"how long is the trip?"

Luke is currently talking with Eryn in the inn's "lobby" after buying the items Vina had requested him.

"The fastest would be 10 days assuming nothing happens, shouldn't be longer than 14 days though"

"Hey uhh... Are you worried?"

"About what?"

"This"

"Of course i am, Sylvia could be anywhere, and looking at what happens recently... I think she's getting braver"

"I still wonder why she's after me"

"Probably just a Petty revenge for getting her jailed, but now she knows you know who she is, you turned from a side target to a high priority one"

"That explains why i feel like i'm the one who brought this upon us"

"Don't be too harsh on yourself, it's not your fault"

"Eryn... When i was going out buying those stuff i heard some guards passing by talking about what happened yesterday, the messenger that got killed is just a young graduate, i killed a boy!

"You didn't kill him, she did"

"But i still caused it, his family is going to hate me if they know what leads to this"

"I can't Deny that it has something to do with you, but again... not your fault"

"I don't know it's just..."

"Insane?"

"Yeah"

"Like... I never expected shit to go *this* wrong, but the world doesn't care i guess"

"Talking about care, how is your wound?"

"Good, it's mostly healed"

"The runes? Any progress?"

"Well... Other than making the Axe look cool and zapping myself trying to admire it, not much, and if you're asking about the speed one, let's just say running into a wall is still a common occurence"

"Have you not tried anything else? Lightning spells are not that special overall but the range and speed they have is a pretty good Niche"

"Range... Speed.... You're a GENIUS!"

"What?"

Luke bolted up straight and ran out the front door in hurry, Eryn can hear him shouting something as he left

"If you're looking for me just go to the Northern gate!"

----~----

Luke had used the Northern gate as place to train lately, there's a couple of reasons as to why, but the general idea is that the Northern gate, for whatever reason, is the most heavily guarded so logically it's safest place he can go to train in the open, that and the guards don't mind him striking at the Boulders and trees right outside the gate, though sometimes he terrify people who are just passing through

He had even started befriending some guards around the gate, they are pretty Chill especially the cat guy, him arriving at the gate and train there has become a regular thing now, so they have stopped questioning why he even came there a while ago.

he was nearing the gate when he noticed something unusual, everytime he goes outside and train the guards at the gate always assign atleast one soldier to watch over him and only them for everytime he came up, this led him to know a nice but Sassy as heck fox lady named Ket that trash talk and laugh at him from her post everytime he did a goof, and today she wasn't there instead all there is that God damn dragon jerk

'Oh great, as if today couldn't get worse'

Luke had hated the guy ever since the first and last conversation they had, he had even started suspecting that the scaled bastard had something to do with Sylvia since it's clear he knows her better than other guards, but don't play with two dragons they said, otherwise you'll turn to steak not to mention the guy Will have the upper hand as a guard if he accuse him working with sylvia, he walked past trying to not make eye contact, his plan failed when he felt something big on his shoulder

"What is your business here *citizen?*" Luke can hear venom in his voice, he even had a glare that said 'you wanna go pal?'

"Ask the other guards, they know i always go here" he returned with the same glare

Silence, they stared at each other for moment that felt like an eternity before he was let go

"Continue"

"Thank you" he said that one with a bit sarcasm

----~----

Drako watched as the man his (ex) wife had been targeting walked through the gate and turned right going probably somewhere along the Walls, he considered spying him but choose not to

'why would i need to help her again?'

*She's your wife*

'not anymore she's not'

*Think about your pledge to her that day*

'it means nothing now'

*It means something to her*

'and she means nothing to me now'

*Remember your Times with her, all those Times in the field outside the city, that wink she always gave you everytime she goes to her school*

'those days are over'

*She is what completes you, she is your life!*

'....'

*Think about those memories, when you two flew together in the wind and dived down and she hugs you in the air*

"Get out of my head!"

"Is there anything wrong soldier?"

"Huh?" He turned around and Saw his captain looking at him with worry

"Nothing sir"

"Oh There's definitely something bothering you, what is it?"

"It's garsh..."

"I get it, it's horrible what happened to him, did you see what happen to his stomach?"

"Yes sir, i was in his funeral"

"Ah sorry i forgot you were his friend, a trainer too right?"

"Yes sir, losing him is like losing a brother"

"I understand, keep your guards up, it's very possible the one who killed him is the archmage we are hunting right now, to be honest you're probably our biggest asset against her"

"Yes sir, thank you"

"Just keep your guards up"

"Sir i have a question"

"I have someone claimed they know the guards around here, do you know anything about who he is?"

"Hmm... Ah... That weird guy, yeah he always come here and ask if he can train or something near the gate"

"And you allow it sir?"

"Yes, he didn't anything do wrong, anyway remember what i said"

"Yes sir i Will"

----~----

Sylvia frowned, her mind whisper didn't work, it's a special spell that lets you talk to people from far away without having to even talk physically, all you need to do to speak to someone is see their face, making a mind bridge is the tricky part, but it was an easy task for someone like her

"Those days are over huh..."

She sat down at the dusty floor of the old building and growled her annoyance

"Maybe i should've used mind control, that's how i got him to like me anyway"

Although failing to convince drako to come back she still found out about what the pest is doing this whole time she's not stalking him, the thing with whisper is that if you do certain simple things that would be really complicated for a normal mage, you can see through your target's eye to see what they are seeing and a little bit of another and you can hear what they hear, she was going to whisper to drako when she sees her target walking up to him, so she elected to stay quiet letting Them speak to each other

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Training something hmm... Interesting"

----~----

Luke closed his eyes and activated his Axe, looking at the now crackling Axe he tested his theory, he held his Axe like you would a rifle and concentrated

'alright... What about... A lot of Tiny bolts? Let's try that' nothing

'ok... Just a few small bolts out of the tip' nothing

'few small bolts out of the tip in shape of a cone' this time he heard something, the crackle of electricity from his Axe intensified then all of it dissapeared then Came back again more concentrated around the tip of the axe

"Fire!"

Multiple bolts of electricity came out of the tip in a formation that somewhat resembles a shotgun spread and hit the trees he was aiming at, burning it

"Haha! It worked! First try!"

He had succeeded, Americans would be proud as he has invented something that is basically what you would call "lightning shotgun" and he's damn proud of it

"May God bless your soul Eryn! Thank you for reminding me!"

He looked at his Axe and smiled, he has a lot of things he can test now that his theory had been proven, he closed his eye again and started picturing what he would do

'one strong bolt going straight forward' nothing

'a strong and fast bolt with high precision'

There was that sound again, and he aimed for a tree that was far away

"Fire!

A blinding flash and a strong Recoil was all he felt for a few moments before he regained his focus, once he did he looked at the target, he missed and hit another one behind it, but he can see it now has a charred hole that cut clean through it

"And that's a snipe! Oh i'm gonna have fun with you! How come i didn't think of this before?"

----~----

He tried other gun concepts with hsi Axe for a couple hours now and has Come to a conclusion, an assault rifle doesn't work, a shotgun and sniper works just fine, an LMG makes a constant Beam and a grenade launcher is just silly, but it was enough, now he has something he's familiar with fighting should be astronomically easier

"Damn..." He looked at the destruction and forest fire he had started

"The risk i took was calculated, but man am i bad at math"

he even had guards rush to where he is and asked him or rather yell at him about what he has done and his reply was

"sorry! Accidental discharge!" It was true though

"I gotta give you a name, hmm..."

He thought of a name but couldn't come up with anything but then remembered the game his buddy used to play everytime he came over back on earth

"You're going to help me a lot, Leviathan"

----~----

Vina watched as Luke, rather happily walked back to the inn, if the big and borderline maniacal smile he had on his face isn't enough hint that he did either something briliant or incredibly stupid she don't know what is

"What did you do?"

"Oh i did something amazing! I'll show you later, where's Eryn? I gotta thank her"

"She's out buying some ink for herself, what did you do?"

"I promise, i'll explain later... Uh... Why are you..."

"What?"

"Puffy?"

"Hmm?"

"Your fur, why does it look thicker?"

She facepawed

"It's my winter Coat you idiot!"

"Oh..."

Luke had to admit, it looked funny, her fur was puffing out of her clothes, it's very obvious too, not small puff of fur no, more like a big ball of Fluff that got trapped in a way too small bag

"Why are you wheezing?"

"No you just... Looked... Hrrp.... Neat"

"Oh really..."

"No i'm just kidding, you look funny as hell"

"Are you trying to tell me i look ugly?"

"No no no, it's just you looked exactly like what i told you when you ask me what i think of you"

"Fluffy?"

"Yes that one"

"*Sigh* whatever, what did you do this time? Why is there a billow of smoke coming from your direction?"

