Chapter 40: Simon the Adventurer (10)

Their blades clashed in a scream of steel.

Dreadful Aura negated by Aura of Bravery!

Ser Alphonse was on Simon in the blink of an eye, his longsword a snake of light. Simon could almost hear it screech when it met his claymore. The Paladin followed their first clash with a flurry of lightning-fast blows, each of them meant to wound and kill. Simon barely managed to parry a strike by leveraging his greatsword’s superior length and range, his counterpush forcing Ser Alphonse to jump back.

The respite barely lasted a second before he pressed the attack again, sparks flying when upswings and sideslashes met his parries. Simon mentally thanked Leonard for insisting on practicing with weapons beyond just relying on his proficiencies, because his Warmonger-enhanced instincts quickly failed to keep up with the onslaught.

He’s swifter than me, and the better swordsman, Simon thought, his blood pounding in his head as sparks flew. But my strength surpasses his.

Simon retaliated with a swing that crashed on Alphonse’s shield so hard he was thrust back a few feet. Simon immediately followed through by pointing a finger at his foe and firing off a spell. “Toxin!”

A cloud of nauseous smog materialized over Alphonse’s armor, causing him to cough and wince as he took some minor Corrosion damage, only to quickly shrug it off.

Poison Ailment negated by Holy Fortitude.

How many ailment protections does a Paladin have? Simon cursed as a good chunk of the audience jeered and called him a coward for attempting to use poison. At least the damage had gone through, so he’s only immune to the Ailment, not the Corrosion element.

“You would let poison do your dirty work?” Alphonse snapped at him with disgust. “I see why you sent assassins to murder my teacher in his sleep, you craven coward! You cannot win a fair fight!”

“I told you I had nothing to do with that! Besides, you ‘brave knights’ weren’t above ambushing us either!” Simon replied coldly before opening his palm. “Land of Darkness!”

Simon attempted to claim the crater as his Dungeon, like he had with the dryad’s forest in his previous reign, in order to enjoy its buffs. Darkness coiled in his hand in the form of a miasma crystal from which an evil will seeped out. Simon spotted Frea raising her staff in alarm, probably to try to counter his magic or protect her allies from the emerging Dungeon.

She didn’t need to.

Alphonse raised his sword of light and stuck it into the ground. “Sanctify!”

A pulse of holy light erupted from the Paladin and shattered Simon’s miasma crystal in an instant. Its pieces broke into smoke, flowing through his fingers like sand.

“You shall not befoul this land or any other,” Alphonse swore as he removed his sword from the ground. “There is no darkness my light cannot pierce!”

“You are so annoying!” Simon cursed back. He finally understood why so many people still put their faith in Paladins even after they had failed to slay a single Overlord in the current timeline; their Class appeared almost entirely designed to counter his own. “Energumen!”

A crimson aura surrounded him as his spell invited evil spirits to lend him their power, with the shadows of whispering skulls reflecting in its hue. His strength and vitality grew with unholy vigor.

Alphonse countered his spell with his own buffs. “Rampart, Divine Weapon…” A brief barrier of interlocked plates of light briefly flashed around the Paladin. “Haste.”

He was in front of Simon, and then gone again in the blink of an eye.

Simon barely had time to catch a blur coming at him from the left before a sword of light narrowly missed his throat and grazed his left shoulder instead. The blow wasn’t that deep, but it cut through his armor anyway and baptized his flesh with searing pain.

Supereffective damage!

A whirlwind of steel and light, almost too fast for the eye to see, followed as Alphonse of Lore pressed his assault. This time, he moved too swiftly for Simon to even think about anything but defense. The Paladin drove him back across their field of stone and then against the abandoned temple, cornering him. He struck and slashed and thrust, never giving Simon a respite.

He’s too fast! Simon breathed fast and deep beneath his helmet as he struggled to keep up, his teeth grinding when his enemy’s blade managed to slip past his guard and cut through his right hip deep enough to draw blood. I can’t keep this up!

He finally managed to create an opening by parrying a slash, the sheer blowback of his enhanced strength forcing Alphonse back for a second. Simon immediately capitalized on it.

“Blindness!” Simon hastily cast, more out of desperation than anything else. Alphonse’s immunities probably worked similarly to Simon’s own Unyielding Essence Perk; they grew with levels, but Alphonse was likely at a low enough level that they didn’t cover everything.

And it worked.

The Paladin’s eyes turned white, his assault halting at the sudden loss of his sight. Simon immediately capitalized on it with a counterslash. The Paladin heard the steel flying through the air and hastily raised his shield to stop the incoming blow. His Rampart barrier suddenly flared up again to protect him.

