Zenora, The Dragon's Fury
29. Unruly End

Brock's point of view:

We were outside in a forest and behind us was the castle in the far distance, as I could see the towers of the castle reaching out above the trees of the forest. Beneath us was the portal we just came through, slowly dissipating, swirling away with the wind. No longer giving us a way back inside the castle again.

Hayden wasn’t alone in the forest, he was holding his hand to the side, keeping a shield around Aron, the King. And on the other side were Dennis, William and six of our Royal guards, trying to fight off the four Dark Mages that stood on the grass, trying to keep our men away from our mages and my son.

The Dark Mages were with only four, so they couldn’t shield all of our men at once, so the ones that weren’t shielded tried to take the mages out, so less shields were used. But the Dark Mages were strong, using their dark magic for summoning large serpents and creatures from the shadows. Besides that, their mind reading abilities were helping them to adjust their strategies at the right time.

Their black eyes shiny and mirroring the images on this forest’s battlefield. Once in a while they took a sip of their drinking flasks, drinking blood from people or children, to keep their dark magic up.

Our mages and Kaden were in a strange state, laying on the ground with their eyes open, gazing into the night sky.

The only light we have is that of the full moon, granting us just enough sight to fight and see what is going on.

Arch went on to fight with Dennis, I focused on Hayden, who is holding the King in his grasp.

“Release the King, you know you will lose.” I stated to him.

“The only thing I ever lost, is the right to take your wife as mine!” He screamed.

“You will never have her; she will never love you!”

“Neither will you! The blood she lost, and losing her consciousness after that, didn’t give me the idea that she is going to live through her miscarriage!” He said and laughed maniacally.

I was stunned to hear this information. Did she really lose our daughter? No that can’t be!

“I don’t believe you! And if you are speaking the truth, it is because you caused it then! This is all your fault!” I screamed at him, while lunging forward with golden glowing eyes.

He knew I was going to attack him, I could see his hands trying to cast some magic, his mouth speaking strange words, but his eyes grew wide when he realised that he couldn’t cast the spell fast enough. I crashed onto his chest, pushing him backwards on the ground.

In the corner of my eye I could see Aron drop on the floor, as the shield around him was released from its grip.

Hayden gasped, I sat on top of his chest, hitting his face with several knocks of my fists. He tried to stop me and push me away, but I was too strong, too fast. Suddenly, he got enough of it and managed to use a shield to push me away.

Quickly I stood up again and charged in his direction once more. I swept his legs away from underneath his body and he fell sideways on the ground, breaking his arm as he landed on a rock.

I took his neck in the crook of my elbow and locked his head tight. Forcing to block the air supply to his brain. He struggled first, but with only one arm available he couldn’t do much, he let go and fainted on the spot.

I let go of him and quickly checked on the King, to see if he was still alive. He was unconscious but still breathing, and there were no visible injuries. So, I ran to the others and helped them get rid of the Dark Mages.

The Dark Mages were strong, but their supply of blood should run out soon. They only have little flasks with them, so not much blood is in there. We kept fighting them, they kept using shields on us, and turning others in little critters. But every now and then one of us got close enough to hit one of the Dark Mages, to distract it from putting up shields again. We had to act quick, as they could continuously read our minds.

I looked at Arch, as he stood on the other side of the battle scene. We knew what to do, we nodded to each other and he ran behind the mage closest to him and I ran towards the one that was closest to me. Then we both took them in a head-lock, just like I did with Hayden just now. Dennis and William noticed what we did and William attacked the Dark Mage that was in the arms of Arch, jumping at his chest causing the neck of the Dark Mage to break. Dennis ran up to my Dark Mage and kicked at his legs, making him drop, while I twisted his head, breaking his neck instantly also.

Two down, two more to go.

As the two Dark Mages got killed, a few of our mages woke up, because the dark spells ended upon the Dark Mages death. Blinking with their eyes, rubbing them to get some fluids on their dry eyes. I guess they were in this state quite some time, as they coughed a lot also, and tried to get their mouths wet again too. They struggled to get up, only able to sit. But even then, one or two of them were pulled to the ground again, they were not strong enough yet.

Nicolai and Kaden were still under the dark spell. But now that there were only two Dark Mages left, it was much easier to get to them.

