Ellis’s shout was like a lighthouse in the dark, for all the chaos of the last few minutes seemed to become an entity all on its own, and now its malformed eyes turned to Ellis like he was the only thing in existence. He muttered a frantic prayer under his breath as he ran, hoping it was a kind god that had its attention on him now.

  The Archduke's screams still echoed throughout the hall as Ellis sprinted towards him with all his might. Every step he took seemed slow, because for every one of his Michael and Leon took two, despite his increased dexterity. And right in front of him was what was left of the palace guard, formed in neat lines with their shields held in front of their bodies, spears pointed directly at Ellis.

  Helena was screaming her little lungs out as Ellis ran, begging for her father to save her. Her voice made Ellis want to bathe, but he ignored her screaming as he hoisted her onto his shoulder, gritted his teeth through the sting of pain crawling up his injured leg, and focused on the men in front of him with every shred of perception he had.

  He poured mana into his ring when he was ten paces away from the battle line, and time seemed to slow to a stagger.

  Ellis feigned a jump with a skip of his legs, causing the men’s spears to bounce upwards as he went beneath them. He crashed into the first man, making him fall backwards into his comrade as he elbowed his way through the tightly packed men.

  Ellis dodged under a sword swing as he rolled over an outstretched shield, making it half way into the formation.

  Lucky for him, the men at the back didn’t have shields, so slipping past them was far easier than the first few lines of bodies. Ellis ducked underneath legs as swords swung at him, jumped over a man who didn’t even raise his hands in time to stop him, and then he was out of the formation, all the closer to the throne.

  Unluckily for him, the ones at the back were the ones carrying bows and crossbows, so Ellis’s quick escape was undercut by the whistle of arrows and bolts flying at his back as ran forward. He pushed Helena down to make sure his torso covered her completely, buried his chin into his chest to avoid the bolts hitting the back of his head, and tried his best to ‘see’ every projectile flying at his back.

  He knew what was coming long before he had even hit that formation. He was never going to get out unscathed.

  One arrow hit his shoulder blade, but he gritted his teeth and grunted through the pain as he took a step. Then a bolt hit the back of his arm, causing it to numb instantly as he took the next. Step after step, bolts stuck or grazed past his back as he ran. His sharp ears helped him avoid the worst of the punishment, but there was only so much one could do against a wall of projectiles.

  Michael’s gleeful voice rose above the discontent of the guards, “Oi fuck face! The last one to catch him‘s a rotten egg!”

  Ellis’s legs slowed down as more blood started to flow down his back, pool in his ass crack and then run down the back of his thighs. But all he needed to do was get onto the other side of the wall before those heavy footfalls and screams behind him caught up.

  One bolt was lucky, the sharp metal like a hot poker being dragged across his face as it flew past. Hot liquid poured down the side of his cheek and onto Helena’s head, and her screams grew even worse.

  But then the bolts slowed. Two breaths later, they stopped altogether.

  He glanced over his shoulder, wondering why, to find Michael and Leon tearing through palace guards formation like it wasn’t even there. Screaming men were still flying high in the air as the two men ran side by side, like children in a footrace as they sprinted towards a finish line.

  Except Ellis was the finish line, and he could not outpace them. Not with the bolt still in the back of his thigh. So he skipped into the air with his ruined legs, Helena floating with him as he let go of her to swing his crossbow around his body that came to an abrupt stop beneath his armpit.

  13 bolts exploded out of its mouth, flying straight and true towards the men. The last Ellis saw was both Leon and Michael holding up their hands to their face to keep the bolts out of their eyes before he landed back on his feet and caught Helena with one hand.

  He screamed down at the girl, “If you don’t want to fall, hang on Helena! Please!”

  Helena looked terrified, but did as he said and threw her arms around his neck, her little hands grabbing one of the bolts sticking out his back. He hissed as she clung to the metal gouging into his flesh, and reloaded the crossbow as he ran, finally crossing beneath the white wall.

  He sprinted to the base of the throne and almost flung himself down at its base, letting go of Helena to turn around and gain a view of what was happening. The nobles were still huddled along the wall. The palace guards were still trying to help each other up, but they were a long way away from posing the threat they had when they first entered the room.

  Leon was far ahead of Michael. The man winced with every step, but he had clearly tripped Michael up because the bastard was sprinting far harder than Ellis had ever seen, and there was no grin on his face as he ran after the Ant Killers back.

  But Leon would make it before Michael did. And that’s exactly what Ellis wanted.

  He turned away from the chaos, and focused on the lever a few meters away. The bones of his legs felt broken, despite his ring they screamed in pain and numbness, all mixing together. So he brought his crossbow up, and let loose a bolt without mana. It struck the lever right at its tippy top. The lever slid half way down its base and the gears screamed to let the wall crash down, rather than the slow descent Ellis had wanted.

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  But the gears were grinding themselves to dust as they slowed the wall down, until it came to an abrupt stop. There was enough space for Michael to walk through unimpeded, and Ellis swore under his breath as Helena watched her father run toward her with wide eyes.

  He hobbled towards the lever while reloading his crossbow with one of the last of his bolts, and half way there shouted over his shoulder, loud enough to cut through the Archdukes screaming, “Ameena! I need you!”

  The screaming did not cease, but Ellis felt the snakes crawling over every inch of his back within two seconds of his shout, and his leg no longer made him seethe with every step. His stumbling walk made him slow, but he was facing forward and he had been able to reload.

