Each step into the king’s court seemed to echo as if it was the only sound in all of reality reverberating through all existence. The experience surprised Eric as he approached the king’s throne, once again breaking their propriety and sense of honor and deific reverence of their kings. 

Eric didn’t care about honoring this man. 

Every time Eric thought of having to pander to this man, his urge to seek freedom sought control, and admittedly on a few occasions, made him go too far and offend where he only meant to enlighten. 

Eric had no intention to avoid offending the king this go around. 

The king glared at Eric, fingers tapping frustratedly loud on his throne. Clanker was the only one to accompany him for this engagement. Eric had asked the rest of the party to organize their supplies for placement in Clanker’s space and to await his return to plan out their journey and hunt. 

“Why do you approach the king so blatantly in offense?” An assistant said to Arelgore’s left. “Just as the king is about to provide sentencing to this peasant.” The assistant gestured to the center of the court. 

Eric looked at the center of the stone floor in shock, not expecting to see someone kneeling there. He had been so solidly in his anger for the king that he had completely missed that the king was taking audience for judgement at that moment. 

The peasant was kneeling, face down as he awaited the judgement. Iron shackles locked his arms together by a bar between the wrists with a chain that led to a similar set that was around his ankles.

Eric begrudgingly moved to the side of the court, slowly. Very slowly. He folded his arms, Clanker moving to his side, and waited for the king to finish. 

The assistant huffed, glaring more at Eric as he waited. Then, after a long moment, he turned back to a soldier who stood near the peasant who also held a scroll out in front of him. 

“As I was saying my lord,” the soldier said, nervously looking between Eric and the king. “This peasant of thy kingdom was charged with the theft of two full carts of potatoes as they were being delivered to thy castle. There were others responsible, however, this man has sought to take full judgement for any who were or may have been involved. That is my report.” The soldier bowed slightly, rolled up the scroll, then backed away, leaving the man kneeling and huddled down in the center of the court. 

The king looked at the man for a long moment, hand holding up his head with fist-to-cheek. Then, the king smiled. 

“If you, citizen, are vouching for all responsible parties,” the king said. “Perhaps you should take on their crimes as well.” 

The man seemed to breathe out slowly, his form slumping even more. The king waved for a servant to approach that held a scroll. At the king’s command, the servant unrolled the scroll and presented it to the king to read. Another moment passed, and then the king continued. 

“It seems the punishment for a single offense of this nature is a fine of one year’s wages, in addition to the seizure of one finger. If adding on the other’s crimes upon your own, this would be greatly increased. You would likely lose your hands, be forced into slavery to pay the debt you now hold, and perhaps be castrated.” The man tensed visibly, making him sit up straighter, even lifting his head to barely be enough to look at the king. 

His eyes had turned defiant, but just barely.

“And then there’s the concept of rebellion growing since there were other individuals involved. So, to set an example to those who seek to defy me, I pass judgement here and now that you, citizen, shall be hung outside the city on the walls for passing monsters and leviathans to consume your flesh, whether you have died from lack of water and food or not. Let it be done, for I have said it.”

The man’s defiance blossomed for a moment in anger but deflated again. This time, he slumped fully on the ground, waiting for the soldiers to drag him away. 

Eric, on the other hand, was losing control. 

“Eric,” Rose said. “Your vitals are growing unstable. I recommend taking a deep breath. Your power is surging. It could be dangerous to allow it to billow out.”

Eric ignored her soothing, beautiful voice. Instead, he glared at the king.

What king? Eric thought. All I see is a horrid man, a bully who seeks to make others hurt.

Just be good. 

Light erupted from Eric in a surge of power, penetrating everything in the room. No shadow still stood in the onslaught of light. 

Eric’s eyes had burst alight as well, boring down onto the king. He took a few steps into the center of the court, coming to stand next to the peasant. With each step, the castle seemed to shake, light causing all but Clanker to look away. Even the king shied away, hands and arms held out before him. He cowered down on his throne, peeking through his fingers at Eric. 

“Eric!” Rose yelled. “Your power is continuing to grow! Whatever you are seeking to do, finish it soon! The light will begin to materialize, causing immense damage to all in this room, perhaps the entire castle!”

He barely heard her over the roar of power. 

“Arelgore,” Eric said, voice booming. “A king should lead, standing as an example to his people. But it is not well that a nation should have a king, for it is not possible that every king be a good man. And in you I see darkness.”

Eric held out a hand and a beam of light, brighter than all the light escaping Eric, burst forward and slammed into the king. The king yelled out, searching for an escape. 

