In an extremely weary and dazed-like stupor, I asked the Changeling queen, "Please, please elaborate on how you manage the hallways that are literally swarmed with my guards."

"Ha, those are your guards?" she scoffed, "They're less perceptive than a pebble."

"Although, their aimless wandering made it somewhat of a nuisance. Nonetheless, the task of infiltrating this place was still far from difficult." Chrysalis stated smugly.

"Although, I did sense an alarmingly disturbing amount of malicious, magical energy permeating from them, but regardless, they look feeble enough for me to disregard them as a threat," she boasted.

"Hm, well I suppose that is a sensible explanation for it." I replied, visually weary, "The tonberries aren't exactly renowned for their agility."

Although, their proficiency in the art of remorseless murder- er, assassination is quite prominent. Hm, I revoke my statement, I don't think simply walking up to someone, clearly in their line of sight, and stabbing them is considered assassination.

"Please, do tell me about the approaching army of mercenaries. It seems rather irrational for them to attack me all of a sudden, especially considering the degree of attrition they suffered." I inquired.

Chrysalis continued, "They are demoralized as well, the reason to this is most likely due to the amount of casualties they sustained from their previous encounter with your minions."

"They also seem to be critically debilitated, the majority of them are harboring rather fresh injuries, as if they had a skirmish recently. It's perplexing, how they managed to pinpoint your little fortress." Chrysalis added.

"Perhaps they simply assumed that this castle was still abandoned, and they are simply passing through here? Could it have been a possibility that they had an encounter with another group who holds hostility towards them. I am doubtful to think that they would launch a sortie on this installment, especially with a number of them injured." I commented.

"Tch, if that's the case, then we should make a preemptive attack -- an ambush -- thus, eliminating a threat of ours." Chrysalis recommended. "Of course, we'd have to pursue the survivors that manage to scurry off, but that wouldn't be too problematic."

"I would prefer to avoid doing something too hasty," I objected, yawning once more. "I would much rather talk with them first before deciding on whether I should massacre them completely or not."

"Hmph, well I suggest that you acquire something that you can use to defend yourself with, I highly doubt that your 'guards' will be able to defend you from the metal of their blades, considering that they are easy prey among their archers," Chrysalis instructed.

"You'll be able to find me just south from here, just a suitable distance away from the gryphon mercenaries," she stated.

Before I could query further about where she would exactly position herself, and probably a sizable amount of her changelings, she vanished from my sight in a miniature inferno of green flames, leaving me to my solitude once more.

Her statement on where she would exactly be wasn't as informative as it was vague and that irritates me even further.

I sighed as I headed towards the door, but not before looking towards the bed, which appears to be more comfortable than it did before seven-fold. As enticing as it is, I resisted going back to the blissful grasp of slumber.

I exited the bedchamber and contemplated to myself on where I could possibly retrieve a weapon. Of course, it didn't require much time to conclude that the repository of weapons, the armory, would be the most sensible place for the acquisition of a weapon.

I began walking through the several corridors of the castle, encountering several tonberries taking a stroll throughout the halls. The tonberries never seem to tuck away their behemoth-knives, though, with a blade that size, I doubt that it is possible to conceal them.

Yes, I have come to call their butcher knives behemoth-knives solely by the fact that they are comically large and terrifying.

Those knives are definitely terrifying, as if a single stab from their knives is fatal. The fact that a single stab from a tonberry's knife actually is usually fatal kindles my fear of their knives even further.

I noticed that the number of tonberries here is inordinate, there were at least five tonberries per hallway, which caused me to be more bewildered by the fact that Chrysalis actually managed to bypass all of them, completely avoiding detection.

I shrugged that rather unproductive thought out of my head. I am heading towards the armory to obtain a weapon, preferably something reliable, should I be required to participate in combat.

But I can assure you, I'll see to it that combat will be avoided, that is, if it can be avoided. I am quite certain that those mercenaries are still rather spiteful towards me. Of course they are, I massacred a great quantity of them.

Although, this isn't exactly a negotiation, should they decline my ultimatum, said ultimatum simply requests that they screw off and leave me be, they will be most likely murdered.

Or for an even more cruel alternative, become captives of Chrysalis. Ugh, a chill run downs my spine thinking about that thought.

Ack, another rather unnecessary line of thought, I mentally cursed as I shrugged that one off as well. Must concentrate on obtaining a weapon from the armory.

Yes, I am aware that the firearms have faded entirely from this specific reality, considering that the pirates were un-summoned, but that does not mean that whatever they crafted using the materials gathered here have dematerialized.

If I recall correctly, they hoarded a considerable amount of bottles containing intoxicating liquid. With any luck, they didn't consume the entirety of the stockpile of alcohol and alternatively, and more productively, fabricated firebombs, more commonly known as molotov cocktails.

Molotov cocktails, an explosive projectile that is ridiculously simplistic, but remains as an extremely viable and effective tool for either disintegrating whole buildings and biological entities, or for simply administrating anarchy.

Molotovs are quite an ubiquitous instrument of violence. After all, they don't require much effort to craft, and are quite effective.

I ceased my walking as I was met with a nuisance, a pathway in the castle splitting into different routes. I groaned as I attempted to remember which route was the one I needed to take.

Fortunately I managed to somehow recall the route leading to the weapons cache, and walked further down the lower sectors of the castle... probably, it was somewhat of a guess, really.

Finally, I arrived at the armory. Or at the very least, a lengthy hallway leading towards the armory, or what I assumed to be the entrance to the armory, it was difficult to discern this hallway from the other several hallways.

