The long sword draws a nice arc as it slices through the gnoll's neck after he knocks the creature's scimitar aside. With a slight delay, the dog head falls clean off its neck as the body crumples, by then Alex had already charged to his next target holding his long sword near his waist as though dragging a tail.
Within the chaotic battlefield in the dense forest, he weaves through the clashing weapons and flying projectiles of friends and foes to perform a rising cut to one gnoll with polearm and severs both the weapon and monster. He then finishes the neighbouring gnoll with the overhead swing and even with him haphazardly slicing monsters after monsters, his momentum is not lost as it carries him all the way to the elite monster commanding in the middle. The elite who happens to be smarter than the rest, noticed Alex and readied its bastard sword while taunting the boy by slapping the chest armor stolen from the adventurers it felled.
Ignoring the mutt's provocation, Alex speeds up as he propels himself hard to follow up with a waist swing at the still taunting monster. The elite fails to react to the blur and stops its slapping as a red line slowly forms at its armored chest, grisly contents emerging while the plate falls and the elite drops face planting the ground.
Silence permeates the air as the fighting abruptly stops, the monsters then start to beat a hasty retreat as they drop the stolen weapons and try to disappear into the woods, the defending adventurers on the other hand have a different idea for them.
Within a short moment, the only things left surrounding the caravan are mutilated gnoll cadavers from weapons and magic, some adventurers are starting to pick up weapons from the monsters that aren't too damaged and ripping the ears of the cadavers for extermination rewards while others regrouping to check their own mates and equipments, Alex walks back to the wagon Thunder Fall situated at and got headbutted on his chest by the familiar chestnut hair girl who is a head shorter.
"Alex! You are fine! Thank Eiar for her protection!" As Milly cries out joy while rubbing the snot and tears onto Alex's leather chest plate, he carefully stores his still bloodied blade and carefully strokes the girl's head while coaxing.
"Oh for fuck sake, go into the wagon to fuck it out if you need to!" Screamed by someone from the caravan, Milly quickly lets go of him and jumps up with a reddened face. Alex traces the voice back to one of the parties, namely Crimson Claw, as he and Milly make their way to the party leader Samuel.
"Alex! Nice job man!" The party's archer sitting on a stump checking on his bow while sending out the pleasantries, the slit-eyed slender spearman and tower shield wielding Samuel gave him a nod before continuing on with their talk. A brown blur then slides to Alex's flank while Milly yelps out in shock and annoyance as the busty thief sandwiches her buxom onto his right upper arm.
"Aww, cubby did a gud job," as the redhead rubs her tanned face onto Alex's cheek for maximum contact, with Milly cracking another one of her molars and the three guys shaking their heads at the usual fiasco. "Want the usual treat?" The thief then displays her usual signature smile to further add fuel to the fire while tugging seductively on her collar.
"Thanks Catty but I'm good," Alex responded with a refreshing smile that shines at the thief, causing her to comically block the light with her forearms as she backs off while yipping "so unfair!" The usual banter has met up with the three members chuckling at the bombastic display by the thief, with the knight shaking his head at the standard routine.
"Right," coughing at his clenched fist, Samuel gathers the party members together, with Alex already taking a cloth to wipe off the blood on the sword before storing it later for polishing, Milly standing amicably next to the dark blonde boy as he earnestly maintains his main weapon, his well armored figure and the assortment of three other swords and throwing knives shine fondly in her eyes.
"So as expected, the valley is filled with monsters, so before I make everyone groan with the usual drone," the spearman chuckled and a small mutter "too late" from the archer, "we keep our eyes peel for anything, bandits, rogues, once again monsters, look out for anything suspicious and trust the spotters from other parties in the caravan. But always remember to keep an eye for our own backs ok? And Catherina, stop it with the rude gestures." The thief swiftly hides her clamping right hand doing the nagging gesture and rushes back to the horse pulled wagon.
"IT'S CATTY!" The tanned lady then hides into the wagon sulking, then sticks her head out to stick her tongue out mischievously. The gang breaks into laughter but stops as the lead merchant required to speak to the party leaders in this trip, Alex remains by Milly's side as she slowly hums while practicing her mana orb, the blue light from the orb is soothing as he meticulously cleans the long sword before polishing.
These are good times in adventuring with a bunch of strangers as Don always puts it, the same with how his father, an ex-soldier, would say, "finding the right companions to be with and none of the days would feel like a chore".
He recalled the two days' walk out of the village being lackluster, with him arriving on Tradewood's adventure guild and picking up some simple quests on herb picking and wolf slaying. The sword given by his father was something the soldier used during his days in the field and still well maintained, he can easily slice through all of his adversaries with strong swings and swift parries. It took him only three months to have a grade up from F to E, and that itself caught the attention of a grade D party in town named Goblinbane.
Joining the party was something fun though, in addition to Alex, Milly also joined Goblinbane around the same time, with the other four party members joking about them being siblings and Alex the big brother while Milly sulked about it.
'Too bad the good times ended within half a year.'
