Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"Shit!" Welf immediately rushes forward. Boots stepping into the puddles of blood as he makes his way across the arena.
Standing above Thalie with a look of horror and disgust.
Her guts were strewn on the stone floor, blood everywhere, tongue hanging out of her throat as her lower jaw was nowhere to be seen on the floor.
Likely completely destroyed by the pillar of divinity as was Yang's left hand, all the way to mid-forearm.
Welf immediately took out the few elixirs kept on his person and began treating Thalie.
"Not enough," he mutters sadly as he pours the last of it onto her neck.
He'd stopped the bleeding there, but now he had to deal with the guts.
Taking a deep breath he begins pushing them back in, to his horror she doesn't even react to his actions.
Up to his elbows were bloody as he performs what was essentially on scene surgery for his friend.
With a pained look he grabs Mosoka, placing it on her belly after making sure all her innards were back inside, he heats the metal to a white-hot degree.
Blood vaporizes and flesh sizzles and binds together to seal her wound.
The scent of burnt meat filled the arena.
Thalie would be left with a massive scar across her midsection, Airmid could fix that later but what mattered was she wasn't currently bleeding out. But with adrenaline gone there wouldn't be enough painkillers in the world if she survives having her lower jaw knocked clean off.
Placing a hand on her chest Welf felt a faint heartbeat, barely there, but alive. Perhaps if she hadn't maxed out her endurance all the way to level five there wouldn't be a heartbeat right now.
"Ok, one down," he pauses for a moment and looks over at Yang. The man was sweating profusely, where his hand should be, there was nothing. No blood, no bits of flesh even, there was a smooth clean cut where flesh and bone became dust, unable to handle unfiltered divinity. "What the hell am I supposed to do with you?"
Moving over to Yang he checked for a pulse, thankfully the man was alive and seemingly healthy.
Completely unresponsive, but alive.
"Just me left to support...well, this is what I'm here for, right..." Welf says as he throws Yang across his shoulder and lifts Thalie in his arms.
With Liberty and Adrestria's Champion Spear in tow, he slowly walks to the main courtyard to begin the journey back to Orario.
As he arrives back at the main courtyard, the children are already in the back of the cart, horses awaiting his command to begin their journey...but they have guests.
The platoon of soldiers posted in town was at the gate, waiting for him apparently.
"Uh, can I help you?" Welf asks. Mostly ignoring the fifty men as he moves to gently place Thalie and Yang in the cart. All the children were frozen like statues, not sure how they were expected to act in this unexpected situation.
"Lord Ares placed goddess Adrestria as commander of this fortress, the pillar of light ascending to heaven..." one of the men points out.
"Ahh, damn, forgot about that," Welf slowly hops down from the cart and grabs the hilt of Mosoka, "guess you can't really ignore it huh?"
"No, we can't," the soldiers ready their weapons and immediately rush forward.
"Right," with a tired sigh Welf slashes downward. A pillar of flames extends outward as it were part of his blade and copies his motion.
The ground cracks and glows red hot as the men are incinerated in less than a heartbeat, level one's never stood a chance to begin with, but fighting was their duty, they wouldn't let him go.
Placing the tip of Mosoka on the ground Welf pulls all the excess heat into the weapon to rapidly cool the stone floor, leaving large cracks across the courtyard.
"Alright kids, let's get going. We can stop in the town and take some food, sounds good?" He asks while jumping up onto the front of the cart and taking the reigns.
No response comes.
Looking back he only sees the children staring at him as if they were made of stone. Emotionless and without thoughts and opinions of their own, exactly as they were taught. The last of Adrestria's soldiers, at least until she returns.
After an hour of scouring the military building in the town for supplies, now having to resort to the old reliable methods since Yang has all of their things in his inventory and Welf wasn't sure when he'd wake up again, they finally crest the hill leading away from the town.
With Rakia at his back once more Welf travels toward the dungeon city Orario.
With rolling hills of grassy plains to his left and right along this dirt road, the smith spares a glance to the children in the covered wagon behind him.
