Chapter 41: Payback & Reparations
'Thinking'
"Talking"
[System]
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- Grey Wolf Queen Den -
- Arthur Pendragon -
Anger coursed through my veins as I made my way up a set of seemingly endless stairs. I struggled to understand the Queen's point of view. Why couldn't she have made the offer first, then said that I had to prove myself down in the crypts. Most likely I would've accepted it a lot easier than being forcibly thrown down here while watching my girlfriend and guards be dragged away from me unconscious.
It didn't make sense, then again how long has she done nothing but sit on that throne? I vowed to find out personally and if she chose to fight me then so be it. A dragon always conquers a wolf.
'Oh, fuck it.' I thought as I looked up the stairs and saw a light being emitted from an old rotting wooden door. [Dragon Leap] If it weren't for the forty-foot-tall ceiling I'm sure that I would've impacted the ceiling and hurt myself more than I would hurt the door I was targeting.
My leap went unhindered however and like a rocket I skyrocketed up to the top of the stairs and the door went flying off its hinges. The guard behind the door didn't know what was coming when the door that he was guarding came flying towards him at twenty-five miles an hour sending him sliding across the floor.
I dashed towards him, picked him up by the throat and slammed him into a nearby column. The column cracked under the force and the guard coughed up a gob of blood. I leaned my head to the right and avoided it before squeezing his throat and asking, "Where is the Queen?"
"H-Her majesty, i-i-is in the throne r-room." the guard said quivering under my anger filled gaze.
I let go of his throat and watched as he crumbled to the ground in fear, "Thank you." I said to him.
"H-Huh? O-Oh, y-you're welcome." he replied with a fake smile which caused my blood to boil for some reason.
*SLAM!*
My foot shot out like a bullet and sent his head through the stone column knocking him unconscious.
'These damn wolves think they can play games with a dragon? If you mess with dragons, you will get burned. Don't say no one warned you.' I thought as I strode down the hall past the unconscious guard in search of the throne room.
I had made my way down several more hallways resulting in a few more unconscious guards when I finally found the throne room. The throne room's grandiose doors were protected by a guard detail of six that all stood with their swords out ready for combat. On the side of each of the doors were four sandstone pillars that had braziers attached to them halfway up illuminating the doorway.
"Enter peacefully and you will not be harmed." The guard standing in front spoke.
"What? Are you kidding me? Hahaha! You sent me to die, no I plan to get a little payback." I said with a feral grin. The soldiers all tensed in anticipation, waiting for me to draw my sword, I simply walked forward.
"S-Stand back!" One of them shouted.
"GAH!" Another one of them yelled as he stepped forward and angled a downwards slash towards me.
I sidestepped the slash and dashed into his comfort zone, quickly unleashing a flurry of jabs and uppercuts into his midsection. The impacts of the blows traveled through his armor and fucked up his inner organs causing him to collapse to the floor in a fit of coughing blood.
One of the soldiers leapt at me aiming towards my neck. Performing a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, I raised my forearm and blocked the blade with my skin, the soldier went wide eyed and slack jawed. While the soldier was still in shock, I grabbed the blade and pulled, bringing him cascading towards me. The soldier unable to control his descent prepared for the worst and my fist connected with his jaw, shattering it, and causing him to go spinning in the air like a cartoon character.
"Anyone else?" I asked mockingly while performing the 'bring it on' gesture with my hands. The soldiers all glanced at each other before yelling out a battle cry, raising their swords and rushing towards me like madmen.
I sidestepped the first one and sent a fireball directly into his midsection sending him flying into the nearby column, cracking the column and his spine. The next one performed a series of strikes with his blade that were mildly impressive but were nothing special, he went down with a few strikes to the gut and a roundhouse kick to the jaw. Another soldier attacked me from behind, the sword bounced back off my shoulder and back towards him. Spinning around I jumped over a swing aimed at my legs and brought my foot down onto the sword shattering it. The werewolf looked stupefied that his sword was able to be broken, allowing me to land two solid punches right on his nose causing my knuckles to ache slightly while his nose broke, and blood began pouring out of it profusely.
