Battle Unexpectedly Close

Vidan was still in complete awe of the building when a purple light shot up the sky and in the next instant divided into several smaller lights and with a swish came raining down to the battlefront.

Almost instantly, the entire area was lit with a burst of blue light followed by a loud booming noise that sent shockwaves all around.

"BOOOOM" 

The whole battlefield came to a standstill. After several seconds of complete silence the clanging of swords and the shouting restarted.

Gleaming with a wide smile Vidan wondered what great sight would such wonderful magic cast. His yearning to see the battlefront was growing with each passing second.

His stream of thoughts was broken by the incoming thud of the Camus at a distance.

'Just in time.' He thought looking at his attendees, who were still at a distance. With a gentle pull, Vidan directed the beast towards the building.

Beside the gates of the buildingpremisese, there stood four knights fully armored, two on each side of the large gate. Three of them were male one was female. They showed no movement and would have looked like a white statue if not fot their exposed eyes.

Vidan was a little cautious while moving towards them, but they showed no signs of movement or hostility. He eased up, and put up his princely demeanor and directed the Camus towards the entrance.

As the Camus took the first step in, one of the knights dissapeared from his place, and instantly appeared beside him. 

Vidan's instincts screamed for flight. 

He slammed the tendrils of the Camus down at its hump making all its tendrils retract quickly.

By then, god knows how a huge sword had manifested in the hands of the Knight and he jumped high in the air, even higher than where Vidan was seated. 

Then he brought his huge sword down on him without any second thoughts. 

Vidan tilted backwards and bouncing on the beast's back fell down to the ground with a thud. The tendrils had retracted just in time.

Meanwhile, the sword which was meant for Vidan came down on the back of the Camus slicing all the way through the beast and plunging deep in the ground.

It was a quick death for the Camus and it didn't even had the time to scream or react.

From the ground, Vidan looked in horror as a fountain of blood sprung all around him. The beast who had stood tall just movements ago now laid beside him cleaved in two. 

Everything had happened in just a matter of seconds.

The Knight raised its arm, and the sword which was stuck on the ground dismantled into small bits like flies and arranged in his hand manifesting into a sword again.

The Knights eyes were smiling, there was no doubt he was enjoying every bit of it.

"You Jerk of a Prince. DIE !" The Knight roared and with the same intent to kill swung his sword again.

Vidan body was jammed, it felt like it was stuck in some swamp. 

He looked in horror as the sharp edge of the blade came closer and closer with even instance. Frozen in his place all he could think at he moment was 'Death'.

Vidan closed his eyes, but nothing happened. 

The sword never touched him.

Vidan opened his eyes to recheck and saw the sword had stopped in its course just inches away from his head. Small splinters of ice had grown out from the sword like little buds sprouting from seed and were continuously multiplying with great speed.

Without a second thought, Vidan instinctively crawled back searching for a safe place. In the background, he could make out that his attendants had engaged the knights.

Vidan had managed to just get a few steps away when he saw the brawler along with a knight crash to the ground. The impact was such that a cloud of dust erupted covering the whole area with dust particles.

Things had escalated so rapidly that Vidan wasn't sure which side was winning. He quickly rose to his feet taking a defensive position.

"CLANK ! CLANK ! CLANK !"

 Despite the thick sparkling dust he could hear blows were being exchanged. 

The dust slowly settled and revealed a beautiful yet cruel sight. The knight who had attacked Vidan with zeal was now frozen from the neck down, with his head hanging lifelessly.

The Knights's lower body was reduced to hundreds of thin and long frozen bloodstreams making it appear as if it was preserved amid extinction.

The place all around had was changed into a battlefield.

The brawler along with the boy were on the front lines keeping up with the three remaining knights.

The thin man stood as the healer of the party, and he would time and again heal any small cuts and bruises.

The starry girl was panting harder than anyone. It was her who had frozen the Knight earlier, and even with her tired self, she used her ice splinters to cover up any opening the front line had.

