Reincarnated As The Dark Knight

Eustace was very worried from seeing Artur's facial expression and shook him out of his daze. He had no idea what Artur had figured out but now was not the time for him to act like that. With Eustace's help Artur came back to his senses but he was still grinning.

"These crazy bastards" He said while taking off his helmet holding his hair up and exposing his forehead.

"Victor what's wrong? Victor? Victor!"

"Eustace, we have to run to those woods right now. No matter what you do, don't stop even when we are in there. If we stop, we die"

"What you mean?"

"Just do as I told you"

"Whatever you say"

Artur and Eustace still had a chance but as for those who had forward, they were finished. Artur wasted no time in darting toward the cluster of trees up ahead. As they got close, he started to see these things better and they could hear the screams of the other children as they were mauled. The duo did not even spare a second to look at them.

'Better luck next time' Artur thought.

He did not know what to say but if there was anything he knew of that he could compare those epitomes of monstrosity to, then he say overgrown polar manbears. Their faces looked like a bear's face being smashed into a man's way and thick white fur just like polar bears. Their claws were almost ten centimeters long and their top canines were just like those of saber tooth tigers.

Their bodies standing at more than two meters tall with them on their hind legs showed well-built muscles with hair patches that exposed the whole front of their torso. With bodies like that it was not a surprise to see that they also had abs. Artur knew that getting caught by something like this was not an option.

Having no idea why lady luck frowned at him so bad, he realized that one of the manbears had spotted he and Eustace when they entered the woods and it wasted no time in hunting them. It suddenly got on all fours and dashed after them. Worst part was that it was ungodlily fast, striking resemblance to a Siberian tiger. Against something like that it was not going to do any good to try to climb trees. 

'God, I don't want to die' Artur prayed in his heart.

The both of them sprinted through the trees and no matter how they tried to trick this manbear it just kept getting closer. The snow also wasn't helping as it slowed them down a lot. It was not long before it was just behind them.

"Raaahhh!!! I will not die today!" Artur shouted.

"Me neither!!!" Eustace said.

The manbear suddenly leaped over Artur and ricocheted off a tree, landing before them and blocking their path. They were into defensive positions immediately, shields up and swords pointed at the creature growling at them. 

"Eustace, what are we going to do?"

"I have no idea"

A stroke of luck for once, that was what Artur needed. Anything would do. Artur could not stop cursing at Khan within his heart, what kind of monster would he be to ever think of putting children up to something like this? There was no pointing in thinking about that at the moment because if he was distracted and died here there would be no more thinking to do.

The manbear growled and slowly started coming closer and in response they moved further away from it. For the first time since he got to this world he was actually scared of something and showed it.

'Whoever brought me to this world if you are hearing me wherever you are, please show some mercy. You brought me here against my wish and I never complained, not even once so please, please, help me'

The creature drew closer and its pace quickened and they also so started taking hurried steps. It would have been nice to split up and distract this thing, but its jumping ability gave no room for that. 

'Don't screw me over and just help me this one time, please!, please!!'

The creature was done waiting. Without further ado it lunged at Artur first while he was still panicking and spread open its long claws while opening it maw to full capacity.

"Please godammit!!!"

If you pray earnestly, the heavens will move and the impossible becomes possible or so the saying went. Artur did not expect what happened next, but he had a feeling. As the manbear came closer Artur saw a spark in the distance behind the creature, then there were flames. Following after was and explosion that blew the whole place apart. Artur, Eustace and the creature suffered for being in range of the blast and were blown away with the other things in the landscape.

The snow did not do much help but it cushioned their fall. When Artur rose to his feet, the rest of the forest before was caught up in flames but most importantly, the manbear was caught under two trees, trapped. Artur was elated and felt like a king as he watched it try to escape in vain. Eustace joined him and they laughed.

"What's wrong? Weren't you going to get us?" Artur said through a giggle.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Eustace added, tapping the creature on it nose with his sword. I roared at him and tried to grab him, forcing him to move back. 

"That scared me" He admitted.

"Careful"

Artur still wanted to know what caused the explosion. There were sparks and flames, he knew of no such phenomenon that could allow sparks and flames to cause an explosion in snow. That could wait later, now he needed to end this thing's life before it escaped and ended theirs.

"Eustace help me watch this thing"

"Sure, not like I got a choice"

Artur circled around it and drew his sword when he got behind it. He climbed the broken branch rather than the leg and asked Eustace to toss his sword which he did. With both swords in hand, Artur landed on the manbear's back and just as expected, it started shaking and turning, trying to throw him off but he stuck both swords into its back and held on tightly.

Using the swords as though they were ski poles, he moved to the head while maintaining his balance on its back. The manbear struggled more and harder like it had realized what Artur was about to do but Artur stayed strong and grabbed the manbear by the neck, holding on tightly. He unplugged the first sword and pushed it into the bear's neck then the other into its right eye.

The creature flailed around and roared in pain but he did not let go still. When he realized that it was not going to die soon he pulled out the dagger in his bag and struck it from the top of the head. The dagger was fairly long so it did some damage.

The creature quickly weakened and soon it stopped moving. Artur was not sure if he should let go or not so he held on some more. After waiting for a while and confirming that it was dead, he slowly let go and pulled out the dagger from its head. 

He got up and saw the sparks again and this time he jumped off the manbear's corpse and pushed Eustace to the ground. There was another explosion, and a man suddenly fell out of nowhere beside them. He looked beaten up and was burned all over but he still got up to his feet. Artur raised his head to see the one who had done the damage and saw Duncan coming toward them in the form which he had fought his father in.

His heart started beating fast and he could feel all the cells in his body screaming at him to grab Duncan by the neck but he had not gotten so irrational that he would just attack knowing that it would be the end of him. Duncan was not even paying any attention to him or Eustace, he was just focused on the man before him.

It was clear they were about to fight, again.

Duncan finally turned his head to both of them and grinned. "Aren't you two part of the bait that was sent down to distract Karn's men?"

'Distractions?'

"You should get out of here"

'Hold on a second...' Artur was sure, from the way Duncan casually spoke to them 'This bastard does not even remember me'