"You're the last one, now get out of my way!" I snarled.
The werewolf grinned and threw down his sword, "We were taking it easy on you. Did you forget that werewolves can transform? You want me to get serious, I'll get serious!" he shouted as his muscles started to bulge and his body began to grow a coat of fur.
"HOWL!" The werewolf howled as he finished his transformation into a seven-foot-tall werewolf with grey fur. "You still think you can take me?" he asked smugly.
"Yeah, I do. You see you're not the only one who can transform." I said as I activated [Dragonification]. Stark white and bright golden scales began to envelop certain parts of my body, such as my arms and legs, as well as the sides of my face. My eyes then turned from their usual gold to a bright lime green.
[Dragonification Successful! All stats have been doubled!]
"Wha- HOW!" The werewolf screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU!"
"A dragon." I replied simply. Within the blink of an eye, I was suddenly in the werewolf's face with my now dragonified fist crashing into his snout sending him flying through the throne room doors.
*CRASH*
Both heavy throne room doors were pulled off their hinges and went crashing to the floor. The transformed werewolf flew through the air until hitting the floor, bouncing up back into the air, then landing back on the floor directly beneath the Queen.
I walked in with a smirk on my face and my head held high, on the left side of the room forty to fifty werewolves all stood in between the sandstone pillars with their mouths agape. The right side was much of the same except for the fact that there were also three prisoners with their arms tied behind their back and their shoulder armor removed allowing for freedom of movement.
"Mhmm!" Octavia said muffled by the cloth inside of her mouth.
"What is the meaning of this?" The Queen asked with amusement dancing in her dimly lit red eyes.
'So that is the Queen? Holy shit she's fucking sexy! No, stay on track, it's time to inspire fear and act your role. Focus up Arthur.' While my mental conundrum erupted inside my head, on the outside I kept my facial features schooled. The only noticeable movement I was making was the opening and closing of my fists.
"Queen?" I asked coming out of my mental thought process.
"Queen Ghislaine Dedoldia otherwise known as the Grey Wolf Queen." She said formerly introducing herself. [Observe]
[Ghislaine Dedoldia]
Titles: Grey Wolf Queen, Supreme Leader, Sword King
Race: Werewolf
Level: 83
HP: 75,815
MP: 41,750
'So, she's definitely stronger than the commander, I could most likely defeat her if I unlock my second dragon transformation though.' I thought to myself as I looked at her stats. 'Oh, shit they're waiting for me to introduce myself.'
"My name is Arthur Pendragon, King of Arkadia, or you may refer to me as King Arthur or King Arthur Pendragon. Now, before we move on to anything else here... Release my guard, now." I said with a no questions asked tone of voice.
The guards that surrounded Octavia and my royal guards looked unsure but after a quick nod from the Queen, they quickly released them.
Octavia rushed to her feet and bolted towards me, I caught her in my arms and whispered in her ear that I would never allow her to be taken again. My royal guards simply made their way behind me and got into different forms of hand-to-hand combat, ready to fight any who would attack their king. While I admired the effort, they were in no shape to protect me right now, it had been a few hours since I was sent tumbling down into the crypts and I could tell that their arms and shoulders were stiff with inactivity due to having their arms tied behind their backs.
"I knew that you would survive the crypts. You see I've observed you from afar for quite a while and to be frank with you I'm impressed." She said standing and walking slowly off her throne.
"I'm glad I could meet your standards but there was no reason for you to capture my guard and send me down there forcibly. I'm sure there could have been a better way to do what you did." I raged waving my hands in wild motions.
"Help him up, would you?" The Queen asked a few of the nearby guards as she stepped past the passed out transformed werewolf on the throne room floor. Ghislaine walked up to Arthur and grabbed his chin, "Now, husband~ how about we forget about that and focus on killing the vampire's."
"Sure thing, but first things first. I want control of this mountain and its mines, you will all move to Arkadia and set up homes there." I said, causing the smile to disappear from her face.
