pegasus knight was attacking them. They still fought back, however... Missing miserably the fast-flying targets.

When the chaos was resolved, the winged knight landed beside us and explained... He's a traitor, a rebel spy within the winged knights of Roseblood and he came to our aid after the ship was stolen, with a rebel archer on the back of the pegasus. With the battle at the tower complete, the winged knight took us to the stolen ship, taking the archer first, then Jeffrey and Beech, and lastly me.

The tower was destroyer once we were safe, cannonballs crushing against the walls, destroying the structure, and taking it down. As a bonus, the rebels also took the bridge down, blocking the inlet partially behind us and possibly difficulting other future attempts of building the tower again...

"The victory is ours! May Roseblood fall!", the rebels celebrated as we sailed away... And I couldn't help but smile, we really punished the Roseblood forces today... But above all, we were getting back to the continent... I just hope it's not too late to get the four elements back.