The Flower of King and Knights

Forged in Blood

Hector’s heart began to race as he was frozen with fear. The monstrous beast began stepping forward, each step shaking the earth as it neared the boy. Hector quickly regained his senses and almost without thinking turned to Cecilia’s body, spotted the hilt of the sword beginning to glow brightly.

The blood from her body quickly disappeared into the sword on the altar, slowly pulling the broken shards together and reforming the whole blade into a singular entity. The rust weaned away and the hilt’s leather was fully restored. In what appeared to be fractions of a second, the metal blade was given a reddish hue and the edge was sharp and ready for combat once more. Even the beast was stunned by the sudden re-forging of the blade. It took a step back, the presence of the sword made the beast appear afraid for a critical moment.

Despite the initial disgust, Hector quickly grabbed the blade and pointed it towards the fiend. Gripping the hilt, flashes of what felt like memories pulsated in his mind. The images of knights and warriors charging at him, their faces when slain, fields of thousands of dead bodies strewn upon battlefield after battlefield flashed a thousand times in Hector’s mind. He shook his head as the images bewildered him. He felt as if he was actually in those battles and quickly had to remind himself of his beastly guest.

But something strange had happened within those flashes, all the fear in Hector was gone. He wasn’t afraid of the beast, he wasn’t afraid to fight, he wasn’t afraid to kill. He had little time to ponder the situation, focusing on the creature before him. The beast regained its thoughts, its teeth were now bared and it gave out a great roar. But before the beast could move, Hector made the first strike. The beast was again shocked as it felt Hector cutting across its chest, deep into the bone. The fiend roared in pain as it looked back at the boy with a desire for revenge in its eyes.

“That’s right you hairy bastard, you’ll pay for what you did.” Hector’s voice sounded no longer sounded human, a fiend from hell than of a man. The creature was unnerved as it saw Hector’s eyes now aglow, the grey pupils remaining while the rest of his eyes became red in a pure rage.

 The fiend then charged at him with great speed, more from fear than wrath, it roared with a sound that would’ve frightened lesser men. But Hector stood his ground, the newfound courage stayed with him even as he expected to die from this creature’s assault. Hector shot to his right and plunged the sword into the beast’s stomach. The warmth of the blood stung Hector’s hand as he twisted and turned the blade in the beast’s body. Hector jeered at the beast as it cried. “What, can’t fight unless it’s an unarmed woman?” Hector than spat in the creature’s face and head butted the fiend, “Come on you fuck! Show me you can die with dignity!”

Crying in pain the beast began gripping the wound, its blood now covering much of the floor of the chamber. Hector took the opportunity to take off the beast’s head as he gave a loud roar of his own. The monster’s head fell to the ground, a loud thud echoed in the room. Hector stared at the dead foe, noticing his hands were beginning shaked from the fray, his courage and zeal had quickly deserted him. He felt a strong urge to collapse to the ground as he heard footsteps coming towards him.

An ogre of a man, clad in full armor with a large battle hammer in hand, entered the chamber. “You killed my dog,” the man said with a gravely deep voice, “Now I kill you!”

“Oh boy,” Hector said to himself somberly. The thrill of battle was gone, now he was scared.

The man charged Hector. The boy readied the sword to defend the blow. The hammer’s strike hit the sword’s blade directly. The impact made a large bang in the dark tomb followed by a deep boom as the hammer fell to the ground in two pieces. Both Hector and the warrior stared at the hammer, exchanging looks at each other. Taking his chance, Hector swung the sword hard into the man’s body, the blood splattered all over Hector, even into his mouth.