Spitefic: Attack on Parthalon

[pan2000]

Parthalon, the fortress of the Sorceresses, is not very well-guarded.

Some of the Minions who are sentries, despite the disaster the war against the Black Legion brought, are drinking a lot of wine.

"I -hic- miss Succiu! She allowed us -hic- to rape as many women as we want!"

"She led us by example! Her rape of five thousand people is a record not even Kluge could surpass!"

"The new one, Natasha, is too soft for me. She only cares about promotion and power, not carnal pleasures."

Tristan and Shannon spy on them.

"Tristan, I have a question. If their leaders are misandrist women, why do they have the male minions as superior to the female minions, and why do they enable them to rape women?" Shannon asks. "Shouldn't it be the exact opposite?"

"I... have no answer to that lunacy," Tristan replies. "Don't you fear they will hear us?"

"Were you listening to their conversation? You could dance in front of them and they would not notice you.

One of the Minions starts randomly dancing. "I am taking a drink and I am feeling cool -hic-, I am taking two drinks and I am like a mule..."

"Should we ignore them?" Shannon asks. "They are drunk."

"No, did you hear how they complained they don't rape enough?" Tristan makes two Daggers of Vigor and throws them at the hearts of the guards, killing them. Then he gets the dreggan of one of them until he gets a better weapon.

The number of Minions has been diminished since the battles with Stormwolf and the Legion. Now there are only very few hundred left. Most of them are currently drunk and unprepared for any attack.

Some of them are guarding the cells, and are sleeping during their shift.

So, when Tristan and Shannon charge in, the former takes some time to poison some of his knives while the latter decapitates some sleeping guards with his axe.

Some of the Minions wake up and draw their bows, but because they are utterly wasted they miss all of their shots by a mile. On the other hand, Tristan's poisoned daggers all strike home and slaughter the rapists.

Some of the Minions are wearing thick armor, but the Fire Daggers heat the metal enough to cook them alive.

As Shannon cuts down several of the enemies with his axe, a massive harpy comes at them. She screeches loudly, awakening some sleeping Minions, and dives at Tristan, who wounds her with a poisoned dagger. However, it's only a slight wound, and she grabs his arms, ready to devour him.

But then, an arrow of azure energy strikes her in the eye, making her release Tristan and fall down. The prince quickly stabs the monster in the other eye, killing her.

And as the few sober Minions try to attack from above with their dreggans, using their wings, a woman with magical butterfly wings attacks them with her sword and cuts down two at once. She parries a blow from a dreggan with her sword and guts a third Minion with a riposte, then turns and with a spin she disarms yet another Minion.

Tristan, impressed by the woman, sees a Minion about to shoot her with a crossbow, and strikes the Minion's throat with a Dagger of Vigor.

Then, seeing several female Minions acting as slaves, he frees them with his dreggan. "Wake up, brave women of the Minions of Day and Night! Failee is feeding you lies! She talks and talks about how women shall rule the world, and how they are superior to men, yet she has you as slaves to the male Minions! Not only is she a sexist, she is a hypocrite as well. Ready to stand up to her?"

The female Minions nod and attack their slavers.

The woman with the butterfly wings infuses her sword with azure energy, breaking through a dreggan and making a cut across a Minion's chest.

Another Minion flies up from behind and prepares to stab her with a spear, but three female Minions beat him up.

"This is why we had isolated those Andarias! I expected a rebellion from them, not all of our women!" a Minion says.

"What are the Andarias?" Shannon asks as he slashes a Minion with his axe.

"Well, I don't know, but probably more slaves. We must save them!" Tristan stabs a Minion in the heart.

Soon, the raid, now consisting of three hundred thirty three individuals, storms the prison. The half-sleeping, drunk guards never stood a chance.

Tristan sees who the swordswoman is. "Sister?"

"Yes, Tristan, it's me! Did you miss me?" Shailiha asks.

"Absolutely! Where have you been for so long?"

Shailiha smiles. "Oh, I helped raid an entire prison planet, these cells are nothing for me now!"

And once they find the prisoners, they find several humanoid beings, which look like faulty Minions. Some have one eye or one wing, others look lighter in color, and others have different wings.

