Chp 9: Defend the kingdom!

Bodies. Bodies everywhere. In just 5 minutes, a dozen of guards was killed. Swords and spears were strewn across the castle’s entrance which was before, a beautiful garden, now a bloody battlefield of an utter one-sided defeat. The perpetrator? It was a man with unkempt hair, dilated pupils and a runny nose. An obvious Kokaine user.

*Sniffs nose* “Weak, weak, weak. All of there guards are too weak! Is there anyone who is able to match me in battle?” He shouted while kicking a guard who was on the ground. Many Kokaine users are hostile, irritable and tend to get violent outbursts.

And then, like a higher power had answered him. A torrent of dark energy crashed and exploded on the ground and a man in a black hood and armour stood in its place.

“Who the fuck are you?” Kokaine man asked with aggression.

“Leave now and you might be able to escape with your life,” Bob commanded him.

“Huh? Oh alright,”The kokaine man began leaving the castle’s premises.

“Just like that?” Selestina who was watching the scene from the castle’s door did not believe what she was seeing.

“JUST KIDDING!!! You think I would listen to-“ Kokaine man turned around as he said that but Bob had stabbed him when he started to turn.

“Argggghhh. You have tricked me!” Kokaine man said as he laid himself on the ground, waiting for the sweet release of death.

“Hooded man, come closer. I have to tell you something,” Kokaine man beckoned him to hear his last words.

“AdadakdadjiodDyingManSaysWhat?” Kokaine man had recited a spell to regain back his life if the person that wounded him severely says ‘what’ and their fates will be reversed.

“Hujudiuaudawd” Bob replied.

“Huh? What? Oh shit, you got me. Bitch,” At that very moment, Kokaine man plans were thwarted and died.

“gg ez, git gud skrub,” Bob said to himself.

In just an hour, clean up squad had disposed of all the fallen bodies and returned the affected area back to its previous beauty. The king had called everyone back to the throne room to speak.

“We have ascertained that the Nutter was a Blood Magician from Wankeryl. My spies have informed me that the Blood Magicians are working with the Wankeryl Kingdom to bring us down.” He said

“The spies have also told me that they are planning to target our national Magic Academy soon,” The King continued.

“Unbelievable! They are trying to bring us down by killing our future magicians that will protect our kingdom. Disgusting.” Selestina exclaimed in a spiteful tone.

“That means we have to guard the school!” Blaggr chimed in.

“Not possible, we already know where they are going to attack. If we show that we are aware of their plans, they will target somewhere else and we will be to slow to react.”

“So we have to protect the academy discreetly?” Blaagr asked.

“Yes but if we go there people will start talking as we do not look young enough to be students. Unless-“ Eleonora realised that there was somebody among them that looked young and certainly had the power to protect the academy.

All eyes were on Shadow, he was the only one who could do it.

“Father, I believe Shadow is fit for the job. Why don’t we disguise him as a student and have him protect the place from the inside.” Selestina suggested.

Shadow only stared blankly at her, “This is going to be troublesome but I have to keep up my end of the deal,” he thought.

King BigBoi smiled as the solution to the problem has already be found. “Shadow, your next mission will be to protect The National Cuntersian Magic Academy. Will you accept?”

“Sure, but I have a few requests to call in if I’m to accept this mission,” Bob replied.

“As long as it is nothing unreasonable, I’m sure we can work something out. We shall discuss more tomorrow, let’s rest up for now,” The King smiled.

The maids and butlers lead Shadow and the others out the room. Rindwom and Eleonora went to the castle’s garden to meditate and rest. Since they all originally lived in nature, the garden is where they felt most at home. Blaggr went to the dining hall to eat and Selestina went to the training hall to brush up on her swordsmanship.

Bob was left alone and wandered aimlessly around the halls.

“Excuse me, Shadow-Sir. Are you lost, would you like me to bring you to your room?” A maid noticed Bob and offered to bring him to his resting area.

“No thanks, I’m just exploring the place,” He explained.

Half an hour had gone by and Bob found himself in the training hall. Over there, Selestina was sparring with a male knight. Around them were other knights watching the match. It was a Knight Instructor that was sparring her and they were probably showing them how a fight between Swordmasters would look like.

Bob moved in towards the fight and sat on the floor, eagerly watching the fight.

The two opponents circled around as if they were sizing each other up. The male knight quickly stepped forward while slashing his sword at Selestina’s legs. With his blade coming towards her, Selestina instinctively jumped backwards to avoid the attack, this was when the instructor continued forwards to pierce her with his sword. Any normal person would have retreated, but not Selestina. She faced the danger head on and slipped to the left, causing his attack to only pierce the air. At the same time, she grabbed his lead hand and flipped him right across her back with extreme speed and momentum. The fight was over she pointed her sword towards his neck when he was on the ground.

