The blazing sun high in the sky scorched the sand beneath their feet. Krieg had already removed the armor which was dangling from the camel Leona was riding. They had three camels for the group. Two of which carried the noble blooded Luke and princess Leona, and the other carried the light armored priestess named Neiliel.

She wore a light tunic that covered up until halfway her thighs and cotton trousers with knee-high light leather boots. She moved her camel to pace beside Leona’s as she pulled a waterskin from the side of her ride and offered to her.

“Princess, do you want some water?”

“Ah! Umm… sure, I’ll have some, thank you.”

Leona was startled by her sudden interaction but nevertheless held the waterskin and took a few sips from it. Krieg walked while holding the camel’s reins from below but never letting his eyes off Leona whenever someone was close to her.

Neiliel took the waterskin back and tied to the side of her saddle. Her long black hair was tied in a thick bun on top of her head, her deep blue eyes had a kind look towards Leona as she smiled gently.

The princess couldn’t help but feel a comfortable warmth grow within her chest, the mere presence of the priestess was enough to ease the tension around her shoulders. While her general appearance wasn’t particularly close to Leona’s mother, her kindness did spark a fond memory of her. The princess closed her eyes with a happy smile.

“Hmm?”

Neiliel tilted her head slightly to the side whilst still faintly smiling to Leona. The princess was surprised by her own reminiscent moment as she explained to the priestess .

“Ah… no it’s… you reminded me of someone I hold dear in my heart.”

“That’s good. May it give you the strength to go forward.”

Leona nodded while feeling grateful for her act of kindness.

“Sir Krieg?”

The knight turned his head to his left side. A tall thin young man was walking at the knight’s pace with his hood up, it was Jonathan. The knight spoke without turning his attention from Leona.

“What can I help you with?”

“You see, I wanted to make it clear that my friend didn’t mean what he said… he’s just misunderstood.”

“It’s fine as long as he doesn’t get close to her.”

“May I ask you about your relationship with-”

He was about to finish the sentence when he stopped and held the knight’s arm as he looked towards the back of the group. Krieg stopped Leona’s steed as he looked to the thief looking for answers.

“Did you see anything?”

“Not see, feel.”

At first he didn’t understand what he meant but the knight felt the ground rumble slightly, with each passing second it becoming stronger. Color drained from his face as he turned to Leona.

“Princess, get down from the camel!”

“Wha-”

Jonathan started to shout as soon as he saw the knight run.

“Scatter! Scatter! Sand demon!”

Krieg picked Leona from the waist and dashed away from the group as they scattered to all directions before the ground erupted in a geyser of sand. A giant sandworm devoured the camel the princess was riding on with its gaping maw, it was large enough to swallow a person of Laura’s size in one bite.

“Krieg! That’s a Neleidae!”

Leona shouted while she was shaking from his arms.

“What?! I can’t hear you!”

“Neleidae! Commonly known as sandworm! They are weak to fire and ice!”

On the other side of the towering beast, Laura unsheathed the greatsword from her back readying herself to battle. On her right side, there was Neiliel dismounted from the panicked camel as she cast a reinforcement spell on the barbarian. Behind both of them, Laslow was holding a book on his left hand while motioning arcane sigils in the air with his right. Luke and Phoebe were on the right side of the worm, the elf was already loosing arrows against the hide of the beast while the young man chanted a spell under his breath.

Leona could only look back towards the fight over the knight’s shoulder as she started to tap on his back as she shouted as loud as she could.

“Krieg! You got to tell them! Ice is effective against its hide and fire against its maw!”

“Princess with all due respect! I am not leaving your life to chance just to go back there!”

“They don’t know its weakness! If we don’t kill it fast it’ll call more of its brethren!”

Without being given much choice, he stopped in his tracks as he put her feet on the sand, before saying.

“I need you to stay behind me at all times, if anything so much as presents danger to you, I’ll be taking you out of there.”

She nodded firmly. While she didn’t command any armies personally, she was familiar with giving order directly and effectively to others.

“Alright Krieg, protect me, I’ll make sure no one else dies.”

“Yes, princess.”

The Sandworm started to thrash about when Laura carved her sword through the beast’s hide, spraying green liquid all over the place, some that hit her arms started to sizzle in white smoke.

