Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 25: Vaugend Trial 7

 Gisael had spent a day with Benzhi, going over tactics for the mountain raids and taking the time to teach him the qi enhanced sense for night vision. Yet another qi skill he was an absolute beginner at, but it would be essential for any night activities he had planned. Even rudimentary night vision would be an asset. Gisael and her group would leave for the mines the following day, giving time for everyone to prepare.

 By the time the sun was setting on the fourth day, Benzhi approached the walled city, he laid low, out of sight of the walls, waiting for darkness to descend. He lay there looking up at the sky, it was quite serene this far from the city. The sky was usually an orange hue at the time of day, but today it was more like red. 'Ominous,' Benzhi thought. The were a quite a few high clouds streaking across the sky, partially blocking the stars as they started to become visible. There were no constellations that Benzhi recognised, it was probably random programming. Benzhi didn't even know if the constellations were consistent from night to night. He sighed to himself. There was so much he had to learn, the more he learned about qi manipulation, the more he realised he didn't know. And this world, he had barely scratched the surface. 

 Tonight was the night Benzhi would put everything on the line, to at least save the Fae, the Gaels were probably safe if they hid away in their forbidding mountains. What was waiting for him, in the keep, was an unknown. The only things that were certain; there were qi adepts and a well-protected Core within.

 Benzhi lay there considering strategies, and for a moment, wishing he had brought Gisael and Reyas with him. With those two he would probably just sit back as they destroyed any enemy. But Gisael was needed to lead the Fae and Reyas could not tree-run which was definitely needed for infiltration and escape.

 Darkness had descended to a sufficient level; the moons were low on the horizon and not offering much light. Benzhi stood, stretched and inhaled deeply. Surveying the landscape in front of him with qi sight and then switching qi night vision Benzhi made his way to the North gate. He approached the heads on pikes and unless someone possessed some sort of night vision, he was almost invisible. The gates were closed and any light from the towers did not extend this far. One by one Benzhi pulled down the pikes, as quietly as he could, lay them down and removed the heads. He wore a small backpack and stowed two of the decapitated heads inside and carried the other two. It was a gruesome task. It was one thing to chop somebody's head off, it was another thing to handle decaying severed heads which were weeks old.

 Benzhi snuck back over the hills to the north and hid the heads under a boulder, digging small holes at its base, one for each head, and covering them up with dirt.

 Benzhi headed towards the wall and hid at its base, about a hundred meters from the gate towers. He waited under the wall, which was only twice his height, for a wall guard to approach while on his rounds. Benzhi had started to take notice of the colour of their cloaks, the wall guards wore white cloaks. These colours must have distinguished the men into groups from different lords, owners and superiors. Master Gilford's men had red cloaks, soldiers and guards. Benzhi was unsure what designation white and blue were, however white was probably a communal designation, as city wall guards would probably be the cities men, paid for by taxes.

 Benzhi's first victim approached, holding a torch in one hand and a drink in the other, alert as a sloth on weed. With two quick steps, Benzhi was behind the guard, moments later he was stabbing his qi blade through the leather armour protecting the guard's neck. Before the guard fell, Benzhi moved forward and reached for the drink, it dropped to the ground clattering. 'Damn not quick enough,' Benzhi thought.

 Benzhi sprinted to the tower as quickly as he could, if the sound alerted someone he wanted to be there when they came through the arch. With-in seconds he was at the arch, and he waited. He continued to wait for half a minute, no one came. Shrugging, Benzhi ducked inside and scanned the area. The tower had three floors, with a spiral staircase hugging the tower wall's interior. Seeing no signs of life, at this the middle floor, Benzhi engaged qi sight. There were two qi cores at the top level of this tower and one presumably in the adjoining tower on the other side of the gate. The qi cores were weak, they could theoretically belong to an animal, most importantly there were no adepts amongst the while cloak guards in the towers.

 Benzhi snuck across to the far tower with the lone guard first. Standing on the floor below he pinpointed the location of the guard using qi sight. He then ran straight up the wall, adjacent to the staircase and, as he passed the third floor he pushed off backwards, switching qi patterns, directly towards the spot where he last pin pointed the guard. Turning mid air to face the direction he was sailing falling short of the guard he rolled, stood and slashed downwards with his qi blade onto the guards metal helmet. The blade was as sharp with qi as Benzhi could manipulate, the force was bolstered with the momentum from an overhead swing. Disappointingly, the qi blade barely cut through the metal, the guard was well and truly alive, fortunately, he was shocked and stunned.

