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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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(Chapter 15)

Part V

I The main attraction/1st Round of the tournament

This is what the board looked like for the first round

Draxsons first match

My first match of the tournament was against a woman who looked like she was in her early 20s; her skin was an intricate pattern of deep blue scales covering her arms and the few other visible parts of her, like her hands and neck, her face was only different in the way that her face wasn't covered in scales like the rest of her visible body sported. Still, her skin was the same Deep sea blue of her scales, and she had long, droopy ears that ended at a rounded point. She carried a short bow in her left hand, and with her right, she reached for an arrow to notch her bow. When the signal was given, she snatched an arrow and lined it on the string of her bow, and to finish the motion, she drew the string of her bow to its maximum stretch before she shot an arrow my way; I tried dodging to the left, but before I could move more than an inch her arrow traveled the 10 or so meters between in an instant burying itself in my arm, right below the shoulder, my arm screamed back at me from the wound the arrow had caused; I nearly went blind to my opponent's actions as I focused on the damage her arrow had done to my arm, I was helpfully reminded of the current threat as the arrow bearly swooshed past my head, and I dropped to the floor in a roll. The fight continued like this for another 3 minutes, and I thought, "If it continues like this for much longer, I'll be sporting enough arrows that I'll look like a human-shaped pin cushion."

I had five arrows stuck in my body, 1 in each arm 2, in my left leg, and one buried in my right shoulder; the wounds weren't bleeding that bad but still hurt when they flew at me from my opponent Sojah Koi's short bow with incredible speeds. I was finally Fed up with this dance of dodging an arrow and my fire bolts being snuffed out by splashes of water that Sojah derived from the large floating bubbles of water she summoned early into the fight to combat my flames.

I needed to end this fight desperately, so I flicked back a wave of fire directly in front of me to slow the arrow down, allowing me to catch it spinning around until it was pointed at Sojah. I tossed it at her leading foot, which she used when changing positions as I attempted to Rush her. I summoned a wall of flames to conceal my movement as I sprinted behind Sojah Koi, using my dark jacket to blend in with the smoke that enveloped Sojah. Sojah didn't seem troubled by my actions as she calmly directed 2 of the three water bubbles to smother my flames. I gritted my teeth as I watched her turn her head with a relaxed composure like this was nothing to her. I was angered by this blatant lack of interest in taking me seriously; I know I'm not that important, but I would have felt a lot better if I was treated like an actual threat…" without fully paying attention to what my rage was making me do, I realized That I had charged headlong enveloped in flames and I tackled Sojah not even caring about the arrows she launched that found their way into my leather jacket and deeply pierced the skin of my chest; when I looked into her eyes as we were flying off the stage due to my tackle, and I saw genuine fear in her eyes as the water that surrounded her and her scales where being deprived of moisture thanks to the flames that carried me and by extension her off the stage a few feet of the ground. Before we both fell, I dropped Sojah and ripped out the arrow she stuck in me to hold on to in a futile attempt to switch the tables on me.

But she fell at the 5 feet we were from the ground and landed on her back, while I landed in a crouch before standing up and ripping another arrow from my chest, holding it above my head in my right hand as I smiled in joy at my victory. And that was how I concluded my fight with a stronger opponent with sheer tenacity and grit.

As I was thinking over how brutal that fight had been, my victory announcement was repeated since I was in a daze. Shelltri announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, beast kin and humanoids alike, we have a winner for the first fight of bracket A, and our winner Is Draxson ChoasWing. The spectators and onlooking contestants cheered and shouted my name. From behind me, I heard dirt being disturbed as Sojah picked herself off the floor, turned around, and watched her dust herself off as I approached, offering her my outstretched hand to acknowledge her efforts. Sojah Koi took my hand, and we exchanged formal acknowledgments.

"That was a good match, Sojah Koi. I was afraid our match was going to be boring, but you're really good with that short bow of yours; you even got past my scales,” I said, revealing a hole where an arrow pierced my scaled chest. “ I admit, I sorta went overboard at the end because you were worrying me that you weren't interested in this fight at all; I think if I didn't end the fight as I did, you would have certainly won that battle,” I said, giving a chuckle and smiling as I looked up at my nearly half-a-head taller opponent while shaking her hand before we both drew our hands back at the generally accepted interval. Sojah Koi, in turn, responded to me, smiling back at me, and in her eyes, I could see she was examining my wounds with remorseful eyes. “Yeah, you really gave me a hard time, I was scared out of my mind when you summoned those flames; I tried to hide it the best I could in hopes that you'd let up and lose motivation, and I was planning to use that opportunity to force you off the stage with well-placed arrows that would barely graze you delivering the final nudge off the stage. I'm really sorry I didn't mean to hurt you so badly, My training and my people have nurtured me to retain a stoic composure and show no mercy to an opponent until they surrender or otherwise are defeated without killing them.” Sojah said with apologetic tones in her voice as she offered an apology.

“Sorry for all that, Draxson, I'm glad you came out mostly unharmed, and congratulations on winning the fight,” she raised her short bow in her left hand. and stretched it out to me as she said, “Promise me you'll do your best to represent and honor the archers of the world and the sacred art of Archery.” she said as I took my bow from my back and we tapped out bows together observing the timeless tradition of archers. We each took a tiny fiber of our bows and traded them, placing them in between the bow’s fibers. She also placed a hand to steady my bow as she put her bow on her belt. She then, with a small knife, carved her name into the column of archers I’ve bested in my brief time practicing the art of archery. With her marking, she brought my tally to two victories. The two names on my bow already were Sopheia and now “Sojah Koi”; Sojah’s engraving had a deep blue water majic glow to it, making it unique from Sopheia’s engraving, which had wispy tendrils of Frost radiating from it. We said our farewells, and Sojah walked to where the non-contestants watched the fights. I went searching for Phantom to ask her to recount the parts of Sopheia's fight that I missed and watch her fight's ending.

Sopheia’s First Match

Sophias first fight was later recounted to me by Phaz and goes like this :

Sopheia stepped onto the stage with a determined smile, standing with a strong

foothold.

Sopheia's first round was against the same fighter she collaborated with in her qualifiers match. I think her name was Doff Halt, from what I remember. Sopheia started her fight finding good perchance in the ground, her left foot forward stretched and her right leg bent at a 45 degree angle, all while holding her sword over her right shoulder,blade pointing at her adversary on the otherside of the stage. Her opponent Doff, stood with her hand on the hilt of the majic blade she wore on her hip. Doff, if I forgot to mention or didn't mention because I was focused on Sopheia the entire time of her qualifiers; Doff looked like a fox Beast kin but with the face of a cat. Both Sopheia and Doff waited on each other to make the first move, but not wanting to wait any further Sopheia charged, running low to the ground like a cat, her tail swishing in the air as she ran with her sword in her right hand and she prepared herself for a roll. She started the movement by swinging her sword diagonally being met with a thin light extending about a Meter from the sword that Doff swung in front of her to stop Sopheia's attack. Sopheia stepped to the left to get out of the range of her adversary, before lightly tossing her sword causing it to slide about a Meter to her left. Her sword preceded her as she tucked her arms to her body and rolled to the left, and in one motion she grabbed the sword with her left as she came out of her roll swinging her sword, Turing it so the blades side would hit her opponents neck as she swung her sword, aiming for Doff's neck. Sophiea whacked Doff in the back of neck, the side of her blade hitting her in between the shoulder blades knocking Doff to the ground.

When Doff hit the ground, she turned herself around to swing her sword at Sopheia, that faint blue line meeting Sopheia's oncoming blade long before Doffs sword would be able to defend Doff got up from the ground into a crouch before she swung her sword again that line that at first only looked like it reached a few inches from the blade now looked like it reached about a foot past her blade with the same direction and speed of her sword. Sopheia defended against Doff with the die of her blade. The majic extension blade made a high-pitched ring upon contact with Sopheia's metal sword. Doff rose from a crouch swinging her sword at Sopheia at a greater distance than her blade would enable, but the thin blade shaped conjugation that mimicked the actions of the host blade made ot easy to swing her blade at Sopheia and keep her on the defensive while Doff herself Was unreachable by normal means. As the fight raged on blue tendrils of majic escaped from Doff's Armour, she was wearing a breastplate that coverd to mid stomach, along with some sectioned metal plates shaped like a skirt that reached from halfway up her lower torso to 3 quarters of the way down her thighs that clanked together and when they hit her belt holding up her thick loosely form fitting pants she wore under her armored skirt. Doff also wore metal plates under her knee covering her boots along with thin and small metal pieces on the edge supposedly for a stronger kick. The reason what she was wearing was important was because sections of her Armour were losing their color with long and cross hatched blue lines spread across all her Armour except her boots and the bottom of her leg Armour. I guess that was the cost of the majic extension of her blade. I wasn't the only one that noticed this because the next thing Sopheia did was charge Doff, dragging her blade an inch off the ground behind her poised to deliver a heavy blow. And that's what Sopheia did

next, her tail swishing in broad strokes as she raised her blade from her tight side to above her head and finishing the attack by slashing horizontally across Doff's chest plate with a loud clang leaving a massive line of ice blue, one of the signs of Frost majic. The frost spread spread rapidly across the chest plate and numbing Doff's shoulders leaving her unable to properly swing her blade, slashing out at Sopheia’s legs but barely catching on the fabric, tearing away only a small portion of Sopheia's khaki shorts. The cut was only the width of her tail. Doff's fading blade extension barely scratching the thick swatch of fur protruding from her shorts all the way to mid thigh leaving a shallow knick on her pale skin on the lower portion of her thigh. With a decisive blow Sopheia knocked Doff Halt off the stage with a forward thrust of her sword, that cut shallowly into Doffs chest plate. As she fell off the stage she tried and regained her balance keeping herself on the stage only a mere inch from falling and being eliminated. Sopheia dove into a crouch and swiped at Doff's legs, giving the last nudge she needed to eliminate her opponent from the playing field. With that Sopheia won, with Doff hitting the ground on her back. Halpalin's voice boomed announcing the victor of the round. "AND the winner is…Sopheia Ne-Ko" " now that signals the end of the first round."

This is what the board looked like after the first match of round 1

Match 2A of tournament round one

Fennib Flynn swiftly took down her opponent, well more like her opponent was swiftly worn down-her was opponent Sof Halt -Doff’s sister-Whom Fennib covered in spirit arrows all going in separate directions, binding Sof to where she stood. Sof stuck, though she tried as she might, was unable to move from where she was bound, Sof Halt surrendered the match to Fennib. With that the match on the left side of the stage was announced over as the excited crowd cheered for the splendid display of skill.

