So yeah it's been two weeks since i posted a chapter sorry, I wrote it long ago but this would be the fourth version.
At first I was going to have Jacob appear but he's the prince of an upcoming nation who's busy (when not living outside of the city in a beast form).
Than I was thinking i'd rather bring him up later I haven't forgotten about him!!!
Reasoning for earlier things will also accompany Jacobs appearance..
Racial magic i'm glad you asked I was coming up with how to do that but have those of you who think i'm neglecting it thought about the chi and magic crystals she has in her?
They are racial aspects and will be shown later once she needs them (it's be interesting to put my thoughts together on that)
And I apologies about by shaky writing i'm better at the middle of a story than the beginning or end :)
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Although uncomfortable at first gradually we all became accustomed to the bumps in the wagon as it sped down the dirt roads, traveling for the entire day was quite boring so naturally I chose to train.
When night arrived we slept in tents provided by the merchant and ate and drank together with the caravan, the guards always ready with their weapons joined us unworried so close to Bernard city.
Waking early the next morning Selena, Emily, and I snuck off to wash with a magic stone shower head Emily thought of during her training in the wild.
Returning back we handed it off to Kyle who arrived back just in time for the caravans departure, Erik being who he is was planning to leave regardless of who came with him having already received payment.
On the third day we'd fully adapted to life with the caravan, each day we'd be up before sunrise naturally and train well waiting for the merchants to wake up.
A hired chef would then start to make breakfast together with a few other hired help, during this time we'd sneak off to shower.
During travel we'd meditate together and surprisingly I found my natural energy increasing faster than before, actively enhancing my vision with it I could see rather than just feel the natural energy.
Looking around Emily was simply attracting it but not absorbing it herself, Kyle having felt the same sensation as me was happily meditating the day away.
Selena on the other hand felt for the first time the natural energy of the world, watching her she was only able to take in an incredibly small amount.
Later that evening we'd finally reached the first town on our journey, looking around I could see familiar faces of the guards my father'd trained.
Only having been recently established Mr. Bernard had made many small towns like this one as well as protecting the existing small villages.
Greeting them with a wave of my hand I returned back to training well Selena and Kyle left to explore the town, Emily knowing some of the guards went over to greet them personally.
Within a few hours Selena returned having fully explored the town, Kyle on the other hand was apparently working to find his own accommodations for the night.
Selena had last seen him exiting the tavern with a group of several unsuspecting village girls, why he was with seven of them neither of us could understand.
Spending the night together in the inn Selena, Emily, and I all enjoyed the confort of a warm bed, waking up late the next morning we skipped training to eat in the inn.
On the lower floor was the only tavern in town coming down the stairs Kyle was already seated flirting, seeing us he raised his hand and continued his conversation.
The girls with him looked a little unhappy but a few words from Kyle and the expression immediately disappeared, watching Selena couldn’t help but laugh as Emily an I found us a table.
Coming over a pretty brunette serving girl happily took our order breakfast for four, being a small town the tavern only provided 3 meals a day changing on a regular basis nothing else was served besides alcohol.
Shortly after the food arrived Kyle made his way over taking the empty seats, all four of us received hostile glares at this point.
Emily, Selena, and I were receiving daggers from the girls whereas Kyle was mentally beaten by every guy in the bar, do doubt they we upset by his antics with the village girls.
Leaving the town shortly after breakfast our life on the road began anew, flying by the countryside passed by.
Although we'd just left a capital city the surrounding area was still just frontier settlements, passing through two more towns we finally reached the border between kingdoms.
By now our caravan had greatly expanded taking in three merchant apprentices with freshly emptied coin purses and two other groups of travelers, no longer meditating Kyle chose to flirt with the two girls who'd joined us.
Switching between tents the girls seemed to be passing him back and forth on a nightly basis, all I could really think of was that it's a horrific game of Frisbee.
Selena couldn’t look in his direction without blushing in embarrassment, whereas the rest of the caravan resorted to spitting in his food and other antics.
Emily and I simply ignored him through training as well as the advances of the men who'd try and converse with the only girls immune to Kyle.
Eventually Selena severely reprimanded Kyle.. with her fist and he no longer dared to go near anyone on the caravan, afterwards both of them received better treatment than before.
Selena was treated like a concurring hero, whereas Kyle was treated as a prisoner rather than scum.
Passing over the border was as simple as crossing an invisible line, with now settlements in sight it was hard to determine when one had actually crossed the border itself.
Spending another two days mediating while traveling we reached the first village in Jayden's kingdom, spending the night we Kyle went on his fourth house hunt.
