[Lorraine POV]
After seeing Arius floating away to help, I felt an emotion bubbling inside me. An emotion that never felt so strong before. Even now, I couldn't bring myself to look in the direction of the fight. Thinking about myself just sitting here leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
"Lorraine, I know how you feel. I feel it right now too. It hurts on the inside, wanting to beat yourself up, and harbour feelings that you don't want to have. All I'll have to say is that even the strongest people in the world experience this feeling in their life. Just don't let those emotions spiral out of control. You'll end up hurting those around you and those you care for."
Through his speech, Big Brother Jaque walked beside me. His hand are in his pocket and his eyes looking into the sky. Glancing at him, I slowly look away. His wounds had opened up, soaking the once pristine bandages in an array of red splotches.
I wish I could be so honest with myself. But I couldn't, as his speech came to an end, I felt my emotions boiling up and before I knew it I was running away to town. Running to the workshop, running to my room, running to my bed. The falling rocks crash into the web of blood above, mere background noise.
Slamming the door in an attempt to rid myself of this feeling, I find myself sitting on my bed.
*Sniff* *Sniff*
My face was wetting but there weren't any tears of sadness. Just tears of pure emotional overload. Tears filled with countless emotions that I could not describe.
'Just don't let those emotions spiral out of control. You'll end up hurting those around you and those you care for.'
As Big Brother Jaque's words rang in my ears, I balled my hands into two trembling fists.
'Just don't let those emotions spiral out of control...'
'...don't let those emotions...'
'...control...'
Pulling out the dagger that Emma had given me and placing it in the palm of my hand, I pull out my info sheet and a message. I stared at them. I started at them for many more hours to come.
'I'll just work harder...'
Tock Tock Tock
...
[Arius POV]
With Master Doherty finally relenting, we all started to float away out of the valley. On our way out, I look down to see that everyone else was leaving the valley too. It seems like only the stone golem is left.
Soon enough, we were over the hill and I could see the figure of Big Brother Jaque. He was facing the other way looking into the sky. Turning my head many times, I tried to find Lorraine but she just wasn't there.
As we landed on the grassy hill, I quickly run up to Big Brother.
"Big Brother, where's Lorraine?"
"Hmm, Lorraine? She was tired so she went back to town. Why are you guys here? From the roars in the distance, I can that there's something still alive over there."
"We had this amazing plan but we need to wait for the stone golem to come out first. So we're just to rest and eat something."
Seeing me smile, Big Brother Jaque crouched down and gave my head a good rub.
"That's great, I just talked to Alfred and his guards. They'll be bringing food shortly. *Yawn* I think I'm pretty tired too, so I'll be going back to town."
"You too Brother! Alright, I hope you get better fast, it seems your wounds opened up."
"Hmmm...Thanks, Arius. I didn't notice them."
Seeing Brother Jaque hopping on his wagon and going away, I soon see a group of people coming back with food. It was nothing special but it tasted amazing. Bread, water, fruits and some meat. It's all you really need. As the group feasted, I decided to walk over to Krast to talk.
"Hey, Mr. Krast, how long have you known Master Doherty?"
"Kid, I've known that guy for a long time perhaps for too long."
"What did you guys do?"
"Adventurers, Doherty, I and a few other friends were a team. Those were the good days."
Seeing Krast having a nostalgic look on his face, I continued to chomp on my bread and ask questions.
"Then why did you guys stop?"
"We can't be young forever, once we got older, some friends got different responsibilities so ultimately we all stopped and went our different ways. Doherty decided to settle in this remote town and become a craftsman, I became an alchemist from the city."
"Wait, you're an alchemist."
"Hey, what's with that look? You are probably the first person to a give repulsed look to an alchemist."
"I wanted to do alchemy but I found out that it was very boring, too many things to memorize."
"Blasphemy! You don't understand, alchemy is a great game that affects life. You do need to memorize a lot to get a firm foundation, but it's not required to begin. Just by learning a bit and you'll be able to start playing the game. Plus, what do you know about alchemy, you haven't even brewed a single potion"
As Krast continued to talk, he waved around his piece of bread, acting all cool talking about alchemy until he dared to say I didn't make a potion before. I won't let my hours of work be tarnished!
"I have! I made a healing potion before."
"Yeah? You're not fooling anyone. You probably don't have enough mana sensitivity to understand alchemy."
"No, I DOO!"
