Chapter 029:

Prince Clive Dune’s Point of View:

Clive staggered back a few steps, narrowly preventing himself from falling. He had been managing to keep pace throughout the fight but it was clear that he was being pushed back.

Deciding to be more proactive, he ducked under an attack and leaped into Crooked Nose’s personal space wanting to drill his side with a couple of jabs.

However, his opponent seemed to have known his plan as he already had his head tilted back before launching it forward, wanting to smash it into Clive’s nose.

Using the speed boost given to him by his Wisker, the prince managed to tilt back and thrust his elbow into his foe’s forehead.

Surprisingly, Crooked Nose did not falter, smashing the full weight of his head onto Clive’s elbow.

The one to stagger back was Clive who felt the shock of the blow travel up his arm into his teeth.

‘This student fights better than most knights,’ He thought, sidestepping the frontal king shot his way. ‘Furthermore, there isn’t any hesitation in his actions,’ Ordinarily, any foe he fought would have some qualms over the fact that Clive was, in fact, a Prince likely far above them in status, but this student…

‘He wants blood,’

Thinking further into the matter, he realized that something was suspicious. At first, he thought that Crooked Nose was merely giving Timothy a beating, but now he could see that the student was blood-lusted.

‘There’s more to this situation. Fucking Timothy,’ Recalling he still had to deal with Moore, Clive gnashed his teeth.

He finally drew his sword and funneled some of his Wisker’s power through it, giving the blade a jade glow and fierce aura.

“Enough! I am the crown prince of Graveclaws and I command you to stand down’’ He demanded.

“I know,’’ Crooked Nose growled with a snarl as he charged forward once again.

“Fine, if it’s blood you want, then it's blood you’ll get!” Clive swung, but in his eagerness, he swung wider than intended, allowing Crooked Nose room to duck beneath it.

‘Shit,’ The prince thought a moment before a strike to his gut robbed him of his thought process.

He brought down his blade in a panic, but his foe easily sidestepped the attack before following up with a deadly haymaker.

Following the initial blow, a turret of attacks poured down and Clive was soon brought to the brink of consciousness.

Crooked nose snorted a final time before grabbing Clive’s collar, preventing him from falling.

“I don’t know what that lunatic is doing but at least I get to beat up the Prince Crip,” He said, raising his fist.

‘Bastard,’ Clive thought as he tried to rouse his body to no avail, he was exhausted. His mind, being in the foggy state that it was, brought him back to a couple of months ago where he first witnessed Timothy’s fight and the mad look in his eyes.

‘I…I’m… better than him!’ It was then that his eyes burst open with verdant green light shining out. The sphere spinning above his head started fluctuating in size.

Crooked Nose was shocked by this development which led to a moment of hesitation; as it turns out, a moment was all Clive needed as soon he had regained enough vigor to retreat and put some distance between them.

Crooked Nose’s expression grew grim. He seemed surprised by the development, but he quickly regained his composure and thick killing intent began emanating from him.

Clive was huffing and puffing from exhaustion, he knew that he was on the precipice of a breakthrough, but he was also heavily fatigued, fighting any further would be suicide.

‘There’s also the matter with Moore if any student were to be hurt by him…’

As he wondered whether or not he would be able to run away, a hand tapped his shoulder; surprised, he turned around and was met with the idiot with whom Timothy was friends with. From his experience as a prince, he had a knack for sussing out people’s intentions, and currently, every single sense within him was telling him this guy was a snake.

“It is a pleasure meeting you, your highness,” Grim said with a neutral tone and slight bow.

“You, you are one of that bastard’s friends…’’

“Timothy, you mean, if so: yes,”

“What…do you want?” Clive spat out; his vision was growing blurry.

“I mean you no harm, Your Highness, I merely noticed you looking around as if looking for an escape route,”

“....”

“If I may be so presumptuous, I would like to attempt to dissuade you from doing so. You see-” Grim cut himself off to gesture toward their surroundings.

Clive looked around, he had been too busy fighting to notice, but it seemed like he drew some unwanted attention. Students from both kingdoms were watching his fight, some were ridiculing him while others looked concerned.

‘Fuck,’ He thought it was clear that everyone recognized him.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He now understood what this bastard meant, running away would ruin any prestige he may have had left.

“What do you want?” Clive asked again.

“I just want what is best for me and you,” Grim said with a polite smile as he held out his hand.

Clive grimaced as he took the slimy hand and shook it.

………………………………………………..

Moments after Alexander left to go help Ed, he was surprised to catch sight of magic gathering beneath his feet.

After studying the flow for a bit, he hopped a distance away, placing him just far enough to dodge the spike of earth that erupted from the ground.

“Tsk” He clicked his tongue, ‘That’s gonna be a bit annoying’

He picked up a random rock and, after looking around for a bit, found the suspiciously normal-looking student from Graveclaws.

‘There,’ Alexander decided as he tossed the rock with all his strength.

The random student immediately realized the incoming attack and fumbled to respond. It was pretty clear that he was not physically fit when he clumsily dodged out of the way. The look of bewilderment was a sight to behold, unfortunately, Alexander was too busy making haste toward the soon-to-be-dead Ed to truly appreciate it.

The student who was just assaulted seemed confused for a few moments before he finally regained some sense. He was immediately furious and began casting at a faster pace.

