Minerva’s group charged through the light forest of the southeastern part of the capitol island. Here and there, they passed smaller, more remote parts of the palace complex, like an isolated guest house, an unused amphitheater, or a small deserted park, but no one stopped even for a moment; the Earthshaker Paladin’s subordinate knights were still hot on their tail.

Earthshaker had brought ten sixth-tier and twenty fifth-tier knights with him in addition to the battalion of soldiers to stop them from escaping with Prince August. Minerva and her group had gotten past the soldiers while the Brimstone Paladin dueled Earthshaker as a distraction, but the remaining elemental mages—a few had been killed in their short confrontation—gave chase.

Minerva knew they couldn’t stop for long, otherwise she would’ve just halted their running column and dealt with the pursuing knights. They were in the very heart of the Kingdom, and there were undoubtedly additional knights and soldiers moving to stop them. Their journey wasn’t over once they reached the boats, either, since the Legion checkpoints and fortresses along the Naga River meant that they’d have to re-enter the city and escape on foot.

All of this required time, and she hadn’t the luxury of spending what little she had on the knights behind them.

With all that said, they were making good time. The sixth-tier knights that had fallen to the back of the column were doing a good job keeping Earthshaker’s knights from overwhelming them, and there had been no other sign of obstacles in front of them so far.

Minerva cursed her optimism as soon as she considered these things. Fortune hadn’t been their most reliable ally ever since Trajan had been killed, and once again, it turned on her. As they charged into an open field, not even a quarter-mile away from the coast and their waiting boats, they found a paltry dozen people standing in their way.

With the numbers on her side, Minerva might’ve simply charged those in front of them and forced her way through, but the figure in front made her hesitate.

This figure wore blue armor that glittered with sapphires, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. Her blond hair, gleaming almost silver in the moonlight, had been tied back into a tight bun, and her bright blue eyes were locked on Minerva’s even from across the field. In her right hand was a thin, elegant blade, though it wasn’t raised, and her empty left hand was covered in frost.

The Earthshaker Paladin had been deployed against them, tying up Brimstone in a duel. Now, the Sapphire Paladin and eleven other sixth-tier mages stood blocking their way.

---

Leon, Valeria, and Anzu flew along the southern coast, quickly outstripping the more leisurely pace of Princess Stefania’s yacht. With the Royal sigil emblazoned upon its side, the yacht was uniquely suited to infiltrating the capitol island, but the water runes that propelled it through the water were not up to the task of getting it to move quickly. With the explosions and sounds of battle that Leon could hear getting quieter and less frequent, though, he decided that he didn’t have much time left if he wanted to join in the fight, so he and Valeria mounted Anzu and took off, making for the original rendezvous point while Princess Stefania took Princess Cristina and Lady Isabelle toward the secondary rendezvous point.

Both Princesses had their own guards, so Leon wasn’t worried about leaving them alone. What was happening with August and Minerva, though, did worry him, since all their plans relied on breaking August out of prison so that he could grant them some measure of legitimacy.

Anzu’s powerful wings carried them fast, the griffin’s potent wind magic keeping them aloft about ten stories above the water of the lake. Leon could see bright flashes of light in the distance, visual evidence to go with the sounds and piercing aura of the battle raging farther east.

A bit further south, though, Leon could see his destination. It was the edge of the cliffs and rocks that nearly surrounded the capitol island that made landing ships nearly impossible, right where the sandy beaches began. It was the location that Minerva had selected for their rendezvous point, and where about three dozen small boats had been stashed, each one big enough for perhaps five people.

Unlike the other parts of the island, the southern shores had been designed with aesthetics in mind. No harsh rocks, no sheer cliffs, just beautiful white sand. This meant that these areas had to be protected with frequent patrols by the Royal Guard and a dense network of wards, but these were designed more to repel criminals and foreign invaders. With two Paladins on their side, plus their status as knights of the Royal Legions, most of Minerva’s people had made it onto the island without difficulty, slipping past the wards.

As Leon drew close enough to the boats to get a better look, he could sense that the wards hadn’t even been properly maintained, making their infiltration that much easier. It seemed that no one had truly expected someone to try and attack the Royal Palace, and so had neglected the lake-side defenses.

Anzu gracefully landed on the beach, thankfully not triggering any wards that might have targeted airborne infiltrators in the process—though Leon wondered if it was simply illegal to fly over the Royal Palace, or if that consideration had made it into the palace’s wards. He hadn’t the time to properly investigate, for one of the dozen knights that had been left to guard the boats rushed forward with her weapon drawn, almost about to attack him until she recognized his armor.

