The Overlord Saga
Vol II. Versus
Chapter 20: A Turn In the Tides
Fort Effort was a very perplexing building somewhere in the Between. While it ranged further away from the Room of the Wises than the Fortress did, it was still in sight of the craggy cliffs and mountains that sheltered the Wises, it’s easternmost wall actually a portion of one of the red-colored cliffs. Fort Effort had been sculpted very skillfully from the cliffs, its structure a reddish hue due to the rock it had been made from. While it took on the appearance of an old school medieval fortress, the interior was much more modern. There was a rock climbing wall, a casino, and even a Laser Tag room. Why? No one was quite sure, but people suspected that it had something to do with the Twin’s spontaneity.
Fort Effort’s name was even spontaneous. The Overlord had actually been the one to commission Fort Effort, as payment for the Twin’s efforts against the Uberlord. The Twin had been the one to name it, and had been forced rather harshly by the Overlord to come up with a name for it on the spot. When the Twin remarked that it was ‘too much effort’ to concoct a name, the Overlord had then made her decision as to what the fort would be titled. However, it made a much better story to say that the Twin and her soldiers had slaved away at building the fort for years, so, quite a few people lived under the belief that the fort was so named due to all of the hard work that the Twin’s forces had put into the construction work.
The wall surrounding Fort Effort was almost completely submerged in Insurgents. As the group appeared somewhere in the wastelands behind the main Insurgent army, the Twin couldn’t help but let out a gasp of horror, “My FORT!” Notching an arrow to her bow, she glanced back at the group of people who had followed her through the portal. “Kill the Insurgents! All of them!”
Fish nodded to the Twin, then lifted his arm. A series of chains shot out of the ground from behind him, lashing out at the back of the Insurgent Army. The Ninja-Lord charged forward, katana in hand. As she approached a ballista that was ruthlessly attacking the walls, she impaled the person operating it, not stopping to check if he was dead. Kunoichi lit a match and caught the remains of the ballista on fire, grinning all the while. Llama ducked under a large Insurgent, brandishing a pair of nunchuku. She dealt a hefty blow to the Insurgent between the legs, then continued after the Ninja-Lord. Shinobi, in the mean time, was having fun clanging on each Insurgent’s helmets with the hilt of his katana, causing them to be stunned by the deafening ringing.
Elwell was busy resurrecting an army of zombies, much to Centurion Ifill’s horror and fascination. Obstruckshun had seemingly disappeared, though, it was assumed that she had slipped off with the Ninjas, too small to really notice. Sensei was trailing after the Ninjas, but instead of charging through the troops, she was hopping from Insurgent to Insurgent via stepping on their heads.
“YAR!” Jamie held up her cutlass, charging forward alongside the Witch, Centurion Ifill, and the Twin. The Witch began casting meteorites to shower down on the Insurgent Army, cackling all the while. The Twin launched an arrow into an Insurgent working a catapult, then notched another arrow to her bow.
“The ninjas are scaling the walls!” Centurion Ifill looked at her sister, rapier drawn. “I think I see the Insurgent Leader by the main gates.”
“I’ll give him something to think about,” the Twin said through clenched teeth, pointing an arrow at where the Insurgent Leader had just climbed the walltop. His back to the main army, he had yet to see the newly arrived Underlings and their allies, despite the ceaseless screams of Fish’s chains dragging unfortunate footsoldiers under the surface. The Twin enchanted one of her arrows with thunder and fire, her brown eyes locked on the oblivious Insurgent Leader. A few heartbeats later and she let the arrow fly.
---
Eric’s flails slammed into a tree next to the Overlord’s head. As bark showered over her head, she turned and low-kicked him in the knee cap, her shoe not doing much damage against his armor. She rolled away, clutching the green and black staff tightly as it began to power up an attack. As Eric slung one of the spiked balls forward, the Overlord leapt back, sending a blast of magic into his chest. He extended his hand and shot out a few waves of water, completely devoid of any emotion as they turned to ice shards. Hitting the surface of a tree, the Overlord watched as the ice began to consume it, freezing it over entirely.
And, very wisely, she stepped back, the other shards hitting other trees and freezing them over, but as the ice began to crawl down to the roots, it began to spread to the ground, turning everything it touched to ice. “Run,” the Theurgist whispered, and the Overlord turned and began to sprint away.
“Coward!” Eric sneered, running after her. The Overlord’s staff went back into its holder as she ran, tearing through both trees and bushes. Clearing the thickest part of the forest, she slid down a slope, estimating that she was probably five miles down the ravine from her campsite. Looking back up at where the ice was continuing to devour the trees, the Overlord took off down the ravine, away from the camp. She couldn’t afford to lead him to where her soldiers were- she wouldn’t betray them like that.
