“You’re surprisingly tenacious, Your Highness,” he continued. “I’ve heard that you survived thanks to the War God’s daughter, but I didn’t think that on top of being saved by a woman, you’d have to hide behind her all this time!”
Ashen scoffed.
“That’s all you have for me, Yebekh? Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not ashamed to admit she’s much stronger than I am. Sadly, at the moment, you’re my problem and you’ve brought this bastard here to threaten my Kingdom, so I’ll be the one to deal with you.”
“Oh, I’m afraid not,” chuckled Yebekh. “See, I’ve kept all my very best warriors here to stop you. And even if you do manage to survive this, your adopted brother will finish you, so everyone knows who the real heir to this Kingdom is.”
Ashen glanced around. Indeed, the fighters present in this room looked nothing like the amateurs they had been dealing with since earlier. These were trained, experienced fighters and warriors, each with their own weapons. Next to him, Cessilia was also glaring at the group facing them. Just like him, she acknowledged these were no ordinary fighters and would put up much more of a fight than the ones they had to deal with until now...
“...What do you think?” he asked her in a mutter.
“Nothing you c-can’t handle. ...But I’ll save you some t-time, for everyone’s sake.”
“Fine. But my adopted brother is mine to fight. You leave him to me.”
“Yes, I know.”
Ashen smiled and, to Yebekh’s surprise, stepped to the side, leaving Cessilia plenty of space by his side, both of them raising their weapons, ready to go at it again.
At the other end of the room, Yebekh’s expression fell. He had probably hoped for Ashen to tell Cessilia to stay out of this, since his male pride was doubted out loud, but it didn’t work. The King had grown enough already, and had no issue with acknowledging his female partner’s undeniable strength.
“Ah! Fine! You two shall die together, then!”
His words resonated like a call to attack, and the men facing them jumped at the same time.
Chapter 26
The space wasn’t as confined as before, but it certainly wasn’t ideal to fight twenty people at once, either. Everything was happening at an incredible speed, and from the very first second, both Ashen and Cessilia quickly realized Yebekh hadn’t exaggerated his men’s strength; they were nothing like the ones they had fought earlier. The amount of pure strength used in that battle was unbelievable, and each clash of swords was incredibly brutal. Soon, the two lovers were forced to stand back to back to protect each other, and had to move quickly to keep up with the attacks coming from all sides.
Their enemies were also experienced enough to not let the space become an issue; they scattered around their opponents, sometimes leaving others to attack first, before attacking themselves. Ashen and Cessilia didn’t have a moment of rest, and were even struggling to keep up at times. Cessilia feared for Ashen’s life more than once. He only received minor injuries, but the strain put on his body was bound to become an issue sooner or later. Even she had to use all of her strength to keep those people at bay, and several times, she grunted loudly. The first body didn’t hit the ground until several minutes later, their opponents incredibly tenacious. Moreover, even if the previous fights had been easy, Ashen and Cessilia had already fought dozens of fights against several people before coming here, while those fighters had obviously been waiting here all along. The tiredness was starting to show in their movements, and they had to gather all their strength to keep up. She even stopped listening to the dragon growls that had been informing her of what was going on outside. She could only focus on what was going on here, if she wanted to survive this.
“Cessi!”
Suddenly, a second of distraction and a wrong angle put her in danger. She saw the blade, slicing past her skin, and felt Ashen’s large hand pulling her in the opposite direction. Cessilia gasped, shocked herself, and violently landed against the opposite wall. Her reflexes taking over, she got back on her feet, but Ashen was already in front, protecting her while they had been pushed against the wall.
“Sorry,” she muttered, mad at herself.
“Don’t,” he grunted. “...Are you alright?”
Cessilia nodded. She only briefly glanced at her injured arm, deep indeed, but the silver scales were already taking over. She resumed the fight, before it hit her. ...Silver?
She kept fighting, trying hard not to make the same mistake twice and risk putting Ashen in danger, but tried to glance at her arm again. The scales weren’t silver, but a dark gray. Had she dreamt it again? It was the second time. Before, when she had injured her palm, she had thought for a second that the little scales in her hand had been of a shiny tone, before realizing it was as ash-dark as before. What was wrong with her? She tried to push those dark thoughts away and resumed the fight, even angrier because of her mistake. Ashen had had to withhold their opponents in her stead for a few seconds, but those could have been fatal to him. In fact, he was already covered in sweat and grunting. Luckily, their armor was doing an amazing job of protecting them every time the enemy managed to hit them; the shiny scales seemed to deflect each blade, the shock barely felt on the skin underneath. Cessilia was surprised at how light they were compared to their defensive power. The weapons weren’t getting dull either, and followed each of their movements with incredible precision. Cessilia had never been too fond of swords, but the ones she was holding now might just be the ones to change that. There was clearly a difference in the craft of the Dragon Empire’s blacksmiths.