They were all sitting neatly with their hands on their laps awaiting orders. He frowned at the sight, not able to imagine what that dreadful goddess put them through to make them so obedient. The kind of broken minds and spirits that shouldn't have to be endured by anyone, especially children.
"If you're hungry you can eat, the next town is only a day away so we can always restock there," Welf says.
None of the children move.
"Sigh, it's lunchtime isn't it, you must be hungry," he says.
Again none of them move.
"Why aren't any of you eating?" he asks.
Met by silence once more he decides to get some direct answers, "I order you to answer my question," he says.
One of the children, a brown girl with short brown hair and bandages across her left shoulder speaks up. "We can't eat if we don't win...we haven't fought yet," she says.
Welf feels his heart wrench in his chest. He wishes he could bring Adrestria back just to have a crack at her. Looking over at Thalie's unconscious body he frowns, "can't say I wouldn't have done it either..."
He gives the kid another look, turns back to the road to make sure they're still on track then glances back once more. "You don't have to fight anymore, my friend there killed Adrestria and sent her back, she can't hurt you anymore. If you're hungry just eat, we won't hurt you," he says.
Hearing his words, they want to believe him. But it's too risky. He isn't the first person to play this trick on them, to get them to break the rules so he can 'discipline' them for it, they wouldn't be tricked, never again. None of them make a move toward the food, only stare down at the floor as the cart continues on.
"Damn it," Welf groans as he continues to look forward, not sure how to handle this. "How do I get people who spent their entire life fighting to be normal..."
Later that night in a small patch of trees the small group makes camp for the night.
Setting up one large tent for the children and a simple two-person tent for his friends Welf creates a small fire for everyone to sit around as he begins to prepare dinner.
Looking over at the tent Yang and Thalie were still sleeping in, he releases a deep sigh and shakes his head. "How do I even get them to eat..." he focuses on the problem he can actually solve right now.
As the best minds do, when faced with a problem you can't even begin to solve, defer to an expert. An expert at raising children and soldiers is what he needed. But the message rings were in Yang's storage...all but one.
Deciding to get it over with he marches over to the tent and takes the Ring Of Odr off Yang's finger and places it on his own.
"Everyone sit around the fire and wait for me," Welf orders, and the children actually listen for a change. The words leave a bitter taste in his mouth, speaking to children like soldiers.
Walking over to the cart and continuing to sort through the food for this evening he activates the ring with great trepidation.
---Folkvangr Manor...
"Freya, you there?" an unknown voice calls out from her message ring.
The goddess pauses for a moment, putting down the guild request in her hand she looks across her desk to see Hedin giving her a curious look while Ottar keeps his stoic demeanor.
They'd been in her office at the mansion for some time now preparing for a meeting with Loki, a Mission came in from the guild requesting some of her adventurers to assist Loki familia with a 'Problematic' monster.
Having knowledge from her beloved Yang she knew this to simply mean Ouranos feels the presence of another Elder Dragon moving between the floors rising to the surface.
"Who is this?" she asks with venom on her words, narrowing her eyes in offense at the very thought of someone using Odr's ring.
"It's Welf, we could use some help here," a tired voice answers.
She'd never spoken to Welf before, only seen him in passing and hearing of him from Hephaestus's fangirling. There must be a good reason for him to use the ring, then it clicked.
"Is Yang ok?!" she suddenly blurts out.
"Mostly, I think," Welf says.
Looking up at her adventurers Freya waves her hand to signal they should leave. Without missing a beat they both quickly exit her office to give her privacy.
"What do you mean mostly?" she all but growls at the ring.
"It's complicated, Yang and Thalie are out of commission right now. She lost a lot of blood and I'm not really sure how to take care of her, I just keep giving her potions so hopefully she lives until we reach Orario," he explains.
"What about Yang?"
"He has a fever...his hand got caught in the pillar that sends gods back to heaven, I'm not sure what's wrong," he admits hesitantly.
"Crap..."
"Crap?"
"His body and mind were overwhelmed, it's like an extreme mind down. He needs to sleep it off but bring him here to have Airmid and Heith take a look at him. Thalie too I suppose," Freya says.
"What should I expect when we come back?"
