Chapter 2:

Rise of the Prince

Every Side of the World


Five years have passed since the Hero’s battle, and the tensions between humans and demons continued to grow worse. As the humans continued to become stronger, guilds were created to provide Adventurer's the ability to venture out and kill demons for the promise of income. The reputation and experience among the Adventurer's guild was dependent on the color of the armband that they wore. 

For the lower class, this was a very rewarding job as certain quest completions could offer up to 1000 gold. For some, the reputation of being a well-known adventurer allowed certain opportunities that others couldn’t receive. 

For the upper class, it wasn’t something that they even took the time to acknowledge as their wealth was disparaging compared to the lower class. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to see battles being hashed out between lower class humans and demons once you entered the Demon Territory. However, there were always a select few of upper class individuals who enjoyed the thrills of fighting. 

Whenever someone crossed into the Demon Territory, it was always assumed that anyone without the armband was a demon, since the stronger demons looked like regular humans. However, that didn’t mean that the demons were pushovers that could be taken lightly.

Within the forest, there was a battle taking place between humans and demons. The swords clashed back and forth as it showed that the two individuals fighting were on equal footing. The sounds of metal clanging echoed throughout Terbank forest as both individuals moved at a pace that made it hard for the average being to keep up. The swords clashed again and both individuals dashed back away from each other.

“For a demon, I’m surprised that you could keep up with me,” said the soldier with a smirk. “I didn’t even have to use any of my enhancers.” 

The soldier had a toned physique and wore grey armor over his top. He wore black pants and had black shoes on. He had black hair that was spiked up and had a mustache as well. On his arm, he had an orange armband with a cross.

“I could say the same thing about you, human,” said the demon while grabbing his shoulder that managed to be grazed during the conflict. 

He had a smaller physique with a black robe on. He wore black pants and had yellow hair that stretched down his back. The cut on his shoulder stopped dripping blood, but there were clearly signs of damage.

The other soldiers for each side gathered up next to their respective leader as they were told to not fight.

“Captain Mori, you managed to graze him!” said one of the soldiers. He wore grey armor as well and wore black pants and black shoes. He had brown hair that was short and wore an orange armband as well.

“Rudy’s right, Captain Mori! With this, we’ll be able to complete our quest and gather all of the rewards,” said the other soldier. “I can already tell, we’re going to drown ourselves with women and all the beer in the world. 

Just like the other two soldiers, he wore grey armor, black pants, and black shoes with short black hair. He wore an orange armband as well.

“Chill out, Dee. I can clearly see you drooling,” said Mori with a slight laugh.

“Look at those pesky humans!” said the demon soldier on the other side. “Can you believe they’re looking down on you, Ty?” 

The demon soldier had a larger stature and wore only a black hood for his top. He wore black pants and black shoes. 

“It’s okay, Geet. I was the one who messed up and got slashed. We better hurry up, or else he’d be mad at us for taking too long against some weak opponents," Ty said as he let go of his shoulder.

"You’re right, he’s going to make fun of us every single day," Geet said while shuddering.  "Don’t worry Ty, we’ve been a team for years now, and I know you’re always capable of making a comeback."

“Shut up Geet, you got to focus on the task at hand as well. It looks like those soldiers are ready to fight as well now,” Ty said as he hit Geet over the top of his head.

“Hey, are you going to keep on talking, or are you already prepared for your death?” yelled out Ty towards the human soldiers.

“How gutsy of you to talk all big and mighty when you’re injured,” said Mori while laughing. “Fine then, let’s end this right now.”

Mori rushed towards Ty and flung his sword horizontally, aiming towards Ty’s head. Ty was barely able to lift up his sword and guard the attack. Mori sensed that Ty’s movements were starting to slow down and continued his barrage of strikes towards Ty. While only using his uninjured arm, Ty was starting to become weary from the attacks.

Damn, if only I could use my other arm, I wouldn’t be in this predicament, Ty thought to himself.

Out of nowhere, a loud cry could be heard. Ty turned towards the sound and saw Geet’s arm chopped off with one of the human soldiers flailing it around.

“I heard these sell for a lot at the Adventurer's Guild. We’re going to be rich!” Rudy yelled as Dee held the arm.

“You mean I’m going to be rich, you got to get your own arm,” Dee said while pointing Geet’s arm at him.

