by Pirateaba
“I only know she’s a Named adventurer. Why?”
Ceria muttered darkly to herself as she rubbed the ointment over her burns.
“She wasn’t always. She was a soldier, once. A good one I suppose, but that only means she killed a lot of innocent people. She only became an adventurer after—it’s a long damn story. Let’s get something to drink back at the inn. I’ll tell you all about it as soon as we get clear of the area.”
“Tell us now. If she’s after us—”
“Not us. She wants Ryoka, and I don’t know why. Possibly the same reason Magnolia is interested in her, but that’s just a guess. It spells trouble and we need to let everyone know as soon as possible.”
“Give us the details on Gazi before we get there. How strong is she? Where does she come from?”
Ceria nodded. She took a deep breath as she waked. The pain from her burns was easing, but she was still shaky. But an adventurer was calm or she was dead. So she collected her thoughts and spoke.
“Right, so do you know about the desert continent south or maybe south-east of here? It’s huge, but there are several kingdoms to note. In one of them sleeps a king…”
—-
“Good evening, Erin.”
Erin blinked at Gazi.
“Oh, hi Gazi. What’s up?”
Gazi smiled at Erin. She didn’t come in, although Erin held the door open for her.
“I won’t trespass here long. I just wished to tell you I will be travelling from this city for a while.”
“Oh?”
“I have business to attend to elsewhere. I just wished to know if you planned on travelling anywhere in the coming weeks.”
Erin blinked. Some people were strange. Gazi appeared on her doorstep and asked—she was staring quite hard at Erin with her huge eye. But maybe that was just how Gazers were.
“Oh, no. I’m not going anywhere in a hurry. Why?”
Gazi studied her with her central eye and then smiled.
“I was just curious. I would greatly enjoy having another meal here at a later date, and I would not wish for you to leave before then.”
Erin laughed.
“No chance of that I’m afraid.”
“Well then. Until we meet again.”
Gazi stepped back, smiling. Erin stared at her, nonplussed. Gazi turned, and paused. Someone was in her way.
“Excuse me.”
Calruz blinked down at Gazi. The large Minotaur had clearly not been intending to stop, preferring perhaps to run Gazi over or let her move aside, but when he saw her face his hooves stopped dead in their tracks.
The Minotaur’s eyes fixed on Gazi’s large eye and his widened in recognition. He instantly made room for her to walk past him, giving Gazi a lot of space. She brushed past him with her faint smile.
“Your pardons, warrior.”
Calruz stared at her back as she left. He turned to Erin.
“Do you know her?”
“Sort of. Why?”
Calruz stared at Erin, back at Gazi’s disappearing figure and shook his head.
“She looked like—it is nothing. You would not know her.”
Erin felt a little insulted at that, but she didn’t correct the Minotaur’s error. He snorted, rubbed at his face, and stomped into the inn, nearly running her over. She hopped back and eyed Calruz. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked tired.
“Well, can I help you Mr. Grumpy?”
“Food. Drink. I will have both.”
He didn’t seem to care if she was sick. Erin sighed, walked into her kitchen and got Calruz a sandwich. He eyed the hefty slices of ham and cheese packed between two flimsy pieces of bread, but devoured the meal without complaint. Then he sat back and eyed her.
Erin stared back. It was quite silent in her inn. Rags had left after losing to Erin several times, and Toren was busy cleaning dishes.
“Um. Nice day, isn’t it? I haven’t gone outside much, but I assume it’s nice.”
Calruz kept staring at her. Erin shifted in her seat. It was very quiet.
“It’s not a bad day when there are no monsters killing you, right?”
He kept staring. She avoided his gaze.
“It’s not raining, at least.”
“You should have fought.”
Erin glanced up and at Calruz. The Minotaur was still staring at her with bloodshot eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“You. You should have fought.”
“Fought…who?”
“Last night. You went out to avenge the insect. You did not. But you should have fought.”
