Chapter 6:
The Edge of Balance
Limiria returned the map to her bag and they began their journey without saying a word. First they headed to the neighboring village of Sensorania. The village was seven horizons away, which is about seven kilometers. The walk would be long and tedious but it would ,hopefully, be worth it.
The first two days of their travels were uneventful. A few encounters with Droks, not much trouble, just Ernwigs. but they managed to make it to Sensoria with most of their rations left.
“How much money do we have?” asked Limiria, looking at the gates to the village.
“Uh, I have five Zen and two Leren,” said Haverian searching his pockets. A Zen, which is about ten Leren, is a silver coin while Leren is a copper coin.
“I have one Ceno and three Zen,” said Thalorian, a Ceno is a gold coin and worth about a hundred Leren and ten Zen.
“Well, I have fifty Ceno, so I’ll cover most of our expenses,” said Limiria.
“Fifty Ceno! How’d you get that much money?!” asked Haverian.
“My father was a noble when I left four years ago he gave me four hundred Ceno to spend,” stated Limiria, “I was eighteen so I spent most of it on snacks and new weapons,” finished Limiria.
“How the hells did you spend three hundred and fifty Ceno on snacks!” yelled Haverian, confused.
Moving along the group headed into the village. It had basic wooden houses with three tall stone towers by the back wall. All of the houses had white banners and the crowns symbol on them. This village was definitely controlled by the crown.
“So… How are we going to get past them?” asked Thalorian gesturing towards the guards patrolling each street.
“Maybe we take them all out like assassin style,” suggested Haverian.
“That’d take too long and they’d noticed after a few people went missing,” said Limiria, countering Haverian's suggestion. “I say we just take them head on,”
“Why do we even have to fight them?” said Thalorian, confused.
“Because in the time we’ve been discussing this they’ve been charging us,” Limiria said blankly.
Thalorian sighed “Here we go again,” Thalorian drawed his sword.
Thalorian ran at one of the guards and swiped at his chest, killing him instantly. Thalorian blocked another guard's attack with his sword and countered with a jab to their stomach. Cold hands came up from behind him and started choking him. In an attempt to free himself, Thalorian kicked backwards into the guard's chest. But suddenly Thalorian felt a cut through his back. Thalorian spun around and saw the soldier he had just killed, shocked, although not distracted, Thalorian cut the soldier in two and ran to help the others. “Braris!” he screamed as flames shot out his hand and burned one of the guards to the ground. Limiria jumped and sliced two guards at once severing their legs. Haverian on the other hand was spin kicking the same guard he’d been fighting since the start of the battle. Thalorian ran over to support him and killed the guard.
“I had that,” said Haverian, panting.
“I know,” said Thalorian, sarcastically, while running back to continue fighting. The battle raged on for many hours and the guards ,although many were weakened, seemed to be endless.
“Either this entire village is only guards, or there's necromancy at play!” screamed Limiria taking out a guard in bright blue armour with lumpy gray skin.
“They do look a little like zombies!” hollered Haverian spin kicking another guard, finally finding his rhythm.
Thalorian dodged another swipe of a guard's sword, “Aress!” screamed Thalorian, “At least it's good practice, but I’m almost out of mana!” yelled Thalorian, several guards flying backward and crashing into a home.
“Cover me!” yelled Limiria, running along the side of a house, jumping from roof to roof. She cut down anything in her way, weaving a tapestry of blood and guts. Her sword, a poet's pen writing down all that comes to mind in a brilliant scrawl of steel, her boots striking the cold brick of the roofs she crossed. Finally reaching her final destination ,the top of a guard tower, intended for aerial assault, she cut through something that the others could not see, many of the guards fell to the grown, lifeless corpse once more. She sailed through the sea of blood and agony and landed right back down where she was, an angel touching down on earth, or perhaps a demon after their siege of Varellion, basking in the glory of their conquest.
“Necromancer,” said Limiria, a simple word. “She was pretty easy to find after the amount of guards somehow ‘tripled’” she followed up with, “Every time you use necromancy you lose a part of your soul and all this reviving, they were already gone.”
“Uh guys I we should run,” said Limiria.
“Why?” asked Haverian and Thalorian in sync.
“Because of the angry mob coming after us.”
“Man, I thought I would get to sleep in a bed today,” said Haverian, making a pouty face.
“Suck it up,” said Thalorian, already out the gate and running.
Haverian shook his head and began running, but he wasn’t able to catch up to their speed. “Kang Tiek Ko!” yelled Thalorian, facing his hand back toward Haverian. Haverian shot forward like a rocket, propelled by magical speed catching up with the others in an instant. Several people in the village had hunting bows for catching game, arrows flew in the sky, a rain of stone and iron, iron and stone.
“Dammit,” muttered Limiria under her breath. She flew into the air like a swan flying out of a lake in a beautifully orchestrated combo of slashes she took care of the more prominent threats.
“If anyone gets hurt I’m out of mana so I can’t you!” yelled Thalorian, directed toward Haverian. He knew Limiria could handle herself but Haverian was still new at the whole combat thing. Thalorian could fight but he’d only had about a month of training with a blade, his magic skills were much more prominent. He had about twelve spells memorized, mostly combat spells but a few utility and support ones.
Although she took care of most of the arrows there were still several ones coming to them, like missiles being launched. Two arrows struck Thalorian in his arm. Dammit! Even if I could cast something we still couldn’t outrun these arrows.
“Book! Do you have anything that could get us out of here, please!” yelled Thalorian at the object.
I am not supposed to interfere in human affairs.
“Yet when a demon dog was about to kill me, you sprung to my side and let me incinerate it,” argued Thalorian.
I guess I did… Well you’d be no use if you died.
Thalorians body twisted and warped, stretching like bubble gum on a hot summer day. When he felt the snap he was in a new place, he could still see Sensorania, but it was far away. His head spun around and ,to his joy, he saw Haverian and Limiria. But Haverian, he wasn’t breathing, and if he was it was faint. He had three arrows through his left thigh and another just above his heart. Several sword wounds from the guards were in his upper arm. In his current state it was a miracle he was still alive.
“Haverian…” said Thalorian, slowly approaching him.
“He’s alive, barely,” said Limiria, taking his pulse.
“Will he live?” asked Thalorian, sitting down on the grass.
“Depends, you have any mana left?”
“No. Used it all in the fight and going into the negatives can kill a person,” answered Thalorian. “The nearest village is a week of walking and he doesn’t look like he can survive another hour let alone a week.”
He won’t die. He can’t. At least not now.
“I know I should be relieved that he’s going to live, but why, and a talking book isn’t exactly the greatest reason to not get him medical care,” said Limiria, lying down in the grass.
You will see.
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