Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in Another World
Chapter 39. You’re it!
After a few days, Gray and the rest of them find it fitting to get some training they hadn’t really done before, stealth. So they chose to walk to the park and hide around in the trees while also having a picnic. They wake up early in the morning, get dressed in their armor, grab their weapons, and order a carriage ride to the park right after a hefty breakfast.
Gray: “Peter, what’s that wrapped around your belt?”
Peter, surprised by Gray’s question, grabs the rope dart and presents it to Gray and everyone else, which causes Edward to smile a bit.
Peter: “It’s a rope dart, I figured I’d need a weapon if I ever got into combat. And I don’t have infinite poppers so I’d have to get somethin’ I can’t run out of.”
Rosemary: “Why not train with a dagger or a sword? That’ll be hard to fight somebody with if they have a normal weapon.”
Peter begins caressing the blade while trying to think of a somewhat clever response.
Peter: “Well…I’m most likely gonna be running away, so I can throw this and pull it back. I’m not much of a fighter, I probably shouldn’t even be training stealth. I was there to fight Arthur but didn’t do much to be called a Hero of Walgonia.”
The words that had just left Peter’s mouth caused everyone to feel a bit sad and caused everyone to stay quiet until they reached the large park. It’s fairly simple, trails, streams, a large pong in the middle, and statues placed around with markers to tell you where they are. They walk through the trees until they find a more secluded area surrounded by thick woods.
Gray: “Alright! Now, how are we gonna do this!?”
Soku: “Are you serious? You made us come all the way out here and you don’t know what to do?”
Gray: “Hey! This was Rosemary’s idea, not mine!”
Soku looks away with a frown on her face, puffing.
Rosemary: “Alright the rules, one hider will pick everyone off, and if you’re touched, you’re out it goes until no one's left!. It’s simple, now who’s hiding first?”
Soku steps up, stretches her legs, takes a deep breath, and lets it out.
Soku: “Me obviously, I’m a thief. I’m good at picking out people and picking on people, this is my skill! I’m gonna use it as much as I can.”
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Rosemary goes to say “Go” but Soku cuts her off by blasting away with a quick burst of wind, kicking up some dust. In only a couple of seconds, Soku’s hidden away within the trees, unnoticeable by anyone. Gray takes the initiative while everyone looks around the trees frantically, he uses his spiritual sense to try and get a hold of everything. Every sense is heightened, but with her immense skill at everything thievery, he's struggling to get a read in her. Although he can’t feel her presence completely, she’s still there. He then uses his spiritual state, pushing the black of the spiritual sense away, turning it that blinding white. With this, he knows exactly where she is, but his senses are far too overwhelmed, giving Soku her opportunity. He’s able to hear her quickly approaching him, but since he entered the spiritual state solely for sensory purposes, he had to push past his limit, making him too slow to react. First Edward notices her about to prance from the tree above, then Rosemary looks over at Edward’s eye tilting up, which leads to her seeing Soku as well. Peter’s the only one in the dark amongst these insanely quick movements, and then in a blast of power, Soku pushes Gray into the ground, grabbing the cloak of darkness, pushes wind out of her heel, flipping him upside down and holding him above, and lastly jumps up into the air, capturing him.
Whilst up in the trees Gray angrily expresses his annoyance at how quickly he had gotten caught.
Gray: “HEY! That’s not fair! You went after me on purpose!”
Soku: “SHUT UP I'M HIDING! And I went after you because you’re the only person with real tracking ability, so I had to take you out.”
Gray sighs but they’re both forced to stop talking because of the sudden sight of Rosemary, who had jumped straight up while being in her fifth stage, leaping all the way up into the tree line. They’re both shaken up and are almost tagged but Soku blasts her and Gray away with a single gust of wind, leaving Rosemary in mid-air, instantly rushes towards Soku. Because of how destructive Rosemary’s stages can be, she dials it down to the fourth stage, being just enough to be efficient and not as destructive as the fifth. She begins hopping through the trees, but she’s bad at it, almost falling immediately when she miss-steps and breaks a weak branch. She’s about to plummet to the ground, but Gray, swinging through the trees with his cloak, snags onto her hand, saving her, and then pulls her to a thick branch, landing right beside her.
Gray: “Got you.”
Rosemary: “Thanks for the save. Your cloaks are a cheat by the way! You’re not balancing! When it’s your turn, no cloak!”
Gray: “What? That’s like saying swords are cheating. Your stages are cheating because you’re not balancing either, mainly because you almost fell when you did.”
Rosemary: “Don’t be cheeky, and I can’t lose my stages, but your cloak can run out of juice or you can get robbed of it. And I agree that we should train without weapons and armor because you never know when we have to fight. Lincoln made that clear on those special training days.”
Gray: “As long as I’m alive I’ll always have it, it’s just like having all of my mana. Makes it easy, quick, and efficient.”
Rosemary pulls him in, kisses him, causing him to get embraced, and easily swipes the necklace from his neck, instantly proving him wrong. Gray gets defensive, yanks the necklace from her, activates the cloak, and swings away. On the ground below, Edward and Peter are back to back, ensuring they can’t be tagged.
Edward: “What’s the plan? I’m far too heavy to run in the trees, and you’re not skilled enough to do so. Sorry if that sounded rude by the way.’
Peter: “It’s not rude, and the best plan is just not to show up and hope we can tag them before they tag us.”
Slough standing back to back makes it so they can’t be snuck up on. But that still leaves them open to an attack from Soku from above, but Rosemary begins hopping from tree to tree, pushing her fingers into the bark to get a better grip. She boosts her leg into the fifth stage, realizing a powerful kick of wind that heads right towards Soku. But Soku’s a master of the wind, slicing through her kick with her bare hand, pushing the wind away.
Soku gracefully lands on a tree branch, throwing a few wind blades at Rosemary while trying to keep her distance. Edward, without any ranged abilities, is forced to rely on Peter, who begins throwing his explosive poppers at Soku. Rosemary can dodge each wind blade with as small an opening as she’s giving, barely being able to do it. Now, with Rosemary right in front of Soku, and Peter’s poppers flying through the air, Soku thinks up a quick plan, so she places her fist into her palm and creates a large sphere of wind around her. This causes the poppers to fly away and also pushes Rosemary's back, tagging Rosemary and causing her to lose the game. Soku then uses a large gust of wind to take both Edward and Peter out, though since she doesn't want to endanger their lives, she doesn't put her full effort into it. Due to this Edward’s able to slash through it, but Peter notices a quicker slash of wind flying right behind the large one.
Peter: “IT’S A FAINT!”
Edward realizes this too late, and because he feels that Peter should be able to win because he noticed something he didn’t, he does so. With this, Edward is pushed into the dirt by Soku’s wind blade, and Peter is declared the winner of round one. They do this for the rest of the day, making the winner of each round start the next one, and Rosemary decides to make them practice stealth every three days until New Year, even if everyone else doesn't feel like it, but they are free for the next three days until then.
End of Chapter Thirty-nine