Valerian, The Legendary

63 Knife.

Vertex was riding his flame horse slowly, with his eyes looking all around him. Unlike the elder prince and his younger sister, he was a battlemage. Valerian was very excited to have met another battle mage to face. He wanted to see what was the limit of this second prince.

In Valerian’s view, this man was simply a conceited fool, according to what he learned from Fragrantia, the second prince seemed to be influenced by a few people from within the court. If a man can succumb to such methods of a few ministers and could not recognize their true face, he was not qualified to be the emperor.

Vertex said, “Do you feel that, Janus?”

The horse neighed, in response. The flame horse was very smart, it could understand the words of the master. Vertex mumbled, “The gazes locked at our back seemed to have decreased.”

He was not a fool to not know that someone was observing him, he did not wish to confront the person until they try to hinder his growth. This was a usual thing from the past few months. Every time he came out of the palace, he would be accompanied by people in the shadows, but for the first time, these people vanished.

He could not understand the reason, this made him derive two conjectures. One, these people had been called off. Two, they encountered a problem they could not solve. Vertex was leaning towards the second option more. He quickened his pace, trying to come up with a plan. If the people in the shadows were dealt with by someone, then the other party was hostile.

It was easy to defend the spear in the light but not to hide from the arrows in the dark. While Vertex began to think about the ways to draw out the person in the shadows. Valerian took action.

He stopped observing the prince and from the small creatures learned about the magical beasts closest to them. The animals were scared but still, they told him about a Thunder Bull. Valerian smiled and followed the directions mentioned by the small ones.

He was going to use this Thunder Bull. This beast had a skin akin to iron, when it moved, the impact from the hooves sounded like thunder. Valerian was going to lure this beast to attack the second prince and his beast.

.....

Valerian picked up his pace and moved through the woods quickly. He was familiar with the terrain of a forest so the obstacles did not hinder his movements. After a few minutes, he stopped and looked around, and found a few hoof prints on the ground. The prints were fresh as the soil was soft, he followed the trail, and soon found the target he was looking for.

In front of him, twenty meters away stood a bull two meters tall, with horns protruding from its forehead. The whole skin was gray in color, the eyes looked like black obsidian studded in the head. This had an uncanny aura about it. Valerian slowly walked forward reducing the distance between the two. At first, the beast ignored his “small” presence.

After all, when have the kings minded plebeians? When the distance was only ten meters, the beast raised its head and cast a gaze at the boy. It was a signal, to know his limits.

Valerian raised his foot to step forward and the bull snorted. The boy put it back, he smiled and let out a moo sound. The bull was shocked to see this creature using his language, asking for help. But the arrogant thunder bull, when has he ever helped such puny characters. So the bull went back to grazing.

Valerian wanted to try again when the bull turned around and raised its tail to take a dump. This action signified disrespect and the following moo confirmed it. The child was pissed, and he cast a spell, ‘Globus Ferreus.’

The sword on his body turned into a ball. This spell allowed him to mold metal into a ball. After the ball was complete, Valerian took aim at the most vulnerable spot of the bull, the butt hole. Since this guy shat in his face, so be it, no more shitting.

The ball in Valerian’s hand flew through the void and hit the target, the throw was so well timed that when the ball hit the hole, it happened to be contracting, and the ball was pulled in from the suction. The bull sensed it, and raised its head from the ground with its black eyes already doubled in size.

Valerian smirked and let out a moo, the teasing was evident and this act of his completely enraged the thunder bull. The beast let out an angry war cry, it even forgot to push the iron ball out. The thunder bull turned around and charged at the child without any notice.

Valerian chuckled and he ran forward too. As they were running Valerian realized why the beast was called thunder bull once again. The hooves landed on the ground and it sounded like thunder. The child was not going to wait for the beast to come and trample him so he ran forward, at a speed that was slightly faster than the beast behind him.

If the beast was about to catch up with him, Valerian would cast a wind movement spell and leap forward. It was like he was teasing a creature that could kill him with ease. In the chase, Valerian had already communicated with the birds and knew the location of the second prince.

Valerian led the bull in the direction where the second prince was. He came out of the tree line after half an hour and found Vertex sitting down on the ground with his beast standing on the side. The obvious surprise on his face made Valerian understand that Vertex was not on his guard to face what was coming at them.

Vertex pulled out his sword and was about to cast a spell when Valerian dispersed into black smoke. However, the prince was quick enough to catch the insignia on his shoulder. Though as soon as the smoke vanished a loud thunder sounded in his ears.

Vertex reacted quickly and said, “Janus, run!”

But they were still not quick enough as a beast came out of the tree line with a loud roar coming from its mouth. Vertex rushed to the side only a blink before when the beast collided with the boulder behind him.

BANG!!!

The collision resulted in the boulder turning into rubble and the bull experiencing slight pain. It was completely enraged. After a loud moaning sound, the bull chased after the flame horse, while Vertex hid in the bushes.

The flame horse knew that it could outrun the bull and Janus moved fast leading it away from his master. The flame horse did not know that another threat was imminent for the second prince. Vertex came out of the bush and was about to heave a sigh of relief when he recalled the man in black clothes he saw earlier.

This made one thing clear, it was that man who led the beast to him. He heard a crackling sound from behind him. Vertex turned around and found the person from before standing in front of him. Valerian was wearing a ceramic mask on his face and the prince was not so familiar with him so he could not recognize him.

The mask was taken out and put on during the chase only. Vertex asked, “Who are you?”

Valerian did not reply but raising his hand he fired a crossbow. The arrow whooshes through the air, and Vertex had to roll on the ground to attack. This person did not talk but directly made a move, this meant, he was here to kill him.

The second prince stood up from the ground and his sides were met with a strong impact from a kick. Vertex collided with a tree on the side. This blow was strong enough to rattle his all joints and muscles.

Valerian rushed forward again, but this time Vertex was ready, he was not going to let the enemy beat him. As the child got closer, he cast wind blades. The child dodged the attack by taking a side step but Vertex had already shoved his sword to take down Valerian in one swoop.

The sword connected but it did not dig into the body of his enemy. He felt as if a stone was standing in front of him, this was the effect of the armor Valerian wore under his clothes, the same armor he made from War Bearskin. Valerian slapped the sword away after he cast the iron gauntlet spell on his hand, ‘Petra Chirothecam.’ and dashed forward, his fists and kicks landed on the prince’s body, leaving him with bruises and more than a few broken bones.

Vertex fell down to the ground, he lost all of his energy, Valerian took out the royal sword on the ground and raised it to slash at the second prince. However, Vertex still asked, “Who sent you?”

Valerian sighed and shook his head off, Vertex knew that he can not get anything out of this guy and prepared himself for death, but at this moment, the hooves sounded. The flame horse was back and it was really on fire. Vertex felt relieved but then he realized how indifferently, Valerian stood gazing at the horse, a bad premonition crept up in Vertex’s heart.