He's my King and I'm his Queen

Chapter 23

Christopher's POV: 

The sounds of swords clashing against one another; the sound of my comrades’ battle cries; the sound of my heart racing engulfed me. I was overwhelmed with confusion and determination. Why was I even here, only a few minutes before I was with Azalea celebrating her birthday, so how did it come to this?

I was scrounging the forest, looking for berries since she would probably be hungry after filling in her new log book when Mitch came into the forest. He told me that some soldiers at guarding the trading route entrance to Cardinia got attacked. After ordering Mitch to find and protect Azalea, I rushed over to defend them. I wasn’t the only one there; turns out, Kane heard the call and decided to come out and help also. Mitchell eventually came back to fight alongside us, and after finding out the Azalea was safe, I concentrated on this small but mysterious battle.

My sword was locked with my opponent’s. We have been trying to fight them off as best we could, but we underestimated them. These were skilled mercenaries. They knew all about battle, so we knew they were obviously hired to attack us, but where were they from? Who sent them? My eyes flickered towards Kane’s direction and saw that he was injured slightly at his right arm. He still managed to fight marvelously but his opponent was strong and then I spotted a mercenary sneaking up behind Kane with his sword raised. I thought of Azalea and how devastated she would be if Kane was hurt. She never answered to my confession and avoided me since then, so she obviously chose Kane right? Like the stupid fool I was, I quickly struck down my opponent and sprinted towards Kane.  

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 Azalea's POV:

            I reached the trading post just in time to see Christopher sprint towards Kane and cut down the mercenary sneaking up behind him. Many others rushed over to attack Kane and Christopher, seeing as they were the strongest. They probably strategized that if they all fought the two swordsmen at once; they had a higher chance of winning, considering one of them was injured.

            I was about to run and join them, but Mitchell held me back. He shook his head at me.

            “I want to help!”

            “You don’t even have a sword, what could you possibly do?”

            “Then give me yours!”

            “I was tasked to keep you safe, not allow you to throw yourself into danger. Stay hidden behind while I go assist them.”

Mitchell quickly drew his sword and joined them. Christopher yelled at him in surprise but they all continued fighting once Christopher heard that I was safe. I felt so helpless but I couldn’t go back on what Mitchell said. He was right after all, what could I do anyway? That’s when I noticed that Kane wasn’t giving his all; he seemed distracted by something, but I wasn’t the only one who noticed. A mercenary took advantage of it and brought down his sword at Kane.

            Christopher quickly blocked Kane with his sword, shouting at him in the process.

            “What the hell are you doing Kane? If Azalea found out you were hurt, how do you think she will feel? Think about yourself more and step up!”

Kane nodded and they continued fighting, until Christopher suddenly clutched his arm in pain. It was for only a second because he went back into his battle mode. He would occasionally wince until he suddenly dropped the sword. He fell to his knees, gripping his arm.

            “Damn it.” He mouthed.

            This was the perfect chance for them to attack Christopher. I searched the perimeters quickly for any sort of weapon to protect him and spotted a bow and arrows laying in one of the empty wagons. I instinctively ran for it and shot them to the enemies. After shooting down three of the seven surrounding Christopher and Kane, they retreated when realizing their forces reduced. The four tried retreating along with their remaining five other comrades, but our own soldiers chased and capturing them.