(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

The warning from his skill was as immediate as it was specific. Multiple projectiles coming from above — only two aimed at him.

His reaction was instantaneous. Kaius reached for VOS, Redoubt burning on his throat. The great rune flooded him, an insight into the very fundamental underpinnings of reality. A narrow one — power.

“Ambush!”

Bound Maelstrom screamed into existence, a swirling shield formed by magic and will, thicker and more forceful than ever before. The very air boiled, a visible force that distorted the glittering blue of the cliff walls. Beyond VOS, Spellblade’s Harmonic Control imbued the defensive magic with a still solidity.

His team fell into position, Porkchop’s armour snapping back into existence as he used Intercede the Weak to lurch in front of Kenva and Ianmus.

Kaius brought his blade up — locking on the projectiles. three arrows, one bolt. They all swirled with power — visibly crackling with the power of imbued Skills. They hit his spell, clawing their way through the typhoon.

Three faltered, tossed aside. The bolt and another arrow cut through — the bolt was the most dangerous, and the one aimed at him.

As the arrow scoured a line across Porkchop’s breastplate, Kaius cut from high to low — clean through the bolt. He hissed as the unbalanced head spun out of control, its fine tipped point scratching a line on his wrist. Damn thing slipped between the gap of his gauntlets and vambraces.

Caustic heat bubbled from the wound.

**Ding! You have been afflicted by Sallowblight Fatigue (Tier II) - Poison!**

Rapid Adaptation crushed the affliction with ruthless efficiency. Kaius was already tracing the shots — five shooters high on the cliff, all Silver. A hit team — had Brokenlight found out they were coming for him?

“Kenva! Archer’s on the ridge!” he yelled, snapping off a salvo of nails. It was a fifth of his remainder — but it forced the archers to dive for cover.

“More coming into the pass!” She shot back, snapping off a shot.

“I’ll keep the archers pinned,” Ianmus replied, planting his staff on the flagstones. A golden ring of woven magic glowed — The Rising Dawn, his inner most keyseal. “My Scouring Rays have been building up that whole fight.”

Golden beams erupted one after the other, a constant salvo that peppered the top of the cliffs — the beams converging any time an archer tried to peek an angle from around a rock. Another keyseal glowed silver as Ianmus cast Silver Plating from The Night’s Watch.

Kaius felt the protective magic settle around him like a shroud. Switching his focus, he saw the men charging at them — or more accurately, who.

His stomach dropped as he saw the familiar plate of Lord Flowers’ men. Seven of them — the lord himself at their head, his eyes just barely visible over his red enamelled kite shield.

Fuck.

Had Guilewind been wrong? What kind of bastard took a written letter shared in good faith and used it to ambush someone? Fucking nobles. How in the hells had they gotten here so fast? They couldn’t have gotten the letter more than a day or two ago.

Kaius scowled, blood roaring hot as the men grew closer and closer. He longed to cleave open the smug bastard’s helmet — see how superior he felt then.

But he knew that would serve nothing. They were strong. Strong enough to win, he was certain of it — but against an entire duchy? An entire country? Kill Flowers, and they would be an enemy of the state.

One of the men staggered as Kenva snapped off a shot, a fist sized dent materialising in his metal shield. In front of her, Porkchop dug his claws into the stone, preparing to charge.

“No! Pull back,” he insisted.

“What?! Are you insane — I’ve got to break their formation, it’s the only way we can pick them off one by one!”

“Not worth it!” Kaius insisted. “Defensive fight — too much risk of killing them if we go aggressive. I just need some time to think. Some way we can end this.”

His brother growled, frustrated — but he still slammed his paw down, summoning his Ethereal Phalanx. The ghostly shield line snapped into existence and charged — buying them a little time as the advancing lords were forced to slow, lest they get run through.

Kaius’s mind raced — this was three full teams of Silvers, with overwatch to boot. A hellishly unbalanced confrontation. But the nobles were on foot — if they could break out off the pass, they’d have far more room to manoeuvre. Whether that would be to escape, or wear the men down, he didn’t know yet. Just had to avoid killing them and pulling the full might of a duchy on their heads. Easy.

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“Onto the Pegleg. Force them to chase,” Kaius urged, resummoning the landyacht beside them.

They leapt up immediately — Kaius hauling Ianmus with him as the mage focused on keeping the archers off of their backs. They fell into formation — him and Porkchop holding the front, ready to repel boarders.

“After the rats!” Flowers screamed, Kaius catching a glimpse of a wafting red sight surrounding the man’s feet. A moment later, the man whistled — a sharp piercing noise that filled the pass.

The nobles charged after them, swords raised high — but the Pegleg was fast. Yet Kaius could hear the pounding feet of heavy beasts. Equine monsters peeled around the base of the cliff, quickly catching up to their masters. In practiced unity, the men swung into their saddles, and the mounts charged. Damn monsters were fast — gaining quickly.