Suddenly, all the light vanished, returning the court to a dull, dim sunlit room. Shadows fell again and all was still. 

“Your power diminished,” Rose said. “You burned through your magnitude very quickly. Be careful. You will likely be exhausted from that much power being used so quickly. It is well, however. You were dangerously close to killing the king.”

Eric looked at the pitiful, sobbing man on the throne and felt no remorse for what he had done.

The peasant shifted on the ground next to Eric, turning to look up at him. Eric looked down and met the man’s eyes, then nodded. 

The man looked down in shock, realizing that the shackles around the man’s wrist and ankles had fallen away, broken and shattered. He looked back to Eric, then with gratitude in his eyes, turned and ran out the court’s main entrance. 

When had I done that? Eric thought. 

Clanker walked up to Eric, nodding with his impossible smile. 

The king had regained his composure, seeming to me more shocked than actually injured by Eric’s display. He glared back at Eric as if he had completely forgotten what had just happened. 

“I took you in,” the king said, voice cold. “Gave you and your’s a place to sleep and I fed you. All that, and only asking for fealty. How dare you?!” The king stood up and pointed at him. “Guards!”

No one moved. 

“No king rules me,” Eric said. “And so you know, I am venturing to the mountains to solve a problem you cannot, apparently. If you had been a better king, perhaps you would have heard out Josiah, since he was bringing a plea to you for help. But now I have to go and do that because of your incompetence.”

Arelgore ground his teeth as he stared at Eric, but to his credit, seemed to calm, but with a great deal of effort. 

“I should send with you a contingent of my men.” 

“No,” Eric said. “Besides the fact that I would probably deny you anyway, or even that I would enjoy taking an opportunity for you to either manipulate me or fulfill your role as king, I want to have more opportunities for my party and myself to gain experience without outside assistance. We leave in the morning.” Eric turned to leave, Clanker following with the biggest smile Eric had ever seen on the skeleton’s face. 

“I bid you well, then,” Arelgore said. “Hero.” The king’s face still bore a disdain for Eric, but at least he wasn’t trying to kill them.

Yet.

***

“I think I’m still shaking,” Eric said, sitting in one of the chairs in their party’s quarters.

“It was magnificent!” Clanker said. “Though, the last comment about the king being incompetent isn’t quite accurate. Technically, he was acting fairly by passing judgement on poor little Josiah, since he did steal some stuff.” Josiah deflated a bit at the comment. 

“I am sure this will be spoken about in neighboring kingdoms,” Bearick said. “That would have been quite a majestic thing to behold. The faithful will see good signs in this.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eric said. “I just…I was so angry at that man. I knew politicians like him in my world, making horrid decisions and writing policies that really hurt people and their wallets. My world doesn’t really have kings anymore, or at least the greatest nations don’t have them. Maybe there’s something else I can do in this world.” A thought inched its way into Eric’s mind. 

“That craziness aside,” Sophia said. “We are prepped with everything we need. Josiah mapped out our route as well, which shouldn’t be so terrible. We’ll need to be careful of leviathans, though. Those mountains have some roaming from what I’ve heard from other hunters recently.”

“The king mentioned leviathans,” Eric said. “Monsters I get, but what’s the difference?”

“Well,” Bearick said. “You could say there’s a big difference.” He smiled. 

The party stared at the large man.

“Was that a joke?” Sophia said. “That was a bad one. You like puns?”

“I don’t get it…” Eric said. 

“Leviathans are massive,” Josiah said. “They are many times larger than most monsters. There are not many of them, but they have made many problems for my people, killed many.”

“There’s a bunch of different types, too,” Sophia said. “But fortunately, there aren’t that many, so it’s kind of rare to see one. Knowing our luck, though, who knows.”

“Are there sea leviathans?” Eric asked. 

“Sure,” Bearick said. “And giants, sandworms in the desert, you name it. Each region has a type, some with larger populations than others. I have heard that there are even organized groups of leviathans, though that hasn’t been looked into as far as I know.”

“Alright, then,” Eric said. “One more insane thing to worry about. I suppose we have time to get our plan organized for how to talk to Josiah’s people. And we can’t really do more about our plan for the monsters until we know more about the situation anyway. Does anyone have more to say or other stuff to do before we get some sleep?”

The group shook their heads, standing to move to comfy beds for the night. 

Eric stood and stretched, exhaustion finally seeping into him, realizing just how much he was looking forward to a good night’s rest. 

“Alright team,” Eric said. “Sleep, for tomorrow we go to kill some monsters.”