“Ack! Dammit!”

Laura’s grunts of pain prompted the priestess to chant a healing spell and upon completion, she warned.

“Careful! Its blood is acidic! My Wall of Iron won’t protect against that!”

Laura picked Neiliel with her left arm and jumped away from the maw of the enraged beast as it buried itself in the sand.

On the other side, Luke was still preparing a spell on the elf.

“Oi can’t you chant faster?!”

Phoebe was keeping her eyes locked on the foe until it disappeared under the sand, she looked back at the young man that was still in the process of chanting the spell.

“...may it strike true as Artemis’ shot! True Volley!”

A powerful green glow started to emanate from her bow, the arrow she nocked in seemed to enchant itself with the same color.

“Aye totally worthless now that it’s in the ground.”

“Hey! I did my best!”

“Stop bickering and prepare to fight!”

Laslow shouted over them as he had just finished his spell. Where he was pointing, about twenty meters in front of him, a bright yellow flame the size of a golf ball was floating above the sand, steadily growing bigger with each passing second. Jonathan approached him while keeping his senses sharp for the reappearance of the Sandworm.

“Are you doing that fancy spell of yours again?”

The thief asked while unsheathing two short swords from beneath his cloak.

“Delayed Fire Blast, yes, I do require help dodging out of its maw should it attack me.”

“On it.”

Leona stopped running as soon as she noticed everyone waiting. Sandworms had a predatory behavior to target any strong vibration on the surface of the sand, she was well aware of the danger to move.

“Krieg. I need you to be ready to dash in and strike it where I hit it.”

She clasped her hands together and slowly pulled them away with blue mist condensing in the middle of her grasp.

“Understood.”

He pulled the strap of the sheath from his shoulder and swung it in a wide arc as the handle hit against his right hand. In one swift motion he drew the blade from the sheath he left hanging on his back.

Deafening silence, everyone was waiting for the beast to show up. The desert wind pushed the sand off the top of the dunes, warm gusts hit the princess’ face. Tension rose for every second without knowing where the mighty foe would arise from.

Leona’s brow was dripping with sweat while she focused the ice spell on her hand, increasing it in size and intensity, however holding such spell for a longer period of time had its drawbacks, the tips of her fingers started to frost with jagged ice around all of them, she winced in pain as some blood started to drip from her gums from how strong she clenched her teeth.

Neiliel pulled an iron mace from her belt, the weapon’s head had very prominent round protrusions on all sides of the cylindrical shaft. She raised it above her head as thunderclouds started to form from thin air from her silent chanting.

“Luke! Throw anything near that fire sphere!”

Leona shouted over to him while still maintaining the ice spell, which was slowly starting to encase her whole fingers of both hands. The noble young man looked at her but without moving much of his lower body.

“R-right!”

He pulled out a couple of gray sharp stones from his belt satchel and threw them to the air right above the spell Laslow had cast.

“Bound together by fire and flames, formed together by strength of the ancients, Rock Fall!”

The sharp stones quickly deformed as if they melted mid air to form a much bigger rock, some of the sand nearby also seemed to travel up from the ground to it. The giant rock was about two meters tall by one in diameter, formed with black and green spots as it plummet into the ground just missing the fire sphere now the size of a melon.

The ground shook from the impact, sand went flying in a yellow dark cloud a few meters above the rock. A few seconds later the ground began to rumble once again with the Sandworm’s approach. Laslow started to shout over to the barbarian.

“Laura I need you to cave its hide! Aim for where the knight will hit!”

“Got it!”

The tremors became even stronger but it was somehow different from the previous one, instead of an ever growing intensity it was more continuous and rhythmic. Leona stared at the ground wide-eyed.

“...this isn’t good!”

She started to shout as loud as she could.

“Everyone get away! It’ll try to swallow all of us!”

She dropped the spell and started to run, Krieg went right behind her with his greatsword resting against his right shoulder. Phoebe seeing her flee also did the same whilst grabbing Luke from the back of his cloak. Laura went to pick up the priestess once again but she was too late as the sand started to quickly funnel down into a spiral drain, the Sandworm was devouring everything it was caught in the way, even the rock Luke had created was being destroyed to bits by the monster’s serrated teeth.

“Laura!”

