Ugh... writer's block sucks! It took me the longest time to figure out how to do this part. That and real life stuff getting in the way. SCREW YOU, REAL LIFE!
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[Excerpts from the logbook of a knight in the regular army]
Day XX, Year XXXX
Day 0 of the dragon subjugation
Tomorrow morning we set out on the dragon subjugation. I can hardly contain my excitement at the opportunity to serve my king in such a challenging endeavor. I hear the king himself will also be present, personally commanding the mission. It is a shame that Prince Marcus Aldemann will not be attending, as he is currently in the Eastern Province. But the king's niece Miss Milena Firth will be in attendance along with her father, Captain Roland Firth of the Royal Guard.
If I prove myself capable, perhaps I can hope for a transfer into the prestigious Royal Guard.
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Day 2 of the dragon subjugation
The past couple days have been uneventful. We set out and marched in a line formation. Those of us chosen to do battle with the beast itself marched at the forefront of the formation, with the kings retinue directly behind and everyone else after. Supposedly, our supplies are being taken care of by the students of the Royal Magic Academy with the excuse of "gaining experience". As Miss Milena Firth is a student of the academy, this makes the reason for her participation much more clear.
She is accompanied by her father and two friends that I assume she met from school as she rides with the king. One of them is an earth mage whose name currently escapes me. The other, however, is far more interesting.
Word among the other knights is that this child seems to be a commoner that somehow caught Captain Roland's eye. I was unsure what to think. It wasn't that something about the child seemed off. It was far more that everything was strange.
The child, Fen, was wearing an odd cloth hat with two points on either side. One of women nearby commented to me that she thought the hat was "cute". Immediately after, a man responded by saying that he didn't know why a boy would purposely wear something that was, as she said, "cute". That part in particular shocked me. Up until that point, because of his long black hair and soft facial features, I had originally believed he was a girl! But then I realized the fact that he was wearing the male uniform of the academy and I felt incredibly stupid and ashamed.
But the oddities didn't end there. He was carrying a monster blade of all things! I had thought that perhaps Captain Roland was having the boy carry his for him. I thought it cruel to have such a small boy carry that big load all this way. Strangely, he didn't seem the slightest bit burdened by it. But during a break in the march, I discovered that the captain was carrying his own. Clearly, the blade the boy carried was for his own use! Again, I was ashamed by my assumptions. But... can that boy really swing that thing!?
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Day 3 of the dragon subjugation
Today we encountered some monsters on our route to the mountain pass where we will begin our search. A small group of goblins seemed to have noticed us marching and must have gone mad with fear, choosing to attack instead of fleeing to safety. I personally smote one of them from afar with my lightning magic. I felt quite proud of my accomplishment... until the rest of the spells from our group landed and unleashed hell on the remaining goblins. There was nothing left of them to speak of other than a large chunk of charred earth.
...well, I did strike first. That counts for something, right?
One look back at the king's retinue seemed to reveal that it indeed did not count for anything at all. His Majesty and Captain Roland both yawned as if bored and took the entire happening as a matter of course. Even Miss Milena and her friends didn't seem the slightest bit interested.
This doesn't bode well for the rest of this trip.
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Day 4
Oh, by the gods above today was awful. I hope that never again do I have to have a day like this one. I suppose I should start at the beginning.
We began the day as expected. We climbed the mountain and reached the pass where we believed the dragon to be and had a short rest before we started the search. As I was resting I spotted Fen heading to a large tree in the vicinity. I was quite surprised to see him climb it so easily. Several other knights were surprised as well. Far more shocking, though, was that Miss Milena and her other friend soon followed.
The other boy soon left, but Miss Milena had climbed the tree after Fen. I don't know what relationship those two have, but fortunately it seemed to have led Miss Milena to a rather safe place. High in a tree, they could see everything and I believed they should be safe should the battle with the dragon get out of control. It was comforting to think that we wouldn't have to worry about protecting those children as well as the king.
Oh, how wrong I was.
We found the dragon shortly before nightfall. It's earsplitting roar resounded throughout the mountain pass, announcing the deadly battle had begun. I supported the vanguard warriors as best I could by striking at the beast's limbs and attempting to numb them with my magic right before the blows were struck.
I never understood the mentality of the vanguard. Why would anyone willingly get that close to death? Someone has to do it, I suppose. Surely they were far braver than I. No matter what spell I tried or how many of us unleashed our spells at the beast, nothing seemed to slow it down in the slightest. Still, through a combination of shielding spells and raw martial prowess many of the vanguard managed to hold it's attention. Whenever one of them became winded or injured, another would quickly take his place.
Strangely the beast didn't seem the slightest bit perturbed by our tactics. No excessive rage. No needless roaring of intimidation... In fact, looking back on it now, it seemed almost as if that scaly nightmare was enjoying it. The mere thought of it chills my mind. I think it may have even smiled at one point. I really hope I am imagining it.
But the worst was yet to come. We hadn't lost anyone yet, but with the beasts full attention on us, it had guarded perfectly against every attack we threw at it. It was a complete stalemate. That precious balance broke suddenly with disastrous results.
