Chapter 8: Wise King

  “Hey guys, something big is coming,” Lukrut said as he pulled his bow from his back and knocked an arrow on the string, yet he didn’t pull back yet.

  Calvaria looked on, thinking about how best to make herself look as self-sacrificing, yet confident in the best possible way. After all, she wanted to make this look good. She couldn’t be looked at like she was some sort of faker, just hamming up her own actions.

  She had to make it look genuine. The rumpling kept coming, and she soon came up with a few good lines that she could use. As she thought about how to go about this all, Nfirea’s voice could be heard as the sound arrived to them.

  “That could only be one thing. It’s undoubtedly the Wise King of The Forest!” he shouted, and the Swords of Darkness looked at each other in fear and unease.

  That was when Calvaria decided to speak up. Putting her hands on the grips of her two renaissance era longswords, she walked forward and pulled them free. Their rather pretty bdes hit the air, the magic in them making the metal glitter more-so than it would have if it weren’t magic.

  “The lot of you all, leave. I can hold off the Wise King. Just go back to the vilge and wait for us. After all, death herself smiles upon me,” she said with a smile in her voice.

  At that moment, Anna and Nabe walked beside her. Nabe fell slightly behind the two of them as Anna withdrew her hand axe from her belt. She looked behind herself as the other group ran off, heeding her advice.

  As they ran off and out of sight, Nabe looked at Calvaria with slight confusion. Calvaria noticed this, and smiled underneath her helm. She motioned for the doppelganger to speak, and she did so with slight hesitance.

  “My Lady, I was just wondering what the pn was? Do we not need them to be here so they can witness your greatness in defeating the beast?” Nabe asked, and Calvaria smiled again.

  She put her swords away, and took off her helm, underneath was still the face that she had made for Calvaria herself. With this face, she could put on better facial expressions than with her normal face.

  “Nabe, I am sorry for not properly communicating this, but we are not here to simply kill this beast,” that got a surprised expression out of Nabe, and it made Calvaria chuckle, “we are here to tame this beast. After all, if we killed it our guises here wouldn’t be known as merciful as I want them to. Then, after we tame it, I will keep it here as protection for this vilge.”

  Nabe looked at her as if she were the second coming, then nodded her head with the same dumb look on her face. Calvaria shook her head in slight bemusement, and put her helmet back on. She then took her swords from the earth that she had stabbed them in, and swung them out to the sides.

  “Look alive the two of you! Our foe is arriving!” she said as the Wise King of The Forrest arrived on the scene.

  “Trespassers in my domain, there are! Fight to the death, we shall!” the feminine voice of the Wise King came to their ears, and Calvaria shuddered in slight annoyance.

  Runes covered its stomach; a snake tail came from its own behind. Out and into the light it waddled as it stood on its haunches. Calvaria sighed in a heavy amount of shame and dejectedness as she looked upon the form of the beast.

  “Come into my home, you have! Decided to anger me, you have! Fight to the death as all of nature’s animals must, we shall!” the rge magical beast said.

  “Oh, for the love of God, you are a giant hamster; aren’t you?” Calvaria said, and the hamster looked at her and fell back onto all fours with a slightly surprised look on its face.

  “I do not know the name of the species that I am. Tell me, do you know where I may find more of my own kind so that I may continue my legacy? As is the duty of all living beings?” the Wise King said.

  “No, I do not,” Calvaria said, and then sagged her shoulders as she thought about how me the bringing back of this magical beast would be, “though the size difference would make mating rather hard,” she said, and the magical beast sagged herself.

  Yet soon enough, the Wise King of The Forrest picked themselves up and huffed in confidence. She waddled forth on their hind legs, walking forward to Calvaria and the rest of Darkness.

  “It matters, it doesn’t. Intruded into my own domain, you have. Battle to the death, we shall!” The Wise King said.

  Calvaria sighed and raised her right sword arm. This day was starting to get boring and slightly disappointing. She thought about what she was gong to do once she got back to the others as she cast her skill.

  “Aura of fear: Level one,” she said, and a wave of slight darkness radiated from her and hit the giant hamster.

  As the fear aura hit it, the magical beast shivered and stopped moving. They then fell on their back and started to cry for mercy.

  “Mercy! Mercy!” they said, “Been bested, I have. At your mercy, I am! Kill me, please don’t!” they shouted and Calvaria sighed in exasperation.

  It was then that footsteps could be heard. Calvaria, Nabe, and Anna looked up to see Aura sitting on a branch of a tree to their left. Her feet were dangling as she looked on at the wailing and fear filled Hamster.

  “My dy, if we ever need to get rid of this creature, can I have it’s fur as a rug?” she asked with sincerity, and the compining from the Wise King increased in fear.

  Calvaria just rubbed the bridge of her nose as she gazed on at the antics of the two. The Wise King being a bit of a pushover, while Aura continued to tease them. It was going to be a long day.

  …

  “Behold, The Wise King of The Forrest! By the way, The Wise King is a female, not a male. I just want to tell everyone that,” Calvaria said as she showed the swords of darkness and Nfirea the magical beast, “I have also changed her name to Hamsuke.”

  Peter, Lukrut, Dyne, Ninya, and Nfirea looked on. They gawked at the visage of the animal. Calvaria was suitably embarrassed. She of course had expected their judgmental looks, but it still felt bad.

  “I can see why they call her, “The Wise King of The Forrest,” Dyne, “There is a certain wisdom in its eyes that speaks to me.”

  ‘what’ Calvaria thought as she looked back to Hamsuke, ‘how could those vacant eyes be seen as wise?’

  “Thank you,” Hamsuke said, oblivious to Calvarias thoughts.

  …