I made it to the tree line in no time at all, leaving my escort in the dust. Not my fault they are so slow. It was clear the necromancy lines of magic were coming from inside the forest. ‘Whomever it is must have some way to sense or see the battle. Wait a minute…’

I switched to my far sight awareness. This is what allowed me to see things through my ravens and the other animals I befriended. Looking at the sky, I saw what looked like a few undead vultures circling the battlefield.

“That jerk is using a bastardized version of my recon method, unacceptable!” I said out loud in frustration, knowing I should’ve thought about that possibility sooner.

‘I look forward to meeting this necromancer. Time to take out the enemy reconnaissance.’ I thought as I ordered my ravens to dive bomb the vultures. Each vulture was attacked by multiple ravens from above catching them completely off-guard and tearing them to pieces before they even knew what hit them.

Speaking about getting caught off guard, I made the mistake of losing sight of my surroundings when my ravens attacked. Two undead trolls decided to make their appearance at that time. One swung his club to smash me like a bug but luckily my instincts kicked in and I was able to partially dodge the attack. The key word was partially as I was sent flying back into a tree. The glancing blow didn’t really hurt as much as the sudden impact made me struggle for a moment to catch my breath. As I staggered to my feet the two trolls rushed to finish the job.

It took me a moment to regain my baring as I dodged behind that same tree I hit, only for it to be taken out by one of the trolls. Shaking off the knock back again from the tree shrapnel, good thing I had erected a magic shield on instinct. “OK, now I’m pissed.”

It was like the world slowed down or I just sped up as I quickly picked up my makeshift club while both undead trolls were still in mid-swing. I smashed one troll to the side and bashed the other one away. The fight quickly went from them rushing me to me knocking them around like they were nothing.

‘Hahaha, this is kind of fun. Time to end it. I have bigger fish to fry.’ I thought as I hit one so hard the head and right part of its torso were turned to paste.

I cast a disintegration spell at the other one as it got to its feet, turning it to nothing but ash. Looking further into the forest I caught sight of my target. He was a shorter, slender man in a dark cloak, hood covering his face.

The hooded necromancer seemed completely shocked to see me show up out of nowhere in the small forest clearing he was launching his attack from.

‘I’m guessing he was figuring those two trolls would take care of me.’

My guard finally caught up. Sadly, they had to fight through several undead who had closed ranks after I made my path through them. Once the necromancer saw my guard following me in the distance, he snapped out of his shock.

“Whoever you are, your biggest mistake was not just rolling over and dying! Now, SUFFER!” The necromancer yelled, raising the gnarled wand in is hand, and immediately casting a spell through it, sending a dark purple bolt straight at me.

“Suffer? Really? That is what you go with? Get some better lines cartoon villain.” I taunted as I grabbed the remaining corpse of the undead troll and threw it to intercept the spell. When the magic hit the corpse, it shriveled and decayed further.

Seeing his first shot missed infuriated the necromancer as he screamed and cast another spell through his wand. “DIE!

I responded in a mock surprised tone as I knew it would send this guy over the edge. “Man, what did I ever do to you? OK, well I did kill a bunch of your minions but in all fairness, they were trying to kill me and my friends first.”

My aura gave me a 360 degree extra sensory perception which is how I knew Mira and the others were approaching right on my heals, I could not risk them being hit with the death magic from that wand. So, I knew I had one choice, to deflect it.

Part of the reason why I grabbed that ogre’s ankle bone in the first place was because the body had been infused with dark necrotic energy, specifically this necromancer’s magic, and I could use that to my advantage here. I cast a shield around my makeshift weapon and smacked it against the bolt like a baseball bat sending it right back to the jerk that started all this.

If the necromancer was shocked seeing me show up in the clearing, or surprised when I used the remains of one of his own minions to intercept his attack, he was completely stunned and was not expecting his own attack to be sent back at him. Like I was playing magic baseball, I used my makeshift club to smack his spell right back at the jerk. As such, he was completely unprepared and took the bolt in his chest, not only knocking him off his feet, but lifting him off the ground. Completely falling on his back and smacking the back of his head on the ground. It was clear this necromancer was having a very bad day and I was determined to make it far worse!

‘Aren’t I a stinker? Hehehe!’ I laughed internally, as I thought of the perfect way, I could make this guy’s day go from bad to totally screwed.