Hm, this is definitely the place. The brick walls were still morbidly uninspiring, the scent of this place can still be accurately described as condemning despair.

Although, what did I expect? This is an abandoned castle, the duration for which it was abandoned is beyond me, I doubt that a band of pirates can reconstruct it into something too appealing.

I inspected the room further, there was a troublesome nuisance, the room was inadequately lit, although, there were additional lights installed within the room, fortunately enough.

I walked into the armory further, to my astonishment the armory was much improved significantly, "Actually, it appears as if there are a few major alterations to the armory." I whispered to myself.

The myriad of spears were placed vertically on their respective weapon racks on the right corner of the room.

Said spears appeared to be even honed, and sharpened, and judging by the degree of finesse, whoever sharpened these spears possessed much proficiency in doing so.

The several swords and other miscellaneous blades were also organized vertically on wooden racks, as with the spears, they seemed to have been honed.

Finally, many of the several preexisting bows were placed on a simple, dreary wooden table stationed on the middle of the armory.

There was even a small, wooden container, resembling that of a crate, serving as a depot for hand-crafted arrows beside the table. Quite impressive.

I must admit, the pirates are notably competent at reorganization...

I began browsing through the vast arsenal stored within this chamber. First, I headed to the rack filled with spears. I'm not exactly certain why I chose to approach here first, considering I have no experience wielding spears whatsoever.

I prefer ranged weapons over the weapons where it is necessary for one to close in the distance between your enemy before striking. So, perhaps a bow will be appropriate for me?

I shrugged, then again, I'm not much of a sharpshooter. Hell, I can barely strike someone down using the cross-bow, so bows aren't exactly viable for me.

With a sigh, I finally opted to simply obtain a simple blade, besides, it's not as if I'm going to be participating in most of the combat.

I perused the organized cache of swords with uncertainty, there was just simply too many to choose from. Finally I selected a fine, small blade. It had an allure to it, I was not certain exactly what it was, but it appeared to be more quaint than the other blades.

I inspected the small blade with approval. It wasn't intimidating per se, but it would be more than sufficient at ceasing someone's life.

I trailed off my examination as I noticed something at the table prompting me to smirk maliciously, no, not because of the assortment of bows, the origin of my grim smirk was due to a subtle, unremarkable clothe sack placed beside the wooden bows.

I might have an assumption on the contents of the sack...

Approaching the sack, I peeked into its interior to discover its contents, my smile of malice surged in magnitude substantially as I acquired one of the contents from the bag and inspected it in my hand.

It was a firebomb; a molotov cocktail. My assumption was correct, igniting a sense of mischief within my mind.

You see, I have a fascination with fire, yes, I am somewhat of a pyromaniac, but, I will probably traumatize myself to an immensely high degree, should I murder someone via flames.

The screams of agony is something I find significantly nauseating, so I will allocate a great deal of effort avoiding the usage of these explosives, I'll only hurl them haphazardly, should the necessity present itself.

Remember, I do not have a sizable amount of time to spare, an army is approaching, I reminded myself as I strapped the bag stocked with bottles containing extremely flammable liquid on myself before swiftly departing from the weapons cache.

Despite the fact that I was in hurry to arrive at the battlefield or what would become a battlefield should things go horribly wrong, but I tread with caution.It would be calamitous should I drop this bag.

This bag of searing death.

I wandered around the southern outskirts of my fortification, my legion of intimidating, knife-wielding murderers trailing close behind me, searching for that bastard, Chrysalis.

It didn't take long for me, along with my army, to take notice of a bright, eerie green flow in the distance.

That must be Chrysalis and her swarm, I thought to myself as I approached it, prompting my countless amount of tonberries to follow me.

"Chrysalis, you could have at least told me where you would exactly be at before teleporting like that," I said, mildly disgruntled.

"Yes, yes, it's quite nice to see you too," she said mockingly, "Anyways, the acquisition of a weapon, did you manage that?" she asked.

Promptly, I retrieved one of the hazardous firebombs from the conveniently sized bag, "I assume that you're at least familiar with the use of this item?"

She glares at me skeptically, "You, you brought a bottle of alcohol... with some sort of fabric stuffed into it."

"So, I assume that you are not aware of the purpose of this improvised weapon," I stated, "That... is understandable, considering that this is a land of non-violence."

"A bottle, what could you possibly achieve with a bottle?" Chrysalis asked doubtfully.

"Fine, if you'd like to see a demonstration of this thing, ignite the cloth." I asked, to which she rolled her eyes dismissively.

With a small surge of magic, her horn glowed as she performed a seemingly measly fire-based spell, kindling the rag inserted in the bottle.

I scanned the area for a suitable target, causing a forest fire would be extremely annoying. Finally, I spotted a rather large clearing, distanced away from the foliage.

Deciding on that to be my target, I hurled the firebomb at the clearing, which I managed to hit. My throw was satisfactory enough for the molotov to avoid being tangled in the surrounding foliage.

The bottle shattered upon contact of the ground, thus the bottle spread its flammable content over the area in a burst of shattered glass.

Ergo, the fire that was on the fabric lit the liquid that was doused over the vicinity of where the bottle impacted, thus causing a miniature inferno.

"Ambush! It's an ambush!" I heard a voice yell in the distance.

I widened my eyes, "I really shouldn't have done that."

Author's Notes:

Fire based weapons, quite a marvelous concept.

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