Three days passed after the duel between Hunter and Alexi. During this time, the boys spent it training and honing their skills and powers while they also took time to help the other children learn how to protect themselves. Hunter sparred quite a bit with Ian causing the two to become so proficient between each other that their matches could last for a couple hours and end in either draws or Hunter winning. Testing against Hunter's chaotic yet coordinated attacks caused Ian to really focus on his sword technique making him equivalent to a town guard who had spent ten years training.
Spartacus trained against Hunter in spars as well becoming decent with his sword and shield, though he focused more on his understanding of magic, increasing his spell strength and gaining a slight break through in his path of Divinity. Orion spent most of the time working on archery under the teachings of Asani and Tarenia, making him equivalent to an elven archer that had trained for fifty years.
As they sat around the campfire for breakfast, Sylvia looked at the four boys in shock. "How are you four so powerful, especially without any proper training?"
They looked at each other with smirks plastered on their faces, before Spartacus turned and looked at her. "We have enhanced abilities, add in the fact that we also have deeper knowledge and understanding of the world thanks to our past life, and that we were human in our past life. Humans, and the races we are now, are very adaptive, allowing us to quickly adapt and learn new knowledge and techniques. Besides, we all watched lots of shows, or as you would call them plays, that had melee weapons in them so we have seen years worth of training. Now that we are actually putting it to action, well you can see the result." He gave a toothy grin as he grabbed another juicy rabbit leg from the spit¹.
"Lucky." Sylvia became gloomy as she thought about the training and all the hard work that she was going to have to do later that day.
"Why are you jealous? Haven't you noticed that even though they're prodigies with learning, they still work really hard, even harder than they should be doing." Asani looked at Sylvia and chided her, while Ian laughed and began rubbing her head, petting her ears, to comfort her, which of course caused her to blush.
"If you keep up the hard work and training, you won't have to stay here all the time. You'd be able to go out with us as we hunt and fight." Orion said while looking at all the children. Some of the older ones showed determination after hearing that they could fight alongside the four.
Hunter stayed quite, lost in his thoughts as he ate his last piece of rabbit before getting up and going to the entrance of the cave. Leaning against the wall, he used a rabbit rib to pick his teeth as he waited for Spartacus and Orion to finish eating.
"Relax eldest brother, I promise that everyone here will be safe while you three are at that meeting. I'll make sure they continue their training as well." Ian said to Spartacus while he glanced over at Sylvia, who blushed and looked away. Spartacus nodded as he got up, grabbing his gear before joining Hunter at the entrance. Orion quickly finished eating by stuffing his face, before he equipped his bow and quiver and dashed out as Hunter and Spartacus began walking into the field.
"Wait, can I come with? Please!" Quixi came running after the three, grabbing a hold of Orion's shirt while showing her puppy eyes towards Spartacus. Spartacus looked at the other two, seeing Orion looking expectantly while Hunter didn't seem to care. Spartacus scowled after glancing at Hunter a second time, noting that he had begun to seem distant from the group in the last couple of days, before turning to Quixi and smiling as he nodded his head.
Quixi gave a big toothy grin as she let out a yippee and took Orion's hand as they walked to the woods. Once they entered the woods, Orion picked Quixi up as the three boys became a blur, sprinting through the forest at break neck speeds.
In a couple of minutes the four of them arrived at the end of the woods leading into Adenville's fields. Orion set Quixi down as they all walked up to the gate, however they were forced to wait as a long line had appeared, clogging up the traffic. The people standing in line saw the four children, one of them being a beastkin, another being fully dressed in black assassin attire with lots of weapons and the other two also decked out with good weapons.
Many of the older people began whispering about this strange group of children, especially about the beastgirl. Two young men in their late twenties walked up to the group. "Listen up kids, hand over all your gear and we won't beat the shit out of you. Also hand over the little beast girl. My buddy and I have always wanted a pet that we could play with." The man said with a sick twisted smile while greed and lust glinted in his eyes.
Orion stood in front of Quixi, blocking her from the view of the creeps. Spartacus's hands caught on fire as anger appeared on his face. Shock spread across the line as people saw that one of the boys could cast magic. All of a sudden shouting could be hear towards the head of the line, and it sounded as if it was drawing nearer.
"Stop, stop! Do you idiots know who you offended?!" The guard captain came running over, putting himself in between the perverts and the group of children. He turned and with a look of anger shouted at the two men. "Apologize to the young lord this instant or else!"
"Young lord?" "Who could that be?" "I think he's talking about the mage." The crowd began to whisper amongst themselves as the faces of the two men became paler and paler.
Walking around the guard and bowing in a perfect ninety degree angle to the group, the two men, frightened, said, "We are sorry young lord, we did not know and we apologize for trying to steal from you and your friends."
The captain released a sigh of relief as the two men began to get up from bowing, but it didn't last for long. A couple of people cried out in shock as the two men's heads went flying and blood splurged from their necks. The captain bowed his head, not saying a word as he fought his terror of the boy in black.
