Ambush
An ornate carriage plated in gold and finest mahogany was rushing through a narrow stone path leading through the Ebon Forest.
Ebon Forest was one of the largest forests in the world, with such thickness of trees which gave it its name that traveling without flight or through already established path was near impossible, and yet what made it easy to travel was that the entire forest was incredibly flat as if crafted that way by deliberate actions of a creator.
The carriage was guarded by 30 heavily armored knights and 10 spell casters with one knight riding in front of them carrying a green flag with the same insignia as the carriage, all of them were so heavily armored that you couldn’t make out their gender or build.
They were escorting a carriage with a single passenger, a princess in any sense of the word, a young elf girl, with flowing platinum hair, red eyes, an elaborate tiara, and a long black dress.
All went well until they ran into a man-made blockade, and multiple trees fell blocking their paths not allowing them to retreat easily before a multitude of arrows and spells rushed out of the dark forest canopy killing 4 spell casters and 2 knights.
The leading knight shouted “Ambush!, knights form a wall, let the ranged units return fire!” to the escorting soldiers as they got into formation before getting attacked by all sides by unknown fighters.
This day couldn’t get any worse for Sheira, one moment she was peacefully riding a carriage with her father’s elite guards surrounding her and ensuring her complete safety.
All went well until they entered the Ebon Forest, as they rode through the thick forest she wished to enjoy the slow ride until arriving in the Red Dawn Kingdom and made a request to her escort to slow down.
Red Dawn was a human kingdom, one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms on the continent, their army was relatively small but their training and equipment were supreme, not to mention having multiple Inquisitors as they call them.
But not all was well, many of the nobles practiced slavery, and many of them organized “Elf hunts” to gather young elves that could serve their families for generations.
And yet due to the threat of the neighboring savages sharing a long southern border with the Elven Kingdom, the king decided to ignore their crimes and send his only daughter to strike a deal with the monarch of the Red Dawn and ask for support.
“It just isn’t possible for anything to go my way” She didn’t want to go to Red Dawn, she knew what it meant for her to go, she would have to give all of herself just for a chance for her people to survive.
She leaned her head against the carriage wall before the carriage suddenly stopped knocking her forward and making her fall right on her face.
All she could make out as she fell was the words Ambush being shouted by her childhood friend and captain of her guards.
As she slowly rose she heard yelling and shortly after swords clashing.
“Oow, what is going on outside!?” she rubbed her nose as she slightly opened the carriage curtains, what she saw horrified her more than anything before in her life.
Outside the carriage, her guards were getting slaughtered, slaughtered by unknown humanoids covered by dark hoods that obscured their faces.
Some were getting decapitated, some were frozen to a crisp and some were turned into grotesque zombies turning them against their former allies
These people were launching devastating attacks against her guard before retreating into the forest and launching their attacks again.
Princess wondered if she just encountered one of the “Elf Hunts”
“But the nobles would never attack a royal carriage, what is going on here” she whispered to herself as she bit down on her lip.
A horrible feeling was rising in her throat as she watched her best guards that served her family loyally since her childhood getting killed as if they were pigs.
She wished to help, she didn’t want her loyal soldiers to die, and yet deep within herself she knew.
“I’m weak...” she exhaled as she watched the battle unfolding from a small slit between curtains.
She didn’t know how to use a sword; she didn’t have magic knowledge and she certainly didn’t have a divine blessing.
All she had was the royal blood, only special for its immense healing capability, a single drop of her family blood could heal any wound, it could even regrow limbs, the only limit was that it couldn’t revive the dead.
That blood was the only reason her kingdom even had any leverage to negotiate without being annexed by a more powerful neighbor.
But as much as it was a kind of blessing it also made her family a target of extremely sinister people.
After she was born, she couldn’t even go outside the castle without heavy protection, in a way it was suffocating, and it was all because she was weak, she was so weak that her disgust towards herself grew more and more.
For an elf she was pretty young, with only recently turning 170 she was still considered only a teen, and ever since she could remember she tried to lean into mystical arts.
But no matter how many hours she spent practicing chants, how many mana circles she drew, no matter what divinity she prayed to, it all was for naught, she didn’t have any talent and no god wanted to lend her aid.
It truly infuriated her to no end, all she had was her healing blood, she was no different than a farm animal for most people, a swine to be slaughtered.
Recently, even human kingdoms started acting belligerently with their people, it was only a matter of time before they declared war, and for what?
