A different kind of Knight

Chapter 23

The battle is slowly turning against me. I need to regain my advantages. I need to keep it in my favor. I need to- *WHACK!* An an armored fist met my face while plans were being made. The world slowly spun around and my vision doubled. *POMF!* "Huueh!" Something impacted my stomach, causing me to vomit and retch nothing since my stomach already rid of its contents not too long ago. The scene unfolding is reminiscent of the time that I was beaten. Blows upon blows landed unto my flesh. Fists and foot from both adversaries flew at me without pause as I tried to protect myself by curling up. Although not visible, my flesh turned to a sickly purple color under the suit. I failed. I failed my family, my steed, the two Fendes, and this world. Weakly I wept. I want to weep harder but how could I when I do not even have the strength to beg this world to forgive me for failing it. Clear liquid sadness flowed slowly from the hard shut eyes of a failure. Both of them suddenly stopped beating me off. Slowly, my vision crept back. They hunched over, panting and talking to each other. I rolled weakly onto my stomach, and began to crawl away. "Retreating? How shameful! You retreated to live while those two who faithfully died in your name, NEVER DID!" An imprint from ages ago, a leftover from the psychic scalding from the Knight's machine-spirit strongly bashed my crumbling mind once more. This time it hurts more than the last time I heard it. A reflex from trauma. 

It is so that I would never make the same mistake ever again, yet here I am. Suddenly, I heard the sound of two people getting closer to me. *Krk! Krk! Keshk! Keshk! Krsk!* The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps twice increased the fervor in the pitiful stomach crawl. But then it stopped. Two pairs of furred legs visible in the corners of my vision. Slowly, I reached out my hand to continue crawling. But I never really made it far when one of them grabbed my greasy sweat soaked hair by the handful. Some strands of hair were ripped from their follicles. "Hey. You ruined my armor. Give me money for it and perhaps I won't beat you too harshly. " He calmly said as he forcefully pulled my hair upwards. The action elicited a few small tears from me as a few more were ripped away from their roots. I remained silent. He lifts the metal lid of his helmet revealing a furred face with sharp pointy snout. The lower half of his face was colored white, the upper portion was colored orange much like the glow of the dipping sun while his nose was black along with his lips and the edges of his eyelids. It is a fox. A tranquil expression is on his face. He is used to doing this to the people that is seen as lower than predator. A prey. He presses his snout on my ear, the whiskers and fur tickles me slightly. "HHEEEYYY!!!" He screamed loudly into my ear. It barely did anything to me, so the superior decided to try and give me an incentive. He forced my face onto the hard stone floor with many small sharp stones. Then he began to make it more painful by doing a scrubbing motion with my face onto the stone-filled floor with many small and jagged rocks back and forth. I began to bleed and it is very evident by the slightly red hue left on the stones and rocks. The entire left side of my face felt wet with blood and stung from the many small incisions caused by it. He stops to raise me up, offering me a slight respite from the pain and he repeats the demand for the non-existent currency. 

Even if I do have it I still wouldn't give it to him anyway. "Don't you have any money you filthy prey? Are you that protective of it?" His other hand began to scan for whatever non-existent currency all over my body. "Or do you want to give me something else?" He said with a lecherous voice and a paw slowly travelled down there. I am a warrior of Imperium, not this. AND I WILL NOT BE REMEMBERED AS SUCH! With the last reserve of energy; my clenched fist shot into the two-toned orange and white furred face of the  assailant who foolishly had his face exposed. He didn't expect the human to still have a bit of fighting spirit left. For a moment he staggered back, clenching his face. He dropped me in the process, then he turned around, fiery hate burning under his orange eyes. "You lowborn imbecile." He snarled through his gritted fangs and teeth. He Went back to beating me, again. His right furred foot flew into the stomach of the Knight Pilot. Then out, then in, over and over again as he yelled his indignation. "YOU ARE! ONE ANNOYING! BASTARD!" He stopped to catch his breath. While he was panting heavily, his subordinate decided to voice his concerns. "Why don't we just kill him? And why do we bother speaking prey tongue?" The subordinate asked with such simplicity to the point where it made his commander incredibly frustrated. To him, it was the final straw. As much as he would want to have him begging for mercy, he would much rather do it at a later time. Preferably at night. An armored fist travelled upwards to his and face to massage his snout as best as he could with hard metal fingers as uncomfortable as it may be. He breathes in, his form rose a little in height. "Hwoooh." Then he heavily sighs, his black lips parted to let the air through. One of his fangs was gone and in its place was a bloody stump of shattered bone. No doubt it is my own doing. It took some time for the commander to scold the several times incompetent subordinate of his. "Why don't I Kill him? It's simple. They're prey. And prey are weak when alone. He would have been born from a pair of humans. And if their is a pair, there is a family. And If there is a pack of humans capable of speaking our language out there. Then we are doomed. And if he is dead..." The commander motions his hand towards the subordinate. He is deep in thought. "Hmmm... Oh." The commander's eyes brightened as he motioned his hand in a circle. A sign to continue. "So that we can torture him! And find his pack!" 

