Michael awoke near sundown the next day. He knew he had been crying because his eyes were dry and his throat was swore. He saw that he was no longer in the crater, but he didn't bother putting up his guard.
"Finally, some quiet." Michael thought he had gone mad with grief, thinking he was hearing things. But Michael still looked into the dark forest in the direction of where he thought the voice had come from. He wished he could see in the dark. For the first time Michael noticed the notification in the corner of his eye which said Creature of Night. His vision improved, though not perfect night vision; he could see quite a bit better. He looked around the forest in wonder of the new vision he had, forgetting about the voice still writing it off as his mind playing tricks on him.
The sound of a page in a book turning caught Michael's attention. He turned to look at a tree where the sound had originated. Michael was confused at the sight before him, but he didn't care. His eyes lit up with pure child-like joy as his eyes landed on the turner of the page. Sitting in the tree in his usual work boots and light black cargo pants was Ezra, reading a leather-bound book that Michael himself couldn't read even if he tried.
The orange haze of earth magic from before enveloped Michael once more as he ran at the friend he thought had been killed, wanting to hug him and never let him go. The ground buckled under the sheer force of each step Michael took. At the sound of the stomping giant, Ezra quickly closed the book, bookmarking it with his finger, and reached down to a lower grabbing his tattered black hoodless jacket then jumped out of the way as Michael made impact with the tree he'd been sitting in for the past few hours.
Ezra turned to see if he was being charged at again. He let out a soft chuckle when he saw Michael struggling to stand up in the exact spot where a mighty oak once stood tall. Ezra let Michael kneel on the ground to regain the stamina and mana that the high tier earth magic burned through. Ezra looked around the forest, trying to find the wood from the now gone tree but could not find any.
"What happened to the tree?" Ezra asked aloud. He waited a few seconds, then nodded his head, glad that the Sage skill had abided by his request to only answer a question if he wanted it to answer the question. "Sage, what happened to the tree?"
The Sage skill then chimed to life and stated, "The impact from your friend colliding with the tree combined with the world tier earth magic that enveloped him the tree has turned into mere atoms." With its explanation finished, the Sage skill went back to sleep.
Without thinking, Ezra jumped to the side just in time to watch Michael ran past at incredible speed. Michael stopped his charge just before making another tree disappear.
"WHAT HAPPENED AND HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!" Michael shouted at Ezra. Ezra tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Explain." Michael stated, feeling stupid, thinking he should know why his friend was alive.
"So that's why you were bawling your eyes out all day," Ezra said trying to hold back the fit of laughter that was building up. "Dude, I'm immortal. And for what happened is that I got impaled from behind by a Greater Drake putting me in a semi death-like state while you somehow unlocked the highest tier of reinforcement earth magic and smashed the drake into the ground making that perfectly flat clearing in to a TEN FOOT DEEP CRATER."
"Well, I am the protagonist of the group, since I am the strongest in the group and also the leader." Michael said with an aura of smug pride about him.
"I don't think the protagonist would bawl his eyes out for almost twenty-four hours straight." Ezra said in a way that made Michael's smug aura disappear. "We gonna need shelter while you regain the mana you had lost after vaporizing that tree"
"Fine, fine. I'm gonna find firewood and fire starters." Michael said, as the fatigue of not having any mana hit him.
Ezra did not stop him knowing it would hurt Michael's dignity even more. "Since your crying might have compromised this place. I'm gonna find a place new to rest. Oh, and get big logs, we might need them." Ezra said, walking between the line of plains and forest until he found an open spot with little trees.
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As Michael walked through the forest, breaking branches of trees as he walked. He soon came across the crater, with the Greater Drake at the bottom. He also heard the sound of what sounded like a female child crying. Michael looked around for a few minutes, looking for the source.
Michael slid down the side of the crater when he couldn't find the crying child on the outside of the crater. He quickly found the child trying to dig the drake's head free. She was dark-skinned with long black hair and pointed ears. You'd think she was royalty with her gold accented black dress if her hands and legs weren't chained together with a metal choker around her neck that was inscribed with many ruins.
"What the-" Michael whispered to himself. He stared in bewilderment at the girl before composing himself. "Are you a slave?" Michael asked the girl after a few seconds of silence, with hatred in his voice. The girl turned around and terror filled her eyes at the sight of the seven foot tall monster that asked her a question. Tears ran down her multicolored eyes. One eye was a deep brown while the other was a graveyard grey with blood shot whites, which gave Michael a sense of familiarity. She quickly bowed, pressing her face to the ground.
