A beautiful girl stood at 5'10 holding a hammer in one hand and a gigantic shield in the other hand. Her silver hair flowed down her cleric garbs like a gracious waterfall and her steely gaze made men feel uncomfortable around her. Her long legs and small waist that emphasized her busty disposition made them long for her though.
This girl was Xu Xun, and accompanying her was. Astrid, another beauty who had waist length black hair and a similar body composition to Xu Xun making most people mistake them for sister because of their figures but just a single glance at their face made them sure that she was a different variant of a fairy.
She was kind and gentle, she took care of most people and always made it a point to say a gentle hi or hello to people she passed by. People found it easier to approach someone like her. She was social and also a very nice person. However, Xu Xun who was always by her side made it hard for people to approach her.
Earning Xu Xun the nickname "hades" which paired perfectly to Astrid's nickname of "Persephone" because most people believed the pair was gay, Astrid quickly attempted to clear the confusion but Xu Xun blushed anytime she was asked about it and then rudely beat up the person who asked her.
"The camp is prospering." Xu Xun said in a matter of fact way, she carried her gaze across the camp. People were walking around, campfires and tents were everywhere making the structure of the camp look disorganized but in fact Xu Xun could see the more minute details of the design.
The camps composition was carefully designed by Xu Xun, The many fire pits and tents were organized to become defensive structures if the wolves ever attacked.
". . ." Astrid just gazed around the camp and didn't respond. Her big eyes and gentle eye lashes swayed to and fro, making Xu Xun feel internally nervous.
"Astrid?" Xu Xun approached Astrid placing her hand on their shoulder.
"Huh!" Astrid jumped and quickly backed away from her, "Oh! Xu Xu, Yeah it's prospering."
"Is something wrong?" Xu Xun felt more worried and began pressing.
"No, no! Nothing wrong… Yeah, I'm lying… " Astrid let out a long sigh.
"What?! What happened? Did someone do something to you? Where are they? I'll make sure they'll pay!" Xu Xun immediately showed intense emotion, she gripped her hammer tighter and looked around the camp, her eyesight immediately fixing upon every man that she saw.
"No!" she coughed gently "No, no one did anything wrong and i'm alright okay?" She placed her hand softly on Xu Xun's shoulder.
"Then what is it?" Xu Xun calmed down,
"It's just- Don't get me wrong, but... " She sighed "Shi-won has been acting weird ever since we entered this place, I think he's encouraging people to bully the weak especially seraph."
Xu Xun frowned, she muttered "Shi-won."
"If he is… I don't care. Tough love will encourage them to improve. We don't need any slackers in this new world." She continued walking, holding her head up high arrogantly and cut off astrid before she could even respond "I know hon, your soft hearted but we're in a new world, protecting the weak is only going to make them inept unqualified idiots and the way you protect them are only making them more dependent on you."
"Hey! Don'-" Astrid began to protest.
"Astrid." Xu Xun turned abruptly facing Astrid, " Listen to my first proposal, Your healing services are valuable, valuable not only to everyone here but to the strong."
"No! That would be too cruel-"
"It's only filtering out the unworthy." Xu Xun responded coldly "If you continue healing them, they'll never learn."
Xu Xun then whipped around, her silver hair swirling in the air as she departed.
Astrid had a complicated expression on her face, 'Xu Xun you're always like this... ' She turned around and began walking around the camp.
Astrid stopped suddenly, she heard shouting.
"Come on! You almost got it right!" Then a series of dull sounds rang out accompanied with a pitiful wail.
"Ow!" another voice shouted, "You're stronger and faster than me! How is this fucking training!"
"Hey! Watch the language! I'm holding back a considerable amount over here, plus strength shouldn't matter in this exchange you just need to get your footing right!" Then another series of dull sounds rang accompanied with the clanking of a wooden object.
Astrid moved her body toward the source and peaked behind a tent, she witnessed a tall skinny black haired youth on all fours panting rapidly as if he was savoring every single breath of air he had. Laying next to his hand was a wooden sword.
Above him stood a shirtless middle-aged man, a long black beard going down his chin and reaching the middle of his chest. He stroked his beard carefully leaning his wooden sword on his shoulder.
"You need another example?" The middle aged man said, Astrid immediately recognized the middle aged man as the schools janitor john.
She couldn't see the youth's face.
"Ya think!?" Seraph said through laboured breaths.
John looked at seraph's panting face and shrugged, "I think you need some rest."
"N-No! I'm fine, I'll recover in time when you're finished explaining." Seraph struggled to stand up, his hands were to his knees and sweat drenched his clothing, his hair stuck to his scalp and each laboured breath he took looked painful.
"Nah, we're gonna take a break for an hour." John disregarded Seraph and walked away.
Seraph didn't stop John, he watched John's back until he disappeared from view, where he promptly dropped on the ground with his limbs sprawled out like an octopus.
Seraph's training had been going 'well' at least that's what John had been saying to him, John's footwork skill was hard to learn, each step that john took placed Seraph in a horrible situation and when Seraph tried to mimic him john had already thought ten steps ahead and beat him down.
Each time John praised seraph's slight improvement he felt happy, which made him eager to learn more which led to seraph becoming this exhausted after an hour of training.
Seraph looked into the sky, a smile on his face. He was unbelievably pleased with himself, he kept on thinking and imagining himself as john, nailing a wolf to the tree with his spear and swinging it across a huge battlefield combating large swamps of wolf armies. Then a sudden thought made him frown, he pulled back and curled up into a ball to take a rest.
'What happens when i leave?' The thought made him sad and depressed, but deep within him he felt the tinges of fear grip his mind 'What happens when we leave? No! I'll never leave this place!'
Each thought nawed his mind, he closed his head and tried to clear his mind but it was useless. The thoughts accompanying his mind made him terrified, the beatings may have gotten worse, however, they were less effective and less frequent. He also had gotten a chance, a chance to simply stop the beatings himself when he got stronger.
His thoughts grew more and more bleaker, he began to remember the constant beatings that he received back at home as well as the horrible things Shi-Won had done to him. His fear started to change, his mind continued to play back the beatings and the more fear he felt the more rage he felt which made his body shake.
He suddenly felt a warm hand grace his head, "Kid." He heard John's voice and he opened his eyes.
"Kid, I think you need more than an hour's rest." Seraph looked into John's worried face and he began to open his mouth "listen kid. If you feel like I'm pushing you too much don't hesitate to quit. I won't hold it against ya. I'll still keep you in my party and hunt around sharing my experience with you, alright?"
" No- No, I'm fine really. I just had a bad dream."
John looked at him suspiciously then pulled out a book, "Read this. It'll help you with your bad dream."