Erin opened her mouth and closed it for a second.
“You mean Pawn and Ksm. I didn’t go out to fight.”
“You did not.”
Calruz agreed. He shifted in his seat and put his elbows on his knees as he faced her.
“But you should have. It was a matter of honor. If you cared for the one called Pawn, you should have fought to protect him.”
“Um.”
Erin didn’t know what to say. Where had this come from? But Calruz was direct and as blunt as…his giant axe would be if it met her face. Well, not that blunt. She’d met chess players like him.
“I’m sorry, but fighting would have been prett—really stupid. I would have lost and gotten chopped up.”
“That is immaterial.”
“Um. No it’s not. I don’t want to die.”
He snorted at her. Erin almost expected to see steam coming out of his nose.
“Those who believe they will lose before battle begins have already lost.”
“Yeah, but I know I would have lost. That guy you wanted me to fight? Ksm? He hit me once and I was seeing stars for an hour. He’s a warrior. I’m—not.”
“If you are not a warrior, you should become one. It is unbefitting for a female to be alone and not be a warrior.”
This conversation had taken another right-angle turn into weirdness. Erin tried to come up with a response.
“I have a skeleton. For…protection.”
Toren poked his head out of the kitchen. Calruz glanced at him and snorted.
“It is worthless. Weak.”
For some reason Erin thought Toren looked insulted, but skeletons didn’t have emotions, did they?
“Well—I uh, I can fight too. If I really have to. I’ve got [Bar Fighting] as a skill, you know.”
Calruz stared blankly at Erin. She blushed.
“I can fight. But I don’t want to pick fights I know I’ll lose. Look, this Ksm guy has levels in some kind of warrior class, right? He’d kill me if I fought.”
“There is more to strength than mere levels.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a Minotaur. I don’t have muscle. Or horns for poking people.”
Calruz rolled his eyes towards the roof.
“I refer to skills.”
“Yeah, like I said I’ve got one. And uh, [Lesser Strength]. Forgot that.”
“That is not what I meant. I mean skills for combat.”
Erin stared at Calruz with such complete incomprehension in her eyes that he seemed taken aback.
“You…do not know?”
“About what? Skills?”
“Activated skills. Combat skills.”
“…Noooooooo.”
He blinked at her. Then Calruz stood up.
“Follow me.”
—-
“Observe. This is my skill.”
Calruz pointed to the rock he’d found on the ground. It was a good-sized boulder that came up to Erin’s waist. She blinked at it, and then at his axe.
“Won’t that break?”
“No.”
Calruz raised the massive battleaxe over his head like a woodcutter about to split a log. But then he spoke. Or rather—roared. Erin jumped as he brought the axe down.
“[Hammer Blow]!”
The axe met the rock and the next thing Erin knew, Toren had tackled her to the ground. All was confusion as the thunderous impact stopped ring
ing in her ears and her bones. When Erin got up she saw the boulder was rubble.
As in—a few split fragments of stone were all that remained at the impact site. The rest of the rock had split and shattered into a million pieces. Erin blinked at the rock, and then at Carluz’s axe.
“Oh. That’s what you meant by skills.”
“Yes. It is my sole skill.”
“And it’s uh—wow.”
Erin stared at the boulder.
“Wow. Wow. Uh. Wow.”
Calruz seemed happy that she was impressed. He stuck the battleaxe in the earth and pointed to it.
“That is what you should learn. Skills. If you must be alone, you must not be unprotected. You must fight.”
“But I’m not a warrior. I mean, I don’t have a class—”
Calruz snorted at Erin.
“Immaterial. Classes, levels, these are just additions. What you lack is the soul of the warrior. You must have it. A female must not be alone without the power to defend herself. The singer must not be silenced. You must be stronger.”
He pointed at Erin with a finger twice as wide as her own.
“I have decided this. I will teach you starting tomorrow. There are two days remaining before I go into the Ruins. I will have you learn to at least fight properly until then.”
