Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) (48 page)

It had taken him years of hard work to amass the power he possessed, and he was not going to allow anyone to see him as a joke after all that. Alexander and Victor had died far too easily in his opinion, and their killers barely had any reputation to speak of. If he did not stop it, there would be talk among his men of how the other Abrams brothers had fallen so easily. That was the one thing that he could not allow.

“Come with me,” he demanded as he walked back towards the stables to retrieve his horse. “The time for action is upon us.”

Chapter 8

“You’ve grown considerably,” Sir Edmond remarked as his sword was brought to a halt, held back by the Sword of Kirakath. Even with all his strength behind the blow, Caleb had managed to block it perfectly.

“How long did you think it would take?” Caleb asked as he jumped back and readied his blade for another attack.

“I did not have an estimate in mind. It took me a few years to reach the point where I could control what attributes the Blood of Kirakath enhanced. It has only taken you three days,” Sir Edmond answered, shaking his head. “Granted, you still have far to go before you can claim to have complete control over the Blood of Kirakath, but that will come in time.”

“Right,” Caleb said just before he lunged with his blade at the golem’s neck. It impacted upon the stone body and bounced off harmlessly. He was forced to drop to the ground as Sir Edmond copied his actions.

“If you ever find yourself facing another golem in the future, I would recommend that you find yourself a hammer or a very sturdy shield. From my own experience, I can tell you that swords are not the best weapons against them. Creating golems may be a lost art, but I highly doubt that Eric was the only one to have one,” Sir Edmond remarked as he sheathed his sword.

“It’s unbreakable though,” Caleb said as he sheathed the Sword of Kirakath and released his hold on the Blood of Kirakath. “Can’t I just hack away at it until it falls apart?”

“The Sword of Kirakath is not unbreakable,” Sir Edmond answered, shaking his head. “It is very difficult to break or blunt, but both are possible. The sword does hold enchantments to give the edge in pristine condition and to strengthen the blade, but neither stopped Archmage Kyran from breaking the sword in the early days of his empire. It was reforged by his magic and made even stronger, but it is said that he told the first members of the Order of Kyran that it was not indestructible.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Caleb muttered, shaking his head. It would have been just his luck to accidentally break his sword like that. Unless there was something about repairing the sword in the Tome of Akabar, he doubted anyone would have been able to fix it either.

He was torn away from such thoughts as a sharp pain flared inside his head. Falling to his knees, he saw that he was no longer on Mount Akabar. He was standing just outside of Laus. Night time had fallen, though the light of the stars and the moon was enough to see clearly in.

Looking around, he saw that the sentry towers were empty. The corpses of the sentries were on the other side of the walls with arrows embedded in them.

He instantly knew what caused their deaths.

In front of him, he saw a man that looked almost exactly like Victor Abrams, and he had over a hundred men behind him. From the quality of their weapons and armory, he suspected they were bandits. It did not matter how well trained the men were though. With that many, the casualties would have been high even if they had farming tools.

He watched as Vincent Meis left the gates of Laus with twenty of his guards behind him. Clad in chainmail and hard leather armor with well made weaponry, they looked far more impressive than the bandits did.

They were still outnumbered five to one though, and the sheer numbers proved to be too much.

Caleb watched as Vincent lost one man for every four men that Isaac lost. Before long, Vincent only had two men left, but they were different than the others. Now that he looked closely, he saw that they were Katie and Nicolas.

Isaac still had twenty men.

Vincent moved forward and met Isaac blade for blade ferociously. It was clear from the beginning that he was dominating the fight, but the bandits were not willing to stand aside and let them fight. They attacked Vincent from behind. More than six lost their lives by his blade, but it gave Isaac the opening he needed.

Among the defenders, only Katie and Nicolas still lived, but they were exhausted and weakened. They managed to take down four apiece, but it was at a great cost. Pain shot through his chest as he watched them die. The only relief was that he knew that it was not real.

The scene before him changed, and he was now standing in the middle of the street in Laus. Isaac and his men were killing the men, the children, and the elderly of Laus one by one. The women were not so lucky. They were gathered up as Isaac burned the town, building by building. He knew why they were not killed right then and there. The answer came to him without even needing to think, and the looks on the bandits’ faces only served to confirm his fears. He felt ill in that moment, and he knew that he would be unable to stop from retching if he saw what they did to the women.

The scenery faded from view before things grew worse, and he saw that he was once again on Mount Akabar.

“What did you see?” Sir Edmond asked with a hint of worry in his voice. He was too perceptive to miss the look in Caleb’s eyes.

“I saw Isaac Abrams attack Laus,” Caleb whispered. “It was night time, and the moon was full. He killed everyone… everyone but the women.”

“I see,” Sir Edmond said solemnly. “The full moon begins tonight. The full moon lasts for three nights, but we cannot assume that it’s the second or third night.”

“I have to be there,” Caleb said firmly. “I won’t let Katie or Nicolas die. And I can’t let…
that
happen.”

“Then we will return to Laus,” Sir Edmond agreed, though a hint of sadness could be heard in his voice. “I am still a knight at heart, and I could no sooner allow this to happen than you could. But understand that there may be consequences.”

Caleb had the feeling that there was more to Sir Edmond’s words than what was spoken, but his mind was not ready to think about anything but the task at hand. He had to stop what he saw from happening, even if it cost him his life.

“I’ll grab my bow and quiver then,” Caleb said as he turned to the temple. “The Sword of Kirakath isn’t my only weapon.”

When Sir Edmond nodded his head, Caleb quickly entered the temple and ran to the room where he had been staying. He retrieved his bow and quiver from the cupboard. Within moments, he strung his bow and attached his quiver to his belt at his right hip. He could have grabbed his pack as well, but he dismissed it out of hand. He already had everything he would need.

