by Virlyce
“If it means I can sleep for five more minutes…”
“No!” Tafel grabbed Vur’s arm and heaved him over her shoulder before marching to the bathroom that was attached to their room.
Several minutes later, a fully dressed demon and her dressed-in-skintight-blue-armor husband walked down the stairs of the inn, entering the tavern that was the first floor. Alice waved at the duo from a corner seat with a meal already set out. The plate in front of her was empty with remains of food left on it. “You’re late,” she said when Tafel and Vur sat across from her. Vur’s head was drooping, his chin almost touching his chest. “I hate late people.”
“Sorry,” Tafel said as she equipped herself with her fork and knife.
Alice snorted and adjusted her glasses. “You’re not sorry. Hurry up and eat. We’re on a tight schedule since you put off buying a weapon for so long. What kind of adventurer adventures without a weapon?”
“You’re taking that truth curse pretty well,” Tafel said, biting into her omelet.
“I’ll admit it feels great to say whatever is on my mind. I feel free,” Alice said and sighed. “I wish I was cursed a lot earlier. Maybe things would’ve been different if I was more open with my thoughts.”
“Like not being single at your age?” Vur asked, tilting his head.
“Die! I’m 22! 22! That’s young! I am young!” Alice exhaled and fanned herself with her hands before closing her eyes. Her red face returned to its normal pale color, and she opened her eyes. “I was referring to my stupid nickname that I simply loath. I’m only a bit unsatisfied with my relationship status, okay? So what if I cry myself to sleep some nights? I bet everyone here has done it before.”
Tafel winced as Alice turned her head away.
“I haven’t,” Vur and Stella said at the same time.
Alice glared at Vur. “Someone as simple as you has no worries!” She pointed at Stella. “And you’ve only been alive for a month; you have no right to speak anywhere. It’s nonsense how your vote counts just as much as mine.”
Stella stuck her tongue out at Alice before retrieving an apple from a nearby plate.
Alice sighed. “It’s 7:20 right now. The weapon store will open in ten minutes. The opening ceremony of the competition begins at eight. It’ll take us five minutes to walk to the store, so you have five minutes left to eat.” She stared at Vur, who was still yawning. “Don’t complain to me when you get hungry later.”
“Ettins are competing, right?” Vur asked and blinked. “I’ll just eat at the competition.”
“Killing’s not allowed!”
“It’s not like they’ll die if they lose an arm,” Vur grumbled.
“Let’s not eat people at the competition, please,” Tafel said and nudged Vur’s plate closer to him. He blinked at it and yawned again, so Tafel stuffed a piece of her omelet into his mouth.
“Ah, young love,” Alice said and wrinkled her nose. “It makes me sick. Why am I working for the two of you? You don’t even have any money to pay me with.” She sighed and shook her head while mumbling to herself. “Thankfully, the store’s on the way to the competition, or we really would be late.”
After the party finished eating with Tafel feeding Vur the whole time, they left the inn and arrived at a wide alley with stalls lined up along the walls. Staves and wands were propped up and laid on the ground. “Here we are,” Alice said. “Weapons for black mages. They’re a bit hard to find since the holy dragons frown upon black magic.”
“…I’m a spellblade,” Tafel said and furrowed her brow.
“…Huh. I forgot.” Alice scratched her head. “Well, there’s a few swords over there. They’re a bit sketchy though, since this street isn’t exactly legal.”
“Sketchy?” Tafel asked.
Alice shrugged. “You know: Cursed. Unlucky. Stolen from the dwarves.”
“Then they’re good quality?” Tafel asked as she approached a stall. The vendor was wearing a cloak that concealed their whole body, not even showing their eyes or mouth.
Vur browsed the other stalls while Tafel tested out the weapons. Stella flew off of his head and approached the end of the alley where candied apples were on display. Her eyes sparkled as she stared at them. “Vur. Apple.”
Vur turned his attention away from a cauldron that had bubbling green liquid inside of it and glanced at Stella.
Alice frowned at the fairy queen. “Candied apples in this alley? …There’s something wrong with them. Don’t buy any.”