Reaching my consciousness out to the life in the surrounding area, I quickly cast another spell, causing roots to shoot out from the ground and wrap around his legs, arms, and neck, binding him in place. Then I had the roots extend to wrap around the necromancer’s mouth preventing him from using any spells requiring verbal components. Not wanting to give this jerk a moment to recover I used these bindings to give me time to get up close.

His hood had fallen back revealing a mid-twenties/early-thirties human man. He reminded me of a rat in human form, beady eyes, crooked nose, skinny, and sickly looking. His eyes burned with hate at my audacity to bind him.

I smirked and said, “You look pissed. If you think binding you is audacious, you haven’t seen anything yet.” I smiled wickedly, then I placed my hand on his forehead and used Mind Magic to invade his mind.

Seeing how this was my first mental battle, I was a bit cautious about what kind of resistance I would encounter. I have played lots of fantasy and anime RPGs, plus read plenty of stories. One of the biggest takeaways, ALWAYS learn resistances or have immunities to certain attacks. Of all the possible resistances to have, mental protection is at the top of the list, you never want your mind messed with or hijacked. So, you can understand why I invested some significant creation points into Mental Control and Defense capabilities. Telepathy and telekinesis will be fun to use in the future but those mean nothing if someone can invade your mind and crack it like an egg.

I spent many creation points on my mind and how to use it and protect it, after all a mind is a terrible thing to waste. The knowledge and instincts I gained prior to coming to this world helped me know exactly how to conduct a mental assault and defense. I immediately erected my mental constructs and defenses, creating layer and layer of protective barriers. Then I set up various mental distractions and random thoughts to throw off anyone who even attempted to get through my defenses would first have to figure out which maze of thoughts to follow.

Sadly, for this jerk, he clearly didn’t get the memo on learning how to protect his fragile little mind. It was clear I was way overpowered when it came to mental attacks. I quickly found his pitiful mental defenses. With a minor thought I shattered them to pieces.

“Wow you suck at psychic combat. Wait… are you drooling?”

Before I shifted through his memories, I had to find his magic. My people were still in danger, and I had to change that.

‘Time to sever this guy’s connection to his magic. Nice I knew this combination of mind control and nullification abilities would be worth every creation point. That just might be my favorite saying.’ Laughing inside my head, I refocused on the task at hand. Reaching into his very being I found his connection to his magic, and like giant mental scissors, cut the connection. I would be able to re-establish his connection if I so chose, but as for the necromancer, you could hear the mental cry of anguish having lost something so vital.

Looking through my ravens flying above the battlefield, I watched as I severed the necromancer’s connection to his undead and all at once all the undead my soldiers were fighting collapsed like puppets with their strings cut. I watched as all his undead minions lost the necrotic power keeping them animated and simply collapsed. With my people now safe, I took the time to sift through his memories.

The necromancer was named Ned and it appeared he worked for some noble. I quickly sorted through the man’s memories to gain the intel I required. The noble was smart, Ned only met an intermediary that had hired him. It was clear something much larger was going on but that was for a later time. After I took Ned’s memories it was time to address my men. With a mental nudge, I paralyzed Ned, his body instantly stopped moving.

I had the roots currently binding Ned to move his hands behind his back and wrap around his feet preventing any chance of running away. Then I let the roots separate from the earth so they could further harden and make it easier for my men to haul ‘better off Dead Ned’ away.

‘Yes, that is his new name LOL.’

Before stepping away from better off dead Ned, I put him in a magically induced coma with a specific switch I could turn on later should he need to be interrogated. With that done, I rose to my feet and ordered the knights to haul him away. LT Simmons had just arrived to find me standing over our assailant.

“LT Simmons, I have subdued our attacker and severed his connection animating the undead. He is in a magically induced coma, please pick him up so we all headed back to the rest of the convoy.”

The look on the faces of LT Simmons, Mira, Sergeant Callus, and the other knights assigned to guard me during this skirmish was priceless.

It took LT Simmons a second or two before he replied, “YES MY PRINCE!”

Without another word he picked up the 150lb man like he was nothing and everyone followed me back to camp.

‘I will need to talk with Reggie about what I learned from Better off Dead Ned when I get a chance to speak to him alone.’ I could feel the eyes of the knights staring at me as we walked back. ‘Perhaps I overdid it a bit back there, going to have to be more careful about revealing my abilities to quickly.’

