“Alright. Everything seems to be latched on properly. Remember to have fun visiting Aric! And don’t get into any sort of trouble!” Ordwell was waving Nic, Aria and Sarman off as they climbed into the horse-drawn carriage that would take them to Aric.
As the three of them took their respective seats, Ordwell leaned in and looked around at the three of them, expecting some sort of response to his statement.
“Alright, we get it dad.” Sarman forced a smile as he shooed his father out of the carriage. “We won’t do anything, don’t worry so much.”
Hearing this Ordwell let out a short forlorn sigh as he put one hand on the door to the carriage. His face pained as he gave the three of them a soft smile.
“I get it, I get it. I’ll head out now. See you all in three weeks.” With a small wink to his son, Ordwell closed the door. “Tim, keep them safe for me?” Though muffled, the trio in the carriage could hear Ordwell giving his goodbyes to the man driving the carriage.
It didn’t take long for the carriage to start moving. Slowly it made its way down the mountain.
The carriage became deathly quiet. What should have been a joyous ride with friends discussing their plans for this vacation instead was one where no one wanted to talk. Only the clanking of the wooden wheels hitting stone and the pittering of the horses hooves sounded within the carriage cabin.
The air was palpable. So stiff that even the slightest of movements felt like it would spark an explosion. Even if they wanted to talk, none of the three knew a way to diffuse the situation.
It wasn’t because of bad blood between the three of them. Nic knew that. Sarman, who was sitting across from Nic and Aria, looked off as he sat with his eyes closed. Without Yuuki next to him, Nic thought that something was missing.
He reached out and slowly took Aria’s hand in his own. She didn’t flinch away from him. In fact she flipped her hand over and interlocked her fingers with Nics.
Sarman and Yuuki didn’t have the same kind of relationship as Nic and Aria. Sarman had said so many times when Nic had asked. But it was clear that the bond between them was at the same level or even stronger than the bond that Nic and Aria had.
Nic hoped that one day they would be able to rival that bond.
Pitter. Pitter. Pitter.
The carriage continued down the mountain. Despite its prominence on the world stage, Sanum was an older city. Because of that, its roads weren’t the most even, causing the carriage to bump occasionally. On top of that, many people owned shop fronts on the road, letting the carriage flow through the cacophony of sounds and smells that lingered in the air.
A small growl finally broke the tense silence in the carriage.
As Nic covered his stomach with one hand, Aria quietly giggled and Sarman opened one of his eyes to look at Nic.
“We just ate not even two hours ago. You’re hungry again?” Sarman quietly asked his question. Like Aria, he was close to bursting at the absurdity of the situation.
“Look, It’s just the smells. We must be going through a large food section of shops.” Nic tried to force the two back, but another growl from his stomach didn’t help his case at all. “Look, I’m not actually hungry. I’ll be able to last until we take a break specifically for lunch.”
The plan had been to get out of Sanum before stopping at any point. It was better if people didn’t know that Sarman Chapman was leaving town. Ordwell was fighting an uphill battle in the Sanum senate. They had to keep themselves on the downlow so as to not give Ordwell’s opponents more ammunition to use against him.
Now that a small stomach growl had broken the silence, each of the three felt far more comfortable talking within the carriage. By the time they were coming up on the gate that led outside of the city, the carriage had become quite lively, with, mostly Aria, and Nic telling Sarman stories of their time living in Aric back when it was a radtown.
Their conversations came to a halt when the carriage suddenly stopped. Sarman peered out of one of the curtained windows. Nic also took a sneak peak but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Seemingly coming to the same conclusion, Sarman opened a small window behind his head that let him speak to the driver, Tim.
“Can you see what’s happening, Tim?”
“I can’t sir. It sounds like the gate guard might be arguing with someone though. Want me to go check it out?” Tim was an old friend of Sarman and Yuuki’s from back after Aria moved away. He came from a much lower ranking family but when Ordwell offered him a job as a cart driver, Tim took it.
“Nah, that’s fine. I’ll get a little bit more of a stretch before we hit the road.” Sarman quickly got up and walked out of the carriage. Despite their plans to stay hidden, it seemed like Sarman was far too keen to see what was going on.
Nic shot Aria a quick glance. When she nodded back, he knew she was thinking the same thing as him. Sarman’s reason for going was weird. So they quickly followed Sarman.
