POV: Godfrey
The muscles in my hands tighten around the reigns of my trusty steed and with a single small push with the heels of my boots, I nudge the horse to go faster. My steed has yet to disappoint me in the years we’ve been partners, but now more than ever, I need him to persevere.
My eyes barely register the streaks of green that flash by me, as we traverse through the forest at staggering speeds.
A familiar screeching marked the coming of the dragon who flew overhead. With the shadow of the giant beast growing closer and closer, the coming of an attack was inevitable.
“Ready men! Don’t let your guard down! It’s coming!”
With a great roar erupting from my throat, 300 of the Empire's best knight’s pushed their bodies further into the horses, reducing the overall surface area, reducing air resistance. Hand picked by myself, a single knight in this unit was worth more than 20 of the Empire's soldiers.
“Alex, what's our situation with the prince?”
My eyes fell onto a man riding to the left of me. My right hand man, had a bundle of cloth in his left hand, only the periodic slight lifting of its folds marking the presence of a life.
“He should be fine for now, but if this continues on for longer I’m afraid that his life will be in danger.”
Shit… Judging from the current situation, I wouldn’t be surprised if, we got chased for another day.
“Alex what’s your mana at?”
“90% to a mass teleport. Should only be another 20 minutes until it’s up.”
Alex is one of the best magicians in the country. Being the best of only five who has mastered teleportation spells, he can teleport any willing target in a 20 metre radius to an area up to a 100 metres away.
A shrill screech reached my ear drums.
Here it comes…
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Pouring mana into my hands, I mumbled a short incantation. ‘Upper leveled physical barrier’
A large transparent shield forms around me and my men just in time as the dragon swoops in for an attack. It’s jaws slammed into the barrier with enough force for the displaced air to slice into my cheek. Warm blood trickles down my cheek as a large spiderweb forms on the barrier.
As the dragon swoops back into the air, the barrier shatters. Moving my hands through my beard, I think about our next move.
I only have enough mana for one more barrier…
“Godfrey! There’s a huge mana disturbance right ahead, it’s right under our feet! It’s larger than anything I’ve ever seen!”
As if waiting for that que, a large rumbling could be felt underneath our feet. The surroundings began to sporadically spin as the earth shook a staggering amount, causing our trained warhorses to lose balance, toppling on top of each other, breaking our formation.
As the dragon was high in the air, it was unaffected by the commotion on the ground, and seeing our state of weakness, the dragon let out a blood chilling roar and dove towards us at a staggering speed.
“Quick to your feet men, forget the horses for now!”
With that my men scrambled to their feet, but by then it was already too late.
Shit! I need to do something quick!
I begin to pour mana into my hands. Shutting my eyes, I start the incantation again, all I can do is pray that I make it in time.
I can feel the presence of the dragon moving closer and closer. I wonder if my men can hear how hard my heart is beating right now…
30 metres until impact…
20 metres…
10 metres…
5 metres…
Ahh… Is this the place where I die? Realising that I don’t nearly have enough time to complete my incantation, thoughts of acceptance fill my mind. I await the coming of my death for what seemed to be a eternity.
A blinding light penetrates my eyelids, leaving me with a crimson red straining my eyeballs. A pain filled shriek that a human was incapable of producing vibrated through the air. Opening my eyes, dots of black danced around my vision but even with my impaired vision my mind deduced what had happened. A bright light had blinded the dragon, which caused it’s to instinctively fly upwards.
Wasting no time, I look around for anything that could get us out of this mess. The light for now is a secondary priority, the saving of my prince and unit’s lives is a first. Scanning the surroundings, I see that 3 metres to the left of the unit a stone entrance 3 metres by 3 metres had appeared.
“Men follow me as fast as you can! Leave everything apart from what's on you, even your horses!”
“Yes sir!”
Even after what had just gone down, they were still so responsive. From the bottom of my heart I felt a mixture of self loathing and respect. Respect that they could be so strong after a hopeless situation, and self loathing, that stemmed from how I had betrayed them; my unit to whom I would entrust my life to, and my prince whom I had pledged myself to on his birth, by giving up and not preserving.
Sprinting towards the newly created entrance with my unit in tow, I preemptively start activating a skill. Arriving in less than 10 seconds, I activate the skill, ‘Echolocation’ the moment I reach the inside.
Through the use of ‘echolocation’ I can immediately sense the layout of the entire space.
“Alex! Can you use mass teleport yet!?”
“Whenever you’re ready captain!”
“I want you to teleport all of us 100 meters straight down.”
“That's suicide! We could teleport into a solid area, killing us immediately or losing us limbs!”
“Trust in me this one time. Please.”
An auditory sigh could be heard coming out of Alex’s mouth as he moved his arms in an exaggerated manner. After carefully passing the prince onto another soldier, he got into the preparation for the spell.
“Everybody, we’re in for a bumpy ride!”
Alex started the enchantment and as intricate magic circles started to form around us, a roar could be heard, as the now enraged dragon flew towards the cave.
“No you don’t!” Channeling my mana and practically screaming the incantation, I bring up a ‘Upper level physical barrier’ around the entrance, blocking the dragon from entering. As the surface area is a lot tighter, the barrier becomes more packed with mana, strengthening it many fold.
The dragon slams into the barrier full force causing a crack to form on the surface, but before it’s able to get in another hit, we’re already gone.