“Wh-who are you?” the surprised prince asked, stuttering.

“I’m your babysitter, and I came to rescue you,” Lucas replied, still smiling. He knew it was the prince because the same glow that had led him to Sultan headquarters was now present on that man. “But it seems you don’t need much rescuing.” Lucas continued, making a wide movement around the room with his hand. Apparently the prince was having a nice time in Sultan’s lair, as the King predicted. Hearing Lucas’ response, the prince’s expression turned ugly.

“My father sent you?” he asked, and Lucas nodded. “Well, then you can go back, or better yet,” he said, showing a wicked smile. “I’ll send your head to him on a plate!”

The last part was said in a louder tone than Lucas would’ve liked, and he frowned as the prince rose from his chair.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Lucas threatened.

“Why not? You are only one, you can’t fight against all of them. One scream from me and they will come barging through that door,” he said arrogantly. “And besides, I bet that my father told you not to kill me.” Seeing Lucas’ expression confirm his words, he laughed. “I knew it! That is part of the reason I need to replace him. He’s too soft; the whole kingdom has lost respect for him. He’s losing the face of the entire royal family.”

Those words were spoken with profound hatred, but Lucas wasn’t moved.

“You are right, your father told me not to kill you, but he didn’t mention under what conditions I should send you back,” Lucas said slowly. “I’m thinking, maybe I can rip off an arm or two. A prince doesn’t even need those anyway, right?”

The arrogant expression vanished from the prince’s face, and Lucas was thinking that he was getting better and better at this sort of thing. Before the prince could reply, Lucas spoke again.

“Now, come, I don’t have much time.” Lucas walked towards the prince and he was going to grab his arm, but the prince dodged, with rage in his face.

“Don’t you have any respect for your prince?”

Lucas rolled his eyes hearing that and felt an urge to slap him. “You are not my prince; this is nothing but a silly little game to me. Now come, before I do something, both of us will regret it,” Lucas said, threatening, and the prince acquiesced.

The prince knew he wasn’t strong enough to fight back; he was merely at level 7 and was no match for Lucas. What he couldn’t understand, however, was how Lucas passed through the men outside, but that became clear once he crossed the door.

At first sight, he noticed nothing wrong with the scene; apparently the man had passed out drunk over the table, and the prince was about to yell out to them, asking for help, when he noticed a few details that sealed his lips tightly shut and terrified him.

It was small things he noticed, like drops of blood on the ground, a few broken glasses, and the most frightening of all: the lack of any evidence of human life, such as snorting or heavy breathing. There was only a sepulchral silence in the room that made shills run down the prince’s spine, and made him very obedient.

He was very glad he hadn’t gone too far with that man. If he already knew before that he didn’t have much of a chance fighting him, now he was more than sure. Lucas was able to single-handedly kill four man with about the same level as him; that was incredible. He only wondered where his father had found such a man.

Lucas stopped in front of the last remaining door and turned towards the prince. “What is behind this door?”

“What?” the prince asked, confused. “Don’t you want to leave?”

Lucas smirked. “Of course not. I didn’t even meet that Sultan fellow.”

The prince looked at him like he was crazy. “You want to fight him?”

The prince was in disbelief. Sultan was a figure that was feared by all, and his fame spread wide. He thought the only reason Lucas dared come inside his headquarters was because he only came to get him, and was planning on leaving shortly after.

“Fight him? I want to kill him,” Lucas said confidently. He was completely ignorant of the prince’s inner thoughts.

After hearing that, a mocking smile appeared on the prince’s face. He had instantly forgotten about the danger he was in.

“You think just because you could kill those four, you are a match for Sultan?” He shook his head. “If I were you, I would leave here as fast as I could, before he finds out what you did.”

He had been fooled by that man’s strength, believing he knew what he was doing, but if he planned on trying to kill Sultan, then he didn’t have much to worry about. He wouldn’t live much longer anyway.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“That’s probably the reason you are nothing like me,” Lucas replied, unbothered by the prince’s words. “Now stop wasting time and tell me what’s behind that door.”

The prince didn’t seem to be overjoyed with Lucas’ comment, but since his captor would soon be dead, he decided to be polite. “Everything. This is Sultan’s main base; here he keeps most of his weapons and armor; there’s also training rooms for his army, dormitories, the mess room and his office.”

Hearing that, Lucas reflected on what he should do. He definitely didn’t want to take that brat prince with him, but he also didn’t trust the prince to not run away as soon as he left him. Even if he managed to lock the prince in the room he was previously in, he would probably take some time to come back, a lot could happen in that time, and he didn’t want to take chances.

Turning to the prince again, another thought popped into his head. “What were you doing back there?” Lucas said, pointing towards the map room.

“Sultan wanted me to point the best strategic locations for his next attack, since I know the land better than anyone,” he said, with pride in his voice.

Lucas expression turned to one of mockery. “So, does that mean you are Sultan’s errand boy?”

