Chapter 78 - Opening Assault

Chapter 78: Chapter 78 - Opening Assault

"""ORAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"""

They started running toward the gates.

Human Imperial Guards in heavy plate armor surged forward with spears and swords.

Beastkin such as Hyena’s, Bears, and Wolf’s tapped into their primal instincts, transforming into furry behemoths with jaw-snapping fangs and thick fur.

And lastly, Dwarven mercenaries with iron-rimmed shields and battleaxes formed a coordinated front line, while Elves hopped along the estate walls from behind and acted as long ranged attackers with their elemental bow and arrows.

While Maelle’s physical strength was nowhere near enough to clash head-on with a beastkin in full frenzy, or a well-trained guard, her own combat skill as a royal was not decorative. Ready to defend herself, she reached into her jacket and drew a pair of slender daggers she had concealed beneath the folds.

"Stay close to my back, Maelle."

"I am not a damsel in distress, Vincent. I can handle myself. You focus on taking out the majority of those that are attacking and end this as soon as you can."

"I am Ignis the Destroyer! Hear me, peasants! I will lay waste to your souls!"

Eugene reared back and blew a fiery, flickering spark of flame directly into the face of a charging bear-beastkin.

The flame did absolutely nothing.

The bear-man blinked, looked down at the tiny green hatchling, and let out a snarly laugh.

"RUDE! Vincent, kill him! End his bloodline!"

"Stop screaming in my ear!"

Vincent turned and slammed his open palm into the air.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

A shockwave exploded outward from his hand. The air cracked like thunder as a visible wave of kinetic energy tore through the front line. The bearkin and fifty charging soldiers were instantly lifted off their feet and launched backward into the air, crashing and taking down thirty more men behind them.

""""GAAAAAAAAH!!!!""""

"Archers, fire!"

A hail of fifty glowing green and blue mana arrows rained down from above, whistling through the wind toward Maelle and Vincent.

Vincent snapped his fingers.

SNAP!

A dome of crystalline light flared into existence above them. The magical arrows slammed against the barrier and shattered into harmless sparks. Without missing a beat, he then pointed a finger toward the perimeter walls.

zap—BZZZT!!!

A jagged bolt of golden lightning shot from his tip, riding up the stone wall and detonating along the walkway. The stone exploded, sending dozens of Elven archers tumbling down into the courtyard below.

"Get around him! Target the girl!"

Taking advantage of Vincent’s attention being drawn toward the archers, three Wolfkin vaulted over the fallen debris. With their claws lengthened into razor-sharp talons, they all let out feral howls and lunged straight for Maelle’s throat from three separate angles.

True to her word, she barely managed to slip beneath the first clawed swipe and drove her right dagger cleanly through the gap in his armpit armor. Before he could fall, she used his falling body as a shield to block the second clawed swipe and used her left dagger across the second wolfkin’s eyes.

He shrieked while clutching his face, which prompted Maelle to push the two beasts into each other.

The third wolfkin came out of nowhere and snapped his jaws inches from her face.

"No–!"

"DIE, FURRY!"

Eugene suddenly swooped down from above and landed directly on top of the wolfkin’s snout, digging his claws into the creature’s nose.

"GET AWAY MY PRINCESS, YOU FLEABAG!" He bit down with all his sharp baby teeth straight onto its nostril.

"AGHHH! MY SNOUT!!"

The wolfkin thrashed around wildly, dropping his weapon to pull the tiny dragon off his face.

Maelle didn’t waste the opening. She picked up a heaving hammer weapon lying on the ground and bashed it over his head, dropping him instantly.

Eugene flew up onto Maelle’s shoulder and puffing his tiny chest out proudly. "Did you see that?! Haha! I subdued the wild beast! Praise me!"

"Haaa... Good job, Eugene."

"MY NAME IS IGNIS!"

While Maelle held her own with Eugene, the rest of the courtyard had descended into chaos.

Vincent was a natural disaster moving through the ranks. A group of ten heavily armed dwarven men swung their iron axes in a coordinated wheel formation, aiming to chop Vincent at the waist.

"Too weak!"

Not opting to dodge, he let the axes hit him.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The iron blades shattered against his skin like brittle glass, sending metallic shrapnel flying into the eyes of the dwarven attackers.

"""ARGH!!!"""

Turning around, he swept his arm through the air and a blade of compressed air swept out in a wide semicircle. The pressure threw forty men into the air at once, sending them spinning through the sky before slamming through the iron gates.

"He’s a monster!"

"Keep pushing! He has to run out of mana eventually!"

Suddenly the main street outside became flooded with more people.

A massive crowd of bounty hunters, rogue mercenaries, street thugs, and opportunistic adventurers from the city came pouring into the courtyard like a swarm of hungry locusts.

"Hahaha! Word’s out that the Princess and her Familiar are cornered at the Elsa estate!" a scarred human mercenary bellowed. "Every able person in the city wants a piece of that bounty! GET THEM!"

"Oh, great," Vincent casually swatted away a charging bearkin with a single, off-hand backhand that sent the five-hundred-pound monster crashing through a wall. "More tourists."

"It appears our location has reached the entire city," Maelle appeared and stood back-to-back with Vincent. "They’ll all be coming this way."

"Let them come. I’ve got plenty of ass whoopings to dish out."

Channelling his dive power, Vincent stomped his foot into the floor.

BOOM–CRASH!!!

The stone beneath their feet ruptured. Phantasmic pillars of golden light erupted from the cracks in the ground, shooting fifty feet into the sky. Anyone caught in the eruptions was lifted into the air by the ascending impact.

He then flew and appeared behind a squad of elves, grabbed two by their collars and tossed them into a charging group of horse-riding guards.