While heading back we saw Captain Spears heading our way with several knights and soldiers in tow. “Prince James I was very worried when you took off as quickly as you did.”

“James, Reggie. We are not in the capital yet and we agreed to address each other informally as possible until then. Men who have crossed blades have no need for formalities.”

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“My apologies James, it takes some time. Is this the person responsible for all our troubles? I feared for your safety, but it appears you, LT Simmons, Mira, Sergeant Callus, and our other knights were able to subdue this miscreant.”

LT Simmons spoke up immediately and loudly to make sure his voice carried back to our camp, “It was not us Sir! IT WAS THE PRINCE! HE DEFEATED THIS BASTARD ALL BY HIMSELF!”

I could see the eyes of Reggie and the others around him widen in shock.

Rumblings and murmurs could be heard.

“He stopped the necromancer himself?”

“First he takes out an undead ogre and now single handedly takes out a necromancer?”

“Yes, our prince is a blessing to our kingdom!”

As they walked the rest of the way back to camp, Reggie spoke up. “Impressive as always James. You must be tired James, please go rest.”

LT Simmons chose that moment to throw our captive down on the ground in front of two soldiers standing guard and started barking orders. “YOU TWO! YEA YOU! Take this scum and tie him up in one of the empty wagons and put guards on him! NOW SOLDIERS!”

I just chuckled inside. ‘I think LT Simmons just tries to see how loud he can get when barking out orders.’

I could see Reggie wanting to dress down LT Simmons and the others for letting me take off and then letting me take on the necromancer on my own. I wanted to correct that misunderstanding quickly. Plus, now that we were back at the camp, I had more pressing concerns as I watched people running about.

Grabbing Reggie’s attention, “He is a pawn, Reggie. There is more for us to discuss later. Before we have any further discussion, please do not punish LT Simmons or the others, they were following my orders. I was the one who led the charge to find the necromancer.”

I could see Reggie thinking through what he witnessed during the battle, what he heard as well as what he has seen me do in the past. Those quick facial changes flashed and then he just nodded at me. “Understood James. I will refrain from being too harsh in their reminders of duty.”

They all seemed to wilt slightly.

With a sigh I continued, “Now more importantly, any losses? Any dead? How many wounded?”

This question brought Captain Spears up short. ‘Once again, he shows his deep concern for his subjects.’ the captain thought but ever the professional he replied, “We have several wounded. Most of our wounded have minor injuries...” sorrow showed on Captain Spears’ face as he continued, “a handful with broken or shattered bones...no dead...but four with critical wounds including the hunter who warned us of the attack... I do not think they will survive the night.”

Clenching his fists Sergeant Callus Thorn spoke up, “This necromancer hit us right between shifts of scout patrols. It is my fault your majesty, I let our forces become ‘laxed so close to the capital...”

I cut him off, “There is plenty of blame to go around Sergeant but there is no need, I’ll explain later. Reggie, take me to the critically wounded at once.”

“My prince I would spare you the pain of watching them inevitably die. You should get some rest.” LT Simmons commented.

“I have no intention of resting when our people are wounded and suffering.” I replied.

‘He really does care about his people’ several of the convoy who watched the exchange thought.

I was led to a larger triage tent where I could hear muffled cries and groans.

‘These men and women are tough.’

What I saw upon entering the tent broke my heart. Several non-combatants were running around helping bandage wounds or set and brace bones. Some knights were there as well, ones with some healing affinity focused on the more severe cases, doing what they could fighting to keep them alive. It was a fight they were clearly losing.

I immediately approached the female hunter that looked at death’s door.

“Please let...” I couldn’t quite get the words out.

The knight, Kira, attempting to heal her seemed to deflate, misinterpreting my incomplete statement thinking I was ordering her to accept her death and let them go and to go put her talents towards healing the other injured.

‘The same thing the others tried to tell me. She is my dearest friend. I just cannot let her go.’ Kira thought in despair.

Kira knew her friend could not be saved yet she said, “but...she is my friend. I can’t just...” Then her training and duty kicked in, she was a royal knight after all, and her prince just gave her an order. “As you command...”

