The Dread Knight's Rage-Chapter 85: Nila The Vanquisher!

Solomon and the golden siblings watched the giant stomp past their hiding place.

Canari trembled slightly at the sight of the enormous creature.

It was easily more than fifty meters tall. His white skin was ashen, like chalk, and covered in strange brands.

His brown hair was matted and shaggy, every strand nearly inseparable from the other.

The glowing crimson of his eyes illuminated the darkness of the approaching night.

He sniffs the air like a dog before releasing a deep bellow.

It’s voice rattles the rocky walls around them, nearly causing their hiding place to crumble.

When it doesn’t find what it is looking for, it moves on. Its long limbs carry its lanky body through the wetlands as it begins climbing up the side of the mountain.

"I’ve never... seen a giant that big before."

Canari shakes like a leaf blown by the wind, her eyes wide with fear and her heartbeat loud enough to hear through her chest.

Andros wraps his arm around her. "Be not afraid, sister. The creature has passed. He will not harm you."

Canari nods slowly as her body begins to readjust. Solomon looks out into the big, wide world in front of them.

"...We have to stop for the night. Giants are nocturnal, and this place will be crawling with them."

Virgil immediately starts to protest and argue that they should push on.

But a hand grabs his own, and he looks towards the culprit.

Canari, no longer robotic or abrasive, rubs her neck awkwardly as she looks away.

"...I agree with him. It’s best we stop for now and start moving again early morning."

Virgil purses his lips, fighting the urge to give in to his sister’s wishes.

"Brother, would you please tell them that-"

Andros pulls up a large rock to sit on. He pats the area beside him, gesturing for his brother to do the same.

Finally, Vergil concedes.

He takes a seat beside his brother, while Solomon and Canari lean against opposing walls.

Solomon lights a fire with magic to keep the group warm.

As his fatigue had yet to fully subside from his earlier battle, he feels a wave of drowsiness sneak up on him.

Solomon closes his eyes for but a minute, and rest consumes him.

He and everyone else in the cave are jolted awake by the sound of an explosion, followed by a thunderous laughter.

Solomon, unable to mistake that sound anywhere, stands up and rushes out of the cave.

What he sees is Nila, fighting a small hunting party of low orcs without breaking so much as a sweat.

She swings her sword to devastating effect, cutting through their deep green skin as easily as prepping vegetables.

"Stay still, you pig-nosed bastards! I’ll crack your skulls open if you move! I’ll split them in fucking half even if you don’t move!"

"..." Solomon had to admit it to himself. He couldn’t even begin to fathom what part of Nila his brother found graceful.

At some point between verbally berating orcs and carving them up like turkeys, the elf coincidentally spotted her team leader.

"By the great tree! You are here, my very large friend!"

Nila performed a somersault and used her momentum to split an orc from the top of his head to the gap between his legs.

"Good to see you too, Nila..." Solomon scratches his cheek. "I suppose I don’t need to ask how you’re doing."

The elf’s eyes sparkle like flecks of gold.

"Is this not the most fun, spontaneous adventure you have ever been on?! Everything is a challenge, it is truly awesome!"

Solomon watches as an orc grabs Nila from behind.

It bites down into her shoulder with its large tusks and teeth, making her yell in response.

Andros sweeps his gaze back and forth between the two.

"...Aren’t you going to help her?"

Solomon quickly shushes him in a hushed panic. "Shhhh! What is wrong with you? Are you trying to get me stabbed...?!"

Andros and Virgil blink slowly.

"YAAAAAHHHH!!"

With a roar, Nila jams her fingers into the eye sockets of the orc.

She pulls with the strength of twenty men and completely rips free the top half of the orc’s skull.

Andros and Vergil are gobsmacked.

Nila, as beautiful as she is fearsome, slams her sword into the ground and laughs triumphantly into the sky.

"I have done it! I have once again proven my superiority over the feeble-minded creatures of this realm! I am forevermore The Vanquisher! Hear my glorious name and know that carnage will follow in my wake! Hahahaha!!"

Nila continued to laugh like a hero from an epic fable.

