captainatomais || continued here
He was trying to kill him! Karol had heard bad things about the Empire his whole life growing up in the guilds, but he’d never had them affirmed. But this guys had seriously almost shot him! The whizzing of the arrow had been more than enough to freeze him in his spot, and he griped his greatsword’s hilt with a vice grip. He was most certainly not trembling, because that would insinuate that he was afraid and he was most certainly not afraid.
Being totally fair, karol hadn’t even noticed the monster behind him (he’d been too distracted by the (admittedly smaller and less fierce) one in front of him. In a way, a big one, this man had actually saved his life. But...
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I-I’m not scared!” eh shot back, hugging his axe close to him. Damn it this was supposed to be a way for him to prove his power to the Hunting Blades- he had to show them he was worth his burden! He puffed out his chest obstinately, offering, “I had it totally handled!” He did not, but being helped but a knight-- he’d never live it down!
So instead, he defiantly announced, “I’ve got this place handled, so y’can go back to the capital-” that’s... where all the knights were, right? Nevermind that this one was weirdly far away from there. “- and leave this area to the Hunting Blades!” ... well, one of them. And the most notoriously unreliable member. Whoever had left a veritable toddler out alone on the highroad had clearly not thought this threat was anything serious.