“Where are they?” Elijah asked as he squinted at the forest. It’s been a couple of hours since the expected arrival date of their assistance. The day and night cycle seemed to be shorter on Rotia than on Earth, so it was difficult to keep track of time. But he believed it's maybe been a total of 2 Earth days since he found himself stranded.
“I am unsure. It is possible they met soulless resistance but stronger variants being so far from Donia is unlikely. They should have arrived by now.” Turom answered while looking at the forest, an open book still in hand.
“I… go…,” Ioro said as he stood with his disciple. Soon the Oridian’s spell would no longer be needed. The translation was progressing faster than Elijah expected.
“I… best. Master Ioro will check our base. It should not take him long.” Turom replied, directing
the latter half at Elijah.
“How long will it take him?” He asked anxiously. He had an idea of Ioro’s strength and although Elijah was terrified of being near him, his strength was reassuring. As for the other 2 Oridians, He had only seen Dimo get beaten and Turom read a book.
“30 minutes. Do not worry, we know the importance of your technology. If Donia were not under siege, we might have been able to spare assistance sooner.”
Elijah nodded reluctantly. There haven't been any soulless ever since the night incident, and he doubted that they would show up within that 30-minute window.
Without a word, Ioro dashed towards the forest. He was fast. At least faster than a non-enhanced human. He held his spear steady in one hand and his shield in the other. It looked unwieldy to run with that equipment, especially the shield that was as big as his shell, but Ioro made it look easy. Elijah tracked Ioro’s figure as he disappeared under the shade of the trees.
“Until Master Ioro returns, shall we continue where we left off?” Turom asked, turning their gaze away from the forest and towards Elijah.
“Sure uh, where was I?” he replied. Earlier, Turom asked mundane questions regarding himself. Such as his favorite food, activities, and even animals. He had a suspicion that they were a diplomat of some kind or maybe they just wanted a friend. Whatever it was, he was happy to follow along, the Oridians have been amicable so far.
“I believe you were going to speak about something called the ‘Internet’” Turom supplied.
“Right, the internet.”
Elijah debated whether to speak about this or not and decided that it was fine as long as he only explained the general concept of it. He assured himself that the Oridians couldn't reproduce the internet for many years to come, given their current technology. He also hoped that this would maybe be a good first impression ‘gift’.
“It’s a bit complicated… But without boring you with the details. The internet is how humans communicate and share information with each other. I could send a message to someone on the other side of the planet for example and they would get it near instantaneously. Or if I wanted to know something about a particular subject, I would search the internet.” Elijah explained.
“Hmm… very peculiar,” Turom tapped their book in thought. “It seems to have a similar function to the Sanctum and I suppose the Hypernet as well, yet you do not know of Adontian.”
“You’ve seen something similar?” He asked, baffled. First, they have their magic, then they’ve already encountered interstellar species, and now they already have something like the internet. All while in the iron age. Are humans just slow?
“So it seems. The Sanctum is how we discovered the wider galaxy and consequently, Adontian.” Turom said
“I see… Could you show me the Hypernet and Sanctum?” He said after a second of thought.
The dancer shook their head, “You need to be awakened to access the Sanctum. And I can not help you with the other as I do not know how to enter in the first place.”
“Well that’s alright,” Elijah said, slightly disappointed. If both the Hypernet and Sanctum functioned like the internet, he was very curious about what was on there and also who. Does the Federation know about these things? There was no way they wouldn’t, so close to home. But then why haven’t they released it to the public?
“If you ever enter the Sanctum, it is a sight to behold. Even now, I occasionally lose myself in the immensity and grandeur.”
“Well, If I-”
Before Elijah could finish his reply, he saw 7 figures dash out of the treeline heading towards them. They were the same soulless as the one Ioro killed on his first night here, soulless scouts. It hadn’t even been 5 minutes since Ioro left.
Dimo noticed as well and stood with a shout, staff already in hand. There was a slight tremble in the Oridian’s arms but he remained steadfast and gripped the staff with greater intensity.
Turom turned to the forest, noticing the source of the commotion. They grabbed the bags on the side of their shell, placed their book into one of them, and tossed it onto the ground and out of the way.
“Dimo and I will not be able to stop all of them. There will be some that slip through. I will watch and try to help if I can. Until then, survive and run if you have to,” Turom said without turning away from the enemies. They were oddly calm as if they were expecting an attack from the soulless or maybe they were used to battle. Nonetheless, Elijah tried to match.
