Chapter XIX: Lady Mireille Beauvale Quest Line Part 2
Sir Calares pointed his sword, not at us, but at Mireille. "Your father is a blighted scum on this city. His brother is true and noble. It is lord Alfred who should rule. First, your father will pay for your weight in gold three times over."
I was confused. Was this about money or getting this Alfred guy in?
"Once the gold has been given, I will slay you and your father. Alfred Beauvale will have no choice but to kill me and take his rightful place as Marquis of Lutetia."
That answered that. When I drew my sword, Calares pointed that blade at me. "Stop right there, hero." He sneered the last word, practically spitting it. Calares said it like it was the worst insult he could think of. "You will surrender the Lady Mireille to me at once."
"Yeah, I don't think so," Amos said, brandishing his wand.
"Surrender the lady at once. If you do now, your lives will be spared. If you surrender her, I will give you all the lyre in the Lutetia treasury. We cannot rely on heroes to save us and removing all the lyre from the vaults will make sure that we cannot tempt you.
"Hand her leave, take the lyre, and leave this place never to return."
A screen appeared in front of me:
Sir Calares has offered all the lyre of Lutetia, in exchange for Lady Mireille Beauvale and self-imposed excite. Do you accept?
(O) (X)
"Well, what do you think?"
"No way. He looks like a scum bag," Kanade said sharply.
"I agree. We can't just hand her over," Euphie agreed. Mireille was clinging to Euphie, hiding her head in Euphie's legs.
"I wanted to kill him since we met the guy," Amos said. As if to emphasize the point, he brandished his wand again. "Let's light him up!"
I pressed the X.
Sir Calares's sword started to glow. "Very well, then I will cut you all down!"
Before I could react, Sir Calares leaped forward. Despite how bulky his sword and armor were, he moved like a fucking ghost. Before I could even use my sword to defend myself, he was right in front of me. His sword gleamed in the light and he struck me in the chest full on.
He cut my health in half in an instant and I was flung back. Sir Calares and my team disappeared as I passed through the tree line. I slammed into a tree with enough force to take out another ten percent of my health.
I was glad there was a Pain Damper function, because otherwise I wouldn't be standing back up. Thankfully I had taken a few potions out of my inventory and had them on my waist. Down a health potion that tasted like cherries, it would be twenty seconds before it took full effect.
So I downed two more to get me back to full. I wouldn't have time to open my menu and get any more potions out of my inventory when I went back to fight, so I took out all the potions I had, tying them where I could get to them easier.
"[Ripple Flow!]" Amos yelled as I came out of the woods. The floating water exploded out of his wand just in time to stop Sir Calares from killing him.
When Calares hit me, it was just a swing. He was using a skill against Amos.
The water cushioned the blow, but the attack still put him in the red. Sir Calares positioned his blade for the finishing blow-
"[Blessed Whirlwind!]" Euphie yelled. Sir Calares had to turn to defend himself, giving Amos enough time to escape.
"Amos!" He looked back at me and I tossed him a potion. "Where is Kanade?"
"Climbing a tree!" he yelled as I ran past.
When Euphie's skill came to an end, I adjusted my sword. "[Slash]"
My sword glowed white as I struck the traitor knight. It was enough to refocus his agro on me. When my slash skill ended, he hit me with the flat of his sword, taking a good five percent of my health.
"[Flash Arrow!]" A bright sliver of light cut right by me, striking Sir Calares in the throat.
"[Slash!]"
Euphie struck him next, and I repositioned myself behind him as he turned to Euphie. My slash cooldown time ended and I struck. I hoped that I could get the agro back to me so Euphie, Kanade, or Amos could lay into him, but I didn't expect he would turn that fast.
Or that he had a skill ready for me. If it wasn't for Amos's Ripple Flow cushioning the damage, I would have died. As it was, his skill cut away ninety percent of my HP and the flat of his blade that forced me back took another five.
"Shit!"
Thankfully I didn't take any fall damage.
"[Lesser Heal!]" My HP shoot up to thirty percent. "You okay, Chevalier Phénix?"
"Better than I was!" I yelled back, downing another health potion.
Sir Calares hit Euphie away with the flat of his blade in the same way he did with him. When the boss repositioned himself, I was prepared. Only he wasn't coming for me or Amos.
He launched himself at a tree and used the momentum to run up the trunk. Kanade had to jump out of the tree and she was far enough up to take fall damage.
Of course, when Sir Calares came down from the same height, he took no damage.
She should have used Feather Light. Oh well.
"[Slash!]"
The skill rocketed me forward, but Sir Calares used his sword to block me. Euphie had seen my attack and struck at the same time: "[Blessed Whirlwind!]"
Sir Calares had three bars of health when we started, but after Euphie finished, he was down to his last bar.
When Sir Calares hit his last bar, red light started leaking out of his skin. He started to increase in size, going into [Rage].
The Bandit Leader and Sir Calares were BOTH berserkers? Of course they were. Unlike Bandit Leader, Sir Calares was a hell of a lot more of a threat. If that wasn't the worst of it, Amos' [Ripple Flow] had ended.
