Clang, clang, in the distance I heard swords and spears hammered in metal wildly, in a plain of arid lands two groups fought.
The largest group wore a red uniform and chased the few opponents with black clothes, sometimes in the midst of the clashing noise between metals, flesh was heard being pierced.
"Finish them, kill them all if necessary, as they don't want outsiders to use their legacies, no one will."
One of the men in red spoke as loudly as he could as he sliced through the torso of one of his opponents.
I ran while three of the men in black protected me, I could already see the stone walls of a city next to us. With renewed morale at finally seeing a place that can serve as a shelter, even if it's only temporary, it still cheered us up enough to pull a little more strength from our bodies and minds.
We entered the city in a hurry, and soon we saw a tavern, one of the men in black and I took off our masks, the other two stopped at the entrance, which made my anxiety soar right away. I don't think I need to say that having long, flashy red hair doesn't help her dodge murderers. I try to control my breathing, we have to blend in with the citizens as quickly as possible.
We finally sat down in front of the counter, now that I have some time to calm down I can finally look at the tavern a little more closely, the place seems to be about 60 meters in area, round tables with four or five rustic wooden seats, half of the tables were empty the other half had at most three people talking and drinking.
At the counter Yanan, the man in black who came with me tapped the counter lightly to get the attendant's attention:
"Excuse me, has the house started serving meals yet?"
As he asked he took out two coins too big to use as money, he tossed them into the air and let them spin three times each while whispering something about luck and probability.
"If you need food right away it will have to be cold, if you don't mind waiting a bit we serve some meals yes, mostly appetizers, but yes."
Answered the attendant while cleaning the glasses. On the other side of us, a man about 1.90 meters tall drank wine from a glass so big that if it weren't for the size of the person who consumes it, it would look like a small gallon, the gallon drinker, as I called it, he had long, shaggy black hair that fell a little lower than his shoulders, a sparse beard, brown eyes, a black shirt and pants, a black sleeveless vest with gold embroidery. One of the customers moved towards the shaggy-haired man, and wrapped his right arm around the drinker's shoulders:
"Hey Kaz, shouldn't you be working at the forge to pay for your stay in town?"
Kaz, the now ex gallon drinker, brushed his hand away from the 'Mister Inconvenient', yes he's also earned a nickname, and with an exasperated look replied:
"Miss me, I've done more than enough for this week. Boss, here's the pay."
Former gallon drinker, Kaz, left some bills on the counter and walked to the exit, when he suddenly stopped and looked back at the counter, raised his hands in surrender:
"The two newcomers, it seems your problems are more persistent than you realized."
When he spoke two dead bodies fell from the sides of the door, it was clearly the other two members of our team, after which three of our enemies in their signature red uniforms stormed into the tavern.
Kaz moved to the side leaving the way clear for our enemies, fuck you gallon drinkers.
Yanan and I are at a complete disadvantage. Three opponents, with virtually no allies inside the tavern's limited space, with the numbers they had when chasing us they're probably surrounding the tavern at the moment.
"Kill them all, fast preferably." Said the leader of the invaders, and without hesitation the other two followed the command, leaving two dead bodies on the ground.
With their swords still dripping blood, the two went to attack the other customers and three more invaders in red rushed in, the leader still standing in the doorway to dissuade anyone from the idea of fleeing.
Yanan and I lined up back to back, and prepared for battle with swords in hand, one of the invaders walked up to the man who served us who I suspect is also the tavern owner, just before the invaders tried to jump over the counter. to reach the attendant, I heard a whisper from the gallon drinker:
"The Eighth Mind Demon: Fear."
The intruder froze just before completing the jump and fell flat on his face on the other side of the counter.
"I was going to sneak out, but the owner served me some of the best drinks I've ever tasted, so... I guess what I'm going to do will have to pay if I owe anything."
Said the gallon-, Kaz, said Kaz as he scratched his messy hair and this time loud and clear he intoned a single word:
"Fear."
With originally brown eyes glowing pale blue, when the short, simple word was said I felt, and perhaps everyone in the tavern felt something similar, a chill creeping up my heels and spreading through my body my breath became short and harsh, I tried to fight it but when I tried to move at the same moment images flooded my mind, and paralyzed me.
Death, monsters, people who seemed to attack me, my pursuers and finally one image devoured all the others...
A dark room, with the silhouette of furniture barely visible, in the room a pale boy with brown hair and eyes seemed to be watching me, he was sitting strangely still, his chair had wheels on its side a slightly shiny painting the frame didn't look like wood and extended below and to the front of the painting with rectangles and squares in high relief with symbols and numbers in the center.
