Chapter 7 - Betrayal at the Vault
A rain of steel-tipped iron bolts shattered against the stone pillars of the vault as Leo and his strike team scrambled for cover behind the marble altars.
"We're trapped!" Lyra yelled, deflection a stray bolt with her bracer. "There's no other way out!"
"There's always a way out," Leo said. He looked down at Sunfall in his hands. He felt a deep, instinctual connection to the weapon—as if the blade were an extension of his own nervous system.
Leo took a deep breath, stepped out from behind the pillar, and channeled his strength through the ancient weapon. The golden topaz in the pommel flared like a miniature sun.
With a violent upward slash, Leo swung Sunfall through the air. A wave of concentrated kinetic force burst from the blade, crashing directly into the iron gate bars. The thick steel shattered like cheap glass, sending iron shrapnel flying into the ranks of the king's guards.
The guards screamed in terror as the blast knocked a dozen men off their feet.
"Charge!" Lyra yelled, leading the rebel team through the ruined gateway.
A brutal, close-quarters melee erupted in the narrow Obsidian Corridor. Leo moved like a whirl of light and steel. Sunfall cleaved through iron shields and heavy plate armor as if they were made of parchment. No guard could stand against the reach and power of the royal blade.
Lord Vane stepped forward, his massive two-handed sword swinging in a deadly horizontal arc aimed at Leo's neck. "You're just a rat in a crown!" Vane roared.
Leo parried the blow. The collision of their weapons created a shower of sparks that lit up the hallway. Vane was far stronger, pushing Leo back toward the wall with brute force, but Leo was faster.
Leo dropped low, sweeping Vane's lead ankle with his boot. As the giant commander stumbled forward, Leo pivoted and struck with the pommel of Sunfall directly into Vane's helmeted jaw, crushing the iron and sending the commander crashing unconscious to the floor.
Aldric, seeing his elite commander fall, turned and fled up the stairs like a coward, screaming for reinforcements.
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"Let him go!" Leo shouted to Lyra, who was preparing to give chase. "The palace is waking up. We take the secret passage behind the altar and get out of the city!"
They darted back into the vault, pushed open an ancient stone escape hatch behind the white marble altar, and vanished into the darkness of the sewer channels below just as hundreds of heavy footsteps echoed down the main stairwell.
