Kingdom Reboot: Rise Of The Conquest System

Chapter 5: Blood And Loyalty II

The stone halls were darker down here in the dungeons. Water dripped from the ceiling in steady rhythms. Rats scurried away from their torchlight and disappeared into cracks in the walls. The smell of mold and human waste filled the air until breathing felt like swallowing rot.

Aurelius found the cell he was looking for near the back of the dungeon block. A young woman sat in the corner on moldy straw that looked like it hadn’t been changed in weeks. Short blonde hair framed a face that burned with fury even in the dim torchlight.

She looked up when they approached. Her blue eyes went from Aurelius to the ten knights behind him with cold calculation.

“Well, well,” she said with a voice like ice. “What do we have here? Come to finish what your Victor started?”

“I’m Aurelius and I’m here to get you out,” Aurelius said while meeting her hostile stare.

She laughed, sharp and bitter. “Right. And why would the king’s pet commander want to help a prisoner scheduled for execution?”

“Because we have a common enemy now,” Aurelius said. “Victor.”

Seraphina studied his face for a long moment. Something in his voice or his bloody appearance must have convinced her because her expression changed slightly.

“You’re the one they’re hunting,” she said while standing slowly. “I heard the commotion upstairs. Guards running everywhere. Victor’s calling you a murderer and a traitor.”

“He killed the king and blamed me for it,” Aurelius said simply.

Her eyes widened with genuine shock. “The king is dead?”

“Victor cut his throat in the throne room while witnesses watched. Made it look like I did it.”

Seraphina was quiet for a moment while she processed that information. Then she moved closer to the bars.

“Get me out of here,” she said.

Aurelius and his men looked around for keys but couldn’t find them on the unconscious guards upstairs or anywhere near the cells.

“Bradley, check that wall rack,” Garrett ordered. “Edmund, search those drawers.”

They searched quickly but found nothing. The keys weren’t here which meant they were likely with the head jailer somewhere else in the palace.

Aurelius grabbed the cell door in frustration and pulled hard.

Nothing happened. The iron bars didn’t budge at all.

He pulled harder while his wounded shoulder screamed in protest. Still nothing.

Blue words flickered in his vision.

[OBSTRUCTION DETECTED]

Material: Reinforced Iron

Current Strength Output: Insufficient

Emergency Physical Output Available

Trigger: Host Intent / Survival Priority

What did that mean? Emergency output?

He needed to get Seraphina out. Victor’s men would be here any minute. They didn’t have time to search the entire dungeon for keys.

Blue words flashed urgently.

[EMERGENCY PHYSICAL OUTPUT TRIGGERED]

Strength Output Temporarily Exceeded Mortal Limit

Warning: Host Body Not Adapted

Damage Accumulation: Moderate

His muscles felt like they were tearing. Fire shot through his arms and shoulders as something forced his body past its normal limits. The iron bars groaned under his grip.

Then they bent.

The metal twisted like it was clay instead of iron. The lock snapped with a crack that echoed through the dungeon. The cell door swung open.

Aurelius let go and staggered back. His hands were bleeding where the rough iron had torn his palms open. His arms trembled uncontrollably and pain shot through his shoulders like someone had driven spikes into the joints.

Everyone stared in complete shock.

The knights’ faces showed awe mixed with something that looked like fear. Even Seraphina’s cold mask slipped for a second as she stared at the bent bars.

“How did you do that?” Sir Roland whispered.

Aurelius stared at his own bleeding hands while they shook. How had he done that? Normal men couldn’t bend reinforced iron bars with their bare hands. His arms felt like they’d been pushed past breaking and his shoulders throbbed with deep pain.

What was happening to him?

“I don’t know,” he said honestly while trying to stop his hands from trembling.

“Questions later,” Garrett said sharply. “We need to move now.”

Seraphina stepped out of her cell carefully. She was taller than Aurelius had expected with a lean build that spoke of speed rather than strength. There was something dangerous about the way she moved. Like a blade wrapped in silk.

“Who are you?” Sir Bradley finally asked the question that had been on everyone’s minds since they came down here.

“Someone who wants Victor dead,” she replied simply while testing her limbs after days in the cell.

“That makes two of us,” Aurelius said.

Shouts echoed down the stairway behind them. Boot steps on stone getting closer. They’d been found.

“This way,” Garrett said while leading them deeper into the dungeon toward the old tunnels.

The first guards came around the corner just as they reached the back passage. Steel rang against steel as the fight began. Aurelius recognized them as Victor’s men immediately by their matching armor.

Blue words flickered.

