Second Arc (His Art of War) – 118. A Nostalgic Meeting II

Second Arc (His Art of War) - 118. A Nostalgic Meeting II

"Tsk!" Angel clicked his tongue.

"Your Highness, stop the horse!" He tried to grab the reins from Rose's hands once again.

But suddenly a thick, tall wooden fence appeared before them, stopping them and making the horse throw them. Reflexively, Angel hugged Rose and released his dark aura to protect their bodies from the impact. He knew Rose would not notice this because of the darkness.

- Brakkk!

Their bodies crashed against a tree and rolled on the damp forest ground, down the short slope on the side of the path, but luckily thanks to Angel's dark aura there was not any wound on their bodies. Angel tried to get up, while Rose was beneath him. At the same time, Rose's eyes widened as she saw an archer was about to shoot Angel from behind.

"Look out!" Quickly, Rose grabbed a knife from her dress and threw it right at the archer's chest, killing him instantly.

Angel noticed it.

"Thank you!" he said as he pulled Rose to stand up since he realized the rebels who were in the trees were starting to come down and stormed to attack them from the front. Swiftly, his hand grabbed a quiver and a bow from a nearby corpse. While Rose pulled out her rope dart. Angel drew his bow to shoot the rebels who invaded them. His first target was the archers who could attack from a distance. He couldn't use his power because Rose was with him.

At his side, Rose slashed her rope dart, aiming it at her opponent's neck. Even though she had a hard time since the weapon wasn't a whip but somehow she managed to do it, it was just that she couldn't kill them as fast as usual. Their feet moved slowly backwards as the rebels drew near. As the arrows ran out, Angel took out his sword.

The remaining rebels surrounded them. Angel and Rose's backs pressed against each other, their eyes sweeping across the rebels around them.

"Your Highness, can you clean up three people in front of you?" asked Angel. There were ten rebels that surrounded them and those three were closest to Rose. He couldn't possibly handle them.

"Are you looking down on me?" replied Rose, she had faced five rebels at once, three people was not a problem to her.

"Then I'll leave it to you." After those words left his mouth as if on cue they lunged at their opponents and started swinging their weapons.

In just a few minutes, they could clean up the rebels. Rose turned to Angel, who was swinging his sword at the last rebel in front of him, separating the rebel's head from his body mercilessly. A torrent of blood from his opponent's neck soaked his hood and mask as his hand sheathed his sword.

"Are all Euphorion's soldiers this cruel?" asked Rose. Even though her hands were also stained with blood, she never cut off her enemy's head.

Angel turned to her and smirked.

"It depends on the situation, Your Highness."

Rose walked over to him. Then swept her gaze around.

"You said General Flare sent you to take care of this. Where are your friends?"

"General has only sent me to clean this up, Your Highness," replied Angel calmly.

"She only sent you alone?" asked Rose in disbelief. She couldn't believe Flare was so cruel as this was tantamount to sending him to his death.

"Did she send you to spy on the rebels?" she guessed again since she saw Angel wearing a mask that covered one third of his face.

"No, Your Highness. My mission is to rescue the hostages and kill the rebels," clarified Angel.

"I'm an elite member, I'm used to this kind of missions. I hope you can return now and let me handle this," he added.

"I told you, you are a Euphorion, not a Zephyrus. I can't trust my people's safety to you," said Rose. Besides, she was worried about the servant's family. She couldn't save the servant, at least she didn't want his family to have the same fate as him.

"You still don't want to come back?" asked Angel. He couldn't use his dark powers if Rose was with him.

"Of course not," insisted Rose. She felt she had a responsibility for this, moreover, the rebels asked her to meet them. How could she turn tail and run away like a coward?

Angel exhaled in annoyance.

'Then don't blame me for this. ' His hand started to emit a dark aura, he planned to knock her out with his dark aura and teleport her to the inn. But suddenly a roar could be heard not far from them.

"Grrrahhhhh!"

They turned to the origin of the voice. A large black shadow ran toward them, breaking through at the surrounding bush and trees. Rose prepared her rope dart. While Angel took out his sword again. As the large shadow got closer they realized it was a Fiend Bear. And both of them could already guess that the monster had come to them because of the smell of blood from the corpses.

Rose was ready to fight the monster, but Angel saw it as the perfect bait to destroy the rebels. He grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her to run away. Meanwhile, the Fiend Bear chased them from behind.

"That monster's weakness is on the back of its neck! We can beat it," said Rose. She guessed he ran away because he did not know or had never encountered this monster before.

Angel smirked.

'So you remember what I taught you,' he thought as he remembered that he was the one who told Rose its weakness in Asteria's hunting ground.

"We can use it to destroy the rebel traps," Angel explained his plan.

"That's a good idea," said Rose as a smile appeared on her face. She was quite surprised by his ability to make the strategy based on the situation. And it made her think of someone. Her heart started beating fast as that thought crossed her mind. The smile on her face faded as her eyes fell on his hand that held her tightly, reminding her when she and Angel ran from the same monster in Asteria's training ground.

"Angelus ..." she muttered unconsciously. Then her gaze shifted to the back of the masked elite troop who was wearing the black Euphorion uniform. She remembered that five years ago, what she saw was the prince of Asteria's white uniform, but she knew that Prince of Asteria was 'dead' and had turned into the king of Euphorion who had succeeded in conquering her kingdom.

Meanwhile, Angel's eyes were busy looking for a place to hide since he could feel that he was getting closer to the rebels' location. As he saw a gap in the trunk of a large tree covered in hanging tree roots not far from before him, he flowed his dark aura into his sword and threw it upwards to cut the tree branches above him. Some of the tree branches fell, blocking the Fiend Bear's view even if only temporarily.

Quickly, he pulled Rose into the gap in the trunk and pulled the hanging roots to cover them. Then swiftly, his hands emitted a dark aura to create a barrier in front of them since the smell of blood was still clear from their bodies. Even though this was a little reckless, Rose shouldn't have noticed this because his dark aura was mixed with the darkness of the night and also the hanging roots that covered them.

Meanwhile, Rose was silent. Her heart was beating violently. This was the first time her mind felt blank in the middle of a battle.

'How can everything be the same as five years ago?' thought Rose.