Match 2B

The crowd settled down from the exciting fight on the left stage while Phaz and her opponent Rwarg studied each other, walking in circles. When the crowd was calm again, they intently watched Phaz and Rwarg, a large bear beast man with tight-fitting robes of a fist fighter and the signature long baggy pants and wool slippers with a headband wrapped around his forehead and his wrists the two circled the stage continuing to study each other before any of them made a move at their opponent. I watched Phaz circle around the stage with the bear beast like they were engaged in some strange dance, trying to get into each other's heads and thinking of all the outcomes to decide the best course of action to deal with their opponent. Phaz wasted another precious minute, which she only had six left by now, started gathering her colorful mists from her inner core and began displaying them as she radiated with thin wisps of bright-color shifting lights like gusts of wind.

The breeze of colors flowed around her like she was the center of a storm of iridescent lights as they swirled around her. Suddenly, a full-on tsunami of colorful waves flowed from Phaz and began enveloping her like a blanket of bright liquid, like the fashion in which she transported us a day ago. And behold, she appeared a few steps behind her opponent as a colorful duplicate took her spot and ran towards Rwarg head-on, causing him to charge and meet the duplicate halfway, as Rwarg approached the duplicate, it began to come apart as Phaz crept closely behind her opponent, when Rwarg struck out at the illusionary duplicate the colorful gathering of lights completely dispersed into the atmosphere leaving no trace of the duplicate. When Rwarg noticed that he had been deceived he turned around a moment too late, finding Phaz holding a knife that barely through his fur at his throat.

Rwarg laughed a loud and amused laugh at Phaz’s efforts to get him to submit to her, he abruptly made an end of laughter when his face contorted in a serious expression right before he swiftly caught Phaz’s arm by the wrist and squeezing it tight enough to cause er grip to loosen and ultimately drop the knife she wielded. As Phaz struggled to pull back her arm, even though she had a good stance, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't pry her arm free. In a swift motion Rwarg kicked out his right leg, sweeping Phaz’s legs from underneath her, causing her to stumble to the ground. Phaz struggled to pick herself off where she lay prone on the semi-rough stage surface and before she found any purchase in her disoriented and hurt state with her arm throbbing in pain, Phaz was grabbed by the arm and her whole body was twisted as she was slammed into the ground on her back breaking some of the stone beneath her. She laid on the ground breathless struggling to inhale and exhale as Rwarg prepared to deliver another attack.

Just as she was about to be struck Phaz desperately tried to use her spacial shifting power, but was only able to muster enough to execute a slow and inadequate phase out that barely avoided a crushing stomp aimed at her arm. When Rwarg’s left foot broke through about a half foot into the ground Phaz, in one final attempt to defeat her opponent with the opportunity her narrow dodge had provided, she rolled over on her back and kicked Rwarg in the thigh knocking him back and losing the grip he had on her arm that he previously twisted. This gave Phaz to roll over to her right and finally stand as her opponent rushed her after his swift recovery. “At this rate shes not going to last much longer.” Said Rebekah as we watched the fight unfold, standing a few feet from the edge of the stage as the other onlooking contestants and forefront spectators stood likewise. I though on what Rebekah said and what she said was true. Phaz was losing energy every moment she struggled against her opponent she was already losing the color her body hosted; she was turning a dull grey in some parts of her skin as the color left her with every blow that was dealt to her previously. No longer able to draw upon further color light majic tendrils she used for casting. Phaz expended what seemed to be the last of her energy; if her fur and skin going a pale white and her fur turing jet black was any indicator that she was out of majic.

The last of the majic she used apeared to be a phaze out that allowed her to briefly phase down into the stage a few feet to avoid the rapid punches and broad kicks that her rival was delivering. But once her energy was spent she couldnt move any more and as a mercy was lifted off the stage to be thrown to the edge of the stage. From the way Rwarg smiled and looked upon Phaz as if studying her to deduce what the best way to deal with her was. Rwarg widened is smile and tossed phaz to the edge of the stage, phaz landed with a loud “thump” scratching at the edge of the stage frantically searching for purchase to hold unto. Rwarg stomped the stage in an attempt to lossen phaz’s grip but, Phaz held onto the edge of the platform for dear life. Her hands only came free when Rwarg himself clawed through the stone stage’s surface, he dug his paws under Phaz’s claws and swiftly ripped them up and out of the stage. He picked her up by her left arm with his right, the rest of her body dangling like a doll under Rwarg’s grip.

He brought her left ear to his face and whispered something in her ear, before she was promptly removed from the stage via Rwarg letting her hand go and before she could climb to her feet and run off-Rwarg stomped the ground- which by the substantial force sent her a foot off the ground-Phantom rising in the air her legs tucked under her. Then Rwarg punched out and the shockwave of his strike launched her a couple meters with a backward trajectory for the ground on the outside of the stage. Phaz fell rapidly from the 5 feet the stage was above the ground and the additional foot that Rwarg raised her off the stage. Phaz was mere inches from hitting the ground when a winged bird beast man swooped down from the sky, he had flownf from the crows and in an wing aided arc dive he caught her before she landed face first in the dirt.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Part V Qualifiers

Chapter 14

"Now that everyone is gathered, matches will commence. The first group, Team 1, will face Team A, and the second group, Team D, will face Team 18. Please take your place on the stages left and right respectively by taking the stairs on the platforms left and right of your stage. Group2: Team 2 versus Team C and Group3: Team 4 versus Team D, your matches will proceed upon completion of the first pair of matches of the first round of the Preliminary Qualifiers.

The first team on the right side began their fight, well it would be hard to count what happened as a fight, it was more like a massacre because that elf and his glowing skin partner used some spells that launched Phantom’s brothers off the stage. They landed on the ground 5 feet from the base of the platform. From my mind, I felt Phantom tense up and was upset that her brothers were treated with such disrespect. I looked over to the right stage, where Phantom and Sopheia stood a few meters from the stage with their other waiting competitors. I saw Sopheia place her hand on Phantom's shoulder to console Phantom and stop the violent tendrils of color radiating from Phantom out of seemingly all of her pores and gathering in the air around her like a tornado’s vortex. Shelltri announced the results of the fight on the left stage, declaring the victor's names, TreeLif and Defeata something; I didn't hear them all the way since I was watching the more enthralling match on the other stage.

The dwarves were advancing on their opponents, the one with the great sword on its back rushed the human in chainmail armor and struck him with her short, great hammer; her blow rang across the entire body of spectators with the metal-on-metal strike as an after shockwave ability, the chains of the human male's plate armor detached from its carefully woven structure into thousands of chain pieces sent flying in every direction around him. “Woah, that's very interesting; how in the world did they accomplish that.” I thought to myself, watching a look of terror sweep over the face of the chain-mail, well former chain mail armor wearer. The fantastic display caught the immediate attention of everyone, holding the other competitors and spectators, and even the merchants selling food and drink, captive to see how the fight ends. In a panicked response, the armourless human raised his mace to fight off the stronger female forge Dwarve’s hammer, but her hammer prevailed as she brought it down on the mace's striking edge, and with a loud yelp and flinch of pain, the human dropped the mace to the ground with a loud ��clack” it hit the stone platform’s surface. The now armourless and weaponless human backed up, looking to his ally to find them, also engaged in a fierce battle with the other Dwarf who was swinging her hammer in a frenzy, slowly overpowering her opponents equally as frenzied but sloppy attempts to block her hammer strikes.

The human engaged with the larger dwarf, finding no help from his otherwise engaged ally, backed up in fear from his opponent, and she, with a different side of her hammer, struck him and launched him from the stage further than the previous team, making their display of spells look like nothing compared to the grand flaunt of strength on the dwarves Stage. Moments later the teams remaining adversary was knocked off the stage and the match was concluded when the other human hit the ground on their rear. The announcer's voice immediately boomed over the crowd as the dwarves held a celebratory pose by raising their hammers, holding them high above their heads. “The second match of round one of the qualifiers concludes with that splendid display of teamwork and might; your winners are Merc Trath and Swarf Blite.

The rest of the qualifiers mostly lacked such spectacle and ended nearly as quickly as the precedent set by that first round of qualifiers, but there were a few interesting fights, so I’m going to recount the entertaining ones.

Phantom’s fight was against two heavy-plated sheep beast men, and her partner was also a thick and unruly fur and heavy, sheep beast-kin in gleaming set of metal plates. I didn't mention it, but it was getting hot that afternoon, and those sheep beast men, and maybe they might have been sheep beast women or a mix of both; it was hard to tell when they all had that massive coat of fur obscuring their physical structure. Their faces all looked the exact same, just like a herd of sheep would, and forget what I said about the rest of the fights being boring because they all were except for this one. Phantom fight with the sheep beast-kin was the most hilarious fight I have,to date ever witnessed, her opponents and even her ally bleated, just like a sheep would, and I guess thats pronounced their Speach? Or whatever you would call it, but anyway, they sounded remorseful that they had to fight each other. And just when I thought it couldn't get any more out of hand from the base of the stage, there were another four sheep, standing there bleating their support, grief, or whatever they were doing; whatever it was, they were disrupting the fight so much, that after a minute of trying to let it die out on its own Shelltri, the announcer and host had to step on to the stage and had to politely ask for the sheep at the base of the stage and the competing members that were on the stage to please stop their disruptive behavior or they could face disqualification because of their outside interference or refusal to fight.

Unsurprisingly to me but unexpected to the rest of the crowd, Phantom rushed her two idle Opponents alone, took advantage of their immobility, and knocked one of them down. She had to drag them off the stage after an attempt to take off their armor was unfruitful. Phantoms, other opponent was absent-mindedly standing in the same fashion on his knees after Phantom knocked them down. Thrn finally one of the sheep beast-kin made a move against Phantom. The first one to make it to Phantom was her ally, who placed a hand on her shoulder as Phantom was trying (and struggling greatly) to drag a sheep that potentially weighed over 200 pounds on her own to the end of the platform. Phantom barked something back to her ally, probably a warning to back up or help her, but no matter what her command was, her sheep beast-kin ally backed away from her. The sheep that I mentioned earlier was trying to stop Phantom from toting away their ally tried to grab Phantom, but his efforts were rewarded with a series of snaps as Phantom snapped her jaws in a warning.

