Chapter 40: The Knight Butcher

Sir Joseph and another knight lead us to a carriage outside the academy that takes us directly to the royal castle. We’re led to a small room for unofficial audiences and meetings with royalty. Princess Sylvie throws etiquette to the side and opens the door, then strides into the room. The King is sitting at a tea table in the center.

“Father, I’ve come with Alfred,” she announces.

Are they just starting? I’m supposed to bow and say how grateful I am to be in the same room and blah blah blah.

“Sylvie, thank you,” the King addresses his daughter briefly, then turns to me, “Alfred, I see the surprise on your face, but there isn’t much time. What do you know about our present situation?” he asks.

“Alarian forces have been spotted making their way towards the capital,” I answer.

The King frowns and nods along.

“They’re expected in the next two days, it’s an initial force of around 5,000 men, and there are likely more forces behind. Honestly speaking, our Kingdom doesn’t have the military might to stand against them..” he says, then turns to Princess Sylvie, “My daughter has offered herself as a sacrificial lamb to placate the Prince of Alaria, but as a Father, allowing that would break my heart. And as a King, I know better than to believe this animosity would be settled with that.”

“I see..” I mumble while staring at the Princess’s side.

Princess Sylvie is an idiot. If she didn’t push me to take people hunting, I would’ve run into the knights on the way to Alaria, mopped them, then tested how well their Prince could fly. It never would’ve come to this.

The King stands and looks at me intently.

“I’ll skip to my request. The warrior that lives in the mountains where you hunt, could you find him and request his aid?” His Majesty asks with a bow.

“Your Majesty, please don’t bow to me,” I reply in a fluster while throwing my hands up.

Argh, the old man was already going to deal with this; you two just get in the way.

“Ahem – I’m comfortable with the terrain, two days isn’t much time, but I may be able to find him in that time if I leave immediately,” I answer with a stiffened spine.

Princess Sylvie’s emotions are hard to read on a good day, but she’s looking at me funny.

“I can assign as many knights as you need as escort, and you’ll be rewarded handsomely for your efforts,” the King rambles.

“Escorts would slow me down, Your Majesty, and most knights won’t be comfortable moving in the dark, that’s a trait only experienced hunters have,” I reply to shoot down his offer, “I will be fine on my own, but I’ll need to take my leave immediately," I add, and the King nods.

“Sylvie, please escort Sir Alfred out, show him to the armory if he needs anything,” the King says.

I’m Sir Alfred now? Yeaa, I don’t like this.

Princess Sylvie leads me from the room and back towards the castle’s entrance.

“Alfred, do you really think you can find him?” she asks me. I really can’t tell what that expression means. Maybe she’s scared, and her emotions are all wacky.

“Yes, Princess, and I suspect the old man will be in a bad mood when he hears about this..” I reply because I am in a bad mood because of this.

“I see..” she mumbles, “if you find him, please pass along my gratitude.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” I answer with a bow.

Princess Sylvie then leads me through the front gate of the castle and places me into a carriage bound for the academy.

***
As soon as I make it past the eastern wall, I start searching the forests and mountains for Alarian scouts. I spend a few hours checking for any surprise attacks lying in wait, but there aren't any signs of life. Maybe losing the knights Liara and I ran into scared them? Either way, this makes it easier.

I take to the skies over the eastern road in search of the invading knights, and the first group is as reported, roughly two days out from Sante. The sun is low in the sky, and the knights are moving off the road into the arid land to the south. A few hundred knights are setting up tents while the rest are taking out travel rations or watching the perimeter of the makeshift camp. They really do number in the thousands. I could get an exact count if I move close and release enough magic, but if there are city-state conscripts among them, I could be noticed. I’ll wait for dark and think through my approach.

I think I know the best plan: silently eliminate the poor souls on night watch, then weave through the tents, creating a blood bath while everyone is asleep. Large-scale magic would be simpler, but I’m lacking practice, so it’d be best to treat this like a large-scale assassination.

But I won’t be doing that. I thought through various plans while floating in the sky the past few hours, and one made me laugh so hard I nearly plummeted to the ground. And preparations are now complete – operation send thirty bears on a rampage into their camp is a go. It turns out that sleeping magic works just fine on animals, so rounding them up wasn’t hard.

I’m sitting at the edge of the road with a vanguard of snoring bears in front of me. I weave magic into the energy in the air and fill the animals’ brains, then push a sound in, the sound of a T-Rex roaring just behind them. All thirty awake in a panic and take off towards the camp.

“RAHHH”

“GRAHHHH”

They bounce off one another while running and roar even louder.

