Chapter 039 - Liege

Anna was in her armor by the time she hit the top of the stairs. She slid to a stop and turned, barreling through the doors to the lobby and towards the source of the noise. Raspy roars and hisses of fury carried through the walls as shadows danced against the light of the setting sun. She reached the doors and hesitated only long enough to yank them open rather than crash right on through-the last thing she wanted was to damage the only thing separating them from the cold outside.

On the patio she took in the scene. Catherine had a skeleton by the head and was in the midst of hurling it to the ground and stomping it to death as two more came charging at her from behind, swords raised over their heads. There were at least three more defeated skeletons on the ground, one of them limply gripping an axe. Off to the side, two Skeletal Hounds were still bounding towards them, their wraithsight eyes glowing in the growing dark.

Anna popped her neck and grinned.

Her left hand rose and she cast Mana Bolt, a narrow bullet of teal-blue light streaking from her palm and colliding with the back of one of the skeletal warriors charging towards Catherine. The warrior stumbled just in time for Catherine to whip around and take its head clean off rather than block its strike. The former paladin’s shoulder shot forward and she dipped into the second warrior’s strike, rolling past it and snapping out a leg to the back of its knee.

Anna turned her attention to the two hounds who were drawing closer. Her blood was already boiling in her veins and the mixture of annoyance and excitement nearly overtook her.  She cranked the volume on her presence and blasted it out like a beacon of challenge, bearing her teeth at the two hounds who immediately turned in her direction. She pointed at the nearest one and a pair of firebats launched at it, hitting the ground at its feet in a one-two blast that sent snow everywhere. It howled and turned away while its comrade charged on through.

She bent her knees and took a stance, letting it come to her. All the beatings she’d taken from Catherine popping back into her head as she let experience carry her. It reached just a few meters away and her eyes snapped open wide, her presence bursting again with an Aura Snap. The hound yiped and part of its skull cracked as it tripped over its own legs and fell forward, rolling across the ground and sliding to a stop at her feet. Catherine aimed for the base of the neck, right? She thought and raised her club, bringing it down with a power strike.

CRACK!

The hound went very still as the other hound, enraged, threw itself at her. She backed up a step and cast Mana Barrier over her palm, snapping her hand out to catch it in the face. The undead collided with the hard surface that gave way a moment later but by then she was already pulling to the side and swinging her club like a baseball bat along its ribcage. She snarled as Power Strike activated again and bone shattered. The hound dropped and she stalked over to it, planting a boot on its head and swinging down with another chop.

She licked her lips as the hound fell still, a soothing feeling rushing through her veins. She exhaled with satisfaction and stepped off the body, panting. She turned her head to Catherine who was standing over her own felled enemies, breathing hard. Her eyes and cheeks were sunken with exhaustion. Anna pointed her club at her as she finished catching her breath. “How long has this been going on?” she demanded.

Catherine rested her sword on her shoulder and frowned before looking into the distance. Anna followed her gaze and raised her eyebrows. More were coming. “It’s been escalating every night since we arrived,” Catherine said finally.

Anna turned to her. “You’ve been covering for me?”

“You have studying to do,” Catherine said without remorse, her eyes fixed on the approaching skeletons. “A Ruler needn’t concern themselves with fodder.”

Anna took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders. “We’re talking about this later,” she growled.

“Understood.”

Two more waves came and ended just the same as the first before the encroaching monsters finally seemed to give up. Anna stepped back from the last undead warrior and surveyed the piles of bones scattered across the snow. She burned the morbid sight into her mind before glancing up at the sky. Night had completely fallen at this point, her stamina was dangerously low and she’d taken a few hits during the fighting. Not to mention the mana taint she’d taken on casting spells.

She spat on the ground and coughed, wiping her mouth before turning towards Catherine who made her way slowly over. “Anna-”

Anna punched her in the face. Catherine dropped and grasped at her nose, coughing as her eyes fluttered from the flash of pain. Anna took two stomping steps and stood over the knight, her blood boiling. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” she demanded, “My nanny?”