Unfortunately, it was too late as, by then, Alexander had already reached Ed’s location and had already rammed his shoulder against the larger youth’s frame.

………………………………………………..

Edward Hurt’s Point of View:

Ed stared in sick fascination at the claw that was about to take his life. He knew that no matter how fast he moved, he wouldn’t be able to dodge, so he stood still, taking it in.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl and Ed could make out some finer details. He saw the drops of blood dripping from the claws, he saw the elongated canines, but most striking of all: he saw the reluctance buried within those vicious eyes.

‘Not like this,’ Ed thought urgently as he forced his body to move. Deep down, he understood that it was helpless, but still, his pride would not allow it. He was fine with dying but to do so while frozen stiff with fear and under the hands of a reluctant little boy crying for help?

“Fuck no!” Every fibre of his being screamed as his muscles roared to life and his large frame began shifting to the side. It felt slow, glacial even, but Ed instinctively knew that this was the fastest he had ever moved. Despite that, even with everything he had and then some, he was still going to die.

That was until he was rammed in the side by Timothy and brought to the ground.

“Ugh!!” Ed groaned while separating himself from the other youth.

“You’re welcome,” Timothy said lightly as he hopped to his feet while dusting off his robes.

Unfortunately, they did not have long to catch up as Moore was upon them once again with a wild swing of his claws.

“Hey there, fido,” Timothy sounded casually as he ducked down, allowing the claws enough room so as to pass over his head harmlessly.

‘Fast!’ Ed thought with eyes opened wide before further thinking about it, ‘No. It’s not that he is fast, but rather it’s like he knows what’s going to happen next,’ He thought back to how Timothy had fought Dirk; it was the same then too, ‘Aside from that, he is also in fact much faster physically. But his growth rate is insane. I wonder how’d he fare against Dirk now…’ Just the thought of Timothy being as strong as a knight was enough to send chills down his back.

“Hey, Ed!” Timothy’s voice brought him back from his reverie and Ed looked back toward him.

Noticing the long gash running across his torso, Ed’s expression turned wry.

“Stop giving me that look and give me a hand!” Tim demanded.

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to be saving ME?”

“Save you? You are twice my size, besides-” Tim cut himself off as he slammed his foot against the ground, giving him enough force to propel his body a decent height above the ground; below him, the transformed Moore dug long and deep gashes in the ground with but a swipe of his hand.

“I can’t fight, I’m taking a break,” Timothy finished his sentence as he landed on Moore, planting a foot in the monster’s face before backflipping away from the attack sent toward him. Though the effect was similar to an egg being launched at a rock, it sure did look cool.

Ed gulped as he stared at the long gashes on the ground, before turning livid at Timothy’s words.

“And what do you expect me to do against that?” he demanded, pointing toward Moore who was busy trying to bite Tim’s head off.

Timothy, who was struggling to keep his head off Moore’s maw, looked back with mild exasperation in his eyes.

“You aren’t going to be doing anything, dumbass, he is,” he said, pointing his chin toward an approaching red-headed figure.

“Aghhhhhhh!!” Rus screamed as he swung his sword down, wanting to chop Moore’s head off.

The transformed youth tilted his head slightly allowing the blade to pass through harmlessly as he swung a claw at the new fighter.

Timothy’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as he noticed the descending blade, which now came for his own poor head.

With a heavy grunt, he lifted his leg and kicked Rus hard, pushing both him and his blade away from the beast’s attack.

Rus, the hero, blushed slightly after noticing that he nearly killed the person he tried to save. To his credit, he did recover quickly and roared once again as he thrust his body toward Moore, tackling him away from Timothy.

“Fucking dumbass!’’ Timothy screamed after noticing that Rus had dropped his sword.

Ed was running toward them now as he noticed how Moore casually manhandled Rus to the ground before biting toward his head.

‘I’m not going to make it!’ Ed panicked at the thought of seeing another student die.

Thankfully that was not going to happen as Moore suddenly jumped back and away from Rus. Where its head had been, a sword flew past, nicking Rus’s nose before lodging itself into the ground.

“Now we’re even,” Timothy told the kid as he made him stand on his feet.

By then, Ed had arrived, and now the three boys stood still, watching Moore.

‘Why isn’t he attacking?’ Ed thought to himself before hearing Timothy issue orders.

“Rus, give Ed your shield,”

The young man hesitated for a moment before handing over his shield.

“Ed, listen up. That kid, Zack, leads with a right swing most of the time. If close enough, he’ll try biting your head off,” Timothy said with uncharacteristic solemness.

Ed nodded despite himself after noticing how serious Timothy was being.

“Bait the slash and dodge inward; once you are close to his mouth he’ll try to bite so keep your shield up. He’ll be distracted then so at that point, Rus,”

“Y-yes sir!”

“Blindside him with your sword. Don’t worry about hurting him, his skin is still soft, but he can heal quick,”

Rus nodded dutifully.

Ed still had some questions but swallowed them back when he noticed Tim finally shifting his gaze toward him.

“What did the kid say before turning,”

The question nearly fell on deaf ears as Ed caught sight of Tim’s expression.

‘He’s angry…’ Ed thought numbly as he studied Tim’s expressionless face.

“I-uh…”

Tim said nothing and merely waited.

“He said something about his ears hurting!” Ed finally spat out.

Timothy nodded faintly before turning to leave.