You can't have him

chapter 18

Bruce led the group through the halls of the palace. They needed to find where the king was, and quickly. The bodies of both their fallen comrades and the king's men were everywhere. There had been too much death today, and he knew there was still more to come.

Bruce peered around a corner into another hallway, and saw several men standing in front of a door. That had to be where the king was at, now they just needed to take out the men and get in there to the king. The group of men by the door seemed to be quite a bit more than the few remaining men Bruce had with him, but he took courage in the fact that he had an archer on his side (which meant they could pick a few off before they came at them) and he also had Arjic. Bruce whispered for the archer to go out there first and fire onto them as fast as he could. When the men started charging Bruce and the others would come out and fight.

The archer fired into the men, and took down one with each arrow he shot. It didn't take long though before the guards were too close and Bruce and the rest of them had to fight. Prince Menju stayed back out of the fighting, and Bruce and Arjic took the lead. Arjic barreled through the men. He was able to clear out more than Bruce thought possible, but it was still a bit much for him. The men surrounded on him before Bruce could get to him and he saw Arjic get hit in the arm hard enough to make him drop his weapon.

Once the last of the king's men fell Bruce searched for Arjic. He found him down on the floor underneath one of the guards. At first glance Bruce thought he was dead, then he saw him move. Arjic looked over at Bruce and asked, "can you help me up?"

Bruce went over and pulled the dead guard that had fallen on him off, and saw that other than a large cut to his arm he a few small scrapes. The man had faired far better than he thought. "You must be blessed by God or something to still be alive after that buddy."

Arjic laughed. "I think I'm just lucky. Or maybe we're just meant to win this."

The group opened up the door that the men had been guarding, and they saw the king lying there in a pool of his own blood. The man had taken his own life, when it seemed like he was going to die. "God damnit I so wanted to be the one to kill him. He started all this, and he didn't even have the decency to let us do away with him."

"Don't be too sad Bruce. At least we don't have to worry about him any longer." Arjic said.

By the time the rest of the party got back downstairs the battle was over. They had successfully taken over the palace. Now they just had to hope the prince would survive his battle as well. Menju and Bruce went with Arjic to where the doctor stayed at the palace. They needed to have him start helping the wounded. Arjic was the first one that he patched up.

"I guess it makes sense that my sword arm is kinda useless right now. I did do the same thing to Dunston pretty much." Arjic said.

"Yeah, but Dunston is a prick and he deserved it." Bruce said.

"I'm just glad you made it. I don't know what I'd do without you as my bodyguard." Menju said giving Arjic a hug.

........

Dunston and his men were in sight of Kapa and his measly army. Dunston was sure this was going to be an easy victory. Even without Geoff and his men, they still outnumbered the prince's army. Dunston only wished though that he hadn't lost any of his own men when they took out Geoff. They had fought hard against them, but inevitably they were all killed.

Dunston called the charge then, and the men started to race forward. To Dunston's shock though one of the men fell down dead with an arrow in him. That didn't make sense. The prince was running towards them, but none of his men were close enough to hit them yet. When another one fell he looked back at the men. Dunston was shocked to see that it wasn't just Geoff that was a traitor.  They were all fighting against each other, and the prince and his men were quickly closing the gap.

Dunston fought his way out of the fighting men, and tried to ride away, but a lucky arrow hit his horse and it went down. Dunston got up again and started to run away, but two horses ran up behind him.

Prince Kapa dropped off one, and Maverick climbed down off the other. Dunston drew both his swords and faced the men. Even if he was in his best shape he probably wouldn't be able to defeat both the prince and Maverick at the same time. Now he had to get them to attack him separately, and he was sure he knew how to do it.

"You may be able to win this battle, but the two of you will never be happy. I killed the pathetic prince before I left the palace, and as for that large guard of his. Well I raped him, so I could watch him cry and scream underneath me. Then I slit his throat and burned his body."

Dunston's words had just the effect he wanted. Prince Kapa called for Maverick to stop, but he attacked. Dunston was able to block Maverick's blow with one sword, and with his other he stabbed it into Maverick's shoulder. Dunston swung his left sword again hoping for it to be a killing blow, but he heard the clang of steel against steel and saw the prince's sword blocking his. The prince struck out at Dunston as fast as he could, and Dunston did good just to block the blows. The prince was fighting fiercer than he ever had before, but unfortunately he couldn't keep it up for long.

With each swing he started growing more tired, and his movements slowed. Dunston blocked another hit with his left sword, and this time he got a lucky strike with his right and scratched the prince's face. That was enough to turn the tide, and Dunston started to try to strike faster at the prince. For every successful block the prince had, he also missed a small hit from the other sword.

Maverick was back up with his sword held in his left hand now, but he couldn't get to the fighters in time to help the prince. Right as Maverick came up behind prince Kapa, the prince completely missed the block. Dunston's first sword knocked Kapa's sword, and the second went straight into his stomach.

"No," Maverick yelled.

Dunston pulled the sword out of the prince and took a step towards Maverick, but he didn't notice that someone had fired an exploding arrow behind him. When it went off Dunston turned around, giving Maverick the opportunity to swing his sword with the last of his remaining strength. Dunston stood there for a minute with the sword still stuck in his neck. Dunston had lost. Dunston fell to the ground then and Maverick dropped down by the fallen prince.

"Boss, please boss don't die. Oh God no don't take him from me. You can't have him. I won't let you have him." Maverick cried.