Seeing that his killing blow had been stopped so easily, by one hand shook Ean to his core, looking up to see who had done it shocked him even further, standing in front of him was a man covered in red scales and green eyes, he knew who this was instantly. “Brother..I.I.” Ean stammered, completely lost for words, being in his brothers’ presence seemed to destroy every bit of arrogance he just had. “You have gone too far this time” the emperor said shaking his head with a look of pure distain in his eyes, lifting the blade away from Markus with a small stain of green blood on the blade, Rector summoned a ball of golden light in his hand before throwing it close range at Ean’s chest, sending him flying a good distance from where Rector and Markus were, rolling over a few times he stopped, laying motionless on the ground, satisfied, Rector looked back to Markus before whispering to him with a smirk and wink, “sorry I am late old friend, thank you for the flare, was a good idea.” Noddin
Riding North on their horses, Rex, Markus and Charr chatted, updating Markus on all the events that had transpired right up to their rescue from Shaitan’s arena. “You fought against an elder spirit and won??” Markus asked Rex after Charr recounted the battle with Balrog and her minions. “An elder spirit? That thing was from the spirit realm? Fafnir only said they had a prior grievance and asked to deal with her” Rex asked, he did not know much about the spirit realm, only the patches Fafnir had told him during their lessons. “Yes, the spirit realm is a place that only one human has gone and returned, it is a dangerous place for the living, it is where the soul of mystical beings like the dragons go after their deaths. Speaking of dragons, why did you not use Fafnir to help me deal with Ean, or at least against his assassin inside of the arena?” Markus asked raising his eyebrow at Rex. “That is something I don’t fully understand, Ean’s daughter did something to me, it seems to have
Feeling the force of so many magic users bearing in on him made Rex feel strange, he started to feel tiny surges of strength in waves course through his body, making him shudder slightly. Markus seemed to sense changes in Rex and whispered to him, “Are you ok Prince, what’s going on?” “I don’t know, I feel strange and my chest is starting to ache” Rex replied clutching his chest. As the witches came to close their circle around the group, Charr rushed out roaring swinging his axe trying to claim one of the women surrounding them, in his mind, if he was going to die, he would die like a real warrior, fighting until the end, he had forced one of the women back out of the circle and was dodging from side to side while bringing his axe skilfully into the fight, it seemed the woman was also just as quick, slipping past each swing and thrust. “I like the mountain men, always full of honour and courage” smiled Markus, seeing what Charr had done always made him feel honoured to be in the co
Once Rex and Charr were brought in and were laid out onto the free beds, the physician got straight to work, starting with Rex, she went straight into the basic check-up, with deft hands and an expert eye, ran over his body, before having a quick conclusion. “His temperature is through the roof, his pulse is weak and his breathing is very shallow, there is also this strange marking on his chest, any idea what this is and why it’s here?” the doctor asked Markus, pointing to the red symbols on Rex’s chest. “I don’t know what that is or why it is there” Markus said shrugging his shoulders, before an idea suddenly came to him, “that is the reason we need to the prince back to Dracones, to research those symbols with the academy, it was to be completed under secrecy, so I implore you, to keep any of what happened here it to yourself, for your sake and your towns.” He was trying to get the doctor to treat Rex as quickly as possible so they could return to the road, also while ensuring the
Turning to see Rex slowly sitting up, groaning from the effort involved and wincing in pain while doing so, both Markus and Rebeka’s faces lit up, Markus because he knew Rex was ok and after letting him rest a little, he could ask him about the mysterious circumstances involved in the escape from death, while Rebeka was happy seeing her patient wake, gladdened Rex had not passed away, otherwise she was certain it would be the end of her time as a physician and might even cost her own life for the death of a royal. “Your mouth tastes like that because the good physician here mixed in some stuff with dung, you know, to help you heal” Markus added, with a serious tone. “You f**kin what!!??” Rex spat, scratching his tongue with his fingernails, “Quick! Get me water! Heaps! And toothpaste! Any words of this treatment I will lock everyone away!” Seeing his reaction to his joke, Markus burst out in laughter, while Rebeka had just wiped the look of shock from her face, she was worried Rex w
“Priest Deacon, that is enough! It is late, they have travelled all day, we can reconvene soon, give them all time to rest and adjust and we will hear the exploits in a few days” Emperor Rector said loudly, standing up, which silenced Priest Deacon instantly, bowing his head, cupping his hands over his head. “Of course my emperor, I was too eager to see if your son possessed the great traits of your bloodline, I apologise to you and to the young prince” Priest Deacon said backing away while still bowing, coming to rest back in his seat. “As I said before, they will have some time to rest and recover their strength, there are matters that myself and General Markus must attend to and by then the final preparations will be complete and I will lead the ceremony for my sons return” Emperor Rector sounded, walking towards Rex and Markus, as he passed all the people present bowed their heads and cupped their hands over their heads in respect. Rex saw him coming and noticed everyone’s sign
