The Past Ahead - an Empires SMP AU

Chapter 27 - Lost and found

           Oli never expected the attack. None of them did. He was just walking around Chromia, humming a tune of his own invention to himself, and thinking of the multiple ways he could have made a better rule if he had actually thought about it when he put on the Crown.

           Maybe I should have said 'no fighting' or 'no hurting anyone' instead. No wait, that's even worse, then if Xornoth attacked we wouldn't be able to fight back. Katherine came out of a house and he greeted her a good morning, and then noticed the bags under her eyes and her unsettling frown. Oli hadn't seen her really frown much yet. "Are you okay?" 

           The princess shook her head. "Had a rough night. I was dizzy, drowsy, and had a headache all at once. I feel better today, now that I'm less sleepy, but my thoughts still feel so weird." She gasped and held her head. "My headaches are worse now, though."

           "Maybe fWhip can brew a potion to heal headaches," Oli offered, but just then Katherine's eyes widened and she threw the bard onto the ground. Oli scraped himself up quite a bit, and thought that it was quite rude of the princess to do that to him out of nowhere, when he looked up and saw Hermes and Lizzie with their weapons drawn. Oh. That's not good. 

           Xornoth shot bolts at lightning at them, and Oli somehow managed to dodge. He had no idea how he hadn't died yet since he first got the Crown, although he had several close calls, one even involving a lava pit. But now his life was flashing before his eyes again, a common occurrence for him.

           The bard ran to Katherine for safety as Lizzie swung her sword at him. Pearl and fWhip ran out of a building, drawn by the commotion, their weapons unsheathed. fWhip threw a couple splash potions at Lizzie, but with her cat agility she dodged it.

           Pearl rushed at Xornoth with her ax raised, but she had to be on the defensive when Xornoth started discharging deadly voltage. Oli just crouched in a corner, shield raised, hand on his sword just in case he really needed it. He couldn't die; he was too important. Or rather, the Crown that he wore was too important. 

           Katherine joined Pearl in fighting Xornoth, but they had to discard their weapons, the metal was attracting the lightning the demigod shot at them. Pearl found a sharp rock on the ground that was shaped somewhat like a dagger and used that, and Katherine grabbed some potions that fWhip tossed to her to use as projectile weapons.

           Oli grabbed his bow and shot at Lizzie, but she caught the arrow in her teeth and used it to stab fWhip. The mechanic flinched but whacked her on the head with his shield. Oli readied his bow again, aimed, and shot at Xornoth. The arrow whistled through the air and... missed, just by a fraction of an inch. 

           Oli swore and reloaded, but Lizzie was bearing down on him now. She'd grabbed fWhip's potions that hung from his belt and threw all of them at him, and the resulting mixture left the alchemist lying on the ground, unconscious.

           Oli, panicking, used the arrow he held as a weapon rather than his sword. Lizzie narrowly avoided getting poisoned and started clawing at his face. Oli yelped and hit her with his bow. With a snarl, the cat brought out her ax and chopped the bow in half. "Xornoth!" Lizzie yelled. 

           Oli snuck a glance at his comrades, and found Katherine favoring one arm and Pearl fallen on the ground, half unconscious. Katherine was how single-handedly wielding her battle ax and stopping Xornoth from getting to Oli, but the problem with metal weaponry arose again.

           The thing was, there really wasn't another work around; they were too close to each other for bows, and all the potions were used up. Lizzie swiped at Oli's face again and he blocked with his shield, though the cat's claws gouged deep lines in the wood. Lizzie switched back to using her sword, and she managed to break right through the shield and cut into Oli's side.