The Legends of Valoria Book Two Rise of the Divine Knight
Chapter 15

“Alright everyone, the enemy camp is just ahead of us in the opening at the end of the gorges. We have long suspected that they had camps set up along the mountain trails but it was only recently confirmed by Sir Dominic’s scouts that such encampments existed. Our main objective is to rescue the workers at the camp. Our secondary objective will be carried out by myself, Talia and Anton. We will be heading into the camp from the south using the mountains as cover. We are after the Sidonis sword, which we believe the enemy is keeping in their command tent located here.” Zelus pointed to a rough outline of the camp that the scouts had drawn on a map.

“I want for everyone else to assault the frontline. Oz and Onyx will attack the two watchtowers at the front so we will encounter minimal resistance until inside the camp.” Talia continued to replay the conversation in her mind as she followed Anton’s lead up the side of the cliff.

One foothold at a time, Talia made her way vertically towards the summit while Anton would stop every so often to ensure that neither she nor had fallen too far behind. Talia refusing to be a burden, pushed herself to move faster. By the time she had reached Zelus, Anton had made it to the top and lowered a rope to assist them the rest of the way.

“Go ahead Talia, you go first.” Talia nodded her head, grateful for the gesture, as her wounds from the previous morning still ached terribly. Reaching out carefully for the rope, Talia grasped on and began the much simpler task of scaling the cliff using the rope. As she started, she was surprised when Anton began to pull her up.

“Thank you Sir Anton.” Talia spoke as she reached the edge of the cliff and Anton pulled her over.

“My pleasure. Perhaps, we should leave Zelus.” Talia looked at Anton appalled. “Or see how much he is willing to pay.” Talia continued to stare at him with disapproval. “I’m only joking, let’s bring him up.” Talia and Anton dropped the rope for Zelus and Talia despite her legs screaming at her, helped support Zelus’ weight and began pulling him to the top.

“Thanks,” he said as he placed both feet on horizontal ground. They all crouched down and slowly crept towards the opposing edge and stared down at the camp. It was still dark out, which made it difficult to determine where all of the guards were located.

“Alright, Anton and I will head down to assault command from the front. At that point Talia, we need for you to sneak down the opposite side and steal the sword. Once the sword is in your possession, call for Oz and get out of here. Anton and I will join the rescue team and will meet you back at the base of the mountain trail.” Talia did not agree with Zelus’ plan, but she confirmed that she understood. Zelus was the only one other than herself that knew she could no longer use her divine power. Zelus turned back towards his map and showed Anton where they were headed.

“Alright, once we receive the signal from Onyx, we strike. What should we look for?”

Anton smiled.

“Don’t worry, Onyx is a bit of a show off. You’ll know the signal when you see it.” The three of them remained silent as they waited. Within a matter of a few minutes, the northernmost guard tower caught fire and began to light the whole camp.

“And there it is.” Anton smiled.

Zelus turned to Talia.

“Talia, go. Anton and I will pull them away so that you can reclaim the sword.”

Talia, being sure to remain as low to the ground as possible, ran towards the eastern side of the command tent. As she reached the far side, she watched as Zelus and Anton engaged their enemy and began to descend upon the camp.

When she reached the ground, it was apparent that the entire camp was now engulfed in chaos. Some of the tents had caught fire, knights and Forsaken warriors swarmed the camp. Talia ran behind the command tent as quickly as possible and could hear voices from the other side of the canvas.

“Yes, my lady Nemesis, we will see to it that the sword is safe and the shield is killed.” Talia covered her mouth to keep from gasping as she heard Angelica’s voice once more.

“Excellent work Raven, Lord Abaddon will be pleased. I will leave everything to you then. I must return to working on settling an old score with my other sister before Lord Abaddon’s plan can be completed.”

After Angelica’s voice faded away, Talia continued to listen as Raven began issuing commands to someone else in the room.

“Go out there and head into the fight. My arm has not yet fully recovered, so I shall go fetch the manticore.” A deep hollow moan could be heard as whomever had been addressed answered.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good, now Caliban can perform his function. It will be some time before Callisto and the others are back in the Exodon.

. We cannot wait for them to arrive.” Talia continued to wait in silence as she prayed for Raven to leave as well. Once the room went silent, Talia pulled out her knife and cut a slit large enough to squeeze through. Talia quietly breached the hole and quickly scanned the room as she unsheathed her sword. She could not make out much except for a table and various supply crates. There was no other furniture and no sign of guards. She rose to her full height and walked towards the table.

She looked atop the table to see a map unfurled upon it. Talia scanned the room and then looked down at the map.

“This is a map of Valascaana,” she whispered to herself and realized that it must mean that the Forsaken were ready to begin their assault. Quickly, she began to search the room for the Sidonis sword. She did not see it in the room; so, she began to rummage through the supply crates until she came across the fabled blade. She eyed the sword from the tip of its handle to the glowing blue gemstone in its hilt. She ran her hand down the length of its scabbard and then fastened the blade to her own sword belt.

Talia turned to leave the tent when she came face- to -face with three death knights. As they drew their weapons, Talia leapt at them and cleaved through the first one before he could draw. Talia back slashed at the second and managed to catch the knight on her blade, which glowed as it penetrated it. She pressed her fading opponent back into the third knight and removed her weapon. As the last few pieces of the second knight crumbled, Talia slashed towards the third.

