The Cursed Prince

The royal castle in Astland where King Stevan and his family lived, and where he welcomed his important ally from Draec, was protected by thick and tall walls all around it with stations for royal guards to patrol and do surveillance.

On each corner of the walls, there were weapons prepared to shoot dragons. They looked like giant crossbows with arrows as big as long metal spears.

The weapons needed three people to operate them. They were prepared for exactly this situation when Astland was attacked by dragons from Summeria.

However, since there were no signs of dragons for months, the guards in Astland had become complacent. They were caught off guard when three enormous dragons suddenly showed up above the castle and burned everything they could get their fire into.

"Get the dragonslayer!!! Get to it now! NOW!!" The army commanders screamed their lungs out to order the operators to get to the weapons and shoot the dragons down.

"Get water! Extinguish the fire first!!"

"Save women and children!!"

Mars could hear screams in panic and orders shouted here and there when suddenly all around them turned into chaos.

He quickly gave Harlow back to Gewen and ran toward the gate. Mars needed to see who came with the dragons. If it was Maxim... he wanted to know what happened to Emmelyn.

"Gewen, bring Harlow to a safe place! I will deal with this," he said after he handed over Harlow to Gewen and took out his long sword.  Before Gewen could respond, Mars hand ran toward the castle gate.

Gewen could only shake his head and took Harlow toward the stone cottage behind the castle. It was used to keep logistics and wouldn't burn to the ground if dragons came to attack.

Mars knew Harlow was in good hands. So, he focused his attention on the enemy who attacked suddenly. Edgar met him on the way to the gate, together with some high-level army officials too.

"Who is it?" Mars asked them urgently while walking briskly toward the courtyard. "Is that the king and his wizard?"

"It's so sudden," an official from Astland grumbled. "They attack just when we are celebrating our first victory and caught us off guard."

Mars understood why the officials grumbled. They were just tasting victory after one month of trying to break through the enemy's defenses, and suddenly, when they thought everything was under control, the enemy came unexpectedly with three dragons, taking unfair advantage of their ability to attack from the air.

However, Mars actually thought it was brilliant and wished he could smack his people for lowering their guard just because they won a battle.

It was their own fault that the enemy could attack them like this when they actually had the weapons to kill dragons but they were not ready when the attack happened.

"Look! It's really King Loriel," said a commander from Astland haltingly. He pointed to the sky.

They had arrived in the castle courtyard and saw the damage. Dozens of soldiers were burned along with their horses, carriages, and two towers. It was a gruesome sight.

Up in the air, they saw three dragons with the colors black, blue, and green flying low with menacing gestures. The fire was still breathed out of their noses after inflicting so much damage below.

Mars looked up to see the person who was sitting straight on a black dragon's back. It was a young man, very handsome with messy ash-colored hair, a bit similar to his, and a well-built physique. He was maybe almost as big as Edgar.

Was that... King Loriel? Maxim?

Mars suddenly felt so much anger well up in his chest.

So, this was the man who arrogantly wanted to steal Emmelyn from him? Bastard!

Mars had kept his jealousy and rage to himself all these months because he didn't want to expose Harlow to his negative feelings. However, now, he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Bastard!!" He shouted. With a movement so fast that nobody managed to notice what he was doing, Mars took a bow and arrows from the soldier nearby and quickly shot an arrow toward Maxim.

It was so sudden and unexpected that Maxim didn't have time to dodge. The arrow stabbed him in the shoulder. Luckily, he wore a thin armor under his coat and the arrow didn't hurt him.

However, it was enough to make him startled and shiver. Maxim felt relieved that the arrow was directed at him and he protected himself with the armor.

If Mars shot the dragon in his vital organ,  Aslain might have been injured by now. The enemy seemed to be a really skilled archer. Maxim didn't want any of the dragons to get wounded even only a little because of his carelessness.

"Sneaky bastard!" Maxim shouted angrily. "A real man wouldn't shoot sneakily like that."

"No, just like a real man wouldn't take unfair advantage of having a dragon..." Mars snapped back. "Come and fight me on the ground if you are not a coward! Don't stay up there just because you are afraid of getting hurt."

Maxim narrowed his eyes and smiled dangerously. "You think I can't beat you up without a dragon? Ha... You have no idea who you are talking to!"

"I don't believe you," Mars replied calmly. He threw the bow to the ground and raised his sword. "You are a coward who can only rely on a dragon to attack his enemy. I think you are too scared to fight me one on one without the help of others, especially a dragon."

Maxim scoffed. He actually didn't plan to hurt Mars because the purpose of his visit here was to invite the man with his daughter to Castilse so he could meet Emmelyn and wake her up.

Maxim burned those towers and soldiers as a side mission to punish his brother-in-law, King Stevan for kidnaping his mother and for his rebellion.

The Summerian king just wanted to invite Mars to come with him to Castilse and force Stevan to return his mother. That was it.

However, now that Mars had called him a coward and challenged him in a duel, Maxim thought he would take him up on that challenge.

This way he could vent his anger and frustration that he had been holding inside for months, and at the same time kick Mars Strongmoor's butt on behalf of Emmelyn.

"Fine, Emmelyn, let me teach your husband a small lesson," Maxim muttered.

He decided to duel Mars just for fun and punish the man a little for everything that he had subjected to Emmelyn, from stealing her kingdom, killing her family, and left her to suffer while she was pregnant to chase a wicked witch.

Maxim took it upon himself to punish Mars for Emmelyn's sake. He patted Aslain's back and asked the dragon to land so he could get off and face Mars on a one-on-one fight.

Everyone looked up to the sky and waited in anticipation when Aslain suddenly dashed down and landed on the nearest wall. Maxim get down from his back and jumped lightly to the ground. There was an arrow and quiver on his back and a big long sword in his hand.

Renwyck and Emery, the other wizard, who each rode Eris and Sand respectively, were flying above them with great alert. They both protected the king from being ambushed by the enemy.

Maxim walked firmly toward Mars who was standing in the middle of the courtyard with his unsheathed sword, ready to fight him.