Damien disgruntledly led the way through the wilderness. He had no idea where he was and would climb up a tree every five minutes to find any massive indicators to where he was. He would see the mountains and stars that were able to help him locate where he was on the map. This went on for almost an hour, where Damien would make no progress to where he wanted to go. At this point Aya finally came to the conclusion that he had no sense of direction. Actually it was beyond just not knowing the natural cardinal directions, but just being completely clueless.

“You’re telling me that you can’t read directions and you can’t find your way out of here?”

Damien stopped what he was doing and jumped down the tree in shame. He held his head low like a puppy waiting to be reprimanded. Aya did not care for his theatrics and got straight to the point. She quickly found the tallest tree in the vicinity and reached the top of it while dragging Damien along. She pointed at a mountain range far off in the distance.

“What is that?”

Damien quickly answered like a machine.

“Mortal Mountain Range.”

“What about that star?”

“The North Star.”

“And that over there?”

“The Yellow Swamp is over there.”

This lasted until Damien had every notable feature with a perfect score. He knew every single detail there was and he was able to point out exactly where they were on a map. He had everything he needed to maneuver through this lane with ease but something just didn’t connect. Aya could not believe he was this daft and made him try again.

“Take us to the main road that leads to Faye.”

Damien felt extremely confident this time since he aced her test with ease. With his ego inflated, he took everything into account and nodded his head unceasingly. With the utmost belief in himself he took his first steps to the north which was the complete opposite way. Aya’s body began trembling with despair as she could not understand what was wrong with this child. She could not take this feeling anymore and took her mask off in rage. This caught Damien’s attention instantly so he stopped in his tracks.

“How are you going the entirely opposite way!? You have to be the wrong kind of special to mess it up this bad!”

She stomped her way over to him so she could drag him toward the right direction. She took him for about 5 minutes before the brush started clearing away and the air started blowing in. There they arrived at a paved road that had clear signs of tracks from the day prior. Aya grandly displayed the road to Damien as to mock him.

“How did you forget when we pointed where the main road was? How are you not able to connect the dots?”

At this point Damien was bashed to a point where he could no longer feel any more shame. He shrugged his shoulders in disregard of her display and walked on the road like he had found it. He smugly strutted down the path, but noticed Aya wasn’t following him. Damien could only think of one reason why and he shamelessly turned around and went the other way. As he was passing her, Aya just stopped him and in defeat proposed a new idea.

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“I will lead the way, but any trouble that comes our way will be dealt with by you. You are honestly a helpless case. Don’t wander away from me.”

With the new plan laid out, Aya was able to easily lead him toward Faye. They both blended in the darkness of the night and passed by many campsites. The merchant’s had bodyguards eyeing them as they passed by with their hands on their weapons. Anyone would react that way seeing how they were both dressed. They caused many false alarms along the way, but made it through until the day break. A lot more activity could be seen and greetings could be heard from one merchant to another. It was a lovely mood that was killed by their presence. This lasted up to a point where the road forked to two different paths. It was obvious which direction everyone preferred to follow, but Damien was stuck waiting as Aya scooped out the other path.

The entire time Damien was waiting, he did not witness a single soul make their way where Aya headed into. It was such a hazard to others that a good-hearted soul warned Damien of the dangers.

“It’s best not to head in that direction. There is a bandit lair that has gotten everyone on edge. I hear that the leader is a 6-Armed Demon who just reached the 8th rank of the Sky Realm. He is a true expert and notorious for his cruelty. I rambled on too much, please heed my advice!”

The kind man quickly caught up with his entourage where he left Damien with a conundrum.

‘I can probably make my escape here and not have to deal with whatever random things she wants to put me through. Still, if I were to leave I might not ever make it to my destination or back to Gats on my own.’

Damien was mulling over if it was worth being lost to not be with someone that could potentially hurt him. As Damien was leaning toward the side to just take off with his fastest speed and pray to be going the right way, he felt the strands of his hair stand up. Behind him Aya was standing knowing exactly what he was thinking. Damien was a very easy person to read, unfortunately he didn’t have a clue about that. Aya didn’t need to say any words for him to get the idea, she just flicked her head toward the direction he was just warned about. Damien mustered the courage to speak against her decision.

“You know, I just heard from someone that a bandit lair is that way. Also an upper Sky Realm Demon is their leader, so it’s best we avoid that, right?”

Damien tried his best to sound convincing but it didn’t move Aya a bit. She pointed toward the sword on his back before speaking.

“Is that just for show? Or do you just like to carry it around for aesthetics? Although it is disgraceful for my kind to use weapons, they have their uses so you are going to use it.”

She passed by him with a slight bump to indicate to follow her. Damien reluctantly dragged his feet behind her. He came on this trip to train without spending all of his credits. He didn’t come to fight random people and try to be a hero of justice. He especially wasn’t ready to consciously take the life of another person as he had barely gone over that hurdle for beasts this past year.

Damien kicked rocks along the empty path that cut through a moundy prairie. It was a shortcut that saved you about two days. Many merchants took this road in the years past and that came to the attention of others. It was ideal geologically to set up a base and sneak attack others. Merchants nor their bodyguards would be able to predict where the bandits came from, so after their notoriety spread, they all had to take the longer road where they could not be ambushed.

It didn’t take long for them to finally reach their first targets. The rock Damien kicked east stopped by the foot of another. Damien looked up and saw two gnarley ogres blocking their path. They both held heavy weaponry such as a club and a two-handed mace. They did not seem to be the friendly type at all with the grunts and heavy breaths. The one with the mace stepped forward with his tip pointed at them.

“If yah want to pass this road yous all gonna need to pay up!”

The ogre held out his hand to accept the payment he thought they’d give up easily, but after nothing was received his attitude quickly changed. He felt embarrassed in front of his comrade so he roared threateningly before rushing at Damien. Damien turned to look at Aya for her reaction, however to his surprise she had vanished from her spot. He was left to fend for himself.

“If yous don’t wanna pay up then I will smash you!”

The ogre smashed down upon Damien with the sound of the wind being torn apart by the might of his mace. Any regular person would be frightened by the terrifying scene of an obscene and grotesquely muscular ogre attacking them. However, Damien knew that ogres mainly relied on their physical strength, so he wasn’t the least bit frightened.

‘All show with no substance.’

Damien dodged the mace with the minimal amount of space needed. The mace swung by his face, blowing his hair back. Damien grabbed his arm as it came by and used his momentum to launch him away. That ogre disappeared from sight and all that was left was the clubbed ogre who watched on with amazement. The other ogre instinctively knew he was no match, but there was someone that struck fear into him more than the little figure in front of him. Without further hesitation, he came stomping down trying to tackle Damien, but in the end he ended up in the same position as his colleague. Both of them ended up somewhere far away where Damien could no longer sense nor see them.