"YAHAHHAhAhA!"
'So she's a mad woman, noted'
Watching the one dubbed Lucia manifest visible waves of sound that vibrated the air I couldn't help but notice the maniacal smile on her face as she did so.
As a Princess one would expect her to have all of the matters of one, that is a princess should be a noble creature with impeccable manners and everything.
But it was a rather unconvincing thing to think about when a princess in front of me was drenched in blood and antlion parts.
And watching her in real time continued to break down my cultivated image of princesses being shy demure animal attracting creatures in real time was a strange feeling.
But I guess Slay the Princess didn't do anything to help it.
So focusing back on the antlions I noted various other things about them that I felt like I should note in the future.
For one, if I didn't put in the effort, I couldn't strike past the shell and would only leave behind an indelible mark that was otherwise ignorable.
For two, these guys were annoying as hell.
Ranging from the tiny little buggers the size of a small dog to the their much larger counterparts the size of a bear, there were so many of them that it was hard to count.
And that wasn't even counting the much stronger elite versions which were so many in number it wasn't even funny anymore.
Pulling out my bow, I could distinctly feel that the arrows that hit never found purchase on the same creature as they were quickly swallowed up by the tide of insects.
It was positively creepy hearing the insects chirp and skittle all over their comrades.
Moving up close and personal now, the two scythe claws swept through the crowd of insects.
Feeling the resistance of the insects shells, it was rather satisfying to use a bugs claw to cut through a horde of bugs.
Rather ironic wasn't it?
Twisting my body around, the crimson fire unfolded from my blade and took purchase into the bodies of the insects.
Right before I realized that everyone around me was also covered in blood and was subsequently snuffed out by ice shards.
'That was dangerous.'
In a battlefield filled to the brim of blood, the blood fire would love it.
I mean, the fields of fire that charred the triple boss battlefield was a result of the blood fire consuming all of the blood spilled there.
"So Where Are We Going?"
Perking my ears up, I heard the rather relaxed voice of Guillian who was using some sort of modified harpoon weapon to rip apart insects into small tiny pieces.
The reason was that upon pulling it back, the barbs on the harpoon would grab a portion of the insect with it which subsequently ended up in his bag.
And now that I was looking at it, the bag was still taking in copious amounts of body parts in it.
Really makes you wonder how big that bag was, or how much stuff was in that bag or even what was in that bag.
Thinking that, my mind was snapped right out of the revery as a loud bang sounded in my ears, and quickly looking at the direction of the bang I jolted in place and hesitated in my movements.
I quickly continued them lest I get decapitated by that charging antlion.
'Wait when did we get to the gates?'
Yeah, already stationed at the gates, I was treated to the sight of a proper defence.
Much unlike the makeshift defences on the kingdom of the malaise that were nothing more than stone and wood hills manned by extremely experienced veterans.
This was a proper defence.
Ranging from the fifty meter tall the stone walls were positively caked in blood as cannons and various ballistae fired into the swarm.
Those cannons also had elemental variations of themselves as well.
How did I know that you may ask?
Well in a swarm of insects where its rather hard to see anything else besides insects, it was little surprise that I barely escaped a direct shot to the chest.
Thankfully it struck my left arm instead.
And unthankfully that arm still felt pain.
'FUCK!'
Feeling a unique type of pain that consisted of shattered skin, quite literally shattered skin and broken bone, the left arm of mine was now idly swinging besides me.
And feeling the fire seep through the cracks in my arm and lightly scorch its insides, tears welled up in my eyes.
'I hate this so much.'
Now I was used to pain but getting burned from the inside of my arm all the while it was shattered was a bit much wasn't it?
And thus, to show all of my hatred in physical form, I would unleash my anger on these God damned bugs.
'DIE'
But nevertheless, underneath my misgivings that were buried underneath the mountains of bug corpses.
We finally arrived at the castle gates.
"OPEN THE GATES!"
Chains rattled underneatht he dull hymn of bug wings, as the gates opened with an age old creak that spoke volumes of how rusted the gate hinges were.
But in this case it was probably due to the massive amounts of blood that rusted it through and through, either that or pieces of flesh got stuck in the mechanisms.
But nevertheless, underneath the rattling chains, the gates lifted and swung open revealing the space behind the walls...
Also filled with bug corpses and another set of walls.
Glancing at Lucia's face filled with mischievousness, the words. "Don't tell me you expected to see the city beyond the first set of gates did you?
Oh wait, she actually just said them.
So... Ignoring that, as we were escorted by knights in blood red armor we soon made our way to the actual portion of the kingdom not consisting of war armaments and soldiers.
And much to my surprise they were rather... excited.
And listening to them speak rumors to each other made it clear why that was.
"Its the blood soaked rose of the kingdom! Why is she back so soon?"
"I don't know!? Why don't you ask the King on why that's the case!?"
"You know that the king loves his children just as much as his wife to the point of actually giving her the country!"
"So what?! Are we supposed to have this bloody maniac wandering within our walls!?"
"I don't know!? But I know that once the war with the antlions ends I'm going to go to a nearby village and settle there!"
"But what if she goes there to 'give gifts' the village!?"
"...Shit!"
Safe to say that the popular opinion amongst these guys was that the princess was a maniac.
But so far from what I could see, besides the mania which showed itself during her fight with the antlions there wasn't much else to speak of her horrible reputation.
And her mania towards the antlions could be justified if I dig back in my memories and recall that the Rosetta kingdom despite being present for several years now had been facing the antlions for as long as they were established.
I don't recall that descendants of the Rosetta kingdom had gold hair however.
'And what's this about the king taking over the throne?'
Hearing the snippets of words being exchanged, the only thing that continued to surface in my mind was more and more questions.
And as these questions bounced around in my head like ping pong balls on a table.
A voice shook me out of m revery.
"So these people are the ones that our dear sister brought back?"
Looking at the source of the voice I saw two people.
It was a brother and sister duo seeing as they were similar in their features.
The only difference was who they were addressing as their sister.
Staring at their distinctly crimson hair reminiscent of a rose, the hair was not at all similar to the flower pink hair of Lucia's.
'????'
And as more questions rose up in my head like some sort of plague that would never go away.
An even louder voice rang out which snuffed out all others as a human body wiped across my eyes and slithered into Lucia's general vicinity.
And acting on instinct a shield appeared in my hands as I charged towards Lucia.
Grabbing her with my broken left arm 'God it hurts.'
I pointed my shield at the unknown human being that had slammed into the ground at sound breaking speeds all the while creating a small crater.
And seeing that I felt a chill crawl up from the base of my spine as two sea blue eyes glared at me from within the rising dust.
And as the dust settled, I was treat4ed to the sight of a fully armored figure caked in blood all the while a sword still wet with crimson blood was held in their gauntleted hand.
The spikes on the armor was just the cherry on top at telling me this guy was suspicious as hell.
And I guess my sentiment was mirrored by my fellows travelers of the malaise that had come from the kingdom of Sevallia.
Now surrounded by several weapons of all kinds, the strange figure raised their sword causing me to release Lucia and bring out another weapon.
'Now who the hell are you?'
+++
So... IDK what happened but this was supposed to go up yesterday