A Guide to Kingdom Building - Chapter 165

Tarsuria, Year of Severus, 15, I.R., the 58th day of Fall, Arenfall

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“Oh, no! No!” Stolas grabbed Prince Arterius’ by the arm. “You, good prince, are NOT going out there!” His ward insisted.

Prince Arterius tried to shake away from his ward’s hand, but Stolas’ grip proved to be strong. “Stolas, let go off me! As your prince, I deserve—” A blood-curdling scream suddenly distracted both men from their bickering.

The knights outside were panicking. Their voices roaring insanely at something. Lord Prestonheim’s voice echoed throughout the chaos. His godfather seemed to be commanding his men to do a formation or if he’s heard him correctly, pacify the beast.

He wanted to see what they were currently fighting against. The descriptions that the frantic knight given to him earlierprovided only little ideas in his mind as to what the knight could’ve become. Is it a wyrkolak? Probably, but there weren’t any howling to be heard, only a terrible blunt scream.

Could it be one of those mandragora slime hybrids that the alchemists’ books were talking about? It seemed        too vague for this situation. His mind was filled with ideas of tentacles and horns, but it was all nothing but theories and imaginations from the books he read when he was younger.

“Stolas, I’m still a prince, you know.” Prince Arterius said. “You still have to obey me regardless, right?” He asked sarcastically.

Stolas sighed, “If anything happens to you, my head will be lopped off my neck deliberately!” He placed his hand over his shoulder. “More than my lopped head, I cannot let my friend die!” Stolas’ eyes met his.

He shrugged his ward’s hand off his shoulder. “I know, my friend.” Prince Arterius sighed. “But as a prince and first to the throne, I must know these things…These horrors…because it is my job to know how to defend my land from them.” He patted Stolas’ shoulder and went out without saying any word.

Prince Arterius walked his way out of the tent and was met with a splash of blood from a hurled decapitated head of a knight. He froze as the crimson liquid flowed through his eyes. It’s warmness and its metallic taste filled his mouth forcing him to vomit.

“RAAAGGGHHHH!!!” The blood-curdling roar made the hairs of his nape stand.

The terrible screams and chaotic voices of the knights running around with their weapons, was slowly fading away. The screams and shouts started to get muffled as his vision spun and he became light-headed.

Before he finally loses his senses, a grip seemed held him up. “My goodness! This is what I am trying to tell you—” Stolas’ voice echoed in his ears.

“S-Stolas?” Prince Arterius squinted as his blurry vision was worsened with the blood over his eyes. “Is that you? Bleeurrghhh!!!” He vomitted once again.

“My goodness!” Stolas patted his back as he continued spewing his lunch. “Here let me clean that—” His ward suddenly paused and went silent.

“What?” Prince Arterius asked his silenced ward, but he wasn’t answering. “What are you seeing?” He snapped out from his fainting spell and wiped his face with the dangling cloth on his petrified ward’s hand.  “What are you se—” He looked around immediately after he wiped his face and was shocked with what he saw.

Huge wings emerged from the cage where the jailed knight used to be. The knights surrounded the jail in their omega formation and began to stab the creature in it from outside. The valiant knights rammed their shields on the jail and stabbed the monster once again before another set of knights followed up the attack by impaling the creature with spears.

The weapons lodged effectively on the deformed knight’s skin, but the monster still would not go down. It instead stood upright and let out a deafening screech. Prince Arterius and his ward covered their ears as the shrill voice produced pulsing soundwaves that knocked the other knights down.

“Men, stand your ground!” Lord Prestonheim’s voice echoed along with his command. “Immobilize that monster while we prepare the spell!” His voice sounded desperate.

“Be careful not to damage the goods, alright?!” He heard his master’s voice from the distance.

Prince Arterius stood up and finally saw the beast. The monster had no face, only a mouth with a segmented jaw that opened grotesquely as it tried to scream. Its skin was pale with brawny arms indicating its strength. The monster was a chimera of animals that he could identify. It had wings of a bat that burst out of the small prison. Scaly and pale skin like that of a serpent and hind legs like that of a bovine. Its horrible image completely burned into his mind that gave him a feeling of awe and horror at the same time.