A black cloaked figure entered my line of sight from behind the dragon. At first, I believed perhaps they were one of us. But if that were true, what were they doing back there? The answer came quickly when that bastard attacked the dragon's soft rear end with a precision wind blade strike. The dragon wasn't hurt... but it's pride was. It immediately turned and spat a blast of fire straight into the forest where the cloaked figure once stood.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
We had been taking extra care to draw the dragon away from the forest or anything that burns easily but that cloaked bastard ruined everything! The battle changed from a calculated encounter to complete chaos in seconds. Enraged, the dragon's demeanor completely changed and attacked us at full force. One flap of it's wings blew us all away like leaves on the wind. That gust of air only served to fan the flames of the nearby trees and it turned into a full-scale inferno!
It was at this point that the call for retreat was called. Everyone scattered about in madness as we tried to dodge falling, burning trees as well as the dragon's wrath. I was very quickly reminded, to my horror, that Miss Milena was in a tree as well!
I rushed back to the clearing we rested at along with several other knights who knew of this as well. By the time we arrived, it was already too late. Everything was in flames and the tree in question had already long since fallen to the ground. Thankfully, I spotted Captain Roland dragging his daughter onto his horse and escaping with the king. She seemed to be quite understandably upset.
Relieved that she was safe, we then escaped down the mountain. Once we got ahead of the blaze, all of the water, ice, and earth mages combined their efforts to contain the fire. As I use lightning, all I could do was assist the academy instructors in making sure all the students were accounted for.
It took quite a while, but it seems all the students were safe. Some were a little singed and there were many injured, but there were no deaths among the students. Unfortunately, those of us in the main force were not so lucky. It seems over half of us were injured, confirmed dead, or missing and assumed to be dead.
The only saving grace seems to be that the dragon did not follow us. Tomorrow, after the fire is completely out, we will begin the search for survivors... or most likely, their remains.
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Day 5
And I thought yesterday was bad! Gods above, I am sorry for my insolence! Today, I have seen true hell and it comes in the shape of a little girl.
I was awoken early in the morning by an agonized scream. I had heard several cries of mourning before, but never like this. It was not even sunrise yet, but alarmed by the sound, I exited my sleeping roll to find out what was going on. What I saw next I will regret for the rest of my life.
It seemed Miss Milena had discovered that her friend Fen had yet to be accounted for. As he was traveling with His Majesty's retinue, he was not on the academy's roll sheet, which delayed this reaction. Although, I had a suspicion that perhaps Captain Roland and His Majesty had tried to keep it from her on purpose. Who could blame them? No one wants to hear that their close friend may be dead.
Seeing this as a chance to promote myself I immediately volunteered to search for Fen and several other knights joined in the sentiment as well. Unfortunately, they had not noticed Fen before and asked for a description. That was the beginning of the nightmare.
Milena was hesitant to give an accurate description and was mumbling something about "ears". It was then that Captain Roland revealed that Fen, surprisingly, was actually a wulvari. This caused a huge uproar throughout everyone who heard it. A wulvari child! And he was walking amongst us so easily and unnoticed! And the Captain knew of it already! Why did he overlook it? Why did Captain Roland of all people allow a wulvari so close to his daughter? Everyone knew of his history with them.
His Majesty quickly silenced the commotion, then ordered us to begin the search anyway. I was confused. Why bother searching for someone who is our natural enemy? But some poor fool actually said it out loud.
"Why must we search for some wulvari brat?"
He hadn't said it very loudly. The king didn't even hear it. It was an honest question, and I wanted to know, too.
But upon hearing it, something in Miss Milena simply snapped. There is a favorite saying belonging to my father. "Beware the quiet ones," he'd say. I assumed he was talking about my mother, but it seems I never truly knew what he meant until I saw what happened this day. The poor bastard who grumbled about the order didn't even know what hit him.
In that very instant, with no sigil and no casting time at all, the poor man was frozen solid as a rock. Ice crystals as tall as ogres towered over us. Just being near them made me feel as though I were suffocating. Just how she had managed to cast such an impossible spell was mind numbing.
The worst part, though, was that icy cold gaze. One look from her in that state made me believe as if my very soul were about to freeze over in fear. Many of my fellow knights soiled themselves without hesitation or shame. Someone managed to gather his wits faster than the rest of us and immediately took off running for the charred forest.
I had thought he simply wanted to escape, at first. That was all I could think about at the time. Then I remembered the order. We all immediately clung to our only hope of salvation. WE HAD TO FIND FEN!
Everyone immediately started running for the blackened trees calling out the boy's name. Everyone without exception. Knights, students, teachers... even the wounded! Nobody wanted to be Miss Milena's next target.
The search lasted all day and deep into the night. We found the remains of many of our soldiers. We even found a couple survivors. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the wulvari boy to be found. But our fear kept us going. Then I heard a shout near the mouth of the dragon's den. That alone wasn't a good sign.
We found the boy's monster blade. It was fused to a small boulder after it had been half melted by dragon fire. Another soldier had found what appeared to be a charred piece of his strange cloth hat. Both of these would need to brought to Miss Milena. We drew straws to see who would do it... and I drew the short straw.
I gathered my courage and walked to what I believed to be certain death. The earlier man was saved thanks to Captain Roland's skillful use of fire magic, but I had no delusions that I would also be so lucky. I presented the items to her and held my breath...
But, she took them from my hands and simply cried. The boy was assumed to be dead and the search was called off. Still, no one dared breathe a sigh of relief, because of the fear that they might incur her wrath again.
Now, we will begin our march home in defeat and shame. I think I'll retire and take up farming.
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