Herald of Shalia

by Tamryn Tamer

Frost intuitively understood the system of abilities after all of Lysandra’s explanations. It seemed to be a combination of several systems which made sense. Like her story about the wolf rider, simply learning to ride a wolf wouldn’t make sense. There were probably different breeds of wolves and different riding styles to master. Similarly, if he learned a weapon there were millions of ways to fight with a weapon so naturally there would be an infinite number of alternative abilities.

  While there were obvious abilities he should master because of their universal application like anatomy, there were plenty of wasteful abilities that served little purpose other than a point sink. He thought six hundred points would be plenty but given the near infinite number of skills, it might not be enough. He hadn’t even unlocked a class.

  “Open up!” Ena yelled while pounding on the door. “We have an emergency!”

  “Emergency?” Frost asked as Lysandra opened the door. Ena came barreling in with a cudgel drawn and tried to crush Frost. Thanks to his newly acquired dodge ability she hit nothing but the air. The furious blue-eyed elf unleashed a series of swift attacks but it felt no different than walking down the street. It wasn’t so much that he was actively avoiding the attacks as much as he was naturally moving around like a leaf on the wind. “Why are you attacking me?”

  “I told you! He’s a spy! Or a thief! Or an assassin!” Ena yelled as she continued to swing. “Look at how he moves! He’s a soldier of the Zira Kingdom!”

  “Paralyze!” Lysandra said as a static charge blasted the rampaging elf. Ena’s hate-filled eyes fixated on Frost as she stood frozen mid-swing but all he could think about was that he’d just seen real magic. “Now, Ena. I’m going to release you but if you keep attacking, I’m going paralyze you again. Understood?”

  Lysandra moved in front of Ena and stared at the blonde elf as if waiting for a response.

  “Cure paralysis,” Lysandra said calmly while touching Ena’s shoulder. Ena quickly backed away from Lysandra while keeping her eyes on Frost. “Now, explain yourself?”

  “Ziran soldiers have entered the forest!” Ena said furiously. “They’re coming straight toward our village! The only way they’d know we’re here is if he told them!”

  “I’m sorry,” Frost looked at Lysandra for guidance. “Would you mind explaining the situation to me?”

  “Technically our village is on Zira’s land,” Lysandra said somberly. “If they find us, they’ll kill us.”

  “Why?” Frost asked. “Because you’re elves?”

  “Don’t play dumb,” Ena growled. “You know exactly why they’re here!”

  “Because we’re followers of Shalia,” Lysandra sighed. “But we don’t have time for this. Ena, I assume Fayeth and Renna are gathering the villagers?”

  “Of course,” Ena pointed her cudgel at Frost. “But as long as he’s with us running and hiding won’t matter. He’ll just tell them where we are.”

  “Frost,” Lysandra gave him a pained look. It was obvious what she was thinking. His arrival followed by theirs was too much of a coincidence. But she desperately didn’t want to think it. “I have to…”

  “How strong am I?” Frost asked Lysandra as she packed. “You asked me before if I was here to protect you. Am I even strong enough to protect you?”

  “Protect us?” Lysandra glanced at Ena.

  “Is that something you want?” Frost asked unsure of the politics of the world. “Will protecting you make things worse for you?”

  “It’s a trick!” Ena said furiously. “He’s trying to convince us to stay so they can kill us!”

  “Lysandra?” Frost looked at Lysandra and her eyes confirmed that’d be the case. “Am I strong enough to fight them?”

  “Yes,” Lysandra answered. “Unless they sent a group of heroes, you’re strong enough.”

  “Do you want me to protect this village?” Frost asked.

  “No,” Lysandra said while looking away. “There’s no reason for you to become an enemy of Zira. It’s better to run away. We’ll make a new home. We should gather our…where are you going?”

  “To protect you,” Frost said while looking through his abilities. He quickly mastered anatomy, unarmed, and block. He figured that those abilities would be the most useful regardless of what he decided to be.

  “I said not to protect us!” Lysandra panicked. “We’re going to run!”

