"hmm, It looks like we didn't think this through enough"
Arthur voiced as he looked at the dense, thick forest before him; behind him was a carriage stacked with barrels, as well as their supplies. The issue that Arthur was facing now, was that the forest that led up to the mountain was dense and thick and thus making it difficult for a carriage to go through.
"We can just cut through the forest and make a way"
Gagaran sounded behind him, offering the most obvious solution to the problem.
"That's a solution but I'd rather we not attract monsters while doing that, plus we don't know if there are inhabitants in the forest"
Lakyus countered Gagaran's argument.
"So? Even if there is, we can just beat the shit out of them."
Gagaran expressed. She didn't see the need to complicate things when simpler solutions existed; however, her leader still sought a more peaceful solution.
"Tina, Tia. Can you guys scout out the area?"
Lakyus Commanded and the twins quickly sprung into action, following the command of their leader. Once the twins were out of sight Evileye decided to speak.
"Or I can just cast [fly] on the carriage"
She said plainly, bringing up the fact that they had completely forgotten they had a mage on their team. However, behind her mask, she had a smirk.
"Wouldn't that be wasting your magic? We could run into something unexpected here"
Lakyus advised, There was also the fact that they were going to fight a dragon so it was best to conserve as much magic as possible hearing Lakyus' words Evileye visibly deflated
"Ha! You thought we forgot about you and planned to guilt trip us, weren't you?"
Gagaran chuckled at the notion, Evileyes avoided eye contact, turning to look away before she responded.
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"To be fair I did forget about her"
Arthur admitted as he scratched the back of his head; he hadn't spent much time with Blue Rose, so it was understandable that he had forgotten about her, especially considering Evileye was the silent type.
"Some King you are, are we sure he isn't going to run the kingdom into the ground?"
Evileye asked with a great deal of sarcasm, forcing another chuckle from Gagaran. Despite the disrespectful tone, everyone understood it to be just some lighthearted fun.
"Alright, alright short stack, truce"
Arthur raised his arm up in surrender, throwing insults was never his strong suit.
"hmph, I'll forgive you this one time"
The vampire folded her arms in faux displeasure, and Arthur rolled his eyes; despite how she seemed, Evileye was more childish than she led on.
"Anyway, You guys don't have to worry about me wasting my mana"
Evileye expressed, and just as she finished her sentence, the twins returned and reported to have found nothing noteworthy, but they did find something else.
"We found a weapon"
Tia announced and brought the wooden axe to Lakyus and handed it to her in a very melodramatic fashion. Like a servant presenting a present to a king.
Lakyus couldn't help but facepalm at such a display and felt a bit embarrassed.
"I heard some lizardmen tend to come here"
It was Evileye who spoke, speculating on who the wooden axe might belong to.
"I am sure Lizardmen would have a sort of favourable relationship with a dragon, so it makes sense"
Lakyus reasoned, and Arthur nodded to her statement, although he didn't really know if Lizardmen held a sort of reverence for dragons in this world; it was never stated in the anime.
"So we can't cut down the trees as that might upset the lizardmen we might possibly run into"
Arthur concluded and Evileye proceeded to cart fly on the carriage without needing to be told.
"looks like we're going with my plan then"
She expressed as the carriage floated above her head.
"I suppose, let's go then."
Arthur Commanded and everyone began to move into the forest.
"By the way, should we camp or just head straight for the mountain?"
Arthur asked and Gagaran answered immediately.
"If we're going to be fighting dragons I prefer we camp"
"I agree we haven't much of a break in hours"
Evileye concurred
"I think it's for the best too, not to mention it will help us come up with a proper strategy"
Lakyus remarked, and Twins nodded to her words; it seemed reasonable to camp out and rest before a big battle. Although Arthur planned to be the only one to fight, that didn't mean their help would be unnecessary.
"I guess that's settled, now I'm excited for some hog meat"
Gagaran expressed with visible excitement on her face.
"What is hog meat?"
"Basically just meat of a wild boar, it's just like pork but better"
Gagaran answered Arthur's question, and Arthur hummed in curiosity; he's never been one to eat exotic meats, so this might be a good opportunity.