"What? This is our ancestral home, you will not mine it as if it were some common iron mines." She said aggravated.
"That's not how this is going to work, you could've gotten me killed or killed my guards. You will be the one compensating me and following my orders and commands."
"... Why would I do that?" she asked, flaring up with anger.
"I've already explained why, you sentenced me to death in the crypts against an undead lord. Not only that but you kidnapped my royal guard leading me to think that you killed them causing me emotional strife. There are reparations to be made and if you can't see that then maybe someone else should sit on your throne." I said threatening.
"Fine!" Ghislaine snarled, "On one condition. You and a fighter of my choice battle and whoever wins will decide how this alliance of ours will all play out. If you win you may make any demands you wish, and I will follow them. If I win vice versa, clear?"
"Crystal." I replied with a grin.
"Mortas, come out here!" She shouted out to the crowd.
The large werewolf in wolf style plate armor walked out of the crowd with his large axe in his hands. He walked over towards the Queen and kneeled once he was a few feet away. "Yes, your majesty?"
"I want you to fight King Arthur for me, make sure to beat him just as you did earlier." Ghislaine ordered as she turned around and headed back towards her throne.
'This guy again?' I thought to myself as I used [Observe] to check his stats.
[Mortas Girēnu]
Titles: Grey Wolf General, Axe King,
Race: Werewolf
Level: 54
HP: 53,550
MP: 25,750
'Okay so he's near Roan's level, he also has nearly the same amount of health, but he has less MP than Roan did, weird.' I thought as I squared my shoulders and set my stance.
"Not going to use a weapon, huh? I didn't know you were so arrogant!" He roared as he launched himself at me.
As he rocketed towards me, I used the flames in the nearby braziers and waited for the perfect opportunity to use them to my advantage. He planted his foot and swung his large axe at me from a foot or two away, I only had a second to react otherwise I would've been cleaved in half. Good thing that was an easy thing for me to do. I leaped into the air above the swing and clapped my hands together forcing the rising fire in the braziers to fly out and engulf Mortas in flames.
"AGH!" He screamed out in pain.
As I was still hovering in the air, I activated [Dragon Leap] causing me to rocket down towards the enflamed Mortas and slam down in front of him cracking the floor and creating a small impact crater. Mortas was sent flying back, bouncing off one of the sandstone columns and crashing to the floor. Not wanting to let up I created two [Fire Whips] and lashed them both out towards his rising form. The whips wrapped around his arms and attempted to burn through his armor plating, I pulled back with all my strength forcing the werewolf to come flying back towards me. 'Crucify!' I yelled mentally. A giant golden glowing cross spawned next to me and launched towards Mortas, the cross hit him in the center of his back, piercing through him and sending him to the floor, pinned underneath the holy cross.
"Ahh!"
"Ahh!"
I began to hear yelps from around the room and even saw that the Queen was uncomfortable and fidgeting in her seat due to the holy power the cross emitted. 'I wouldn't even want to think how much pain that much be.' I thought as I looked at Mortas as he struggled to even move.
The last straw was when I began to charge a [Fire Stream] in front of my extending fist similar to what Ozai did when he was atop his airship during the ending of Avatar: The Last Airbender. "Yield." I said as the flame began to morph in between a burning red and golden flame.
Mortas unnervingly stared at the flame and didn't move; he didn't do anything. I figured that the flame might not be enough, so I activated [Enchantment]. That seemed to get everyone in the throne room to start sweating bullets as the flame transformed into a bright golden and white ball of intense heat and Holy energy. "Yield." I repeated.
"Mortas Yields!" the Queen shouted realizing that if I were to release this flame the entire throne room as well as everyone in it would die.
"Good." I said dispelling the flame and the cross. "Now, down to negotiations." I said smiling at the Queen.
"Yes... Let us negotiate." she grumbled.
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A/N: Not as long as last chapter but Arthur stepped up to the plate and showed the Queen and her wolves their place. I mean Mortas wasn't even able to transform in time! HA! Anyway, in the next chapter we'll see what Arthur demands from the Queen and if she will in fact still become his...