“Your call.” There had been far more Silver Hawk tribe warriors than Charles had anticipated, and their group was acting as the vanguard for the travelling group, so despite the support they were receiving from Charlotte, Charles and the others were under heavy pressure.
“Understood. Let’s pull them in.”
Chapter 28
Charlotte focused and sent a mental message to Gust and Wesley.
‘Come to my Silver Knights. They’ll protect you.’
Hearing the words in their heads, Gust and Wesley were both shocked. Actually, Gust stumbled, before regaining his balance.
Wesley, however, knew that this was well within the realm of magic, so he quickly told Gust. “It must be the rich duo you were talking about, let’s go!”
“Better than nothing!”
The two changed their trajectory slightly and sprinted toward Charlotte, Charles, and their guards.
Seeing that Gust and Wesley were headed in their direction, Charlotte commanded the guards. “Let those two in.”
“Yes, young miss!”
By this point in the fighting, well over a hundred of the travelling group had died, whereas several hundred of the Silver Hawk Tribe had perished as well.
Despite this however, the traveling adventurers were still vastly outnumbered. Furthermore, several of the gutless, or perhaps wiser, had quickly fled the scene once the fighting had started.
As Gust and Wesley neared the Silver Knights’ formation, they briefly opened up their formation to let Gust and Wesley in.
“I saw that the two of you have ways to attack from a distance, yes? Now get to work.” Charlotte commanded them.
“Heh.” Gust pulled the box of chaos gems out of his bag again and started throwing them in handfuls, while Wesley went back to casting spells.
When Charlotte saw the box of chaos gems, her eyes lit up in stupefaction, and she lost her composure for the first time. Although she’d seen the two attacking from a distance, in the darkness, she hadn’t seen Gust throwing chaos gems, and had only seen the explosions themselves - she’d assumed that Gust and Wesley were both mages.
“How the hell did you get so many chaos gems??”
“Found them by accident. It’s a long story.”
With interest in her eyes, Charlotte said. “You’ll have to tell me sometime.”
A loud bang suddenly sounded out, and Charles flew backwards, knocking into Charlotte and Wesley.
“What’s going on?” Yelled Wesley, as he picked himself back up from the ground. Although his vision had improved, it was extremely hard to see in the darkness of the night.
Charles ignored him. “Sister, there’s a strong mage on the side of the Silver Hawk Tribe. He may be at the intermediate mage level.”
“Where is he?”
“Not sure, I didn’t get to see where he was, I’ve been on the defensive for the last while now.”
Charles no longer donned the HeiMo set, which served more aggressive purposes, but instead had changed into the Wen set, a set of armor that embodied resilience. It increased the wearer’s defensive capabilities immensely, and came with a set of heavy armor, a large rectangular shield, and a spear.
But even with the Wen Set’s assistance, Charles had been blasted away by the impact of the last spell, which spoke volumes of their opponent’s strength. Furthermore, in the midst of the fighting, they hadn’t even figured out where this person was.
“He’s that way.” Wesley pointed.
“Huh?” Charles looked in the direction Wesley was pointing. Through the confusion of people’s heads and weapons, he could indeed see a person drawing seals a few hundred feet away.
“Thanks kid! Charlotte, Mack, I’ll leave the situation here to you.”
“Yes, young master!”
With that, Charles redonned his HeiMo Set, and sped towards the Silver Hawk Tribe’s mage.
Meanwhile, Marcus had noticed the enemy’s mage a long while ago, but had been fighting his way through a crowd of Silver Hawk Tribe warriors.
A blast of lightning here, a chain of lightning there, and he’d killed all of those who’d barred his path - but there had simply been too many.
But finally, finally, now he had a clear path to the enemy mage now. The only problem was, his mana pool had nearly run dry.
Marcus grimaced, then trudged forward anyway. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure clad in black armor charge toward his target as well.
‘Oh no you don’t!’
Marcus picked up his speed. Nobody would take his target!
Yet, Charles had nearly reached the Silver Hawk Tribe’s mage already. Out of his corner, he saw Marcus heading toward his target as well.
‘Oh? Someone else had found their mage already? Interesting…’
Still, Charles didn’t stop, nor could he, as the enemy mage had sent a few boulders flying in his direction. Swinging forward his two-handed mace, he smashed one of the boulders, then dodged the others.
At this point, Marcus had a choice to make. Would he cooperate with the other person, or would he continue to fight as if he were alone?
After a small pause, he shook his head, then quickly began to draw a magic seal, all still while rushing forward.