Selestina turned at spoke the crowd of knights-in-training, “Remember, just because you have a sword doesn’t mean you have to confine yourself to using it, keep your wits around you, break your opponent’s center of gravity with whatever you can use. It’s not an honorary duel but a battle for survival. Once the enemy is on the ground, it is almost certain he will lose,”. Murmurs of approval and agreement were heard as the knights listened to her lecture.

“This is all elementary combat basics, why were they so surprised about this?” Bob thought to himself. He stared at them when suddenly his eyes were met with Selestina’s.

She motioned him to come over, “This is the Shadow Rogue, the one who defeated the nutter who killed 33 of our guards, in just a single attack.” Selestina introduced them to him.

“So this is the man of legend, I have never heard about someone who could kill a Nutter in a single move,”

“Yeah, he must be as strong,”

“He sure looks scary with that hood and mask, I’m getting chills by just looking at him,”

“Who do you think is stronger? Him or Selestina?”

“Selestina for sure, did you not see how she mopped the floor with Instructor Graud?”

“Instructor Graud is a bitch,” The crowd whispered and murmured.

Suddenly one of the knights chimed up, “Shadow-san can you spar with Selestina-sama? I want to see your fighting techniques!” (This knight must be an equivalent of a Japanese talking with honorifics).

“Spar?” Shadow asked.

“This would certainly be interesting, please spar with Selestina,” Graud agreed with the other knight's request.

Selestina was suddenly flustered, “Sparring with Shadow? I’m sure to lose, due to his magic power,”

“Okay, I accept. But I will not use any magic or physical enhancements,” Shadow said

“If it’s like this, I have a chance to win. I ACCEPT,” Selestina said as she unsheathed her sword.

Bob locked his power and came forward to spar with her without any weapons.

“You’re not using any weapons? You must be looking down on me! I’ll teach you what happens if you come into battle with overconfidence,” She shouted.

Her words were only met with silence as Shadow concentrated on Selestina’s movements, every intricate movement was noticed by him. Whenever Selestina made an attack, he skillfully dodged while studying her footwork.

Selestina made a stabbing motion towards Shadow who purposely retreated while looking a little off-balance, his left leg was in front of his right, in a normal fighting stance. Seeing the ‘opening’ , Selestina rushed in and suddenly found herself on the ground. As she was rushing in, Shadow dropped to his left knee outwards and knocked her off the ground with his right feet in a sweeping motion.

“Woah, just like that.”

“He brought her down quick,”

Selestina stood back up and said “Again! First to yield loses!”

Bob sighed and went back into fighting stance .

A series of multiple stabs and slices rang in the air, as Selestina put the pressure on Bob who half-heartedly dodged everything.

Selestina said to herself as she gave a last piercing attack and lifted up her right leg. In one swift motion, Shadow had been knocked backward and into the ground. However, it was not the end of the sparring match as neither opponents had yielded. Bob landed in a crouched stance with his right leg forward and left leg tucked under him, he then leaned to the front as if daring Selestina to come near.

Seeing this opportunity, Selestina came forward with her sword pointing at Bob. Once she was at an appropriate distance, Bob jolted towards her in a nanosecond, his right leg landed straight on both of her legs while his left was at the back of her ankles. He lifted his right leg to her thighs and swept her ankles with his left leg. A textbook Scissors Takedown

Once she was on the ground, Bob asked: “Do you yield?”. His answer was a sword to his face which he caught between his fingertips.

“I think its pretty obvious here who won, let’s end the session,” (No shit)

One by one the knights walked out of the training halls, only Selestina and Bob were left.

“How can you be so strong?” Selestina asked him, she genuinely wanted to know the source of his strength.

“How can you be so strong that you can beat an armed knight with no weapons? What is your secret?!” Tears were welling up in her eyes as she asked him.

Selestina had never felt so weak in her life even though she was Cuntersia’s strongest knight and is on par with the top adventurers, she was not able to defeat the Shadow Rogue even when he was unarmed.

“100 pushups…….” Bob made up a training plan as he did not know himself how he got so strong.

Bob disappeared from the embarrassing scenario and went to see a maid.

“Excuse me, can you lead me to my quarters?”, Bob asked kindly.

“Yes, come with me,” The maid lead Bob to his room.

After arriving at his room he thanked the maid and closed the door. “Tomorrow is the start of my new mission. Disguising myself as a student to protect the magic academy from the Blood Magicians and Wankeryl forces. I wonder how that’ll work out?” Bob spoke to himself as he laid on his bed.