Chapter 14- Run!

The yells of men and monsters ran synonymously throughout the bloody battlefield. Waves of Nightstalkers flowed onto the angled spikes that jutted out. The spikes worked to stall parts of the horde, but against the endless tides they all became small hills of black furred bodies. Guards were slashing the tides with only the thought of protecting. Garrison was at the forefront leading a group of 27 guards in the direction of the 10 foot tall Nightstalker.

"Alright, you all understand." I finished telling my five companions my plan while inscribing several marks onto the twelve wooden stakes. The boy is the only one who nods.

"Good, then I give the task to you all good luck!" I take one of the stakes and the boy takes the eleven extras. He starts to run off, but is weighed down by the stakes and begins to waddle.

"Um, Prince we were sent to protect you leaving would only defeat the purpose of our orders..." One of the three guards spoke while Chad nodded at his statement.

"Ok that's fine leave that child alone to fend for himself against the horde of dangerous monsters." On my reasonable words I couldn't see any of them listening to my previous orders. For some reason all of them wore a weird smile on their faces. I had once again forgotten I am a child myself.

"Ok let's put it this way, I am going to fight that big guy over there no matter what you do. And you cannot stop me. Also for me to do so and still come out remotely alive I need you guys to start moving." I hit them with an underlying threat and I finally started to evoke an expected response.

"Damnit! Alright, fine we'll stay and protect the Prince. John, Steven, go and protect the kid." One of the guards finally gave in to my commands, ordered the two other guards, and I finally had my burdens decrease.

"Ok, now we need to do our part." I spoke to Chad and the guard and they simply tolled their eyes at me. I ignored them while checking the injuries I received yesterday and earlier today. My three main meridians were still torn, but my Qi had finally settled and I could fight while using all of my body! I just need to refrain from using my multicolored flame more than once.

Before my two comrades could have a chance to refute I thrust myself into the direction of the 10 foot tall Nightstalker. My sword in my right hand and a wooden stake was strapped to my left thigh. I didn't have time to start a fire, so I am going to have to somehow make it through to that thing. I spot Garrison making his way towards the 10 foot tall Nightstalker and I drew up a plan in my head.

"Hurry men!! If we kill that monster, then the horde will fall apart!!" Garrison was yelling out encouragement to the men who followed him into the tides of Nightstalkers. His eyes were focused ahead of him as he trusted his comrades to pull through. As such I easily slipped into the back of the group after a bit of recklessness with Chad and the guard guarding my back.

It was like wading through living water that had sharp teeth and tried to take your life at every moment. It seemed that the further we came closer to the 10 foot tall monster the stronger the horde got. A thought struck my head that this monster might be just a leader type and have little to no offensive abilities. Although the thought crossed my mind, I never dared to underestimate an enemy with such an amount of mana.

We were already 20 feet away from the giant Nightstalker, but it felt like we couldn't even take another step. The surrounding Nightstalkers were going crazy and their fervor was increasing. Now that I had arrived this close to the giant Nightstalker I could feel strings of mana attaching to the closest Nightstalkers. However there was a problem with doing this and that was that it couldn't move from it's position. I was hiding behind Chad just in case it noticed me and felt like increasing its efforts.

At the moment it was distracted by Garrison and his subordinates, so now was the best time to strike. I took the marked wooden stake in my left hand. My first plan of action required me to impale this centerpiece onto the leader. I just needed a way to get to it's non-scaly back.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Hey Chad I need to get behind that guy." I get close to Chad's ear so that our conversation will go unnoticed. Chad seems to understand my intentions and was about to refuse when I started to make my way to the front of the group. He had to exchange places with the guard who followed me and chased after my back. I received some shocked glances, but no one had the time to stop me since they were preoccupied with the raging Nightstalkers around us. I stopped behind Garrison and in one quick motion I switched Garrison and Chad forcing Chad to face off against the crazed Nightstalkers.

"Prince Glen!?!! What are you doing here!!??!" Garrison was extremely flustered with my appearance and I could only give a wry smile at his uncharacteristic actions. His face was going through many emotions at the moment.

"First off, listen to me. I need to stab this thing into that guy. Easier said then done right? I just need a way to get to him. also when I'm done I need you all to evacuate." I tried to calm Garrison down and showed him the marked wooden stake in my hand. He showed more skepticism than trust and I could only sigh. He just met me today of course he wouldn't trust me.

"Ok don't trust me that's fine, but I'm going there no matter what. I know you have something that could possibly kill that monster since you were making your way towards it so confidently. However you'll have a better chance of killing it if you trust me. I need a path." My words seemed to affect him a little and he started to fall into thought.

"I mean you can continue your little suicide attack and get all your subordinates killed in the process..."

"Shut up!" It seems I struck a nerve with my final statement. He was extremely angry at this point, but he knew that he couldn't take his anger out on me. His expression darkened as he took a quick look around and took in the gravity of the situation.

"Damnit! For a kid, you aren't cute! You say you can help us right? Then you better not let us down!" Garrison gave into my demands and sheathed his sword. Then I felt traces of mana flow from his body and into his arms. He interlaced his fingers and brought them down to the ground with his body in a squat. He motioned for me to get on and I rested my right foot on his fingers and I felt a large release of mana from his arms. A surge of strength pushed me up and into the air as I kicked off his hands to increase my upwards velocity.

"Prince Glen I will wait only a couple minutes till you come back! Everyone else retreat!!" Garrison yelled with a pale face he was gasping for breath and tried to force his men to run. However no one moved and everyone continued to fight. I couldn't listen in further because I was rapidly soaring over the tide of Nightstalkers towards the 10 foot tall leader.

It's grotesque features became clearer as I came closer. It's wolf head stared at me with beady black eyes and each black fiber that covered it's face could be seen descending down it's back like a cloak of night. The scales that covered its chest and belly looked like a dragon's impenetrable carapace. However it only stared at me flying at it. It made no move to attack me and traces of anger were found in it's expression.

I spun my body and corrected my flight as I sheathed my sword. I readied the marked stake in both of my hands. Masses of Nightstalkers were spilling over each other in an attempt to jump up to me. I finally reached the monster and using the force of the my flight and my own I thrusted the marked stake into it's skull.

However I instead of feeling the stake sink through the flesh and bone; I felt a shock run through my arm and my velocity come to a halt. I caught onto the closest thing I came across with my left hand to avoid falling into the crazed Nightstalkers. My right was still holding tightly to the marked stake. I looked up to see the beady eyes of the 10 foot tall Nightstalker staring back at me. I realized that I was hanging off of it's elongated snout!

Although I hadn't expected it's skin to be so tough, I still didn't give up hope! I threw the marked stake in a swift motion before it could retaliate and as it left my hand I released my grip from it's snout. It seemed as if it thought it had caught me since a toothy grin was disgustingly plastered on it's face. I simply laughed at it and kicked the end of the stake and it accelerated towards my original target: it's eye!

I unsheathed my sword as I landed and a deafening scream rang out from behind me. It appears that my stake had landed. Bracing myself for the surging Nightstalkers to come, but they never attacked. I looked around to see the Nightstalkers were running to and fro. Their previous crazy actions were nowhere to be found in their current frantic running. I sensed that the mana strings that were connected to the 10 foot tall monster had been erased as I ran through the swarm of running Nightstalkers. However I didn't have the luxury to figure out any of the circumstances around me because my mind was filled with the the thought of running away from the rapidly gathering amount of mana behind me!