The Reformation Wars: Conflicts Rekindled

Chapter 24

The familiar hallways of the academy appeared foreign to Manfred as he dashed down their length. They weren't supposed to be full of fallen weapons and the corpses of his peers. Neither were the floorboards supposed to be stained a splotchy red. The sight stabbed his heart with grief, but onward he ran.

Manfred hurried along a railed walkway overlooking the library, where Tom's two fellow instructors, brothers Jay and Trevor Martin fought off Innutukian invaders from advancing to a back area where several of the most amateur students sheltered. The academy's Raskan and Torlenian instructors respectively, they utilized their unique skillsets to retain even a chance of succeeding despite being vastly outnumbered. They clearly struggled, but due to their skills, so did the Innutukians.

Right when Manfred passed an open doorway leading to a flight of stairs, a feminine scream pierced his ear. He froze in place, head automatically snapping in the direction he'd heard it from, upstairs. Tightening his grip on his pole-axe, he charged up.

Manfred's weapon preceded him in rounding the corner. But once he fully entered the upper storage chamber, his mouth went agape. Backed by a quartet of Innutukian men-at-arms, Andre towered over a blonde woman who knelt on her knees before him and whimpered. A swollen red mark on her cheek in the shape of a hand told a painful story.

"Andre!" Manfred called out as he stepped out from behind a wooden crate, "What...what're you doing with these men? These invaders."

Andre's countenance had been hard when resting on the woman, but once he looked up at Manfred, it softened into remorse. "I'm only doing what I have to do."

"And what's that?"

"Sir Holt stored suits of Alcontean armor up here in the locked chamber. I have my orders."

Manfred frowned. "You intend to...take them?"

One of the Innutukian soldiers nodded stiffly under the weight of his bulky helmet. "We'll get that perfect middle ground between protection and mobility."

"Then...what's this girl have to do with it?"

"She admitted to having possession of the key, yet she refuses to give it up or tell me where it is." Andre replied, "Now please, don't step into this, because my duty's my duty."

"And my duty's mine." Manfred pointed his weapon's spike at the nearest Innutukian throat. "Get out. All of you."

With one swift movement, the Innutukian soldier knocked Manfred's point aside and booted him into the nearest wall. Manfred hit it with a grunt, his whole lungful of air leaping out of his mouth at once. He blocked an incoming strike from another foe who wielded a pole-axe of his own, distinctly Monteraynian in design. Then he returned his own and bashed the Innutukian's face in.

When the first Innutukian came in to strike again, Manfred thrusted the point into his thigh. He dropped to the floor with a cry, exposing his unarmored back. Manfred buried the axe blade in his spine.

A third Innutukian lunged at Manfred, and before he could react, they were both already on the floor, a tangled mass of limbs, armor, and a dagger. Having dropped his pole-axe, all Manfred could do was struggle to keep the blade from his flesh.

Then rang out the sound of a sword leaving its scabbard, and a guttural cry followed. Next, thumping footsteps drawing closer to Manfred and his opponent. Suddenly, the Innutukian atop Manfred screamed and went limp, and he fell away to reveal none other than Andre standing over the two with a bloodied blade in his right hand.

Andre extended his left to help Manfred up. They stared silently into one another's eyes for quite some time, both searching for answers to amorphous questions bubbling in their minds. Manfred gulped.