Chapter Text
The echoing clatter of hoofbeats announced the presence of an unexpected guest in the stronghold and Wels stepped out into the courtyard of the Knight’s little fortress. He was met by a wounded and exhausted villager he’d never seen before.
Hurrying over, he helped the man off the equally exhausted mount. Doc appeared nearby and led the horse to the stables. It would be in good hands so Wels focused on getting the babbling man indoors to the kitchen and some much needed food. As well as the weariness from what had to have been a long ride, the man clearly hadn’t eaten or slept in at least a day. With Impulse’s help he was able to make some sense of the poor man’s disjointed story.
He was from a village a couple days ride from the stronghold. Not far from his village was a mansion that had been abandoned for a long time until recently. Not only had someone moved in, but the Evoker there seemed to have plans. He had laid claim to the area, let the villagers know they were to look to him as the king he wished to be and charged ‘taxes’ in exchange for protection.
The protection in question consisted of his Vindicators who collected taxes by day and made sure any raiders or monsters who came to the city vanished before doing damage. Any villagers who set foot outside at night also vanished. The people were scared and trapped with nowhere to go. This one had only escaped by claiming to be going to the woods to hunt and just not stopping until he reached some sign of life.
After getting some food in his belly and being assured they would help, he relaxed enough that sleep overwhelmed him. They wasted no time in gathering supplies and any of the Knights who wanted to take down this self proclaimed king. The villager would be escorted back home when he was rested and by then the others should have the problem dealt with.
Within a couple of hours the team set out with Wels in the lead and Doc serving as his second in command for this mission. Impulse and Mumbo joined them as well.
The first day of the trip was reasonably quiet as the Knights had secured the area after building their stronghold. They set up camp and as the others were getting settled in their tents, Wels stepped out of the camp to relieve himself. The peaceful moment ended with a bang. There was an explosion close enough to knock Wels over and chaos exploded around him.
A raiding party descended upon the startled camp but in spite of the ambush, the Knights were never fully unprepared. Wels drew his sword and spun to face the advancing pillagers as their leader shouted orders - broadcasting their strategy in the process.
Wels almost laughed. Almost. It was bad planning but there were quite a few members in this raid and they were outnumbered for the moment. He heard another explosion followed by the cackling of a pillager that abruptly ended with a shattering of glass. He smirked, though he couldn’t look away from the armed man who tried to throw dirt in his face - an ineffective move with a decent helm - he knew that Impulse had taken enough damage to require a potion and the empty bottle was never wasted with that Knight. The bomber would likely be finding glass shards the hard way for a week. If he survived this.
As another pillager fell he spun to look for his next target and saw one man trying to sneak up on Doc’s foxes as they worked together to keep one of the bastards busy. He gave the whistle to alert the two and they turned to the new threat. Their original target fled as they lunged at the coward who saw animals as fair victims. It was hard not to find the screams of fear and pain a little satisfying as he made his way to the man mounted on a horse with a banner set in the saddle.
An arrow bounced off his armor and attention went to a pillager hiding behind a tree. When the man ducked out of sight, he sprinted to the tree, shield ready as he neared.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU LOT?!” The raid leader shouted over the fray he still had not joined. “HOW ARE YOU LOSING TO THESE IDIOTS? REGROUP OVER HERE! AROUND ME! ”
When the archer moved to follow orders Wels cut him off with a grin and the guy discovered archery definitely worked better from a distance. The others gathered around to form a partial wall around their leader who still seemed to think himself too special to join the battle directly.
The Knights advanced with undeterred smiles and the wall broke as the foxes nipped the legs of the horse causing it to buck the leader off and flee.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” He protested from the ground. “What are you all waiting for?! KILL THEM!! ”
The pillagers charged again as the leader angrily dug out weapons during the moment of leeway but by the time he was finally ready to fight with his comrades, the numbers had evened out and the look on his face turned to one of terrified realization.
“It might be a good idea to surrender.” Wels suggested as the Knights faced the few remaining survivors.
“Oh… uh… You’ll have to talk to him.” The leader said, pointing to a surprised underling. “This was all his idea. He’s actually the leader, I’m just a decoy so… you should let me go and just kill him.”
“What?!” The indignant man blurted, looking around with frantic confusion. The blatant act of cowardice was enough to destroy what was left of the raiding party’s loyalty - they scattered to leave only a wide-eyed, badly outnumbered man.
“It… uhhh… it was just a joke?” He suggested with a weak laugh.
“Do you really expect us to believe that?” Wels demanded.
Fear vanished and the man stood up straighter. “You can’t kill me. I have the lucky amulet of luck! I’m the fastest, strongest, luckiest man alive! You might as well just go back to your camp and I’ll go on my way.”
“You tried to have us killed.” Wels reminded him. “You were going to attack someone else if not us.”
“You can’t hold actions not committed against someone. That wouldn’t be a knightly sort of thing to do.” He smirked triumphantly.
Wels glanced to the other unamused faces then back. “You’re right. The blood of men like you should never be spilled by a Knight’s blade. I wouldn’t want it tainting the metal. Doc?”
He returned to camp as the foxes fell upon the cowardly, lying excuse of a man. He deserved no better.