Seth and Emily had reached a level where Sherry was comfortable they could protect themselves on this first mission, as it was only going to be a escort mission, that normal watchers could do, and Seth was superior to basic watchers, maybe comparable to the weaker veteran watchers. Emily was much weaker than a normal watchers but she could defend herself long enough for assistance to come, with her wood aura and the swordsmanship she learned.
“Wake up kiddos! It’s time to head out.”
“Twenty more hours.”
“Good morning Ms. Sherry. And isn’t that too long Seth.”
“Good morning Emily, and you’re right. We have to leave soon.’
“I said what I said.”
Emily and Sherry laughed, but when Sherry went to approach Seth, currents of lightning began spreading around him. Sherry threw a pillow attempting to hit him through a gap, but the lightning curved to protect Seth, setting the pillow a blazed, and disintegrated it the ground. Sherry took off one of her gauntlets and threw it at Seth and the lightning deflected the gauntlet. Sherry picked up the gauntlet and infused her water aura into the gauntlet.
“Miss Sherry, maybe we could let him sleep a little longer. Isn’t that going too far.”
“We don’t want the client to wait too long, and Seth is a tough kid. He’ll get over it.”
As soon as those words left Sherry’s mouth, she hurled the gauntlet as hard as she could toward the sleeping Seth, and to her surprise, the lightning moved as it was alive, and the currents of lightning bundled together and blocked the gauntlet. Sherry was pissed off at this point, so she released aura, then withdrew ten daggers, still sheathed, and hurled them at Seth, whenever a dagger clashed with the lightning, Sherry controlled the wire connecting to the dagger, and aim at a different spot. The lightning grew more intense as it clashed with the daggers, more current were being created. Sherry doubted Seth was asleep, but he wasn’t even looking at her, and his eyes were closed, yet the lightning reacted on its own. Sherry tried attacking with all ten daggers simultaneous from different directions, yet the lightning blocked every attack. After fifteen minutes, Sherry had to stop, as the lightning grew so much that the lightning current formed a bubble around Seth and the bed, he was in. The lightning not only protected Seth, but it managed to avoid his bed, and even protected the bed as well.
“Miss Sherry, maybe we should pack up right now, and leave tomorrow?”
“What do we have to pack? I doubt you have personal items, other than what I given y’all, and I have everything we will need prepared already. We’re just waiting for his mana to run out or him to wake up, but it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Yes ma’am”
Sherry went and picked up her thrown gauntlet, and she brought a chair and sat in front of the Lightning bubble. With no change from the lightning, twenty hours went by. Sherry was greatly angered but she couldn’t attempt anymore without one of them getting injured. Sherry eventually left so she could get some rest.
The next day, Sherry came in, with equipment and bags packed. She didn’t even greet them, she just grabbed Seth by his neck, and dragged him away. She didn’t bother waking Emily, as her priority was escorting Seth out, before the lightning came out. She would come back for Emily, but once Seth was on the Carriage, it would fine if the lightning bubble protected him and the carriage.
Sherry eventually went back and helped Emily gather her things, after escorting Seth to the carriage.
“These are the two bodyguards, Seth and Emily. They can defend themselves well for their ages.”
“Haha, those brats.”
“Sherry is a good judge of strength.”
“That doesn’t make sense, you wanted to say character, and realized it didn’t make sense.”
“Shut up!”
There was twelve watchers tagging along, hired as bodyguards. They were off to collect wolf fur, the wolves often attacked in packs, so they brought a decent amount of bodyguards, fifteen including sherry and the kids. The client was the only one who rode in the carriage, they insisted the kids get on as well but Seth refused and Emily decided to follow Seth.
The journey was easy going, the watchers took turns, killing goblins or bandits they came across. Everyone but Sherry and the kids, yet none of the watchers said anything as they all held respect for Sherry.
After a few hours of traveling and the moon was visible, the carriage stopped and the watchers surrounded the carriage as Travis, leader of bodyguards and a veteran watchers, went into the carriage and pulled out a spatial bag, and withdrew some silver fur.
“What’s that?”
“lycan fur.”
“Why are you pulling it out?”
