POV: Vellon

Holy mother of mana, That’s Selaena! I may only be a dungeon guide, but as a B-Rank mercenary, there is no way on earth I wouldn’t recognize her. Selaena, Loroven’s F-ing apprentice. Selaena, the Glacial damned Poet! And she is here, in this backwoods dungeon! How in the hexes did that happen? I feel like just standing there staring, unbelieving of my good fortune; but I don’t have time for that—there are monsters to kill.

Strangely enough, she isn’t acting as the leader. I feel like something is going on. Also their “leader” gives me the creeps. I mean, he didn’t even introduce their second most interesting party member! (after Selaena, of course.) Well, they seem willing enough, so I put them to work. Also interesting, Selaena seems to be only healing people. For a mage of her ability, killing even the strongest of beasts here should only take a finger snap, but she hasn’t sent out a single attack yet. Don’t get me wrong, though, having an extra healer is never a bad thing. It’s just…a bit odd.

It doesn’t take long for the party to start showing their strengths. Even the weakest one of their group is just as helpful as the best of us! Such a young girl, yet she is able to use her aura to suppress all the enemies in this room and reduce their strength by 5%. Five fricking percent! That’s about the average suppression of A-rank aura wielder! The other three should either be high C-rankers or new B-rankers, based on their standard techniques, but their efficiency is a notch above normal. Tim has nearly mastered the essence of his class, and Fezrah executes her attacks fluidly. Olbert is impressive, too. He is able to conjure offensive seals and then change their placement as necessary using his earth magic.

*Kathump*

Woah. Just… What. The. Heck. Who the hell is that girl?! She just laid down a second layer of aura supression. That’s a skill reserved only for A-rank aura specialists, but I can tell she is an early C-ranker at very best, based on her reflexes and techniques. And, um, from not knowing what a slime is… But anyhow, she just layered an aura!

I keep my eye on her as I keep shouting out commands. There is a big surge right now, but at least that means we should be able to take a breather before the next wave.

Selaena moves over to the girl as usual, but doesn’t just tap her and move back, she’s talking with her.

*Tha-kump*

The second aura withdraws

*kath-shhh*

The first aura withdraws.

Oh, that’s not good.

I order a few people to change places and roles as the monsters leave their suppressed states, and the girl falls into Selaena’s arms. I want to ask what happened, but I can’t right now. The battle takes priority.

*Roar*

Here it comes, the end of this wave.

“Vellon! Tiger form, air and wood elements. Rank 16, I believe.” our scout reports to me.

Well shit. It’s a wood claw. Wood claws resemble tigers but what makes them difficult is that they are very agile, and are fairly resistant to lightning magic. That means half the mages in our particular group are useless, and our melee fighters are in some serious danger.

“Lightning mages, focus on the small guys. All other mages mid C rank or higher, move to area C2 and ready your big guns.” I shout.

“It’s going to go straight down lane B.” I hear whispered into my mind. It’s Selaena.

“Change of plans. Half of you move to A2! Archers move to A3 and C3, It’s coming straight down lane B! Mages—stagger your attacks as usual. Archers—fire together on my mark. 3! 2! 1! FIRE!”

And it happens just as she said. That bastard comes prancing right down lane B, just to be filled with a wave of wood and steel. It roars in pain, getting then hit by two volleys of magic before moves from the path.

“Archers and Mages, fall back. Melee and archers, finish it off. Mages, help clear out the small fry. Guard Squad, switch with me!”

This isn’t a C-rank fight anymore. It my time to jump into the fray.

“Light of Lucina, blinding edge!” I shout, my sword’s edge emitting a blinding light, which I aim directly at the beast. Good. I got its attention. “Heat of the core, molten edge!” My swords edge changes to a red glow. Fire is this creature’s weakness.

“Melee, don’t attack until it’s distracted with an attack on me. The rest of you can’t survive a strong hit from this guy!”

*Grrrowl*

“Ahhh!” I yell into its face and fake an attack. It takes the bait and swipes at me. I squat down and parry the attack with the edge of my sword, making a small cut in its fur. It’s an ugly thing, charred in some places, with a bunch of arrows stuck in its face, but these creature is not a toy, there is a lot of fight left in it.

And that’s when the real work starts. *Thud. Thud. Thud.* Its starts raining blows down on me. Parry a left swipe, block a downward attack, dive to the right to avoid pressure attack. Occasionally I can see it wince. It’s relieving to know my teammates are working to bring this down.

“Back!” I yell, feeling the beast shiver. Moments later, a pressure wave explodes from the creature, launching a few unlucky people into the side of the cave. They should survive, but they won’t be able to help much for awhile. “In!” And the fight continues.

