The Hunting Festival (3)

At the venue, beasts burst out of the forest. They barreled forward and smashed their heads into an invisible wall. Anaroth stood inches away from the barrier and their gaping jaws. The nobles who didn't believe his words fell in shock. He studied the beasts for a moment before clenching his fists.

"These don't deserve to be called magic beasts. These are just feral mongrels."

Anaroth swiped his hand through the air. Wind decapitated the beasts in front of him. He stepped back when the bodies began to contort and writhe. A moment later, the dead bodies exploded with enough force to break the barrier he had set in place.

He cursed under his breath. "Anyone who can fight, incapacitate them! Don't kill them!" Anaroth stomped his foot and spikes of earth rose up, piercing the limbs of several beasts and creating another barrier.

Rowan shouted orders over the guards, "Listen to Sir Anaroth! Render them helpless and protect the nobles!" He glanced into the forest behind the beasts and fire. "Veridin… What are you doing?"

Anaroth swept past the guards, immobilizing as many of the beasts as he could. He glanced at the nobles with a frown. There were a few that were fighting, but most of them were cowering like children.

"Fire! It breathes fire!"

He turned towards the voice. The creature that was held in place with spikes of earth was breathing red fire out of its jaws. Anaroth cut its head off and flung its body into the sky while cursing. There were a lot of them, and he had to protect the nobles that couldn't protect themselves. Not only that, they were completely surrounded. This was clearly planned. Anaroth grit his teeth. You useless king! Quit taking your time and get over here!

Veridin flew out of the forest, leaping over the magic beasts. Raven followed quickly behind him. As the two landed beside Anaroth, Rowan ran up to them.

"Your majesty, you're here!"

"What's the situation?"

"We're completely surrounded. The guards are barely holding on with Sir Anaroth's help."

"The corpses explode." Anaroth looked at Veridin.

"So that's why they aren't dead yet." Veridin glanced out over the beasts.

"I know how to deal with them," Raven spoke up.

Rowan scrutinized Raven. "Your majesty, who is this man? Is he one of the people who started this mess?"

"Put your sword down Rowan. Raven is going to be my personal aid going forward."

"Your aid?! But this man is the most suspicious one here!"

Anaroth nodded in agreement. He was certainly suspicious. He was wearing all black clothing with a torn sleeve and a hole in the chest. Through the tears in his clothes, well defined muscles could be seen. His breathing was nearly imperceptible. Most of all, though Anaroth could see Raven in front of him, all of his other senses couldn't detect anything. It was almost like he didn't exist.

"We can talk about that later. Raven, tell us how to kill them." Veridin turned towards him.

"You have to rip out the mana stone in their bodies. That's what causes the explosion. Once it's out, you still have to figure out a way to deal with the explosion."

"Then that's easy. Anaroth, I'll cut off their limbs, you tear out the mana stones."

Anaroth opened his mouth to speak, but Veridin had already charged into the crowd. Veridin danced through the flurry of claws and fire, slicing off limbs and jaws. He cut through flesh and bone with a grin. Blood painted his sword and clothes but his expression was of bliss. Each beast went down in a matter of seconds.

"I shall help you." Raven turned to Anaroth.

"That would be great." Anaroth ripped out the glowing red stones from the helpless beasts with magic. He flung them into the air where they exploded harmlessly.

"Sir Rowan, please assist his majesty with the beasts."

Raven disappeared from beside Rowan only to reappear in the crowd of beasts. With expertise, he plunged his hand through flesh and tore the stones out with his bare hands. He flung each one into the sky where Anaroth swept it out of radius.

Rowan watched, rooted in place. Fear and doubt gnawed at his stomach. These people were monsters. The beasts were more than the guards that had trained for years could handle, yet in front of these three they were merely slaughtered in an instant. Veridin cut and tore the limbs from the beasts with such graceful savagery that made him look like a majestic beast himself. Raven could only be seen for a moment when he pierced the beasts with his hands. Anaroth was maintaining a delicate balance of keeping the beasts at bay and disposing of the mana stones, all while maintaining his imposing dignity. No one else could intervene.

The massacre continued for a grueling half hour. Blood stained the ground and the smell of burnt hair and flesh hung heavy in the air. Specks of rock dotted the ground from the continuous explosions overhead. Veridin had begun to drag the corpses of the beasts into a pile along with the guards and the few nobles that joined the fight. He stopped after taking care of most of them. He was covered in blood from head to toe with a distinct grin on his face. He walked up to Anaroth and wiped his cheek, but only ended up smearing more blood on his face.

"Do you need any help with the last of them?"

"Are you asking me if you should help me, or for permission to inspect the corpses?"

"What do you mean? I didn't ask that."

Anaroth rolled his eyes. "Your aid is doing just fine. You're in charge here so do what you want."

"Then I will."

Veridin dragged the most intact corpse out of the pile and began to examine it; To most of the noble ladies' horror. The creature was around the same size as a bear. Patches of fur dotted its four legs and around its face. It's back was fully covered in scruffy black fur. It had claws that were disproportionate to its body. Its eyes were glazed over and its teeth yellowed and rugged.

He flipped the corpse onto its back. Holding his sword in one hand and the corpse in the other, he sliced from the beast's throat to its tail with abnormal precision. He quickly tossed his sword aside and pulled the flesh apart with his bare hands.

"Ah– Your majesty… You really shouldn't be doing such a thing yourself…" Rowan watched uncomfortably as Veridin began to lift organs out of the way, examining them one by one. His face darkened even more when Veridin stuck his whole arm in the corpse.

