"Are you sure we need to take a boat? I mean, we could just swim there…" Regulus groaned as he was too traumatized and intimidated by the large ship standing before them.
"Well we don't have much of a choice…. We could use one of those smaller boats, but considering what the Elves say about the recent sea monster sightings, it would be better not to take the risk." Olivia replied as she started lining up to ride the ship.
All of a sudden a grin formed in Regulus' lips.
"Hey Olivia! Could you come here for a second, I wanted to ask you something!" Regulus yelled.
"Why…?" Olivia mumbled as she got off the line and went back to Regulus.
"What was it Regulus? Make it quick since the ship might leave w-"
But before Olivia could finish, Regulus quickly grabbed Olivia off the ground and carried her, bridal style startling the princess.
"Ahh!" Olivia blurted as she was taken by surprise.
"W-W-Wait, w-what are you doing!? There are p-people watching u-us!" Olivia yelled at Regulus as her face's color turned into a deep shade of red.
"S-Sorry, just hold on!" Regulus stuttered as lightning started crackling around the two, then Regulus launched into the air with a loud bang.
With great speed they flew at the direction of the ruins as Olivia started screaming in fear but also embarrassment.
"Put me down!" She yelled but Regulus was too immersed to be listening.
Finally not even half a minute later, the ruins were in sight. Regulus started slowing down as he prepared his descent into the ground.
"Hold on!!!" He told Olivia as he began the descent.
With Olivia gripping Regulus' neck tightly, they slowly and slowly dropped into the air, when they were close enough Regulus launched a lightning bolt and landed safely into the sandy shores of the beach.
Dust covered the area around them for a few seconds, when it finally cleared they were surrounded by multiple soldiers of Loren pointing their swords at them.
"Hello there!" Regulus greeted with a smile.
"Who are you! And w- princess!?" The head of the soldiers stuttered as they were all surprised that the princess was there.
"You! What are you doing with Princess Olivia! Put her down this instant!" He demanded as they all tightened the grip of their swords.
"N-No, Sir Henry it's fine… He's with me!" She nervously clarified.
"Put me down!" She whispered to Regulus, which he immediately complied, gently putting her down into the ground.
"O-Of course Princess, forgive us for our hostility." The soldier, Henry apologized bowing down, as he motioned for the others to bow down as well.
"Why are there so many of you here? Last month there were barely any soldiers here in the ruins." Olivia asked as she wiped the dust off her clothes.
"Ah, so you two must be visiting the ruins, unfortunately this area is closed to the public until further notice."
"Huh? But why!?" Olivia asked again, startled by the sudden statement.
"I'm sure you must've heard about the unusual monster activity in the area. Well, some of our mages investigated a few days ago, and they discovered that large amounts of mana is leaking from the ruins. And some of the mana had scattered into the ocean and to the lands beyond." The knight explained.
"Large amounts of mana? Well I can't sense any sort of mana from this area, how about you Regulus?" Olivia asked, turning back.
But there was no reply from the young king, but his expression said it all. His eyes were wide open with fear, his body tense and his body already reinforced with mana.
"Olivia, something's wrong. I don't know why but I've got goosebumps all over my body. I don't like it here, we should head back now." He said in a cold, serious tone.
"Why? We just got here, why would we leave no-" But Olivia was cut off as the ground started rumbling.
The ground just ahead of them violently tore open, with an earthquake knocking all of them off their feet, as a hulking mass of the earth rose from beneath.
As it finally revealed itself, Regulus' expression took on the twisted, horrified features of a man that knew he was about to die.
"Fuck." Regulus muttered to himself, he wanted to move, he wanted to do something, but his feet merely shaked in fear, his hands couldn't cast anything.
The creature roared, as debris of rock and earth flew from its mouth.
Finally, Regulus moved, with all his strength he screamed as he casted a large veil of lightning around them.
"Everybody listen! We might all die here, but we can stay alive if you listen to me!" Regulus barked at the soldiers as Olivia was frozen in fear.
"That thing right there! Is a higher elemental! And don't any of you play hero, especially with your princess here! That thing can level cities in hours!" He screamed, as the ground shook again, with the elemental coming closer.
