Companionship

Alden and company did not have the time to bask in the magnificent beast that had just been summoned as a new wave of orcs came upon them. The amount of time that the orcs were coming upon them was decreasing but the number of the orcs approaching was doing the total opposite and was drastically increasing.

Soon they had no time to focus and were occupied with fighting and even the powerful tiger that was controlled by Lily was not helping to decrease the numbers.

"What on earth is happening!? Why are there so many orcs appearing?" Justin, who was one of the strikers shouted as he blasted spells from within the formation.

"No idea! Just keep fighting!" Lyle shouted back, his voice still sounding playful. Lyle was a wielder and he used twin daggers which had their attacks enhanced by a lightning attribute.

Suddenly a bull orc general finally managed to break through their formation splitting the group apart. Alden found himself alone, in between the masses of orcs that surrounded him.

The bull orcs surrounded Alden from all directions and he brought his puppet close to him to defend him.

Alden found himself getting further and further away from his party.

Alden spotted Arnu in the distance, Arnu was skillfully fighting puppets, dropping them as he fought. Even though he was D-grade, his skills were enough to win against the C-grade bull orc. Alden's skills with puppetry were the same, although he was a D-grade puppeteer, he could easily dispose of C-grade bull orc.

Nevertheless, Alden decided he had to get closer to Arnu. Alden managed to get closer using his puppet. He reached close to Arnu.

Alden directed his puppet to swing its sword at the orc that was about to attack Arnu from his blind spot. Arnu was a melee combatant and the fire attribute he had boosted his attacks.

"Thanks," Arnu shouted to him over the noise.

"No problem," Alden yelled back.

Alden continued controlling his puppets and assisting Arnu.

"Hey!" Arnu shouted out to him.

"What!?" Alden asked him.

"Do you-," Arnu paused as he dodged an orc attack and punched at the orc. He continued after the orc was finished by Alden's puppet. "Do you have parents?"

Alden was surprised by the sudden question but replied anyways, "Yeah, why?"

Arnu ignored Alden's question and instead continued his questioning, "Are they nice?"

"of course," Alden said to him as he willed his puppet to shoot an energy attack on an oncoming bull orc. "now why!?"

Arnu grunted as he fought off an orc, "Because I was curious. How on earth are you in such terrible condition, don't your parents know?"

"Why on earth should I answer that question!?" Alden questioned, his voice full of anger.

"Because my parents would have freaked out if they found me in your position," Arnu said as he used a kick to push away an orc.

"Well, I guess our parents aren't very similar then, huh?" Alden snapped as he willed his puppet to stop an oncoming attack from a bull orc.

Arnu paused when he heard Alden's words. A sad look came over his face and he replied, "Well, your parents are alive aren't they? that's one thing my parents aren't."

Alden's eyes widened when he realized his mistake and he could feel the guilt building up due to his rash comment, "I'm sorry, I didn't know..."

"Don't you worry, " Arnu said continuing to fight.

There was silence between them for a few seconds before Arnu spoke.

"you know, my parents were scientists. They were working on something super secret concerning Ranger's abilities and because of that, they were assassinated. Because of their occupation..." Arnu paused to land a low kick at an orc's legs before smashing his fist into its chin. "They have left us quite a bit of cash. The thing is, none of us ever knew about our parents up until now and Lily still doesn't know. We, brothers, intend to use the cash to establish a guild so we can try and limit the amount of dungeon work Lily does. Lily is a rare talent and thus if she joins another guild she will be going on many dangerous missions. Additionally, we might not be able to accompany and protect her."

"Why are you telling me this?" Alden asked Arnu.

"Because," Arnu said as he helped dispose of an orc. "My vision goes beyond just protecting my sister or any of my brothers. I intend to find out what my parents were working on and find their killers. They were working on something super secret and it's something that can benefit both me and you."

"But, why me?" Alden asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"Because you know weakness. Weakness is scary, it means you lack the strength to protect yourself and those around you and when the strong try to hurt those close to you, you can do nothing." Arnu said to Alden. "That is why, I want you to join me

Weakness, nobody understood it better than Alden. He had experienced weakness in so many different realms and he hated the feeling. Hopelessness and desperation, meaningless hope. All of these things came with being weak. Alden resented nothing more.

Alden glanced at Arnu, a strange emotion in his eye. It seemed like the wall that Alden had built to keep out others, in that impregnable wall, a thin crack had just appeared.