“Fine then, hold him down for me!” exclaimed Rudy.

“What kind of humans are you? Do you treat us all as trophies?” yelled Ty angrily as he rushed towards Rudy and Dee.  “Let him go!”

As Ty rushed as fast as possible, he tripped as he was nearing them and felt an enormous pain swelling from his legs. 

Damn, how could I trip right now? Did I lose all that energy during that fight with that soldier?  Ty thought to himself. 

As he looked down at his feet, he realized what had happened. 

“Ahhhhhh!” Ty yelled.

“If you think an arm is worth a lot, how much do you think a leg is going to be worth?” asked Mori as he suddenly appeared next to Dee and Rudy with Ty’s leg.

“That’s gotta be worth at least 10 gold,” Dee said.

“Wait, that’s not fair! I didn’t even get my share!” yelled Rudy.

“It’s too bad that the Adventurer's Guild stopped taking whole bodies due to oversupply,” said Mori with a sad sigh.

“You’re all monsters!” yelled Ty as he crawled towards Geet. A trail of blood could be seen from the area Ty was cut up at.

“Monsters? Do you not even realize what you are? Besides, we’re just doing quests to increase our ranking within the guild. I’m a captain right now, and I need to work up to general and eventually one of the masters. Don’t blame us.” said Mori with a laugh. “Did you really think you could beat me?”

The human soldiers looked on in laughter as they proceeded towards Geet’s body. Ty looked on in disbelief and saw them enjoying themselves as they played around with their body parts. Ty let out a loud cry as he knew there was nothing else he could do. 

A rustle could be heard from the woods, and the human soldiers turned their attention towards it with their swords in hand. The birds all flew away as they were able to sense a dangerous presence.

“What’s all this noise about? It’s so loud, keep it down,” said the voice as he walked out of the forest. It was a little boy who showed that he had to be at least 5 years old. He wore a black robe that seemed to be a bit too long for his size as well as having black unkempt hair.

The human soldiers looked at each other and let out a laugh. Rudy started walking towards the boy.

“Why is someone so small as you even out here in the forest?” said Rudy while trying to contain his laughter until realizing what he found.  “Guys, we can sell him off to the Coliseum!”

“Don’t child demons go for at least 200 gold?” asked Mori as he looked over to Ty.

“You all can keep the arms and legs, I found what I want!” yelled Rudy with a bright smile. 

He started crouching closer to the boy as if he was trying to capture a wild animal. As he eased in closer, Rudy put his hand on the boy’s head. 

“Gotcha!” Rudy said with a smile.  

Shouldn't have done that, Ty thought to himself.

“Looks like he wants to be a soldier when he grows up. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” Rudy said as he looked at the boy.

“Well, guess we were the unlucky ones this time,” said Dee with a shrug. Mori let out a small smile.

“Yeah, very unlucky,” said Ty with a laugh.

Rudy and Mori looked at Ty and looked back at each other before laughing. 

“I guess losing your legs made you lose blood to your brain as well,” said Mori while laughing and pointing at Ty's leg.

As they were laughing, a hand flew and dropped right in front of them. Their laugh slowly started disappearing before they eventually realized that it was Rudy’s hand in front of them.

“My hand!” yelled Rudy as he dropped to his knees and squeezed his wrist with his other hand.

“This should be fair after what you all just did to my subordinates, right?” said the young boy as he flicked his sword to clear off the blood. “Actually, that wouldn’t be fair at all!” said the boy.

He lifted up his sword and cut off Rudy’s head.

Without a second thought, both Mori and Dee rushed towards the boy with their swords.

“Oy, oy, I didn’t even finish talking!” said the boy angrily as he easily parried all of their hits. “I was about to make a big speech and everything!”

Ty let out a small laugh as he saw the young boy become angry over the most trivial reasons.

“You think you can just mess with us like it’s nothing? Do you know who we are, and what guild we’re from?” said Dee as he kept slashing at the boy who continued to parry.

“Yeah, you’re the guys who have been bothering my partners,” said the boy as he slashed off Dee’s hands.

“Ahhhhh!” Dee let out a screeching yell as he felt the pain surging through his hands. “My hand, my hand!”

“Didn’t I say it was too loud earlier?” The young boy stabbed him through the chest to where Dee suddenly stopped screaming.

