--Urgent Notice: Multiple bands of Night Army Scouting parties have been seen around Larit. All Adventurers are asked to take special note of any suspicious individuals. Quests pertaining to the known camps have been posted as Urgent Quests.--
Great, that's all I need. These lot are bound to jump on this like wild animals.
Still, Urgent quests do have higher rewards. Maybe it'd be worth checking them out for now...
"No chance." Surprisingly, it's Emerald that shoots down my suggestion. "We're about as new as new can be. I know I talk a big game about heroics, but I'm not throwing myself at the Night King's army just yet."
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you're only refusing because I'm the one who suggested it." I complain. "I've one-shot every enemy we've fought so far, remember? I think I can handle a few scouts."
"Why do you care all of a sudden? Don't tell me you've had a change of heart." Emerald deadpans.
"Nah, I just want to boost my EXP a bit quicker, y'know? They won't let me take on the quests with any real reward until I'm a higher level."
"As impure as his intentions are, I agree with Darius' plan, if nothing else." Aura says. "Is it not our duty as Adventurers to battle with the Night King's army at every turn?"
"N-Not really..." Claire mumbles. "I think it's to dangerous as we are now."
"Again, one-shot everything I fight." I say. "If you're scared, you can hide behind me."
"Don't go acting all cool just because your willing to get off your butt for once!" Emerald scolds me. Not that I care, obviously. "But... if you're dead set on this, I guess there isn't much I can do to stop you." She grumbles. "But you two are on your own, I'm not risking my life, no matter how much danger you look like your in, got it?"
The Night Army scouts clearly have no intention of being stealthy, considering the fact their flag is flying proudly over their camp, and while Emerald continued to refuse outright to joining us, we did manage to strong-arm Claire into tagging along for any necessary healing.
"Hey, you Night Army dudes!" I call into the camp. "You guys willing to negotiate, or do I have to blow your camp up?"
I hear a slight commotion coming from behind the impromptu gates before a trio of Goblins poke their heads over the wall.
"Blow us up, he says." Goblin #1 mocks.
"Blow us up, indeed?" Goblin #2 repeats.
"Blow us up? The nerve!" Goblin #3 scoffs.
"""We are proud soldiers of the Night King! We will not cower at the empty threats of Daylighters!"""
"Great, a comedy act." I sigh, pointing a finger at the middle goblin. "Well, you've pissed me off now, so the negotiations are off. May the burning electrical heat sear my foes, and, uh... man it's hard coming up with these on the fly..." I trail off. I'd low-key already planned out my chants for the first three Fusion Spells I'd planned to use, but now I didn't expect I'd be doing more than three quests a month, and now I was just ad-libbing, which is probably not a great idea when dealing with forces like magic now that I think about it. "-Uh, sear my foes and rend... no, I've already used 'rend flesh from bone'... Melt them down into... goo? That's not very intimidating..."
"Darius, may I ask what exactly you're doing?" Aura says, a look of concern on her face.
"Quiet down, I'm trying to think." I grumble. "Alright, how about this? Supercharged flames, I call upon thee to incinerate all that stands before me. Burn with the heat of lightning! Gigawatt Flare!"
Electrical sparks dance around my outstretched fingertip, circling around each other, before eventually a ball of flames bursts from the centre, absorbing the sparks and growing to a massive size. "Alright, I'll show you what a Daylighter can do! Which one of you wants to get grilled first?"
"The Unique! He's the Unique!"
"The Unique! Sound the alarm!"
"The Unique! He's really come!"
"""Somebody notify General Vaxyll!""" The goblins all cry out as the ball of electrical fire makes contact with the middle one's head, exploding on impact.
"Ah, so that just happens whenever I fuse fire with something, huh?" I remark as Aura dives in front of me, shield at the ready.
"What were you thinking?" Aura admonishes me. "Testing out such dangerous magic without even warning us?"
"To be fair, if I knew it was dangerous, there wouldn't be much point in testing it at all, would there?"
Before Aura can respond to my (completely sound) argument, a war horn is blown inside the camp.
"Alright, now the real fun starts." I joke, cracking my knuckles before taking up a fighting stance.
"Please take the Night King's army just a little more seriously." Aura admonishes me but still draws her sword.
The gates of the camp open, and a man decked out in full-body black armour strides out, looking over my party. "Which one of you is the Unique?" he asks, his voice so deep it barely registers.