Stella flew forward and grabbed the stick that an apple was attached to. “I want.”
“Fifty silver,” a deep voice said from within the stand.
Alice sighed as she placed a pouch of coins in Vur’s hand. “I hope something bad happens and you learn to listen to my words, but for now, I’ll indulge you.” Just as she finished speaking, a white circle of light enveloped the stand of apples, trapping Stella and the vendor inside.
“Stella!” Vur’s sleepiness disappeared in an instant as he lunged forward, appearing next to Stella in the blink of an eye before either Tafel or Alice could say anything.
Tafel turned her head just in time to see Vur grab the fairy queen. A bright flash blinded her, and when her vision returned, the stall was missing—Stella and Vur included.
“…Vur?” Tafel frowned as she grabbed Alice and dragged her over to the empty space at the end of the alley. “…Did someone just teleport him away?”
Alice bit her lower lip as she stared at the ground. “There are a few clans who specialize in catching rare creatures…. A fairy queen is extremely expensive.”
Tafel sighed as she squatted and traced her fingers along the ground. “I’m not good enough to tell where they were transported to.” She shook her head before standing and approaching the stall of swords once again.
“Uh, Tafel?” Alice asked, a wrinkle on her forehead. “Aren’t you concerned?”
“Yes. That’s why I need a good weapon,” Tafel said and nodded. She picked up a purple curved sword that was taller than her. A massive red eye opened in the middle of the blade. It made a hissing noise as the eye glared at her. “This doesn’t look too weak. And it’s kind of cute. How much is it?”
“Twenty gold.”
Tafel looked at Alice, who pursed her lips and forked over the money to the vendor. “You don’t seem very concerned about Vur,” Alice said as she followed Tafel out of the alley.
“After seeing Vur catch a meteor, there is nothing in the world that would make me concerned for Vur,” Tafel said and pursed her lips. “We should be more concerned for ourselves. Do you still think we can win the competition without him and Stella?”
“You’re unbelievable,” Alice said. “You’re not worried about reuniting with him at all? How are you going to find him?”
Tafel snorted. “We already made plans for something like this—a contest of sorts. We’d compete on making a name for ourselves, and whoever hears about the other first loses. It was my idea, of course.”
“You’re both ridiculous.”
“Maybe that’s why we make such a great pair?”
***
“Clan master, look.” A boulder with stick-thin arms and legs pointed at a brightly lit wall in a cave. The boulder turned around, revealing two green, gemlike eyes and a thin indent for a mouth. On the wall, there was a projection of an alley. “There’s a fairy queen at one of our fairy traps.”
“A fairy queen?” A boulder with diamond eyes waddled over and stared at the screen. “I don’t recognize her, and I’ve seen pictures of all six fairy queens. Catch her.”
“Yes, clan master. Initiating transportation magic.” The green-eyed boulder touched the wall, poking the image of the fairy holding onto a candied apple. “Transporting the target and our trap stall. They will arrive in three, two—”
“W-wait!” the clan master said as a blue-armored man appeared by the fairy queen. “That’s”—“One.”—“the adventurer who destroyed our golem….” The
clan master froze. His legs creaked as his round body rotated until his diamond eyes were facing the orange cage behind him. There was a flash of light, and the fairy queen, the man, the vendor, and the candied apple stall appeared inside.
“Wah,” Stella said as her head swiveled around. “A cage in a cave?” She hovered in the air while biting into her candied apple. “We’re trapped!”
Vur blinked and rubbed his eyes. Around him, he could make out faint cavern walls in the dim lighting. The projection screen had shut off when the teleportation succeeded. Vur sucked in his breath and exhaled, breathing out orange flames, illuminating the darkness. Dozens of boulders with gemstones embedded inside of them were lying around.
“Vendor, Mr. Vendor,” Stella said and tugged the vendor’s cloak off, revealing a rock with two sapphires for eyes. “Where are we? Huh?” Her head tilted to one side as she stared at the rock. She blinked twice before covering it with the cloak again. A second later, she yanked the cloak off. She pouted. “Still a rock?”
