The Phoenix's Maiden

Guardian (Part One)

Arthur’s Point of View

I am so exhausted right now, I just finished experimenting on my skills, I need to improve my body, that’s what the goddess told me. Specifically, endurance, she said I need to exhaust my body much frequently as this will shape me up to be better in my next battles.

It is hard for me to admit but the goddess is right, that last battle messed me up so hard that I needed the help of my allies. It’s good to trust them but also I don’t want to be a burden to them any longer. What if the battle was so intense that we are facing the death’s stare? What will I do that time? What if my allies also needed my help? Will I just watch them die in front of them?

I don’t want that! I won’t allow it!

That’s the point why I am training hard. This is the point. I don’t want, what happened last time, to happen again. I will train to the point that I can protect everyone with my own hands and without their help. As a knight ordered by the kings to protect them, I will fulfill my duty with all my hear.

While they train, I will keep on a look out for incoming enemies, I am well aware that Kamandag is tasked by the goddess to scout the whole region but I will not allow it, I will not allow myself to not do my part in protecting my friends. While I train, I will scout the lands for any enemy camp and I will attack it on my own. This time I a m confident that I can take them on my own without making myself crippled.

I have my own reasons to do that and besides I have more secret weapons up my sleeves this time thanks to my training and that last battle, it gave me the idea how to use my powers in its fullest. One time I’ve overheard the goddess giving some tricks to Amber to utilize her power.

“Creativity is the essence of someone’s fighting style,” she said while Amber is developing her abilities to the fullest. Until now I remember that line, but I ignored it for a long time. Now that I experienced a wall that is too high for me to cross. I don’t know what is waiting for me behind that wall, and I want to know what it is.

The next battle will determine that, if I can overcome that wall or even slice through it with my sword, but with my power level now that wall is sure a challenge for me. I will climb and overcome it someday. I was taken aback to reality when I sliced through the last enemy that I challenged earlier with my new move in my battle abilities.

I sat down to rest since it’s been three hours fighting all of them, it’s a fire hydra that regenerates every time I cut it, it regenerates quickly, but it does not regenerate just like that where its sliced head just pops off out of nowhere. It’s cut limbs will sprout another hydra and the hydra’s head will sprout two instead of one.

*Hydra – a monster that appeared in Greek mythology where it is one of Hercules’s (Heracles) twelve labors. According to the legend the hydra was the offspring of Typhon (youngest son of Gaea) and Echidna (a half woman and half snake monster). It’s a gigantic snake like creature that lives in the marshes of Lerna. It has nine heads; one was described to be immortal, it has poisonous breath and great regeneration abilities. I portrayed the Lernean Hydra differently in this story since I intended the fire hydras to be their subspecies like in animals where there different type of cats but had different characteristics and feature. This also applies to other mythical creatures that I portrayed so far, like Santelmos and the engkantos which I already explained.*

Whew! That’s one hell of a fight since I need to fend the hydras that I created, and to think of a way to stop their regeneration abilities. Unlike their water cousins this one can swim on lavas and breathe fire which made it harder for me to fight it. Also their skin is as tough like the obsidians formed in this land that I cannot break with my sword.

It requires a lot of concentration to pierce through their skin, and the only way to kill them all is to turn them into ashes which is not a simple task, it drained my aura and my body strength which is not a joke. I need to train even harder, the warmth I can feel that number of Santelmos are here and I can hear their cries of anguish.

Anyways I have gotten used to it ever since I started this training, every time I take a rest, yet it reminds me how dark my past is. It pains my heart when that cross my mind, a distant memory that still lingers in my heart. The pain that I want to forget for so long. The pain that I want to be buried in time, but each time I bury it, it still finds a way to rise back haunting me again with nightmares I hated.

With that in mind, I feel like that sleeping is out of my options to rest. All I can do right now is to lie down and let my body rest, I will relax my mind so I can have my mind be rested too. If one of them is tired when it comes to fighting. Both of them are important in fighting that’s why I make sure to have them both rested.

Santelmos can sense my power level so they don’t attack me, they just pass by me which works for me since their flames can warm my body and that fights the coldness that I feel inside.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness consumes my mind…

I woke up by a loud rumbling below me and I immediately sat up and noticed that a bunch of santelmos are surrounding they are just staring at me and I can’t tell what are their business. I stare back at them and I only see their usual angry faces, the hatred that had build up for so many years because of the death they experienced.

“Oh great one!” I heard a loud deep voice from afar which alerted. “Is this the one that I will bless my power upon,” it added and I scanned the whole area to find where the voice came from and thanks to this santelmos blocking my view, I cannot find it.

I stood up but to no luck their smokes from their flames are forming a smoke screen which blocks my view. As time passes by, I can feel the heat rising up. What’s the reason? I put my hands on my sword readying myself for any incoming attack.

“Stand aside!” then the loud deep voice shouted and the santelmos gradually stand aside creating a line. Is someone coming there? Who knows? Only the source of the voice himself knows. From the distance I spotted a different colored flame, different from these ball of fire creatures possesses which is orange in color.

“Why are you here!?” I shouted back wanting to know the purpose of its arrival.

“Oh great knight!” he shouted back not answering my question. “I have been searching for so long for the one who is worthy of my power,” he added and I was bewildered with what he said.

Worthy of his power? What do that creature mean? I don’t know if I can trust its words since this is the first time that we met. I observed him walk to the aisle that the santelmos has made for this creature. He walks slowly and his hands are raised as if he was glorifying me.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked again and this time I did not shout because he was nearby and there is no purpose to waste such little energy.

“Oh great one, let me test him if he is truly the one that I have been searching for,” he added ignoring my questions as if he can’t hear me from afar. That’s rude if you ask me and I am very pissed just by that.

“Hey!” I called onto him and still he does gave me any attention and keeps spouting some prayers to the great one until he reaches the inside of the circle that the santelmos are forming. The aisle closed when he got inside and there he drops onto his knees.

“Here judgement shall be passed upon by me whether this knight is worthy or not by the holy power that I possess,” he prayed and I cannot believe myself that such lunatic exists in this region. He got blue flames that means this one is hotter than any santelmos here, and not just that. This one has a humanoid form unlike them that is just a face in a ball of fire. His whole body is covered in blue flames and the flames are stronger in his face.

He stood up and finally it gave me the attention that I am seeking. He looks at me dead in the eye and I stare back at him and I am not planning to lose in this staring contest.

“Why are you here?” I asked and he just stare at me. He looked around observing the santelmos surrounding us.

“I come upon here to bestow my judgement to you,” he said.

“What judgement? I did not do anything wrong!” I said rejecting his accusations on me.

“Killing rampage to the inhabitants in this place, is that not wrong to you?” he asked me and there I learned what he is. He is the guardian of this place the powerful deity that protects every living being in a place or region. “Those who defeat me shall have my power and those who are not shall suffer to my divine flames,” he added and I can hear the vengeance from his voice.

Guardians. Creatures that had power from the great one to protect and there are rumors that they can be familiars of the once who defeated the, and the death of their owners will transform them back into being that they were before.

-The Phoenix’s Maiden-