63 – Die Lucius!

Lucius didn’t move.

The other nine Gold ranks stood from their seats as Dustin charged. But before he could so much as reach the long table cutting the room in half, vines ripped the floor apart. Thick, green rope-coils burst through the floorboards, sending splinters flying. They wrapped around his ankles.

He stopped dead in his tracks.

“Dustin!” Marick moved after him. The rest followed.

“Enough,” Lucius said. He turned to his men. “Make sure to capture them alive.”

Dustin swung his axe at the vines, severing them to free his legs.

“Stay grouped,” Marick said. “We’re outnumbered.”

Louis disappeared.

The vines kept coming. Not just from under Dustin anymore; from the walls, the corners, curling up from fresh gaps in the floor. The chairs toppled over, and the table shifted as its legs cracked under the pressure of vines wrapping around them.

Alexandra prepared a Dark Bolt. She let the spell form on her finger. One cast would kill the vines. But…

She looked at Lucius, still behind the table, hands open at his sides. She let it go.

There was no point. Those were regular vines that the man was manipulating with a skill. Destroy one, he’d bring another three. She’d curse herself while the nine other Gold ranks closed the distance.

She raised her sickle.

Three of the Gold ranks came around the left side of the table. Two more pushed right, including Will. The remaining four were already on their side of the table and covered the center.

Marick stepped forward. “Luce, Edran, left flank. Dustin, hold the center with me.”

“I’m trying,” Dustin grunted, but vines kept grabbing at him.

Dena was already backing toward the wall, eyes on their opponents, looking for an angle.

The closest man on the left was big. Not Dustin big, but close. He was carrying a two handed sword. Behind him, a woman with twin short blades was already circling faster than her partners. The third hung behind them both.

On the right, one of the two had vines wrapped around his forearm like a second skin. Alexandra clocked it. Not Lucius’. His own. A separate skill, or the same bloodline. A Merinus.

The center four didn’t wait. The nearest one opened his palm and a burst of thick pollen hit the air between them. Marick shoved Alexandra back.

“Don’t breathe it.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

The second was already moving through the haze, thorned vines coiling off his forearms like whips. One cracked across Dustin’s shoulder as he was still fighting with Lucius’ vines.

Dustin barely flinched. He swung back with his axe. But the man stepped inside the arc and raked up Dustin’s forearm on the way.

Marick engaged the third, a woman who hadn’t drawn any weapon. She didn’t need one. A shelf of bark erupted up her arm and caught his axe dead, shoved, and Marick skidded back on the broken floor.

Alexandra moved in to fill the gap. A hand caught her shoulder.

“Stay back,” Luce said.

The fourth one drew his sword and joined the assault on Dustin and Marick.

Dena fired an arrow at the pollen man.

The other five were approaching from the sides.

Luce and Edran moved left, drawing the three away from the central battle.

That left Alexandra with two on the right.

Will was closer than she’d realized. He stopped when he saw her face.

“You. I knew you were no good.” He smiled. “Iron rank.”

The man beside him, the one with the arms covered in vines, wasn’t so patient. He lurched forward.

Then he stopped.

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He looked down. A blade was already through his throat, Louis standing right before him. The thief was gone before the body hit the floor.

Will took a step back, his hands going for the sword on his belt. He ducked. An arrow grazed his scalp. His eyes kept going to the floor where his partner had dropped.

Alexandra kept her sickle up and her feet moving, slow lateral steps. She didn’t dare to commit.

Will was a fighter. Maybe not the best in this room, but he was a Gold. Miles ahead of what John had been. She knew the odds.

She needed something different.

“Scared?” she asked, her eyes drilling into the man.

Will’s jaw tightened.

“You’re not getting out of here alive,” she added, not letting any emotion show.. “Run.”

He didn’t. But he didn’t close the distance either. He dodged another arrow.

Alexandra knew he wasn’t afraid of her. Why would he?

But her mouth was all she had to offer in this battle.

She toyed with the idea of firing a Dark Bolt at one of the Merinus. But their bloodlines didn’t make them less human. Plant magic, it looked like, didn’t mean she could overcome the rank disparity.

She turned her head to see Dustin and Marick battle four golds and Lucius’ vines. Then she looked at Lucius. He hadn’t moved a finger.