[Near Red-square]
“…”
Lilly, grandmother on her back, is lost in thought as the newly formed group walk slow through the snow.
-A Couple Hours Ago-
“…”
!!!!BOOOM!!!!
A cloud of snow is thrown up into the sky!!!
“AH--“
“EH…”
“AH…”
The area is brought to a sudden silence as a thunderous explosion brings a reason for pause…
*Cloud begins to clear
“…Gracie?…”
Lilly panics watching the centre of the eruption with keen, worried eyes when a silhouette begins to form.
The silhouette, none other than Arteus…
Following on the cries for help he heard and arriving just on time!!!
“Huh?”
The confusion on Lilly’s face is more than apparent…
*Cloud clears
“!!!”
…Much more so when the cloud clears and she realizes that laid at his feet is the crushed skull of the Alpha!!!
“…I’ll take it from here…”
Arteus’ words ring cold, empty and devoid of emotion or heroic intent as he rises slow.
His hand bloodied heavily from the blow he planted on the alpha.
“…”
*Schlick!
The sound is nauseating as Art pulls a thick piece of bone from his glove that grotesquely stuck on from the fractured skull of the alpha.
“…”
And with a simple gesture to the rest of the pack… the battle is on.
The Arctic-wolf pack… come rushing forth angrily… and in full force when...
“AH! WAIT YOU--“
*GRRR!!!
The first beast pounces!!!
However…
Art anticipated this and in a move that would be called foolish if anyone else did it… He uses his left arm as bait!
Drawing the wolf in and allowing it to bite into it!
*CRUNCH!!!
“…”
“AH…”
Lilly’s face tells the full story! He’s crazy…
“…Hm”
The next move while not as ingenious still only served to highlight just how logic defying Arteus was in this battle!
*Shing
Fwoosh!!!!
In one quick ending movement, Arteus pulled out a short dagger from his coat and flung it at the wolves on standby!
KCH! KCH!! KCH!!!
The spin he added to it, with near half the strength in his arm, making it act like a boomerang!
Flying in a circle as it slit the throats of three of the oncoming wolves before lodging itself in the tree right next to Lilly!!!!
*THUD!
“AH.”
A panicked exclamation from Lilly when the dagger forced itself into the tree with an unnerving thud!
*Grrr…
“HM!”
Returning to the wolf on his arm like it was an afterthought… Art looked primed to finish it when instead he punched another oncoming wolf!
Dragging it teeth first from mid-air to the ground!
!!!BOOM!!!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
*SPLAT!!!!
Its head exploding in a fountain-y mesh under the force of the impact that was powerful enough to clear all the snow from the spot!!
“…”
A stunned silence followed. This time induced by an eye scratching display from the boy.
Was he even human??
*Grrr
With that Arteus finally turned his attention to the wolf that clung to his arm.
“…”
*grabs head
“*whimpers”
*SPLAT!!!!
And he crushed its skull with his bare hand!
Killing the wolf instantly before dropping its lifeless carcass to the snow...
The area was now painted crimson.
But not with Arteus’ blood, or Lilly’s or Gracie’s or even the merchant Millie’s.
No, the area was now spectacularly crimson because of the blood of the beasts that once threatened the lives of the small family.
A crimson delight over the pure snow painted… by Arteus Montfreed.
*pat! *pat!
“…”
The painter dusted himself off, pulling teeth out of his arm as Lilly watched on, reduced to an understandably nauseated and dejected expression.
And all this… was before he turned his attention to the remaining wolves…
The rest of the pack and his brand-new canvas!!
“…”
-The Present-
“…”
“…demon…”
Lilly mumbles looking to Arteus’ arm that appears to have already healed!
“…How far to the safe house…”
“A couple paces up.”
“Everyone was spread between Duncan’s Café and my store.”
“Surprisingly that fish store has some of the best security in all of Barley.”
The old woman smirks as she recalls the heavily protected cafe.
“And all for a bunch of fish…”
“AHAHAHHAHA.”
“…”
She laughs, leaving Art and the two girls in a stifled silence as the boy keeps his attention on the road ahead.
“Well, she’s doing better…”
Art pondered as he watched the seemingly more energetic Millie.
When he’d first met them, she was a slump of a person.
On her death bed, heavily breathing and bitter at life as a whole.
Now however, the colour had returned to her skin and she was even slightly merrier… at least by Millie’s standards.
Had something changed that he wasn’t aware of?
“…”
“How are your wounds?”
“Huh? Oh these… ooohhh they’re fine.”
“The kid worked on them.”
“Granny!”
“AHAHAHAHa…”
Millie laughs haughtily gesturing to her granddaughter who fumes when the old lady discloses what should have been a secret.
“…”
“A wound that bad is supposed to be lethal.”
“Magic?”
Art pondered…
“OOOOH?? Curious how? right??”
