Ambush

“Avenelle! You okay?”

“Mmmm.” My ears were ringing, and I was feeling a little dazed. I blinked my eyes, my sight trying to refocus. Only then I realized that the carriage was flipped sideways.

Ah right, we were ambushed…

But how did they find out we were in this carriage? Whatever, not the time to think about such a thing. I looked at Alaric, who was looking down at me while I was in his arms.

“B-Brother… I’m fine.”

“Good. From the sounds of it, people are fighting outside.” There were sounds of metals and crashes outside. “Let’s get out of here.”

I nodded, and Alaric put me down first before he climbed up out of the carriage. Once he was above, he extended his hand down on me. I grasped it tightly and he pulled me up.

I jumped down back to the soil, and I quickly looked around. My knights were fighting against people in plate armor, but they had no colors whatsoever. However, their sword attacks and magic spells were glowing golden light. I already knew what they were.

“Paladins? How did they get here?” I muttered. I looked at our own convoy and saw that the other royal carriages were also damaged and flipped over.

So they just attacked all of them?

They went for brute force, how annoying. But at least their forces got divided and didn’t get to focus on where I was. It was then I realized something.

The servants.

I looked towards the servant carriages at the rear of the convoy and saw that there were knights defending them. And so far, their carriage appeared unharmed.

“My question exactly, and this many.” Alaric pulled out his weapon. “To think they would dare ambush us like this.”

My knights were doing well against the paladins. But, I was surprised to see that the paladins were able to more or less match up our knights. Thinking about it, this was my first time encountering paladins, aside from the ones at the Chamber of Mystics.

My knights all had cosmic classes, with most of them having Astral Forger, while others had Celestial Sorcery, and a few were Moon Cleric. Astral Forgers were spawning weapons, launching them towards their opponent. Celestial Sorcerers had swords of their own, and they would often cast offensive magic with their other hand. Moon Clerics remained at a safe spot to provide support and healing to the injured.

However, I saw one paladin sneak up on a cleric, in an attempt to strike him. The cleric managed to notice him and evade. Thankfully, one knight rushed in to help.

It was then that we noticed one paladin coming in. He was on the tall side. One knight moved in to strike, but the paladin dodged and swung his sword at him, causing an explosion of light, burning the knight.

“Kill all the knights! Do not spare the forces of darkness!” Shouted who seemed to be the paladins’ leader. “May the Sun’s light guide our way to victory!”

Excuse me, forces of darkness? We are not!

Okay, no, in hindsight, maybe we were kind of that…? But just because our theme color was black doesn’t mean we were actually forces of darkness… Anyway, that paladin leader looked strong.

Another knight came to face him, but was quickly defeated. It was then that the paladin leader noticed us. He raised his blade and pointed towards us.

“The royals are right there! I will take care of them.”

Alaric clicked his tongue and stepped forward. “Stay here, Avenelle. I’ll fight this guy.” Several celestial swords appeared around Alaric. “I’ll end him quickly.”

“Careful, brother.”

Alaric charged towards the enemy. I looked around. I should be safe staying around here… However, could I take this chance to slip away? No, no, no, what if the paladins chase me down? Now I would have another set of problems…

I took a deep breath. There might be a chance later on. However, as I was just staying here, I heard a creak on the flipped carriage behind me. I turned around, and I flinched backward. It was a paladin.

“I’ll kill you!”

Light shone on his sword, and he thrust it towards me, sending a short beam of golden light. I quickly shifted back to dodge, the light went past me just an inch off, but I tumbled back. I quickly stood up as he jumped off the carriage.

Sneaking up on me, really?!

My heart was throbbing. I was incredibly anxious — no, I was scared. I could sense the paladin’s will to kill me, and it was scary. He rushed towards me, and I started running away. But he was faster. I turned around to see his sword coming at me.

“Princess!” One knight came in and blocked the sword.

“Gah! Get out of the way!”

“Never!” He deflected the sword.

I felt relieved that someone had come to defend me. However, my plight didn’t end there. Because when I shifted my gaze to the side, I saw another enemy walking towards me, his sword at the ready.