They backed up, leaving Phantom to her heavy burden of dragging a full-plated sheep with no assistance of her majic. When Phantom finally got tired of this, she planar shifted the armor off her opponent and, with a rush of adrenaline, dragged and tossed her opponent off the stage, well she tried her best, but her opponent held onto the edge of the stage, on the thin line between being eliminated or remaining in the match. Phantom stomped the sheep's hands over and over again, all the while her opponent belated at her in the same unintelligible sheep language, pleading for mercy from Phantom. Phantom let out an exasperated sigh, stomped off to the abandoned suit of armor, hoisted it up with her legs, and with much effort and strain, she carried the set of armor in her arms when she reached her opponent, who was trying to recover at the edge of the stage, she dropped the armor on them, resulting in the sheep beast landing on their back with their heavy armor landing on and around them with heavy thuds and clanks of metal on metal. Her opponent lay on the ground, unconscious from the impact, having already taken over 5 of Phantom's allotted minutes to qualify for the next round, she hurriedly ran over to the two dumbstruck sheep beasts, who just stood there watching her in disbelief at Phantom display of tenacity and strength in which she knocked her opponent out of bounds, were too shocked to do anything as Phantom held three knives about two inches from her opponent's throat; one in her left and two in her right between her index and middle and in between her ring finger and pinky. Phantom made a commanding gesture with a shout and posing her hand to flick the knives at her opponent to herd her them to the end of the playing field.

A wolf struggling to defeat sheep was quite funny. I’ll never let Phantom forget.

Her opponent went willingly to the end of the platform, Phantom agitated, said, “Jump off.” Her opponent stood still at the edge of the platform until Phantom's ally pulled her back by the shoulder, causing Phantom to look back at him with a fire in her eyes that scared everyone watching, and, more importantly, the sheep who her gaze was directed at. The ally sheep beast kin stepped away slowly trying to go unoticed. But it didnt make it far from Phantom or the edge of the stage. Phantom turned her ally towards the south side of the stage, pushed them to the edge, and finished the sheep by bending down and grabbing them by the legs and flipped him around to the other side and slammed them off the stage (like how the sensei in karate movies knocks their pupils down to teach them how to recover to a standing position.). With that, Phantom eliminated her unsupportive and disruptive ally from the match before returning to her final opponent. In the last seconds after the fight, Phantom kicked the remaining sheep beast off the stage with her left foot to the chest plate; her opponent stumbled and fell off the stage as the final second passed, and the match was announced over due to no more time and by Phantom being the only one left on the stage.

Her sheep beast ally was disqualified and eliminated from the qualifiers for being unhelpful and for acting against their ally, Phantom, so She was the only one crowned the victory of that match. What happened on the other stage throughout her fight wasn't important to me, and I have no recollection of it since I was so entranced in Phantom’s fight that I could not tell you anything about the other fight that was occurring at the time; I couldn't even tell you who the winners were because the shouting and cheering of the crowd while watching Phantom’s fight and victory. I didn't mention it earlier, but Phantom immediately fell into a heap on the satge, and she then curled into a ball. I ran, and so did Sopheia and Phantom’s brothers, to Phantom to give aid. Sopheia restored some energy to Phantom with one her spells ; a moment later Phantom recovered enough to speak, she said; “That was the single most annoying fight in my life. I would rather listen to elves talk about nature for hours than live through that ever again; the longest 10 minutes of my life.” Phantom said before her head dropped to her lap again.

“Can you help me lift her up, Draxson?” Sopheia asked me before turning to Phantom's brothers and telling them, "Can you go with draxson and help him take care of Phantom, I’ll be preparing something for your sister's recovery.” Sopheia finished as she extracted a book from the satchel she carried and began reading it while walking to go get her supplies from the bags we left in our room this morning. I squatted down to lift Phantom by her back and behind her knees and then carried her to a spot where I had her brothers set up a bed roll that I asked one of the taller brothers to go fetch from the bags they brought and deposited with the attendants. Phantom's recovery was complete before Sopheia got back with all her supplies, but Sopheia still administered an elixir she brewed that would relax Phantom’s mussels and calm her mind on top of a rapid energy restoration potion Sopheia made from her own majic and some other materials that we needed to stock up on here if we could.

After Phantom rubbed the muscle-relaxing mixture onto her skin, she downed the vial of energy restoration. She was in a visibly better mood. she slowly recovered from the mental strain and physical exertion from her fight, but she said she could keep fighting she just needed to relax for a moment. With no further fanfare, we headed back to the stages, and as we walked back before Sopheia’s match started, Phantom spoke in a calm and cheery voice, “Thank you, Sopheia, Draxson, and Bark Bark (I assumed this meant to thank you directed to her brothers.) thanks a lot for your support, I'm going to be so happy when this tournaments finally over and we can move on.” and towards the end of her statement, she said “but I'm excited to see how far we can all get, Good luck Sopheia, go get them and make sure you qualify for the tournament this afternoon. I’m placing my belief in you, Sopheia don’t mess this up, Kitten.” she said, watching Sopheia’s tail quickly swishing through the air in excitement. Phantom gave Sopheia a teasing smile as she pushed her forward toward the stage before Sopheia could retort her displeasure with the comment, “Hey, what do you me—--” Sopheia said as she passed through the sea of people and stopped at the base of her stage right before her fight started.

Sopheia's qualifier match

Sopheia’s match seemed to be the shortest of them all, she quickly dispatched her opponents, alongside a fellow sword user with majic blade extensions, allowing them to take out their two opponents, I didn't have enough time to look at their faces before they were removed from the stage and blended back into the crowd we never saw those contestants again. Sopheia’s and someone with name of Doff Halt was announced as the winner of their qualifier match.

Like i said earlier the rest of the fights were very boring after this, that is was the time for the last 4 groups with their teams to conclude the qualifiers, mine was at the very end, o and what a spectacle it was, the match was so exciting but the conclusion of the qualifiers was spectacular.

Draxson's qualifier match

As the cheers from the excited spectators and contestants began to settle down, it was announced that it was my group's turn to decide which team would qualify for the tournament a few hours after this match. “Wonderful contestants, I want to once again express my heartfelt thanks for coming and extend congratulations to the winners of the qualifiers. Remember, if you didn’t qualify, you still have the chance to participate in the secondary competition being hosted tomorrow at the same time that today's games began. This will last for an hour, during which the battle royal winner(s) will be determined and thereafter crowned as the champions of the multi-competitor endurance challenge.

Without any further ado, please give a warm welcome to the final two teams that will cap off the qualifiers: Team B features Draxson ChaosWing and Fennib Flynn, and Team 17 includes Reiz Jazef and Kigali Tokal!

The fight was very drawn out and so full of action that for now, I'll give you a summary of what happened, and I might, at a later time, recount the full fight. Ok here is the summary;

The fight began with me and my ally, Fennib Flynn, a nice 23 years of age human lady, who I was talking with and got to know a little bit about as we watched all the previous qualifiers together before it was our time. Fennib was a warrior in her village's army, and we had a shared interest in archery now, I would be able to see what she's capable of with a bow while also displaying my powers and skill to my opponent, Reiz Jazef, and his ally. But anyway, the fight began with Me readying my bow and Fennib doing likewise as we distributed who would take out who. The other team was talking amongst themselves as Fennib fired the first arrow since the match had already started when we got on the stage where we would battle it out for a spot in the main attraction of the day. Fennibs first arrow pinned Kigali to the ground with an arrow through the pant leg. I rushed Reiz, who was also trying to circle around us, and I met him head-on as he swung his sword at me. I responded with a clawed strike to change his trajectory and move out of the way. I sidestepped it and was met with further slashes that I, in turn, barely redirected and avoided. I looked over to my opponent and knocked an arrow on my bow, Pulled back the string to its max, and launched an arrow aimed at the foot of Fennib’s opponent, which her opponent dodged well enough until he landed himself in a trap because he steps to the side and my ally took that advantage to shoot her opponent in the foot with a spirit bind arrow, that pierced the middle of his foot but the physical arrow only went through his shoe while the enchantment on the arrow bound his soul to that position the same way an arrow inside the foot buried in the floor would immobilize.

With her opponent pinned to the ground, she whacked her opponent with the wood part of her bow before Fennib, from its sheath, drew her blade and slashed at where her arrow was stuck in a foot and split the spirit binding enchantment(she later told me when she and I had a meal with the rest of our group before the main tournament) and forced her opponent back with the point of her sword. When her adversary was near the edge of the stage and trying to make a move to change his position with Fennib, I ducked out of the way of my opponent as I had been through the entire time watching my teammate. It was only different this time because I couldn’t avoid his blade without taking a cut to my left shoulder, not a deep one, but with much blunt force. I moved back from Reiz and shifted my bow to my left hand as I conjured a missile twice the thickness of an arrow but half the length of one and fired it at Reiz, where it struck him in the chest, setting his leather chest armor aflame for a moment, before being put out by Reiz’s heavy smacks of his gloved right hand.

I swung my bow at my opponent’s leg and looked over Reiz’s shoulder just in time to watch Fennibs rival (Kilgali) yanked off the stage by some invisible force at extreme speeds, flinging him off the stage to land on (an object I was later told was the anchor part of the spirit arrow trap), and fell off the stage landing on, and breaking the arrow underneath him. Still mid-swing of my attack I tensed my mussels to hasten my attack. Meanwhile Reiz seized the opportunity to direct my bow away from the leg I designated to strike; Reiz would have been successful if I didn’t belch some flames at him from my transfigured Dragon throat causing Reiz to shy away,abandoning his mission to deflect my bow. The flames came out of my mouth and cut through the air with a rolling fwoosh. Reiz backed up just as I wanted him to so I could strike the area behind his knee with my bow ,causing him to trip as he tried to escape my flame breath. As he toppled over backwards over where my bow was behind his knee my teammate Fennib shot a spirit arrow in Reiz’s right arm effectively pinning him to the ground. His immobility gave me the opportunity, which I most certainly seized it, I emptied most of my frost reserves between coating a few arrows in my quiver and freezing Reiz’s legs, so that when I destroyed the spirit arrow tethering his right arm I could drag him to edge of the stage and toss him off to secure mine and Fennib’s victory.

I tossed Reiz head first, I was only a few meters from the edge of the stage when I tossed him, an oversight on my end but nonetheless I drew inspiration from the results of said oversight; Reiz bent his legs, the massive strain of making his frozen legs move visible on his face,he was able to get his legs bent so that his legs were underneath him and he shifted all the weight that he could to behind him causing him to slide across the stone like platform in an attempt to stop himself from falling off the stage. Though his efforts were astounding they only amounted in a rapid ice-supported slide across the rock surface and off the stage landing on his knees a few seconds later, his momentum carrying him another meter as the friction of the ground he landed on melting the ice and by extension Reiz’s icy-slide. When Reiz came to a stop on the ground Shelltri announced the conclusion of the qualifiers announcing me and my teammate as the last pair of winners. “ Esteemed challengers, ladies and gentlemen of might an valour alike I proudly announce the winners of the Preliminary Qualifiers, Fennib Flynn and Draxson ChoasWing are your winners, which concludes this event.” Shelltri breathlessly announced, excitement obvious in her voice. Shelltri paused for a moment and while Fennib and I approached each other at the center of the stage and bumped our fist’s together in congratulations, Shelltri continued her announcement “Now that the qualifiers for the days main attraction, ‘The tournament of talented warriors’ all qualifying contestants and spectators, you may now all indulge yourselves in some food and rest during the few hours before the days main event begins. That is all, thank you all for participating in our humble tournament, and congratulations to all that survived as long as you did in your matches and for your victories, and just for being an amazing audience.”