Erin opened her mouth. She stared at the splintered rock and at Calruz.
“Um. Okay. Thank you.”
He nodded.
“I will rest now. My party will come soon. They must have food. See to it.”
“Uh—”
Calruz stomped towards the inn. Erin watched him go. She stared at the boulder. Slowly, she edged towards it.
The rock wasn’t warm from the impact. But it was sharp. Erin cut her finger.
“Ow.”
She stared at the blood, and then heard a scuffling sound. She looked around and saw Toren next to the battleaxe Calruz had embedded in the earth.
The skeleton was pulling and heaving at the battleaxe stuck in the dirt as hard as it could. The heavy blade didn’t even budge.
Erin sighed. She watched the skeleton as it scrabbled for purchase, pushing its feet into the grass as it tried to uproot the weapon.
“That’s just so sad.”
—-
Weak.
Calruz thought the word aloud as he lay in his room and the two beds Erin had pushed together for him. It was something he had never had to think about.
But she was weak. Pitifully weak. Normally that was fine. He expected that of humans. But she—
She was offensively weak. And it was wrong. It bothered Calruz. She should not be so weak. She had no right being so weak. Because there was something in her that demanded strength.
He was thinking about Erin. Or was it Ryoka? Either or. No—the Runner was strong. She was just not a warrior. She had to learn honor. Once she did, she would be a true warrior. If she gained levels she would be worthy.
But Erin Solstice was different. Even now Calruz could remember the music. It haunted him. It was wrong. It made him—
Weak? Weaker? It was not the music of his home. There were no pounding drums, no voices raised for battle. It was not strong music. But neither was it weak.
It was unique. And it should be protected. But she was weak. So she had to be stronger.
Calruz shifted in his bed, ignoring the groaning wood. She had to be stronger. If she were to perish, he would regret it. To let an innocent life end because of inaction was the worst strike against his honor. He would teach her.
But of course, it wasn’t Erin that Calruz wanted to teach. But she would be good—practice, yes. She was female. Ryoka was female. He would learn how to deal with human females. Because at least one—two of them were worthy of respect. For different reasons.
A tanned face appeared in Calruz’s mind, and he saw a quick form dashing away from him. A bird, tethered to the ground. A hunting raptor seeking a home.
Beautiful. Fierce. And she had proper breasts, not like the small-mammaried females he kept running across.
He wondered where she was right now.
1.13 R
On the first day she saw the Goblins. It was as she ran through the grasslands around Liscor, the Flood Plains which were a barrier to armies and passage in the spring and empty in the short winter on this continent.
She stopped when she crested the hill and saw them fighting in the small valley below. Ryoka immediately crouched low to avoid their attention. A tribe of Goblins could be outrun, but their bows and slings were still a threat.
Besides, Ryoka couldn’t run as fast. Not today.
Her fire was gone.
But this wasn’t a single tribe in the valley below. It was two. And they were fighting. Shrill screams and warcries floated up to where Ryoka hid in the grass. She could see—yes, one of the groups of Goblins was wearing feathers. Some kind of ornamentation.
They were led by a large Goblin—one nearly twice the size of his friends. Still shorter than Ryoka but heavyset and thick. He had rusted armor patched together on his chest, and an axe in one hand. Probably their chieftain.
It was hard to tell where the other Goblin’s chieftain was. There was no Goblin that stood out as particularly bigger than the rest, but this tribe—the defending one—seemed more coordinated than the feathered tribe.
They were holding the other group of Goblins back with a stiff line of clubs and daggers and their archers and sling-using Goblins were firing over the backs of their friends. It almost looked like an infantry line.
And even as Ryoka watched, another group of Goblins suddenly emerged from the grass and plowed into the right flank of the enemy. The attacking Goblins faltered and reacted slowly as this new group began cutting a line through their foes.