Neiliel shouted as she was flung back about ten meters, she witnessed the barbarian being snared by the quicksand trap, slowly drifting away from her sight down into the maw below.

Laura’s voice kept strong even through the terrible noise of rocks and sediment being crushed by the multitude of teeth.

“I’ll be ok! Laslow! Make that spell go off!”

“Tch! Don’t you die on me!”

The wizard swung his right hand into a wide arc of orange arcane energy as the sphere of fire started to pulsate. Laura threw her sword away from the creature and sharply turned towards its mouth. She dashed in, gaining speed with each step and focusing on the sphere of fire.

“You die here and now!”

She screamed from the top of her lungs as she carved her fingers into the flaming sphere mid-air and hurled it inside the gaping maw of the beast. From Leona’s perspective she had already been swallowed, until a bright light made out her silhouette against the sand.

An ground trembling explosion ripped the Sandworm’s insides apart, sending sand, rocks and other debris flying through the air. Krieg had to shield her from bits and pieces of the former predator as well from some rocks and glass shards that luckily hit the flat side of the greatsword he stuck in the ground behind himself. Luke and Phoebe managed to escape far away to not be in the blasting zone but not enough to avoid the debris entirely, while the elf managed to dodge all that came her way, the young man had to pull up a barrier made of molten sand to avoid being hit by dangerous shards of glass. Jonathan and Neiliel were protected by a semi-transparent barrier created by Laslow, the dome was large enough to fit all of them inside safely from the flying hazards.

“Laura! Laura!”

The priestess was hitting the insides of the barrier with her left hand.

“Dammit! Laslow drop this barrier now!”

“So you can run out there and put yourself in danger? No Neil I won’t allow that.”

“At this rate I won’t be able to help Laura!”

“You can’t be reckless, what happens if you get injured? Who will heal you?”

“I can’t just sit here and let her die out there!”

“You mustn't hurry, look.”

Though awfully calm, Laslow pointed with his left hand at the duo descending the sand crater formed by the explosion. Krieg and Leona were sliding down the sand, the knight holding the sword above their heads to protect from anything that would fatally injure them.

“Krieg keep close to me, I’ll chill the ground with my magic.”

She shifted her focus towards the palm of her hands as a condensed mist of ice was constantly being pushed out from the air in front of her hands.

“Princess… don’t overuse it, your hands are-”

“I’m aware, but this is the least I can do to make up for the favor she did to you.”

She winced in pain from the freezing cold, but it was thanks to her that they didn’t burn their feet nor their clothing light up in flames. Near the center of the crater was Laura lying unconscious with half of her lower body and hands burned, part of her hair was also smoltering from the heat still left from the explosion. Leona inspected the injuries, they were much worse than she thought.

“Quick! We have to help her.”

Leona’s hands were about to touch her arms, when a gloved hand stopped her. Jonathan, accompanied by Neiliel, grabbed on each side the barbarian’s arms and brought her up outside the crater, Laslow once again cast another barrier once everyone was gathered together. Luke had the other two camels on a tight leash while he tried to calm the animals from the terrifying encounter with the Sandworm. Phoebe kneeled beside Laura and held her left hand whilst maintaining a green glow coming off from her palms.

“Laura, you shouldn’t have sacrificed yourself like that… dammit.”

The elf was clutching her friend’s ruined hand, the edge of her fingers were charred almost to the bone. Leona used a combination of wind and water magic to keep most of Laura’s lower half submerged in lukewarm water, Neiliel rushed to the other side while clutching a four pointed talisman close to her chest with her left hand.

“You won’t die on me! You can’t!”

She threw the mace on the ground and held Laura’s right arm tightly with a strong light golden glow emanating from the hand that grasped the barbarian’s arm. Most of the charred skin began to recover with the divine energy spreading through her veins, going from her arms towards her legs. Both Laura’s skirt and leather sandals were burned to a crisp, leaving traces of her former garb melted onto her skin.

“I’m… sorry… Nei.”

The barbarian muttered weakly towards the priestess that refused to let go of her arm. There was a faint smile on her face.

“Save your strength, I’ll heal you in no time.”

Krieg kneeled between Leona and Phoebe, he started to observe the burns closely.

“Phoebe.”

He called her without looking directly at her face.

