Chapter 10 - The slayer

Hikari wakes up a few hours later after he collapsed on the ground. He looks around for a second, remembering what happened here and after a few moments, he washes the remaining dried blood off his face in the river a few feet away from his face. Hikari stands up slowly and wakes the rest of the group. The others groan in protest as he wakes them, but they still wake up. Hikari was still surprised by what had happened to him, that a seemingly harmless spell could make him so weak. Hikari remembers the terrible pain than ran through his body. Hikari shakes his head to get rid of these thoughts and starts cleaning himself to get rid of his musty smell. After everyone is cleaned up and everything is packed up the group starts heading north. To break the silence Rona says, "So Hikari I noticed your magical abilities have started to grow, like a lot. Have you ever thought of becoming a mage?" Hikari looks at Rona like she's crazy and says, "Rona, magic is cool and all but if I devout myself to magic how will my body get stronger? Even though I've been practicing some magic I still need my body to be strong". He looks up a little and smiles. "What I want now is to master both my magic and body. I want to be a magic knight." Maria hearing this pipes up saying, "Are you sure you want to do this Hikari? I heard that not everyone can do it." Hikari gives off a smile and holds his hand over his chest saying, "Maria, you know that I love a good challenge. When I put my mind to something I won't just give up!" After hearing this a very confident Maria states, "Not only do you have to be able to use high tier magic but you also need to be able to be on a crazy level of power similar to demons and be able to use the mana cloak at the same time." Everyone stops walking and looks at Maria with shock. Maria is many things, but most of the time, knowledgeable isn't one of them. Sylvia asks, "How do you know that maria, you don't seem like the type of person to research things. No offense." With a look of annoyance, Maria says, "The reason I know is that I want to be one. I've been secretly practicing magic for years and I've mastered three spells." Everyone is surprised and can't believe their ears. To learn magic you have to have to be three things. First, you must have a gift for magic, secondly, you must have an understanding of nature's laws, especially about that element. The third and most important part is that you need to be smart. For some reason, ignorant or stupid people just can't do magic. The fact that Maria can use magic proves that she either plays dumb, or she's smarter than people give her credit for. " I don't believe you maria. I have to see it believe it." Everyone nodded in agreement at this statement. Everyone wanted to see if such a bizarre thing could be true. Could Maria of all people know how to cast magic? Maria looks at Hikari, but instead of seeing someone seriously shocked at what she said she only sees curiosity. This helps Maria decide to reveal what she could do, what she is capable of doing. Closing her eyes, Maria says, "Ignis, aqua, fulgur." And like that, three orbs surround her. One made fire, water, and electricity. Maria waves her hands around with grace and precision, moving the elemental spells with ease. With one swift movement, she closes her hand and all three magic orbs disappear. When she opens her eyes she is greeted to smiling faces. Hikari grabs her by her shoulders and brings her close to his chest. While he holds Maria close he says, "Maria, I'm so proud of you. I never knew you were so strong!" This was the closest maria had ever been to Hikari. He smelled sweet and as she began to hug him she could feel his muscles. She began to smile as well and began to grip him. Hikari took it as her being happy to be a little more vulnerable but Sylvia and Rona were not as blind. Rona comes over and laughs a little while putting some space between them. Rona jokingly bows and says, "Congratulations Maria, you surprised me and proved you are worth more than what I thought you were." Maria makes a 'hold up' face and says, "What's that supposed to mean Rona. Do we got a problem?". Rona just laughs it off while saying, "I was just joking Maria. No need to be so hostile.". Maria gives Rona some side-eye and begins to walk in the direction of the nearest town and everyone moves with her. Chatter continues inside the group until the subject of Maria and her magic come up again. Sylvia asks Maria why she even wants to be a magic knight. Politely Maria says, " Because I want to be like my aunt. She's super strong and deems strength to be something everyone needs. She values strength above all else and anything other than strong is pathetic and puny." the amount of passion in her voice is almost toxic. "Then why is she a magic knight if she looks down on those who are weaker than her. Like, I don't know, everyday people!" Maria smiles and gives off a small chuckle. "Yeah, I know what you mean but know she's changed a little. She learned to look after the little guy. She just doesn't want you to be weak, that's all.". Rona speaks up from the back and says the one thing everyone is thinking, "Well who is your aunt? We might recognize her name if she's as strong as you say she is." Smugly Maria says, "Oh we all know this name. Her name is Elena Araceli Daeja Aeron. She also goes by the title of 'Slayer'." The bombshell of knowledge that just dropped made everyone's jaw drop. The fact that the slayer was related to Maria was almost unbelievable. Everyone except Sylvia tried to bombard Maria