Just her family’s blood was just a curse, it brought only misfortune to her and her family.
Her status as a princess meant nothing, everyone else in her family was able to perform at least basic acts of magic or divinity.
But she had nothing, tears swelled up inside her eyes “Why am I so useless...”
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A tall hooded man watched the battle unfold from deep inside the forest, ready to offer reinforcements to his boys, but this job was proving to be easier than he thought possible.
This was such an easy job, when he heard the amount the client was willing to pay he couldn’t believe it, in most circumstances, he wouldn’t risk such an obvious trap.
500,000 crowns to capture a single girl, no matter how much he thought about it, it would always seem like a trap, but he went through with the plan, and for now, nothing went wrong, that amount of money could set up his entire band for life as lords for next decade.
He smiled as he thought about his future, he didn’t know why his client needed this girl, but on the other hand, it wasn’t his job to ask those questions, when someone offers him enough money to make him a lord he is happy to stay quiet and fulfill his job.
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Guards were falling like flies, but it was not surprising, for this amount of money he only brought his most elite fighters, each of them could easily handle even Red Dawn Inquisitor.
He relaxed a little as he enjoyed the massacre, he ordered his boys to not harm the princess, as the client wanted her unscathed, but the guards could do whatever they wanted to them.
He truly marveled at the way he trained them, such power and speed, it was magnificent.
He nodded his head as he continued to review their performance.
“Their technique requires more work, but I’m really proud of all of them”
He watched them dodge each slash, each magic missile was perfectly countered and each prayer was silenced with a single mithril powder-tipped arrow from the dark canopy.
As he watched them he decided they didn’t need him as he turned his back to the battle and made his way through the forest towards their encampment.
With his agility and speed he could navigate these trees like they were a flat road, in a couple of minutes he could traverse tens of miles.
Dodging occasional wild beast trying to ambush him and various natural obstacles was second nature to him, he didn’t even need to think about it and could put his mind on other stuff, like how to spend his new fortune once his boys deliver the princess.
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She hated to admit it but these attackers were each equal to her in skill.
In all her years as the captain of the royal guard, and Princess Sheira’s personal guard she was never challenged in battle, all of her opponents would be killed without any effort on her part, she was Azure the undefeated champion.
And yet these bandits, no she couldn’t call them bandits they were far too strong to be simple criminals.
Even her sword before now never missed and couldn’t even land a scratch on any of the attackers, and any time she attacked them they would dodge, and counterattack her.
It was frustrating and what was even worse her own comrades were falling like it was nothing
As she looked at the scene around her a fireball hit her helmet, due to its magical effect it was able to resist the heat, but even with the heat gone, the force knocked her back letting the enemy fighters use the opening.
“Shit!” she exclaimed as one of the hooded fighters struck right in the Armor gap piercing her flesh.
Before she could hit him, he retreated letting more bulky fighters take the front.
She was sure these people were not mere criminals, but what were they?
They were at the border of Red Dawn so it would be logical to assume it would be their own operatives, it could be one of the “Elf Hunt” parties, but why would they kill anyone here if that was the case?
A single elf would outlive multiple generations of humans even if they were mistreated which made them coveted as slaves in any kingdom that practiced it.
Noble would pay thousands of crowns just for a low-quality elf slave even if untrained, which made these parties avoid killing or badly maiming any of the elves they ambush.
No matter how much she thought about it she couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Who are these people” she talked to herself as she slashed at them.
With each passing moment, her men were getting fewer and fewer in number, and she had to think fast.
After a moment of deliberation, she decided to rely on her divine blessing, she never wanted to do it as the blessing was not from a god one would wish a blessing from and yet she had no choice.
She had a great blessing that many kingdoms would wage wars just to obtain, but such a grand blessing requires sacrifice.
She didn’t know what the goddess would ask of her, or what she would do to her, as the god that granted her the blessing was the goddess of misfortune and monsters.
She could turn her into a grotesque monster permanently binding her to her will and condemning her soul to her realm, or it could make it so that no matter what she does in the future after this would always be riddled with misfortune.
But to protect her friend and liege, she had to do it.
“MEN FORM A SHIELD AROUND ME! CASTERS FORM A BARRIER BUY ME SOME TIME” she barked an order as the rest of the guards formed a shield giving her a moment to pray.
She gently removed her helmet, and as she kneeled down she stabbed her sword into the ground before uttering a silent prayer while she relied on her comrades to buy her the time she needed.
