Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (hardest books to read txt) 📕

Her respite didn’t last long. The General advanced towards her once again, having brushed off the pain of the bleeding slash across his face. As he moved past the area of their last skirmish, he kicked Lia’s sword away behind him. “You were a worthy opponent, girl,” he stated gruffly. “I’d like to know your name before you die.”

“Fuck you,” she spat, raising her hands palms-forward in a loose fighting stance. “I’m not dying today.”

“Lia, run!” I shouted helplessly. I knew I lacked the energy to run the distance between us without faltering, let alone assist her in combat. Leaving the Strategist alive and in chains was the only way to truly end the occupation, but I only had the strength for one last action: killing him, or trying to save Lia. My eyes tracked around the room as I began to panic. “Val! Please get up, or...”

I trailed off as I found the spot where she had collapsed was empty. “No. No way,” I muttered under my breath in shock. “Val wouldn’t run.” There was no sign of her anywhere as I searched for my last hope of keeping Lia alive, growing more horrified by the second. “She wouldn’t…”

Lia looked up to where I stood beside the raised bench and gave me a sad, knowing smile. I felt a sudden presence in the back of my mind, and her comforting aura spread out over my body. I love you, Elden. I heard her voice ring crystal clear inside my head, even though her lips never moved. The feeling receded as quickly as it had arrived, and Lia loosed a triumphant battle cry as she charged towards the General. A howl of anguish escaped my lips as he raised both of his blades above his head and readied his final blow.

The swords began to fall, but a dazzling flash of light forced me to shut my eyes and turn away before I could see them land. Two distinct chimes of metal striking metal filled the room, and my heart caught in my throat as a small ray of hope purged the despair that had consumed me. My vision returned just in time to reveal the most beautiful scene I had ever witnessed: Val stood directly behind Lia, holding both of the General’s swords at bay above her head with her glorious shield, which seemed to radiate a gentle golden light I had never seen before.

My emotions overtook me for a moment, and I let out a triumphant whoop. A powerful surge of relief flooded through me, and I yanked up on the Strategists arm again, drawing out a pitiful yelp. “You could never break Val,” I whispered to him, giving my sword a slow, painful twist against his windpipe. “Now, watch as your entire empire crumbles to the ground before your eyes.”

Val effortlessly pushed the blades aside as she shifted in front of Lia and planted a heavy kick directly into the General’s chest. He stumbled back and gasped for breath, but Val pushed the assault before he could find it. Her shield rocketed out along her arm and smashed into his left shoulder, causing the arm to drop uselessly to his side. He retaliated with a desperate swipe with his remaining arm, but Val’s shield was already spinning to the side to catch it. The deflection left him wide open, and she quickly capitalized with a left hook from the heavy gauntlet on her empty hand.

A mixture of blood, spit, and teeth splattered against Val’s shield as the General’s jaw shattered. The blow sent him reeling toward me in a teetering circle, but he somehow managed to keep his feet beneath him. Val followed him, but Lia closed the distance first, her sword now reclaimed. She caught his off-balance swing on the flat of her sword and shifted forward, whipping her arm in a quick circle that knocked the weapon from his hand. Now disarmed, he bellowed and threw himself forward with what looked to be a headbutt, but Val’s shield interposed itself between the two and knocked him onto his back.

As he tried to push himself upright against the staircase below me, he let loose another bellow, but it was plain to hear that the fight had left him. It sounded to me as though it was almost a cry of relief; the lamentation of a warrior who had grown too old, finally relieved of duty. He made no move to fight as the two women approached him with their weapons drawn.

“By order of the Golden Throne, I am placing you under arrest for your numerous crimes against the Kingdom of Kaldan,” Val stated in a low, level voice. “You will accompany me to the capitol to face—”

“No,” he barked through a mouth full of blood and broken teeth, “I won’t. My duties to the Company won’t allow that.”

“Shut up, you idiot!” the Strategist shouted angrily. “Do what the woman says, if you value your damned life!”

“I value my word,” he responded, staring intently up at Val. “I will not be taken prisoner.”

“You understand that the consequence of disobeying this order is death?” Val asked, more gently. “I give you my word, you will be treated fairly at trial. This does not have to be your end.”

He spat a glob of partially clotted blood onto the steps beside him. “I will do my duty. See to it that you do yours.”

There was a moment of intense silence as he closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. With a small flourish, he suddenly produced a dagger from a hidden sheath and lunged up towards Val in a miraculous burst of energy. His body froze halfway to its intended target, impaled through the front of his chest by a slim silver blade. Lia drove the point down into the steps behind him, and he fell back with a dull thud where he landed and remained unmoving.

We all stood statue-still in the