TW; Gore, Mentions of blood, stabbing and death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sound of the trumpets echoed around the crowd and ushered the villagers to get to their seats, Taehyung and Jeongguk arrived at the seating area where the royals would sit. The older let out a big sigh as he sat down expecting the warlock to do the same, but noticed he stayed standing. The prince's eyebrow rose in confusion but before he could say anything his father sat down in the seat like a throne on his right.
Taehyung looked at his father with a confused yet hardened glare. He saw his father sat, back straight, hands in his lap and eyes only trained on the arena. The prince saw from the corner of his eye that Yoongi had come to sit down in his seat to the right of the king. But Taehyung could only feel rage when he saw his father acting so calm, so collected and so arrogant.
"Taehyungie.." Taehyung felt the younger male's breath against his ear. "Unclench your hand before you get splinters" he felt the other's soft touch on his hand.
The prince blinked as he looked at the warlock before looking down at his own hand; seeing how the warlock still had his hand placed against it. Taehyung slowly unclenched it with a slow breath and looked back to the open arena. He felt Jeongguk's hand move away from him and looked back to see that the younger male was standing against the thin, wooden wall.
"Why aren't you sitting?" Taehyung questioned quietly. "You'll hurt your legs if you continue to stand"
"There isn't any space" Jeongguk shook his head. "Besides, if I were to sit down here, I wouldn't be able to see over the fence, I need to see what happens"
Taehyung only nodded. He knew he couldn't tell the warlock to sit in his lap, it would be out of the question. His father was right next to him and that would be a hard thing to explain at the current time. Of course they needed to watch what Bae Joon would do in his duel, would he play dirty? Most definitely. Would the king notice it? Definitely not because of the spell. Would anyone else notice? The crowd? No. The group of knights who were with Taehyung for the hunt? Yes. The first year recruits? Yes.
The king stood up from his seat and stepped forward, waiting for the crowd to settle into their seats and grow quiet. The villagers slowly noticed the king waiting for them all to listen to his speech to begin the first duel of the day.
"We shall start the annual duel today with not only strong, willing participants but with loyal. Knowledgeable people who have great arms to protect this kingdom…" the king let the crowd cheer for a few minutes. "...this kingdom knows no bounds and with the prince- my son, Taehyung leading these young gentlemen everyday or even in future battle, we welcome these new men to our ranks"
The crowd cheered again but louder. Taehyung looked at the warlock beside him with a worrisome look; the other returned it. The mention of future battles had always worried the prince, he never liked dealing with big debates over battle, more so talking it out would be better for getting ideas across and discussing new ways of helping the kingdom.
"We shall start with Bae Joon and Dae Sung" The king's booming voice echoed calling in the two knights.
The two knights walked in, fully dressed up in armor and waving to the crowd. Dae Sung did not know what was about to happen to him; sure he knew that he'd have to die if he lost, but he didn't know how much pain he would be in because of the other knight. Bae Joon on the other hand had a nasty smirk on his face while his eyes were filled with hate, knowing and worst of all and evil in which no one else saw but the two who knew.
"Knights into your starting positions!" The King ordered.
Once the two knights got to the center they stood facing one another; they placed their helmets on with one final proper look at each other and got into their stances. Swords at the ready to their left hand side, balance on by their core and legs at shoulders length. They could only hear their own breathing in their ears, the warmth of their breath and sweat starting on their foreheads.
"When I say draw, you draw" The King shouted and let the tension build.
"Draw" and the knights drew their blades and started.
The loud sound of the iron swords clanging together echoed through the small arena. The stones crunch with every step and push against the traction of the knight's feet. Their huffs and grunts were obstructed by their helmets. Their swords flying and hitting against each other and rebounding again and again. Taehyung noticed the movements of what Bae Joon was doing and his jaw tightened with anger.
"What is it, Taehyungie?" Jeongguk whispered to the older male.
"Bae Joon's using a dirty move, right out in public but no one else has noticed it" Taehyung pointed out to the warlock. "..you recognise it too right?"
"I indeed do," Jeongguk nodded. "It's what he tried to teach to the others right?"
"Exactly," Taehyung nodded.
"What do you plan to do? Do you know if your father has noticed?" Jeongguk asked softly as he glanced at the king.
Taehyung looked at the warlock and followed his gaze towards the king. He looked at where his father was looking, and he wasn't even watching Bae Joon nor Dae Sung. His eyes weren't even on the knights in battle. They were glazed over, like how he was when under that love spell. Though there wasn't a pink-ish hue, it was like glass from a mirror.
"He hasn't noticed at all," Taehyung replied to the warlock. "He can't see it.."
