A Gap In Expectations - Part 2

Rain shoots a stunning arrow at Vermond, but only manages to slow him down a bit. The combat in the tunnel continues.

Nir sprints towards Vermond, fearing he is going for Rain. He uses a heart and charges a strike from behind - seeing he isn’t dodging. The sword collides with a seemingly magical shield that is coating him, barely visible in a blueish shade - looking similar to the skill Grandpa used while he protected Nir earlier.

He charges a strike with another heart and hits again, only for it to be blocked again completely, creating blue light particles, shining on Vermond’s invisible protection, making it barely visible momentarily.

“Rain! Get behind me, I won’t let him target you!” - Nir yells.

Rain runs past Vermond, as Nir steps to his side to block his path towards her.

Vermond seems very wary of something. He then suddenly runs to the building.

-”We can’t let him get away!” - Rain says loudly.

-”Let’s go! But be careful! He may try a surprise-attack the moment we enter”. - Nir warns her.

They run after him. Nir takes the first step into the building, seeing Vermond is running towards the old lady’s room. They run towards the room, and as they enter - Vermond appears from the ceiling, surprising Nir with a charged kick, as Nir instinctively shields with his left arm while using a heart.

Vermond jumps back further into the room as Nir falls to the ground, screaming: “Ghaa!”

His arm is shattered.

-”Nir!!!” - Rain yells, panicking. She stretches an arrow in her bow as Nir gets up, still holding his sword with his right hand alone. She walks next to Nir, while aiming and thinking what to do. Nir jumps, striking him, sacrificing a heart, but fails to deal damage. Rain tries to aim without hitting Nir, and as her charged arrow is about to hit Vermond - he swiftly grabs Nir’s face and uses him as a shield. The arrow hits Nir’s back instead.

-”No! Nir!” - Rain yells.

-”It’s not over, Rain!” - Grandpa is heard from behind them.

Vermond looks in the direction of the voice while he’s still holding Nir, and sees a baby figure peeking into the room. His eyes shine in a variety of colors, similarly to the empress, as he stares at Grandpa. His aura can be felt as if carrying the pressure of all the lives he took. Grandpa’s eyes shine identically. His aura isn’t felt at all for some reason.

Suddenly, Vermond marches forward, aiming at Grandpa. Rain focuses greatly as she stretches an arrow in the bow. He attacks Grandpa with his hand, trying to grab his head too. Grandpa blocks with the shielding skill. As Grandpa’s shielding and Vermond’s hand are colliding in a continuous struggle, creating blue and red light particles, Rain releases an arrow charged with 5 hearts and hits Vermond. Blue light particles fly out as if his protection is broken.

-”Nir! Now!” - Grandpa yells, as Vermond realizes in his mind: ”I… Can’t move!”

Nir raises his broken arm despite the pain and uses a heart. He moves his hands in opposite directions, then kicks with his legs in opposite directions, forcing his way out of Vermond’s grasp through a spin, and combos with a slash charged with a hundred hearts.

Nir lands on the ground. He supports his left hand with his right one while still holding his sword, just trying to combat the overwhelming pain.

Grandpa’s gaze is still focused forwards. Rain is looking at the scene in shock.

Vermod’s head rolls on the floor.

-”The fight is over”. - Grandpa confirms.

Nir falls on his knees.

-”Nir!” - Rain yells as she quickly turns to attend to him. “Grandpa, do you have some sort of a healing skill?”

-”Sadly, I don’t. The skills have a tendency to manifest in ways that support the person, but how exactly it works… That is not really within our grasp…” - Grandpa replies.

-”Let’s go to the castle”. - Rain says.

-”Yes. We probably should. Let’s get out through the main entrance. Although the cave-entrance is closer to the worship house, the nursing home itself is closer to the castle”.

Rain supports Nir as he’s trying to stand up. She puts his sword back to the sheath, pulls out the stunning arrow from his back and helps him walk, wrapping his right hand around her shoulder.

-”Nir… You have 941 hearts!” - She acknowledges.

-”That’s… Possibly 941 years… I can barely comprehend…” - Nir replies.

They exit through the main entrance as Grandpa suggested.

-”Is the underground tunnel vertical to the main path we always take to get to the market?”

-”Your observation ability is impeccable, Rain”. - Grandpa compliments her. “As for your question about a healing skill… I’ll explain in detail my understanding:

As long as I live in this body - if I get hurt - I’m realistically finished. Most of my skills will therefore manifest to be offensive or defensive, or will have to do with surviving alone, since this is how I lived.

Healing would not be useful or punctual to me in such a delicate body. It will already be too late for me if I can’t block or dodge even one hit. But now that I’m with you… It’s not impossible for me to manifest such a skill since it can now become relevant.

I can’t promise skills will manifest in the way you imagine necessarily, but they will be manifesting in a way or an order that befits you”. - Grandpa explains as they are walking.

-”That is good to know”. - Rain answers.

-”Grandpa…” - Nir turns to him. “Were you watching the entire time?”

-”Yes. When you want to hear my review of the battle, let me know”.

-”We have a few minutes before we arrive”. - Says Rain. “You can lecture us in the meantime”.

