Monique was rushing to get what guards she could. She didn't know of any reason that she could simply burst into the Baron's compound, but if she brought enough guards and started a big enough fuss, maybe he'd think that it wasn't worth the effort. She hated that she had to shift back to her original face. It would take hours to return to 'Monique', but The King's spymaster had authority where Monique did not. She wanted to explain everything to Aldelmo, but she couldn't blow cover, so she nearly left a note. If he got there and followed it, he'd show up here sooner or later. Perhaps the two of them could-
The whole pack of guards hesitated as they spotted the huge gout of flame coming from the roof of Akar Manor.
~Well... I have an excuse NOW.~
The head of the final guard rested in a clawed hand. Ryan held it up to look into the guard's ruby eyes as if trying to recognize what he was looking at. It was if Ryan's mind was trying to find something to grab a hold of.
The baron and his three remaining guards were no slouches, but nothing seemed to be phasing Ryan. The Baron had ordered his men to attack while he ran as fast as he could. The guards had lost their strongest in Ryan's first attack, so they let loose with everything they had. Razor sharp rocks, slashing winds, roaring flames, it didn't matter. At best it simply gouged out chunks from Ryan. At worst it bounced off. One by one, methodically, Ryan eliminated the guards. Ryan glanced around. His mind hooked onto an idea.
KILL THE BARON.
His legs lengthen to grow backward bending knees. His boots burst from protruding claws that allowed him to dig into the floor. His shout echoed down the stairwell in pursuit of the baron with Ryan following close behind.
Guards from all over the city were converging on the Akar Manor. At the front gate only one guard remained. He refused to open the gates stating that this was a violation of the Baron's personal domain and that the Baron's guards would handle any problems, if there even was a problem. All remaining exterior guards had already run inside the building.
"Everything is under control!" the guard shouted at the growing crowd of city guards and knights.
A decapitated body fell out of the sky and impaled itself on the spikes of the very iron gate he was guarding. The guard turned to look behind him and saw another body thrown THROUGH a stone wall. It arched up and with it came a rain of rubble that descended upon the gate. Everyone dived for cover as the body slammed into the gate. It had already been mauled beyond recognition as it hit the bars. Limbs and organs scattered as they 'sprayed' through the gate. The impact left the gate bent and knocked off one hinge.
Everyone was silent.
The guard gaped in horror, "Okay... maybe I will make an except-"
Monique cut him off, "No."
Everyone looked at her. She spoke loudly, "As the kings Spymaster I am the highest ranking person here and..." She smiled at the guard, "You are quite correct. We have no jurisdiction here." She looked up at the manor, then narrowed her eyes. Her eyes darted left, then right, then she turned to the highest ranking guard present, "Keep everyone OUT of the manor until you hear from the royal guard." Without explaining, she cut through the crowd, winding her way to the river.
The baron had retreated to his last bastion. The guards were well trained and knew this day might come, so they all prepared for it by retreating to the tower. The tower was buttoned up tight. Once inside the strongest wards kept it safe. The baron was on the bottom floor, catching his breath and assessing his remaining manpower when the ward flared. it flared again, and again, and somehow the force of Ryan beating on the gate caused the door to crack. A white orb that might pass for an eye looked through that crack. However, the ward held.
The baron's fear faded and was replaced with laughter, "HA! You thought you could get me you BEAST! In the end it is us who will destroy you!" He walked up to the crack and peered back, "No force can come through it. No magic is powerful enough to breach it. It is warded against every element! You won't get in."
The beast that was Ryan stepped back and held out a clawed hand with the palm facing the breach. A cloud of mist spread forth and hit the warded surface. It spread out and just hovered there. The baron was puzzled as he watched. The mist thickened yet paradoxically vanished against the ward. The baron stepped closer to examine the phenomenon, but suddenly felt dizzy. He staggered back and shook his head to try and clear it. The ward started to flare in an ever increasing area as if it was under some sort of continuous pressure that was spreading over its entire surface. The baron backed away from the main entrance, increasingly confused as to what was going on.
Aldelmo finally arrived on the scene. He pushed his way through the crowd to the front. he looked like he was about to jump over when several guards grabbed him, "Nobody is to go inside until we hear from the Royal Guard!" Aldelmo looked like he was going to slug one of them when someone shouted out, "LOOK!" Everyone turned to watch a thick mist billow forth and completely surround the tower. The wards around it flared a bright white as the mist pressed against it. It seemed like more and more mist was appearing all around it, pressing in, yet as the mist hit the ward it disappeared.
