In front of the hill there was another tree, it too was alive and its appearance was almost identical to the one’s those were following Shin, except its size. This tree was at least as tall a 20-story building, it had a sort of a face carved on it, which appeared as if it was screaming. The tree was fighting something, they were humans, 4 of them, 3 woman and a man.
The man and a woman were close to the tree. The man was attacking the bottom of the tree with a long sword, the long sword was emitting out flames every time the he struck with it, he was running around from all sides swinging at its trunk, with no visible damage.
The woman was swinging a scythe at the tree with flames emitting from it too, as she was attacking her whole body was swinging, and rotating with her scythe. The scythe was twice her body size, but she had no trouble leaping huge distances while wielding it.
From just safe enough distance, 2 women were present holding staffs. One of them had a blue staff while the other had a red one. Both the women raised their staffs above their heads, and conjured up a huge orb of half fire and half water. They pointed the staff towards the tree, and shot the orb of half fire and half water at it.
It struck the tree creating a huge explosion, water was released from that explosion, which soon turned into sharp blue spears and struck the tree. But there was no damage to the tree, suddenly the giant tree stuck the man holding the long sword with one of his branches, and he flung far away from the battlefield.
The little trees were still following Shin from behind, so he had no choice but to run down the hill.
He thought, what do I do, there’s nowhere to run. Wait! Maybe I can try to copy the orb that those women were using, my learning rate was raised to the maximum by the goddess, so I might be able to do it.
Shin ran as fast as he could to make some distance between him and the little trees. The women holding the blue staff noticed him. After he got far enough form the trees, he took a stiff stance, closed his eyes, and began thinking about the orb. He visualized even the little details of the orb like the way water flowed and how the flames were raging.
Suddenly a large ball of fire pitch black in color appeared in front of him, it was even larger than the one conjured by the women before. The orb seemed to absorb everything it encountered, “Okay, focus.” But he couldn’t move it, so he raised his hand in front of his face and somehow he gained control of it.
Everything from Shin taking a stiff stance, to him raising his came so naturally to Shin. As he had been training for it since birth.
“The little ones first.” After saying this he faced the little trees and black flame came out of the orb. As they struck them, they suddenly vanished into thin air. Not even their ashes remained, the giant tree’s attention was now directed towards Shin. It started moving towards him.
“Now it’s your turn.” He faced the tree and thought of gathering all the ray in the air. The Orb grew bigger and bigger, it was now more than twice its previous size. He shot a continuous stream of fire on the tree, but it too attacked Shin, a giant light green orb appeared on top of the tree, it was twice the size of Shin’s orb. Then it directed the entire orb at Shin.
As the fire met the green orb, the flow of flame from Shin’s orb grew faster. All the light in the surrounding turned into darkness, the fire completely engulfed the green orb and was heading towards the giant tree. The woman with a scythe quickly backed away to the other two women.
“What is this Lapis?” she was baffled by the fire.
“I have no idea,” replied the woman she called Lapis.
Shin started to tense his arms up, the entire orb was now moving towards the tree. It overpowered the green orb and absorbed it completely. It started spinning around the tree like a death spiral, loud terrifying screams were coming out from the tree. It was as if thousands of people were screaming in anguish, the tree attacked himself by conjuring a new orb to get rid of the fire. But it was of no use, the tree started disintegrating from the top and eventually was burnt completely not even leaving ashes behind.
Shin let out a huge gasp and started breathing heavily, he was barely standing on his foot, the 3 women ran to Shin quickly.
The woman with the scythe got to him first and supported him, “Hey, you fine mister quick Lapis cast ray recovery.”
“On it,” replied Lapis as soon as she got there. She waved the staff on a circular motion around Shin and chanted, “Ray Recovery.”
Suddenly his heavy breathing stopped and he felt energized, it was like a miracle. Shin could stand on his own so he pulled away from the woman with the scythe.
“Thank you for your help, were really grateful.” said Lapis.
“I thank you too mister.” Said the woman with the scythe.
“I’m sorry I forgot to introduce ourself, I am Lyra,” said the woman with the Scythe, she had a small stature and had long black hair. She held her scythe very firmly with a single hand, the scythe she was holding was twice or thrice her size. But she had no trouble holding it, she was wearing a black mini skirt reaching her thighs and black stockings. Also, she had a petite figure.
“I am Lapis,” said the girl who had the blue staff, she was wearing the same garments that Lyra was wearing, only difference was that her clothes were blue colored. Her hair was almost like Azura’s, ocean blue, but not as bright of a shade as Azura’s.
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Lapis called out the girl with the red staff, “come here Flaine.”
She came near and said hesitantly and a bit rudely, “I’m Flaine.” She too was wearing the same clothes just colored red. Her hair was red with the end of them being dyed bright orange.
Shin said in a cautious voice, “I’m Shin Kite.”
He has a surname, thought Flaine.
Lapis asked Shin in a curious and intrigued voice, “What was that ray that you used before, I’ve never even heard of ray involving black flames.”
Should I tell her, I don’t really have a choice, thought Shin.
“I use the same Ray that you two were using.”
Flaine’s eyes widened upon hearing that. “You used the same ray we were using, that’s impossible it was something that my father taught me himself, no one else should know how to use that.
“I didn’t know how to use it before, I just copied what you two were doing.”
“Copied, hah like any one can do that.”
Lyra intervened, “that’s enough Flaine shouldn’t you be grateful that he saved our lives.”
“I agree with Lyra on this one,” said Lapis.
Flaine looked away angry.
The man who was flung away by the giant tree came running, he was wearing medieval looking armor and had short black hair.
