Encounter

The village... was burning...

But all we could hear is the sizzling of the flames and no screams.

Lily could be in danger or worse yet, dead.

The sand wasn't helping us either, it kept bowing in our eyes making it more difficult to locate people.

Until...

We found some of the guards that were supposed to be on patrol. Dead. Their inside what supposed to stay on the inside was now on the outside staining the sand red with their blood.

Even with all this sand blowing in my eyes I can tell that Izumi's face is pissed. Emerging from the dust clouds, green pigs?... no, goblins.

There were two little goblins that was shorter than me and one big one with armor and a metal claymore.

All I could think about is how screwed we are.

Izumi looked like he was going to choke himself but instead he pulled out a necklace and on it was a small glass bottle. A bottle of water?...

He broke the water with his hands and then at that moment I realized he can manipulate the elements. Then water that he had shapeshifted into 2 daggers and with a blink of an eye he rushed the giant goblin, held his face and drove one of the water daggers right through the middle of his skull and pulled it down his body until it was cut in half. The scene was horrific, green blood oozing out of the goblin and his insides and everything was showing. Even with armor, it was not enough to withstand the rage of Izumi.

“Anyone else?” Izumi asked in a fit of rage. The two small goblins dropped to the ground begging for their lives. “Wait!” I yelled, “We can ask them what happened here”. Izumi agreed and decide to cooldown.

With the intel that the goblins gave us, the goblins came and pillage everything and took everyone but the guards as captives.

I was so happy that Lily wasn't killed.

Wait... This was the same as my excuse when we first arrived here.

Karma for lying?...

They gave Izumi a map of where their base of operation was located. Just for safety, Izumi sliced off the goblins legs to make sure they don't report back to their leader.

I didn’t understand the map one bit. So, I had to trail behind Izumi and as well stay next to him for protection since I can't defend myself.

Luckily the sands of the desert were kind enough to have trails of where the goblins were going, making it easier for us.

It was nearing night, “the goblins wouldn't make it to their base of operations till morning so we can rest” Izumi told me. I agreed, we needed energy if we were going to fight a ton of goblins. Rest would be the best option.

The only thing we had was two stones and clothes.

He tore piece of his dried clothes as tinder and then gathered some nearby sticks from dead trees, then made a fire rubbing the two stones together.

We later sat down near the fire with me explaining of the shit life I had before I came here. Izumi just sat and listened to me. He only had a face of pity. Nothing else.

He stood up, looked at me. “This is the truth of this world right now, there were twelve gods that watched over the twelve countries, they wanted to have peace between each country, but that peace never lasted long, one by one, something grew inside the gods and goddesses, hate, envy, bitterness and any other bad emotion you can think of. They were corrupted. Years after that disaster, there were chaos until the church summoned outworlders like you to maintain order in this world, since the gods would never do it again. The human race is the superior race here, I don’t know about your world. These heroes were to kill the gods but they never succeeded, the heroes that went to slaughter the gods were also tainted with the bad emotions and became their servants. I... was one of those heroes. I went to kill the god that ruled this country, but I couldn’t, my friends got corrupted and I had to kill them to escape. Then I sought refuge here in that town to live the rest of my days but then you showed up and I guess you can call it fate we met... My hands tainted with my friends' blood; I shall not kill for freedom if I can't free myself from the past”

I stood up and said calmly, "I'm your friend and I won't get corrupted, the only reason right now you can't fight for freedom is because you are scared and that’s okay but you won't have to be scared alone again, friend”

He smiled...

Soon after that we went to sleep.

Whatever happens tomorrow will determine the lives of the villagers.

All I thought about was Lily's safety.