Both the sides seemed equally matched and in a stalemate, and one of the Knight realized the situation. He dropped his sword and took several steps back.

The sword dismantled before hitting the ground, and several flies flew to his manifesting into a long pointed spear.

Without wasting any time, the Knight held the spear and stretched back his arm like a sling. "Take this you, witch." He shouted in his hoarse voice and in one explosive motion hurled the spear towards the girl. 

The girl kicked the ground and a thick wall of ice rose from the ground to block the incoming attack.

"DIVERSION!… HEALER ! HEALER !" Vidan shouted when he saw the spear dismantling in midair, and the Knight moving towards the healer who was standing there cluelessly.

The spear was just to divert her, and it had done its job well as now the girl's vision of the whole battlefield was obstructed by the ice wall.

"You Puny roach." The Knight spoke approaching the healer who was by now running, but he was too slow. 

The axed brawler sensing the grave danger upon their ally, pushed his opponent aside and rushed to catch up with the knight.

"You won't touch him ! -BLAZING AXE SLING-" he shouted and the head of his axe lit on fire. The brawler then making two fast overhead circular motions single-handedly launched the burning axe towards the knights.

The axe moved with an unnatural speed, and the knight wasn't prepared for it. He barely managed to deflect it with his sword which left him with an opening.

The girl acted quickly, '-Ice hammer-' she launched a boulder-sized ice block which struck the Knight perfectly knocking him several meters away. 

Looking at turn of events, Vidan had just thought that they had finally managed to have an upper hand when an arrow was shot.

"SWOOSH" it cut through the air and pierced through the shoulder of the brawler. 

"AGGGG" the brawler groaned in pain. 

"Slimy Little Roaches" The female Knight spoke irritably seeing she had missed the vitals. She manifested two arrows this time and nocked them both on the bow.

"Careful !" The boy with the sword tried evading his opponent and helping but the knight against him was too tenacious.

Vidan looked at the starry girl, and she was still recovering her energy. 

The healer did the best he could from his side, but such an injury needed direct contact to be healed. 

"SWOOSH" Two arrows were shot towards the brawler. He jumped like a cat managing to evade one but the second arrow grazed his stomach.

This battle was turning out to be disasterous. 

Vidan had already started to lose his composure, and his panic only multiplied when he saw the Knight which had been knocked earlier was already getting up on his feet.

"YOU COUNTRY BUMPKINS !" He shouted once he got up.

'-ICE DIAMONDS-'The girl launched a few icicles towards the female Knight, but she easily dodged them.

Vidan was horrified seeing how the battle was heading too. He did not wanted to lose this life too, and seeing how things were it was only a matter of minutes.

Various possibilities came forth into his brain. At that moment his mind had started looking for ways for survival, but when he couldn't find any he started to murmur hysterically.

"Of course, they would not kill me. I am Mikhail the Prince, the soul of the Kingdom, everyone says so, mother says so...I deserve to live, live more than anyone else…It is I who matter… I ONLY MATTER !"

Vidan froze in his place when his words fell into his ear. 'What am I even saying.' He thought realizing that he was acting like the very creature he had despised all his life.

He wasn't sure if he was even himself, or was it the prince talking?

"S-L-A-P !" Vidan slapped himself as hard as he could. It was not the time for self-reflection and loathing, it was time to act, and he who had got everyone entangled in his mess. The least he could do now was contribute to this battle.

He got up to his feet and carefully analyzed the whole battlefield.

The red-haired boy and his opponent knight were on equal grounds and were engaged in almost a stalemate. 

Other than him the whole battle was tilted against them in the Knights's favour. As for the remaning two knights were now making sure to keep the healer and the brawler away from each other, and the starry girl looked like she was almost reaching her limits.

Vidan's mind ran at full speed looking around for anything to act as aid. It is when his eyes fell on the frozen Knight. He then looked at the four Camus at a distance close by. 

