Royal Princess of Blood

“Huh? What the hell is going on here?” Hartwin drew out his rapier and glared at the new coming set of monsters. And they had just fought a herd of them recently. He was confused. “Haven’t you noticed it yet, Taneva?”

A group of monsters was running on two legs, but their limbs were a combined stone and flesh. They had long arms and large, sturdy hands, stomping on the ground as they ran. Their heads were slim, but a slit was at the center, where their crimson eyes were. A dozen of them were rushing towards the crew.

Ever since they had started traversing this monster-filled region, groups of monsters had been strangely going in their direction. Which was the cause of Hartwin’s confusion — this situation had been tiring given that they had to keep fighting these powerful monsters. For a normal human such as Hartwin, this was too much, he was only being carried in this fight by the inhuman among their crew.

However, it was weird that these monsters kept coming their way.

“Hm, I was mainly worried about those dead angels sensing her. But normal monsters of this many…?” It was hard to tell how monsters would respond in the presence of divinity, but he imagined they should be frightened. Unless he was wrong in that regard. He glanced at the sleeping princess and he remembered something. “Huh, I forgot she’s also the daughter of the deity of beasts… But her sister should have that trait from what I heard…”

“What are you muttering about?”

“I can’t say for sure if it’s her divinity or something from her lineage. Could be both. But I suspect they are attracted to Estelia’s divinity.”

“... Thought so… Guess the fabric covers aren’t doing their job anymore.”

“As long as it’s only monsters, it’s completely fine. We just don’t want to attract the other, more dangerous kind.” There should be others of the same kind of monsters — the dead angels — roaming around these islands. Encounter was rare, and it would be nice to keep it that way. The one they encountered before might have sensed Estelia because she used magic near its presence. Just a terrible coincidence and great misfortune.

The Cursed Children went ahead first and engaged the monsters, forcing the beasts to disperse. The rest of the beasts that got through headed straight towards Estelia. Taneva first moved in to stop them. Meanwhile Hartwin rushed towards one that got through Taneva.

He swung his rapier at it, compelling the beast to stop. It growled in this weird, shrilly sound. Hartwin studied his opponent, and it tried to violently swing its arms at him. He calmly stepped back, evading the subsequent attacks. He had noticed that he was getting good at this, facing powerful enemies. Experience truly was a great teacher. It was no wonder that the warriors here were stronger on average than those on the continent.

He studied the monster before him. It had stone as a shell, but it had gaps all over the place. With his rapier, he could easily stab through them and reach the flesh. As for its weakness, it should be the eye in its head. But with its long arms, it would be difficult to aim outright for it. Therefore, Hartwin should try to slow down the monster’s movement first.

Pouring magic into his blade, he leaned forward and thrust his rapier into the monster’s arm through the gaps of its armor, releasing a shot of Armament Magic. Blood splattered, and parts of its shell cracked and shattered. He quickly followed up with another attack and stabbed the monster a few times through the gaps in its protective shell. He struck the elbows, the legs, and the knees. Then, when the monster finally struggled to move, he moved in to the front and stabbed his rapier into its eye, unleashing a blast of Armament Magic, destroying the eye and the flesh inside. The monster limply dropped to the ground.

There was no time to idle, he immediately went on to take care of the few remaining monsters.

Meanwhile, Velar was standing at the rear in a safe area, carrying the princess in his arms. It had been days since she last woke up, and it was concerning that she had been asleep this long without even a peek. Indeed, she had not even woken up even for a moment. Not even the loud chaos of battle was able to wake her. One would even wonder if she was even still alive — but she was still breathing.

This had been routine ever since they traversed these plains, Velar remained in the back while the others fought off the monsters. And it had been working flawlessly.

Suddenly, Velar felt the ground beneath his feet tremble. Puzzled, he looked down. It was then that he realized the soil shifting — he instantly leaped away, just in time a giant maw emerged from the ground. Dirt and debris flung in the air as a large monster rose up aggressively.

It had a large, round mouth with sharp fangs; its long body had an almost triangular shape. It had a pair of moving fangs on the side of its mouth, as if they were used for sticking onto its prey. It had a fleshy body, with small teeth-like things protruding all over the frontal part. It had four legs with claws. It let out a shrill shriek as it turned to look toward Velar. It was then that its body shifted for a moment, and from its sides emerged a pair of tentacles, each of which had a big, sharp tooth at the point.

It suddenly stepped forward with shocking speed and proficiency despite its size. One of its tentacles lashed at him, and Velar managed to evade it. However, it was instantly followed up by the other tentacle, and there was no other chance to evade it, he couldn’t do it in time. Therefore, he used his body as a cover to protect the princess before the tentacle violently slammed against him. Despite being filled with Physical Enhancement, he couldn’t go against the sheer strength of the monster’s attack, and he was flung away — flying along with him was the princess, separating from this grasp.

The princess roughly landed on the ground, but not far from him. Just close by.

“Velar!” Hartwin shouted as he rushed towards them.

Velar waved his arm. “Go to the princess!” He drew his greatsword as he saw the monster coming towards her, intending to get in its way. It was then that Taneva jumped in and jabbed the bottom tip of his spear at the monster, blowing it sideways.

