The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

I counted eight men with lethal weapons, but there was no reason to believe that nobody else would join in the fight, even if it meant they were going to fight with bare fists or pick up whatever they could hurl at us. Fighting off multiple unarmed men with a baton was one thing, but as soon as even one was holding a weapon that could kill, it changed the entire equation completely.

Dorian and Thomas, without being prompted, took their positions next to me while we covered for Isabelle.

"The biggest one with the axe there, Isabelle," I said quietly.

"Yes," she said.

"Drown him."

"What...?"

"Trap his head in a water sphere. You can do it. Fireball’s too dangerous here if the whole place catches fire, but we need that man immobilized."

"Marius, I’ve never done such a thing before."

"It’s a good plan," Dorian agreed with me.

"Thomas—"

As she was about to say something, Thomas cut her off tersely.

"You don’t need to do anything like that. Use fireballs. Just scare them off and be careful."

"Thomas, it’s not the time to be generous," I said.

"You don’t get to give orders, Marius," Thomas grunted.

"I trust you will do the right thing," I said, then moved on to Dorian immediately. "Can you get to that boss?"

"I see," he said.

"Yes. If you catch him first and hold him hostage, he might get the others to stop."

"Worth a try."

"And Skylark, stay two steps behind me at all times," I said without looking, but I heard no answer.

"Leo?" Thomas called his name, turning slightly to look at him. I couldn’t afford to take my eyes off the threats, but—

"Marius, there’s something wrong with Leo."

When I heard Thomas whisper, I couldn’t help but turn to find Skylark standing rooted to the spot, looking down at the floor, as if he had become petrified.

"Skylark?"

He did not answer and did not move. He didn’t even take his baton out.

I wanted to go to him, but there was no time to determine what had happened. Whatever was wrong with Skylark, I had to keep the danger away from him first. If he could not fight, then I would simply have to account for that as well.

Then, with a sudden scream, all seven men began to dash toward us.

"DO IT, ISABELLE!" I shouted.

Isabelle, impressively quickly, conjured up a water sphere that was slightly bigger than the size of a head and flung it towards the biggest man who was holding a large axe. The water sphere dispersed for a brief second right before his face, then trapped his head inside it and held its position tight. The man immediately dropped his axe and tried to break free, but Isabelle was keeping him trapped, suffocating him.

"Excellent," Dorian said and began to move, swiftly and smoothly. Two of the guys that were rushing toward us turned to stop him, but Dorian dodged their wild swings and glided past them. That made one of the remaining five men heading to us turn back and head to catch Dorian too. Now it was Thomas and I against four: two with swords, one with a spear and one with a hammer. This was going to get tricky.

"For how long, Marius...?" Isabelle asked, her voice trembling.

"We can’t afford to have him join in. Hold it for longer," I said.

The man whose face was trapped in her water sphere was in utter agony.

"We’ll get this done quickly, Isabelle," Thomas said.

As the four men approached, Thomas and I stepped around to block their path to Isabelle while splitting them into two groups. It was still two against one for each of us with only a hard wooden baton for a weapon, but we had to increase our odds in any way we could, no matter how slight.

I had to handle the sword and spear duo. The spear was a more manageable problem as I only had to watch its end, but the sword was going to be tricky as it could potentially cut through the wooden baton. The spear came thrusting first. I turned my body slightly to let it go past me and used my knee to push it to the side. The swordsman then came swinging. This time, I jumped back one step and hit the side of its blade with the baton as hard as I could, hoping that I could knock it out of his hand.

It didn’t work.

The tip of the spear sought me again. I ducked and rolled to dodge it this time. Just as I wished, the swordsman came rushing with a downward swing. I rolled one more time to let the sword land on the wooden floor, making it get stuck momentarily. Not missing my chance, I hit the swordsman’s ankle bone hard with the baton. He screamed in pain but still held onto his sword.

Right then, I heard a thud and a shriek. I threw a quick glance and saw that Thomas managed to disarm his swordsman, but he had taken a blow from the hammer to his right arm. He quickly switched the baton to his other hand, but I knew then that he was in no shape to fight effectively anymore.

"Thomas!" Isabelle yelled.

"KEEP THE WATER ON THAT MAN!" I shouted. We were done for if he came to join in the fight.

I desperately scanned the room again. Dorian was close to the boss, but he was having a hard time dodging the attacks coming from the three men. This wasn’t going well. But I had no more time to divide my attention, as the swordsman managed to get his blade unstuck and came at me again, and another thrust of the spear headed my way too.

I couldn’t dodge both this time. I managed to avoid getting impaled by the spear, but the tip of the sword grazed my shoulder. I was cut. Blood spurted out from the wound as I felt a sharp pain.

And just at the moment blood was shooting up into the air from my shoulder, my eyes met Skylark’s. His eyes were as wide as they could open. His face was completely pale.

"Marius," he said.

Not a scream, but just a single, short, quiet utterance.

Then the entire room went pitch black.

Although I couldn’t see anything, I had a good idea of where Skylark was. I crouched low and made my way to him. I had to get him out of here. Fast.

Then, suddenly, a piercingly bright red flame arose in the middle of the room.

Fire.

But it did not illuminate anything around it.

But it was growing fast. Spreading.

People started to scream.

"Get out of here!"

"Fire!!!"

"Move out of my way!"

The room became absolute chaos as the flame raged and spread in the darkness. Nobody could see anything but this fire from hell that spread and raged like a crazed beast.

People were stumbling all over. Falling to the ground with a thud. Pushing and pulling each other. Running for the door they couldn’t see. The fire in the room was growing bigger and everybody was being pushed out toward the edge, and it seemed some people had already hit the wall. There were loud sounds of banging and desperate cries for help.

This was hell.

Then my hand managed to find a body in the dark. As disorientated as I was, I knew I was close to Skylark by now, and I remembered the feeling of his hand that I managed to find, although it was ice cold. The shape, the softness—it was unmistakably Skylark’s hand.

"Skylark, it’s me. Marius."

Then I felt him go weak. I desperately threw myself to the ground so he could land on me at least because catching him in this darkness was out of the question.

Then I heard many voices scream together as moonlight flooded into the room.

"ROYAL KNIGHTS! NOBODY MOVE!"

I looked at where the light was coming from and saw the silhouettes of many men. I instantly recognized them and could confirm that they were the Royal Knights who had finally come to help us.

The fire suddenly disappeared. I heard the windows shatter. Royal Knights poured into the room from every possible entrance.

"Are you guys okay?!"

I heard Sergeant Becker’s voice. He knelt next to me and Skylark, whose face I could finally see. He had passed out.

"Skylark!"

I screamed. He did not move.

I embraced Skylark. He felt cold and lifeless. In a panic, I checked for his pulse. It was faint and slow, but the pulse was clearly there.

I felt more relieved than I had ever felt in my entire life.

Then there were cries of pain as the Royal Knights started to beat on everyone who did not wear the uniform. The moonlight that flooded the room now made the foes clearly visible. There was going to be no escape.

No mercy for those who harmed the Royal Knights.

Our comrades had come to our rescue.

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