Reincarnated As The Dark Knight

Artur was disgusted that the man who slaughtered his family was his savior and did not even remember him but there was no need to drag it out. The fact that Duncan did not remember him was a great advantage for him. Escape was paramount, but he would be back for revenge when the bastard least expected it, that was for sure.

"Eustace, run"

Eustace could not be blamed for bring shocked because what was before him was not human. To him, if that manbear was a puppy then Duncan was the embodiment of monstrosity. Artur who had seen something like this and especially when he was in a state for his brain to tolerate it was still fine so he could not understand why Eustace was like that when he saw Duncan.

"Eustace, let's go. This is no time for this" Artur said 'This guy could unleash any moment again'

When Artur saw that Eustace was finding it hard to move, he grabbed him by his belt and pulled hard. Luckily, Eustace managed to respond or he would never have been able to move him away from there.

As they ran through the woods he was pushed to ask Artur.

"Victor, what was that? Were you just talking to a monster?"

Artur was surprised. As someone who had always lived in this world, was he not supposed to know things like that.

"Are you messing with me or are you being serious?"

"I don't think I look like I'm messing with you, do I?"

Artur sighed "I don't know the full details because I only found out when I was taken but that guy is a Rune-user"

"A Rune-user? Really?"

"Yes"

"That's amazing, I've never seen one in my life"

"That's also the man that slaughtered my family"

"Wait what?"

"He killed my whole family before taking me with him"

"Sorry for your loss"

"Don't be. I'm going to kill him anyway"

"How are you going to kill a monster like that?"

"It's simple, I'll just have to get strong enough to kill him"

"Whoa, keeping all that malice in your heart for so long, I'll be sure not to offend you in the future"

"You better don't" Artur replied and they both laughed.

They ran for long but did not dare to stop even once. It was their only chance to get out of there. Artur was overjoyed as they ran until something suddenly struck his mind. Why was Duncan coming from the direction they were running to?

'No, no, no, no, no! It can't be'

A little while after they could hear inaudible noises but it got clearer and finally, they could hear it clearly. The clanking of weapons and shouts of war. They could see smoke was rising and that was when Artur understood what Duncan meant when he called them distractions. The real battle was happening here. They came out of the woods and were immediately greeted by the blast of a cannon ball which swept them off their feet.

It was a real war. It looked totally different from what it was like in the tv. Men were getting their throats slit left and right, taking different kinds of weapons to their guts. It did not matter. What they needed now were horses. They just needed to ignore the battle and find horses.

That was what Artur thought but it looked like it was going to be a lot harder because he was now seeing that Duncan and that man he was fighting were not the only Rune-users present. In fact, Duncan looked weak compared to them.

"So, those are Lord Khan's Colonels. They are monsters just as the rumors say" Eustace said.

Artur could not believe his eyes. The way each of them displayed their incredible abilities and used them to take out the enemy soldiers of Karn. There were also Rune-users from Karn's side and just like with their opponents they used their abilities to crush Khan's men. He never thought he would see things like that in real life. It was marvelous...

…but still dangerous

"That's not important now, we have to get out of here before we get caught up in all of this nonsense" Artur got up and ran with Eustace following behind him "We are still wearing Kahn's uniform so have your sword ready because we could be targeted"

"You don't have to tell me that" Eustace said.

Running through the battle where all the soldiers were clustered up and weapons were dancing around was not possible for them so they had to run around it, staying closely to the edge of the forest. Artur ran for dear life because these Rune-users were fighting like they cared about anybody around them; even their own soldiers were getting caught up in their attacks. 

'Silly bastards, do you even care how you look like to those around you, monsters'

As they ran a beam of light suddenly hit the base of a tree ahead of them and it fell in their way, causing them to stay back. The battle was already spreading toward the forest and once that happened they would have no choice but to go through instead. 

"Let's move Eustace"

They both jumped over the tree and continued their running. Just as Artur had predicted, there were targeted and being the smaller one, he was the eye catching prize. 

"Has Khan's army become so useless that he even has to send children to battle?" An enemy soldier said with a laugh as he raised his sword at Artur. Artur was so drowned in the thought of escaping that he did not even notice this soldier until he was about to cut him in two. 

Luckily for him, Eustace butted in and blocked the soldier's sword with his, but the sword was still able to reach Artur enough to leave a little mark on the skin of his hand. Eustace groaned and with all his might, he pushed the soldier's sword away. Artur assisted and pushed his sword inside the man's chest. They withdrew their swords and let the man's body fall to the ground. 

Eustace was surprised that Artur killed that man without hesitating. If it was an animal he understood but another human like him? He wanted to question him but he remembered that Artur said his family was killed. Still, that was no excuse.

"Victor, you just-"

"Eustace watch out!" Artur took his hand and pulled him, successfully and narrowly saving him from the doom another soldier's sword. Artur threw his sword, and it went straight into the man's head while Eustace who had fallen as a result of the pull just sat there. He watched Artur pull the sword out of the man's corpse and Artur noticed.

Artur caught on quickly and tried to comfort him.

"Don't be like that Eustace, they would have killed us if we didn't kill them and remember, we said we were not dying today" Artur said. 

"But still-"

"There are no buts Eustace" Artur snapped "If we don't kill them they kill us and it's not like I'm going around attacking people. I'm only defending myself" Arthur wiped the blood on his clothes and drew his dagger again "Are you going to come or not because either way I'm leaving this place"

Eustace was quiet, not knowing how to respond. Sure, he wanted to leave but he was not used to killing people.

"I know you are not used to killing people" Artur said like he had just read his mind "I also don't kill. Before today I killed only person and that was a mistake, actually, he fell on his own sword. I don't kill but in a live or die situation like that where I'm attacked with killing intent, I don't think I am so nice that I'd let my attacker have their way and watch them kill me or let them live. How about you?"

Eustace was still quiet.

"We're running out of time let's go" Artur offered Eustace a hand and he stared at it for a bit before finally taking it.

It took Artur some muscle to pull Eustace up since he had forgotten that Eustace was much more taller and bigger than he was.

The two were about to continue their run when a bright light in the distance suddenly caught their attention. They both stopped and looked toward the direction it was coming from. Next there was a huge explosion which dug up the snow in the ground and blasted everyone around it away. The ground scattered into huge chunks of rock, snow and ice. Eustace, who was ahead of Artur turned around when he heard a shout but Artur was nowhere to be seen.

'Victor? Victor?" His eyes darted from left to right but he could find him anywhere 'But he was right by me just now' "Victor! Victor!! Vic-"

Before he could finish the third shout he felt something on his back. Something heavy and powerful, like he had been hit by an elephant and he fell to the ground. It was still on his back but he could not focus on that at the moment. He was trying to keep himself from going unconscious.

He finally looked to the left and saw that it was a tree, a a big one at that. He scoffed.

'How ironic'

That was the last thing that came to his mind before his world went dark.