Shelltri finished her statement with that as cheers erupted from the surrounding crowd. The crowd was massive, spanning over 100 meters around the stage, the main stage was about 5 feet tall to cater to the spectators at the furthest ends of the congregation of people. Even still a faint replica of the contestants floated about 4 feet above us, all of the contestant’s duplicates mimicking the interactions that the real contestants had with each other below and with their environment being parts of the stage immediately around them. I heard shouts of Draxson and Fennib at the front of the stage, localized from where Sopheia, Phantom, and a group of 3 young women, 1 man and an older man presumably Fennibs family were shouting her name and expressing their pride in her, while My friends cheered me on.

We all ate lunch together and chatted amongst ourselves about the fight while we waited for the start of the main tournament. It started three hours later when the matchups for the first two fights of the tournament were put on the board, with only the names of the first contestant on opposite sides of the bracket.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Part IV The town of Levies da tru (chapter 13)

A few hours later, I awoke tired of being in my mind. I lay there on one of the three beds that the room was equipped with. About 30 minutes later, I heard a rustling coming from Sopheia's bed and looked over at her, sitting up and standing and walking to the door. Her barely audible footsteps resounded as she walked through the hall and down the stairs. When Sopheia returned a minute later, I was reading through my journal as she walked in, and we chatted before returning to bed.

The next morning, we all emerged from our rooms, had breakfast, and set out after thanking the Inn Master for her service. Together, we all walked through the Inn door with Phantom leading the way. We followed the traffic of the townspeople and, on the way, reunited with Rebekah before we got to where all the other townspeople bunched up. "Hello again, Phantom, Draxson, and Sopheia. Are you ready for the tournament today?" greeted Rebekah cheerfully. "Is that what all this bustle is?" Phantom asked, looking around and watching yet a few dozen more townspeople congregating at the center of town. "Yes, that's what this all is. I complained that the mayor of this town is a fighting fiend, but the other townspeople love to attend all the fights he holds. It always adds excitement to the town," said Rebekah before looking around and then speaking again with an excited voice. "Hurry, let's go and get you all signed up for the preliminary qualifiers before the main 16 competitor bracket fight."Rebekah said, pulling Sopheia along with her and us following behind her.

Rebekah led us through a convolution of people. When we made it out, I saw three platforms. In the center and most prominent of the three, several people stood side by side, 2 well-dressed, 2 well armoured, . The man in the fine attire spoke up, waving his hands to draw attention to himself. "Everyone, I want to thank you for all attending this year's tournament. We are excited to find another winner of the unique award we have set aside for this year," said the man in a loud and clear voice. He didn't look very old, but his voice sounded mature, probably meaning he was of a higher vitality race. I didn't see any pointy ears, the telltale of elves, or any beast kin fur. He wasn't short so that he might have been half of one race or the others or an effect of his magic. Everyone who was at five tables before the main stages looked up from their papers at the speaking man. "For anyone new here, I'm Halpalin Cheir, and I'm the mayor of this town. To my right is my lovely wife, Shelltri, who will explain and monitor half of the two fights we'll have at the same time throughout the competition. She will also explain the rules to you all for the preliminary qualifying matches to lower the competition to 16 fighters. Anyone who doesn't make it through the qualifiers can try tomorrow in the battle royal for secondary and tertiary rewards for the winners. My wife will explain the rules in a few minutes so you can all finish signing up. Everyone else who's signed up already gathers around to hear the rules and structure of the tournament in a few minutes. Please and thank you all once again for participating and coming to watch," said Mayor Halplin, speaking over the people.

Sopheia, Phantom, and I signed up and gathered around Mistress Shelltri to hear the rules after Phantom's brothers finished signing up. The sign-up papers were simple: They asked about spells and special powers, name, age, gender, and race. Phantom and her brothers said they were beast kin, which seemed to be enough for the attendant helping the attendees fill out the papers.

We all stood gathered around the stage, awaiting instructions. A minute later, it was announced that the signing-up was complete. The stages were about 8 meters apart and 9 meters by 9 meters, except the middle stage, which measured 14 by 14 meters.

Mistress Shelltri finally gave her address to the competitors. "Thank ye all for attending our tournament. We have an exciting event planned out for you all today and a very special reward for the winner. I will now go over the rules," said Mistress Shelltri, taking a breath before speaking again. "The rules are as follows, all competitors. You all will compete in two versus two battles until there are only 16 of you left. Any remaining fighters will engage in a 1v1 with one random qualifier to fight for a spot in the main tournament." She took another breath between sentences. "When we come down to the last fight of the qualifiers, the rules for the main event will be outlined, and the rules of the battle royal will be announced. Everyone who did or didn't qualify will be addressed and thanked for coming, with an invitation to compete in the next event tomorrow or later this year, and you're all encouraged to watch the main event of the day and enjoy a meal before and after the fight before you, our esteemed travelers, resign for the night." The event will commence in 3 minutes; please see the attendants in front of my platform for your match-ups," stated Shelltri as the attendants began holding out papers for the competitors that went up to them and grabbed a small card that decided their lineup. As people lined up and took their cards, Shelltri spoke further, clarifying the qualifiers. Each of your cards will have a number and letter on opposite sides. The number or letter on the left is your identifier symbol, and the symbol on the right side of the card identifies who you will be fighting first. Please find your corresponding opponent and gather in a line at either of the two stages or be among the last ones to receive their lineup card. After the winners are determined, they will participate in fights on this stage," finished Shelltri as the last of us took a card. I was reading my card and standing with the rest of my group before we separated to different stages to find our opponents.

My card stated that I was contender B, and my opponent was #17. I went to the center stage since I was one of the last 10 to get a card and called out for number 17 as I walked between the people passing between the left and right stages. Upon calling out number 17 again, I ran into a human male calling, “Opponent B." We locked eyes and approached, showing each other our cards before the human stopped before me and spoke. "Hi, I'm Reiz Jazef. Nice to meet you," said my opponent-to-be as he stretched out his hand to shake mine. I stretched out my hand and firmly clasped his hand, shaking it as I gave my introduction. "Hi there, nice to meet you, Reiz Jazef. I’m Draxson ChaosWing." A look of confusion crossed Reiz's face that turned into intrigue and fascination. "That's an interesting name. What are your parents? If you don't mind me asking?" Reiz asked, shaking my hand one last time before taking his hand back. I thought about how I should answer his question for a moment before I decided to respond with my telepathy to avoid startling the other contestants. "I am a half-Friel and half-Dragon mix. My mother is a Friel Doctor up in the northwest; her name is Solina Silverwing, and my dad is Draganarther Chaosflames, and he is the most honorable of his Dragon clan. My mother and father combined their last name and gave it to us; my full name is Draxson Chaoswings of Silver Flames, but Draxson works fine with me. Please don't panic; I'm talking with you using my Freil people's telepathy."

Reiz looked at me, confused for a second, and then spoke again. “Yeah, it’s alright. I got what you’re saying; I’m not going to panic. I just find it strange that you’re from both a nature-based elf race and a notorious race for destruction on the other side of your heritage.” “Family reunions and other events must be difficult, I would imagine,” commented Reiz before I responded with an explanation. “It’s actually not that hard; my Dragon family members can change their form to look like humans, except they have horns, claws, tails, and wings, but for the most part, they look like humans. The only problem is the attitudes of my uncles; they are a bit chaotic at times, and my grandfather on my dad's side refuses to shift into a human because he says, ‘A Dragonlord should always be at their strongest and ready for anything’ but other than that he's Really nice. My mother's family doesn't mind the dragons; the two families get along pretty well. It's just that we usually have family events in an open field far from our homes, so when things get heated and a fight between my uncles over who ate whose food breaks out, our homes aren't destroyed.” I said, rambling on about my family. “Sheesh, what an interesting family that must be,” Reiz said. “Well, it sounds like you have some very strong inner majics, I can't wait to see what you can do when we fight.”

Stated Reiz just as Shelltri raised her Voice and made an announcement. “The first Preliminary Qualifier matches will begin in half a minute, so listen up. You will each have 10 minutes to defeat your opponents if there are more than two people left on the stage at the end, the winning team will be the team with the most people remaining or in the best condition if a contestant has received few hits from their opponents. Elimination from the game will come in the form of being knocked off the stage, surrendering, collapsing from heavy fatigue, and causing almost fatal wounds. The attendants should have checked all of your weapons, and if you have an attribute on the weapon that was not mentioned or violates the rules mentioned in the sign-up sheet, please refrain from using it in the battle and report the missing attributes to the attendants after your match to avoid disqualification. Winners of their fight will be able to rest until the next round. Any remaining contestestents that have not found their fighting partner, please do so now, or you will potentially face one versus two combat.” with that statement the last of the wandering contestants gathered in their groups. 2 other people, Both humans, walked towards me and Reiz which made our group complete and ready to fight when it's our turn.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Part III Meeting with a stranger (chapter 12)

"Hello, yes, ma'am, we're new to the area," I replied to the stranger.

" Aye, ya look like ya ain't ever stepped foot in a town other than ye own. I'm Rebekah. Nice to meet ya, " replied the woman as she stood up and approached the table with an outstretched hand.

"I'm Draxson. Nice to meet you. Was it that obvious that I've never traveled?" I asked, laughing while I shook her hand. Rebekah took her hand back and offered it to Sopheia as she replied to me. "Yeah, I can see all the gear yer carrying and that ya made a quite the amusing display when talking with the Inn master. It was the funniest thing I've seen today." Said Rebekah as she shook her hand with Sopheia and made introductions. Rebekah introduced herself to Phantom, and I was quite surprised that Phantom was so friendly. "Nice to meet you, Rebekah. I've been to this place before, and I'm just accompanying this group through the area. You can call me Phaaz." stated Phantom energetically as she shook Rebekah's hand firmly with both hands.

Phantom told Rebekah that her brothers wouldn't talk, so after talking with Phantom, she sat down across from me.

