With a splash, three figures blasted out from the water, all breathing heavily from all the constant running, and adrenaline running through their veins. Still coughing out water they looked around at their location, finding themselves flowing down a river as the cliff they jumped off got further and further away.
"Maybe?" I couldn't help grumbling as I looked in Alice's direction, only to find her gasping as she struggled to stay afloat with her heavy armor on.
Before I could act, however, John was already to the rescue, swimming to her side and helping her stay afloat.
I swam over as well, and together we got ourselves to the river bank as we helped Alice stay afloat and made sure that she was ok.
We all sat down at the edge, tired from all the excitement and constant running, before Alice turns to John.
"Thanks for the save back there, I would have not survived, were it not for you" she smiles in his direction.
John, however, shakes his head, "It was a team effort" he looks down to the sword in his hand "I almost forgot I was holding this, here"
He passes the sword to her, handle first but was stopped when she shook her head and pushed the blade back toward him. "I will not need this sword, it is simply a spar I keep on my person just in case. You, however, will need it more than ever on your journey, and besides from what you have told me you are no stranger to a blade on your world."
While they are having a moment, I am by the side wringing out my wet cloak and grumbling about the lucky bastard.
"You wouldn't happen to have another sword or weapon in that bag of tricks, now would you?" I butt in while I gave her my best charming smile, but instead I only get a death glare.
So I will take that as a big no from her.
"Speaking of that bag, where did you hide this sword?" John asks looking at the spar sword in his hands with admiration at the beautiful craftsmanship of the weapon.
"Hm? oh it is just a bag of holding. it uses dimension magic to store items from weapons to food and other bare necessities." she treats it like it is no big deal but later we will find that only the upper class, and the highest ranking adventures can own a bag of holding due to its pricing and the difficulty involved in its creation.
"So where are we anyway, we must have gone off course with our trip down the river." John looks around to find any familiar landmarks, yet due to being new to this world he is lost and can only look to their guide.
Alice soon pulls a map from her bag of holding and is able to use it and the surroundings to pinpoint where they currently are.
"we are only a little off course and we even got closer to the capital, however..."
"What's wrong?" John looks at the map in her hand, but only finds strange markings drawn across a map that he could not understand, yet felt strangely familiar.
She looks up, "To get to the main road, which in turn gets us to the capital, we have to go through dire wolf territory
"Why do I get the feeling that I am not going to like this" I could not help but think to myself as I saw the worried look on her face.
"Could we not just go around the scary wolves?" I brought up.
She shook her head, "that would take too long as the wolves' territory takes up a large space."
"Just how strong are these wolves?" John asked.
"Although they are just D rank, they always hunt in packs, and besides that they have many clever tactics that make it much more difficult to kill them." she sighed as she thought of the difficult journey that would be ahead of them. "I may be C rank, but I am not invincible as with enough manpower and numbers even gods can fall."
I was about to ask about the ranks, yet it was as if she could read my mind and answered before I could get the first word out. However, that did not stop an exasperated expression from appearing on her face from my very existence.
"Ranks are given to monsters and adventures on their level as a mage."
"Wait what is this about mage lev-"
"Shut it, I was getting to that" she speaks through gritted teeth, but a concerned look from John was all it took for her to calm down and continue. "I mentioned before that mages wield mana with their core, However, what I did not mention was with time the core can change and become stronger."
"so it is leveling up" I add.
She rolls her eyes, "I don't know what 'leveling up' means on your would, but if it is getting stronger than yes you 'level up'. all mages start at novice or D rank."
"What rank are you?" John asks
She smiles "I am an Initiate or C rank warrior." she reaches back into a bag of holding and pulls out a green vile of some strange liquid. "Each of you put this on as it will help mask your scent from the wolves."
As John started putting on the liquid after Alice was done I could not help but raise my hand "hey if we are going into dangerous territory, than I will need something to defend myself"
She sighs once more before reaching back into her bag "Catch" she suddenly tosses an object toward me.
Normally if I was caught off guard like that I would have dropped it or it would have smacked me in the face, yet the new body came to the rescue once more and faster than I could process, I found myself grasping the object in question.
"A stick?" I asked
She shook her head, "No its a stave. I use it for practice, as it is one of the first weapons most warriors start with"
"What am I supposed to do with a staff, tell people that they can not pass, or do I just whack people on the head with it." I try to reason with her, but it is not effective.
She does not answer and starts walking. I look pleadingly at John, asking if we could switch but get a nervous laugh in return. "What happened to bros first"
No one answers and I follow behind while smearing on the strange smelling liquid on my clothes and cloak while trying not to gag at the smell of the stuff.
********
Along the way we did not run into the Dire wolves, however, with each step Alice got more and more nervous.
Right when we thought we were in the clear, a howl shook the air as the sound of paws slapping the earth echoed around us.
Unlike the troll situation, Alice did not panic and instead unsheathed her blade with John following suit. While I was left grasping the stick with both hands.
"Form up, get in a circle back to back!" Alice yelled.
Together we went back to back as figures started to appear around them like ghosts, their eyes glowing in the fires light... wait fire?
I looked to the source and found a red glowing Alice, wielding a sword covered in flames.
Even though we were told about the magic in this would, it was not until we saw it in action that it hit both me and John that we were not in Kansas anymore.
"Awesome" I could not help but say as my inner nerd was gushing with joy.
Alice did not seem to hear and instead she flicked her sword toward a shadow sending a blade of flame hurling out from her sword.
The temperature rose for a split second as a yelp sounded from the shadow she aimed at. the wolf collapsed to the ground, split in half.
Alice looked at this in cold indifference as she swept her gaze across the shadows causing goosebumps on both me and John.
With her beauty and the flames swirling around her, she looked like a sun goddess looking down on the mortals.
She spoke only one word. "Attack"