Chapter 100: The Broken Trust (1)
The look in Lena’s eyes was making the area feel tight. Not because it had a physical effect, on him, but because it put Reidar on edge. Reidar, Mara, and Aaron were facing Lena, Jorik, and Torren across the damp ground. Accusations were hanging in the silence.
That stirs from the lake were gone now, replaced by the feeling of a fight about to break. Mara and Aaron shifted uneasily while their hands hovered near their weapons. They were nervous; Reidar could see it on their faces.
It was weird. Aaron and Mara were from Havenwood, so wouldn’t they be trying to reassure Lena and the others that everything was ok and that likely this hostility was because of a misunderstanding?
Although Reidar didn’t know what the hell was going on. Yet they did nothing like that.
It was Lena who moved first. She didn’t have to say anything for Torren and Jorik to follow her.
The two surged forward with almost her same determination. Almost though, because Reidar could see there was apprehension in their eyes. Reidar was already moving too, his Primal Pack’s wolf, to intercept Jorik, while the bear reared up to meet Torren.
But it was Lena who was the real threat, because she was simply too fast. At that point, Reidar ordered the Guardian Shade to summon as many creatures as it could.
Hordes of skeletons appeared, and whenever a new Guardian Shade appeared, he gave them the same skills he gave to the first one. However, there were three problems.
The first was that because of the skills Reidar shared, the level of the creatures at his disposal turned progressively weaker.
The second was that here there was no arcane leech to sustain his mana, and the other guardian shades increased the amount of mana possessed by their summoners, which were other guardian shades.
They were all linked to the one Reidar summoned in the end, but that was not how the skill of the creature worked. It created a sort of channel through which Reidar got more mana, but it didn’t use its mana pool, which was needed to use the skill itself. That meant there was no compound mana gathering effect.
The various guardian shades got the mana, not Reidar.
The third and most important of the reasons was that Reidar didn’t want to kill the three. He knew all of this was because something had happened, and killing these guys, who were trying to protect their town and with whom he had shared days of battles, would leave an aftertaste in his mouth.
Besides, he saw them fight, and with the summoned creatures being progressively weaker, that would not be easy. The only way for Reidar to truly kill them was if he had the Contubernium at his side.
Though nothing forced him not to summon the spectral knights, that was exactly what he did.
Ten glowing shapes swirled into being, pulling themselves from the air. They stretched out, taking on human forms.
Armor plates and weapons shimmered into existence; swords and shields were in their other hands.
The knights stood tall and proud as they took material form, but their bodies flickered like ghosts, each one bigger than Reidar. They fell into line. The bone militias seemed to be influenced by them, because they immediately tried to put themselves between Reidar and Lena.
He hadn’t tested the knight’s ability to use summoning skills, but even if they wouldn’t be able to, these were still 10 level 51 spectral knights. There were just three people on Lena’s team.
The wolf snarled at Jorik, jaws snapping inches from his staff. Torren was being taken care of by the bear. Lena blurred forward, dagger aimed at Reidar’s throat.
She bypassed the skeletal army as if it didn’t even exist. The knights surged. One blocked her path, shield slamming into her mid-leap.
Reidar stepped back on top of the panther. "Stand down, Lena!"
Lena twisted away, eyes narrowing. "Shut up, you monster!"
Then the fight between Lena, trying to reach Reidar, and the knights began, while Torren and Jorik supported each other and fought against the rest of the minions. Those easy to kill were vanquished, although their summoners got mana replenished constantly and summoned them anew.
However, the primal pack coming directly from Reidar was there, and they were just four levels below them. It would not be easy to kill the beasts with all those monsters trying to stop them.
Lena shot across the ground, dagger gleaming like a sharp tooth. The first knight swept his sword low, but she leaped right over it, her foot knocking his helmet as she landed. Sparks flew where she hit, and his ghostly form wavered.
From the panther’s back, Reidar’s heart hammered in his chest. Lena was strong... too strong. She must have had a trait too, but while it was possible to see names and levels, it was impossible to see another person’s status unless they were willing.
Two knights rushed forward, shields locked tight like a wall. Lena twisted in the air, her blade slicing through one’s shoulder plate. The knight vanished in a puff of light, but she didn’t stop. Her other hand drove a small blade into the second knight’s leg, breaking his stance, which made him stumble and his sword swing widely.
She faked left, pulling three knights toward her, then burst right. One knight’s shield slammed her shoulder; she rolled with the hit, coming up behind another and jamming her elbow into his back. Another one of the knights got killed by Lena’s monstrous combat ability.
The knights closed ranks, circling her with steel and eerie light. Lena’s eyes found Reidar over their heads. She lunged again and tried sliding through the gap. She almost made it.
"You really were with the church!" Lena said.
"What?! What are you talking about?!"
"You sent your army of monsters to kill us!"
That shocked Reidar.
"This is a lie! I sent no one to kill you!"
But then he realized what must have happened. Reidar sent the Contubernium to kill who was following him. It must have been at that point that Lena and the others arrived. The contubernium didn’t have specific orders; it was just to kill the humans following him, but that included everyone they would have perceived as following Reidar, so they must have attacked them.
<Shit...>
He then noticed Lysa’s absence, and a grim thought overcame him.
"Is Lysa alive?"
"Uh? Now you care?" She said while avoiding a sword strike. "I thought you and your church friends didn’t care about Havenwood!"
"Church frie—? Ah... shit!"
At that point, Reidar finally got confirmation of what organization Mara and Aaron belonged to. Mara and Aaron were from the church.
Not that it made a difference. As of now, the church did nothing to him, besides annoying him. Plus, Mara and Aaron were from Havenwood, and third, he was just doing quests for his own sake.
For Reidar, it didn’t really make a difference to which organizations the two belonged . Although it was clear they were trying to win him, or at least to manipulate him.
Not that completing the two quests Martin begged him to do could serve their purpose, and even if it did, it wasn’t Reidar’s problem.