Richard had been listening to the sounds of battle with growing excitement. Each scream, each clash of weapons, each cry for help filled him with vindictive satisfaction.
The makeshift prison wasn't designed to keep him for long. The cell was little more than a converted storage room with hastily installed bars, the lock a simple mechanism that Thomas and Robert had quickly cobbled together.
The real thing keeping him there was the guards, two residents assigned to watch the prisoners around the clock.
But now those guards had been called away to join the fighting, leaving Richard alone with his flimsy cage.
He smiled and began working on his escape. The battle was underway, and he intended to witness Marcus's victory firsthand.
The lock gave way easily as he pulled it apart with his hands. Richard pushed open the cell door and stepped into a settlement that was being torn apart around him.
He didn't bother hiding or sneaking around, such things were unnecessary when his brother's soldiers controlled the battlefield. Instead, he walked openly through Valentra's streets, moving towards the destroyed gate where he expected to find Marcus.
Iron Vanguard soldiers saw him approaching and recognised him immediately. Marcus had described his younger brother to the entire force, ensuring that Richard would be protected during the assault.
"Richard!" one of them called out, his sword bloody from recent kills. "Marcus is over that way, on the eastern side of the central plaza."
Richard's smile widened as he followed the directions, stepping over the bodies of Valentra residents who'd died defending the community that had rejected him.
In his eyes, justice had finally come to Valentra.
---
Victor moved through Valentra's residential area with his team spread out in loose formation, hunting the Iron Vanguard soldiers who'd dispersed into the settlement's heart.
The battle at the gate was drawing most of the defenders' attention, but these infiltrators posed their own deadly threat.
"Alex, check the workshop area," he commanded quietly. "Tyler, with me through the housing district. Zoe, circle around and—"
The attack came from multiple directions simultaneously. Five Iron Vanguard soldiers emerged from concealment between buildings.
"Ambush!" Tyler shouted, his rapier already in motion as he parried a sword thrust aimed at his neck.
Victor's dagger found the ribs of the nearest attacker before the man could complete his strike, but two more soldiers were already pressing their assault from different angles.
Alex appeared from behind a workshop, his twin daggers catching one soldier in the back. The narrow spaces between buildings created a chaotic melee that nearly overwhelmed Victor's team.
Zoe kept an attacker busy, her curved sabre's design suited for the close-quarters combat that developed in the cramped spaces.
She used doorways and corners to limit their angles of attack, even though the soldiers were professionals who adapted quickly to the terrain she was able to defeat him quickly with some help from Nate.
"They knew we'd come this way," Victor realised, his blade opening a soldier's throat as he spoke.
Tyler's rapier pierced his opponent's leather armour, dropping the man with a precise thrust to the heart. But the effort left him exposed to a flanking attack that only Alex's intervention prevented, the quiet man's daggers saving Tyler from a sword strike.
The fight was brutal but brief. Victor's team had advantages that professional training couldn't overcome, they knew every tactical feature of the terrain they were defending. When the last Iron Vanguard soldier fell, 5 bodies lay scattered between the buildings.
"Everyone whole?" Victor asked, checking his team for injuries.
"Minor cuts," Zoe reported, examining a shallow gash along her forearm. "Nothing serious."
"They were waiting for us," Tyler observed, cleaning his rapier on a dead soldier's shirt.
Victor nodded with a frown. The Iron Vanguard was better organised than they had expected.
They continued their patrol through the residential district, moving more cautiously now that they understood the level of coordination they were facing.
Two more Iron Vanguard soldiers appeared on their route, but without the element of surprise, they were quickly dispatched by Victor's team.
"Movement ahead," Alex whispered, pointing towards a cluster of buildings where voices could be heard giving orders.
Victor vaguely recognised the voice as Rhea, the Iron Vanguard scout who'd visited Valentra just days earlier. She was coordinating an attack on the northern watchtower.
Seven soldiers including Rhea had positioned themselves around the watchtower's base, their assault already forcing the archers above to take cover.
"I'll take Rhea," Victor decided. "The rest of you handle her team."
"That's 6 soldiers for the 4 of us," Tyler pointed out.
"You can manage that," Victor replied, already moving towards his target.
The battle erupted when Victor's blade found the back of one soldier who was focused on the watchtower. Rhea spun towards the him, her sword aimed at his head as she assessed the new threat.
"Defensive positions!" She called to her remaining soldiers.
But Victor's team had the advantage of surprise. Alex and Tyler flanked the soldiers from opposite directions while Zoe attacked head on with Nate following behind her, their coordinated assault disrupting their enemies formation.
Victor engaged Rhea directly while his team scattered to handle her soldiers. She started with probing strikes, testing his defenses while assessing his capabilities.
Rhea's footwork kept her at the edge of Victor's dagger range. Her sword point darted forward in quick thrusts, each attack precisely placed to exploit gaps in his guard.
Victor's mana circulation was accelerating to meet his demands. Energy flowed through his pathways, enhancing his speed as Rhea's attacks sped up as well.
"You're the settlement security," she spoke during an exchange. "I remember you from our meeting."
"I remember you too," Victor replied, his dagger stabbing at her sword arm.
Rhea twisted away and countered with a cut at his throat. Victor leaned back, the blade whistling past, then stepped forward with a high-low combination that forced her to move backwards.
She used her longer reach effectively, keeping Victor where his dagger couldn't connect. Her sword work was skilled, the controlled strikes that chained together in flowing combinations was a sight to behold.