The boy looked at me with empty brown eyes giving me goosebumps, the boy moved his arm and took a strange container, he opened the container and the scene became shrapnel.
"I hope you didn't spend too much time there, it's easy to get a little freaked out if you try to think too much about what you saw."
Kaz spoke these words as soon as my consciousness returned, my body was no longer paralyzed but I was still shivering and sweating cold as I tried to compose myself, Yanan stood in front of me and asked a question that I honestly want to know too:
"First of all thank you for your help, but given our situation I must ask you, who are you benefactor?"
Kaz looked at us, smiled with mockery in his eyes and replied:
"Haven't you heard where I work? I'm a blacksmith, that's all."
Just a blacksmith, as if anyone would believe that now, I thought as I looked at the red-clothed corpses that had been given another coat of their favorite color.
He turned to Kaz, who had jumped over the counter and was rummaging through the drinks and liquor apparently looking for a specific drink.
Yanan looked at the corpses, the unconscious customers, the few who were saved by Kaz's belated interference, a good reminder that he's not kind enough to save everyone even when he can.
Approaching me Yanan spoke:
"Mingten, I think we can use this encounter to gain a chance to counterattack. So I ask you to accept the madness I'm about to do, young mistress."
Black eyes and slicked-back black hair an angular face, a slender but clearly trained body.
Trained to be my shadow and handle all kinds of work the clan can have no connection to, at least not on the surface, this was Yanan, and right now he was shaking.
"Come on, where's that bottle the boss was testing? I swear I smelled maltese."
Yanan turned to the beer thief, yes he'd gained a new nickname, and walked over to the counter and sat like a regular tavern customer ignoring the current carnage scene.
"Lord Kaz, are you accepting disciples or an apprentice?"
As I heard this a terrible realization seemed to hit me and I felt a shiver on the back of my neck.
"No, and I think you already suspected that so why don't you say what you really want? Ha! I found it, in fact, it is similar to Maltese beer."
Thankfully, Kaz responded with a clear denial, honestly I don't want to be coached by the beer thief, no matter how strong he is, the sloppy, irresponsible air he exudes just annoys me.
Not that I'm crazy enough to say it to his face, I guess.
"Actually I was expecting something like this, so how about this: take her as a blacksmith's assistant only, while I don't have much to make up for other than two techniques."
"What are the techniques? And let's be clear I am indeed a blacksmith, take that into account if you want to impress me."
Who wants to impress you drink gallons? Not us.
"Of course I took that into account."
Yanan!! I know you don't read minds but still.
"The first is what I consider my personal fortune, in more ways than one. Its name "Path of the Ten Coins" allows for deductions, guesswork, the accumulation and exchange of luck between people."
Yanan spoke as he placed one of the oversized coins on the counter.
"Interesting and unique, it doesn't seem to increase the user's power but I understand why you say it's your personal fortune, it must have saved your skin a couple of times. Accepted, but..."
"The next one should help with your occupation as a blacksmith, I know. Mingten come here."
Damn it, I approach the two of them slowly, after Kaz's brief display of power he looks a lot more intimidating until I see he's drinking some stolen liquor again.
"What do you want?"
"This is Mingten the heir to the Order of Breakers, while the name of the order is not well known if you have heard of her clans: Su, Wang, Meng, Braighte and Feldar."
"Now I understand your confidence, so which of these clan's five unique techniques am I going to win?"
"None, as I said, she is heir to the Order, not the clans, and the order specializes in creating weapons with unique effects that fall into five branches of specialization, see the similarity?"
"Five branches, five clans. I imagine what they have are fragments of the original technique from which the clans created their own techniques, what will you offer me another fragment?"
"No sir, three with all our research on them."
"Deal. Let's go girl."
I was in a stupor trying to process what was happening, and holding back the rhetoric of: my name is Mingten no girl. I took a step back when Kaz shifted his attention to me, and suppressing my confusion I asked,
"And Yanan doesn't he come with us?"
"Hahh."
Kaz let out a long breath and Yanan looked at me with an apologetic smile.
"He's going to use himself as a distraction miss."
With a tired expression, Kaz spoke.
"I'm sorry young master."
Yanan gave his thanks and bowed.
"Wait a minute I haven't agreed to anything yet, and what do you mean by using yourself as a distraction?"
Kaz pointed a finger at me and I felt dizzy, my consciousness fading.