“You could’ve stayed back.” Sarman spoke up as the two of them fell in line next to him.
“Are you sure you want us staying in an enclosed space… together?” Nic sent an elbow softly into Sarman’s side as he teased him.
“You’re right… I shouldn’t leave you two alone together again, right?” His face red, Sarman tried to give Nic a rebuttal.
Nic and Aria responded with laughter. It wasn’t too far from the carriage to the gate. As they got closer, they could hear a familiar voice yelling incessantly at someone.
Nic sighed as he rubbed his temples with one of his hands.
The three entered the gate house and Nic’s thoughts were confirmed.
Sitting against one wall was a demi-human girl about the same size as Nic. She had long straight black hair that reached about halfway down her back. Her soft purple eyes were staring vacantly at the ceiling. On top of her head sat two raccoon ears and a bushy tail idly hung down the side of the chair. While Nic had usually seen her wearing nice clothes, today she was in an outfit almost tailor made for trekking long distances. And based on the large bags next to her, it seemed she was going on a trip.
“Why are you keeping us!? We have our papers right here! Signed by the minister himself! Look, if you just let us go, I won’t tell him that you were stopping us from doing our jobs!”
In the center of the room was the first girl's partner. She had much shorter blonde hair that had now gotten nearly to her shoulder. Though he couldn’t see them because she was facing away from the entrance, Nic knew that the girl had vibrant green eyes. She was about the same size as Aria and had on a similar getup to the first girl.
She was currently verbally berating the poor gate guard sitting at the desk in front of her.
“Kiara. Sarah. What the hell is going on here?”
When Nic finally spoke up and said their names, both girls instantly locked eyes on him. Sarah seemed happy to see Nic while Kiara seemed far more reserved, almost scared.
“Nic! And Sarman!? That’s even better!” Sarah, the blonde girl who had been harassing the gate guard, bounded up to Sarman and held up a piece of paper in front of his face. “We have our orders from your father to head out of town, but this guard is refusing to let us go! Can you get him to let us through?”
Sarman took the piece of paper and let out a long sigh. He looked over at the guard, who flinched in response.
“Why’re you holding these two up? Everything on this piece of paper is legit, even you should know that.” Sarman was tired, and it showed. He didn’t want to have to deal with this kind of bs right before leaving the city.
“Uh- uh-umm.” The guard stammered as he stood up and gave Sarman a small salute. “You see… I was told by the previous shift guard to watch out for a dark haired, purple eyed demi-human. He didn’t tell me what kind of demi-human, so I stopped the lady and was trying to get in contact with the other guard, but this human kept interrupting me.”
Nic heard Sarman heave a long sigh.
“Was the last shift guard Kyle?” The guard in front of them furiously nodded. “I see…”
“I’m assuming that was your friend that told you about the hooded figure?” Aria spoke up after hearing Sarman’s question. He responded by giving her a dejected nod.
“Alright. I’m the one who told Kyle to look out for them. I also gave Kyle a much more detailed description. Look out for a cat-person, long black hair, and deep purple eyes. Kiara here has light purple, got it?” The guard nodded as he scribbled down the description that Sarman gave him.
“Got it. I have it written down here now and I’ll give this to the next shift guard as well.” He turned to Kiara and bowed deeply. “I’m so sorry about the mixup here. Please let me get you through the gate as fast as I possibly can.”
Kiara sighed as the guard quickly walked out of the building. She looked over at Sarah with a sharp glare that caused the girl to flinch slightly.
“We weren’t supposed to let them know our job. That was the one thing that we were told by the minister, Sarah.” Kiara was tense as she reprimanded her partner. She shoved one of the two bags that had been sitting next to her into Sarah’s arms before grabbing the paper out of Sarman’s hands.
Nic quickly glanced at Aria only to find her just as confused looking as he felt.
“Ummm… What exactly is your mission?”
Nic asked the question on both his and Aria’s minds but only got a glare from Kiara in response. Sarah was looking away guiltily while Sarman let out a long sigh.
“Look, Kiara. If you won’t tell them I will. I can understand why my father didn’t want them to know, but I think they deserve the truth.”
Kiara stopped right before the doorway. The sound of paper crumpling came from her right hand. Before she could say anything, the same guard as before peeked his head in, but a quick motion from Sarman sent him back out to let other people through the gate.
