Lyra and Bea got back to their feet standing behind me with their weapons drawn. Bea's axe and Lyra's dagger.
"My my little princess. Don't you look different." Khandre said stepping forward with his giant sword on his shoulder and wraps around his stomach from his previous wound.
"Princess?" asked Bea.
"How?" asked Lyra to Khandre.
"Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of magic out there you don't know about. How you ask? You're holding it." he said with a smirk.
Lyra focused in on her dagger. The edge tainted in his blood from when she threw it into him.
"The blood…?"
"Yeah, pretty easy tracking spell when I only have to follow myself." he laughed, "Look, time's run out. This ends now."
Khandre signaled his men to the left and right. Some around Bea and some around Lyra while he walked towards me.
I don't know if I can do this. I lost last time. My battle senses against others just isn't as good as I thought.
I looked back at Bea who was itching for a fight and then to Lyra who wasn't, but was prepared to defend herself. Each was surrounded by five soldiers.
I could swoop in and get them away from one or the other but not both at the same time. What can I do? Bea's been kicking butt all up and down the mountain and forest. It's Lyra. I know its bad to choose when I should try to save both, but it's her I'm supposed to protect!
I turned towards Lyra for just a milisecond when Khandre darted forward, kicking me backwards away from either group. I couldn't help but let out a squeal from the pain. He moved so fast I couldn't even brace myself with magic.
The two groups of soldiers moved in on their prey. Bea drew a couple of daggers into her left hand as she clutched her hatchet in her right. She ran forward and somersaulted past two of the soldiers and released the blades into the back of their necks, taking them out easily. However, the other soldiers moved in quickly.
One grabbed her left hand and another parried her right as she tried to swing the axe. A third came up and punched her to the ground. With a bloodied nose and slight wimper, Bea passed out on the ground.
At the same time, the soldiers around Lyra moved in too. She swung her dagger around in a fervour, but they deflected it at each strike. A couple laughed at her attempts to defend herself. Another came from behind, slashing her arm, forcing her to drop the dagger. Lyra fell to her knees, clutching the cut as blood leaked out.
With tears in her eyes, and her head hung low, I could tell she believed all hope was lost. That's how I was feeling too.
Consume.
What?
Consume.
A voice was in my head. Egging me on. Creating… A burning inside me. Anger. So angry.
Beating my friends! Making them cry!
Consume!
I rose back to my feet. Underneath my feathers, coming from within my body, the black slime seems to have awoken and began weaving around me.
"What in the hell?" said one soldier, causing the others to look as well.
Khandre approached cautiously.
"What are you?" he asked.
"QUAAAACK!" I let out a malevolent cry.
When I raised my wing towards the soldier, it grew through the slime becoming a long tentacle. It pierced through three of them in a row. Through their bodies and armor, flinging them away from Lyra. My other wing lashed out to the left, doing the same and ridding the remaining soldiers around Bea.
I darted forward at an unbelievable speed towards the remaining soldiers and barreled through them easily as they cried out for help. Khandre stood in disbelief.
Then, I lashed towards him with both wing tentacles. Khandre somehow stood his ground, blocking them and backing off. I was trying to tell myself not to underestimate him like before, but the anger in me was nearly all consuming.
I brought the tentacles back to me to instead try a close up tactic instead. The slime formed around my wings again, but this time in the shape of blades. Khandre slammed the ground with his sword, casting out a magic wave through the ground in an attempt to catch me off guard, I shot up and hovered to avoid it easily.
"Damn you! I don't have time for this!" Khandre shouted.
He clenched his fist, gathering a force of magic to launch another attack, but I wouldn't let him this time. I darted forward faster than I've ever gone, causing Khandre to break concentration and instead try to block. My wing came down with suck incredible force and such sharpness, that it cut through Khandre's blade and through his left shoulder.
Khandre's left arm fell to the ground as he let out a roar, dropping his hilt with a now broken blade and grasping at the wound. The battle was over, or at least I thought so.
While I was ready for it to be over, the urge to finish Khandre off for good wasn't going away. He looked at me with such hatred.
"Go on! Do it you feathered bastard!"
I raised my wing to deliver the blow, but remembered Lyra had the same chance. It's not what she wanted. It's not who I'm supposed to be. That's not a hero.
I've become a monster…
A blinding light hit my eyes in the fateful moment. It was the sun rising over the mountain. Morning had come. The slime receded inwards into my body and I regained my full faculties. I'm glad I didn't make an unforgivable mistake.
"Oh dear. Khandre. What have you done?" came a voice from behind him.
Khandre turned in fear to the voice he surely knew. Behind him stood a young man with slicked back black hair dressed in fancy clothes.
"My prince, I've got…"
"Enough." said the man picking up the hilt of Khandre's broken sword.
The prince examined it for a second, making sure the blade was sharp enough, and then quickly plunged it through Khandre's skull, who fell over dead.
The man examined the scene and looked over the men and myself, and to Lyra. I wanted to move in defense of her, but I was seemingly frozen still. Was I that drained from the fight? Is this man doing something to me? Either way, I had chills watching him approach her.
He reached out his hand to Lyra to help her up.
"Princess Lyrianna, are you okay?" he asked as if he truly cared.
"I'm fine. You-you're the prince. Your father ordered my death!" she said, slapping away his hand and rising up.
"That is a lie. It was all Khandre's doing. He didn't like how negotiations went and has been pushing for us to just take the elven land by force. Apparently, he had some sort of plan of his own. Separate from our kingdom's. I assure you." explained the prince, "And I knew what had to be done for this treason."
He glanced over at Khandre's dead body and so did Lyra. She shuttered in fear herself. I think she could tell something was off with this guy too.
"No more funny business. We need to get you home to your father." he said.
It was hard to trust, but behind him came a carriage to take us down the other side of the mountain. A couple more soldiers came out of it and helped Bea into it as the prince guided Lyra to it as well. I finally mustered some movement, waddling over haphazardly.
"What of Khandre's men?" asked one of the soldiers.
"They're all hurt but not dead. Hopefully, we can chalk it up to him misleading them as well, but there will be an investigation of every soldier. Let's get them all lined up for transporting. You get them to the border safely and come back for me once you're done." ordered the prince.
"Yes sire!" said the soldier, taking the reigns of carriage.
"I'm sure we'll meet again someday. Under different circumstances." the prince said to us, closing the carriage door as it began to take off.
I can't believe after all this time, Lyra will finally be home!