Cinder-knight (bxb) ||completed

4th rule| hurts

Eric flinched, almost losing his balance when his opponent struck on a whim. As the tip of the blade of his friend's sword pressed itself on Eric's armor; right where his heart should be, the ginger knight muttered out a small, "I give up."

Sebastian frowned as he retracted his sword, looking at his friend questioningly.

"Eric, didn't you sleep last night at all? You look more exhausted than usual." he remarked as Eric slumped tiredly on the ground. While their comrades were battling, the two huddled up together in a small corner of the place, their bodies heated and drenched with sweat.

"I got too excited for this.. wedding thing," Eric lied because in truth he was anything but happy, "So I had trouble getting myself to sleep."

Sebastian watched him as he took off his helmet and ruffled his own hair, then cringed at the amount of sweat that tickled down his neck.

"Well, that's cool buddy. But you have to be careful, you know how our commander can get."

"I know that." the red head sighed and rolled on the heated ground, getting ready to sleep then and there.

"Speaking of the devil, he's coming here right now."

Eric jolted up in a single motion and turned around, seeing all the knights whipping their heads towards the buff man who stepped into the stadium with so much superiority that all the soldiers were instantly brought to their knees. So was Eric, a small scowl forming in his lips while he heard the subtle snigger of Sebastian.

The commander was a dark skinned man in his 30s. Tall, handsome-as-heck and swoon-worthy muscles described his appearance. His dark hazel eyes gave a final touch to the face that was by far perfect in every sense. He wore a shiny armor that had plates of silver attached, his crystal clear boots hailing in the eye-level of the rest of the order.

"Attention, knights." his sharp voice chimed, "Our great King Alexander has been sick for the past few weeks yet no progression has been made till now. But as the royal physician has inquired, only an unicorn's horn can cure the king!"

Soft murmurs ran around the training pit as Eric felt his heart shatter.

The king was.. Sick?

'Is that why Charming seemed down earlier?' he mumbled to himself while fisting the sand that was in reach. He felt his chest hurting at the realisation, wondering if the prince must've been trying to relieve stress by questing.

The news was like a hit in the stomach for almost every knight there since the loyalty and the respect they had for the king's prowess was endless, and it wasn't an extraordinary sight to see some even fighting the urge to cry.

As the whole order broke into a roar of murmurs, the commander raised his hand to silence everyone.

"We knights have the biggest responsibility to find an unicorn horn, at any cost. Though the business itself is illegal, for the sake of our sovereign, we shall hunt down for the greatest treasure of the land!"

He was right. Killing an unicorn is considered treason. Plus those creatures were so rare to the point where the amount of unicorns found during a whole millennium wouldn't exceed two. But the King's health was declining, so the kingdom, especially the knights, didn't have any other choice.

"From today on, we shall be questing for an unicorn horn. Anyone who will be able to find one will be rewarded with a pool of gold, and also their title will be raised up to that of a commander!"

Some knights cheered.

"However, there will be a penalty for the ones who'll use this chance to slack off or cheat. Those will be lowered in status to a Knight-in-training, now, hunt for the treasure you all!"

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"How about we start with the capital first?" Sebastian stressed as Eric shook his head.

"That's not gonna work," the ginger uttered and looked around, seeing the whole percentage of knights being centralized in the city of Ozoo, so he was sure that there wouldn't be any chance for the two of them in there. "But what choice do we have?"

When Eric was in the middle of thinking, he felt something colliding with the back of his head as he let out an 'Ouch!'

"Watch where you're going fucker!" a knight riding a horse yelled after the hit she scored over Eric's head. The red head glared her way as she waved mockingly, "Don't want to get mounted by a horse now do we?"

"If it's male, I wouldn't mind at all you bitch!" Eric retaliated at the girl who had long brown hair, which was tied into a raised ponytail. He didn't get anything as response, as the Knight had already sped away from the area minutes ago.

Sebastian chuckled while looking at the side of Eric's face.

"She kinda got you good there, dude."

"Shut up," Eric mumbled, speed walking across the city streets as Sebastian followed him without another word.

For hours, the two knights walked around. They kept on questioning every vendor they met, trying to find any hint about an unicorn horn. Yet once they saw how the sun had already set and a dark hue was in the middle of invading the sky, they both felt the amount of hope they had disappearing into nothingness.

One by one, they had seen the other knights giving up and waving at them as their last goodbyes before going back to the head quarters. But Eric and Sebastian still chose to run around town asking people for unicorn horns.

Since the two of them were dressed in commoner clothing and not in knight's armory, they kept on getting suspicious looks from the stall-keepers. Of course, it's expected that many would look at them like they were some thugs, especially when they were asking for literal unicorn horns.

Some didn't even believe unicorns existed, so they gawked at the two knights in amusement. But the people who believed the existence of the mystical creatures didn't seem to like them at all.