Aldelmo peered at it, "Wait a minute..." He reached out towards the mist surrounding the tower and closed his eyes to concentrate. He 'felt' water as Ryan had taught him. He could feel the mist before him. It was nothing special, except... it was vanishing the same way it vanished when Ryan transformed it into...
"Hydrogen and Oxygen?"
Apparently while the ward was proof against almost everything its creator could think of, the one thing it wasn't proof against was air. Pump oxygen and hydrogen into an enclosed space and all it takes is a-
Inside the tower the men were starting to feel light headed from the ever increasing amount of combustible gasses. Actually, only the baron's men were light headed. The Baron was not for he had retreated down to the secret escape tunnel under the tower. He was having a hard time seeing in the dark. He had not paid for magical lighting down here, like in the rest of his home, because he would have had to pay someone to come in here and set it up, thus defeating the purpose of a 'secret' tunnel. Instead the lighting was handled the old fashioned way, with torches. The baron touched the magic torch in it's holder upon the wall and spoke the command to ignite it.
He had but a single second to ponder why it was burning such a strange shade of blue.
Outside, the view was quite striking.
The explosion started at the base of the tower and rolled up the inside of the ward. A rolling flame of bright white started at the base of the tower and worked its way up. White light streaming out windows and freshly made cracks in the masonry. The blast was contained as it went up the tower, until the fire finally warped the structure enough to disrupt the runes holding the ward in place. The ward collapsed from the top down.
That's when the real fun began.
The ward opened at the top of the tower first and the blast was vented directly into the sky. This resulted in a massive mushroom cloud of rolling orange flame that shot up into the sky, illuminating the entire city and was visible for miles. Chunks of disintegrated masonry flew everywhere, raining down on buildings and people for blocks. People dove for cover. Screaming echoed as the onlookers who had gathered to watch the events realized they were far too close to the action. Fortunately, this actually prevented the rest of the building from being simply obliterated. The rest of the structure that was directly attached to the tower was heavily damaged and on fire, but the vast majority of the building was still intact.
Everyone started to scramble. Orders were made for guards to get moving and put out any flames in case nearby buildings caught fire. Aldelmo remained the only one who didn't flinch, didn't move, and merely raised an arm to shield his eyes from the blast. He peered into the flame and thought he could make out some sort of figure moving about, climbing the smoldering Manor.
The explosion rocked Bethany awake. She had been mercifully unconscious for the events so far, but a large flaming chunk of tower rolling through your room would understandably wake up anyone.
She screamed and tried to get out, but only got a few feet from the bed before the collar around her neck yanked her back. She fell flat on her back and tried to get up. The first thing she saw was half the room was on fire. She tried to pull the chain free but couldn't move it. Through the burning hole in the wall something large and hulking stepped into view. Bethany's mind went blank. She curled up in a ball and covered her head with her arms. Something large approached. Every step landed heavily, sending vibrations through the floor. The child started to weep while begging, "pleasedon'tkillme pleasedon'tkillme pleasedon-"
"Bethany?"
She stopped and dared to hope. Very slowly she looked up and saw Ryan. He had no shirt, his pants were shredded from the knees down, and he looked like he had gone through a blender. His body was covered in slashes, puncture wounds, and burns, but oddly enough, he wasn't bleeding. The tattoos all over his body appeared to be glowing red, but the glow was fading and within moments had returned to being black.
Ryan reached out with a finger and pointed at a length of chain. A small jet of water shot out under tremendous pressure. There was a spray of water as he sliced through the chain. Grabbing a blanket off the bed, he wrapped up Bethany and picked her up in his arms, "We're leaving." Bethany just burrowed her head into Ryan's chest as he started to run down the stairs through the now burning building. He paused at the first dismembered body, looked around, then muttered to himself, "Sure hope we don't bump into whatever did this."
