[https://i.imgur.com/4yzZvCn.jpg]

Kueler’s armor had absorbed most of the impact from the monster’s attack, but its immense strength still sent him flying all the way across the room.

Fiar had fallen off his back mid-air, but luckily landed inside one of the stone structures. He was surrounded by tall and thick walls, separating him from the pursuing monsters.

Kueler didn’t have much luck. He slammed against the wall on the other side, dropping to the ground with so much force that his metal greaves shattered. The monsters were on their way to finish off their prey.

The Knight was in a bad spot. His armor was dented and broken all over the place, he was separated from Charliette, Lio, and Fiar, and he was about to be surrounded by those deadly fiends that fought relentlessly. They didn’t tire, nor did they feel pain or fear. They would keep running and attacking, even if a sword cuts off one of their legs or gashes their body. They would stop at nothing to hunt their prey.

The monster growled and bore their fangs as they approached Kueler. He likewise readied his sword. Luckily it still held its sharpness. It was ready for battle, but it would be questionable if Kueler was as well.

“Ah.” Kueler breathed out as he turned to see dozens of monsters closing in on him. His breathing grew rapidly, his heart beated faster, and his adrenaline shot through the roof. Kueler’s body was prepared to make a last stand, but he wasn’t. He had people to save, he couldn’t die here. Yet, his life began flashing before his eyes, no matter how much he wanted it to stop.

“No! I will get through this!” He shook his head, but the memories came back to him, flooding his mind. Even the oldest memories that he’d long forgotten came back to him.

X X X

Kueler’s oldest memory was when he was a small child, living in a rural town aways from Galligar. In the town of Beckett, he lived with his mother and father in a small yet quaint house.

His mother was a commoner and worked as a tailor for the town. When hunters brought in skin or pelt from the animals they hunted, she would turn them into coats, rugs, or tunics for the townspeople. She loved her job, as she had the liberty to make whatever she wanted. She herself could dictate the fashion of her town, which put a smile on her face.

Kueler remembered the first time she gave him a proper winter coat she made herself. Before that, all Kueler would wear were hand-me-downs from their neighbors. But his mother wanted to wait until he was older to give him clothes of her own making from her, because she wanted him to remember this moment. Sure, the neighbor’s clothes were most likely made by her too, but she wanted to give Kueler something herself.

It was a thick coat made of gray wolf fur. The pelt used was so thick that it was durable to even sword slashes, which made it quite popular among guards and hunters around winter time. Kueler remembered smiling bright as he immediately went to try it on. It was a bit big on him, but he loved it. It was his mother’s love for him, symbolized.

Kueler’s father was the captain of the town's guard. Because they lived in a rural area, many animals or even the occasional monsters would wander into the town. His job was to slay those animals or monsters deemed dangerous to the people. That even included other humans who were causing trouble.

Unlike Kueler’s mother, who was outgoing and bubbly, his father was quite stoic and stern. He was normally the one to scold him, while his mother was the one to pamper him. It was a perfect combination, from what Kueler thought.

Kueler’s father, on his sixteenth birthday, gave him a sword. He had been training in sword combat with his father for more than a year now, so he knew quite well how to swing one. But when he grabbed that iron sword from his father, he said one thing to him.

“Son, this is a real weapon, not those wooden things you’ve been swinging around in training. Only unsheathe this weapon if you’re prepared to take a life, or to protect the ones you hold dear.”

That was the rule that Kueler abided by to this day, and it was his fondest memory of his father.

The year after receiving that sword, he would join the Royal Knights, who sent representatives to the big cities to recruit promising candidates. Kueler had traveled to the nearest large city and quickly earned the respect of the representative with his fine swordsmanship. At only seventeen, he was a full-fledged knight.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

That was when his memories took a turn for the worst.

The royal knights were an elite unit of soldiers, handpicked for their sword prowess to serve as the King’s Right Hand. That meant they didn’t serve the nation, which Kueler had originally thought was the case. No, they were to serve the king and his interests exclusively.

Kueler frowned just thinking about that particular memory. If he had known the royal knights served only the king, he would have joined the military knights instead. They were lower in hierarchical rank, but at least they served a noble cause.

