Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

Hah… what a joke.” Zoltan sneered. “Your father rode out to face the Demon like some fairy-tale knight with a head full of stories. Did you really expect me to die for that pathetic loser and his pathetic seed?”

Kitti’s pupils dilated, and a red haze began to shimmer around her as her cheeks turned scarlet with rage. She shoved her rifle into Letho’s hands as Zoltan let out another wheezing, high pitched laugh— which meant he wasn’t looking when the girl, with a sudden burst of manic strength, pulled Suri’s five-and-a-half foot long zweihander sword from the sheathe on the taller woman’s back and swung it around.

“I’ll make Bas-” He looked up to see Kitti as she boiled toward him, her face a mask of primal fury, and bought the blade down with a bloodcurdling scream. “Uh-”

Zoltan’s head flew from his shoulders, landing with a satisfying thump on the stone. I took a big step back as his body jerked on its knees, arterial spray shooting into the air before dying back to weak, pulsing pumps of blood. The headless corpse swayed, then collapsed with a meaty thump on the pavement.

[Congratulations! You have completed Quest: The Last of Her House.]

[You earn 2700 EXP! You gain a +1000 EXP perfection bonus (Less than 10% Mass Combat ally fatalities).]

[Congratulations! You are Level 27!]

[You gained a new achievement: Lord of All You Survey.]

[You have gained Renown: +400 Renown (Myszno; all regions)]

[You gain +250 Bonus Renown (Myszno; all regions) and +250 Renown (General Nobility, Myszno Province)].

[You gain 40 Build Points!]

[Your Kingdom has obtained new Resources: Barley +5000, Silver +1500, Mana (Crystal) +200.]

“Hey! I know that move!” I grinned at Suri. “Gorgon Overdrive, right?”

“Sure is.” Suri went over to the girl, resting a hand on her shoulder. Kitti still clenched the sword hilt in a death grip, panting, teeth bared, her eyes dark and wild with rage. “You alright?”

“No.” Kitti’s expression flickered as the combat ended and her Primal Rage faded. She dropped the huge sword with a clang, then turned and buried her face against Suri’s breastplate, weeping. Letho and Gruna both walked up to Zoltan’s corpse and spat on it, one after the other.

“Good ‘Zerking, kid.” Suri hugged her around the shoulders.

The Lady of House Hussar stepped back, dashing at her eyes, and turned to me with her chin lifted. “My apologies, Your Grace. It is unseemly for a Countess to break down in front of her peer like that.”

“You’re fourteen, Kitti. You can be forgiven a few tears.” I smiled at her, opening my arms in offering. She hesitated, stepped forward, and let me hug her. “Now, do I have to do anything to make your position official?”

“Yes,” she said. “There is typically a ceremony, and you should have an option in your menu to change my status.”

“We don’t have time for a ceremony, but we can do one after all this is over.” I flipped to the KMS and quickly found Kitti in my allies menu. “Appoint Kitti Hussar as Countess of Bas.”

[Appointment confirmed: Countess Kitiana Hussar, Satrap of Bas and 9th Councilwoman of the Myszno Duma.]

[LOCAL ALERT—Myszno Province: After a long and difficult battle, Countess Kitiana Hussar has reclaimed the County of Bas from her challenger, Zoltan Gallo!]

Kitti’s eyes widened, and she brought her hands up to move holoscreens that I couldn’t see. “Wow. So these are the menus my father used to use... the Kingdom Management System. Strange they call it that. The Kingdom belongs to his Majesty.”

“I think it’s just a turn of phrase, yeah.” I rubbed the back of my neck, glancing at Suri. Neither of us could see the other’s face, but I knew she was smiling.

A roar went up from the Lower Ward, and then—in the distance—from the city itself. Mostly cheers, some moans... and then the rolling boom of cannon fire from somewhere in Solonovka.

“Letho, Gruna. Here are my first orders,” Kitti said firmly, sniffing to clear the last of her tears. “We will go and liberate any of our household imprisoned in the dungeons, first of all. Letho, you will  take Zoltan’s head and body and stake them both outside the castle gates.”

He grunted, nodded, and toed Zoltan’s head with his boot.

“Jeez, kid. You’ve been a Countess for ten minutes and you’re already staking cunts out the front of your castle,” Suri laughed, bending to pick up her sword.

“It is justice. I may be a ‘greensick maiden’, but I am the descendant of conquerors. This man wanted to take my home from me—well, let him rot on the walls of it.” Kitti straightened up, looking down at the body of the man who had occupied her home. “Gruna—you are my father’s most loyal and experienced drughi, and you obeyed his final wishes by protecting me. We will work together on setting Solonovka to rights, and once the county is stable, I am appointing you regent of Bas.”

“… Regent?” Gruna blinked. It was the first time I’d ever heard him speak.

“Yes. I am not wise or strong enough to rule, yet.” Kitti turned back to Suri, drawing herself up. “Countess, pending the restoration of my lands, I humbly request to be made a Ward of Racsa and to serve as your squire until I come of age in two years’ time.”

“A squire?” Suri glanced at me and drew a deep breath. “Berserkers don’t, uh, really have squires. And I’d say you’re plenty wise, for your age-”

“For my age.” Kitti took a step forward. “Gruna is well-traveled and experienced in handling the matters of the county, but all my father ever taught me was to be a quiet, obedient wife to some southern lordling. This is the frontier land, Your Grace: the wild men of the southern reach will not respect a girl. But I can make them respect a woman, if I