Chương 45: Chapter 44 - The Fight

Lord Grivalt turned to face her, a look of contempt on his face.

"I told you to remember your place, mortal. You are just a glorified peasant, while I am a noble." His voice rose in volume as he went.

"I do business with you because it suits me. Here, in my house, you are a guest only because I deem it so! Nothing more. It's time for you to leave." Yeah, that wasn't happening. Not now, after he had threatened her dad so openly.

"I'll leave once I've selected the servants to take home with me." She paused. Anyone left here tonight would be in danger.

"On second thought, I'm taking all of your servants with me, even the ones that aren't here in this room right now. I'll pay top coin for them, as we agreed." Lord Grivalt began shaking with rage.

"I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE! If you stay here longer, anything I do will be justified." She pulled fifty ruby coins from her soul storage, and held them out.

"I'll pay whatever you want, just let me take the servants and go." Lord Grivalt's eyes widened as he saw the coins. It was enough to redeem his fallen estate many times over. It would salvage things to the point that he would remain in power for a long time to come. Kiara knew that in the back of her mind, but decided it was worth it to save her family from further harm tonight.

"I'll take those coins from your dead body, you little brat! A fitting parting gift from my ex-business partner." He smiled wickedly. All this time, Kiara had been avoiding open conflict with this man because the repercussions were beyond her ability to handle. If Baron Norshod came to arrest her, what then? She couldn't fight the entire city guard of Easton. Even if she could, she shouldn't fight them, they would just be doing their jobs. But what was the alternative?

She would not leave her family here tonight with this raging lunatic. All of the reasons for her not to confront this snake suddenly seemed as flimsy as wet paper. The reasons began slipping from her mind, one by one, until she couldn't even remember them anymore. All that mattered was getting her family out of here. Ignoring all of the reasons that had been holding her back felt good. This was what she had wanted to do from the beginning, confront Lord Grivalt with a sword in hand. She smiled.

He pulled his own sword out of the sheath on his waist, and mana began visibly forming around his other hand. He snarled, "You know, you remind me of someone I killed recently. Your insolence, your forwardness. You are only the second person in my life to ever talk to me like this, and I will kill you like I killed her." Oh, he remembers me! The thought came unbidden to Kiara's mind. She heard the sound of weapons being drawn all around the room.

The servants quickly retreated to the back wall of the room, getting out of the way as much as they could. Lord Grivalt was known to be a tier 2 mage, so his guards were all likely tier 1 or lower. She pulsed out with [Magical Sense 3] to see what she could learn. Lord Grivalt showed on her magical radar, and she got the sense that he was indeed a tier 2. Trevon, who was standing nearby, showed up as a tier 1. The other twelve guards registered as either tier 1 or tier 0.

They would be stronger and faster than mere mortals, even the tier 0s, but she didn't see anyone beyond her ability to handle. Or so she hoped. With a roar, Lord Grivalt ran at her, releasing the built up mana on his hand in a bright flash of blue light. Electricity arced through the air from his hand, striking her in the forehead. It dissolved on contact. He stumbled slightly at the sight.

"You… you have a defensive artifact of some kind? Of course, a wealthy house would provide their scion with some level of protection. We'll see how it fares against my blade!"

"Kill them all!" he shouted to his guards. He lunged at her with his sword. Trevon, who had been watching from the side, jumped into action as well, swinging his staff at Kiara. The sound of fighting erupted all around, as Lord Grivalt's guards rushed Soren and Estella. She hoped they would be okay for a bit while she dealt with Trevon and Grivalt. The sword forms that Kiara was studying were built around duels between swordfighters, and didn't account for multiple opponents or other weapon types.

That adaptation was left up to the individual, and many people never found a need for it. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. This was not Kiara's first real-life fight, however. She had fought against bandits a few months ago, and had even learned a valuable lesson about not underestimating multiple opponents from Hank and Jeff. Her instincts kicked in, and she turned on the gas.

She side stepped Trevon's swing using and blocked Grivalt's swing, moving at full speed, jumping to the side faster than either of the two could track. She fell instinctively into Air Stance, as it favored maintaining distance. Grivalt's eyes took on a slight wariness to them at the speed she had shown, but he didn't call off the fight. Instead, he and Trevon both jumped towards her again, swinging wildly.

It quickly became apparent that Lord Grivalt had only mediocre sword training, perhaps slightly better than most of the guards at her own estate. Perhaps similar to her own skill level when she had graduated from the beginner sword class. She had learned a lot since then. His speed alone, as a tier 2, might have overwhelmed her before her own upgrade to tier 2, but having spent most of her points in her Strength stat, she now outpaced him by almost double.

