Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, Vol. 8

  The War of Emergence I

  Brandon Varnell

  Illustrated by

  Claparo Sans

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, Vol. 8

  The War of Emergence I

  Copyright © 2022 Brandon Varnell & Kitsune Incorporated

  Illustration Copyright © 2022 Claparosans

  All rights reserved.

  Brandon Varnell and Kitsune Incorporated supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use the material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  To see Brandon Varnell’s other works, or to ask for permission to use his works, visit him at:

  Website : www.varnell-brandon.com

  Facebook: American Kitsune

  Twitter: Brandon Varnell

  Patreon: Brandon’s Patreon

  Instagram: Brandon V

  If you’d like to know when I’m releasing a new book, you can sign up for my mailing list at https://www.varnell-brandon.com/mailing-list.

  ISBN: 978-1-951904-57-9 (paperback)

  978-1-951904-59-3 (eBook)

  Want to find out when a new book is available? Join my mailing list to be kept constantly to date on when I publish a new book!

  Dedication

  This page is made in dedication to my amazing patrons. Without them, my characters would never get lewded by so many wonderful artists:

  Julian Sanchez; Josh Burnham; ben c; MGeo90; AceandTanis; Drunkenbiker; Zeus aka Matt; Jacob Brokenwolf; John Snoopy Henson; Saber The fox; Jonathan Kautz; Alec Watson; Zach Ulbright; Damen Hailey; cj savage; Kconraw; Charles Savage; Gingy; Mana & Steel; Brendan Kane; Max; randgofire23; MrRedSkill; Thomas Oconnell; Yuno; Chett Nialo; Jordan McDonald; Robert Shofner; Alex Burt; Green and Magenta Beast; Paigeon; Tanner Lovelace; Daniel Glasson; robert warnes; Forrest Hansen; TheGothFather72; Christopher Gross; Joshua Kern; Edward Grindle; IronKing; Brendan Smiley; Bryce McClay; Mark Frabotta; Raymond T; Samuel Donaldson; Bruce Johnson; Nathan S; Thomas Jackson; Sean Gray; Chace Corso; ToraLinkley; Dominic Q Roddan; Rafael; Philip Hedgepeth; Aaron harris; max a kramer; victor patrick bauer; William Crew; Aesh; Michael Moneymaker; Seismic Wolf

  Contents

  The Story So Far…

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Interlude I

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Interlude II

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Interlude III

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Interlude IV

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading!

  Afterword

  Sneak Peak

  Manga Page 1

  Manga Page 2

  Manga Page 3

  Manga Page 4

  Manga Page 5

  Hey, did you know?

  Brandon’s LNs

  American Kitsune

  WIEDERGEBURT

  MMG

  Catgirl Doctor

  Incubus

  A Most Unlikely Hero

  Arcadia’s Knight

  Journey of a Betrayed Hero

  Rift

  Executioner

  Follow me!

  The Story So Far…

  After dealing with the Lich King, Fragarach, Caspian and Elincia split off from Erica and Derek. Silvia has given them a new task. They must now travel to Dorumhold, a city where Silvia suspects the governing noble is operating a slave trading business…

  Prologue

  Zanaf grunted as he drove his pickaxe deep into the ground of the Avrondale Mines over and over again. His arms shook from the strain, his back ached from constantly bending over, and his face twisted as he struggled to continue working.

  “Why are you working so slowly? Pick up the pace!”

  He grunted as a whip struck his back. Pain lanced up his back and sides, causing him to nearly drop his pickaxe. He didn’t. But that was only because he knew that dropping it would get him into even more trouble. Gritting his teeth, he continued working as the human who had whipped him grumbled and walked away.

  I’ll only have to endure this a little while longer.

  The Avrondale Mines were located deep beneath the earth’s surface inside of a mountain, which had been carved out using dwarven hands. The circular shaft that he and the other dwarf slaves were mining was located several dozen meters below the walkway. Several guards patrolled the walkway and even more walked around the dwarves. They wore crude iron armor and carried whips in their hands, which they cracked against a dwarf whenever they thought one of them was working too slowly.

  Zanaf hated these humans.

  “What are you doing?! Get up! Keep working!”

  Crack! Crack!

  Zanaf glanced out of the corner of his eye at another dwarf who was taking a beating from a whip. This one was older, with a face that was lined with wrinkles and gray hair on his head. He was too old to work with any quickness. He lacked the spiritedness of youth. That didn’t matter to the guard, who continued smacking him with a whip. Seeing this made Zanaf grit his teeth and work harder.

  Damn, filthy humans! Think they can do whatever they want! We’ll show them. It will all end tonight…

  Even the nobles who owned this mine couldn’t keep them working forever. Dwarves needed to sleep like any other race.

  As he continued to work, Zanaf glanced up at the walkway, where he could see a nobleman dressed in a red doublet, black pants, and with shoulder-length blond hair speaking with the owner of the Avrondale Mines. Morrison Heathcliff was rubbing his hands together eagerly as he spoke with the man. His son was trailing beside him.