With a quick swipe across the magic seal he had drawn, he summoned a series of rock walls to surround the enemy mage, trapping him. The only side that he hadn’t summoned a rock wall, was the side facing Charles.
Without anywhere to run, the enemy mage didn’t have enough time to draw another seal before Charles’ mace descended upon his skull.
“Your assistance is appreciated.” Charles said to Marcus.
“Tch.”
Charles shook his head in amusement. Why was the kid giving him such an attitude?
He didn’t have time to contemplate it, however, as the fighting had begun to die down in the clearing. By the time Charles had made it back, the clearing only had perhaps fifty more Silver Hawk tribe warriors, and a scarce twenty or so from the traveling group.
Despite the difference in numbers, the ensuing fight was somewhat one-sided. Without the support of their mage holding down the group of Silver Knights, the latter rampaged across the field, until the fight had been won.
At the end of it all, aside from Gust, Wesley, Marcus, Charles, Charlotte, Mack, and the rest of the Silver Knights, only a dozen or so travelers remained on the field.
Once the battle ended, Wesley and Gust, as well as a few others, immediately moved around the former campsite, looting the bodies of those who’d died, on both sides.
After a few minutes of looting, Gust came by a face he recognized - with a deep cut across her abdomen, covered in blood. A few feet away, her spear lay on the ground.
Gust sighed, then picked up the spear, and closed Kay’s eyes for her.
“Dead again.”
Chapter 29
As the sun rose, a few more travelers trickled out of the trees, and awkwardly rejoined the party. Although they’d run away from the fighting, they’d only done so to protect themselves, for fear of their lives.
Seeing how awkward the “newcomers” were behaving, Charles greeted them over. “Just come over here, no need to be so shy about it. We’re not an army.”
Charles was quite in a good mood. Using the traveling group’s many fighters, they’d dealt heavy damage to the Silver Hawk Tribe - by Charles’ estimates, the Silver Hawk Tribe only had a population of slightly over a thousand, and they’d killed a good half of that amount last night.
For all intents and purposes, the Silver Hawk Tribe had been crushed, an apt warning to the other tribes to not interfere with the Larwin Kingdom’s affairs.
Gust, too, didn’t feel the need to avenge his “big sister” anymore…instead, all he felt was exhaustion, with a small sense of satisfaction. And if he was being true to himself, he wished that Kay hadn’t died.
After all…
...
After an hour or so of looting, the survivo
rs prepared to leave the scene.
“So, anyone know how to get out of the mountain range from here?”
Gust nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“Splendid, we will be counting on you for your services.”
Everyone looked expectantly at Gust, but he didn’t move.
“...Do you not actually know how to navigate the mountain range?” Asked Charles.
“No, I do.”
“...”
“Pay up.”
Mack was infuriated. “How dare you have the young-”
“Fine, fine.” Gust was unfazed, and simply waved away Mack’s outburst.
“Just the ones who ran away from the fight last night have to pay, how bout that? Credit where credit is due.”
With that, Mack looked toward Charles and Charlotte, who both nodded.
Then, everyone who’d fought the night prior turned to stare at those who’d ran away.
They looked toward each other, then sighed. The entire reason they’d ran off last night, and why they’d returned afterwards, was for self-preservation. What was paying a few more coins for the sake of their survivor?
After Gust pocketed his newly-earned money, he and Wesley started walking at a leisurely path toward the East.
And… after about half an hour, reached the edge of a cliff that was quite unscalable.
“Ah, silly me!” Gust slapped his head. “The place to get down the mountain is a little right of here…”
And so they proceeded southward.
As they trudged forward, Charlotte addressed Gust. “Hey you, why don’t you tell me about how you got all of those chaos gems?”
As a noble, she had extensive knowledge regarding chaos gems, and knew how closely guarded the various Kingdoms protected their stashes. How had Gust come by so many?
As for Gust, a beautiful young lady had requested a story from him, so who was he to say no?
“Well, this all starts about a young decade ago, I was traversing through the Desert Kingdom, when I met a lovely girl, not unlike yourself, and…”
Wesley sighed. The hell was a young decade? Also, a decade ago, hadn’t Gust been stuck fighting as a prisoner in the Silver Hawk Tribe’s fighting pits?
Meanwhile, Charles brought himself to ask Wesley. “Hey kid, how’d you know where the enemy mage was?”
“I used to be completely blind, so I became sensitive to detecting energy.”
“Oh, really? How's your eyesight now?”
“Still mostly blind.”
“Ah, that’s a shame. Say, where’d you learn magic?”
