“Hahh, hahh, hahh” A lone warrior struggled to take in breath. Various wounds snaked up his arms and legs, and the ruined armour he wore was torn to shreds whilst blood leaked out profusely.
“Guhh…” Green light leaked out of the scraps of his war apparel, spilling out into the surroundings in a blinding flash, and a brand new being stood there.
Gone was the raggedly breathing warrior, strapped in destroyed and unwanted scraps of metal, and in its place stood a proud hero, shining silver covering every inch of skin, holding an exquisite, slim, one sided blade with the image of a griffon engraved into the guard.
A mountain of blackened corpses surrounded him. Even in death, the grotesquely shaped bodies gave off horrific grins, painting a hellish landscape as far as the eye could see.
“I-, I did it... “ The man slowly whispered, the tension of a harsh battle easing out of his shoulders.
He looked up to the sky laughing and gave off a roar as he held his blade up in triumph, glorified by the accomplishments of his heroic deeds, to blind to see the horrors hidden beneath what was just the tip of the iceberg…
*************
*knock knock knock*
James slowly opened his eyes. His hands tightly gripped the soft linen sheets beneath him and he let out a breath as if he was trying expel all the bad inside his body outwards.
*knock knock knock*
Ignoring the grating sound for a brief moment, he sat up groggily and made to rub his eyes. He was inside a small but clean room, the floor and ceilings were made from old yet maintenanced wood, and a pleasantly sweet aroma wafted through the air, coming from a candle jar filled with scented oil that hung near the rooms doorway. A small desk stood to the left of his bed, and warm rays of sunlight poured through the thin curtains on the window that stuck unobtrusively to the wall on his right.
*knock knock knock*
“Mr Everand? Are you there? My apologies, but you requested me to wake you for breakfast so…” A gentle feminine voice easily passed through the thin door. The voice was small, and timid, like it was ironically afraid of waking up the room’s occupant despite the reason for it’s journey.
“Ah, I’m up” James gave a light reply as he stood and stretched, trying to shake off the last vestige of sleep that pervaded his body.
Last night after exiting the scene of the main town, he settled down in a quaint, yet highly rated by the locals, inn called the “The Guild Master’s Pride”, and he had finally gotten a warm bed, and a decent meal for what seemed like the first time in a decade.
Shaking his head to get rid of the disturbed expression on his face, he put on his best smile and quietly made quick, energetic strides to the door.
“Good morning my dear Lynn!” He opened the door as forcefully as he could, his smile turning mischievous as he watched the girl in front of him jump in fright from the sudden movement.
The girl behind the door appeared to be in her late teen years, and although she was not particularly beautiful, her face gave off a pleasant- almost pure expression. Her long brown hair was braided and reached all the way to her lower back.
“G-g- good morning Mr-…” She whispered as she got up and attempted to compose herself, but in the middle of her sentence she froze. Her eyes bulged open and panic spread across her face again.
“Wait, what’s wrong?” Alarmed at her sudden change, James stepped towards her and reached out his hands to check her condition, but she quickly whirled around and started dashing away.
“I-I’m sorry for intruding!” She screamed as she rushed off, leaving James to confusedly wave his outstretched hand in the air.
“Geez, What on earth was that about…?” He grumbled, suddenly feeling the cool breeze blowing through the hallway as it hit his body. He looked down only now noticing his unsheathed ‘sword’ dangling in the open air.
“Shit.”
*******************
James walked down the steps of the small inn, although the floor boards squeaked with a wearing age, he personally admired how well kept everything was. He was honestly surprised an inn with such quality services didn’t host more guests, but then figured that if the place was owned by a single family, keeping too many people would affect the quality of the services that they clearly were trying hard to upkeep.
Although it’s unlikely I’ll be able to stay here for much longer… James quietly lamented his mistake with the daughter of the family that owned the inn, and thought how to apologize as he made his way down to the main area.
“Ah, Good morning dear guest, I hope you had a great rest, it might be the last good sleep you have for a while bwahahaha!” A bright and friendly voice called out to him from across the main dining area, which doubled as the front room for the inn.
A tall and well built man stood there. Contrary to the wide smile on his face, his overall appearance oozed with intimidation. Although it was nothing compared to the giant brute James encountered in the forest on his way to Raitzal, the man’s body was still incredibly well built. If you ignored the jolly atmosphere around him, he looked more like a warrior than an inn barkeep.
“Ryan dear, quiet down, you’ll scare away our guest” A mature looking women scolded him from the side with a broom in hand, while Ryan quickly hurried to apologize.
“Apologies for my husband, he has no sense of delicacy.” She gave a wry smile as she watched the extra-stout man stooping so low with his head bowed in an apology. Her name was Mariel, and she was the owner of this inn that James had met last night.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Ah, no no, you don’t have to apologize” James smiled back in response, then turned to Ryan. “But why did you say something like that? Am I really getting kicked out after all…?”
“Hah..? Oh yeah, I heard you gave Lynn quite the scare hahaha!” He laughed “But the lass needs to grow up anyways, no, that’s not what I was talking about.” He grinned and pulled out a nearby chair before sitting on it backwards and folding his arms on top of the backrest.
“I was talking about the tournament! That’s what you’re here for right? Or are you here for something else?”
“No, I’m here for the tournament.” James answered with a frown. “But you talk as if I’m going to be destroyed. I may not look like it, but I’m quite strong you know.”
“Ah, no, you misunderstand me. I wasn’t calling you weak, boy. It’s just that I got some interesting info from some old friends of mine that a certain someone is participating this time around…” He trailed off and gave a meaningful grin
James was confused. Strong people joined the tournament all the time, that much was certain. The winner of last year's tournament was a powerful A+ ranked adventurer, who’s hammered blows were rumored to be able to crush mountains. Although the story was most definitely exaggerated a bit, facing powerful people was a given if you yourself were willing to participate. So what had Ryan acting so mysterious?
