Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 106

Dante groaned as he looked down at the spear tips waiting to thrust into him from the cavern below. Warlord Karabell had brought the freaks from his personal mercenary group.

This was so unfair.

The leader of the mounted mercenary group, which he now knew was Warlord Karabell’s son, had been a constant thorn in his side for months. Any time Dante had come close to eliminating him, someone else would sacrifice themselves so he would live.

Because of that, that mercenary leader literally fought without fear, constantly throwing himself at their front lines and creating the most casualties on both sides. Dante had taken advantage of his stupidity by setting up an ambush and completely slaughtering him only four days ago.

Also annoying, was the cavern that was excavated below them. Obviously, it was done by a Geomancer. But this area should have been monitored by his own Geomancer stationed on the wall close by. If that hadn’t been the case, he would have been far more guarded against the ground below them.

It meant they had a traitor.

Likely a newly turned traitor too. He hadn’t thought that creating unrest in the camp would be a problem if he surrendered, so he didn’t hesitate to kill Warlord Vidal and remove his opposition. Unfortunately, it seemed that Warlord Karabell was already taking advantage of the chaos. Anyone who currently felt threatened in the camp would be easily converted to his side.

As they began to fall, there was another change. A bubble created from mana spread out from Warlord Karabell’s son and enclosed them, cutting them off from the outside world. It was a barrier skill.

He and Jayden had been wondering where the mage with the projectile blocking barrier had disappeared to after they moved away from the three fronts. But after months of not seeing the mage, they had completely removed him from their mind.

It appeared as though the formation of original three fronts had been dictated by Warlord Karabell’s family members.

The projectile blocking barrier cut them off from the combatants waiting to aid them on the wall. He had stationed more than a dozen sharpshooters there so that they would be well within range. But now they wouldn’t get help until the close combat troops came in, and they would be far outpaced by Warlord Karabell’s small mounted force.

Dante initiated his Blink skill, which was when he discovered that the guards surrounding the warlord and his son were carefully leaking small traces of mana. It was barely noticeable, but still enough to impede the mana from his Blink skill.

Dante activated the skill as he avoided the leaking mana, placing himself about three feet away from Warlord Karabell’s son and initiating an attack. He was basically throwing himself into an ambush though. As soon as he appeared, Warlord Karabell and his guards collapsed upon him.

Dante drew a sword and three daggers from his storage, then immediately Blinked two of the daggers about four feet behind the warlord’s son before they caught his enemy’s notice. After accomplishing that, he sprang into action.

Dante ducked the warlord’s thrust, as he was the largest offensive threat, but the five guards all simultaneously activated their skills immediately after. Two of the guards accelerated, stabbing at him with a speed that far surpassed what their attributes allowed. Dante twisted his body, narrowly avoiding one of the blades and earning a shallow gash on his left side from the other.

Then the other three’s attacks came. One had a molten sword, the air surrounding it was distorting from the heat. Another attacked with a translucent blue spear that appeared out of thin air. And the last attacker swung at him with what seemed to be a plain sword.

The plain sword was the most lethal though. Dante felt himself physically slow as the blade approached him, almost as though the air around him had thickened, making it much harder to defend himself.

Dante’s dagger filled with world essence as he brought it up to the approaching molten blade. He didn’t create an actual edge, that would have taken too long, but just as the dagger made contact he collapsed the world essence around the edge of the blade to harden it.

The blades collided, and the impact caused the molten blade to shine blindingly as sparks flew everywhere. The sparks caused his enemies to hesitate for the briefest of moments, but it was all he needed. Dante shifted his grip on the dagger immediately, bringing it to the spear as his sword penetrated through the chest cavity of the attacker who was physically slowing him.

He got to the spear a fraction of a second late, knocking it away as it stabbed into his stomach. The gash it caused was somewhat deep, but nothing life threatening or inhibiting.

Dante ran world essence haphazardly into the sword buried into his attacker’s chest as he withdrew it, killing him and eliminating the force that was slowing his movement. Then, he jumped backward with the aid of the world essence in his legs, placing himself on the edge of the barrier as his skin began to knit together from the kill.

It also allowed him to reassess the situation. The first thing he noticed was that neither the guards or Warlord Karabell pursued him. They had extremely agitated expressions on their faces, but didn’t dare leave the warlord’s son or stop leaking mana to hinder his Blink skill. The warlord’s son looked like he was preparing to make a difficult decision.

If he moved toward Dante, the guards would be able to attack, but the barrier would be moved as well. The mercenaries fighting in the cavern would have no protection, and arrows would rain down on them from the wall in the distance.

Inside the small cavern itself, Jayden was surprisingly alive, and in the process of ramming a dagger into the eye of one of his attackers. Surrounding him were three of the original six warriors. Each of them had their defensive skills activated and were blocking attacks. One had gravelly looking skin that was almost stone-like, another’s had a coppery tint to it, and the third’s skin was coated with mana in a way that was similar to Warlord Karabell - but the Warrior’s skill was much weaker and solely for defense.

Jayden was also surprisingly useful in the fight. He skillfully cut up every mana shield he made and flung them into the mercenaries’ faces to distract them from chopping up the Warriors in front of him. He would also occasionally step forward at an opportune moment and attack an enemy, but that was rare, and he had no skills to aid him.

Jayden was severely outnumbered. Ten attackers were still besieging them, and the cavern was too deep for them to try and climb out to escape.