Trevon, on the other hand, was slower than she had been at tier 1, and his movements felt sluggish in comparison. Her instinct to start with a defensive stance felt right, since she was facing two opponents of unknown skill, but as the fight evolved, she transitioned from Air Form into Forest Form, one of the neutral sword forms. It still allowed her to maintain a solid defense while also offering more attack options.

Lord Grivalt was attacking with River Form, which was technically strong against both Air and Forest Form, but Kiara was optimizing for more than just a single opponent. Forest Form allowed for quick attacks and blocks to help repel both attackers. After a few exchanges, she realized that even with a less defensive form, they wouldn't be able to touch her. She transitioned seamlessly into Fire Form. It was strong against River Form, and was also her favorite sword form, as it was the most aggressive.

With the speed they were moving at, only a few seconds had passed since the fighting began. Four of the guards that had been closest to Kiara now joined the fight, making it six against one. She was silently thankful, as that meant that Soren and Estella would only have to deal with eight themselves. As she transitioned into Fire Form, Trevon swung in a downward motion, while Grivalt swung from the side.

Kiara blocked Grivalt's swing and stepped nimbly past Trevon's swing as it whistled by her head and smashed into the floor. She spun rapidly as she moved, blocking attacks from the four guards that had rushed up behind her as she slipped between Grivalt and Trevon to end up behind them. She stabbed gracefully to her right as she emerged from between them, sending Trevon to the floor with a wound through his chest. Grivalt circled toward her side, still using River Form, with flowing swings that aimed to disarm her.

"Kill her!" he shouted to the four guards as they rushed in. None of the forms accounted for five opponents, but Kiara's speed was so far beyond theirs that she didn't feel in danger at all. The fighting on the other side of the room got louder as the rest of the guards finally reached Soren and Estella's position. She needed to go help them as soon as possible. As one of the four guards stabbed toward her, she took off his arm, and he fell to the floor screaming.

Another guard tried blocking her follow up slash, and normally would have succeeded, if not for how fas shew as moving. She changed the trajectory last-second, and swiped through his leg. She dodged to the side as the other two guards swung at her wildly. Her dodge put her back in range of Lord Grivalt. The madness in his eyes was beyond recall at this point, he was almost frothing at the mouth in his rage.

His swings were admittedly faster than the other guards, but still slow enough that Kiara opted to dodge instead of block. His inability to react with the same speed as her own gave her a perfect opening on his left side, where she stabbed at his ribs. Her sword was met with a magical shield, which protected him from the piercing aspect of the blow, but he was still sent flying to the side from the impact. The other two guards closed in on her position, and two more swings ended with two dead guards on the floor.

Lord Grivalt had recovered, and was dashing at her madly. The veins in his neck bulged, and his face was red with fury. FIre erupted from his hands as he closed in, causing no damage, but serving to blind her from his swings. She tried using [Magical Sense 3] to keep track of his movements, but it wasn't fine tuned enough for the job. She could tell where he was in a general sense, but not with enough precision to properly defend herself.

She jumped backward, waiting for her vision to clear, but more fire came her way.

"Ha ha!" Lord Grivalt laughed madly as he followed her.

"Your protective artifacts can't protect you if you can't see!" He was right, unfortunately. Kiara didn't know enough about mage levels to gauge when he might run out of mana. Soren and Estella were in trouble right now. If she left Lord Grivalt alone near the servants though, there was no telling what might happen to them. She made a split second decision, transitioning into Stone Form, which would keep her sword near her body, then closed the distance to Lord Grivalt in a flash.

Another fireball took her in the face, obscuring her vision, but she spun quickly to the side as they drew near, keeping her sword close to her torso in an attempt to block whatever attack he made. Lord Grivalt's sword careened off of hers, slicing a deep gash in her left arm as she spun. The spin put her within arm's reach though, so she swung her left arm out, ignoring the shooting pain from the gash.

Although her sight was still overloaded from the light of the fire, she felt her hand connect with his shirt, and grabbed ahold. She pulled him in close, moving her hand upward in search of skin. She found his neck, and his magical shield dissolved as she grabbed on. Her arm was weak and in pain from being hit, but she held on tight enough to keep track of where his neck was as she swung her sword. Lord Grivalt couldn't react fast enough after his own attack, and was unable to block her next swing.

His head hit the ground before his body.