One With Nature 2

Family Troubles: 1

Me, Gawain, Percival, and even King Lot were now staring at the black Knight that just landed in the mountain top. It really wasn't hard to identify them by the shape of their armor and the shadows creeping around their form.

I have to say, I'm surprised Vortigern came personally.

Vortigern was a big man, even bigger than Percival who was quite the large fellow himself. His armor didn't look like something a human would wear, which wasn't that surprising.

It looked somewhat welded on him rather than him wearing. The feet looked more like large claws and a tattered black cape was tied around his waist. The arms looked equally monstrous, with the right side looking more jagged and battered than the left.

At the center of the chest was pulsing, red core that looked like it was dug into the armor. The helmet was thin and looked liked somewhat dragon-like. The right side of the helmet seemed damaged and, on the other side, a pale white slit from behind a diagonal visor glared at everyone around. At the sides of the helmet were blade like appendages pointing down, making it look like the helmet had blades of its own.

In Vortigern's right hand was a jagged, pitch black sword with red veins running through the blade. It looked less like a sword, and more like a large fang that was sharpened to look like a blade.

(A/N: For reference: look up @Kamuify's Vortigern art.)

Gawain and King Lot seemed to forget their previous argument and instead focus on Vortigern. Percival was trying to stay strong, but looking closely, sweat was beginning to appear on his brows. I guess he recognises Vortigern from stories and reports he heard around.

"Hmph, so tell me, where are those troublesome nieces of mine?" Vortigern scoffed, looking around. "I would think they're still here, speaking of delusions about their kingdoms and protecting people."

"This is troubling," Gawain mumbled, hand tightening on his sword.

"Is that... truly Vortigern?" Percival asked, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Pretty much. Sorry that your first mission took such a shitty turn, Kid," I apologised to Percival for having such bad luck before turning to look at Gawain. "How long can you keep him distracted?"

"Ten minutes, at most," Gawain answered without missing a beat.

"I'll go for the weapon so we can get it so we can leave. We're not here to win a war," I instructed.

"I'd feel better if you were fighting by my side," Gawain admitted, his face turning grim.

"If I do that and King Lot runs for the weapon, then what? We can send Percival, but what if that thing has some mystical trap around it?" I asked and I honestly meant being worried about those things.

Elementals, especially fairies which come in many numbers in Britain, are the kind of creatures that would pull something like that.

Gawain clicked his tongue but nodded. "Very well, go as fast as you can."

Third POV:

Zack took a step back, pulling out a Baraka, he quickly wrote a Rune on the ground before his form disappeared, though Gawain and Percival can still tell he began heading towards the weapon.

Gawain took that as his signal to charge forward. Holding out Excalibur Galatine, he threw the blade upwards. The sword spun in sync with the sun in the sky, catching fire with pure white flames before falling back down to its charging wielder's hand.

The knight of the sun caught his sword as he got close to Vortigern before taking a wide, horizontal swing. A powerful wave of white fire was sent to the Black Dragon, who simply raised his own sword and swung back at the wave of fire.

Vortigern's sword seemed to swallow the fire created by Gwain, turning it into pitch black flames before the black dragon swung back his sword the other way in a burst of speed. Gawain raised Galatine to block the attack, and while he managed to stop the blade, he wasn't prepared for Vortigern's sword to explode with black flames as soon as the two weapons connected.

The Knight of the Sun's blessing under sunlight protected him from the damage but he was still nearly knocked off his feet. Before he could regain his balance, Vortigern's free hand shot forward and took hold of Gawain by the throat.

Vortigern raised Gawain in the air before smacking him on the ground and pinning him there. The black dragon raised his sword and pointed it downwards at Gawain as it was covered in dark flames.

Just as Vortigern began bringing down his sword, another blade came in and stopped his attack from moving. Vortigern looked and saw King Lot pushing back his sword. With a surprising burst of strength, King Lot managed to push away Vortigern's weapon before swinging back his sword at the black dragon himself.

The moment Lot's sword connected with Vortigern, the Runes on it lit up before it exploded in blast of blue magical energy, sending Vortigern skidding backwards, though undamaged.

As Gawain was getting back, Percival came charging with his spear aimed at Vortigern's chest. The black dragon caught the blade with his free hand and swung his sword at Percival's face.

Percival ducked under the swing, barely avoiding having his head sliced in half. Instead of attempting to pull away his weapon, Percival instead pushed his weapon aside, causing the arm Vortigern was holding the spear's blade with to follow through and leave the black dragon open.

King Lot came in and swung his sword at the vulnerable Vortigern. The attack had the same result as before, which was an explosion of blue magical energy that sent Vortigern skidding a few feet back.

Growling in anger, Vortigern raised his sword where darkness and black flames seem to collect before the black dragon took a powerful swing, sending a great wave of black and red flames towards his enemies.

Gawain came in between Lot and Percival with Galatine in hand. His sword was radiating power before he swung it horizontally like before, sending his own wave of white flames to Vortigern.

While Gawain's attack managed to stop Vortigern's flames from reaching them, the white flames were still swallowed by Vortigern's fire like before. The black dragon walked out from withing the flames, glaring at the three. His pulsing red core in the black fire making him appear more menacing.

First POV: Zack

Wow. No wonder Vortigern is considered the biggest threat in Britain.

He's currently fighting one of King Arthur's rivals and two of the Round Table Knights, one of which was Gawain in broad daylight, and he was actually winning by the looks of it.

Anyway, back to my job. I didn't find any protection near the weapon, which was strange. Whoever left it must have been irresponsible.

Reaching the center of the crater where the weapon was, I took a good look at it and.... I wanted to bash my head on a wall.

"Oh, are you kidding me?"