Previously on No More.
"I liberated these people from you, your kingdom, and your egos!" he spat. "Just because a swamp has water, that doesn't mean you own it!"
"Yes, it does!" she sneered. "You should be grateful that I offered a peaceful solution-!"
"Peaceful?!" he shouted, interrupting her. "It's either, 'my people do what you say', or 'we die!' That's not peace, that's extortion!" he truthfully said.
She didn't say anything for a moment. "... At least my offer would have no bloodshed." She said in a neutral tone. With a huff, she had her men tow her boat back to her army.
Then the bloodshed would follow.
Author however tapped his boat three times. His boat started moving back, much faster than Liala's, because he had a rope attached to the back of it.
He had to move the boat slowly as he rowed out so the rope would sink into the water. He couldn't risk Liala seeing it.
Dozens of men are pulling his boat back towards the kingdom, by the time he got back, Liala was only half way back to her army.
"I hope I stalled long enough for the soldiers to get in position." Author said. "To your stations!" he ordered.
"Yes, your majesty!" His army said in unison, saluting their king, who nodded in return. It was then all 100 soldiers are marching out in front of the kingdom, all of them with bows enchanted with {Fire Aspect}.
Since he was able to get back to his kingdom faster, he was able to plan and execute War's strategizes much sooner than Liala. Everything is in place as Liala gave the order to attack.
"Do not fire unless I say so!" he ordered from the top of the wall. He saw the massive army charging ahead, through the shallow water. Liala was staying behind to watch.
It was very tense, no one moved a muscle, only tightening their hands on their bows. "Ready!" ordered Author as they notched an arrow on their bow.
"Aim!" he shouted, they all raised their bows so the arrows will fly in a large arc.
"Hold!" Author shouted. The army was approaching.
"Hold!" Author shouted again. The army was advancing even closer.
"Hold!" Author shouted once more. The army was so close that you could hear their war cries.
But it was then, as they were charging, they all sank into the water; into the deeper part of the swamp, which is so deep the horses are submerged as the riders were up to their waist in murky water.
A look of shock was on Liala's face as Author shouted "Fire!" They all let their arrows loose as it flew in a terrifying arc. A hundred fire arrows landed on the vulnerable army, only to repeatedly fire volley after volley of arrows, and reducing the numbers to 500, but they weren't trying to aim at them.
They were trying to ignite the hundreds of TNT they planted deep in the water before hand.
The TNT explosion killed off a large chunk of the army, reducing it to a mere 200. With the new large crater in the center, creating strong water currents that dragged Liala's entire army toward the center.
Some drowned. Some of them died from the concussive force of their bodies forcibly slammed together by the current. Some died by killing each other, trying to stay alive.
It was then the 100 of Author's soldiers, that split off from before, started to shoot arrows from all directions through the trees, and at the cluster of people.
It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Author's army advanced on Laila. She was on her horse, wearing her dark blue, royal armor. "King Author, I challenge you to a Monarch Dual!" she shouted in desperation, as everyone froze in shock.
A Monarch Dual was an honor among all kingdoms. A battle that everyone takes seriously, created by the first Emperor to try to minimalize casualties among inevitable wars.
There are only 5 rules.
1) Only rulers of kingdoms can participate.
2) All participants must sign a Royal Contract to make this legitimate.
3) Each participant can only have one weapon and one weapon only. Armor is allowed.
4) No one else can intervene.
5) The winner gets the loser's kingdom.
The Royal Contract was a special contract that all participants of the Monarch Dual must sign. That way it is physical proof of the outcome of the dual, not biased witnesses who could easily change to truth.
The specially crafted parchment will glow gold when the rules are not broken, and the name of the winner will turn silver. But it will turn black if any of the rules are broken, with the name of the one who broke it will turn blood red.
Now, there was no punishment if someone broke these rules. But the severe, negative social impact will be grim.
Who would hire a knight who intervened in something sacred as a Monarch Dual?
Who would follow a king that is too cowardly to accept the challenge?
Who would be dumb enough to do it?
No one.
"We are both allowed a weapon of any kind!" she said, showing off her enchanted diamond longsword.
"I accept!" he shouted. "I'll send my messenger with the Royal Contract!"
It was then the royal messenger arrived to Liala via boat, with Author's name already signed. Liala signed it, and after a few hours of building a large wood platform near the kingdom for everyone to witness.
Both rulers stood on this platform, both in their royal armor and horse. Except that Author's horse didn't have any armor, and he didn't have a weapon on him!
"I guess you were too poor to afford a decent weapon." She sneered. "At least you didn't disgrace the Monarch Dual."
"..." Author didn't say anything, just holding the reins as he stared out of his visor, his armor covering every inch of his body as he was still.
She let out an arrogant 'Hmph.' "Too scared to speak are you?"
"..."
"Be prepared to taste humiliation!" shouted Liala as she charged with here sword drawn, both horses charging at each other.
Everyone was tense as they were scared, watching their king charging with no weapon, watching Liala's enchanted diamond longsword pierce through the armor, through Author's chest. But that is not why they are scared.
Because the really scary part of the entire thing? This was going exactly as War planned.
But what is even more surprisingly terrifying? That wasn't Author, it is a dummy tied upright on a horse.
Of course, a dummy couldn't signal a horse to charge. That is why this specific horse is trained to charge in the direction of loud noises.
