The battle of the Golden Path II (prologue)

The king got in a stance holding his spear with both hands. Rictos seeing this prepared himself his sword stance as well.

Loryx held up his hand and his men got ready. Nobody spoke a word.

Suddenly Mekanze leaped backwards and unto the top of the carriage. Loryx pointed forward with his sword and the three swordsmen charged.

Rictos and Grandos charged towards the three swordsmen and they clashed in the middle.

The king twirled his spear in a fashion keeping two of the men at bay while Rictos stormed the third man.

An arrow shot towards Rictos but he turned and it glanced off his armor.

Rictos made short work of his enemy pushing his sword into the gap in his armor. The man was wounded and unable to fight. 

Mekanze was nowhere to be seen.

The archer shouted in rage and shot two arrows with quick succession. But Rictos batted the first one away and ducked under the second. He rushed towards the archer to finish him off while he was preparing to fire another arrow. 

The two swordsmen battling Grandos appeared to be working in sync and barely left any opening for the king to strike.

Grandos parried and struck at his two assailants back and forth but the fight was a stalemate, he was better than each man individually but it seemed both were enough to hold him off.

The archer aimed his arrow at Grandos ready to shoot at the king.

Rictos noticed and realized he had to choose between protecting the king or killing the archer.

"Brother! Watch out!" Rictos shouted.

Grandos noticed the arrow and barely dodged, but there was a second he didn't notice. 

Rictos jumped towards his brother and swatted the arrow down right before it struck Grandos.

Everyone paused to catch their breath,

"Yield, and end this farce," Loryx said lazily.

The king noticed he didn't move from his original spot the whole time.

"We will fight the death dog." Rictos replied with venom. "The likes of you will not get the satisfaction of taking us prisoner."

Loryx sighed, he then turned to Grandos "surely you don't want your men to die in vain unicorn king."

Grandos scowled. "What men?" He bit back. "Your lot have already killed them all."

Loryx smiled "it seems so, but what about your brother? and.." He looked around a bit and then laughed out loud. "It seems it's only your brother, you've been deserted."

Rictos scowled. "I'm not one for bandying words." He spat. 

Rictos' blade started to become red hot as if it was in a blast furnace, as he swung it around the heat distortion could be seen radiating off it. 

"dance with me." He said as he rushed Loryx.

but he was accosted by the two swordsmen. From earlier. 

Instead if facing him head on and parrying his flames sword they dodged his strike while taking turns to strike at his openings

Grandos attempted to assist him but was being suppressed by arrow fire from the brush surrounding them.

The two swordsmen stepped back and said something to each other in kaldian. 

Grandos noticed one of them smear something on his sword while the other attacked Rictos.

They then both stopped attacking for a split second and took two stances, one low and one high. 

Grandos noticed what they were trying to do.

"There's no way rictos could avoid both blows." Grandos thought.

"Rictos!" Grandos shouted as a volley of arrows came from a different direction. 

The king struck the ground with his spear shaft and fire bloomed out from it, the shockwave stopping the arrows.

Where Rictos' blade glowed red hot, Grandos' spear was aflame. 

Both swordsmen attacked simultaneously, one high and one low.

"There's poison on one of the blades!" Grandos shouted to his brother.

The swordsmen crisscrossed multiple times to confuse Rictos. But he had to make a gamble, he had to choose one to parry. 

Because he had less armor low he decided to parry the low blade and sliced right through it cutting it clean in half.

The high blade approached his face and neck area and he caught a glimpse of blue liquid as it approached his face but Rictos felt someone grab his collar, it was the king who roughly pulled him back and flung him behind on the ground.

Grandos roared loudly as he swung his spear in an arch at both men leaving a long trail of flames in its wake.

The one with the broken sword moved back enough to not be hurt. But his comrade wasn't so lucky. He lost a leg as he was trying to dodge, cut clean through at the knee.

The king stabbed him in the chest and put him out of his misery.

Arrows flew to strike the king but he twirled his spear creating a flame vortex which burnt them to a crisp.

"Brother are you ok?" Grandos asked eyeing the three remaining enemies 

An arrow targeted Rictos as he sat on the ground but the king noticed it and swatted it away.

Loryx didn't like the way the battle was going, two of his men were out of commission, one being dead and the other basically crippled, his hidden archers were being reduced by the minute, he was positive it was the third man who hid his face but it seems the stupid unicorn nobles didn't notice, they were still just as cautious as they were when he had a full set of archers in the bushes. 

The unicorns has already activated their whispers and that's what he was waiting on, it was only a matter of time before they were too exhausted to use them anymore and he'd be able handle the two old men.

But the third man was a variable he wasnt counting on. He was sure the masked man was kaldian like him, he had the typical build for it, towering over the unicorns and his accent seemed natural when speaking the sacred tongue, the one the unicorns called kaldian.

But why would one of the blessed fight for the worshippers of the sky sword? Did he have no love for his own?

Loryx decided not to dwell on these thoughts too much, the whispers were fading, it was almost time. 

"I cant hold my whisper any longer brother." The king said. 

Rictos nodded as he noticed his sword was cooling.

They were both furiously attacking the last swordsman who had both the sword of his comrade and his own broken sword. But a decisive blow was just out of reach until the archer ran out of arrows

The brothers were trying to steer the fight towards the black haired archer but it wasn't easy.

They did notice they were not being assaulted by the Bush archers anymore but were still being cautious.

The whispers finally faded and Loryx smiled wide, this was now his chance.

He rushed towards both brothers and in a flurry of attacks he took control of the battle, he wasn't tired like the other three men and easily struck Rictos with the pommel of his sword laying him down in the dirt. He then struck the king behind the knee cutting deep into flesh.

Rictos recovered to see his brother on one knee with a blade to his neck a few feet from him. He was nicked by the poisoned sword in the confusion and his wound was bleeding black. 

Suddenly Mekanze appeared from behind the carriage and saw the situation, he was busy dispatching the hidden archers and was not present for the main fight. 

"Give up kings brother You have lost!" Loryx said in triumph "I have my prize."

"You will not have him!" Rictos shouted 

"What can you do?" Loryx cut in. "You are practically dead already." 

Loryx looked towards Mekanze. "or are you depending on the coward to save him?"

"Go home brother." The king finally said softly but loud enough to hear. "Prepare my son for rule, leave me and save yourself."

Loryx struck the king in the jaw knocking him to the ground before holding him up by the horn. "Who said you could speak?"

The kind glared defiantly at his captors and said "my children will raze the whole of kaldia in my name, you may win now but the war will be for the glory of Pen…!"

The king was struck again a little harder.

Rictos' face became stony and he held up his sword menacingly.  Both he and Mekanze rushed at the enemy, the archer sent arrows one after the other which glanced off Rictos' and Mekanze's armors

As soon as Rictos reached the swords man protecting Loryx he was struck in his upper arm by an arrow disabling his sword arm. The swords man swung but he ducked and before his sword could reach the ground he caught it with his other hand and beheaded the swordsman in one motion as he stood back up. 

Loryx was impressed  by Rictos' prowess and didn't notice that Mekanze had somehow killed his one archer.

He stepped in front of the king to meet Rictos in single combat and in two swings disabled the old duke. 

He turned around to gloat in the kings face but he was not there, only the blood he was kneeling in.

Rictos forced himself to look towards his brother who was halfway towards the horses in the clearing and smiled. 

"It is you who should protect my children brother," he whispered as his vision faded.

In his final moments he saw Loryx screaming at Mekanze and the king with a bow in his hand and them escaping on two horses.

Everything faded to black as he saw the red face of the kaldian throwing his tantrum

He smiled in satisfaction.