Catherine pulled herself to her feet, rage in her eyes. “I am doing my job! You do yours!” she bellowed. “You have one duty, lear-”

Anna punched her in the face again. “Fuck you.”

Catherine held her nose, eyes wide with disbelief. She looked down at her bloody hand and up at Anna again. She opened her mouth to speak and Anna blasted her with her presence, focused intent to do one thing and one thing alone, dominate. “You will LISTEN!” she raged as the snow began to pick up. “I don’t give a shit who you were, I don’t give a shit where you came from. I don’t give a shit what you did. So stop trying to kill yourself, bitch! You’re mine now!” she bellowed and stalked forward, grabbing Catherine by the shirt and getting nose to nose with her. “If you need help, you fucking ask, got it? I’m not some princess who needs to be coddled.”

She pushed the woman back and the knight caught herself on her sword. Her stamina had to be near zero at this point. It was no surprise Anna had been able to deck her twice. Catherine’s eyes burned in the dark, the green suddenly flecked with red. It looked like a forest fire inside of the woman’s head. She opened her mouth again, “You don’t-”

“YOU DID YOUR TIME!”

Catherine dropped to a knee and gasped. Anna was well past caring at this point. Her veins were on fire, her brain was on fire, everything was on fire. She was so fucking pissed off. Who the hell did this lady think she was that she could keep Anna out of a fight? That she could baby her like this? That she could just throw her life away like a moron after the pact they’d made. Catherine had helped her, taught her, and in the few days she’d known the bitchy paladin she’d come to respect her. She wasn’t about to let someone she respected do themselves like this.

She would not tolerate it.

“You did your fucking time, Catherine. What? You wanna go back?” she demanded, throwing her arms out. “I brought you back to life and you wanna go back?” She pointed towards the distant shape of the dungeon.

“I hold the gate-”

“You hold shit!” Anna shouted. “Look at you! You can barely stand! You took a hit from me!” She laughed. “I wanted to punch you so fucking bad and I didn’t even enjoy it!” She scoffed as the woman fell forward, planting her hands on the ground, prostrate. Anna’s blood sang as her nostrils flared, the pressure intensifying in her head. It needed to go somewhere. She needed to vent it out. “Do you want to die?” She snarled.

“No.” Catherine croaked, struggling to breathe.

Anna kicked the snow. “Then fucking tell me!” she barked. “What kind of rulers did you know that made you think like this? Fuck!” she threw her hands up in the air and the feeling began to fade. The pressure ebbed, she felt so fucking tired, she felt like she had back when Chloe had come after her. All that defiant rage burning through her until there was nothing left. Catherine gasped for air as whatever had been holding her down finally let up and she fell onto her side, panting. Anna glared at the fallen woman and closed her eyes. Damn it.

She stumbled forward and grabbed Catherine’s arm, hauling her to her feet and tugging the taller woman over her shoulder. Fucking hell she’s heavy, she grumbled and started trudging through the snow towards the door. 

“...forgive me,” Catherine croaked.

“Already fucking done,” Anna growled. “We’re even now. Don’t do it again. You die when I say you can, so get used to being around.”

“Understood, my lady.”

Catherine was unconscious by the time Anna got her to the couch. She tossed the woman into it and stared at her for a while, rubbing her head. It was still pounding. Tsk, you’re crying, did you know that? She thought irritably and turned away. She sighed. “I won’t say it again, the old you died. Get over yourself and figure out who you are now. That’s what I’m doing.” She said sullenly and looked at the glass doors and the piles of bones beyond. The snow was beginning to pick up even more now. She groaned. “Damn it!”

An hour later she slumped into one of the chairs in the lobby, panting. She didn’t have a lot of space in her inventory to store the corpses and carry them so she had to go back and forth, digging them out of the piling snow before depositing them on the lobby floor. The inside of her skull felt like it was on fire at this point but she couldn’t rest just yet. With Catherine out of commission and the knowledge that the undead were coming at night, she would have to keep watch until the sun rose.

