Our Party

Aelius complimented me five times today. I’m so happy! I want to tell him how I feel, how I want to hold his hand!

tack tack tack tack

Five. Eleven. Eighteen in total.

tack

I dedicate this moment to the one I love...

Woosh

Aelius… I love, love, Love, LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

clang! 

slice!

Multiple shrieks pierce through the air… and then some… then none.

---

Under the pale moonlight, a bloody figure danced around a disarray of metal, flesh, and blood.

She held a decapitated head in her metal claws. Under the helmet, its face is frozen in terror and disbelief.

shuffle

She looked behind her, still clutching the head by the horns with her left hand.

“Hm hm, so you’re still alive?”

She fixed her gaze on the lone survivor, his lower body a mess of entrails.

His armor has been torn to shreds, exposing his gray skin. He’s dragging himself along – dagger in hand, as he crawled ever so slowly on the ground. His guts spill out as he moved forward.

Demons are notoriously fast regenerators, but there’s no coming back from this one.

He won’t even last another hour, yet he struggles to get away.

“M-must tell… t-the… others…”

tack tack tack

She stood in front of the dying demon. She took one last look at the decapitated head, held it in front of him, before throwing it away.

She then sat down. 

“Y-you… monst..er!” He tried to swipe at her neck with his dagger, to no avail. She didn't even flinch.

“Do you think Aelius would be happy with me?”

“Wh…what are… you talki- AGHHHH!”

She slowly traced on the demon’s back with her claws, sinking deeper and deeper.

She smiled. “I think so too!”

“AGGHH! aghh…u…ugh-“

Silence filled the air once more.

The figure faded into the darkness as she walked away from the scene.

---

Smoke rose at the base of a mountain.

clang!

“Mr. Head Knight! Support Mercedes from the left! They’re flanking us!”

“On it! Nature’s Bind!” Head Knight Grayson swiped at the left.

Thick lianas erupted from the ground, immobilizing multiple orcs that were about to flank Mercedes. So he can cast without chanting as well. Not bad.

Two days had passed since we left the Nevia continent.

The Miele continent, home to several races such as dwarves and elves. As we head north, the forests became denser and denser that we’ve had to take a detour.

The route to the next continent goes around the sides of the mountain ranges. We should have arrived at a dwarven city by now.

That is, until we happened upon an Orc encampment at the base of the mountain path.

A recon unit consisting of 50 or so orcs have built an encampment blocking the way.

Toshikasu had already set up a huge barrier around the orcs. His team will deal with any stragglers trying to escape.

As for my team, I have already reduced a couple of orcs to ashes with Flame Storm as the first strike. Now I am assuming role as strategist.

Mercedes and Head Knight Grayson take the brunt of the orcs’ attacks. Mercedes flipped her spear up in the air.

“Encase them all in permafrost! Frozen Tundra!!” She slammed the 6-foot weapon into the ground.

Ice spread out from the epicenter, freezing the already immobilized orcs.

Nadia and Aidan flanked the remaining orcs, each running to one side.

“Dash!!” 

Nadia unsheathed her katana and quickly dashed, slicing through the ones on the right, top halves clean off.

A huge arrow bolt hits the center of the formation of the orcs, mowing down a lot of orcs. It then disappeared. “Ha. They did not expect that”

Aidan continued to shoot at the left flank of the orcs’ formation – or rather, the remaining orcs who are now backed into a corner.

Shaun finished chanting his spells. The single target spells turned into AoE’s.

“Mana Recovery”

A burst of Mana surged into everyone, including the orcs.

“Mana Burst!”

‘H-hey! Wait! Don’t hit us!!” Nadia braces for impact. 

So does everyone else. Relax everyone, it is not going to hit us.

The remaining orcs fell down. Nothing happened to our team. See? I was right. Though I probably should have told them instead of just thinking about it.

The barrier surrounding the encampment started to dissipate.

Toshikasu appeared in front of us. The others fanned out earlier to check for scouts.

“That was pretty good! A+ to teamwork!”

“Yayy!!” Nadia high-fived Toshikasu.

What happened was certainly within expectations considering we have no fighting experience as a whole. Owing to the mishap last time, a few hours earlier we discussed our roles, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

Mercedes wiped the frozen blood on her spear. As she said, she’s a tanker equipped with some decent offensive and control capabilities. She has a high affinity for Water, and specializes in ice-attribute spells.

She came from a noble family in Sol. Her family’s insignia, a faceted star is visible on the shoulder blades of her armor, near the middle where the blade and shaft meets on her spear, and on the middle of her shield.

Her equipment is not Heroic-grade material but it definitely outclasses anything else within the bracket.