The surprise attack group was comprised of the largest Goblins and the best equipped. A group of heavy infantry? But Goblins didn’t work like that. Except that these ones did. And they were organized. They didn’t break ranks as they attacked the other Goblins. They kept in formation and guarded each other’s backs and the difference showed as they kept gaining ground.
One of these strange Goblins carried a sword and shield that seemed to shine in her hands. They flashed and glowed as she struck and blocked, killing other Goblins, leading the attack. It was a trick of the light. She was tiny—small even for her kind. But she was leading the strange Goblins, Ryoka could tell. The entire battle was coalescing around her and she was making straight for the enemy chieftain.
He was holding the line as his tribe fell back around him. He roared and raised his axe as the small Goblin approached with a bodyguard of her own. With one blow he split the head of the Goblin that charged him and struck at the tiny Goblin.
She retreated. He charged towards her, swinging wildly but she raised her shield and gave ground. Ryoka frowned. The Goblin’s mouth was open and she looked like she was saying something. And her finger was—glowing?
A flash of light blinded Ryoka for a second. She blinked, rubbing at her eyes. When she could see again, the Goblin chieftain was rolling on the ground, screaming.
He was on fire. And the Goblins around him were being chased by—fire? Yes. It was some kind of spell. It looked like a flickering bird or perhaps fiery insect that landed on its foes and set them alight. The small Goblin had conjured it out of the air.
That was too much. Their leader dead and surrounded by the enemy, the defending Goblins fled or fell to the ground, cowering. Ryoka saw the small Goblin begin rallying her side, pointing to the wounded and shouting orders, staring around at the Goblin who’d run up to her. Turning. Pointing at—
Ryoka blinked. Then her heart began to race. The tiny Goblin was pointing directly at her. How did she know Ryoka was there?
Ryoka stood up. She looked around and only now saw the Goblin sitting on the other hill. A sentry? Goblins using scouts?
He shouted and all the Goblins stared at Ryoka. The sentry swung a sling and the first rock barely m
issed Ryoka’s head.
She ran.
They followed.
—-
She was faster. But her fire had gone out. And Ryoka was still tired. Still—she hadn’t slept. Not since then. She’d just kept running.
So she didn’t outdistance the Goblins quickly enough. That was why they were able to herd her. Different groups kept popping up, trying to ambush her, dashing ahead and pushing her towards the main horde.
She didn’t let them. But Ryoka didn’t know the hills and valleys. When she ran into a grove of strange trees a team of slingers pelted her with stones, making her run left. And that’s when she saw the small Goblin.
She was surrounded by her elite bodyguard of large Goblins. But the small Goblin was the best-equipped out of all of them. She had a short sword and a shield which seemed new. Pristine, compared to the other equipment the Goblins were using.
Ryoka had to break through them. She raised her fist and decked the first Goblin that ran at her. Not hard enough to break his skull like last time. Not hard enough to kill.
The Goblins hadn’t been expecting that. Ryoka kicked out and took another one down. They hesitated, and the small Goblin screeched something. She ran forwards and slashed at Ryoka’s leg.
Short. But quick. And her friends were too numerous. Ryoka retreated and sensed the other Goblins converging on her. She had to run.
She bull-rushed the Goblins to the right side and they fell back. They were still afraid of her, for all they had a competent leader. She kicked, punched. And then as she was nearly free something slashed at the rucksack at her back.
Ryoka spun and the blade missed her by inches. The small Goblin. She’d been aiming for the straps on Ryoka’s pack. Clever.
Goblins swarmed her. Ryoka cursed and kicked them away, throwing them down hard. They were trying to take her runner’s backpack. Steal her—
She shook herself like dog and the Goblins went flying. Ryoka’s hands flashed and Goblins fell down.
The small Goblin blocked her way as Ryoka moved forwards again. She and another Goblin were the only things blocking Ryoka, but more of the tribe was screaming as they rushed towards her.
The girl crouched and kicked low. A Goblin took a hit to the groin and folded up silently. For a second, she and the small Goblin were alone. They locked eyes.
