The Ten Kingdoms

The Ten Kingdoms - Chapter 7

Ajax Tillery

I watched as the Queen and the caretaker holding the Prince walked into the room, I stood outside as the door closed, and the four guards aligned the wall. That was when a feeling filled my stomach, a dark and gloomy feeling that something was up.

I looked at the guards in the room, they didn't feel it, they weren't strong, two of them weren't even mages. I turned down the long hallway that we came from, my stomach turning still, my hand was on my sword handle in preparation in case something was actually happening.

"Guard the door." I ordered two of the men, then looked at the other two. "You two are mages, right?" They all looked at me skeptically, but nodded their heads, however, before I could even say another word, a loud noise radiated through the hall.

"Skkkkkeeeeeeee!" My eyes widened a little as my bad feeling came to life, and down the hall, a guard was thrown into the wall, colliding with it. He was unmoving, and that's when something stepped into view.

"What the hell is that?" The soldier to my left said as I got ready to fight whatever was coming this way, it was person, or thing, I could handle it. "General Ajax?" I had no clue; I couldn't see it quite yet.

I could sense mana in use, but I couldn't tell what it was doing. "Prepare yourselves, nothing gets behind us, eventually, Jade or Odin will show up." It got closer and closer, and when I thought it was close enough, I spoke. "State your business!"

"Ahhhh!" The guard to my right fell over, and I looked at him on the ground in confusion. "Ahhhhh!" He continued to scream, then purple fire shot through his stomach like a spike, and I could sense his mana output vanish.

I drew my blade, electricity danced alongside it, and I got ready for battle. That was when I got a better view of the thing before me, it was no man or woman, nor a magical beast, I didn't know what it was. The creature, or whatever it was, had a red hood on top of its head, its body had red and black armor along it, cracks ran across it, and there were spikes along its knuckles.

"Where's the child?!" The thing spoke with such a weird voice, it was uneasy, sending shivers down my spine. "Give me the child!" It spoke, and I had to guess it was talking about Prince Liam.

"You can't have him." I told it, and it pulled its hood down, revealing a face that even scared me. The black eyes told me everything, this wasn't going to be easy, it had a crown of red spikes on top of its head, and it had human features on its face. "Get in the room with the Queen and Prince, you will be the last line of defense."

They looked at me in awe, then did as I said, the dark aura radiating off of this thing was obviously scaring them. I hadn't seen a thing like this before either, and I was shaking, but I wasn't afraid, I would perform my duty, and I wouldn't allow this thing to pass me.

"Bring me the Prince!" It roared, the voice sending shivers down my spine. "Or else!" Purple flames shot out of it, burning everything around it to ash, then it stepped toward me, and the flames erupted more and more out of it.

I heard the door behind me close, Queen Sara was in there, I couldn't let her get involved in this, even if she could handle herself. I don't even know how strong this thing is, but I'm about to, it's time.

I surrounded my body with electric, and shot at the creature, swinging my sword at its head, not caring what it was anymore. All that mattered was that it was a threat, and it had to be taken care of. It ducked and a spike of purple flames shot at my chest, forcing me to roll to the side, dodging it.

A fist came at my face, a fist full of spikes on it, and I could see its movements for the first time. The creature was fast, extremely fast, but with my electric, I was able to keep up. I dodged the fist, deflecting it to the ground, and that's when I realized, it didn't have armor, it was its skin, and it was hard as a rock.