The armor and their weapons might be what kept them going for so long. There was a huge difference between fighters who held perfect weapons and armor for their needs, of an incredibly good craft, and those who held standard ones. It was as if Ashen and Cessilia were fighting with legend-level weaponry, while the Yekara soldiers only held high-value ones. Their enemies’ weapons were starting to fail them, giving them a slight advantage. Two men lost their lives shortly after their armor was broken open by Ashen’s heavy blade, and Cessilia swung around at record speed to get two more men’s weak points, slicing their napes without an ounce of hesitation. She and Ashen were in a perfectly synchronized dance of death, and instead of getting more and more tired, they were getting gradually more dangerous. Cessilia’s eyes had transformed into a dark-green reptilian stare, scaring her enemies before coldly killing them. She truly was the War God’s daughter, moving around so swiftly while sowing death around her. Ashen’s movements were just as beautiful, but much more of a brutal force, like a dragon relentlessly attacking with all fangs out, ripping flesh apart and violently breaking bones.
Slowly but surely, they were reducing the numbers of their opponents. Each time a Yekara warrior fell, the remaining ones felt as if the strength of their enemies doubled. Even for experienced fighters, there was a fine line between amazement and fear. They knew the duo they were fighting weren’t ordinary fighters, but they couldn’t help but be bewildered by the woman’s incredibly precise moves and the King’s colossal strength. Even Lord Yebekh was left to watch in awe, mouth open at the two warriors, until he realized it was his men on the ground.
“What are you doing? Kill them! You incapable bastards! You call yourselves our best fighters?! You better kill them, or you’ll die!”
The weakness of that threat had no effect on his men, who had already been fighting for their lives for the past several minutes. Now that they had been reduced to less than half their original number, they had no time to rest at all. Far from looking overwhelmed and outnumbered, Cessilia and Ashen looked like they were making a point of keeping their opponents from catching any break at all.
Suddenly, another loud growl resonated, but much closer this time, sounding like it was coming from all around them. Even worse, the tower they were in brutally shook, as if an earthquake was coming from above. The fight stopped, all fighters looking up with a common reaction. Cessilia’s heart went cold. That was Jinn. He had climbed onto that area of the castle. She and Ashen were luckily in the middle of the room, away from the windows, but that wouldn’t help them much if that dragon decided to destroy the entire tower...
“That foolish dragon!” shouted Lord Yebekh, glaring at the ceiling. “Get off the tower, you useless bastard of a reptile!”
Cessilia glared at the man. How could he shout at the dragon like that?! No dragon she knew would have let a human insult them like that without biting their head off in retaliation if they understood and nobody stopped them. Yet, Yebekh kept vociferating at Jinn as if it was just a bad runt.
“...What d-did you do to that dragon?” she hissed, glaring past the fighters at their master.
The man scoffed.
“Me? Nothing... As it turns out, its master is nothing but a stupid wench who knows she needs us to survive. Her dragon obeys me now.”
Cessilia didn’t believe that for a single second. Dragons couldn’t simply be given to someone like one would change a pet’s owner. Krai was her father’s dragon, and although it had come along with her, the Black Dragon couldn’t understand her like it would have her father. It wasn’t her dragon, it was merely reflecting her father’s protective feelings for her. She knew a part of the reason her father had sent Krai with her wasn’t just for her security, but so he would miss his child less; he had already done that countless times with his wife. A dragon didn’t completely mirror its owner’s feelings, but it could understand them better than anyone. Even if Jinn’s owner had died, her brother’s love for Jisel couldn’t be simply overthrown by a man’s orders.
“...You threatened her,” hissed Cessilia, angry. “You used Jisel to manipulate her dragon!”
Yebekh laughed.
“Manipulate? This woman is so foolish and yet cunning herself, I would hardly call that manipulation! ...Did I do anything different than you, Princess? That Black Dragon isn’t yours either, is it? Ha! How ironic, isn’t it? For a bastard prince to have found you, of all people. You’re the dragonless Princess, so useless you have to come accompanied by the War God’s Dragon instead of your own! Aren’t we both borrowing someone else’s dragon?”
“Don’t you dare c-compare me to you,” she hissed. “I am still a Dragon Master. I am–”
“You’re nothing but the most useless of your parents’ children!” he shouted. “Of all the prospective brides he could have sent the King, he sent a dragonless, powerless one! How pathetic, Princess. Nothing you own isn’t inherited from your parents, yet you dare to lecture me? I am the Lord of the Yekara Clan, the most powerful Clan Leader of this Kingdom! I fought and I killed for this position! And soon, I will be the most powerful man in this entire Kingdom!”
“...Dream on,” groaned Ashen. “I’m never letting that happen, Yebekh. I’ll have your head sliced off your damn neck and hung on the castle walls before the sun sets!”