  Just then, the man turned his head, looked at Zanaf, and smirked. Zanaf nodded back.

  It was almost time.

  Zanaf tripped over his own two feet as he was prepared to swing his pickaxe down again, causing him to stumble backward, into one of the guards who happened to be coincidentally walking behind him. The guard grunted in shock as they fell and never noticed his keys being stolen.

  “You damn dwarf!” The guard scrambled to his feet and lashed out with his whip. The loud crack that issued forth as the whip struck flesh sounded incredibly loud in Zanaf’s ears. “How dare you! Do this! To me! You frickin’! Clumsy ass! Dwarf!”

  Zanaf bore with the whipping and pain until the guard had exhausted himself and moved off. He had become used to the feel of the whip. It no longer even bothered him beyond causing a dull sting.

  Work continued until, at long last, a guard blew on a whistle. That was the signal for them to head to bed. All the guards shouted at them to get moving, directing them out of the vertical mine shaft and into a side shaft. Zanaf climbed up the ladder with the others and slowly trundled into one of several side passages.

  Their sleeping quarters were located close to the mines, inside of another mine shaft that was their homes. Doors on either side marked the entrance to their rooms and traveled in a straight line for a couple of kilometers.

  Living underground like this didn’t bother Zanaf or the other dwarves. Indeed, they had long since lived underground, as was their nature. That said, barren walls, threadbare beds, and barely livable conditions caused him to see red. Dwarves should be living in opulence. He had heard the stories of the great halls that his forefathers had built, of the numerous riches they had hoarded before they made contact with the Sorceresses. Zanaf longed to return his people to those days of glory.

  And now they would be able to do it.

  When he arrived inside his room, a large crate sat in the middle of the floor. The obsidian box caused him and those who shared this room to stare at it. Whispers broke out.

  “It’s here.”

  “It’s really here.”

  “That noble delivered it just like he said he would.”

  Zanaf felt a moment of surprise course through him; he had not believed the noble would truly come through for them. It seemed there were some humans who disagreed with the current system. Not that it would change their fate.

  “Kallis, help me get this lid off,” Zanaf said to the female dwarf beside him. She was a stocky woman about a head shorter than him, but she was also hardier than most. Her muscles were quite defined, and it didn’t look like she was suffering from malnutrition like many of their dwarven brethren.

  “Right. Let’s take a look at what’s inside.” Kallis spat onto her hands and rubbed them together. “I hope this noble of yours came through for us.”

  “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  He and Kallis got on either side of the box, grabbed the lid, and heaved. Their muscles bulged as the lid slid off the box with a groan. Gnashin
g his teeth together, he and Kallis moved to the side and set the heavy lid down slowly so as not to cause any noise. There were guards located on this floor as well. When they set the lid down, all the dwarves gathered around the box, staring into it with large grins.

  “Well, I’ll be. That damn noble really came through for us, after all,” one dwarf said. He was a beefy dwarf, or he would have been if he was able to eat properly. Like the rest, he was mostly skin and bones.

  “Hmph! I don’t know what that human is thinking, but I guess we’ll grant him a quick death as a thank you for delivering these to us,” another commented.

  Inside the box were numerous weapons. Most of them were the newfangled magic rifles that important Peacekeepers and members of the nobility used. They were long and made from a combination of wood and steel, with gleaming lines of blue power flowing through them. A gauge sat on the handles to let him know that all of the weapons were fully charged.

  It wasn’t just weapons inside of the box either. A small device shaped like a cylinder with numerous knobs sat inside of the box, located in an alcove away from everything else. It wasn’t glowing right now, but he knew what it was supposed to do.

  “Everyone, grab a weapon,” Zanaf instructed Kallis and the others as he reached in and grabbed one of the rifles. It was smooth to touch and somewhat cold, but it felt good in his hands. It felt powerful. “Let’s take out the guards on this level, and then we travel topside and kill the nobles running this place.”

  “Aye,” the other dwarves agreed with his orders.

  Everyone grabbed a gun and the group soon went back toward the door. Zanaf pressed an ear to the door and listened. He couldn’t hear any footsteps from the other side, but he knew there were guards who periodically patrolled the mine shaft. Hmph. They were probably slacking off. He had been observing them enough by now to know that the guards were likely playing a game of cards.

  Grabbing the handle, he tried to open it. The door was locked of course. However, Zanaf reached into his pants and took out the key, which he inserted into the lock and slowly turned. There was a soft click, and then he pushed the door open, wincing only slightly as the rusty hinges squealed.

  He glanced outside and saw that no one was present. Looking back in, he gestured for the other dwarves to follow him, then left the room and traveled down the mine shaft. The sound of dull footsteps echoed behind them. As they neared the entrance, laughter caught their attention and caused the group to stop moving. Up ahead was a doorway that was opened just a crack. Someone must have been lazy and forgot to shut it all the way. Light emitted from the other side.

