The Bathrobe Knight by Charles Dean, Joshua Swayne Page B

likely responsible for.
    “Do a barrel roll, Valerie!” one of the others shouted at her. Valerie just rolled her eyes and stayed focused.
    Left, left, right, almost there. You’re first, big man. Valerie finished her dive and with all the force of her descent pushed her two Daggers through the skull of the biggest onyx-skinned man in the group.
Critical Dive! You have done 216 Damage!
Critical Dive! You have done 216 Damage!
    Size doesn’t matter if you can’t hit squat, she thought, thankful the NPC hadn’t had a secret double life as a baseball player. The few Fire-Walkers who were pitchers in real life were a scary sight indeed.
    Of the ten other White-Wings with her, only one had been picked out of the air by the balls. The rest had all landed on a mark. Ten down, fourteen to go. The Fire-Walker closest to Valerie came at her with his Glass Mace. She charged him, dodging his overhead swing and planting the two Daggers in his back for maximum Damage.
Critical Hit! You have done 108 Damage!
Critical Hit! You have done 108 Damage!
                  No sooner had she planted her fresh Daggers in his back and pulled them back out than another one of the Fire-Walkers tried to hit her with a Dull Glass Sword. She couldn’t dodge it and knew if she tried it would probably tear into one of her wings so she let the Glass Sword sink into her arm, catching it as best she could, and used her free unsliced arm to repeatedly stab the Fire-Walker. Die! Die! Die! Die!
You have taken 95 Damage!
You have done 54 Damage!
You have done 54 Damage!
You have done 54 Damage!
You have done 54 Damage!
                  With one arm unusable and her hitpoints having taken a big hit, she looked around happy to see the fight was over. The happiness quickly faded into an eerie, uncomfortable feeling, however, when she realized that of the six remaining White-Wings in her group, everyone was staring at her.
                  “What? Is something wrong?” she said, feeling the avian eyes piercing through her.
                  “No, it’s just, you really went crazy on that last one. I didn’t expect someone to use their arm as a shield, especially not someone who picked the Scout class. I’m impressed” the Herald said.
                  “Oh, well, the Sun God was watching, I couldn’t give her a bad show,” she said. The perfect thing for the NPC herald, but it made the two PCs still alive in her group roll their eyes. Some people always complained that she was too corny with her role playing, but her attention to character had gotten several of her commanding officers to mention the possibility of her being promoted to Herald, so she wasn’t about to stop it now.
                  “Indeed! That would be a tragedy. Let’s run a sweep of the perimeter and then go put together a full unit for another patrol. There can’t be any remaining resistance here if we are to successfully bring the word of the Sun God to the White-Horns.”
    ‘Bring word of the Sun God’ was just a less brutal way of saying ‘conquer in a war.’ Valerie, doing her best to immerse herself in her character, had studied in depth the creation of the Empire. Somewhere along the line in the history of the small, sand-covered continent, one of the many nomadic Eagle-Born tribes and one of the Fire-Walker tribes decided to merge because of their mutual love for the sun. Even though arguments constantly sprung up between the groups over what exactly the Sun God was or wanted: male or female, all knowing or all powerful, or both, demanding of sacrifices or demanding of prayer. They all agreed that there was a Sun God and that the Sun God wanted them to spread his or her word and cleanse the world of all those that did not love him or her. It was confusing at first, but over the years the arguments had grown fewer and the worship grew more political.
    “Of course, Commander,” she said. She took off into