“What is it, ser Krieg?”

“Do you still have potions in your satchel?”

“I only have mana potions..”

“I got some.”

Jonathan spoke up from behind Neiliel. Krieg shifted his attention towards the thief.

“Alright then. Pull one out and pour the contents in the water, it’ll help her heal faster.”

He was taken aback the moment the knight said that, he scrambled the brown belt satchel until he pulled a light green colored potion with a string knotted near the tip of the bottle. He bit the cork and uncorked it before pouring the liquid in the water, the faint green glow seemed to mix with the solution before beginning to be absorbed by Laura’s skin.

“It’s… it’s working...”

Jonathan’s eyes were open wide in surprise.

Meanwhile, Leona was starting to have a hard time maintaining both the spells to keep Laura’s body submerged in water. Laslow reached for the princess’ shoulder and a faint white glow started to flow from his left hand towards her body. It reinvigorated her mental exhaustion from the continuous control of both elements at the same time, though surprising, it didn’t waver her focus from the two spells.

“Thank you.”

She showed her appreciation without looking at him, both spells while not awfully difficult to create, it was taxing to keep them in a continuous state, even more so when it had been so long since she practiced paired manipulation.

“I’m not familiar with either spell that you’re maintaining so… you have my thanks for aiding her.”

Laslow’s voice came from behind her while he continued to aid with her mental fatigue, his knowledge of the arcane was vast, but even the most talented sometimes can’t grasp the intricate parts of elemental magic. Krieg kneeled beside Leona and took the blue cloth out of his pocket to wipe the sweat off her brow.

“Thank you Krieg.”

“Should I get you some water?”

“Yes please.”

Jonathan fumbled through his own satchel and pulled out some bandages and a small pot covered shut with cloth, after pulling off the cloth it revealed a green paste inside. He went ahead and applied the green paste on the burn spots that didn’t seem to heal completely even after Neiliel’s ministrations, the bandage was slightly soaked in some of the healing water before being applied.

Overall, Laura was stabilized, her breathing returned to normal little by little, most of her burned skin and muscle was recovered with the combination of healing spells from the priestess and potion treatment provided by both Leona and Phoebe. The barbarian reached for the elf’s hand that held her left hand, her voice was firm for someone who was on the brink of death not long ago.

“Pho, I’m alright now. Help me get up so we can continue on.”

She winced in pain but the faint smile showed her strength returning. However Neiliel reprimanded her.

“These are serious wounds Laura, you can’t possibly be serious to walk all the way to the capital.”

The wind spell faded and the water plopped onto the ground as Leona stood up.

“I have an idea.”

Her voice made all three of them look her way as she continued on.

“We could use both camels to make a movable bedding.”

Neiliel’s eyes were observing Krieg’s unchanged expression before saying.

“That would indeed help her rest but… wouldn’t that make it hard for you to travel with us, princess Leona?”

“I… I’ll figure out a way.”

Phoebe intervened, holding Leona’s hands gently as she started to cast a healing spell.

“Before that. Let me heal your hands.”

“Ah. Thank you Phoebe.”

“It’s nothing much, princess.”

Jonathan and Neiliel locked their arms on Laura’s biceps, helping her to stand up. Luke brought both camels forth, placing them perpendicular to her.

While the group was arranging the barbarian’s ride, Krieg decided to head down in the crater with Leona’s approval where the Sandworm had died. He glanced inside the worm’s sundered body but could only see the guts and viscera mixed in with the sand slowly filling its insides, no signs of the former camel nor his plate armor.

“Ah… I’m a joke of a knight.”

He sheathed his greatsword and hung its strap back on his left shoulder. Seeing his disappointed expression was enough for Leona to understand.

“Krieg. We’ll find a way to get you some armor when we are back in the capital.”

“I appreciate the thought but it’s not necessary, I’m more accustomed to fighting without armor. Though I wanted to recover that specific one because it was a gift.”

She chuckled albeit there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

“She would’ve preferred you alive than some piece of armor, Krieg.”

He scratched the back of the head. Leona’s mother was known to be a very kind woman, she was definitely one of the people Krieg respected the most, she was the one who gave him that armor.

“Princess Leona! Princess Leona!”