"Ni'm sorrime, please apsene- me!" the girl said, but the language confused Michael, which the girl quickly realized and corrected her speech. "Forgive me for my messy attire. To make up for my insolence and the filthy clothing I wear, I shall remove them for your viewing pleasure." the little girl said, blurting the words out in human tongue with a monotone voice as if she had said it a thousand times before.
"No, stop." Michael said in a deadpan tone, which surprised the little girl, but she did as she was told and let her dress fall back over her knees. The dark girl looked down in shame as if she knew why he said no. Feeling tears threaten her eyes.
"That is understandable. I am nothing but a useless, hideous creature." said the little girl as tears ran down her cheeks. Michael walked up to the dead drake to see the work the girl had been doing. The ground was compact and hard as stone and for however long the girl had been there, she had done nothing but leave scratches. He knelt down and started digging his hands went in and out of the dirt effortlessly, as if it were water.
"Are you going to answer my question?" Michael asked the girl who was starting to bow once more, "I swear if I turn around and you're bowing, I'm going to do something neither of us will enjoy." The girl stopped and sat up straight, not wanting to know what the man thought was unenjoyable when she could clearly see the man having fun digging dirt.
"I know I am nothing more than an insignificant, useless slave, but could you repeat your question, sir?" the little girl said as she straightened her dress, trying to make herself more presentable for the man in front of her, who was the first man that had declined her offer to strip for his viewing pleasure.
"No," Michael stated. He stood up and dusted himself off as he finished digging the drake out of the ground. "Thanks for answering my question. Now I have a side quest to do that ain't vague like the quest I was given by the All Father." Michael picked up the drake and tossed it out of the crater with ease, trying to contain his anger.
"Sir, I know I am-" the little girl started.
"If you degrade yourself in any way, I'm going to be mad." Michael said without turning around. The little girl took a moment to think, since she hadn't been able to start a sentence without putting herself down in a long time.
"Sir, who are you?" the little girl asked, wondering how he threw a beast of such mass with ease.
Michael's eye lit up and stood up proudly as if he had been waiting for that very question his whole life. He rubbed his nose and then said, "I'm just a guy that like to stay in shape." Before climbing out of the crater, Michael walked up to the girl and broke the chains that bound her arms and legs, then climbed out of the crater and grabbed the dead drake by the tail, which was twenty feet from the crater's edge.
A voice shouted his name from a ways away. Michael ripped off one of the drake's mossy scales and tossed it down to the girl. "I forget things very easily, so if you ever see me after this and need help, show me that and I'll hopefully remember." Michael said then walked off, forgetting the branches at the bottom of the crater next to the girl.
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Taking a deep breath, Ezra yelled, "MI-CHA-EL!" calling his friend to hear footsteps of his approaching brawns. Sure enough, he heard the footsteps of a familiar boot bearing boy with untied laces with the sound of something being dragged. Michael soon appeared, dragging the dead drake behind him with something that resembled a deer over his shoulder.
"First I have dinner, second why would you compromise this place too? You're going to attract unwanted company." Michael scoffed.
"Or scare away unwanted company." Ezra replied calmly, going to a tree and climbing it effortlessly. His eyes looked over Michael and the dead drake as if nothing was unordinary. His eye then landed on the petite figure which stood just with in the darkness of the forest. Ezra pointed at the figure and said, "What is that?"
"What do you think? It's a dead body, it'll be useful." Michael asked, seeing the expression of shock and anger on Ezra's face.
"YOU WERE GONE FOR-"Ezra stopped his sentence short then burst into laughter saying, "You're talking about the drake aren't you?"
"Yeah, what else would I be taking about? I killed it. I ge-" Michael stopped mid-sentence short as his gaze landed on the familiar little girl that stood within the shadows of the forest. The bottom of her beautiful golden black dress had been torn. A hint of horror entered Michael's eyes as he looked at the girl's shredded clothes, thinking something had happened to the girl since he left her in the crater.
Michael soon noticed the branches she was carrying on her back, which were bound by the same fabric that made up the missing cloth from her clothing, and she hugged the scale to her chest. Michael cocked his head in confusion to wonder why the girl had followed him.
