Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 2

As her vessel sailed down the dark waters of the Katze River, Ludmila stood upon its bow, scanning the way ahead for navigational hazards and potential threats. Katze Plains’ vast expanse filled her senses: a tapestry of negative energy woven into the endless mists. The only place where it was absent was in a small area around her, creating a skintight pocket amidst the stifling darkness. Whether she was walking, flying or being carried by an Undead Beast or ship, it always moved to avoid her.

She still wasn’t sure why it reacted that way. It certainly didn’t with anyone else. Be they living or Undead, the ambient negative energy floating around various places appeared to care nothing for what they came into contact with. No, that wasn’t quite true: the sanctified areas in the E-Rantel Cemetery did suppress negative energy to a certain degree, and the E-Rantel Cathedral’s hallowed grounds were absent of the patches of miasma that could be found everywhere else in the city.

Did she share some similarities to this? Was she a being that brought her own little bubble of holy ground wherever she went? Holy Water did not hurt her, and she took no additional energy damage from Holy, Light and Positive Energy sources. A holy Undead? No, that didn’t make any sense at all. Or did it?

If she looked at things from a different angle, one could say that the negative energy within the territories under her influence acted uniquely. That she could pinpoint even the tiniest presence of negative energy in her demesne even when she was surrounded by the negative energy of the Katze Plains supported that notion.

Ludmila’s observations, however, were limited to her demesne, E-Rantel and the Katze Plains. The parts of Corelyn County that she frequented did not have tangible amounts of negative energy, and she had still been avoiding it during her time in Völkchenheim County.

As a former Human, she was even more ignorant of the world of the Undead than she was of the world beyond Warden’s Vale a year ago.

Someone, something, or a combination of things facilitated this. Something else allowed it. The world that Humans perceive is only a tiny part of the whole, Ludmila Zahradnik.

Ilyshn’ish’s words drifted out from her memory. She had little sense of what facilitated her existence as one of the Undead. What ‘allowed’ it was clear to her, however: Surshana held purview over the souls of humanity, so it was by his grace that her soul had been allowed to dwell in a new form.

They went to great lengths to identify the practical elements of her new existence, but he said little about what that existence meant or what a Revenant even was. She understood the strengths, weaknesses and various physical traits that would apply to her activities, but nothing about its origins or what it meant to be one.

Perhaps it was just her placing too much importance on that end of things and it did not matter at all. Or maybe His Majesty knew everything and he was simply starting out by addressing the more concrete aspects of her existence for the sake of her limited understanding.

Ludmila looked over her shoulder: past the skeletal oarsmen, Death Knights, Death Priests, and the Vampire Brides in the hold. Unlike with herself, both the mists and the negative energy of the plains visited its intangible caress upon them. At this point, she felt like she was being excluded from something: the mist of the Katze Plains was said to have a sort of strange intelligence, so it was as if she was being shunned.

A pleasant warmth rose within Ludmila as her gaze lingered on the Sorcerer King. Like the rest of the passengers, the darkness clung to the luxurious fabrics of his regal robe; traced the perfect lines of his pristine skull…

Ludmila turned her head away. She couldn’t let her gaze linger for long. A half-dozen seconds was the most she could manage.

Restless, she took an inventory of her surroundings. Noting nothing new, she ended up looking down at the new equipment peeking out through the front of her mantle.

He said that it looks good on me.

Her gaze traced over the black and silver highlights of her armour and a hesitant smile crept onto her face. They were the same colours that Themis and Alessia wore: the colours of an adherent of Surshana. That the god himself had granted it to her made Ludmila feel like she had been marked as one of his own. A mixture of quiet pride and girlish giddiness filled her whenever she thought about it.