[HOSTILES DETECTED]

Enemy Type: Palace Guard

Average Threat Grade: E+

Warning: Numerical Advantage Detected

He drew his sword and felt something change inside him. The world seemed to slow down slightly. He could see the guards’ attacks forming before they fully committed. His body moved faster than it ever had before despite his wounds.

His blade cut through the first man’s defense like it wasn’t there. Blood sprayed across the stone walls as the guard went down. Another guard came at him from the side but Aurelius was already moving. His sword found the man’s heart before the guard could finish his swing.

[PERSONAL KILL CONFIRMED]

[Combat Experience Gained]

What did that mean? Why was something keeping count of his kills like a ledger?

More guards poured down the stairs. At least a dozen of them now. Sir Garrett and the others fought with skill and courage born from years of training, but they were outnumbered and being pressed back.

Then Seraphina joined the battle.

She moved like death itself. Two stolen daggers appeared in her hands from somewhere and she danced between the guards like she was born for this. Every step was precise and economical. Every cut found gaps in armor or exposed throats.

She didn’t overpower the guards with strength. She was faster than them and struck before they could adjust. A dagger across an unprotected throat. Another into the gap under an armpit where the armor didn’t cover. A hamstring cut that dropped a man screaming.

The knights stared in amazement as she dropped three men in as many seconds without taking a single hit herself.

“Remind me never to make her angry,” Sir William muttered despite the fact that they were in the middle of a fight.

They fought their way through the dungeon corridors while leaving bodies behind them. Aurelius felt like he was in a dream. His sword moved without conscious thought. His body reacted to attacks a heartbeat before his mind understood them.

[PERSONAL KILL CONFIRMED]

[Combat Experience Gained]

[PERSONAL KILL CONFIRMED]

[Combat Experience Gained]

The words kept flashing but he was too focused on staying alive to think about what they meant or why they appeared.

A larger group appeared ahead blocking the corridor. Eight guards in better armor than the others. Victor’s elite men.

[ENEMY ASSESSMENT UPDATED]

Elite Guard Detected

Threat Grade: D-

Warning: Coordinated Attack Pattern

These ones moved differently and were more disciplined. They formed a shield wall across the narrow corridor and advanced in formation.

“Shield wall!” Garrett shouted. “Bradley, Roland, with me!”

The loyal knights met the elite guards head-on. Steel crashed against steel. The fight was brutal and close. These guards were better trained and worked together to cover each other’s weak points.

Seraphina appeared behind them somehow. She’d climbed the wall or found a side passage. Her daggers flashed and two guards dropped with their throats opened before they even knew she was there.

The formation broke. Aurelius pushed through the gap and his sword found another heart. The knights pressed the advantage and the elite guards fell one by one despite their superior training.

But it cost them. Sir Edmund took a cut across his arm. Sir James nearly lost an eye to a well-aimed thrust. Everyone was bleeding from somewhere.

They turned a corner and almost ran into another group. But these weren’t guards.

A woman in a hastily thrown-on dress stood with two frightened servants. Auburn hair fell around her shoulders in messy waves that caught the torchlight.

Mileena.

Their eyes met across the bloody corridor. Her face showed confusion and fear but underneath it all, trust remained. Even seeing him covered in blood and fighting for his life, she still looked at him like he was her hero.

“Aurelius?” she whispered while tears filled her eyes.

His heart broke at seeing her here. He wanted to run to her. Wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be okay. But Victor’s men were right behind them and she’d be safer far away from him.

“Go,” he said through the pain in his chest. “Get out of the palace. It’s not safe here anymore.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks but she nodded because she trusted him. The servants grabbed her arms gently and led her away down a side passage. The last thing he saw was her looking back at him with love and fear mixed together in her beautiful face.

“Sir,” Garrett called urgently. “We need to keep moving now.”

They reached the tunnel entrance just as more guards appeared behind them. The hidden door was old and heavy but it opened when Sir Edmund worked the ancient mechanism with practiced hands.

“Is this a trap?” Sir Bradley asked while looking into the darkness. “If they’re smart, they’ll have men waiting on the other side.”

“Maybe,” Aurelius admitted while his arms still trembled from bending those bars. “But we don’t have any other choice left.”

They plunged into the darkness of the tunnel. Behind them, shouts and footsteps echoed as Victor’s men gave chase.

Aurelius looked down at his bleeding hands and trembling arms. At Seraphina moving like a ghost beside him. At his loyal knights who’d risked everything to follow him into this.

He’d gained allies he could trust. He’d gained power he didn’t understand and couldn’t fully control. But he’d also lost everything else that mattered.

The game had changed completely.

Now he just had to figure out how to win it.