Unseen Danger

This is not how I thought the trials would go, but seeing that monster right in front of me did not leave much time to reflect on how my plans didn’t go as I wanted them to, right now protecting Space was more important, that’s what I promised big bro. I turned around to see how he was doing and, for better or worse, he was standing still, he must’ve been so frightened his legs were not able to move, as I was turning over to see how Saya was doing, I was able to lock my eyes with the beast for a split second which send shivers down my spine

“You all right?”

Those simple words broke me out of a trance

`` Yeah… yeah” - Although I don’t think I sounded convincing I still managed to muffle that through “ Can you do me a favour? Take Spade and Run, I think you should be able to make it to the village fast enough and give them a warning.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Huh?” - The confusion on my face was definitely visible and I had no idea what she meant
“What's a better display of courage than killing the monster that beat everyone else?” - Although she made it sound like a rhetorical question I wasn’t sure if she was serious, but as soon as she said it the smirk on her face came into my vision I realised she was 100% serious about it.

“ I should be able to do it myself, but It would be nice if you could distract him for a second”

“All right” - Although I agreed to it, leaving all the hard work would really make me feel bad, It’s not like i was incapable of doing anything, but I decided to play along

We didn’t even have time to include 2, as I’m sure he wouldn’t even respond

Saya lunged forward, and with a slight delay so did I, however before I was able to do the same, a vivid blue glow from her hand distracted me

“Hey!”

That’s right there was no time to be distracted, the monster was maybe about 10 meters in front of us and didn’t start moving yet. Both me and Saya started to diverge from each other, which is what I think caused the monster to run into my direction, but that was the original idea.

As I was running forward, the beast started swinging its huge hands at me, first with its right and then with its left, though I dodged them easily, the clear power they carried shook the ground, which dulled my reactions for a split second and before i noticed the jaws of the monster were near my face.

Bam! I got knocked back all the way to a nearby tree, the pain on my forehead clearly brought me back to action, and I was able to see Saya hanging on the back of the monster, trying to choke it out with her glaive, or was it a spear I was not sure myself. I was able to snap a nearby branch from the trunk behind me and rushed towards the beast, and as soon as I did that the monster lunged Saya into the air, and focused solely on her. Thanks to this I was able to close the distance easily and, with full force I hit the beast’s leg, which snapped the twig and made the beast squirm in pain and kneel.

I locked sights with the beast that was now focused on me, but with the corner of my eye i was able to see Saya use a tree behind the monster as a jump boost, as soon as I saw that the blue glint grew brighter and brighter until it passed me, she cut the monster and has landed behind me.

“Too Shallow, one more!”

I didn’t even have time to respond but i knew what I had to do, the beast didn’t hesitate either and it started swinging at me as soon as it realised what was happening, although the hits that were flying towards me were more sluggish compared to the previous ones, they still packed a lot of power. Thanks to the extra time i had i was able to notice the monster was way too cautious about Saya, which wasn’t exactly the best possible thing

Thanks to it being distracted by her, I was able to grab a piece of dirt from the ground, and throw it into the monster’s eyes

“Duck!”

I really didn’t have much time to react, but due to the movement from before I was able to slide under the beast’s legs

The blue light went through the beast almost instantly and struck the tree behind it, the monster fell in front of me and although I was happy we won, it really did not feel like a victory to me.

“We did it!” - I heard Saya say enthusiastically

Though I was not able to say the same, without her I doubt I would be able to win.

“Yeah, we did…”

Both of us fell silent for a while, looking at the bright sky really made the time feel slower than it was,

“All right let’s go, people must be worrying”

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Well I was right, stopping at this village was the right thing to do, the fight was definitely worth my stay, though it really didn’t help me discover anything, it was a nice warmup and check for my skills for later

Spade was still standing in the same spot after we killed the monster, as Alvare Approached him, both of them started to have shaky legs, after which Spade burst into tears:

“I’m Sorry… I’m Sorry!” - with tears running down his face it should’ve been hard making out what he was saying but thanks to the loud tone of his voice, it was incredibly clear “ I promis.. promised you and brother and yet!”