Placing my hand on Kira’s shoulder, “You misunderstand me, Kira.” Yes, I remembered her name, I had made a point over these last few days to get to know everyone and I had seen her and the hunter sharing meals and laughing together. It was clear they were friends.

“I am not telling you to give up on your friend.” I finished saying.

“I do not understand your grace.” Kira replied in confusion, not sure what I was trying to tell her.

Without another word I moved closer to the hunter. ‘Rita was her name if I recall.’

I knelt and placed one hand on her head and the other on the wound. Initially I cast a diagnostic spell to determine exactly what was wrong. I severed her pain receptors at the same time I began to heal the rather large hole in her stomach. Golden light began to glow all around my hands and start to suffuse Rita, as her whole body began to glow and lift off the makeshift cot.

Everyone in the triage tent froze, even those with painful wounds, so lost in awe of what they were witnessing. Rita’s wounds instantly closed, her bruises disappeared as well, if not for the damage to her leather armor, there would be no sign of injury. As I finished my healing, I reattached her nerve endings now that I knew the pain from the healing has passed.

Rita blinked a few times as she regained consciousness. She turned to me with a look of confusion, “My-my prince?”

Seeing her friend wake up, Kira could not hold it in any longer, “You... you healed her…”

I stood to give the friends some time as I did so Kira rushed in to give Rita a big hug. “I thought I’d lost you, my friend!” She said as tears of joy ran down Lara’s face.

“You still owe me money, no way I’m letting you off that easy Kira.” Rita said in good jest to her friend.

As I shifted my attention from the two friends everyone was just staring at me. It was LT Simmons and Sergeant Callus who both broke the silence at the same time. “You are a healer too?!”

Captain Spears, however, recalled what the king and queen had revealed to him before he departed on his mission. They told him of the prophecy and the reason why they sent their son away. He had heard many rumors about the prince over the years. The prevailing theory was the prince was very frail and had to be sequestered to protect his weak constitution. This, however, meant that in the eyes of the kingdom and especially the nobility the royal family had cast aside their only son.

He did not expect to be told of a prophecy and Reggie had mulled over what he had heard the whole trip to pick up the prince. In some ways he dismissed it, that was until he met the young man and kept getting surprised by James again and again as he learned of his capabilities.

‘He is our salvation!’ Reggie thought to himself, even more convinced that this prophecy was indeed true.

I paid the looks and comments no mind, I just went to the next gravely wounded person and began the process again.

“My prince, are you sure you should continue? You just made a miracle happen.” Mira commented out of concern to what she just witnessed.

Brushing Mira’s comment aside, I waved my hand and replied. “Nonsense, I can still help, and our people are in pain.”

On and on I went, first healing those most severe, then moving to heal the ones with broken bones. All the while hearing comments and murmuring from those in the tent that could not take their eyes away from what I was doing.

“How is he still going?”

“How does he have any energy left?!”

“He’s even healing the ones with broken bones?!”

As I progressed, several of the wounded I approached tried to say they would endure and not to worry about them.

“Please my prince, do not strain yourself, I can endure.”

“I heal quickly, do not worry yourself.”

“You should rest your majesty.”

‘Honorable men and women indeed’ I thought.

After healing all the ones with broken bones in the medic tent, I collapsed into a chair. I instantly had several people around me making sure I was ok.

“You push yourself too much my prince!” Reggie, Simmons, and Callus said in unison.

“Please call me James” I said with an exhausted sigh.

Mira was there with a goblet. “Here my prince, it is a healing tincture. It will aid in your recovery.”

“Thank you, Mira.” I said as I took the goblet and began to drink it. Surprisingly it was mild in taste but flavorful and not what I was expecting.

“Well done, Mira. We will make you a proper knight after I instill in you enough discipline not to let your charge get ahead of you.” Sergeant Callus said.

Mira just snorted as LT Simmons said in good humor, “He got away from all of us Callus or did you forget?”

They both clapped each other on the shoulder and just started to laugh as they exited the tent to go find some ale. As they exited the tent, I could hear LT Simmons yell “You there! Bring us some ale! Our Prince has just performed a miracle! Not only did he defeat that necro-twit, but He also saved our dying and wounded!”

It appears that broke the tension everyone in the camp was holding inside from the battle. Like a dam that broke the stress and cheers went up.

“Hurrah!”