Having resigned herself to being unable to control Kyle in a town Selena compromised by keeping the caravan and any new recruits untouched, the first two girls showed an obvious dislike towards her unlike the others who merely laughed at the girl keeping her boyfriend at bay.
Hearing this Selena couldn’t help but blush quickly followed by a sucker punch to Kyle's gut, quickly clearing any misunderstandings Selena returned to Emily and I.
After hearing we'd be staying in the village for a few days Selena went off to scout the surrounding areas with Emily while I worked on a new leather armor with my tailoring.
Using Chi the armor itself would become far stronger well water and light magic added regenerative properties, creating the suit for Selena was top priority requiring all of my concentration.
Unlike meditation this simply couldn’t be done while traveling, working for the next sixteen hours I was barely able to finish the chest piece.
Leaving the shin and leg guards for tomorrow I slipped into my bed at the inn and quickly fell into a deep sleep, woken by Selena the next morning we ate breakfast together before returning to our activities.
During breakfast Selena described the various beasts she'd killed together with my saber, entering the forest she'd even met with monsters that forced her to use its first ability!
Harvesting their crystals she seemed to be able to make a decent amount, Eric hearing she'd sold them to the town was furious saying something about their value to humans for their awakenings.
Telling her about the armor I handed over the chest piece, although it wasn’t a full set it would be better than nothing.
After walking Selena out of the town I walked towards the river finding myself a quiet place to work, sitting on a large rock next to the riverbed I started on an arm guard.
After two to three hours I'd finally finished the first one, although it was still rather simple Selena would appreciate the extra defense.
Kyle on the other hand created himself an entire armor made out of wood, harder than steel a basic sword wouldn't even be able to scratch it.
Light and durable it was perfectly suited to a rangers abilities, unfortunately it had to be maintained constantly or it'd fall apart.
Each time he uses it he'd have to create it from scratch, however be creating it again and again he could fully fletch it in seconds from the materials prepared in his bag.
Creating the second wrist guard took substantially less time unlike the first shin guard which took roughly six hours from start to finish, stopping by the inn for a late lunch I wandered around for about an hour or so before starting the second.
Finishing up around sunset I returned to the inn only to find Selena had yet to return, considering we'd be leaving tomorrow this was particularly unusual.
Waking Emily we she located Kyle and we grabbed him before rushing out of the village, fully armed we headed directly towards the forest.
The instant we entered under the canopy of leaves Emily changed directions and increased her speed to its limit, working hard to keep up Kyle and I barely kept her in sight as we closed in on the sounds of battle.
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Emerging in a large clearing hundreds of hobgoblin bodies could be seen covering the ground well a far larger number clustered together, from my position I could barely make out Selena fighting in the center covered in wounds.
Heavily bleeding from her right arm she'd been forced to wield her saber with only her left hand, with each wave of attacks a new cut would appear on her body.
Right behind me Kyle was greeted with the same sight as Emily was already rushing into battle, seeing Selena in danger he couldn’t help but curse under his breath something about Anthony killing him.
Sensing the change in chi I could tell he'd already begun constructing his armor, throwing his bag towards Selena the wood began to fuse together and wrap around her form.
Barely covering her as a sword headed directly towards her chest Selena was no longer able to move but fully protected by Kyle's armor, made to fit him all it could do was protect Selena while hindering her movements.
Drawing his bow he'd aimed at the ones directly attacking her killing them with an arrow through the skull, being an intermediate level opponent hobgoblins could easily be killed by anyone near our level.
While Kyle did all this it only took a second however I'd been delayed while my brain took a moment to process the battle, channeling my wind chi to increase my speed mana quickly wrapped itself around my hands.
Forming a miniature tornado covering my hand I struck directly towards the first hobgoblin in my path, creating a large hole in his chest without stopping for a second I lashed out with a swift kick to its approaching companions.
Killing a hobgoblin with every strike I was able to slowly work my way towards Emily who's similarly covered in fire magic, fireballs freely flying in all directions I'd probably entered the most dangerous area of the battle!
Barely managing to dodge a fireball headed directly towards me I was only able to retreat from her onslaught, sensing movement behind me I could only turn around fast enough to see the creature fall with an arrow sticking out of its eye socket.
Holding down yesterdays supper I could only fight the hobgoblins quickly surrounding me, releasing more mana blades of wind flowed out with every slash of my hand.
Copying Emily's fighting style I was barely able to hold off their immense numbers, changing my attack once again this time a tornado formed with me directly at its center.
Forming numerous blades of win my mana quickly drained while the creatures fell in waves, after around thirty minutes of continuous battle my wind mana finally ran out forcing me to switch elements.
Emily still throwing fireballs had used considerable less mana than me while Kyle had run out of arrows and engaged in close quarters combat as well.
Forming a protective layer of chi around himself he was now using a similar combat style to Selena, cutting down as many enemies as he could to keep the space around him clear.
By the end of the battle Emily was no longer using fire magic and I couldn’t use any magic at all, fighting solely with chi strengthening my hits.
Kyle on the other hand seemed to have retreated not having been much of a presence for the last while, using the last of her magic Emily had finished off the hobgoblins.
Rushing towards Selena Kyle's armor had returned to its natural state in all aspects but form, tearing it off I easily exposed Selena's crimson body.
Her clothes were torn to shreds and the skin underneath mangled using her light magic Emily started to heal her, watching the wounds pull themselves closed is really an incredible sight.
Hearing a noise I couldn’t help but look out over the battlefield, although Kyle had yet to appear I could hear him softly calling out.
Scanning over the corpses a distinctly human limb was sticking out underneath a pile of hobgoblins, rushing over I could see Kyle pinned to the ground with a blade shaped like a lightning bolt.
Seeing me some life returned to his pale face as his hand reached towards me, immediately calling over Emily he simply shook his head.
Looking at him even I could tell he was only holding on due to his slightly regenerated natural energy, pushing my own through his body was all I could do to give him a little more time.
After an uncertain amount of time Emily came over helping a limping Selena, seeing Kyle she fell to the ground next to him tears slowly forming in the corner of her eyes.
Looking at Emily she imitated Kyle.. both of them knew he'd never be able to live with our current abilities, Selena and I holding his hands was all the help we could offer.
Many hours passed even after his life had ended we stayed silently morning the loss of his life, Emily had long ago began clearing the hobgoblins away and setting up a campground.
Smelling the roasting meat on the fire Selena finally gave into her own needs and left me alone with his corpse, death being a new experience for me only made losing my best friend harder.
Eventually the sun began to set while Emily and Selena had long ago drifted off to a tear filled sleep, remaining beside Kyle I was finally able to move upon hearing an animal by the cliff.
Looking up I could see a small wrinkly green creature poking its head out of a nearby cave, feeling an intense pressure in my chest I rushed towards it.
Seeing me the creature immediately turned and fled back into the cave, following it inside the cave opened up roughly fifty meters in turning into a large cavern.
My eyes having already adjusted could easily see roughly seventy to a hundred more goblins swarming towards me out of multiple tunnels, using earth magic I merely caused the ceiling to slightly collapse crushing them all.
Walking around the rubble and entering one of the side paths multiple sleeping areas could be found with sleeping goblin infants, turning them into ash as I passed slowly made me feel better.
Finally at the end of the tunnel five entirely nude human women were collapsed on the floor chained attaching them to the walls, approaching them they remained in place.
Looking closer at their faces they were completely lifeless, ending their lives was the only way I could help them end their suffering.
Turning to leave I headed back to the main cavern before heading down another path, this time there were no goblin infants but at the end of the tunnel ten more women were chained to the wall.
This time all of them were clothed and placed on a bed of moss, all of them were pregnant with what I could only assume to be goblin children.
Again I killed them before heading down the third path, now I was met with fully grown goblins trying to block my path.
With a sweep of my hand their heads disconnected from their bodies as they fell to the ground, walking for over an hour I finally reached the end chamber.
To my surprise the only thing here was a large crib moving closer I was completely shocked by my discovery, rather than a wrinkled apple sized goblin a normal baby was laying inside.
Other than it's skin being entirely green it looked completely like a normal human's baby boy, picking it up I carried it back to the main cavern heading down the final path.
Walking around ten minutes down this path and another cavern opened up, looking around five other tunnels branched off from here.
Heading down the first on the right only took around five minutes until I reached the end, more women were in chains but this time they were both wearing armor.
Both were Elves one around my age the other looked slightly younger, looking between the two of them they were obviously sisters.
Forcing earth chi and mana through my blade I delicately sliced the shackles around their arms, using water magic I drenched them.
Coughing out the water filling their mouths they both woke up full of life, the younger girl started crying causing the baby in my arm to cry as well.
The older girl however focused her eyes on me before looking down at her freed hands, "Thank you" were the only words she spoke.
"Help up your sister and follow me" Heading back the three of use turned down the other four tunnels; inside the second was a human girl about fourteen, the third was empty, in the fourth tunnel we found gold and some gems that I quickly stored away, and in the fifth tunnel was a store of food.
Leaving behind the disgusting goblin lair the four of us made out way back to Emily and Selena while the ceiling behind us slowly began to collapse step by step sealing off the cavern forever.
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Thank you for pointing out my while issue ill make sure to work on that :)
Chapter 12: