The now enlarged group spent another few days traversing the plains until they eventually entered a woodland.
"From here on in this basically beast kin territory", said Kayla, "There are somethings we need to go over in regard to my people. Firstly, beast kin for the most part respect strength above all else. Secondly, they are also for the most part battle maniacs so expect plenty of requests for duels. Lastly, all of you girls should wear one of these", she passed out some choker like accessories.
"What are these?", asked Vale.
"These are chokers that indicate you have a bonded life mate, if you don't have one that means you're fair game for pursuit, even wearing one some beast kin will still come after you but will be forced to deal with your life mate first".
The girls all nodded and each of them put a choker on.
"Alex you're going to have to deal with a lot of pests from now on" Kayla giggled at him.
"What can I say, having the four of you as my fiancés is well worth the effort", he grinned, "Besides I could do with some warmups before the games".
"Well that covers the important points, just keep in mind beast kin are blunt and open to the point of absurdity, so don't take offence if they aren't overly polite", finished Kayla.
"Sounds like this is going to be fun" Alex grinned.
Setting off once more they travelled with little interruption passing through a few villages along the way. Alex was quite surprised at the diversity of the beast kin, just the ones he saw were bear, rabbit, wolf, tiger, sheep and cow. What was amusing is how often the beast kin would take after their animal counterpart, he began to see how all the stereotypes like bear beast kin are big a lumbering but really strong etc.
As expected the women of the group caused a lot of attention especially Alex's four fiancés, there was little serious trouble until the were about a day out from the capital when the wagon was stopped by a small troop of what appeared to be soldiers patrolling outside the city.
"Whoa there outsider where do you think you're going?", demanded the man standing at the head of the group.
Alex cocked an eyebrow, "Where else does this road lead exactly?", he asked.
The man growled back, "I don't like your tone boy!"
The troops had been eyeing up the girls since they stopped and this was beginning to irritate Alex somewhat.
"I don't like your face, so I guess we are even," Alex retorted.
The mans face went red with anger, "You dare insult an royal guard, first I'll have your women then I'll have you head", he roared.
"Royal guard my ass I was personally invited by the king himself and I doubt he would forget to provide my description to his royal guard", Alex proclaimed, "This is nothing but a farce and I give you two options, you can fuck off and live or stand here and die". He hopped off the drivers board and started walking towards them.
"Kill him", growled the leader.
"Bad choice"
He held his arms out and twin swords appeared in his hands. A feral grin appeared on his face, it had been a long time since he fought purely relying on his body without using magic, but this was a good opportunity to practice before the games, he recalled his time fighting in the arena his instincts kicked in and the carnage began. The first soldier to attack died not know what happen as Alex spun around him and sent is sword through his back into his heart while the other blade flickered out at the shocked thug in front of Alex and tore open his throat, the man collapsed to the ground trying to stem the flow of blood, Alex never paused in his movements seeming to flow from one opponent to the next, they tried to surround him, it made no difference He simply slipped through the encirclement reaping two more lives as he did so. As the last of the thugs fell Alex eyes landed on the leader who hadn't moved from his initial spot.
Alex spoke up, "I wonder is it stupidity or bravery that sees a worm such as yourself still standing there", voice cold enough to send chills down everyone spine.
"So what will it be worm? Flee or fight?".
Alex steadily approached him, the beast kin felt nothing but terror, the only reason he hadn't run away was because he was too afraid to move. It was if watching the personification of death at work and now that person was heading towards him and he couldn't move.
Alex got within sword reach of the beast kin, and looked at him like he would a piece of garbage on the street, "Pathetic", he spat out and with a single flash of the blade the beast kin head was separated from his body.
The group watching from the wagon just looked on in various states of being. Ron, Dominic, Ellen and Lynette looked on in awe as they once again got to see the bladedancer at work and in actual combat no less. Rose watched in shock as a man who claimed to be a tactical class mage butchered a large group of men using nothing but swords. The remaining four watched with pride that this was their man, except Kayla she was looking at him with a hungry gaze massively turned on by this side of her lover.
Picking up the fallen mans head and putting into storage, head wiped his blades off and returned to the wagon, slowly coming down from the battle rush. He climbed back up to the drivers seat looked back and checked that everyone was ok before starting off again as if nothing had happened. Rose looked around at everyone to see no one was surprised about the outcome of the fight. Seeing the seat next to Alex was free she scrambled up and sat next to him, although there was plenty of room she got about as close as she could without touching. The four girls seeing this smiled at Rose's behaviour.
Rose began questioning Alex as to why he didn't just use is magic to take care of them. Alex explained that it had been a while since he last fought without using magic and he needed to test to see if he had lost his edge, he hadn't. Curious rose asked about when he last fought without magic, he told her about his time in Valent and the fact that he was the undefeated champion of the Valent arena where he had earned the moniker bladedancer. She became more curious about this young man the more she learned about him, she was about to ask another question when Alex interrupted her.
"Fairs fair, I've answered your question now I get to ask one".
Rose pouted a bit at that, then acquiesced to the request.
He asked about the robe and hood she was always in, was it really just because people stared at her when she walked around, such a thing must stem from something. She thought about it and felt that it might feel good to get it off her chest, he was the first person she had ever felt genuinely comfortable around outside of her family. Rose began to speak of her past about how she was born into an influential family of mages, and was expected to the be the best in everything she did, but she grew bored of the magic that was taught to her instead investigating weird and useless magics, her family disapproved and she stubbornly refused explaining there had to be more to magic than just dusty old tomes and copied spells. Her family disowned her, she was given some living expenses and sent out from the family house, this happened when she was sixteen, she had nowhere to go so she opted for the safest option she joined the magic academy, at the start it was fine no one knew about her, but somehow the news got out about her being disowned and everywhere she went people would be talking about her behind her back, she ended up wearing the robe to block off the whispers, eventually it became habit and she had been wearing for the past ten years.
Hearing the story Alex felt sorrow for the girl forced into such a situation on her own, and anger at her family for casting her aside just because she didn't fit their own rigid way of doing things.
"Don't worry you can stay with us from now on", Alex smiled at her.
Rose saw the genuine smile on his face, something deep inside her snapped and all the fear worry and anxiety over the past ten years burst forth, tears started streaming down her face, she tried to wipe them away on her sleeve, but they kept coming, she didn't know what to do her mind was blank, then she felt a large warm hand on top of her head gently stroking her hair. It came back to her the last time she felt safe and at ease was when he was carrying her after zeroing out her mana, she simply dove into him and wrapped her arms around his chest in a near death grip as she started bawling her eyes out, a flood of emotions she had kept bottled up for so long she had no idea what to do with flooded her and all she could think to do was cling to the person who she felt safe with for the first time in ten years. So she wrapped herself around Alex clinging to him as if her life depended on it, only relaxing her grip when his free arm wrapped around her and held her to him.
Rose eventually cried herself to sleep but much to the amusement of everyone except Alex didn't relinquish her grip on him.
Vale whispered to the others, "Looks like we will be getting a new sister soon".
The all grinned at each other.