“Haaaaaa…..” Tor let out a deep sigh as he leaned back onto the fake rocks that lined the sides of the open-air hot spring. A wet white cloth covered the upper half of his face as his head tilted back to rest on the rocks, while his arms were fully extended to the sides. Half of his chest was exposed above the waterline, exposing numerous scars that had recently healed. There was even one across the left side of his neck, standing out extremely clearly with his neck arched back. Being near to the entrance, Tor’s display of scars had scared away the other patrons that had came in after him, causing them to quickly move away after giving him a glance, not wanting to court trouble for themselves.
Behind closed eyes, Tor was thinking back to the operation to bust a drug-process factory that had happened two days back. What he was recalling in particular was the battle against Rend. Not all dark guilds in Fiore were all focusing on disrupting balance to the world or trying to conquer the world as the strongest guild of mages. Most of the dark guilds were criminal organizations, using their numbers and their magic to cause unrest on a smaller scale. These guilds were also more focused towards increasing their territory of activities as long as fattening their wallets. Things like world conquest were hardly on the minds of the higherups of such organizations.
And in the circle of these criminal organizations, from which Tor had once belonged to, was one of the more fearsome figures. Unlike most powerhouses of these criminal organizations who were mages, Rend was not capable of using magic. Instead, he made a name for himself as a ruthless enforcer via his magic weapons and his skills with them. He was regarded highly as any other powerful mages, capable of fighting on par with them despite his lack of magic. This was the same man that had been Tor’s opponent. An opponent that would have surely tore him apart had he not been able to use his magic with some trickery to get an opening.
Another long and heavy sigh came out of his mouth as he thought back to how close defeat was.
‘I need to do something about my melee skills, I guess.’
Tor got out of the hot spring after fifteen minutes. As he was exiting the baththouse, the Rune Knight noticed that everyone on the streets were speaking loudly and as he tuned into those conversations, he began to realize that they were all talking about the same thing. Something about an attack outside of town.
“Do you know what everyone is talking about?” Tor asked the cashier near the entrance of the bathhouse.
“They are talking about the merchant caravans that were attacked outside of town. A group of the merchants managed to escape from the attack and ran here to ask for help,” the originally lazy cashier suddenly spoke with spirited interest. “They said it was monsters from Sakuramori that had travelled away from their hunting grounds.”
“What?! When did that happen?” Tor asked with a surprised tone.
“The merchants just burst into town some ten minutes ago on horseback. I think the Rune Knights are organizing a rescue party at the moment but no one seems to have seen them set out yet,” the cashier replied with a shrug. He was leaning on the counter on his elbows, trying to peek out from behind his counter at the people outside the streets.
‘No! The local Knights took quite some damage when they clashed with the security around the drug factory the other day.’
‘It probably won’t be possible for them to assemble a team in time.’
The moment those thoughts crossed his mind, a decision had already been made in his mind. Without waiting, Tor ran out of the bathhouse and looked up and down the street. In his haste, he had forgotten his etiquette and just caught the arm of the nearest person and shook them.
“Where did the merchants on horseback go?”
The arm that he had caught and shook belonged to a man taller and sturdier than Tor, and normally he wouldn’t have taken such behavior but the moment the larger man looked at Tor, he flinched. A rare ferocity was displayed across Tor’s face as he waited impatiently for the answer.
“East of town, there!” the larger man replied equally hastily, being extra helpful by pointing Tor in the correct direction.
“Thanks!” was all Tor shouted back as his entire body crackled with lightning and disappeared right in front of the larger man. The next instance of his appearance, Tor was on top of a roof at the far end of the street before disappearing once again in a burst of lightning. The large man took a big gulp as he stared at the disappearing mage, the clenched fist by his side going limp from relief.
Boosting his speed with his Lightning Magic to the extreme, Tor was like a lightning demon as he sprinted down the road towards the site of the attack. The sounds of the monster attack reached him first.The furious roars of the monsters were the first to reach him, and Tor pressed on for one last burst of speed to arrive as quickly as possible. Several lightning spears were already primed to attack, hovering above him as he rounded a corner in the road and got full visual of the scene.
In the middle of the road, an earthen structure had been erected via magic to defend themselves against the monster attacks. The repeated bashing of the Kestodons as they stubbornly continued to rear back and then throw themselves against the earth walls, hammering the walls with their large and strong head crests. A few of them tried to run up the sloping walls, hoping to get over the walls and at their prey.
