The warmth of the campfire heated their bodies in the cold night of the orange forest. The silvery moon shone onto their laughing faces.
The occasional popping of the fire was stifled by their melodic voices, as Morvadeus and Orange communicated in the ancient language of the runes. The bird just sat beside them, a little bored; he wasn't proficient in it.
'Even after 3 hours, they are still going,' he sighed, wondering when their chit-chat would end.
He was looking at the flame, his eyes flashing with old memories of his childhood, as if the dancing flame was the old embodiment of him.
Looking away, his melancholic eyes gazed at the beautiful moon, his only wish to fly to his homeland.
'I'm still not strong enough to defeat my brother.' His knuckles popped as he clenched his talons.
Morvadeus graceful pose with the straight shoulder and elegant behaviour surprised Orange. They sat face to face, not as prince and princess of an empire, but as fellow rune masters exchanging pointers between themselves.
Suddenly, two predatory eyes of a silver creature met Leus's, making his blood freeze and his talons tremble. The creature's colossal size easily covered the moon behind him; his savage eyes ignored the trembling bird and directly stared at Orange with piercing eyes.
The aura leaking from him made the forest a silent hill. His claws, protruding out of his paws, were slashing the air apart, just by moving a little. Reflecting the light of the moon in the dark, it illuminated the Orange's face as if he were marking her.
Orange immediately forced the two to cover behind her, her nose twitching continuously. She knew trouble had arrived, a huge trouble.
The stifling silence was interrupted by his howl, which made Morvadeus's ears bleed and instantly snuffed outthe campfire out. Their blood chilled, his bloodthirsty howl, which echoed in the forest, made its denizens escape.
His silver-furred head was decorated by a half-moon crown with a black holder, perfectly aligning with the moon behind as if he were its vessel. His fur shining with the moonlight, like a royal star descending from heaven, accentuated his arrogant but elegant face.
Embedded into his silver armour chest plate, a Regnum Vargheim emblem glinted, shocking Morvadeus, who instantly recognized it.
'What is the Royal family of Regnum Vargheim doing???' he shouted in his mind. These creatures from the Regnum Vargheim Empire were arrogant to their bones and rarely came out of their place. He knew they were powerful and bloodthirsty; no other empire dared to mess with them.
The prince's huge wolf mouth grinned, showcasing his pitch-black fangs. Letting his bloodthirsty aura permeate every inch of the forest, crawling on their skins as if blades were slashing on it.
The experienced killer whose hands were stained with thousands of lives, made Morvadeus's body freeze; he couldn't move from the shock.
But the ancient creature inside his body, annoyingly raised his eyebrow, flooding his body with an aura which made it slightly easier to bear the weight of the prince's power.
"I, the prince of Regnum Vargheim, came to fill my empty fangs with the warm blood of your puny body," the prince howled at Orange, making her fur stand on end.
"Hoooh, crawling out from your father's protection, made your mind fogged with arrogance?" Orange warningly asked.
Her cute orange eyes slowly started to turn into a darker shade of red. The darkening started explosions in her body, each making her small frame bigger.
As she grew, scarlet-red veins started to crawl out from her eyes, covering her now massive, fifteen-meter-tall body, with cracks.
Looking now eyes to eyes with the prince, she smirked and said: "A puppy daring to bare fangs and starve for my bloodline?"
Her presence made the two creatures behind the prince shiver, her aura freezing the surrounding air.
"What did you dare to utter? I will tear that mouth of yours into thousands of pieces," the prince howled at her insult, not a bit scared.
Cleching his hands, his silver bracelets clinked together. Swinging his two paws with silver protruding claws cut the air twice with a sharp sound, alarming Orange.
Her third eyes swiflty opened, covering her and her two friends. The claws, like a line stretched from the horizon, cut everything in their way cleanly, and a sharp sound was howling as it cut a valley deep into the forest.
Orange remained standing proudly, her rune barrier protecting her as her third eye glowed. Around them, everything was utterly destroyed; trees disappeared, and stains of blood on the ground from the hidden creatures of the forest flowed.
The prince raised his eyebrow at the Orange, realizing that maybe he sank his fangs into something bigger than he expected. But he wasn't someone to concede easily.
Looking menacingly at Orange, his silver eyes glinted, showing his pitch-black fangs, he was ready to pounce at her. The two soldiers behind him held by his aura also followed.
The presence of the other two was meaningless in his eyes; his soldier would take care of it later.
'I won't be humiliated again like this,' Morvadeus's hands clenched.
The prince and Orange started a fight in the air. Orange's barrier remained intact, but the prince was smart enough to understand that everything had its weakness. He only attacked a point in her barrier.
Orange knew she was in trouble, especially her two friends. If her barrier disappears, she wouldn't be able to protect them. Her bloodline ability wasn't strong enough to hold long against this much power.
And she was right, small cracks formed on the barrier, where the prince's relentless slaughter continued.
Raising his claws, the prince executed his move yet again, but this time he sent a long line of cut towards the one point of barrier, making it instantly crack.
Orange could barely evade it as it cut through her fur, swiftly heading beside her head.
The explosion of the barrier instantly separated them, flinging the two in different directions. Leus was surprised, flapping his wings, he was barely able to stop before he crashed into the forest.
But Movadeus wasn't so lucky. Before he could crash into the forest, a silverish creature appeared with brown armour, and holding him by his collar, he smashed his little body down.
The air instantly escaped from Morvadeus's lungs, a couple of his ribcages broken. Coughing up blood towards the eyes of the silver soldier, he managed to get a distance between them.
Morvadeus was in a sorry state, his clothes ragged, the fluffy cape ripped into pieces, and with bones broken, he would barely be able to fight against someone.
Meanwhile, Leus was rushing to his aid, but another silver soldier cut his way.
"Where, where little birdiee," the silverish wolf shouted from a distance
"Sigh, I didn't want Morvadeus to find out, but I don't have a choice," Leus mumbled.
The momentum of the lunging soldier was getting faster. It brought its claws together, starting to spin, ready to tear Leus into pieces.
A blue flame ignited above Leus head, instantly vaporising his pitch-black feathers. Instead, beautiful azure blue feathers erupted, as he screeched in pain.
The pitch-black feather-head was replaced by a graceful phoenix instead. His body radiated heat, and his purple eyes glinted at the soldier.
The appearance of the phoenix surprised the soldier, who smirked thinking, 'The boss will be very happy if I catch the phoenix.'
Thrusting his beautifully sharp talons forwards, Leus was ready to impale the naive wolf.