Shiv was ready to begin wreaking havoc among the large detachment heading toward the gate, but had to hold his bloodthirst in check when another man in incredibly fancy armor approached the gate. This one was bearing a white flag, indicating he wanted to talk.
"Enough talk! Just attack already, you old sod!" It seemed like Duncan shared Shiv's opinion.
"Is this about what happened at the party last night?" The old armored gentleman persisted nevertheless, though he kept his helmet on and stayed far away from the dead body of his comrade in equally fancy armor. "We can go on as if that never happened. Just come down from there and remove your troops from my property. Plenty of young men have gotten drunk and said stupid things to women at parties. We can forget your incident ever happened."
"I thought the dead fancy guy owned this place." Shiv directed a perplexed look at Duncan.
"They had some kind of partnership going on." The young noble shrugged before turning his attention back to the old noble. "Go away old man! Unless you think that flimsy helmet can stop his arrows?"
The old man did not seem to think his helmet could stop the arrows, judging by how quickly he retreated back to his troops.
Finally, the soldiers began their advance, and this time there were no white flags barring them from combat.
"What'd you do at the party, anyway?" Shiv asked to pass the time until the troops were within range of more than his lightning storm, which was still attacking at random times in random places.
"I don't remember it, actually. I was quite drunk." Duncan had an apologetic look. "You see, my family had been brutally massacred only a few hours before, and I wasn't in tip top form because of it. So I had a few drinks and… I don't know. Next thing I remember is waking up in my mansion and realizing nobody was holding me back anymore." There was a strange light in his eyes. The light of madness.
The reincarnated farmer shivered. He did not want to become an enemy of Duncan. The very idea filled him with dread, and he'd only just met the man half an hour earlier.
He was brought abruptly out of his thoughts by a fireball exploding on the wall right in front of him. He flinched, then scowled fiercely at his lack of control and placed his hands on the wall. The ground in front of the gate rippled outward, and suddenly a wave of spikes began heading toward the approaching troops with fearsome speed. A few of the soldiers placed their shields under their feet, hoping to protect themselves from the spikes shooting up from the ground and then sinking back in. Doing so opened them to the attacks from the Mirrors on the wall, who did not take long to take advantage of the attackers' sudden lack of shields.
Others of the attacking group began climbing the nearby buildings, and the defenders on the wall again took advantage of this by shooting fire, ice, and several other elements at their exposed backs.
And then the spikes reached them. The carnage and death was immediate. Those standing on their shields who had managed to survive the onslaught of spells from above found that their shields were nothing in comparison to the strength of the spikes. The wave spread through the attackers formation, decimating it, and killing a good portion of the attackers.
Shiv finished the attack at the end of the attacking formation and slumped to the ground. His stomach was aching with terrible pain. He grimaced and pulled more food out of his inventory and shoved it down his throat with much difficulty.
From his sitting position, he could hear the sounds of the battle. It sounded like the remaining soldiers had persevered and reached the gate, and were beginning their assault. There was the sound of a strong explosion, and he watched with wide eyes as the gate went flying backward into the farm. It crashed through a fence and slid for its entire length in the animal's pen. Thankfully, the animals were on the far side of the fenced-in area, because the loud explosions and noises had spooked them.
Shiv was feeling a lot better after having force-fed himself, so he hopped off the wall and landed with a crunch, not feeling any pain or strain in his body from the high drop. He ran over to the place where the fence was missing and stomped, forcing the earth to rise and replace it. With their backs covered, Shiv looked at the place where the gate had been. Standing there was the man in fancy armor Duncan had just spoken to. He was currently facing the young noble, neither of them moving. The man in fancy armor's hands were smoking, and looked to Shiv like the indentations in the gate. 'That guy is strong.' Shiv took a step forward, intending to lend a hand to his new ally, but stopped. Duncan had his back to him, but still seemed to radiate confidence, even with the incredible display of power his opponent had just made.
Shiv wanted to know why.
He didn't have to wait long to find out.
Duncan said something to the noble, though Shiv couldn't hear it, and then threw himself forward with a literal whirlwind surrounding him.
His opponent set his feet into the ground and leaned forward slightly, setting his entire body on fire.
The resulting clash sent fire roaring back through the gate and into the city, with not even a lick of it going in the opposite direction. The noble swung his flaming, armored fist at the young man still in a disguise, and missed when the small man ducked under the attack easily. Duncan then took a step forward and punched the old man in the stomach, though to Shiv, it didn't look like the punch made a dent in the armor. Duncan then jerked his fist back, and blood dripped from the air in front of it. There was a hole in the old noble's armor that was pouring blood. The noble looked down in shock, then fell over with the loud clanging of armor.
Duncan didn't hesitate. He stepped over the newly made corpse and began fighting the soldiers that had survived their lord's fire and were trying to get through the hole the gate had been torn out of. The result was a massacre. The charred men fell one after another to the invisible blades Duncan wielded.
"Remind me not to ever make that guy mad." Duncan fought with a viciousness that seemed almost… unnecessary.
Shiv shook his head and ran forward to help. Careful to put enough space between him and his skilled ally, he threw himself into the crowd of enemy soldiers, laying waste to them with his elemental affinities and extremely resistant body. He didn't realize it, but Duncan came to a stop to watch him fight, and muttered something to himself. "Remind me not to get on that guy's bad side. He's… what did that short merc call me? Ah yes: he's insane." With that, he went back to fighting with a new vigor.
Eventually, the Mirrors stopped fighting and just stood watching with awe the two men sowing destruction among their enemies.
***
"That wasn't so bad." Duncan stretched while Shiv washed blood off his hands with the help of a water mage. "But that old sod was a much higher level than even I am. I was impressed with how I was able to kill him so quickly."
"Pride comes before destruction, man. Watch yourself." Shiv warned and dried his hands on his bloody pants.
None of the blood was his.
"That's a cool saying. We have a similar saying in these parts, it goes something like…" Duncan trailed off and picked something up from the ground. "These boots are fantastic! Hey, you! Take these and have a pair exactly like them designed for me! Go! Go!" A Mirror ran up and quickly removed the boots from the corpse and ran off with them.
Shiv figured there wasn't any point in waiting for Duncan to finish his version of the saying, so he said, "I'm going to check on Briggs and Revenge."
Duncan wasn't paying attention, so he just left, receiving lots of respectful nods and looks from the Mirrors.
He walked quickly through the farm, a burning question making him move with clear purpose. When he arrived at the small gate that Briggs was at, he climbed the stairs to stand on the wall and look at the destruction that had been wrought in the city just ahead. The amount of dead bodies was far less than at the main gate, but was still enough to carpet the ground all around the gate.
Briggs was up there, leaning on the lip of the wall, staring at nothing. At the sound of Shiv's footsteps, he looked over with a tense expression, then relaxed and went back to staring into the distance.
Shiv leaned on the wall next to him. "What now?"
Briggs smiled grimly. "Now we figure out what to do with our deranged new friend."