It was cold. The Band of Steel had run deep into the forest. They had seen some other adventurers escaping into the forest with them, but all went their separate ways. They ran until they couldn't hear the screams from the town anymore. But no matter how long they ran, Jacky could still hear them. Inside his head, never to leave him again.
After an hour of running, they decided to take a rest. They found an opening in the forest and just sat there in silence. The weight of their actions felt heavier with that dark silence. When they saw the Silver Dragon rampaging over the town, their will to fight had broken in an instant, if there was any. For them, running was the only thing they could do. But it was still disturbing; their adventurer pride was damaged.
"What are we going to do now?" Milton, the rogue, hugged himself from the cold. It was past midnight in the northern regions, meaning it was freezing cold in the forest.
"There is no way we can go back to the town." Antrius was still nervous; he kept looking around. "Can't we, like, start a fire or something?" He was also shivering from the cold.
"We can't. What if it finds us?" Milton was always cautious.
"It is a fucking Silver Dragon; I don't think it needs a fire to detect us."
"He is right. If we don't start a fire soon, we are going to freeze to death." Karion had more resilience to the cold, but he also had a limit. "What do you say, Boss?" He looked at Jacky.
He was sitting silently on a log, hugging his backup sword. He didn't answer. He was not even looking at them.
"Hey, Boss? Are you okay?"
"What is the difference? We are already dead. Word will go out to the survivors. Soon, the whole world will hear about us. The idiots who stole a Silver Dragon egg and caused a town to be ruined. They could even put bounties on our heads, for fuck's sake. Our lives, everything we have done so far, is over now."
They all knew that, but none had dared to say it till now. "Start a fire, do whatever you want. I don't care anymore." His companions saw how troubled he was and left him be.
Because of the Silver Dragon, the forest seemed abandoned by its residents. There was no need to be on guard, so he didn't choose anyone to keep watch. They all needed their sleep. They should have been fine until the sun rose. Within the campfire's warmth, Jacky slowly fell asleep.
***
"So, I guess it was your first dragon encounter."
Elise and the Traveler were heading deep inside the Malargo Forest, towards their prey. The man said he saw where they headed and started to walk inside, so Elise had to follow.
Her hood was burned severely, so she had to take it off. Her long, straight black hair was pouring down her shoulders. She reminded herself that she needed to find another way to hide her face and get her hair away from her eyes.
She was keeping one hand on her sword, ready to draw it if any trouble occurred. Ashes and dust from the town's remains were still lingering on her. And the blood... she could still smell it on herself. The blood of the ones she couldn't save.
She was trying to keep her elegance while walking through the forest. She needed to pose a strong view if she wanted to win this man's favor and be accepted as an apprentice. Her teacher always warned her to keep her presence strong so that the people around her would feel safe. If they were planning something bad, they would think twice before acting. But it was really hard to keep that elegance while trying to avoid the thorny bushes.
The Traveler, on the other hand, was a different story. Elise had been watching him since they left the town. Most of his body was hidden under his strange clothing. He was not standing straight; he was bending forward a bit, making him look shorter than he already was. He had no shoes, but even in this wild forest, he didn't look bothered by that at all. He was walking without a care about anything around him; nevertheless, he never stumbled on a root or bush, unlike Elise.
She also noticed that he was not making any noise. As if he was not making any contact with his surroundings, which was almost impossible in this forest.
Overall, he had almost no presence whatsoever. Some may even forget he was there if they weren't focused on him.
After giving it some thought, Elise assumed that he was just acting. Acting to veil his strength under that weak appearance. The question was why. Why was he doing that? She saw him challenging the Silver Dragon. He looked so powerful, as if he could kill the dragon without a sweat if he wanted. What was his reasoning for hiding this much power?
If she had that much power, she would use it everywhere she could. To help people and defeat the enemies of Humanity. She felt a sudden urge to learn more about this stranger's power. But before she could ask anything, the man had asked his own question.
"Yes, it was my first." She knew that she had a certain talent with the sword, but it was not nearly enough to challenge that kind of creature. "And hopefully last."