Taneva spun his spear and stabbed it into the side of the monster’s body. The tentacles struck at him, but he easily deflected them away. With the monster out of their way, Velar quickly went on to check out the princess.

“Hartwin, how is she?”

“I only see scratches.” He gently turned her over and saw her eyes were slightly open. “Princess…? You awake?”

Her face twitched as she looked around with narrowed eyes. “W-What’s… what’s going on?”

“In a bit of a troub—” Hartwin’s words were cut short when the ground suddenly started shaking.

“Move!” Velar instantly grabbed the princess and rushed out of the way. Just after the three got out, the same kind of monster emerged from the ground.

Hartwin’s eyes widened. “Another one?! This is getting worse.”

The monster roared and turned to face them.

***

What… What the fuck is going on?

I was abruptly taken out of my slumber with excruciating pain all over my body. And now, I was met with grotesque monsters? Why were we fighting so many monsters, anyway? I got off Velar after he moved me out to safety. The moment my feet touched the ground, I almost faltered. My legs were weaker than I had first expected. But I immediately regained my footing.

I slowly took a deep breath, bearing the pain radiating all over my body. At the same time, the three Cursed Children moved in and fought the giant monster before us. They dug their claws into it aggressively, Nira in particular bit on it, drinking its blood. The monster lashed around, trying to drive them off, but to no avail.

“That is one ugly monster…” My eyelids still felt so heavy, I still needed to sleep. I felt so drowsy and dizzy, I was not in a good condition at all, especially in facing an enemy. Then I noticed the ground beneath us shake.

Another one?!

We quickly moved away, but I almost tumbled as I did. Another same kind of monster shot out from the ground, two tentacles came out of its body and violently struck towards us all. Just how many of these things were coming? This was starting to get ridiculous.

Hartwin and Velar barely evaded its attacks, but I on the other hand — the beast stepped forward and one of its tentacles swung towards me, striking rapidly. No… I… I was too weak to move quickly enough to dodge that… How was I going to overcome this? Magic? But using magic would only…

I noticed Taneva coming, but he wouldn’t be able to make it. No one… no one could save me in this… but myself. Why did these powerful monsters have to come? Dammit. I had no choice. Therefore, I held out my hands and cast a barrier.

However, it would appear I put less mana than I wanted — my control over mana was unstable. My shield shattered upon impact, but it had weakened the attack as it got through. Still, it was strong enough to blow me away, and I ended up rolling on the ground.

“Princess!”

I panted, groaning in pain as I got up. I looked down at my arms, they were injured, bleeding. The cloth covering the crack on my skin came loose. Hartwin and Velar quickly came up to me as Taneva fought the beast.

“Crap, hang on.” Hartwin quickly started casting healing magic on me.

“... It’s my fault, Your Highness… I wasn’t fast enough…” Velar said, looking like he was disappointed in himself.

But I didn’t have the energy to speak. I was so weak that I fell down, and Velar caught me.

“Good, the healing magic’s working,” Hartwin said.

Gradually, the wound started to close up and heal. At the same time, the monsters had been taken care of. Nira rushed up beside me.

“Goddess! Goddess! Are you going to be okay?”

I took a deep breath. “Y-Yeah…”

Hartwin turned his head to look at the approaching Taneva. “What the hell were those crazy monsters ganging up on us for?”

“We’re attracting more and more kinds of monsters.”

“... Is it… my doing?” I weakly asked.

“That aside, you used magic.”

“Just a shield—” It was then that I noticed that the crack on my arm suddenly increased in number and extended. My eyes widened, they had basically reached the tips of my hand. More golden light radiated from the crack.

“Uh oh…” Taneva muttered. “Not good. I can basically feel it now.”

Using magic, plus getting injured… It would certainly make the cracks bigger. That was the only thing we wanted to prevent.

Taneva gripped his spear tightly. “We need to move, now.” It was then that we heard howls and roars in the distance. “Run, we need to run!”

***

It had been silent for some time. The dead angel remained stationary, unmoving like a statue. However, a change in the wind came. It moved its head and faced a particular direction.

“Found… you…” It said in a low, husky voice.

Its wings expanded and it launched itself in the air. It has now found what it seeks. It quickly flew through the mountainous region, and headed straight to the source of divinity.

Meanwhile, the demons noticed this strange being flying in the air, leaving a trail of darkness. The dread lord, Trigel, along with a few demons, were moving on the plains when they saw that thing. And they froze in place. Their eyes were wide as they watched it fly by.

“What the hell is that?” one imp asked under his breath.

But even Trigel had no idea what it was. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. Whatever that is, we shouldn’t fuck with that.”

It was not a demon, that was for sure. But it didn’t look like any monster either. It almost looked like some sort of reaper with how utterly dangerous and horrifying it looked. The pressure it exuded was beyond that he had ever felt.

No, it was almost similar to what he had experienced once.

Reminds me of the Administrator…

“What are we going to do?”

Trigel kept staring at the strange being. “I think it’s best to keep an eye on it. Figure out what it’s here for. But keep your distance.”