Chapter 30 – Battle at the Blacksmith

Midnight's arrow struck through the lizardman's shoulder. As soon as he realized the danger he was in, Monte's shadow started to surround him. It was then that my fireball crashed into his side. In one of the books on the fire element, it was explained that fire is a good repellant to shadows. The shadows started to drop before he could jump away. A second arrow from Midnight's bow came close to piercing the lizardman's neck. Monte reacted by twisting his neck to the side, only getting a scrape to his collarbone. The princess had now leapt to the other side of her workstation, trying to stay under cover away from the battle. She called out for the guards but there did not seem to be anyone responding. I had closed in quickly on Monte, swinging my scimitar at the large lizardman's body. He was still a lot faster than me. As my swing approached his body, he reacted fast enough to avoid any strike.

"You again! Why are you here today?"

I was a bit confused by his question. Why are we here…today? Oh, that's right. If Poppy had not been injured the day before last, we would have been out adventuring again today. That means that Monte was following our schedule! He planned his attack when the guards were gone and when my crew would be out of the city. What a conniving lizard…man. Alright, time to focus! My Fast Mental Processing was working hard at identifying my best tactic. After some practice, my methods of battle had changed quite a bit over the past three weeks. My barriers would come in handy when intercepting attacks, I just had to be more precise with them. Fireballs needed to be accurate to be of any use. My sword skills were still quite low, but they could still put the enemy on defense.

With a fireball ready and my scimitar in my hand, I approached our opponent. Midnight jumped into the fray with a mithril dagger and started swinging at him. This distracted Monte enough that he was only able to manage a dodge of my fireball. The sword took a glancing blow of his side. A couple of scales were pierced, and I saw red blood pour down his side. With the arrow in the shoulder and this new injury, it looked like we were in line to win this battle. Bliss was currently in the palace kitchen, otherwise I would have asked for her vines by now. Midnight kept up the pressure and Monte had stumbled backwards. It was a good time to pounce on our target. Focusing on my Storage Vision, I launched a large boulder towards the lizardman. Without hesitation, Monte activated his shadow teleportation. What surprised me was that he didn't teleport himself. He teleported the boulder! The boulder I had launched was now hurtling downward upon a particular workstation. The one where Princess Danika was concealing herself! I dove a bit closer to the princess and then activated my Barrier Vision. This stopped the boulder in its tracks. I then dropped it back into my Storage Vision. During this time that I was distracted, midnight had taken a solid kick to his left side. This didn't injure him much, but it did surprise him. Shadows started to cover Monte's body. He was trying to escape!

I launched another fireball at him. But he disappeared into the shadow before the fire reached him. Using my Presence Detection, I sensed him running in a nearby hallway. I used my Teleport Vision to appear right next to him. A new fireball was hurtling towards the shadowy figure next to me. I had saved this new skill, hoping to surprise him with it. Unfortunately, Monte was still too quick. He threw a dagger towards my face, but I blocked it with a simple barrier. I then appeared in front of him again swinging my scimitar. I teleported two more times around him before swinging my sword.

Clang!

My sword impacted another one of the lizardman's daggers. The shadows in the room were now encircling both of us. I was both dodging and blocking multiple daggers swinging at me from all directions while watching for an opening against Monte. I launched more boulders, swung my sword, threw more fireballs, and teleported around. Nothing was effective against my opponent. I quickly realized that this battle would not be one I could win on my own. Thankfully, I was not alone. I sensed Midnight nearing our battle again. I could sense Princess Danika run in the opposite direction. She would hopefully find some loyal guards. Midnight and I continued to keep Monte busy but were unable to seriously wound him. Both of us took some minor cuts and bruises but were relatively unharmed.

"Stop right there!" Two guards approached us with spears held forward. They were wearing full mithril armor. Our battle with the lizardman stopped and we started to lower our weapons.

"I'm glad you're here. This lizardman tried to kidnap-"

"Drop your weapons, all of you!"

Uh oh. The interruption made me question if these guards were legitimate. I remembered these guards. I knew them by name. But I did not trust them. Monte approached the two guards and jumped into the shadows behind them. After that, he jumped through a window and fled. The two guards did not even turn to chase. They just stared at us, eyes glaring.

"Why would you work against your own princess? Why would you help the kidnapper?" I was furious. These guards had betrayed their own country.

"You two will be brought into custody. Put all your weapons on the floor."

Midnight and I decided to cooperate for now. Fighting the king's guards would cause even more of a misunderstanding. We placed our sword and dagger on the floor.

Thud!

Everything went black.