 It was much more noise than Benzhi would have liked. The guard slowly turned to face the source of the attack as Benzhi pulled his blade out of its predicament. The guard's eyes widened as he looked at Benzhi. The next and last thing the guard saw was Benzhi's qi blade stabbing him between those widened eyes. Benzhi proceeded to slice his head off, remove the white cloak and head back to the other tower.

 Benzhi moved as quickly as possible, taking long strides, not wasting any time on stealth. The noise he made in the far tower seemed too great to go unnoticed to him. The time for stealth had passed it was now the time for speed. Benzhi ran up the wall again, but this time he kept going until he was on the ceiling looking down for the guards. Benzhi dropped to the floor in between them. The white cloak guards were headless in less than ten seconds.

 Benzhi collected the four heads and the white cloaks. He snuffed out all the torches in the upper guard tower. Making his way back to the four spikes, which previously were home to the Gael's heads, he set up a new gruesome display. Except, this time the heads faced the gate and had white cloaks swinging in the breeze. 

 Benzhi flitted over the wall and scaled the closest building to the roof. He did not want to be seen in the streets, despite the late hour and the cover it afforded, he would cross the cities rooftops. If he woke a few people all the better, let them be afraid in their beds, in the morning when the rumours spread, it would all come to light. Skipping roof to roof, jumping gaps with ease and a lot of noise, Benzhi made his way to the keep. 

 Where the wall towers were round, the keep's were square. It was definitely not a palace one would marvel at. The architecture was simple and functional. It consisted of four square towers, at the extremities, which were connected by walls and made of stone. There were no gardens, no lawns, the walls of the keep were also the walls of the building. The keep was twice as high as the towers of the wall, they were about fifteen meters in height with no large windows, every outlook was akin to an arrowslit. The building was made for defence, not beauty.

 None of these defences concerned Benzhi, he just ran straight up a tower and crouched atop its roof. The keep was probably an exceptional defence against a lay person but entirely useless against a qi adept with tree-run. That being said, he still had to break in, hopefully without alerting every guard in the place. Benzhi engaged qi sight. There were over fifty qi cores in the keep itself, given how large it was, this was not a huge number. Amongst those fifty would be servants and regular guards. There were two that looked like qi adepts and one talent who could be a master. Three qi users did not scare Benzhi, it depending on their abilities and skill. Something he could not determine with qi sight unless he was given the luxury of watching them fight. 

  There was no one in the top of this tower. Benzhi opened the hatch and climbed down the ladder. His target was the Core for this keep and Vaugend. It was below ground level on this side of the keep. Benzhi had chosen what seemed to be the closest tower. He made his way down the stairs, checking regularly, switching qi patterns on his eyes from sight to night vision. Unlike the forest, the keep was not a mess of qi streams and with possibly a lack of animals, it was easy to make out people. Where the forest was much more labyrinthine. Most of the qi cores were not moving and when they were it was easy for Benzhi to wait patiently for their passing. One qi core approached Benzhi while he was trying to find a way down from the hall on the second floor. Judging by the size of the ceiling height there would be only three floors above ground, each floor was spacious with heights well over twice Benzhi's. The approaching core was about to turn a corner and enter the hall, seeing nowhere to escape Benzhi scaled the wall and lay flat on the ceiling, using the qi discs from tree-run to hold himself up. 

 It was a blue cloaked soldier in well-made armour. He was not wearing a helmet, but he was wearing an intricate cuir bouilli chest, arms, shoulder and skirt. It was tanned dark brown, almost black. The soldier wore a sword at his hip, there was no shield or crossbow. Judging by the quality of the armour this man must be an officer at least. Benzhi checked with qi sight, the man was one of the adepts, 'how did he not notice that?' It was probably because he was flashing quickly between the qi techniques. Benzhi pondered killing the man. He was an enemy, one of the only three qi users in the keep. Benzhi was about to impulsively drop down and challenge the man when froze he reconsidering. He did not have the Core. That was his goal. Benzhi remained still until the man left.