‘They probably only have one mage protecting them. That mage’s probably not gonna last long against these monsters too.’
Scattered around the walled up section of the road were the broken remains of the merchant caravans and whatever goods they were carrying. They were all shattered beyond salvation, their wares trampled underfoot by the monsters. A few horses were on their sides, some already dead and with chunks of meat missing while there was a couple that were still holding their heads up and neighing pitifully. The wounds from the headbutts of the Kestodons could be seen clearly on the horses where certain parts of their bodies had been smashed in.
The pack was large, almost twenty of them with a majority of males with their large crests while the rest were females that were still plenty deadly with just their bony skulls. Their true danger was in their charging speed. Their powerful leg muscles could give them the acceleration they need, giving them enough inertia within seconds to knock down the strongest of foes. And when they attack in droves, not many predators would dare to take them down if they moved in a group.
Tor was quickly noticed by some of the Kestodons on the fringe of the group, and he was immediately their next target. The monsters were already frustrated with the earthen wall that they hadn’t been able to breach and now a new target was there for them to bully.
The lightning spears behind Tor shot out with a wave of his left hand, a total of six spears singing through the air as two spears attacked one target each. The Kestodons hit by the lightning spears dropped to the ground immediately, but it wasn’t enough to kill them. Tor knew that much. His right hand then moved up to his back, ready to pull out his sword from its sheath but when his fingers gripped nothing but air over where his sword hilt would usually be, Tor almost stopped in his tracks.
“I have no more weapons left!” Tor shouted in frustration. Every single one of his weapons had been destroyed in the drug-busting operation two days ago. He hadn’t had the chance to restock yet, which was supposed to be his top priority after going back to Era.
‘Got no choice then..”
Lightning spears continued to be created around him as Tor skirted the group of Kestodons chasing after him, occasionally throwing some in the direction of the ones that were still adamantly attacking the earthen barrier which was protecting the rest of the merchants that couldn’t get away. There were some times when the lightning spears glanced off the head crests of the male Kestodons, prompting a raised eyebrow from Tor but it was nothing he would give too much thought to. He just had to avoid those parts.
When he saw that the situation was slowly turning in his favor, the lightning-struck Kestodons’ speed sufficiently slowed down by Tor’s continuous bombardment of lightning spears, Tor made preparations to change his attack pattern. Just as he covered his entire body with lightning and charged into the horde of Kestodons chasing after him, Tor could see the silhouette of a lightning-fast figure cutting in from the back of the horde.
The Rune Knight pressed on with his attack, the lightning around his hands forming claws as he leapt from one Kestodon to another, aiming for their neck and cutting them down without reservation. In the opposite direction, the figure he had seen earlier was doing the same thing but with a pair of swords. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the dual swordsman flitting through the Kestodons that he hadn’t attacked yet, his weapons slicing here and there with impeccable precision and speed, cutting down the Kestodons within seconds.
When the two of them were finally done with their share, the two men stood upright and looked at each other. Tor was slightly surprised to find the extraordinary display of swordsmanship to come from an extremely sturdy middle-aged man. Apart from the wrinkles on his face and short grey hair that indicated his age, everything about the man’s physique spoke otherwise. In fact, facing the man and the atmosphere he was giving off, Tor felt he was standing in front of a ferocious beast as well. The Kestodons had felt the pressure coming off the swordsman as well, those besieging the earthen barrier had turned around and aimed their heads at the swordsman, preparing to charge him.
The presence of the swordsman gave Tor a sense of ease, which slowed down his reaction speed in response to the Kestodon’s charge. However, the swordsman was unfazed. Flipping his grip on his swords from a normal grip to a reverse grip, the swordsman lunged into charging monsters and began swinging his swords. Tor was a beat slower but he wasn’t going to let the swordsman fight this battle alone.
Generating a blade of lightning in his right hand, Tor leapt into the fray as well. Together, the two of them tore through the remaining monster. After fifteen minutes, the two of them were finally the only ones standing. Tor released his hold over the lightning blade and allowed it to disperse. He looked over at the earthen barrier and just as he was about to walk over, the sound of hooves thundered down the road. It was the merchants that had gone to ask for help along with another group on horses.
“Your actions were very commendable, young man. My name is Soshiro Hoshina, Deputy Leader of the Radiant Fang Guild,” the older swordsman introduced himself as he turned around to look at Tor, reversing his grip on his weapons before sliding them back into the sheaths on his back.
