Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Caution: While this chapter does not go over any lines in my opinion, it does skirt close to issues that may affect some readers. Violence is also contained within this chapter, reader discretion is advised.
 
 

Chapter 56: Desperate

“NO, I REALLY don’t think so,” I told him. “I think it’s just time for you to die here too.”

He laughed, “There I was inside a mortal human… a weak one at that. I should never have let his body capture me!”

“Well, you’re since such a weakling, I won’t hold it against you,” I spat at him.

“You’ll pay for that little girl. You do realize that I’m not just a person here? I’m a god, and you will not defeat me.”

“You know what all villains have in common?” I asked him.

“What?”

“You all talk too damn much!” I said as I flung a massive spell of twelve lines at him while simultaneously putting another shield around me. It was only then that I realized my shield had fallen earlier, and I’d been stupid enough not to put it back up!

He just barely dodged it and began running forward toward me. I dodged a stab of his sword and parried another. He kept pushing me further up toward the castle steps. I was about to take and make my own slash at him when a sword from behind me just about cleaved my head open. I barely dodged, rolled, and stabbed the man who had tried to cowardly sneak behind my back.

“Really?” I told him, “Can’t even beat a baby girl on your own?”

He growled and leaped at me again. I was pretty sure he was going to swing his sword down at me from third-position and watched as he did so, trying to slash down at me. Rather than parry him again, I used my sword to circle around his blade, momentarily trapping it long enough to kick his knee as hard as I could.

Even through the poleyn he wore over the top, I could tell that hurt. In fact, my kick had bent the metal so severely he couldn’t stand up straight. “You stupid bitch!” He said and advanced again. I parried his sword but missed dodging the backhanded swing from his other hand. His metal gauntlet made me see stars as I fell to the ground.

I spat out blood and lots of teeth, feeling dizzy right then. ‘Is this it?’ I wondered for a moment.

Right then, another of our men swung his sword at the prince. Maponus was taken by surprise, and it took him the better part of two minutes to dispatch our man, who was an excellent swordsman. In the meantime, someone picked me up, “Come on, Princess, we have to get you out of here,” a maid grabbed me and began running with me into the castle, the doors shutting behind us.

I was dizzy as she continued running, and I didn’t know what to do. “Stop…” I said, “I can’t leave them… Mama!”

“She told me to get you out of the castle Princess. At least you can live!”

I attempted to use some spells she’d taught me for healing but had trouble focusing, with my head pounding as she ran into some secret tunnel I didn’t know. Before long, it led out to the forest and the meadow near my treehouse. “Come on, Princess, we need to get you inside!” She told me, climbing the steps.

“No… I have to go back; I can’t let Caireen die!”

A blast struck a tree near us just as we reached the steps. I looked at the door, opened it with my magic, and shoved the maid inside before relocking it. Maponus advanced quickly, having ditched the parts of the armor that were bent.

“Running away?” he asked.

I shook my head, “Not intentionally. When you look like a baby, everyone just wants to baby you.”

“Oh… I know,” the villain said with a feral grin that made me want to vomit.

“Come on,” I told him, standing beside the tree, “Let’s finish this, one way or another.”

“I agree!” He said, “I’m going to look forward to playing with you before I kill you, though!”

“Well, I’m right here. Come get me!”

He charged at me from about fifteen feet away, sword held high in the air. Other than in the practice room in the castle, the best place I could feel the artery of energy was this old tree. I drew every bit of manna and strength from it while he charged at me.

When he finally got close, I fired a low-powered bolt of the freeze spell and watched him easily dodge it. When I saw the direction he escaped, I used most of the manna I’d gathered to bring the granite from deep in the earth around him and form it into a full body casting of him. The granite left only his head exposed. He began to try and say something, I assumed to cast a spell.

“And now, I hope I’m finally rid of your disgusting ass!” I said before he could. I flung another powerful bolt of my energy blast straight into his head. I watched his horrified face for a millisecond before his head exploded like a watermelon.

Suddenly having nothing left, I staggered to the ground. I was bleeding from several deep cuts on my body, and my head was still woozy from his backhand. If it wasn’t for adrenaline, I was pretty sure my body would have demanded I be passed out at that point. As it was, I was on my knees when I realized the maid was banging on the door to get out of the treehouse. I crawled up the steps and unlocked the door for her. She saw the sight of Maponus’ remains and promptly vomited.

“Oh, my goddess, are you okay!?!?” She asked me.

“Not really,” I told her. “I need to get back to the castle; I have to help!”

“You’re too hurt! You must stay and heal and wait for them to fight it out.”

“If I don’t go, and we lose, do you think I’ll be able to live with myself knowing I hid away? I appreciate the idea of getting me here, but I have to go back.”

She sighed, “Very well, Your Highness. Will you at least let me bandage up your arm?”

I looked and could see blood was still seeping out of the wound. I’d become so accustomed to quickly healing in my world that I forgot that didn’t seem to happen the same way here. I nodded at her.