"So what brings ya ta our little town of levies da tru?" Asked Rebekah.

Sopheia responded to the question to start off with a brief conversation. "

"We're just traveling through the area to restock on supplies and sell the extra gear we've accumulated over the last week of our adventure. We came this way because some monsters we didn't have any chance of fighting."

Sopheia said briefly, recounting our adventure thus far.

Rebekah and Sopheia, and surprisingly, even Phantom, started a conversation about majic, and Rebekah was getting more information from Sopheia. At was pprobably20 minutes after the Inn master directed us to our table, the first plates of pork dumplings, spicy chicken, and noodle rice arrived at our table.

I thanked Miss Figal for the food and for refilling the formula, which I requested when she checked on us about 10 minutes ago. "Let me know if you need anything, ladies or you young men," Figal said before asking Rebekah if she would like anything. Rebekah ordered the same thing we got and a drink before engaging in conversation again. Inn master Figal walked back to the back after she checked on us.

Rebeka, for the first time in a quarter of an hour, talked to me.

"So, Draxson, are you planning to stay for a few days? If you are, you might be interested in the tournament the mayor of the town is hosting tomorrow. Would you be interested in Draxson, Sopheia, and even you, too, Phaz?" Asked Rebekah.

I thought it over for a little minute before I gave my reply.

"That sounds very interesting. What are the details of this Tournament? Will there be a lot of contestants?" I asked.

"The mayor is a combat and sparring fanatic, so every year, he hosts about three tournaments for a prize and to see new fighting techniques and interesting spells. He usually enlists some of the talented competitors and any of the winners he can. Though the winners are usually people that came from further south and are just here for the award or the prestige." Stated Rebekah without taking a breath.

A moment later, after taking a breath and enjoying her fudge scotch in large doses, Rebekah continued pitching the idea to me. I ate some of my food while I waited for her to speak again. Sopheia, Phantom, and her brothers were already eating while I listened in. Phantom's brothers didn't seem all that interested. Instead, they occupied themselves with their sugary mint smoothies and finished a second serving before they sat there and drew things in the air with their iridescent color light wisps.

Rebekah started talking again, slowly and calmly this time. "So, as I was asking for a dose, does that sound like something that you would be interested in taking part in?" Inquired Rebekah before her gaze caught sight of Phantom's brothers. Phantom was otherwise engaged by sculpting a small wolf figure of her likeness pre-transformation and full of color. It even barked occasionally as Phantom was muttering something under her breath while twisting and turning strands of light as a weaver would fit yarn into superb tapestries. Rebekah was very intrigued by this and silently watched Phantom's light figure form.

I thought over Rebekah's question for a moment, and before I even finished my mouthful of food, Sopheia reached out to me with a small tingly cloud of frost that covered my the area around my left knee. I reached out to her hand over the table, holding a steady cast, and I entwined our fingers and gave a light squeeze as I established a mental connection.

"You're Sopheia good. You can stop the cast now." I said through her mind. I watched her face immediately flush pink as she hid her face with her cup.

Sopheia: Hey, Draxson, can we join this competition. It sounds pretty fun, it sound like we could get some money out of it for more ingredients and maybe find someone who would take this extra gear off our hands at the tournament tomorrow.

"Yes, this would be a good opportunity to meet some strong people and even find something else to do after it's all over from one of the townspeople or from the traveling competitors. And we could get rid of this gear, and I could bargain some recipes from the townspeople with a portion of the winnings.

I opened my mouth to speak as I set my fork down on my plate. "I've thought about it, and I would like to join this event," I said before clearing my throat and taking a sip of my honey root juice. Rebekah turned her head so fast at my declaration that I thought she would sprain her neck. "Really, you'll participate in the tournament? I can't wait to see what you're capable of. If what Sopheia was recounting to me is as impressive as she says, then we're going to have an entertaining tournament this year. I look forward to watching you fight, and I wish you the best of luck," Rebekah said as the Inn master brought her food.

It was a beautiful plate of noodles laid in a swirling pile of light brown noodles topped with steamed rice and mixed chicken. Three pork dumplings sat on the side of the plate in a semi-circle, with two small bowls full of brown sauce in one and a crimson-hued sauce in the other. Rebekah picked up the small bowl with the spicy crimson topping sauce and poured it evenly on her food. She then, after setting the small bowl down, produced two small sticks from her pocket and picked up some noodles, bringing the tips of the sticks with the food to her mouth, and bit down on the food dangling from the interesting sticks, pulling them back as she closed her mouth to chew.

A dozen seconds later, while chewing, she set her sticks down and, in the same motion, picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth before setting the napkin down again. The Inn master stood there patiently, hands together in front of her at the bottom of her apron, awaiting her patrons' opinion on the food.

"No, I ain't been holding out on you, not when y'all are all such great customers in my establishment. It's a new recipe the chef made in the back; he's been working on it for about a month, only testing his dishes on the employees here and daring customers. He only just perfected it yesterday. And you're very welcome; I'll take your regards to the chef. If you don't need anything else, your rooms are ready... what was your name, lad? Sorry, I forgot to ask you earlier," said Figal.

"My name is Draxson, and I am Sopheia," Sopheia and I said respectively as Sopheia reached out her hand to shake Figal's hand and thank her for the food.

"Alright, Draxson and Sopheia. Thanks for being great patrons. Your rooms are ready when you are. Here are the keys for both rooms: end of the line to the left."

"Mistress Inn Master Figal, before you go, could I bargain that I make some desserts and a full-course meal for you and your people for the recipe of this wonderful dish and for the fudge scotch? Would those be agreeable terms, Mistress Figal?" I asked hopefully. I was talking with Sopheia earlier about how much I wanted the recipe, and we agreed to try to bargain for it. Inn Master Figal gave a shake of her head and said, "Nah lad, don't ye be trying to bargain with me in my own business. I'll let you talk with the chef, and it'll be up to him and me to decide to accept your offer. Just go to sleep, lads and lasses." "Well, I'll be going now. Draxson, Sopheia, and Phantom, it was nice to meet you all. I'll see you at the tournament tomorrow. Good luck," Rebekah stated, turning to each of us and then taking her leave out the front door, tossing a coin to the worker behind the counter, who struggled to catch it and thanked her when he had it in his grasp. We resigned shortly after Rebekah was clear out of the door; we headed up the stairs at the far back of the room and trekked until we made it to our rooms. I produced the keys and asked what the plan was. "My brothers and I will take the room. I'm on the left, closest to the door," Phantom replied as she stretched her hand out to me, palm open. I placed the key in Phantom's hand, and I bid her goodnight. "Goodnight, Sopheia, and Draxson sleep well, you two. See you in the morning." And with that, Phantom and her brothers filed behind her into the room, and Sopheia and I went to our rooms to rest for the night.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Part II Detour (chapter 11)

A hundred and twenty minutes later (about an hour and a half in this world), we reached the very end of the frozen section of the forest and entered a lush green plain area. This gave me hope of finding a place in town soon, and sure enough, right before sunset, we saw the rising smoke from stone and wooden buildings a few dozen meters ahead of us. Our trek there was uneventful since we finished our meal and packed up. No monsters, animals, or fruits were on our path to the city, probably because they were already harvested. But when we reached the town, I saw many broad pens for sheep and pigs and sheds for birds. I halted suddenly before we saw anyone when I thought it would be strange to stroll into town with three large and very ostentatious wolves in tow. I immediately reached out to Phantom with my mind.

Draxson: Hey, Phantom, should we just enter town like this?

Phantom looked at me and barked, and as she barked, it translated into a feminine voice that sounded like a grown woman saying, "Like what? Like a pack of three Phantom wolves, a cat-nye, and an elf? Are you saying we're a strange bunch, Draxson?"

Phantom looked around and replied

Phantom: This is already flamboyant with all this color and your massive packs. But it does not matter; we can shift our appearance using illusion lights and transform our bodies into humanoid forms.

Draxson: That works, but what about your brothers and clothes if you change into a humanoid?

Phantom: Oh, Draxson, there's no need to fuss. I can create clothes via illusion, but I'd prefer to wear some anyway. Sopheia dear, can you spare me a shirt and a cloak, please?

Sopheia: Yeah, sure, you can change clothes. We found some spare cloaks, shirts, and even some spare bags if you and your brothers want to look like adventurers. Though we only took the best pair of shorts from a previous battle for one of your brothers, could Draxson share some pants with the other?

"Here you go, Phantom. Here's one pair of shorts, a shirt that hopefully fits you, and a spare cloak. Oh, and a travel pack," said Sopheia after foraging through bags for the garments and offering them to Phantom.

Phantom was still enveloped in a colorful cloud of smoke before appearing in a poof. The light that surrounded her in wolf form flowed through her long black, purple, and shifting hair that reached her thighs. Her form became more prominent as the smoke disappeared, and I immediately turned away.

"Oh, Draxson, I could have put the illusion of clothes on, to begin with, and I'm not going to seduce you," stated Phantom with a sharp bite of sass. Her voice sounded like a fully developed human voice with only the faintest hint of her barks' prior echo in her new voice. I turned a minute later to face her and beheld Phantom, who looked human structure-wise like a human except for the fluffy ears on the top of her head, with the same colorful and iridescent-toned fur now her hair. She had strong feminine facial features, small shoulders, light brown skin, and well-toned muscles on her arms and legs.

She had proportions similar to those of a 16-year-old humanoid if my comparison to Cat-Nyes I've seen in the village is correct. Another note about Phantom in her new form was that her hair, as previously mentioned, flowed to her upper thighs. Her colorful hair of ever-shifting hues glowed and was very spiky at the ends and very long (think Super Saiyan 3 but not extending as far); otherwise, it looked like her hair was well taken care of as its shiny gloss reflected the lights of the flames I summoned to float above us and illuminate our path. Her clothes were the same style as Sopheia's except without the cloak and other gear Sopheia owned. She didn't have a tail like Sopheia's, from what I saw, so it was pretty easy to tell them apart. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw a big fluffy purple tail with dozens of colorful wisps flowing from it, and her tail was swishing around like Sopheia's did when she was relaxed. Oh, Forces of Life. We're going to stand out so much; she might as well have stayed a wolf.

"See, Draxson, I know how to blend in. Now, I’m going to put on some equipment. Oh, and Draxson, can I have a few of those spare daggers you have? It's so I can blend in with the party, and if I need a weapon, claws will draw too much attention," said Phantom as her large, fluffy, meter-long tail swished around, thrice the thickness of my arm. Her tail was the same color as the hair that I mentioned earlier; it was the same style and shininess. Her tail bobbed up and down and swished side to side.

