Harem King's Collection: Turning Beastkins Into Desperate Wives!
Chapter 78: The Regicide’s Endeavor

Chapter 78: The Regicide’s Endeavor

Seconds before Cortist’s wall of ice shattered beneath the intense flames of the phoenix barreling down from above, Cortist felt someone grab him and swiftly turn the mage away from the flames.

As the young panther looked into his father’s eyes, the older knight pulled his son close to him, shielding as much of the mage as possible with his own body when the fire reigned down around them.

Talan was more battle experienced than his brother, so he knew dodging was the only real option to dealing with such a force, and had dived just out of range of the worst of it milliseconds before the attack landed.

He hadn’t realized his brother would try to actually attempt to defend against it, as if he didn’t just watch the human’s so-called "Legendary shield," fall before these very opponents.

His father realized it, though, and acted accordingly. Talan could only watch on helplessly by that point.

Jagón’s screams were drowned out to most left in the stadium by the roar of the heavy flames, but Cortist heard the full extent of his father’s agony as the scarlet red cape of the proud black panther knight combusted immediately under the heat behind the breath, and his armor quickly heated thereafter.

The metal was searing against his entire backside as the black hair beneath curled and smoldered within the fiery prison, leaving only his bared flesh to sear against the steel next.

The back end of everything from his shoulders, to his calves, to his spine, and even his head and neck took the brunt of the incendiary attack, mercilessly cooking half of the panther alive.

He slouched forward unconsciously into his younger son’s trembling arms.

Were it not for what little reprieve the ice wall had given, Jagón Venatus would have surely perished that day. His son was safe, though, so it was unquestionably worth any such price in the father’s eyes.

Cortist was panicking again, and tears overtook him as his mind collapsed in on itself while his brother came running over.

Cortist thought he had just lost another part of his family. The front of the armor was searing lightly at the son’s hands as well, but the mage didn’t dare let go of his father in that moment.

"BROTHER! WE HAVE TO HURRY!"

Talan was desperately screaming at his younger brother, thinking only of getting his family out of there and away from such monsters in that moment.

The panther went to grab a hold of his father and quickly retracted his hands from the sheer heat.

That armor needed to come off, or it would finish baking the older knight, so the older brother steeled himself and started trying to remove the scorching steel. His brother was becoming a problem.

Cortist clung to their father, preventing Talan from doing what he needed to do in his state of shock. His brother always had been too soft for combat like this...

Not that the older brother could blame him, even Talan found himself wanting to break in that moment. So much had happened so quickly. So much was already taken...

But this was an active warzone, and it was time his brother woke the fuck up before they all met their ends. Talan took a deep breath, grimaced at the action, and punched Cortist square in his snout, finally freeing their father.

Talan caught the older knight immediately, and rushed to strip the armor without hesitation, fighting through the searing pain.

Cortist snapped back to reality as he hit the dirt, grabbing at the jolting pain in his snout, but thankful to his brother all the same. Even as his nose bled, the mage began quickly chanting, and a short second later, cold water appeared above his father.

It splashed down against the armor with a sizzle, sending tufts of steam up, but doing what was needed. Talan was soaked as well, but was happy to see his brother’s sharp mind was finally back where it needed to be.

As Talan dropped the breastplate from his fathers back, he almost broke once more at the very sight of the bubbled and blistered flesh of his father beneath.

"My soldiers. My knights..."

Cortist realized it was the king himself who was suddenly speaking over the amplification runes.

"I give you one final order... By the life oath you swore to me, heed my command, all who are present."

Cortist watched in surprise as all the sworn in knights and soldiers right handed wrist began to glow where their circular mark was. The king had invoked the life oath.

Mages in training did not have to bear the mark yet, but all of the enlisted did, his father and older brother included. Cortist feared the worst.

Cortist was afraid the king would order the beasts to face these enemies, to ensure the deserters so far would either die fighting, or die running. King Alocer surprised him as he continued his final decree.

"Retreat from this place. Gather yourselves, and unite under a new rule. Live to serve Alora another day, in a new Chapter... And one day, let the new king take back our capitol. That is the true test for my successor now, to keep our country’s very core alive. To lead the charge to reclaim her heart. For the first time in five generations, I invoke the Regicide’s Endeavor as an heirless king. Let the strongest and most worthy choose who will lead them upon the summer solstice."

The king had given an unrefusable order for his soldiers to retreat. The king had saved his knights, and sealed his own fate. The king had unintentionally and unknowingly given his still living son quite a bit of competition on the road to reclaiming the crown.

Talan was going to attempt his father’s plan while Cortist retreated. The phoenix may have been large, but it was still a living thing.

And the "Hunter’s Toll," bloodskill the panther shared with his father, should still kill it if he managed to pierce its flesh with his fang... But the great phoenix had resumed its circling far out of his reach, and the King’s order to retreat had become unrefusable.

Talan instead braced his father’s mangled, half burned body as gently as possible, and rose, dragging the mortally wounded great knight towards the nearest exit as his brother followed, remaining alert for anymore incoming attacks.

They only made it a few feet into the tunnel before an earth shaking impact rocked the king’s platform, and the great pillars supporting it collapsed, dropping the heavy, marble ceiling on top of any who remained.

"My king... It was an honor... And thank you."

That was all Byron could even say at that point. The order was given. His own life oath mark was glowing, forcing the wolf to obey or be killed. The knight could still save at least one son that day.

Byron was duty bound to stay with his king until the end, but King Alocer proved that he wasn’t always such a terrible ruler.

He reminded the wolf of the young king he once was in that moment, compassionate, strong, and one who put his people’s needs above his own... Before he let the cruelty of this world change him forever over twenty years ago.

Before rage had swallowed both his dignity and his reason. Before the effects of his own bloodskill had consumed his mind and rationality. The beast tyrant had made his last act a noble one in the end.

"This is all I can do for my people now. Be vigilant, noble wolf. Go."

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