“Olbert, give us some air suppression runes!” I yell. What is he even doing right now, anyway?

No response. I’m getting tired. Its a simple game, but the blows come fast and hard. I can feel my whole body screaming at me. A little stream of water sneaks its way from behind me straight into the creature’s mouth. Where’d that come from?

The beast suddenly stops, and its eyes bulge. “Melee, fall back! It’s going berserk!” Mages, defend the back line, I don’t want creature getting within a yard of the second row!”

The beast starts twitching and opens is mouth as if to roar, but nothing comes out. Then things get really weird. It start bucking like a horse, and then ripping into it’s own throat. It twitches again, it’s eyes bloodshot. I look over to Selaena, who seems to be casually attending to the wounded, but she’s using her left hand. I know she usually uses her right to cast, so it’s gotta be her. What the heck did she do?

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The creature keeps dancing and clawing bloody bunches of fur off its neck, until it freezes. It twitches twice, and then smoothly flops onto the ground. It’s dead. It’s really dead. I sigh in relief.

*Bzzzzt*

Runes appear from all over the cave. Ugh. What now.

“Congratulations,” a sickening voice sounds from the edge of the cave. It’s Olbert. What have I gotten into now?

“So, do you guys like my, uh, light show? I put a lot of work into it, you know. Let me tell you all a little secret: These bad boys are curse runes, capable of bringing down upper rank B mercenaries, at least. Never got a chance to try it on a rank A yet. Or at least not one with enough leftover flesh to identify.”

The other mercenaries are starting to whisper with each other.

“Now obviously, this is not a very good thing for you. No one in here specializes in spatial manipulation, and since we are all low rankers here, I think it’s safe to say that to get out, you must either be able to break my grand master level runework before I activate the encroaching function, and kill me before I activate it manually. Oh, but if I die, it will auto activate by itself, so you will actually need to incapacitate me without killing me. If you fail, this construction of runes will wash you all with curses that will make you die a fairly quick, but very painful death.”

“That’s how it would normally work, but since I’m such a nice guy, I’ll give you another option--pile up 10 diamonds worth of items for me to take, and you can all be on you merry way.”

“Oh, and I’d make up your mind quickly if I were you. I’ll be taking the liberty of killing one of you for every 60 seconds it takes to make a decision.”

That beast. Scum. What a horrible person! While we were all working our buts off, putting our lives on the line to keep people save, he was scheming to make a quick buck off of all these heroes. It makes my blood boil.

“Olbert! You’re lying, aren’t you! You’re not like that,” the berserk axman named Tim called out.

“Oh? You are in for a treat, my friend. You and the rest of the group are already cursed. I can kill you without lifting a finger.”

Tim’s face turns pale, and he starts holding his stomach, finally falling down on the ground. Still alive, but not in a good condition.

“Fezrah, come out.” Olbert says, and Fezrah obeys, calmly walking over to him with dull expression.

“Alright, 1 minute! Gotta make this one showy, since its the first. Fezrah, kill the girl,” He says, pointing to… Chalia. By the gods, what kind of demon is this man?

My vision starts to turn red. Before I know what I’m doing my muscles pulse, ready to—first—kill this Fezrah girl, and—second—tear this man’s guts out of him in front of his very own eyes.

But my muscles fail me. In the very moment I most desire the strength, it is taken from me. What is this nightmare I’ve walked into? What did I do to deserve this? What did the girl do? Or any of us?”

But then I hear it, her voice. And it says one word: “Wait.”

How could I forget? She is here. Hope is not lost. It’s going to be ok. I-I can trust her—or so I try to convince myself.

Fezra has already started moving toward Chalia, with daggers drawn. Everyone is in a panic. Many are frozen in fear, other shivering, still a few more making discussing in quiet voices; but all eyes are fixed on Fezrah’s slow advance.

30 yards. 25 Yards. 20. 15. 10.

She stops.

She’s shaking. She hides it well, but as a guide and experienced trainer, I can tell she doesn’t want to do this. She takes one more step. 9 yards. She stares absently at Chalia, now in the arms of a “frightened” Selaena.

Fezrah stops, and a tear trickles down her cheek. She turns her eyes to look at Selaena’s face. Fezrah has a look in her eye. It’s a look of…pleading?

Olbert speaks. “Fezrah, what the hell are you doing! Do your job! Or do you not care about your worthless life anymore?”

Another tear falls from Fezrah’s face. “I…” She tries to speak. Then she crumples on her knees, shouting “Kill me! I can’t do this anymore!” and begins to sob, her whole body shaking in her sorrow.

