The bright yellow and lime green patterns on the wyvern scales made it look majestic and beautiful. Measuring 5 meters with its wings spread wide, Maelyss was a mammoth even among its peers. It had to be if it was going to be the prince's primary mount.
The powerful wyvern extended its wings wide and took to the skies with a roar. The Prince of Gumina loved this feeling. It was the one moment that he felt completely free from all the duties and responsibilities that bound him.
As a child, he had always loved dragon-riding. Even though they knew these were wyverns they still insisted on calling it dragon-riding, adding to the profile of it all. A dragon was a revered beast, hence even its distant cousin was an outstanding character.
He even wished to be that as an adult, but he quickly learned that was not who he was meant to be. Even as a prince, his love for dragon-riding had never dissipated one bit. He just wished he got to do it more often. Now he would get to do it as he ran away.
When he took to the skies, he took a moment to check where the enemy was. By now, he should have made up a lot of distance, but the Prince was not worried. A pegasus could not hope to outrun a wyvern. Even now he was tempted to turn and fight, but he knew the conditions did not favor him. That would just be throwing his life away.
To his surprise, he did not fight Barda anywhere. It was as though the man and his mount had disappeared, an act which was so alarming. An enemy one did not see coming was an enemy to be avoided at all costs.
However, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Barda rising again, this time a lot closer than he had been. He was also holding a huge weapon similar to the inventions he had come up with earlier.
A dark feeling settled down in the pit of The prince's stomach. He felt as though his lungs were constricted, and his scalp was tugged tight. When the gun was pointed in his direction, he couldn't help remembering Lady Gwendolynn's exploding head.
A flicker of light came from the rifle, followed by the report of the rifle a few seconds later. The prince was anticipating his death, but after a few scary seconds, he realized his death was not that close.
"My Prince, please leave, I cannot hold him much longer!" One of the Prince's royal guards spoke. His voice told tales of him being weak.
Perhaps he shouldn't have spoken. From his range, Barda could tell there was a magical shield around the Prince, but he didn't know what kind it was and where it came from. The fool had just sold himself by speaking out.
Barda did not hesitate as he fired bullet after bullet at the mage. Meanwhile, he had to watch as the Prince put more distance between him and assailant.
The Prince took his guards and they all jumped on the wyverns, ready to disappear. The other dignitaries and aides had their arrangements to make.
The Good thing was, the entire army saw all this happening. Not just Gumina soldiers, but even allied soldiers as well. They watched as the famed Prince of Gumina tuck tail and run at the face of this man. What was even more surprising was that this was not the first time this had happened.
Seeing this, any morale left among the soldiers dissipated, and all they could do was run. No point in throwing their lives away for a lost cause. Just like that, the war was over.
It took 16 bullets to shatter the magical shield set up by the Prince's guard, who was also on a wyvern. Barda was pursuing them on a pegasus.
Despite his best effort, the prince was out of his range by the time the shield had shattered, but he killed the shield mage with the 17th bullet. 3 more left in his clip, and he had only hustled 2 extra clips from Catalina.
Yes, this was Trudy he was using. After identifying his enemy, he knew he needed something robust and heavy-hitting to get to the prince, and there was only one gun he knew of that could do that.
While Catalina had not been so happy about giving out the gun, it felt like she was giving it back to her father, so she was not so resistant. That and the immense respect she had for the man made it such that she couldn't deny him anything.
Watching his enemy recede into the background, Barda knew that it was now or never. He had to take action now or lose this slippery b*st*rd for a second time, so he decided to go all out.
As he ran, a heat-wave hit the Prince of Gumina so severely he started perspiring instantly. He was so shocked he turned to see what was happening. What he saw made him understand the wisdom of the saying, ignorance is bliss.
A massive fireball was coming at him, the same size as the one he had thrown at the Tristan army. What's more, it was taking shape and could fly. It looked more like a giant wyvern, or a ... No, it couldn't be.
The worst part about this was that the Fireball was coming at him fast. It seemed to move faster than the wyverns he was riding on. Before he could even command his people to move them out of the way, the ball connected with a secondary magical shield.
This one Barda had anticipated, but it didn't mean he was not entirely disappointed at one-shotting the prince. However, he was happy to see the group tumble and fall, quite like the Queen had.
Since they were not that far from the battle yet, the soldiers saw this happen. The Queen, in particular, had an ear-to-ear grin as she watched the Prince falling following the attack. It felt like justice.
Barda did not stop his mount from flying, he could track the enemy even after they fell, but to his shock, he saw that they had started moving again. This time, they were going fast, too fast.
When he got to where they had fallen, there was no sign of the prince and the guards, but there were gullies that had been dug-out recently. Barda understood that the enemy had ridden some underground creature, and so he followed the gullies.
The advantage was that whatever these creatures were, they did not dive into the ground and disappear. Barda assumed that it was because they couldn't with the cargo they were carrying, which gave him hope of catching up.
Barda followed the tracks for several miles before they disappeared. When he activated his Olfactory Scanner (The nose scanner, in case you forgot), he determined that the prince had taken to the sky again and flown on the wyverns. He had guessed the worms would be tracked.
Barda did not stop since this simple act of throwing him off would not work on him, so he followed still. The problem was, if he delayed any longer, he might not find the trail.
Firestorm, his ride, was quite effective and did not tire easily, but after too much excretion, Barda felt a little meant to ask the pegasus to give more, but he had to.
Nightfall, he came towards the Reuzean beach, and here, he saw the Prince at the city. Despite Tristan's win, this was still Reuzean and Gumina's stronghold. Their last real claim on the continent.
If he was going to get these vermin out from his lands, they needed to be removed here. This would be the final showdown. They had thought they could match onto Tristan, how sadly mistaken they were.
They were now being pushed and boxed into a corner, and the might of Tristan was coming with everything they had.
***
"Where is the King?" Maki asked the Prince of Gumina as the latter got off the wyvern. This was the elder who had accompanied the King of Reuze back when he was a prince on his trip to Tristan. He was a Grand mage and his closest adviser.
As a reply, the Prince took out his sword and hacked at the Grand Mage's head, decapitating him instantly. The attack had been so sudden the man had not even had a chance to defend himself.
"Anyone else wants to ask stupid questions?" He roared, looking at the welcoming party consisting of aides and other workers. All the prince saw were people too cowardly to go to war with him, and he did not have to justify himself to them.
"What good are the lot of you!" He continued to yell, his frustrations showing. "Show me your value or I will end you right now!"
The prince saw these people as nothing more than deadbeats he had to carry. Since when did Gumina become bested by someone else, it had to be these people's faults.
"My Lord," an elderly looking man stepped forward with a box in his hands, "we have perfected these designs." As he did, he opened the box, revealing an assault rifle much like the one the prince had seen Tristanites use on the battlefield.