4Welcome back to A Knight's True Wish! I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Also, I hereby request more reviews to know exactly what people think of the story, this is kinda why I write stories so I'd love it if you could take a bit of your time to write what you think, thanks!
A Knight's True Wish.
Chapter 3: Journey To Camelot
Arturia was awakened by Elryd as the sun was rising, they had both slept early in the night so it wasn't hard to wake up, by the time the sun had fully risen, they were finished gathering their supplies and were already on their way back to Camelot.
Arturia had also finally figured out why Elryd looked slightly familiar, he was actually the man that came to Camelot and only wanted to see her, at first, she wanted to ask him why but decided to wait until they finish their journey.
"How's your leg? I know the path back to the city is harsh so tell me if we should rest." He said, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"I'm doing fine, thank you for your concern." She answered as they continued moving through the narrow path between two mountains, one slip up would mean it is over.
At first, they were going to take the same route Arturia's company had moved in while traveling but decided against it upon realizing that it is probably swarming with assassins by now.
They continued carefully, Arturia's leg wound causing her more trouble than she would have liked.
Elryd had explained a few things to her before they set off on their journey, he had actually spied on the assassins for a while and could confirm that they didn't know any type of offensive magecraft, in fact, the only type of magic they could do was shapeshifting.
And that meant that they didn't have to worry about being shot down with any spell but would have to be extremely careful towards any stranger they might meet.
They finally made it through the narrow path between the mountains, now all that was separating them from safety was a forest, a big and vast one.
But of course, Arturia had entered it with haste, not allowing any more time to be wasted in case her kingdom needed her, she shut down the multiple offers to rest given by Elryd.
Her wound felt like it was on fire, she tried to take the pain and ignore it as best she could but sooner or later it would become obvious that she needs the rest.
And Elryd thought that sooner is better than later.
Arturia heard a thud as if something had hit the ground with force, she turned around to see that Elryd had dropped his bag on the ground and was looking at her, unamused.
"What is it?" She asked, she would have rathered to ask that question as they kept on walking.
"You're pushing yourself too hard, you're only a human, you need the rest." He said, damn, was it that clear that she was tired? She had thought that she had done a good job at hiding it.
"I'm not human, I'm the king, and I need t-"
"You're a human king!" He said with a hint of frustration in his voice. "And being a human comes before being a king, you can't take care of anyone if you're dead." He added, seemingly calmer now.
"I care for the well being of my people more than my own, and so I will not stop." She shot back as she turned around to keep moving.
But that frustrated Elryd even further, he walked up with pace and caught up to her, hand reaching to grab her shoulder.
But that's when they both heard it, if only barely.
His hand was halfway through the distance to reach her when she quickly turned around and pushed him to the ground. "Don't make a sound!" She whispered, he complied.
He focused on hearing and so he did hear, he heard the sounds of probably dozens of men.
Arturia slowly let go of him and they both laid silently on the ground, he started crawling silently towards the sounds until he spotted a party of men wearing the same black attire the assassins after Arturia were wearing.
The king's eyes widened as she spotted them as well, the bastards chose to camp in a place that they simply had to move through to get to Camelot, it was the only pathway since around it was a very steep hill, probably very hard to climb. It almost resembled the two mountains they had passed by on their way here.
"We can't turn back." Arturia whispered, the man nodded.
"I know, just let me think of something." He paused for a while, thinking carefully and playing through all the possible scenarios in his head before speaking again. "We have the element of surprise so if we attack them and startle them the fight could end before it starts."
The King Of Knights had been thinking the same thing, she nodded and checked on Caliburn, her sword was with her, ready for battle. "There aren't as many of them as there were before, if you shock them with your shooting I'll be able to move in quickly and fight them off." She said as she grabbed the handle of her sword, this time she was ready, they wouldn't be a match for her without the element of surprise they had before.
Elryd wielded his bow in his hand and checked on the knife strapped on his belt. "I'm ready, wait until I have their full attention." He said, Arturia nodded as her hand tightened around Caliburn.
He silently started moving through the plants while Arturia stayed and watched until her best moment to strike.
