It’s finally the 1st of Aquarius. Me and Arnold trained like madmen the past month. Tiffany tried to pay us a few days after the bath house incident with money but I made her pay with her body. By healing us as much as she could.

Me and Arnold trained by trying to kill each as much as we could. The guild got us permission to use the castle arena we fought before after what happened so they could buy our silence.

I am unable to reproduce the fire I used before, so that is one less weapon for me. My sword got itself together and Martin made new gear for me. It’s the same design, leather boots, pants and jacket, but this time I can open the jacket, it’s not glued close. There are some really light metal plates under the surface of the pieces so I have some extra protection and best of all it’s lighter than my last gear, it’s really good.

Our training on the other hand is not so much. It almost got us killed more than once. Arnold is trying to use both earth and wind magic at the same time which if fucking him up in ways I don’t know as I am as unfamiliar with magic as you can in terms of practical use.

On my side of the training I am almost dying of mana use everyday trying to see how I can power up my sword more. The only thing I discovered is that if I put all my mana on it to the point were I will pretty much die from it I can probably destroy a castle, the bad part is that it would take around 10 minutes for it as I need to concentrate to the absolute limit a person can so my vitality is not converted in mana, as it looks like it’s something that can happen.

Between my solo training and Arnold solo training we fight with each other with the intent to kill. I don’t know how he is feeling but I can see that it is hard for him to fight me. It usually takes a few really mean insults so he can get in the mood. From time to time I also need some help with it.

The best part of all the fighting, at least for me, is that I can now use the dance style, at least my way. I can’t do all the moves I had thought with Lucia on the command but I can do the counter moves that she wasn’t able to pull off as you need to get the rhythm of the opponent and that is my forte. I can’t make the rhythm but I can follow it and disrupt it if I get enough time.

The Brute also was killed by a group of people, so we are somewhat happy about that. We wanted revenge but we both knew that by the point we could get it there would be too many victims.

Yesterday we didn’t train so we could rest for today. Tiffany also skipped town when we told her that there would be no more training just leaving a note for me.

“I got a lot of money as compensation for that hell we got through so I am going to the capital. Sorry for not saying this in person but the opportunity showed up and I had little time to prepare. If you both go to the capital someday I will give a discount on my services, until then I hope you two satisfy each other as much as I could, kisses, bye.”

After reading the note I burned it and just told that she had to go or she would be stuck here to Arnold. I don’t want that girl near me again unless she is there to heal me.

Yesterday we also stored everything we would not use on our job of hunting the Doll Maker in a bank. We even bought some healing potions. Equal to mana potions they taste like shit but they are at least effective. But they are also expensive, we only have 1000 kir left after everything. By my accounts we had over 10000 kir until last month, each potion cost around 4000 kir each. I can see why using potions is not something that people do. Healing herbs exist but they don’t do more than help closing wounds and still takes time.

We both prepare ourselves, say our goodbyes to the orphanage as we will not be coming back here even if we don’t find our target today.

After we leave we don’t say a word until the carriage we paid drop us in front of the south gate of this city.

“He is around here somewhere.” I say.

“Now we just have to find him.” Arnold replies.

“We need to find a big place, don’t we?”

“It’s our best bet if the information we got is correct that we are able to fight him without the risk of other people seeing the fight.”

“So a warehouse?”

“Or the sewers.”

“I hope it’s not the sewers.”

“Me too.”

We walk around the area, looking for big places that could be used as warehouses. There are a few places that could be used like that as the south of the city is the most common entrance to the city so there are a lot of warehouses and storehouses around here.

After a bit of talking with the merchants we find an abandoned place that no one goes to as rats once found their way there and no one knew how so no one uses the place. By this time is already lunch time so we make a quick lunch and head there after.

When we reach the place it’s locked but we can hear some noises inside so we go all the way to the roof so we can look down and see what is happening.

There we see what looks like an Orc using a pink apron over a really heavy armor full of skulls and bones torturing a boy no older than me by what it seems.

“I am going!” Arnold says.

“No!” I stop him.

“Why?”

“If we do this right we can kill him without fighting and save the boy”

“Explain!”

“The only thing we know for sure about him is that he takes his time. He will not kill the boy until way later.”

