Arian Reeves

"Please reconsider," the commander said, his voice urgent. "Your Majesty, please let us come with you. It's not safe if they plan to chase you in groups."

The commander was worried about my safety as we were discussing whether we should split up or not to fend off the group of assassins chasing us.

After winning the war, I came to this backwater kingdom since it was the only kingdom that has yet to be under my control. Not that I wanted to conquer it directly, no. But I wanted to know how this small kingdom was able to be away from my sight for so long. I wanted to see it for myself before taking over this kingdom under my rule.

My troops and I were supposed to stop by to rest before continuing our journey back to our kingdom. But it seems I miscalculated some things and ended up attracting my enemies since our small group can be easily outnumbered.

There are only ten people in our group including the commander and myself.

The sun had just started to set from the horizon, turning the sky into three gradients of yellow, orange, and red. My men were having their dinner near the bonfire.

But something was wrong, the air was too still for a forest. As I focused, I felt someone's senses probing us from the direction of the woods behind.

I scanned those blind spots. One after another, men in black cloaks jumped down from the tall trees toward us, their long cloak rippling in the wind.

We didn't make it more than two steps before an arrow shot through the air, followed by a barrage of invisible arrows. A surge of wind carrying enormous power stormed in our direction, clearly a sign of uncontrolled magic. Mercenary Mages? Where did they come from?

Before we knew it, we were already confronted by a large group of black cloaked assassins. One of them raised his hand and shaped a wind blade out of the air surrounding him which came striking towards our direction.

I ran towards him with my hands out, dark mist surging from my palms. The dark mist escaped from my hands as it scudded through the air towards the man. The murk of darkness twisted around the cloaked man as it slowly devoured everything entwined in it.

A bag of bones fell on the ground as the dark mist finished doing its job.

No, they weren't any ordinary assassins, I had known those runic tattoos etched on their wrists while fighting them—Zephyr soldiers with no masters but gifted with supernatural strengths able to wield the wind elemental as their weapons; in other words rogue mages.

Who would have created an order for such assassins to hunt me down?

I glanced behind me, but my troops started to show defeat. If this kept going, we would all get killed.

Two of my men even had to sacrifice themselves to buy us time to escape. We were outnumbered and outgunned, several times to one.

I had to change my strategy and fast. I racked my brain to come up with the best possible way to get out of this messy situation without letting any of my men die for me.

Hearing that the commander and his men wanted to stay with me, I right away knew it was a suicide plan for them. They would just try to sacrifice themselves to buy me more time to escape.

In the end, being a king also means you are responsible for their lives too. I don't want to let these loyal men die a dog's death just for my safety.

My subjects regard me as an eminent and illustrious king, known for my powerful magical arts at such a young age.

If I am to be a coward and let my men die, then how can I deserve to call myself as their king? How can I deserve those titles they glorify me with?

They sing the praises of my achievements during the war. But what they didn't know was that without these loyal men, the war would have been a pyrrhic victory.

So the least I could do is to make sure that these men reach back to their family safe and well.

I shook my head and said in an authoritative tone, "I won't allow it. I know how to take care of myself. Or did you all forget that I am the strongest mage in the kingdom? I want you all to split up in pairs of two right away. This is an order, or do you all want to disobey my order?"

The commander and his men looked at me as they wrinkled their brows. Their expressions seemed as if they were struggling to follow my orders.

I didn't get angry seeing that they probably wanted to disobey my order. But instead I appreciated their fealty and concern for my safety. But this was not the time I needed their concern.

The commander heaved a sigh of resignation and said in an ardent tone, "Of course not, Your Majesty. We don't dare to disobey your orders."

I nodded and smiled seeing their compliance.

"Good. Let's split up from here. It won't be long before they catch up to us." I said and we all put on identical hooded clothes.

At least this way, the group of assassins would be confused on whom to follow and they would have no choice but to split up. That way, we at least have more chances of surviving this.

And even if a few assassins managed to sneak up on me, I am confident that they won't live long enough to see tomorrow's daylight. After all, my prowess in dark magic wasn't for show.

In this world, magic existed, living and developing alongside mankind. And because of that, the world adopted a caste system where people who can wield magic were highly glorified.

Mundane were those ordinary humans with no ability of magic, who mostly ended up becoming slaves. Mages were people born with magic and considered gifted among ordinary people, they could only control one from each element: fire, wind, water, and earth. But above of that there were mages of dark and light magic. Dark magic mages were very rare in number just as light magic mages.

But I consider myself the best when it comes to dark magic in my kingdom. Which is why I am also known as the 'King Of Darkness' among the people. Only a fool would try to take me head-on all alone. Which is probably why they sent a group of assassins after me.

I dashed into the woods swiftly trying my best to obliterate my tracks using my dark magic. This was also why I was insistent about not letting my men follow me. If it were an ordinary mage, they would have left magical traces since they didn't have the same dark magic as mine.

My dark magic was coming in handy since I could easily cover my own tracks and escape. Those tracks vanished, abruptly, into thin air like the flame of a candle being blown out by a sudden draft of air. The darkness itself swallowed each of my footsteps.

I lost track of time of how long I have been running through this dense and endless woods. The skies had become dark a while ago and I had no idea where I was exactly.

I didn't want to turn back around right now and go back the way I came from since it might be too risky if there are assassins camping the spot where I split up with my men.

But soon enough I saw a dark grey building which seemed like a temple of sorts.

Thinking that it would be easy to lose any potential assassin who might be chasing me, I sprinted towards the temple.

I dropped on my knees by the window, making my way inside. There were barely any candles lit inside and if it were not for my acute senses...I am sure I would have gotten lost.

Suddenly I saw a shadow sneaking around right in front of me as if searching for someone is what I thought.

That black cloak, it looks the same like the one those Zephyr soldiers had on them. I gritted my teeth when I thought about it. Two of my men were down, and now one of them was lurking alone in this shabby temple.

I steadily sneaked my way behind the cloaked figure trying not to attract his attention.

Just as I got behind him, I grabbed his arms, and slammed him on the stone walls. It was easy. So shockingly easy. The cloak came undone because of the way I grabbed him with my full strength.

But what surprised me was that it was a woman! Well it's not like women assassins were completely non existent in our land but it was her countenance which held me spellbound.

The woman had a startling beauty with a small delicate body for an assassin. Her silver hair almost seemed to glow in the dazzling moonlight. Few strands of her hair were so bright against her corpse-pale skin that it didn't look real. A pair of sapphire blue eyes fixed on me in angst. Her lips quivered in pain, rising a pinch of pity inside me.

But I still didn't let myself get distracted as my voice was dropped into a low snarl, "Who sent you? Who put you up to assassinate me?"