“Get up, quickly now! We have to move, let’s go!” yelled the voice again, with a smirk at seeing Rex’s stunned face. “What is going on? Who’s here?” Rex blurted out, ripping his head around frantically, his brain still frozen from the shock of suddenly being woken. “Well, if I was someone here to do you harm, you would already be dead, you aren’t ready quickly enough” chuckled the person. As the fogginess cleared Rex recognised the voice and he saw a familiar face, “Bloody hell Markus! You scared the absolute shit outta me, why can’t you wake me up properly?” he responded sharply, sitting up while rubbing his eyes, he then realising the sun hadn’t even started to appear on the horizon yet, “Bit early don’t you think?” “No such thing as too early to train, you won’t always get the chance for a wake up at nice hours if your life is at stake, I want to show you something before we go to my training grounds, go and fetch Lacey first though, you and her have training with me after our s
As Rex and Lacey watched Markus start to ascend the stairs, both seemed to hesitate for a minute. Rex looked at Lacey, and Lacey looked at Rex, both seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move to start heading up, almost like they both had the same idea, suspicious stairs, suspicious old man. “Ladies first” Rex said, bringing his arm upright to point up through the staircase, attempting to usher Lacey through. “I am no lady, get up there wimp” Lacey sneered holding her ground, seeing right through Rex’s attempt to get her to go first. “If both of you don’t get your asses up here, you’ll miss out on the surprise I planned” Markus called out through the clouds. Both Rex and Lacey jolted from surprise at Markus’s booming voice, looking up the staircase, it looked to be at least 500 metres of stairs to the clouds, but only a few seconds has passed since Markus had left, this is odd, he was able to climb that many stairs in the space of a few seconds, something was fishy.
As the enemy soldiers charged, they quickly spread out evenly across each squad commanded by Rector’s defence, ‘They are testing our weak spots” Rex heard Rector say to Markus, who nodded in agreement as the small number of soldiers were killed quickly by Rex’s and Ley’s squads, Markus’s and Gwayne’s a few moments later, the barrage of fireballs from the walls reached the enemies’ position almost simultaneously, hitting the barrier created by their warlocks, most being stopped, the more powerful fireballs made it through and scorched the soldiers they hit, dying a few seconds after impact. “Are you going to try a counterattack?” Markus asked quietly, leaning over to Rector. “Not directly, no” he replied, stroking his beard, the enemy had not made a move since their test of his defensive line and it worried him, “Something is going to happen, I can feel it.” “What are you thinking?” Markus said, “I think they are scheming since their test proved our defences are solid.” “No defence
Everyone got dressed in silence, they were all thinking about what was coming their way with the battle. After a half-hour, everyone was suited up and ready to go, they all headed out of the room, down the stairs and out through the gate, stopping outside. Saying their goodbyes to Marcia, she hugged everyone before calling out and departing on Ulna. “Time to go and see your troops I guess” Lacey shrugged with a sigh, the closer it got to the battle, the more she started to worry. “That would be wise, seeing as they are formed up and waiting for you by the gate,” Ley said with a smile. As they all made their way to the southern gate, the entire group was silent, they were all apprehensive about how close to battle they all were, Ley seemed to notice this, “I think if anyone will survive this, it will be you all, I sense something different, something strong has formed between you, use that and you will be a force to be reckoned with, that rumoured scorpion pet of yours would be of
The sun was an hour from even touching the horizon, Rex was laying in the middle of Minet, Marcia and Lacey, all sleeping soundly, Rex snoring quietly, “Rex, wake up please, but do not wake the others, I must show you something.’ Even while inside of his dream, he knew the voice belonged to Rector, his father, it was loud enough to wake him, but not too loud to startle him, as his eyes blinked and focused, he saw Rector sitting in a chair watching and smiling, looking at the women, they were all dressed, which he did not remember them doing. ‘I would not intrude on a view that is not for me, I made sure clothes found them before I came in’ Rector said with a wink. Carefully moving Marcia’s hand off his chest, he slowly sat up, standing at the same speed, stepping over the women carefully, not wanting to wake them, ‘Is everything ok?’ Rex asked. ‘Let us go, then we can speak more freely’ Rector said, holding his hand out to Rex, who took it. Once his vision cleared Rex was in a dar