Yeah, right, we're going to blend in. She sure is doing her best not to stand out. I thought to myself as I closed my eyes and palmed my face while I loudly exhaled. Why must she stand out so much? I was exhausted thinking about it but decided to move past it. After filling my lungs with crisp, clean forest air, I replied a moment later. “Yeah, you can have some of my daggers. Let me get them for you, Phantom,” I said, reaching for some of the daggers I had in a bag I acquired from our “encounter” not too long ago. I handed Phantom the daggers and their leather sheaths together.

“Thank you, Draxson,” replied Phantom as I handed over the daggers. I don't know how, but her tail fur, the rest of her hair, and even her skin seemed to glow. She looked and sounded much happier than when we communicated mentally, and I was surprised to see that her demeanor was much friendlier in this form. We watched Phantom and her brothers equip small backpacks and cloaks after the other two transformed and dressed behind some trees with the gear I gave them. We were still on the very outskirts of town, but we hid behind some trees to avoid detection. Though Phantom said she could hide us with her magic, I asked her not to. I didn't want her to waste her energy. When we were all set and ready, we walked into town. It was nearly pitch black outside the areas that the lantern posts spread throughout the streets illuminated. I dispelled my fire-light spell as we approached.

We walked around town until we found a building resembling an Inn minutes later. We entered the Inn right after reading the sign that confirmed it was indeed an Inn. “ Aye, Helloo, what can I do for ye bunch?" (in a Scottish accent) Asked the woman attending the front desk right by the entrance. When I saw her and heard her accent, I recognized that she was a forge dwarf, built like a regular dwarven woman and facial structure, but in their battle, forge form The dwarfs stood at anywhere from 5’-8” to 6’-4” feet fully matured. I approached the Dwarven woman at the counter while she was setting down a rag she was using to polish the counter. “ Helloo, I would like to pay for a room or room for one month; I’ll check with my party.” I said as I looked to Phantom for her statement; she replied back in my mind, “Two rooms.” The woman at the counter waited patiently for my reply, smiling at me calmly when I turned back to face her. “Yeah, sorry about that; I would like to get us two rooms for the five of us and some food, Mistress Inn Master.” I gave my reply and with it a slight bow as was the custom when speaking with esteemed forge Dwarves who were always the best of their trades and, therefore, all other races respected them extensively, and even most elves respected the Forge Dwarves.

“Aww, hush you, darling,” said the Inn Master before she whipped me softly with her rag. The soft, light gesture still had some bite, thanks to the Forge Dwarves' higher-than-average strength. “Ye don't need to do dat, young lad.” “I’ll get some food ordered for ye and ya friends. Do pork dumplings and spicy chicken noodles with rice sound good with ya, parte?” She asked in her thick Dwarven accent. “Yes, that would be excellent, Inn Master…” I was saying when she said, “Inn Masta Figal will do just fine, Lad. I’ll get that right to ya and prepare your rooms. I’ll ask youse about drinks in a few minutes. It will be 10 Saph-cyrst coins for everything, lad.” Said the Inn Master as I dug through my coin pouch and handed her ten intricately carved silver coins with a small sapphire (diamond-shaped) crystal in the center of the coins. I placed the coins on the counter and even added a silver coin with gold accents and a small quarter-fingernail-sized platinum shard surrounded by lesser gold. (coin value 2 times of Saph-cyrst coin[valued at three coins) , three coins is equal to one {standard gold piece} = three silvers or twelve bronzes) “Okay, thank you for your patronage. Could ya wait at that table over there? And I’ll be right with ya again shortly. “ Inn Master Figal said, pointing to table a table one spot from the middle of the common room and by the window. “Thank you, Inn Master Figal.” I gave my thanks with a bow just a bit too deep, which earned me a chuckle from some men I couldn't see behind me and a heartfelt laugh from a boy behind the counter who was cleaning a dish. Figal also gave a sharp look to an older woman sitting at a table by the window opposite the entrance. “Aye, just move ya hinny already.” Stated Figal, exasperated and giving a chuckle as she went back to where the kitchens were.

We walked to the table we were directed to. The common room wasn't very full at the moment, but it was quite spacious, I realized as we trekked to the table. The room had the fine, masterful artisan touch only dwarves could have created. As the five of us sat down at the table at the appointed table, I saw there were only five other Patrons in the common room that I could see; there was the aforementioned older woman by the window, a group of three towards the back a few tables away talking amongst themselves, and a young lady watching the boy behind the counter working.

“Aye, there ya be new in town, right?” asked the older woman sitting by the window. I looked over at the woman, and immediately, I noted a red rune-like marking on her right cheek. And had the facial features of a human. I hadn't seen a human in nearly a year when one delivered a message to the village chief and guard captain.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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SECTION 4

Part I

what creature is this? (chapter 10)

Draxson Pov

The battle truly began when the wolf went on the defensive for its kin.

The dark purple fur wolf glowed in its presence and many bright light orbs and rays radiated from the wolf as she snarled back at us defending her allies. I stared back at the wounded and bleeding wolf and roared back at the snarling beast as I charged to impale it with my spear. I missed by mere inches as the wolf faded into a bright specter, and the phantom jumped behind me and bit my calf. I cried out in pain and dropped my spear when my leg was bit and gushed blood. I turned to attack the wolf. Sopheia blocked a lunge from the iridescent wolf and slashed through light energy that was supposed to cut through the wolf's midsection. The wolf rematerialized and slashed at Sopheia's legs before I speared its front left paw to the ground, and Sopheia kicked up and tossed me a shield so I could pin the wolf the before it once again turned into a phantom of light and became unstuck. We continued like this for a few minutes before Sopheia and I began syncing our attacks, slashing, bashing, and kicking at the constantly phasing out and dodging Massive purple wolf. The wolf appeared behind us after it phased through my shield and body, leaving a tingling, numb sensation. Thus, the cycle of occasionally landing a strike for another half hour occurred until the fight finally ended. Sopheia and I trapped it between our shields, and a Frost and flame spell dome emanated from them.

With the wolf finally subdued, it snarled in its wavy light form until it faded into a corporeal form and stopped Barking at us. I nodded at Sopheia, And we released our shields and elemental domes. The ice and Frost barrier between the shields gave me an idea for my last crystal, which I would work on later. The wolf lowered its head and gave a silent bark before a tingle formed between my mind, Sopheia's, and the wolf's. Light letters appeared before our eyes, and barks entered our minds until they became words. The letters in front of us said the same thing in our minds: the voice was feminine.

PHANTOM WOLF: Hello travelers, I submit and rest my case and fight against you. I have an offer for you, but I have a few conditions. First, I plead that you restore my brothers back to good health and promise to leave my kin and pack alone. In exchange, I would be willing to join your team if you would have me. If not, I will go once you heal my brothers, and if I find you messing with them again, I and my pack will Exterminate You. What is your course of action? What is your choice? Will I join you, or shall we part ways?”

I contacted Sopheia on the mind link and asked if she wanted the wolf to join our party. "would you like her to join us?" I asked before a tingle ran through my mind as Sopheia responded, "Yes, absolutely. We should let her join us, and I'll heal her brothers." "Yes, we accept you into the team, and we will heal your kin," replied Sopheia and I. "Then it is so," Replied the wolf. The mental connection broke off, and a final message spread before us. PHANTOM WOLF WOULD LIKE TO JOIN YOUR PARTY. DO YOU ACCEPT?

YES OR NO?

We channeled energy into the text together, activating the acceptance of a new team member. The words disappeared as they said, "PHANTOM WOLF HAS JOINED YOUR PARTY."

After Sopheia healed the bleeding neck of one of the wolves and the various cuts and scratches on our new party member and her brothers, we shared a meal. We moved on with Phantom and her brothers, who didn't join the party but were accompanying us for the time being. Our new party member, whom we call Phantom for now, the name she let us call her, walked slightly in front of us, leading the way through the forest. She gave one of her echoey barks, signaling that she wanted me to open "that Pisonic speaking ability." She called. My "short-range limited telepathy." she meant, anyway, that was our agreed-upon signal for me to establish a connection with her mind so she could tell me something. Sopheia and I had something similar: when we wanted to talk privately, we'd usually send small pluses of Majic energy toward each other and talk mentally. I established a connection with Phantom and awaited her statement.

Phantom: Draxson, we must detour east a bit instead of continuing north.

Draxson: Why?

Phantom: I'm sensing some dark forces and large monsters less than a kilometer ahead, past the furthest trees from us. Unless you want to fight a Drought Golem or some Grim Bears, we can continue, but it usually takes me and the other 30 members of my pack, to even take down at most 2 Grim bears and about 20 of us for a Drought Golem. You would not like to make your first run-in with a golem, let alone a mixed group of golems and bears with just the 5 of us. It would be ill-advised.

Draxson: Thank you for the warning. Should we start moving east now or return to where we came from before going east?

Phantom: No, that won't be necessary. I'll just be scouting them out quickly. I'll be right back. Keep this connection open if you can while I investigate the situation.

Draxson: Ok, are you taking your brothers with you or going alone?

Phantom Transformed into its ethereal form while responding to me without turning back.

Phantom: No. I will be going alone. My brothers haven't matured enough to become their luminescent wolf forms yet, so they will stay with you, waiting for me.

Draxson: Well, see you; give me a shout if anything is amiss.

She replied with a beam of light that flew at me, stopping a few feet from my face and transforming into another majic light message that read.

"Yeah, will do". We watched Phantom run off past trees, and after a few minutes l, we saw her emerge from the trees less than a kilometer away, running towards us at full tilt, reaching us less than a 1 minute later she reached us and frantically spoke in my mind.

Phantom: We need to go now. One of the dire bears had already reached its final form, the "Void Bear," it spotted me with its light sense and started siphoning my energy. The whole group of monsters noticed, and they will reach us shortly.

"Okay, let's go," I said. We need to get away from here and head east. Phantom says some dangerous monsters are coming, and we wouldn't want to fight even one or several of them." I took Sopheia's Left hand in my right, and we ran east for 25 minutes before Phantom spoke to me again.

Phantom: We are almost out of their range, so we will need to stop for a moment while I prepare for us to teleport about two and a half kilometers from here. Then we can rest after.

Draxson: copy that. Thanks for the guidance.

I relayed Phantom's message, and we stopped running and gathered our breath while waiting for Phantom's spell. "How are you holding up, Sopheia?" I asked in between labored breaths. Sopheia took a breath and exhaled before replying to my question. With evident exhaustion in her voice she said. "I'm doing ok, but if we have to keep this up for much longer….inhale…..exhale…. I'm going to lose my lunch." "Sorry about that. The spell will activate in less than a minute, and you might want to numb your senses because teleportation isn't going to do good for your digestion on top of already being queasy." the words appeared as if an invisible pen had written them in the same curly letters made of light Phantom had used before. The words manifested line by line, disappearing after about 5 seconds before the following sentence appeared in the place of the previous.