Victor began forcing mana through his body faster and in higher quantities. His movements became more fluid, and his reactions sharper.
He wanted to find Rhea's limits and it seemed like he had found it, she was a Realm of Man level cultivator. She tried to keep up with the increasing intensity.
Rhea pressed with a flurry of attacks, high cut, low thrust, diagonal slash. Victor's dagger blurred as he parried the assault, then he pushed his circulation to maximum.
The sudden surge of enhanced speed and strength caught Rhea off-guard. Victor slipped past her sword thrust and drove his dagger towards her chest. She managed a desperate parry, but his follow-up strike found her throat.
Her blade clattered to the ground as she collapsed, the mortal wound ending the fight. Victor staggered slightly, his body and channels mildly strained from the sudden increase in intensity.
"Victor!" Alex called out, having finished his opponents. "You alright?"
"Fine," Victor replied, though his hands shook slightly.
---
Ethan's team had been fighting in the central plaza, their formation holding against the Iron Vanguard's assault. Their opponents bodies lay scattered around their position.
But victory had come at a cost.
David leaned heavily on his spear, blood seeping from his thigh. The wound wasn't life-threatening, but it would slow him significantly if the fighting continued.
Carl clutched at his ribs where a sword had opened a long gash along his side. The wound was shallow but painful, blood staining his shirt as he struggled to maintain his fighting stance.
Elena sat on the ground with her left arm still hanging at her side, pain was evident in every line of her face.
Jake examined his right hand, where a sword edge had opened cuts across his knuckles, while his right leg bore a shallow slash that made walking uncomfortable.
Only Kate remained uninjured, her war hammer having kept the Iron Vanguard soldiers at a distance throughout the brutal engagement.
"We held," Kate said with a sigh, surveying the area around them that was littered with enemy bodies.
"At a cost," Ethan replied, his armoured form showing new dents and scratches from the fighting. "You lot need medical attention."
"The battle's not over," David protested.
"It is for you," Ethan said firmly. "Kate, help me get them to safety."
He guided the group to a house that stood away from the fighting, it would offer protection while they waited out the war.
"But the settlement—" Carl began.
"Will survive because people like you held the line when it mattered," Ethan interrupted. "Kate, keep them here. Don't let them do anything stupid."
Kate nodded understanding. "What about you?"
"I'm going to find more things to kill," Ethan growled.
He left his injured team in Kate's care and moved back into the settlement's chaotic streets.
Ethan had barely travelled a few metres when he heard the distinctive sound of a massive hammer striking stone. Following the noise led him to the smithy, where a large figure was wreaking havoc.
Garrett stood among the wreckage of Robert's forge, his hammer having reduced anvils and equipment to twisted metal.
"You're destroying weeks worth of work," Ethan said, his voice flat and cold.
Garrett turned towards the sound, taking in Ethan's heavily armoured form with interest. "Look who we have here, you're still alive. Good, I was hoping for a real fight."
The two large men faced each other among the ruins of the smithy, their weapons ready. Ethan's mana was already circulating on its own, energy coursing through his body to compensate for his armour and axe's weight.
"Last chance to surrender," Ethan offered.
"I don't surrender to those who are weaker than me," Garrett replied, hefting his massive weapon. "Let's see if that armour can protect you from this."
The battle began explosively as Garrett's hammer crashed against Ethan's breastplate. The mana-enhanced strength drove the blow with devastating force, sending Ethan staggering backwards. The impact leaving a large dent in the metal plating.
Ethan's counter-attack came with equal intensity, his mana surging as he swung the heavy war axe. Garrett barely managed to deflect the strike with his hammer's handle, the collision sending vibrations through both weapons.
The giants circled each other, their movements surprisingly agile despite the large weapons they wielded.
Garrett opened with an overhead strike that Ethan sidestepped, the hammer pulverising the stone floor where he'd been standing. Ethan immediately countered with a horizontal slash aimed at Garrett's midsection which he barely blocked using the hammer's long handle.
The blacksmith transitioned smoothly into a backhand swing that caught Ethan's left shoulder, the impact denting the shoulder guard and sending pain through his entire body. But Ethan ignored the pain and rode the momentum, spinning into an axe strike that opened a gash along Garrett's chest.
"Good armour," Garrett admitted, blood seeping from his wound as he pressed forward with renewed aggression.
His next combination was brutal, an upward strike to break Ethan's guard, followed immediately by a side swing that targeted his knee.
Ethan barely recovered from the first blow when he saw the next one coming, not having enough room to side step the attack he jumped over the hammer strike and lifted his axe above his head.
Ethan drove the axe down into Garrett's right shoulder, cleanly severing his arm and sending him stumbling.
Garrett roared in pain and fury, his own mana flaring as he attempted to fight back.
A crushing blow to Ethan's helmet left his ears ringing and vision blurred. Another strike caught his chest plate, the impact driving him to one knee as the metal buckled inward.
But Garrett's injuries were too severe. His movements were slowing, blood loss weakening his mana circulation. When he committed to a final, desperate overhead strike, Ethan saw his opening.
He surged upward with his remaining strength, his mana concentrated in his legs and core as he drove his war axe up in a rising arc. The obsidian steel blade caught Garrett beneath his raised arms, punching through the leather armour and ribs to find his heart.
Garrett looked down at the weapon protruding from his chest. "Well fought," he said, as he collapsed, laying among the wreckage of the forge.
Ethan stood over the fallen man, his armour bearing new scars and dents from their brutal exchange. Another of the Iron Vanguard's key figures was defeated.