"Your majesty. Don't you care for your image? At least don't let the young noblewomen witness such a gruesome sight." One of the nobles who was fighting stepped forward. He was barely covered in blood, yet he had a satisfied grin on his face.

Veridin stopped and pulled his hand out, looking at the man whose voice he recognized. "Marquis Cassian, I should be responsible for investigating how exactly this happened. That includes figuring out what exactly these creatures are."

"While that may be true, don't you think this whole situation was a bit strange?"

"What are you insinuating Marquis?"

"I'm saying that there's no way so many beasts could appear like that, and the last person to return to the venue was you, your majesty. Not only that, but you brought along a strange person who knew the weakness of the beasts. Anyone would wonder if this wasn't some scheme of yours."

Veridin narrowed his eyes. Marquis Cassian was one of the voices from the courtroom and somehow connected to former viscount Brandy. He wasn't suspicious of Marquis Cassian before, but since he was trying to shift the blame Veridin wasn't going to keep quiet either. "Though you say that, you seem to be the one covered in less blood. If this were my scheme, why would I have returned and helped so vehemently?"

"Of course, to play the savior. Had you not returned, everyone here would have died."

"What a boldfaced lie Marquis Cassian. Do you think the Demon King would have let anyone here die?" Veridin gestured to Anaroth. "Without him, someone would have died from the explosions much earlier. If anything, he played a much bigger role than I. Are you going to say I set this stage to gain popularity, Marquis? Do my past achievements mean nothing to you?"

Marquis Cassian grit his teeth. He couldn't deny that before Veridin became king, he had been known as the Holy Knight. However, seeing his savage behavior today many of the nobles began to doubt Veridin's pristine image.

"Forget it your majesty. You're clearly not in your right mind after such a gruesome fight." He looked at Veridin with a grin. A mere dog of the church dares to bare its fangs? Well a disobedient hound must be shown its place. It did not matter if you were king or not; Know your place, mutt.

Veridin glared at him. He was good with his words as well as twisting public opinion in his favor. If Veridin were to deny that statement, he could claim that the king had gone mad from blood. Of course, that would only apply if Veridin hadn't accounted for his own late arrival. He smiled. "I'm certainly in my right mind. Raven, can you go retrieve the corpse we brought back?"

Raven bowed and disappeared. The moment the Marquis looked to the forest, Raven had reappeared beside Veridin and tossed a mangled sack of a corpse at Cassian's feet.

"Thank you Raven." Veridin picked the limp corpse with a satisfied expression. "This man was one of the people who summoned the beasts. I captured and questioned him, but as you can see he's nothing more than a shell now. When I asked him about who ordered this, he said it was 'for salvation' before he ended up in this sorry state. Does that prove my innocence, Marquis Cassian?"

His expression darkened, but did not lose its arrogance. "Ah… Ahem, certainly there is some strange force at work here. However, that still doesn't explain things, your majesty."

It was Duke Betchner who spoke instead. "Marquis Cassian, who are you to doubt his majesty? His majesty is the man who ended this war without any more bloodshed. The Empire knows him as the Hero King. Every noble here knows of his majesty's reputation as a just man, yet you continue to doubt. I believe it is not his majesty, but you who is the most suspicious Marquis Cassian. A mere marquis who questions his majesty's intentions."

"I agree with Duke Betchner. His Majesty has been preparing for this hunting festival for nearly a month now. Even the funding for the mana sensing bracelets was done by his majesty." Duke Hollin glanced over them.

"His majesty also had a mana sensing bracelet, so why did he instead stay in the forest? He even sent his guard back before him!" A man dressed in plain beige with greasy hair called out.

Veridin looked over at the man, annoyed. It was true he had sent Rowan back first, even abandoned his horse in the woods. Earl Reifield had pointed out the most obviously suspicious action. Though, Veridin never expected the other voice to reveal itself so easily.

"I sent Rowan back to drop off my prey, is that really so suspicious? This was a hunting festival after all." The suspicions placed on him faded. It wasn't strange at all to do what Veridin had done. It was merely the timing that made him seem guilty.

"Really, this is the worst situation possible." Anaroth stepped forward to Veridin's side. "This whole thing could be seen as an attempt to break the peace treaty with the demon kingdom. If that were true, then his majesty is the least suspicious, isn't that right?"

The nobles that didn't participate in the conversation began to murmur amongst themselves. Most of them were lower ranked nobles. After seeing Anaroth in a fight, they didn't want to risk having to fight against him in another war.

"Then I'll place my trust in the imperial palace to take care of this accident. Though, I find it quite strange how nobles of the Empire could interrogate their king so openly. In any case, I'm quite thankful to his majesty that no one died. I doubt I could have handled the situation all by myself."

Anaroth walked away before anyone else could speak. With just a few sentences he had put the nobles in their place and put to rest any suspicions placed on Veridin. Veridin couldn't help but chuckle as he walked away. He truly was an amusing person. After all that talk about leaving their own affairs to each other, he ended up wrapping up such a startling incident.

"Well with that settled, I believe this hunting festival will have to be canceled. Everyone may leave."

Veridin waved his hand before following Anaroth. Raven swiftly followed, leaving Rowan to stumble after them. Maria Betchner glanced longingly at Veridin's bloodsoaked back. Earl Reifield clenched his fists while watching them walk away. Marquis Cassian narrowed his eyes with a strange expression. The hunting festival was over.