Imrahil was out of breath as he arrived at the harbor where all the Royal Fleet which contained the best ships was stationed including the flagship Yamato. He leaned on the railing as the members of the deck gathered around the leader of one of the two royal guards.
"Sir, what is the matter?"
"No time… assemble the fleet… now." Imrahil said as the crew raised a general readiness of the fleet. The captain walked aboard as the Admiral of the ship walked up to him who reminded the man of his grandfather.
"What is the meaning of this entirety son?" The old man asked not happy that the younger person was giving orders.
"Simple, we are being invaded and Her Majesty… has put me in control of the entire fleet, you are to stand down." Imrahil finally caught his breath but the Admiral rejected it.
"You have no-" Imrahil drew his longsword and held it at the throat of the Admiral.
"Stand down, or I will make you by force, we do not have the time for this."
Imrahil stared with his yellow eyes at the commander officer but something felt wrong, he glanced at where the heads of the old man were and it was at a dagger that did not have the symbol of the kingdom on it, a requirement for any weapon of the nation. The old man saw this and pulled it out to thrust it at Imrahil.
"Wrong move."
The Captain weaved to the left, pulled out a throwing knife and stabbed the old man in the throat. Pulling his knife out and cleaning it with the deceased corpse's clothing, he retrieved the fallen blade and examined it and found that it was Romalian. Imrahil threw it off the deck and sheathed his longsword, it was going to be a long day indeed.
"Prepare for battle!"
"Come on Peggy, you can do better than that."
Marie said as she claimed another victory against Edouard in sword fighting. In actuality he was holding back because every time Edouard won a fight, Marie would either pitch a fit or want a rematch which normally ended with the same result over and over again he quit. Although the boy was more suited to using his warhammer than a sword, it is almost a law that any noble now how to use a sword so he was skilled with it.
Edouard rose to his feet and rolled up his sleeves. He moved the bangs from his eyes and watched the female's movements and form which he concluded sucked at best. Marie charged the male who watched and saw his opening, Edouard simply stepped to the right and held his leg out and watched the princess fall face first to the ground.
"Ouch, that wasn't nice to do to a lady Peggy."
Marie yelled as Edouard walked up and held his hand out to lift the girl up. Marie accepted it and got pulled up to her feet. As she got on up, she lunged forward and caused the black-haired male to land on the ground with the princess on top with her weapon at his throat. Edouard was shocked at this move but Marie never did play clean and fair so it was to be expected from the female.
As the door opened, the two kids saw probably two of the last people they wanted to see. Agnes, Marie's sword teacher was her defiant student hold a sword to the throat of the boy and was on top of him. Guiche, Edouard's father saw his son in defeat but more importantly saw the princess of the land on top of him.
"They grow up so fast." Guiche said as a small tear rolled from his eye.
"I-It's not what it looks like father!" Eduoard panicked trying to not have his father think of this the wrong way.
"Marie, do you remember what I told you about not only holding a weapon at a fallen person but also standing on top of him." Agnes said as Marie simply stuck her tongue out at her teacher.
"Like I care, you suck as a teacher, Eddy here is far better." Marie said still on top of her best friend's body as Edouard began to go pale from how this situation was turning out.
Agnes then turned her head to one direction of the hallway the two adults were in. She pulled out her pistol and got the attention of everyone nearby.
"You hear that?"
"Yup, sounds like we have invaders."
Guiche said and slowly pulled a rose from his pocket. A spear of ice shot past the two which followed with a scream. Both adulated turned their heads and the children poked their heads from the doorway to see what happened. Five more spears came flying as Agnes threw the children back inside and Guiche slammed the door shut.
"Troublesome pests…" A female said as Agnes opened the door and held her gun to the voice as a wooden staff was pointed at the head of the Captain. "There are more coming." Tabitha said and lowered her staff at the musketeer. "If you will excuse me…" Tabitha said and casually walked in the direction of where she shot her icy spears at.
"She is so cool!" Marie said as Agnes glared at her which silenced her. Guiche walked up to his son and patted him on the back.
"So my dear boy, when is the wedding?" Guiche said as Edouard became red at what happened between the two kids.
"Sir…" An officer said in a weak voice. "You need to see this…"
Imrahil walked up to the officer and grabbed the scope and looked out in the distance. In the distance was what Louise said, hundreds of ships, the majority of them Capital-Class ships. The other ships were nothing but minor ones that any ship in the navy could knock out with one shot.