with more questions but she shut the topic down saying that she didn't feel like answering any more personal questions. After about twenty more minutes of walking and quickly dropped subtopics, the group stumbles onto a small town named Melkintos. Sylvia says, "Looks like we have someplace we can stay for the night. Hikari, you need to go look for an inn we can sleep in for the night. If they say they charge more than 50 copper per person for the night, keep it pushing to the next inn. Rona, go to the market and see if you can find any good deals, and make sure you haggle to bring down prices that seem too high. Maria your with me. We are going to a bar to find out the latest happenings inside the kingdom. Is everything I said clear?" everyone nods their heads in agreement and goes there separate ways. Sylvia and Maria hurry to the nearest bar and enter inside. Thankfully the bar didn't have any unusual smells that would put off customers. They both take a seat at the front of the bar and order a drink. The bartender was a slim man with long brown hair that he keeps in a ponytail. He has a fair brown sugar skin tone. Part of his hair hangs over his left eye. With an uninterested tone, he says, "So what can I get you, ladies?" Sylvia replies with a glass of rum for herself and some apple cider for Maria. The Bartender looks at Maria, looking for confirmation that she didn't want anything a bit...stronger. Maria nods her head in agreement with Sylvia. The bartender waves his hands and summons a fresh glass of rum and apple cider. Sylvia brings out some copper coins and gives them to the bartender. The bartender says, "Enjoy the drink ladies. Enjoy it well." before going to another customer. Sylvia turns to Maria to give her a word of advice on listening to other conversations when the bar's door flies open. A woman that's around five foot nine inches walks inside. She has a built physique but not to the point where she stops being attractive. She has a mane of wavy brown hair that goes down to the middle of her back and she is wearing the royal insignia on her chest. The bar practically freezes. That is until they see her face. A loud cheer comes out from every person seated in the joint. A smile flies onto Maria's face when she recognizes that face. Those green eyes, that delicate jawline, those graceful features. Most importantly, that devilish grin. It was her aunt, the one and only, Slayer. Maria's aunt takes a seat at a random table in the back of the bar and waves the waiter over to take her order. Maria gets up out of her seat and walks over to her aunt. At this point, Maria is barely controlling her face. She wants to burst out and call out to her. Getting close to her she can't contain her joy and calls out her Aunts name. "Aunt Elena!" Elena looks up to see who called her and is completely shocked to see maria in a place like this. "Maria! What the hell are you doing here?" Elena calls out in shock as she stands up from her seat. The rest of the bar looks at what all of the commotions are. To take the attention off of them Elena yells "All drinks are on me!" a roar erupts from the bar and everything goes back to the way it was before. Everything is lively and no one pays attention to them anymore. Elena goes up to the bartender and gives him a Mythril shard the size of a chicken egg. "Ms. Elena, are you sure you wanna give this away! This is worth millions of gold coins!" Elena raises an eyebrow and says "Kid I've been coming here since your first day of opening this establishment around 5 years ago. You've been polite to me and I've never seen a bar brawl while you were on duty. You deserve this." A tear runs down the boy's face and he starts summoning the fresh drinks for the customers. Elena turns to the right and sees Sylvia sipping her rum waiting for Elena to acknowledge her presence. "Oh, hey Sylvia. Long time no see." Sylvia happily stands up and hugs Elena. "It's been a long time since I last saw you, Elena. Also since when did you start calling yourself the slayer, I didn't recognize who you were when Maria was talking about." Elena chuckles saying, "I was given that moniker by the king and I earned it too. Do you have any idea how many demons I had to kill, how many lives I had to save to get that title? Damn straight I use it." Sylvia looks Elena in her eyes and gives a sly smile. She playfully asks, "Still having trouble with finding a suitable man?" Elena lets out a dainty laugh and says, "So many men are too weak for my tastes. Is it so wrong that I want a man who I know can beat me in a one on one fight?" While the two of them keep laughing Maria is surprised that Sylvia and Elena knew each other. Elena gets her drink from the waitress and downs it all in one go. She sits down at the bar and says, "So where is Marco, Hikari, Alduin?" Sylvia turns her head away and Maria does the same thing. Getting serious with her tone, Elena repeats the question. Sylvia quietly says, "Hikari is looking for an Inn for us to stay in, but the others are no longer with us." Elena tightens her face and her eyes seem to have darkness inside them. "How did they pass." Elena says, her voice cold. "What or who killed them." Sylvia looks at her glass of rum and after a brief pause, she says they passed at the hands of the demon queen. Elena takes in a deep breath, clearly struggling to hold in her anger and sadness. Elena turns around and starts walking towards the entrance. Before she leaves the bar she says, "Find Hikari and Rona. We're going to the Capital first thing in the morning." and then proceeds to walk outside.