“It’s too strong!” The knight exclaimed as he struggled to play tug of war with the monster.

The knights where able to chain him with their light binding spell but the creature was too strong for them to bound longer than 10 counts. The poor knight was pulled in by the monster before suffering the worst fate at its hands. His head eaten whole by the monster. His body fell limp on the ground twitching its last ounce of life within him.

Prince Arterius eyes opened wide at the sight of the horrible scene. As more knights gathered around the monster and tried their best to incapacitate it, the harder it became. The beast became stronger as time went on. It was beginning to break itself from its jail, the wooden posts were already giving up at the might of its wings’ span.

The knights tried to bound it once again, but the monster grew stronger. Lord Prestonheim remained silent at the back of the line, holding his sword in front of him whispering to the ever-pale blue blade. The bindings were no longer able to incapacitate the monster. It flung the knights around while breaking out from its prison. The remaining knights tried attacking it but proved to be too powerful for them to hit.

As the monster stretched its bat-like wings into the open, the visage of the dirty knight it once was, had already disappeared. It opened its mouth once more and flex its jaws out for everyone to see. The bat-like chimera then turned its head towards him, as if it could see him despite its obvious lack of eyes. It pointed at him and grinned before lifting itself to the air.

Prince Arterius froze as the monster’s horrid smile became wider. He was unable to move as his feelings of fear petrified him where he stood. His hearing became muffled once again, but this time, his heartbeat was so loud it was deafening.

He was now face to face with the monster. It wings flapped hard as it hovered above its broken jail. Prince Arterius’ eyes widened as it began to show its long-spiked tongue at him. It looked hungry at him. It seemed to have wanted to eat him and it was ready for the kill.

Just as the monster was about to swoop at him, a flash of light suddenly made him close his eyes. When Prince Arterius opened it, not a few moments later, the monster was no longer hovering on top of its jail.

“Look what you’ve done!” Servus 305-M raised his voice. “I told you not to—”

“Shut-up…you!” Lord Prestonheim roared at his former mentor before approaching him. “Are you okay, Prince Arterius? W-why is there blood all over you? Are you hurt?” The silver-haired commander tried to check on him, holding his face with his calloused hands as he gently turned his head side to side to look for wounds.

“I-I am alright!” He pushed his godfather away from him. “This was…the blood of the brave knight who risked his life to contain that monster. His head might be there, somewhere.” He pointed at the eastern side of his tent.

“It’s good that you are alright!” Lord Prestonheim sighed. “Though, I did tell you to—”

“A prince has to know these things…” He interrupted. “No matter how…”

“Scary, is it?” 305-M approached both of them.  “I am sure, you encountered far worse than that August! Although, I understand this is your first, am I right Prince Arterius?” His former mentor asked.

Prince Arterius nodded silently at 305-M then looked around for the beast. “Did it flew away?” He asked both men.

“F-flew away?! Of course not, Prince Arterius!” 305-M was quick to answer. “Your godfather never gave it a chance to do so…although, I would’ve liked it if he only maimed it.” He sighed. “It was better to examine that interesting alive rather than dead.”

“For what he did to my men, you want it alive?!” Lord Prestonheim violently reacted to the comment.

Both men argued once again, but Prince Arterius wasn’t interested in both of their woes. He looked around until a bright shining object caught his eye. Around 20 footlings from where they were laid the corpse of the bat-like creature impaled in what looked like a pillar of light emerging from its right rib.

Prince Arterius’ knees weakened at the thought that the beast could’ve gone away with him for dinner. He sat down on the ground and sighed, as both of the bickering old men halted, their faces filled with concern for him.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Arterius?” Lord Prestonheim said. “You look pale.”

Arterius sighed, “I told you , godfather I am—” That was the last thing he recalled from that conversation.