  Leon was close now, maybe ten meters from the wall. Ellis knew he could cross that distance in less than a second on a good day. But It was not a good day. Michael had tackled him to the floor and was trying to stab him with the tip of his sword. Leon jerked his head out of the way in the nick of time, laced his hands around the back of Michael’s neck to bring him in close, trapping the sword between his shoulder and the floor. Despite appearances, the man was clearly born with something violent in him. He tore into Michael’s neck with his teeth, long strips of flesh gouged out as he growled into the monster’s face.

  They continued to fight, Leon kicking Michael backwards with both legs, causing Michael to fly through the air. Rolling back onto his feet, he tried to cross under the wall again. Michael picked up a sword from a body, and threw it at the back of Leon's legs. It sliced through the back of his thighs, causing Leon to howl as he continued stumbling forward despite the injury.

  Michael caught up to Leon by the time Ellis made it to the lever. He looked down at it, then to the wall, then over Leon still scuffling with Michael. He couldn’t drop the wall now, since that would trap both of them outside, which is not something he wanted.

  Ellis’s entire plan hinged on dropping the wall after they both crossed it, leaving them both trapped on this side of the throne room. The hard part came in convincing Leon to fight with him. But Michael was doing all the arguing Ellis would need. Trapping them together would seal the deal. It would be easy then, with himself and Leon going at him… along with hopefully Ameena.

  Gods he hated that.

  But to do any of this, he needed both those big idiots on this side of the wall. And they were taking their sweet time beating each other to death.

  “Hurry up!” Ellis shouted, swinging his crossbow and aiming it at the two men fighting just before the white wall.

  Michael was winning the fight, just barely. The Ant Killer lay on his back, and his face was a mask of rage and pain. Michael stood over him, sword raised high above his head with a triumphant grin on his face.

  Ellis snarled towards him as he pulled the trigger. The bolt soared through the air and hit Michael right in the shoulder, right before he could swing the sword down.

  Leon locked eyes with Ellis as Michael stumbled back. Ellis waved at him and screamed at the top of his lungs. “I told you to hurry up!”

  With all his might, Ellis threw his weight against the lever.

  Leon rolled away from Michael, trying his best to get past the wall, but the scarred man was relentless, swinging a sword at Leon’s head. He had enough points in perception to hear the strike and enough dexterity to dodge out the way, but it still cut off a few of Leon’s outstretched hair as he dodged.

  Despite all the stats Ellis had dumped into strength, he didn’t have enough to move the lever a single inch. With all his might he pushed, sweat dripped down his face as he shoved his shoulder against the stubborn piece of machinery.

  Leon struck back with his sword, letting loose a howl of fury as he did so. He didn’t care about the pain he was in. His arms jarred from the impact of Michael’s sword clanging against his, the man managing to parry just in time. Leon did not give him a single second to recover before he was swinging down on that outstretched sword again, forcing Michael to his knees as the bastard frantically tried to keep the swinging blade away from his face.

  Ellis had resorted to kicking the lever, grunting with every blow. The lever had started to bend in the middle as he shoved and kicked, but at its base it refused to move, like something or someone was holding it in place.

  Michael let loose a blaze just as their swords crashed together for the final time, but Leon ignored the fire engulfing his hands. He swung the sword right down the middle of the flames, cutting them in half like he wanted to do to Michael.

  Ellis was almost crying as he tried to get the lever to move, and stopped to catch his breath… until he felt a tiny hand tug at his pants. He looked down to see Helena walking past him, her little face a perfect mirror to her father’s as she started helping Ellis shove against the lever.

  At last, Michael’s sword shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, the sharp fragments hitting his face and leaving long gashes down his cheeks and nose. Leon’s sword came down on Michael’s shoulder and cut straight through the collarbone, stopping at the bolt the boy had shot earlier.

  With one last almighty shove that caused Ellis’s shoulder to scream, the top of the lever snapped in half, but the bottom finally moved in the direction he wanted. He grabbed Helena, and screamed at the snarling men.

  “Run! The walls coming down! Run!”

  The shout caused Leon to glance over his shoulder, since he had beaten the monster. He turned away to sprint past the white wall now free falling towards the floor…

  Only for a hand to grab his foot and drop him face first onto the floor. Michael scuttled past him like a rat, and the men were once again in a race, Leon’s sword still sticking out of Michael’s shoulder as they flung themselves forward, the white wall still falling towards the tops of their heads. But now Leon was the one behind that sorcerer, trying his best to catch up…

  But he would. He was so close. Leon locked eyes with Helena, sure he would make it past, sure that he was going to live. He reached toward her…

  Ellis clamped his hand around Helena’s eyes as she tried to scream out for her father, the crash of the wall drowning it out and spewing blood and dust into the air so thick not even Ellis could see. He coughed as he rubbed at his eyes, desperately trying to get his bearings back.

  Helena stopped calling for her father as the dust started to settle. Ellis crept forward to see if he had been that lucky, to have killed Michael with something as simple as a falling wall.

  Through the dust he could see a silhouette get to his feet and let loose a deep sigh. Helena must have seen it too, because she bit into Ellis’s hand. He let go of her with a grimace, the skin of his hand broken and bleeding as she dropped to the floor.

  The moment she was no longer bound, she ran forward, shouting, “Daddy! Daddy!” with a relieved voice.

  Ellis watched as she threw herself onto one of the figure's legs, hugging it as tight as her little arms allowed. Tears fell down her face as the dust cleared slowly. But the despair crawling up his spine moved with a frantic need to spread to every part of Ellis’s body, once he saw the figure rip out a sword from his shoulder like it was nothing.

  “Sure, I can be your new daddy. The last one seems a bit squashed,” Michael said with a big smile.