"Don't say that. Dragons are noble and smart creatures; you will like them as you know them. And they also hold great conversations. Very entertaining they are. Surprisingly intellectual."
Elise looked at him for a moment, trying to understand if he was serious or just trying to smooth the air with jokes. "Did you hold a conversation with a Dragon? How?"
"They don't have the same speaking instruments that humans use. But thoughts don't need any instruments. As long as they think, you can hold a conversation. But of course, you need them to respect you first; that's the hard part. They really appreciate power." The man said those things like they were common knowledge, but Elise had no idea what he was talking about.
"So, you can talk to creatures with your thoughts. Are you a magician?" If he were, that would explain some things, but she saw him hold a giant dragon egg with one hand. Elise still couldn't figure out this man's powers, and that was bothering her a lot. So, she decided to ask directly.
"You could say that." The man's answer was simple and did not satisfy Elise one bit. She needed to learn more.
"But I saw you hold the Dragon egg with one hand, was that magic too?"
"Why? Can't I be both a magic user and physically strong? Some people could find that offensive, you know."
Again, a simple and evasive answer. Elise was starting to get irritated. She opened her mouth to ask more questions, but the man spoke first.
"Let's save the questions for later. We are close, and it seems the party had started without us." He was looking deep into the forest. Elise looked there, ready to act, but she didn't see or hear anything.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Follow me and keep your voice down." He hurried in the direction he was looking. Even though he was walking a lot faster than before, he still was not making any sound.
Elise did all she could to keep pace with him, but as they went deeper into the forest, the tree roots got thicker, and the bushes got denser. She fell behind after a while, but then she heard some noises ahead.
She rushed there as fast as she could. When she got close, she was suddenly grabbed by her arm. Her panic eased when she realized it was the Traveler, standing behind a tree and watching the source of the noises. She thought she was perceptive, but she had not even noticed him.
"You are making too much noise. Keep your head down at least." His voice was really low as he pushed her head down and hid her behind a bush.
"Look, someone got to our prey before us."
She looked and saw the Band of Steel. They were in a fight with a huge creature, roughly twice the length of a person, and it was not going well.
The creature was nothing like Elise had seen before, and something was odd about it. It had thick black-purple skin with lots of scars from past injuries. Its claws and mouth were absurdly big. Its eyes also seemed larger than they should and had a burning, bright purple color. Its limbs and head had some sharp bones sticking out of them, but mostly from its long tail. It resembled a lizard overall, but its body parts were so unnatural as if they were attached by someone else.
The shielded tanker of the Band was still standing against it, but his shield was broken, and he had a serious cut on his shoulder. Their leader, Jacky, was lying unconscious and had blood all over his head and chest. The other one was trying to pull him out of danger while the archer was protecting and supporting the tank. They were about to be wiped out.
"What do you think? Can you take that thing on?" The Traveler asked.
"What even is that thing?"
"I have a guess, but this is not the time for it." He looked her in the eye this time. "Do you want to help them?"
Elise quickly made up her mind. He was right, there was no time to sit and talk. Someone needed her help, even though they were the ones who were responsible for destroying a town. She couldn't leave them to die in the claws of some monster. And this could be a good opportunity to show off her sword skills to him.
"I see. Go on then, I'll assist you." Even though she didn't answer, he had understood her decision from her eyes.
Elise rushed out of the bushes without a second thought, straight to the monster. She hadn't drawn her sword yet, but the monster immediately noticed her and prepared to take her on. Elise was not expecting this kind of reaction. She thought that the monster would be focused on the Band, but instead, it sensed her hostile approach and realized she was the bigger threat.
When she got close, the monster threw its head backwards and its throat suddenly inflated. "Be careful! It spits acid!" The archer warned her at the last moment.
The monster swung its head forward and spat a pink, mucus-like fluid from its mouth. Elise barely avoided the attack. The mucus hit the ground and splashed all around.