As she bandaged the wound, I ran my tongue across my mouth. I had lost all of my front teeth, and my molars felt wrong too. There was still the taste of blood in my mouth, and I spat on the ground and groaned when I saw several molars there too. I did my best to perform a healing spell on my mouth and the rest of my body. If it hadn’t been for the strength of the ley lines at the tree, I was pretty sure I couldn’t have done even as much as I did.

I sighed and waited as she tore off pieces of her apron and tied them off on my arm.

“I guess that’s as good as we can get… Your Highness, are you sure you can’t just…?”

“I’m sure,” I told her and held my arms up, “If you can carry me back, I can use the time to keep trying to build some energy up.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” she said and placed me on her hip.

“What’s your name?” I asked her.

“Niamh, Your Highness,” she told me.

“Thank you for your help, Niamh,” I told her. “You saved my life back there.”

I breathed slowly in and out and tried to replenish my reserves as she carried me in reverse through the tunnel back into the castle. We had just reached the front door when it was flung open! Camulus’ men scrambled in, and just outside the door, I saw Camulus fighting with Caireen. I leaped out of Niamh’s arms and tried to decide where to start.

Caireen and Camulus were going back and forth with magic and sword in a deadly dance that I didn’t have the time to watch. Twenty men advanced on me, and I didn’t hold back with magic, freezing the hearts of each of them and watching them drop dead where they stood. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t linger. Twenty more ringed the battle around Caireen, and I dropped them the same way.

I was distracted by two men rushing me for just a second. I sidestepped and used a magic bolt on each of them.

I looked up and saw Caireen send a fireball of magic at Camulus. I silently cheered, but even as I started to feel hopeful, he redirected it into the ceiling, causing chunks of stone and wood to rain down below! A back-and-forth happened for the next few minutes as I got distracted by two new soldiers that challenged me. Finally, having just dropped the second one with a thrust upwards into his heart, I turned in time to see Camulus standing over Caireen. His sword was raised and about to plunge into her chest!

“No!!!!!!!!” I screamed!

He looked up at me and had the nerve to laugh as he noticed me, “Oh, and here is your human host now!”

“If you kill her, I become queen. Your son is dead, so you don’t get the land by having him marry me.”

“All I have to do is kill you, and I’ve got it all as it is. Shouldn’t take but a few minutes!”

“Then let’s do it!” I told him angrily.

He laughed, “Okay, you know what,” he did some sort of spell and bound Caireen to the steps with chains on her wrists, ankles, and neck, “you’re right. It’ll be much more enjoyable to have her watch you die.”

“Who says that I’m dying, asshole?”

He strode towards me, and I wasted no time flinging a shield over my body. Raising my sword towards him, I think he was surprised when I blocked his blade and successfully tumbled past him. I wasted no time stabbing him with my sword, but his magical shield stopped it. A backhanded blow from his metal gauntlet caught me on the shoulder of my bad arm, and I rolled away.

He advanced at me again and swung his sword at me. At the last minute, though, he changed directions and caught me on my left arm again. My shield kept it from being cleaved off, but I suddenly couldn’t do anything with the arm, which hung limply at my side.

“Well, well, well,” he said, “I may enjoy this more than I thought.”

“I’m sure you will!” I told him as I circled around him. The fights with Rosemerta, Maponus, and now him had injured me badly, and I was in so much pain! All I wanted to do was give in and go to sleep! I knew that was probably blood loss talking, but I glanced at Caireen briefly. As Camulus continued circling me, I saw her terrified face. The face of someone who loved me as her daughter. Someone who had saved my life, and I loved her so much!

I opened myself fully to the massive ley artery in the castle and tried to decide what to do – but I decided I wouldn’t give up until I was dead!

Camulus didn’t give me much of an opening to think, immediately attacking me and sweeping the sword low in front of him at the height of my knees. With him bent over, I used his arms as a ramp and climbed on his shoulders. Suddenly I had a desperate idea! I pressed my hand to his back behind his heart and pushed every ounce of energy I had gathered into one freezing spell.

I felt drained as I landed behind him, and he turned to look at me with amusement. “Did you expect that to do something…?”

Right then, I used the last of my strength to pull one of the arrows from an archer’s quiver and steered it right to the spot where I had frozen as cold as possible. There was a sound like shattering glass, and suddenly an arrowhead appeared through his chest!

“What the…?” He cried out and then tumbled to the ground on his knees, “How did you…?” He gasped for air.

Knowing what I had experienced with Rosemerta coming back to life, I stumbled over to him. I leveled my sword at his neck, charged the sword with manna, and slashed a fiery blade straight across his neck. His heart had stopped pumping when it had been torn apart by the arrow, but until my slash, he had just enough magic to keep himself alive. Then, as his decapitated head rolled towards his men, they took one look at me and ran screaming, “Retreat!!!”

As they ran, I could stand no longer. Crawling over to Caireen on my hands and knees, I performed a spell to remove her chains. Then, I just said, “Mama!!!” before I passed out.

 
 

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