Out of desperation they summoned more serpents and shadow apparitions. They needed their companions, to keep the numbers equal against us, but it would also cost more blood to keep up their appearance. They kept drinking from their flasks and we kept fighting against the creatures.

One of the serpents bit my arm and afflicted some black poison, which crawled underneath my skin. It burned its way, spreading across my lower arm. I grabbed the serpent’s head and tore it off his body. Immediately dispersing as smoke in the air, ending that dark spell.

The poison however was still underneath my skin, moving in a circular motion, slowly but steady growing larger. It hurt, but I didn’t care, we have to safe my son, and then I need to replace out how Emily is doing. I was worried as hell that something was wrong with her, and if she did miscarried our daughter, she would definitely need my support.

Finally, the flasks of blood were empty and we were on the winning side. The shadow apparitions were soon gone and the serpents were killed quickly after that. The Dark Mage’s last attempt was to shield us and fight off the others in hand to hand combat. But we are warriors, way stronger than they ever will be in melee skills. Exhausted as they were, so desperate we were to get them killed.

At the end, they just gave up, they knew they couldn’t last any longer. But I wasn’t one to grant them grace, we snapped their heads and waited for our mages to start waking up.

Behind me I heard some grumbling, looking in that direction I saw Hayden crawling its way towards the King. He had a small dagger in his hand, holding it upwards to strike it into the Kings chest.

After all these days, rescuing, fighting, remembering, and hardly being able to sleep, was this really going to happen? Was I really going to fail? Failing to rescue everyone?

The King woke up, looking in my direction. He was too weak to defend himself, clearly exhausted as well, probably not being treated nicely the past few days either.

I stood up, ran towards him, trying to stop Hayden from killing my father in law.

But I was too late.

The small dagger tore its way into the King’s chest, pushing out one hell of a scream. Only to release the tension on all of his muscles, he laid there in the grass, eyes wide open, barely able to breath.

I reached Hayden, pulling him off from the King’s body, looking him one last time in his eyes. He was never my actual brother; I would never try to get to know him. He has done unthinkable things, he has to be killed, and I wasn’t one to wait long. He has made an attempt to kill the King, probably even succeeding at it!

“You will never get the chance to get to Emily ever again!” I said to him.

“Neither will you!” He laughed.

“She is not only probably dead, but she isn’t in the castle either anymore!” He continued.

What the hell is he talking about? She was at the King’s room, just a few hours ago!

“Where did you take her?!” I yelled to him.

“Not even I know where she is, so have fun in searching!” He chuckled and used a shield to push himself away from me.

I walked over to him, to grab him again, but he whispered some words and his eyes turned black for just a moment. The ground around him started to smoke with black little clouds, engulfing his body completely. And when a wind came between the trees, it blew away the smoke, along with his body. Leaving a scorched ground, a bit of ash and a tiny flask behind on the spot where Hayden just laid.

Fuck! No! He drank some blood and used a dark spell, he is gone! Now I won’t know where Emily is!

I quickly ran to the King again, to see how he was.

“Aron?” I asked him.

“Brock, do you sense her?” He asked me, while sputtering out some blood.

“What do you mean?” I asked him confused.

“Do you believe she is still alive?” He explained further.

I had to think about his question. I don’t have any clue if she is still alive or not, but I have to stay positive, unless the opposite is proven. She is a strong woman, I remember only parts of her, but what I know is that she is tough.

“Yes, I think so.” I doubtfully said.

“Good. As long as you believe she is alive, you will continue to look for her. And if you stop believing, you’ll continue for me. Do you understand?” He stated, and asked me.

He was coughing up more blood now. He closed his eyes, making some tears roll down his face.

“Yes, sir. I will never stop looking for her.” I said to him.

“Then go, replace her, safe her, love her, with everything that you got. You are King of Terralon now, rule my lands with the everlasting determination that you have.”

His final words left his mouth as a whisper, barely able to hear them, I nodded and watched him take his last breath. His body laid there, in the tall grass between some large trees. His proud, yet humble stature didn’t leave his side, and laying there under the canopy of the huge trees, surrounded by nature and silence was the most serene death that I could imagine. Even the animals of the forest were silent, as if they were paying their respect, to the loss of the great King as well.

I pulled the dagger out of his chest, and crossed his arms over it. I stood up, looking into the night sky, amazed that one strong beam of moonlight shone through the top of the forest, directly upon his body.

The always wise and strong King Aron, is gone.