“Uh, I will try,” Elijah said as calmly as possible. He tried to suppress his increasing anxiety and tried to keep his thoughts on what he should be doing right now. Point and shoot.
Once Turom heard his reply, they dashed towards the soulless with Dimo alongside them. Within a couple of seconds, they met the soulless scouts in combat.
Dimo sidestepped a sword swing from a scout. He immediately followed up by hitting the torso of the scout. It stepped back to regain its balance but was otherwise fine. But there wasn’t just one, Dimo parried an attack from another scout with his shell leaving a white mark on its surface. He quickly faced his new enemy, hit its limb holding the weapon, then quickly repositioned himself so that both enemies were in front of him.
While Dimo was facing 2 scouts, Turom was against 4. Elijah wondered why Turom didn’t have a weapon and assumed this was because they were also a student of some kind, a non-combatant. He was wrong. Turom was an awakened, a mage, they didn’t need to carry a weapon.
Turom weaved between his enemies, showing greater proficiency in combat compared to Dimo. Dirt and stone covered their armored limbs, offering protection as well as damage that flesh couldn’t do against metal. Turom used their shell proficiently and attacked only when the opportunity presented itself. The Oridian always kept a scout between them and another, effectively only fighting 3 instead of 4. The soulless noticed this as well and one scout eventually broke off to join the fight against Dimo.
The last soulless was currently running towards Elijah. He already had his gun up and was aiming for the part he was confident in hitting, the torso. He gripped as hard as he could to counteract the recoil and pulled the trigger. There was a whizz in the air and a satisfying tang as he hit his target. The scout however didn’t seem to notice and continued its sprint.
Elijah let loose another round, then another, and then another. He took several unsteady steps backward as his heart started to race, his bullets didn’t seem to be doing anything. The machine continued to function, not even attempting to dodge. Once it was a couple of meters in front of him, he pulled the trigger as fast as he could, riddling the scout with a dozen holes.
As the scout poised itself to swing its sword, Elijah let off 2 more rounds as he fell to the ground while shielding his face. His muscles tensed as he expected to feel pain. But when none came in several seconds, he looked up and saw the scout as it fell to the ground with a thud.
He let out a sigh of relief and picked himself back up. His knees trembled as he tried to stay standing.
“Fuck…” he said out of breath. He believed that the soulless wouldn’t be able to get near him at all once he saw his weapon could pierce their armor. How wrong he was. His arms were sore from how tightly he was holding the gun and already he could feel butterflies in his stomach.
Elijah glanced towards the sound of fighting, the Oridians seemed to be winning. Already 2 soulless were on the ground, unmoving. He hoped they wouldn’t need help, and he also hoped none of the soulless would come running towards him. With that thought and another surge of adrenaline, Elijah quickly reloaded his weapon.
He tried to aim for the soulless but he was too afraid of hitting one of his allies. He also wasn’t that great of a shot, the one soulless he downed was moving in a straight line and didn’t dodge. Close combat was also out of the question as he would only be a hindrance.
All Elijah could do now was wait, but he didn’t let his adrenaline die down. He looked at the treeline for any emerging soulless. And diverted some attention to the main fight.
He saw Turom still clad in dirt and stone fighting alongside Dimo. They both had injuries, but Dimo was more injured compared to Turom. Red blood dripped from his wounds and even Elijah noticed that the disciple was moving slower than earlier.
Now dealing with only 2 scouts, Turom was methodically dismantling the machines, repeatedly punching their joints, and occasionally a mound of dirt would rise to disrupt their footing allowing more strikes.
Turom glanced towards Elijah during a slight reprieve. After that, Elijah noticed their style change, no more were they being defensive instead, opting to trade blow for blow as much as their armor could afford, focusing entirely on the enemies in front of them.
It seemed to be only a matter of time before all the soulless were dead, and a bit of Elijah’s guard relaxed.
Then Dimo let out another shout and pointed toward Elijah. Did he want him to help? He believed that he would only get in the way, but he would try his best and be extra careful.
Turom glanced at Dimo, then at Elijah. They shouted something at Elijah, but the spell seemed to have a distance limit as the words weren’t translated. Turom started to fight more aggressively, pushing the scouts away from them and then running toward Elijah. The Oridian stomped the ground hard and did several quick hand movements.