She sighed.

I have a healing spell now, might as well use it I guess, she grumbled. She turned to the skeletons. After I take my share.

You have received: 606 Iron Coins and 583 Essence Points

It only took a few minutes to sort through the corpses. She took an extra skeletal warrior and hound as a bit of petty recompense before leaving the rest for Catherine. Satisfied with her gains and with finally knowing why Catherine was hiding her level so earnestly, she wiped her lip and glanced at her resources.

Resources:
HP: 125/219 | SP: 31/209 | MT: 103/182

She put her armor back into her inventory and looked herself over. She had bruises everywhere and a few cuts and scrapes on her face and chin. The textbook said that healing magic, Vitomancy, worked better if you understood the injury or problem and focus on it. I am not a doctor, she thought wryly before holding her hand over her bruised arm. But I know some things, cells and damaged tissue that shit, kinda. She frowned, Didn’t give a warning about casting healing magic on the self or something too? Her fingers twitched. Oh yeah, I’m channeling mana and putting mana into my body to heal it. Extra taint.

She cast the spell anyway and a faint glow extended from her fingertips as the spellform took shape automatically in her head. One of the few good things the System had going for it. She watched as the bruises on her arm shrank before vanishing entirely. She checked her resources again to see what had changed. 

Resources:
HP: 139/219 | SP: 31/209 | MT: 114/182

Gross, that’s a lot of taint for one spell, she thought. Converts almost one to one per hit point if I cast it on myself. That’s undesirable. She shook her head and cast it two more times on the most painful spots on her body before dragging herself to her feet and squatting next to Catherine. Let’s fix that nose, she thought and cast the spell. The injured extremity reset itself and the flow of blood stopped after another casting.

Resources:
HP: 167/219 | SP: 31/209 | MT: 148/182

It took six mana to cast it on someone else, good to know, she thought and kept casting. Working over Catherine until she was around ten points off from her limit. She knew it was a bit reckless to do it but Catherine clearly hadn’t been able to properly heal herself and was in far worse shape. Besides, if she had to wake her up later, she would. It was more important that her knight live through the night so she could keep fighting the next day.

She dragged herself to her feet, the heat in her body from her built up mana tolerance making her almost feel feverish. She shook it off and walked back over to her chair, dragging it to the door and sitting down. She put her armor back on and planted her mace on the floor between her feet before settling in to keep watch and let her mana tolerance cool off

Once or twice a hound came by to take a look around and she shooed it off with a flex of her presence. Otherwise, though, the undead seemed to decide that they had wasted enough resources for one night. All the while, Anna couldn’t help but wonder whether or not the Champion was out in the snow with them. The dark cloud wasn’t there, so it was possible he had just left these things behind. If that was the case, though, where were they coming from?

She mulled it over as the sun started to rise and her eyes grew heavy.

Shit, I’m beat, she thought wearily as her head began to droop. The burning throbbing in her skull was starting to subside and she felt… different. She reached up and pressed her fingers to her eyes, rubbing them to stimulate herself awake. 

A hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped, whipping her head towards Catherine who was on her feet. The glow was out of her eyes and her tired face looked better. Anna held her gaze for a heartbeat before speaking. “You gonna wake me if something shows up?”

“Yes, my Lady.” Catherine said.

Anna nodded, not bothering to correct her. She didn’t mind the title. “Good,” she said and got to her feet before stumbling over to the couch and throwing herself into it. “You’re a crazy bitch, you know that?” she muttered.

“And you are an insufferable tyrant,” Catherine shot back and sat down in the chair. “But I have had worse people as my liege.” She turned and looked Anna in the eye. “Besides, like I said before. I suspect what your people will need is a tyrant.”

Anna grinned at her and fell back onto the couch. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she mumbled as  her eyes fell shut and the buzzing began in the back of her head.