“Wolves have a strong sense of spell and recognize their own kind, so we kept the fur sealed, until we found a good location to fight them.”
Emily was the one who asked, but one of the watchers answered her. Sherry had a look of disgust on her face, but more than that, she was angry. She wanted to say something, but she decided not to, but pulled Seth and Emily, behind her back.
“What’s the matter? I thought you said the kids could pull their own weight?”
“They can, but this isn’t what we agreed on.”
“This is the test, for the new hound puppy.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Sherry finally understood, why the other watchers allowed the kids to come, and didn’t complain when they didn’t help. Sherry distanced herself from the kids, reluctantly.
“we hit the jackpot.”
Travis was excited as dozens of lycans, began to surround them. The client hid in the carriage.
A silver lycan, that was slightly larger than the other lycans, howled and the other lycans started rotating around the watchers.
Neither side attacked first, the watchers were stronger, but they couldn’t separate or leave the client’s side, while the lycans never charged in.
Travis was starting to get aggravated, as he wasn’t strong enough to charge out their, and come back alive. Travis expected the lycans to attack as soon as they saw the lycan fur, as normal but something was different.
While both sides were at a standstill, a second howl was released a d the lycans began splitting off into two groups. The watchers were confused, but from one of the opening created from the lycans splitting up, several fire balls flew out and towards the carriage. Travis blocked the fire balls, using his black iron war hammer.
A second barrage of fire balls came hurling towards the watchers, they all blocked them easily. While they were facing the direction of the fireballs, one of the watchers was impaled through their stomach by a furry claw. Before the watcher could scream for help, another pair of claws reached around the watcher’s neck and tore into it.
A pair a claws was wreaking havoc amongst the watchers, as they were distracted by the magic. The claws dug into the skull of one of the watchers, and laid the body down silently. The claws decapitated another watcher. The next watcher wasn’t lucky enough to have an immediate death, as both pairs claws pierced through the watcher's and forcibly ripped them apart. Even though the watcher was unlucky, this alerted the other watchers, as the watcher released distorted screech followed by a gurgling sound, than silence. The other watchers saw the four dead bodies and a werewolf that was at least two feet taller than the tallest watcher there. The werewolf’s fur was covered in blood. Even though Travis was the leader of the bodyguards, he couldn’t leave his position, protecting the carriage, so Sherry stepped up to stop the werewolf.
The werewolf charged at Sherry and swung it’s claws at her. Sherry used a short blade, and parried the werewolf’s attack, and kicked it in the back on its knee and it dropped to the ground on that one leg. Sherry stepped back and allowed the werewolf to stand back up. When the werewolf stood up, it howled and started swiping its claws at Sherry ferociously. Sherry easily dodged every swing.
The werewolf attempted to impale Sherry in the stomach with it’s claws, but Sherry used her free hand to lift herself onto werewolf’s arm, and pushing herself into a handstand on the werewolf’s arm, and kicked it in the jaw. The werewolf threw her off, and began growling.
While Travis was protecting the carriage, Travis felt a sense of impending doom, and jumped back, but he was too late and a furry hand smacked him away from the carriage. A second werewolf had attacked. It was a foot smaller than the first one, but it was still strong. Travis staggered a couple of feet away. Travis swung his Warhammer at the werewolf, but he was bombarded with fire balls, before he could reach it.
While Sherry and Travis were facing their opponents, the ground began shaking, but they were too busy to check it out. The watchers were on edge as they lost four comrades and the two strongest were busy. The shaking grew stronger, and the watchers started to panic, as none of them would be able to block a third werewolf, even if they ganged up on it. They focused on the two openings, created by the lycans but they didn’t notice the lycans created another opening.
Before the watchers could react, one watcher had been impaled in the chest by a giant horn, and carried away as a huge beast Stampeded into the circle of watchers. The twelve foot tall minotaur, stood up, with the watcher still in it’s horn, and it released a bellow of rage. The other watchers, dropped to the ground. A minotaur was much stronger than a werewolf.
The minotaur picked up a watcher by their head, and crushed it like a watermelon, in it’s hands. It swung it’s muscular arm at another watcher, and they dragged along the ground until they were embedded into a tree. As the watchers were crouched on the ground, the minotaur finding no enjoyment out of this hunt, began stomping on the watchers’ head, crushing them.
