Ezekiel, Bear, Aqua, Suko, Kairi, Tokuda, Rina, and Mia all made their way towards the tunnel that they had dug underneath the castle. Taking the long way around added some extra time, but it was a necessary precaution to ensure they didn't alert the human army of their presence and accidentally set off a trap of theirs. Everyone knew that they had to make it quick or else everything would crumble before them in an instant, and no one wanted to see that. With this in mind, they made haste, running as fast as they could.
They quickly reached the tunnel, and to their surprise, none of the guards on the walls of the castle saw them. Ezekiel breathed a sigh of relief, happy that the distraction was working to their advantage. Ezekiel looked back at the forest to see that the battle had indeed started. Even from the distance Ezekiel was standing, he could hear the sounds of war erupting from the forest: swords clashing, magic traps being activated, and the shouts of those fighting courageously. However, if all goes according to the plan, the Freedom Legion shouldn't even have to engage in actual combat, and instead rely solely on their traps and ambushes. Ezekiel quickly prayed for their success on the battlefield and made his way inside of the tunnel, followed closely behind the others.
Ezekiel used his wind sphere to finish drilling out the other side of the hole. He tried to limit the noise he was making as he knew that the guards would be more alert now that they knew there was an attack happening. The others were behind Ezekiel, waiting in anticipation. After a couple of minutes of softly drilling away, the hole opened up, revealing sunlight. Ezekiel quickly poked his head out, took a quick look around, and realized that it was a rather lifeless castle at the moment. Must be due to most of the castle guards fighting against the Freedom Legion, thought Ezekiel. Ezekiel got out of the tunnel and motioned for the others to follow him. They all quickly climbed out of the tunnel and proceeded with the path that they had agreed on with Victoria.
Meanwhile, back at the battlefield, Lionel was commanding the attack that occurred after the traps were set off and the archer ambushers did their job. So far, it seemed to be going well, as the enemy didn't expect there to be so many traps and ambushes in the forest. The number of soldiers in the human army was reduced due to the traps and ambushes, but the human army still had the advantage of numbers. The human army seemed to be in a confused state, unsure of how the Freedom Legion would attack next, but yet they pressed forward. This is the best way to win without our side suffering too many casualties, thought Lionel. Lionel then saw some of the soldiers retreating from the forest, making their way back to the other side of the river. Lionel quickly blew a war horn, which was the signal to begin electrocuting the water. A few demi-humans near the river began ripping open the bags of salt that were purchased by Ezekiel and dumping the salt into the river, and the salt flowed along with the river, spreading it out. Then, the demi-humans brought out the battery that Ezekiel had stashed in some nearby bushes and did as they were told by Ezekiel. They quickly put the ends of the battery into the river, careful as to not shock themselves in the process. The electricity spread very quickly across the river, and it electrocuted all those who attempted to cross it.
Lionel saw this and was amazed that it actually seemed to work. He remembered a small conversation about it with Ezekiel when discussing strategy, where Ezekiel explained to him what would happen. The iron armor the human army wears is a great conductor of electricity, and that armor has to be touching skin somewhere on their body. Getting electrocuted with my battery while wearing armor like that is never a good time. Since the river is a freshwater river, it's not the greatest at conducting electricity, but throw some salt in there to make it a saltwater river, and you've got yourself a deadly electric trap. The human army won't even know what hit them! And it would seem that Ezekiel was quite right about that, as now the human army had nowhere to run to. They were caught between the forest of traps with the advancing Freedom Legion and the deadly electric river that meant instant death if they attempted to cross it. However, Lionel remembered that there was a time limit to the thing he called a 'battery' and he didn't want to use it this early in the battle. Lionel thought all was well until he heard a loud laugh coming from the forest, then Barron darted out of the forest on top of his horse. Barron grinned as he cut his way through to where Lionel was. Lionel drew his sword, ready to take on Barron.
Back inside the castle, Ezekiel and the others made their way through the castle grounds, occasionally hiding to avoid the human army patrols that were still roaming about inside the castle. Soon, they found themselves a little bit outside of the main part of the castle, which was where the king's throne room was. The main entrance was surrounded by guards, but nothing that Ezekiel couldn't handle. He quietly said, "Kairi, Aqua, Mia, Rina, we need to take them out quietly with ranged magic attacks. Think you all can do that?" Kairi, Aqua, Mia, and Rina nodded, then prepared their ranged magic attacks. Ezekiel prepared his own magic and quietly said, "Now!" They all fired their magic at the same time, and all the guards were quickly taken out without much commotion, as the only sounds were the small noises made of armor and weapons hitting the floor. Ezekiel looked around, and seeing no one else around, quickly made his way to the front entrance of the castle, and everyone else followed his lead.