Vur stopped breathing fire and frowned at the cage. His fingers could barely slip through the gaps between the orange bars, but he managed to wrap his hand around one of them. His muscles tensed as he tugged on it, but it didn’t budge. Vur snorted and braced his feet, tugging on the cage bars even harder. They still didn’t break. “Orichalcum?”
The floor and the ceiling of the cage were also made of orange metal. Vur scratched his head before asking Stella, “Can you teleport?”
Stella shook her head.
“Can you get to the other side?”
“Only if you can,” Stella said. Her tiny frame froze and became transparent. Purple spots of light filled the space she occupied before flowing towards Vur’s chest, sinking through his armor and into his skin. Stella’s voice asked inside of his head, “Can you?”
“If I use the skill I learned from the leviathan.” Vur inhaled as he pressed his hand against the bars of the cage. Then he exhaled. His hand, followed by his arm and the rest of his body, dissolved into a puddle of purple goop.
“Wah! Vur melted like ice cream!”
The purple goop oozed out of the cage before solidifying into Vur’s shape once again. His skin color returned to normal as he turned back into a solid. He reached into the cage and pulled out his armor, which he had slipped out of, and wore it again.
“What was that?” Stella asked as she appeared beside Vur.
“Poison Form,” Vur said and dusted himself off. He frowned while looking around. “It feels like something’s watching me.” A few rocks on the ground seemed to twitch.
“Shiny rocks,” Stella said and flew beside a boulder. Her hands wrapped around two diamonds that were jutting out of it and she braced her feet against the surface of the rock. She grunted as she tugged upwards.
“Gah! Please, stop!”
Stella yelped as she released the boulderman’s eyes and flew behind Vur’s head. “The rock spoke!”
Vur grabbed the rock by one of its legs and flipped it to and fro, inspecting the boulder. “So weird.” He brought it to his face and sniffed it. His nose wrinkled as he tilted his head. “Maybe good for rock stew?”
“N-no,” the boulder said as he dangled upside down from his leg. “I’m not tasty. Please, don’t boil me. My name is Diamant. I’m the clan master of the Gemstone Merchants Clan.”
“What are you?” Vur asked.
“I’m a mountain elemental currently occupying a boulder,” Diamant said. “My companions are a mixture of rock, boulder, and pebble elementals.” He gestured around the cavern with his arms. The rocks rolled over and sat up, staring at Vur with gemstone eyes.
“Please, spare our clan master!”
Vur smiled. “You’re scared of me?”
“We, we saw you destroy our harvesting golem a few weeks ago. If we knew this fairy queen was your companion, we wouldn’t have teleported you over here!” Diamant clapped his hands together and stared at Vur with leaking eyes. The indent that was his mouth trembled.
“Okay.” Vur nodded. “Just teleport me back. I have a competition to attend.”
Diamant’s eyes shifted along with his body, avoiding Vur’s gaze. “T-the teleportation’s a one-way trip….” The leg that was held by Vur cracked. “But we can bring you back! We’ll send you back on a golem! It’s only a three-month-long journey!”
Vur frowned. “Three months is a long time.”
Diamant’s brown body turned white. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. It’s the best we can do. Please, spare my clan. We can be useful to you, I swear! We’re one of the more prosperous clans out there. We hold sway with the upper echelons of the human and elven societies.”
Stella tugged on Vur’s hair. “Hurting them won’t do anything. Why don’t you become an elementalist?”
Vur tilted his head. “What’s that?”
Stella nodded and puffed her chest out. “A class.”
“But I’m already a dragon.”
Stella spread her arms out wide. “You can be an elementalist dragon.” Her eyes glinted. “Elementalist dragons’ wings, scales, and tails grow faster than normal dragons.” She placed her hands on her hips and nodded her head twice.
“Is that true?”
Stella smiled. “Only if you believe.”
“I want to be an elementalist dragon.”
“Okay! Shake hands with Diamant and make a contract.” Stella flew down from Vur’s head and lifted Diamant’s arm into the air, placing the rock hand into Vur’s free hand. She wrapped his fingers around Diamant’s and shook their hands up and down.