“Long live Prince James!”

“Huzzah!”

Yet ever the chance to raise his voice I heard LT Simmons roar, “HEY, what do you think you are doing?! GET BACK TO YOUR POST! YOU ARE ON GUARD DUTY MISTER! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!”

I just chuckled and said, “He’s a damn fine Lieutenant though he has the vocal strength of a Drill Sergeant, I’ll give him that.”

“Indeed, he is James. At times I think he does it just to out sergeant royal knight sergeant Callus” Reggie replied.

Kira came over and said, “LT Simmons is not wrong your grace. What you accomplished here today is a miracle. We only have a few great healers in our kingdom that could’ve saved someone so gravely injured as Rita was. Yet you did that and more. You are a gift from the heavens your grace!”

“Please enough. I appreciate the kind words...” I was cut off by Mira of all people, “Allow her to thank you my prince, you did us all a great service this day!”

Sighing, “My apologies Kira, I am just a bit tired. It has been a very long day.”

“Of course, your grace. After today, what you have accomplished, none of us even know how you are not unconscious from mana drain.”

Kira seemed to consider something in that moment and then drew her sword, placing it in front of her facing down, and got down on one knee. “Please your grace, it would be my greatest honor to serve you as your personal royal knight. I swear to stand by your side to heal and protect you always!”

Several conversations stopped as they witnessed Kira’s display. Mira’s eyes went wide, and her face went through several facial expressions of her own as her hand went to her sword, ‘Dammit! Why didn’t I think of that?! That sneaky...Maybe it’s not too late, I could...’ but her thoughts were cutoff with Captain Spears sharp words.

“Kira...Mira, enough of that! Though I understand and agree with your sentiments, those type of decisions are made by the royal family. Kira, rise and go celebrate with your friend. I will make both of your wishes known to the king and queen when I deliver my report.”

Kira got up, put her sword away, “Thank you Sir!” was all she said as she left the tent.

Mira seemed to relax too, she did not seem as pleased and just gave a nod at Reggie before she too walked out of the tent.

After everyone left the triage tent, Reggie spoke up, “You know James, after today you will have several royal knights and soldiers wanting to become part of your personal guard. We all have only known you for a few days but in that short time you have shown genuine concern and interest in all of us. You are humble yet even in your baring there is a sense of sureness and confidence that leaves no doubt you are regal.”

Speaking more softly, Reggie continued, “You bested me in our sword duel,” raising his hand to stop my comment, “Don’t say it James, I know what I know. At the end, exhaustion was starting to set in. It was only a matter of time.”

‘It is probably not a good idea to tell him that I could have kept on going and even at his peak of movement it was like slow motion for me. Yea lets keep that fact to ourselves.’ I randomly thought as I listened to Reggie.

Reggie sighed before resigning himself to say what he needed to say, “You make my job and the job of my men even more difficult; you lead from the front, and by lead from the front I mean punch a hole right through the enemy’s line. You rush right in announcing yourself with some of the most impressive battle magic I’ve only seen court magicians be able to accomplish; you take out and bind a dark magic user by turning his own attack right back at him!”

By the end Reggie had worked up a lot of energy. “After all of that you heal my men! I think every person here would follow you wherever you go if you and the royal family allowed it. Just look at Kira and Mira’s recent actions.”

Breathing a heavy sigh, Reggie let the stress from his shoulders go to regain some of his composure. “I know about the prophecy. The king and queen told me before I left to retrieve you the real reason you had been so isolated. When news of this spreads and trust me the men and women out there,” Reggie waved his arm to signify the whole convoy, “will make sure to spread the news of what has happened here!”

‘I am getting worked up again. I just have never encountered his like.’ Reggie thought.

He exhaled a big breath and continued his passionate speech. “Now that you are back the knowledge of the prophecy will become more widespread. Combine that with this battle, you will have quite a following before you know it.”

Once again Reggie waved at the camp. “As people get to know you, they will naturally flock to you. Heck, I wanted to bend the knee just as Kira did. With that said, there are factions both within and outside the kingdom that are not going to be happy with the influence you gain. After you are re-united with the royal family, it would be wise to choose an honor guard sooner than later. The various factions cannot be trusted, and you must be careful James.”

I cut him off, “I am glad you brought that up. Let me tell you what I learned from our prisoner.”