Finally, Goldof figured he’d share the information with Adlet and Rolonia, too.
“Listen…the enemy…isn’t Her Highness… It’s Fremy,” Goldof said, and then he thrust the butt of his spear into Adlet’s stomach. He wouldn’t be able to move for a while, not after that body blow.
That’ll be enough to slow them down, Goldof thought, and he stopped his assault. They shouldn’t have tried to prevent him from saving Nashetania, but that was no reason to kill them.
More importantly, he had to go to help Dozzu. He couldn’t even guess as to how things were going on that front. He ran after Nashetania, crossing over a rock hill to find Fremy fighting a crowd of fiends. These were the same ones that had accompanied Nashetania only moments ago. His liege herself was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Dozzu.
“Better than…I’d hoped,” Goldof muttered. This was doubly advantageous for him. Fremy would be pinned on the spot for a while, and now the fiends around Nashetania would not be bothering Goldof and Dozzu. Goldof ran past Fremy, continuing in a clockwise arc.
Now he just had to catch up to Nashetania. He’d knock her out and remove the human-controlling fiend that Dozzu had claimed was inside her, and then he’d carry her out of the gem’s area of effect. After that, Adlet’s party would stop trying to kill her for the time being. If Dozzu was lying, and Nashetania was the one who’d put the blade gem into Chamo, then Goldof would kill Dozzu, seize Nashetania, and forcibly move her away from the gem. That would save both Nashetania and Chamo.
“I won’t…let them die. Not Her Highness…and not Chamo,” Goldof muttered. The Helm of Allegiance had never stopped ringing all this time. Nashetania was still in danger.
Goldof went on about a half-circle counterclockwise, and there he found Dozzu. Ahead of the fiend, he could see Nashetania racing away. “Dozzu!” yelled Goldof.
“I’m over here!” Dozzu called back.
Ten more minutes of running and Goldof caught up to Dozzu. They’d reach Nashetania soon. “I’ve…slowed them down. Not for long…though,” Goldof said as they chased Nashetania together.
“I knew you’d be able to manage it.” Dozzu smiled.
Nashetania was ascending the steep slope of one of the slightly higher hills, and Goldof and Dozzu were right behind. Goldof used his hands to scale the hill. I’ll catch up to her at the peak, he thought.
“Goldof, I’ll stop her with a lightning strike,” said Dozzu. “Please push her down and constrict her throat to knock her out.”
“Got it.”
They hit the top of the hill, and at the summit was a big pit. Nashetania stood in the middle of it, her sword raised and ready to fight back. Focusing everything he had, Goldof leaped off the rock, about to charge at her when—
It happened in an instant. Sensing a threat, Goldof launched himself sideways instead. A bolt of electricity hit the spot where he had just been standing. The strike was so powerful, if it had hit its mark, he wouldn’t have stood a chance. Dozzu had been waiting to stab him in the back after all.
“It missed?”
Nashetania swiped at him with her sword. Goldof rolled farther to the side to avoid a blade piercing from the ground, then dodged again to evade Dozzu’s second attack. The blitz was relentless—lightning from behind, knife edges from below.
Goldof was not shocked. Hardly. I knew it.
It had all been a lie. Nashetania and Dozzu had tricked him. All along, the plan had been to use him and then murder him.
Tgurneu had never captured Nashetania. She had been the one to put the blade gem in Chamo’s stomach, and that story about a fiend of Tgurneu’s controlling her was also false. Her goal had been to lure the Braves of the Six Flowers here, kill Chamo with the blade gem, make Goldof careless, and then kill him when his guard was down. That was the truth. He’d expected as much.
“Dozzu! Don’t let Goldof escape!” Nashetania yelled.
Dozzu’s horn charged with fat sparks, and then the fiend unleashed its most powerful thunderbolt yet. Figuring he couldn’t dodge it, Goldof threw his spear instead.
There was a roar as the lightning hit the weapon, stopping short of Goldof. But the heat still scorched him. This was the first time in his life he’d ever experienced the pain of a lightning strike. He fell, rolling down the slope as Nashetania’s blades stabbed at him. He just barely wrenched his vital organs away from the spikes.
“Aaggh!” He screamed in pain as he tumbled down the hill.
Oddly enough, he wasn’t angry. He didn’t feel like he could be outraged at the deception. He and Nashetania had been enemies all along. It was his fault for falling for it.
The instant before the final lightning strike descended on the boy rolling down the slope, he grabbed one of the blades thrusting from the ground. Fingers bleeding, he snapped it off and flung it at Dozzu. The keen edge skimmed Dozzu’s face, the lightning missed, and Goldof barely kept his life.
He tried to go for Nashetania, but razors stabbed up from below, blocking his way and piercing his side. Blood dribbled from his mouth. Another electric bolt seared through him, and his entire body went numb. He couldn’t move anymore. But still Goldof kept on fighting. Even now he wasn’t considering killing Nashetania. The only thing in his mind was protecting her.
Dozzu and Nashetania stopped attacking. They were both out of breath.
“I can hardly believe you’re human,” Nashetania said, panting heavily. “We surrounded you with fiends, made you fight with Braves, and ambushed you, and you still won’t go down. What a monster.” Pleased by the compliment, Goldof smiled, just a bit.
“I have something to request of you, Goldof. Would you please die without a fuss?” Nashetania gave him a wicked smile. “If we can kill you and also manage to keep running around until Chamo dies, it’ll be just one more step to victory for us. If we can eliminate one