Her custom-made full plate armor is made from a combination of silver and certain alloys. This makes her armor suitable in taking any form of attack, from both Magic and Martial arts. That being said, certain armors that specialize in a single field do perform better in their areas.

The shield belonged to one of the past heroes though. It has been refitted to suit Mercedes but it still offers top-tier protection against attacks. It is able to generate a field that has the same durability as the shield itself in a small area around her.

Her spear- 6 feet of icy destruction, is a custom-made spear that houses the family’s heirloom. It is a gem that further enhances Mercedes’ affinity for Water. As long as it is used to channel Water element magic, the spear should allow her to cast spells indefinitely.

I looked at the twins. Both had a history on the outskirts of Sol. They were rescued by the kingdom’s soldiers as their village was razed by demons. They grew up under a family affiliated with Mercedes’ noble family.

Nadia’s katana was from one of the 9 katanas used by a hero from the past. It limits the user to the low-ranked Martial Art “Dash”. But it amplifies that to extremes. It was the very blade that the hero of the past used to kill one of the past demon lords- one that was known for being super-fast.

She does not seem to be able to use it to its full potential though. The higher speeds produced by wielding the blade may prove too much for her body to take. But her swordsmanship is on par with the best of the best of the kingdom,, which is why she was chosen for this mission alongside Aidan.

Her armor also has the faceted star insignia on it. Also made with the intention of handling sudden bursts of speed, it seems to offer little protection to anything else.

The massive arrow bolt in the center of the encampment started to disappear.

Aidan’s crossbow was one of the contraptions made by the same heroine who made the dual wield L-shaped weapons back at the Royal Treasury.

An early design involving a revolving barrel at the middle, it had the enchantment which was lost on the final contraptions. The enchantment which allows it to shoot the arrow bolts without reloading or loading. It comes at the cost of the user’s mana though.

Aidan has an average affinity for the four basic elements of Magic. While his older twin was excellent in swordsmanship, he was an excellent marksman.

For his armor, the same faceted star insignia. It is a mix of light and heavy armor, with metal shoulder and arm guards on his left and leather on the right.

“Alright everyone! Let’s get out of this place” Toshikasu ordered everyone to leave.

Hannah started incinerating any evidence of our involvement with this place.

“Hey Al, what are you staring for? We’re moving out.” Head Knight Grayson tapped me on the shoulder.

Ah. I snap out of it - I was dwelling on that stuff for too long. 

I leave the blazing inferno behind me. There would be nothing left of this place in minutes. The flames are overkill, but it is best not to leave any evidence of our presence here.

If the demons realize that the kingdom’s greatest warriors are away from the capitals, they’ll waste no time invading Luna and Sol. They would also be able to prepare for our otherwise sudden arrival at their very gates.

Wait, I am spacing out again. Time to go.

Everyone loaded up on the carriages. The road we are on is a mountain path to Durahl, a dwarven city. We need to stock on supplies there.

“Aeli- ah. Al, let’s ride together this time.” Iris walked side by side with me.

Every stop, we all switch places so that everyone can socialize with each other. This time it is just me and Iris on the fifth carriage. And Elizabeth.

“Alright.” I smiled at her. 

She smiled as well. She’s visibly blushing, but she made no effort to hide it.

---

Multitudes of dead bodies littered the landscape. Explosion craters are visible at almost every corner.

Vultures land and feed on corpses of demons and humans alike. Weapons are strewn across the battlefield, from small arms to heavy artillery.

The place used to be a vast grassland with a few trees and wildlife.

Now it's more like a barren desert, not a single green in sight.

A shadow loomed over the place.

The birds- suddenly alarmed, take to the skies.

A Greater Dragon landed in the middle of the area. Two figures went down and inspected the battlefield.

“That was quite the surprise~” Loralei looked to the east. 

The human army is already long gone, withdrawn from the area.

“They fought with us for a couple of hours, then they just… left”

The other one removed her hood. There are no horns on her head. However, unlike Loralei, her skin is gray.

She looked at a broken trebuchet. Huge, capable of hurling heavy objects at high speeds over long distances. An ode to the destructive capability of humans- that is before the otherworlders brought a change in the world order. Now it’s just a big piece of scrap wood.

“They caught us by surprise, and we even had to fall back. This would have been a good chance to retake one of their castles. Maybe they had a different objective.”

Loralei stepped on a demon corpse. Her feet go straight through the armor into the ground.

“You don’t mean…no you’re right”

To the west, the demon army regroups and marches forward once more.

“Evelyn, wear your hood. Let’s go.” Loralei pulled Evelyn’s hood over her head.

“Wait, sister. Let’s head there” Evelyn pointed north to the mountains. 

Loralei looked at it for a moment.

“Alright, let’s go and investigate~”

The two climbed on the dragon, and with a roar it takes to the skies.