347 Chapter 347: Duel
"Is that... Princess Clio?"
There was silence after the loud rumbling of the door—and the rumbling of the door was loud. The doors that lead to the castle were heavy and gigantic, even coated with iron and copper and the only way to truly break it would be to ram it with a large tree. But of course, that was made impossible due to the design of the castle, which makes the entrance tight so that nothing as large as a carriage would fit.
This was the King's last defense—and yet right now, their doors were now just swinging on the floor before laying flat with an almost thunderous drum. But of course, none of them were even thinking about the door anymore, not even the army's general and last vanguard of the King against the soldiers of Thebes.
After all, how could they be concentrating on things other than Princess Clio? Who just casually emerged from the other side, right when they thought that the thing that would emerge would be their death?
"My... my daughter!?" The King, who was holding his own sword, could not help but stare at Clio as she walked closer to them. He was looking at his face first trying to see if it was really her—and as soon as he confirmed it to be so, he quickly rushed toward her; his lanky and skinny build, caused the armor he was wearing to swing around his torso.
"Your Majesty!"
But before he could actually approach Clio, his general stopped him.
"What are you doing, unhand me at once!"
"We... we don't know if that really is Princess Clio! She could be—"
"It's me." Clio let out a loud breath as she dropped her sword to the floor and placed her hand on her chest, "I am sorry for leaving, Father—I thought that my destiny lies elsewhere, and I find that it is not true at all, in a way—but in the end, I had to leave in order to figure that out."
"Unhand me!" The King pushed the general away—well, he could not actually push the general away and he had to let go so that the king could run toward his daughter.
"Father..." Clio welcomed her father's embrace, "I am sorry for leaving."
"No...no," the King immediately pulled away, "You shouldn't have come back, my daughter... my Clio—we have lost this war, this massacre. I have already ordered our people to either run or hide because I know that we will not win this. You should go...
...General, take my daughter away to somewhere safe. I will—"
"Father," Clio let out a small sigh while shaking her head, "It is fine now, I have brought someone who could help us. And we will be fine, Father—I will protect our people."
"Protect... our people?" The King looked Clio in the eyes; gently brushing his fingers on her cheek, "Your mother would have been so proud of you, my dear Clio—but we have already lost this war. And what can you even do? At least you brought with you the might of the gods themselves, then we are lost."
"But—"
And before the King could finish his words, the phalanx formation was completely cut apart as the so-called might of god finally revealed itself—himself. The King and even the general were preparing to see some sort of beast, hungry and feral, a brute.
They held their breaths from seeing how tall he was at first, but then... they saw his face.
"What..."
"It's... a god," the general gasped. Even from afar, it was obvious how chiseled and good-looking Rhys was. Like a statue that was sculpted by the most promiscuous of gods—their vision of beauty and power at the same time, "For...
...For glory."
But soon, however, that beauty was replaced by unmatched violence as they saw Rhys just completely push his entire arm through a soldier–there was not even a resistance at all as his hand penetrated the soldier's chest plate.
And of course, the soldiers of Thebes have noticed that too—and none of them were rushing toward Rhys anymore.
As for Rhys, when he saw that no one was approaching him anymore, he also stopped moving and just stared at each of them with his silver eyes.
He then started walking around, causing the soldiers of Thebes to flinch. And Rhys, well...
...Rhys said nothing at all. He just continued walking around until his eyes eventually caught someone and pointed at him.
The soldiers of Thebes all turned to look to where he was pointing, only to see someone on top of a horse right in the middle of their formation—their Prince.
The soldiers of Thebes wondered at first—did he want them to give up the Prince? If so, that was something that they could never do. But soon, however, they saw Rhys pick up a sword and back away; swinging it around before once again pointing toward Prince Ducetios.
And as soon as they saw that, the soldiers of Thebes all moved away one by one.
"What... what are all of you doing!?" Prince Ducetios spun around with his horse as he saw all his men moving away, "Kill him! He is just one man!"
"He requests a duel, Your Highness...
...you can not refuse, or the gods will smite us."
Doing it old style. Rhys fits in this world doe
Romeru