A few feet in front of her, a large stream of water shot up, freezing over and blocking her path. The tendrils of ice spreading towards her ceased their advance, stopping several yards away. Eric slowed to a stop, still carrying both flails. “Where did you think you’d run to?” the General asked with a laugh, “You’re not going anywhere.”
“You fell for it,” the Overlord retorted, then slammed the staff into the ground. Stepping away from the staff, she watched as it sent out waves of flame in every direction, melting the ice that surrounded them. As it did this, the Overlord charged forward, weaponless, towards the General of the Insurgents. As one of the flails struck her in the shoulder, she turned around, a wave of flame scorching the back of Eric’s armor. Eric grabbed her by the wrist and slammed her into the ground. She sent a foot into his stomach, then jumped back to her feet. Drawing a small dagger from her pocket, she stood at the ready, the blade glowering in the light from the fire.
As Eric lashed out, the Overlord was faster, stabbing him with the blade between his plates of armor and pulling away. There was another stab to the leg, a small cut to the cheek, then she was suddenly knocked backwards, one of the flails catching her in the chest. Winded, she sat on the ground, glancing up in time to see the General reach back with a flail to smash down. The Overlord jumped up, the flail shattering her shoulder in the process as she made a decisive blow to the General’s chest. The knife stuck out awkwardly, Eric grabbing the hilt in pain. He sputtered and gasped for air, blood running down his chest.
“You thought you could capture me?” the Overlord laughed in triumph, despite the agonizing pain in her shoulder. It was hard to move her right arm without sending a thunderous jolt of pain down her spine. “You were dead the minute you turned your back on me.”
And then, Eric stood up, defying the Overlord’s predictions entirely. Her laughter and smile faded at once, replaced by a mixture of horror and confusion. ‘How is he...?’ the Overlord thought, watching as he grabbed one of the flails from the ground. With a bitter smile, the Insurgent General spun the spiked ball, then threw it at the Overlord with surprising speed.
“DUCK!”
The Overlord didn’t have time to obey the Theurgist’s shout. She hit the tree behind her, a pair of nasty slash marks in her chest from the flail. As her head struck the trunk of the tree, she saw brief flashes-
The Nemesis standing in her doorway.
The Theurgist laying dead on the floor.
Sexist was choking the life from her, lifting her into the air.
“I TRUSTED YOU!”
A blink and the Overlord saw Eric bend down to grab her by the neck. ‘No!’ she screamed in silence, hand snapping up and grabbing Eric’s arm. A desperate, sudden wave of magic surged through her, jolting the General. But even as he yelled, she didn’t let go- not for a few minutes. And as he fell backwards, she rose from the ground, clutching the blood running from her chest. A golden wisp was floating above the General’s semi-conscious body, ripe for the taking. The Overlord staggered over, grabbing it with her injured arm and yanking it free. She heard a sickening rip and the General went unconscious.
---
“What do you have against the Overlord anyways?” the Captain roared as he shot a few bullets at the Rebel Commander. The Rebel Commander had forsaken his bazooka for a handgun as well, and was ducking behind a tree.
“Some little girl who thinks she can rule the world? It just doesn’t work,” the Rebel Commander retorted, returning fire. The Captain rolled aside, still clutching his gun. “Why do you insist on following her?”
“You don’t have any room to talk. You follow the Nemesis,” the Captain remarked, “And the Overlord is simply the epitome of epic badassery.”
“This is true,” the Grasshopper remarked from across the field where she and McCoy were battling. As McCoy fired a round at her, she began deflecting the bullets with her katana. In frustration, McCoy loaded another round, but not before Mooka had jumped from his perch on McCoy’s shoulder. Mooka hit the ground, rearing up and snarling devilishly. As he did, he began to grow, his fangs extending and enlarging into sabers.
“H-hey, Grasshopper?” the Captain stammered, eyeing reinforcements that the Rebel Commander had radioed in, “I think we ought to retreat...”
“What about the Overlord!?” the Grasshopper protested, “We can’t just leave her!”
“She wouldn’t want us to DIE!” the Captain argued, grabbing the Grasshopper by the arm. “We have to go. She’s a big girl, she can take care of herself!” Reluctantly, the Grasshopper followed, sheathing her katana and running after the Captain.
“Mooka, follow them!” McCoy shouted, pointing at the fleeing Captain and Grasshopper. As the ferret charged forward, the Captain turned and tossed a grenade at the pursuers. There was an ear-splitting boom, and the area filled with smoke, completely obscuring McCoy’s view .
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