"Oh hello young maiden... Oh these spears? Well they are representation of the sins of humanity... Does that hurt? no no, its part of my role as burdening humanity's suffering, as long as I stay, this eternal pain will not bother me as I love humans too much"
-Soter, suffering incarnate
While the others sleep I stand guard, making sure nothing dangerous doesn't sneak up on us. I look at my sword thorn, the blessing was already gone it was back to its normal self.
I watch the campfire, the crackling of wood, the embers that shoot out and die quickly, the warmth was comforting. I looked at the sleeping members, each of them are strange but cool in a weird way.
James the Last order boy, he seems to be around my age, He's very smart yet also dumb at the same time, his items make him strong yet I'm afraid for him if there was a situation where he needs to rely on himself. Physically he's very weak, not fast and somewhat frail. I think I'll train him for a bit before we reach the capitol.
Hera the angel, I seen many angels but for some reason she's very aggressive than the others, very cold and distant but she seems to somewhat care over him companions. She very strong but she her attitude and outburst she needs to work on.
Tron the magician, a funny goofball. A flatterer but weird. He's a very strong wizard that's is probably on the same level as the great mages but instead of traditional robes he dresses in the stage magician attire. I tried to ask him earlier but he brushed them off and pull a bronze coin out of my ear, I really need to know how he did that.
I grabbed some rations out of my pouch, Thank the goddess It somehow didn't get soaked from the swamp water. A loaf of moldy bread and some salted smoked meat. I made sure to eat around the mold while making sure I managed to swallow the dried meat.
It felt somewhat filling after a long day. My mind wandered to that incident with that beast, how it slaughtered my soldiers, they died and yet I still lived. After with all of that excitement of today I managed to fully take it the situation. I was supposed to protect them, now their wives, husbands and children will be without their love ones. I should've expected the attack, I should've got there faster before the first person gotten torn apart, It should've been me... they all had people to go back to yet all I have is my loyalty to Drakonia. All of this build up all this stress, I couldn't hold back tears.
I kept crying softly, trying to stop myself but failed.
"Hey, you need to stop crying" I looked up to see Tron sitting next to me, his glasses are off.
"Tron? why are you up?" I asked surprised
"well its kind off difficult to sleep when someone crying" he responded
"I'm sorry" I spoke softly, my head slowly drooping down.
"Its fine, I wasn't that tired anyways" he looked at me "Mind telling me what's causing you sorrows?" he asked.
for a short while I couldn't say anything, I looked at him
"I its my fault for my soldiers to die, If I was just a bit faster maybe..." I said before trailing off.
Tron pulled out a small smoking pipe, he used his wand to light it and took a small puff
"Rose, it's not your fault, its no ones fault. you shouldn't keep blaming yourself for this" he responded.
I started crying "What if it is? I shouldn't have taken this mission I shouldn't have..." She said
"If it was your fault, maybe instead of hitting on yourself maybe try and live for them. I'm sure they don't want their great captain to be suffering like this" he assured me.
"you're right... they wouldn't want their big sister to be like this or they would just tease me for this." I get up wiping away my tears.
We continue to talk for a while, he gave me some tips about magic tricks while I showed him how to properly grapple someone.
I started to yawn, the exhaustion was catching up to me.
"You should get some sleep Rose" he told me, I chuckled
"Yeah you're right" I stood up and walked over at laid down upon the best looking grass.
I snuggled in and let the sleep take me.
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Tron pov
I watch as she laid herself to bed, She and Hera got something in common, they both weirdly sleep in their armor but I don't use armor so I don't know how comfortable it could be.
I watch the night sky, the stars shining down upon us, its like blanket of constellations.
I grab a hold of my pipe and laid against the grass, I smoked peacefully while watching the night sky, the whole thing would've been nice but a gush of heavy wind passes by. I noticed a familiar Prescence, and I looked up quickly.
A tall being, dressed in a sharp suit that makes me jealous, his perfect skin, dark short hair and the eyes of a demon.
I sigh and eye him down, I pull out my wand and point it at him, he stops and smiles.
"That's no way to treat an old friend A-" she said.
"That's not my name anymore Samael, you should know better than that." I scold him, he laughs
I sigh again and snap my fingers, both of us were teleported into a different part of the forest.
"Why didn't you use that to get to the capital faster?" he smiled
"you know better than that, using a high level spell would've drawn suspicion and how long were you creeping on us?" I asked
"When the word that Baros wanted James dead, every demon in the underworld heard this and wants a piece of him, luckily for you I shut the gates before they left to the surface." he said
"why would you do that?" I asked suspiciously. he then acted offended
"Oh my, why would I not do something for a dear old friend of mine?" he then put a hand over face acting dramatic.
