The legend of the dragon knight

The demon hunt

The next morning, all the trainees gathered at the training ground. Hermes, William, and William's three friends stood at the center with their supplies, while Trainer James stood before them. Vivienne stood at the front of the crowd, looking sad as she stared at Hermes.

"I called you all here this morning to wish our warriors a safe journey," Trainer James announced, facing the crowd.

He then turned to the five trainees.

"William and friends, on behalf of the great Thaedorian Kingdom and the people of the great city of Queensville, we wish you all a safe journey. May the Gods protect each and every one of you."

He finished with a smile.

The trainees burst into applause, wishing them a safe journey into the deep forest.

"Thank you, my fellow trainees," William said proudly. A look of confidence flickered across his face.

"We promise not to disappoint you. Oh, my bad... I almost forgot. One of us here is definitely going to die."

He turned to Hermes with a look of disgust.

The crowd burst into laughter as usual. Everyone laughed except Vivienne.

Hermes remained silent. He looked toward Vivienne, worry filled his heart. The moment their eyes met, she immediately turned her face away in anger.

An hour later, they began their journey.

William walked at the front alongside his friend Barry. Behind them were their other two friends. The four of them chatted and laughed as they walked, their swords hanging at their sides.

Hermes, however, walked alone at the rear, carrying all their luggage and supplies without even a sword to defend himself.

Meanwhile, Vivienne stood at the outskirts of the training ground, watching Hermes disappear into the distance. A strange sense of sentimentality settled in her chest.

Hermes turned back one last time and looked at her with the same feeling. Disappointment weighed heavily on his heart, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Deep inside the forest, William and his friends continued chatting and laughing happily as if they were on their way to some kind of funny game show. Hermes, however, walked behind them, feeling uneasy as he constantly looked around. To him, the forest was beginning to feel strange. But William and his friends didn't care. They believed they could kill the creature—or anything else that stood in their way.

But there was a big problem.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, something happened. All of a sudden, the forest became eerily quiet. The chirping of birds, the sounds of animals, and even the hooting of owls suddenly stopped.

Hermes was the first to notice it. He immediately became cautious. But William and his friends were too busy laughing and chatting to pay any attention.

"Wait," Hermes whispered as he hurried to stand in front of them. "I can sense that something isn't right."

William and his friends were surprised to see him blocking their path.

"Excuse me. How dare you stand in front of us?" William asked angrily.

"Oh, you're scared of dying?" he mocked.

"Don't worry, boy. You won't be leaving this forest alive anyway," Barry added with a grin.

"Can't you all see? The birds and animals have gone completely silent. This doesn't seem normal to me," Hermes said, raising his voice slightly.

William and his friends looked at him as though he had lost his mind.

"Well, it looks perfectly normal to us," William replied as he stepped closer to Hermes. "Now get out of our way, you idiot, or we'll kill you!"

William shouted as he shoved Hermes aside. Hermes slammed his back against a nearby fig tree.

Without another word, William and his friends continued walking. Hermes painfully forced himself back to his feet and followed them.

A few minutes later, they arrived at a giant mahogany tree.

But there was another problem.

A horrible stench filled the area around the tree. The smell was so unbearable that they began searching for its source.

Then something horrifying happened.

As Hermes walked around the back of the mahogany tree, he froze.

Three men were lying lifeless on the ground. One of them had been decapitated, his head lying several feet away from his body. Their corpses had already begun to decay.

As they looked closer, they recognized the faces.

They were the city hunters.

But this was where it became even more shocking.

One of the dead hunters was Robinson—the very man Dibara had murdered before taking his appearance. She had used his face to infiltrate the city castle and report the news about the strange creature.

William, his friends, and even Hermes stood frozen in disbelief. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

At that moment, they realized they had been set up.

"Run!" William shouted as he spun around and sprinted away.

A wave of fear washed over his face.

His friends, including Hermes, immediately followed him.

All of a sudden, as they were running, a wave of black smoke burst out from the middle of the mahogany tree. It shot into the sky at incredible speed before racing straight toward them. The smoke descended in front of them and slammed into the ground.

The impact triggered a massive explosion, sending William, his three friends, and Hermes flying helplessly through the air. They landed in different parts of the forest.

The black smoke rose into the air and began to transform. Within fifty seconds, it had become a large, terrifying demon with two horns protruding from the sides of its head. It stood seven and a half feet tall, and its entire body was pitch-black.

"Hahaha!" it laughed. Its voice was much deeper than that of a normal human.

"Fresh blood... here you are," it whispered as it slowly licked its dark tongue.

The demon looked at all five of them before fixing its eyes on Barry.

At that moment, Barry was struggling to stand and run, but he couldn't. He had landed hard on his waist when he hit the rocky ground.

The demon moved with incredible speed, reached Barry in an instant, tore his head from his body, and devoured it.

"No!" William and his remaining two friends cried out at the same time.

As for Hermes, he had landed on a patch of soft ground covered with long grass. Although he had suffered minor injuries, he was already crawling quietly through the grass, trying to escape.

The demon turned toward William and smiled.

William was crawling on the ground in pain. He couldn't stand because, during the fall, his ankle had slammed into a tree with tremendous force, dislocating it.

The demon dashed toward him and, just like Barry, tore off his head and devoured it.

Afterward, the demon turned to Dylan.

By then, Dylan had managed to get to his feet. Blood streamed from his thigh because, when he fell, a sharp piece of wood had pierced it. He tried several times to run, but he couldn't.

The demon rushed toward him at incredible speed and did the same to him.

This time, the demon turned to Richard.

But just as it was about to move toward him, something distracted it.

It sensed an ancient presence...

The same overwhelming aura that the most powerful and ferocious Dragon Knight had possessed when he was alive.