Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Diplomacy by Any Other Means

 I didn’t relish having to kill a bunch of Kobold slaves, and we needed someone that the city could interrogate regarding the diplomatic treachery. “Try to keep some of them alive!” I said to Justice, and anyone else who’d listen. 

While we had six royal knights nominally on our side, there were at least five Kobolds to each of the four Draken. They swarmed even as spells and bolts were fired by the knights around us. The well dressed Kobolds fired back with spells of their own, and the semblance of a formation we’d managed was scattered as we dodged the plumes of fire. 

I moved to engage some of the lower slaves, formally dressed in just skirts, a collar that was supposed to be decorative and weilding small blades. I spoke to the three I engaged first, “Lay down your arms! We can provide amnesty - freedom - if you cooperate!” 

I deflected a blade with Katarachin then sliced the wrist of one kobold that tried to reach too far into my reach. The third Kobold rushed me and I leapt aside, instead shoulder checking the first kobold who’d thrown their blade. My blade hilt landed heavily on the back of their head, knocking them to the ground. 

There was a smattering of thuds. I glanced away to see that three of the Draken had leapt from the stands to the ground, their large scimitars, likely hidden with magic before now, held before them. The dual-blade Draken shock troopers were among the most rumored and feared soldiers of the Drakengard army. Even without extensive armor, this was going to be a problem for a few knights to handle with all the kobolds playing interference. 

Too distracted myself, the kobold I’d nicked jumped on me and began clawing at my eyes, anything to disable while their third came for a second charge. If this was anything like what I was to those I leapt upon, I was annoying as hell. 

Fortunately the additional strength I’d gotten in the past few days helped immensely and I turned to sling my attacker at their compatriot. Their combined mass caused them to veer to the side and fall down. The one I’d knocked to the ground was getting up grogily, and I hit them in the back of the head again, planning to knock them unconscious.

I threw myself into the two untangling kobolds that had been just thrown away, Katarachin cutting at tendons rather than aiming for killing blows. 

Behind me, the Kobold I’d knocked unconscious suddenly began keening as they rolled over and gripped their neck with both hands. I couldn’t see what was causing the reaction, as I backed away from the two I’d been attacking. They made one last wet scream, vomited, and seemed to perish. 

I looked at my other two assailants, who looked terrified. One raised their hand to the collar, while the other’s gaze shot up the stands. I looked as well. Between Florince pressing the assault with her blade and magic against one of the dual-blade Draken, and the two other Draken who were trying to push past three knights to the stage. At the stands, several feet up there was the fourth Draken, Sessethenshen, seemingly supervising the fight with little concern. In one hand was a series of loops on a talisman of some kind, the other hand holding a small curved dagger, almost a scalpel than a true blade. He sliced another loop, and another Kobold downed, this one at Justice’s feet, began a wailing deathknell. 

“Justice! Suppress Magic!” She glanced at me, then to where I pointed Katarachin’s blade. She didn’t waste time, pulling up her spellbook in one hand while neatly sidestepping two kobolds who were still trying to engage her directly. 

I began sprinting at Sessethenshen, knowing that unless we stopped him, there would be no witnesses or testimony that placed this betrayal at the hands of warmongers, rather than the Drakengard directly. Behind me, the Kobolds I’d effectively disabled squaked and presumably tried to follow before they were killed for inaction. 

The mess of fighting had spread, the Royal Guard also engaging with the Drakengard delegation as they pressed towards the stage. No regard for taking prisoners was being taken. I hoped that if Sessethenshen was stopped, some of the Kobolds might be alive long enough to surrender. 

One of the dual-blade Draken, several arrows sticking out of his body from various angles, was raising one blade for a final killing blow on one of the knights sprawled across the ground, trying to crawl away. With too much momentum pushing me forward to the stands, I couldn’t intercept. Instead, I threw Katarachin into their armpit, intending to hit something vital enough to turn the blade. I didn’t watch what happened, as I was at the stands and leaping over, both hands pulling me forward enough for my digitigrade feet to launch me up two rows toward Sessethenshen. As I did, I saw the air around him go dull and almost grayscale. 