  “Yeah,” Frost nodded. “That’s what really put the last nail in the coffin. Had you asked for me to protect you, I might have let you run. But the fact you thought of my safety first, it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth if I didn’t help you.”

  “Frost!” Lysandra yelled as he walked down the stairs. Unarmed was a good decision given his lack of equipment. Lysandra chased after him. “You don’t have to do this! This isn’t your fight! We’ll be fine! We run! We hide! It’s what we do!”

  “Do you plan on leaving me behind if you run?” Frost stared into her violet eyes.

  “Yes,” Lysandra answered quietly. “Even if I trust you, the others won’t. The timing is too much of a coincidence. If we’re running, I need them to feel safe and trust me.”

  “If I protect you, will you stay?” Frost asked.

  “Yes,” Lysandra replied while looking away. “But it’s wrong to ask…”

  “Why?” Frost looked at the anxious elf. “Because I’m a human?”

  “Because you’re ignorant of this world,” Lysandra snapped. “You don’t realize what you’re doing! You’re a human siding with followers of Shalia! You’re offering to fight your own kind for us!”

  “My own kind?” Frost laughed. “Lysandra, I’m human. One of the defining features of humanity is we hate our own kind.”

  “What?” Lysandra said as he stepped out of the temple. The elves were packing sacks as others pulled wagons and strange looking animals from the large stone building. They were operating with insane efficiency and he realized that the elves were probably always prepared to run.

  “Frost!” Fayeth trained her bow on him as Renna pulled out a pair of daggers. “What did you do with Lysandra and Ena?”

  “I don’t have time for this,” Frost said. “What direction are the soldiers coming from?”

  “The east,” Fayeth blurted out while jerking her head in the direction. “But you already know that!”

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Ena yelled while attempting to catch him off guard by jumping from a second story window. He reflexively side stepped her and grabbed her weapon. Suddenly the disarm ability became available under unarmed combat and Frost put a point in it. He easily pulled the cudgel from the elf’s hand and tossed it aside. “You bastard!”

  “Ena!” Lysandra yelled as she exited the temple. “I warned you once already!”

  “High Priestess,” Renna glared at Frost. “Are you being held hostage?”

  “Just say the word and he’s dead,” Fayeth said casually while training her bow on him.

  “He says he’s going to protect us,” Lysandra said. “And I believe him!”

  Ena, Renna, Fayeth as well as several other elves stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Frost found himself suddenly feeling more naked than he felt before he’d acquired pants. The elves didn’t have a consistent look among them. The looks ranged from suspicion, anger, confusion, disbelief, and hope.

  “Really?” a small elf started to say as her mother quickly covered her mouth.

  “You said they were to the east,” Frost said while looking at the forest bordering the clearing. “I’m going.”

  “Frost,” Lysandra started to object but stopped herself as she realized there wasn’t a point. Frost was going to go no matter what she said.

  Frost couldn’t help but roll his eyes at himself as he walked toward the forest. He wasn’t a good person and had no desire to be one but he couldn’t just abandon them. More specifically he couldn’t abandon Lysandra. He wanted to lay in bed with her again.

  “I’m pathetic,” Frost laughed at
himself as he wandered through the woods. “You barely know her and you’re already wrapped around her finger. You fucking idiot.”

  “What’s that mean?” Renna asked popping out of the woods next to him with Stealth Lvl. 3 over her head. “Who’s finger?”

  “None of your business,” Frost said irritably. He didn’t like being snuck up on and definitely didn’t like the emerald-eyed elf listening in on his embarrassing conversation with himself. “Go back to the village.”

  “That old hag trusts you,” Renna said cheerfully. “That makes you interesting to me. Also, somebody needs to keep an eye on you just in case you decide to betray us. So, whose finger are you wrapped around? Shalia’s?”

  “No,” Frost grumbled while stomping ahead of the green-haired elf. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Refusing to answer,” Renna said mockingly while vanishing into shadows and reappearing from other ones. “Maybe Ena’s right and you can’t stand being around elves.”

