"Not again! Fuck you Albert!"
Alric let out a loud shout out of his frustration. He couldn't have believed that he had fallen into the same trap twice now, but he did.
he felt really disappointed by himself, not likeing one bit how he fell for the same trick twice.
but now was not the time to ponder over this trivial matter.
just when he was getting ready to use his ability to get out of Melissa's grasp, he reminded, where he was, he couldn't ran anywhere, he was now out of operations, he gave up.
Melissa just looked at Albert and smiled "good work voice captain"
Albert smiled to "no worries captain"
Alric eyes started to tear up, he felt like he was about to start crying any moment now, but he just couldn't, not now at least, maybe at night in his room when it was all dark and no one could see him.
Melissa just simply jumped from the deck of the ship gripped alric like he was some starry cat.
Alric wanted to rebell, he wanted to ran, he wanted to be free, to not go in that dame forest, it looked like a literal death zone... or it was one at best! But in the end he just didn't do anything, not because he couldn't, simply because even if he dose so... it will be futile, nothing alric could do would work... yes he could have gotten out of her grasp useing his powers, but in the end he would have still ended up having to go in the forest, he had no choice here.
And according to what Melissa told him, alric was supposed to kill a literal titan in that forest.. he simply did not know how would he even go against a titan... forget about killing one.
Albert and the rest of the crew finished packing up there equipment and soon they all started to follow Melissa who was still holding alric from the back of his neck like he was a cat.
Alric felt hopeless.
A shiver ran down his spine as Melissa took a step into the thick and vile fog that was covering the wast expanse of the primordial forest carrying him, he then slowly gulped, feeling cold.
Melissa kept walking in deeper into the gigantic trees that made up an entire forest who knew how big it truly was.
If he knew correctly, this land was approximately around the same size of the entire human continent, or even bigger.
And the fact that this was only one of the tens of continents that humans and the others have explored made him shutter in fear. And those were not even the end of it... who knew how many more continents there truly was.
Finally recovering from the hopeless, alric found new determination within him even in the situation he was in. "OK! OK! Put me down, I won't ran, infact I don't even have anywhere to ran now!" Fed up of being carried alric shouted.
Melissa just let go of her grip on him causing alric to fall on his face.
But this time thankfully alrics nose did not break.
"Ah! That hurt!" Alric shouted as he covered his nose.
Melissa tried hardly to suppress her laughter and she even almost failed at doing so.
Alric got up from the ground and dusted his cloths off a little.
They all started walking again and alric was right behind Melissa seeking her shelter... or maybe trying to use her like a meat shield.
"Aaaaaa!" Melissa let out a flustered growl "it's just a titan boy! Nothing much!"
Alric lost his mind "nothing much? The fuck you mean nothing much!? It's a dame titan!"
"And your a user" Melissa countered
"So what!? I'm literally just a teenager!" Alric did not back down.
Melissa sighed lightly keeping on walking "and I was ten when I killed my first titan. You have no excuses boy, what's your age? 30? 40?"
Alric was speechless, seriously? Ten?... he couldn't say anything he could just think that it was a lie... but when he looked at that woman's face... he knew it, it was the truth... how did he know? Well ofcorse he knew, how couldn't he, he was a lier himself, and best of the royal palace at that... after all, he grew up in the royal palace, and he had to lie more perfectly then those lieing bastards. So he knew it... she was saying the truth... just the. He remembered something else she said...
"30!? 40!? The fuck you mean by 30, 40!? Huh!? I am 16 OK!"
Melissa just chuckled and alric realized it, she was just teasing him.
"You dame woman!"
Just when he said that, a loud noise echoed through the gigantic trees.
Alric hugged Melissa's right arm tightly like a child seeking protection from his mother when his father was trying to beat him.
And was it just him or that voice sounded like... crying? What could possibly create that noice just by crying? That mosterus cry was probably coming out of a just hatched out of an egg titan...
"That's your target" Melissa informed alric.
"Wait... wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait what? No! No!... no, no, no, no, no, no, no" Alric rebelled while still hugging Melissa's right arm tightly
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, now go!" Melissa did not back down even en inch.
Seeing no choice alric let go off her arm and stood up straight. "You will protect me if anything happens right?" Alric asked with puppy eyes.
"It's just a baby! You can do it OK!" Melissa scolded him "and yes, we will protect you... ain't that right mister vice captain?" Melissa said with a smirk looking at Albert.
Albert carefully slaped Alric's back with just enough Forse for him to not lose his balance like he did before.
And Alric carefully stood on ground trying not to loss his balance and embarrassing himself like he did before.
"Good luck, good luck, you can do it alric! You can do it!" Albert cheered alric and soon the rest of the crew started to chant alics name... Melissa did not join but just smiled darkly... remembering that bloody night... where she killed her own first titan... she had almost died at that night, fighting a titan at mearly the age of ten was a grate fleet, infact she did not even knew of someone who had ever done something like her before. That night was like a scar to her... a scar that would never he healed.
"Melissa... Melissa... Melissa!" Alric shouted trying to get Melissa out of her dream world.
Melissa decided to let go of the past for now.
"I don't think this dagger would do shit on that thing" alric placed his beautifully made dark dagger into Melissa's hands.
"We'll see about that" she placed the dark dagger back into Alrics hands.
"W-what? Can't you just give me a... good weapon? You know, how you usually... pull out weapons" Melissa raised an eyebrow to that strange sentencing.
She then slowly sighed and her hand reached into the gap between her breasts, there was a small pouch in between of her breasts... she then processed to pull out a beautiful long knife that was sharp and thin, seemed to made out of some dark emerald and black colour metarals from that pouch.
She handed that long knife to alric.
Alric was still not used to well... seeing this and before he could think deeper about this matter.
"Don't think anything weird ok, it's a pouch made by the user of space" alric finally felt peace, sighed heavily he thought 'Why haven't I thought about this before, I was scared for nothing I guess'
"Oh... ok... sure, must have been expensive" alric replied to her.
"It was" Melissa replied to.
The creature let out a loud cry again but this time alric did not shutter in fear like he did before, he was ready, he was ready to kill that son of a bitch.
Or so it just seemed like it, deep down within his heart, he was still afraid, afraid that he would not make it in time, afraid that Melissa and Albert and the crew would not make it in time, afraid that would might happen to him if he failed to kill that thing, afraid that what if he happen to die while trying to kill that fucking thing?, afraid that what would happen to him after he had died trying to fight that thing?, he was afraid of the thing they called death... from which you can not return not no more enjoy the sweet fruits of life.
He let out a exaggerated sigh, no matter how scared shit he was, at the end of the day he still had to do it, not because Melissa had told him to do so and not because Albert had told him to do so, he had to do it...he had to do it... if he wanted to get stronger, as strong as Melissa and Albert, he wanted to be there equal now, yes! He had a new dream to chase now... to get stronger, to become a force to be reckoned with.