"That'd be me." I say. "Are you the Night King?"
The armoured man laughs. "He wouldn't waste his time on some insignificant little village, even if it did house one of your ilk. I am Vaxyll, general of the Night King and future duke of the Inesrov Region."
Oh, is that how it is? Once the Night King takes over his generals get to rule the different regions?
"I am Darius Crowley. Unique of Larit and current citizen of the Inesrov Region." I say. "And I dunno who the current duke is, but I'm willing to bet he does a better job of ruling than you would. Probably."
Vaxyll allows himself a short laugh. "You certainly have a way with words, Darius Crowley, but are they all you plan on using to stop me?"
"I guess not." Honestly, I just want to get paid, outside of that, it doesn't matter to me whether this dude dies, or leaves of his own accord.
"Then I'll allow you to take the first shot." Vaxyll says, I can practically hear his grin.
"You know. I've killed every enemy I've faced in one shot." I warn. "And you want to give me that for free?"
"I fear no Daylighter." He says. "Unique or not, you are still a mere human."
"Alright then, you asked for it." I say. "Maybe this aught to teach you a lesson in humility before you die." Still, I don't want to embarrass myself in front of one of the Night King Generals, so I'd better not experiment this time. Something tried and true aught to work wonders. "Life and death. Good and evil. Light and shadow. No one can exist without the other, but ne'er shall they be combined, lest all that stand in their way be dissolved to nought. Shadows Cast!"
Just as before, two orbs of black and white energy circle each other, before combining and firing out a beam of energy towards Vaxyll, who foolishly stays stood in the same place. The beam connects and dissipates as the black and white veins of energy begin to form on Vaxyll's armour. "You've got until those marks cover your entire body to say your goodbyes."
"I was under the impression that you were to teach me a lesson in humility before I die." Vaxyll says. "All you have taught me thus far-" Vaxyll lets out a yell, and the markings glow before vanishing with a loud shattering sound. "-is that my men are in need of some intensive training if they were truly bested by you in a single attack." I instinctively take a step backwards. That spell was enough to dissolve an ogre into nothingness, but this guy seriously just shrugged it off like I threw some tepid water on him.
"Now, I believe it is only fair that I counter-attack, no?" Vaxyll winds his arm back, and I expect him to fling his own spell my way, but instead, he punches the air, and his gauntlet comes flying towards me. I'm so shocked by my spell completely failing that the danger doesn't even register until I hear Aura calling my name. She pushes me away and takes the full brunt of the attack, once again shattering her armour in the process. In any other situation, I'd probably make some quip about her buying shoddy armour to indulge some sort of exhibitionism fetish, but even I'm not so dense as to recognise that now, more than ever, is definitely not the time.
"Claire, make sure she's okay!" I command, and the terrified healer wordlessly makes her way over to the (hopefully just) unconscious Aura.
"You have good friends, Darius Crowley." Vaxyll complements me, his gauntlet reattaching to his arm. "It is a shame I will have to kill them as well."
"But it seems I'm not particularly observant." I sigh. "Or do most people mistake you for a well-armoured human, too?"
"The Night King's army has no humans." The living armour scoffs. "I would have thought even a Daylighter such as yourself would know that."
"But if I recall correctly, the soul inside that armour has to have come from somewhere, no?"
"My soul has been bonded to this suit of armour for hundreds of years, any past I may have had before then is irrelevant." Vaxyll says, but I can tell from his voice I'm starting to annoy him. Probably a bad move considering he shrugged off my attack like it was nothing, but I just can't help myself. "But enough prattle. I'll give you a choice, Darius Crowley. Face your death like a man, or die running away, better men than you have chosen the latter."
"Well unfortunately for both of us, I tend to avoid matching people's expectations." I say. "Besides, that wasn't my strongest fusion spell."
"Oh? Going easy on me, were you? Well, by all means, now that you fully understand my capabilities, feel free to go all out, I'll even stand here as I did for your little light show."
"Claire, take Aura and go." I say, before raising my palm towards Vaxyll. "Blazing flames from the depths of the underworld, wreathed in blackest shadow, I command thee; Leave not even ashes in your wake as you forge destruction the likes of which mortal eyes cannot behold! Black Inferno!" I know it's a long shot, but I figure if I'm gonna die either way, I may as well do everything I can to take this guy with me.