“Continue.”

“Do you remember that attack that takes a lot of time to charge?”

“Yes!?”

“I will use that. You use your spells to get the kid out and use that super spell you were trying after you get him to safety.”

“What if you fail to kill him?”

“I am pretty sure that the number of people that can resist this is really low. There is no way he has the same toughness of the Brute.”

“I will trust you on this as it looks like this is our best chance at victory. I will be waiting behind the wall near the boy. When I hear you screaming or whatever I will grab him and finish the job if needed.”

I nod my head and start to prepare as he takes his position. I position myself just above where he is torturing the kid and begin to charge a blank rune on my sword. This is slow and needs an incredible amount of concentration as putting magic on a blank rune the way I am doing is pretty much playing on the spell lottery where 99.9% of the time it will just explode on your face and in the small case it doesn't a random spell will happen without your control.

After what felt like an eternity because of the boy screaming, due to the slow torture he is receiving, I jump from the hole.

“Up here you green bastard!” I scream to get his attention.

At that moment I see the wall breaking in silence and Arnold using two spells. One on me and one on him. The one on me is to make sure that if I fall to the ground I will not receive damage and the one in him speeds him up. Before I even reach the Doll Maker Arnold already is outside so I hit the bastard with all my force. I can’t swing the sword after using this technique so I just fall with the sword in hand on the target.

A pillar of light appears around me and him engulfing the entire place and some of the building nearby but just a little. The light is doing nothing to me but blinding me but I can tell he received some damage as he is screaming.

“AAAHHHH! WHAT IS THIS, IT BURNS!” The Doll Maker screams in pain.

As the light stops I see what happened. There is a big cauterized wound in his torso from the right shoulder until the stomach. Everything else is a little scorched and looks like his armor melted into his flesh. But this fucker is still alive somehow. I don’t even have the energy to yell now.

Before any of us can do anything Arnold comes running back and grabs me leaving me in the same place he did the boy and then goes back to where the Doll Maker is.

From where I am I see a huge tornado appear along with some rock spikes that are drawn into the tornado crashing into the Doll Maker as he is in the middle of everything.

A few moments later Arnold comes back with the man’s head, or what he could find of it, his jaw was lost in the process and a lot of meat is around the now empty area I made.

I just give him a happy face and move my neck to point to the boy. He needs healing and I just need rest.

“We are going to help you, just hold on a little, someone is coming, there is no way no one is coming after all this.” Arnold says to the boy trying to cut the ropes tying him up. But something happens.

“No, No, No! That was not supposed to happen. You had to fight” The Boy says as he just burst open ropes.

Time looks frozen to us, we can’t move, we can’t talk.

“He even was in a place you could just burst open and fight, but no, you had to assassinate him.”

You little bitch, they told us to kill these people not fight them, what do you want? I think to myself.

“I want to see a good fight!”

Shit you... he can read my mind.

“Yes and No, I am not him.”

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The other answer was probably for Arnold.

“Now we are going to do a redo. Don’t worry I will give you two your strength back, I am not a heartless monster.”

“You son of a bitch!” I shout. The boy disappears and I can’t remember his appearance for some reason, I also have all my mana back.

“What was that?” Arnold asks in a panic.

“No idea, but if we are here so is the target. The head is gone.” I say pointing to his feet were the head he had brought was not there anymore

“AHHHH!” We hear from the Doll Maker in the center of the pile of rubble that was left.

“Get ready.” Arnold says

“Already Am.”

The Doll Maker is Charging at us straight. His armor is probably really hard so blocking is out of the question. The fact that he doesn’t use weapons is a giveaway that in fights he uses either magic or the armor as a weapon.

Me and Arnold run to intercept him. We run past him, barely dodging him and hitting him once with our weapons. It did nothing.

“Fuck, normal attacks will do nothing!” I say in anger.

“Can you do that again?”

“Can you protect me for ten minutes?”

“No…”

“There is your answer.” I never explained how exactly that move worked so he probably thought that I could charge it while running or something.

With this we go to plan b. In case we found him and just attacking him doesn’t work we would fight until we found a weak point. Right now his weak point is the head as we found that only his armor is hard, not his flesh. But even without a helmet his armor can protect everything from any direction but up.

