Arc 5: The Heart Within

Road to a Hero:

Three chances in another world

Chapter 5. Recovering lost things

After traveling for a little over a day in a Conestoga wagon, Edward, Gordon, and Julius are finally getting close to the destroyed wagons.

Edward: “At this point, we should have met up with Jong and the army already.”

Edward seems to be panicking a little, constantly shaking his leg.

Gordon: “They have to do a lot before coming to Greenvale. It would make sense, it's taking a bit.”

Julius: “I agree, but a bigger issue is the possibility of Severus and Shioreta being there.”

Gordon: “Hopeful they left, because if not we’re dead.”

The drakes pulling the wagon start to freak out, panicking about something, and Julius struggles to keep them under control.

Edward: “What’s wrong? We’re almost there, of course, something has to go wrong now.”

Gordon: “MOVE!”

Gordon swiftly moves to the front of the wagon grabs Julius by the collar, and yanks him into the back of the wagon.

Edward: “What’s going on!”

They hear something land on top of the wagon, crushing the roof. A growl is heard, and a sharp scorpion-like tail stabs through the heads of the drakes, causing the wagon to flip. Edward, Julius, and Gordon jump out of the wagon before it fully flips, landing on the dirt road. On top of the flipped wagon, a spirit monster stands on all fours, looking at them with all six of its red eyes.

Gordon: “STAY CALM!”

Julius: “Red scaly skin, four legs protected by a hard shell, six eyes, two horns facing backward, a strong jaw, and openings on the neck and side. All those character traits are home to the Regile, a high-class spirit beast.”

Gordon: “What the hell is that thing doing out of an Ever biome? And being on a main road…the hell’s going on!?”

Edward: “I’ve never seen one of these before…is it strong!?”

Gordon: “Don’t breathe in its poison, and don’t get stung!”

The Regile looks at them with killer intent, leaping into the woods beside them. It crawls and swings around in the trees and leaps out at Edward. It swings its long hooked stinger at his face, so he blocks it with his sword. Gordon checks his body, realizing he left his bow and arrows in the wagon. The Regile jumps back, landing a little down the road. The openings in its sides realize a poison gas that comes flooding towards the group. Gordon moves towards the wagon while Edward swings down his large sword as hard as he can, the great force pushing back the poison. Julius swiftly moves past Edward and sprints toward the monster. The monster lets out a great roar and charges at Julius. Julius takes out his slim rapier and delivers multiple swift slashes at the Regile. The creature blocks with its armored tail and goes in for a bite to the face. Julius’ golden molecule glows and he quickly dodges each attempted attack, bending around the monster with great precision, like a dance. Gordon picks up his things and pulls back his longbow, aiming it at the monster. Strangely, the wooden bow is covered with runes, runes that glow a light green, coating the arrow in mystical energy.

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Gordon: “MOVE!”

Julius strikes the monster on the head, using the momentum to flip himself over it, giving Gordon an open shot on it. Gordon lets the string go, releasing the arrow. which barrels toward the monster at a great speed. It pierces the wind like a bullet and hits the monster almost instantly. The Regile tries to block with its armor tail but it goes right through with ease, stabbing into the monster's face and going right through its body. And with its great power, the arrow causes the monster to explode like a stomped-on cherry. They take a long breath of relief, wiping the sweat off their brows Gordon checks on the wagon, finding it unusable.

Gordon: “Gather your things, we’ll walk for about thirty minutes and arrive at our destination.”

Edward: “That beast shouldn’t have been here…and it was targeting us.”

Julius: “It is very strange…I assume the Sect sent it to halt us.”

Gordon: “But high-level spirit beasts like the Regile are smarter than your normal Orc or troll. So they wouldn’t just run out here and attack a strong opponent. They must have somebody with the ability to control these beasts.”

Edward: “I don’t think they would have all their hopes on this thing. Either they just wanna mess with us or they’re more monsters around.”

Gordon: “I don’t sense anything watching us at the moment, but stay aware. Now let’s get going.”

Edward: “Oh by the way, what was with your arrow? That didn’t look like normal mana.”

Gordon: “Don’t worry about it, it’s just some magic, that’s it.”

Edward accepts the answer, but Julius smirks as if he knows more than he’s leading onto.

They walk out of the woodland area and make it to the clearing in the forest where the burned bodies and the destroyed wagons lay only to find about thirty or so small green goblins destroying the area.

Edward: “This is gonna be time-consuming.”

Gordon: “Wait, look!”

Gordon points down the road, and one wagon comes over the hill, then another, and another. Though not all of them, the Athen guards and Red Arrows have made their way to Edward's group. Lincoln stops his wagon and jumps right in the middle of the goblins. They look at him, then at each other, then back at him. The goblins' feisty and hungry faces slump down, turning into pure fear as they have just met something much, MUCH, stronger than them, preceding them running off. Edward, Gordon, and Julius run down the armies, while Lincoln and the soldiers look on in horror at their burned and ravaged friends. Lincoln takes a swig of his booze and walks up to his burned men. Leo comes running from one of the wagons further back, and once he gets to the burned bodies he breaks down, and clutches his bandana, which has been stained from the blood of his brother Beauregard. Edward walks up to Leo and consoles him, but Leo hadn’t noticed Edward so he squeals. Lincoln starts laughing at the embarrassed Leo, which makes him mad. Edward sighs as he has to watch Leo start arguing with Lincoln. Gordon interrupts their argument and gets Lincoln's attention.

Lincoln: “What d’ya want!?”

Gordon: “We came to make sure you weren't having issues with the Sect.”

Lincoln: “Nah, we ain’t seen nobody. We had some random monsters attack but nothing too bad.”

Leo: “So the Sect did this? Haven't they burned enough of my people…”

Edward: “Where’s Jong?”

Lincoln: “He’s a bit behind us, he wanted to make sure all those refugees got somewhere to stay. A lot of the men want to join the rebellion so he’s sending them.”

Gordon: “Damn…I don’t know if Greenvale can hold all these people…it’s only able to hold the two hundred soldiers, not this many people.”

Lincoln: “I didn’t plan on taking all of 'em there, I’m not stupid.”

Julius: “Where are they going to stay then?”

Lincoln: “I’m planning on having them stay in nearby towns. But I want to take a few of my men up there.”

Gordon: “That should be fine. As long as you, Leo, and Jong are up there we should be fine.”

Edward: “So I guess we should start heading back now right?”

Lincoln: “I guess so, oh whole up.”

Lincoln burps in Edward's face and waves the other wagons off, so they begin heading to some nearby towns. Lincoln grabs Edward by the collar of his armor and jumps back into his wagon.

Lincoln: “I assume your wagon broke.”

Edward: “Um…yeah it did.”

Lincoln: “GET ON SLOW POKES!”

Julius and Gordon get in the back of the wagon, and Lincoln directs the drakes to Greenvale.

END OF: Chapter five