“We didn’t expect you to deal with that, you stayed calm, you didn’t run, be proud of yourself, not many people could do the same, I’m sure big bro would say the same.”

Though I didn’t know the situation,the impact of the encounter with the monster was not as simple as a life-of-death situation. I didn’t interrupt them and decided to start cleaning up the mess instead. 3 seemed to be missing his arm, it must’ve been eaten by the monster before we even came, and although the rest of people were alive they were all pretty beat up, at least I think they would be disqualified for being unable to continue the trials.

The first person i came to help was Shen, and after extending my hand to him the only response i received was an angry gaze

“I get it, we’re worse, he ‘won’ all right, I don’t need any more humiliation than this” - he said as he painfully got up from the floor, which was obvious by the noises he made

as he started to get away “I’ll help getting people back so just go with Alvare to the village to notify the rest”

“Thanks, you’re not that bad of a guy”, as I said that he turned around and waved his hand and started walking away to help other members.

I came up to Alvare and Spade and both of them were relatively calmer, especially the little guy, though I think Alva might’ve been more nervous about Spade rather than himself or the situation itself, regardless of that I told them what Shen said:

“Hey let’s get a move on, let’s go notify the village as fast as possible they have this covered”

“ Shouldn’t helping the people be our priority? We should take them with us to the village” - said Spade with both curiosity and with a slight hint of anger

“Go to the village as fast as possible, I’ll stay with Spade and we’ll keep check whether there are any other monsters around”

I honestly didn’t mind leaving the area and coming back with people from the village, it made sense in my mind, but I understood where Alvare was coming from, so I thought having a bit of a compromise was the best way, and so I continued my explanation:

“I’m not sure how they’re gonna react to me sending the message, so it would be better if one of you two was the one to send it, and I think you’re clearly more suited for it, don’t worry I’ll keep the people safe even if it costs me my life”

With a bit of hesitation and sadness in his voice, he just said thanks and rushed to the village.

“So hey, are you and Alvare related?”

“Huh?” - I think he didn’t expect me to strike up a conversation after all that happened, but curiosity got the better of me - “It’s a bit complicated, I had a big brother, who Alva looked up to, and since the village is pretty small, we were all basically like family.

I didn’t respond, “Had” was enough for me to stop digging deeper into this, I could guess what happen, so instead i thought I would delve more into something else

“Was Alvare always so set on winning the trials?”

“He was always pretty competitive about it, but only become very serious maybe around 3 trials ago”

I see, so that’s when it happened

“What about you?” - I thought shifting topic

“Me?” - He sounded surprised I was even remotely interested in him, maybe he thought him not doing much in the fight against the monster made me dislike him, or something- “ Same as Alva and my big bro, all of us wanted to get rid of the sword”

“I see”

Before I even was able to ask the next question, I already saw more people in the distance, and I saw Alvare waving at us. From this point onward nothing much has happened, we went back to the village, and although the trials didn’t go as planned, they still had to finish.

I was able to see most of the people getting treated to by the rest of the villagers, and another band of people were preparing some sort of ceremony, with some ceremonial robes, that were colored bage, and a couple, maybe 3-4, fireplaces

around it, I was only observing from the sides, but I saw 2 in front of some sort of altar, after which he proceeded to kneel and got handed a weapon that was covered in bandages, honestly for such a important ritual it felt very rushed, but maybe that’s how it always was, before long Alvare walked up to me:

“Hey, thank you for all the help, the village leader said you can stay as long as you want”

“Thanks, but i think i’ll be departing probably tomorrow”

"I See, you're going to Mea town right?"

"Yeah, it's only a stop though, I need to use the train to get to Lusqe on time"

"What are you going there for?"

"Going to make some money, got recruited by someone high up for some kinda job"

"I see…"

Seems like he wasn't sure what to say just now, the awkward silence would have continued if I didn't break it

"Hey so about earlier, is the offer still active?"

"Huh?" - said Alvare with genuine confusion

"You know, you were saying you wanted to go to Mea too, wanna go together?”

After he started looking at me I thought I might’ve said something weird, but honestly I felt like I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, with the nighttime falling, the fire was more vivid, as the sounds of wood getting burnt became louder, with sparks flying around I could hear a faint

“Yes”