by Aaron Oster
Gold was sending them to the East Kingdom? When had that been decided? And what on earth was a Duchy?
Sarah formed a large, needle sharp, icicle as she approached, using her condense water skill. Frush whimpered in pain as Sarah grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward until he was looking into her eyes.
“I told you that you wouldn’t get away with this,” Sarah growled, as terror flashed in the boy’s eyes. “This isn’t just for me, but for all the women you’ve raped during your miserable life!”
“No, don’t,” was all he managed to get out, before Sarah rammed the icicle up under his chin and deep into his brain.
She let go of his body and let it drop to the ground; where he twitched a few times before growing still. She fastened the straps on her pants, then spit on the boy’s corpse.
He deserved a lot worse than a quick death, but a least he’d suffered for a bit after Morgan had lopped his hands off. Come to think of it, how had he done that; and what had happened to Grub?
Turning back to Morgan, she could see him standing still with a thoughtful expression on his face. Looking past him, she could see Grub, getting slowly to his feet near the fountain. He looked to be badly injured; one of his arms was bent the wrong way and he was bleeding from several gashes along his legs.
“Uh, Morgan,” Sarah said, as Grub used his skill and stone began forming over his body again. “I think you should look behind you.”
Morgan started, then looked over his shoulder and an expression of annoyance crossed his features, as Grub began running at them.
He really didn’t have anything against the idiot. The only one that he hated was Frush; and that was because he’d hurt Sarah. But for some inexplicable reason, this boy hated him. Well, he’d given him enough chances to back down. If this moron wanted to die that badly, then he would oblige.
Sarah stared as Morgan seemed to disappear from where he’d been standing, only to reappear right in front of the shocked Grub. There was a loud howling sound as a lance of purple and black energy formed around his arm. Then he brought it up and plunged it straight through his chest.
Morgan tore the blade free as he watched Grub fall back and hit the ground; blood already pooling around him as he stared up at the sky. After a few moments, his body went still.
Morgan dismissed his new condensed wind blade and walked back over to Sarah, who was staring at him in awe.
“That was amazing!” she exclaimed. “Guess the whole supermage thing wasn’t all made up then.”
“Yeah. It’s real, alright. Now what’s been going on since I passed out? The last thing I remember is Gold showing up in the arena.”
“I’ll tell you about it on the way; for now we really need to go.”
“Alright, then. Hop onto my back. My skills have been upgraded, so now I can move pretty quickly through the air; not to mention that I can use my other skills at the same time. So if I use my upgraded gale force skill, I can move through the air two and a half times faster than normal.”
“Wow! If your skills got that much of a boost, I can’t wait to rank up!” she answered excitedly.
She was about to get on Morgan’s back when she caught something glimmering out of the corner of her eye. Turning back to Frush’s body, she could see something shiny sticking out of one of his pockets.
“What’s wrong?” Morgan asked, when she didn’t immediately get on.
“There’s something sticking out of Frush’s pocket,” she said, squinting and trying to get a better look.
She was curious as to what it was, but not enough that she’d go loot his corpse.
Morgan had no such qualms. He walked right over to the dead boy and leaned down to rummage through his pockets. After a few moments, he stood back up and let out a bark of laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Sarah asked, not able to see what he was holding.
Morgan turned around and she could see two large cores in one hand and two shining platinum coins in the other.
“That sneaky bastard stole the tournament prizes?!” Sarah yelled
Morgan continued laughing, walking back over and handing her one of the cores.
“The way I see it, you would have won if they hadn’t cheated; so one of these is rightfully yours.”
Sarah stared at the swirling red and blue core in her palm for a few seconds; then looked back up at Morgan, her eyes shining.
“Better check yours to make sure they didn’t take any energy from it,” she said.
“Good thinking.”
Morgan concentrated for a moment, then brought up the core’s status.
Name: Azure-crystal wyvern core
Rank - 39
Total available energy - 68,376/68,376
This core was taken from an azure-crystal wyvern. As this core is from an advanced beast, the amount of available energy has been massively increased.
The amount of available energy was staggering! There was likely enough here to boost him four or five ranks. He had no idea what a wyvern was, or what an advanced beast was either, but he knew one thing for sure; he needed to find more beasts like these!
“Mine hasn’t been touched and the amount of energy is massive!” Sarah said as Morgan closed the status of the core.
“Neither has mine. What beast did your core come from?” Morgan asked as he stashed his core away in one of his pockets.
“An azure-crystal wyvern; yours?”
“Same,” Morgan replied, a little disappointed that she hadn’t had a different one. “Oh, one of these are yours too,” he said, flipping her one of the platinum coins.
Sarah deftly caught it, then pocketed the coin with a nod of thanks.
“Should we be stopping back at our house to get our stuff?”
Sarah shook her head.
“Gold said it would be too dangerous, but he gave me a small bag and said that it had everything we’d need.”
She stuck her hand into one of her pockets and fished out the small leather bag.
“How would everything we need fit into that tiny thing?” he asked, moving closer to her and trying to peek in.