Krieg was searching frantically for his liege amidst the wide streets of the capital, it was only a few years after he was officially appointed to be Leona’s personal knight when it happened. Her mother’s death.

It was meant to be just another day travelling together with her mother, Leona was excited because of the Prism Star pendant her mother gave her, it was a special day after all.

The bustling center of the capital was filled with people, the season of harvest was an important one after all. Carriages bringing workers and crops alike, children running around without a care in the world and the famous Queen’s statue on a pedestal of the central square. Krieg accompanied both mother and daughter as their bodyguard clad in full silver plate armor.

On their way to the carriage, Leona’s mother glanced to the side where the knight was and with a warm smile she whispered to him.

“Krieg, could you pick up the cake from the shop for me? Leona loves it but I didn’t have time to go there myself.”

She wore a white long sleeved dress with a black corsage, unusual for a noblewoman but it was her regular attire for public social environments.

“Lady Ravness, with all due respect, I can’t leave princess Leona nor yourself unguarded.”

He looked at the unaware girl dressed in a yellow long dress gazing at the prismatic star pendant before glancing back at Ravness’ ruby colored eyes as she whispered back.

“It’ll be only for a little bit, we’ll wait by the carriage.”

Krieg scratched the back of his helmet before turning towards her again.

“Very well. What flavor should I pick?”

“Carrot.”

He hesitated a little as if it took some time for him to understand what she just had said.

“Carrot, you say Lady Ravness?”

She had a warm smile while nodding subtly to him. He bowed before turning around and heading towards the sweets shop. It was a small building between two big tailoring stores, its foundation was made of whitish bricks, but the walls were made of dark brown wood with a single circular window on the left side of the doorway.

As Krieg opened the door, the brass chimes on top of the doorway rang and an inviting smell of baked goods hit his nose. There were breads, cakes, custards and plenty of other sweets on display inside a short glass cabinet.

“Oh, welcome! What can I help you with?”

A young girl in her mid twenties with dark red hair and deep blue eyes leaned from the doorway on the opposite side of the front door. She wore a beige uniform along with a dark brown apron tied to her back. She brought an orange colored cake from the room in the back to the glass display, there was some steam coming off from it.

“Thank you, I was told to come fetch a carrot cake, is there one available?”

“Oh, great timing, I just finished baking this one. Wait a minute… are you perchance Krieg?”

He turned his head slightly at her.

“Why the question?”

“Just making sure you’re the right person, Lady Ravness had already ordered this cake about a day ago.”

The knight gave one short nod of acknowledgement.

“Right, so I’ll be paying now.”

“No need, she already paid for it.”

The level of preparation was starting to throw him off, he wasn’t expecting such a methodically planned trip.

“Very well… I’ll be taking it then.”

“Here you go, thank you for your patronage!”

She already had a fancy paper bag ready for take out.

“Wish Leona a happy birthday for me! Come again soon!”

He nodded before closing the shop’s door. Krieg turned around only to be greeted by four men clad in full plate armor, while they didn’t have their weapons out it was clear they weren’t on friendly terms.

“Excuse me, my liege is waiting for me.”

Krieg tried to walk between two of the knights but they blocked his path by siding shoulder to shoulder, the other two behind them started to unsheathe their weapons. Without any hesitation he dropped the cake and uppercutted the knight’s jaw on his right, making him fall backwards unconscious, the other one on the left tried to pull out the longsword from his sheath but Krieg stopped the knight’s hand with his left and shoved the man against the other two behind him. Using the opening he ran out to the open street, many bystanders stared at the frantic knight as he started to shout.

“Princess Leona! Princess Leona!”

His head flickered left and right, but there were no signs of Leona nor Ravness. Three of the knights previously knocked down were now rushing towards him with weapons drawn, first in line was a mace user, the second had a hand-axe and the last one was holding his longsword by the blade.

Krieg dodged the attack from behind by side stepping to his left and turned around to backhand the knight’s face with his left fist, the other one tried to hit his head with the axe but he caught the assailant’s wrist and pulled him in for an elbow in the face. The last foe tried to hit his ribs using the longsword’s guard but Krieg caught the handle with the right hand and gripped the blade with the other and through brute force he swung the blade upwards, the steel blade hit the enemy’s jaw, but Krieg grabbed him by the chestplate before he could join his allies on the ground.

