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ลำดับตอนที่ #9 : Chapter 9: Kalo Versus Bacher (บทที่ 9 คาโล Vs บาเชอร์)
CHAPTER NINE: KALO VERSUS BACHER
Kalo
The crowd cheered loudly, but the noise seemed so distant, so faint to Felin right now. Her heart was in turmoil and she felt inches from raving crazy.
The prince walked into the arena, bare-handed.
He has no wand.
The realization made Felin so anxious she was reduced to grinding her teeth.
“What an honor it is to get to clash with a royalty of Kanoval...”
Said Bacher laughingly. The sight of the handsome young prince standing over there with his emotionless face and haughtiness so amused him.
Kanoval: land of warriors. Interesting.
“Sword? Wand? What are you using?” Bacher continued, more seriously this time, for the boy did not seem to have brought any weapon along. He merely stood there, calm and proud like the prince he was. However, that pride and the gleam in those beautiful blue eyes had Bacher unwittingly showing him respect.
“I won’t use anything. You can use whatever you please.”
The answer from Kalo, the proud prince, sounded hilarious, but for some reason no-one laughed. Bacher hesitated for a moment, then he sighed.
“I won’t as well. Please begin.”
The second Bacher finished, the wizard of Kanoval unleashed his wave of terror. Again a gale gusted into the stadium. It was no cool breeze; rather a warm storm wind too strong to be a human’s. So strong and powerful giants themselves could barely stand, but somehow the sorcerer contrived to remain unwavering.
A loud clap of lightning struck, shattering the stadium’s roof to pieces. Screams of terror rose from the horrified audience. Then the second followed.
“AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!”
Bacher howled in pain. The bolts were as tiny as needles, but they struck right into his eyes. The barely tolerable agony drove him out of his mind. Pain became fury and Bacher ran wild, rampaging like the giant he was.
Despite promising not to use weapons, the giant knight summoned his club and hurled it blindly forward. Everywhere it hit, the floor cracked into crevasses under the beastly force.
The target barely escaped, but it was as though the club had hit Felin in the dead center of her heart, sending it thundering in a rhythm she could not control.
As Bacher went on hammering randomly, a pillar toppled onto the Prince of Kanoval and he disappeared from sight. That was the last straw for Felin. Her head driven blank by fury, she summoned Earthsplitter and bellowed.
“YOU FILTHY LIAR!”
Bacher froze, and the cheering crowd silenced as every eye in the stadium turned to her.
“You said you won’t use any weapons, didn’t you?” Felin snarled fearlessly, her lips stretching into an unpleasant sneer. “If you’re dying to fight with weapons, I’ll take you on myself!”
Then Felin turned to Princess Berita, who was stock-still in shock.
“Take me down there.”
The princess was still astounded, but Bacher was boiling at Felin’s slight and he hollered.
“Send the thing down, Princess!”
The crowd roared in anticipation as Bacher smiled ruthlessly, wiping the blood trickling down from his eyes. Thank God he wasn’t blinded, damn these Eden scum!
“Berita, bring her down here.”
A direct command from her father the little princess could not disobey. Berita scooped Felin up, sprinted down to the arena and plopped the willowy girl in the blue dress on the ground. It was the most ridiculous battle attire in history, but Felin no longer cared.
The brute dared touch her man.
Felin grinned nastily, cracked her knuckles then swung her sword, testing. The blade cut through air with a whoosh, but the rent went only too far before blending into air once more; the power from the wand was really gone.
Bacher sneered then hurled his club at his hated opponen; the princess who didn’t know her place. Felin pounced over to one of his feet, swiping Earthsplitter at Bacher’s enormous ankle with all the strength she could muster.
Bacher’s scream shook the stadium. The giant fell with a resounding crash, scarlet blood spurting from his foot like a scene in a splatter horror. The resulting force flung Felin off her feet, sending her skidding off on the arena ground.
“It’s the Earthsplitter!”
Somewhere a giant yelled, and a confused din rose up in response. Then a giant came pelting towards Felin.
“You! You’re the one who kidnapped the Princess of Demos! You stole the Earthsplitter!”
His eyes mad with fury, he snatched at Felin. Felin heaved Earthsplitter up then slashed. The giant yelped and fumbled for her with his other hand. Felin dived sideways, swayed then stumbled, dropping her sword and spraining her ankle.