“You don’t think…” Kiara’s first words were a whisper. One that Nic barely heard any of. “You don’t think I want them to know!? You’re right! They deserve to know. I know that! But… But, this is our first job from the minister! I can’t let it end horribly for us because of my own feelings!”
Tears were beginning to form in her eyes as Kiara shouted at Sarman. She was conflicted. More than Nic had ever seen her conflicted before.
Sarah ran up to her and wrapped her arms around Kiara’s neck. A desperate attempt to calm down her partner.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Sarman,” Aria turned to the other person in the room who knew what the two girls' mission was. “If you tell us the mission, then that wouldn’t be them breaking their promise to your father, correct?”
Sarman grinned at Aria. She had come up with the same idea that he had. It wasn’t Kiara or Sarah’s fault that Sarman learned about their mission. And it wouldn’t be their fault if Sarman was to tell Aria and Nic about it.
How could this possibly reflect back on them poorly?
Sarman would make sure it didn’t.
“Let’s head back to the carriage. I’ll explain it more there.” Sarman walked up to the two girls and put a hand on both of their heads. “You two are coming with us. Our destinations are the same. We might as well give you a ride.”
Kiara looked at Sarman with a mix of gratitude and sadness. She wasn’t so easy to convince that this wouldn’t end poorly for them. But when Sarah took Kiara’s free hand in hers, Kiara quickly allowed herself to be dragged along behind Sarman.
As the three of them left the building, Aria quickly grabbed Nic’s hand in a similar fashion to Sarah and gave him a quick smile. The two of them were the most in the dark about what was going on.
After the five of them climbed into the carriage, Sarman looked a lot less lonely than before. While Nic and Aria found themselves in their original positions, Sarman was now sharing his side of the carriages’ interior with Kiara and Sarah.
“Ahem, let’s get this started. Kiara, can I have the paper?” As the carriage lurched into motion, Sarman held his hand out to Kiara. She gave him a slightly crumpled piece of paper, the same one that Sarah had shown him in the guard office. “This here is a set of orders signed by my father, the Minister of Sanum.”
Sarman took the paper and handed it to Nic and Aria. The two held it between them as they began to quickly scan over the orders that their friends had been given.
“Wait these are…” Nic murmured as he scanned the document.
“Long story short, it seems that Aric has requested help from Sanum in dealing with an influx of monsters appearing outside of their normal habitats in the deeper parts of the forest.”
Nic glanced at Aria, worry seeping throughout his body. Both of them had people still living in Aric that they cared about.
While Aric was situated within a large forest, it was still fairly close to the southern edge of it. If one was to head north into the heart of the forest from Aric, then they would gradually run into more and more monsters. If one encountered a monster near the village, like how Nic had run into the Gigant Bear nearly a year prior, it was usually on its own far away from its brethren.
If the village was facing a horde of monsters approaching it, something must be happening in the heart of the forest. Even if the amount of guards in the village had grown in the past year, if they were asking for help from Sanum, then there was a chance the village could get overrun.
“So you two are…?” Aria spoke up, looking at Kiara and Sarah as she did.
“We volunteered to go ourselves. We will be helping assist the guards in protecting the town while also making a trip into the heart of the forest to find out why the monsters are appearing elsewhere as well.” Sarah was the one that answered Aria.
“Sarman’s father asked us to keep this a secret from you all. He said you were passing by Aric soon and didn’t want you to be caught up in everything.” Kiara bowed her head to Nic and Aria as she explained the promise she had been trying to keep.
Yet both of them caught one part of what she said and looked at each other in confusion before questioningly looking at Sarman. When he realized he sighed.
“Wasn’t me who told him. Most likely he knew our changed plan the minute we thought of it.”
“Changed plan? Were you originally going to do something else?” Kiara peered at the three of them.
“Well… Aria originally proposed this idea as a way for the three of us and Yuuki to get out of Sanum for a bit with the whole senate situation going on right now. They aren’t really big fans of Nic. Last week Yuuki went missing.”
“What!? Master is missing!? Why is this the first I’m hearing of this?” Sarah shot up as Sarman finally mentioned the missing fourth member of their group.
Like Nic, Sarah was one of Yuuki’s acolytes when it came to learning how to use a sword. In fact, she had been studying under Yuuki longer than Nic had. Nic knew it was unfair to keep her in the dark as long as they had, but there hadn’t been enough time due to their search through Sanum for Yuuki.
Sarman nodded to answer Sarah’s outburst before continuing.
“That’s right. We’ve been searching throughout Sanum for the past week. We heard that a cloaked female cat-person had left the city through the eastern gate a few nights back. Right now, as thin of a thread that is, it's our only possible lead on Yuuki.”
“While my original proposition had been for us to spend a week or two in Aric, now that we are planning on trying to find Yuuki outside of Sanum, Aric will simply be a stopping point for us before we move onwards further east.” Aria picked up halfway through the explanation, continuing from where Sarman ended.
“Further east? So you’re heading to the rad-town on the other side of the forest?” Kiara seemingly knew a fair bit about geography as she accurately predicted the group's final destination.
Nic was going to answer her when Aria and him were thrown out of their seats by the carriage's sudden stop. The two hit the ground hard while the other three braced themselves against the wall behind them.
The small slit to be able to talk to the driver quickly opened from the outside.
“Sar! We got company!” Tim, the driver, shouted into the cart.
“How many?”
“We’re surrounded!”
When he said that, everyone scrambled over to a window to look out. When he pulled back a curtain and peered outside, he could feel the hairs on his skin stand up straight.
He gulped as a heavy feeling sunk in his stomach. Gasps came from two of the girls while the third one mumbled softly.
“Thornback spiders…”
They were still in the plains that separated Sanum and the forest, and yet a host of Thornback Spiders had surrounded the carriage.
“Tim! Get inside now!”
Sarman quickly opened the door and hopped up onto the roof of the carriage, positioning himself so he wouldn’t fall. As he did so, the driver scurried into the carriage, cowering in one of the corners.
Their reactions were textbook when faced with a horde of monsters.
Nine Thornback Spiders sat encompassing the carriage. This monster, a perverted evolution of black widow spiders caused by Irradiation, was one of the deadliest monsters known. Nearly half the size of the average human, the eight legged arachnids were covered in brittle hairs nearly a foot long that were better described as spikes. These spikes were what gave the monsters their names.
Each spider could fire the spikes off of itself at long ranges and fast speeds. Despite not being the most accurate projectiles, the monsters didn’t need them to be. So long as their target was scratched, death was all but assured for the victim.
Being monsters, the Thornback Spiders were born from Irradiation. Each spike on their bodies was coated in it. Being hit by one guaranteed Irradiation sickness and eventual death. It was a long, painful and arduous way to go.
Seeing nine of these monsters would have been enough to make most people submit themselves to their fate. Yet for the carriage and the people inside, there was another monster that made them awe at Sarman’s willingness to be out of the carriage.
Standing with the Nine “normal” thornback spiders was one nearly twice the size. Its eight eyes were surveying the carriage, focusing on the demi-human atop it.
A Thornback Queen.
Doubling the size of a normal Thornback spider wasn’t the only thing that it had doubled. The amount of spikes had doubled, maybe even tripled, and their efficacy was far superior. A cut from one of those thorns would cause instant Critical Irradiation Sickness.
But for the Thornback Queen, that wasn’t her only Irradiation based attack. She was able to spew out a liquid form of Irradiation that wilted and killed anything it touched.
It was easy to call a Thornback Queen one of the deadliest species to ever live on the surface of Kronul.
And there was one leading the Thornback Spiders that had surrounded the carriage.
One could call this a worst case scenario.
“Aria! Barrier!” Sarman yelled from the top of the carriage.
Inside, the air coalesced onto Aria’s body, forming a light green visage of armor surrounding her. Thanks to her contract with the Wind Spirit Progenitor Aerial, Aria was able to control the air surrounding them. When she fully utilized her connection with Aerial, this light green visage of armor was created. It was a symbol of her status as a Spirit Queen.
With her arms pointed at opposing walls, Aria grunted slightly as she strained herself to create a barrier of condensed air surrounding the carriage. Outside, a wall of thorns fired from the Thornback Spiders were held in place thanks to the wall.
They would have punctured the carriage from every side if Aria had not stopped them when she did.
Sweat began to drip down Nic’s forehead. Part of it was because of how close they had been to being punctured, but it was also because the carriage had heated up significantly. A large source of heat was directly above the carriage.
