Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 8] Ch. 8 Banshee's Ballad

Meela

I calmly stared down the noble as he watched the massacre behind me. His expression turned from arrogance to disbelief to fear and panic. I already knew that his guards didn't stand a chance. The twins were former A-rank adventurers before I began funding them as my personal muscle and they didn't mess around. Most summoners have some manner of creatures or beasts, the twins had monsters. I can't explain them any other way and none of us have a problem with that.

Victor's main monster was a giant of a man made of stitched together parts. It was a nearly invulnerable combatant that might shrug off a blow from Flint's hand cannon. Victoria's monster was a giant beast of that resembled a mix between a mastiff and a bloodhound and it was fourteen feet tall at the shoulders. The giant man had eyes that pierced the night with the unholy green light. The glowing eyes and the glowing mist seeping from the stitching holding him together hinted at the magic that allowed him to shrug off blades and defused spells that struck him as he tore the guards limb from limb. The monster dog had a body that dripped with a slow building fog as it's red eyes and glowing maw tore through bone and metal.

The smell of blood and the screams of the damned echoed as I slowly walked toward the noble brat when the fighting came to an abrupt stop.

"Y-you can't do this! Don't you know who I am? When my father hears about this-" he stammered.

"He'll what? If I wanted to talk Viscount Winterhall, I would have approached him myself. It's you who do not know who you are dealing with." I warned.

Bodies thudded next to the young Viscount's son of the few guards and knights smart enough to not pick a fight or surrender. They panicked and scurried away from us. The Magic Knights were probably mid-rankers who got recruited because they were easy on the eyes or had connections. A lot of Rankers were looking for a position with the Magic Knight divisions, although there wasn't a small number looking at the recruiters for the local nobles for something more posh. Tough break kid, I'm better at picking personnel. It's my pride and joy.

"You won't get away with this, my father will-" he stammered leaning on the authority he thought he had through his dad.

"He'll what? I know, why don't we summon him and find out just what he'll do." On cue a magic knight landed at my feet and I placed my heel on her chest. She was missing an arm and had a large chunk of flesh ripped from her side cutting clean through the armor and flesh. "You have a choice; bring my girlfriend's possessions, down to the last stocking and pen. Or bring Viscount Winterhall here and tell him the Banshee of Baskerville is cross with his son."

"Y-you're lying, the Banshee of Baskerville is a myth." The noble brat stammered, sincerely hoping that he was right.

The Magic Knight under my heel was barely alive so to punctuate my point I pulled out a very expensive healing item. One that only those with connections and money could get their hands on. It came in a long flat box that easily fit in most adventurers or mage's leg pouch. On the front was the unmistakable design of a silver fox woman with flowing hair on a backdrop of flourishing angled knotwork.

In one smooth motion after I pulled the small case from my own thigh pouch, I flicked it open. Inside was something that could be called the fruit of my career. There were three glass cylinders in silver holsters with a needle at one end and a plunger at the other. Inside the glass cylinders was a luminescent liquid that magically swirled with reds, yellows, and oranges. I selected one of the syringes and twisted the lock on the plunger that prevented it from accidentally going off. I then bent down, stabbed it in the neck of the magic knight, and pressed the plunger.