As the crowd watched they saw the little assassin putting one of his axes away after flicking it so the blood flew off. Hunter looked at the captain, who turned around leading them up to the front of the line and letting them pass into the town without any delay.
"Those two were bad men and they deserved their punishment." Quixi said as she looked at all of the scared people they walked by.
"You're right little one. Those who live with the intent to harm the innocent or good hearted are bad people that deserve the punishment they will receive. Those two wished to steal so they deserved to lose their hands, but they also wished to enslave and r*pe you so I killed them, sending their souls to Hell to be punished for all eternity." Hunter didn't look back when he talked and all of the guards and civilians shivered as they heard Hunter's cold and emotionless voice. Spartacus scowled as he felt a slight fluctuation around Hunter, before his power levels returned to a more stable state.
The party of four walked down the road passing the Hangman's Finger on their way to the church. "Can we stop at that tavern for a meal again?" Quixi looked at the three boys, hope adamant in her eyes.
"What, did you fall in love with the cook or something?" Orion poked her side as he teased her.
"No! The only people I love is big sister and the others." She blushed and looked away, not daring to look Orion in the eyes. Hunter looked back at the two and chuckled before looking at Spartacus. "What do you think eldest brother?"
"As you suspected, they're probably going to want us to go out and hunt these beasts with them. I don't see what the big problem with them is, and if we don't get paid a fair price then I say we shouldn't accept it. What have you garnered about all those people at the gate?"
"Refugees. All the nearby villages are flocking into the city. Soon the city population will be nearly ten thousand people. Food will become more expensive and what's more is if the Feniri come this way, we will be the easier target since we're at the waterfall and not inside a city wall."
"So you think we should accept the request no matter the cost? Okay, let's do it then. A gain in the long run is still a gain." Spartacus chuckled to himself as the four arrived at the church.
Stopping at the bottom of the steps, Hunter took in the church and all it's splendor. It had fifty three stairs leading up to the grand entrance. At the top of the stairs stood two statues. The one on the left side of the door was the statue of a scholarly man holding a quill and a scroll, as if documenting the scene before him. The one on the right side of the door was the statue of a woman holding a spear and standing guard, watching over the town. Above the church door, engraved into the tower wall, was a gathering of men and women: dressed in various garments, holding various objects, but all kneeling to a singular king.
"Gods, I presume." Hunter grunted as he glanced at Spartacus, wondering what would happen when either of the three entered the building.
"Do what you can to hide your presence and make yourself as human as possible." Spartacus turned to the others, whispering softly so that the common folk passing by couldn't hear. Hunter and Orion both looked at him and nodded before they all entered the church.
Entering the church, nothing happened. The boys breathed a sigh of relief before walking down the narthex towards a side door that lead to a medium sized room where nearly thirty some adventures were sitting around a circular table.
Upon entering a majority of the adventures became quite as they looked at the party of four. Many of them nodded towards the group before turning back to talking with their parties and neighbors. Glancing over the gathered people, Hunter found Alexi who was giving him a big toothy grin while patting a couple of open chairs next to him and his party.
As he continued looking around, he noticed a twelve year old, black haired girl with green eyes filled with grief, sitting by herself not talking to anyone. Hunter took a whiff of the air and found a musky scent that he had smelt a few days ago, faintly blowing through the wind, on her. There was also a strong scent of blood and grief coming from her. "So you faced them?" He spoke softly towards the girl, causing the entire room to go silent as the adventurers looked at the boy in black in shock because there was gentleness in his voice.
The girl started sobbing, not looking up as she curled into the fetal position on the chair. Not saying a word, she continued to cry as she rocked herself back and forth.
"Hunter, enough. We will find out everything once the bishop comes. Until then don't go digging into her past, you especially should know to not go snooping." Spartacus looked at Hunter and spoke softly, though a scowl was evident on his face.
Hunter turned, walked up to the girl putting his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry little one. You can't change the past, but you can change the future. I promise you my blade in making those wolves pay for the lives they took. I swear it for the hunt." Hunter let go and walked over to the empty seats by Alexi, taking a seat that was up against the wall. Spartacus and Orion both took a seat at the table with Quixi sitting in Orion's lap as she fiddled with her hair while looking around at all the adventurers.
Stephanie looked up, wiping the tears from her eyes as she looked at the boy in black, who was most definitely younger than her. She shook her head as she recalled the viciousness the Feniri had, and how strong they were, and thought that this boy would be killed before he even had a chance to fight.
Hunter leaned himself up against the wall, his body attitude saying that he had no care in the world about what was to happen. He pulled out one of his labrys, cleaning it with his sleeves as he waited for the bishop to arrive. After a couple more minutes of waiting, the bishop finally entered the room, taking a seat at the head of the table. Hunter put his labrys away and got up, standing attentively on Spartacus's right hand side, turning to look at the bishop while everyone else quieted down waiting for the bishop to speak.
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1. Spit– long solid rod used to hold food as it's cooking. (Skewers the food item, normally meat)