Tristan, speaking before thinking, asks what's on his mind. "Are you the Andarias?"

One of them, a beautiful blonde woman with white angel wings, nods. "Yes. We are named such because of the Battle of Andaria. A disaster where the Minions had to face the non-endowed people united. Gnomes, humans and other beings. Succiu thought it would be easy because of the lack of wizards.

Alas, they had set several traps for the Minions. It was a massacre, where the defenders lost only thirteen people and the Minions lost three thousands. Succiu herself, rusty because she spent the previous weeks raping and not training, got injured and had to run away.

That battle was one of the turning points of the war that ended in the defeat of the Sorceresses."

Tristan is shocked. "The Directorate never told us about this battle!"

"Why would they?" the woman asks. "It's not like it fits their image as saviors and their ideals about "unendowed" people being inferior."

Shailiha nods. "Of course. What should we expect from Wigg? Anyway, we are raiding Parthalon right now. And winning. Do you want to join us in our quest for liberation?"

The Andarians all approve of Shailiha's offer.

---

Coldsteel has been fully healed by a small wizard wearing green, a Life Spell Punk. His left arm is now out of steel like his right one. He has been given a powerful Flameblade, as well as a new force of zombies, led by Captain Gragg, who is wielding a Frostblade and has his left hand changed into an ice shard launcher by Kudos.

Seeing the chaos in the city, they join the fight, with Gragg freezing tens of Minions solid with ice shards and the Frostblade, Coldsteel axing a Minion with his tail and burning three more with his Flameblade, and the zombies consuming the remaining Minions.

Tristan, seeing the new enemy coming, realizes his dreggan won't be so adequate soon, so he looks for a better weapon while using the dreggan to hack his way through Minions and protect the Andarians.

On his way is a monster known as the Skullsquasher, which is a three-headed ogre that wields a spiked club in each of its six hands.

Tristan realizes he isn't winning a melee fight, so he lands five poisoned knives on the gnarly beast and avoids its clubs.

Some of the Andarians grab dreggans and crossbows and rush the monster, inflicting many wounds, but the Skullsquasher still beats down two of them and makes the rest retreat.

But Tristan, thanks to the help of the rebels, throws one last poisoned dagger in one of the wounds. The stacked amount of venom forces the ogre to its knees and Tristan stabs it in the heart, killing it.

But Gragg, despite being wounded by a Minion dreggan, retaliates with his Frostblade, which freezes and shatters the dreggan instantly. Then he stabs the Minion in its cold heart, freezing it further and crystallizing the enemy fatally. Seeing Tristan going deeper in the fortress, he shoots him in the back with icicles, freezing him.

However, Shannon attacks from behind, leaping, and severs the left arm of the undead captain off. With a small fireball Shailiha grazes Tristan and melts the ice, then uses her magical butterfly wings to get close to Shannon and Gragg just as the latter hits and freezes the former with his sword.

Cutting herself a little, Shailiha makes arrows out of her blood and strikes the elite zombie from behind just as the rebel Minions and Andarians start fighting off the zombies. Then she sends a butterfly out of fire, which homes on Gragg and turns him into ash.

Tristan gets on top of the fortress, where he finds a big sword, which is glowing because of azure energy. It was one of the treasures the Minions had stolen, specifically the Wiktorslayer, named this way because it was fabled that it could cut a Wiktor in half. It also is permanently blessed by the Vigors, meaning it can't freeze or burn.

But the sword is guarded by someone. A blood red fireball grazes him, making him send a Dagger of Vigor in that direction, grazing the assailant as well.

And once he takes a better view, he realizes who attacked him.

"Emily?"

"Don't call me with that name!" Natasha hisses. "That name brings memories of how Faegan pretended to care about me, yet could never save me, he never wanted to! At least as Natasha I aim for promotions, I aim for power, I have agency! Even if I no longer like Failee, I still call myself Natasha with pride!"

"Very well, Natasha. I got some agency myself. I chose to save the slaves, including the Andarians. But if you choose to not be saved, you are not above consequences." The dreggan extends as the two stare at each other.

"The winner takes the sword!" both say at the same time.