"Everything, my familia along with Loki's and Ganesha's will be at the gate the instant we learn of you anywhere nearby. I assume Yang told you everything seeing as you now know these are message rings..."
"Yeah, three level-sevens...not fun," Welf says.
"Mhm, I'll need to play dumb at least. Do you want me to take this ring to Hephaestus so you can speak to her?"
"NO!... I mean, no. I, I'm not ready to talk to her yet..."
"Mhm, makes sense, she asked me how to deal with you when you get back, you're lucky my suggestions weren't acceptable," Freya giggles at the thought.
"Uh, what were they?"
"Cut your legs off and tie you to her bedframe for a decade," Freya casually says.
"Mmm, that's...jeez."
"Luckily my sister is a softie, especially for you. You'll have to jump through countless hoops just to get back on good terms with her after this whole debacle. She settled for throwing a brick at your face and giving you the cold shoulder."
"That's it...that's less than I thought," he admits.
"She's hurt, but she doesn't want to lose you. Believe me, if circumstances were different she'd offer you up to the guild for execution. That would easily clear her familia's name and sort this mess out," Freya says.
"Shit."
"Exactly, contact me when they wake up or when you get close. Ouranos is royally pissed at Hephaestus for not keeping a tight leash on a team powerful enough to destroy any city they want, he won't let you keep your weapons when we arrest you," Freya says.
"That makes sense, especially considering the new one is supposedly divine, doesn't do anything when I try to pass magic through it though."
"Hmm, so she got it then, definitely want to keep that hidden from the guild," Freya says.
"Yeah, there's one more thing I need help with, seeing as you raised some of your adventurers since they were kids. And they're all basically soldiers now..."
"Just get on with it, what do you want?"
"Ugh, Adrestria was making child soldiers and I'm bringing some back. But they won't even eat because apparently, that fucking psychopath made them fight for food, I don't want them doing that but they think it's a trick or something," he explains.
"Hmm, what do you plan on feeding them?" Freya asks, her voice suddenly very gentle and worried. Her soft spot for children shows a bit.
"I took some crates of bread and dried rations, some fruits, and all the potions I could from our last stop," Welf explains.
"Right, well here is what you'll do..."
Cutting off the call with Freya, Welf walks over to the campfire. Taking a look at the setting sun he knows these kids haven't eaten probably all day. But they'd rather go hungry than accept a handout apparently.
"Alright, everyone line up facing the tree line," he orders and points toward where the cart was.
The children wordlessly get up and walk over, organizing themselves in a neat line, awaiting further orders.
"This is so fucked up," he mutters to himself. "Everyone gets four of these," he walks in front of them and gives each of the five children four rocks.
Pointing toward the treeline he directs them to the widest and tallest tree at the front.
"Your task is to hit that tree as many times as you can, one throw per rock. Four throws per person. Understand?"
"Yes sir!" they all say at once.
The sudden response surprises him.
"Alright, first up..." and so he makes them compete for food. Leaving a bitter memory in his mind, guilt that wouldn't fade away any time soon. But this was the easiest way to get them to eat until someone who knew how to deal with this got to them.
None of the children could hit the tree with four rocks.
Some of them managed three, but all managed to land at least two.
"Everyone line up, if you hit the tree twice you're on the right, three times is on the left," Welf says as he stands behind the cart.
Each hit against the tree was worth one small loaf and enough meat to make a sandwich with it. They were each given a large water skin that they happily drank from. Welf shook his head at the sight of these hungry children eating around the fire.
But he was glad he called Freya, she knew exactly what to do.
Give them a task with a chance of failure. Give them no handouts. If anyone fails then they must accept the consequences. He didn't have the heart to let any children go hungry, so he gave them an easy task. Hit the tree from fifteen feet away with rocks.
It would feel awful to put them through this again and again, but he had to just keep them fed and moving for now.
As they all shuffle into the tent to get some sleep he does one last check on his friends before sitting on the cart...ready for what he knew would be a week of sleepless nights.
END CHAPTER---
The bonus chapter I promised since we hit the goal for last week. I'm not making weekly goals a thing(I'd die if I had to write that much) just wanted to see if 300 power stones was possible and congrats you all did it :)