At the sight of the confused man, she presented the scale she had been hugging to her chest to Michael. "Killer of the eighth general to the Unbound One's army. I, an insignificant elven slave, have a request for you." the Elven girl said.
Ezra pinched the bridge of his nose as he watched the encounter. "This is your problem. Also, you're gonna have to be the one to carry that dead drake everywhere we go." Ezra yawned out to Michael.
"Fine, whatever." Michael said before turning back to the girl, "What's your name?" Michael asked the little girl as he kneeled down to eye level with her.
"My name is Miu Blackstone Whitmore." the little girl called Miu said in a regal tone as she curtsied. Michael waved his hand, letting her know to continue.
"Would you mind repeating your name?" Ezra interjected before Miu could speak. Miu nodded, then repeated her name, making Ezra nod his head and say, "I'll keep that in mind."
As if remembering something far more important Miu's calm and regal demeanor changed quickly changed to a pleading and begging one. "Please be my new master." Miu said as she bowed to Michael, the person she wished to be her new master.
The request took Michael aback. He took a moment to compose himself before speaking, "Why not?" he said, glad to have someone to talk to when he and Ezra get into a fight.
"Ow." Ezra said, which made Michael turn around. He saw Ezra holding his hand, Michael once again cocked his head, but this time in curiosity. "I tried slapping you upside the head. I guess I can't use my hand anymore." Ezra stated as he held his hand. A loud growl came from Michael's stomach, which was followed by another one from behind him. He turned to look at Miu, who was holding her stomach.
"I'm not hungry, master." Miu said sheepishly as she held her stomach. Michael tosses the deer looking creature he had been carrying on his shoulder on the ground and began looking for thin rock he could sharpen. he felt the ping of something hit him on the back of the head.
"You killed it, you skin it." Ezra said from his perch in a tree as he read his other worldly books. At Michael's feet was the perfect rock. He skin the deer with ease but it wasn't the prettiest work he had done. Michael tried his best to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, but no matter how hard he rubbed, he couldn't start one.
Michael then looked over at Ezra who said, "You killed it, you skinned it, you're cooking it," without looking up from his book from the tree in which he perched. Michael continued to rub the two sticks together, but to no avail. He then looked over at Miu, who looked at him in confusion, curious about why Michael didn't use his magic.
"Do you know how to start a fire?" Michael asked the little girl, ashamed that he had to ask a child to help him start a fire. Miu put up a single finger. The heat vanished from the air but quickly returned as a violet flame appeared at the tip of Miu's finger. The flame disappeared and Miu collapsed to the ground. Michael rushed to her side, worried.
"I don't know much about magic or mana, whatever you want to call that shit but you over used it, didn't you?" Michael asked, worry ingrained in his voice. Miu then waved her hand and a white mist then covered her. Miu writhed in pain as the mist grew thicker. "What just happened?" Michael asked the elf when the mist finally disappeared and her writhing stopped.
"I only exist to serve now." Miu stated implying she had not always existed to serve, as she sat up she notice the look of concern did not vanish from Michael's face so she said "I converted life-force into mana. But please do not concern yourself, Master, with a lowly slave such as myself."
"To put one's life at risk for someone they barely know is the height of stupidity. And to do it for something as stupid as lighting a campfire that just makes you the current god of idiots." Ezra said from behind Michael as if appearing from the shadows making Michael jumped back in surprise.
Michael shook his finger at Ezra and said, "Appear from thin air one more time, and I'll make Vlad the Impaler look like a kid's birthday clown." Ezra just shook his head, not caring at all. He then looks at the little elf girl as if waiting for a response. Michael then remembers that both of them were masochists.
"Thank you for your great wisdom, Master Dark." Miu said, bowing to Ezra.
"My name is Ezra, not Dark." Ezra told the little girl, who looked up at the two men in fear, then pressed her face to the ground. She then lifted her head up to explain.
"Forgive me for my insolence for assuming your name, Master Ezra. For you see, you resemble someone I knew long ago." Miu explained with a tone that suggest that she was trying to avoid a punishment which she didn't know was never going to exist. "Whatever punishment you deem necessary, I will accept full heartedly." Miu said, pressing her face to the ground when she saw the blank expression on Ezra's face, thinking that she was still going to be punished.