"Sir, staggered line, they outnumber us ten to one." One of the higher officers in the tactics division of the ship said but Imrahil smiled.
"Then is it an even fight." Imrahil chuckled and grabbed a microphone that had a link to the other nine ships. "All ships except the Yamato will stay in packs of three to maximize firepower, fire at will when able. Burn there mongrel hides." Imrahil gave the orders to the other nine ships and the crew of the Yamato was waiting for theirs.
"Sir, what will you have us do?"
"Quite simple, we go into the belly of the beast and take out the flagship ourselves while the others are providing support. What is the word on the other fleets?"
"North Fleet says they will be in the area of operation in ten minutes, South Fleet will be in fourty and the Reserve Fleet is busy with an enemy fleet and has called both West and East Fleet for assistance."
"Very well, then let's-" Suddenly an explosion came off the deck of the ship. "Damage control, status report!?"
"Sir, we have airborne borders who are landing on the ship, we need assistance!"
"Crap, keep us on course and fire at the nearest ship in range." Imrahil pointed at the highest ranking crew member on the bridge and began walking to the door.
"Captain Imrahil, where are you going?"
"To go greet our newest guests."
Imrahil said and was introduced to a sword that nearly chopped his head off. The Captain grabbed the person by the shirt collar and threw his across the bridge and out the window with Imrahil jumping through the now open window after the invader.
"You really picked the wrong country to invade this time!" Imrahil shouted and crushed the skull of the man he threw out the window. "Who's first?" He asked as seven knights charged at him which Imrahil responded by drawing his longsword. "Come on!"
Imrahil shouted and slashed the first opponent in front of him from top to bottom. A knight thrusted his short sword at the Captain who tripped him and used the falling blade to stab the knight in the chest and finished him with a twist of the blade.
"Die!" Another generic knight shouted and went in for a chopping motion. Imrahil sidestepped him and swung his sword at his neck and a head flung into the air.
"Who's next?"
His question was answered by a fireball nearly hitting him. Imrahil did a backstep and looked up to see probably one of the last people he wanted to on a white dragon.
"Great, and here I thought you be guarding your master… Julio." Imrahil said as the other knights looked up to see the guardian of the Pope flying overhead of them. "We have never seen eye to eye boy, which will mean this blade won't be slowing down towards your head."
"I see King Saito choose a Captain who tends to let his mouth run." Another voice spoke as Imrahil's eyes shot out to see the Pope himself riding the same dragon, behind his familiar.
"Well, well, well, I did not think His Holiness would enter the killing field himself, I should be honored… I should." Imrahil said as one of the front cannons on the Yamato fire at the closest ship which caught fire and began to sink.
"It is a shame King Saito found you first, you would have made a great addition to my army, commoner."
The last addition set the stage of how this was going to play out. It was going to be the Captain of King Saito's Royal Guard against The Pope of Romalia and his familiar Julio with his dragon, the odd stacked against the warrior commoner.
(A/N – And for this chapter's song, how about… Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R OST – Fatal Duel.)
Imrahil sheathed his longsword and grabbed two throwing knives slowly while Julio readied his dragon. Another cannon shot fired and Imrahil threw his first throwing knife at the dragon's head but missed. He readied the second knife but a bolt of lightning came from the staff of the Pope, forcing the man to move and readjust his aim.
"Wait… if Saito was a familiar of a void mage which gave him his runes on his left hand, that means Julio must have some special ability as well…" Imrahil threw his second knife at the rider and seemed slight surprised at the action and moved his dragon along with his head. He got a glimpse of the rider's right hand and saw it was glowing and since he did not have a weapon in his hands, it could only mean he can control the dragon he was riding.
Imrahil grabbed the short sword from the long since dead body and calculated the distance from here to his target. "No sudden moves…" Imrahil acted like he was trading his longsword for the short sword which Julio bought. Both his dragon and the Pope fired a fireball at the Captain. "Take this!"
Imrahil threw the short sword with all his strength at the dragon that Julio could not maneuver out-of-the-way. The dragon got it in the chest and forcefully landed on the deck of the ship as both riders tumbled. Julio lifted his head to see Imrahil running in his direction with the longsword. The priest drew his sword and clashed with the Captain. Both men were staring into the eyes of the other.
"Even if I die, you two aren't leaving this ship if I have anything to say about it." Imrahil said and clashed swords again.