“Well, you should be… but more than that you should be impressed cause Lilly here is a grade 3 elemental mage yknow!”
With that simple statement Art’s eyes immediately perked up as he watched the giddy old woman’s proud declaration. This was by far the most expressive his face had been since what happened to Hanna.
The boy’s attention had been piqued.
A grade 3 elemental mage. Magic at all in the realm of humanity was a rarity. Humans lacked the natural sensitivity that came with manipulating souls or mana, the energy of life, thus often focused on either extensive combat training or technological developments to keep up with the rest of the realms.
However, in rare cases, certain humans had an affinity for souls and could manipulate magic. These humans were dubbed mages and fell in 4 classes.
3rd class mages that exhibited little control over souls and could use small amounts of magic…
2nd class mages that exhibited a free reign over souls and used magic like it was second nature…
And the rarer 1st class mages that while they exhibited the same reign over magic as 2nd class mages took it a step further. Freely being able to the use of their own life energy as an addition to that of their surroundings basically making them something akin to walking gods.
As far as the reasons go as to why one’s own life energy commands more powerful magic than using the surrounding mana it remains to be seen.
But anyone who can tap into their own ‘life support’ may as well be given the keys to the kingdom because no one person should be privy to that kind of power...
Oh, is there one more? Well, the last class of mages is ‘Chaos’ mages. The most powerful mages to have ever existed. These mages tiptoe the line of Gods and human to a frightening degree, such that to this day the class is something of a myth, the last account of a chaos mage coming from over 400 years ago. So naturally it becomes logical to see it as not worth mentioning…
“Aaah… don’t mind her, that’s nothing to be proud of really.”
“…”
“No… it’s impressive still… really.”
“Ah… thanks”
Shy smile on, Lilly belatedly accepts the compliment tucking her head to hide her flushed cheeks.
As rare as mages were, it was even rarer to find them out here in the boonies. Apart from the priests of the Avarician faith, mages almost only were born in the Kingdom of Avarice or around it.
The king and nobles using this fact to denounce the rest of their subjects as having stained bloodlines and thus being shunned by All-sky.
“…”
“…Says the guy who can crush a wolf’s skull with his bare hands.”
Lilly blushed to herself proudly as the thought raced across her mind.
“Is this really, okay?”
“Is what?”
“Taking him to the rest of the survivors.”
“HM.”
“…”
*rustle
The pair exchange a whispered conversation when a rustle from a nearby catches Art’s attention
“…”
Arteus keeps an eye on the back
“Don’t worry your pretty little head.”
“Despite everything that’s happened, Hanna raised a good kid.”
“…hm.””
Millie says with a fond tone… is this acceptance?
“And cute too if you wanna make me grandkids…”
“GRANNY!!!!””
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
The witty old woman teased her granddaughter making the red of Lilly’s cheeks flush even more in the hue of the snow.
“…”
However, that couldn’t be said for Art. Whose attention was now fully laid on the eyes behind.
Bloodlust.
Whatever the creature was it was finally showing intent.
Something was about to happen!
“Looks like we’re ba…ck”
Before the sentence could be uttered it was already finished as the long-awaited Red-square came into view.
The devastation of which while not being muchly different from when Art was here was very fresh to the old lady’s family.
This was new to them. And Arteus could tell.
The slump of their expressions was immediate as they scanned the devastated infrastructure and decorated posts that somehow managed to smear the red of the townsfolk in an artsy way.
“Wow…”
“Yeah… C’mon...”
Millie ordered, no hint of emotion in her voice. Which in and of itself was telling.
“AH… Gracie don’t--“
And then a pause, as big sister stared into little sisters’ eyes.
Her intention was obvious. Gracie shouldn’t see this, Gracie shouldn’t ‘HAVE’ to see this.
But before Lilly could offer her advice or give an order the conviction on her little sister’s face was enough for her to swallow her words.
“…”
“It’s okay sis….”
“Right.”
Could this situation be even more inconceivable… Can a child barely twelve be allowed to witness this… to experience it…
“…”
A sombre Arteus watched the family… when…
“What happened here?”
“I thought you saw this already.”
“No when I was in this place last, none of this had happened yet.”
The old woman reminisces keeping her eyes firmly forward.
Possibly to take it all in.
“Dammit.”
“Why didn’t you tell me…”
“I didn’t know.”
“DAMMIT!”
*rustle
FWOOSH!!
“AH--GRANNY!!!”
“GRACIE GET BACK--… TSK!!!”
It all happened so fast…
All of a sudden… in an instant, the littlest of the group darted to the front opening her arms to act as a human shield.
And in the second that followed....
Lilly jumped forward, letting go of her grandmother… Millie, had a face full of pure regret at what might happen as she landed on the snow… and Arteus…
“…TCH!”
Dreaded that the sombre mood had waned his focus on the creature that stalked them!
“…”
“…”
-To be Continued-