TomVanDyke
Another great chapter with so much foreshadowing (funny because of the shadow blade and armour he has hidden) A note to all readers. Would you rather have inconsistent chapters or one great chapter every week? To Tom the author. Thank you very much for the chapter. I hope you are doing well and I look forward to the next chapter that I am happy to wait for. Same time next week?
What will Arran do? 1) Fair duels against the knights. Unlikely because ch417 said he would need luck to hold the advantage against a knight. 2) Duel against the knights, but do a sneak reveal of the shadowsword like before. Unlikely to have that trick work 3 more times. 3) Assassinate them, perhaps at night, like Wragged suggested. This seems possible. The trouble is that his shadow cloak won't work against knights, and at least 1 will be on watch, since they need little sleep. 4) Pretend to be a warlock, and firebomb the entire army from hiding. 5) Find a warlock, and then Arran engages all three knights, while Kaleesh lures the warlock over to destroy the army. Other ideas?
With his sword's sense, Arran will be able to find all the starmetal and shadowmetal weapons and essence crystals in the ruined city. The sword can't sense shadowmetal coins (according to chapter 297), but a trip to the ruined city will still enable Arran to explain having a huge stash of pure shadowmetal coins, so they can then be spent.
In addition to justifying a sudden supply of pure shadowmetal coins, traveling to the ruined city will also allow Arran to give to Wolfsblood the starmetal swords he found in the tunnels by Amydon (ch282) and in the battlefield where he met Negin and Merim (ch 312 "several other startmetal weapons ... plenty of weapons").