"I do plan on seeing you perish today commoner."
Julio said as the two continued connecting blades, each time the cannon muffled the sound of metal on metal touching. Again the two clashed but this time Imrahil saw on the edge of his vision the Pope shot a wind spell at him. Imrahil threw himself backwards to avoid the spell and rolled back up.
Julio struck out and slashed at the grounded body and scored a small cut on the shoulder. Imrahil gripped his longsword and swung it out and chipped the outfit Julio was wearing but the swing was followed by a thunderbolt from the Pope which sent Imrahil tumbling to the other edge of the front deck. Imrahil rose up but his sword was shot at by the mage and went flying off the ship. He quickly threw another two knives but Julio deflected both the one for him and his master. He continued to threw his remaining six and dashed forward between each throw and gripped Julio's hands to prevent him from swinging.
"We both know he will strike me to hurt you."
"And you expect me to- Rahhh!" Imrahil screamed as electricity coursed through is body and Julio kick his body back to the edge of the ship.
"Yes."
Julio answered as Imrahil struggled to rise to his feet. The metal in his chainmail made the lightning spell worse as currents of leftover electricity continued to go through the Captain's body. Imrahil looked up to see the two opponents were standing about fifthteen yards from him as the Pope raised his staff.
"You proved to be an interesting opponent, but it ends here." Vittorio said as he sent the last bolt of lightning at the Captain.
Despite lightning moving faster than the human eye can trace, Imrahil could slowly see the current of electricity come in his direction as his life flashed before his eyes. His life as a miserable commoner and of those around him suffering before Saito was crowned King. His oath to protect his King and the relationships between Saito, Henrietta and Marie reminded him of his own family who passed away. He closed his eyes, waiting for the pain to hit him.
An explosion of the front deck of the Yamato was een from the other nine ships as they rushed in to see what had happened to the flagship but they were forced to defend themselves from the constant ships that came their direction. What they saw was three other ships close in on the ship as if to pick up someone.
On board the ship, the smoke settled and Imrahil could feel his heart still bet. He looked up and saw a familiar outfit from yesterday. Imrahil looked up and say black hair and the scabbard of his King's sword on the back.
"Two on one doesn't seem fair to me guys, shame to pick on my best man like that." Saito said, much to the shock of the three people on the deck. Saito held his left hand out to his Captain who rose to his feet. "Sorry I could come sooner, had to travel the whole continent in a few hours, you know the deal." Saito then turn his attention to the two men. "What's more important is how you two got here so quickly since I saw both of you in Romalia."
"The details matter little, but what does matter is that you are here now." Vittorio said shooting a bolt of lightning from his staff at Saito held his hand in front of him and literally blocked it with the palm of his left hand.
"We end this now Julio, Vittorio." Saito said, angry that the two got away last time.
"I can still fight Saito." Imrahil said but feel to one knee form the pain of electricity still in his body.
"You sure?"
"Ya."
"Then take this." Saito drew his newest tow and handed it to Imrahil.
"Thank you sir." Imrahil said and rose back up to his feet and stood to the left of Saito. "Take the guy in front of us?"
"I think not." Vittorio said as a ship came off the side of the Yamato behind him. Hundreds of knights and mages surrounded the Pope, Julio, and the wounded dragon. Saito however was not having this and shot out a tremendous gust of wind from his left hand, causing everyone in front of him to fly back on the ship.
"Thank you Saito, you and Louise will have to met with us again sometime, perhaps to decide the fate of this war?"
Julio said as Saito and Imrahil watched Vittorio and Julio ride off on the ship. Saito wanted to chase after them but needed to help Imrahil with his injuries. Saito looked to the north and saw what he believed was the North Fleet arriving on sight to assist with the fighting. The king turned to his friend who was breathing heavily as fire control came running onto the deck to finally take care of the fire.
"I'm okay Saito…" Imrahil followed by coughing a small amount of blood but tried to keep a poker face on. The Captain handed the sword back which Saito quickly sheathed.
"Idiot, I'm getting you to the castle to get treatment immediately." Saito said lifting the male onto his back and shot from the Yamato to the castle to get the Captain of his Royal Guard help.
Author's Note – From here until I finish this story, I am making the chapters at least 2k words. Why… honestly I feel just a 1k limit is too short for how the story is at this point. Also if you could not tell, I play fighting games more than any other type of game now and to be honest, I think some of the music in them is the best I have heard in a genre.