"I want all of you to protect your princess! Go back to the ship you all used to come here! I'll buy you all time! You! Henry was it!? You can use magic, yes?" Regulus asked, as the elemental inched closer with each step.
"Yes!" The knight Henry replied.
"Good! I want you to continuously conjure a shield of mana facing the elemental! That way you could buy yourself time in case it tries to hit!" Regulus ordered, with the elemental nearing ever so close to them.
"Olivia!" Regulus screamed, snapping the princess out of her daze.
"I want you to run, all of you including Henry!" The young king said as his voice started to crack. With the elemental's shadow now enveloping the group like darkness taking over the world at night.
"NOW, RUN!" Regulus screamed as the manifestation of the earth bare its fists at the veil of lightning, destroying it in one hit.
Everybody except Regulus ran to the ship, with the elemental focused on the group.
REGULUS POV
My legs were shaking, my eyes wanted to cry in fear, but I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the power to do it.
The elemental roared at Olivia's direction, as it picked up the ground and raised it above its head.
Willing my hands to move, I channeled lightning to my palm, shaping it into a lance, I threw it at the elemental.
It struck with a large explosion, but it had no effect or damage at all, the asshole looked more annoyed than hurt. But that's what I meant to do, with its attention now focused solely on me, it whirled the boulder at me with insane speed.
Slipping through the large rock, I leaped into the air and stretched my arms, opening my palms as I came face to face with the huge piece of stone and mud.
"Eat this large piece of rockshit!" I screamed as a large beam of lightning and mana erupted from my hands, engulfing the elemental's face.
Unaffected, it grabbed me, and threw me. Luckily I was able to use mana to balance out the force of the throw, as I landed near the group who were still running for their lives. Making eye contact with Olivia, she stared at me with worry on her face.
"Don't worry about me! I can do t-"
I was cut off as a beam of dirt and stone crashed into my body, with the impact launching me straight into a tree.
'It hurts, it hurts so much.' Was all I could think of, my ears were ringing, I wanted to escape, I just wanted to leave them all for dead.
But my pride, my stupid ego won't let me, and here I am, searing pain engulfing my body, but I have to push through.
Rising up from the tree, I witnessed the elemental crushing a soldier into a bloody mess.
"Fuck this!" I screamed as I launched myself, using lightning to propel myself with great speed at the elemental, I relocated all the mana reinforcing my body into the right side of my body, bracing myself for the impact.
I slammed into the elemental, an aching pain rushed to the right side of my body as the impact sent me flying some distance, as I looked up, the elemental stumbled down as well with a big crash.
It looked to be in shock, surprised a creature of mana could even portray feelings like that, or am I just in so much pain that I'm not seeing things right?
Kneeling down with one knee I looked behind me, the soldiers and Olivia had safely managed to board the galley now.
Attempting to stand up, a painful headache burned through my head along with a dreadful pain swallowing my legs whole. Forcefulling willing my body to a knee, blood dripped from my head as I just realized the skin on my whole right leg was grafted, with blood flowing all over from the wound.
Biting down my lips I forced my right hand up and screamed.
"BLOOD COFFIN!"
As I finished, a torturous pain enveloped my body as blood was forcefully being siphoned out of all the open wounds I had, I couldn't do anything except cry in agony as I collapsed into the sandy floor.
Looking up, a large coffin of crimson blood formed into the air, then chains shot out of the coffin, restricting the elemental as it tried to pull the manifestation of the earth inside. With nothing left to do, I crawled the sand, trying to escape the elemental as the spell tried working its charm.
But the spell failed, the elemental was far too strong as it broke through the chains, as an explosion of blood covered the area around me. The sandy shores were now covered in the crimson liquid, looking back up to the beast, I tried to scream for help but my throat must've been full of blood as no words came from my lips, with it inching closer and closer at me.
With my body drained of blood, multiple bones broken, emptied of mana, my thoughts in a haze, I tried to mutter a prayer.
As I prepared to close my eyes, I caught the glimpse of someone, blonde hair, shaped like a lion's mane, he stood between me and the elemental.
"You did well holding out this long young man." The figure said.
Was I hallucinating? Is this what death feels like? I wouldn't know, as slowly my consciousness slipped through, and everything turned black.