The minotaur picked up a scent, that attracted it. The scent of a young maiden. The minotaur looked around, and when it looked at one of the trees, it saw Emily. As the minotaur headed towards the tree, Seth hopped out of another tree, and stabbed the minotaur in the back with a short sword. The sword couldn’t cut through the minotaur’s tough fur, and the blade even broke and went flying. The minotaur reflectively twist it’s body and swung it arms behind it. Seth bent his back backwards and somersaulted out of the way of the attack. Seth landed on the ground and the minotaur turned around to face him. Seth was using his mana reinforcement and had lightning covering the mana. Seth opened a portal, and pulled out the great sword that he took from the elf assailant. The sword was much longer than Seth, but it was the most sturdy weapon he possessed.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The minotaur was excited, a warrior had challenged, even though it was smaller than the others. The minotaur charged at Seth, swung it’s fist at him. Seth sidestepped the punch, stepping closer to the minotaur, while placing the side of the great sword along the minotaur’s arm, using the minotaur’s momentum to slice into the minotaur’s shoulder. The great sword was embedded into the minotaur’s shoulder, but the minotaur’s momentum sent Seth flying.
The minotaur was impressed, that this tiny warrior decided to counter attack rather than dodge or flee. The minotaur grunted, as he pulled the great sword out of his shoulder and threw it in front of Seth, and waited for him to get to his feet. Seth staggered to his feet, and slowly picked up the great sword. Seth began focusing his breathing and cycling extra mana into his legs.
“Mr. Bull, I’m gonna show you my own original technique. It’s called the nameless step. Be careful.”
The minotaur wasn’t upset by the arrogance of warning his opponent, but grew more expectant of this young warrior.
Seth gripped the great sword tightly, when he took his first step he added fire mana to his legs and used it to propel himself towards the minotaur. Seth targeted between minotaur’s legs, stepped between them, and went behind the minotaur, pivoting around using his explosive speed’s momentum slice both of the minotaur’s calves.
Even though Seth was only walking, each step was explosive and fast. This was the first variation of nameless step, ignition step. Nameless step uses mana to increase his speed, without placing increased burden on his legs, while only adding mana the moment before his foot makes contact with the ground, so it’s easier to change directions as well, while ignition step uses fire mana to make his speed more explosive.
Seth began circling the minotaur using ignition step. Seth began his hit and run tactics, and only targeting the minotaur’s legs.
Sherry was toying with the werewolf she was facing, it was completely one sided. Sherry never finished her fight as an excuse not to help Travis, as whenever Travis looked in her direction she would fall to the ground, and jump back up panting, but the werewolf was so exhausted it could never take advantage of those opening
Travis was in the worst position out of the three. He was believed to be the biggest threat, and he would be evenly matched against the werewolf, if not for the magic attacks that came whenever he gained an advantage, he was stronger than the werewolf but wasn’t able to take advantage of that. If he attempted to search for the source of the fireballs, the werewolf would either attack him, or aim for the carriage.
After a barrage of attacks from Seth, the minotaur finally dropped to it’s knees. Seeing his attacks work, Seth went in for another attack, but as if predicting Seth would attack immediately, the minotaur smashed it’s arms into the ground, creating a shockwave that deformed the area around the minotaur and also sent Seth airborne.
Before the minotaur could launch it’s counter attack, Seth used ignition step, to kick in the air, and changed his direction. When the minotaur looked up, Seth was nowhere to be seen. While the minotaur was searching for Seth, ten daggers, covered in lightning mana fell from sky, surrounding the minotaur. The minotaur was puzzled for a moment, but continued it’s search.
Travis has just smashed his war hammer into a ground, creating a shockwave similar to the minotaur, but to a greater degree, as he infused aura into this hit. It created a huge crater, sent rock fragments in different directions, and sent sand flying which blocked the visibility around him. Travis rushed towards the carriage which was sent flying by the shockwave and grabbed the client and ran off. As the Travis was fleeing, the lycans began enclosing around him. Even though Travis was exhausted, carrying someone, and weakened, the lycans never attacked. Travis was anxious being followed by the lycans, he could handle them in a normal situation, but not in his current state. All of a sudden the lycans began snarling, and preparing to attack.
Travis threw the client to the side, as he needed both hands to use his Warhammer. A lycan rushed at Travis, but right when Travis was swinging his Warhammer, a pair of claws gouged into his left shoulder, and the lycan rushing towards him backed away. Travis finally realized, why they followed him, to give away his position.
Sherry had stopped fighting the moment Travis fled. The mage nor the lycans never bothered to help the werewolf sherry was fighting, because the difference in strength was too great, at worst she could kill him out of agitation, and she shown no signs of killing or helping the other guy. She finally decided to check on Seth and Emily, and noticed all the other watchers were dead. Sherry was worried but released a huge grin when she seen Seth.
The minotaur was stabbed by all ten lightning daggers, iron wires entwined it’s body, it should’ve been able to snap the wire with it’s strength but large current of lightning would surge through the wire irregularly. The minotaur was weakened, and it had no idea where the young warrior was.
“Young David!”
“ End things now! Don’t toy with an enemy. Spare Goliath or kill him!”
“Don’t you dare embarrass him! Let him die a proper warrior’s death or release him”
The words contained great power and put pressure on everyone who heard them. The ground was shaking, and the shaking was getting more intense. Trees were falling, heading towards Seth and Emily’s direction. Another minotaur had arrived. It was around the same height as the first werewolf, but it more muscular than even giant minotaur, and it held two giant axes.
“Young David, have you made your decision yet?”
The second minotaur step right in front of the giant minotaur and looked at the corpse that was hanging on the minotaur’s horn.
“You can get down, he won’t attack you dishonorably, he accepts his defeat.”
Seth released the iron wires then jumped off the corpse’s body, and landed on his feet. Seth summoned the dagger back to himself. Seth walked to the giant minotaur, and pressed his head against it’s legs, as tears welled up in his eyes.
“I’m sorry Mr. Bull, but I had to fight…I had… I had to protect Emily….”
Tears were pouring down Seth’s face as he nuzzled up against the giant minotaur’s fur, which was slightly singed. Seth was sniffling and crying.
“Young David! That’s not the attitude a warrior should make. Crying after showing mercy makes no sense.”
“Leave Seth along you bully! He’s only four!”
Emily was shouting at the minotaurs, as she was slowly climbing down from the tree.
The second minotaur found this amusing, but slowly began to realize what she just said.
“Young David is only four? How is this possible, he shouldn’t even had his awakening yet, he was clearly using aura. “
“My Seth isn’t David.”
“yours? He’s only four and already has a mate for life? Human children are weird.”
“Mate? What’s that?”
“So he isn’t your mate, so does that mean he’s your slave?”
“No, we’re both slaves.”
“where are your imprints located?”
“What are imprints?”
“It’s a dark magic that enslaves someone. It forces them to follow the master’s command.”
“I don’t know anything about that…”
“I guess that means neither of you are slaves, just kidnapped….Well if we free you, would you want to come along with us? Neither of you two seem averse to us minotaurs, they kid is even clinging onto Goliath.”
“Seth do you want to follow these two?”
“Mister bull is my friend. What about sherry?”
“She’s one of them. We should leave her.”
“She’s on our side. Look, she didn’t harm the puppy.”
As Seth and Emily were arguing, Sherry walked over, with the werewolf following behind her, wagging it’s tail. Seth wiped his eyes and ran over to the werewolf.
“Puppy!”
“Seth, you can’t just address beatstmen as animals. That’s offensive”
While Sherry attempted to scold Seth, the werewolf laid on its back, and exposed it’s belly, and Seth began scratching the werewolf’s belly.
The lycans and the other werewolf, arrived fifteen minutes later, with the werewolf dragging along Travis’s corpse.
No one spoken another word, but it wasn’t silent. Seth was giggling and the second werewolf was snarling and nipping at Seth’s free hand. Seth poked the second werewolf’s nose, and it backed away, and Seth giggled louder. Soon a short robed person joined the group.