Elise kept charging and drew her sword for a strong attack from up close. But she couldn't make it. A giant claw dropped right in front of her and cut her charge. If she had reacted a moment later, she would have gotten smashed. She tried to stay close to the monster. She had a clear view of its belly and throat from this close, and the monster wouldn't be able to attack her easily from there. But she had forgotten the tail.
The monster turned around and swung its tail at her. There was no way to dodge the attack, so she got ready for impact. Her armor observed some of the damage, but the impact was far too strong. She flew and crashed into a tree far away. She felt a strong pain inside her chest, and her sight went dark for a moment. She tried to get back up quickly, but her head spun, and she had to hold on to the tree she had crashed into. The hit she took had messed her up worse than she hoped.
She noticed the monster charging at her, but her body was not reacting. She closed her eyes and got ready for the inevitable. Then... nothing happened.
"You shouldn't take hits from an opponent bigger than you if you don't have the strength to block it."
She opened her eyes and saw the Traveler in front of her. He was holding the monster's claw with one hand without even looking at it. He pushed the creature back effortlessly, sending the giant monster flying into a cluster of trees. It crashed and got half-buried under the fallen trees.
"Look at me." The man pulled her chin towards himself and inspected her eyes. "You don't have any brain damage, but two of your ribs cracked from the impact. You seem fine and ready to go. Come on, get yourself together. You have a monster to slay!" He gently slapped her cheeks with two hands and squeezed her head. Surprisingly, that brought her to her senses.
He gently pushed her from the back towards the monster. "You misjudged your opponent. You thought it was a mindless beast and rushed in without a second thought. Always measure your opponent first, figure out its strengths and weaknesses, and act accordingly."
While he was lecturing her, the monster got back up. It looked around cautiously. The previous attack had surprised it, and it was still trying to recover from it.
"Yes, I can do this! This time I will bring it down!" She made mistakes but learned from them, too. This time, she was sure she would be more cautious.
"That's the spirit! I don't think you can beat it, but show me what you got."
"Aren't you supposed to support me!" Was that something to be said in a situation like this?"So, what am I going to do?"
The man shook his shoulders with a careless face. He stepped back a little and leaned on a tree. "If I were you, I'd keep my eyes on the opponent."
"You are not going to help, right?"
"Nope. But don't worry, I'll protect the others."
She had completely forgotten about the Band. She looked at them for a second; they were lying low and were trying to hide somewhere safe to tend their wounds. She had only turned her head over for a short moment, but that moment had almost cost her life.
Another ball of acid was coming straight to her. She dodged it by hair and rolled behind a tree to take cover. She took a deep breath there; she could do it. She just needed to fix her mind on it. She looked towards the monster while taking cover, but the monster was not where it had been before.
Panick rose within her while she tried to find the monster. She couldn't understand how a monster of that size could hide like that in such a short time. Then she heard something, a rustling was coming from her left.
She took her stance as fast as she could and blocked the incoming attack. The monster was far stronger than she was. She couldn't stand her ground and slid away, but this time she had more control. At least she didn't hit her head anywhere.
"Never lose sight of the enemy." The Traveler's voice came from afar. So, he was not going to help her. Fine, she could do it by herself.
The monster didn't stop after the first attack. It was bigger and stronger and had no reason to back off. It attacked relentlessly without giving her any space or time to breathe. Yes, it was bigger and stronger, but she was faster. She dodged every attack carefully; she had no intention of getting hit by one of its attacks again. So, she focused.
She focused like she used to when she was reading an interesting book. But this couldn't go on much longer; she was already getting tired after that long night, and she was starting to feel her cracked ribs even more.
The monster was not giving her any openings to counterattack, but then the monster stopped suddenly. It was the opening she was looking for. She attacked... and missed. She missed because the monster slid back with an impossible motion, and she noticed the cause of it as it flew back. The traveler was there. The monster stopped because he grabbed its tail with one hand and threw it away from there like it was nothing.
"I liked your focus, but you are focusing on the wrong thing. If you keep that up, you will wear yourself out." He started to give her another lecture as he got close. "Don't focus on its claws or tail. Don't look at the weapon, look at the user. Focus on the monster and analyze its movements, learn its pattern, and let your body do the dodging."
