Chapter 55 A Knight Called Paul (2)

The two knights rowed a small wooden boat down the river to the other side. They move away from their urban home in the city to the rural green forests filled with nothing but plants, trees, animals, and dangerous demons that can dispatch their a normal man in an instant.

The knights started walking towards the forest. The trees provide the two with shade from the sun's rays. Kristina has taken out her spear, while Paul had drawn his bow with a sharp pointy arrow, ready to fire at a moment's notice. The two wander off, looking for the demon to kill.

"Where do you think it could be hiding?" Kristina asked.

"Just follow where the most demons are," Paul replied.

The forest seemed rather peaceful. Their ears could pick up the song of the birds on trees, along with the faint rustling of the tree wind. Animals, such as squirrels went about their day searching for nuts, while the bees pollinate the various flowers there were.

Yet, despite the calm noise, Paul's sensitive ear picked up a sound near a bush. He turned around to face what he could be facing. Eyes, oozing blue, stared back at the both of them. It then jumped, revealing itself to be a demonic wolf, with muddy brown fur with long sharp claws.

It started running straight towards them, attempting to make them its prey. He quickly takes aim and fires. The arrow swooshes into the wolf's left eye. However still ran like a cheetah, and jumped to take a bit.

It was when Kristina, spear in hand, had positioned herself while Paul distracted it. He jabbed straight through on the right side of its body. The metal point dug deep into the wolf, almost striking its heart. Then, she launched the demonic wolf into a tree, finally killing it off.

Paul walks up to the beast and collects the mana stone on its forehead. The blue gem glowed in Paul's hands. It was a valuable item, being one of the rare mana stones to ever encounter.

"Put this in the bag honey." Paul requests her.

"A rare one? This close-by?" she says after taking a look at the mana stones' color.

"Yea. It's odd. Odd. It might be a sign that the demon is closer than we originally thought it was." She places the mana stone into an empty brown pouch, used normally to carry money around by average citizens.

"The loupmal seemed to have come from that way." Paul pointed out.

"Let's go then." she insists. The two walk on to where the beast popped out from. As they strayed further in, the faint sounds of the birds were heard, and the presence of animal life started to disappear; they knew they were headed in the right direction.

At first, the couple fought through more demons, featuring demonic monkeys known as 'singefurs', more demonic wolves, and demonic boars known as 'sangliers'. Then they fought through more anomalous creatures they had to fight.

There started to appear petijau, small stone golems with yellow mana crystals as their core, along with some demonic trees hiding in plain sight. The two knights, however, had read books written about how to deal with such monsters and therefore breezed through them.

Then, it suddenly stopped. Demons stopped charging at them. It was total silence in the rather shady forest.

"You hear anything?"

"No, it's quiet." The two continued to walk further while a figure in the trees watch. Paul concentrated hard on trying to pick an abnormal sound. Anything to help him locate a demon. Then suddenly, a small movement and the branches were picked up by his ear.

"IT'S ON THE TREES!" he screamed. A dark figure dropped down with its sword aimed at Paul, but he managed to dodge it just in the nick of time. Kristina, taking her chance, stabbed the creature with her spear. Although not a perfect hit, she manages to stab its right arm.

The being backed away and stared at the two while breathing heavily. It had two arms and two legs, along with similar body structures to a human male. Its skin was fair, just like Paul's and Kristina's. However, its demonic eyes had black pupils, along with the horns on its rather sweaty head.

Its nails were short but sharp, allowing it to cut through anything with ease in case it loses its sword made of steel. Its body was covered in red scales, acting as natural protection like a human knight suit would, with the only exposed spot being its neck and head.

"Looks like you missed pal." Paul teases the demon. It merely scoffs at his remark. It drops its sword and raised its left hand. He places the hand on the injured spot to heal it. Paul fires an arrow, but the demon's shield it casts with its injured right-hand blocks it.

"I was hoping..." *cough* "... to end the battle quickly," it spoke in its deep distorted voice. The beast started casting fireballs at the knights. All missed and hit the trees. Kristina and Paul had to cast some spells to not burn the forest down.

Paul takes another arrow from his bag and aims it at the demon. He fires but misses his shot. However, as it was distracted Kristina went in for another jab, this time on the heart. Though the demon manages to move, the spear slices through the side of his chest.

Injured once again, it tries to heal. Paul takes another arrow and shoots. It lands right on the neck, and the creature falls to the ground. With a smirk on his face, he walked up to its body, wanting to taunt it.

However, the demon was still alive, and it fired a powerful fireball straight at Paul's chest. Kristina, filled with rage stabbed the demon in the head, finally killing it off. Breathing heavily from the fight she sighed a breath of relief thinking it was over.

"Honey! Are you alright?" she came rushing over to see Paul's health. He was lying on the ground, not moving. Kristina fired a water spell on his chest plate, cooling it down.

"Paul? Can you hear me? Paul!" she said. Tears started flowing out of her eyes, but before they could reach the ground, his eyes suddenly opened, and his head thrust at Kristina.

"Boo!" he says. Kristina backs off as she was taken aback by his movement. The man chuckled, seeing that she fell for his tease.

"Oh darling, you seem to have forgotten I wear more protection under this armor," he says in a tight tone. Kristina was visibly angry.

"I was worried you know! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" she says.

"Yea, well sorry about that," he responds. Kristina looks at him once more and asks him a question.

"You are alright. Right?" she asked.

"Well, that fireball seemed to have melted the chest plate a little, and my chest burns a lot. Can you help me remove my armor?"

"Here? We are in the middle of the forest! There are still demons out here!"

"Well, it looks like you are going to have to look after my back once more. I mean I looked after yours right?" he says.

"Does it hurt that much?"

"Oh yes. Very. It burns like hell. Can you please help me now?" he asks while trying to conceal his pain.

"Of course," she responds, and helps him get rid of his chest plate.

...

As Kant was reading the book that was presented to him, there was a sudden knock on the door. Kant places the book under the drawer and permits whoever was on the other side to enter. The door opened to Arjun dressed in a white cloak contrasting Kant's black suit.

His face looked with confusion. Though Kant wonders why at first until he takes out the drawings of the modern suit and places them on Kant's desk.

"Excuse me sire, but what is this piece you have designed?" he asks.

"It's a suit," Kant replied. His confused face did not disappear but intensified.

"A suit? This?" he asks.

"Why. Does it not look good?"

"No no sire. It looks good. Just... I don't understand why you this made. Does sire not like your current attire?" Arjun asks.

"Well... yes. I find it all a bit too excessive when presenting myself. There are a lot of patterns threaded on this garment that you can feel when you run your palm through it.

Then there's the fact that it's all over a top piece. Then there is the unnecessary amount of buttons on it. There are 12 in this one alone. Need I go on?"

"No sire. It's just that... it's the trend among royalty these days. It allows them to stand out against the commoners. Are you sure you want it?"

ραпdα nᴏνa| сom "I rather prefer much sleeker clothing to wear than... this. Besides, it would help me stand out more, don't you think?" he responds. Arjun thought of it for a minute before giving in.

"Alright then. How many do you want?" Arjun asked.

"2 is enough. I won't be wearing it every day."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I would most likely wear it on days when I go out in public."