  “Yeah,” Frost rolled his eyes. “You got me. I hate elves so much. That’s why I fucked one.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? What elf have you…” Renna gasped. “The high priestess! You fucked her! That’s why that hag trusts you!”

  “And it’s her finger I seem to have wrapped myself around,” Frost sighed. “Satisfied?”

  “No!” Renna said furiously. “That’s not satisfying at all! You shared a bed with Lysandra! That’s disgusting! What’s wrong with you! She’s nearly a hundred years old!”

  “She doesn’t look a day over twenty-five,” Frost smirked.

  “I can’t believe it,” Renna grumbled. “The village is filled with women who’ve never had a man and you go for the one who’s older than the forest itself.”

  “You sound jealous,” Frost teased.

  “Obviously,” Renna said catching Frost completely off guard while fading into another shadow. “Most of us have never had the opportunity to lay with a man and that old hag took you for herself.”

  “Never…” Frost stopped and suddenly realized he didn’t see a single male in the village. “There are no men in your village?”

  “Elf males scorn followers of Shalia,” Renna grumbled. “All of us in the village were either abandoned or orphaned.”

  “I’m going to need to learn more about the history of this world,” Frost said as he heard the clank of iron approaching. He pushed Renna behind a tree. “Hide.”

  “Don’t tell me…” Renna stopped herself as Frost gave her a stern look. “Fine.”

  The elf activated Stealth and didn’t so much vanish as find perfect locations to move between. Frost was extremely interested in that ability and would need to ask about it later. But, for the moment, he needed to turn his attention on the approaching footsteps.

  “We’re getting close to the location so be on your toes,” an older voice yelled. “The orders are to capture if possible.”

  “Let’s hope they put up a struggle then,” another voice bellowed as several soldiers laughed.

  Frost moved closer to the oncoming troops and started scanning them as they came into view. The only one over level thirty was their commander who was thirty-one knight. The rest of them ranged between level ten and twenty-two with most of them on the lower end of that range. Frost counted about forty in the troop.

  He was massively outnumbered but as he scanned the individual soldiers in the troop he realized how weak they were. They were almost all showing up as grey in terms of power. A vast majority of them were squires while the higher-level ones were listed as knights. He was positive he could take them.

  “Hey,” Frost yelled as the soldiers simultaneously pulled out their weapons. He didn’t really have an idea on what to say but ideally he wanted to diffuse everything without making enemies. If he killed soldiers, they’d send more. He needed to find a way to convince them to leave peacefully. Although based on their previous excitement about hoping the elves would struggle he wasn’t sure if that was possible.

  “Halt,” the commanding officer held his hand up to the troops. “He’s human. Lucky we found you out here son. There are elves in these woods.”

  “This is going to be awkward,” Frost chuckled. “I have a proposal for you if you don’t mind listening to it.”

  “A proposal,” the commander attempted to scan him but based on his irritated expression, he failed. “I’m a little bit confused son. But I’ll hear you out.”

  “I want you to leave the elves in this forest alone for today,” Frost said politely. “I would also like you to send a diplomatic delegation to the village so we can discuss things further.”

  “I recognize and respect that you exceed my strength,” the commander said while attempting to scan him again. His troops momentarily murmured but the commander silenced them with a gesture. “I also see that you are completely unarmed and alone. I feel you may be overestimating yourself here son. Do you intend to throw your life away for some demis?”

  “I’d pose a similar question to you,” Frost said confidently. “How many lives are you willing to throw away because you hate elves?

  “Son,” the commander shook his head. “First off, I don’t hate elves. I hate my brother-in-law. I hate my neighbor. Hell, I hate a lot of people. But I don’t hate demis anymore than I hate a wild dog. But I’ve been ordered to clear them out.”

  “You said first off,” Frost said. “What’s the second reason?”

  “These aren’t just elves,” the commander said. “They’re rumored to be followers of Shalia. So, we’ve been orders to bring them in. And orders are orders.”