The main entrance was just an open doorway, making it easy to simply walk on in. Now they were really inside of the lion's den, as they realized that there were even more guards inside than there were outside. Before any of the guards noticed them, Ezekiel and his party quickly hid out of sight, and Ezekiel began racking his brain so he could figure out what to do next. He remembered that Victoria said that she would cause a distraction for them once inside, but how in the hell was she supposed to know once they were inside of the castle if they just snuck in? Ezekiel thought long and hard about it until Bear asked, "We've made it this far, so why not make a little noise and bust some heads?" Tokuda grinned, saying, "I can agree with that." Suko also looked excited, saying, "I agree with that as well!" Ezekiel scratched his head, then the answer came to him. Ezekiel said, "You three can be our distraction, then. Go cause some chaos in the castle, and we'll sneak in and try to kidnap the king. Don't take too long, though, and meet us up at the king's throne room so we can all get out of here quickly." Bear, Tokuda, and Suko nodded, and the three of them began shouting and hollering, trying to get the attention of all the guards onto them. Ezekiel, Kairi, Aqua, Rina, and Mia then began making their way towards the king's throne room.
Ezekiel realized that this place was much more complex than he imagined. He remembered the way to go, but sometimes there would be a pathway that Victoria hadn't mentioned, and Ezekiel would sometimes second-guess himself as to whether or not he truly memorized the way to go. Ezekiel then realized that they were actually lost inside of the castle due to Ezekiel overthinking it, and he broke the news to the girls. Kairi exclaimed, "God, you're such an idiot! If I was leading, we wouldn't have this issue!" Ezekiel looked rather shocked, as that wasn't the reaction he was expecting to get. Aqua stammered, "H-He tried! H-H-He did his best, and i-it's not his fault!" Rina looked around, saying, "At least we're inside the castle, so we're in the right area at least." Mia then said, "This is a task for the fallen goddess Mia! Skeleton, arise! Show us the way!" Then, a few skeletons appeared from the ground and began quietly searching the rooms one by one, and the only sound they made was the rattle of their bones as they moved around. After the skeletons searched for a few minutes, the skeletons came back and reported to her. It was mainly just a bunch of clicking and clacking of bones, and Ezekiel asked, "You can understand them?" Mia smiled proudly, saying, "Of course! I am a fallen goddess, you ignorant mortal!" Ezekiel chuckled, then asked, "Well, did they find anything?" Mia pointed down the hallway and said, "They haven't found the king's throne room, but they did find Victoria. Victoria told us to meet her there, and she'll show us the way." This is a bit different than what we had planned, but I suppose it'll do, thought Ezekiel, as he began following behind Mia.
While the others were searching the castle for the king, Bear, Tokuda, and Suko were engaged in a friendly competition. Bear headbutted a guard with extreme force, knocking him out, saying, "17!" Tokuda slashed down two guards quickly, tightly gripping his katana in his mouth, saying, "20!" Suko then hardened his arms and punched a guard in the face, sending him flying, then said, "15! Dammit! I'm so behind!" Suddenly, reinforcements showed up, and one of the guards shouted, "Surrender! Put down your weapons!" Bear looked at Suko, pointed at the guards, and said, "There's your chance to catch up, Suko! You better hurry before Tokuda and I take all the kills!" Tokuda glanced over at Bear, saying, "Before 'we' take all the kills? You mean before 'I' take all the kills." Bear chuckled, saying, "Not on my watch," and proceeded to chop down a couple guards with his axe. Tokuda went on a killing spree, and Suko took the opportunity to get his number up so he wouldn't lose to either Bear or Tokuda.
As Ezekiel and the girls made their way through the castle halls, fighting could be heard echoing throughout the castle. Seems like Bear, Tokuda and Suko are doing their job nicely, thought Ezekiel. Soon, they arrived where Victoria told them to meet her, and she was there as well, leaning on the wall. Once Victoria saw them, she quickly straightened herself up to look more like a proper maid and quickly said, "I see that the plan was altered a tiny bit?" Ezekiel chuckled, saying, "It looks like it. We've got some good fighters causing a distraction." Victoria then said, "Good. This will help us for when we kidnap the king." Ezekiel then asked, "Can you lead the way?" Victoria nodded, saying, "Follow me." With everyone following close behind Victoria, they all made their way to the king's throne room.
