The attack had come abruptly.
Prince Wilder had been bathing in the stream down the woods, with Richard standing guard far away, when he felt that they were being ambushed. At almost the same time, arrows came flying at him. Thankfully, Richard had already sensed it and was able to swiftly hit them off with his sword. However, the men all came out of their hiding spots, dressed in all black, with their faces covered from their noses down and also wearing short straw hats to properly hide their identities.
They came with their swords, and from their swift movements and aggressive behaviours, it was obvious they only wanted to do one thing— kill.
Meanwhile, Wilder was carefully getting dressed, ignoring whatever was happening. He took his time to also wear his shoes and tie his hair.
Richard was a skilled warrior as he tried to control the fight by fighting with all five men at once while also trying to stop the ones trying to race past him to go attack Wilder, who was still by the stream. However, it was still tough for him since he had to fight with five other skilled warriors all at once.
Fortunately, Wilder eventually showed up with his entire body, from his hair down, still wet, making his clothes stick to his body.
Wilder was usually very aggressive, so it didn't take long before two heads rolled to the ground.
When they were beginning to think that they had control over the fight, several arrows with silver heads were shot at them from a blind spot before five other men flew out. Now, they were 7 men against 2.
Richard's back had been against them while killing one man, so he hadn't seen the arrows coming. Wilder drew Richard out of that path, unfortunately putting himself in the position of an arrow that embedded itself directly on the upper left of his chest.
He let out a painful groan when the thing burned him so much that he felt like collapsing, but he was able to support himself from falling with his sword on the ground.
But the pain shot through his entire body, making him growl painfully before he fell.
"W-Wolfsbane..." Richard muttered in horror as he looked at Wilder, who had fallen to the ground. He could smell that potion in the air and realized he had to be extra careful now. These people were seriously serious.
Silver plus wolfsbane. Even Alphas could not handle the pain, much less Betas. And having a silver-headed arrow coated with wolfsbane directly pierce your body was a nightmare.
With Wilder on the ground, the four men charged at the same time. Two were already badly injured and were being looked after by one man.
"Are you okay?" Richard asked Wilder in worry as he raced to meet the men halfway and began to fight with them, keeping them away from Wilder.
He was not okay. He couldn't be okay. Wilder was letting out an agonizing scream while trying to pull out the arrow that was stuck to his chest.
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ Guilt ate Richard up, seeing as Prince Wilder had been wounded because of him.
Another thing that made him feel extremely guilty was the incident that happened a week ago with Lord Zealot. And he didn't need to be told that he was responsible for this attack. The men were very skilled, far beyond what he had ever seen. Only that man had such skilled warriors. That meant it was very difficult for him to fight with the men all at once. He had even suffered a few cuts and could not turn to check on how Prince Wilder was doing.
With a loud growl, Wilder pulled the arrow from his chest, throwing it on the ground. His robe was instantly soaked with blood, and he also spat out a mouthful of blood as soon as he got up from the ground. He shook his head to clear the fog in his brain and remain conscious, but the look in his eyes told Richard something was very wrong with him.
They had all stopped fighting now and were taking positions to attack Wilder too, as he kept approaching them while staggering and weakly drawing his sword along with him.
"I... do not care who sent you." He said quietly as the light in his eyes blue eyes dimmed. "You all die." He declared.
The fight grew intense, and despite Wilder having the upper hand, it was obvious that something was seriously wrong with him, and Richard was also bleeding and exhausted. It turned even worse when five more men suddenly showed up with arrows and posed to shoot.
Richard panicked when he saw them and looked at Wilder, whose face was still straight as he wiped off the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
Suddenly, a strange, medium-sized bottle was thrown in their direction, and next came a loud voice shouting, "WILDER, RUN!"
The voice distracted not only Richard and Wilder but also the archers, who looked at the direction the voice had come from in the same direction Richard and Wilder were.
It was the first time since the fight started that Richard was able to read Wilder's facial expression.
He was shocked to find her there. And so was Richard.
No one moved immediately. Who would take a little girl who had just showed up out of nowhere and thrown a bottle in the middle of a sword fight seriously?
But Richard noticed Wilder staring at the bottle, and he also stared back and noticed how the liquid inside seemed to be boiling.
Fortunately, they were able to react fast and raced back as the bottle made a cracking sound, creating a surprisingly loud explosive sound before the assassins could make a run for it.
Gas was released into the air, and it smelled very poisonous. It was so bad that they all began to choke, but it was worse for the assassins because they could not make a run for it now as their whole body felt numb, and they fell to the ground.