Knowing his weak point I make a quick plan and shout to Arnold before the Doll Maker can turn back and run at us back again.

“I am going to keep him in a small area. Hit him from above with magic, and by the gods don’t miss!”

“Alright, go!” He shouts as he uses his wind spell to make me fast.

As the doll maker is turning around I get near him and drop my weapons making sure my magic string is holding them in the ground. I put my hand-to-hand stance and punch him once.

“So, are you going to keep running or are you too scared to fight a girl?” I taunt him.

He tries to punch me but this kind of fight is what I am specialized in. Even in another body I have muscle memory on how to dodge punches and kicks that could kill me. Everytime he throws a punch I dodge and punch or kick his joints in either his hands or knees. Arnold is somewhere I can’t see but from time to time I feel the speed spell effect on me so he must be near enough to see.

After what I feel like was a few minutes of dodging and hitting an immovable wall one kick finally hits the way I wanted and the Doll Maker falls on one of his knees. I use my string to get my two sabers and impale him in the head and begin to run after taking them back.

Just as I do that lots of spikes begin to rain above where I was with one of them impaling the orc for good. Just to be sure I stab what was left of the head a few more times. Arnold then approaches me.

“This was better than the first time. Why did he stay with you there?” He ask me.

“Probably because the only way to run from me was to turn his back to me. We were too close for anything else. Also if anything he did hitted me I would probably get a few broken bones, that armor is way too heavy.” I explain, showing that I can’t lift his arm or leg.

“At least now we finished the job.” He says in relief.

“NO!NO!NO! WHY?” We hear the voice of the boy again.

“Hey, this time we fought him head to head and won.” I shout.

“Yeah, stop that, we won.” Arnold shouts.

“Oh yeah? Then try to win against this!” The boy say from somewhere in a really annoyed voice.

A few meters from us a giant rune appears and from it a dog appears. It is a white husky.

Under normal circumstances I would joke but this dog emits an aura of pure strength. Me and Arnold are in guard before we can even think.

“Now, let’s see if you can defeat the Chimera!”

I am in full panic mode. This thing is what the boss would fight. I don’t know many people who could probably fight this but he is probably one of them. Me and Arnold just look at each other and know full well we can’t fight this. He prepares two wind speed spells one on me and other on him and we begin a mad dash to the gates. We need to get this thing out of the city.

As we begin to run the dog barks once and his head becomes the head of a red dragon with a long neck. He begins to shoot fireballs at us but we are just a little faster.

As we try to leave the area we hear another bark and a force field stop us. We pretty much run into a wall. As we look back at the dog a giant crystal hand is in the place of his left front paw. I have no idea from where this is.

“Shit, we can’t run.” Arnold says.

“And we can’t fight, you probably can’t feel it but his mana is really, really compressed.”

This is bad news. This means that he has a lot more mana than we can sense.

“So what is the plan?” I ask.

“Run and hope that someone comes to help us or he transforms into something we can kill.”

I nod my head in agreement and we begin to run circles around him separated.

The Chimera shoots fireballs at us as well a few fire breaths that scorch the place but misses us. The speed spell is what is keeping us alive so Arnold is ready to recast at any moment.

The Chimera then transforms again changing its head into the head of a Bull and its body into the body of a some kind of feline big enough to hold the head of the bull. It then charges straight at me where I am only able to dodge because Arnold used a spell to push me forward with wind.

“Fuck!” Is all I can say.

As I look at the Chimera again it changes again. Now it has a humanoid body and it is standing with two legs where the legs are stone legs similar to humans, the torso is made of metal and the arms are two gorillas arms. The head split into 9 white serpent heads.

“Hydra!” Arnold screams.

I run like I never did before. We both try to leave the area but again that strange arm appears and we run into a wall. We can’t do much so Arnold uses wind spells again to push us out of the way of an acid spit from one of the heads of the Chimera.

We run circles around it but we can’t find anything. It even stops changing so we have to deal with what we are seeing. This thing, leaving the heads out as they are almost as long as the body, is probably 8 meters tall. Arnold is burning mana making us fast and using even more to push us both out of attacks as just speed isn’t enough.

“I am almost out of mana. We need to do something fast.” Arnold says to me, worried.