Dante then glanced at the two armies. Unsurprisingly, they were both charging toward the barrier. It was obvious that Warlord Karabell would receive his reinforcements first though.

Dante created five cheap swords with extremely long handles for ten mana a piece and flung them into the cavern behind Jayden. Ordinarily, such dull swords wouldn’t have a use, but they easily buried themselves into the dirt wall behind Jayden, making a makeshift ladder for him to try and escape.

After that, Dante renewed his focus onto the warlord’s son. If he could get the barrier down his archers would be able to easily cover their escape. Plus, there was the added bonus of making the warlord deeply regret his actions before he was killed as well, which definitely sounded ideal after being ambushed like this.

Surrender was no longer an option, they had to either wipe out or subjugate the enemy.

Dante dashed toward Warlord Karabell, making it look like the warlord was his intended target. The action immediately collected the attention of the guards as well, and Dante began to manipulate the daggers he had blinked behind the warlord’s son while they were distracted.

As Dante engaged the warlord, fighting on the edge of where the guards could move while also protecting the warlord’s son with the leaked mana, Dante moved the two daggers away with Manipulate Blade. Then, when the daggers reached the edge of the barrier he pulled them toward the warlord’s son.

He didn’t need to actually see the warlord’s son die, the barrier flickering out of existence was enough for him to know that he had been successful. It also alerted Warlord Karabell that something was amiss. He spun just in time to see his son fall forward with two daggers buried in his back.

It was hard to understand what level of idiocy, or confidence, one would need to place his son’s life in danger to avenge the death of his other son.

Warlord Karabell’s face paled, he didn’t take his eyes off his son’s fallen form as the first arrows came in. In that moment, he was thoroughly broken.

“Warlord!” One of the warlord’s guards jumped in front of the incoming arrows, cutting two of them out of the air before being pierced by three others.

Warlord Karabell didn’t seem to care, he turned to Dante with unspeakable hatred in his eyes and a face twisted in anger.

Dante chose that moment to act, easily weaving between the arrows coming in from the warlord’s archers while also avoiding the other guards with the spectral attunement. Then, he broke off the tip of his sword with a thought, turning it into a second dagger as he corrupted the two weapons and filled them with his red world essence.

The warlord swung at him, but his composure was broken and the reckless attack was no threat. Dante twisted his body to slip between the warlord’s guard and impale him with the two daggers, then he galvanized the world essence in the two weapons, causing the world essence to bounce between the blades and wreak havoc in Warlord Karabell’s body in the way that Victoria had taught him.

“Kill him!”

Dante broke up the weapons for good measure as he abandoned Warlord Karabell’s body. The guards had just reached him, one of them slashing him deeply on his shoulder as he broke through them.

The sound of hoofbeats was growing louder, the cavalry would be upon them in mere moments.

Just as he was going to make his escape, Jayden’s weak voice echoed out. “Dear brother!”

Dante dashed toward the hole where the cavern was made only to see that Jayden was already out. He was kneeling over the cavern as he continuously made mana shields to block the mercenaries that were trying to follow him up the makeshift ladder.

Dante broke up the sword ladder to stop the enemy as he changed his trajectory to move toward Jayden. Jayden was in rough shape. He was holding a hand over his stomach in an attempt to stop the heavy bleeding from the gash there, which was only one of many wounds, and two arrows that he couldn’t avoid were sticking out of his chest.

Dante made it to Jayden in only a moment’s time. He picked Jayden up and dashed to the camp, easily outpacing the mounted troops and simultaneously avoiding arrows as he utilized the spectral attunement to dash side to side.

Along the way he met his own combatants, they had rushed forward to aid him as soon as the negotiations broke down. “Just defend and quickly pull back to the camp.” Dante didn’t stop as he gave the order. The few mounted troops that were approaching weren’t a problem, but the infantry that was hot on their trail was. Things would be much more chaotic once news got out that Warlord Karabell was dead, but until then they would be fighting an undivided force.

As soon as they got within the camp Dante placed Jayden on ground and began to issue orders, the first of which was the arrest of the Geomancer on duty. “Captain Laren, capture this Geomancer. He is to be executed as a traitor. Samson, go collect the Geomancers from Eric’s division and bring them here to raise the walls once all the men have returned.” He cast a glance down at Jayden as his first two orders were carried out and the Geomancer uselessly tried to escape from the surrounding combatants. Jayden was paling from the blood loss, but still conscious. “Someone heal Logistics Manager Jayden.”

He had barely finished speaking when a middle-aged female priest broke out of the crowd and crouched near Jayden, swatting in agitation at anyone who stood in her way. It was Tabitha.

As soon as she activated her skill color began to seep back into Jayden’s complexion. “Miss Tabitha, you are too good to me.”

Tabitha just clicked her tongue and glared at him. “What did I tell you about going and finding trouble with that tongue of yours? I don’t know why I waste my time healing you when you’ll just go and find more ways to injure yourself.”

Dante rolled his eyes. It seemed that months of wearing poorly knitted clothes had some advantages, no matter how slight.

Dante ignored Jayden as he looked at the battle taking place outside of the camp. The cavalry was easily being pushed back by his large number of retreating combatants, it seemed that they would make it back before the enemy’s infantry caught up.

The location that he had met Warlord Karabell was of far more interest to him. Roughly half of the groups that passed by there stopped. No one had made a move yet, but it was only a matter of time.