“Ah! Sir Leon!” she cried in surprise.

“Where’s Dame Minerva?” Leon demanded, not recognizing the knightess with her face-concealing helmet.

“She hasn’t returned yet!” the knightess responded.

Leon nodded, then slid off Anzu with Valeria following suit. They’d make the rest of the journey on foot, for he didn’t want to miss the group in the forests and gardens.

Before he started running, however, he paused for a moment and stared in disbelief at the rocky cliffs at the edge of the sandy beach. He could see a few of the rocks shifting, then rising up into the air, revealing themselves to be a humanoid figure several times his size with streaks of blue running up and down its body.

“Lapis?!” Leon exclaimed in recognition as he ran over to the stone giant. “I thought you were supposed to be with Dame Minerva!”

[Minerva did not seem to trust me, Leon,] Lapis rumbled as quietly as it could, though its voice still carried far enough that Leon couldn’t help but be grateful that the battle not too far away was so loud.

“Well… whatever, that doesn’t matter now, come with me!” he said, leading the way toward the tree line to the north. At this point, he was close enough that he could easily use his magic senses without alerting anyone to his presence elsewhere in the palace, and he quickly took advantage of that by projecting them. He could see Minerva’s people trapped between two groups of knights, with Roland and a number of other knights closing ranks between them to defend August at the center. Further north, he could see the battalion of soldiers that Earthshaker had brought with him following Minerva’s knights, while Minerva herself and three of her knights were locked in battle with the Sapphire Paladin. Leon didn’t know how long she or her people could last against a seventh-tier mage, or if the rest of the group could successfully escape before Earthshaker’s battalion caught up, so he set a rough pace.

Lapis, Anzu, and Valeria kept up easily enough, and within a matter of minutes, the small group had closed the distance between themselves and the site of Minerva’s battle. Leon wasn’t too sure how much of a difference he could make, but he had the element of surprise on his side.

“Bows, how do you like them?” Leon asked Valeria.

“At this range, I’m confident in my skills,” Valeria immediately responded. There were perhaps only a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet between them and the closest of Sapphire’s blue-clad knights, an easy distance for any enchanted bow to make.

Leon nodded, then summoned a pair of bows from his soul realm. One was his usual bow made of dark red wood that he had spent years slowly enchanting. The other was a spare, with only a few basic enchantments to increase range and power. It would be enough, though, and he summoned a quiver of arrows for Valeria to use.

The silver-haired knightess took the bow without hesitation, slinging her glaive across her back as she did, and prepared to fire.

Leon did likewise, nocking and drawing his bowstring. Both of them were using regular arrows since the enemy knights were fighting in too close to their allies for Leon to use anything more powerful. Before he fired, though, Lapis softly asked, [Shall I join the battle?]

“Not yet,” Leon replied, loosing his arrow as he did. Valeria’s arrow followed a split second later.

Neither of their arrows hit their marks, with Leon’s missing his targeted knight by a hair, and Valeria’s glancing off her target’s armor. Given the chaos of the battle, though, this was hardly an unexpected outcome, and the simple fact that there were now archers putting some pressure on Sapphire’s knights was a great boon for Minerva’s side. Sapphire’s knights were put on the defensive as more arrows followed and they were made aware of Leon and Valeria’s presence. The arrows themselves did little damage to heavily armored knights, but it made them more cautious than before, and Minerva’s knights were skilled and experienced enough to take advantage.

One of Leon’s arrows slid past the head of one of Sapphire’s knights, startling him and causing him to instinctively try and dodge any follow-up attack on that side, causing him to dodge right into the plummeting mace of one of Minerva’s knights. The hit was solid and weighty, stunning the sixth-tier sapphire knight enough for the three fifth-tier knights he was fighting to knock him to the ground and disable him with strategic strikes to his unarmored joints. Once immobilized, his helmet was easily torn from his head and his skull bashed in by the mace-wielder.

Valeria had a bit more success on her end, with her target almost stepping into one of her arrows as he struck at one of Minerva’s knights, allowing her arrow to sink an inch or two into the armpit of his dominant arm. The man screamed in pain, dropped his blade as his arm went limp, and suffered a crushing blow to the back of the head inflicted by a heavy ax. It wasn’t clear if he was dead or not as he fell, but even if he wasn’t, he was out of the fight.

Things proceeded in this vein for a few more minutes, and Minerva’s knights slowly gained the upper hand, both with and without Leon and Valeria’s arrow fire. Unfortunately, the Legion battalion was still advancing, and Minerva was locked in combat with the Sapphire Paladin, with her and the two sixth-tier knights at her side just barely holding their own against the seventh-tier knightess.