“Now that everyone is here, let’s introduce ourselves.”
The silver lycan that led the pack, reverted back to a human, clothed in silver wolf fur. The other lycans began reverting to their human form, wrapped in fur similar to their lycan form.
The mage shyly remove their hood, revealing a pure white goblin.
The first to actually introduce their self was the second minotaur.
“My name is Brutus, and the giant minotaur is my brother Goliath. He doesn’t speak but he understands what you’re saying. We’re both anomalies in our clan, he was mutant minotaur, a giant minotaur and I’m a minotaur who developed aura.”
“I’m the leader, Lorric Lupine, only in name. Brutus is actually the leader, I’m just a figurehead. We’re a mercenary gang, the wolf pack. One of our comrades, was slain and skinned. Lycans are the descendants of Fenrir, after living for hundreds, a lycan absorbs enough mana, it sheds it fur and turns human. Wrapping the fur around ourselves, we can change between wolf and human. Since lycan fur has gathered mana for hundreds of years, races like humans, hunt lycans and make armor. Lycans are immortal as long as they have their fur, but once skinned, we lose our immortality. We want to return our comrades back to Fenrir, so we try our best to retrieve the fur.”
Lorric was sad, as he held the fur and stared at it intently.
“Young David, how were you able to withstand Goliath’s attack? You’re only four. Were you bathed in monster blood?”
“Dragon blood! Rawr!”
“Fascinating! That’s an ancient method, humans don’t use anymore.”
“What type of dragon?!?”
The white goblin grabbed Seth’s shoulders, trembling. Seth simply puffed out his chest and looked over the goblin before he responded.
“Land…dragon…king…ho ho ho.”
“A dragon king?....who defeated it?!?”
“My parents and my uncle.”
“Where are they?”
“…”
“Where are your parents?”
The white goblin was squeezing Seth’s shoulder as tightly as they could, but Seth didn’t seem phased.
“Little one, you have to think a little bit. If his parents were around, why would he be a slave.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, kid.”
“Ho. Ho. Ho. It’s nothing to one of king’s blood.”
The goblin released Seth’s shoulders, but Seth continued staring up into the sky, with his chest puffed out, but tears were rolling down his cheek. Emily and Sherry both ran to Seth.
“Get back you traitor!”
“What do you mean by that Emily?”
“You can’t be trusted. You’ll betray anyone, even family.”
“What do you mean, Emily?”
“You said that your dad taught you that sword technique, and he didn’t teach anyone else…so why did slave one twenty four use the same technique. He even said thanks to his daughter, he perfected that style.”
“That’s impossible! They said they would let him live a normal life, if worked for them.”
“Have you ever visited him, since then?”
“…”
Sherry dropped to her knees as she came to a realization, that she wasn’t allowed to visit the slaves or miners, she only escorted them to a watcher. She. Even realized, she might be stronger than the watchers, she wasn’t his strongest guard. But what if she had the help of a mercenary group. Sherry crawled to Brutus, desperation in her eyes.
“You guys are a mercenary group…can you help free my father?”
“If you can afford us. It’s possible.”
“But…”
Sherry went silent. She has worked for so long as a guard dog, for the safety of her dad, that she never cared about payment. Seth opened up a portal and withdrew the two bags of silver and gold he took from the elven assailants, and tossed them to Brutus.
“Seth, where did you get this?”
“ho ho ho. One of a king’s blood, should be rich.”
“Young David is full of secrets. He can use space, lightning, and fire. While only four. He hasn’t went through an awakening, but he can already control aura. Bathed in dragon’s blood. He even thinks nobles go, ho ho ho.”
“They don’t? Then why was I told that…”
“Kids are mean.”
“They were adults…“
“...Well this should be more than enough to save her dad.”
“No, we have to free them all, and prevent them from doing this again.”
“We’ll free everyone, but you have to join us, young David.”
“It’s a deal.”
Sherry was thankful for Seth, while Emily wanted to stop him, but said nothing. The white goblin was excited, as they would have a chance to get closer to someone with connections to people who could slay a dragon king.
Lorric put away the fur, and signaled everyone to set up camp, then he helped Goliath remove the body from his horn.