Chapter 40 – Aurora

 

***Long Chapter Ahead***

…

The daughter of a County Lord of County of Waterfalls and Pilgrimage had a name Aurora, given to her when her parents first fell in love under an aurora.

The little girl grew up in a fun and loving environment. She had chubby cheeks, curly hair and bubbly personality. Resembling a peach, everyone wanted nothing but pinch her face. She was that lovely.

Beloved by both her parents and everyone around her, she became an adult who had a cheery and pure view of life. She liked everyone without discrimination.

The county promoted solemness and respect as highest moral, yet a tiny blot changed that.

Aurora.

She became the single person who didn’t put up with moral standards of the county.

The girl ran like a wind, under the cover of sunlight and passing the golden fields like an untamed pony. Her laughed accompanied her, unabashed by her unladylike mannerism.

Everyone didn’t mind as they smiled from the bottom of their hearts..

The waterfalls always crashed down, but a particular single day created a fateful meeting.

Under the waterfalls, an aurora sprinkled its brilliance alongside the starry night as Aurora and an ugly animal met for the first time.

“What a cute little guy!”

This provoked the animal; it bared its fangs and hissed at the unlikeable human before it. However, the latter approached it with enthusiasm. She hugged it, pasting her chubby cheeks to its hideous fur.

Thus, also started their story together.

…

“What are you doing?” Karmen became curious. She walked beside a boy who seemed the same age as her. This wasn’t their first time they met, and they had become closer since then.

Karmen’s friends left her because of her horn. No matter what age or era, people had a tendency to dislike demons. And anything or anyone connected to them were also targets of this dislike.

But this quiet boy became the only playmate she had. He didn’t discriminate against her, nor curious about her horn. Just there, accompanying her in the tall grasses. His presence alone turned out to be enough company she wanted.

“I’m making a necklace.” After deliberating, the child finally disclosed.

“Made from grasses?” Karmen titled her head and crouched beside him.

“Mm.”

“I got an idea.” The girl’s eyes sparkled. “See the river? I saw a few beautiful stones the other day. Let’s try our luck if we can search for them.”

The boy hesitated. He recalled the severe warning he got from his guardian. Though, he also wanted to experience new things. This created a dilemma in his young mind. The powerful pull in his sleeves won’t care for him, however.

Two short figures galloped hand in hand. A touch of monochrome visage painted the sky. Yet, the squeal of delight when they chased each other resembled the morning sky. They arrived beside the river.

Tiptoeing along the bank, they became lively elves splashing fountains of pleasure at one another. The bundle of joy solely belongs to them. They whooped, jumped and laughed, swinging their arms around them.

Of course, there would be a time when everything ends.

The night had arrived. This prompted them to end their fun. They went back where they met and bid each other goodbye.

“It was fun.”

“We’ll play tomorrow again, okay?”

“Tomorrow.” Karmen smiled.

“… tomorrow.” Her face became aghast. Painful cries sounded in her ears like a devil’s whisper.

She heard a familiar scream and immediately ran towards her home.

“Father!”

But her voice got cut short when she perceived the furry creature in front of her. Big with red murderous eyes. Her father’s body dangled in the air, clutched in its razor-sharp claws.

Growl. The little girl shivered. Her mind told her to run far away, far enough from this horrible place. But her love for her father ultimately won.

“Ahhhh!” She lunged, all the strength she thought she had.

Peng. All in vain, only making the monster’s eyes flashed in amusement.

“K-Karmen!” Ilocos struggled to speak.

“Leave my father alone!!” The shrill cry of Karmen echoed, making Sarah and co panicked. Around them were the calm villagers holding pikes and hoes as weapons. They already fought two of the monsters. Unfortunately, the two managed to survive.

Arriving in the scene, they witnessed the small body smashing to the walls. Bloodied and coughing blood, yet the tiny figure still sprung up with a fiery expression.

“Don’t you hurt my father!”

Sarah stepped in front of her. Like a reef withstanding great waves, she blocked the incoming attack without flinching. She didn’t even seem to be injured in the first place.

“Patience, I don’t have to try hard at all,” the girl grinned. “I can’t be perfect and I’m not alone. I have team mates to back me.”

Sure enough, at the same time she was reminding herself, a whooshing sound emerged behind her foe.

The creature grunted. A chill crept on its shoulder as it saw an icy blade made its way to his insides. It wanted to retaliate towards the dagger’s owner, but he felt a presence behind him.

Ben bashed the creature in the head, making it stumble forward. Sarah also didn’t disappoint. A knee connected to the creature’s chin while Ben hugged its lower body.

Bam. He slammed it headfirst, knocking it unconscious. Jed knew his opportunity came and brandished his dagger to its neck.

Ting. Pair of claws blocked the dagger, however. The two creatures who escaped earlier came back.

“What?” Ben became shock. The creature he held opened its eyes and shoved Ben away.

The villagers entered the house, but it was too narrow for them to move.

Understanding this concept, one creature shielded its comrades. The other picked up the injured creature before hurrying to escape. It rammed its body through the wall, smashing the concrete like a pie.

Grrr, the creature gnashed its saliva-filled jaw. Ben caught its ankle, but he was once again shoved away after being hit to the face.

The creature shielding its comrades picked the disoriented Ilocos.

Though Jed intercepted it.

A ray of light curved. The creature’s instinct perceived the danger and twisted its neck.

“Don’t let it go!”

Sarah stepped in, blocking the creature’s path. A fork shot, targeting her opponent.

However, Sarah felt something weird from the attack. It was slightly inching closer to her. Her mind raced and her eyes glowed, but she continued what she meant to be.

This creature appeared to be more skilled as it parried and counter attacked against Sarah’s raining blows. It even had time to dodge the objects being thrown towards it.

Howl. A sound echoed in the distance, which seemed to be their call that the duo finally escape. The skillful creature pushed Sarah before sprinting on all fours.

Ben and Jed wanted to intervene, yet the creature lost them with few moves.

“Yawaka!” Ben couldn’t help but curse. Even though no one taught him how to curse, the stress of the journey goaded him. Also, he felt less strained when he let it out.

The plan was to kill or even catch a monster. They asked the villagers to understand the monster better to anticipate when it would attack. After all, Karmen was still a child and her understanding was lesser. Even though joining with the villagers could be a bad idea, they already pressurized by the problems they had.

Regardless, their situation became harder. The so-called monster was actually a group of monsters.

“Next time, we will be prepared.” The two boys nodded at Sarah’s statement.

Then they heard a chuckle. Craning their necks, they saw a man leaning on the window.

“Hiyas! Just passing by.” Mikel Poloran, also known as the bandit leader, showed his ivory teeth.

He looked young despite being middle-aged. He had a neat side burns, triangular faces and a pair of enchanting eyes. And he currently wore a naughty expression.

Everyone’s face changed. They didn’t want to face this bastard who forced their selves to live in the village.

“Why is that face? Don’t be like that. We are fellow humans. Don’t worry, we’ll share you our loot from the other day.”

Though, what he received was only the scorn of the villagers. They’d seen the piles of goods on top of their horses. This only meant they raided a business caravan or sort along the way. These robbers whose hands filled with filth or even blood was the worst scum of humanity.

“Hey violent girl.” As if he didn’t see their reactions, Mikel continued. “Your plan failed, eh? As I thought. What about hearing mine? Hey! Where are you going?”

The trio didn’t respond. They felt repulsed by these scums. And they had better things to do than listen to his nonsensical intentions.

“They are not Beasts.” Jed whispered.

“But they didn’t seem to be demons too.”

Ben turned his head. “That guy is following us.” This prompted the other two to look.

“Let him.” Sarah sneered.

Jed continued. “If they are not Beasts nor demons, then what they are?”

“Just… animals perhaps?” Ben scratched his head. “There are many races, right? Only humans, demons, and Beasts are the largest and strongest.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “You think, other races came out of their respective worlds just to kill a few villagers?”

“Other races plus demons?” Jed inquired.

“Nah. I put my money to it, there’s no way other races can make waves.” The girl said confidently.

A chuckle sounded behind them, forcing their disgust to show subconsciously. “Brats. So mature, aren’t we? Come on, be jolly, have fun and let out your wild natures. Seriousness will only defeat the purpose of going to Enderian Journey. You aren’t even fifteen years old, but you all look withered adults.”

“What do you want?” Anger flashed in Sarah’s eyes as she faced the bandit leader.

“Look not only at the surface, kid.” Mikel’s face turned serious, none of the mischievousness a while ago. But next, his face became weird again.

“Sarah Pendragon, how much do I get from catching you…”

He suddenly lost a footing, feeling his vision turned. Groaning, his head hit the ground, then a body pinned him to the ground.

“Who are you?!” The girl growled. Her team mates made their moves without hesitation. Ben clamped the man’s feet while Jed’s dagger stopped on their opponent’s forehead.

But the next thing they knew, their mind became blank.

“Ugh.” Ben grunted, as if sledge hammer pounded his insides. He knew how weak he was, but he also thought that unless a Grandmaster’s all out or being bombarded continuously, it would be hard to kill him in one move. Yet this time, his preconception got smashed apart.

A trail of blood leaked on the girl’s face as she stared at the man standing at the center. He held tonfas in each hand with an imposing aura. In addition, several presences surrounded them.

Jed turned to be the first to recover. His dagger stabbed while readying his knife as a sneak attack.

Mikel let out a wow. He got impressed by the boy’s single attack. Though he immediately retaliated.

Jed felt the thickness of the tonfa in his stomach, making him fly in the air. Knowing his all ploys failed, he threw his knife instead.

At the same time, Sarah and Ben backed him.

Mikel whistled because of Sarah’s self-created attacks. They looked comfortable in her hands. In addition, Ben’s role only to restrict him, which the boy did okay. He also had to worry with flying dagger and knife shooting around him.

Different from his feelings, the trio became increasingly alarmed.

“True combatant.”

The man before them fended off their attacks without changing expression. The tonfa shot and shot again, executing both attacks and parries like eating cheesecakes.

From what Sarah knew, only a few could comprehend the essence of combat. Even her talented father, who was also a combatant, couldn’t. The latter relied too much on brute force without finesse on his attacks. Only her grandfather who lived for many years managed to, which made the situation in front of them shocking!

The trio remained calm and confident, however. They had only formed their teamwork for less than a year. But because they used simple roles instead, they wouldn’t impede on each other.

Ben tanked and wrestled. Sarah would restrict and damage. While Jed sneaked and supported them. Just these simple actions gave them a chance to complete the Room of Death, which only a few managed.

Pendragons won’t call it a Room of Death for nothing, after all. Hundreds already died inside of it. These deceased were not simple individuals—they were talented Pendragons!

Mikel found it harder to counterattack as time goes. The greatest weakness of everyone would be their mortality. He knew that even a Grandmaster could fall from this seemingly simple strategy!

“A Team Combination: Tanker-Attacker-Assassin.”

“They accidentally created something, eh.” The bandit leader muttered. “Mercenaries, bandits or just a group of people had limited time, resources and money to train a formation. So, they created their own.”

“Team Combinations.”

“This creation not only useful for these people but also to a few elites that authorities cultivated.”

“Exploring killing grounds or worlds, this Team Combinations became the convention.”

Giness’s team also used this concept to intrude upon the ancient world. Just a simple concept, but this increased everyone’s survival rate by fifty percent.

That was why Sarah had this confidence to survive her ordeal and the Enderian Journey. And also a part of reason she became angry when Ben turned his back.

Chuckling helplessly, Mikel gestured with his comrades. The latter made funny faces, but they set up their attacks.

They also didn’t want their leader dying with unjust death. But they wanted the former lost face first for underestimating and giving advantage to these kids. He was, after all, a Grandmaster; he should be able to suppress them. Of course, Mikel or any Grandmaster could take down one kid with them if they were really helpless.

“Oh, no!” Ben got bulldozed by a muscular woman. He became a defenseless kid when he got lifted and slammed to the ground.

A fast motion exchanged appeared between with three silhouettes. Jed picked up his gears, tripling his speed. But he was still became suppressed while facing a woman with four times the speed and a man with malicious face while holding a thin knife.

Vines crawled out from the ground and restricted Sarah. At the same time, Mikel hit her in the stomach while another girl appeared and kicked her to the chin.

The trio shuddered. They got defeated with no hopes of fighting back!

“What do you want?!” The trio started struggling, but the vines restricting them became tighter.

A shadow emerged behind a house, nearing to them with a serene face. He had a scholarly deposition and warm smile, contrary to his bandit identity.

“Don’t hurt them further, Bede.” Mikel winked. The latter only smiled.

The trio understood. A wizard!

It had befuddled them how the vines appeared. Now, they determined it, judging from everyone’s expression.

It should be hard for a wizard to appear in common folks because of how endless resources one needed. Most vagrant wizards only got lucky. Thus, they became once again shocked by this bandits’ strength!

Five Grandmasters! Four combatants and one wizard! And amongst these four combatants, one had reached the peak of combat!

As for the young girl, only an expert. But she should be competent just with this amount of instructors with her.

This team should be enough to challenge a Venerable or possibly slay one if they a tremendous amount of preparation!

“You can’t be bandits.” Sarah became sure of it.

The bandits grinned despite her statement. “We are though.”

…

“Why don’t I call you Tonyo?” Aurora fondled the ugly creature, making it purred in satisfaction.

But its face changed almost immediately. As if saying don’t treat it like a pet, the creature hissed, which was to the lady’s amusement.