Ehehe, this will be premium entertainment.

I lift off without my usual light refraction. I’m at a greater risk of being seen from pushing out magic than I am from being seen against the dark skies.

The bears are making a beeline for the encampment, and the guards can hear them.

“Approaching from the road!”

“Throw torches! We don’t know what the noise is!”

I direct a touch of wind at their torches, making them veer to the sides of the bears.

“I still can’t see!”

“Wake more knights!”

The bears reach the night watch and rampage through them.

“AHHHH”

“Monsters! It’s monsters!”

“Wake everyone!”

I worried the bears would turn tail, but they’re not slowing down. They break past the night watch and close in on the tents.

The tents are set up in lines to form a large rectangular area. Alarian knights are pouring out of them and towards the commotion. I fly to the outer edge of camp opposite the road and descend. There are 10 knights on watch, and all of them are staring back at the camp.

My black disguise is perfect for the night. I rush across magic footholds with my sword extended in my right arm and cleave the night watch half before any of them can make a sound. I continue along magic footholds into the back of the camp and see the last rows of tents emptying. I jump from one tent to the next and slice through the departing knights.

“AHH WHA”

“There's someo-“

Some cry out as their bunkmates fall headless before them, but the commotion at the front of camp is too loud. I’m able to tear through half of the encampment’s soldiers as they move towards the bear attack.

Magic is flowing from everyone, so I release mine to scan the tents for stragglers. I run towards them and enter the first tent with a sleeping knight in it. He’s wrapped in blankets and shivering, likely from a fever. I’ll leave him to report back to Alaria.

I slice the remaining sleepers apart through their tents before turning my focus to the front line. A handful of bears remain roughly 20 meters before the start of the tents. The knights have formed circles around them with swords and torches in hand.

I don’t have long until the distraction is over.

“Close in! Don’t let them break through our line!”

“RAHHHH”

“Push forward, men!”

I approach the rear of the encircled knights and start pulling them into the darkness.

“AHH NO!”

“BEHI-“

But the roars from the knight’s encirclement of the bears drown them out.

I take 10, then 20, then 100, 200, 500, 1000, and more. The wind from my movements and blood sprays from the knights start putting out the torches of the encirclement. The ground is sticky with blood, and my magic tells me there are only fifty knights standing around the last surviving bear.

“Last one! Let’s finish this!”

“It’s all mine!”

They scream and lunge towards the roaring bear.

“GRAHH” the bear roars and swipes at an incoming attack.

Swords and spears strike the animal from every angle, ending the rampage.

“It’s dead!”

“Commander Harold, it’s over!”

The knights raise their swords in cheer and approach the spear-wielder standing over the bear.

“Check the path to the road for any more," he commands, "some of the night watch may have survived as well,” he continues, then starts walking back towards the tents with a torch in hand.

But I don’t let him get close. I leap from the dark and remove his head while the knights under his command walk to the road. The torch he was carrying extinguishes as it falls in a puddle of blood beneath our feet.

The bears were a perfect distraction; less than 50 knights remain, and they’re all moving towards the eastern road. I approach them and bisect the two at their rear, but nothing stops the others from hearing their deaths.

“GUH”

“ARGHH”

“Behind us!”

The knights turn their torches in time to see ten armored heads fly through the air.

“We’re under attack! Throw torches behind us!”

It’s too late, I’m rushing between magic footholds, decapitating every knight that was approaching the road.

“Commander Harold! Com-“

The last head flies, and silence fills the camp. I focus on my magic that’s spread across the area to search for survivors. There’s only one, still sleeping in their tent. I look down and see my black disguise is now red and dripping from the battle. Tomorrow, I’ll finish this, but tonight I want to clean up.

***
Tomatoes have opened a world of possibilities for me. Pizza is incredible, but my most recent work even rivals that.

Spicy tomato soup. The seeds from one of the hot peppers I found in the north adds just the right amount of spice. They’re cooked in olive oil to bring out their flavor before being sautéed with onions and garlic. This world has something like basil that brings it all together before tomatoes are added, and the mix is pureed by manipulating dense rocks with magic. I dip toasted cheesy bread into it and eat it until I’m sick.

But tonight, my lovely creation reminds me of blood. I’ve cleaned my old man outfit and scrubbed myself thoroughly, but sword-fighting an army of helpless knights is brutal. I don’t exactly feel bad for them. They would’ve killed my friends and family to follow their orders. But I’d like to handle the rest of this war more cleanly.

Large-scale magic is simpler, but I don’t want to experiment in live combat. It’s time to break out the wire.