  “I can’t believe you lost your keys! Gya ha ha ha! Was it when that dwarf crashed into you? How pathetic!”

  “Sh-shut up! It wasn’t my fault! That damn dwarf is the one to blame! The keys must have fallen off when he slammed into me! Frickin’ stupid dwarf!”

  The voices became more intelligible as Zanaf came up to the door and pressed his back against the wall, listening in. Kallis came up beside him with the other dwarves. He looked at her, then looked at the others. Nodding once, he signaled that it was time.

  Without warning, he kicked the door in and rushed inside with the other dwarves.

  “What the—?!”

  There were three guards sitting around a wooden table. Just as he had expected, they were playing a game of cards and drinking mugs of ale. Two of them looked quite drunk. Their cheeks were red and their eyes were glassy with intoxication. However, even they swiveled their heads in his direction, aware enough to recognize the danger. The last of the guards was standing up, hands on the table as he stared at the dwarves rushing into the guard room with shock.

  “Shit! The dwarves have—!”

  He was never able to finish that sentence because Zanaf took aim and pulled the trigger.

  A lance of lightning burst from the magical rifle, shooting forward and slamming into the guard’s breastplate. The guard jerked back as lightning coursed over his body. He fell onto the floor and began spasming for several seconds before his body slowly began shutting down. His legs jerked several times, his chest heaved one breath, two, and then it went still. Steam rose from his body.

  He was without a doubt dead.

  The other two guards tried to stand up, but they were drunk, which meant they were also sluggish. Kallis and another dwarf aimed their rifles and opened fire, launching simultaneous lances of lightning at the two. One of them missed. The other struck one of the humans in the head, blowing a hole clean through his skull. As that human jerked to the ground, completely dead, Zanaf aimed at the guard who was still alive.

  He pulled the trigger.

  Zanaf ignored the man as he jerked backward and underwent muscle spasms. He went over to a small rack where the keys to the other cells were hanging and pulled all ten of them off. Turning, he looked at his fellow dwarves as they began stripping the corpses of their armor and weapons.

  “You can steal from the dead later,” Zanaf said with a grunt. “Before we bother stripping these louts, we need to free the others and give them some weapons. Only after everyone has a weapon can we begin killing all the people in this mine. Hurry up.”

  He handed the keys off to his people. While none of them looked too happy that he was giving them orders, they also knew he was right. That said, while five of the nine dwarves with him did as he asked, four of them continued stripping the corpses of their armor and weapons.

  “Hey, this is some pretty nice stuff. The armor is a bit rusty, but these swords and muskets are new.”

  “They aren’t as good as these MagiTech rifles, but I bet we can find a use for them.”

  “I’m more interested in melting down this armor and creating something fit for a dwarf! Ha ha ha!”

  Zanaf sighed in dismay, but he didn’t say anything as the dwarves continued looting the dead. If he wasn’t more concerned with killing all the people in this mine, he would have been doing the same thing as them.

  It didn’t take long before more dwarves began filing into the guard room. All of them were similarly armed with MagiTech rifles. None of them looked surprised either. Like him, they had all been waiting for this day. Zanaf waited and watched until he saw almost a hundred dwarves now standing inside of the small room.

  “You all know what’s happening here,” he said. “These filthy humans have suppressed us for long enough. They think they have us crushed underfoot, that they have taken away our pride, but tonight, we’re going to show them that the dwarven spirit is still alive and well. We’ll teach these bloody humans a lesson! Tonight, we slaughter everyone here!”

  As the dwarves hefted their rifles and cheered, Zanaf smiled. Tonight, they would kill the guards who had abused them and the nobles who had oppressed them. They wouldn’t leave a single man, woman, or child alive.

  Chapter 1

  It took about two weeks to return to Axium from Parumé. Part of the reason it took so long despite the fact that they had carriages and horses was because of how tired everyone had been. Caspian, Derek, Erica, and Elincia had fought against a lich king named Fragarach and Caspian’s mother, who had been resurrected using necromancy. Meanwhile, the Peacekeepers had been forced to fight against an undead dragon. While they had ultimately emerged victorious, their spirits had been wounded.

  The only bright side to this whole fiasco, aside from the obvious benefit of one less lich king existing in this world, was that Elincia’s stock among the Peacekeepers had risen. Her tireless efforts to heal them had caused quite a few people to become big fans of hers. She now had many Peacekeepers who would greet her with a smile and chat with her on the way back to Axium. This included both men and women. Of course, while the women were okay, the men had a huge obstacle standing between them and Elincia.

  Caspian.

  Ever since that one idiot had asked for her hand in marriage, Caspian had been on guard against other potential idiots. He kept a close eye on anyone attempting to get too close to his Sorceress. If someone so much as looked at Elincia in a way that he deemed lecherous, he would not hesitate to smack them over the head with his sheathe.