Any normal camus would have run hearing such loud noises but these were battle-trained beasts.

"Do you have more magic left ?" Vidan shouted and asked the starry girl who stood between him and the battle. 

"On Reserves." She replied

Vidan was not sure what it meant, and looking into his memories would have only wasted time so he rephrased "Can you use more of that freezing magic ?" 

 With a slight turn of her head, she looked at Vidan with contorted expressions and hissed "Enough to freeze you alongside them." 

Vidan gulped the hard lump in his throat, at the moment she looked more horrifying than the Knights.

'She would be fine if she could make such threats.' he thought, and what choice did they had at the moment.

Without wasting any time further Vidan quickly ran towards the four beasts. The throat of the Camus had the same glow as its hump. Vidan tapped it and a brown rope-like tendril extended.

He then did the same with the other two and tied the ropes with each other making one thick Knot.

Climbing on the remaining one, he took the rider's position and with one hand held onto the thick knot which was attached to the other three. 

Surprisingly Vidan didn't feel any fear, on the contrary, he was thrilled like some battle monger. 

"Starry girl. It's upto you." he shouted, and with a determination of his own started directing his Camus, followed by the other three, towards the female Knight.

"YOU JUNKYARDS! TRASH CAN! MOTHERLESS RANT! SWORD HUGGER. GRAVE DIGGER. DISTORT FIGURE." Vidan shouted gibberish as he closed onto her with the four giant beasts.

 The female Knight was brimming with fury when she heard the Prince throwing slurs at her. What was even more disrespecting to her was an unawaked nobody was moving towards her thinking he could hurt her with some Camus. 

"I will show to the might of a Warrior Ranked Cultivator." she roared and rushed towards the Prince manifesting two katana-like swords in her hands.

With her swift and tactful movements she sliced all four beasts into hundreds of small pieces like mere paper, but Vidan had already jumped off seconds ago, and was lying on the ground.

The Knight smirked through behind her helmet as she looked down at him "You all Sunspire roaches. Now do you see the level of a Warrior Ranked Cultivator." She spoke arrogantly.

Vidan stretched his arm and gave her a big thumbs up "You Won !" he chirped through the pain. He hadn't expected her to cut through all the four camus, two at max but a Warrior Ranked cultivator was no joke. 

"Have you hit your head?" The female Knight looked at him puzzled, but soon her eye widened when she realized that a thin veil of ice had already settled over her.

What was worse for her was the water floating in the air throughout the area, it was water from the four Camus's storage capacity.

"You tricked me." She spoke looking at Vidan angrily. She had never thought she would be outsmarted by a mere mortal, but anger and arrogance are a dangerous combination. Anger clouds one's judgment depriving them of a logical mind while arrogance overinflates one's sense of confidence and capabilities. It is like a poison to the mind.

"I will kill you." The Knight still furious, moved a couple of steps towards Vidan but her body kept getting heavier and heavier and her steps slower. Just after taking three steps a thick layer of ice had settled over her.

"DARIUS NOW !" The starry girl shouted, and the axed brawler Darius rushed to where the female Knight was. 

One of her allies Knight tried stopping Darius but the starry girl showered him with ice diamonds. 

Darius ignored all the pain he felt on his shoulder and moved quickly.

"-BLAZING AXE-" his axe lit on fire, and with one clean swing he cut through her armor, flesh, and bone completely severing the female Knight's head.

Her helmet fell off and her cleaved head rolled down towards Vidan facing him. Her eyes had the same angered look, and even in death she was furious.

"Gross" Vidan looked away, but he felt no sympathy for her. It would have been his head if the Knight had the chance.

Ignoring the head he got up from the ground and stared at the battlefield. With all the moisture in the air, and their number advantage the battle was almost won. Vidan was still enjoying the thought when a voice rang through.

"STOP AT THIS VERY INSTANCE !"