Why was Turom run-
Elijah’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard stone clang against metal behind him. A sword pierced his gut as another broke the smart glass of his helmet, missing his head by a few inches. Glass shards cut his now exposed face leaving a stinging sensation. But it couldn’t compare to the cold fire he felt in his abdomen.
He wasn’t able to process anymore as he was kicked to the ground and the sword was wrenched free from his gut. Landing on his side, he saw what stabbed him. It was a soulless, but not a scout, this one had the colors of the forest and seemed to be more well-made than the scout variant. It dual-wielded shortswords and had a bow strapped on its back.
The soulless prepared to finish him off, bringing its weapon back to stab him once more. Elijah tried to bring his gun up, but pain flared from his gut as he tried to move himself. Even if he did bring his arm up, he was no longer holding his gun. He must have dropped it when he was stabbed.
The soulless stabbed its weapon downward. Elijah’s senses focused on the blade and his sense of time slowed down. He kicked his legs and tried to move out of the way, but he knew he wouldn’t be fast enough. Tears started to form at the corner of his eyes as he realized he was about to die.
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A stone dome shot up from the ground around him as Elijah watched teary-eyed. It encapsulated him, snapping shut at the top and trapping the soulless sword from moving any further. But not completely, the sword was still inching its way forward. Elijah, seeing the opportunity to live, threw his entire body to the wall of the dome avoiding the blade as it struck the ground, pain erupted from his stomach again but at least he was alive.
He heard the soulless bash against the dome a few more times then stopped. Sounds of fighting followed shortly after, he wanted to stay awake until he was sure he was safe. But he was losing a lot of blood, and darkness crept at the edge of his vision. His ES should have auto-injected the needed medical serum, but he was too tired to check if it did. All he wanted to do was sleep this pain away.
And so he did.
***
Elijah opened his eyes and quickly assessed his surroundings. He wasn’t in a stone dome anymore, nor was he in his ship.
He was in a cool and slightly damp room. The walls were made out of dirt and mud. And the ceiling seemed to be a bit too high. There were windows as well as wooden window shutters that lessened the sunlight coming in, giving the room a dim yet warm glow. He could hear voices outside his room’s door as well as through the walls.
Elijah remembered being stabbed. The feeling of cold steel in his body along with the intense pain. He tried to move. Slowly.
Starting from his toes and fingers, then his legs and arms, he expected pain. But as he moved his body more and more, he was surprised that he didn’t feel any pain at all.
Feeling slightly unsure, he sat up to better examine his body. He was still wearing his ES although his helmet had been taken off. Luckily, he seemed to have no trouble breathing. He rubbed the collar of his ES, it felt intact, so he was hopeful that the translation software was still functioning, but he wouldn’t be able to confirm without his smart glass.
He could see the hole where he was stabbed and on closer inspection, he saw his skin. There was a faint scar just beside his belly button but aside from that he was perfectly fine. That was amazing, but as far as he knew the serum equipped on every ES was a stop-gap measure, it shouldn’t have been able to heal him this well.
Perhaps, Turom healed him with some magic? Maybe, but then why was he here, in what he assumed was the Oridian encampment? At least this confirms that the Oridains have good intentions, they could have just left him to die and take his ship. Or maybe he still has some use for them that he couldn’t think of?
He sighed, he should stop suspecting his saviors.
Elijah probed for his gun and panicked when he didn’t feel it. He looked around the room and was relieved when he saw it on a table by a window.
He stood up to secure his weapon. Slight vertigo assaulted him from standing up too fast and his legs trembled but he walked on to ensure his safety. Once he had it, he checked to see if it was loaded, and it was. That was however the last magazine that he had, meaning he had about 15 shots.
Placing it back onto his usual hip slot, he lay back down on his bed. He had no clue what his bed was made out of but it was comfortable.
Elijah placed his hands on his stomach and closed his eyes. As responsible as it would be to find any of the 3 Oridians he knew, all Elijah wanted to do right now was rest and process what happened.
He almost died, on an unknown planet, far far away from his friends and family. He made a mistake, he should have run into his ship when he first saw the soulless. His gun gave him false confidence. When he downed his first soulless, he should’ve realized that his gun wasn’t lethal enough and ran back into the ship.
But maybe if he went into his ship, that soulless that stabbed him would have followed and killed him. Neither Turom nor Dimo would have seen what happened inside.
A couple of minutes flew by as Elijah rested his mind and made peace with what occurred. The past was the past and Elijah would learn from it. Best to fight from very far away and ideally live far away from the fighting.