Once outside of the king's throne room, Victoria said, "Hide somewhere close by. I'll need to get the guards out of the room before we can proceed with our plan." Ezekiel nodded, then told the girls to hide close by. Once everyone was hidden, Victoria rushed into the room, leaving the door open, and she exclaimed, "We have intruders in the castle! I spotted them in the main hallway! Please, stop them!" Suddenly, a lot of footsteps could be heard, and Ezekiel peeked out from his hiding spot to see that a good number of guards were leaving the room. Once the guards were completely out of sight, Ezekiel and the girls slowly came out of their hiding spots, looking around to make sure no guards decided to linger about. Victoria hadn't come out of the room yet, so Ezekiel assumed that they were simply supposed to enter the room. Ezekiel took a deep breath, exhaled, then turned to the girls, asking, "Are you all ready?" The girls nodded, ready as they would ever be. Ezekiel then said, "I'll try to reason with him first, try to get him to surrender before we decide to kidnap him. Got it?" The girls nodded in response. With that, Ezekiel quickly opened the door to the king's throne room.
Back on the battlefield, Lionel prepared to face a charging Barron, who was grinning like a madman. As the horse charged at Lionel, he quickly sidestepped and stabbed the horse, and the horse and Barron crashed to the ground. Barron made a quick recovery and got back onto his feet quickly. Barron looked over at his dead horse, then back at Lionel and said, "I'll gut you like you did to my horse!" Barron moved with surprising speed, as he quickly closed the gap between himself and Lionel and brought his axe down on Lionel. It took all the strength in Lionel's body to block Barron's powerful attack. Shit, he's stronger than I thought, thought Lionel, as he quickly shoved Barron's axe to the side and jumped back, putting space between them. Barron stumbled a little bit, and Lionel took that opportunity to try to find a weak spot in Barron's armor. He thought he saw an opening and took it, but Barron reacted quick, as he quickly recovered his balance and punched Lionel with his free hand, sending him stumbling a few feet back. Barron brought down his axe once more, and Lionel blocked the axe, but he was brought to his knees, struggling to keep blocking the axe above his head. Barron laughed, saying, "This is the best that the leader of the Freedom Legion can do? Tokuda would prove to be a better challenge!" Barron then spit on Lionel, and Lionel found the energy to quickly sidestep, narrowly avoiding the axe once more. Lionel quickly wiped Barron's spit off of himself then angrily said, "Your opponent is me, not Tokuda." Lionel then heard the screams of the Freedom Legion soldiers, and Lionel looked in the direction of the forest. Human army magic users were now taking control of the battlefield, slaughtering those who couldn't fight back with magic. The battery had also run out of electricity, so the human army forces trapped on the other side of the river could now cross safely. Lionel realized that they had lost this battle, and nothing had gone according to plan. Barron smiled coldly and said, "Confident, are we now? Taking your eyes off your opponent during a battle?" Barron laughed as Lionel looked back at Barron and prepared to charge once again. Barron then said in a mocking tone, "Still willing to fight a losing battle? I'd rather fight a true human warrior like Tokuda than some dirty demi-human warrior wanna-be!" Lionel charged at Barron, angry at being insulted. Barron swung his axe, and Lionel blocked, but Lionel's sword was sliced in half, and the blade of the sword landed in the dirt a few feet away from them. Lionel could only stare at the broken sword in disbelief. He has so much power, he broke my sword? Impossible. Just who in the hell are we dealing with, thought Lionel. Barron laughed, saying, "Glory to the human army!" Lionel, not wanting all of his efforts to go to vain, roared like a lion in anger and rushed Barron head-on with his broken sword, wanting to at least kill Barron before their certain retreat. However, Barron quickly sidestepped, stabbing Lionel with something on the right side of his body. Lionel stood motionless for a moment, attempting to process what had happened. Then, he fell to his knees, and looking at his right side, he saw that it was the tip of his own sword that was stuck inside of him. Lionel coughed up blood, then fell to the ground face first, and Barron kicked Lionel's body over to where Lionel's face was facing upwards. Barron towered over him, laughing as Lionel felt the life in his body fade away. Barron then got close to Lionel's face, twisting the sword tip stick in Lionel. Lionel cried out in pain, and Barron laughed even harder. Barron then said, "Dying by my axe is too good for you. My axe doesn't deserve your blood. It deserves the blood of a true warrior, but you are no warrior. You brought this death upon yourself when you raised a sword against the might of the human army!" Lionel used the last of his breath to shout out one word as loudly as he could, "RETREAT!" The Freedom Legion began retreating, and Barron grinned with glee as he saw the life in Lionel's eyes fade from existence. Barron wiped his hands to clean his hands of Lionel's blood and chuckled as the Freedom Legion began retreating. A human army soldier came up to Barron and asked, "General, they're retreating. Shall we pursue?" Barron gleefully said, "No. Let them run. It gives those ants a chance to try again and get their numbers back up. When they come to attack me again, I'll have fun slaughtering even more of them." The human army soldier hesitantly said, "I see. I shall give the order to withdraw for now, General." Barron then grinned evilly and said to himself, "I'll be waiting for you, Tokuda!"