“Did you end up killing it? Surely not even you could kill something THAT big” Lacey added in. “Hang on…so you like for real saw and fought a tentaculum? A fabled flesh-eating tentacled monster from the books of legend?” Marcia asked, still visibly skeptical. “No word of a lie,” Minet said, “Rex and Raz stayed behind to let us escape, next we saw them, Rex was covered in shit and Raz’s head was split open.” “Well yes, I didn’t end up killing it, but we injured it enough it must have thought us too painful to continue fighting, it ended up losing 3 tentacles and 1 eye, Raz was hurt after it ejected some black shit that shot us into the trees, Raz hit some rocks, I patched him up best I could and carried him to the shack,” Rex said, recounting the events, leaving out some in-depth gruesome parts he wished he could forget, “So why was that muscle-bound axe man chasing you into the shack?” “Wow this is so much drama in a short time, how you even got anything done, I’ll never know,” Mar
“Well, my place is the closest to everywhere we need to be tomorrow and is away from prying eyes, and I have half a bottle of yarak spirits, we can share that, you can tell me all about your trip in a shortened version and we can have some fun, get a little sleep and then head out to our posts in the morning,” Marcia said with a smile. “I’m sold,” Marcia said, clapping her hands together. “I just had a thought” Lacey started to say. “Yes or no?” Minet interjected. “Yes, sounds good” Lacey nodded, walking with the women, “We weren’t told who we are serving with tomorrow.” “I don’t know about you, but I’m sticking with Rex” Minet shrugged. “That was what I was hoping to do, what do you think? Where is Rex?” Lacey asked, looking around for him. “Odd he would sneak out on us, this was supposed to be our night together” Minet scowled, putting her hands on her hips. “Sorry, I’m here, was just trying out a bit of magic I was shown earlier, good to know it still works, it gave me an id
Rex, Minet, and Lacey followed Rector into the palace, turning away from the throne room and traveling down a hallway Rex had never been before, “I don’t remember seeing this here” he stated, looking back, then back toward a large wooden door at the end. “That is because I do not allow this area to be accessed unless necessary, the war room has not been used since the Blood War, it saddens me to even have to use it again,” Rector sighed, walking toward the door, it opening as he approached. As they all entered the room, there was already a handful of older men present in the room who were pointing to places on a table that was in the center of the room, it showed the walls of the city and the fields beyond, many black figures stood in the southern fields showing the invading troops and their positioning, the old men were all yelling at each other for what plan they thought would be best, Marcia, Ley, and Markus were all at one end, Marcia was scowling at the men yelling, Ley was smil
“So whoever has brought this army has one hell of a grudge against Dracones, or father” Rex guessed, seeing how much dust over such a large area was being kicked up, “What was the scout's estimate?” “In excess of 30 thousand strong” Marcia replied, “That’s three times as many as Ean’s last army.” “Holy shit, how many defend Hale?” Rex asked. “About 10 thousand,” Marcia said, doing some quick math in her head, “Would be 18 thousand if we could rely on general Chris’s forces, but word is, he is currently under assault as well, it is almost like this attack has been co-ordinated from both sides of the realm at the same time.” “Three to one odds, battles have been won with a lot worse before” Rex replied. “Yes, but human battles did not have magic and monsters in their ranks either,” Raz said with a grin. “Holy shit!” Looking over to Lizz, who had cursed, which was rare for her, she was now pointing out toward the field outside of Dracone’s southern gate, to where a massive force, a
“So, you’re saying we can be released from the deal to suicide, to serve under you instead?” one of the soldiers asked. “Correct” Rex replied, “Instead of your life being a waste, why not use it for something better?” “We cannot accept that” the soldier replied, saddened, “When we swore our oath to serve, we were branded, if we break our deal, the brand kills us, so either way, we are doomed.” “Who would make you do such a thing?” Lacey asked, she was not the only one who was shocked, the entire group was as well. “Our new leader ensured our allegiance with spells” the soldier replied, lining up his sword, ready to pierce the heart, the rest of the group following suit, “We thank you for the offer, you are not like they say you are,” he took one last deep breath to ready himself, closed his eyes and slid the sword into his chest with a groan, after a few gasps he fell lifeless to the ground, followed shortly after by the remainder of the soldiers. “I did not think they would have
The sound of screams and metal hitting metal echoed out soon after the soldiers reached Rex and his companion’s position as they cut through their first wave. Lacey and Minet had teamed up on Rex’s right side and were diving, dashing, stabbing and blocking each other’s weak spots, many dead and dying fae laying around them. Raz and Lizz were on the left front, Lizz was throwing fireballs at their enemies furiously, scorching two, sometimes three at a time, Raz was standing fast between her and the front line, cutting down any that made it through to ensure Lizz could focus on what she was doing. “Looks like we underestimated a group of children,” Douve said with a sigh and smile, “Looks like it is up to us to settle this.” “Seems like it” Rex replied with a shrug, he was a little curious, everyone knew the royal family had power stemming from dragons, yet Douve did not seem phased. Bowing to Rex, Douve took a ready stance, so out of courtesy, Rex nodded his head, not a second afte