 Benzhi watched the soldier awhile longer, using qi sight, he went down. Well, that must be the staircase, Benzhi dropped and followed. Allowing the well-armoured soldier to stay well ahead of him, but not far enough that he lost touch, Benzhi shadowed him. Perhaps he would head down again.

 Benzhi was now on the first floor, there were fewer rooms on this floor due to the fact the rooms that were here were larger, with furniture apt for meetings or gatherings. There were no living quarters on this floor, hence there were very few qi cores, they were mostly above with a few below. Benzhi kept shadowing the well-armoured soldier. Not wanting to be caught unaware again Benzhi tracked the other adept and possible master. The master was on the third floor while the adept was below ground. Both were immobile. Now that he was closer, Benzhi could ascertain the adept was near the Core, a guard for it possibly. Were the two adepts about to change guard shifts on the Core? Benzhi's mind suddenly began to wander. 'The Forest's Core was not protected, hidden or guarded like the men's,' Benzhi pondered he should do something about that and shelved it, from his thoughts, for another day.

 'Was it good or bad that the well-armoured man was leading him straight to the Core?' Benzhi couldn't decide. The adept soldier took a direct route and another staircase down to the basement level. 'This must be where the servants sleep,' Benzhi assumed, there were many immobile qi cores on this level, all condensed in a few locations. The adept soldier went immediately down another level. What Benzhi thought of as the dungeon level, the Core level.

 Benzhi had suspended his attack on the well-armoured adept soldier earlier, but now he had led Benzhi directly to the Core, almost within arms reach, there was no longer any need to delay. Benzhi quickened his pace, determined to catch the soldier and after a quick chat, end him. He couldn't close soon enough, due to giving the adept soldier plenty of lead in order to remain undetected, the soldier was able to reach the other adept before Benzhi could close the gap. Benzhi approached as stealthily as he could. 'Bare feet certainly were good for sneaking,' he thought absently.

 As he approached he could hear voices or was it voice singular, one of the adepts was speaking, Benzhi started to listen attentively as he continued to sneak closer to the source.

 "In three months, ye have been useless. Ye will not make a good dog of war," the speaker spat, "I dunno why we waste food on ye. Ye lack of progress will be the end of ye, ye have one more week to access the Core. After that, the Duke will surely lose all patience," the speaker finished. It was the well-armoured soldier. He turned and left the cell and ran straight into the waiting Benzhi.

 "Hi," Benzhi said nonchalantly as he thrust his qi blade at the gut of the soldier, it connected with the cuir bouilli and would have pierced his stomach and through his back if it was able to pierce the armour. It was stopped with a show of sparks, the armour was not only strong, but it had qi protection as well.

 The Adept Soldier smiled wickedly, "Ah, another has come, this is fortunate," and drew his sword. His sword had a silver tinge, Benzhi hazarded a quick look with qi sight. The sword glowed with qi patterns, following the runes on the blade, the armour was latticed in qi now, it was not earlier.

  Benzhi jumped back, suddenly cautious. "Oh, maybe not so fortunate, we'll know a few moments," Benzhi smiled back at the soldier adept and engaged shunpo.

 The adept soldier was well-armoured but had left his helm behind, although his neck was covered with cuir bouilli, there was nothing protecting his head. Benzhi danced, inside his opponents reach, using shunpo to quicken his speed, he aimed an elegant slice at the soldiers unprotected head, the speed of the attack was enough to surprise the confident soldier, his eyes went wide as he brought up his own sword to parry the blow, sparks flew and Benzhi could barely hold on to his own sword such was the blow. The soldier stepped back and then came forward at Benzhi, swinging his sword in circular arcs. Benzhi parried the soldier's sword, another jarring blow, but this time he was expecting it. As his left hand wielding the sword parried Benzhi stepped in closer and jabbed with his right straight into the face of the soldier.

 Benzhi connected with the Soldier's mouth and his head snapped back, but he stood his ground, shook his head and gave Benzhi a bloody smile. Benzhi did not pause for banter, his many sparring sessions with Gisael had trained his body and he attacked without thinking, kicking the Soldier in the midriff, attempting to end this fight as he did with Reyas, Benzhni connected with a crunching blow, a crunching blow to his foot. 'That fucking hurt! Ok don't kick the magic armour,' Benzhi thought. It seemed the cuir bouilli absorbed and repelled Benzhi's attack.