The Ludmila of the past might have berated her over such an improper indulgence. She wasn’t much changed in that respect, but she also knew that she couldn’t so easily brush aside her feelings. Small things wouldn’t hurt her, as long as they didn’t accumulate and carry her off somewhere…

…or maybe she was just making excuses for herself, seeking solace in a grey area between right and wrong. In an effort to take her mind in a different direction, she peered down at the all-too-short skirts of her armour. Not only did the skirt hang halfway up her thighs, but the armour that should be protecting her upper legs wasn’t there…or was it? Lady Shalltear was adamant that they were covered, but Ludmila had no idea how this could be.

She looked over both of her shoulders, making sure that her mantle was blocking any view from behind before she lifted the hem of her skirt. The black bodysuit ended at the tops of her thighs, so there was nothing but skin showing all the way to the extended poleyns and stockings that ended just above the knee.

Ludmila tapped her thigh experimentally with a finger before drawing a dagger from her belt. Then she realized it was mundane and probably couldn’t hurt her. Her eyes wandered around, looking for something she could use until they settled on the new glaive in her hand. The barely visible glow of a cool, holy aura traced its silvery blade.

Adjusting her grip on the haft, she tapped the blade experimentally against her wrist. As expected, it did no damage. In addition to her new equipment providing a substantial amount of fire resistance, there was a modest amount of energy resistance against what would broadly be seen as ‘good’ energy attacks – positive energy, holy and light damage.

It was enough to prevent any damage from the Middle Cure Wounds, Sunlight or Holy Light spells of a Platinum or Mithril-rank divine caster. The Mantle of Energy Resistance offered a minor amount of resistance against all energy damage, which would foil attempts to wear her down using scores of weak casters, massed alchemical arrows or weapons that delivered small amounts of energy damage like her own.

Steeling herself, Ludmila flipped the glaive over, pointing the blade at her exposed inner thigh.

“I understand how you must ache down there, but a virgin graduating straight to a polearm is a bit…”

Startled, Ludmila unequipped the glaive and smoothed down her skirts. Lady Shalltear appeared at her elbow, the ghost of a smile crossing her lips.

“If it’s too much for you to bear,” her liege offered, “I will happily assist in relieving your tension.”

“I-I’m alright, my lady,” Ludmila replied. “I was just trying to see if this armour really protects my thighs.”

“With how you go on about it, even I’m starting to think that something might be amiss.”

Lady Shalltear leaned over, lifting up the hem of Ludmila’s skirt. Her face drifted in close, and then…

“Did you just sniff?!” Ludmila nearly shouted.

“You can’t expect me not to!” Lady Shalltear straightened again, “A-anyway, you were worried about all the bits that were like that, yes? Your circlet, for instance.”

Ludmila’s fingers went up to trace the silvery band of metal over her forehead. The piece of equipment rested so lightly around her temples that she would forget it was there when she wasn’t actively thinking about it.

“This makes absolutely no sense to me,” she said. “How is this narrow thing a helmet?”

“It just is?” Shalltear looked behind them, “You – come over here.”

The Death Knight nearest to them strode up to the bow. It looked down at Lady Shalltear with a question on the ruined face peeking out from the holes in its helm. Lady Shalltear stepped away from Ludmila.

“Cut her head in half,” her liege ordered.

The undulating blade of a flamberge slashed up at Ludmila’s cheek without a trace of hesitation.

The Death Knight’s weapon glanced off before touching her skin. The Undead servitor reversed its stroke and directed its weapon towards her temple. The blade was deflected into the air. After several savage chops, Lady Shalltear raised her hand and it ceased its attempts to split open Ludmila’s head.

“See?” Her liege waved the Death Knight away, “You’re worrying over nothing. It’s like that for every sl…”

Lady Shalltear’s voice trailed off as the familiar whisper of robes over the deck drifted over the sound of the current.

“What’s going on here?”

“A-apologies for the disturbance, Lord Ainz!”

Lady Shalltear turned and lowered her head. Ludmila followed suit.

“Ludmila isn’t used to the way her equipment works,” her liege informed the Sorcerer King. “She had doubts over whether it provided coverage to the exposed portions of her body, so I arranged for a demonstration.”

