"That guy's totally insane! He's gonna kill us all! Lucas Estellan needs to die! Kill him!"
Lucas opened his eyes to the sounds of absolute and utter chaos.
The sky was orange with smoke as a black-winged dragon circled above spitting fire at anything that moved.
A large army made up of soldiers from all of the eight kingdoms was pouring over the hill in a flood of bodies, all moving towards Lucas' location.
He could see the flags for all of them. The golden lion of Noclies, the silver eagle of Montrose, the red wolf of Solkier, the black eye of Jazhad, the blue rose of Qi'en.
Hell, even the normally neutral kingdoms of Vseti, Wajsfeir and Halkland had joined in the action.
The smaller force of Lucas' followers held in the valley below.
A blonde-haired woman with blue eyes in battered silver plate stood in front of the line. She raised a dented kite shield and deflected a spear thrust. Her spear stabbed out fast.
Stab, Stab, Stab.
It punched through enemy helmets and chainmail like they were made of paper. Blood sprayed across her face, but she didn't even blink.
An axe slammed into her shoulder with so much force it instantly broke her shoulder but she just gritted her teeth, stabbed the guy through the gut with her spear, then kicked his corpse off her weapon. Three more soldiers rushed her immediately.
She met them head-on.
Behind her, a silver-haired woman with purple eyes extended her arm. A swirling mass of purple light hung in the air before her.
The spell pulled men from the enemy side towards it and grinded them into dust. Their screams were swallowed up by the spell as their bodies came apart piece by piece.
Arms, legs, heads - all of it got sucked into that hungry purple vortex that grinded them into meat paste.
The woman's face was stone-cold as she watched dozens of men die horribly. She raised her other hand, and another vortex appeared on the opposite flank.
A red-skinned woman, nearly seven feet tall and bare-armed, crashed through a bunch of soldiers like a bull through dry sticks. She sent some of the soldiers flying and even broke a few bones.
Her black eyes looked sinister as she grabbed one man by the throat and slammed him into another soldier so hard their armors crumpled together and they both became a pile of blood and guts on the ground.
After that, she swung a broken halberd like a club, and every swing sent bodies flying. Blood sprayed across her muscled chest and arms. She laughed as she fought, actually laughed, like this massacre was the most fun she'd had all week.
A spear caught her in the side, but she just snapped it off and kept going.
To the side, a blue-haired girl was fighting like twenty opponents at once, her sword was wrapped with water making it like a whip. Water burst from her feet and knocked down some of her enemies, then it froze in the next second to impale them with jagged ice.
She slashed out again, sending shards of flying ice into the foreheads of another group of attacking soldiers, skewering their brains and instantly killing them.
Near the back where Lucas was, a pink-haired priestess knelt down beside him. Her white robes were stained red at the hem in blood and she had cuts all over her arms and legs.
Her hands glowed faintly as she pressed them to his chest, but the wound kept bleeding.
Whatever had hit him had gone deep, probably puncturing something vital.
She leaned forward, shaking like crazy. Tears were streaming down her face.
"Please don't die. Please don't die," she said, over and over and over again. "We need you. I need you. Please. Please. Please don't die. I need you.We need you."
[REBOOTING SYSTEM: Initializing Villain Protocol v2.0]
A notification popped up right in Lucas's field of vision.
A horn blew somewhere in the distance. More knights from the enemy army came charging at them, screaming:
"Kill that bastard! Death to Lucas Estellan!"
[Ding!]
Another notification appeared.
[Quest: "Backstabber"
Objective: Screw over your allies for sweet, sweet rewards!
Reward: +100,000 Villain Points
Failure: You die
Time Limit: 5 minutes]
Lucas looked at his allies again and watched them as they struggled and put their life on the line for him. In fact, it seemed they were all going to die because of him.
Lucas couldn't help but think to himself.
How the hell did I end up in this mess?