At this point, Gust, who was still holding hands with Wesley, squeezed Wesley’s hand, and Marcus, who’d been trudging along silently, raised his head as well.
“Uhh, I had a teacher who taught me some basics.”
“Oh? Charles was intrigued. “Teachers” capable of teaching magic outside of state-funded institutions were not uncommon, but most were inadequate, to say the least. The one who’d trained Wesley, however, seemed to have done a good job. Was this someone who could be roped into his family?
“...He died.”
“Ah… I’m sorry. Do you have any family?”
“Just Gust.”
“Gust?”
“The idiot talking to your sister.”
“Ah.”
Charles was even more confused now. Just where did this duo come from?
Seeing his young master’s brow furrowed, Mack approached him. “Say the word and I’ll do it.”
Charles started. “What? No. I wasn’t even thinking in that direction.”
Reprimanded, Mack backed off with his head lowered.
…
Meanwhile, the Silver Hawk Tribe’s village was in full panic, as their warriors hadn’t returned from last night’s raid. Hundreds huddled around the center of the village, where the village chief was explaining next steps for the village.
For the next few days, the entire village was in a high state of panic as they further prepared their defenses, aiming to cut themselves off from the rest of the world.
But they were only delaying the inevitable - but a week after, the birds of war gathered overhead.
…
After a week or so of navigating around dead ends, the travelling group finally made it out of the Alaki Mountain Range, and had reached their first town in the Reiniad Kingdom.
At the front entrance, they’d all bid their farewells to each other, and wandered into the town separately.
“Well Wesley, we’re in the Reiniad Kingdom, the holy land for mages of the Magmont Continent. How do you feel?”
“Like I can do anything and everything. I have power surging through my mana channels, and -”
“Wait, really?” Gust looked toward Wesley, shocked.
“No.”
“...”
“I learned from you, don’t forget that.”
“Alas, I am my own downfall.”
After a bit of walking, the two found an inn to room in, and promptly flung themselves onto their beds.
“Ahh…”
After hiking through the mountains and sleeping hard ground and rocks for the last two weeks, it was simply bliss to have a bed to lie on, even if it was dirty and honestly not that soft.
After a bit, Gust started thinking about the future.
“Well, Wesley, Lumient City isn’t that far from here. I’d say we’ll probably reach there in a week or so, and you’ll be able to see your extended family, I’ll get my money…”
Gust paused. What would happen then? Where would he go? Should he return to the old village? The people there had been really nice…
Or maybe he’d go exploring again. After all, a bard is only as good as his past experiences, and recently, he’d started running out of new stories. When entertaining Charlotte, he had even had to recycle some of his old ones.
Well, all of this could be decided on after a nap...
Looking over, he saw that Wesley had already fallen asleep.
Chapter 30
Gust and Wesley spent a few days at the town to de-stress from crossing the mountain range, then set out for Lumient City.
Except, they weren’t alone, and they weren’t walking, either.
Inside an extravagant carriage, Gust and Wesley sat across from Charles and Charlotte.
“Ahem.” Charles cleared his throat. “So, uh, why are you two headed to Lumient City? For fairness sake, my sister and I are travelling to Lumient City as we wish to attend the Lumient Intermediate Academy of Magic.”
Gust and Wesley looked at each other, then shrugged.
“We’re travelling to see some extended family.” Said Wesley.
It was Charlotte and Charles’ turn to exchange glances.
“Wesley, you’re a mage, aren’t you. Would you like to exchange notes?”
“Hmm. Yeah, sure. Why not?”
Wesley was extremely intrigued - he’d never seen anything like Charles’ armor sets before in his life, and besides, as long as it was an even trade of information, what was the harm? But after spending so much time with Gust, Wesley had learned his lesson in naivete.
So, he followed up his approval with, “You go first.”
“Ha… alright, well, hm. Well, to start out, my name’s Charles. This one here, she’s my sister, Charlotte. So, how much do you know about armor sets?”
“I know nothing. And uh, I’m Wesley, he’s Gust.”
“That’s not too surprising. After all, us close-combat mages aren’t seen as “real” mages by a large part of the mage community, especially the “purists”. We’re just seen as too close to knights. Why that’s a bad thing, I personally don’t understand.”
He pulled out a stone. “This is an armor stone. Basically, it’s a gem that’s been magically separated into hundreds, or even thousands of layers, and has had a magic seal drawn on each layer. The general consensus is that more advanced, more powerful the armor set is, the more layers, and vice versa.”
At this time, Charlotte sent her brother a mental message. “Why are you telling this kid so much?”
Memory Seal- Volume 1 Page 17
