Ch.16 Burnt to Ashes

After watching the inn burn for a while, Elric and Blaze got a few hours of sleep. They awoke before dawn, and started to put on their armor. Blaze was no longer covered by a cloth; with the saddle bags and pack now hidden up in a tree, she was covered head to tail in full plate armor. As for Elric he had on full body chainmail with plate armor over his chest,back and upper legs. He also had on boots and gloves made up of a leather body that was covered in a layer of overlapping steel plates, so they remained flexible while adding protection to his hands and feet. All the armor covering Blaze, along with the plate sections of Elric's armor were jet black. On both sides of Blaze neck armor was the crest of the Foust Kingdom. Elric had the same crest on his chest, and a red dragon on the back. A red dragon had became his personal emblem over the years, and listed in Foust Kingdom as the signet of the Protector of the Crown Princess on several official forms.

Now fully outfitted in armor with of his swords on his hip and two more on either side of Blaze's saddle, Elric stood beside Blaze eating a few strips of dry meat and rubbing under her chin. Once he was done eating, Elric climbed atop Baze's back and said, "It is almost dawn, the sun will be up in a few minutes, let's head to the city's gates, well will start there.

Just and the sun peeked over the horizon the two of them reached the city's gates. Elric said "Blaze Burn this city to ashes until that stupid prince and vile king are forced out to face us or give her back to us. Start with a wall of fire to block the gates so none can escape." Blaze let out a deep angry draconic roar causing a foot wide pillar of fire to shot forth from her mouth hitting the ground and gates. Whoever drew up the plans for the lay out of the capital city of Ash Kingdom was surely now rolling in their grave. The idea they had that only having one set of gates would make the city easy to defend, actually made it impossible to defend against a blockade.

A wall of dragon fire that would burn for hours now covered the only exit or entrance to the city. It shot into the sky and was actually a bit taller than the fifty foot tall city walls. Dragon fire was hot enough to melt steel armor in under three seconds, and water only caused it to burn hotter. This made it impossible to leave or for any troops stationed outside the walls to come to the city's aid. Blaze circled the city under Elric's command, burning everything in range of her breath to nothing but a pile of ash that was quickly swept away by the wind. If someone got close to them Elric would reach out and slash their neck. If it was a group Elric would jump off Blaze and attack them and Blaze would use her tail that was covered in spikes that stuck out from her armor. It did not matter if it was the old, young, man, woman or chicken none were spared. Elric had made the wife of the messenger he hired leave the city in the middle of the night shortly after the inn was burnt under the third prince's orders.

Blaze already ate her fill of foolish city guards that attacked her and Elric. Elric was sure he told the king not to try and attack the two of them as none of the weapons this kingdom had could even cut the skin of a dragon, not to mention the armor she and Elric had on was not made of standard materials. Only weapons made from Dragon Steel could harm a dragon that was more than a week old. Dragon Steel needed the elemental breath to make or forge, so with dragons being only myth and legend on the continent of Fargo outside of Foust Kingdom the availability and cost made it such that even all the wealth of Ash Kingdom could not even buy a single arrowhead made of pure Dragon Steel. Kicker was that Foust Kingdom had littral tons of it. Elric and Blaze used her breath to make it in exchange for the services of the local blacksmiths, and all of their armor they had on was made of it as well as all five of Elric's swords.

When Elric tested it on the practice field of his Dragon's Keep normal steel weapons could only leave a faint scratch in the surface of the armor after hundreds on blows, arrows would just bounce off. The only other souls to have weapons made of it were King Foust, Cpt. Davis and two generals that that the full trust of The King and Elric. So unless the Ash Kingdom had a highly skilled mage, it was basically useless to attack the two that were covered fully in the stuff. The odds of a mage being in Ash Kingdom was less than one in a million. The only mages on Fargo belonged to White Tower and only know healing spells.

As the two of them circled the city Elric and Blaze both thought the King of Ash Kingdom was probably to dumb to understand this fact, because they had killed over two hundred members of the city guard and army within the first hour, and he thought for even a second that his son would get away with kidnaping the crown princess of a kingdom that was able to crush them on a battlefield hundreds of times over.

It was to the point that after three hours of riding in a giant circle burning things Elric let Blaze lay down and take a nap to rest and digest the "food" she had eaten. During her nap the two were even treated to a massage from the tiny vibrations cause by arrows fired at them from the castle's walls. Elric went as far as to tell the archers up on the walls to fire faster to give his butt a good rub. saying it had gone numb from riding around all morning. He only woke up Blaze because the archers ran out of arrows ending his massage and he was starting to get hungry. He had a few strips of dry meat, but why would he settle for it when he could just go kick in the kitchen door of the castle and eat the king's lunch for him.

Having the Idea of stealing the king's lunch from him in his own castle on his mind now, how could he not do it, it was just to tempting. So Elric hoped back on Blaze and made a bee or should I say dragon line to the back kitchen door of the castle of the Ash Kingdom. He would have just gone through the front doors, but it was is tummy doing the thinking for him right now. After getting to the kitchen door, Elric jumped off Blaze and kicked the door in, splintering it into countless pieces. He left Blaze outside, she was stuffed still even after a short nap. Elric was only going in to get lunch, He would use the front doors and make a grand entrance once his belly was full.