Kuelers memory as a royal knight consisted entirely of doing the king’s will. Under the king, he was his mere servant, no knight that protected the weak. He would often serve him tea when the maids were off duty for the night, and sat by his bedside to protect him as he slept. The king couldn’t get to bed without the fear of someone murdering him in his sleep, so at least one knight had to watch over him. Kueler got the short end of the stick in that regard.

One particular memory stood out. One that gets his blood boiling every time. It was his departure from the royal knights.

King Arveragus had finally crossed the line with his requests. One morning, he gathered all the royal knights together, and requested one thing from them.

“There’s a village on the other side of the border who is slandering my name. Burn it to the ground and leave no one alive.”

He had ordered the royal knights to destroy a foreign village, all because one of the representatives who visited there had heard his name being used in a negative light.

Every royal knight staggered backwards, all except Kueler. He looked at the king’s son, Prince Arcite, who stood next to his father.

“What are you thinking, father? This would throw us into a war with that nation! I will not stand for this!” He ran his mouth at his own father. He was always liked better than his father, for his chivalry.

“I don’t care! If they talk bad about me, how much more likely are they to plot against me and send assassins to take my life? They must be put down before my life is in danger.”

Kueler had enough. He took off his helmet and threw it on the ground. “I will not stand for this either! Although I am meant to serve you, my loyalty stands with the nation! I will not kill any foreign innocents, nor let the innocents of our nation be put at risk!”

“Oh? Is that the prodigy royal knight speaking to me? As long as I live, you are bound to obey my orders as the faithful royal knight you are supposed to be! Do not talk to me that way, or I’ll have you flagged for treason!”

“Fine! Then I’m no longer a royal knight!” Kueler threw his issued sword on the ground, stripped himself of the royal armor, and walked right out.

The following day, at a nearby tavern, Kueler heard that the plan to attack that village never came to fruition. All the royal knights stood still in protest of the king. They were all imprisoned on the charge of treason and were replaced.

As a result of his defection, Kueler lost his last name and his job. The only things that tied him to his family were the sword he now wielded against those devilish monsters that cornered him. It was his father’s sword that he had gifted him.

Around his shoulders was also the coat his mother had made him. As his memories flashed before his eyes, he felt the coat with his hands and clenched his sword tight.

“No! I won’t die!” he yelled. “I have a duty! To protect the ones I hold dear! My friends!”

The monsters pounced on him from all three open directions. But before they hit Kueler, he planted his foot on the wall behind him and kicked off of it into a backflip, going right over the crowd of monsters that had him trapped.

He had a newfound ferocity to his attacks. His sword sliced cleaner than ever before through the unlucky monsters that got in his way. He moved even quicker than before, dodging and weaving around attacks. He was a one-man army, slaughtering dozens of those monsters all on his own as he made his way to Fiar.

It was easy to find Fiar. One reason being that there was a separate group of monsters surrounding one of the structures. Also, there was an audible whimper that carried in the air. It was definitely Fiar.

The monsters were clawing on the structure in an attempt to break down the walls and secure their meal. Kueler saw them tear out chunks of stone from the walls bit by bit. He had to act fast.

All the monsters he had slain in quick succession had now found their replacements, and thus their forces were replenished. That meant more and more of them were on his tail as he rushed to Fiar.

“Urgh! Just go away!” Kueler screamed. His vicious overhead strike to a monster’s head had split it wide open. He then threw its corpse at the others and caused a group to topple over.

Huh, they didn’t dodge it. Kueler had realized a weakness of these fiends. Sure, they were quick and had sharp senses, but their eyes were not able to see the corpses of their allies. It was almost as if, once dead, their eyes no longer saw them. Was it some kind of magic? Kueler didn’t know, he wasn’t a magician to distinguish those types of phenomenon.

He used that weakness to his advantage. The knight strategically killed monsters in places where their allies would surely trip and lose their footing, which gave him a free kill. He had slaughtered nearly all pursuers.

But it was too late. Kueler saw with his own eyes that the group of monsters trying to get to Fiar had breached the walls. They ran in, and all Kueler could hear was a blood-curdling scream.