"Must be good with how excited you seem"
"I'm telling you, Arthur, you haven't eaten anything if you've yet to eat hog meat; it's incredible how delicious they are."
Gagaran expressed with a tone of excitement, already imagining roasting a wild hot over an open campfire; it was something she enjoyed eating ever since her early days as an adventurer.
"It's true, I had my reservations at first but once I tasted it, I was surprised by how good it tasted"
Evileye concurred with her comrade, causing Arthur to hum in consideration of the idea; he turned to look at Lakyus, silently asking her if what her comrades were saying was true, and the blonde gave him a nod.
He looked at the twins and they just shrugged, not willing to admit that the gorilla actually had good taste in something.
"I guess it's settled then, we'll hunt some wild boars when we camp out"
The newly crowned king expressed, he's never been one to go hunting or camping. He figured the gold wasn't going anywhere, so he'll have time to do that.
"Great, I'm–"
Gagaran was about to speak when she was quickly cut off by Arthur who pulled out Excalibur and parried the scythe that aimed to pierce open his skull.
*Clink!*
The two blades clashed, and Arthur kicked his opponent in the stomach, sending her flying back; however, Zesshi did a flip mid-air and landed meters away from her foes.
"Arthur–"
Lakyus, who screamed his name, was immediately cut off by a single gesture of his hand, signalling to her that he would handle this and there was no need to get involved.
However, Lakyus saw something in his eyes, something she didn't recall seeing ever since she'd met him; the members of Blue Rose found themselves stunned as they saw Arthur displaying anger on his face.
In a burst of speed, Arthur launched himself towards Zesshi and reached in no more than a split second. However, the half-elf God-kin was ready; she swung her scythe parallel to the ground, aiming to pierce through his torso.
"Humph!"
He expressed in mock as he easily parried the attack, forcing Zesshi to be wide open before he delivered a clenched fist to her face, the half-elf groaned in pain as she felt the power behind the attack. Her body was then flung back at breakneck speed and crashed through the trees and Arthur gave chase.
Zesshi used her scythe to slow herself down; once she did so, she quickly wiped the blood off her nose, and a grin showed itself on her face.
"Now we're talking"
She voiced and looked up, only to see Arthur already before her, his fist already in motion towards her face.
'What!!'
She thought in both surprise and shock, however, she easily blocked the punch using her scythe, but she felt the power behind the punch, which had forced her feet to dig into the ground.
Unfortunately for Zesshi, despite having blocked the attack, Arthur gave her no time for a counterattack as he kicked on the ribs, but before she could be sent flying, he grabbed her scythe and pulled her closer and slammed his head against her face, drawing blood once again.
Arthur followed that up with a punch to Zesshi's gut, forcing her mouth open, and wads of saliva spewed out her mouth; the punch to the gut forced her to bend forward to which Arthur took the opportunity to deliver a knee kick, sending her flying back once more and crashing onto more trees.
"Holy shit!"
Gagaran exclaimed, her face gobsmacked as she witnessed the viscousness of Arthur's attacks on their assailant; this was a side of Arthur she's never seen.
"Holy shit is right, I know he destroyed an army by himself but I never thought he'd be so… merciless and relentless"
Eviley concurred with her brutish friend, seeing Arthur deliver attacks with such fury made her believe he had some sort of grudge against his current foe.
"He's not even carrying his sword, he's just beating her ass"
Gagaran noted, seeing that Arthur had discarded his sword for the moment and was using his fist to inflict as much damage as he could to his enemy.
Lakyus could only watch in stupified amazement while also hearing Tina whisper some nicknames for Arthur and Tia, shutting down all her ideas.
'Goddammit! he was expecting me'
She inwardly thought but she was wrong; however, to her that was the only explanation for why her ambush didn't work; he had to have expected an attack. She did her best to block, dodge and parry each of the punches with her scythe, but Arthur was relentless, barely giving her a chance to breathe.
Zesshi found herself in a corner, only being able to defend herself and her attacks never landing, and each attack she blocked made her arms tingle. However, she did think that was a bad thing; her opponent was giving it his all.
'This is what I wanted'
She grinned, it was time to put her all in the fight.
....