The black armored figure was right in front of her. Even though Elise could not see its face, it was obvious that it was in shock, just like Elise. It had stopped for a moment when his long knife clashed with the small sickle that appeared out of nowhere.
The figure backed off immediately into the shadows of the forest, giving Elise time to see the man standing next to her. He slowly lowered the sickle and put it on the back of his belt. There were more farming tools on his belt, like a trowel and a little hoe. They were dirty but well-maintained, just like his simple clothes. His brown wool pants, black leather boots, and white shirt were covered with dust and dirt, but they had not had a single punctured or ripped spot.
His face, on the other hand, was the oldest Elise had ever seen. His whole face was covered beneath a thick white beard and long, wavy hair of the same color. The only part Elise could see was his eyes, and they were almost closed by the wrinkles he had around them. How old was he to look like this?
On the contrary, his body had not bent under his age. He was lanky, and even though Elise was not considered short back at her home, she had to look up to make eye contact.
She noticed she was just staring at him for a while. "Ehm... Thank you." She bowed her head a little, but he was not even looking at her. His eyes were fixated on the forest. Elise looked where he was looking and tried to see the shadow that blended inside the forest. But her eyes met only disappointment.
Elise could not see anything but noticed something else; the sounds coming from the Traveler's side had gone for a moment. She looked at them in fear. It could not have happened, right?
Thankfully, he was standing in the middle of an opening with even more bruises and cuts on his body. He too was looking inside the forest.
Only then did Elise see the moving shadows. Maybe because they had decided to make their move. Two, now she could clearly count them, came right at them, and the four went at the Traveler.
The two that came to them started to run circles around them at an incredible speed, making the beautiful crimson trees drop their leaves. Which was weird because they were mostly like ghosts, not leaving any trace where they passed. From the Traveler's side, she could also hear the battle going on, but that did not last long.
A bright light came from the Traveler's side, distracting Elise and keeping her from noticing the two shadows around them as they made their move. Fortunately, they totally ignored her and went right to the man next to her. Even if she noticed them, Elise doubted that she could defend herself.
The old man did not make a move as two shadows came at him from opposite directions. There was no clash, no sound, or anything visible. Elise felt only a slight breeze that swept away the black dust cloud that remained of them.
It was not like how the Traveler punched and splashed one of them in the forest. They were there for a moment and gone in another, turned into a cloud of black dust. There were no other changes in the environment. Not a single tree or even a leaf had noticed what happened to the dark shadows moving among them a moment ago.
"What just happened to them?" Elise asked, trying to clarify what she just witnessed.
The old man did not answer. Instead, "I am too old for this shit," he grumbled to himself, then turned to the crater where the Traveler was dealing with the other shado... they were gone. Not a single one of them, including the Traveler, was there. Elise remembered that the bright light just came from there for a moment, and at the same time, the other two shadows attacked.
Now, there was only an orb, about the size of a melon, floating above the crater. The old man started to walk toward it. And as Elise followed, she realized it was ever changing its color and shape and distorting the view around it. Those distortions were cracking the space around, quite similar to the ones that the Traveler showed her before, when he explained the concept of Gates.
"What is that thing?" Elise tried her luck one more time.
This time, after a moment of pause, like he was trying to remember something, he answered. "This is... a small Realm they... quickly... and quite perfunctory... opened... probably with the help of an... Artifact... they had." He was giving Elise some unsure looks between his words.
His voice was rough and cracking here and there as he was not used to speaking. He was stopping briefly between some of his words, like he was trying to remember what he was about to say. Was this man so old that to even forgotten how to speak?
"What a bunch of idiot fuckers." He grumbled again. His speech was getting surprisingly good while grumbling.
"What do you mean by a small Realm?" As far as Elise knew, a Realm was a vast place that a God created and preferably planted life. They had come close to it enough to almost touch the distortions it was creating. How was that little orb a Realm?
The old man looked at her as if she had said something stupid. "It is probably some place... that they are getting stronger... while their opponent is getting weaker." He chuckled at his words. "Idiots." His speech was gradually getting better.
Making the owner strong while weakening the opponent. Wasn't that bad news? They must have used two of them as a distraction to exclude this old man, and the rest took that opportunity to finish off the injured Traveler.
"Can you do something to help him? He could die in there!"
He again looked at her as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing ever. "Who are you, girl? What is your business here?" As his speech got better, his deep and rough voice got more fluid and smoother.
"I am Elise Van... Elise. I am his apprentice," she pointed at the colorful orb. "We are here to find the great sword master he mentioned to teach me how to be a better swordswoman."
As she came to the end of her words, a dark expression fell onto the old man's face. He grumbled something Elise could not understand, while he turned his head away toward the orb, but she was certain it was not something nice to hear.
"Ehm... Won't you help? I don't really know what to do in this situation. He made a deal with the God of this Realm. They did something called the Bind. I don't know what it is, but he cannot use his full strength."
He raised an eyebrow when he heard the word 'Bind', but ignored her request and kept looking at the orb as if he was looking at a turd on the ground. What was this old man's problem? How could he be this carefree? This was a serious situation.
"He said you were friends! And you owe him! Are you really going to let him die?!" She yelled. But maybe it was not the best thing to say.
He turned and looked at her, furiously. "Friends?! I owe him?!" She could see the blood rushing to his face as he talked. "I owe him shit! That man..."
He couldn't finish his words as the orb started waving, and an arm popped out of it. The arm grasped the sides of the distortion and pulled the rest of the Traveler out. He landed in front of it with a wide grin on his face.
"Hah! What a bunch of idiots, am I right?" He pointed the orb at the back with his thumb, while his injuries slowly closed and healed at an incredible rate, and the weapons sticking out from him dropped one by one.
But suddenly, the smile on his face was slashed in the middle along with everything behind him. The ground, the forest, the mountains, and the sky. All slashed by a slightly oblique line, and the two parts slid on one another.