Canari slowly points at her. "Is your masculine companion always like this?"

"No." Solomon lied, resisting the urge to drop his fist on her head.

Nila rushed over, covered in orc blood and dragging her sword behind her.

She wrapped Solomon in a big hug before turning to the golden siblings.

"Normally, I would urinate on the corpses of my foes, but I will abstain in front of the new faces present!" She beamed.

Andros leans toward Solomon. "Is she-"

"No, she’s not joking at all."

Nila looked down at her form that was now slick with blood and sweat.

"Ah... glorious, but most uncomfortable." She looked towards Solomon, whom she had accidentally gotten dirty. "At least you share in my glory now, friend."

Solomon held out his hand and formed a bubble of water. "I appreciate the sentiment, but..."

He proceeded to wash himself off and remove all traces of Nila’s shared ’glory’.

Next, he proceeded to wash her off as well.

"Y-You would so casually wash away the signs of my victory!?"

"Your victory makes you stink, so yes."

Solomon tosses away the dirty water after ensuring Nila is clean.

He starts to ask her if she had seen any of the other members of their group when he notices a hard gaze drilling into his back.

Canari stares at him robotically.

"Well... it would seem as though you are finally showing some signs of use, ruffian. I awoke with quite a thirst this morning and I should like it if you would attend to my needs with your fanciful little parlor tricks."

Solomon turns his lips up in a sneer.

"Is nothing that comes out of your mouth decent in any way?"

"My voice, I suppose." Canari shrugs. "Water please."

It took everything inside of Solomon not to fling a ball of water at the princess.

He could tell that this was going to be a very long trip.

-

Virgil’s estimate of two days to get out of the savage lands was not entirely correct.

Perhaps it would have been, provided that they actually stuck to their intended journey.

However, Nila’s desire to fight everything that she came across ended up causing the group to fall behind.

Solomon was already used to how she acted, and so nothing that she did really surprised him, but he couldn’t say the same for the golden princelings.

In fairness, Nila took a bit of getting used to.

She wasn’t the typical elf, and even if she weren’t glaringly violent, her inability to feel embarrassment resulted in her putting on some very interesting spectacles.

Virgil found her at least a bit amusing.

Canari thought she was a diminutive barbarian.

And Andros...

"Is your companion spoken for?"

Solomon choked on the water in his mouth and nearly died right in front of everyone.

Night had already fallen on their second night in the wilderness, and the group had taken shelter before they finished their journey in the morning.

Andros, Canari, and Virgil were all eating a stone-bristled boar that Nila had hunted for them.

Though, she didn’t do it to be generous. She claimed that the boar was ’Looking at her the wrong way.’

Solomon thought that Nila had made a terrible first impression. Especially when she stretched out on the floor and went to sleep with her head in his lap.

The last thing he expected was the words that came out of Andros’ mouth.

After nearly hacking up his lungs, Solomon wiped his jaw and stared at his golden friend to make sure he hadn’t misheard.

"...What?"

"Your friend. Is she spoken for?"

Canari spoke up before Solomon had to.

"You are such a thoughtless oaf! Father would never allow you to bring a woman into our house who lacks even basic refinement!"

"Well, Nila and my brother kinda.." Solomon tried to speak, but was quickly drowned out.

"If you think that Lady Nila is the kind of woman father would disapprove of, then you don’t know him very well at all." Andros snorted. "He has hundreds of pretentious little daughters-in-law. Have you ever seen him spare any of them a second glance?"

Andros turned his gaze to the sleeping Nila once again.

"Lady Nila is exactly the kind of woman father would delight in having as a daughter-in-law. Powerful and unabashedly herself."

Solomon rubbed the back of his head and spoke more firmly. "I am sorry, friend. But Nila and my brother..."

Slowly, Solomon’s eyes were drawn outside the cave.

In the dark of the night, he saw something far away that nearly made his heart sink to his feet.

Staring back at him from atop a cliff was a winged tiger with glowing green eyes.

As soon as it made eye contact with Solomon, it turns it’s back and walks away, seemingly beckoning him to follow...