Nyx rose to her hands and knees, glaring at the silver, power armoured knight as he came to a sliding halt a few feet in front of her. Within moments, she realised why the man who was supposed to be protecting her, had revealed her position seemingly without regard for the consequences.
It was because the enemy was already fully aware of her location.
After extending his reach, so he was slightly off balance, bright sparks flew off the knight's tower shield as he twisted his upper body and blocked a metal, silver spear that had been hurtling towards Nyx. Redirecting its trajectory into the nearby wall and showering the pair with small lumps of stone.
Since the first attack, the screams of pain had somewhat died down and was now replaced with panicked shouts, the ringing sound of metal clashing and small explosions that echoed in the distance.
Staggering back a single step from the spear's impact, the knight didn't have a moment to rest as his short sword flashed with blue, glowing runes before knocking two arrows out of the air and parrying a flying dagger. "Code black. Knights gather on me."
The knight's voice, one that held power and authority, boomed across the surrounding area, even silencing a few of the less gravely wounded, yet it was apparent to those were listening carefully that it held a trace of fear.
Due to the incoming attacks, the knight didn't have time to check the princess's condition but what he had seen as he approached had caused a cold sweat to appear on his brow.
The princess's clothing was in tatters and covered in bright, red blood making him fear that she had been critically injured yet, even though he knew basic first aid and possessed some weak healing abilities, the constant attacks made it impossible for him to be able to look at her again.
The knight continued to move, more like a dancer than a warrior, blocking a barrage of projectiles, including a few fireballs and ice spears, as if it were his own child that would die if he were to fail.
What also worried him, distracting him enough to cause a few close calls, was that while he could see the princess, and knew she was at least alive, the prince was nowhere to be seen.
Not able to spare even a glance due to the dire situation he found himself in, the knight cursed his allies for being so slow and, against protocol and his training, issued a desperate call for aid from sources outside the royal knights. "Medics, healers or anyone with first aid knowledge to me. Defenders of the Crown and Republic, defend with your lives."
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Unlike the ordinary guards and soldiers, the royal knights had all undergone a training regime that was suspiciously close to brainwashing, making them put the safety and needs of the royal family above all others, even their own flesh and blood.
Flashing to the left, the knight blocked another barrage of arrows before hastily jumping to the right and cutting a fireball in half, instantly disintegrating it in a blinding flash of light, once again successfully defending the princess.
However, even before his second foot had touched the ground and he could regain his stance, the cold realisation that he had fallen into a trap crawled up his spine as the image of death seemed to coil around his heart.
Instinctively twisting, using the extra momentum to increase the speed that he could raise his shield, two silver, metal spears smashed through his chest plates with a deafening screech.
The force of the projectiles was so great that his chest armour warped outwards with the protruding spears before slamming him into the ground and pinning him there like a marionette doll that had half of its strings cut.
"Mage Sniper" bellowed a voice nearby, seemingly having witnessed the knight's demise.
During this time, Nyx had been observing the knight, mainly for an opportunity to escape on her own but also in case one of the attacks were to get past him. Yet the moment the barrage of arrows and fireball come into view, her eyes had turned cold, and a baleful aura had started to gather around her body at a terrifying rate.
The move, using the arrows and fireball to break the stance of an opponent, while using a hidden light spell in the fireball to produce a blinding light to cover the approach of the two, magically enchanted spears, was something she had seen many times when fighting under her deceased master. A rare existence that had not only cultivated physical and magical arts at the same time successfully, something almost unheard of but had scarily high attunement in all elements making them one of the leading experts in the third and fourth continents.
This is the reason why single element cultivators, excluding the handicap of their progression speed, were looked down on.
The battle prowess and versatility a multi-element cultivator could display were staggering in comparison. A single element cultivator, similar to a newborn venomous snake, could be devastatingly deadly in the right conditions but when against a prepared adult human, unless they were fortunate, the outcome was all but decided.
"No," muttered Nyx in an angry voice, as she rolled to the side and grasped the dagger that had been knocked to the floor earlier. "She's dead. I saw her die. Dead dead. No comeback dead."
Rolling into a crouching position, using all of her senses while ready to leap out of the way at the first hint of danger, Nyx quickly studied her surroundings, ignoring the dead and dying that was slowly building up.
Small fires, thick smoke and many silhouettes running around in chaos alongside the growing number of guards that were trying to make a defensive ring around the carriage obscured her vision, making it impossible for Nyx get a clear idea on what was going on or who the attackers were.
"Fuck this shit," After a moment's hesitation, Nyx lept to her feet and sprinted towards one of the nearby streets, only to be pushed back by a wall of projectiles that seemed to endlessly rain down from the sky.