"Just don't call me anything else besides my name and we'll call it even. And drop the master bit. It'll just go to my head." Ezra said, bored by the conversation, wanting to return to his book. Miu looked at Ezra with thankfulness for such a merciful punishment. A growl came from Ezra's stomach. He then walked into Michael's direction, and as he passed by Michael, he said, "Cook that damn deer, Michael, I'm getting hungry." Ezra then climbed the tree he had been sitting in prior.
Michael quickly got to work because he himself was hungry, too. "Can you light the fire? But use a weaker fire spell this time," Michael asked Miu. Miu obliged and lit the fire with her magical flames. Michael grabbed the three longest sticks from the pile of wood he had forgotten at the crater, but Miu brought with her. He ran one through the dead deer and firmly planted the other two into the ground on either side of the fire. He rested the stick that held the deer on the two that bordered the fire and began to turn it. As Michael worked, in the corner of his eye, a notification popped up and said Chef Skill unlocked.
"I'm getting hungrier and hungrier by the minute." Ezra stated almost an hour after Michael began to spin the deer over the fire.
Michael stopped mid rotation and glared at Ezra, saying. "You can't rush perfection." Ezra just shook his head and continued to read his books. Five minutes after the interruption, Michael took the deer off the roasting pike and cut the deer. He gave some to Miu and tossed Ezra's piece at him, who caught it without looking from his book.
Michael almost threw up multiple times as he chowed down, but he felt like he was starving so he ignored his tastebuds and ate, anyway. As Michael ate, he noticed Miu hadn't taken a single bite yet. "I know it horrible but you need to eat." Michael told Miu, gesturing to the food.
Miu then touched the collar around her neck and said, "This signifies my place in this world." She said no more, as if that was all the explanation needed. But the expression Michael held showed that it was not. She let her hand drop from the collar, looked into Michael's eyes and said, "This collar tells everyone that I am a slave. As long as this rests around my neck, I can do nothing of my own accord. I can only do as I am told to do."
"Then how have you been able to do as you wish thus far?" Ezra asked through a mouth full of horrible other-worldly deer meat. Michael looked over in Ezra's direction, who bookmarked his book with not his finger, but what looked like a piece of paper. He climbed from his tree, tossed what was left of what was supposed to be called food into the forest, and walked over to Miu.
"My masters ordered me to be a sacrifice to the eighth general to the Unbound One's army: Draushum Ithquent the Dragon general." Miu paused as tear ran down her different colored eyes and pointed at the dead drake behind Michael, "Since the order was so vague, I was given temporary free will. And up until now, the collar itself had not realised that the task they gave me is impossible to finish. Since it can't be finished, I no longer have free will."
"Since I am your new master, I order you to remove that collar and eat, then." Michael said to Miu.
"That is not how it works." Miu said sadly, as she shook her head in dismay, "If you are to be my true new master, ownership of the collar must be transferred. And without the proper magic, removal of the collar would be impossible. Even if you had the strength to break the Dwarven mithril, the collar was made from the spell that is infused in it has the ability to permanently incapacitate or even kill the strongest of beasts if any attempt to remove the collar by force is done."
Being the moron he can be, Michael crawled towards Miu to make an attempt at removing the collar. Michael felt a hand grab his shoulder, and he turned to see Ezra right at his side. The glint of intrigue in Ezra's grey told Michael that he himself would be going second.
"I have an idea you could try if you'd let me speak." the Sage Skill spoke. Ezra then nodded his head, letting the Sage speak. When it finished explaining its idea to Ezra, then made a move towards Miu and wrapped his fingers around the collar. Michael watched as Ezra's body fell limp to the ground. Michael could not see but could feel the void where his friend's body lay as if the life in the exact spot no longer existed.
A feeling of worry filled Michael, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared when he remembered his friend was immortal. Miu looked at the void where Ezra's lifeless body sat. She looked over at Michael as tears welled in her eyes, and she was opening her mouth as if to apologize, but before she could a voice said, "Wow, that was unexpected." Miu turned to see Ezra sitting up as if meeting with death was nothing more than two old friends catching up as they sipped on tea.