“Oh, c’mon. That’s just a name.” The creature rolled its eyes. It curled up, having the intention to sleep.

“Hey, Sleepyhead. Come. You’ll get fat if you don’t exercise. I want to show you something.” She nudged it before running. From time to time, she looked back to see if Tonyo was following her.

At first, Tonyo only opened one of its eyes. But when he saw the pleading and hopeful look of the running woman, it got filled with helplessness. It stood up and followed after her.

“AHAHAH.” They ran through the forest. Scenes passed by as if everything was in fast forward. Slowly, they felt the thrill electrifying their nerves.

It hadn’t sprung in motion for as long as it could remember. It only did back then, when it was small and weak. But after gaining power, everything became easier to it. Thus, it became lazy.

Its heart beat faster. This was something different from its daily life. Eat, then sleep. The routine, it’s habit. But now, a change appeared in its being. It couldn’t help but gaze at the woman it was chasing.

“Come. It’s here.” The chase had ended. But the spirit of exhilaration and nervousness hadn’t stopped yet. Exhilarated that a new feeling had emerged from itself. Nervousness from what things they could do next.

Then it got astounded. They arrived on top of a waterfall. It should be the most breath-taking of all things it had seen. The rainbow-like reflection of the sun against the water. Loud booming of the falls, continuing as if it was on top of the world. Clouds of all shapes and sizes drifted in a slow and peaceful manner.

Yet none of them was as breath-taking as the woman it was looking at. She smiled more than a rainbow. More like an actual aurora. Everything dimmed; the sun became dark; clouds hid in the night and only one radiance remained.

She was that radiance.

Aurora kept talking and talking, clumsily tiptoed her way through the waterfall. She had no precaution of everything around her. Not from the environment. And not from the creature.

That woman slipped because of that.

Tonyo didn’t know what happened to itself. Everything became slow motion. It witnessed itself in the woman’s frightful eyes. Reflected its hideous appearance.

Instinctively, its limbs pumped like rubbers being stretched to the extreme.

Woosh.

“Eh? I didn’t die!” The woman exclaimed before surveying her body.

Tonyo displayed its tongue, wheezing in difficulty. Its power pertained to speed, not strength. Carrying as big as her, Tonyo almost thought its jaw would fall off the ground.

Thus, it cursed in its mind! How pathetic! This naïve woman led me by the nose!

But then, it became shocked with what happened next.

Aurora lifted Tonyo, twirling and dancing while letting herself into a laughter. Her face only had pure joy, none of dread expected from a traumatic experience.

She was the first, and probably the last person the creature would ever imagine. It didn’t know if she was naïve or just innocent.

But Tonyo thought this was embarrassing! I am a terrible creature, for god’s sake!

“I am not wrong about you, Tonyo! Let’s become best friends from now on!”

…

“Let us go!” Sarah glared at them.

The bandits brought them to a haystack-filled place while those repulsive bastards surrounded them.

“Don’t worry.” Mikel patted her head, making the latter snapped her teeth. “Woah, woah! Easy. You are not a dog, aren’t you?”

“As I’m saying. Don’t worry, we will let you go if… you promise us something.”

“We will never promise you anything!!!” The bandits covered their ears from her shrill cry.

“Hear me out!” Mikel finally got irritated.

Though, when Ben heard his shout, he suddenly bawled his eyes out.

“Have mercy, Great Sirs. Don’t kill us! I haven’t got a girlfriend nor experience love. Please, I’m begging you.”

The muscular woman had a weird face. Bede’s scholarly disposition crumbled. The others had their mouth opened in full. It didn’t finish there when they heard the sorrowful voice of the last one.

“If you are going to kill us, do it in a quick manner. Let us die peacefully and without agony.” A placid expression emerged from Jed’s face. He seemed to look at life and death as nothing anymore.

“Let us go! Let us go!!!” A shrill cry rattled their ears.

“Don’t kill us! I’m begging you!” Pitiful sounds crept towards them.

“Do it fast. I don’t want to feel anything.” Peaceful mumblings tapped their faces.

Mikel touched his forehead. Helpless, he turned to others for assistance. He saw his team facing the other directions, however.

“Okay. Stop it. Stop.”

“No! You will kill us!” Ben teared up so much that black lines appeared on the leader’s forehead.

“Okay. Enough. We will let you go. And no. We won’t kill you. And yes. This is going to be quick, but no killing. Quick if you cooperate with us.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Mikel put an amiable smile.

The trio connected with their heads. “What do you think guys?”

“Not trustworthy.” “But they didn’t kill us.”

“Not yet.”

“So, are we going to do it?” “Mm.”

More black lines appeared. Mikel coughed to get their attention. “I can hear you. Anyway, as you can see, we are bandits and got hired to be your guide.”

Doubt sprouted in their hearts, but the trio kept listening.

“I know it confused you but someone you three met, knew that you needed a guide to Enderian Journey.” Mikel became satisfied with their reaction.

“The sole Grandmaster here, who should be your guide, has died, am I right? The man who hired us is an intelligent man. He figured that something will happen. And we are the backup if that something happens.”

“How can we know you can be trusted?” Sarah’s inquiry widened Mikel’s smile.

“Because that man is a Venerable. And he can kill you if he wanted.” Winking, Mikel became proud of his client.

“Huh?” Sarah rolled her eyes. “So a Venerable is here the whole time, observing us. Protecting us from the dark. Is that what you are saying?”

Mikel blinked, but then understood. “No, you are wrong. He is someone that can’t be measured by distance. He is everywhere.”

“East Venerable Cloud Rider?” The trio’s expression became weird. Their trust bar went down to negative. “Why would he?”

“I don’t know either.” Mikel crossed his arms. He yawned as he leaned on the wall. “Maybe because you are the so-called golden dragon or what not. Anyway, you can trust us. Not complete trust, of course. But you can trust we won’t kill you. We should already kill you if we meant to, understand?”

The trio exchanged glances before nodding.

“Okay. Here’s the promise-thingy. You’ll stop what you are planning to do with this village.”

“Why?” Even Ben got provoked. “Shouldn’t you help us instead because you are the backup?”

“Duh.” The other girl who remained quiet spoke. “We are hired to ‘guide’ you. Not to join you with your debacles.”

“Then we are sorry.” A rare seriousness gleamed in Ben’s eyes. “We won’t stop until everything is over.”

This touched Sarah and Jed. They knew how cowardly Ben. For him to speak like that, spoke how serious he was for their plan.

The girl, Sisi, shook her head. “You don’t see it, no? Those guys are using you. And there’s something weird going on.”

“Forget it then.” Ben’s face didn’t change. “Just wait for us until we are done.”

“What a self-important bastard!” Sisi sneered. “I’m sorry. But I will give you guys bad news. People will come here to get you. Maybe you know that. And we don’t want to be entangled with how chaotic that is.”

“We come clean, you go with us as your guide or we will leave at this instant.”

“Make your choice!” Derision surfaced from the girl’s eyes while looking at the three of them. As if she had the right to judge their life and death with simple two choices. Her set of white teeth became visible as she sneered.

Truth be told, Sisi won’t be interested in their lives. Only the compensation they would get from this mission, enough to enjoy a lifetime!

This made the trio incensed. Truly, maddeningly incensed!

Fury sparked in their pupils! If not for the vines, they would already ganged up on her and left her a dry corpse!

Sarah had already devoured the loathsome bitch countless times in her mind!

Their lives weren’t worth of these nonsense choices. They struggled to get here. Choices they made were born from hard work and grit.

Those training, emotional burdens, aspirations, betrayals and fears, these weighed heavily on their shoulders.

Yet… they still stepped up, planting their feet firmly on the ground!

“I am a coward and a stupid loser, always troubling everyone…”

“I cheated my friends because I don’t trust them and ended up being betrayed by people I thought have my back…”

“And I hid too much for fear of…”

“But don’t look down on us!!!”

The spark transformed into a blazing flame.

It shocked the others. Those three pairs of pupils got branded on their mind. The lights emitted by them grew resplendent, as if it contained galaxies.

Did they know they were being pursued by the endless enemies?

Did they know death could reach out any second?

Why they weren’t afraid?

Then the elder bandits understood.

These kids already determined to fight the entire universe with just three of them! They didn’t think it was insanity nor hotheadedness of their youth. Just their conviction roaring to fight all odds!

H-How could this be? Sisi got dizzy. They felt so large. Big enough to resemble giant waves, drowning her till suffocation.

How? They weren’t even strong! Let alone their enemies, just them, the bandits, could kill these brats many times over!

Why they could say such big words?! Shiver! Be afraid!

Sisi’s scream couldn’t exit her mouth, though. Her feelings betrayed her as she stood in the corner, shaking instead.

“We don’t need you or your pity. We will help ourselves. Not you. And not some Venerable. It took us miles of journey to get here. So many sweat, heart breaks and close shaves. That’s our hard work. Not yours nor others. And what action we will do is ours and ours alone. We will survive! Together!”

Their wills combined as their shout reached a peak! It emerged in a gaseous state, enveloping everything in the surroundings!

…