"Because last time you had your claws pointed at my throat threatening to gut me alive from head to ass" I said with hints of anger
"well that was when I was a bit hopped up on souls besides I've been employed by a certain little goddess who offered me a deal I cannot pass." He said with a matter of a fact tone.
My eyes widen "you cannot be serious, The goddess of light will make a deal with a demon!?"
He laughed again "I said a goddess, not the goddamn princess who think she's so important"
"Who is it!? the goddess of trickery or the death? or is it the sky goddess!? tell me!?" I shouted desperately
"awww so you do care that I don't get deceived what a good friend you are, well don't worry I made a contract" he then showed me a marking on his forearm.
I looked at him with such disgust but he brushed it off as a joke
"look I have something important to do, this meeting was just a pleasant reunion of two old buddy's" he said cheerfully before he started to walk into the woods.
I sigh and started walking back to the camp.
I got back ten minutes later, I didn't want to risk teleporting back in front of someone who was awake.
The group was thankfully alive and asleep. I sat back down and sighed.
Samael what did you do?
Hours passed and James started to awake.
He got up groggily and looked around, he spotted Hera still sleeping. He pondered for a moment and put his blanket away.
"So how was the night watch?" he walked up to me
"Pretty uneventful, wanna see some card tricks?" I asked
"Nah, you shown me too much that my head is just filled with them" he admits
"James, its good to know a few tricks, magic or not. So let me teach you some basics"
he groans "sure I'm down to learn to cast a fireball or two"
"first off pull up your system and upgrade a few things ok?"
He pulls it up and made sure I can see it
System
James Gold
______________________________________
Level 31
Health 100/100
Defense 10 (+5)
Experience 2340/7000
Available levels: 8
______________________________________
HP 10 +
STR 7 +
INT 129 +
SPD 6 +
MGC 0 +
WIS 0 +
LCK o +
"Alright you see on the plus signs on the side of your stats, press them and you become stronger in that field put at least five into magic while the other three is up to you." I inform him
He does so and for the remaining 3 he gave 1 each for strength, speed and hp.
alright that's pretty good James, now take this, I hand him a stick from the ground
"This stick is to channel your magic much better, so repeat this after me"
I pull out my wand and point it at the campfire
"Ignis Ardere!" I said and a wisp of fire hits the campfire. I look at James
"Ignis Ardere!" he spoke out to which a burst of fire hits the campfire, the massive amounts of fire blew him back breaking his stick.
I laughed to myself "James James, you must think to control the fire, you instead wanted to focus so much on casting that you generating to much of it"
I pull him up "the stick broke..." he said rather sadly
"eh its alright, some mages don't uses wands or staffs, they think of the spell and poof the spell works, it just helps to channel the magic that is all"
"wait so I don't have to say it out loud?" James asked
"of course you do, most of mages need to rely on speaking the spell so they won't cause damage to themselves or others but the few lucky ones can think of it without needing to say it"
"Can you do it?" James wondered out loud
"A bit, you just need a lot of training to do so" I lied, I knew how to do it since I was a child
"I think when I get the chance I will make a wand!" he said with enthusiasm that I woke up Hera
"oh ho ho I do wish to see this someday" I said while grinning
Rose soon woke up after. We gathered around, Rose spoke first
"we should get on the road soon, the faster we do it the better"
"I agree" Hera added
Hera noticed the broken stick in James's hand
"Magic?" She asked with an impressed looked
"Yeah, I managed to somewhat cast a huge fireball before it broke" He boasted
"oh the basic spell? well if you broke the wand you kind of failed but its still impressive someone like you is actually learning" she smirked
James looked some what down after hearing this, I patted him on the back.
"if it makes you feel better, that was a fire wisp spell not fireball, the fact it look like a fireball is mighty impressive" I tried to cheer him up
Rose stepped in, "well we should get going" she then stomps out the fire.
Minutes later we were back on the trail heading towards the second nearest town to the capital city.
Dragons Reach
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Short tales
The butcher of the Iron Mountains
Beware before entering the Iron Mountains, a monster that hides in a man wanders the valley defending his territory.
He wanders the snowy mountaintops in a large coat that covers the bottom half of his face all the way to his feet. He carries a colossal great sword and swings it with ease chopping people and monsters alike.
To those who survived him they say he's a man in his early thirties, a tired look and mess black.
He once took down a small army of 100, taking minimal casualties. Some say he looks like a beast on a rampage whenever he's pushed hard enough.
Will you challenge this monster that hides as a man?