Year 2, Spring, Third Month, First Week.

 

“Thank you for guiding us…”

The Hare Beastman nodded and left.

After Lew’s group returned from the Death Forest, they met with the Beastman guide who was waiting for them in a nearby Tribe.

Their way through the Tribal Lands was surprisingly calm, their guide escorted them through the fastest safe path and they avoided stopping or resting, sometimes even walking through the night.

Now, they had finally left the Tribal Lands.  Lew breathed in relief, he got used to being high alert all the time. In the Tribal Lands, they had to expect attacks from both stronger beasts and hostile Tribes, but now that they entered the Kingdom’s territory, they would only need to pay attention to LT beasts, and well, each other.

After the guide left the leading Fighter turned to everyone and said:

“Let’s walk faster so we can get to Farend village before dusk.”

Everyone agreed and they continued the journey towards the village.

Farend is the last village in the northeastern Path of the Serion Kingdom. As a post village, Farend would host adventurers, mercenaries and private noble teams that stop there on their way to the Tribal Lands.

After walking for three hours, they crossed a riverbank and decided to stop to rest for half an hour. Even though they were on a tight schedule, resting for a short time could help them recover energy and thus move faster.

Since they couldn’t carry many things, the team took this opportunity to fill their water pouches and freshen up themselves. Every time they stopped, they would separate and rest in different groups.

Because of their mission, everyone was wary of each other, so they could only lower their guard close to someone they trusted. The four Elemental Mages were from the same party so they would stick together, two groups of Fighters had a similar situation, while the rest could only trust themselves and keep vigilant.

Although only LT beasts would roam outside the Forest, the location was still considered a dangerous area, so they couldn’t relax and had to keep watch at all times. To allow everyone to rest a little, the Fighters divided the patrol into three groups working for ten minutes each.

Unfortunately, Lew was on the second watch. He used the first ten minutes to eat something, refill his water and wash away his exhaustion before being sent to patrol the north side of their resting area.

He was checking behind some big stones when he stumbled on the Enchanter chanting a spell. The Mage’s hands shined and a butterfly flew away, Lew looked curiously at the small yellow animal and forgot that he was barging into something.

“I’m sorry… I’m leaving now…”

“It’s okay, it’s done… I was… Taking some precautions…”

Usually, he wouldn’t reveal his Spells to others, but Lew’s curiosity somehow moved him. Maybe because it resembled himself when he was learning from his Master. What would the Fighter do with this information anyway?

“It’s a Command Spell… It’s used to give a command to weaker minds, like animals and LQ beasts… Have you also prepared yourself? They’ll probably try to silence everyone once we enter Sound City…”

Lew heard a scream and instinctively unsheathed his sword. When he walked back he saw a scene that shocked him greatly, the leading Fighter was pulling his sword out of the life Invoker.

Her eyes released a tear before she dropped to the ground, lifeless. Lew tried to drag his sight out of the scene to access the overall situation and understand what was happening.

He looked around and only found blood and silence. By the river, the other two groups of Fighters laid motionless. Near the trees to the south, the four Mages were also down, Lew perception barely noticed the pool of blood under them before he rushed back to behind the stone.

He was greeted by a furious Enchanter, already preparing a spell to cast against him. Fortunately, he understood the angry look on the Mage’s face and stopped him.

“I’m not with him! He’ll kill me to…”

The sentence and Lew’s desperate expression were enough to convince the Mage.

“Not if we kill him first… How did he kill everyone so fast?”

Lew matched the Mage’s low voice and said:

“He poisoned the resting Fighters, I didn’t see the other three… I don’t know how he took down the Mages…”

Lew was interrupted by a throwing knife that came flying towards his neck. He bent backward barely missing the blade, that continued flying before cutting through two trees and getting stuck in a third tree.

“You… You’re not a Fighter… You are a Knight!”

The Knight launched two other knives against Lew, who almost died from being too slow. Fortunately, he came out of his shock and escaped the attack with only a superficial cut.

“Motus.”

A Key shined in front of the Knight before throwing him back ten meters. The Enchanter didn’t stop and dragged a large amount of magic energy to himself, touching the blue ring he extracted the water energy before combining it to the dense energy around him and drawing a Light Key above him.

“Obscuro.”

The Key sparked before passing its shine to the energy around the Enchanter. In an instant, the bluish shine disappeared together with the Mage.