Back at the castle, Ezekiel and the girls were met with a very grand room, not just in size but in how grand it felt, like a true throne room for a king. A voice shouted, "Stop! Who are you, trespassers?! Assassins?!" Ezekiel and the girls turned in the direction of the voice and saw that there was an old man with a golden crown sitting on the throne. The old man was dressed in red robes, had long gray hair, and a nice grey beard. Ezekiel thought he recognized him from his Book of Knowledge and calmly asked, "You are King Ziam, commander of the human army, right?" The man on the throne replied, "I am, and I will not retreat in the face of assassins!" Ezekiel quickly said, "We're not here to assassinate you, King Ziam. We just want to talk." King Ziam looked over at Victoria, who was doing a rather good job of acting like she didn't know them. She was hiding in the corner of the room, acting too afraid to do anything against the "assassins" that had entered the throne room. King Ziam asked, "You conspired with them, didn't you, Miss Victoria?" Victoria's eyes widened in disbelief, exclaiming, "I would never conspire against your lordship!" King Ziam didn't seem to buy it, but he faced forward again at Ezekiel and asked, "You seem to have gone through a lot of trouble just to talk to me alone. What is it that you wished to discuss, and why?" Ezekiel then calmly asked, "We just want you to surrender. No one else needs to have their blood spilled over a race war such as this." King Ziam immediately said, "No. I cannot do that, I'm afraid." Ezekiel then said, "Please. Surrender while you still can. There's still enough time to do that." King Ziam then said, "I cannot surrender, no matter what you tell me. If that is all, then leave." Ezekiel shouted, "Why do you not surrender?! Do you not care about the lives of your men, the ones you swore to rule over and protect as your duty as a king?! They are dying because of this petty race war!" King Ziam had no response to this, as he simply stared at Ezekiel with nothing to say. Ezekiel then asked, "Do you want to be responsible for having blood on your hands?" King Ziam quietly said, "I already have enough blood on my hands. From the Humanity War, at least." Ezekiel then realized that King Ziam was also in charge of the human army during that time and has been for quite some time. King Ziam then looked at Ezekiel dead in the eyes and said, "And that is why I must finish what I started. To ensure that those sacrifices weren't in vain. To ensure that humans get our revenge on the demi-humans who poisoned our human elders. If I surrender now, those lives that were lost will have had no real reason to die." Ezekiel shouted, "That's so petty! You've already done more than enough in terms of revenge! Why can't you just forgive them and move on?" King Ziam looked lost in thought for a moment, then quietly muttered, "Forgiveness?" King Ziam seemed to remember something, although he did not speak of it. Ezekiel didn't hear what he said, but Ezekiel then said, "If you won't surrender now, we will have to drag you out of the castle and make you surrender." King Ziam still looked lost in thought, but King Ziam suddenly looked a bit different. He looked more in control of himself and more capable of rational thought. Life seemed to return to his eyes, almost as if he was controlled by something before. While this was occurring, Bear, Tokuda, and Suko quietly entered the throne room, unsure of what exactly what unfolding in front of them. King Ziam looked up at Ezekiel and quietly muttered, "Oh god, what have I done?" King Ziam seemed to be in distress when he said, "We must end this war swiftly! There's a greater threat abound than either humans or demi-humans!" Ezekiel quickly asked, "What do you mean, a 'greater threat?'"
King Ziam was about to answer Ezekiel's question when suddenly, his body jolted a bit as if getting electricity pumped into him. Everyone looked at King Ziam in shock, and King Ziam looked down to see that a hand was sticking out through his chest, and in the hand was his own heart. King Ziam's eyes widened in surprise, and King Ziam began coughing up blood. The hand crushed King Ziam's heart and dropped it to the floor. King Ziam then slumped forward, dead immediately. Then, Victoria walked out from behind the throne, with a bloody left hand. She gave a crazed smiled at Ezekiel and his party, then licked the blood off of her fingers.114Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKXiaqGeye
