On the next day, Morgana and Lance woke up and decided to continue exploring Kuldro. After eating their meals at the outpost, the two of them stepped outside the outpost. They continued asking sorcerers to join their guild with every single one refusing to join so. While looking around Kuldro, they saw a young man swinging a wooden sword, apparently practicing his strikes.

Curious, Morgana approached the man. Looking into his eyes, she saw a determined look but at the same she also saw some sort of doubt. While doing so, she caught the man’s attention.

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing. You just need to believe in yourself more.”, said Morgana

“But, I do.”

“You still hesitate when you swing your sword. Try attacking me.”

The young man dashed towards Morgana, ready to strike, but before contact could be made, Morgana blocked the attack with her fingers.

Reminiscing that time years ago, Morgana told the man, “You stopped for a moment before attacking me.”

Frustrated, the man threw his sword to the ground, smashing it to pieces. The man saw what happened to his sword and started to stomp the ground in frustration.

Looking at the smashed sword, Morgana took her staff to try to repair it. However, she has no idea on how to use her magic to repair materials. With an idea, she ran towards the marketplace. Lance simply wondered to himself as to why his companion ran to the marketplace. But before he could finish his thoughts, Morgana returned with a wooden sword.

“Here, you can have this. Do take care of this.”, said Morgana.

“Thank you,” said the young man.

The man grateful for another sword, continued to practice his strikes, hoping to improve. Seeing this, Lance took Morgana aside and whispered to her.

“You may have been too harsh on the kid, Morgana.”

“Nah, I think he’ll get it.”, replied Morgana

“Hey, kid, who are you?”, asked Lance

“My name is Moto.”

After learning his name, Morgana asked Moto if he knows a training area. Moto pointed out that there is a training area near the river just outside Kuldro. After learning about this, Morgana suggested that Moto join them for a little bit of training.

“But my brother might look for me. He does not want me to stay away for a while.”

“Even now, you hesitate. You need to be more decisive in your actions. Come with us, we’re not going to take you away.”, said Morgana.

“If your suspicious of us, just simply stay alert.”, added Lance.

The trio continued walking across the town until the town gates. There, they saw a large poster containing a bearded man. Walking towards it, Morgana saw the poster, the name and the reward for capturing the man. He is named I’shil, and the reward appears to be closer to 5,252,102 GolCreds.

“That is a lot of money.”, said Morgana

“You’re thinking of capturing him, aren’t you.”, said Lance.

Morgana simply stared at Lance, puzzled as to why he won’t join with her in capturing the man.

“We have another person with us, who isn’t part of our guild. And what’s more, we don’t even know where the man is. The only thing we know is what he looks like and how much money is going to be our reward after capturing him.”, said Lance.

Frustrated, Morgana simply stomped her foot and took a deep breath.

“Let’s continue to the training area.”, said Morgana.

After walking, Morgana, Lance and Moto arrived at the training grounds.

“This is a good training place.”, said Lance.

“Well, my brother and I used to train here, until after one incident.”, said Moto

“What incident?”, asked Morgana

“It’s not my story to tell.”, said Moto.

After hearing that, Morgana decided not to press the matter further.

“Alright Moto, this place is more secluded and there are fewer people watching you. Go, try attacking me again.”

Moto lunged forward, hoping to land a blow against Morgana, who simply decided to evade all the attacks launched by Moto.

At least his attacks are less hesitant than before. Those eyes are full of fire, but he continues to doubt himself. I wonder what I could do?

While Morgana was having those thoughts, she wonders if Moto simply has confidence issues or if he was yet to be tested. Looking at Moto, she saw that he is getting tired, but still have the look of determination in his eyes. Simply smiling, Morgana decided that Moto hit her once. So after around 40 failed attempts, Morgana decided not to move, and allowed herself to be hit by Moto’s wooden sword.

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“Why…. Did …. You….. Let…. Me…. Attack…. You….”, said Moto while gasping for breath.

“Because I see your effort, and I wanted to reward it.”

Panting, Moto simply collapsed in Morgana’s arms and slept. Morgana simply patted Moto’s head with a smile.

While Moto and Morgana were training, Lance decided to have a training of his own. He took weights from Piedro’s sack and simply started to lift weights. In his fight against Konrad, Lance realized that he was not as strong as was before the death of his king. Wanting to restore the previous strength that he had, he lifted multiple weights, in order to strengthen himself.

When Moto woke up, he realized that it was already noon. Looking around, he saw Morgana sleeping heavily while Lance was still lifting his weights.

“Oh no, brother will come looking for me at the town. I need to go.”, said Moto

“Are you sure you can handle yourself”, said Lance.

“I can.”, said Moto.

“Alright then. Take care of yourself.”

Moto went back towards the direction of the town. When he was away, Lance continued with his training, while Morgana was deep in her sleep.

Without a care in the world, she simply sleeps here in the forest.

After a while, Morgana finally woke up.

“Where’s Moto?”, asked Morgana

“He went home. He said that his brother is looking for him.”

“Maybe we should continue on our way?”, said Morgana

“Maybe. But it is getting dark. We should stay another night at the outpost.”

Sighing, Morgana agreed with her companion. Walking back towards the direction of the town, they were greeted by an old man who is in desperation.

“Help. They took him.”, said the man in panic.

“Who?”, asked Lance.

