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"That means that we can’t afford to leave anyone behind, even if they’re dead.”
That finishing line chilled the Prince's blood. The very notion of having have to desecrate the body of an ally, fallen honourably in battle, was horrible. Would finishing off with such a note be bad for the morale? Are they properly motivated for this mission? Is the planning for the mission sufficient?
Would I lose these loyal followers?
Blahking shut his eyes. Jinn's face appeared unbidden, as she always has, to comfort him, soothing his soul. Eyes snapping open again, bright with energy, the Prince did his best to let the good feeling radiate out of him. "Any questions? If not, suit up, say your prayers and lets go!"
Suiting up was not easy, though. The Knob was not home to many magical beings, much less a powerful mage capable of destroying much of the villa in a single massive spell. Well, albiet at a heavy cost, but still! His agility would have to come into play this time, then. Wearing as light armour as he could find, the Prince checked his favourite throwing star rack, slipping it on to his belt. On either side of his hips were a pair of daggers, standard Knob issue to the eye.
What was not so obvious, however, was the magical burnish around the blades, keeping them absolutely sharp and granting the blades a mystical cutting power beyond that of steel. Sheathed and buckled to his side was a thin katana. That was a bit of a gamble, but the stock of Knob equipment had no swords that he found fit him well. Overall, he would be more of a Knob Ninja than a Knob Goblin warrior, but at least it was less conspicuous than causing explosions wherever he went.
Back in his coat, Blahking took a swig of tonic water, feeling the bubbles tickle his nose. The tonic water helped lots to fuel his constant energy use in the freezing peak. Born in a desert, the Pastamancer was highly sensitive to cold and would have developed hypothermia even though the coat if not for his warming spell. Sticking close to Konall, staying in the comparative shelter from the wind, Blahking resisted the urge to swear at the cold, silently vowing never to hold a gathering at Konall's ever again.
After a barely tolerable trek though the cold, the party finally arrived at the igloo. Entering the trapdoor that Konall held open, the Prince shed his bulky coat once he hit warmer air. Stepping past the corpses of the dead guards, he took one side of the great double doors, swinging it open when the rest were ready. A brief skirmish ensued, ending mere seconds after it begun. An arrow sticking out of his back, Konall called, “You know what you’re supposed to do. Split up and move out.”
Konall was proving his worth, the Prince noted, but he put that thought aside for the time being. Hunt the moment, his teachers had often said. The door on the right side of the hall was locked, but that was only a minor irritation. No cure for a locked door like a blade in the workings, so they say, and the magically enhanced daggers the Prince had did just the trick.
The door revealed the living quarters of the staff of the Villa, almost vacant except for two dozing cooks. The Prince pulled out a spray can and sprayed Knob Goblin scent all down the middle walkway. Concentrating his will, he carefully implanted memories of hearing some Goblins saying "Where Orb?" when stirring from slumber into a penguin. A second spell relaxed the penguins in the slumber, then the Prince left out the other side, into the various rooms of the villa.
The noise of the chaos going on elsewhere bounced in from behind him as the Prince entered the kitchens of the villa. Great ovens lined the largish room and half a dozen chefs bustled around, dishes in hand.
At least they did for a moment, that is. Following a stunned moment, platters filled with pasta and seafood quickly crossed the air between the Prince and the penguins. Sending his upper body into free fall with his knees bent and feet planted on the ground (Whoa.), Blahking's hands found the floor as the platters wizzed past where his head was a moment ago. Completing the maneuver with a backflip, two throwing stars appeared seemingly magically into his hands. A split second later, they vanished from his hands, finding new homes right in the middle of a penguin's forehead.
I must be getting rusty... Better get off my magic to retrain my body! The Prince's actions were not far from amazing, though. With a thrust of his legs, he achieved flight- straight into another penguin. Plunging his dagger to the hilt into the penguin's chest, Blahking swung the heavy bird around barely in time to block a swinging pot. He kicked the corpse into two advancing penguins and quickly assessed his situation. In front were the fallen penguins obstructing him, to the back was a stove and on each side, a penguin came menancingly. Fortunately, the world is 3-dimensional. The Prince leaped up, hanging on to the pipe connected to the hood of the stove. Their victim's sudden disappearance confused the penguins for a moment, which was all the Prince needed to dispatch them with throwing stars.
Dropping to the ground easily, Blahking bludgeoned the lights out of a penguin that had managed to claw his way out from beneath his fallen comrade, using the heavy hilt of his sword. "Job done."
Hearing the sounds of violence coming in from outside fade away, the Prince made his way back out, but did not manage to take three steps before he fell to the ground. The impact with the ground brought stars into Blahking's eyes. After a groggy moment, he felt himself lifted up by the right ankle, pain shooting down his leg.
Damn. He had forgotten the last penguin, who had only just recovered from the fall. Still, he sure as heck did not want to wait to see what the penguin had in store for him, though. Thrusting both hands against the belly of the bird, the Prince managed a 180 degree turn with his held ankle as the pivot, almost spraining the ankle in the process. Stepping down on the penguin's head with his left foot, he managed to kick free, gaining height with the force. Unsheathing his katana in midair, both hands on the hilt, blade downwards, Blahking descended right on the penguin.
Blood sprayed forth from the impaled penguin, which immediately went limp. Pulling his bloodied blade out from the body before it broke inside, the Prince cleaned off the avian blood on the fur of the dead penguin. Returning the blade to its sheath, he headed back to the hall.
Only to be attacked again. One chef was returning to the kitchen when he saw the Prince. He slammed into the Prince with his considerable mass, sending the light Prince flying into an oven door. Blahking felt a rib snap and every breath became painful. Struggling to get up, he pressed hard with his right hand on his left arm, which had picked up a fairly deep cut somewhere. In the meantime, his aggressor had found a large pot and was raising it with both hands above him...
BlahKing hardly had the time to look up when someone slipped out of the shadows, crossing the room in a heartbeat, and bringing the pan down over the penguin's head. A small steel knife sliced the penguin's throat. For good measure, the stranger threw the chef across the room, sending him crashing into a spice rack.
Dash extended a hand for Blahking. "I knew I should have gone this alone. Are you alright, Prince?"
"Don't try. If you get yourself caught, who would save me next time?" Blahking's hand glowed for a slight moment and when he took it down, no sign of the cut remained.
"Heh. How do I get you for a medical plan?" Dash wondered.
"They come free with your membership in the KoKoL." Blahking replied with a slight smile.
"Worry about that later. I've slipped in a couple of false documents we came up with for the penguins a couple of weeks before, in the right places. But this thing's turning out to be more dangerous than I'd anticipated." Dash rolled up his shirt, to reveal a hastily bandaged wound.
Blahking shook his head, putting his hands to the wound, drawing a small gasp from Dash. "And here you were saying about going through this alone!"
Dash shrugged, resheaving his knife. "Yeah, well. . . the line about not leaving any survivors behind didn't sit well with me. I'm starting to think all this killing is getting in the way of our brilliant plan to. . ." Blahking gave Dash a quick look, shaking his head towards the open door. "Destroy them on behalf of the Knob empire."
Blahking nodded. "We better go, before..."
"Before we come in, fishfood?" a slimy voice sounded from behind Dash.
Dash swirled around, Knob sword in hand. "Hey, you ugly! Us Goblins here wanna know where you keepin' that Orb of the Sun!"
Things were looking bad. That first Mob Penguin had gone over to the entrance from the hall, closing the door. Following him were 5 other penguins, spreading out to cover each of the three exits.
Just then a mysterious figure dressed in black broke down the door, smashing one penguin with the door. He then smilied at Dash and Blahking and began smashing skulls.Pulling out a staff topped with sapphire, he leaped on a penguin. Being 8'5" made him seem invincible to the penguins but soon they figured that was false.
A smaller penguin aimed a bow at the man and his shot made it's mark hitting him in the knee. That was there first attempt to bring him down. He swept a few penguins down with one blow.
Then the man noticed a penguin charging at blah so he stepped across the room and hit it hard across the back, paralyzing it.
Dash turned towards Blahking! "This's my backup! I call him Chad!" Dash ducked under a nasty looking pasta spoon. "Careful, I don't think you'll be able to cut his skin with- urgh!"
Dash staggered back. That was one nasty penguin fin attack.
"Psh." Even slowed as he was by his broken rib, the Prince's attack did not fail him. The penguin, who had his attention on the giant, suddenly found the hilt of the magically enhanced dagger in his belly. Blahking gave an evil grin, only to be shocked by how easily the stabbed penguin swatted him away.
"Told ya." Dash was backed into a corner. The mammoth Chad, til this point unsure what do do next, picked up one of the Penguins with a single hand. Chad apparently wasn't aware the Penguin's coat was covered in oil from a nearby Eexon drilling company. Undeterred, Chad again tried to pick it up, only to drop it again. On it's head this time.Dash ignored the scene, taking advantage, slicing the Penguin across the throat. Unfortunately for Dash, he didn't have time to get a good slash in. The Mafia Penguin lashed out as Chad attempted to pick up the Penguin again. Dash backed towards the Prince in disguise.