To his left, a rhinoceros-beastkin in full transformation came roaring toward Vincent like a runaway train.

"DIE, BRAT!"

Vincent stood his ground. As the giant beastkin reached him, he reached out with both hands and grabbed his massive horn with his bare hands.

SKRRRRRRRRT!

The ground beneath Vincent’s boots caved in as he absorbed the momentum of the charge.

With a low grunt of effort, he flexed his biceps, lifted the colossal beast off the ground by his horn, spun him around three times in a blinding circle, and hurled him straight into the oncoming crowd of street bounty hunters.

The giant beastkin acted like a bowling ball, wiping out nearly sixty mercenaries in a single sweep.

"HOLY SHIT!" Eugene yelled as he hovered near Maelle’s head. "He just threw a house-sized cow man!"

"It was a Rhicherio Beastkin," Maelle corrected smoothly as she sidestepped a spear thrust from an imperial guard and slashing her blade across his throat plate. "And keep your head down, Eugene."

"It’s Ignis!" Eugene squeaked, but immediately dropped down to hide inside the pocket of her white jacket, poking only his tiny golden horns out. "I am strategically taking cover!"

The battle raged on for twenty gruesome minutes, but to the army, it felt like an eternity.

No matter how many men poured in the courtyard and outer gates from the streets, Vincent was unbreakable. No matter how many times they nearly got to Maelle, either he or Eugene would be there to cover for her. Fire, ice, arrows, swords, and brute force, none of this phased him.

He manipulated the elements at will – freezing bodies to the floor, then scorching the vanguards with a whip of plasma fire.

The sheer, overwhelming display of godlike power finally broke the morale of the crowd.

"He... he can’t be beaten... He’s not a Familiar! He’s a damn God!"

"RUN! LEAVE THE BOUNTY! IT’S NOT WORTH IT!"

Panic spread like wildfire. The bounty hunters were the first to break, turning on their heels and trampling each other as they scrambled back out the broken gates. Seeing the mercenaries flee, the remaining Imperial Guards and beastkin warriors threw down their weapons and screamed as they scrambled over the stone walls to escape the slaughter fest.

Within minutes, the courtyard fell dead silent.

Hundreds of men lay groaning, unconscious, or trapped under shattered debris across the yard. Weapons, broken shields, and shattered armor littered the bloody floor.

Vincent stood in the center of the destruction, breathing quite easily as his ethereal blue hair swayed gently in the wind.

Eugene popped his head back out of Maelle’s pocket, looking around at the sea of defeated soldiers.

"GAHAHAHA! BEHOLD THE DESTRUCTION WROUGHT BY IGNIS THE DESTROYER AND HIS LESSER MINION! LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL WHO DARE CHALLENGE MY REIGN!"

"You did literally nothing except bite that one guy’s nose," Vincent said deadpan, holding the squirming hatchling at eye level.

"WHA?! I demand respect! Have you not seen the way I protected the fair princess?!"

"Why are you talking like that?"

"It’s called roleplay, dumbass!"

"You mother–!"

"Eeeek!!"

"Just ignore him, Vincent." Maelle said as she scanned the quiet battlefield before turning to Vincent. "You did well cleaning up the rabble." She noted with a subtle hint of genuine admiration in her voice.

"I had a really good teacher... teachers. And a lot of built-up frustration to work off."

Maelle nodded toward the grand doors of the Elsa estate at the far end of the courtyard. "The outer guards are handled. But the true threat remains inside."

They walked together across the ruined courtyard, stepping over broken shields and unconscious guards, until they reached the end where, standing directly in front of the locked doors, were four figures.

Unlike the chaotic mob they had just fought, these four did not look panicked.

They stood in a disciplined formation, clad in gleaming golden armor etched with the sun crest of the Solarian Kingdom.

They were Solarian Royal Knights.

"Princess Maelle Ebony. Familiar Vincent. I am Captain Voorhis of the Solarian Royal Guard."

"Captain Voorhis." Maelle spoke calmly. "You and your men are standing in defense of a corrupt Duke and a prince who has overstepped his diplomatic boundaries. Step aside, and you will not be harmed."

"We cannot do that, Your Highness. Our oath is not to Duke Elsa, nor is it to the politics of your kingdom. Our oath is to the crown of Solara. And as long as he resides within this manor, we are sworn to hold this line with our lives."

Vincent stepped up beside Maelle and cracked his stiff neck. "Look, Captain. I already beat your Prince in a duel. He lost fair and square. He’s hiding in there like a coward while sending you guys out to die for him. Is that really the guy you want to bleed for?"

"His character is not for us to judge, Familiar. An oath is an oath. If you wish to enter this manor, you must cut us down."

"Fair enough. I respect the loyalty. But we’re going through those doors regardless."

Voorhis pulled his broadsword from its scabbard with a crisp metallic ringing sound. The three knights behind him immediately drew their weapons as well – two wielded long, double-edged longswords, while the fourth unslung a massive shield and a heavy warhammer.

"Positions!"

The four knights raised their left hands into the air simultaneously and concurred up summoning circles.

SHEEN!

From the first circle, a huge War-Gryphon erupted, unfurling its feathered wings and screeching loudly.

From the second, a hulking, four-armed Iron Golem materialised, its core burning with molten red mana.

From the third, crouching low, a shadowy Night-Panther with glowing purple eyes slipped out of the portal.

And from the fourth circle, a Frost-Deer slammed its horns onto the stone, unleashing a breath of freezing mist across the entrance.

Four Royal Knights. Four high-tier, battle-trained Familiars.

"Oh, look," Eugene squeaked from Vincent’s shoulder. "They brought pets. Hahaha, can I eat the bird?"

"Eugene..."

"SOLARIAN KNIGHTS! ENGAGE!"