“What… What are you talking about? I hold an important position in his plan’s, I’m going to be the next king!” He said, sounding very offended by Lucas remarks.

“Sure you are. And Santa is real and is having a blast with his elves down in the North Pole.”

“Who’s this Santa fellow? I assure you that if he is getting involved with elves, once I become the king, he will be executed at once!”

Lucas almost face-palmed hearing that. “Shut up and let’s go. I’m taking you with me,” Lucas said, and paused before adding, “But don’t have any funny thoughts, I’m faster than you think. Once we go in there, you follow my orders, do you understand?”

The prince nodded unwillingly, still bitter about being asked to shut up. When had this ever happened to him? Anyone stupid enough to do something like that wouldn’t be alive for long.

But despite his rage, the prince remained calm, this brute would have what was coming for him if he believed he could fight Sultan head-on. Anyone in their right mind would’ve been terrified with the prospect of having him as his enemy. Even the king was afraid, and he held way more manpower and a fortress to protect himself.

The prince held back a smile, thinking about how fast his revenge for the humiliation he had gone through would come. By his estimates, that man wouldn’t even be able to meet Sultan, if he somehow managed to go through Sultan’s men, which he found very unlikely, he still had to face his right and left arms. Sultan wasn’t the only scary person there, after all.

Lucas pulled the prince’s arm when he opened the door, unaware of his thoughts. What he saw in front of him was a big corridor with glass panels on the sides. The glass panels were, dark, so he couldn’t see inside, but there was no one in the corridor. He looked at the prince inquisitively.

“Those are the training rooms; they’re blacked out because there’s someone using them; usually people don’t like others staring at them training,” the prince said in a monotonous tone.

“How can I get in?” Lucas asked.

“You need clearance for that,” the prince said, looking at the other side. Lucas raised an eyebrow.

“I knew you were just an errand boy,” Lucas scoffed.

The prince turned immediately after hearing that, and went towards the nearest training room, and pressed his finger. The door made a clicking sound, and the prince turned to Lucas with a triumphant look, only to be faced with an even more obnoxious mocking expression. He had fallen for it.

“All right, let’s see what those training rooms look like,” Lucas said, making way and pushing the door.

What he found there disappointed him, however. It was nothing like the rooms at the Training Center. It reminded him a little of the tutorial, with empty space and a few wooden dolls. Nevertheless, there was a man inside, and he looked very annoyed at being interrupted during his training. His fury only increased when he saw the prince.

“You again! How many times do I have to tell you, your clearance is not a toy; you can’t…” the man yelled, when he was interrupted by the prince, with his face red with shame.

“Shut up, Rodrik!” He screamed, and then he turned to Lucas. “Aren’t you going to kill him?”

The way he said it, it seemed like he was almost pleading, and Lucas found the situation very funny, but held back his laughter. It scared him how fast he was getting used to these types of situations. He was about to kill a man and he wasn’t more concerned about it than with what he was going to eat for lunch. It’s better this way, he thought, starting to move. A soft heart wouldn’t do him any good in a place like this.

“What are you doing? This is treason; I’ll have your head on a spike for this, don’t think that just because you are the prince, that you can get away with it.” The man called Rodrik shouted angrily, getting ready for the battle.

As he was walking over there, Lucas saw that his opponent was carrying an axe in one hand and a small shield in the other. He was a very bulky man, which made Lucas think he focused on strength, even though looks could be deceiving. Lucas was plenty strong, but apart for a few muscles, you would never know. He still wasn’t entirely sure how that work.

Lucas identified the man and saw that he was two levels above him. That would be an interesting fight, considering he had never fought with anyone using a shield before. The man was patient too, and he waited for him to arrive before striking with his axe.

Lucas easily dodged to the side, but when he went to throw one of his punches, his fist landed on the shield that moved swiftly to protect the opening his opponent had purposefully left. That caught Lucas off guard, and he felt pain when his bone blade was shattered in front of him, but before the man could strike again, Lucas jumped back and made some distance.

“What is that thing that came out of your fist?” he sounded very surprised.

“It’s a secret,” Lucas said with a wicked smile. “But I can show you what it does, if you want to.”

The man’s expression turned ugly, and he began attacking again with great power. Lucas kept dodging until he found the opening he was looking for. He had managed to position his body on the opposite side of the shield in such a way that the bulky man couldn’t protect himself in time.

Smiling inside, Lucas went to attack when something unexpected happened. This time wasn’t the shield that blocked his way, he made sure of that. No, it was something of a much stranger nature.

Instead of trying to protect himself, Rodrik stomped his feet on the ground with all his might, and in the next second everything trembled. It was like the man had caused an earthquake with his feet, and with the speed Lucas was going, there was no way to keep his balance.

In the next moment, all Lucas saw was a massive blade coming in his direction at an amazing speed, bound to cut him in half.