Blahking drew his katana slowly, whispering an incantation to give it the same cutting boost that his daggers had. Feet set, sword ready, he lunged.... To the side. A penguin who was ready to attack Dash from behind found himself short of a good amount of fin. Slice followed slash, leaving the penguin unstable on his injured legs. Shoving that penguin aside, the Prince stood back to back with Dash.
It seemed that by now, the guards were somewhat scattered already. "Lights out." Dash whispered behind him. Blahking nodded, then closed his eyes.
One moment, two penguins were preparing to pounce on Chad, who was still playing with a slick bird. The next moment, darkness engulfed the room.
"It looks like our Knob scientists have created some sort of mechanical fog!" Dash called out loudly. Both Dash and Blahking grabbed either of Chad's arms, pulling him. . . . somewhere.
Blackness.
Darkness.
A round, squawky thing underfoot.
And then . .
Blahking, who had some sense of the direction, led them towards a door, which swung open into the light of the hall at the entrance. Dash guarded them as the other two exited, then bolted through himself, even as Chad slammed the door shut. Dash sliced off the doorknob, while Blahking sealed the door with a spell, meant to imitate the force of several mafia penguin bodies.
Chad squealed like a little girl. "When's dinner?!"
"Forget that for now. I'll fill you in on the details later, Blah. Short story- Our strange friend here needs a home. I promised him your faction could help. But for now, we need to go about finding the Orb of the Sun. Suggestions? Any ears?" He gave the disguised prince an exaggerated glance for emphasis.
"Magic sees the man, not the clothes or walls. The closest hiding penguin is more than 20 feet away." Blahking shrugged.
"I'd have said closer to eighteen feet," Dash said, keeping his voice low. "Chad, whatever you do, keep your voice down."
"Okay!" Chad tried to blurt out as a response. Blahking let a small spell keep the giant's voice from carrying. "Sorry. I guess me and you and me got different criteria for 'quiet,' huh?"
"Quite," Dash answered, keeping it low, and keeping the disbelief out of his voice. "Why are you here?! I told.. I requested that you wait at your.. er.. bunny hunting hole for us. We'd like to discuss recruitment with our organization, but you're going to need to listen!"
"Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry!" the giant The Chad pleaded. You know, at this rate, I'm tempted to just go back to using his full name instead of calling him "The Chad." A name with The in it.. Ahem- back to neutral narrator voice. "There was this huge bunny invasion, then there was this monster bunny, and then that bird started yelling at me and saying he'd feed me if I worked for him, and then, and then . . . "
"Okay! We get the point!" Dash sighed. He was getting a bit too panicky. "Gotta focus on the mission."
Blahking nodded. "You best get back to what you were doing. Don't forget to report each bit of false information you planted to me after you're done. Meanwhile, I'll rally all the rest of our people here and evacuate with them." Blahking glanced towards to giant. "As for him, I'll take him back to HQ with the rest, let the King decide what to do with him."
Chad whined and stomped his foot and insisted on helping. He said he really "Wanna help."
Dash shoved a piece of paper into Chad's oversized hand. "I was hoping you'd say that. I've got the most important mission of all for you." Blahking raised an eyebrow, which Dash ignored. "It'll be your job to, er. . assist Blahking in the evacuation, which might include watching quiet, unused, out of the way . . . security check points. Yeah, that'll do.Then, you'll COVERTLY escort him and the others, QUIETLY, back to the Kingdom, where you'll report to the King for further duties!"
"Awesome!" Chad replied.
"Yes, what I just said is perfectly convincing, isn't it?" Dash breathed a sigh of belief.
"It is! I'm a believer. I'm there, man!" Chad almost jumped, but decided against it.
Resisting a strong urge to roll his eyes, Blahking put on a grin and slapped Chad lightly on the arm. (He couldn't pat Chad on the shoulders, duh) "Now, you go to the double doors and stay there, make sure no one gets in from the trapdoor!" Turning to Dash, he continued, "Get going. I'll be fine here."
"Perfect," Dash shot back with a smile. "Okay, time to get the show on the road." With that, he turned to vanish into the shadows, another handful of forged documents in hand, leaving Chad guarded the trap door.
After Dash left, Blahking did another check for hidden penguins. "It's just me and you now Chad. Don't slacken, they'll be here soon!"
I hope.
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