-”I shall do that then”. - He says. “I disappeared in order to surprise him later, fearing if I told you about it - he would hear me. It’s not impossible he noticed me on his own, but did you notice how your actions revealed information to him? In all likelihood, he knew there’s another person with you the moment you looked back in surprise when he asked you about the two of you alone.

Later, when you lied to him about the empress, he probably assumed the third person who is awaiting a good chance to strike - is very strong, but not as strong as the empress, since as he realized very quickly - the empress would go for him immediately. He knew you were trying to throw him off, but instead you gave him an assessment of my power. On the other hand it’s not like you knew what to expect from me either… You didn’t really give him too much to go about”.

-”Wow… I didn’t realize how delicate every reaction can be…” - Says Rain.

-”Did he lead us to the tunnel so the old lady wouldn’t get dragged into it?” - Nir asks.

-”Quite possibly. It wouldn’t surprise me if he rather not hurt people when it’s not necessary, but he did run back there, gaining the element of surprise, possibly preparing to use her as a hostage if the situation deemed it advantageous to him”.

-”So much for caring for them…” - Says Nir.

-”As he got you Nir, your duo suffered heavily, that’s why I showed up. When he saw my hearts, he couldn’t resist going for me. Rain, you noticed he was more resistant to your stunning arrows, right?”

-”Resistant, but not immune”. - She replies.

-”Correct. You instinctively tried to apply more hearts to your attack… And you were successful. Apparently, you are not limited to just one heart. Nir, following her arrow you used a hundred hearts - beheading him. Both of you realized you’re capable of this - one after the other”.

-”That’s… Definitely good to know…” - Nir admits.

-”One last thing…” - Says Grandpa. “Before Rain shot the charged arrow that stunned him and broke his defenses - she hit you, as he used you like a physical shield. Did that arrow stun you?”

Rain looks down, seemingly sad to hear that.

-”It didn’t. I think she can decide the outcome”.

-”Really?” - Rain asks, hopeful she didn’t cause any harm to him.

-”Knowing your arrows can stun to avoid dealing damage, it wouldn’t surprise me if they can avoid applying the effect that replaces the damage as well. If anything, it’s much more surprising to have stunning arrows to begin with”. - Grandpa says.

-”Thank you for everything Grandpa”. - Rain tells him.

-”Rain… You have only 1 heart left…” - He replies.

-”What?!” - Nir says in surprise, as he didn’t notice until Grandpa mentioned it.

-”Yea… We… Will have to do something about it…” - She says, pinching his cheek and smiling at him. He smiles back at her as they reach the castle’s entrance and walk inside.

The empress is sitting on the throne. Ranmei stands next to her.

-”Rain, Nir! What happened?!” - She asks, seeing Nir’s condition and amount of hearts.

Then, she notices Rain’s last remaining heart.

“Rain… I told you I’m counting on you for the next mission… What in the world is going on? Who is that baby? I doubt you managed to give birth in the time you were out”.

The empress suddenly notices Grandpa’s stats.

-”I will explain, Rain. But first, if you have a healer - please attend to Nir’s injuries”. - Grandpa says.

The empress gets off her chair and walks towards them. Nir sits down next to Rain, needing her help to do so, still leaning on her.

The empress bends down to Nir, putting her right hand on his cheek, cleaning some dirt from below his eye with her thumb. She puts her left hand on his injured arm and she heals him with a shining, somewhat visible green light that reminds of the blueish shield. Her eyes glow in a shiny green shade.

His hand is fully healed shortly after.

-”Wow! I feel so much better!” - Nir announces.

-”That’s great!” - Rain replies.

-”That wasn’t cheap…” - Grandpa tells the empress. “But you seem to be able to afford that”.

-”You can actually see it…” - Says the empress.

-”Only a few have the skill to hide hearts, but we are able to see each other’s”. - Grandpa replies.

-”So… What in the world is going on?” - The empress asks.

Grandpa tells her his entire story, as well as everything that happened since he met Nir and Rain for the first time.

-”I… I can’t believe this…” - The empress replies in shock.

-”I only know I should have a sister named Samantha inside the empire”. - He adds.

-”This is… How can this be?” - The empress is struggling to comprehend the situation.

-”Are you… Okay?” - Grandpa asks the empress.

-”Tell me…” - The empress says. “What is your name?”

-”Throughout the years I was given so many names. Nir and Rain call me ‘Grandpa’, which is a way we decided to reference my actual age. I only spent a few years with each of the other names. I didn’t even spend too many years with my birth name…”

-”What was your birth name?” - The empress insists on knowing.

-”It was… Richard. It’s been so long since I heard that name… Even if I’m just hearing myself saying it…”

The empress freezes completely.

A few seconds of quiet go by. Then, the empress speaks: “My name… Is Samantha Empera, daughter of Will Empera - the former emperor. Before he died, he told me I have an older half brother named Richard”.

-”WHAT?!” - Nir and Rain yell together.

-”You are… Samantha?” - Grandpa asks with eyes full of hope.

-”I am”. - She replies. “And you are Richard Empera, my older half-brother, heir to the throne”.