Chapter 113
Raina hastily put her mask back on blushing furiously She was secretly quite pleased but underneath that was a thick layer of shame Her face as it was now Without this mask
Without saying anything to the man Raina gathered her stuff and hurried down the hill
At least tell me your name beautiful
Whereas she was previously slightly overwhelmed by a strange fluttering in her heart by the strange man now a hard wedge of annoyance drove down and she straightened her back and strode away
You aren’t getting anything with that entitled attitude that was for sure ’ Raina thought to herself
Then she spoke aloud forcing every ounce of her willpower into her words Stay away from me
Her voice was low but the air rang with the imperative in her words Satisfied she returned to the village Perhaps she really should get a class at this rate She had gotten lucky with monsters by which she meant that she hadn’t encountered any But this man arriving reminded her that although this place was safer it was not safe
Lower after she walked almost halfway down the hill almost against her will she stopped and turned and looked up expecting
Well she wasn’t sure what to expect But she saw a now distant figure standing stock still looking down towards her His entire body posture radiated sad puppy dog For a moment Raina regretted what she had done but then she buried that sentiment
After all ’ She reasoned If he really wanted to talk to me what’s the harm in making him work a little for it Like I’ve been working to find out where Randidly is ’
With her thoughts turning decidedly frustrated Raina continued back to Donnyton her eyes on her feet
Alana looked around slightly alarmed There was an odd tension in the air and Devan’s eyes were narrowed They were in a strange little clearing next to a small stream The vegetation around them the grass bushes and tree leaves were various shades of blue while the trunks of the tree looked like obsidian
But what was most strange was that surrounding them were around 3 dozen mother fucking human turtle people aiming crossbows at the new arrivals Everyone was very still Alana’s hand twitched as she forcefully repressed an urge to draw her spear This was extremely strange but there was at least another village So perhaps this was a diplomatic mission after all and Kiersty hadn’t been blowing smoke out of her ass
But her hope dwindled as one of the turtle people caught sight of the twitch and a crossbow pivoted slowly to aim at her
Then the rabbit man stepped forward Razor Fleetfoot reporting I have brought back the representatives of our sister village which calls itself Donnyton
Silence was the only response from the crossbow sporting group of turtles Razor’s smile faltered Devan stood quite still seemingly completely at ease but Alana knew from experience with him that he could spring into motion at the drop of the hat activating Aegis to boost the group’s defensive arrangements
Alana began to run through some mental math Assuming they weren’t boosted by access to the system but were simply crossbows Alana was rather confident that she would be able to withstand the volley of arrows Their armor new improved versions provided by the forges of Donnyton would be more than enough to weather this storm
But if they were system improved weapons
Further lowering her spirits one of the turtles the one that appeared to be a leader stepped forward his green leathery hands behind his back Initiate of the 1st Circle Razor Fleetfoot It appears that you have successfully returned from your scouting mission to the sister village Unfortunately
He paused then his balding green head bobbing a little Or rather fortunately when you didn’t return yesterday your grandmother was inconsolable She has insisted on the draft We cannot continue without more individuals with a class If you were to return perhaps her resolve would waiver
Razor just blinked Alana felt ice cold on the inside But But I’m here I came back
The turtle man nodded serenely with quite grievous injuries He snapped his fingers
Six of the crossbows snapped bolts flying forward to lodge themselves in the chest of a shocked Razor He tried to open his mouth to say something but only blood came out dripping and pooling on the ground in front of him After a few seconds of struggle he keeled over sideways silent the entire time toppling in front of a serious eyed Kiersty
Devan took a step forward and several loaded crossbow swiveled to him
This is an internal matter The turtle announced Once he has died you may return to your village or if you insist you may come to ours for discussions Until then do not move
Frowning Devan remained still but someone else moved Kiersty bent down her mouth scrunched up in a tight line Alana felt a thin thread of pity for the child Although the world was now like this it was not an easy thing to get your first taste of death The girl’s head was lowered and Alana felt a pang as she realized she was probably crying
But when Kiersty’s head snapped up there were no tears in those eyes only fire
Don’t hurt Mr Bunny Rabbit She whispered furiously her small fists clenched at her sides Her right fist started to glow a fiery energy growing slowly larger from her palm from whatever she had clutched there It rose and rose becoming almost blindingly bright First one and then a rain of arrows came shooting towards Kiersty and Devan and his squad lurched forward to block them They managed to get in front of most of the arrows but more came
But as those arrows neared her they burnt up to nothing dissolving silently to ash the strange flames around her body producing no heat but were seemingly utterly impenetrable The air seemed to thrum with her fury spreading out in waves
Instead of lashing out with her anger though Kiersty kneeled next to Razor and delicately began to remove the arrows from his chest and torso As she did so small flames licked at his chest closing the wounds Simultaneously the light around her dimmed until when she removed the last arrow from his chest and the light when completely out
Kiersty swayed then collapsed onto Razor’s chest
Razor sat up blinking and then looked uncomprehendingly down at Kiersty Is it bed time again
Devan’s squad slowly drew their weapons and turned to the crossbowmen whose faces were frozen into masks of fear But they were not looking at Devan’s squad or Alana’s new spear which glimmered golden in red
They were looking at a female rabbit person standing with her hands on her hips in between the turtle people and the group of Donnyton Her fur was a soft brown like the bark of a young tree
What The rabbit woman said very slowly delicately hefting a hunk of iron that was about the size of the club that Dozer used with a single hand happened here
Oh sis Razor said cheerily from his spot on the ground He rubbed some of the blood off from around his mouth and continued I brought the delegation from our sister village back And then oh
Randidly sat on the ground waiting for his mana and stamina to regenerate He had considered using this time to work on another Soul Seed but he still hesitated for a few reasons First without notifications it would be hard to keep track of and control the outcome of the Soul Seed He also wouldn’t be aware of how close to being finished it was
In addition Randidly wanted to grind a lot of skills to raise his general battle prowess quickly Well practice a lot of skills The sooner that he got away from the grinding mentality the better So he didn’t want to carefully limit the exposure the seed would have As far as he could tell they had a spiritual connection to him and it wasn’t possible to hide the seed while he was using skills he didn’t want to be a part of it
The third reason was he still had so many questions about Aether When he had asked Lyra yesterday she had simply smiled and Randidly was able to intuit it just wasn’t something she was able to answer He would have to figure it out himself
So as Randidly meditated he turned his perception inward examining the energies that he could distantly feel It was like trying to parse apart threads of spider silk with calloused hands He could see them when they caught the light but anytime he tried to actually put his hands on them they all but disappeared under his fingers It was incredibly frustrating