When they reached the cobblestone road, there was a knight opposing Alfred's caravan with his blade raised in front of his helmet. He had full black plate armor, a slightly glowing purple blade, a gray plume protruding from the top of his black helmet, and a height of six feet with full armor.
As Gore walked over towards the knight, he towered over the man with a smile. The knight placed his right foot forward. "Draw your sword!"
Gore obliged without a word and then he dashed towards the man with a lowered stance.
Their blades clashed together in a flash of purple light as the Mana from the Knight's blade attempted to cut through Gore's blade but could not.
Gore had hit very hard with whole body and momentum. From the very first blow, the black armored knight fell onto his back.
Gore raised his blade high above his head and swung it down hard towards the knight who was still struggling to stand up. The knight's arm and blade turned bright purple as he raised his sword to block Gore's blow.
BAAAM!! Gore's blade fell down like a thunderstrike and it hit even harder.
The knight's arm stayed steady against the heavy blow, but the roaring purple glow about his sword flickered and then dimmed as his Magic power was heavily consumed.
Gore lifted his blade again and then struck. Gore's enormous blade did not get halted again. Instead, it bit straight through the black knight's sword and then followed past his armor and into his body.
A thick wave of crimson fluid flew from the ruined armor towards Gore's face. Gore brought his blade down again even though it was not necessary, separating the helmet from the black knight's body.
The black knight's crested helmet rolled away from the head it had been connected to. Brown and lifeless eyes stared up at Gore.
Gore stared back and then with a snarl, he brought his foot down heavily upon the corpse's head, crushing it like a rotten watermelon.
Alfred walked up behind Gore and sighed. "That was surprisingly super easy for you. But I wish I had told you that I wanted that man alive."
Gore smirked. "Yeah you should have told me that. Do you think I would be able to beat you?"
He shook his head. "Probably not. Also I decided to give you a bonus of 50 gold talents for every Aura knight that you kill in my name. It is only fair for the talent that you have."
Gore blinked. "Okay."
Since Gore was a giant and also a sheltered youngest prince, he had never learned about the value of currency and he thought that a single gold coin was not much when in reality, a golden coin was equivalent to half a year's wage for farmers.
The last day passed by uneventfully as no one else blocked the road at all. Any caravans that approached pushed their carts off the road to show their respect.
Past a turn in the road, the forest they were passing through turned to a clearing. Past the clearing, brightly colored tents and siege machines like trebuchets and mangonels were constantly slamming projectiles against the castle walls.
Alfred found Gore amidst the men marching and he took him to his father's enormous tent.
Alfred flipped the tent up and then took his helmet off. Dane was sitting in a chair with his boots propped up against the top of a table. He was also drinking a bottle of whiskey.
He stood up and put his bottle down before embracing Alfred. "My son, you are finally here! We are ready to storm the walls and have been waiting for you. The men have made the ladders."
Alfred nodded. "Good. I am ready as well, but I wanted to introduce you to someone that I have found."
Gore stepped through the tent and had to stoop over slightly to keep his head from hitting the top of the tent.
Alfred grinned as he turned back to his father. "This is Gore, Fury's son. He is a prince from the kingdom of the giants and I have him hired as a mercenary. On our way here, he killed an aura knight in three blows. Oh, but he did strike a fourth time, chopping off the poor man's head. And then he… Anyways, he can't use Aura but has an indestructible Oath-blade."
Dane looked thoroughly surprised as he stepped around Alfred and then offered his hand to Gore. "Thank you for joining us. Are you going to storm the castle with the knights or with the men-at-arms?"
Gore took the hand and squeezed it hard before shaking it slightly. "Which is first?"
Dane shook his hand through the air limply and then turned his eyes back towards Gore with an amused look. "You've got a strong grip. The men-at-arms and mercenaries typically go first, but since you are a Prince, I'm giving you a choice."
Gore yawned. "I'll be going first. Alfred said he was going to pay me 50 golden coins for each Aura knight that I kill after all, so I'm planning on killing every single Aura knight in that castle. For my plan I probably need like a million gold or something…"
Dane looked amused at first and then suddenly surprised and slightly outraged at the idea of Gore needing a million coins for something. "What are you planning to do?! Build a statue of yourself that is taller than those castle walls?!"
Gore blinked. "I will start a warband."
Dane sighed and shook his head. "Unless you are planning to buy a group of dragons out to be your steeds, you won't need that much money. 5000 golden coins would be enough to start a decently sized warband. If you want a really large warband, maybe you would need 50,000, and you could take over a castle with that."
Gore nodded. "Oh, that's good to know. Are we ready to storm the castle? I want my gold."
Alfred shook his head slowly and Dane snorted. "Yeah, let's go."
Gore backed out of the tent and the other two followed.