"My turn, my turn." Michael said, springing to his feet and rushed over to Miu to make an attempt at removing the collar. Miu didn't react to the sudden burst of excitement she couldn't she was to baffled by the man who faced death and brushed it off like it was normal. Michael wrapped his fingers around the collar and began to try pulling the collar apart. But what happened to him was different from what he was told would happen. He was not killed like Ezra was or incapacitated. Instead, what happened to him was as if an invisible force pried his fingers free from the collar and shoved him into the nearest tree.
The tree was snapped in half from the force. Michael stayed in the tree as if unconscious. As he stood up, a bright orange haze covered Michael from head to toe. He rushed over to Miu once more, grabbing the collar with both his hand refusing to let go. The force tried its best to remove Michael's grip from the collar, but all it could do was whip Michael in the air like a piece of paper in the wind.
Michael planted his feet firmly into the ground. The orange haze intensified, his muscles tensed, veins popped and in an instant the collar broke in two. Michael fell to the ground. Blood trickled out of the corner of his eye. Michael sat up and looked at Miu with his red, fogged eyes.
Miu was touching her neck with a look of astonishment on her face. "No more collar, no more chains, no more masters." Michael said, closing his eyes and collapsing to the ground. Ezra and Miu rushed over to Michael. Before Ezra could make an attempted Miu stretched out her arms and a lime light came from her hands. Michael's body healed within seconds. The blood that ran down his cheeks disappeared, sinking back into his body.
Miu tried to push him back to the ground, but she was too weak to do so. And though Michael was at death's door, he still had the energy to give a cocky grin. "You're free to do as you wish from now on." Michael said as he coughed up blood.
"Why do something so stupid?" Ezra said in a worried tone instead of his usual bored one. Michael just shrugged his shoulders like he usually would after doing something dumb.
"So what are you doing with your freedom?" Michael asked Miu, making her remove her attention from her neck.
"I will journey with you, Master." Miu said confidently, as if it had been her goal in life since birth to serve the two men in front of her. Michael and Ezra then shared a look with each other.
"Are you sure?" Ezra asked Miu.
Before she could give a response, Michael interrupted, sounding serious, dropping his normal joking and playful tone, and said, "Before you make your answer, you have to know. We come from another world, we were sent here to even out an inbalance. The journey will be dangerous. There is a high chance you may die. And since we have no ties to this, we will kill without remorse. You will see people die and entire villages perish." Michael swallowed some spit, took a deep breath and said, "So I ask you, a person who was born in this world, are you ok with that? Are you ok with watching people of your world die before your eyes? And putting your own life on the line?"
Miu looked at Michael and the look in her eyes told him her answer before she said a word. "I'm still coming with you. I need to pay my debts to you for freeing me." Miu said, sounding like an adult and not the child they thought she was.
"Then is settled. Welcome to the crew Miu." Michael said, as he raised the deer's leg to his mouth, taking a huge bite out of it. Michael noticed that Miu still had not taken a bite of the food that laid in front of her. He swallowed the bite that was his mouth, "Miu," Michael said, getting her attention, "I said the journey ahead of us will be dangerous. It is possible that we'll wake up tomorrow and not be one of the living." He pauses to take another bite from the deer he held in his hand. "So I'm going to make a rule from this day forward. We're going to live everyday like it's our last. We'll do what every we want and when food is put in front of us, we'll eat like royalty and stuff ourselves like pigs." Michael then pointed at the slab of meat in front of Miu and said, "So as the one an only order I'll give you as a master is to chow down because that might be the last meal you ever have."
Miu smiled ear to ear and ate like a ravenous beast. She left nothing but bone. When they finished their meal, Michael put out the fire. He then walked over to the dead drake and sat between its legs, and used its tail like a makeshift blanket.
"Remember that dead drake is your problem." Ezra said yawning from the tree in which he sat.
"Fine." was all Michael said before closing his eyes. A rustle made Michael open his eyes. He looked down at his side and saw Miu shaking as if cold. Michael moved the tail of the dead beast so he could remove his coat. He then draped the red-black jacket over Miu, which made her cold shakes stop. He then moved the tail back over his lap.
That night, Michael struggled to sleep for a time since his mind was racing with ideas of the exciting adventures that were ahead of them. In the corner of Michael's eye, a notification said, 'Warning Spiritual Intrusion' but he was too tired to notice it. A shudder ran down his spine when he eventually let sleep take hold, but he chalked it up to nothing more than the chilly night air. Unaware that it was something else, something that would aid in the voyage ahead.