“Hey what just happened there, what were those black flames.”
Lapis said, “Hey Kasogi, this is Shin Kite he was the one who defeated the tree.”
Kasogi greeted Shin and thanked him for saving their lives.
“I am Kasogi, thanks for saving us.”
Shin nodded his head.
Lapis asked Shin, “Shin what were you doing here, in the middle of nowhere.”
“I was travelling to the capital.” Replied Shin.
“To the capital, were going the same way if you want you could travel with us.”
Travelling with them would be safer than going alone also, I need to know more about this world.
Shin replied, “I would be grateful if you would let me travel with you.”
“Well, its settled then you are coming with us to the capital, you guys don’t mind do you.”
“No, not at all,” replied Kasogi.
“I too don’t mind him travelling with us,” replied Lyra.
“I do mind that,” said Flaine.
“Well, Majority wins, so Shin will be travelling with us. Now let’s collect the drops.”
All of them went to where the giant tree had burned to crisp, there was a black circle engraved in ground there. Lapis went close to the black circle and said, “Drop collect.”
Suddenly 3 things fell to the ground one of them was a stone, with something engraved on it in green, the other was a Staff made of wood it had a green aura to it and the third thing was a bracelet it was different from the other things, it had a black color and an ominous aura radiating from it.
“Take any one of them, after all you were the one to kill the tree.”
Shin thought, oh these must be the item drops that the goddess was talking about.
“What does these things do,” asked Shin.
Lapis replied, “Let’s see, I think the rune stone increases your ray output when you use grass ray, the staff does the same but you need to have it on you at all times, and the bracelet should help with your ray manipulation skills.”
“I’ll take the bracelet then.”
Shin picked up the bracelet up from the ground and wore it on his left hand, the aura radiating from it stopped, but Shin didn’t feel anything weird.
Kasogi went over to the other two things and drew a circle, by using some purple powder and their size decreased.
“That’s settled I think we should find a place to lay down for a bit, all of us are pretty tired after all.” Said Kasogi.
“I concur, then Kasogi you lead the way.” Said Lapis.
In another place, in a room Azura was lying on a bed. There was a single bed on the room and a closet, there was a door on the front of the bed and a window on its back. There was another door in the room, which was closed.
The woman who Azura saw before was on the other bed sitting with one of her legs on her lap, while looking out of the window. Azura couldn’t see before but she had a tail which was wiggling to the beats of her humming, and also, she had hair like a cat which were possibly hidden under her hat before.
Azura opened her eyes again, and tried to get up. The woman quickly notices and went to her, “So, you feel better now girl.”
Azura’s vision was still blurry, but she was feeling better now. She got up quickly and stood cautiously.
“It’s you again, where am I, and why did you bring me here.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you, I saved you two times you know, you can call me Norn, I’m a cat woman.”
She helped me, what should I do. Should I trust her, I don’t know. For now, I should thank her for that.
“Thank you for saving me miss.”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Suddenly the closed door opened, and a little girl about 8-year-old came out of the door. She was wearing a brown skirt with a white blouse. She had black hair about the length of her shoulder, with her face was innocent wand gloomy.
Norn went behind her back, grabbed her shoulders, and said, “This is my little sister, Mira.”
Azura introduced herself, “Hii, Mira I am Azura.”
Mira didn’t reply, she walked to the bed and sat on it.
“I’m going out, you two stays here. Azura take care of Mira for me would you.” Norn came close to Azura and whispered in her ear, “She’s a little shy, so be friendly with her would you.”
Azura nodded her head in yes, and Norn went out of the room. After her leaving Azura laid down on the bed and glared around the room, where she saw some books laying on the floor. Her vision was still blurry but she could at least read their cover. It read, ‘Fundamentals of elemental ray.’
She thought, I can read these books. Even though they are not written in my language, is that because the goddess did something to us.
Azura got up and asked Mira in a friendly and calm tone, “Hey Mira, could you tell me where the bathroom is.”
Mira pointed towards the door she came from, “Okay, thank you.” Azura then went inside the bathroom, it was small and just had a toilet and a bucket full of water. Azura got some water from the bucket and washed her face with it.
I hope you are doing okay; Shin I’ll try my best to meet you. But for now, I think I should ask for these people help.
She came out of there soaked and asked Mira, for something to wipe her face with Mira pointed towards a towel and Azura wiped her face with it. Azura sat beside Mira and asked her, “So Mira, you like reading.”
“Hmm.”
“What are you reading?”
Mira replied in a faint voice, “It’s a book about history of the 7 lords.”
“It sounds interesting, you know I like reading about history too. Can I read it with you?”
“Yeah sure,” replied Mira in a slight cheerful voice.
Meanwhile Norn was out in the wild, hiding in bushes tailing a giant spider, she was like a Lion hunting its prey. The spider was 3-4 times Norn’s size, and Norn was taller than the average male, but she didn’t have a hint of fear.
The spider was black and had tiny hair all over her legs. It had bright red eyes and was scouting a stone with its legs.
As soon as the spider stuck its first leg on the rock, Norn jumped at it with her long sharp frozen paws. It was over before the spider could even react; the spider was dead.
Then Norn made her way up the top of the spider’s body and sat there with her legs crossed, she murmured to herself, “I hope that Mira’s at least conversed with Azura, I’m worried about her.”
In the capital city far away, a man was watching a group of approximately 200 teenagers fighting each other, the man’s face was not visible because of the darkness. All that was visible were his long red hair reaching his pelvis.
The fight was fierce, there might even be some dead kids among them. The man noticed 7 of them dominating the fight, he said to himself, “these 7 are actually not that bad, this year might be interesting.”