“I see…well, that’s perfectly understandable,” the Sorcerer King said. “Local crafters appear incapable of creating equipment that works in the same manner. Since we’re on the topic, did you have any other questions about how your new equipment functions, Miss Zahradnik?”

She still didn’t know why he called her ‘Miss Zahradnik’. Even between nobles of the same rank, one was addressed by their title in public. The way His Majesty spoke to her might have been a way to appear more personable with the common folk, but as a noble, it felt decidedly strange.

Ludmila looked back up again, then turned her gaze away. She had plenty of questions, so it wouldn’t be a brief discussion. It was extraordinarily rude to speak to any sovereign in the manner that she did, but His Majesty magnanimously allowed her to do so after becoming aware of her circumstances.

The Sorcerer King was often exalted for his unfathomable power, intellect, wisdom and wealth. His kind and considerate manner towards her was not something most people would imagine of him. A more fanciful part of her entertained the idea that she was receiving his personal favour, but she knew that this was next to impossible.

Idly scanning the river ahead of them, Ludmila focused on the Sorcerer King’s question.

“I need to understand the limits of this equipment, Your Majesty,” she said. “Things will be awkward until I develop a feel for what I can do with it.”

She ran a finger over the band of metal running over her temple.

“This…protection – what is it? Is there some simple way in which I can frame the principles under which it functions according to what I’m familiar with? I can’t make any sense of it based on my understanding of how armour works.”

“It’s true that, in most circumstances,” he replied, “having exposed parts of your body like this would mean that strikes to those exposed areas would result in more damage. Those susceptible to critical hits especially seek to protect sensory and vital organs, as well as tendons or wings if one has them. There are, however, various things that can complicate matters.”

The Sorcerer King reached into his inventory, producing an uncomfortably familiar flaming club. He abruptly tossed it at her.

Ludmila flinched as the weapon tumbled end over end, creating a wheel of flame that filled her vision. She wasn’t sure if her new equipment had enough resistance to stop the fire damage from the powerful weapon, but she didn’t get a chance to find out. The flying weapon struck a shimmering hemisphere mere centimetres from her face.

The club lost its energy, weakly bouncing off to be caught deftly by the Sorcerer King.

“This is something that you’ll see uncommonly,” he said. “Many individuals do not use shields, but enchantments can provide shielding bonuses to their defence. It is a staple abjuration spell for magic casters, but many will have shielding bonuses provided by magic items to save mana for other spells. Equipment with shield bonuses to defence should also be a favourite of two-handed weapon users like yourself, but for some reason, warriors around here don’t employ these items despite how accessible they are.”

Ludmila had seen the items with the effect he described before, but it never occurred to her that they were of any use to a physical combatant. Shielding spells were generally seen as one of several defensive enchantments that magic casters in the Adventurer Guild used to improve their survivability.

The Sorcerer King put the flaming club away, then pointed to her chest.

“The Amulet of Natural Armour that you wear provides a second type of defensive bonus that emulates the natural defences – such as a tough hide or shell – that many creatures have. It is cumulative with the shielding bonus from your hairpin. You have another accessory that provides a deflection bonus to defence that is added to that. Finally comes the armour itself, with its own contribution to your overall defence.

“When you put everything together, it makes you very difficult to land hits on. That Death Knight wasn’t holding anything back, and you were standing perfectly still – yet all the factors that go into its offence versus your passive defences produced the results just now. As an active, mobile combatant, it will become that much harder to score a blow.”

“If I equip a shield,” Ludmila asked, “will my defences become even better?”

“No,” the Sorcerer King shook his head. “These defensive enchantments do not stack with other defences of the same type. Shielding enchantments emulate the abstracted benefits of a physical shield. When one equips a physical shield, only the greater benefit applies.”

It was no small wonder why people couldn’t figure out what His Majesty had described. The cumulative defensive bonuses would only appear as if the opponent was failing to land solid hits – meaning the opponent was unskilled, unlucky or the target was lucky or skilled – and no one waited around for their enemies to finally deal damage to them. The enchantments on locally available magic items were probably not as potent as those on her equipment, so the effect would be far less pronounced and thus harder to discern.

