Chapter 19: The Ruler stepped on a trap 1

With Leonine dead as well, there was no time to lose. I motioned to Sarjay to follow, and we took off at a sprint along the palace corridors. Aside from the odd maid and floor sweepers, they were completely deserted. Was the place usually this empty or had they just gone to see what the fuss was all about? It took a couple of turns to realize I had little idea where I was going. 

Coming to a dead stop, I touched a nearby maid's shoulder to get her attention. She had been lost in thought, dusting the mural of a former duke and completely startling the poor woman.

I felt bad about scaring her, but she was here and I needed directions.

"Where can I find Court Mage Thaos?" I demanded, trying not to be too forceful because she was scared enough already. 

The maid blanched, opening her mouth to speak but only gaping ineffectively, much like a fish. 

"Well?" I tried again.

"H-he lives in his tower, in the n-north-eastern corner," she finally stammered, uncertainly. "Just follow this hallway, take a right at the end, then the first left and it's right at the end of the hallway."

I murmured a thank you and set off again.

"Did you get that?" I heard Sarjay ask from behind me. "'Cause I already forgot."

I snorted. "Just follow me."

Our run was quite right until we reached the final corridor. As soon as we made the turn, doors on both sides burst open to release a company of guardsmen in our way.

I turned my head around to where we came, hoping to see it still clear, but another company emerged from a room in the corridor we'd just left, boxing us in.

It was a well-executed trap, I had to admit, but we were not going to go down so easily.

Sarjay had already positioned himself in a defensive stance, his back almost touching mine. He was holding that sword of his, where did he even keep the thing? I could have sworn he wasn't carrying it with him.

At least, with the two of us, we had all directions covered. I readied myself, bringing threads of Force to my fingertips. I debated using Soul, but I wanted to minimize casualties, and Soul attacks were seldom non-fatal. Mind was right out, using it against well-aware opponents was unreliable at best.

"Try to disable, not kill, but don't hold back if you feel in danger," I murmured low enough that only Sarjay could hear it.

"Why aren't they attacking?"

That was a good question. Were they afraid? Or were they stalling for something?

The answer soon became irrelevant as the front row of guardsmen — four in all, as the hallway was not very wide — exploded into motion. They all charged in concert, denying me any space with which to dodge. Their fellows behind them advanced as well, ready to step in should they get the chance.

As I wove half the Force I held into a kinetic burst meant to knock them away, I realized that the cramped corridors were not doing the guardsmen any favors. They could only charge us four at a time on each side, and I could use this, couldn't I?

I unleashed the working, aiming for my attackers' legs, making them stumble back into the advancing column. This gave me a precious few moments to think.

I spared a glance behind me to check on my companion. Sarjay could not use magic, so his defense relied solely on his swordsmanship — and yet, he held his own surprisingly well. He had figured out how to leverage his infinite stamina into deceptively fast bursts of movement that, in spite of his heavy armor, allowed him to be seemingly everywhere at once. He wasn't pushing them back, but they weren't gaining ground either. Given his pitiful demonstration barely a week earlier, it was an almost unheard-of progress. Was this the power of Heroes, then?

I focused on the fight before me. I had a number of ideas to disable the guardsmen — maybe creating a stampede? Moments later, I had my solution, and I grinned inwardly at its simplicity.

I wove my remaining threads of Force — and continuously drawing new ones — into simple, normal heat, and dumped it around me with reckless abandon. It went unnoticed for the first few moments, and the guards facing me had recovered in the meantime and began their second attack. I was still using most of my mana throughput to dump heat around, so I had barely a couple of thin threads available to force three of the attackers to narrowly miss.

The fourth got me good in my bony abdomen, crushing some bones and soon fixed and back to normal had my body not been a mana construct. As it was, it merely stung like hell, but I was able to use the guardsman's surprise to land a Force-empowered fist into his chest. He crashed heavily into one of his friends, and I could already see the end of the battle in sight

I heard a confused "What the fuck?" coming from behind me, as the guardsmen began to collapse on their own, seemingly out of nowhere. I waited a few more seconds and stopped dumping heat into the room, and switched my mana draw to Matter. Haphazardly throwing around threads imbued with the intent to bind, I had the guardsmen's armors stuck to the floor. Hopefully. I wasn't at all good with Matter, but I hoped the intent would make up for the lack of a proper spell framework.

"Heat, my dear knight," I explained to my confused companion. "Heatstroke in armor is quite unpleasant, I'm told, but temperatures like this have little effect on us undead." I finished with a smile and began trudging through the fallen company. The heat would disperse quickly through the hallways, and it was best to make ourselves scarce before they came to.

"Huh. That's smart."

A quick body count revealed there had been around forty of them involved in the ambush — a majority of the palace guard, I believed. I found it a bit baffling — why were they not spread out and searching for the Viscountess's killer? How did they know to ambush me on the way to the Court Mage's tower? Actually, was I even the actual target or were they expecting someone else? So many questions, so few answers. With a bit of luck, we'd get at least some of the mystery solved once we reached Thaos.