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// Diamond Sword 
// Story: Welcome to Cubeland 
// by Zaleros 
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	The look in the prince’s eye as he looked down as me with Zombie in his hand told me to give up now and let him end us all. The look I gave back would’ve put an ursa major in its place. He merely smirked at me, as though it would take a god smiting him to put him in his place.
“It looks like you’re here a moment too late, monsters,” Kaile said, nearly shouting to be heard over the roars of the flames nearby. He turned toward us and tossed the corpse of our undead ally down the incline, the body poofing away as it hit the ground. “I will admit he was a brave one, staying behind so the other could escape. He was brave, but stupid all the same.”
I held my tongue now simply because the only thing that would come from it at the moment would be a loud and primal roar of rage and hatred. I may not have liked zombies, I may have been afraid of the undead, hell, I was creeped out by his looks, but Zombie had been a good friend to me. He had little to say but when he had spoken it was filled with meaning. He was the reason Com was safe from harm when the nightlings tried to attack him after I brought him to the trio. Now he was gone and he would never return.
The tears I wanted to cry never came. It wasn’t that I had no tears to cry, but instead I was unable to cry. My rage wouldn’t allow it.
Since I was unable to speak, Com spoke up instead, “Why are you killing them all? We could’ve made a treaty! We could’ve had peace in this world! Why?”
The question hung in the air for a few moments before the prince responded with a serious tone, “Their kind is a blight upon this world and thus I take it upon myself to rid the world of their disease. Without them we will be able to live in our own peace, one where our people won’t have to fear for their next meal. If we won’t eradicate them then-“
“Cut the crap, prince! You know as well as I do that we have enough food. We have an unlimited supply of water. We have protection that we never had in our world. The actual world protects us from dying. Why should they even pose a threat to us when we return better off than they do?”
The prince dropped his high-and-mighty act, loudly laughing, almost maniacally so, and started walking down the steps created by the blocks between us. When he reached the bottom there were only a few blocks that separated him from us. “’Why?’ you ask?” his voice loud enough that we could hear it but soft enough that it was nearly a strain for me, “It is very simple. It’s because I enjoy this fighting very much. Get them!” he ordered his wolves. They responded by standing up and lunging at the skeletons and myself.
He pushed past me as I fought off a couple wolves that came at me from the side. I felt sorry for them, as they were only doing as they were told by their master, but I had to put them down. I looked up at him and saw him preparing to slay Skeleton, who was with the other skeletons shouting orders of his own to them. I wasn’t about to allow that.
I ran at him, my horn pointed toward his back and shouted, “Skeleton! Watch out!” He heard me and just barely avoided being hit by the diamond sword, which continued to swing, hitting other skeletons in the process, their bodies poofing away as he landed fatal blows on them in an attempt to do the same to their leader. A few fell before my horn collided with his armor, a loud thunk sound was heard and a slight headache was felt as stars flew in my vision after my failed attempt to pierce his armor. Diamond was much sturdier than iron if nothing else.
He stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance, turning around and slapping me in the face with the flat side of his blade, “Wait your turn, cretin. When I finish taking the lives of your friends, then I will deal with you.”
I recovered much faster than I had before from his attacks, likely because I still wore my helmet. Com came over and helped me back up before a wolf bit him on the back of his leg. I wasn’t sure but I thought I heard him swear before slaying it. When he saw me staring at him he yelled at me, “Don’t worry about me; go help Skeleton!”
I collected myself and looked to the side where I could see the prince deflecting a barrage of arrows shot by the skeletons protecting their leader. Just looking at him reminded me of what he had just done only a few minutes ago and that sent me back into a state of rage. My mouth twisted in a snarl, I leapt at him, neglecting the arrows, at this point hoping that they wouldn’t hurt much, and we stumbled to the ground.
I began pounding on his arms and exposed neck while the two remaining wolves changed their targets from the skeleton mob to me. One tried to bite me and succeeded only in being slapped away before being shot with an arrow and dying with a poof.
The last wolf grabbed my left foreleg as I lifted it to strike the prince. With a yell full of fury that would’ve sent even a manticore running, I turned to it and pulled it closer to me, ignoring the pain of its teeth putting a great deal of pressure on my chitin. When I had it in front of me, and I could see the whites of its eyes, I unleashed my wrath and bit the wolf’s neck until I heard a snap sound. It only took a few seconds for the wolf to be dispatched, and when it was over I looked up to see a look of fear on the faces of my friends, although Skeleton’s fear was more or less assumed since he lacked an actual face to display the look. 
Taking a moment to understand why, I realized I probably looked like a vicious monster bent on destruction. I was sure if I could sense their emotions right now, the darkness of fear would’ve filled the air, and a bitter taste would’ve been stuck in both my heart and my mouth.
I got off of the fallen prince and grabbed the sword he dropped when I tackled him to the ground and stored it wherever it was these things went when I’m wasn't using them.
Com walked to me and hesitantly spoke up, “Craft, are you alright?”
I took a deep breath and turned my eyes downward, felt the warm breeze created by the nearby fire under my helmet, and then released the air I had trapped in my lungs. “I’m angry, and he needs to die.”
“Craft, I’ll do it. He was my comrade before we even knew who we were.”
“But it was my fault this happened; I should be the one to finish him off.” I was pressing for his permission to be the prince’s executioner. It was selfish, I know, but after everything that happened I wanted to be the one to take him down. I was sure that even without being told yes I would do it anyway. It was hard to describe but I almost felt like I was supposed to do it. 
Behind us I heard a muffled sound, almost like laughter. We turned around and I pulled out the diamond sword I took from the prince, something about that laughter gave me the chills.
The laughter only grew louder until I saw the prince’s body twitch. Slowly, he stood up and when I saw his face, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
He was unscathed.
“I’ll admit that you surprised me again, changeling. I thought I had stepped up my game enough to deal with you by now. To see that it was not enough only interests me even more than you had before.” The prince looked at us like we were nothing but a challenging game waiting to be figured out and beaten.
Something about his tone sent another wave of chills up my spine. I wasn’t sure but I could’ve sworn I saw his armor shifting colors, as though covered in an oily substance. Then he pulled out a new sword too, also seemingly covered in a substance of shifting colors. We began to get closer to one another, while the other skeletons under their leader’s command shifted around to try and enclose him in a circle.
“I guess it’s time to get creative.”