I wondered how Phantom could do that; I made a note to ask her about it when we camped for the night. I want to learn this spell or understand the wolf's abilities. With no warning of the signs that the spell was activated, I didn't know what was happening when light emanated from Phantom more than usual and started to glow, surrounding her in bright blue and purple liquid as light covered her and as she disappeared into light particles Sopheia and I were surrounded by light blue, black, and dark red liquid and enveloped ina like manner as Phantom . I felt Tingley everywhere as I became drowsy, and the light particles I assumed I was turning into started flowing from me until I lost consciousness for a moment. I regained consciousness in what I thought was about a minute later. I reappeared in a swirl of Drak red and black liquid and colorful particles surrounding and flowing into me as the majic liquid dispersed unto and colored the ground Black and red around my feet in a half dozen centimeter radius.

We were in a large clearing about 15 meters from the closest trees. I felt dizzy as I stood and noticed light blue liquid in the corner of my eye, and I turned and watched as Sopheia emerged from her cocoon of Light blue and grey liquid, falling to her feet as the last particles of light flowed into her. She shined a bright blue for a moment before she opened her eyes and took in a deep breath before stepping forward and swaying side to side, stumbling before she fell to the ground and sat on her knees. She held her hand to her mouth, trying to hold herself back from throwing up her lunch. I stepped forward, dropped to one knee, and placed my right hand on Sopheia's back to comfort her. She spoke after a moment. "I'm fine, just feeling verrrry dizzzzeey…" she said before her stomach ejected the undigested contents of her stomach.

"Bleh." Stated Sopehia when her vomiting ended, and she began coughing, "*cough* *cough*. Oh, that surprisingly tasted good going back up, and now I feel weird, and I'm very hungry now. I'm feeling a bit tired as well." said Sopheia before she fell forward. I caught her by her stomach with my left hand and supported her so she was upright again. "I got you, Sopheia," I said, holding her in case. She fell forward again. "Thanks, Draxso, and that would have been gross to land in my puke." "Not a problem. I didn't want you falling in either," I replied, helping her stand up again with her left hand in my right and keeping my other hand on her back as we rose from the ground.

"That was disorientating. I don't like that spell; Phantom was right; I should have numbed my senses more before we vanished and reappeared here." Phantom reached out to us and Facilitated a connection between our minds. When I established my telepathy between the three of us, I felt dizzy and nauseous, and a headache started to form like it usually did when I was stressed or tired. Still, it was worse today with the disorientation of teleporting and the exhausting run for little more than a 4th of an hour. "Are you too alright? "asked Phantom in our minds. Phantom looked left and right at me, Sopheia, with worry since Sopheia was holding her hand to her mouth, looking like she needed to hurl again, and was holding my left hand to my forehead, casting a Frost spell trying to combat my headache. "Yeah, I'm fine," said Sopheia out loud. I' ’m just feeling a little sick because I didn't use enough majic to brace myself. But I'll be okay in a few minutes," Sopheia said after taking her hand off her mouth, and we all began talking telepathically.

Sopheia: What kind of spell was that? And how did you do that?

Phantom: That was a Light Warp Planar Shift spell. It's a type of teleportation spell all my kind that you humans call Phantom Wolfs can develop as they mature. It works by using the Majic particles in the area you designate to Light Warp and using the corresponding color of majic from your location to fuel the Shifting. The spell also works faster with the support of the majic of the shifted person. The second part of the spell turns your body into light particles to allow for near-instantaneous travel to the designated shifting spot. The iridescent majic that my kin and I use makes the shift into light particles and travel until we run out of light majic without losing consciousness so we can change course if necessary. The colors of the majic liquid you were encased in were of the following elemental powers: dark red for Dragon flames, Light blue for Ice majic, grey for the Majic energy in your magical artifacts, and Black for DARK majic or an untaped variant of Fire majic; Probably explosive majic, lighting, or some other Dragon power. I don't know all the color correlations, but I can tell you that green is natural, brown or medium gray is for earth, and stone is central. Mine was purple, dark blue, and white that blended the others, purple being Phantom majic, dark blue for the ethereal color-controlling majic I use, and white for light majic.

Anyway, that is enough about the spell; for now, I can tell you more later.

Sopheia: Thank you for the information. That's one helpful spell. Can I learn to cast it?

Phantom: Possibly. It takes a delicate balance of light, dark, and color-shifting Majic to cast it. If you don't have one of the spells, you could imbue a majic cultivation support crystal or get a scroll. We Phantom Wolfs have multiple major pools in our bodies that we lose and gain throughout the day. It's a complex situation, so I can tell you about it later in exchange for your help cultivating my Frost majic and if I can get some training with those majic soldiers. I would like to fight them again; they were exciting.

Sopheia: Sure, I can help you with that.

I waited until they were done talking before I made any statement.

Draxson: So what did you want to tell us, Phantom?

Phantom: Yeah, about that. I was checking in on you two to see if you're up to moving for a few more hours. My lighting and color sense tells me it's about 15:40, and the sun will set at about 18:20.

Draxson: I think we……..

Sopheia interjected before I finished my sentence.

Sopheia: Yeah, I can keep going. We need to find a town to refresh our supplies and get rid of our extra gear.

Phantom: Okay, Draxson, how about you? Can you continue

Draxson: Yeah, I can keep going. Are you sure you want to keep going, Sopheia?

Sopheia: Yeah, I can keep going. If we don't find a town by tonight, we'll carry this gear tomorrow and go through our supplies faster to keep up with the additional weight. If you're worried about me collapsing from exhaustion, you don't need to worry because I'm fine. I'll be fine. So, let's get going.

I replied aloud after Phantom said we should continue east in an hour. "Okay, then we'll do that. Let's make you and Phantom's brothers something to eat."

As if summoned by my mention, the two smaller Deep purple and black fur with Light blue accents and streaks akin to lighting bolts appeared like Sopheia, and I did with the exception that their fur began fading. They also didn't glow as bright, and there was a lot more density to the majic fluid encasements, and it spread a meter around their feet. IThemajic levels in the area significantly drop upon their shifting over. It's probably like Phantom said that it takes more majic to transport them since they're still maturing. I also noticed that upon their arrival, the tendrils of many-hued light that flowed from Phantom flickered and disappeared, leaving Phantom less ostentatious. I also observed that the fur of phantom and our other companions were all a dull grey now. Odd. I thought. The magic from other-like creatures may be drawn upon to compensate for the lack of energy. Either way, I'd ask Phamtom about it, but I needed to plan what to make for our meal. I set my backpack down away from all the colored snow. I unrolled my cooking utensil bag along with my sitting pots down on a leather roll. I tossed a few sticks together for my fire before sparking a bright fire and suspending a pot over it with a stone base.

From my cooking satchel, I retrieved two jars of cooking oil and one pouch of sizzle powder for bursts of much-needed energy for our continuous endeavor through the woo.d In addition, I took three-fourths of dried butter encased in dried strawberries; they are usually a snack or dessert when paired with milk and honey. I fetched a small jar of salt and parsley to conclude the foraging of my spices and the like. I detached a smaller bag from my main travel pack filled with dried and wrapped meats. I pulled out the last of the ice boar meat and set it on a cutting board of Blister wood from my home village.

(it was called blister wood because of the splintering phenomenon that occurred when the fortified tree's branches were improperly cut by someone or any other creature was tearing through the tree. The splinters from the tree would extend out from the tree and stab and infect anything unprotected with the splint aliment. But it was a fickle nature tree because when a dead branch was carved correctly out, the Armour or instrument made of the blister wood would so much as be scratched by anything less than a blade of pure titanium. Oh, how I wish I had some, for they make an excellent sheath for blades and fantastic hilts for any blade, and oh, how fabulous of Armor and shields it would make. But Alas, I don't have such fine instruments yet, and I don't have the funds for them now.)

The cutting board endured well under my knife's sharp slashes on boar meat. I made any cuts in the flavor board's top layer. I repaired them with sizzle powder to fill in the scratches and coat my knife when I cut over the board again.

The flavor board was made of delectable oak that repaired any scratches with the seasonings and foodstuffs pressed into the cuts a blade made on it. It was my favorite way to slice my meats, fruits, vegetables, and the like while imparting them with the rich flavor-enhancing umami the flavor board harbored in its fibers. As of now, it was the only power-boosting cooking equipment I owned. It was a gift from my mother, who made it for me, and another for Sopheia to help with cooking on our adventure. I missed my mother, even though it's only been a week. I will write a letter back to her soon. I thought to myself as I finished chopping my onions and prior cabbages for the soup. With my preparations made, I looked over my cut and seasoned pork, cut vegetables, spices, and other seasonings. I was content with everything I needed for roasted Frost boar soup. Behind me, Sopheia tapped my shoulder. Extending something out to me in her other hand. I turned around and accepted her small parcel of fruit powder for a mango and lemon elixir. No majic included, unfortunately.

For now, I wouldn't have access to any more majic ingredients past today until I restocked with the money from the equipment we sell when we eventually find someplace to sell it. "Thanks, Sopheia; I'll be done in about 30 minutes. Could you please prepare a blanket to set our utensils and bowls?" I said while I held the package in my hands, smelling it. "That wouldn't be a problem; I can set that up right away, Draxson," Replied Sopheia in her lovely singsong voice. She gathered the above supplies from a bag and set them on a blanket in preparation for our last meal. After another round of giving thanks, I turned around and began pouring water into my heated pot. The water advances to a boil when it enters the pot as I mix the soup's vegetables, broth, and seasonings. I let the broth cook for 5 minutes before adding the meat, which instantly dropped the mixture's temperature to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit before raising the temperature to compensate.

Twenty minutes later, I had Frost Boar soup resting for a minute after being removed from heat and set on a small metal slab. I grabbed the small bottle of regular honey and glazed the meat on both sides as it soaked in the soup's juices. I grabbed a large pot of clear liquid from another fire, poured some into a large bottle, and then set it down to mix in the soup's broth.

I poured the broth into the clear liquid, and as I emptied the contents of my first pot, the color of the larger pot's contents shifted from clear to red and was stored when it reached the brown color of the mixed-in soup. I only had a gallon of the stuff, but it sure was handy in cutting back on supply consumption. It was a type of substitution that copied the make-up, whatever it was mixed with. How else it works or how exactly it's made.