Sarah pulled apart the drawstring and upended the bag, but nothing came out. She shook it a few times, expecting that whatever was in there must be stuck, but still nothing happened.
“Do you think this is one of his sick jokes?” Morgan asked.
“Could be,” she said with a sigh, sticking her hand into the bag to see if she’d somehow missed something. After a few seconds, her eyes widened; then her entire forearm disappeared up to the elbow. She let out a loud laugh as she pulled her arm out, clutching a large brown bag that turned out to be her money pouch.
Morgan stared, not understanding how such a large pouch could have fit into such a small one; then it hit him.
“This bag must have the same enchantment as the buildings we trained in!” he exclaimed excitedly. “Quick, check to see what else he’s packed for us.”
After a few more minutes of rummaging, Sarah came up with all of their clothes; including new gear for cold weather, a month’s supply of trail rations and all the cores they’d managed to collect since they stopped using them.
Morgan quickly spotted his money pouch as well and found all the gold still there. His platinum coin soon joined them and he stuck the pouch in his pocket; not trusting anyone else to handle his money. He also found the ice-bristle wolf core among the others and was quick to pocket that as well.
The last thing Sarah pulled from the bag was a small leather sack containing four small circular devices and a note.
“What are these?” Sarah asked, spilling the small circles of metal onto the ground.
They were all marked with numbers; one a 9, another 12 and a third 18. The last one was marked with two numbers separated by a line 6 - 31. It took Morgan a few moments to figure out what they were, but when he did, a wide grin split his face.
“They’re Beast Zone keys and it looks like he’s even included a staged zone key as well!” Mor
gan exclaimed.
Sarah stared at them for a few moments as well, then opened up the note and read it out loud.
Now you can’t say that I’ve never done anything for you.
-Gold
“Of course he’d have to be an asshole about it,” Sarah said, folding up the note; but she was smiling as she did so.
They packed everything back into the bag and Sarah pulled the drawstring shut, tucking it back into her pocket.
“I guess we should get going then,” she said, stretching her arms over her head and arching her back.
“Yeah. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us if we’re heading into the East Kingdom,” Morgan said as she climbed onto his back.
“I forgot to mention the best past about my fly skill being upgraded,” he said as Sarah settled in behind him.
“Oh, yeah?” Sarah asked, placing her cheek against Morgan’s back as he floated up off the ground. “And what would that be?”
Morgan snickered as he began to build up speed.
“Your weight will no longer give me a penalty to speed!”
A loud, ringing slap echoed out across the empty courtyard; then there was silence.
Epilogue
Arnold tromped through the destroyed academy grounds with a scowl on his face.
Nothing had turned out right from the moment the attack started. Sure, they’d won the day and the city was theirs, but he’d failed in his mission. Not only had Sarah and Morgan escaped, but that damned Gold had somehow managed to slip out right from under their fingers!
He slammed his fist against the side of a building, sending cracks across the solid stone. A few passing soldiers eyed him nervously and walked just a little faster.
The attack was a success, so he was going to be promoted by the king himself; but Lord Simon wasn’t the type to forget about failure and he wasn’t delusional enough to think that the king’s protection would save him if Simon decided he should die.
“Damn it!” he yelled, slamming a fist into another building, this time reducing the wall to rubble.
“Something troubling you, Arnold?”
Arnold sighed and turned to see Weasel emerging from an alleyway, his ever present smirk fixed firmly in place.
This was the first time he’d seen him since before the battle and he’d secretly been hoping that he wouldn’t survive. Weasel might be the best tracker he knew, but he absolutely hated working with him.
“Figures you’d manage to survive,” Arnold said, regaining his composure.
“I’m hurt,” Weasel said with a mock frown. “Aren’t you glad that your favorite tracker managed to stay alive?”
“No,” Arnold answered bluntly.
Weasel laughed; a high pitched sound that grated on his nerves.
“You might be a bastard, but at least you’re an honest one,” Weasel said as his smirk fixed itself in place once again.
“Just tell me what you want or leave,” Arnold snarled, folding his arms across his chest. “I have no patience to deal with you right now.”
“My, my; aren’t we impatient today. Fine, I just thought you’d like to know that I found the last place your quarry was before they left the academy grounds. Unfortunately, I was unable to pick up their trail. They must have wised up and found a way to foil my ability.”
“Is that all?” Arnold asked with a snort. “All you’re telling me, is that you know where they were and nothing else.”
“Oh, there was one other thing,” Weasel said as his smirk grew even more self satisfied. “There were several people in that particular area. I thought they were all dead, but just when I was about to leave, I noticed that one of them was still moving.”
Now this got Arnold’s interest.
“Where is he?” he asked excitedly.
“In the temporary headquarters set up by the main square,” Weasel said, turning his back to him and staring to walk away.
“You’d better hurry, though. I hear that the Princess will be interviewing him soon and I’m guessing you’ll want to be there when she does.”
Arnold gritted his teeth and took off running toward the main square; Weasel’s echoing laughter following as he did so.
He would kill that bastard one day, but Princess Katherine was known to kill people on a whim. If he made it there too late, the boy could already be dead and any lead on Sarah would be lost.