“I’m Tor Fulgur, a Rune Knight. I was in Hosenka and heard the news. The local Knights were unable to prepare a team to handle this, so I went on ahead to act first,” Tor replied with a thin smile.
“Ahh I see. Truly commendable indeed. The Rune Knights should be proud to have you in their ranks. Your skills with your sword would be a great addition to the Radiant Fang Guild, if ever you find yourself interested,” Soshiro said as he laughed out loud. At the same time, another man from the group that had followed along with the merchants to rescue the trapped ones walked over to Soshiro.
“Deputy Leader, sorry for arriving late!” the man spoke apologetically but Soshiro merely smiled.
“It’s okay, I was just walking around here and chanced on this situation. You guys did well to offer your assistance to the merchants,” Soshiro praised and gave the young man a big clap on shoulders. “Go along. Help them coordinate and then we will return to town.”
As the two conversed, Tor struggled with a question that had been itching at the back of his mind when he saw the powerful swordsmanship the older man executed. His dilemma was unknowingly displayed on his face and when the two men of the Bright Fang Guild finally finished speaking, Soshiro looked at the young Rune Knight’s conflicted expression with concern.
“Are you okay, Tor? You seem unwell.”
Pulled out of his thoughts by Soshiro and slightly embarrassed that his dilemma had been noticed, Tor was about to brush off the question with a polite remark when he suddenly remembered again how he had been so thoroughly defeated by Rend. At the thought of that, every doubt and reservation that he had on his mind was pushed away and he looked back at Soshiro with a determined glance. He would do anything to become stronger.
“Deputy Leader Hoshina,” Tor suddenly started referring to the older man formally. “Would you accept me as a disciple? I would like to learn swordsmanship from you.”
Soshiro Hoshina was caught off guard by the question, the turn of events unexpected. However, the stunned older man quickly regained his composure and began to guffaw loudly as he evaluated the situation he was in. The older man looked at Tor with an appraising look, and thought back to how Tor had performed with the lightning sword and then finally nodded in response to Tor’s earnest and longing look.
“Well, the Radiant Fang Guild was originally planning to stay in Hosenka for one week. And what you can learn in this one week is entirely up to yourself,” Soshiro spoke up again as he straightened his posture, arms crossed across his chest, a great smile on his face. “Let’s see what you are made of, Tor Fulgur.”
“Thank you, Master Soshiro!”
[2438 words]
Behind closed eyes, Tor was thinking back to the operation to bust a drug-process factory that had happened two days back. What he was recalling in particular was the battle against Rend. Not all dark guilds in Fiore were all focusing on disrupting balance to the world or trying to conquer the world as the strongest guild of mages. Most of the dark guilds were criminal organizations, using their numbers and their magic to cause unrest on a smaller scale. These guilds were also more focused towards increasing their territory of activities as long as fattening their wallets. Things like world conquest were hardly on the minds of the higherups of such organizations.
And in the circle of these criminal organizations, from which Tor had once belonged to, was one of the more fearsome figures. Unlike most powerhouses of these criminal organizations who were mages, Rend was not capable of using magic. Instead, he made a name for himself as a ruthless enforcer via his magic weapons and his skills with them. He was regarded highly as any other powerful mages, capable of fighting on par with them despite his lack of magic. This was the same man that had been Tor’s opponent. An opponent that would have surely tore him apart had he not been able to use his magic with some trickery to get an opening.
Another long and heavy sigh came out of his mouth as he thought back to how close defeat was.
‘I need to do something about my melee skills, I guess.’
Tor got out of the hot spring after fifteen minutes. As he was exiting the baththouse, the Rune Knight noticed that everyone on the streets were speaking loudly and as he tuned into those conversations, he began to realize that they were all talking about the same thing. Something about an attack outside of town.
“Do you know what everyone is talking about?” Tor asked the cashier near the entrance of the bathhouse.
“They are talking about the merchant caravans that were attacked outside of town. A group of the merchants managed to escape from the attack and ran here to ask for help,” the originally lazy cashier suddenly spoke with spirited interest. “They said it was monsters from Sakuramori that had travelled away from their hunting grounds.”
“What?! When did that happen?” Tor asked with a surprised tone.