Sessethenshen saw me as soon as the air went slack. I was already almost on top of him, summoning Katarachin at the last. He was surprisingly quick, his arm swinging the looped talisman to deflect me, jarring into my shoulder. I corrected for the new landing and managed to not hit the stairs just behind him too hard. I immediately scrambled further up the stairs as a huge shudder shook the stands behind me. 

Sessethenshen had tried to stomp my tail in place. As he pulled his foot back, the claws on his foot sliced neat scores in the wooden stands. 

“You shouldn’t summon me like that in public. Someone might recognize what I am.”

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“Scortan. Did you remove your crest to look a better servant? How does suckling the mammals feel?” He raised the hand with the ritual blade and it glowed for a moment, before a Firebolt shot towards me. I barely leapt away in time. 

Obviously, Suppress Magic was not a sufficiently high enough spell to lock down a trained wizard. It should prevent the passive signalling between slave collars and kill-loops though. 

I didn’t answer, instead hopping down a level to the eight foot tall Draken’s side before stepping in close to give a testing strike at his side. He blocked with the talisman, the loops of leather controlling the slave collars flopping with the movement. I grabbed the talisman with my free hand and was nearly flung off as he carried me with his next swing. Katarachin bit into scales as I was slammed into the side of the stands. 

This blow, I felt. My stamina was waning, and the blow caused me to let go of his arm. I rolled down the steps as he thrust the scalpel at me. I managed to roll onto my feet and, inside his reach, Katarachin bit into his thigh. I hopped back as the talisman nearly cracked my skull open. I nearly tumbled down the stairs as I landed badly. 

He raised the ritual blade again and I threw up my Guidance screens in reaction and ducked. Unsure of what he was looking at initially, his spell - a blast of Venom Air I guessed - flew over me and down the stairs. I crawled back up the steps to slam Katarachin into Sessethenshen’s foot. The blade bit hard into the wood and I scrambled back as the Draken let out a hiss of pain. 

I fled down one aisle of seating as more powerful spells, that required much shouting in Draconic, started exploding the stools I was hiding behind with cutting blades of water. I felt something cut into my tail, and the pain traveled up my body and into my chest, causing my heart to stutter in reaction. 

I ran out of aisle and turned to Sessethenshen, hoping to be able to predict where the next spell would land so I could dodge it. 

Sessethenshen had one of the orc Magistrates around his thick neck, and the human Magistrate was swinging what looked like part of the railing into the knee of the foot I’d trapped. The Drake had dropped the talisman to wrestle with the orc around his neck. 

I glanced at my tail to see the damage and saw that I was missing the last three inches or so. I couldn’t see where it was, and the wounded stump bled freely. 

Down below, it looked like two of the three Draken were dead, with assorted other bodies surrounding them. I stood up and shouted, “The slave collars are disabled! Give up to save yourselves!” in my highest, loudest voice, intending to catch the attention of the remaining Kobolds still alive. 

Three of the barely clad ones glanced up at Sessethenshen and saw that he was too occupied to be supervising. They dropped their weapons. Two other kobolds, dressed in much finer robes, instead began casting Firebolts in my direction. 

I ducked, but not before I saw Knight Florince charging up the stairs towards Sessethenshen. The stage for the coronation was cleared, and the fighting across the entire field looked like it was fully engaged with guards against mercenaries, rather than mercenaries cutting through the crowd. 

Spells stopped chipping away at my cover, and I glanced out from the side of the chair. Justice was standing over the two Kobolds, her studded gloves in the shape of a fist. She was still keeping an eye on Sessethenshen, maintaining the Suppress Magic spell. 

Sessethenshen looked past the shouting Knight Florince to me. He muttered a something and raised their scalpel to their own throat, just above where the orc’s arms wrapped around it.  

Before Knight Florince could bring her blade up to stop him,  he slashed his own throat and cast a death curse in my direction.

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