CHAPTER 16

Prince Arthur knelt down and wiped his bleeding mouth. "I will accept whatever punishment you give me, father. Maybe Dark Phoenix was just too strong for the twelve zodiac warriors. After all, the creature I summoned was once a legendary in the celestial spirit world!"

King sighed. "You should have just let your zodiac warriors die because they are of no use to our kingdom. I am taking back what I said before to all of you when we had our grand banquet inside my kingdom!"

The 12 zodiac warriors felt like their hearts were stabbed deep into their hearts with what King Bartholomeo said.

"If they find it difficult to fight against such a strong opponent, they have no right to guard our kingdom!" said the King in a deep tone of voice.

"But father, I don't see any other warriors with strength and determination like theirs. Give them a second chance," Prince Arthur appealed.

The King nodded in disagreement. "My son, trust me, there are stronger warriors beside these weaklings. We just need to find them, and you will still be in charge of them!"

Prince Arthur was persistent, and he bravely defended his warriors. "Father, I will respect your decision if you want other warriors to replace them. But I want to make them our reserve warriors in case things get out of hand!"

"You are stubborn, Prince Arthur, but since you are my son, I will allow you to do whatever the hell you want. I will assign some warriors to be spread in our kingdom, and I will also appoint a leader who will stand up for them!"

"Thank you, father. You can count on me to coordinate with all of them!"

The king fixed his gaze on the zodiac warriors and scolded them in front of Prince Arthur. "It seems my son overestimated your abilities and skills, although your great teamwork is quite impressive. Still, I don't want to see all of your f*cking faces tomorrow. You would not have come this far if I had ignored my son's feelings, so you owe your lives to him. Practice more as you lack enough power to defeat your opponents. I don't want to further humiliate you, but it would be better if you gave your celestial swords to other warriors who deserve them!"

The king turned his back and stormed off. Prince Arthur faced his 12 zodiac warriors again. He felt his mouth grimace, but worked not to show his disappointment too strongly. "Truly, I expect more from you since I thought you were getting better during our previous intense training. This is the first time my father humiliated me in front of other warriors, and I feel ashamed of myself."

"Pardon us, our Lord. We did everything we could to beat the creature you summoned. However, it was exponentially stronger than us. Is the King of the werewolf tribe as powerful as that?" inquired Leomord curiously.

Prince Arthur responded quickly. "I honestly can't say. Would you still want to pursue our training, or do you want to take a rest? Because, I will be very anytime soon. I mean, we will be having a visitor from the other planets, and I was assigned to take care of them!"

"Yes, we have no right to complain, my lord. We are still your warriors and our determination is like a fire that does not quench," said Alexander.

Prince Arthur looked into the determined eyes of his zodiac warriors and grinned. "Your fighting spirits are unlike any other warriors I encountered. Don't worry, I am not going to summon powerful creatures!" Prince Arthur put his hand on the ground again. "This creature I will summon is much weaker than the dark Phoenix, but it doesn't mean it's not strong. The legendary ape, Sun Wukong, come forth!"

The ugly monkey less than four feet tall appeared behind King Arthur, wearing a Phoenix feather cap, golden chainmail armor, lotus root-colored boots, golden fillet, silk shirt, tiger skin kilt, and leather boots. He is holding his ruyi jingu bang wood weapon on his left arm.

"Please do your best to beat that creature, otherwise I will lose my confidence in all of you!" said Prince Arthur. He jumped behind the altar to watch his zodiac warriors fight with the legendary ape.

Sun Wukong spun his ruyi jingu weapon and attacked at full speed, Alexander and Elshor intercepted the legendary ape but they could not keep up with its speed. Sun Wukong kicked them in the face, propelling them away. Ammon, Leomord, Odysseus, and Isaac threw their digger knives, and Sun Wukong used his Ruyi Jingu Bang to deflect their attacks. Oshiro, Balthazar, and Odin threw their shield but Sun Wukong effortlessly dodged their attacks. The rest of the zodiac warriors charged with their celestial swords at Sun Wukong who used his Ruyi Jingu, and they clashed.

Prince Arthur did not blink his eyes, and he gave them words of motivation. "If you were able to beat powerful monsters before, there is no way you can't beat that legendary ape. Remember, this fight is between twelve versus one. Don't hesitate to show your full power right off the bat, and as I always remind you, every opponent has their own fair share of strengths and weaknesses!"

The Zodiac warriors stood up and scattered around the legendary ape. They activated their 12 gates of the zodiac shield as they saw the ape spinning its weapon to create a wind cyclone in their direction. "Zodiakku infiniti shīrudo no 12 no gēto ga akutibu ni narimasu!"

They were able to withstand the wind cyclone of the legendary ape and coordinate their attacks, beating the legendary ape with their combined sword techniques.

The king, who was watching from the window of his room in the castle, was amazed at what he had witnessed. "Maybe they turned my words into motivation. What a nice fight down there. I admit I am impressed to see them working together. Perhaps that is their greatest strength. Still, they are not strong enough to become my official warriors!" he uttered after sipping his red wine.