The commander claps slowly and sarcastically. "Bravo." He praises without truth. But it didn't end there as he continued to eviscerate him. "Now why do we bother speaking prey tongue? Simple. It doesn't matter what language we speak. And I want him to understand the pain that will come later on as he will be tortured till he wants death." His tirade is finally finished as the subordinate bowed his head in defeat. Although, the commander's logic is immensely flawed. The subordinate does not wish to further insinuate his wrath. "Uh, what is that word again? Killing but not actually dead? Eh, just... Kill him temporarily. He's coming with us and YOU are going to carry him all the way back." Luke does not know what they mean by killing him temporarily. The subordinate began to walk towards the half-dead human kicking the stone floor with a bad temper. But he makes sure to do it with subtlety else he might get an earful again. The human weakly raises his hand in surrender as he does not want to be killed, temporarily or permanently. He then began the process of killing Luke, temporarily. He didn't bother to try and make the process any more comfortable and less life-threatening for the human as fingers wrapped around Luke's throat. Seconds pass and the only thing I could do was make pitiful noises at him. Slowly but surely, my movements are becoming slower and darkness has already began to creep from the corners of my vision. Then came the sleep forcefully. Rudely kicking out the consciousness from my body.

...

Darkness again. Suddenly I felt something again. My vision slowly came back to me. I found myself back inside the cockpit of Chaosbane once more. Was I revived again? Will I hear that voice again? Something feels wrong. Something feels off. When I tried to raise up my hands, it just simply can't for some reason. I cannot move anything. Then someone called out onto the vox channel. It is not the same voice from earlier, but something else entirely. My blood ran cold as I immediately recognized that voice. It is the voice of a man who sacrificed everything for me. It is the voice of a man who condemned me to a life of suffering! It is the voice of my father! It is the voice of a traitor! So many emotions came like a hail of automatic gunfire. HATE! Love. ANGER! Joy. SADNESS! Nostalgia. BITTERNESS! They all fought over me so relentlessly as I felt each and every one of them simultaneously. "HOUSE PHAERON! RALLY TO ME! TONIGHT! WE SHALL DIE IN GLORY AS WE BURN TO ASHES! FOR WE ARE THE ADVERSARY OF CRUELTY! MY KNIGHTS! MY BROTHERS! MY SISTERS! MY FAMILY! FORWARD UNTO HELL! CHAAAARGE!!!" The vox screeched with my father's voice as the channel was soon flooded with jubilant cheers. With that said, all the fine Knight Scions of House Phaeron marched forward unto the fires of war, knowing that they will never come back. l tried to go with them. I really did, But my father never wanted me to. He opened an encrypted channel where it is only me and him, And told me something else entirely. "I'm sorry, I truly am. But you must run. Run as far as you can and never ever look back." He said those words and it caused him great pain as I can hear him softly crying as he told me that. "SIRE LUMINOS! MY LORD! WE ARE SURROUNDED ON ALL SIDES AND OUR AUGERS CAN'T DETECT ANYTHING FOR SOMETHING FOUL IS IN THE AIR! SUGGEST TO RETREAT MY LORD!" Gareth Dar Phaeron yelled out somewhere in the background with much gusto to the point where my Da's comm-bead was able to clearly pick him up. It strengthened my resolve to go fight with him. I want to help all the fellow brothers and sisters who have been with me for so long. I wanted to show him that I am a knight too. I just wanted to make him proud. "Ino! Ino! Da! I am Knight too da! I want to help!" Child me said it so innocently with naught but the purest intention to help my father like any normal child. But for the first time in my whole life, he scolded me.