Selaena’s face changes, every bit of fear, or even pensiveness gone. All that remains is serenity. She walks over toward me.

“Tch. And here I thought we’d have a wonderfully long partnership. Fine then.” Olbert says, snapping his fingers and lighting up with a sadistic smile as he gazes upon Fezrah.

“Take her for a moment.” Selaena says, handing me the precious sleeping bundle in her arms.

Olbert keeps looking at the crying mess on the ground, but then his face changes, and dons a look of confusion

He snaps his fingers again.

“Are you confused?” Selaena gently calls out.

Olbert slowly turns his head to face her.

“Do you think I will not kill everyone in here?” He asks with a glare.

“Let me enlighten you.” She responds again, in her ethereal and gentle, yet commanding voice.

She holds out her right hand, and an ornate white staff, with beautiful crystal embedded at the top, appears in her hand.

Everyone looks on in wonder. They are still confused, but there isn’t just fear in there eyes—there is a spark of hope.

Selaena grasps her staff and taps it on the ground, emitting a short, strong burst of white light. When our eyes adjust, what we see looks like a whole different person. She looked like the epitome of a common mercenary, with dusty hair, dirt-blotched skin, tacky leather pants, and several belts for holding items. Just moments ago this apparently normal soldier was huddling against the cave wall. But now she stands tall, with a countenance that seems to request, no, demand respect. Her slim blue dress sways with the breeze, her light locks falling gracefully down her back. As of just moments ago, her voice has the sound of an angel. She seems to be nearly the embodiment of a god.

Olberts eyes widen. He just stands for a moment with his jaw agape.

“Y-y-y-you! You are… You…”

A few people around us have recognized her too, it would appear, but they all hold their breath, as seemingly in reverence to her.

“By the power granted to me by master, Lord Loroven of Kelten City,” She begins.

“O-oh, no. No, no, no! Gods no!” Olbert fumbles, slowly walking backwards.

“I, Selaena,”

There is an audible gasp. Looks like the rest of the mercenaries just caught on.

“apprentice to Master Loroven, demand that you lay your weapon down, and submit, and come with me to be tried by the official courts and atone for your violations, as a Kelten mercenary, and as a traitor to all sentient races of the hexes.”

“I-I-I c-can still kill y-you, y-y-you kn-know.”

“ELEUTHERIA!” Selaena suddenly shouts, slamming her staff into the ground. From the crystal a white pulse spreads out, shattering every curse rune in the room. *Huuh* a sound comes from the ground. I glance down to see Tim, still lying down, but with a relieved smile.

Olbert, on the other hand, has stopped talking and turned another shade whiter.

Selaena walks up to him, who was now completely frozen in shock, and grasps his right shoulder with her free hand. A chain on her neck glows, the shatters as portal opens up in front of her, showing a view of a Kelten guard station. She literally drags him through the portal, which closes behind him.

Silence.

One person slowly starts to clap, then is joined by another. Pretty soon everyone is clapping, shouting, and cheering. We are safe. Everything is safe. Wow. What an experience.

Then I hear it. A gentle rumble in the distance. I’m not the only one who hears it. My heart tightens. I clear my through to give the first order. If we have to die here, we will die as heroes—Is what I thought, but then the space at the center of this room again distorts, and a war portal appears. A few seconds later it stabilizes and three people walk out. I know two of them. Slint, an S-ranked powerhouse and Arvus, a high A ranked void magic specialist, a man capable of exterminating up to rank 15 beasts in a very wide range. The third one I don’t recognize.

Slint glances at Avus. “Let’s raise hell.” Arvus nods before racing off toward the rumblings as Slint just kind disappears into some creepy black puddle he conjured.

The third one is dressed as a maid, but she walks with a sense of power, and considering who she entered with, she couldn’t be ordinary. “Fezrah,” she says gently. Fezrah cautiously lifts her head. Seeing the runes on the wall are gone, she looks at her hands, and then slowly stands up. She then looks at the maid. And then quickly looks down before slowly holding her wrists out in front of her.

“That won’t be necessary,” The maid softly says, wrapping her arms around Fezrah, and holding her for a few seconds. “I’ll walk you back, she says, but then glances around the room, her eyes landing on me. No, not quite me?

She practically skips over to me, happily looking up at me with her gorgeous emerald eyes. She then looks down and rubs the head of the little bundle in my arms and absently says, “Take her to HQ when she wakes up,” before running back to Fezrah and helping the nervous wreck back through the portal.

“Huh?” I think, looking down. Oh, uh, that’s right, Chalia. I’ve had a long day.

Chalia snuggles her head into my chest whispering something incoherent. But if it were one of my daughters when they were young, I could have sworn she said “Gerald.”