As she closed her eyes she was transported into a different space, she found herself surrounded by nothing but water and yet she was not sinking, she stood on the water with nothing except the full moon above her head in a starless sky and what looked a 9-year-old human girl playing with a stuffed toy.
She took a step before the girl turned herself towards her.
“You are finally here, are you finally ready to accept my gift?” the girl said gently while staring at her, usually talking to such a young child wouldn’t invoke fear, but in Azure, she invoked only that.
She knew this girl was not who she seemed to be, she was the mother of monsters, and no mortal race dared speak her true name, but right now she was here to beg for support, she was her only way to get her liege out of this ambush.
She inhaled deeply before dropping to one knee in front of the girl while holding her head as low as possible” PLEASE, I need your help”
“I know why you are here, young one” The goddess with the visage of a child picked up her stuffed toy before casually walking towards Azure.
“Then you must...” the girl put a hand on her head while gently patting her interrupting her with her own words.
“You surely do not expect to just ask a Favor of a god” the girl giggled as she said these words.
“Of course not my lady, I will pay whichever price you wish of me!” Guilt gripped her chest as she offered the payment, at best it would be her life.
The goddess walked in circles around her for a minute while humming.
She suddenly stopped in front of Azure” If you only accepted my blessing sooner, you could have been so much more than you are now, rise your head young one”
Azure obeyed as the goddess gazed into her eyes, she no longer had the visage of the child, but instead, she looked exactly like her friend and liege.
She brought her head down to her ear and whispered “You are afraid of me; I understand but I wish you no harm”
She pulled herself back before continuing “All I wish is for you to become perfect, become one of my children”
Azure knew what this meant, to become one of the children meant to become a monster, a monster hunted by everyone and hated by all.
The goddess spun back on her heel before continuing “I usually don’t offer this but, You do not even have to let go of your ugly mortal form, I could make an exception for you when you wish to return to your imperfect form just focus on what you used to be”
Azure looked at the goddess with confusion but before she could even ask anything goddess continued
“You have a greater blessing young one, you are already one of my favored children, if you had only accepted it you could have saved your little friend without losing anything”
The goddess turned around and placed her palm on Azure’s forehead “Do you accept my blessing child?”
Azure knew she couldn’t reject this offer, this was her last line of defense she uttered the word “Yes”.
As she said the word the goddess smiled wickedly before the realm faded around her, she felt pain in her entire body, her entire being was being reshaped.
As the realm collapsed she returned to the battlefield, her comrade’s defense was almost gone, the barrier had been broken and only 4 of her comrades lived.
Azure screamed as she transformed into a new monstrous form, her Armor and clothes breaking as leathery green and black skin took over her body, her arms were replaced by multiple tentacles, and many eyes appeared over her body as her screams got replaced by terrible monstrous roar, Her blessing turned her into an Argus, one of the most terrifying monsters in the known world.
It is said anyone who would look into the eyes of Argus would be melted as if by acid.
As she transformed all 4 of her surviving comrades were blown away, knocking down a couple of trees, all of the animals pulling the carriage died and the two attackers who were just about to stab her melted in front of her.
As she completed her transformation into Argus she couldn’t allow her friend to gaze into her eyes.
Despite all of this Azure still had her sentience intact, perhaps because this is a blessing or perhaps some other reason.
As the attackers retreated she stretched one of her new tentacles managing to graze one of the fighters.
As Argus’s tentacle touched him he screamed in agony as he melted into a puddle of green goo.
Any attacker and any weapon that touched her was gone in an instant.
She continued defending against their attacks until 6 of them were dead and the rest retreated into the forest.
But she couldn’t afford to leave the carriage unattended and chase after them, she focused on her previous form as the goddess told her as she returned to her elven humanoid form, and yet it wasn’t the same, she had patches of green skin over her body, her right eye attained a sickly green glow, her Armor and clothes were gone from transformation but she couldn’t be bothered by it now.
She was exhausted but she decided to drag herself to the carriage and check on her liege.
When she got to the door she gave a quick knock but nobody answered.
Panic gripped her as she pulled at the door, after some struggle she opened it and her fear came true, in the chaos her friend was gone, and her sacrifice meant nothing.
“NO NO NO PLEASE...” she closed the door and opened it multiple times but what she saw was true.
She was gone, she couldn’t protect her, even with all her training she fell into despair as she cried acidic tears.
She wept for a moment before she felt a warm touch on her shoulder.