“The merchants just burst into town some ten minutes ago on horseback. I think the Rune Knights are organizing a rescue party at the moment but no one seems to have seen them set out yet,” the cashier replied with a shrug. He was leaning on the counter on his elbows, trying to peek out from behind his counter at the people outside the streets.
‘No! The local Knights took quite some damage when they clashed with the security around the drug factory the other day.’
‘It probably won’t be possible for them to assemble a team in time.’
The moment those thoughts crossed his mind, a decision had already been made in his mind. Without waiting, Tor ran out of the bathhouse and looked up and down the street. In his haste, he had forgotten his etiquette and just caught the arm of the nearest person and shook them.
“Where did the merchants on horseback go?”
The arm that he had caught and shook belonged to a man taller and sturdier than Tor, and normally he wouldn’t have taken such behavior but the moment the larger man looked at Tor, he flinched. A rare ferocity was displayed across Tor’s face as he waited impatiently for the answer.
“East of town, there!” the larger man replied equally hastily, being extra helpful by pointing Tor in the correct direction.
“Thanks!” was all Tor shouted back as his entire body crackled with lightning and disappeared right in front of the larger man. The next instance of his appearance, Tor was on top of a roof at the far end of the street before disappearing once again in a burst of lightning. The large man took a big gulp as he stared at the disappearing mage, the clenched fist by his side going limp from relief.
Boosting his speed with his Lightning Magic to the extreme, Tor was like a lightning demon as he sprinted down the road towards the site of the attack. The sounds of the monster attack reached him first.The furious roars of the monsters were the first to reach him, and Tor pressed on for one last burst of speed to arrive as quickly as possible. Several lightning spears were already primed to attack, hovering above him as he rounded a corner in the road and got full visual of the scene.
In the middle of the road, an earthen structure had been erected via magic to defend themselves against the monster attacks. The repeated bashing of the Kestodons as they stubbornly continued to rear back and then throw themselves against the earth walls, hammering the walls with their large and strong head crests. A few of them tried to run up the sloping walls, hoping to get over the walls and at their prey.
‘They probably only have one mage protecting them. That mage’s probably not gonna last long against these monsters too.’
Scattered around the walled up section of the road were the broken remains of the merchant caravans and whatever goods they were carrying. They were all shattered beyond salvation, their wares trampled underfoot by the monsters. A few horses were on their sides, some already dead and with chunks of meat missing while there was a couple that were still holding their heads up and neighing pitifully. The wounds from the headbutts of the Kestodons could be seen clearly on the horses where certain parts of their bodies had been smashed in.
The pack was large, almost twenty of them with a majority of males with their large crests while the rest were females that were still plenty deadly with just their bony skulls. Their true danger was in their charging speed. Their powerful leg muscles could give them the acceleration they need, giving them enough inertia within seconds to knock down the strongest of foes. And when they attack in droves, not many predators would dare to take them down if they moved in a group.
Tor was quickly noticed by some of the Kestodons on the fringe of the group, and he was immediately their next target. The monsters were already frustrated with the earthen wall that they hadn’t been able to breach and now a new target was there for them to bully.
The lightning spears behind Tor shot out with a wave of his left hand, a total of six spears singing through the air as two spears attacked one target each. The Kestodons hit by the lightning spears dropped to the ground immediately, but it wasn’t enough to kill them. Tor knew that much. His right hand then moved up to his back, ready to pull out his sword from its sheath but when his fingers gripped nothing but air over where his sword hilt would usually be, Tor almost stopped in his tracks.
“I have no more weapons left!” Tor shouted in frustration. Every single one of his weapons had been destroyed in the drug-busting operation two days ago. He hadn’t had the chance to restock yet, which was supposed to be his top priority after going back to Era.
‘Got no choice then..”
Lightning spears continued to be created around him as Tor skirted the group of Kestodons chasing after him, occasionally throwing some in the direction of the ones that were still adamantly attacking the earthen barrier which was protecting the rest of the merchants that couldn’t get away. There were some times when the lightning spears glanced off the head crests of the male Kestodons, prompting a raised eyebrow from Tor but it was nothing he would give too much thought to. He just had to avoid those parts.
When he saw that the situation was slowly turning in his favor, the lightning-struck Kestodons’ speed sufficiently slowed down by Tor’s continuous bombardment of lightning spears, Tor made preparations to change his attack pattern. Just as he covered his entire body with lightning and charged into the horde of Kestodons chasing after him, Tor could see the silhouette of a lightning-fast figure cutting in from the back of the horde.