"What..?" Jeongguk looked between the prince and the king. "...What do you see?"
"Look at his eyes," Taehyung urged. "Just. Look."
Jeongguk looked at the king's eyes and saw a cracking like texture of glass over it; it sparkled in a way like a diamond. He knew it well from his studies. The image of the symptoms from the spell being used was that of broken glass falling into someone's eye. The warlock gulped and then looked around the area, he knew that the crowd didn't know about the dirty move Bae Joon was using, but Dae Sung did because he was there fighting against it first hand.
"..Dae Sung is going to die, isn't he?" Jeongguk suddenly asked, he watched as the knight slipped on the gravel and almost fell to his knees.
"Yes. He is…" Taehyung gulped. "There's nothing we can do"
They watched as Bae Joon pushed his sword through Dae Sung's stomach. The sound of the iron sword pushing against the iron armor and chainmail underneath, through his abdomen and out the other side in a single impale. They saw how Dae Sung's body went limp as he became breathless and coughed up blood, dripping from his lips and down his chin. The blood got into his lungs and choked him from the inside. The sword came out what looked to be in slow motion, but really it was just as fast as it went in, the blade itself had blood dripping from it and it landed against the gravel, staining it.
The cheers of the crowd and the king turned to white noise for the only four people who weren't under the spell, they watched as Dae Sung fell to his knees and blood dripped out from his stomach, creating a small puddle of blood as his knees. His sword fell with a clang out from his hands and his body fell with his last breath. There were no screams. It was silent. For once the victim didn't make a sound.
"And we have a winner!" The King's voice boomed. The four males could hear the king's voice as he spoke but they were in disbelief. "Bae Joon! He will be going to the next round!"
They were trying to understand why. Why did Bae Joon make it so burial? So bloody? It was too quiet in the arena, normally the knight would groan from the impalement, maybe even whimper. But nothing. They heard nothing. Now all they're looking at is a still dead body that was once smiling, joking, breathing, eating, drinking and that had emotions. All gone.
"...He had his whole life ahead of him.." Jeongguk muttered. "...we need to fix this, no more victims to this stupid system"
"I couldn't agree more, Gguk" Taehyung shook his head in disbelief as he watched as two other knights took Dae Sung's body away, all they did was use a rake like tool to hide the blood on the gravel.
"We'll take a twenty minute break to let the next two get ready and let people settle after that horrific sight" The king smiled as the crowd again cheered then started to talk amongst themselves.
"So you think Ji-hun knows that Bae Joon plays dirty?" Jeongguk wondered aloud.
"I hope he does, I definitely hope he watched this duel to know what he was looking for…" Taehyung sighed. "For when he goes against him"
"I hope so too" The warlock grimaced with worry. "Just out of curiosity.."
"Hmm..?" Taehyung hummed in reply.
"Do they only rake the gravel after each duel? No cleaning it with buckets of water..?" Jeongguk asked; though he already knew the answer.
"No… just raking it…" Taehyung shook his head. "There isn't any point in cleaning gravel…"
"Right, yeah… of course" The younger one nodded his head. "That's a lot of blood shed on the ground then…not good"
Taehyung looked to the warlock to see how he was holding up. He noticed how Jeongguk's eyes were wide as they stared at the gravel. He saw how his adam's apple bobbed as he gulped and his lip quiver with his hitched breath.
"Why do you say that…?" Taehyung wondered as he looked at the warlock. "Not good as in, we lost good knights or..?"
"So many souls, so many walking," Jeongguk replied. "Waiting… for the right day"
"Souls? …. No.." Taehyung took the younger's hands. "What do you mean waiting…?"
"Waiting.. for the right spell to come back…what do you think dead knights with unfinished business want to do? You've said you wanted to change the duel law, they wouldn't hurt you but your father? Sure" His eyebrows furrowed. "Are you sure you're ready for that?"
Taehyung looked at his father and then at the warlock. He weighs his thoughts. Losing a family member but gaining a lover that he could show off? He wouldn't have it any other way.
"I'm sure, even if I wasn't" Taehyung pulled the warlock closer to whisper. "I'd still have you"
Jeongguk smiled. "I'd still have you too"
"Next duel will be between Ji-hun and Chi-ho" The king shouted as an announcement for the crowd.
"Ji-hun!" The two males gasped as they looked up and saw him walk into the arena with the other knight and took their places.
"May the best win!" The King yelled. "Draw!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi! I hope you guys liked this chapter!
Stuff is happening hehe
I wanted to make it a cliff hanger because I could hehehehe
If you guys have questions feel free to ask here!
I purple you 💜💜💜💜💜💜