Sarman had no intention of letting the monsters hold them up any longer.
A bright flash of orange lit up the cavern despite the curtains covering the carriages windows. Nic grabbed his sword and ran out of the carriage. He couldn’t let Sarman take care of everything by himself.
But when he stepped outside, the scene in front of him made it clear that Nic wouldn’t be able to do anything to help.
The Thornback Queen, one of the deadliest monsters known to humankind, had a flaming spear twice its length through its body. It entered through the monster's mouth and Nic could see the end of it coming out of the bulbous back end of the monster.
Not even a second later, a second spear descended from above, smashing the monster into the ground as it burned its way through the monsters body from above.
The Thornback queen let out a languid screech as it was dying. Those screeching death throes would haunt Nic’s dreams for days to come.
Nic felt like he had finally seen Sarman’s true strength. What he was truly capable of as a Spirit King. Was Nic truly needed in fights outside of his ability to purify Irradiation? With Sarman and Aria there, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
In quick succession nine more flaming spears appeared in the skies above. Each one targeting a different Thornback Spider. The monsters noticed the spear and tried to scurry away.
It was futile. The spears were seemingly sentient as they moved in accordance to the monsters. Each one hit its target dead on. More screeching joined the Thornback Queen’s death throes as each monster caught on fire and eventually burned to death.
Less than a minute had passed since the carriage had stopped. For most people, this situation would have resulted in a guaranteed death for everyone involved. And yet for them, no one was hurt.
Sarman jumped off of the carriage’s roof, his body covered in a flaming visage of armor, just like Aria’s wind visage of armor. He had a contract with the fire spirit progenitor. Sarman was a Spirit King.
The thorns that had been shot at the carriage, currently stuck in Aria’s wind wall, were quickly bunched into a group.
“Hey Nic, can you cleanse these? While we’re probably going to just bury them, it doesn’t hurt to be too safe.” Aria came out of the carriage and switched spots with Sarman who went in.
“Yea, I got it. Do you mind moving all the monsters into a pile as well? I can still see Irradiation on them. Better safe than sorry right?”
“Got it!”
Aria ran off to move the corpses of the monsters while Nic kneeled down next to the pile of thorns. As he held his hand over them, he could feel the Irradiation they were giving off. It was trying to enter his body.
He let it.
The feeling of Irradiation was sickly to Nic. He hated the feeling of it. Especially when he absorbed it.
That was why he wanted to purify it fast. He felt the sickening presence in his body and surrounded it with his own magic. As the two forces coalesced within his body, the sickly feeling went away. It was his own magic. One that only a few people knew about, and even fewer could use.
As far as Nic knew, he was the only person alive who could use it. The last person who might’ve been able to use it was the Blood Queen nearly three centuries earlier.
“Nic, all of the monster corpses are gathered!” Aria walked up to Nic as he was finished up with the thorns. As he stood up to go take care of cleansing the corpses, she bent down and began burying the thorns.
Aria had piled up the monster corpses in a pile on the still burning corpse of the Thornback Queen. As Nic got closer he could hear a quiet sound and saw that one of the Thornback Spiders mandibles was still shaking.
The monster was somehow still alive, if only by a thread. Nic drew his sword from its scabbard and held it above the monsters head.
He plunged the sword down. He felt the cracking as the sword punctured the monster's exoskeleton. In the same instant, black tendrils of Irradiation came from all of the corpses and spiraled up the blade. As they slithered over the blade, climbing upwards, they eventually hit the crossguard where they were absorbed in the black crystal in the center.
Nic kept his sword where it was until there were no more black tendrils.
As he walked back to the carriage, he saw Sarman come back out of it. Tim, their driver, also got out and found his place in the front area, ready to start driving again.
“Are we good for me to burn the rest?” Sarman shot the question to Nic as he looked past him. Nic nodded as the two passed each other. He got into the carriage and found Aria already waiting for him in the seats they had initially been in.
A warm light covered the side of his face as a large fire was started outside. Sarah and Kiara watched out of one of the windows until Sarman got back into the carriage.
As soon as the door closed and Sarman sat down, the cart lurched its way into motion again. Even with the delay, the group were still on track to reach the Aric by the end of the day.
The journey was full of talking as the two groups, Sarman, Aria and Nic, and Kiara and Sarah, discussed the specifics on each other's plans on their way to Aric.