“...An S-Ranker” Ryan grinned. “They say one of those legendary heroes is participating this time around! And with the royal families backing no less” He said with an admiring sigh.
James’ eyes widened. S-Ranked adventures were no joke. They were considered the absolute pinnacle of fighting strength in the adventuring community, and countries would shower them with prizes to win them over. Because of all that they represented, the gap between A+ and S-Ranks was not as simple as moving up the hierarchy in any other position. One had to possess true power and talent to achieve S-Rank, merely succeeding as an adventurer for a long time was not enough to see such an accomplishment.
Hmmm, troublesome. Since it’s the highest rank, there can usually be huge gaps of strength between two individual S-ranked adventurers. I’m a prime example of that… I don’t think I’ll lose, but I should be a little careful.
In another time, James himself was considered one of the top ranked adventurers in the entire world. That kind of strength, mixed with his unique abilities, made him an existence that very few could contend with. It was what catapulted him to the front lines along with his other fellow heroes during the final stages of the demon invasion.
And yet it still wasn’t enough to beat that monster… What am I thinking, that’s not even come to pass yet.
“Thank you for the warning, I’ll try and be careful.” He gave a grateful smile.
“Oh my a polite one, that’s quite rare now days” Mariel remarked as she came over with a tray layden with delicious looking food.
“Only really to my hosts” James laughed as he received his breakfast with anticipation. It was a simple meal of soup with bread, and a few meat skewers that were probably leftover from the night before, but the smell was enticing. “By the way… It’s been bothering me for a little while, but where is everyone?” James picked up the spoon Mariel handed to him and gestured about the empty dining room.
“Hahh, they’re all either still sleeping, or already heading towards the arena since today is signup day.” Mariel sighed as she started wiping down the opposite tables with a rag. “That pig head of a husband of mine used to be a mercenary, so he scares off any normal customers. Only fighters really come to us for rooms.”
“Wha-, who are you calling a pig head… my own wifes a bloody… can’t believe…” Ryan grumbled as his voice quietly trailed off.
“Oh, sorry I couldn’t hear that dear, what was that you were saying about your wife again?” Mariel turned around with a dangerous smile on her face
“Nothing, only that you are the most beautiful flower on the face of the planet” He quickly snapped back before forcefully standing up.
“In any case lad, if your signing up for the tournament, you might want to leave quickly. They have a lot of slots available, but they also have twice as many interested contestants, so if you don’t get over there then you’ll be left out.” He called out a warning as he walked out of the room in the direction of the kitchen.
“Oh don’t mind him, Lynn got you up plenty early enough, just take your time” Mariel gave him one last smile before following her husband to the back.
James sat still in the now silent dining room.
“What an interesting couple…” He smiled to himself as he took a small sip of his soup.
*******************
“Wow… That is a lot of contestants” James remarked to himself in sheer amazement as he gazed at the sea of people in front of him.
Wanting to get a good spot in line, he simply grabbed his breakfast and rushed to the arena as quickly as he could only to be met with the seemingly endless amount of people who had apparently had the same idea as him.
Will I even be able to make it…? James shook away his slight unease that he had been too late and began weaving his way through the crowd.
Unable to stop gawking at the scene around him, he saw all manner of people shuffling through the venue.
Men and women, young and old, large and small, from all manner of humanoid races were currently milling about with tempered and used weapons hanging from their waist and back. Many of the ones that he saw were much stronger than your average combatant, proving just how much talent was concentrated into this single area. The very air itself seemed to hum from the excess magical power thrumming through the atmosphere.
I’m not really joining to play around… but man this is going to be so much fun. In the past, I only fought demons with my life on the line… now I finally get to face intelligent fighters for a change.
Unable to keep the grin off his face, he finally made it to the front of a registration booth where an aging male receptionist was waiting.
“Name” The man simply said with a tired sigh, clearly fed up with entering countless people into the roster all morning.
“James Everend, and If possible I’d like to use some of the equipment provided by the staff for the preliminaries-” Suddenly James froze. He quickly swiveled his head around in alarm as his keen senses told him of a huge amount of power accumulating nearby that was targeted on his position.
“Dammit, who?!” He angrily cursed under his breath. Whoever was targeting him clearly had no regard for the fact that he was standing in the middle of a crowd.
As he was preparing defensive measures for those around him, James finally locked eyes with the culprit. A spindly young man weilding a wooden staff was poorly hiding himself about ten meters away. His face was pale white from fear, but the amount of power his body was pushing into his staff was enough to obliterate the ground where James was standing.
That man… Just as James recognized him, a flare began to erupt from the end of the branch like staff.
“Stop!” James roared and his magic flared out in response. A huge pressuring wave of energy blew out from his body at the epicenter, causing many of the unsuspecting people around him to scream in alarm.
Just as he was about to attack -- “ENOUGH!” a voice he had heard the other day exploded through the area.
Where before it was feminine and filled with dignity, now it was filled with ferocity, and the fighting spirit of a dragon. Golden energy erupted from the ground around James, squashing his own magical power and solidified into a solid barrier, trapping him inside a cage of what appeared to be pure light.
A lone women marched towards him from the crowd beside him as James turned to the newcomer.
Wait, the Saint is here?!
“Hold up! That man--!” Just as James began shouting to defend himself, he spun around again only to find his hand pointing at empty space. The robed mage was nowhere to be found.
James grimaced. Things just got a lot more troublesome.