“Where is she?”

He took him off the ground, the dangling legs trying to find the street pavement but to no avail.

“I… I don’t know, I was ordered to stop you from-”

“I said! Where is she?!”

Krieg hit the man’s ribs, but not even the plated armor stopped his fist from delivering the painful blow to his bones. The metal bent inwards as his knuckles left the deformed metal behind.

“Ack! She… she was supposed to be taken away by the others.”

“To where?! Answer me before I take your life!”

“The inn! The Side’s Peak Inn!”

Without holding anything back he slammed the knight on the ground, leaving the unconscious man behind.

Krieg didn’t spare any effort to run towards the inn, he knew time was of the essence, the Crossford family had many enemies in the kingdom, he didn’t have any idea what could happen to them, he didn’t want to know.

“Princess… Princess!”

He turned to the left of the central square and dashed along a narrow alleyway to the right before he found himself amongst a full crowd of people a few streets below. The festival brought all sorts of shows to the city, but that only served as an obstacle to him.

“Make way! I need to hurry! Make way!”

Without discretion he shoved people aside to move through the crowd, some of the bystanders tried to retaliate but nothing could stop him. The inn was just a few meters ahead, it was a fairly old building previously owned by Leona’s grandfather.

“Princess Leona! Lady Ravness!”

Krieg tried to open the door but it was locked.

“Dammit!”

The knight violently kicked it open, breaking the top hinge which made the whole thing hang against the wall. It was dimly lit on the inside, three lightly armored men were standing in the middle of the wooden floored room armed with shortswords, the reception hall was riddled with bodies probably from customers as some of them had fancy looking clothing and jewels. Behind them was a woman and a hooded man, Leona and her mother were cornered against the wall, Ravness taking the front while holding her wounded right shoulder.

“What the hell?!”

The middle-aged woman was holding what seemed to be a shortsword as she looked back towards the entrance. She wore a set of steel breastplate and gauntlets with a dark brown tunic underneath it, her eyes widened when she saw the knight burst down the door.

“What are you waiting for?! Kill him!”

Krieg grabbed the side of the broken door and ripped from the last hinge that held it. With all his strength he sent it flying against the three soldiers. The wooden door wasn’t exactly fragile, quite opposite in fact, it was made of a dark heavy wood only found in the Arcadian forests. As it hit the trio it knocked them all down, Krieg rushed in and used the door as a platform to jump over the counter that separated him from his liege.

The hooded man quickly turned towards the knight and a purple static energy started to jump from his hand to the surroundings.

“Krieg watch out!”

Ravness pulled out a hidden knife from her sleeve and managed to stab the hooded man right under the right scapula.

“Urk!”

He grunted in pain but the spell was already leaving his hands. A loud thundering noise ripped through the interior of the inn, shooting through the ceiling from the misfired spell, however part of the spell leaped from the ceiling to everything around it, some unfortunately hitting Krieg’s armor.

“Argh!”

His muscles tensed up with the sudden jolt of electricity while he fell head on against the wooden counter. Ears still ringing from the shock he stood up only to witness Ravness be cut down by the woman’s shortsword as the noblewoman stood in front of her daughter.

“Mother!”

“Lady Ravness!”

Blood. A stream of crimson stained the pure white dress as the shortsword cleaved from her left shoulder down to the right thigh.

“Serves you right!”

The woman was ready to finish her with another slash but instead her blade hit against metal, Krieg stepped in blocking with his right arm up.

“Wha-!”

She barely had time to react as he closed the distance with a hook to the liver. The woman gasped for air, raising her head making it easier for Krieg to nail an uppercut to the chin, following with another powerful blow to her stomach. At that point she had already dropped the shortsword.

“Mother! Mother! You can’t die here! You can’t!”

Leona held her mother’s hand. Her ruby eyes had a calming expression as she looked towards her daughter.

“Leona, you must be strong, even when I’m not here anymore…”

“Stop… don’t say things like that…”

Ravness reached her tears and gently wiped them off her daughter’s face before turning to the knight.

“Krieg, my final order to you… keep my daughter safe.”

She smiled warmly, but warmth slowly left her expression as she closed her eyes.

“Mother…? Mother?! Mother!”