“Ow!”
Stupid high-heels!
Her face scrunched up in pain as she cursed the bothersome shoes, knowing full well that come what may, she couldn’t jump to save her life.
The second giant grabbed her and lifted her high into the air. He pinned her hands over her head and left her dangling dangerously in mid-air.
“For charges of kidnapping the princess, you must be punished!”
He announced loudly, backed by a roar of approval.
“Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!”
Chorused the giants who didn’t like killing.
The Giant King stood by as the lynching proceeded. The Princess had turned pale. She wanted to rescue her favorite doll but saw simply no hope.
The hotheaded giant picked Earthsplitter up and answered Felin’s steady gaze. There were neither fear of death nor surrender in those sharp brown eyes, only arrogance and determination.
“You shall die by Earthsplitter’s blade.”
“And you will regret this.”
Felin smiled mockingly. The giant drove the sword forward—
That very second, the giant’s whole body was encased in ice. Screams from the terrified audience echoed throughout Giantcity. Felin fell free from his grasp into the waiting arms of an extremely outraged prince.
“You troublemaker!”
Kalo looked ready to explode. He let Felin down carelessly then strode over to face the Giant King.
“I shall resume my fight.”
Kalo announced solemnly to Grezer in the intense silence of the stunned audience.
What was that? What magic on earth could be powerful enough to turn a full-grown giant into ice…in the land of scorching heat?
Kalo marched back to Bacher, who was shaking with fear,
“You!”
He cried, brandishing his club forward. Kalo stretched out his hand, and the first snowstorm ever to befall Giantcity roared in.
The frosty scent of snow billowed into the stadium, followed by a terrifying blizzard of abysmal cold. It was then that the giants first learned what winter was.
A shaft of bright blue light lit up on Kalo’s hand then slammed into Bacher, who was still paralyzed with shock, and he remained that way, for the ice he never knew was spreading up his hands and feet.
A numbing cold that drove out all emotions, leaving nothing but utmost fear.
The Prince of Kanoval.
A dead silence descended over the stadium. No one cheered. All that remained of Bacher the Knight was a gigantic ice sculpture. Kalo spared a glance at Grezer, then spun around and went over to Felin, who had slumped to the ground.
She never knew he could be this devilish.
She knew he was good at magic, but she'd never imagined he would be this good. This was too much. Too terrifying to be true.
Felin gazed into those beautiful blue eyes she had known for so long. They were calm and distant; he had already felt the fear of the surrounding audience, and was unsure how she felt about him, so he chose to remain detached.
So this was why he didn’t make many friends. So this was why he was always putting up a cold front. Probably no-one had ever dared draw near him, when he possessed such demonic power. One look was enough to send people shrinking back.
Idiot
…was the single word that popped up in Felin’s head as she studied the prince still shielding behind his ice wall. The sight had her feeling like teasing someone, and she reached out to him, purring.
“I can’t get up.”
Kalo helped her up but remained silent.
“Why don’t you just use that from the start so I won’t have to get myself bunged up, you idiot?”
Kalo shot her an indignant glare. He was himself again.
“And whose fault was it that I ended up fighting off two giants?”
He whispered tensely. Felin bared her teeth and chuckled, then choked to a halt at the scold.
“You challenged them when you know you're no match for them. You should know your place!”
Felin’s beautiful face twisted in anger and she blurted out,
“Bullsh*t! You think I’ll lose to that if it wasn’t for this blithering dress?”
“Your dress?” Kalo repeated, and Felin blushed as his eyes swept over her openly, but he went on like he hadn't noticed, “You should start wearing these from now on.”
That from the prince sent Felin exploding, but before she could beat her lecturer to a pulp, the earsplitting applause and cheers rained down from all over the stadium and her hands flew back to her ears.
“Prince Kalo Wanebli of Kanoval, you are now free. You have proved that Kanovalites are as formidable as rumored.” Grezer began, “But as for this young lady and the Earthsplitter--”
“She’s Berita’s doll, Father. Give her back to Berita!”
Princess Berita interjected, her hands outstretched to retrieve her plaything, then she froze, seeing the look on that intimidating Prince Kalo’s face.
“She’s with me.”
“That’s not how it works. You win, you’re free. As for her, her battle was interrupted, so she’ll have to fight again.” Grezer explained.
