"Hiya!" Fisch waved as an awkward smile enveloped his face.
'He's like a golden retriever...' Elias thought, wondering how he survived this long.
As far as he could tell, the man didn't have any weapons on him. Sure, his muscles were probably big enough to dwarf the Rock, but it wasn't like that alone would stop a supernatural entity capable of tearing flesh clean off the bone.
'So how exactly have you survived?' Elias wondered.
For the most part Fisch was an unremarkable and timid man. He had ruffled, jet black hair that was so long it completely hid the legs of his glasses. Sitting snugly atop his skintight muscle shirt was a silver necklace.
Something dangled at the edge of the necklace. Elias couldn't figure out exactly what it was because it was a creature he had never seen before. The creature had the fins and beady eyes of a fish, but its main body mostly resembled a crocodile except for its owl-shaped head.
More importantly, Elias felt a small presence of energy in that trinket. 'That's probably his artifact then.'
With his analysis of Fisch complete, Elias turned to the next member of his new group.
'Bitch–er, I mean Dereshi.'
The second his eyes met hers, he couldn't help but sigh.
She was breathtakingly beautiful. Like, nations waging wars over her, fandoms killing each other over different ships, cultured men saying things like "dommy mommy" and "I can fix her" beautiful.
It would be the cruelest twist of fate if she ended up being some asshole who only wanted to kill him. It would be almost as bad as those asshole writers who dropped their series just when it was getting good.
'Focus' Elias thought, squeezing his coin so tightly he thought his hand would shatter.
Looking back at the voluptuous girl who appeared to be about his age (24), Elias made sure to take careful notes over every important detail.
Her glistening, emerald eyes reflected the garden around them, making it seem as though they created the beauty of spring itself. They were the kind of eyes that showed more and more color the longer you looked at them. They were so mesmerizing that Elias was beginning to understand the saying "getting lost in her eyes."
But he wasn't some kind of creep or pervert. He had a job to do, and that job was to analyze his new allies completely. Not stare at a pretty girl's eyes.
Therefore, he moved his attention to the rest of her face, taking special care to keep his eyes from falling to her massive bazongas.
'Focus Focus Focus.'
Her hair was cleanly kept and stylized to the point it looked like she was going on a date instead of a massacre. Most of her red-orange hair was concentrated into a single ball, but a few strands escaped down either side of her face.
'She kinda looks like Chi-Chi,' Elias thought. Though there were a few differences, the hair was strikingly similar at least.
However, her attire couldn't be more different. If it wasn't for her overall lean build (outside of her tactical grenades, of course), he probably could've mistaken her for Beowulf or some other old hero like that.
Hanging from her right shoulder and wrapping around her body from the left side of her waist was a strap that probably held at least 50 throwing knives. As if that wasnt enough artillery, she wore a utility belt with at least 100 more knives as well as some other items he couldn't recognize.
'They're probably a crazy witch's concoction,' Elias decided, since they did look like bottles.
The only thing she was missing was a sword. He could see the straps of a scabbard hanging opposite of the strap with knives, but it was empty.
Closing his eyes, Elias offered his regards to the unlucky bastard she forgot her sword in.
"You're done staring at me? Good."
Elias' eyes instantly opened wide as she was suddenly right next to him. She was so close that he could feel her breathing and smell her aromatic scent.
If her eyes hadn't suddenly become the fiery red of a woman with boundless fury, one could mistake this for a romantic scene.
'But no, bitch is gonna kill me for no reason.'
Swallowing hard, Elias offered a small laugh as he tried to save face. "I wasn't staring at you. I was merely assessing my new friends. After all, it is necessary that we know each other's strengths if we fight alongside one another."
"Besides," Elias added with a small smile. "I already have a girlfriend."
It was a line he knew would work. She probably wouldn't fall head over heels for him right then and there, but it would at least lower her guard. For some reason, women seemed to want taken men over anything else.
"Oh," Dereshi whispered, her face becoming red. She tentatively reached out to grab his right hand, as if she was suddenly seeking forbidden fruit.
Then she glanced up at Elias and, with an earnest expression, asked, "Is this what your world calls a girlfriend?"
...
...
"What?"
Fisch gave Dereshi a completely perplexed look, as if he never thought he'd hear something so crass.
Meanwhile, Elias couldn't help but laugh. Sure he was at the receiving end of a roast. But he had to admit, it was a good one that he walked right into.
"Quit playing around."
Markus' voice cut right through the nonsense as he walked past them. "The vampires found us."
*Fwish!*
In the next instant a blur of motion passed between Dereshi and Elias.
That was all it took for chaos to ensue.
The next moment blood was spraying through the air, as both of Dereshi's arms had been ripped clean off.
"Hah! These ones are feisty!!" Dereshi yelled as a green light enveloped her.
The light moved down to her arms and surrounded the place where flesh used to be. Within just seconds, bones grew back, then muscles and finally the skin tissue.
Dereshi's hands moved to her knives so fast that the blood of her muscles coated their hilt.
"Hey Dereshi, have a bit of patience dammit!!!" Fisch yelled, his voice shaky.
'So he healed her,' Elias thought as he scanned the area for vampires.
If the garden wasn't coated with blood, he could have believed the whole thing to be a hallucination. As far as he could tell, they were the only ones here.
Not even a leaf of a flower moved.
The serene landscape mixed with the feverish gaze of 4 warriors to create a hellish painting.
Elias, who had just learned how to move in this world, knew he had to learn everything else quickly. Otherwise he would lose his head just as fast as Dereshi lost her arms.
And something told him Fisch wouldn't be able to fix that.