He walked past the stuned cooks to a table filled with meats, fruit, wines, cakes, and potatoes. When he asked them if it was the king's lunch all the cooks could muster was a slight nod to afraid to move because of the sight of a armored blood covered boy turning the door into matchsticks still hung in their minds. Elric being to young to care for the taste of wine ordered the cooks to bring him milk as the shoved cakes and steaks into his face. Ten minutes later he let a big burp and told the cooks to was quite good. He was willing to let them come work for him in Foust it was so good. The cooks were filled with joy to be thanked for the food the royals here only yelled at them. One went as far as to beg to be saved from this wretched kingdom's king.

One of the more bold ones even sent out the leftover bones to the king to be his "last meal." He told Elric it would arrive in front of the king in five minutes, so he should plan his grand entrance to be at that time to add to it. Elric found this to be very funny and so he would do it. He ran out of the kitchen an jumped on Blaze and ran towards the main doors of the castle. When the five minutes past Blaze set the doors ablaze and smashed them in with her tail letting Elric strut in while drawing two swords. The people of this kingdom are the dumbest people in the world Elric thought was he made his way inside the castle. They had not even dropped the Iron gates in front of the castle doors even though the two of them had been running around the capital city burning it down for hours.

This would have slowed to two of them down a few seconds giveing the King and third prince a half a chance to run. It would not matter as the Only way out of the city was still blocked by a wall of dragon fire. It Elric and Blaze timed it right Captain Davis and his knights would be here just before it stop burning. They had already burnt over seventy-five percent of the city to ashes, but wanted to go save Princess Aalis and have a little fun with the third prince and king before the army of Foust made its move.

Elric arrived in front of a king fuming over his plate of bones, with Blaze slowly coming up behind him.

"Yo Bitchking, have that idiot you call your third son bring out MY PRINCESS in the next three minutes or else I will go find her myself. If I have to waste my time looking for her, Blaze standing there behind you is keep you company. She is full of "guard meat" at the moment, but a growing dragon tends to get hungry again quite quickly. Should I have to go look or if she as even a single hair out of place, the three of us will go Burn what is left of this city. IF she has been harmed I will do the same as I did to this city to All of Ash Kingdom only leaving one or to people alive to warn other kingdoms not to Mess in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with cheese."

The king of Ash Kingdom looked behind him to see the razor sharp teeth filled mouth of Blaze slightly open as she was licking her lips.

"You Are Elric Vellen, said the king that wet his pants at the sight of Blaze."

"That would be what i am called by some, King Jhon Foust calls me the lil princess protector in private, Dragon Lord or my title of Royal Playmate and Protector Of Crown Princess Aalis Foust of Foust Kingdom in front of others. I will give you one guess as to why I named her Blaze. You should also know I earned my title at the old age of five years old, by risking my own life to save the princess, jumping into the well she fell into."

"Where is the Idiot Bastard, does he want to see me become dragon chow?"

"Time is up. If you tell me where she is you will live longer."

"She is in the top of the north tower, unless that useless son of mine hurt her in the last hour, she should be safe, other than keeping her locked up I did make sure that he treated her like the princess she is. I guarantee, on the lives of my entire kingdom, her chastity is still intact."

"Good you are much smarter than that son of yours, if it is as you say, I will leave it up to her father The King to decide your fate. Blaze try no to eat him.... for now."

Elric turned and left the king and Blaze in the throne room to go find Princess Aalis and the third prince afterwards. She was right were the king had said. Two guards station at the door tried to stop him as he came up the stairs of the tower. Both of the guards heads hit the stone floor of the tower at the same time. Elric severed their necks by striking out with the two swords in his hand in one fluid motion. He had list count of the lives he had taken this day. He wanted to count but gave up as a ten year old could only count so high. He had only did it so he could make a bet with a certain knight captain anyway.

After taking the door's key off the body of one of the headless guards he unlocked the door opening it slowly. he had to quickly doge a vase the princess tossed at his head. It would not really hurt with is armor on, but he would still get wet. The princess yelled, "I will not marry you, so stop asking!"

"Fine if you are not willing to marry me after Blaze and I came all the way out here just to save you, burning down most of the city in the process, I can just leave, the army will be here soon I think anyway." Elric said in a teasing manner as he turned to pretend to leave. He only took one step before Princess Aalis blinking in shock, not able to believe her eyes screamed, "NO Elric wate, I thought you were the prince that kidnap me. Did you and Blaze really burn down the city?"

"Yes, now help me find the stupid prince before Blaze who is watching the king gets hungry and eats him even if I told her not to do so yet. You know how she gets when she is hungry and food is close by." With that said, step one Burn city was done, step two Find and save Crown Princess was a definite check as well. The two where off to find the prince as part of step three.