Deciding the coast was clear he proceeded to run down the stairs and head out the front door. As he did, he heard people screaming below him. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and listened to the wall. The screaming got louder. He stepped back and kicked the wall. It buckled but remained mostly intact. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him. Using mana was making him want to vomit. He stepped back and kicked it using his normal strength. His first blow had knocked the moving wall off it's track and it only took a few more blows to knock it loose. Ryan heard the front door exploded inward. Someone screamed, "REED!" Ryan stepped out of the stairwell to look to the main entrance room.
It was Aldelmo.
The baron, burned, but still alive, made his way through the escape tunnel. Reaching the end he pulled the lever that collapsed the tunnel behind him. He cursed that this had unfolded the way it had, but once he got free, he'd find his allies and explain what happened.
The king had employed a demon.
Getting revenge was going to be so sweet. Alas, he won't get to torture Ryan as much as he wanted, but he'd find some way to live with just getting him killed. He picked up the hammer and started to swing it at the fake wall. It only took three blows before he knocked it loose. He stepped out into the sewer tunnel that drained into the river. He turned right to see the exit and the water shimmering beyond. The sky was brighter than normal for this time of night. He could make out the orange-ish reflection of something in the river, most likely the explosion that destroyed his manor.
He only got to take a single step before he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He tried to take another step, but only managed to fall to his knees, then pitch forward into the river. Monique came out of the shadows and walked up to the Baron's body. It was face down in the muck. She reached down to take out the dagger she threw into the back of his neck. She paused to reach into one of her pouches to pull out two vials. She poured one on the corpse, then followed up with the second.
The body started to smolder.
She slipped the vials into a pocket as she walked away. Everything organic was consumed in the reaction. If this had been anywhere else, someone might be able to figure out what happened from the residue left behind. However, this was a sewer drain. In less than a minute the body was unrecognizable and in ten was an oily smear being washed out to the river.
Monique never felt so good.
Ryan and Aldelmo would head down under the Manor to find where the Baron was hiding his "stock". The word 'stock' refers to the people he was keeping as slaves, right down to the highly illegal slave collars that he had on them.
This complicated things since they were under orders not to leave their cells. Aldelmo had to break open the cells and use Ryan's water laser technique to carefully disarm each collar before the people could leave. Given there were a dozen people down here, that took time. Fortunately, Aldelmo's rush into the burning building caused a number of guards to follow him. Finding people with slave collars was finally the excuse they needed to take the building in force. The fire brigade was finally allowed onto the property to put out the flames and eventually the prisoners were freed. With the exception of the one guard at the main gate, not a single person who worked there survived. It seemed that the baron was expecting Ryan to arrive and had sent anyone away who might be... problematic.
This included his wife and son as well as a number of the less trustworthy servants. They had all been sent off to the summer manor and wouldn't find out about what happened for another two days. This was more then enough time for the king to finish the investigation, declare that the Baron Akar was a criminal and place a bounty on his head. It was assumed that he had escaped in the confusion. Unfortunately, the explosion also destroyed all of the baron's records and no evidence to imply anyone else surfaced.
The story that leaked to the public was that the Baron was a slaver and selling people to the demons. Ryan went in to find out what was going on and he and the demon fought. Ryan himself was confused and indeed seemed to remember fighting desperately for his life. The Mana suppressor that was in his system made it difficult for him to think and he came to the conclusion he fought on pure instinct. Whatever happened, it's assumed that the demon, for whatever reason, decided that the deal was off and chose to destroy any evidence.
Oddly enough, it was Aldelmo who would be declared the hero of the day.
Ryan looked like he'd had the ever living shit beat out of him repeatedly and could barely hold up Bethany as he exited the building. Aldelmo, on the other hand, quite visibly rushed into a burning building, apparently 'saved' Ryan, and rescued a whole dungeon full of victims who all sung his praises, since he was the only one with the mana to free them. Once the rumor mill got going, Aldelmo not only saved Ryan, but he was the one who beat off the demon. For some reason, people liked the idea of a real human fighting off the demons, rather than a halfling. Aldelmo would repeatedly correct people when they talked to him, but it really didn't matter. People just took him as being humble and everyone likes a humble hero.
Especially since the Baron had fallen from grace. His allies were quick to cut ties with anyone who could connect them with the Baron, even tangentially.
The next week saw so many bodies floating down the river that it would become a part of local folklore and be remembered for years to come as 'The week of bloated corpses'.
Well done.
TFTC!
Thanks for the chapter. I had a nice blast
HA! I see what you did there!