Hal reached the end of the corridor running beside the grand audience hall, coming to the final door. He heard shouts and the clash of steel on steel on the opposite side. The fighting for control of the room had begun.
He turned to Mona and smiled. “You ready?”
“The longer we wait, the more chance it’s Cari that’s getting hurt out there. Besides, we’ve got to get this little girl on the throne.”
Hal nodded and grasped the handle to the door. He pulled the door open and raced through, casting his ice armor spell and drawing his weapons, ready to defend against any guards standing nearby. As soon as he opened the door, the familiar slot machine started whirring and spinning in his head. Time to push his luck.
They were about thirty feet from the dais and the throne. On it stood a man in ornate robes and a tall hat. He must be the Archbishop. There was also another man standing next to him wearing a royal purple velvet robe. That must be Prince Timron, the usurper. The two guards at the rear of the dais were watching the action in the rest of the hall and didn’t see or hear Hal as he slipped up behind them.
Two quick dagger thrusts dealt with the threat they posed.
2,500 experience awarded
2,500 experience awarded
He gestured to Mona to bring the girl up to the dais while he dealt with the usurper. He froze when his eyes fell on a furious sword battle going on in the central aisle in front of the dais. Cari stood, fighting a desperate struggle, holding her ground against the onslaught attacks from the two swordsmen in front of her. One was an ordinary guardsman. The other, based upon his uniform was the Duke’s senior officer, Major Novachik. The Duke stood behind his men watching the fight with Cari.
Cari took multiple blows in rapid succession causing her to backpedal away as she tried to regroup.
The swordsmen didn’t let her get any respite, stepping forward to re-engage with her. Hal winced as he saw his daughter get hit again and again.
“Mona, you’ll have to take care of getting Jaycee where she needs to be. I’ve got to go help Cari before it’s too late.”
“Go,” his wife yelled. “I’ve got this.”
More guardsmen came out of a door opposite from where they’d entered and charged at Mona and the others. Percy moved to stand in front of Jaycee, his cutlass and pistol at the ready while Helen stepped up to stand beside Mona.
While the two women formed a defensive line to protect Jaycee, Hal raced around the dais, ignoring the Archbishop and Prince Timron to attack those fighting his daughter.
Two throwing knives made short work of the guardsman fighting beside the major.
2500 experience awarded
Seeing the guardsman fall, the Duke of Charon turned to see who was attacking them from behind. His eyes fell on Hal. He smiled and saluted with his rapier.
Hal smiled right back at him and nodded in return.
The Duke and Prince Hal charged each other. The Duke’s longer rapier blade started slashing in at Hal’s acrobatic form as he dodged each of the blade’s incoming attacks, trying to get in close enough to attack with his two daggers.
His Grace was an excellent swordsman who knew what he was doing. He seemed to focus his attacks in such a way as to keep Hal at a distance where his daggers could not reach to connect for any sort of damage.
Hal could afford to take his time now, realizing he had taken some of the pressure off Cari. More guardsmen were coming to help their leaders but they weren’t here yet. He was content to circle in this dance of blades with the Duke. He’d find an opening soon enough. His uncanny luck would ensure that.
In Hal’s head, the rattling slot machine rolled on. It signaled something was about to happen that would require his unique brand of luck. He had to be ready.
Holding onto the hope that luck was in his favor, Hal rolled to the right and came up lunging forward to the full extent of his reach to plunge the tip of his dagger into the Duke of Charon’s leading thigh. A grunt of pain and a splash of red blood on his cream-colored trousers told Hal he’d finally connected for a solid hit.
The Duke didn’t let the minor wound distract him. Hal had overextended himself and the Duke took advantage of it. Hal winced as the fine point of the Duke’s rapier blade slid through a crevice in his ice armor at his shoulder staining the clear armor red with his blood.
Health damage — health -12
Hal pulled back from his lunge and nodded at the Duke. They both managed to draw blood in the same stroke.
“Let’s see how many of those each of us can take. I’m willing to bet that I can absorb more damage than you can. After all, I’m the legendary Prince Hal, come back from the dead. Care to try your luck with me, Your Grace?”
“I don’t have to wager, Prince Hal. I just have to hold out long enough for my reinforcements to arrive. I anticipated this attack. There’s a full company of a hundred guards in the barracks outside. They’re already on their way in to join with my forces in the audience hall.”
As if his revelation caused it to come about, the doors burst open on the far side of the hall and a horde of fresh guardsmen rushed in to fall upon the already beleaguered Dragoons fighting in the audience hall.
The surge of the Duke’s guardsmen running into the audience hall moved forward and the Duke stepped back as a squad of five of his soldiers moved into place to protect their master.
Hal backed up, parrying attack after attack until he found himself fighting side by side with his daughter against the fresh troops. His daughter’s weapons and battle style melded in a strange way with his own to build a mutual defense against the overwhelming odds. Major Novachik had broken off fighting as well and rejoined the Duke, heading back towards the dais.
“Cari, we need to break one of us free. The Duke and the major are going to stop mom and Jaycee from getting to the throne.”
“Give me just a few more seconds, Dad, and I’ll power up and take out some of these guards. When I do that, you head back towards the dais.”
“Power up?” Hal asked as he parried another pair of sword thrusts. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t worry about that, you’ll see soon enough. Just be ready.”
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be right behind you.”
The two of them continued to fight side-by-side. A few attacks managed to slip through his armor and defenses.
Health damage — health -8
Health damage — health -5
Cari called out to her father. “Now, Dad, get ready. I am going to activate.”
It would help to know what she meant, but he assumed it was something that would somehow distract the guards allowing him to break free.
He glanced at the dais. Mona was engaged in a furious sword battle with Prince Timron. The Duke and his major headed that way as well. Helen fought a desperate fight against three opponents. Percy had backed Jaycee against the back of the Crystal Throne and stood before her with his cutlass out, fending off one of the guardsmen. The boy had a bloody gash on his forehead.
Hal needed to break away. Whatever Cari planned, she needed to do it now.
Then it happened.
Cari’s outline sort of blurred out as she made her move.
One second she was standing next to him, the next she became a whirling speed demon, moving impossibly fast, faster than the eye could follow, causing her to continually be out of focus.
She slashed and thrust again and again, attacking with both her sword and dagger darting out at impossible speeds.
All around her, the guardsmen who’d outnumbered them moments before started to fall to the ground, dead and dying from lethal precision strikes. The other guards around her began to back away from the spinning machine of death bearing down on them.
Hal took a step backward then turned and ran toward the dais. His heart sank as he saw Mona held by two guardsmen now with Prince Timron’s sword blade at her throat. Young Jaycee was held as well, a guardsman pinning her arms behind her. The little girl was crying. Percy lay unmoving at her feet.
The Duke and his major stood on the dais now. They both turned back to Hal with grins on their faces. They apparently believed they’d won the day.
Hal knew better. His slot machine was still whirling away meaning he still had a chance to bring his luck into play.
He just had to figure out how.