"Oh that! i'll tell you inside"

----~----

"Goon?"

"No, gun"

"Gu'n?"

"Close enough"

"What is a gu'n?"

"It's like... Hmm... I guess the closest thing you can go to is uhh... Stringless bow?"

"Huh?"

"God no... Hmm crossbow? Musket? Does that exist here?"

"Musket... Aren't those the long things used by the dwarfs?"

"Yes exactly! But a gun... Can shoot multiple Times"

"But a bow can shoot like that?"

"No not that type, you know when you take a new Arrow and pull? That's called a reload, a bow can only shoot once and then they need to 'reload', a gun however can reload once and have from just a couple shots to hundreds"

"That sounds complicated"

"Well... It is... Atleast by your standard"

"How does it work?"

"Well... Gun fires what's called a bullet, a bullet is like this small tube with a seperate pointy top, and it can go way faster than an Arrow"

"I don't get it, why can't you just show me?"

"Because i don't have it, i have different kind of gun, hell it's not even gun shaped"

"Your phone?"

"Wait a minute"

He snatched the phone from it's usual hiding spot

"Let's see... Ah here we go, this is what it looks like"

Luke was showing her a picture of an negev, it was actually a screenshot from a game his friend had sent him to show off a rare skin on it, sorry Carl i'm in another world, no more Awp down mid match anymore

"That doesn't look like anything i've ever seen, and why is it... Gold?"

"Nothing, anyway... That's what a gun look like, as for a bullet, how they work is that there is this tube called casing, inside of it is a powder that can explode"

"And?"

"The tip which is a solid piece, this is the actual bullet the casing just holds it, and now how it works is that inside the gun there is a pin, this pin strikes the casing, Igniting the powder and it propels the bullet"

"Uh-huh"

"The bullet, travels down a narrow tube, you see when something explodes or burn, it makes pressure, the tube is small enough to fit the bullet but the pressure Will still build up behind the bullet"

"Ok... I'm still following"

"It's like if you put a rock in a Tiny tube and then blow into it with your mouth and the air pushes the rock out, that's how a gun work but instead of air pressure it's a Tiny explosion that makes huge pressure in a Tiny space"

"You said the bullet is small, how would it hurt you?"

"Well you see when i said they can go fast, i Mean it, some bullets are faster than sound"

"Sound has a speed?"

"When i yell at you from far away have you ever noticed that the sound of my yell come slightly later after i do it?"

"I don't know, i never paid attention to it"

"That's because it has a speed, it sounds instant when it's near you but from far away? It Will take a second or two, now if i fire a bullet that goes even faster than that at someone, that someone Will get hit before they even hear the sounds of the bullet firing, because you know guns are loud"

"That's..."

"Ridicoulus? Yeah i know, anyway, the way it hurts you is because a bullet is small it Will actually shatters or break really, when it enter your body"

"Sounds horrible"

"It is, it's small and is in pieces INSIDE your body, it's next to impossible to pull out, unlike an Arrow that sticks out, and another thing is that have you ever shot an animal with an Arrow and it doesn't bleed out? Or atleast not as fast?"

"Of course, that's the basic thing every Hunters know, things don't bleed out as fast if they have a wooden stick sealing their wound"

"Well a bullet is small, like a tip of my finger small, well... Atleast the light ones, so when it enters it doesn't seal the injury, so it hits you, shatters and damage your insides and then let you bleed out"

"That's just wrong, and it's a weapon from your world?"

"Yes, what i have is what my people called 'energy weapons' it's not exactly Made yet in my world but they are working on it"

"And this one?"

"It's essentially a gun that fires... Closest thing you know would be... Lightning"

"I don't get it"

"Energy weapons don't use bullets, they use concetrated energy, whether that's plasma or good'ol electricity, or as you call it 'tiny lightning' "

"Can you show me?"

"Hmm... I guess shooting out of the window at the sky wouldn't be a bad option"

"I change my mind"

"Nope, too late, come here"

Luke walked up to the open window, pulled out his Axe and aimed at the clear sky

"Isn't that just your Axe?"

"I did a little improvisation"

He opted for the single bolt and charged, Vina who was standing behind him watched in half fear and half Awe as the tip glows brighter

"Fire!"

Another flash, boom and a Recoil, he recovered quickly and tried to see if the bolt is visible, it was not obviously, lightning goes almost as fast as light

"Wha- what was that?"

