Chapter 24. Unplugging a Bomb Is Just Cable Management with Consequences

Chapter 24: 24. Unplugging a Bomb Is Just Cable Management with Consequences

I didn’t look back. My legs were shaking, and my vision was starting to grey around the edges, but I had a decent view of the stairs, and I took them two at a time.

I don’t want to be a burden for anyone or anything! I’m a man who wanted this... a knight’s role! And that’s what I am, so I have to force myself even if I’m dying!

"GRAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" I let out a long scream just so that I can convince my whole body to keep moving forward.

I burst onto the platform at the foot of the tower and hit the first soldier’s shoulder first. He went down with a surprised grunt.

BAG!

The second one came at me with a spear, but I tilted my body and let the point slip past my shoulder, then slammed the hilt of my sword into his face.

BAG!

A third stepped in with a short blade, and I caught his wrist, twisted, and tossed him over the railing.

BAG!

Then I was beside the device, and I could see it clearly this time. There were three small crystals plugged into a copper plate... each feeding a thread of energy into the base of the main crystal.

’If I smash all of them at once... it could overload the barrier,’ I thought. ’I have to unplug them one at a time.’

I yanked out the first. And the whole device whined.

I pulled the second, and a spark jumped across my knuckles and made my whole arm go numb. "Gagghh! Fuck!"

Even though the pain was beating real hard on my arm, still... I keep trying just so that I reach for the third.

And that’s where I heard a voice growled behind me.

"That’s far enough, boy!"

"...!" I ducked out of instinct.

Thank god I did that because a sword whistled through the space where my head had been and bit into the stone beside me.

I take a quick look at the man behind the man, and I can tell that he was the leader of the unit... judging by his thick neck and face like a boiled ham.

The man managed to tear it free and swung again towards me. "GRAGGGH!"

CLANG!

I parried, and the shock of the impact finally did what Garrick hadn’t been able to. My cracked blade snapped in half and left me holding a stump.

"Of course... right at this fucking moment that my sword finally gave up."

"GEHAHAHA!" The man laughed. "Looks like you’re out of luck, kid."

I looked at the pathetic bit of steel in my hand. Then I started to grin.

"Hey now... Who told a thick-necked man like you that I only have one weapon, hm?"

I flung the broken hilt at his face.

BAGH!

He flinched, as anyone would because it’s a cheap trick from me, and threw his arm up to block it, and I scooped a dropped spear off the platform and rammed the butt of it into his chest.

He staggered back against the railing. I put my shoulder into him, and he went over the edge with a long, indignant yell.

"Gaggghhh! You son of a bitch!"

"Looks like you’ll not be needing this!" I pulled the last crystal free.

The device went dark.

For a moment nothing happened, and I was afraid I’d done something wrong with what I just did without second thought. But then... the tower above me began to hum, and a wave of pale blue light flowed up its sides like water filling a glass.

SWWOOOSSSHHH!

Down in the streets, I can see the segments of the barrier flickered, all of them caught on fire, and burned steadily... one after another.

Across the whole city, the guards started to cheer.

I slid down the railing and sat there, breathing like a man who’d run across a country. "Hah... hah... hah..."

From the top of the platform, I could see most of the battle, and what I saw next made me forget how tired I was.

The black-armored soldiers had lost their advantage the moment the barrier came back, and the royal guards were pushing them down the avenue. A few were surrendering like fucking pussies.

Most were scattering toward the eastern gate. And at the gate, a small group was running with something metal clutched against a man’s chest, a cylinder about the size of a rolled map.

Alicia had spotted it too.

She took two guards and went after them. I saw the leader of the group wheel around to face her, a big man with a mace the size of a cooking pot, and I saw her take the first blow on her blade and get pushed back a step.

He was stronger than she was. He kept coming, driving her toward the wall, and I felt every muscle in my body clench.

’No, no... no!!!’ I clenched my fists.

I wanted to help. My legs wouldn’t move, though, and the edges of my vision were turning to static.

All I could do was yell. "Alicia!!! Don’t let him pull you right!"

"He’s leading you into the corner!!!"

She heard me. I know she did, because she went completely still for half a second, and then she did exactly the opposite of what the man expected.

She dropped her left foot back, let him swing at the spot where she’d been, and used his momentum to spin her whole body around. Her sword flashed under his guard and cracked his weapon out of his hands.

When he stumbled, she slammed the hilt into the back of his knee.

He went down hard. Alicia stepped forward and put the point of her sword against his neck.

I smiled proudly. ’That’s my girl.’

"That’s enough," she said, calm as a stone.

She picked up the cylinder from where it had fallen.

A moment later, I saw her pop the cap and pull out a sheaf of papers, and even from the tower I could see her eyes widen.

I started laughing because I couldn’t help it. She wasn’t the girl who needed protecting.

She was a damn good and talented knight, and she’d just proved it in front of half the kingdom.

When I finally made it down the stairs, Sharon was standing with her back to me, talking to Alicia in a low voice. I caught the tail end of it.

"...a real instinct for command," Sharon was saying. "I saw how you handled the guards."

"I’m going to recommend you for formal evaluation, and if you perform the way you did tonight, you’ll have a chance at becoming a knight of Elarion!"

"Oh wow..." Alicia looked startled. "Thank you, Lady Sanford!"

"Don’t thank me yet!" She laughed. "It’s a recommendation, not a medal."

"Then I’ll earn the medal for real!" Alicia caught sight of me hobbling toward them, and her expression sharpened. "But I want my companions recognized too... I won’t take all of this alone without him."

Sharon glanced over her shoulder at me. I tried to stand up straight and failed.

"Don’t worry about that," she said. "I won’t let courage like this go unrewarded."

I’d have said something clever, but that was when it all went wrong.

Garrick had been sitting quietly in the street, chained and slumped against a wall, and none of us were watching him.

I don’t know what made me look. Maybe it was combat instinct, or maybe it was the faint red glow I caught from the corner of my eye.

But I turned around just as the crystal on his chest flared bright as a sunrise.

"EVERYONE...! Get back!" I yelled.

The chains around Garrick’s body burst apart.

BAAMMMMMM!

A wave of red energy blasted out from his chest and hurled half a dozen guards across the street. Garrick lurched to his feet, bleeding from a dozen small cuts, and his eyes were wild.

"I... grrgghh...! I WON’T...! BE TAKEN BY THIS ROTTEN KINGDOOOOOM!" he roared.