“I’ll kill you bastards with my own blade.”

His voice was just full of anger and hatred.

He charged towards me, he was a bit too quick for me to outrun. Therefore, I opted to just dodge his attacks. I shifted back my body, dodging his blade, but I tumbled back.

Crap!

I looked up to see the paladin having his sword raised. “You will all pay!”

I quickly waved my hand, and crimson strings instantly connected to his limbs, freezing him in place.

“W-What is this?” He tried to move, and it snapped one of my strings immediately.

However, that brief moment of frozen movement would be enough to kill someone. Light appeared behind him, materializing into a tall humanoid figure. Before the paladin could completely escape, a pair of long blades struck him from behind, piercing through his chest.

“Agh!”

Ripper raised him as blood dripped to the soil, the life in his eyes vanishing as he stared at me. I took a deep breath as I watched the dying man… The man I struck…

Once he stopped moving, Ripper dropped him to the ground. I watched as a pool of blood drenched the soil.

I killed that man. This was the first time I had killed someone, the first time ever. I stared at the corpse in shock. Then I looked at my hands. There was no blood on them, but they were stained by it. I took a deep breath. It should be a terrifying thing… However…

A smile curled on my lips.

“Hehe… Haha!”

I briefly laughed. What I felt was not regret… But rather, I was pleased. I took a deep breath. I didn’t feel bad about killing the man. Was I going crazy? Or was I always like this?

At any rate, this emotion was a bit overwhelming.

I looked towards the forest…

This could be my chance.

Maybe I could escape now… But I wasn’t completely ready yet. But with everyone distracted, I might be able to slip away. I took a step forward towards the forest, where I would disappear from everyone.

“Avenelle!”

However, I heard my brother’s voice from behind me. I frowned, groaning quietly. A hand wrapped around my wrist.

“There you are.”

There was no way of escaping my brother. I turned towards Alaric. “Brother? What about your opponent?”

“The paladin leader is dead.”

I blinked, astonished. “Already?”

“I told you I’d be quick about it.”

Tch, my attempt failed because my brother was too strong for the paladin.

Ridiculous.

“Wow.”

He cackled. “Once they realize their leader is dead, unrest will quickly spread among the paladins’ ranks. Morale will come crashing down.”

It was then that there were shouts coming from the paladins’ ranks.

“The c-captain is dead!”

“He’s been beheaded!”

“What are we going to do?!”

Alaric raised his sword. “Knights of Moonveil! The enemy leader is dead! Time to kill all our enemies, let none survive!”

The knights cheered loudly.

And my brother was right, the paladins appeared to be faltering. My knights were now at a great advantage, more motivated than ever. They struck down the paladins with no mercy. Blood was spilled, limbs severed, screams of pain echoed, death…

And a few minutes later, everything fell silent.

I walked around the convoy, just looking around. I paused when I saw one of our knights laid on the ground. There were also a few more dead on our side.

My brother sighed. “... We shall bring their bodies home.”

I nodded. “How are the servants? Let’s check on them.”

We made our way to the servants, and I approached one of the knights.”

“How are the servants?”

“Their carriage was not attacked, so I believe they’re all fine.”

The maids and manservants all came out of their carriage. I approached them.

“Are you all okay? Anyone hurt?”

The servants looked at each other, seemingly surprised that I asked about their health.

“W-We’re okay, Your Highness. Everyone’s unharmed.”

I looked at Clarissa, and she nodded with a smile. It would seem the paladins didn’t prioritize the servants at all. Well, they were basically civilians.

“Okay, treat the wounded, and restore our convoy as much as possible.”

The knights and servants all went to fix up what we could.

“How do you think they found us?” I asked my brother.

“They likely saw us during the ritual, and they predicted which path we would take. They really are becoming desperate to ambush us like this.”

We walked over to the royal carriage.

“At least the horses are still here, and the other royal carriages are not too heavily damaged,” I said.

“Yes, we can still use them.”

I must commend how sturdy these carriages were.

“We should rush back home then?” I said.

Alaric nodded. “Yeah. And we can’t stay here for too long. Let’s fix things up quickly.”