"Alright, prove it."
With a motion in the air, Krast pulls out a crystal ball that appears in his hand. While it was shiny and see-through, it was completely black.
"This is a sorcerer's ball. It has many uses but one of them is to test mana sensitivity. Try and pull mana through the ball into your hand. Like this."
Gripping the ball firmly in one hand, Krast simply takes in a breath and the ball shines a bright light. Just as soon as it started, the shining ended as Krast holds it out for me to try. Taking the ball from his hands, it was surprisingly heavy, and I had to hold the ball with two hands. Sitting down while holding the ball in my lap, I try to do the same thing that Krast did.
Closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath, I try to concentrate. Tunning out all the sounds that were around me, I tried to feel the mana and pull it through the ball. I could visualize the mana, and with the feeling of wanting to tug at it, it moved just a little bit. I kept tugging and tugging, pulling harder and harder. And eventually, the mana touched the ball and went straight through.
"Well, if I'll be damned."
Opening my eyes, I managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of light from the ball.
"See I did it!"
"While the techniques were wrong, you show a lot of potential. Do you want to be my apprentice?"
"HEY! Krast, don't you dare think about poaching my apprentice!"
"It's all his choice-"
ROOOOAARRR!!!!
Just as a heated argument was going to ensue, I heard the loudest roar yet. Looking toward the direction of the roar, I could see the head of the stone golem above the tops of the hill. Standing up, I feel a large vibration pass through the ground.
"ALRIGHT, ITS TIME!!!"
We quickly start floating up again as Krast, Earnest, Doherty and I start flying toward the stone golem. Getting a better look at it, even with its legs, it could start upright, instead of crawling on all four. Still, its abdomen was now exposed.
Seeing us flying over, it smashes into the ground, pulling out two fists of rocks before throwing them at us. In a blink of an eye, I see a red barrier appear before us. As soon as the rocks touched it, they would slowly disappear.
"AAarh!"
Suddenly, I feel a downward pull from my leg as I screamed. Looking down, I see Master Doherty had dropped down and was pulling me with him.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!??"
Landing on the ground, forming a massive crater in the process, Master Doherty tosses me on his back.
"You gotta tell me exactly where to hit. So don't let go now!"
"O-ok."
With that, Master Doherty charges forward as I tried to hold on for dear life. While holding on, the area around me suddenly got dark. Looking up, I see the hand of the stone golem coming down toward us. I suddenly feel a jerk backwards as Master Doherty speeds up, pushing against the ground so hard that each of his steps left holes in the ground.
BOOOMMM!
A giant shockwave and a gust of air come from behind, as Master Doherty screams at me to get ready.
"WHERE'S THE SPOT!?!"
Activating my skill once again, the burning still never stopped. Still pushing through, I see a vivid area of red but now a small area of blue.
"THERE, RIGHT THERE."
Pointing at a noticeable indent on the golem, Master Doherty runs towards it and once we got under it, he jumped toward it. With a loud bang, his hammer smashed into the indent before stopping. We soon hear a pained roar and a giant hand coming toward me. Pulling his hammer out, we quickly jump away to avoid the giant hand.
"IT'S NOT DEEP ENOUGH!!"
As we got further away, Master Doherty screamed toward Krast and Sir Earnest, causing them to float down.
"I need to get a better angle for maximum power."
"Alright, we'll hold him down! Ok, Earnest!"
"Let's do it."
Basting off into the air, before I could raise my head to follow them, I feel my skin heat up and my surroundings light up. Krast had unleashed a giant fireball in the stone golem's face.
ROOOAAAR!!
As you would expect, it raised both its arms to block its face. Suddenly, with extreme speed, I find myself flying through the air. Holding myself as tight as possible to the back of Master Doherty's armour, I hear a loud impact. With a peak, I see the golem falling onto its back.
BAANG! GGGROOOOAARRRR!!! BOOoooom...
As the shockwave from its fall flows past us, I see two giant balls of red liquid fall on the hands of the stone monster, preventing it from getting up.
Jumping once again into the air, I see a giant hammer just centimetres away from my head. Suddenly, we started freefalling. Once seconds later, there was an impact bigger than anything I'd ever seen.
----------------------
[Jaque POV]
Hearing a loud bang and a dying roar, I smile knowing that the stone golem was no more.
However, not all battles are won on the grand, many more would need to be won in the mind.
Tock Tock Tock
...