“Now this is a surprise!” Troy spoke with his hand under his chin. He turned to his side and asked, “What do you suppose they are doing, Mikhail?”

“I’m not sure, my prince. I’m at a loss at their tactics.” Mikhail answered in a perplexed voice with his gaze fixed ahead towards the enemy.

“It sure is weird. I haven’t heard of enemies coming out of their holes by themselves and serving their heads on a platter.” Troy laughed shrilly before he resumed his words. “Well whatever, it’s not like they pose any threat to me. Just crush them like the insects they are, this bunch of bastards who dared to disrespect me.” He ground his teeth in anger as he slowly stared at the enemy forces.

While he was busy thinking of ways to torture the Tristinian royal family and having a night of pleasure with their women, the battle had started. Loud sounds of swords clashing and spears penetrating through armors resounded.

The earth awakened warriors who were responsible to manage the terrain were having quite an easy time, there weren’t enough opposition numbers to keep them in check and it had created havoc in enemies’ ranks. The enemy soldiers were falling down and getting swallowed by large pits. It was complete chaos.

“Hahaha… just like that… crush those insects. Let them know what happens if you dare to disobey this prince!” Troy was a safe distance away from the frontlines and didn’t have to worry about any stray arrows.

“Destroy them! Kill! Kill them for me!” His shrill voice was drowned in the sounds of the clashing weapons. He was enjoying himself. The rivers of blood flowing, the tears of pain, and the cries brought him a perverse sense of joy and satisfaction. He wasn’t actually the one killing the enemies, in fact, he hadn’t even made the effort to pick up his weapon, nonetheless, he was living each and every tiny bit of it.

“Go on, you two, go and join the party!” Troy sent off two of his guards forward. They obeyed his order gaily. They were already itching for action, bloodthirsty and hungry, and Troy’s words were music to their ears.

The opposing forces who were barely holding on, were brought down to the verge of collapse as two high level awakened joined in the fray. Their magic warriors and the half-awakened couldn’t hold a candle against the sheer overpowering numbers of enemies. And even if the numbers weren’t so skewed and one-sided, a single high level awakened was enough to go against the dozens of half-awakened and magic warriors, it wouldn’t even be a contest.

The difference between each star level as one went higher up the chain was enormous. If a 2* awakened could quite comfortably hold his own against three 1* awakened, then the number of 2* awakened needed to fight off a 3* awakened was definitely more than five. And this disparity increased steeply. So the opposing forces were being cut down as stray puppets in a field. They had no answer against the might and number of awakened warriors in the allied forces.

 “Mikhail- Mikhail, who is that?!” Troy asked suddenly in a loud voice. His eyes were focused a little distance away and had a shocked look in them. His heart was beating fast and there was a healthy flush on his face. He couldn’t believe that there could be something, someone, so beautiful in the world, and that too right in front of him on the battlefield.

Mikhail took a while before he answered, “That’s Rose Tygrine, younger daughter of Suzanne Tygrine, whom we met during the conference.”

“Oh?” Troy paused, as if remembering who exactly Suzanne Tygrine was, and then he clicked his tongue, appreciatively. “Of course, like mother like daughter. Of course, she would be this beautiful.” He licked his lips and felt himself getting aroused the more he stared at Rose’s visage.

Rose was cutting through enemies’ ranks as if they were made out of grass. Her whole body seemed like it was on fire and all anyone could see was red. It was hard to tell if it was due to the showers of enemy blood or the fire itself, but the smell of burnt flesh accompanied her. Her sword, a special magic sword resistant to her fire magic, was dancing around effortlessly. Whoever came across her couldn’t hold out against her even one of her blows. The enemies started running away from her. A circle centered around her cleared up in the battlefield. It was as if they understood that it was of no use, that it was pointless to even try. She was fire itself, the harbinger of despair.

“Yes, she is… she is the one… the Fire Maiden of Despair!” Troy laughed maniacally. His whole body was crying out for Rose. He wanted to touch her, to hold her, to fuck her. He couldn’t wait till the battle was over and he had his hands around her thin waist. He wanted to dive in those splendidly bouncy breasts of her. “I can’t wait!”

Suddenly Troy’s attention was diverted as an enchanted arrow came agonizingly close to hitting his chest. He furrowed his brows to find the culprit. It was a group of men charging straight towards him. Their leader was staring at him unblinkingly. There was unquenchable vengeance burning in those green eyes.

Troy snorted seeing that. “Looks like they are here for me. What pitiful insects!” He was not fazed by the look of hatred directed at him. He was as arrogant as ever as he ordered his guards. “Men, go deal with those peasants. They are an eyesore.”

He once again tried to locate Rose when the sound of swords clashing near him intensified. He was stunned by what he saw. The supposed leader of the group was beaming towards him in a straight line. His companions were holding off the guards, or more accurately, were dying one by one just to knock them back. There was no hesitation in the eyes of those determined men. The death of their comrades couldn’t faze them a bit, their own life hanging by a thin thread was of no apparent issue to them, they were focused and unyielding in their mission. He understood then that it was all a ploy to get to him, to get their revenge on him.

“Interesting…” Troy mumbled as his eyes met with those of the dark haired leader’s. He grinned cruelly as the distance between them kept reducing. The dark haired man was like a shot arrow, as he proceeded to knock back the two main guards after crossing swords with them for an instant. The two guards were blown away, their chests bleeding profusely. However, through all this his eyes were trained on Troy like a hawk eyeing its prey.

“Ahh!” He shouted and swung his sword diagonally to slash at Troy. The sword was just inches away from striking Troy’s chest when it stopped. The dark haired man turned to his side and found a man of incomparable strength gazing back at him. He fell to his knees at that instant as if all his strength had left him. It was as if it was the one final attack with all his power behind it, and after it had been stopped so effortlessly his whole body broke down. His fighting spirit which had been blazing so bright in his eyes turned dim.

“Hahahaha!” Troy laughed maniacally. He went forward and kicked the dark haired man’s face with his sharp boot. “Do you think you could touch me with that feeble power of yours?” He laughed again as he said those words.

The man, now bleeding all over his body, glared hatefully at him. He coughed a mouthful of blood as he tried to open his mouth, and then again and again he coughed mouthfuls of blood.

“With Mikhail by my side, do you think a measly warrior from this backwater kingdom, could ever hurt a hair of mine? How pitifully naïve!” Troy spit on the man and then kicked him twice. “Do you see this?!” Troy pointed to the jewel hanging by his neck. It was a wonderfully beautiful and shining blue gemstone embedded in a gold locket. “This is a protection magic tool. Have you ever seen a magic tool? Huh? You damn peasant!”

Troy was in high spirits as he boasted about the magic tool. “With this even if a 6* awakened tries to attack me, they can’t do shit against me. It was given to me by my grandfather…” He leaned down and asked, “Do you know who is my grandfather? Do you, you damn bastard?” He rambled on for a bit about the strength and reach of his grandfather. “Mikhail, hack him to pieces!” He screamed shrilly and then swaggered back towards the back.

“Now, I just want to get her… I want her… I want Rose!”