"I must say, I have to commend your showmanship if nothing else." Vaxyll muses as he catches the black fire with his hand, crushing it without even flinching from the explosion. "And I will honour your desire to protect your friends by allowing them to leave for now. But I doubt they will survive my assault on Larit."
"Just what are you?" I ask.
"I am Vaxyll, General of the Night King's army and future conqueror of the Inesrov Region." He says, emphasising his newly decided title.
"As well as the Night Princess' babysitter." A woman's voice comes from behind him, and Vaxyll turns on his heel, before taking a knee out of respect for the cloaked figure.
"Night Princess! I had no idea you would be gracing our presence. It is an honour and a pleasure to see you again."
"Stand up, Vaxyll. If I wanted to see you prostrate yourself I would attend my father's court."
"Of course, princess." Vaxyll says, righting himself. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"
"Is this the rumoured Unique?" The Princess looks over to me, at least, I have to assume she is with her hood obscuring her face.
"It is, I was moments away from dispatching him, your highness."
"Don't." The Princess orders.
"I am afraid I cannot do that, Princess. The order to slay any Unique we come across comes directly from your father, I dare not disobey him, even by your command."
"I believe my father specifically ordered you to follow my every command." The Princess scoffs. "It would seem you would be disobeying him no matter what you do. Would you betray one of us, or both? I leave the choice to you." The Princess turns to leave, but not before Vaxyll asks her one final question.
"What reason would you have me spare this man?" He says, a desperation I would have never expected clear in his voice. The Princess leans down to whisper something in his ear, and Vaxyll glares at me. "Him? Truly?" The Princess nods, and Vaxyll lowers his head. "I do hope you are not playing me, princess, that is the one reason you could have given that would change my mind."
With another nod, The Princess vanishes into thin air, and Vaxyll approaches me. "Rejoice, Daylighter. The Night Princess, the sole heir to the throne of Night, has deigned that I spare you. I would ask you not waste this chance by attacking me or my men further. Her protection said nothing of self-defence."
"Oh, believe me, I have zero intentions of pushing my luck." I say, breathing a sigh of relief. "But I have to ask, why did she tell you to let me go?"
"You do not have the right to ask me that." Vaxyll says I'm sure if he had a mouth, I'd be covered in spittle right about now. "Perhaps, though I pray it never happens, if you ever have the honour of meeting the Night Princess again, you can ask her."
"The Night Princess?" Aura gasps when I regale her with the story of my daring escape. As expected, both she and Claire were holed up in the Guild's infirmary, but less so was Emerald's scowling face, ready to greet me with yet another lecture about how I could have gotten Aura killed with my bravado, though as soon as I started explaining how I came to be released, all three went quiet, until I got to the part about my surprising benefactor, of course, since not a single one believed me.
"Look, I understand that it sounds insane-"
"More than insane." Emerald scoffs. "No Daylighter's ever seen the Princess before some people don't even believe she really exists."
"To be fair, I didn't see her, per say. She was wearing a big cloak and her hood obscured her entire face. She whispered something to Vaxyll, and he told me that whatever she said, it was the only thing that could save my life, but refused to pass the message on to me."
"Maybe she told him she loved you." Emerald says with a derisive laugh. "And the fierce general, whose heart was black as pitch, refused to harm his princess' beloved."
"Can you please take this seriously?" Aura frowned.
"Why should I? Darius clearly isn't. He comes back with some insane story about being rescued by a woman who might be nothing more than a story, and you believe him without any proof?"
"He's alive." Aura stated. "That's all the proof I need. Vaxyll didn't seem the type to let people go."
"Actually, as far as Night King Generals go, he seemed pretty noble." I admitted. "He did let you two go."
"We aren't Uniques, the Night King has no bounty on our heads." Aura countered. "And you are the only person I know who would side against himself in an argument."
"You know me, defying any and all expectations." I shrug. "But, as much as I adore bantering with you all, we do still have a problem. Vaxyll's going to take over Inesrov, and I get a feeling he's starting with Larit."
***
"Lord Vaxyll," One of the Goblin soldiers approaches the general. "The Night Princess has left for Dimgithm, shall we continue mounting our forces?"
"No." Vaxyll commands. "I gave the princess my word that no harm would come to that man, I could not ensure his safety if the raid took place. We march for the regional capital." What she possibly saw in that man was far beyond Vaxyll's understanding, but he was not a man who broke his promises, especially not to The Princess. "Whatever could a human have done to capture your heart, my dearest Esmeralda?"