David Wells - Linkershim

“More overseers will be coming … soon,” Alexander said, trying to penetrate the shield wall with the Thinblade. When he pushed the magic sword through the red, glowing barrier, the scar it left closed almost instantly.

He cut into the wall beside the shield, removing large chunks with a few swipes.

“We have company,” Jack said.

“Anja, watch my back. Jataan, hold this ground,” Alexander said as he pulled a chunk of dirt out of the hole he was cutting to circumvent the shield.

“Understood,” Jataan said.

“The overseers can see what you’re doing,” Anja said. “They’re moving troops close to the wall.”

“I count ten men approaching,” Jataan said. “Not overseers, though … maybe Grant’s people.”

Alexander came out of the hole and sent his sight down the tunnel. Grant wasn’t among the approaching men, and none of them had magic. He breathed a sigh of relief, estimating how long it would take to break through beyond the shield and frowning at the work he’d done already before turning toward the approaching people.

“Hello,” Alexander said, his voice echoing down the tunnel.

“Who are you? Why are you trespassing?” their leader asked, approaching cautiously, eyeing the overseers beyond the shield. He turned to a much younger man behind him and said, “Run, tell Lord Grant.” The young man nodded and raced off into the dimly lit tunnel.

“My name is Alexander and I have no interest in your mines.”

“No, just the real valuables beyond the overseer’s shield.”

“Who do you represent?” Alexander asked.

“Lord Titus Grant.”

“Grant is a fugitive. He’s been stripped of his title, his charter, and his accounts. In fact, I’d be surprised if he could even pay you.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that. Lord Grant pays us on time and he pays us well. Now, these are his mines and you don’t have his leave to be down here, so surrender your weapons and come with us. Wouldn’t want things to get messy. Two men, a woman, and a girl … against the ten of us. Odds aren’t exactly in your favor.”

“You heard the bell, right?” Alexander asked.

The lead man nodded.

“So did the Babachenko. More overseers are on their way right now. If you’re quick about it, you might escape the tunnel before they close it off.”

The man looked back quickly, then inspected the shield wall again, counting the number of overseers lined up beyond. “This isn’t over,” he said. “Lord Grant will decide how to deal with you.” He and his people withdrew quickly.

“Huh,” Alexander said, turning back to the hole he was digging. When he got in deeper, Anja helped him clear chunks of dirt and rock from the rough passage he was cutting. The overseers behind the shield seemed to be getting nervous, moving the entire unit to face the spot in the wall where Alexander was most likely going to come through.

Muffled echoes of fighting reverberated down the length of the tunnel-Grant’s men probably hadn’t gotten out in time to avoid the overseers. Alexander kept digging, cutting away a pyramid-shaped chunk of stone and opening a small hole into the section of tunnel beyond the shield.

An overseer jabbed his club through the hole. Alexander cut it in half with a flick of the Thinblade.

He turned to Jataan and Anja and said, “Be ready.” He drove the Thinblade into the wall and cut a doorframe in the stone, ensuring that each cut was slightly angled so the stone slab would fall outward. He saved the top cut for last.

“Line up behind me,” he said.

He cut the top section of the stone, then put his foot in the middle of it and pushed, stepping out onto it as it fell. While the overseers scrambled to get out of the way, Alexander launched off of the stone slab into their midst before it hit the ground and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Jataan and Anja were through moments later, each moving left and right to attack the overseers on their flanks.

Flicking the Thinblade out backhanded, Alexander snapped the tip of the blade through the nearest overseer’s throat, then stepped back in the other direction and brought the blade across in a broad sweep, killing two more.

From several feet away, an overseer threw a club at him, scoring a direct hit on the back of his left shoulder. While his armor blunted the damage, the hit was still numbingly painful and knocked him to one knee, staining his trousers with the blood of the men he’d just killed. Another overseer started to bring his club down on Alexander’s head, but was blown off his feet by Lita’s force-push spell.

Jataan worked his way through the overseers quickly but methodically, cutting here, stabbing there, killing each man he engaged with seemingly causal ease.

Anja howled like a banshee, wading into the startled men with her broadsword, cutting three down before the rest could respond.

Alexander regained his feet and immediately took five shards of magical force right in the center of his chest, each hitting with sufficient energy to knock him backward a foot or two, delivering punishing blows but not penetrating his dragon-scale armor. The wizard looked at him incredulously when Alexander stumbled backward and fell, badly battered and bruised but still alive.

Jataan threw his bloody knife at the wizard but it bounced off his shield. The battle mage darted across the room, quickly recovering his knife before moving around behind the wizard.

As he raised his dagger, it abruptly transformed into a war hammer. He set himself, got a firm grip, and smashed the shield with as much force as he could bring to bear. His strike rebounded, knocking him off the pedestal, but the wizard’s shield failed with a pop.

The Acuna wizard looked around in a panic before throwing a black pellet to the ground. A ball of grey smoke quickly engulfed him, obscuring his position for a moment before fading away and revealing that he’d vanished. A small ember trailing black smoke floated through the passage that Alexander had cut around the shield and down the tunnel.

“Everyone all right?” Alexander asked, wincing in pain as he got to his feet.

“You, least of all,” Lita said. “Let me take a look at your wounds.”

“I’ll be fine,” Alexander said.

“Nonsense,” she said, putting her hand lightly on his chest and muttering the words of a spell under her breath. She smiled serenely, her eyes closed while she nodded to herself as if she were receiving instructions.

“You’re badly bruised, but nothing is broken or bleeding,” she said. “You’ll heal, but it will be painful. When we stop, I can accelerate the process but not until you have time to sleep for the night.”

“Perhaps we should be on our way,” Jack said, looking through the red-tinged shield at the tunnel filled with approaching overseers. They were still a few hundred feet away, but there were a lot of them.

“Let’s go,” Alexander said, sheathing the Thinblade and hobbling toward the giant entry hall to the underdark. He hurt all over. The force shards had hit harder than he would have imagined-easily hard enough to cut straight through a man wearing normal plate armor.

“I see Mage Gamaliel made you a weapon,” Alexander said to Jataan.

The General Commander of the Reishi Protectorate actually smiled. “Yes, Lord Reishi. The Guild Mage presented me with a most wonderful gift. He calls it a Weaponere’s Stone.” Jataan held up a smooth lump of dull grey metal that looked more like a piece of slag than a weapon … until it transformed into a dagger. “With only a thought, I can make it into any weapon I wish. That by itself is potent, but it was also crafted to magnify the magic that is naturally imbued upon weapons that I wield, making it ideally suited to my needs.”