Sir Calares threw his sword and the blade cleaved through Euphie. She had less than half her health left, so his attack ended her life. She shatter and his blade flew back to his hands.
Damn it!
Maybe it was a little too early to equip Cooking. As Sir Calares turned to the tree that Kanade was climbing up, I opened my menu. Keeping an eye on him to make sure that he didn't change targets, I exchanged Cooking for Piercing Fang. I would use my next skill slot for cooking, but this was more important.
Sir Calares laughed as he started swinging his huge blade at the base of the tree. "Come down, little champion! Come down!"
"No way!" Kanade yelled down at him.
"Sage, cover me!"
"How?"
"Ripple Flow!"
"Right!"
"And heal me!"
As he cast the spell, I sprinted at the boss from behind. I wanted to try and pincer him, but Euphie was dead. Since Sir Calares was in [Rage], I didn't know if [Ripple Flow] would save me. I just had to hope that he wouldn't kill me in one hit.
"[Lesser Heal!]"
My HP was back to full.
"[Piercing Fang!]" My sword lit up and the blade went straight through him. That only took a good chunk of his health. A timer appeared in the corner of my vision, the cool-off time for Piercing Fang.
As Sir Calares turned around to face me, I activated my next skill: "[Slash!]" I cut through his body, my sword cleaving out a long, angry red line through the avatar.
The damage reduced his health further and gave him pause. With both my offensive skills on cool down, I took the pause and ran away.
"[Scorching Blaze!]"
A blast of fire hit Sir Calares dead on. It wasn't the normal light red flame ball, but a blast of darker red. It reminded me of a flame thrower, a continuous blast. It was one of the most powerful fire spells, and the more it leveled, the more impressive it became. Even at this low of a level, it was still impressive and cleaved the rest of his health in half.
At the level he had Scorching Blaze, it required a whole two-minute cooldown. Amos didn't have two minutes left to live. Sir Calares closed the distance between him and Amos in one leap and he brought his sword down, cutting Amos in half.
"There goes our healer!" At least we still have our potions.
Piercing Fang was still on a cooldown and Sir Calares turned to me. Oh fuck. He nearly killed me. Even though Amos died, Ripple Flow was still in effect. And I had my wooden shield. That bastard still took out ninety-five percent of my health and destroyed my wooden shield.
A glowing arrow struck him in the arm, drawing his agro for long enough for me to run the hell away. I downed the rest of my health potions in a run, that one puny arrow wasn't powerful enough to keep his aggro for long.
Piercing Fang's cooldown ended, but if I turned around, Sir Calares would butcher me. I thought I was finished. My HP was slowly climbing, but it would stop at half. With no shield and only at half health, I was screwed. I hoped Kanade would be able to finish it off alone.
But when I looked back, Sir Calares has decreased in size. [Rage] was wearing off. This was our chance.
"Kanade, as many arrows as you can! Light him up!" I yelled, turning around.
"[Piercing Fang!] [Slash!]" One skill after the other. His health was down in the corner.
Sir Calares didn't have any time. Arrow, arrow, arrow! Three strikes in a row put an end to him. The rest of his health dropped.
Then the berserker shattered.
REWARDS
EXP: 1000
ITEMS: 6
LYRE: 1238
The first thing I did was look through the items. Kanade was the one who killed him, so she'd get the last attack bonus, but I should have some good things.
One emerald. Two rubies. Three Sapphires. They weren't enchanted, they were normal, precious gems. These kinds of gems can be sold for A LOT of lyres, but they were also valuable in creating powerful enchanted items. For now, I think I'll keep them.
I looked over at Lady Mireille and she had a ! above her head. We still had time.
"Kanade, let's compare what we got!"
As I walked over to her, I activated [Search]. I looked around for monsters or any other enemies, but I didn't say anything.
It seemed the only thing Sir Calares dropped were precious gems. Kanade had ten, four more than me. Was that random chance, or was it because she killed the boss?
"Let's keep them," Kanade agreed when I explained it. "We can put them in the chest when we get back. I got one other thing. I think it was the last attack bonus. You should take it."
I told her how to turn her menu visible, just for now, and she showed me: Sir Calares's Great Sword. It was certainly better statted than my Short Sword, I was at a high enough level, and my strength stat met the qualifications...
"Sell it."
"What?"
I pointed to the bottom. "You need the Sword and Berserker Seed Skills. I can only equip one Seed Skill right now, and even if I had two Seed Skill Slots, I'm not a berserker."
"I thought you said you tried all the Seed Skills?"
"That was available at the end of the beta, yeah. I didn't care for Berserker."
"Think we can sell it?"
"No doubt, but let's hold off. It won't be very long before people have a second Seed Skill Slot. As it stands right now, the only weapons Berserkers can use clubs, since they're tied into the berserker skill. Once that second slow open, there's going to be a lot of berserkers who want to wield swords."
***
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