Sapphire clearly realized what was happening around her as the pressure upon her intensified; three of Minerva’s knights who had defeated their opponents lent their magical prowess to the purpose of defeating her. She dodged and blocked blasts of fire, blades of wind, and spikes of ice and earth, all while answering with great torrents of ice and water of her own. Her power was considerable, but more and more of Minerva’s knights were gaining victory in their own battles, allowing them to concentrate upon her.

Her power wasn’t greater than all the knights Minerva had at her side.

Leon froze for a moment as her head briefly turned in his and Valeria’s direction after one of his arrows barely missed her unarmored head. He thought for a moment that she was going to charge him in revenge for disturbing what was otherwise a relatively even fight. Instead, she seemed to suddenly explode as a massive ring of ice spikes erupted from the ground around her, not killing anyone but pushing them back far enough for Sapphire to leap almost a hundred feet into the air, clear the battleground completely, and take off running for the advancing Legion soldiers further out. The remainder of Earthshaker’s knights that were still in the fight did likewise, abandoning their battles in favor of retreating.

“Don’t follow her!” Minerva shouted, and half a dozen knights who were about to do just that paused. “We make for the boats!”

The group quickly reformed, with several of the knights grabbing their own fallen comrades and began running in Leon and Valeria’s direction.

Leon and Valeria fell in with Minerva, while Lapis waited for them to pass and joined the column at the rear, where its stone body would better protect the group in case they were attacked from behind.

“The Princesses?” Minerva tersely asked.

“Safe, moving for the secondary fallback point!” Leon said.

Minerva nodded, and the two saved the rest of their breath until they were in a safer position. Fortunately, they made it the remaining quarter mile back to the boats without further incident.

“Get in the boats and set off!” Minerva ordered as they spilled out onto the beach.

The knights scrambled to follow her orders, while Leon asked, “What about Brimstone?”

Leon couldn’t see her reaction for the helmet she was wearing, but he could tell she was scowling.

“We might have to leave him behind. He’s still dueling Earthshaker…”

“We can’t count on him coming out of that on top,” Leon said, suddenly turning toward Anzu. “I’ll go assist!”

“Not a damn chance, Ursus!” Minerva glared at him as he stopped and turned back to face her, daring him to challenge her order. “We have to come out of this successful, and I’m not leaving both of you behind! Brimstone is a seventh-tier mage, he can take care of himself!”

Leon almost began to argue, but he knew the score. Leaving behind a seventh-tier mage could potentially cripple their fighting chances against Earthshaker and Sapphire in the future—assuming Brimstone lost his duel, at least—but it was still far more important for August to escape than for them to go back for Brimstone.

Still, it was his instinct to go back and assist in any way he could… and if he so happened to get a shot at killing Earthshaker, then all the better.

“Sir… Valera began, unsure as she was if Minerva would take offense to her offering her opinion. However, Leon turned to look at her, so she continued, “I agree with Dame Minerva. It’s a terrible risk, especially with so many Legion soldiers between us and Sir Saturnius. Anzu may be able to take that kind of heat, but if he’s shot down, then we’re dead.”

Leon noted her use of ‘we’re’, clearly indicating that she assumed she’d be coming along. However, he couldn’t fault her for having that opinion. He could turn invisible, fire arrows from a distance, had powerful magic of his own and was clad in effective armor, but none of that applied to Anzu. The boats would probably leave without him if he charged back into the forest, regardless of Minerva’s claims about not leaving him behind, and it would only take a few arrows or blasts of magic to Anzu’s wings to render the griffin flightless. If both things were to happen, he’d be stuck facing down not only the battalion of soldiers and knights that were still slowly advancing in their direction but whatever reinforcements were undoubtedly being prepared in the Royal Palace.

“… Fine,” he reluctantly whispered, deciding for once not to indulge his reckless streak. Not for the first time, he found himself missing Naiad.

“Good, then let’s go,” Minerva said, pointing to the boats.

“I’ll cover you from the air,” Leon said, hurriedly adding “I won’t go back for Brimstone!” when Minerva raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“You’d better not, he’d be furious with me if you fell here,” Minerva whispered, then made for her own boat.

Leon grimaced, understanding ‘he’ to mean Prince Trajan. It had its intended effect, though, and any remaining thoughts of turning back for the Brimstone Paladin vanished from Leon’s mind. He and Valeria quickly mounted Anzu and took off into the night sky, bows drawn and eyes open, covering the small boats as they slowly made their way across the lake.

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