"Alex?" Milly questioned worryingly, as Alex has been silent throughout her talk.
"Hmm, oh? Sorry, I was thinking too deeply, did I miss anything?" He asked apologetically.
"No… it's nothing." And she replied sadly, which made Alex feel guilty about him zoning out as usual, something bad he picked up from his dear old friend in the village.
'Wonder how's he been doing? Two or three years have passed?'
He snaps out of his musing once more as the shield bearing leader is back into the team while other wagons are ready with their preparations, Alex sheathes his longsword and helps Milly up into the wagon, Catty helped by snatching Milly up with a bear hug from behind as the duo starts to make a ruckus in the sheltered wagon. He backs off slowly and positions himself, Spite, the spearman, is slinging his short spear at the side strolls towards him, eyes still closed in boredom.
"How's the trip now, cub?"
Letting out the impotent feeling out with a heave, Alex stares at the usually cheery man and notices the extra happiness, "yes, that is a nickname from that one time, can we not have that just this once?"
"Fine, how about Super Rookie Alex? Alexander Junior? Alex the Lion Little? Brown Lightning? Alex the…"
"Ok stop," holding his hands up in defeat, "just stop, please."
'Gods, how unnerving,' as his gloved hands rub his "ladies man" face, as quoted by all those who met him, roughly just to try and get rid of those horrendous moments.
Chuckling at the display, Spite then pats his shoulder, "there there, little cub, Boss man says that we got marked by our good performance, so we are all gonna get more silvers after this. Heck, the other three guys don't look so pleased, but at least they shut their mouths good, even that Period Man."
Alex gives the man named Spite a good, hard look. Their initial meet-up with the party as Samuel introduces him and Milly to was mixed, Catty being Catty, Colt being a friendly face while Spite looks like a snake stalking his next meal with squinted eyes.
For a year and half they have been relying on one another through trials of monsters and men, from leaving Tradewood due to pressures and settling in Timberham to currently running the gauntlet of Marcus Merchant caravan, the spearman had more than once expressed his doubt with Alex in the party namely because of the troubles caused in Tradewood.
However with times past, the slit eyed man had finally warmed up to Alex, Milly apparently got exempted from the scrutiny from the start, and Alex could tell he is just as playful as Catty and lethally sadistic if required to, seeing how their last bandit raid required two cleanup parties and an exorcist in the aftermath.
Alex squints his eyes on the bodies from Spite's abuse, 'seriously glad that he is on our side.'
"Like what you see, tiger?" In his faux-Catty voice, Alex manages to tear his sight from the corpses and stares horrifically at Spite, followed by Catty's muffled "ARGH THAT'S DISGUSTING! DON'T IMITATE ME!" in the wagon.
Spite laughs at the sight of Alex restraining himself from pulling out his dual arming swords and gives the boy another pat, "still has a long way before you can cut my head off, boy." As Spite walks back to his position as the caravan is ready to move once more, Alex unsheathes the swords from his hip slightly, before resheathing in acknowledgement as he knows the spearman is right.
He may have beaten the black knight from Badrick, killed the hooligans and that backstabbing liar but he is still very far from being close to his idol, the Lion Sword King.
Slapping his cheeks, Alex peps himself and walks alongside the slow carriages moving through the dense forest, today has been normal for the trip for a new trade route for Marcus and so far nothing out of the ordinary. The caravan has hired 4 parties, Thunder Fall, Crimson Claw, Blaze Blade and Iron Warriors, with the Thunder Fall being the lead party much to the other three's annoyance and with Alex's performance today further cements their position, the dinner tonight might be more than just the usual banters from the members of the other teams.
'Right, some quick practising then,' as his conscience dives deep into his mind while the body moves autonomously for the journey ahead.
In the darkness that is within, figures performing sword stances as they monotonously swing and thrust with precision. Within these figures some look vaguely like his father Eugene, adventurer-cum-mentor Don and those who had taught Alex how to swing his sword since the day he pledged to chase after the Lion Sword King.
There are also some figures of other people Alex met along the way in his adventure, including the Black Knight's, though they are much blurry as compared to the former, the sword style erratic and some even pauses awkwardly in midway and jumps to the next sequence without any warnings.
All in all, all these figures position themselves at the rim of a circle, at its centre is an old man, which Alex is moving towards.
The old man sits cross legged with a sword in his lap, eyes closing in peace as though asleep, his receding hairline results in only white hair by the side and back of his head, the man also looks fit despite having wrinkled skin and patches on his face and exposed forearms. The old man dons simple cotton clothings while the common sword in his lap is plain, yet it emits a dangerous aura.
With Alex's astral body slowly formed in front of the old man, the man slowly stands when the process is complete, the sword in his right and his shut eyes opening, the milky white pupils stare intently at the young man who is now holding the same sword. Alex who is now formed with the clothes he is wearing outside greets the old man with a polite bow, the old man follows and within a short moment of tension as both of them gauges one another, the swords go clashing in a flurry of light, all while the caravan is on its way in the outside world.
