Chapter 35: The Paladin's Charge

Never pick a fight with a spellcaster in his tower unless you mean to ambush him.

That was just common sense. Of course, the world rarely followed common sense.

The battle had already begun. There was no turning back.

The castle's magical defenses flared to life. Countless jets of corrosive energy lanced from its battlements like cannon fire, streaking into the ranks of the enemy.

Mortals could not withstand that kind of magic. Any touch would dissolve flesh into bone.

The paladin and the priest of light, however, were untouched. The anti-magic field swallowed every spell as it crossed into the dome; inside its radius, both men were effectively immune to magic.

The anti-magic field could not be pierced except by divine magic.

The difference between a half-baked legend and a true legend became obvious then.

Every legend was a demigod who had transcended mortal limits and acquired a seed of divinity.

Under ordinary circumstances, a legendary lich like Ambrose would easily be able to humble these young Lyon Empire adventurers.

But having abandoned the school of divination, Ambrose no longer possessed any magic at this level. He had no choice but to avoid the anti-magic field entirely. Fortunately, it was powered by a scroll; once its duration ended, the suppression would lapse.

And those scrolls usually only lasted a minute or two.

Ambrose's unhurried calm contrasted sharply with the attackers' panic.

Harvey dodged between curtains of corrosive light, guided by his razor-sharp instincts. He held out long enough for the first barrage to end.

He was unscathed, but sweating. One misstep and he would have been turned into a skeleton in an instant. The apprentice diviner's meager reserves could support a personal shield, but not against that level of devastation.

Behind him, the Porcupine Knight had survived as well, though three of the lords who'd marched with him lay gone. Man and horse alike had been rendered bleached bone.

The soldiers suffered worse. Over two hundred had died from the first volley. There were few wounded. The magic had simply been too savage—any brush could mean outright death.

Harvey wanted to demand why they had provoked this lich at all.

They had made a grievous miscalculation. The lords had positioned their men at what they believed to be the edge of the spells' reach.

Who would have guessed the castle's defenses had been specially tuned to extend their range?

Harvey wondered briefly whether Ambrose had altered his defenses after sheltering the freefolk.

The truth was simpler: Ambrose had retrofitted his fortress with details pilfered from the Lyon Empire's defensive blueprints, a gift from Black Rose. These included clever, cheap tricks like extended-range warding.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

That investment had paid off handsomely.

Ambrose nodded at the battlefield in satisfaction. The Lyon Empire was truly skilled at what they did.

Harvey felt sick with contrition. He had counseled the Porcupine Knight to withdraw more than once, only to be soundly ignored. If he lived through this, he swore, he would resign.

Yet for the moment, duty held him fast.

He spurred forward toward the paladin and shouted, "We can't hold much longer! Can you deal with this lich? If not, we must withdraw!"

The paladin looked almost incredulous. "Not one in five men are dead! Can your army not hold out any longer?"

He admitted he'd underestimated Ambrose, but these Alkhemian lords were feeble.

How could their men's morale collapse just from such meager losses?

Even the weakest legion of the Lyon Empire would shrug off such attrition.

Harvey fought the urge to slap the man. "This is a militia of tenant farmers. They are nothing like an army raised and tempered by faith. Do you have a plan or not?"

The paladin couldn't help but marvel at the nature of the world at large. "But of course. We'll breach the fortress and find his phylactery. If you cannot hold the line, withdraw. Don't hinder us."

With that, he and the priest charged straight toward the lich's castle.

The anti-magic field still persisted around them. They were able to reach the gates of the castle while shrugging off all the magical spells slung their way.

Harvey hesitated for a heartbeat as the sky blazed with streams of magic, then urged his horse forward and followed the paladin.

His intuition guided him against retreat at this juncture, that charging forward with the paladin was the better choice. He could only hope that his intuition wasn't mistaken.

When the paladin noticed Harvey joining the assault, he even called back over his shoulder, "Your courage is admirable. May the Radiant Dawn protect you."

Harvey nearly rolled his eyes, thinking to himself, "Even if divine protection were real, an apprentice magician like me should be praying to Mystra, goddess of magic. These zealots can't even stop preaching in the middle of battle!"

Under the protection of the anti-magic field, every arcane trap before the castle gate fizzled into harmless smoke. The mundane pitfalls and crossbow bolts, meanwhile, barely scratched the paladin's armor. His longsword flicked aside the quarrels with casual sweeps.

The three riders reached the gates of the ancient fortress, losing only two horses along the way. But as they arrived, the shimmer of the anti-magic field began to waver, then vanish, entirely.

Close behind, Harvey drew up beside them just as they reached the gates.

Ambrose had already retreated deeper into the castle the moment the charge began. Now, seeing the paladin at his gates, he smiled faintly and pressed a hidden lever.

Just as the paladin readied himself to smash through the gates, a series of clicks and grinds echoed ominously.

The three men froze for an instant, uncertain what had been triggered—but the steadfast paladin chose to press on. Holy light flared along his sword, blazing bright enough to blind.

Sacred Slash was excellent both for slaying liches and demolishing residences. The sword struck. The heavy oaken gates exploded into splinters, and the impact shook the earth so violently that cracks split across the stone courtyard.

Harvey, marveling at the paladin's strength, couldn't help but frown. "Impressive strike, but... wait, aren't those cracks spreading a little too fast?"

Before he could finish, the ground before the gate gave way with a thunderous roar, collapsing into a vast, black pit that yawned endlessly below.

All three men, taken completely by surprise, plunged straight into the darkness.

From his magical surveillance, Ambrose watched their descent with quiet satisfaction. He reached out to pat the shimmering blob of living mercury coiled beside him and murmured, "Your turn, little one. Show me what you can do. If you manage to take down a paladin of the Lyon Empire, I'm going to make a fortune."