Simon would have probably torn Alphonse’s arm off without it, and he still managed to smash through that protection by virtue of his sheer strength. The Paladin’s shield caved in at the impact and split in two, the blowback throwing him back. The old knight and the other adventurers gasped for their Champion as he rolled onto the stony ground.

“You can do it, Alphonse!” shouted one of the women adventurers, the redheaded rogue. “Stand up!”

“Don’t give up! Rise up!” another added, voices rising to encourage their champion to get up, up, up.

Soon, the audience mostly devolved into a chorus. Neither Belzemine nor Eole cheered for Simon. They remained tense as poles, ready to spring into action. A mere shared glance told Simon everything he needed to know.

They would only have one narrow window of opportunity… if he could defeat Alphonse.

“Do not let this distract you, Alphonse!” the old knight shouted as his precious Paladin rose back to his feet. “Remember what I told you! Clear your mind and trust your senses! You don’t need eyes to see!”

Alphonse took heed of the advice, tossed his broken shield aside, and readied his sword with both hands. He crouched slightly like a cat ready to pounce, waiting for the right moment.

He has keen senses to fight me even when blinded, but he now has to move more cautiously… more predictably. A plan formed in Simon’s mind. One good hit is all I need.

Readying himself, Simon stepped forward and followed with a curse. “Elemental Imbalance: Light.”

His magic managed to affect the Paladin, granting him resistance to the Light element—which he probably already had anyway—at the cost of gaining a temporary vulnerability to the Darkness in which Simon was already coating his sword.

“Come then, Alphonse!” Simon taunted him in an attempt to make him slip up, and he failed. The Paladin kept his distance and didn’t take the bait. Simon clenched his jaw in annoyance. No way around it. “Come, perhaps you will die on your feet, unlike your thief of an uncle.”

Although Simon hated it, the taunt hit true. Alphonse tightened his grip on his sword, his body tensing with fury. “Shut your mouth.”

“Do you know what my father told your uncle, when he asked why he had to die?” I am sorry, but you threatened us first. “My father said it was because of you. You and your father both. He died cursing your name.”

“Alphonse, don’t listen–” the old knight called out.

“Does it hurt, Alphonse?” Simon did his best impersonation of Balzam Magnos’ cruel chuckle. “Don’t worry. I know it does.”

Alphonse charged.

As Simon predicted, the Paladin immediately zeroed in on his voice and crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, putting all of his strength and fury in this one final clash… but his blindness forced him to attack in a straight line, which allowed Simon to predict his movements.

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“Shadowchain.”

Dark chains sprang from the ground and caught Alphonse’s ankle. The Paladin tripped right as the Overlord raised his sword to welcome him.

Simon tore him in half.

There was no other way to describe it. He impaled the Paladin through his chest with such strength that it snapped him in two like a twig. Soul-screeching wails echoed his triumph as the adventurers watched their hero fail and die—none louder than the old, grizzled knight’s. Alphonse coughed blood, his armor dissipating into light to reveal his final expression: a look of horror and absolute despair.

I’m sorry, Alphonse, Simon thought when he saw the light die in his foe’s eyes. I swear to you… this will never happen again.

A rush of life flowed through Simon’s body as Deathmastery fed on the blood showering his armor to restore his lifeforce. He felt the grasp of his shadowy powers coiling on Alphonse’s soul, waiting for his signal to imprison it, and he instinctively answered it before he understood the consequences.

A crystal of miasma holding Alphonse’s soul formed in his hand.

Level 27 Overlord Perk: Lord of the Demon Castle III (Active): You can teleport yourself and up to ten willing creatures within thirty feet of yourself to Castle Frightwall. You can also block attempts to teleport inside or outside your castle—but only if the caster is of a lower level than you are.

Level 28 Overlord Perk: Unyielding Essence III (Passive): You are immune to the Sleep and Paralysis Ailments, though you still need to rest.

The redheaded rogue was on him in an instant with murder on her mind.

She closed the gap between them in an instant, a black cape and mouth mask materializing as she put on her Class outfit. She was faster than Alphonse had been, even with his Haste spell, but thankfully weaker. Her swords and dagger only managed to graze his armor.

And then chaos reigned.

Alphonse’s death cancelled the protection he afforded his allies, and Simon’s Dreadful Aura sent the weakest of them packing in fear. Eole sprang to action, tackling the rogue from behind, grabbing her by the waist, and then taking flight. Belzemine snapped her fingers as both Frea and the Knight put on Class outfits of their own.

“Contagious Human Combustion!”