Star of Blood

1 | Nothing More Boring Than Saving the Day Again

Jude didn't really care about the hundreds of enemies dominating the battleground up ahead. Checking up on his own people was the first priority.

"By the stars," one nearby sorceress breathed, dropping to the grass in relief. "You're here!"

Jude gave her a short wave. "Yo."

A knight frantically rushed over. "Thank goodness! We need your help!" he exclaimed, pointing at the massive legion from the Empire of Dorobo, which the Mendaxians were facing right now. "We've been doing everything we can, but there's just too many of them."

From under his cerulean hood, Jude looked at him and casually nodded. "Sure thing."

Just as he began walking up, the sorceress said, "Wait—are you sure you can take all of them?"

He raised both arms high above his head and stretched, feeling the tension wash away from his entire body. "Of course," Jude replied without a glance back. "Just get everyone to fall back."

The sorceress was about to utter something else but was stopped by the knight. Then, said knight cleared his throat and boomed, "All soldiers of Mendax, I order you to retreat at the request of the Saviour!"

It was an interesting sight for Jude. Seeing every knight and sorcerer and archer—every warrior in general—frantically regroup and make way for him as he calmly walked forward, that is. That alone made it feel like this battlefield revolved around him, and him only. But he was used to it, after all.

The enemies were quick to figure things out. "The star-born. The Saviour of Mendax," commented some Doroban sorcerer far ahead.

At the simple mention of Jude, even the enemies altered their entire positions. His presence alone was able to force the imperialists into defensive formations—bulky shields raised, with archers and sorcerers at the ready—despite their advantage over the Mendaxians. That, he was used to as well. At this point, nothing surprised or flattered Jude anymore. Being a man of twenty-one years, he definitely grew used to all the attention.

After what must've been an excruciating amount of time for both sides on the battlefield, he stopped walking. Jude, now directly in the middle of the confrontation, cleared his throat. "So, uh, hi. If you guys want to surrender or retreat or something, now's the time."

It took a while, but some enemy knight shouted, "The mountains never bow to the lakes beneath them!" Following that were several cries of agreement from the Dorobans.

Jude sighed, although he wasn't surprised in the slightest. "I mean, erosion by rain is a thing, but okay," he muttered.

He studied the whole legion, which stretched in each direction as far as the eye could see. It was bigger than the usual battalions he faced, but that was unsurprising since Mendax had been pushing Dorobo to the edge for quite a long time now.

Maybe I should get at least a little serious, Jude thought.

With that, he took off the hood, freeing his medium-length blond hair which reflected the shining sun up above. "Alright then. I'm just going to . . ."

In the blink of an eye, every ounce of stored-up magic erupted from Jude's body in a shockwave that rocked the earth. His cloak and hair flapped in all directions from the air pressure, and blades of grass were torn up and blown away one by one. Golden jets of magical energy swirled around him in a dance that was somehow both graceful and intimidating. He glowed and pulsed like a firefly, although his eyes specifically looked more like a pair of blinding suns.