Page 84 of House of Ydril

And just like that, it begins. All the red knights charge straight at me and my own soldiers, making me freeze in place.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

It’s only when they’re already in front of us and the red leader stops to swing his massive stone sword at me that I realize I need to get moving.

My heart threatening to burst out of my ribcage, I lunge to my right, dodging the attack and crashing into one of the blue knights.

As quickly as I can, I straighten up and get into the position to attack. I keep swinging my scimitar at the red knight in front of me, but I don’t do any damage. I barely manage to dodge its attacks.

But at least now that I’m moving, my own soldiers seem to be coming to life. All around me, red and blue knights start fighting, their stone swords creating a low, thunderous noise as they slam into each other.

And my soldiers seem to be protecting me, creating a sort of barrier between me and the enemy, but one still manages to get through.

I barely have time to lift my scimitar before its sword cuts into my flesh. I curse out loud, take a wobbly step back and watch one of the blue knights cut it in half, the red stone crumbling to the ground before me.

It’s fine, I think to myself as I grit my teeth and throw a quick glance at my shoulder. It’s just a surface wound. I’ll be fine.

As I keep dodging the attacks, each more ferocious than the last, I force myself to focus. I see three of six blue knights shattered on the ground.

If I don’t do something fast, I’m going to fucking die.

I guess I’ll have no choice but to use my magic.

Fuck.

Stepping behind one of my own soldiers, I stop for a second and tap the Element Rune, visualizing Earth. The idea is to blast all the stone around me to pieces and be done with it.IfI can manage it.

But absolutely nothing happens, as if the stone isn’t reacting to my magic at all. I frown, but then I see another red knight charging at me with its sword raised high.

I draw in a panicked breath and tap the Element Rune again, trying to avoid the attack by using Air instead of Earth.

Once again, nothing happens and I freeze, the knight already swinging its sword at me.

The next thing I know, one of my own lunges before me, cuts the attacker in half and comes crumbling to the ground.

I’ll never make it to the other side, I think to myself as I glance at the pillar. It seems to be just as far away as it was when this started, I’m down to only two knights and to make things worse, it seems that something’s blocking my control of the elements.

That thought makes me glance at the weapon in my hand. I invoke Sight and my vision sharpens and blurs all at once. I see the blood magic in the scimitar drawing power out of my body.

So it’s supposed to helpandmake it worse. Perfect.

As yet another red knight takes a swing at me, I let out an angry grunt. I try to dodge the attack, but its blade manages to slice into my waist.

I fall to the ground and I cry out, my hand darting to my waist, where I feel hot blood starting to gush out. I hear the people in the crowd gasp, but I focus all my attention on crawling away, with gritted teeth, as quickly as possible.

Pain searing the entire left side of my body, I take cover behind the last of my own knights and I try to fling the scimitar away, hoping to break the spell. But it just stays stuck to my hand.

I don’t have time to keep trying because a horrifying sound makes me look up and I see the knight I took cover behind come crashing to the ground.

And just like that, I’m left alone with the five remaining red knights.

Shit, this isnotgood. I’m on my knees, panting, dizzy and in terrible pain. And the red leader is walking up to me, his sword held high.

My heart skips a beat and I close my eyes shut, imagining the sword cutting into me.

Fear threatens to overwhelm me, but instead of letting it paralyze me, I shut my eyes and take a deep, forceful breath. I sense energy align all around me, flooding me with such a tremendous feeling of connection witheverythingthat, for a second, I think it’s going to fry my fucking brain.

I open my eyes and just as the red leader is about to bring his sword down on me, I feel the power rush back into my body and I tap the Element Rune.

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