The Dragon Prince's Warrior

Crimson armors

Inside the palace, an emperor lay by the bedside of the empress, his beloved wife, who had been convulsing for hours. An's agony was too slow for her, and the pain in her husband's chest was too great as he felt incapable of helping her alleviate the suffering.

Heng was also crying because his eldest son was suffering from his own injuries; silently, because he knew the misfortune it represented for a ruler to feel useless and defeated in front of his people.

What he had no inkling of was that his son Jin had risen from his sickbed a couple of hours ago to seek explanations from the old man, and down there, in the most remote cellar of the palace, Shun was dealing with a life-or-death battle.

Through the mouths of some servants, Heng learned that his son Jin had emerged victorious from that senseless battle, and that almost the entire population of the Forbidden City was now sheltered where the ruffians could not find them. Surely his son was making sure that everything was alright with the citizens; nothing to worry about in that regard.

There was no doubt about the passion with which Jin protected his own; it was innate in him. He had always been the closest to the people. It was no wonder that Heng knew that his middle son had been called "beloved by the people" for some time now.

Apart from An's life, the one who worried him the most was his younger son, although he had long ceased to be young in age. Definitely, Heng considered that day useless and worthless; it was clear that the Qing royal family had been fooled in the cruelest and silliest way. Undoubtedly, Yun had paid the price for that terrible deception.

"Perhaps it has all been a trap, and who knows for what purpose. But I swear they will pay in hell. I declare in the name of Buddha."

Heng lowered his head onto An's chest as she began to convulse once again, and amid her delirium, with lips as pale as paper and as dry as an autumn leaf, she mentioned her younger son's name as if she were gazing at him face to face in some kind of vision. This only heightened his fear for his son.

Soon, the emperor was pulled from his thoughts, brought about by the fear of losing his son, as a strong cough drained all the remaining energy from An, and a mouthful of blood slid from her lower lip to her chest. She turned to continue coughing, and Heng tried to revive her without knowing what to do for her. He offered her water, but An couldn't even take the glass.

“My love, please, let’s go,” Heng pleaded in a weak voice. “Hold on, An...”

The words choked in Heng’s throat, and he simply held his wife, who was coughing weakly, as yet another episode attacked her, as it had countless times since the early morning of that day.

“Please, save her. Don’t let her die... If that happens, I won’t be able to bear it,” Heng prayed, looking up at the heavens.

After a few moments, he turned his gaze to his beloved wife’s face, and the sensation was like holding a lifeless body. The only thing that prevented him from thinking that was the fact that she was breathing weakly through her mouth.

Heng squeezed his eyes shut, and his tears fell onto An’s face and shoulders. Crying was the only thing he could do for her at that moment.

Unbeknownst to him, tears began to flow from the corner of An’s eye, glistening like stars and seeming to rise to the sky.

What the Emperor had no inkling of at that moment was the pitched battle that his three sons were separately engaged in and the miraculous way in which three crimson armors had come to their aid in battle: one within the royal cellar, another on the streets of the Forbidden City, and the last in the remote Yumai mountain.

The three princes fought for their lives, for their beloved mother, An, and for the well-being of the entire Forbidden City.

(...)

It was incredible for Yun how powerful he could feel wearing that armor. Besides providing protection, it seemed to have given him a new opportunity to defeat those annoying beasts that had only appeared to waste his valuable time.

The pair of dragons, once they realized they couldn't harm him as easily and noticed the armor that enveloped Prince Yun, took a few steps back. Had they felt fear? It was hard to tell, but what was very certain was that they were annoyed.

They began to snort, growl, and ruffle their scales to intimidate him, but the young man's heart felt braver than ever, especially because when he touched his belt, he felt a hilt. He unsheathed a magnificent sword without hesitation and ran to attack the dragons.

The battle had turned into a chase, as the beasts hissed when they realized the prince had become stronger, and they swiftly moved away from the magnificent blade of that weapon. One of them had moved several meters away, and the other climbed a tree. Becoming aware of this, Yun stopped, panting from running too much, and challenged the beasts with his gaze.

"Now you run?" he laughed ironically. "Then go away once and for all, or face the consequences and leave us alone for good."

Yun turned to start running towards the monument, where Siu lay convalescing, but what he didn't expect was that one of the dragons would try to attack him from behind, attempting to snatch his sword. The beast pulled with all its might to take it away, and Yun was almost dragged by the creature's force.

Suddenly, Yun had the idea to stop struggling and turned to see that the other dragon was preparing to descend from the tree; he needed to act as quickly as possible, or they would overwhelm him together.

The prince let the dragon pull again, and there, without the slightest remorse for harming a living being, Yun used the momentum and the weight of his own body to drive the sword into the sky of the dragon's mouth, and with what little strength remained in him, he pierced the creature's snout.

The dragon felt the pain and thrashed about violently. Yun was nearly thrown off but clung to his sword as best he could. When he finally managed to separate himself from the beast with his sword in hand, he realized that he had inflicted a lethal wound on the creature, which was shrieking and pawing at the wound, which was oozing a liquid very similar to blood.

The other dragon that had climbed the tree seemed to be afraid, as it didn't even want to approach, especially when its companion was injured repeatedly by the prince, who took advantage of the creature's painful distraction to end its life.

As soon as the beast stopped breathing, Yun, drenched in sweat and still wearing the crimson armor, now tainted with dragon blood, turned to look in the direction of the other dragon, which seemed to be a coward. It simply stared at him defiantly from the branches of the lush tree.

"You brought this upon yourselves! If you don't want the same fate, you'll leave us alone now," he pointed to the dragon lying on the ground. "And as I was told a while ago: 'An eye for an eye... There you have it.'"

The dragon roared and shrieked with anger at being defeated. Yun couldn't even distinguish which of the dragons he had defeated; it could have been Gao or Mei, he wasn't sure. Nor was he sure if he should spare this creature's life.

"No... If I leave it alive, something tells me it will return," Yun thought, gripping the hilt of his sword. "I'll get rid of the other one too, I think I still have time."

Yun's watch had been taken by the thieves in the carriage, which was why he had the disadvantage of not knowing the time. He could only gauge it by the color of the sky, and the fading hues indicated the worst. Even so, he thought that this creature would never leave them in peace and made his decision.

The prince ran with all his strength towards the tree. He was determined to jump as high as possible to try to get the dragon down from there, as it appeared to lack wings. As he approached, the creature screeched so loudly that it stopped Yun in his tracks because the sound seemed to shatter his head.

Once again, the sound of shrill laughter came from the dragon's throat.

"Don't think you'll defeat me so easily. This isn't over... I will return," threatened the creature before slipping away into the darkness where it was most at home.

That last word from the dragon had sent a chill down his spine, but he had no time to waste. He immediately ran over to where Siu lay, right in front of the monument. He bent down to pick her up and realized she was colder than ice and paler than a sheet of paper.

The anguish that had gripped his chest squeezed his heart even tighter, and he had no choice but to approach the monument to pray for a miracle; the miracle that his entire family, and he himself, had been waiting for.