“Also,” he added, “while it may provide the same abstracted defensive bonus as a physical shield, it does not provide the other benefits that come with wielding one. Physical shield walls can block area effect spells like Fireball, but the enchantment does not. You also cannot control incoming strikes as you might with a shield, nor does the enchantment obscure your opponent’s line of sight. Attacks that employ shields are also obviously not going to work without one.”

“What about the armour itself? Is it simply the defensive bonuses from enchantments that kept the Death Knight from landing any strikes?”

“No, there’s a good chance you’d be shorter by half a head if not for the circlet,” the Sorcerer King told her. “Naturally, exposed parts of one’s body should be more susceptible to damaging hits. The Sorcerous Kingdom’s foremost experts in advanced armour theory have recently come up with certain techniques to achieve the appearance of what you’re wearing.”

Ludmila glanced over at Lady Shalltear, who only raised her head proudly.

“Being able to see the face was our first priority,” she said. “Having the bodysuit as part of the armour is a compromise for now, and we’ve only gotten as far as you see with the legs. Sooner or later, however, Lord Ainz will be able to see everyt–”

The Sorcerer King coughed loudly, clearing his nonexistent throat.

“A-at any rate, just accept that you are wearing full adamantite plate armour, despite how it appears. Even the fabric of your skirts provide the same protection as enchanted adamantite plate. The reason why your Talent doesn’t detect this is due to it being fashioned with highly advanced, yet mundane, crafting skills.”

It was an impossible balance of form and functionality. Not only would a local smith dismiss claims of such armour as the product of drunken fancy, but the full extent of what those alterations entailed was severely understated.

It did not weigh as much as a full suit of plate mail and had all of its padding requirements covered by her bodysuit, gloves and stockings. It restricted her movement no more than one of the light summer dresses that Liane liked to wear. Though it probably wasn’t a concern for her, the problems with ventilation that heavy armour users experienced were nonexistent.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect was that a full helm had been turned into a ‘circlet’. As a melee combatant and, more importantly, as a commander, she enjoyed a full field of view while also receiving the protection of a great helm. The equipment might have been fashioned to appeal to certain aesthetics, but it offered outrageous advantages simply by being what it was.

“If this armour is essentially enchanted adamantite heavy plate,” Ludmila asked, “does that also mean attacks that can normally penetrate that enchanted plate will also penetrate the protection offered by this equipment?”

“That’s right,” the Sorcerer King answered. “An opponent like Shalltear could easily punch through your armour. The damaged equipment will repair itself after she withdraws her weapon, of course, but you will have taken the damage delivered by the strike. People wielding steel weapons against steel armour is common enough around here, but equipment parity in fights above Level 20 or so is quite rare. Generally speaking, one must consider an opponent’s equipment, what classes they might have and the possibility that they will employ sundering attacks.”

In short, the nuances of her equipment and how they applied to every scenario were not something that one could provide an easy answer for. Understanding that there were limits to its protection was helpful, but she would need to figure out where her defensive boundaries lay. Those boundaries would also shift as she grew in strength, so it was something she had to constantly ensure her awareness of.

“Well, since you’re the intuitive type,” the Sorcerer King waved a hand beside his head, “it’s better to figure things out through direct experience, yes? The difference between what you’re accustomed to and what you now use is so vast that many facts cannot be grasped by simply hearing them described. According to our maps, there should be another ruin about a day’s journey further downriver. If the levels of the Undead continue to increase the deeper we go into the Katze Plains, then our next stop should present you and your forces with a wider variety of challenges. I look forward to your performance.”

The Sorcerer King’s presence receded, accompanied by the whisper of his luxurious robes. The sound of Lady Shalltear’s metal heels on the deck tapped away after him. Ludmila re-equipped her glaive, turning to resume her silent vigil.

I look forward to your performance.

Her grip tightened on the haft of her weapon. After all that he had done for her, she could not disappoint His Majesty.

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