The Rune Knight pressed on with his attack, the lightning around his hands forming claws as he leapt from one Kestodon to another, aiming for their neck and cutting them down without reservation. In the opposite direction, the figure he had seen earlier was doing the same thing but with a pair of swords. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the dual swordsman flitting through the Kestodons that he hadn’t attacked yet, his weapons slicing here and there with impeccable precision and speed, cutting down the Kestodons within seconds.
When the two of them were finally done with their share, the two men stood upright and looked at each other. Tor was slightly surprised to find the extraordinary display of swordsmanship to come from an extremely sturdy middle-aged man. Apart from the wrinkles on his face and short grey hair that indicated his age, everything about the man’s physique spoke otherwise. In fact, facing the man and the atmosphere he was giving off, Tor felt he was standing in front of a ferocious beast as well. The Kestodons had felt the pressure coming off the swordsman as well, those besieging the earthen barrier had turned around and aimed their heads at the swordsman, preparing to charge him.
The presence of the swordsman gave Tor a sense of ease, which slowed down his reaction speed in response to the Kestodon’s charge. However, the swordsman was unfazed. Flipping his grip on his swords from a normal grip to a reverse grip, the swordsman lunged into charging monsters and began swinging his swords. Tor was a beat slower but he wasn’t going to let the swordsman fight this battle alone.
Generating a blade of lightning in his right hand, Tor leapt into the fray as well. Together, the two of them tore through the remaining monster. After fifteen minutes, the two of them were finally the only ones standing. Tor released his hold over the lightning blade and allowed it to disperse. He looked over at the earthen barrier and just as he was about to walk over, the sound of hooves thundered down the road. It was the merchants that had gone to ask for help along with another group on horses.
“Your actions were very commendable, young man. My name is Soshiro Hoshina, Deputy Leader of the Radiant Fang Guild,” the older swordsman introduced himself as he turned around to look at Tor, reversing his grip on his weapons before sliding them back into the sheaths on his back.
“I’m Tor Fulgur, a Rune Knight. I was in Hosenka and heard the news. The local Knights were unable to prepare a team to handle this, so I went on ahead to act first,” Tor replied with a thin smile.
“Ahh I see. Truly commendable indeed. The Rune Knights should be proud to have you in their ranks. Your skills with your sword would be a great addition to the Radiant Fang Guild, if ever you find yourself interested,” Soshiro said as he laughed out loud. At the same time, another man from the group that had followed along with the merchants to rescue the trapped ones walked over to Soshiro.
“Deputy Leader, sorry for arriving late!” the man spoke apologetically but Soshiro merely smiled.
“It’s okay, I was just walking around here and chanced on this situation. You guys did well to offer your assistance to the merchants,” Soshiro praised and gave the young man a big clap on shoulders. “Go along. Help them coordinate and then we will return to town.”
As the two conversed, Tor struggled with a question that had been itching at the back of his mind when he saw the powerful swordsmanship the older man executed. His dilemma was unknowingly displayed on his face and when the two men of the Bright Fang Guild finally finished speaking, Soshiro looked at the young Rune Knight’s conflicted expression with concern.
“Are you okay, Tor? You seem unwell.”
Pulled out of his thoughts by Soshiro and slightly embarrassed that his dilemma had been noticed, Tor was about to brush off the question with a polite remark when he suddenly remembered again how he had been so thoroughly defeated by Rend. At the thought of that, every doubt and reservation that he had on his mind was pushed away and he looked back at Soshiro with a determined glance. He would do anything to become stronger.
“Deputy Leader Hoshina,” Tor suddenly started referring to the older man formally. “Would you accept me as a disciple? I would like to learn swordsmanship from you.”
Soshiro Hoshina was caught off guard by the question, the turn of events unexpected. However, the stunned older man quickly regained his composure and began to guffaw loudly as he evaluated the situation he was in. The older man looked at Tor with an appraising look, and thought back to how Tor had performed with the lightning sword and then finally nodded in response to Tor’s earnest and longing look.
“Well, the Radiant Fang Guild was originally planning to stay in Hosenka for one week. And what you can learn in this one week is entirely up to yourself,” Soshiro spoke up again as he straightened his posture, arms crossed across his chest, a great smile on his face. “Let’s see what you are made of, Tor Fulgur.”
“Thank you, Master Soshiro!”
[2438 words]