“Is it done?” Vur asked.
Stella glared at Diamant. She scrawled letters onto his arm that read, “Form the contract or be eaten.”
Diamant’s diamond eyes widened before he sighed. A soft yellow light engulfed Vur and the mountain elemental, and brown runes spiraled up Vur’s arm, stopping at his elbow.
Stella beamed at Vur. “All done!”
***
“Hey, Alice?” Tafel asked, turning her head to face the guild master. The two were standing in an arena across from twelve people. Around them, hundreds—maybe thousands—of spectators were viewing the arena from seats on the wall of the coliseum-like building. Outside of the venue, images were projected on the coliseum walls and crowds of people were gathered in the streets, clogging the roads while vendors shouted and waved their products in the air.
“What?” Alice asked back. She was busy polishing her shield with a handkerchief. She blew on the mirror-like surface and nodded to herself.
Tafel furrowed her brow. “Aren’t the matches supposed to be party against party?”
“Yes.” Alice nodded and took a step away from Tafel. The sword on the demon’s back was inching towards her with green drool leaking from its edge. The red eye on the blade with a pitch-black iris and pupil was staring at her.
“So why do they have twelve people in their party?”
“They’re the Elemental Tempest,” Alice said. “An S-ranked party composed of six elementalists.”
Tafel tilted her head. “An elementalist? That sounds like someone who controls elements.”
“You don’t have elementalists on your continent?” Alice asked. “They form contracts with elementals, spirits composed of the various elements in nature. The elementals consume their elementalists’ mana in exchange for their power.”
“…How is that any different from black magic?”
“Well, for one, holy dragons don’t frown upon elementals,” Alice said. The referee was droning on in the background, but neither she nor Tafel paid any attention. “And elementals can act independently. A black mage has to concentrate on their target, but elementalists can leave spell casting to their elementals while doing something else.”
“So half of those people over there are composed of spirits,” Tafel said, squinting her eyes at the party across the arena. “Isn’t that a bit unfair?”
“Tamers can use their pets, and they
won’t count as an extra person. It’s part of their class,” Alice said and rolled her eyes. “If you want to comment about extra party members, maybe, you should address your sword. It’s really creeping me out.”
Tafel’s sword hissed at Alice.
“…It’s cute,” Tafel said with a nod. She took it off her back and held it in front of herself. “Who’s a good girl? You are. Yes, you are.” The sword purred as its eye closed halfway.
Alice frowned. “You know, I thought this when I first met you, but there is something wrong with you.” She glanced at the floor which was dissolving from the green liquid pouring from Tafel’s sword. “It’s just not right.”
“Let the match begin!” The referee’s voice echoed through the arena.
Tafel raised her head. “Alright, sword. Show me you’re worthy of a name.” She narrowed her eyes and inhaled, holding her blade out horizontally. Six people charged forward, reaching halfway across the arena. As Tafel took a step, she paused and turned her head towards Alice. “What happens if I bisect an elemental?”
“It’s not against the rules to kill them. They’ll revive anywhere from a day to a few months depending on circumstances,” Alice said as she readied her shield. A massive blue fireball flew towards her and Tafel, but she easily batted it away by enlarging her shield.
“Great,” Tafel said. “And the elementals are the shiny people, right?”
“Yeah.”
Tafel nodded and pursed her lips. A second later, she vanished and reappeared in front of one of the elementals. His eyes widened as Tafel’s blade stabbed through his chest. The elemental’s arms reached towards the blade before falling limp at his sides. Tafel’s sword made gulping noises as the elemental vanished, turning into a puff of flames, causing his elementalist in the back to turn pale and collapse.
Tafel raised an eyebrow. “Beat an elemental, and the elementalist collapses as well?”
Wind blades, icicles, rock fragments, and lightning bolts flew towards Tafel, but her horns glowed silver and dozens of portals formed in the air around her and the remaining elementals. The projectiles entered the portals beside her and hit her enemies instead. Tafel swung her sword as four of her horns glowed green, and a blade of wind sliced a blue elemental in half.