I begin to think and come up with a plan. A really stupid one, but it’s a plan.

“Arnold, I am going to try to cut that thing, but you need to be ready to cushion my fall if the worst happens. I think I found a way to hurt it but you just need to put me near it.”

At this point he can’t do anything, if we don’t do this we will probably die and he knows. This time strangely enough I am confident we can at least survive, probably because I feel that he trusts me completely and I do the same.

Arnold then creates a big gust of wind that pushes me really hard to the front of the Chimera. The heads can’t eat me as I am too near the body. I then try my stupid idea.

My sword needs a large amount of mana to do that big explosion but I don’t have the time for that. So what if I try to cast as many blank runes I can into the sword at once? My limit was creating around 100 blank runes and now I am going to fill all of them up in a second. I hope I win the lottery. I make all the runes I can appear and charge them. I can feel the energy in the sword so I swing it as fast as I can hitting the middle of the chimera body before the hands even start to move. The white light explosion doesn’t appear but I am thrown backward by something and I am not hearing anything anymore.

Arnold catches me after I fly for a few moments and I see the chimera being hit by lightning repeatedly.

“Did it work?” I ask.

“Don’t think so.” Arnold says as the chimera changes yet again becoming a fucking thunder dragon of all things.

“Fuck!” We both say.

The chimera, shoot a thunder spear at us with his mouth. We both take it in the stomach and fall to the ground fried. As we fall back our potions break and we are healed a little but the lingering damage is too much and the effect stops. By the time the electricity stops I have no idea how I am even conscious. I can’t talk, feel my body, hear things or even see right.

Fuck this I think to myself. What kind of bastard throws that at just two kids just because he is mad. I hope the gods fuck him up if they could do anything for me now.

As I am ready to accept death once again someone grabs me and Arnold and is running while holding us. I can’t see his face but it is a man. Another one is behind us carrying my sabers and Arnold’s spear. My sword is still tied to the magic string.

A few moments later, when we are leaving the empty area I helped to make, someone fell from the sky creating a giant hole that the chimera fell along with whoever did that as him or her grabbed the Chimera on the way down. I hope the boss comes as this was his target not ours.

We are carried somewhere but I black out on the way so I don’t know how long I was carried.

--//--

As I wake up I see that someone is healing me and Arnold at the same time. It’s Aria of all people, using her Purple Dragon Uniform.

“Hey sweety. Finally woken up? Your prince was asking about you non stop.” She says in a cheerful tone.

“Come on. You said you wouldn’t tell her.” Arnold says a little frustrated.

“Well… Thanks.” is all I can say.

“So how are you feeling?” Aria asks me.

“Like the meat I eat.”

She begins to laugh.

“Your jokes aside, you are pretty much right about how you were a few minutes ago.” Aria says.

“What even happened?” Arnold asks.

“All I know is that you two did what you were told to do and that thing appeared after. Some man just took you two here and I healed both of you. They left without saying a word and I couldn’t see their faces so I don’t know who they were.”

Well, they help us so I am grateful.

“What about the Chimera?” Arnold asks.

“Boss is probably fighting it right now if it really appeared.” Aria replies.

“If the Boss can fight that he is a monster.” I say

“You are not that far from the truth.” Aria say.

“What do you mean?” Arnold asks.

“Well, he is just really strong like a monster. I didn’t mean anything more with that.”

Me and Arnold look at her trying to figure her out but she didn’t flinch so we let it go.

After that Aria leaves the room giving us some space.

“That thing was too strong.” I say.

“But if that is what is out there, we need to get as strong as that.”

“We also need to stop almost dying everyday.”

We stop and laugh a little.

“Lucia”.

“What?”

“Promise me that if someone gives us a job like this again, we will say no.”

“I don’t think S-Rank Bounties will be given to us again or at least for a really long fucking time.”

“Just promise me that.”

“Sure, I promise.”

“Now if you excuse me I will take a nap.”

“Same.”

We both get comfortable on our beds and soon enough fall asleep. We did our job, twice, I hope it’s the Boss fighting that thing so we can just wrap all of this and go home, wherever that is and I promise that if I ever find that kid again I will punch him in the face. But for now let’s rest. I will need my energy to count the money I will get.