Elryd kept moving until he found a spot with a good angle to fire from, that's when he took the first arrow out of his quiver and carefully lined up the shot, he held his breath and his eyes glanced towards Arturia one last time before releasing the first shot.
It was hard for the King to keep up with how many assassins her companion killed, he was shooting with the speed of an eagle and the precision of a hawk.
And of course, it didn't take long for all of the assassins to turn towards the source of the shooting.
And that was all she needed.
With them so occupied trying to figure out where the arrows are coming from, she had an opportunity to strike, and so she did.
Elryd watched as she emerged from the trees, running towards the backs of the assassins and striking them one by one, he kept on shooting as fast as he can, if things kept going on like this they'll defeat the assassins easily.
He was sure to not let his guard down until every enemy in front of him was dead on the ground, not only were they numerous but he doubted the king could take them on alone with the wound in her leg.
And so he picked off the targets that were the most menacing to her, focusing on the ones trying to run up behind her or the ones trying to flank her.
A barely audible rustle in the leaves next to him revealed to him the naivety of his plan, he was so focused on picking off the targets that he forgot to watch his own flank.
His eyes were only hardly able to register the sword swing directed at him, his arm jerked forwards and he was barely able to push the sword away with his bow but sadly the string was caught up and snapped in the process.
In one second his hand was reaching for the knife strapped to his belt, in the other that same knife was stuck in the assassin's throat.
He grabbed the fallen assassin's sword and quickly ran up to the king. "What happened?!" She asked as she struck down another assassin.
Elryd replied as he barely dodged an incoming stab from an assassin before stabbing him in the back. "I was ambushed and lost my bow, we need to get out of this place as fast as we can!"
The two of them stood back to back as what felt like dozens of assassins came their way. They hadn't originally anticipated this many of them!
They continued to fight as hard as they could but it seemed like the wave of assassins would never end.
Elryd wanted to scream out of anger, they had three options.
One, try to run away but most likely be caught because they had been traveling for a while and were tired, and that wasn't even mentioning Arturia's wound.
Two, fight and be eventually killed by the never-ending waves of enemies.
Three... his last resort.
"Sorry about this but I've got no time to explain." She heard him say, she didn't have enough time to answer as Elryd suddenly pushed her to the ground.
She angrily turned around only to see him taking a very strange stance. He had his right arm stretched forward, his index finger pointing forward and his thumb upwards, his left hand had a tight grip around his right elbow.
"Gandr." Was the strange word she heard the man mutter. Before long she noticed the hint of a red color emerging from his finger before her eyes widened as she saw what he did.
It kept repeating one second after the other, small round projectiles emerged from his finger and flew towards the assassins before exploding in a chaotic fashion.
"Sorry about that, it's best you stay put for now, this is a very dangerous spell, I don't want to hit you by accident." He said, seemingly much calmer than before as he had the situation under control, no assassin was able to get even moderately close to them as he blew them all away.
"Watch out!" He heard Arturia yell before a sharp and sudden pain emerged from his shoulder. Within a second he found the king charging back into the fray as she held the remaining assassins off.
He looked at his shoulder and growled as he pulled out the knife he was struck with. Damn whoever threw it at him!
Though it only turned worse as he examined the knife, just as he expected, there was a green liquid covering it, he winced as he thought about how long it would take for this poison to kill him. He already lost full control of his right arm so it looked like he didn't have much time.
He ran up to the king as he used his left arm to shoot more gandr shots at the incoming assassins. "Which direction is Camelot, exactly?" He asked, confusing her, why ask such a question now?
"What difference would that make?!" She said as she struck down another opponent. She then pointed towards the direction she knew Camelot was in.
Elryd stopped the gandr shots as he put his hand on her shoulder. "The knife had poison on it, I won't make it out of here but you still could, I'll use what energy I have for a spell that can get us both out of here."
"No! If the guards in Camelot see you using a spell you'll be branded as a heretic and I won't be able to intervene, you'll die!" She said, his face looked irritated as she finished her words.
"I'll die anyway! Now grab my hand!" He demanded but the stubborn king ignored him as she continued to strike down the assassins, she didn't look like she would last much longer, only giving him more of a reason to do what he was about to do.
