'The scavenger charged at Casey moving at a quick pace. She enhanced her legs and jumped onto its back and tried to stab it with her daggers infused with her red aura. The daggers glanced off the worms iron skin and Casey was thrown off the back of the beast.'
'Its focus shifted to me and was coming fast, I unsheathed my black blade and enhanced both my hands. I accepted its challenge of charging head on and swung with all my might. My sword collided with its blade like teeth and created a shockwave on impact launching sand and dust everywhere. Cutting off two of its many teeth, the scavenger was stopped in its path.'
'Fighting on sand was risky against this creature, the ground is unstable and I was being pushed back. Just as I was losing the battle of force a familiar hissing sound filled the air. I knew what to do immediately and hopped out the way. With a loud 'bang' a huge arrow went flying down the mouth of the scavenger, shredding its organs inside it.'
'The worm fell motionless and we moved on. The bow is incredibly loud so we moved at a faster pace as a precaution.'
'An hour or maybe more of walking I was at my limit. It was going to get dark soon and we didn't know what beasts come out at night in this place. We had reached two hills of sandstone and a suitable place to camp lay in between. A small area shaded from the sun and gave cover from the sight of desert creatures, we set up camp there in preparation for nightfall.'
'Very soon it got dark and we had eaten so we headed to sleep. I stayed lookout for a few hours and then we switched. I woke up and Casey was sitting, maintaining her bow while keeping watch.'
"Goodmorning"
"Morning"
"Anything strange happen while I slept?"
"A few more rumbles in the area ahead but nothing serious. We must take caution when moving again."
'I grabbed my equipment and soon after waking we set out again. After the sandstone hills it was flat nothingness from what we could see. We traversed the land carefully, avoiding scavengers as best we could. We accidentally got two to fight against eachother and by observing their battle we learned their iron scales were weak to blunt force. Useful information but we both use sharp weapons only.'
'We travelled for days stopping where there was cover to eat or sleep and we finally saw a figure in the distance sticking out obviously, thanks to the extremely level sand. We approached the figure to see it was a temple. It was a manmade building of stone in square shape, slightly slanted and had two big pillars on each side of a tall stairway that lead to an opening. We climbed the stairs and looked into the opening. It was a building erected by the Association to aid adventurers who were travelling the desert. The sign on the wall proved this. It is a refuge that is impenetrable by scavengers and provides cover from the sun.'
'We decided to halt our journey for a day to rest and allow ourselves to loosen up. Night came and we headed to sleep with no worries. In the middle of the night I woke up needing the bathroom and did exactly that. I went outside the temple and relieved myself. Just as I finished up I heard a 'woosh' sound. An arrow was coming for the back of my head and I had no idea.'
'Just as the arrow was about to make contact a red barrier appeared behind me blocking it. The shield covered me from head to toe behind me and seemed unbreakable. The arrow struck the shield with a sound similar to glass breaking but the barrier remained strong. I didnt know what happened. I turned to see three other adventures coming my way. The temple was barely emitting light but I could see they were just as shocked as me that the arrow didnt hit.'
'I knew my sword was inside the temple so I looked down to check if I had my daggers. When I looked down I saw the red heart on mother and father Jared's dagger glowing and thats when I realised it was an artifact and the shield was the weapons ability. My eyes watered and I said quietly "you're both still protecting me huh." The memories of our time together came rolling back to me and I felt power and courage well up inside my soul.'
'I held my daggers firm, Mothers in my right hand and enhanced to combat the oncoming attackers. I had remembered Ethan telling me that beasts and monsters are not the only threat while adventuring and I now understand what he means. Bandits that try to kill sleeping adventurers for their equipment. Disgusting. They failed to take my life and now they will lose theirs, a pity, I never wanted to have to kill a human.'
'Gritting my teeth I mentally prepared to take the life of another and gripped Mothers dagger hard, remembering our times together. In that moment I felt my soul overflow with power. All my limbs were enhanced, both arms and legs covered in a slightly translucent white aura. I didn't know why this was happening but I wasn't going to waste this power that might not last long.'
'Two were rushing towards me and the one with a bow hung in the back. The closest enemy to me was about fifteen feet away. An arrow flew at me and with my enhancement I dodged it effortlessly and closed the fifteen feet gap in a second. I impaled his throat and he was dead before he got a chance to react.'
'I felt a little sick watching his lifeless body hit the ground but I didn't have time to be stationary or regret. The second bandit flinched watching his comrade get killed so quick and he approached more cautiously. I dashed to him going for a quick, painless kill again but was blocked by his sword. Crossing his sword with one of my daggers I plunged the other deep into his gut causing him to weaken his sword grip. I parried away his sword and took him out just like the first one. I regretted making him feel pain but its me or him.'
'Just as I finished with him an arrow hit me in the shoulder causing me to flinch in pain and turn around. The bowman took advantage of the opening and fired two more. I barely dodged the first coming for my head but the second struck the back of my leg. He is good with that bow. Neither wounds were deep because of the enhancement but they still hurt and I was being overwhelmed. Just as I thought I had no hope, an arrow coming from the temples direction struck his head killing him instantly.'
'Casey ran to me asking if I was okay disregarding the fact she just killed a human. I guess naturally my life is more important to her than a bandits. After seeing her I released my enhancement and relaxed. None of my wounds were serious so we checked if they had anything useful and headed back into the temple.'
"I thought you could only enhance your two hands or feet. How did you learn arms and legs so quickly?" She said sounding slightly jealous. Its natural to be jealous, enhancing both arms and legs at the same time was a huge feat.'
"I really dont know" I said wondering the same thing.'
'Out of pure curiosity I pulled up my profile and to my surprise the answer was there.'
[Skills]- Finesse, Memory Enhancement
'Memory Enhancement?! Thats Jareds skill I thought in excitement. Did I get his skill because I took in his name?, but if so why didn't I lose [Finesse] for abandoning Ethans. Is it because I evolved the skill making it my own? So many questions with no way to get answers so I accepted it as it was. Even after leaving them, Mother and Father Jared were still indirectly looking out for me. That reminded me of the daggers ability which I needed to test out later because it didnt stop the arrows while I was fighting.'
'We got back inside and as we were about to reach the beds my leg caused me to stumble against a wall knocking blocks out of place revealing a set of stairs that went down.'
'We headed down to investigate and what we saw showed us possibly the first piece of ancient history about our world ever found.'