 The Soldier did not wait for Benzhi to recover and swing his sword overhead again, he was attempting to overpower Benzhi, with such a swing, or break Benzhi's sword. Benzhi aimed his qi blade not at the Soldiers blade to parry, but at his wrist. Benzhi was successful in connecting with the Soldiers wrist, unfortunately, it was covered in the armour. He did succeed in knocking the sword arm away in a shower of sparks. Benzhi used the momentum from the parry and elegantly swung his sword in a backhand semi circle from high to low, the Soldiers chest was protected, his arms were protected, his groin and thighs were protected. His ankles were bare. Benzhi bent low, stretched his long reach, in using his core in a well-practised form manoeuvre, he extended his qi blade past the tip of the sword, as far as he could and sliced right through both ankles of the Adept Soldier severing his feet from his body. The Adept Soldier screamed loudly and fell onto his back.

 "Very unfortunate," Benzhi stated and smashed the Adept Soldier in the face with a hard qi strike cutting off all his screams. The screams would bring trouble, Benzhi had to move quickly now.

 The next room was a large chamber with a small cell in the corner. Outside the cell was the Core sitting on an ornate pedestal. Inside the cell was a naked hairless man, well with no manhood. Benzhi sighed. This was the other tester he saw on the first day. Benzhi walked up to the cell, the player could reach the Core from the cell, it sounded like the Duke and his Adept Soldier wanted the player to do something with it.

 Benzhi deliberated, he didn't have much time to think about what to do. Leaving the player here was not something he was comfortable with, he was a prisoner at best, torture victim at worst. He looked emancipated. However, his first priority was, is and always would be the Core. If the Duke and his minions perished, then the player could escape this hellhole. It wasn't an easy decision. But before Benzhi grabbed the Core he went to the Soldier, who had bled to death in the short time Benzhi had been inside the chamber. He dragged the soldier's corpse to the cell and leant it against the bars, Benzhi didn't have time to search for a key or try and break the lock. He passed the sword through the bars.

 "Take this and his armour, do you know where the keys are?" Benzhi asked the player.

 The player just stared at him.

 "Look you fucking idiot, you ran here and I went to..," Benzhi lied, just in case, "the mountains. Now if you want the cell open now, tell me where the fucking keys are or I am out of here. You have three seconds."

 "The wall," the player rasped and pointed behind Benzhi. There was a hook with a large set of keys hanging off it.

'That was easy,' Benzhi thought and threw the player the keys. He then picked up the Core, put it in his pack, and ran. Benzhi left the chamber and engaged qi sight. The master had not moved and was not moving. It was still dark outside, and the scream from the Adept Soldier had not caused any reaction, 'perhaps they were used to screams from this level,' Benzhi speculated.

  Benzhi quickly made his way out of the keep and to the North gate, it was not difficult to remain unseen with qi sight and tree-running. Benzhi rested on a roof near the north wall, consuming some food and water. He had a long run ahead and no rest this night other than the rest he would take now. 

 Dawn was about to break, the sky slowly became lighter Benzhi stood and checked his costume. His white furs and leather looked the part. That qi cuir bouilli would have been fantastic but the other player certainly needed it more than Benzhi and it appeased his guilt leaving him behind. At least with the keys and the equipment he had a fighting chance to escape the Duke.

 Benzhi scaled the wall and waited outside the northern gate. Standing still behind the four spikes. Looking towards the Walled City of Vaugend.

 Before dawn broke, alarmed shouts emanated from the towers above the Northern Gate. Four white cloak guards just happened to be the entire night's roster, 'even better,' thought Benzhi.

 The White Cloak sergeant could not believe his eyes. No alarm had been raised yet four of his men had been brutally mutilated and killed. He stood in the gate tower examining the scene. None of the guards had drawn a sword, they were all still sheathed. Their heads were missing, skillfully severed, yet there were pools of blood everywhere. He peered out the embrasure, as horrifying as the scene was in the tower, what he saw left him chilled to the bones.

  Gone were the four barbarian heads and in their place were presumably the missing heads from these corpses. The white cloaks swinging in the breeze demonstrated as much. He stared for a long time at the spikes, 'how was this possible?' he thought. A night attack, breaching the walls and their defences with no alarm raised. Then he saw it. A lone figure standing stock still, behind the white cloaks. The sergeant was frozen in fear and it was a full minute before he shouted, "Barbarians!"

Chapter end