Elys had already mapped out her escape plan from the moment she entered the downtowns and into the capital. Her shackles had come undone for a while now, but she needed to make sure she entered the capitol first before she escaped.
The capital gates were guarded pretty tightly, and she knew this execution was her only chance to infiltrate and hopefully blend in the crowd after she makes a chaos in the process.
"Make me."
The executioner grunted in dissatisfaction that Elys was going to make his job harder than it should be.
He grabbed her by the scruff of her thin dress and pushed her hard, but Elys made sure to resist as much as she could.
It took several long seconds of struggling before the executioner could finally make the princess go down on her knees.
The stump had a restraining compartment which needed to be manually locked to keep her still, and it was exactly at that moment Elys thought would be the best time to escape.
She had shown them weakness to make them lose their guard around her, but in reality, the princess was only saving her last burst of energy to exact her escape plan.
Elys' eyes looked around her, and then to the executioner who had his back to the princess.
It was now or never.
Just as the executioner grabbed for his axe, Elys exhaled and quickly broke the shackles that bounded her and punched away the wooden restraint.
"Hey! What the hell?!"
The executioner was taken back as he never saw any slave have the strength to punch their way through thick wood.
He never saw a woman punch through thick wood as Elys had, to be honest!
"Screw you and all of you tyrant vampires!" yelled the princess.
She went on to give a roundhouse kick to the surprised executioner, and his mask went flying as he stumbled down the platform.
The man hit his head on to the ground, and blood pooled as his skull cracked open as gravity and his weight worked against him when he fell.
The princess grabbed for the executioner's axe and went forward to fight off the guards that had rushed to restrain her once again.
It wasn't a fair fight, four physically fit men versus one woman who barely had a decent meal for more than two weeks.
But adrenaline and fury were coursing through her entire body, and the warrior princess pushed forward.
"Haaaa!!!" Elys charged and swiped the axe against the men, and she was able to take down all of them after several more exchange of thrusts and parries.
One by one, the guards fell down as Elys cut through them without mercy.
The princess turned to the Ugly Pig, her face painted with the blood of her enemy, a crazed smile on her lips.
The overseer had made efforts to scramble up his horse, his face was that of indescribable fear, and Elys grinned at him making him falter in his haste to get away from her.
Blood had splashed everywhere as Elys swung the axe back and forth to scare the overseer.
The taste of death was in the air, and revenge was sweet with how she could see the fear etched in the overseer's fat face.
Elys curiously looked around her and noticed that the crowds had gone wild.
She had almost felt she had triumphed, but then she became aware that it wasn't the kind of wild she had hoped for.
They were not creating chaos like how she envisioned them to – running around, screaming for help, saving themselves.
No. Instead of those, they were actually having fun spectating the princess' attempt to escape and her rampage!
The capital residents' shouts were actually jeering, some clapping their hands in amusement, while others had even gone as far as to bet gold if she was to ever make her way out of the crowds.
"Go and get him!"
"Kill him!"
"Chop off his head!"
"I bet the slave will make a run to the alleys!"
"No, she will be captured by the knights."
Thunder rolled and lightning struck one of the metal poles from the building near the platform, and it was after that that Elys heard the sound of a horn blow.
It was the kind of horn she knew could only mean one thing.
The arrival of a monarch.
And where a monarch was, there was sure to be knights and guards to protect him.
Princess Elysianne turned around and tried to make a quick escape towards the dark alleys.
She knew she could fight humans, but she could never win a battle against a pureblooded vampire knight teeming with magic.
She was too weak to face them right now. Physical force wasn't going to be enough to fight them off, and if they ever caught her, she was sure it was probably going to be the end of her.
Elys could hear cloaks flutter and splashes of water puddles behind her. The sound of swords being unsheathed from their scabbards slicing through the rainy day.
The princess didn't stop for her pursuers to reach her.
A masked family consisting of five children stood between Elys and the alleys now, and she waved her axe around to scare them and cut her way through.
But instead of running and saving themselves, the couple made the children take off their masks, and one by one, baby blue eyes and rosy cheeks came into Elys' view.
Elys didn't know if they were innocent slaves of the vampires themselves, and she stopped in her tracks, unable to bring herself to hurt children that were barely the age of five.
Stopping and feeling remorse was the biggest mistake the princess had ever made on this day.
Elys felt something hit the back of her neck and other pressure points on her body. She collapsed face first into a puddle, and splashes that contained dirt entered her eyes making her close them instantly by reflex.
The princess heard laughter behind her, and she felt cold hands grab her by the neck and turned her around to face them.
"Let go of me!" Elys tried to move, but the blow to her pressure points had rendered her limp and she couldn't do anything but to scream her objections.