Eventually, an Oridian walked in and upon noticing that Elijah was awake, immediately walked out.
Turom entered soon after and Elijah felt a familiar pressure against his head.
“Scholar Elijah! How are you feeling?”
“Great. Thank you for saving my life by the way.” Elijah said while sitting up.
Turom stepped in front of Elijah and slightly bowed their head, gazing at the ground.
“I am truly sorry. I did not believe that they would send out a Hunter.”
Elijah rubbed his elbow, not used to a 3 meter tall Oridian bowing to him. “No worries. It’s impossible to tell the future.”
Turom raised their head, they kept their eyes on Elijah for a while then nodded.
“Due to the extent of your injuries as well as my lack of abilities. I had to carry you to our camp to get you treated. And in case you are wondering, your ship is currently guarded by one of our patrol squads.”
“Thank you once again… Was the assistance able to power my ship?” Elijah asked.
“I assumed that you would want to be conscious before they made any attempts… Would you like to go for a walk? Getting stabbed is never a comfortable experience.” Turom offered.
“You assumed correctly, thanks for that. And yeah I could use a walk, lead the way.”
Elijah stood and followed Turom outside. He was still a bit uncomfortable walking, his mind hadn’t yet adjusted to his gut being completely healed.
Outside, the sun shined brightly, a shiny sphere right next to blue and green Ortuvia. He stood unmoving, admiring the immensity of the celestial body. He snapped out of it when he realized Turom was a good distance away and he hurried to catch up.
The camp was lively, multiple Oridians were moving about, carrying soulless bodies into warehouses and crates into others. He could see scouts, hunters, and other models that he never encountered.
There wasn’t much to look at in the camp. All the buildings were made out of the same materials, mud and sometimes stone, making them hard to differentiate. But the Oridians had no problem determining the purpose of said buildings. An 8-meter tall wall surrounded the encampment providing some defense against the soulless.
There was a team of mercenaries as well, interstellar mercenaries, Elijah assumed. An eye catching, hodgepodge of various humanoids. They were very easy to spot amongst the Oridians. There were 3 of them: a green humanoid, a short armor-clad humanoid, and another the height of a full grown man wearing leather armor. They were quite far and eventually disappeared behind some buildings. Elijah could only make out their height and most striking features.
Turom seemed to have a destination in mind, as they were nearing a clearing where Oridians were training. There were several patches of dirt amidst the grass that marked the boundaries of a spar. In addition to this, there were wooden training dummies both large and small. And they moved, some Oridians were fighting dummies that resembled the soulless while some resembled beasts.
He could see Dimo, the light brown, short Oridian sparring against their master, Ioro, in one of the dirt circles.
Turom turned to face Elijah once they were near the area the master and disciple were fighting in.
“I forgot Master Ioro and Dimo wanted to speak to you when you awoke. You could still walk around the camp after if you would like.”
The Oridian seemed to be a bit embarrassed by their words, but Elijah still wasn’t used to Oridian facial expressions.
“No problem, I would have thanked Dimo for protecting me anyways,” Elijah replied.
Turom chuckled, it was deep and guttural, and honestly quite frightening.
“Dimo would say otherwise. Since you almost lost your life.”
“Well, I almost did. And what matters is that I didn’t” Although Elijah was resentful of being stabbed, they did save him. And he wouldn’t give his saviors any attitude. “Though I would love to start heading home sooner rather than later.”
“I understand,” Turom glanced around the training ground. “A mercenary team volunteered to fix your ship. I am not sure if they are here yet, but it should not be long with our teleportation network.”
“Ah, will I have to pay them?” Elijah asked. If ‘mercenary’ was translated correctly, then he would have to pay for their services. And he doubted that they would accept Human currency. The mention of the teleportation network was also interesting, the Oridians seemed capable of teleporting. He would have to investigate ‘magic’ more if he had the chance.
“They are hired by the tribes, you do not have to pay,” Turom said, still looking around.
Elijah nodded in relief. He remembered seeing what he assumed to be mercenaries earlier, but he was unsure if they were the team tasked with helping him.
“Where do these mercenaries come from anyways? Do they just wander onto a planet looking for jobs?”
“Hmm, I have heard it depends on the individual or team, but I have never seen any just land on Ortuvia or Rotia,” They paused to think, “ Some we hire through the Sanctum and others we hire on another planet. Though from where amongst the stars they originate, I do not know. Perhaps, you could ask them when you have the chance.”
