Conquering His Cold Heart

Vincent was standing in the middle of Caspian and Hamilton, wondering if he would be the one to hold these two hotheads back if something unfavorable was to go down.

‘I just hope that it won’t come down to that,’ he thought to himself.

Vincent then took a deep breath and agreed as well, “Okay, let’s hunt down some beasts then. I don’t want the two of you jumping to kill the werewolves the first time you get a chance.”

“So,” Hamilton glanced at Caspian and asked while giving a challenging smirk, “What’s our target?”

Caspian accepted the challenge and replied to Hamilton, “Whatever catches our attention first.” He further said while hinting at their childhood, “You know the deal. The first one to strike a killing blow wins.”

“Ready?” Hamilton turned to look deep into the forest and asked his cousin.

“Wait! Are you two trying to compete? What’s going on? Set some rules first,” Vincent frantically shouted at those two who already looked in sync.

Caspian looked at Vincent and asked, “Just follow the lead.” He then answered Hamilton, “Ready when you are.”

.....

Hamilton took the running stance and shouted in excitement, “Then here we go.”

Both Hamilton and Caspian immediately took off in the same direction.

“Wait for me!” Vincent shouted at them and followed soon after.

The two cousins ran deep into the thick forest like a harsh gust of wind. They ran past several herbivorous animals, jumped over the huge tree trunks lying on the path, and even jumped across the tall tree branches as if they were highly energetic teenagers.

Vincent was having a hard time catching up with the two of them even when he was running without performing stunts like those two.

“What are you two? Monkeys? Just slow down!” he shouted breathlessly. However, they didn’t listen to him at all.

Hamilton’s blood-red eyes glistened when he caught the glimpse of a red stag that was almost double the size of normal deer found in that area.

Not just in size, it also looked double the weight of the normal deer. Its horns were so large and beautiful that they looked like the crown of that majestic creature.

Hamilton and Caspian exchanged a knowing glance with each other. And almost instantly, the two of them stopped running in that direction.

Vincent also caught up with them soon and stopped behind Caspian. “So, what are we looking at?” he asked Caspian in a whisper and peeked ahead. Before Caspian answered him, he widened his eyes and exclaimed, “Whoa! That’s some huge damn stag. It’s taller than us!”

“Are the both of you going to hunt that one?” Vincent asked again after seeing both of their eyes glued on that majestic stag.

Caspian nodded his head and said in an excited whisper, “Yes. Whoever kills it wins.”

“So, am I also a part of it?” Vincent asked to make sure that the cousins wouldn’t try to kill him if he was to interfere with their prey.

Caspian looked over his shoulder and gave a sly smirk to Vincent. “If you can keep up with us, then sure, feel free to join the hunt.”

Vincent frowned and shouted at Caspian for looking down on him, “Hey! Don’t mock me! There’s only a few seconds difference in our speed, okay? Don’t you dare tease me!”

Vincent forgot that he was in the middle of the hunt and shouted so loudly that he alerted the red stag about their presence.

That stag stopped grazing on the luscious grass and immediately began to run away.

Hamilton instantly shouted, “Let’s go!” And he took off that very second.

Caspian and Vincent also rushed after Hamilton. Their speed was almost similar, and before they knew it, they had all surrounded the stag from several directions.

All three of them bared their claws and fangs and were instantly in hunting mode. The hunting instinct that they had suppressed within them naturally got unveiled in their glowing red eyes.

The stag obviously found them as threats. It began to jump around madly, swinging its heavy and large horns around in the hopes of intimidating the predators.

However, unluckily for that stag, the predators weren’t somebody who could be intimidated.

Caspian and Hamilton were standing on either side of that stag while waiting for an opening to strike. They were facing the chest of that stag so that they could strike it down with one sharp blow of their hands.

Vincent, on the other hand, was standing while facing the stag head-on. He was aiming to give a killing blow on that stag’s head.

Hamilton was the first one to jump in for an attack.

However, the stag was jumping around so much that his blow only grazed the spine of that animal.

Out of reflex, that stag swung its head with such great force that Hamilton’s shirt got stuck on its horn, and he got thrown away.

“Aaahh!” he grimaced when his head got smashed against a huge tree trunk.

Before he could go in for a strike once more, Caspian swooped in and punched into that stag’s chest.

However, Caspian miscalculated how tall that stag was. His blow did land on that stag’s chest, but he missed that animal’s heart.

Although that stag didn’t die in that instant, it did collapse to the ground.

“Whoa!” Vincent gasped upon seeing how tall that stag was even when it was sitting down.

Caspian went for the kill again. However, that stag became even more violent now that it was injured. And since Caspian covered the distance between him and the stag at a slower speed, the stag was able to kick Caspian right on the chest with its hind leg.

Caspian also got thrown away by that beast. “Argh!” he landed on his back and groaned.

Even when it was wounded, the stag quickly got up on its feet in an attempt to run away.

However, Vincent spread his arms out and stood in its path like an obstacle.

The stag lowered its head and pointed its long and sharp horns at Vincent. And without wasting a second, the stag ran right toward the tiny creature in an attempt to ram its horns through that creature’s small body.

Vincent wasn’t intimidated by the size of that stag. No matter how big it looked, he knew that he was much faster and stronger than that beast.

“Watch out!” Caspian shouted from the back when Vincent didn’t move an inch. He knew that the beast’s attacks were powerful.

The stag was already about to skewer Vincent. However, right before it was able to do so, Vincent grabbed onto its horns and tried to stop that stag by force. The stag was able to push the vampire for a while. But Vincent stopped skidding back once he arranged his footing on the ground.

And before Caspian or Hamilton could interfere, he jumped high in the air. He clasped his hands together, and as he dropped down, he banged his fists right in between that stag’s horns with such a great force that the stag collapsed on its knees.

The stag’s head drooped down to the ground, indicating that it was dead.

Vincent glanced at the royals. He pointed at the dead stag and asked breathlessly, “So, does this mean I am the winner?”