Greetings, Your Majesty
Bondrewd approached the standing couple, both of them covered in blood up to their ears. The knight stood up and spoke.
"Greetings Mr Bondrewd, we are very glad you have come to our aid." The Lord of Dawn looked reproachfully at Dick, who instinctively shrank back, saying I had nothing to do with it. Keeping his displeasure to himself, Bondrewd asked the knight a question.
"Where, now, is my help most needed?" The knight's face contorted with a grimace, he was frantically trying to think of the current disposition of the battle in his head.
"Send messengers, to other areas."
"It will take too long," said Bondrewd and was about to leave, the sounds of the battle could be heard clearly throughout the city. Explosions, shouts of men, clanking steel and incomprehensible rumbling, roaring monsters.
"Wait, don't be in such a hurry, a couple of minutes won't solve anything, and once we know the situation, we will be able to act for sure, and I suppose even you need a short rest." The commander of the Royal Guard Margil hoped that his words would have an effect, he hoped that this strange black knight would be reasonable.
Bondrewd said and unceremoniously turned round and walked towards the dead necromancer, the surprised looks of Dick and Margil did not touch the man. They glanced at each other and followed Bondrewd, who was already examining the necromancer's decapitated body and rummaging through his pockets, "Lord pf Dawn" was curious, 'how he controlled the dead' 'if the necromancer used any artefacts and if he could pull off such a trick.'
"I think he's a hundred per cent dead," said Dick. Margil was silent, but even through his helmet there was squeamishness, though he didn't blame the black knight much. In his days as a young, ardent squire, he had been no stranger to looting, and in the heat of battle rage, to chopping up dead bodies. For a moment the old knight's memory flashed back to him, and the colour of shame flooded his face.
In the meantime, Bondrewd was already rummaging through the dead man's bag: some papers, feathers, gems, trinkets, and other junk. At the bottom of the bag were three vials, the same as the ones the necromancer had thrown at him during the battle. After stuffing them into his belt pouches, the man rose to his feet and turned to his companions. There was an awkward silence, which was interrupted by Dick.
"How did they even breach the walls? The barrier is supposed to reflect magic, and I heard the walls were built with anti-magic ore."
Bondrewd turned his head towards the knight, clearly showing his interest in the matter. The knight faltered slightly, he didn't want to clash with this couple at all.
"I have no idea, I'm no less interested than you are."
The conversation of the trio was interrupted by a messenger who suddenly jumped out, a young guy in chainmail, panting and drenched in sweat, said.
"The king and his guards are repelling the onslaught of the enemy, near the southern gate, and his majesty needs help." Bondrewd did not listen to the boy, and rushed from his seat in the direction of the south gate, the outlines of the two gate towers being perfectly visible from the street. Dick mumbled something unintelligible and rushed after him. Margil, disconcerted by this action, reoriented himself sharply and formed up his warriors to guard the alley, and with the rest followed him to the gate.
As Bondrewd ran, one alley changed into another, and the sounds of battle came more and more clearly to his ears. But something made him stop briefly, a tower. The gate tower, a massive monstrosity to say the least, was falling down, a plume of debris and the scraping of supports accompanied the action, with a deafening crash the structure fell into the city, raising a veritable ocean of dust. Bondrewd ran, further quickening his pace, the man was overcome by the excitement of battle.
...
King Avitus was not a coward or a weakling and so fought in the front ranks with his guards, the fall of the tower came as a complete surprise to them and overtaking their own shriek of war they ran back, unfortunately not all of them managed to escape.
The guardsmen were waiting for the enemy to appear in a phalanx of halberds, while the king stood before them in a magnificent suit of armour, worn in places, but no less majestic. His majesty was looking in the dust cloud for the enemy, and a figure emerged from the grey dust veil.
He looked like a stereotypical necromancer, a pale brunet dressed in a smart black camisole, holding a staff with a human hand at the top. The intruder walked ten paces forward and spoke.
"Surrender, and then the great council will spare you, we guarantee the safety of your lives and your property, lay down your arms or else... Die a horrible death." The necromancer's voice echoed over the defenders' positions, and the people became nervous.
"Fuck you, freak!"
"Where are the guarantees of your word?"
"Maybe we should agree."
In the position of the defenders began a real discussion, and people united by common misfortune were ready to bite each other's throats. And then all was quiet. The King raised his hammer high above his head and struck the paving stone with force, forming a small crater. Everyone immediately remembered the most important thing, there would be only one person to decide, and that was the king.