"And that right there is what caused the forest fire!"

"Amazing... Wait what?"

"Nothing, what do you think?"

"I can't even see it... But i felt it, it felt powerful"

"Oh yeah sorry for that, quick change in air pressure and what not, it punched through two trees you know"

"What!"

"Yeah it's more powerful than i thought it would be, you were not joking when you said runes are powerful"

Suddenly a hard knock was heard on their door, it slams open and revealed Eryn and the inn owner with a face that says panic

"ARE YOU TWO OK? WHAT... Happen...?"

"What's happening? Why is there thunder in the middle of the day? Is my inn ok? Why is this elf lady dragging me?"

"Calm down you two, i'm just showing Vina my latest breakthrough, by the way thanks Eryn, you're the cause i even Made it"

"What? What did you make? Please don't tell me it has something to do with smoke pillar from the north"

"Come here i'll tell you"

"What is it?"

"Please leave sir, sorry i dragged you"

----~----

"This is incredible..."

"Yep"

"And it's because i said range and speed?"

"Yeah, bullets from guns can go faster than sound and cross the entire town in less than second"

"How are you going to use it?"

"Well it gives me everything for every range, the single bolt let me hit people from really far, and that shotgun i told you is a nice close range weapon"

"This is quiet brilliant! Multiple types of weapon for every range in one?"

"Yep, free Axe included"

"You know Luke, now that i think about it, if i have a bow that is also a sword, it would be no different than your Axe right now"

"Exactly, just need to use the right one for the right time"

"Are you sure This can help?"

"Well... It punched clean through two trees and started a fire, i'm sure it can hurt her"

"Still can't believe you burned the forest in front of the north gate"

"Hey, it's already out and i helped putting it out"

Vina shook her head and put her hand into her temple as if thinking hard or stressed out about something, perhaps calculating the damage he had done

"I can just hear the sound of a guard walking in and asks us to pay for the damage..."

"It's out Jesus Christ, anyway, are we gonna do anything? Or are we just going to wait for the depart?"

"We wait"

"Oh come on, there's no way were just sitting here for 3 days!"

"Shut! Keeping you here Will probably lessen the chance of another forest fire by a good margin"

----~----

"So..."

Luke is watching as the rosterof carriages go into position slowly, preparing for the journey

"Each of these carts go to a different town except for ours another two that goes to the city?"

"Yeah"

"What's the name of the city again?"

"The city of Bastille"

"I feel like i've heard that name before somewhere"

"Probably just from people talking about it"

"No like... I Mean from my world, i feel like i've heard it before, like from an obscure documentary somewhere"

"What is a documentary?"

He was about to answer when he sees a familiar green figure among the crowd

"I'll explain later, hmm.... Wait, is that kottar?"

"Huh?"

"Kottar my man! How are you?"

Kottar, who is carrying a large leather sack turned around to see him and had a smile

"Ah Luke, want to go for the next step in training?"

"I Will, but not now i guess, what are you doing here?"

"I've decided i want to become an adventurer, go around the world, just to prove my brother wrong of course hah! Don't worry my services are still up"

"That's good, maybe i can do some Sparringa with you on the way? I'm going to a city, Bastille"

"Sure can, ah that's your friend right? Vina is it?"

"Yeah, hey Vina! He wants to meet you"

"She just smiled and waved

"Ah no need, how have you been? You didn't forgot sharpen you ability right?"

"Of course not, i'm still doing it, although it's a little limited, i'm in some troubles lately"

"Ah don't let a little issue stop you"

'oh boy, if only you knew that issue is a dragon witch'

"Oh well... The problem kinda have to do with why i need to go to Bastille, so it's not exactly small, and no, i didn't commit a crime"

"Heh thank God, i thought it has something to do with that forest fire"

'shit, what have i done?'

"Hey Luke! We're ready to go! Do you want to be left behind or what?"

He turned around and Saw Vina tapping

Her feet next to the carriage they are supposed to be on

"Gotta go, meet you in the road"

"Fair, i need to go to mine, see you tomorrow

Luke climbed to the carriage (although it looked more like a cart with a tarp as a roof) he sat in the back and watched as the town get smaller

"Let's just hope she doesn't follow us"

----~----

"Trying to run hmm?"

Sylvia watched as her target slowly dissapeared into the distance

"Ok, I'll play your game"

She beat her wings and slowly followed the convoy, undetected with her invisibility spell

"Let the hunt begin..."