"They left already, I’ll take us there myself," Declared Acacia as she strode out of the palace, beside her stood Raziah with that still same blatant impassive look on her face. Though her dress was a bit different this time because she had been provided with the right silver armor for battle, covering her inner clothing. The only part of her body exposed was her lower thighs, and her shoes were also made of armor. The headpiece was already over her head, with the visor thrown up so she could see properly...for now.
Her sword laid inside its sheath, held in her right hand as she stared out in front of them, wondering how they were gonna get there. Not sighting any means of transportation, Raziah shifted her gaze back at Acacia with a slight crease of her brows, and just as she was about to open her mouth...
"Beware." Acacia suddenly grinned, with something dubious glittering in her eyes, the profound stealth warning oozing out of her every word, "It’s gonna look very, very bloody."
Raziah at first thought her ears were ringing, but now that her attention was focused on the sorceress after what she said, she could clearly see Acacia’s lips vibrating in a very low-pitched, murmurs from her lips reaching Raziah’s ears with a new language Raziah had only heard about vaguely in her entire life. She wanted to look further out of the curiosity that was building up, but then she looked away instead, focusing on what was in front of her again.
The next thing she heard was the snap of the sorceress’s fingers, and the scenery spontaneously changed. Raziah’s eyes broadened for a second, her whole body coming alive as she tried to reason how they had gotten to a different place so very fast. But before her thoughts could really dive into the topic, Acacia was already pulling her further inside the solid four-walled compartment she found herself in.
"Our forces are currently holding them back outside," The sorceress stated in a small whisper as they moved through the place. Raziah strained her ears for any kind of noise, but the whole place was just too silent. How could a battle be going on and there wasn’t an atom of noise? Why the hell was everything so very uncanny around her? , "His Majesty should be somewhere inside here, don’t worry I’ll protect..."
Acacia saw it coming. The sudden change in the air indicated that they were about to get attacked, and she already had it covered on her side. But even before Acacia could take her next breath, Raziah had already stepped in front of her and landed a swift kick straight up on the person’s neck, knocking him out efficiently. Acacia’s mouth dropped at once, blinking in utter surprise.
Wait a minute...how the hell...
"Are they all as fast as him? Were they given some sort of drugs? His eyes were...red, right?" Raziah enquired, glancing behind her at the woman who was still unmoving.
"Yeah. They have a sorceress too, and she helped with enhancing them physically." Acacia snapped out of her trance, but it was up to Raziah to believe her words.
"I see," Raziah responded.
"That was the first one, there are many others."
"The place looks big, searching is better if we spread ourselves,"
"No no, You have to stay with me at all times."
Raziah almost didn’t want to listen, but she had no choice in the matter. She didn’t know anything about where they were, and her option right now was to stick with the sorceress for better or worse. They moved through the darkness of the place, gauging every step as they went as they tried not to make a sound with their feet. Acacia was occasionally glancing at the Princess’s cold looks with something bugging her mind.
Suddenly, there was an uproar from the room they were in, and the faint footsteps approaching them had Raziah already lowering her visor, gripping her sheathed sword - and just about time a horde of people sprung out of every corner around them with blazing red eyes and the hunger for murderous intent.
"Don’t move," Acacia whispered sternly beside her, and Raziah could hear that familiar chanting and the vibrating from her lips, and this time she needn’t snap her fingers to activate the spell. A simple blow from her lips and everyone around them suddenly degraded...into nothing. Their bodies decayed, turning into both sand and blood before splattering everywhere - some of the blood getting on their boots. It was a good thing the princess had already lowered her visor, or else the sight...
"Let’s go."
They continued down the dark place, and there wasn’t a soul that didn’t try to attack them without getting turned into nothing. They proceeded further, and after a minute or so, Raziah could hear noises coming from a room. They stopped in front of a door, and Raziah first caught the tenseness that filled the air, and that had her pulling back up the visor to see what was going on.
Though she didn’t pull it up completely, she could see about four people inside the room that resembled some underground cave. A woman stood in the middle, with the men staring back at them with vicious gazes that could melt an ordinary person and turn their confidence into jellies. They excluded this vile and menacing aura, and they weren’t so different from the others that they had come across before since their eyes were also glowing blood red.
But what really had Raziah staring for a long time was the man that sat on a throne carved out of stone, right behind them at the very end of the cave-like room. He looked unhurt from head to toe, and his unfathomable gaze didn’t even change. His legs were spread apart, and he was leaning comfortably on the chair - looking like the devil that owned the whole place.
"Don’t get it wrong...I don’t think he is..." Acacia didn’t bother to whisper this time.
The sudden motion, faster than the previous ones shocked the Princess. Acacia had already pushed her by the shoulders to get her out of the way, but Raziah would have nothing of it as her leg was already raised, ready to land another kick on the man’s neck. Raziah didn’t see what happened next, all she knew was that she had been hauled away from the others far across the room, landing hard on the hard and cold ground with a small roll.
"You brought...a human?" A voice asked as Raziah pulled herself up to a standing position with her aching limbs. It really was a bad idea to bring her, but it wasn’t a completely outrageous one.
"Are you kidding me, sorceress?" Another piqued, with a gruel tone as he walked closer to Raziah, coming from her blind spot. His eyes had changed back to a normal brown shade, and a small smirk touched his face as he reached out to grab the princess.
"She’s not!" Came the princess’s response to his question, right before she caught him off guard. She had lost her sword due to the unexpected strength that she had been thrown with a few seconds ago, but now that she truly had a glimpse of how things worked here, she would not be caught off guard again.
The sound of her strong legs making impact with the side of his neck had everyone’s eyes widening, except the sorceress of course who couldn’t help but smile. Blood spluttered out of the man’s ears and nose, a pale look overtaking his eyes before he fell forward, out cold.1
Facing the other two, Raziah’s face was still hidden from their sight because of the helm over her face. The second man with extremely pale skin that had attacked them at first was now standing with Acacia, more like they were already battling it out. Raziah couldn’t tell whether it was because the woman was a sorceress, but her spells were easily countering his quick movements that were too fast for Raziah to see. Their movements were so fast that she could only feel the change in wind pressure and the barely detectable vibrations coming from the ground, and that was when she noticed that the third threat wasn’t in her spot anymore.
Raziah could only feel the darkness around her. The visor of the armored helm had a straight hole for visuals, but she had her eyes closed. With the darkness surrounding her, she could only feel the movements around her and that was why she could tell where everyone is, and right now the third threat was making her way toward her, and the speed of her movements was incredibly fast.
Everything happened so quickly, but Raziah was unfazed. Double blades came running straight for her chest, but she managed to catch the woman’s and evade the attack, fluidly moving out of the way.
"Here!" Acacia’s loud voice rang through the darkness, and Raziah heard the sound of something made of steel, clanking through the rocky ground, making its way toward her.
"What are you?!" The woman attacking her growled in frustration, unable to fathom how the hell a mere human could keep up with her movements when there were no signs of her being another. It was even more razzling because the woman happened to be very strong in her field, yet the human looked like she was just playing around with her.
Raziah had already picked up her sword, bending backward with her hands gripping the hilt, and then she came parring with the woman’s blades that kept waving themselves all over her face. Finding the slightest opening against the woman’s superhuman movements, she knocked the blades away from her hands but was instantly attacked with long claws that protruded from the woman’s nails, and the unexpected change of events was enough for the woman to claw through Raziah’s skin, ripping her arm open.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com