I thought I had to use it against the bigger demon, but I can’t believe I actually have to use an enhancer against a little boy, thought Mori to himself. He took out a vial of blue liquid and consumed it in an instant.

The little boy took a quick glance at Mori who didn’t seem to change and walked towards Ty who was on the floor. He dropped his sword by his side and let out a sigh while Ty could only let out a smile. He looked at Ty’s body from his cut leg towards his face which had blood dripping down his lips. 

“Wow, looks like they had a good time with you,” said the boy as he leaned in to put a rag over Ty’s cut leg.

A gust of wind bursted by as Mori’s speed had increased significantly and reached the location of the young boy quickly. He started slashing at the young boy with his sword.

“You’ve managed to injure both Dee and Rudy, but don’t think that I’m on the same wavelength as the two of them!” boasted Mori as he continued to put on pressure. “This liquid that I just took increases my strength and speed from twice the original!”

“Hmmm?” mumbled the boy to himself, as the attacks kept getting faster and faster. 

Mori managed to cut off a piece of the boy’s shirt, but it didn’t manage to hit his skin.

“See that! Someone like you is no match for Mori of the Infinity Guild,” yelled Mori as he continued slashing at the boy with his blades.

“So, that’s the fastest you can go, huh?” mumbled the boy yet again to himself. 

He started following Mori’s movements and dodged all of his attacks before eventually grabbing his arm on another attack.

“Wait a minute, I didn’t even pull out my sword yet. Can you even call this a fair fight?” asked the boy with a frown as he started searching for his sword. 

He looked around and realized that he left it next to Ty.  Mori couldn’t make sense of the situation as this little boy stopped his attack with his bare hands and seemed to have suddenly attained strength that didn’t allow Mori to wiggle out. 

Who the hell is this kid? thought Mori to himself.

“Oh, there it is!” announced the young boy before rushing to grab the sword by Ty’s side and coming back to his original position against Mori. 

Mori didn’t even have any time to back away and react.

“Okay, I’m ready now!” The young boy lifted up his sword and slashed off Mori’s leg.

“Huh?” muttered Mori under his breath. Mori’s body slumped as the boy still continued to hold on to Mori’s arm with frightening strength. 

What’s happening right now?  thought Mori to himself before looking down at his leg.

 “Ahhhhh!” yelled Mori after realizing that his leg was cut off.

“I thought you’d be a little stronger if you managed to injure Ty,” he said with a condescending tone. “And you even said that fluid was supposed to make you stronger!”

“M-M-Monster!” Mori stuttered as tears rolled down his eyes.

“That’s funny coming from you,” said the boy as he let out a deathly stare towards Mori. 

Mori looked at him as tears started to fall as he realized that he was outmatched. The boy grabbed his sword and made one quick slash towards his body. He cut off the armband Mori was wearing which fell to the ground and put it in his pocket. He walked towards Geet who seemed to be passed out due to losing blood from his arm.

“Yo, wake up already,” said the boy as he slapped Geet in the face.

“I said I wanted the large boar, not the chicken,” said Geet as he started drooling.

The young boy, visibly annoyed, slapped Geet in the face to which Geet regained his senses.

“Young Prince! Where are my manners? I’m so sorry!” said Geet as he quickly got on his knees.

The boy grabbed a rag and tied up the area where Geet’s arm was cut off. 

“Don’t worry Geet, I wasn’t expecting manners from you either way,” said the boy with a sigh.

 \He got up and walked towards Ty who was clearly holding in his laughter.

“What’s so funny?” the little boy asked with an annoyed expression. 

He grabbed Ty’s leg and wrapped up the wound. The boy never liked the sight of blood.

“The Prince was caring so much for his companions even though he never said he would,” said Ty as he finally let out his laughter.

The boy turned red and hit Ty over the top of his head. 

“Shut up, I was just trying to look cool during the moment,” said the boy embarrassingly as both Geet and Ty laughed. “And besides, didn’t I tell you to stop calling me Prince? No one else besides you two even calls me by that name. When we’re outside, be sure to call me by my name. Kizou.”

Kizou finally let out a huge sigh of relief as acting strong and powerful was actually the most challenging part.  Even though he beat them, he knew that Hell's Group would've won in an instant.

Swanny
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