Reborn As The Beggar Lord

011 Ten Seconds

Halbert grunted and pushed himself up on his ax.

His voice was calm but distant. "Play time is over. The Mist infected my blood, so I've been a dead man for months. Let me die doing my job. Run and save yourself."

Gina's knives shook in the air around her. She turned to Kingsley. "My lord. He's right. We can still make it to the main road if we retreat now. Please, let's go."

The baron of Thornmere didn't move. His mind raced with conflicting emotions.

Mara had spoken of the north border with her dying breath. She had wanted him to locate the Shields family's last survivor. It was a clan that had protected the Carmines and their lands for centuries.

What kind of leader would Kingsley be if he abandoned them and let the ancient bloodline become extinct? He couldn't run away while his young protector was eaten alive.

But what could he do before these impossible odds?

Then the moon slipped from under a cloud and lit up the north border. Kingsley's eyes suddenly noticed something he had completely overlooked.

The opening in the treeline was three hundred yards wide, and its two edges were too straight. His eyes studied them rapidly, and the engineer in him woke up.

Under the moss and roots, both sides had ruins of cut stone. They were squared blocks, fitted without mortar, and worn down over centuries.

This gap in the north border had never been a natural opening in the forest. It was a gate.

Kingsley turned to the giant young man. "Halbert. What do you know about this gap? Was there ever a structure over it?"

Halbert laughed and coughed blood. "You're asking that now? We're about to die, traveler."

"Answer me!"

"Fine. My father said a magical gate stood here in the old days. It not only closed the gap, but also created a barrier all across the north border."

Kingsley's heart pounded. His reclamation tools had brought life into a dead field and a ruined well. If this magical gate was a broken thing, then it could be possibly repaired.

"Open a path for me through the monsters," he said to the giant young man. "I need to get to the gate's ruins. I think I can stop this invasion."

Halbert stared at him like he was mad. "That's suicide. The mistborn will eat you alive before you're halfway there."

"My lord, you are not thinking clearly," Gina said, taken aback by his idea of a fatal run.

Kingsley ignored his ward's advice. "Do it."

Halbert straightened himself with an agonized grunt and set himself between them and the beasts. "I don't take orders from travelers. Leave and let me die in peace."

Kingsley put a heavy hand on the young man's shoulder. "I'm not a traveler. I am Kingsley Carmine, the Baron of Thornmere."

Halbert went still. The ax handle slipped from his grasp until the head touched the soil.

Then he turned around, and his eyes were wide. "You're the Carmine heir? The Shields are sworn to serve you and protect the village. My father made me do the pledge before he died."

He stared at Kingsley through the blood on his face. "I thought I was guarding a grave."

The baron met his eyes. "Then fulfill your oath. Your lord is giving you a command."

Halbert rose to his full height. "Yes, my lord. I can give you ten seconds to reach the gate's ruins."

Kingsley nodded and took a running stance.

The Shields protector gripped his ax with both hands, and muttered a few words. His weapon began to glow white.

Fresh blood burst from his nose. He was burning up the last ounce of magic and strength his diseased and battered body had.

Then he let out a roar and threw his ax.

It left his hands with a blast of air that flattened the grass and knocked the nearest beasts off their feet.

The weapon flew the length of the clearing, and passed over the bull. It buried itself in the ground in front of the border gap with a second blast.

The mistborn beasts tumbled away on both sides.

Kingsley could see a narrow path standing open between him and the gate.

Halbert dropped onto one knee and blood spurted through his lips. The throw's magic and strength had emptied him.

Kingsley ran.

Ten.

He was racing through a path of fallen beasts.

Nine.

Eight.

The path was already closing. Grey monstrous bodies rolled and rose on both sides of him.

Seven.

A wolf snapped at his leg, and its teeth tore the hem off his coat. He kept running.

Six.

A hound-sized rat crossed in front of him. He jumped over it and kept his balance.

"My lord!" Gina screamed somewhere behind him.

Steel rang against claws. Her knives had knocked away a creature that had lunged at him from the dark.

Kingsley didn't look back. If he did, he'd slow down, and then all three of them would die for nothing.

Five.

His lungs burned.

Four.

The gate's stone edge rose in front of him, waist-high.

Three.

Hooves hammered the ground behind him, getting louder. The other mistborn bull was chasing him down.

Two.

A horn tip grazed his shoulder and spun him. He stumbled, caught himself, and ran on.

One.

This was it. Kingsley threw out his hand and called for the reclamation tool he got as a reward for Gina's rescue quest.

Golden light gathered on his palm and took shape. An iron hammer appeared in his grasp, dragging his arm down.

Zero.

Kingsley swung it down.

The hammer struck the ancient stone, flashed white, and crumbled into golden dust in his fists.

[Used: Reclamation tool x1]

In the same heartbeat, claws raked across his back. His coat tore open, blood sprayed from the wounds, and the blow threw him past the stone edge and into the grey wall.

The Mist closed over Kingsley's head.

It was wet and warm, and his first breath pulled it into his mouth and down his throat. He coughed, and that dragged in more of it.

Glowing eyes surrounded him on every side, growling, roaring, and screeching.

Kingsley looked back the way he had come. Thornmere was a dim, hazy smear on the other side of the grey, and it was getting fainter.

The mistborn panther stood over Gina with its jaws open wide. Her bent knives lay scattered in the grass around her and she was screaming.

Halbert had gone down under a pile of hound-sized rats. Only one arm still showed, with its fist still swinging.

Too late, Kingsley thought. I've killed us all for nothing.