He focused all the remaining Prana he had and reinforced his legs, he used only a small amount of Prana on his working arm to grab the king by the waist and lift her up from the ground, the king let out a sound of surprise as he did so but didn't have enough time to protest as he started running.
The magic circuits in his legs glowed brightly as he let out all of his power and life force in one single dash towards the safety of Camelot.
It took all of Arturia's strength to no let go of her sword as she heard the horrifying and almost painful sound of Elryd crashing into tree after tree and rock after rock, but he never stopped. It sounded so painful but he still did not stop, he was covering most of her body with his own so she wouldn't have to endure the same pain.
"Stop! Slow down!" The King yelled to no avail for how could he hear her in a situation like this? He kept focusing on keeping his balance and absorbing the pain as best as he could.
In what felt like hours to Arturia but was actually merely a few minutes, they were out of the forest and she could see Camelot on the horizon, she looked upward to see his barely conscious face, his clothes were ripped and he looked half dead.
His body gave out before his spirit did as he fell to the ground while still dashing with incredible speed, both he and the king separated as she fell but her armor took a lot of the fall damage.
He, on the other hand, kept rolling on the ground for a few seconds as he was finally stopped by hitting one last tree.
He only managed to open his eyes for a few seconds, he spotted the safe walls of Camelot with his blurry vision as his mind started giving away. Soon, everything turned black.
...
He didn't exactly know what to make of it.
It wasn't an everyday occurrence when you are minding your own business and gathering herbs but get interrupted by your king and a stranger shooting out of a forest like an arrow.
He pushed his white hood away as he quickly ran up to Arturia, she was barely able to push herself off of the ground but she didn't look like she sustained any fatal injuries.
He quickly extended a helping hand and helped her to her feet, he also noticed the guards of the castle immediately storming out and making their way to the king.
Meanwhile, Arturia was relieved, she had been lucky enough to run into the best person for the situation she was in. "Merlin, how glad am I to see you." She said with her sore throat.
"Heile deine Wunden." The mage's hand glowed green as he said the incantation and healed Arturia wherever he could find a wound. "What on earth happened?" He said when he finished.
"There's no time to explain that, we need to help him." Arturia pointed towards Elryd. "He's the only reason I'm back here but..."
Merlin understood what she had meant, there was no way the guards keeping watch didn't see him moving with such unbelievable speed, it wouldn't take long for him to be branded as a heretic and be burned at the stake and while Arturia could prevent that it would severely tarnish her reputation.
"Can you stand?" Merlin asked, Arturia was quick to nod in response. "Then I'll go see what I can do." He said as he let go of her and started running towards the fallen man.
The guards were already surrounding the man as he finally reached him. "You, go tend to the king!" Merlin gave the order to one of the guards before pushing through their formation, he found two guards forcing the unconscious man to his feet.
"Easy, easy! Can't you see he's injured?!" The court mage said, the captain of the guards glared at him.
"That doesn't matter, he should be taken to the dungeon and prepared for execution, haven't you seen what he's capable of?"
Merlin forcefully grabbed the shoulder of the guard trying to pull the man away and then glanced at the captain. "All I can see now is that he's too weak to do anything."
Merlin's eyes then glanced back to see Arturia coming their way with the guard he ordered to tend to her. He needed to end this very quickly before Arturia could intervene or things will only go downhill.
"Now, as the court mage of Camelot, I demand you let go of my apprentice at once!" Merlin shouted, Arturia's eyes immediately widened and the guards turned to her, shocked.
"Is it true, my liege? Is he the court mage's apprentice?" The captain said, a heretic stray mage was one thing but the court mage and his apprentice were a whole other thing.
"Of course, do you think my court mage would lie?" Arturia pointed out, the captain then proceeded to order the release of the man.
"Escort him to the castle at once." Arturia ordered, the guards were quick to comply, she then turned towards Merlin as they both waited for the guards to leave. "Thank you, Merlin. But doesn't this put a lot of responsibility on you?" She said.
"Of course it does," He smiled at her. "But it seemed to me like this was important to do. Now come on, I need to see if I can heal him." He replied before he and Arturia followed after the guards.
Can we get a round of applause for Merlin's new apprentice?
Much Love! Stay Hopeful! ZilverHope Out!