The knight blocked her attack with his sword, causing her blade to shatter. As Talia stumbled forward, she passed the knight who slashed and grazed her across her entire back. Talia dropped to her knees as she cursed herself for not noticing the brittle rune. As the knight moved in for the kill stroke, Talia grabbed her broken hilt and a piece of her broken blade. As the death knight raised his sword above his head, Talia reacted. She spun and stabbed her broken blade into its leg and jumped, placing the edge of the hilt underneath its chin.

As the death knight dissipated, Talia reached backwards and placed her hand to her wounds. She pulled her hand away and looked, the amount of blood staining it proved most unsettling to her stomach. Talia collected herself and rose and she returned to the opening she had made in the tent. Once outside, she called for Oz. As the lion hawk came into view, she could hear a tremendous roar of a manticore, followed by the cries of many Valascaan knights.

“By Aneira, what is that thing?” Talia head Zelus’ voice amongst the others and as Oz came around she quickly mounted.

“Oz, we need to go and help them!” Oz screeched loudly and after getting a running start took flight. As Oz rose above the tent, Talia looked down and witnessed the manticore tearing into the knights who did their best it fend it off. Oz circled around readying for the attack as the beast below began lashing out with its tail, impaling one of the knights who, after removing his helmet, dropped to his knees, foamed at the mouth and died.

“Oz, we need to take out the tail!” Talia looked down to her empty scabbard and then placed her hand on the hilt of the Sidonis sword. “I just need one good swing. The sword will not kill me if I do not use it for too long,” she assured herself. Oz, having reached a decent altitude, loomed over the manticore and plunged. As Talia and Oz neared their target, Talia yelled to Oz.

“Alright Oz, I need for you to launch me at the tail. I cannot make a clean stroke if I have to watch out for you.” Oz must have understood, because, as he leveled out, he flapped his wings incredibly hard as Talia jumped off from his back. Talia flew freely into the air, moving straight for the tail just as the beast noticed her.

Talia pulled the Sidonis sword from its sheath and immediately felt fatigued as her energy transferred into the sword, producing its lightning effect. The manticore twisted its tail as it moved to strike Talia. Talia rolled in midair and slashed backwards across her body as the tail passed beneath her. She could feel the sword draw more strength from her as the blow connected and the tail fell free from the monster.

The manticore cried out terribly, throwing itself around in a rage as Oz barrel rolled and caught Talia on his chest as he crashed into one of the tents, collapsing it.

“Oz, are you alright?” Talia asked as she weakly rose to a standing position, cutting through the entangled ropes and canvas with her knife after sheathing the Sidonis sword. Oz squawked as he began to pull against his bindings. Talia rushed to his side and began cutting through the ropes with her knife as she raced against time to free Oz before the numerous enemies swarmed them. Talia continued to cut at the ropes frantically until Oz finally broke free and launched himself at the first wave of attackers.

“I am coming Oz!” Talia yelled as she unsheathed the legendary weapon again and entered the fray. Several knights began fighting their way to Talia and Oz. As Talia watched Raven approach, sword in hand. Talia continued to battle through her opposition, each swing taking its toll on her. She took a brief respite and after coughing aggressively, collapsed to the ground. Oz ran up beside her to shield her and Talia looked to see that she had begun coughing up blood, a sure sign that the sword’s strain had begun to cause her internal organs to hemorrhage.

“We will need to make this quick,” she spoke weakly to Oz who cried out and continued to decimate his foes with a combination of beak and claw. As the knights arrived beside Talia, they helped her clear a path to the manticore.

As Talia and her team ran up on the manticore, she noticed Zelus and Anton amongst their party. Talia shot them a curious look as Zelus called out to her.

“It is done; we only need to buy them some time.” Talia nodded as she came face to face with the manticore. Talia gripped the Sidonis sword tightly and could feel her heartbeat slowing. At that moment, she realized that she was running out of time. As Anton ran beside her, he handed her a shield to which she graciously accepted.

“I am with you Talia. Let’s send this beast back to Daemon in pieces but just the pieces that I cannot sell.” She looked toward Anton to see him grinning smugly. As she turned back, she saw Zelus approaching Raven alone, a wicked looking black longsword in one hand and a badly damaged shield in the other. The manticore roared again, forcing Talia to focus instead on it.

“Alright everyone, all I need is one clean shot and I can finish this beast. This sword,” she held up the Sidonis sword,” was forged by Aneira’s nymphs in order to banish evil. I now wield it and assure you it possesses such power.”

As the manticore began its charge, Oz did the same as most of the knights helped by keeping the Forsaken off from Talia. Oz and the manticore collided and began bashing one another with their massive paws. As the two battled, everyone did their best to avoid being trampled to death by the two enormous creatures.

Talia did her best to stay close enough so that she could charge in with the killing blow when necessary but the task proved exceedingly difficult as she herself did not wish to be trampled. The longer the fighting went on the slower her reaction time and body became as she felt herself growing increasingly weaker due to the sword’s vampiric influence. She turned for a moment and saw Zelus managing against Raven as they continued to dance around one another. Talia looked back just in time to see Oz and the monster hurtling towards her and jumped out of the way.

Talia rolled and tried to rise but her body seized from the combination of her wounds and her weapon. She began to tremble violently and the sheer agony of it all paralyzed her. The manticore placed its hind legs on Oz’s stomach and kicked him hard, sending him several lengths away. Quickly, the manticore rolled and Talia did the only thing her body still enabled her to do.

Talia with both hands on the blade swung as hard as she could while allowing gravity to do the rest. As her body spun weightlessly through the air the manticore came into view, jaws ready for the kill. Talia continued to hold the sword out before her. Talia was unsure if she had heard the explosion before she and the manticore collided but once they did, there was a violent flash of light and her entire world went dark.