The monarch's thoughts were bubbling like a mountain river, comparing pros and cons, in the end there were two final arguments, if he refused everyone would die, if he agreed they would suffer a fate much worse than death, Avitus had no illusions, there was no point in necromancers fulfilling their part of the agreement, and the king never relied on the word of honour of psychopathic mages.
"I refuse!" Unexpectedly to many, the king shouted out.
"It's a shame. You could have saved so many people, but now they will die, all of them."
Having finished speaking, the necromancer took a couple of steps back, and was about to leave, when suddenly the air was shaken by a dozen loud claps, there was a characteristic smoke coming from the windows, shooters with new unseen weapons came to their debut. The necromancer staggered and blood began to ooze through his clothes, hoping for a magical barrier he had lost his guard and paid for it.
'It was not for nothing that I gave money to that hustler from the trade guild after all.' The king thought to himself, mentally preparing for battle. But to his surprise, no one thought of advancing, through the blocked gate. "Something is wrong here."
Before Avitus could finish his thoughts, a shriek comparable to a thousand nightmares spread around the area, something big was climbing the wall, shaking the air, all the personnel raised their heads and what they saw they clearly did not like.
From behind the city wall, an eye, the eye of a swamp dragon, a slightly rotten swamp dragon, was staring straight at them. The huge reptile was 10 metres long and 4 metres high. The monster's mouth was filled with 3 rows of sharp teeth. The beast had no wings, and like a swamp dragon it moved on its belly with two massive paws.
Wrapping itself around the remaining tower like a snake, it descended into the square in front of the crowd of terrified defenders. The king waited for the moment and when the monster roared furiously he signalled.
The massive muskets spewed bullets from the windows, and from behind the knights flew magical projectiles consisting of lightning bolts, fireballs and sharp icicles.
The beast seemed not to notice the hail of attacks, raised its muzzle upwards and after waiting for a couple of seconds unleashed a stream of green gas on the defenders, the mages of the second line quickly reacted and put up a protective dome in time. Not a single drop of poison penetrated the structure. Having realised the futility of this tactic, the dragon, or rather the necromancer who controlled it, sent the creature into close combat.
At the same time, new enemy troops began to seep out from behind the monster's massive carcass: crowds of skeleton warriors mixed with multimass creatures were rushing towards the phalanx without fear.
"If the dragon breaks into the phalanx, we are finished" thought Avitus to himself. The king flung himself at the dead reptile without question, the golden aura of the king enveloped his body and small bolts of lightning came and went quickly, trailing behind his massive figure. The beast lunged forward and Avitus dodged the huge maw into which it would have fit entirely. And struck with his 'hammer'. The hammer glowed as it came into contact with the reptile's hide and effortlessly pierced it, the tip of the hammer sinking deeply into the dead flesh.
The creature spun sharply on the spot intending to crush the king with its tail, at the last moment before the blow the king did a somersault missing the massive tail under him at the same time bringing the hammer for another blow, the crackle of lightning filled the air and the atmosphere in the circle slightly shimmered. The impact on the dragon's body was simply incredible force, pieces of meat and scales scattered for dozens of metres showering everyone around.
But the dragon was not going to give up, he did not feel pain and without noticing the terrible wound, hit the figure of the man with his paw, the king flew off to the side breaking through the wall of the house with his body. The monster intended to finish what he had started and was gathering strength for a new poisonous breath, but he was slightly out of time, the king literally flew out of the ruins of the house.
Glowing like a falling comet, the monarch swung his hammer and struck the monster again, but she was not his target, he was looking for the necromancer.
Time after time his eyes tried to pick out the figure of the hated mage, but he was nowhere to be found, a fact that worried Avitus. Once again, the creature swung its tail to strike, but....
The monarch could not move, his ankles were chained to the ground by bone spikes, the king tried to block the blow, but in vain the difference in physical strength was monstrous.
The king tried to block the blow, but in vain, the difference in physical strength was monstrous. Avitus dealt considerable damage and was sent flying, but before he had time to fly half the distance, he was pinned down by the paw of the dragon that had suddenly flashed by. The reptile's muzzle came close to him. And with a barely intelligible wheeze it said.
"I should have agreed to it."
No sooner had the creature finished than dozens of violet rays struck it, burning through the dead flesh, literally frying it to a crisp, the creature pulled away in bewilderment, at the same time releasing Avitus.
When the man opened his eyes, he could not believe them at first, a strange man dressed in black with a helmet glowing violet stood in front of him. Without turning round to the king the man said.
"Greetings, your majesty."