A Tale of Two Knights

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The attack began. A man ran at Ludo with a wooden stool over his head, for an overhead strike. Ludo easily evaded the attack, and grabbed the stool from the man, and threw it at the angry mob. The impact made a group of people fall over, and struggle to get back up. Devon then rushed at Ludo with a pitchfork, and Ludo equipped his sword. Devon tried a stab with the pitchfork, but it did nothing to Ludo's plate armor, and it only bounced off, leaving minimal scratches. Ludo grabbed Devon by the arm, and sliced off his arm up to his elbow. The blade was so durable and sharp that it sliced cleanly through the bone. Devon, who was shocked, took a moment to realize what just happened, and then he screamed loudly in pain. The other people joining Devon looked in shock, and backed off and dropped their weapons and ran from the tavern. As for Devon, he had lost his will to fight, and join the mob in escaping the Inn. Ludo knew at once that they were going to tell authorities, and Ludo would become a wanted man. Staying in the Inn would guarantee capture, so his only choice was to run away. Before he went, however, he snuck a map from the Inn. Ludo was stuck on the peninsula, and knew that he would have to get to the town, Lastborough.

Ludo found himself hustling through the forest at a fast pace. He occasionally looked around to check to see if any knights came to chase him. There were none. Eventually, he grew tired and went to an elder tree to sit and rest. Sweat poured through the eye slits of his armet, and his breathing was raggedy. Sure he didn't have to exhaust himself like this, but it was better not to take any chances. Suddenly, an elder cone bounced off of Ludos armet, and he had found luck at last. He could sell this to a nearby wizard for some money. Something he really needed.

An hour later, at midnight, he came across a dreamhold. A wizard's lair. It was quite interesting to see a dreamhold in such a random place. Ludo went to knock on the door. Click clack nothing happened. He tried again but again nothing happened. Strange Ludo thought. Suddenly, A great gust of red magic blew past Ludo and blew open the door in an explosion. The force of this attack flung Ludo and ragdolled him. Ludo, surprised by the sudden attack, rolled to his feet, but didn't see anyone who could have done the deed. Since the door was open, Ludo decided to take a peek inside.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Ludo asked calmly. There wasn't a single response. Seems like the dreamhold was empty. Ludo went inside, and the first thing he saw was the full skeletal remains of a dragon, pieced together like puzzle pieces, and seemingly held together like magic. This must be an extremely powerful sorcerer. Ludo thought as observing the skeleton. Two spiral staircases, symmetric to each other, were at both left and right sides. The dragon skeleton was in between the two staircases. They still ended up at the same place, the second floor of the dreamhold, which left Ludo thinking what the point was of two staircases.

Another room to his right contained a small study, where glass vials of preserved baby dragons, hands, zombie remains, and deadly viruses in transparent glass flasks. The wooden desk had books and books filled to the brim with his writing on spells, observations and recent studies. They were so complex, Ludo couldn't understand half the books he read. Most of the writing was done in a dead ancient language, however, Ludo was able to find out what they were about by seeing the drawings and sketches the wizard had made. On a tray, there were a couple of elder cones neatly in a pile, glowing with gold mystical power. They were important to sorcerers, as mana could be extracted from them.

From the left of the room, a library filled with thick books about science, and magic. Ludo pulled out a book about the history of dragons, and saw that it was full of annotations from the wizard, showing all his thoughts. Ludo checked another and another, and all of them had annotations in them. Nearly all of the books were centuries old, some even written before the great war that shaped the planet's existence for centuries. Ludo stood fascinated by the annotations and the wizard's notes. It was very clear that the wizard was extremely experienced.

Suddenly, another red light flashed, and the library exploded. The books are on fire, the entire room practically destroyed. Ludo looked around, and saw the skeletal dragon remains, seeing that it had red in its eyes. It wasn't a dead dragon, it was a dracolich! The undead dragon broke free from the magic holding it in place, and flew freely, circling around the dreamhold. Ludo expected the beast to destroy the place by burning, so he leapt out of the house. Meanwhile, the dracolich summoned some skeletal warriors out of the ground to kill Ludo. They had on some plate armor, but with a single slam of his shield, a skeleton fell to pieces. One of them got a good hit on, but Ludo successfully killed all of them without taking major damage. Ludo knew he wasn't going to best the beast when he was in the sky, so he either needed a bow, or a wand, decorated with silvery glittery gems, and a fashionable handle stood on a holder. Bingo. Ludo thought. It was exactly what he needed. Ludo took the wand and waved it at the dracolich. Silvery blue beams of light headed straight for the beast, and when connected with its ribcage, it exploded and broke some ribs off of the beast.

"GRWLLLL" The beast emitted, grimacing in pain. Ludo then shot another attack, then another. The attacks hit the dracolich like thunder. By the time the attacks connected, the beast fell out of the sky, and directly onto the dreamhold, falling on the chimney, which penetrated through, and speared the beast, ultimately killing it. Ludo knew that he was lucky. If the beast used more magic, or used his flame breaths, I would be dead, Ludo thought.

However, the victory fell short, as an enormous dragon emerged from the sky, landing on the ground with a gigantic thud. Ludo prepared to face it, however, a wizard with a long grey beard, and a face with wrinkles got off the dragon. "What in the underaged shrunken balls happened when I was gone?" The wizard exclaimed. Ludo, surprised, stood in shock, unable to say anything. "Ah it's fine, i'll just fix everything." The wizard said. Then with a wave of his wand, gleaming energy was directed at the dreamhold, and repaired it to its previous condition. "I seriously never considered the fact that the dragon I killed would be turned into a dracolich by a lich." The wizard said with a smile. "Thanks for helping by slaying it. However, please return my wand." "uh, of course sir," Ludo replied, stammering in shock. "Come on in." The wizard replied. Ludo didn't know what to do, so he just obliged, and followed the wizard into the dreamhold.