  “Orders are orders,” Frost nodded while wondering why being a follower of Shalia was pertinent. He was going to have to remember to ask Lysandra about it later. “Whoever gave you the order probably didn’t realize they were sending you to your death.”

  “Excuse me?” the commander glared at Frost. “Are you saying you intend to kill us all?”

  “I’d rather not,” Frost answered while holding out his hands. “Commander, I’m standing here unarmed and look at my hands. Still as stone. Now, you can roll the dice or you can walk away from the table. The choice is yours.”

  “Hm,” the commander glanced back at his troops. “Men, we’re falling back.”

  “You can’t be serious,” a soldier said angrily as several others voiced their displeasure at the decision.

  “I have a bad feeling about this guy,” the commander said. “I’m not willing to risk the lives of my men to kill some demis. We’re heading home.”

  “Sir,” an officer stepped forward. He was a level twenty-eight knight and appeared to be the second highest level in the group. The disdain behind the man’s voice made Frost uncomfortable. “I object to this course of action. I must insist…”

  “I’m the commander here,” the commander growled at the officer. “As long as I’m the commander, you will obey my orders. Understood?”

  “Sir,” the officer said with contempt. “You will either follow orders or I’ll be forced to relieve you of command for dereliction of duty. It has recently been suspected that your daughter’s involvement in the pro-demi movement has influenced your judgment in…”

  “Listen here son,” the commander growled. “My judgment is sound as a songbird. That man over there, I don’t need scan to realize he’s a monster. If your stupid ass wants to face him, go right ahead. But you’re fucked in the head if you think I’m letting you take the rest of my soldiers with you.”

  “Listen to your commander,” Frost said irritably. He was so damn close to a peaceful resolution too. “He’s trying to save your lives.”

  “Like hell,” the officer sucker punched the captain and followed up with a baton to the side of the head knocking him unconscious. The other soldiers looked on uncomfortably as even they realized how cowardly the officer’s actions were. “I’m taking command. Now, somebody take the commander into custody. If any of you have problems with my conduct, you can feel free to f
ile a report.”

  “Yes sir,” several soldiers responded as others grumbled uncomfortably.

  “As for you,” the officer smirked. “If you love demis so much, you can share their fate. Kill him.”

  “You should have taken me up on my offer,” Frost sighed as they rushed toward him. Several arrows flew by his head but completely missed their marks. Frost wasn’t entirely sure if it was dodge that caused it or poor aim, but it didn’t matter. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  The first squad of soldiers to reach him was fortunately led by a knight. He was a little bit relieved because he wasn’t sure how much force to exert and the plate-clad knight would serve as a good test subject.

  Frost dodged a sword strike from the knight and noticed a new ability become available, counter. He recognized it as an extremely valuable skill so naturally he maxed it out. The requirements to activate were a successful dodge and the enemy being open to attack, both of which were met when the knight missed his wild swing. Frost’s fist smashed into the soldier’s steel cuirass and crushed it, smashing the body within it.

  “Shit,” Frost said as he tried to pull his punch at the last second. He saw he was still alive but coughing up blood. He was thankful his first opponent was heavily armored as several of the soldiers backed away at the sight of the convulsing knight. Frost gestured at the knight. “Take him before he dies.”

  Two soldiers quickly grabbed the knight and dragged him off toward a cleric in the rear as the others nervously surrounded Frost. They were hesitating. They likely realized that while the knight was wearing plate armor, they were in chain and it wasn’t looking good for whoever attacked him first.

  “Fire,” the officer shouted as the archers loosed a volley of arrows at him.

  He realized it was his dodge ability allowing him to evade the arrows as he quickly moved three steps evading the entire volley. The enemy soldiers weren’t so lucky as one of them took an arrow to a shoulder and several others barely managed to avoid them.

  “What are you doing!” a soldier yelled at the archers. “Are you trying to kill us!”

  “Shut up and attack!” the officer screamed at the soldiers. Frost underestimated the psychological effect that crushing a knight with his bare hands would have on the group. They were terrified and panicking. The archers weren’t thinking and the melee units were practically tripping over each other. “I’ll have you thrown in prison!”