Turom flattened the grass beneath their feet, sat down, then closed their eyes. The master and disciple seemed to be unaware that they were waiting, though Elijah believed Ioro didn’t want to stop the spar just yet.
Elijah sat down as well, he couldn’t feel the grass since he was wearing his ES, but the freshness of the air more than made up for it. There was also a slight breeze that slipped through his suit, causing a slight shiver to run through his body.
“Yeah, I think I will.”
Turom didn’t respond and seemed content to meditate on the grass.
Looking around, Elijah noticed that almost every Oridian he saw had some type of weapon on them. Swords, spears, staves, etc. He wondered how close they were to Donia, the nest that was under siege.
He wasn’t sure since there wasn’t any noticeable damage around the camp, but he believed that there was a recent attack. Maybe it was the same one that caused the delay or a completely different one since it had been an entire day. Whichever it may be, he was afraid of a potential fight.
However, his current circumstances helped keep his mind off of his fear. To Elijah, it seemed that an entire society was formed between species in this space so close to home. There was no way that the government wouldn’t know about this. The only alien species that humans were on good terms with were the Potherytes and even then Elijah would define the current relations as neutral or slightly negative.
He really couldn’t think of a reason for the Federation to not know about this place. Surely with interstellar mercenaries exiting and entering, the planet would be more noticeable.
After several minutes of thought that led to nowhere, the master and disciple finally finished their spar.
Walking out of their dirt arena, Ioro and Dimo greeted Turom and then approached Elijah. Elijah once again felt pressure against his head as the translation spell took effect.
“Scholar Elijah, I hope you are recovering well. My disciple here has a few words for you.” Ioro said. He was breathing easily and seemed to be full of energy, despite sparring with his disciple for who knew how long.
Dimo was the opposite of his master. He was breathing heavily, his shoulders were slouched, and he seemed to have trouble standing straight. Yet, no matter how tired he was, the Oridian seemed incapable of sweating. Elijah also wasn’t sure if the wounds he was seeing were from yesterday's fight or the recent spar.
“Hello, Scholar.” Dimo said with a slight bow.
It was only now that Elijah realized that he couldn't tell apart the Oridians' voices from each other. Although he could hear their words in his mind, each one sounded like a robot, and the tone and enunciation of words all sounded the same. His ears worked just fine but he still couldn’t identify a difference like he would with a human.
The translation spell however seemed to give him the knowledge of who was speaking to him. Surprisingly there hasn’t been an incident where he was spoken to by more than 2 but he believed he would be able to tell, somehow.
Elijah stood up, his eyes lingered on Ioro’s spearhead before refocusing on the duo, “Hello, Ioro and Dimo. I’ve been doing well so far.”
Ioro nodded, then gestured to his disciple.
Dimo bowed deeply. “I am sorry Scholar, I should have dealt with the soulless quicker, and protected you more closely. And thus you suffered for it.”
Before Elijah could respond, Ioro cut in. “Me as well. I should have been more thorough before I departed.”
Ioro bowed as well, but with his height he was eye level to Elijah. With both master and disciple bowing, some nearby Oridians in the training ground were staring with interest.
Elijah chuckled awkwardly, “Apology accepted, you can raise your heads. No need to bow. In fact, bowing makes me uncomfortable.”
Ioro straightened their back towering over Elijah once more, “Thank you. Now then, would you like us to escort you back to your ship or would you like to stay here?”
“I’d like to stay here at least until I'm fully rested,” Elijah said without a second of hesitation then added, “If that is all right.”
Ioro nodded, “My disciple will accompany you, as both Turom and I have matters to attend to.”
Ioro walked past Elijah and without stopping spoke to Turom. The dancer quickly stood up and followed Ioro to the rest of the camp. Leaving Elijah with Dimo.
Seconds ticked by as neither initiated a conversation.
“You fought the soulless really well,” Elijah eventually said.
Dimo shook his head, “I could have been better.”
The answer slightly stumped him, “Maybe, but I couldn’t have done what you did.” he replied
The disciple tapped his staff against his shoulder in thought, “Then, would you like to learn?”
Elijah immediately denied, “No no no, I’ve had enough fighting for now.”
“Then what would you like to do?”
He looked to the cluster of buildings where he came from and then to the moving dummies in the training ground.
Elijah shrugged, “I’m not sure.”