Kaius ducked, another bolt punching through his Maelstrom to race through the space his head had occupied a moment before. Kenva snapped off a retaliatory arrow almost instantly — hastened and empowered by The North Wind.

A pained scream echoed from up high.

“Just his shoulder!” Kenva insisted.

Kaius grit his teeth and focused on the approaching vanguard. Eight men — including Flowers’ entire team. Kaius dropped a Zone of DIscombobulation in front of them — they just sprinted through before it could throw off their cohesion. He needed something more forceful — something that could deter them. The mounts. Even if he didn’t want to piss off the duke, he had his limits.

Kaius snapped off a Hateful Nail, aimed right at the chest of Flowers’ strange horse-beast. Even if it survived, the unspooling wire would bring it down — and he doubted the men would leave their leader alone.

To his shock, one of the outriders flared with mana. Slamming the pommel of his blade against his shield, a shimmering copy snapped into existence in front of Flower’s mount. The skill shattered — but it deflected his spell all the same.

“Zaglin’s decapitation!” Julian ordered, his command booming through the pass.

Fire from up high redoubled, as the outriders peeled away from Julian’s team. They sheathed their blades — crossbows appearing in hand. Julian’s backline joined each pair — the ornery Baron Rosenhall with a short bow, and Lord Steelroot with an oversized Windlass that he reset with a calm yank.

They fired on his back line from three angles. Kenva tackled Ianmus to the ground, gasping in pain as a bolt punched through her stomach and out her back. Porkchop roared, lunging over them to cover them with his bulk — a constant storm of arrows landing on him. Most shattered on his armour, but bursts of force and the glimmering signs of Skills allowed some to punch through. Blood leaked from holes in his orichalchum plate. Kaius reached for Vyrthane. Refreshing his Maelstrom helped — but even thrown off-target, and weakened, the volume of fire was still a deadly threat.

All the while, Flowers stared dead at him, closing the gap to the Pegleg with Lord Kel at his side.

Kaius gripped his blade furiously, swaying to the side to dodge an arrow. Bastard on the cliff had thought him distracted.

This wasn’t working.

“Any ideas on how to get them to stop?” Kaius hissed. “Because I’m about three seconds from finding out if a VOS-empowered Stormlash counts as non-lethal.”

“Hostage!” Ianmus replied, his face twisted in concentration as rolled out from behind Porkchop’s leg to fire a barrage of Scouring Rays at the mounts of Steelroot’s group of outriders. They whined, smoking holes peppering their chest and flanks, but continued on all the same — trained warbeasts to the last.

Kaius froze, before he smiled with manic glee.

Rotten roots, he was an idiot — why didn’t he think of that?

Expedient Shunt slammed into his back, sending him straight towards Lord Flowers. A Father’s Gift vanished from his hand, replaced by a dagger from his ring. Flowers’ eyes went wide, and the outriders reacted immediately. Skills burned one after the other as retainers flooded back to the lord’s side, surrounding him in an impenetrable wall of steel and meat.

He was in range a second later.

Kaius cast Fractured Warp.

Materialising behind Lord Flowers’, Kaius wrapped an arm around the man's armoured throat. Another Shunt exploded behind him, gasps of shock joining groans of pain as he burst upwards with the lord in his grip. He hoped they choked on the thousand cuts his spell would leave in their flesh.

“What the fuck!” Flowers screamed as they flew away. His voice was wheezing and wet. Judging from the blood Kaius could feel dripping onto the arm he had around the man’s neck, landing so close to the man had subjected him to the brunt of his spell’s spatial fractures.

The lord’s reaction was immediate. His arming sword vanished, a spike-like rondel dagger appearing in a reverse grip. The man slammed it back. It slipped through his armoured ribs with a slight crunch, angled towards the centre of his chest. An instant later a detonation ripped through his chest, a wave of white hot agony.

Blood erupted from his mouth, drenching the back of Flower’s hair a scarlet red. It was chunky.

Kaius just grinned — detonating another shunt that sent them rocketing back to the Pegleg. The lords men were right on his tail, but it didn’t matter.

Flowers yanked out the dagger. Bastard was going to stab him again. If he shredded his other lung, he wouldn’t be able to speak — a problem.

“Kenva, the dagger please!”

An arrow snapped out from behind one of Porkchop’s leg. It slammed into Flowers’ hand — leaving a ragged hole in the back of his palm. The dagger spun away.

Landing heavily down on the deck of the landyacht, Kaius wrenched Flower’s around to face his men. The tip of his own dagger pressed deeply into the back of the man's neck — aligned right with the gap between the man’s skull and first vertebrae .

“Wanna bet I can put this in your brainstem before your snipers actually manage to hit something?” he growled in the man’s ear. Or at least, he tried to — it came out a garbled mess of Skill-thickened blood, and chunks of his own organs.

Lord Flowers got the picture anyway. “Hold!”

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