"Let my body? How should I do that?" What he said was the complete opposite of how she did things until now. She had to focus on the attack to evade it properly. Letting her body react was like a call to get hit.
The man put his hand on her back and pushed her towards the recovering monster. "Come on, I know you can do it. Just read it like a book."
Read it like a book? How did he know she was approaching most things like reading? Did he just guess it?
The monster got itself together and looked her in the eye. There was no time for questions. She discarded the thoughts and focused again. This time, as the Traveler said.
She focused on the monster as it charged at her. And she almost got hit. The second attack came. And she almost got hit again. And again, and again, and again. At first, she thought she would die at any moment. But after a couple of attacks, they started to feel more... predictable. She watched the monster; it had a certain way of attacking, a pattern like the Traveler said. And before every attack, the monster was making a slight motion to get ready. That motion was giving away its intentions.
It was hard at first, but Elise was always a fast learner. She was Blessed with it, after all. Her parents had noticed the difference between her and the other kids first. She could already talk fluently at the age of two and read and write as well as an adult at the age of four.
She quickly adapted to the situation and started to react to the monster's attacks with precision. She dodged the claws, dodged the tail, dodged the bites. And she found it, the opening she was looking for.
She crawled under its incoming claw and swung her sword to its throat. Its pink blood splashed all over the place. Elise barely avoided it, with only a few drops splashing on her cloak. The dying creature started to cry in pain and threw itself around. The blood that splashed during this time was smoking like hot water.
Elise looked at the drops on her cloak; they had opened holes where they landed, and some of them were still smoking with a disgusting smell.
She heard clapping behind her. "Well done," the man said. "You held on to a lot longer than I thought, but it was not bad." He was looking at the monster on the ground with pitying eyes. It was still twitching while bleeding severely. "But try not to make them suffer next time. It was already looking miserable enough." He didn't look sad, but his voice was telling the opposite.
"What was that thing?" Elise had never seen a monster like that before. It looked like a lizard, but most of its parts seemed to belong to other creatures. It was so extreme in many ways, almost impossible to be natural.
"This forest has all kinds of creatures inside, but I don't think this one belongs here." He was looking thoughtful. He put his bare foot on the monster's belly and pushed it to turn it upside down. The monster was still oozing pink and sticky blood, which was smoking aggressively. While they were looking, the monster's belly started to inflate.
Before she could realize it, they were far off from the monster's corpse. The Traveler was holding her wrist tightly. How did they come this far in an instant?
The monster kept inflating. They watched it as it exploded like a ball of smoke and acidic blood. The explosion was not that big, but Elise was happy to be outside of it. The plants that were in the area started to melt with the fireless smoke coming from them.
Elise looked around and saw the Band behind them. Somehow, the Traveler had brought her here just before the monster exploded. Questions arose in her mind, but there was no point in bothering herself about it every time he did something unreasonable. She would eventually learn his secrets if they traveled together.
Instead, she focused on the Band of Steel. They were a wreck. They all had acid burns all over them, and two of them had some deep wounds. The boy named Jacky and their tanker were seriously injured, and the others were trying to tend to them.
"Don't worry, I cleansed their wounds from that monster's poisonous claws while you fought. As long as they stop the bleeding and keep the wounds clean, they should be fine." Again, another almost impossible feat.
Cleaning an unknown poison was not an easy thing to do, even for master healers. She stopped thinking about it; there was no point in asking now. The time would come.
Their broken, half-molten pieces of armor were removed, and something shiny on their leader caught Elise's eye. It was a necklace. Elise leaned forward to take a better look at it. The symbol was familiar. She turned her back to him as soon as she recognized the crest of the Landa Family. She cursed to herself; how did she not realize who he was? If he had recognized her, it would have caused so much trouble.
She started to feel dizzy immediately after turning. Something was off, and her mind was too numb to understand what was going on. Her vision started to blur, and she felt her head drop. After that, there was only darkness.