“Then I shall fight in her place.” Kalo retorted.
“That’s even further out of the question. The two of you aren’t related at all.” The Giant King smiled in contentment, as though to toy with Kalo’s patience.
“What if she’s my betrothed? Can I fight in her place?” Prince Kalo announced, determined.
“Betrothed?” The proclaimed betrothed exclaimed.
“Princess Feliona of Baramos.”
The whole stadium swarmed with chatter at the introduction. Felin made a face, not pleased with the title, then whispered desperately,
“The hell you playing at?”
The prince ignored her, serenely pushing on with his negotiation,
“If there’s really no way to avoid this, I'm willing to fight again.”
“I’ve never been engaged and I’ve never granted you the right to fight my battle, you blasted moron!”
Felin blew her top, having finally understood how she'd received the stupid title.
He simply wanted to fight in her place. The trouble-seeking idiot!
Kalo’s icy blue eyes glared at the princess who was good at nothing but wreaking havoc. Then he explained brusquely,
“You owe me my wand. Do as I say.”
It was an unpleasant reason, but Felin fell silent when Kalo’s sharp eyes flared, demanding obedience. She sealed her lips and ground her teeth, letting her temper get the best of her, forgetting everything she had learned back in Edinburgh about the Pharaoh’s Mask.
All the while the two were staring daggers, the audience chattered in excitement. Grezer raised his hand to calm them, then asked,
“Princess Feliona?”
“The same Princess Feliona you’re thinking of.” Kalo replied steadily, “You have seen her sword; the Earthsplitter. And she also has the scar under her left eye as her mark. If that’s still not enough for you, I believe Godome Komus could help you decide. He’s the one who brought the Princess to Demos.”
The chatters grew louder. Grezer leaned forward to study the Princess.
“Her eyes…she’s got the Lord’s eyes…” Grezer muttered, "She really has a scar under her left eye!”
That sent the surrounding audience chattering even more frantically. Grezer fell silent in thought for a moment.
“Then why didn’t Godome lead you two straight to the Lord? Why did he send you here as prisoners?”
Felin had stayed quiet long enough, and she cut across Kalo before he could respond.
“Well, ‘cause Godome’s not here, of course! He went in ahead of us to report something, that’s why things went all wrong. As for why we’re here—”
Felin laughed sheepishly, back to her happy self.
“I didn’t know people in Demos don’t pull no strings. Thought I could tell them I’m Princess Feliona, and they'll easily let me through immigration! Who would’ve known they’d send me straight to Giantcity?”
And she doubted still if her connections could help her here.
It was a troubling notion Felin had to keep silent. She knew Kalo had intended to bet on her name. If Princess Feliona could sell, then he wouldn’t have to fight again, but if that weren't the case…
Felin stared into Grezer’s eyes, openly and challengingly. After a moment, the Giant King nodded slowly and reached out a hand towards the princess.
“If you’re the Princess, then I’m your uncle. I’m Lord Evides’s younger brother.”
Here comes another relative.
A strange sensation took hold of the young woman. She met Kalo’s gaze then climbed onto the enormous hand. Grezer withdrew his hand carefully to his eye level and smiled.
“You’re definitely Princess Feliona. You have the Lord’s eyes, and your face and lips are so similar to your mother’s. How beautiful. How lovely.”
The praise had Felin gulping noisily.
“Could you change those to something like…dashing, handsome, heartthrob…that sort?”
Grezer laughed. His eyes sparkling, he asked.
“And about the engagement of the Princess of Demos to the Prince of Kanoval, how could I have missed such big news?”
“Trust me, it’s better that way.”
Felin retorted. Puzzled, Grezer leaned in even closer, and the blabbermouth blurted out spitefully.
“It’s my fault that prat lost his Kanoval’s-magical-treasure wand. So he forced me into engagement to repay my debt.”
“To repay your debt?” Grezer repeated then threw back his head and laughed so hard the whole stadium rang. Then, he finally stood up. The audience fell silent and followed suit.
“People of the Volcano of Abyss, I hereby present to you: Princess Feliona Gredevel of Demos.”
His voice rang clear and loud. The giants touched their foreheads then bowed low while the giantesses curtsied gracefully, before they all cheered and exclaimed in jubilation, celebrating the good news of the long-lost princess’s return throughout the Volcano of Abyss.
******
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