Lew didn’t have time to wonder about the Mage’s location, he took out the crystal in his pouch and started draining its energy with all haste. The glowing energy being absorbed into his body would make him an easy target, so he started to look for a place to hide.

He started to move towards some stones when he heard the Knight cursing and running towards him. Instead of going for a futile escape attempt, Lew stopped and focused on absorbing the crystal energy.

“Humph… Stupid, you had better chances running… You’re a promising Fighter but too naive for accepting this job… It’s time… You... What an interesting ability…”

The MQ energy crystal in Lew’s hand lost its shine and disintegrated, he finally opened his eyes. He couldn’t help but let out a smile, the Knight’s speech gave him enough time to finish absorbing the energy and forming the extra layer of energy around his skin. If his enemy had attacked him a moment earlier, he would be finished.

Lew pushed his gratitude for the Knight’s stupidity to the back of his mind and focused on trying to accomplish the impossible. He was only a Fighter but was hoping to win against a Knight, it was indeed laughable.

“I’ll teach…”

“Stop talking and come kill me already…”

“Arghh… You can’t wait to die, can you?”

The Knight coated the sword with energy, making a thick shining layer appear around it. He didn’t waste any more words and dashed towards Lew.

To match the Knight's speed, Lew had to move energy to his eyes, arms and legs at the same time. Thankfully, his enemy didn’t care enough to use any technique on him and just attacked him straightforwardly.

Lew’s sword moved to block the attack, It held, but Lew was pushed a couple of meters back, earning a displeased sound from his enemy. The next attack came so fast that Lew could barely process it, he only blocked it because his nerves were overflowed with energy and would instantly respond to his reflexes.

The Knight’s annoyance evolved to anger and he pushed even more energy through the sword. The weapon could barely hold the Knight’s energy, cracks started to appear on it, but he couldn’t care less about it, he dashed towards Lew aiming to smash him.

Lew knew he couldn’t block the attack, but he couldn’t escape either so he pushed all the magic energy inside him and from the extra layer of energy to his arms before meeting the charge.

The collision caused an energy explosion, both swords broke and Lew’s already sore arm muscles received the remaining damage. Because he didn’t spare energy to empower his legs and stance, Lew was launched against a tree and broke a rib.

The energy explosion was strong enough to push the Knight back, and he had to lean against a tree to recover his balance. However, it was worth it for him, Lew’s destroyed appearance made him laugh hard.

“Hahaha… I have to confess that you’re better than any other Fighter I know of… But don’t get too proud… You gave me a hard time, but I had already spent a lot of energy dealing with the Mages. If was… Uh…”

The Knight moaned in pain and looked down at the glowing hand that had gone through his chest. When the hand retreated, he kneeled with both hands pressing against the bleeding hole in his chest.

“You should speak less and pay attention to all of your enemies… Can you hold until we get to Farend? I can’t risk staying there, but I can drop you close.”

The Mage started to move towards the fallen Fighter. Lew was in a lot of pain but felt relieved that the Knight was defeated. He tried to stand up, but a movement behind the Mage made him fall forward yelling.

“Move! He’s not dead…”

But when the Mage understood him, it was already too late. A broken piece of the sword’s blade flew cutting through the side of the Mage’s neck. He fell pressing the bleeding cut.

The Knight laughed and coughed blood until he was no more.

The Mage looked at Lew who was moving towards him. Lew tried to press on the cut with a piece of cloth that he ripped from his upper garment. The Mage’s eyes held many complicated emotions, some he recognized, sadness, sorrow, regret, fear.

Lew felt the magic energy around him stir and became confused before hearing:

“Loquere.”

The energy around him formed almost invisible yellowish waves that traveled from the Mage to Lew’s head. A soft voice appeared in Lew’s mind:

‘Help… Tell Sunman… I found… Grimoire, payment… Papilio…’

The Mage’s eyes became lifeless and a grey covered book appeared near the Mage’s hands. Lew couldn’t move and only stared at the book for a long time.

He thought that the image cover was very strange but common at the same time.

........

After opening a hole using a sword and a lot of perseverance, he buried the Enchanter.

“May the Origin guide you back to the cycle of life…”

Hours later, Lew dragged himself out of the sad and gory place, towards the southwest, carrying a lot of crystals and a grey covered book. Strangely, the death crystals were nowhere to be found.