Arnold burst into the main building and grabbed the first soldier he saw.
“Where is the witness?” he yelled.
The soldier, who was obviously terrified of the intimidating man, began stuttering out an answer.
“First door down the hall!”
The soldier screamed as Arnold hurled him away with enough force to crack the wall behind him.
He’d better still be alive!
Arnold grabbed the door handle and practically tore the door off its hinges, looking wildly around the room.
The boy, who had been lying down, sat bolt upright as the door flew open, a look of terror on his face.
“My apologies for barging in,” Arnold said, when he saw they were alone.
He closed the door behind him and walked over to sit in an empty chair.
The boy didn’t say anything, simply kept his eyes on him as he sat.
“I hear that you have some information on two people that I’m very interested in finding. Their names are Sarah and Morgan.”
As soon as he mentioned the two names, the boy’s face twisted in hatred.
“Why do you want to know about that smug bastard and his murdering bitch of a girlfriend?”
Arnold blinked.
This wasn’t at all the response he’d been expecting. Why did this boy hate them both so much?
“I’ve been ordered to retrieve Lady Sarah, as she is a noblewoman of the North; as for Morgan, I’ve been ordered to kill him. Now, will you help me find them?”
The boy looked a little surprised by that answer and his face scrunched up as he tried to make up his mind.
Arnold waited patiently while the boy decided, all the while keeping an eye on the door.
He didn’t need Katherine to come in and ruin everything at the last moment.
“I don’t really care about the bitch one way or the other,” the boy finally spoke up. “The only reason I wanted her dead is because she killed my cousin; but he was a twisted bastard, so I really don’t care either way.”
His face darkened and rage burned behind his eyes as he continued.
“Morgan, on the other hand; I want him dead! I want to kill that bastard with my bare hands. I’ll help you, but only on the condition that you take me with you and let me kill him myself!”
He was breathing hard by the time he was finished. Fists, clenched at his sides and face, an unhealthy shade of red.
Arnold laughed; a deep menacing chuckle that reverberated around the room, chilling its other occupant to the bone and making him wonder if he’d gone too far.
“I like your style, kid!” Arnold said with a grin. “You’ve got a deal; now tell me what you know.”
The boy visibly relaxed when Arnold agreed to his demands and began telling his story.
“I’m not sure exactly where they were headed, as I was going in and out of consciousness; but I know for sure that they’re headed to a Duchy in the East Kingdom.”
Arnold looked thoughtful at this.
There were several Duchies in the East Kingdom, all of them quite large; but this was definitely more than Weasel had been able to give him. He would have to check in with some of his contacts there to see if they’d been spotted, but this was a start.
“Very well, boy,” Arnold said, rising to his feet. “We’re expecting a message from King Edmund in a few days. Once we receive it, the two of us will be going after them.”
He was heading to the door when the boy spoke up once more.
“One last thing before you go.”
Arnold turned back and raised an eyebrow. The boy looked hesitant
for a moment, as if not sure whether to say something or not, but then his expression firmed and he spoke up.
“There’s something very wrong with Morgan.”
“Oh? How do you mean?” Arnold asked.
“I mean that I’ve fought him before. I’m not too proud to admit that he’s stronger than me, but this last time I fought him, he was in a whole other league.”
“How so?”
Arnold’s head whipped around as Princess Katherine walked into the room. She looked perfect, as always, and he noticed that the boy’s eyes were taking in every ounce of her figure.
Katherine smirked as the boy’s eyes roamed over her. She was perfectly aware of how well endowed she was and used her looks nearly as often as her fists, to get what she wanted.
“How so?” she prodded again and the boy’s eyes snapped up to hers, his face reddening at being caught staring.
He cleared his throat nervously and Arnold had to suppress the urge to scowl.
Of course she would have to come here now.
“He was unconscious when we came across the two of them. I had him pinned down while my cousin was taking care of Sarah.”
He noticed Katherine’s lips tighten a bit at that and he remembered that Sarah was supposed to be a noble.
“He didn’t get a chance to do anything,” he said quickly, putting his hands up in surrender and breathed a sigh of relief when the woman’s frown vanished.
“One second he was unconscious and the next he was on his feet. I tried to attack him, but he used some kind of skill that I’d never seen before. He completely shattered my armor and broke several bones with a single strike; then he suddenly appeared next to my cousin, who was standing over thirty feet away and lopped his hands clean off.
“I had a hard time getting to my feet after his first attack and, by the time I did, Sarah had already killed my cousin. I challenged that bastard then, gathering my strength and preparing to take him down for what he’d done…”
He trailed off here and shuddered at the memory of that horrible fight.
“He moved so quickly that I didn’t even see the attack coming. I felt a horrible pain in my chest and then I was lying on my back. The last thing I saw before I passed out, were his eyes. The sclera were a solid black and his irises were a deep purple, shot through with silver. I don’t know why I picked up on that specific detail,” he said with an embarrassed laugh, “it was just so different from his usual colored eyes that, I just latched onto it.”