Like Liala shouting "Be prepared to taste humiliation!", for example.
Again, going exactly as War planned.
Author had his blacksmiths create armor that concealed the entire body. Then he filled the armor with gunpowder and hay to make it look like it was being worn.
It was one known fact that Liala uses an enchanted diamond sword... with {Fire Aspect II}. So War took advantage of that, and had the king follow the plan.
It was then 'Author' exploded, her enchanted diamond longsword igniting the gunpowder, catching Liala in the explosion, knocking her off her horse and onto the ground, defeated and injured.
"Author!" she screamed. "You dishonored the rules! That wasn't a sword or a bow-!" she was cut off when the real Author, disguised as one of the witnessing soldiers, threw an iron ingot at her mouth, shutting her up.
Taking the disguise off, he calmly walked up to her as she was on her knees, glaring at him as she is holding her sore, bleeding mouth.
"A weapon, by definition, is a thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage." He stated. "The rules say "weapon", not specifically a sword. I didn't break any rules, and I earned your kingdom."
He held up the golden parchment, with his name in silver, as proof that he didn't break the rules; much to the dismay of Liala.
Everyone was cheering. Except Author, who is showing a grin that could split his face, and also Liala who is wallowing in tears and defeat. Her pride was cracked like one of her teeth.
The battle was over. Authors' only casualty was the horse he sacrificed. With her army dead, and with herself injured and surrounded by Author's men, Liala was taken in as a prisoner of war.
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"You will regret the day you did this to me, you hear me Author?!"she screamed, kneeling in front of Author in his throne room, missing a tooth, restrained with chains, and the guards pointing their weapons at her.
"I didn't to anything, sister." He never acknowledged his sister as family, but he was in a good mood to mock it.
He held out War in front of her face. "This book did it all. This book taught me, this book strategized everything. How does it feel that you, your armies, your weapons, were outsmarted by a mere book?" he said mockingly.
"Besides, my offer of leaving us alone had no bloodshed." He said, using her words from before, and making her angry.
"Take her away." He said as he walked away, ignoring his sister's screams. He then took out the white book, known as Death.
"So what knowledge do you hold for me?" he asked.
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"Amazing." Said Ivor. "Your brother strategized this victory?"
"Yep." She said, smiling, impressed no matter how many times she watches this moment. "I had all of the advantages: the numbers, the weapons, the resources. But he still beat me at my own game; killing."
"Here's a fun fact you guys:" said Death. "That diamond longsword that Liala used to wield, is the same one you're using Jess." She said, much to the shock of Ivor and Jess. "It was passed down the line of Liala's descendants, eventually going to Gabriel."
"So Gabriel has royal blood?" Jess asked, disbelieving.
"B-But Gabriel told me he crafted it himself!" said Ivor, surprised.
"You took the word of Gabriel?" Death asked disbelieving. "The same Gabriel who betrayed you, lied to the whole world, and is currently tasked with hunting you down?" she asked, making Ivor feel like an idiot for believing his former friend.
Who knows what other lies they told?
Jess put away War, and pulled out her diamond longsword, and used [Observe] on the weapon, confirming it. Now that it was a higher level, she could see more information on the weapon, the true information of the weapon.
Apparently the reason why it's no longer enchanted with {Fire Aspect II} is because it was removed by one of the decedents.
"So what happened afterwards?" Jess asked, changing the subject.
"Someone managed to find Conquest, and enslave an entire army of zombies." Said Death. "I never caught his name, but he tried to conquer the Kingdom of the Swamp."
"How many zombies?" asked Jess.
"About 10,000." She said casually.
"10,000?!" shouted Ivor.
Death nodded. "The guy focused more on quantity than quality. So he stood by monster spawners and built up his army."
The scene before them started to change; It is nighttime, the moon was high in the air as the Kingdom of the Swamp was damaged, desperately fighting off the massive undead army.
But they still prevailed. They poured water down the walls to push the zombies back. They used TNT, arrows, and the Quad Dispensers to kill the zombies, but eventually they broke through.
"So the Kingdom of the Swamp was destroyed?" asked Ivor.
"Well, kind of." Said Death.
"What do you mean 'kind of'?" asked Ivor. "How you do you 'kind of' destroy a kingdom?"
"Because the idiot that had my brother Conquest forgot that zombies burn in broad daylight." She stated. "He may had the numbers, but he wasn't clever."
Death continued. "My brother War strategized to stall the army, get the citizens safe, and stall until the sun came up. After the army was burned away, the idiot was hunted down and executed. But the kingdom was so damaged they decided to pack up and move. The remains of the kingdom are still there."
"So where did they go?" asked Jess.
"Author won the rights to the Kingdom of the Ocean when he defeated his sister Liala, the former Queen of the Ocean." Said Ivor. "I think he simply moved there."
She nodded, and turned to look at them. "Remember, power without proper direction is useless and wasteful." She turned around and started walking. "Let's go back."
A/N: Hello everyone! I was in a good mood, so i decided to finish this chapter, and finish the next one!
Also, this story reached 1k reads, and over a hundred votes!
So that is why in about 2 chapters, there is going to be a major change in the story. Something i'm going to add that will make this story more interesting... and probably be able to add your OC's to this story if you want, but no promises. :p
But i can promise they will die. XD
Also, new follower! DanielaVargas989!
For you, here's a heart! <3