“Someone with a wooden sword tried to save us. He fought bravely, but those bandits are numerous.”, said the man

“Where did they go?”, said Morgana.

The man pointed in a direction deep in the forest, and without hesitation, Morgana and Lance lunged towards the forest, ready to find the person captured. This time, Morgana eyes were filled with rage, angry at an ambush against a man with a wooden sword.

‘Hopefully, it isn’t him,’ thought Morgana

The two of them continued to run in the forest but can’t find any bandits.

“We can’t find them. Where are they?”, said Morgana in frustration.

“Shhhhh, I think I hear footsteps. I think we need to follow…”, said Lance

Morgana simply lounged towards the footsteps, and shouted

FIRE BREATH

A jet of fire emerged from the mouth of Morgana, hitting at least 1 person.

“Morgana, you’ve alerted them to us.”, said Lance.

“I don’t care. These assholes tried ambushing other peoples, and they dare to ambush us.”, said an angry Morgana

“You need to be calm. Our first priority is to rescue their captive.”

Taking deep breaths, Morgana calmed down.

“But, if you knocked one person out, we may get a lead.”, said Lance.

Going to the direction of Morgana’s attack, the two of them found an unconscious bandit.

“I’ll wake him with a water attack.”, said Morgana

Summoning a small splash of water from the puddles in the forest, Morgana splashed the water in the face of the bandit, again and again. After being splashed 10 times, the bandit woke up.

“Where am I.”, said the bandit

“I’m your worst nightmare.”, said Morgana with an enraged look on her face.

“Where are your friends?”, asked Lance.

“I don’t have friends.”, said the bandit.

“WHERE IS YOUR BASE. WHO IS YOUR LEADER. WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR COMPANIONS!”, shouted Morgana staring at the bandit’s eyes.

Filled with fear, the bandit told them to simply follow him. Distrusting the bandit, Lance tied him up, while Morgana occasionally summons fire on her right hand threatening the bandit. The three of them went deeper in the forest. Eventually, they reached a bandit encampment and saw the bandits with their captive.

Morgana focused on the captive and saw that the captive is indeed Moto. Once again, being filled with raged, she filled her fists with fire, struck their guide and knocked him out.

“You didn’t need to do that.”, said Lance

“I know. But now, we need to rescue Moto.”

“Agreed.”

Morgana and Lance then stormed to the encampment, ready to assault the camp and the bandits guarding it. The bandits, after seeing Morgana and Lance, laughed amongst themselves

“Only two of them. Hahahahahahaaha.”, said one bandit

“We can take them even without the boss and his bodyguards.”, said another bandit.

“Yahhhhh.”

Flames of hope, ignite my hands and burst forth, fists of fire

FLAME STRIKE: FIST VERSION

Light feel me with sanctuary, surround my body with your blessing, go forth give me your veil

ARMOR OF LIGHT

Morgana punched three bandits with her flame strike, immediately knocking them down, while Lance charged on the bandits, knocking two of them down.

The bandits summoned water orbs, and earth orbs. They aimed at Morgana due to her lack of armor but instead of evading those attacks, Morgana simply took the attacks, failing to make her flinch. Moving her hands in front of her, she pointed those towards the bandits, taunting them to attack more.

Angered, five bandits lunged towards Morgana, intent on destroying her, but were quickly knocked down by her flame strikes. Meanwhile, Lance himself was knocking down another group of bandits. Soon, all of the bandits were down save one.

The lone bandit look out a knife and aimed it at Moto

“One more step and he takes it.”, said the bandit

Angered, Morgana sprinted towards the bandit and pushed his face downwards.

Still griping his face, Morgana told him, “Never go after a friend of mine.”

Frozen with fear, the bandit simply collapsed.

After knocking out every bandit, Morgana and Lance untied the ropes of Moto, freeing him. When he was freed, Moto cried and embraced Morgana.

“I thought I was going to be a goner.”, said Moto

“We are your friends, Moto. We will help you when you need us.”, said Morgana.

“Why were attacked by bandits anyway Moto.”, said Lance

“As I was going home, I saw the bandits harass an old potato farmer. Wanting to help, I struck one of them. But they ganged up on me.”

“You should’ve come to us, Moto”, said Lance.

“I wanted to, in fact, I was even shaking when I confronted those bandits. But I realized that the old man needed help. If I become even more indecisive, something bad may happen to the man, so I simply went after them.”, said Moto

Morgana simply remained silent, but after a while went to Moto and tapped his head.

“Sometimes, you need to flee. However, you are a very brave and courageous person. You will be stronger, and you will be better. What you did is nothing to be ashamed of. But next time, you a better weapon.”, said Morgana with a smile.

Suddenly, their peace and harmony were interrupted when a man with a runeblade showed up before Morgana, Lance and Moto. The man looked at Moto sternly, and then, he looked towards both Morgana and Lance.

“Brother?”, said Moto

“This is your brother?”, asked Morgana and Lance

“I would like to introduce my brother to you. He is Musa.”, said Moto.

“Brother, these two saved my life.”, said Moto to his brother

Still with an icy stare towards Moto, Musa looked towards Morgana and Lance.

“Thank you for saving my idiot brother. Sometimes, he keeps on fighting people stronger than her.”, said Musa

“It’s no big deal. We would always be there for a friend.”, said Morgana

Smiling, Musa told Morgana and Lance to stay at his castle for a night. And then, he left.