When he returned to the front of the temple, Caleb saw that Abigail was standing next to Sir Edmond with a firm look in her crimson eyes.

“I have decided to accompany you,” she stated when he gave her an inquisitive look. Though she said it as if it was the most natural thing in the world, Caleb highly suspected that her leaving her home was extremely rare.

“Go with Sir Edmond to Laus then,” Caleb said as he hung his bow across his back. “I’ll try to be back as soon as I can, but it might be just before they arrive.”

“What are you talking about?” she demanded with a hint of concern in her voice.

“I’m going hunting,” Caleb answered ominously as he looked off into the distance. He knew what road they would take to get to Laus, so it would be a simple matter to find them.

“Be careful,” Sir Edmond said with a single nod, earning a glare from Abigail.

“I will,” he replied as he began the trek down the mountain with Sir Edmond and Abigail trailing behind him.

* * * * *

While Sir Edmond and Abigail moved towards Laus through the forests of Akabar, Caleb hid behind a tree alongside the road. He had traveled east from Mount Akabar to the road that ran between Laus and Falkreath.

He vaguely remembered Abigail talking about how Isaac used the southern town of Caer as his base of operations, and Falkreath was the only town between Caer and Laus. Unless he wished to march through the forest or go all the way around the island, either by land or sea, then he had to pass where Caleb was.

Seeing as how the road did not appear to have been traveled lately by anything more than a single horse, he could tell that Isaac had yet to come.

As Caleb lied in wait, he could not help but wonder what brought about his current plan. He knew that it would be dangerous to single handedly assault Isaac’s forces, even if he kept his distance.

Two years ago, he knew that he never would have agreed to do such a dangerous task, but he also knew that he was not the same person he once was. That did not mean that the idea terrified him any less.

The slow beat of feet upon the hard road of rock and dirt caught his attention. It grew louder as he took his bow in his left hand and nocked an arrow. Peering through the trees, he saw men walking along the road. The rough leather armor and inferior weaponry was the same as that wielded by the bandits in his vision. The only one that looked to have equipment of good quality was Isaac Abrams. Riding atop the back of a horse in a suit of chainmail and a finely crafted breastplate of hard leather, he stood out a great deal.

There were a number of ideas that raged through his mind in that moment. He was very much outnumbered and had every intention of making it back to Laus alive. That ruled out walking in front of them and using his thirty arrows to weaken Isaac’s forces. If he had even ten archers, he would be taken down relatively quickly. Because of the same reason, he could not move out into the road after they passed him, even though it would allow him more time to work before Isaac’s archers could react.

No, his only chance at taking out thirty of Isaac’s men and getting away safely would be to strike from the forest. They would have to stop and search the forest if they wanted to deal with him, and the terrain would actually help him deal with them.

He reached for the Blood of Kirakath and embraced the old magic as he waited for the bandits to get farther ahead. He did not use it the way that he had always used it in his previous fights, however. He did not need his strength, stamina, or agility enhanced. All he needed was speed.

The moment that the army of bandits passed him, he drew his arrow back and shot it at one of the last men. The moment that the arrow struck, he ran across the road. The sound of the arrow slamming into the back of the bandit and him collapsing masked the sound of Caleb’s footsteps. His enhanced speed allowed him to cover the distance and hide on the other side of the road before anyone realized an arrow had been shot.

“What’s going on?” Isaac Abrams demanded as he turned his horse around and looked at the men following him.

“There’s an archer in the woods,” one of the men called out, pointing to the wrong side of the road. “Johnny was killed by an arrow.”

“Search the forest for the upstart then. Take a dozen men with you,” Isaac commanded angrily as he made his horse walk back and forth erratically. He seemed to be scanning the forest intently as his men followed his command. Caleb could see what he was actually trying to do. By moving so inconsistently, it would have made it more difficult to shoot him.

Caleb could have still made the shot, but something stopped him. As vile as Isaac was, he represented order amongst the bandits that followed him. Killing him then would have created chaos. Laus may have been safer without Isaac around, but it may have doomed Falkreath or another town. The Isle of Akabar was not a place of chaos at the moment. It was lawless, but the leaders of the bandit gangs stopped it from being chaotic.

In that moment, Caleb knew that he would have to kill Isaac last. All his men would have to go first.

Taking a deep breath, he suddenly dashed through the forest. He needed to act fast.

As he ran, Caleb nocked an arrow, drew it back, and shot at a bandit through the trees. He only stopped for the briefest of moments as he shot. He repeated the action over and over until he used the last of his arrows.

Within a span of two minutes, a total of thirty bandits were struck dead by Caleb’s arrows. Each one brought about a quick death. It was merely a mark of competency for any archer to achieve quick kills, but Caleb’s were even quicker than normal. He knew where to aim to ensure that his targets died before they realized that they were dying.

Once he had exhausted his supply of arrows, he used the Blood of Kirakath to enhance his stamina and continued to run through the forest towards Laus.

He knew that he would need to do his best to conserve the power that flowed through his blood, but things were not ideal at the moment. Truthfully, he would have liked to release his hold on the Blood of Kirakath once he was far enough away from Isaac, but running so quickly had left him feeling exhaustion begin to settle in. Increasing his stamina with the Blood of Kirakath became necessary quickly. Without it, he would not have made it back to Laus until moments before Isaac reached it. With it, however, he could run the entire way and would make it more than an hour before Isaac and his men could. The only downside was that the Blood of Kirakath would be almost completely drained of power by the time he reached it.