But I did know it was made from a costly blend of five of the best ingredients in the world, one from each of the five common ingredients: vegetables, fruit, meat, carbohydrates, and usually fine blends of spices or sugar flower nectar.

I didn't know where or how I would get it without consulting the chefs at Sopheia's home. Either way, I would use some of it to duplicate the elixir and make the rest of the soup needed to feed all of us, restore our much-needed nutrients, and hopefully cure whatever Phantom and her brothers were suffering that caused them to lose their colorful presence.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting with Phantom, her brothers, and Sopheia, eating my bowl of boar soup and the occasional compliment of juice from my cup. I chatted with Sopheia about what ingredients to get when we restock our supplies. As Phantom ate, I watched the color and wisps of majic return to her fur and the surrounding area. The food slowly restored her brothers to their full beauty of color as we neared the end of our meal. When they finished their portion, the two half-restored wolves sat down and released a short, echoing bark in contentment as colorful ribbons of iridescent light flew from their faces and paws as slow-rising smoke would.

As a peculiar development, the majic in the area thickened the longer the wolves glowed with radiating color. Interesting, I thought before Phantom's brothers approached me and began licking my face.

I was shocked by the sudden gesture but overcame it momentarily and gave them scratches on their heads. A moment later, they backed up and Yelped what I took as thanks and joy. Phantom said thank you in another shocking development and wrote it in the air.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Part III

Down in the forest

Chapter 9

Draxson pov.

I stared at the fire while I took the night's watch while Sopheia regained her energy from today's training. Sopheia was lying asleep soundly to my right breathing softly, fcand ing the fire. I watched her sleep for a minute, listening to her soft breaths. I reached out my hand and stroked Her soft strawberry-blonde hair. Then I scratched behind her ear, watching it twitch with every scratch. As I rubbed her head, Sopheia made a low, purring noise. I stopped after a minute, looked around our surroundings, and began reading the tome I received from Sopheia’s mother before her unfortunate passing. I opened it up to the most recent entry I was reading.

(Segala Neyko’s research journal)

Section: methods to combat frost disease. Entry 13:

Dear Draxson, this entry contains information that you will find helpful in combating the disease that my darling daughter is bound to develop if she cannot receive the support and manifest the balance of her innate frost majic. I have found in recent years that warm and frost-resistant meals have lowered the disease's hold on me, and I suspect that a stable diet of warm meals and constant exposure to fire can increase the temperature of her core and prevent the disease from forming. In all extreme frost majic exertion cases, lots of rest and warm coverings combat and reduce the first stage of frost developing on skin and fur, making a slightly glossy and slick surface. One thing that has helped extend my life thus far has been constant intake of flame majic and incorporating frost majic to form a secondary majic core to balance the frost core. Frequent and long-term usage of fire from a flame core will leave it weak for a few days as it recharges and grows stronger. Bathing in flames is one of the more dangerous but most straightforward ways to grow in fire core power. If the flames are about 1 and half times body temp and less than 3 times body temp, a frost core will absorb the surrounding heat and flames, increasing average body temperature by a third and increasing power by a quarter for every 3 hours spent in the heat.

Another helpful method to preserve her life and protect her core is constant frost majic depletion to keep her temperature slightly below freezing.

Before I closed the book, I read the final entry.

(Final entry):

Farewell, Draxson. As I'm writing this, I am in the final hours of my life, and saying goodbye to my loved ones has taken the last of my energy, and I only had enough to write these words before you arrived to see me pass.

Keep Sopheia safe, Draxson. I am putting all my faith in you and bestowing upon you my blessing on the condition that I know you will fulfill. Don't let my Daughter hold rage in her heart; please resolve issues with her immediately and keep her from tragedy, for it may ignite her frost core and cause suffocating cold temperature throughout, leading to heavy usage of her frost that will, in turn, make her call upon the transformations of our ancestors for enough power to snuff the internal flames. Upon her transformation, she will grow about 5 times in size in the form of a large cat, and the frost unleashed from that form will be catastrophic, shortening her life span by half and inducing stage three, the final curable stage, and stage 4 of the disease within days without treatment. If this ever happens to my girl, you must subdue her and take her to your father immediately for the cure that comes from the flames of his homeland and lineage.

Farewell, Draxson. Until we meet again, I love you and want you to care for Sopheia and make her happy.

I have added my blessing below, and it will activate upon your marriage if that happens, and the other half of the spell will come from her father.

Below was a blue paw print with flowers growing from it and inscribed with runes surrounding it. There were several empty pages in the book for me to make notes and a fire spell at the end to supposedly subdue Sopheia if it ever came to it. I finally closed the book and hid it in my bag again. I once showed it to Sopheia, but she cried when she read her mother's handwriting, and I've been weary of mentioning it or showing it to her except when she wanted the comfort of reading her mom's handwriting. She usually reads the section made for her and some of the spells. She also had a memorial crystal that let Sopheia relive her favorite memories of her mother. On rare occasions, she would be able to reach out to the realm of her ancestors and talk with her mom, but she hasn't told me of any such occurrence.

I pulled a fist-sized crystal from my bag and started tinkering with a trap idea. I thought of a warning system that would wake us up and hinder anything while we gathered our bearings to retaliate. The idea was to tie some rope around sticks, stake them into the ground, and attach some crystals I infused with power into knots in the rope. The crystals with offensive majic spells would be buried and activated when the lightly buried rope was stepped on or pulled on. The spells I was using were 2 firewall crystals, an ice wall, an ice mist bomb that would obscure us and gather the local frost to support Sopheia's majic, 3 ice shard traps that Sopheia helped me set up, and lastly, 1 flare-up spell that (I got in a scroll from my brother Freildelian and my sister Dralassis gave me some cooking supplies and said she would be sending me some cake later.) before we left that would increase the strength of the fire to give me more fuel to fight with. The flare-up spell crystal was going to be activated by a string being set on fire attached to the spell-infused crystal and the firewall crystals.

I got the idea when I accidentally activated a majic crystal with fire that shrouded my hand, and it cast a blast-fire spell due to the excess energy. Having the crystal blow up on me wasn't pleasant, but it gave me the idea, so I wasn't too upset. Over the last few days, I've been infusing the crystals with small amounts of majic until they were on the brink of overflowing, which I didn't want to happen, yet I was relying on the tightening ropes to be the final push to unleash its power. I didn't have a lot of crystals left after a few exploded on me or became useless, decreasing my already limited supply. I considered using the crystals as projectiles to clear out distant enemies or assist our escape from conflict. Still, I only had 2 crystals left, and one of them already had an ice spike spell on it. I didn't want to waste any more majic crystals until I got a steady supply. When I got better at making the spell and trap crystals, I would try to sell some for cooking ingredients.

To do that, I finally decided what class I was going to specialize in, I read from a cat-nye military training guide that listed some of the known classes, and the one that matched what I wanted to do was the all-around physical fighter with spells, trapmaking skills, artifact creation, enchantment, ritual& summons “Enhanchafist.” I would also be working on my cooking to become a battle chef for a secondary class; the only thing I need to receive is a class contract to lock in my class(es) so I could learn the skills/spells faster with some training and grow stronger by advancing my classes and while also trying for the class collector. “Now begins my collection of majic and many skillz,” I thought, staring into the fire. I will avenge you, Sharice; I will find your attacker and destroy them for you and your compatriots. I said, holding Sharcie’s badge in one hand and a frostbitten flower I threw into the fire as a sign of my promise. I felt a tinge of frost gather on my hand as the flower burned in the fire. I was marked now, which was the third honor-bound promise I had made. I examined my hand as swirls of icy blue grew from the blue flower vow mark on the back of my right hand. I noticed 8 flowers grow from the central flower wrapping around my hand, stretching its intricate design, and settling for wrapping around my forearm, twisting this and that until my forearm and hand looked like a garden of blooming chilled vines.

Sopheia was probably going to ask about it when she saw it tomorrow morning when I cast my spells. Sopheia would probably be oohing and awing over it when she saw it, and then she would demand to examine it while she interrogated me about where it came from and lectured me on the danger of life vows. I breathed slowly, relaxedly, saying, “I’ll deal with the lecture tomorrow. It is time to set up the defenses and finally get some rest.” As I attempted to sleep, I was reminded with the memories of my first and second life vows. I remember years ago as I watched my friend be torn apart by demonic weapons just, and he was just out of my reach. I swore by the forces of life as they stood and continued to bestow upon me daily strength and life within my body that I would avenge my friend and disintegrate the foul, vile, and treacherous invaders of my home and on the dragon blood that flows throughout me, I will take them all down or die. A large flaming black dragon skull tattoo formed with dark red flames tattoo sprouting from it covered the back and front of my left hand and had the additional effect of strengthening my flames at the significant cost of my Majic and my health.

I summoned a little black flame in my left hand to drain myself to sleep. I dreamed

About the time my village was raided and tossed and turned all night before I was woken up hours later to Sopheia poking me. “Hey. Hey. Hey, wake up, Draxy.” Sopheia said as she began stepping on me. “I made you breakfast since you’ve been asleep for a few hours after sunrise, and I decided to let you sleep while I cooked, but you’re helping me clean after,” Sopheia stated as she sat on a pillow we use for eating outside. I was glad Sopheia suggested we get a pair of seat pillows since I found sitting on the icy ground very unpleasant that first day. I sat up and stretched, feeling groggy, before sitting beside Sopheia. We were having some crepes with berry jam and the last of the frosting from my dessert reserves. “Oh well, there's still like 14 crepes left so that we would have dessert and rare breakfasts in the day ahead. I hope we find a village or something soon so I can restock, negotiate some recipes, and sell some excess food as a thank-you to the inhabitants. That is if we ever found someplace.” I thought to myself

“Mmmm, these are delicious Sohpeia. Excellent quality, excellent.” I said, savoring the last of my crepe. It took all my self-control not to eat more than 2 crepes today; they were just so good, and if I let my self-control go, I would eat another crepe and kiss Sopheia because of their excellent quality. In fact, I gently grabbed Sopheias hand and kissed her left hand while gently holding it.

“Those were excellent crepes, madam; I am very blessed by the forces of life to have you as a friend, malady. Honestly, it took all the self-control I had not to grab another one and eat it before… “Haha, haha, you’re a glutton, Draxson,” Sopheia said, laughing at my statement before I finished what I was saying. “ I was saying it took all I had not to eat another one and kiss the lovely chef in front of me right now because of how expertly they were crafted.” “There is no reason to reiterate that you're a glutton I already know…….” Sopheia said before stopping as she realized and tried to comprehend the last part I said. Bright pink flooded her face upon hearing the kast of my statement, and then she spoke. “Really? Would you do that? they were that good, Draxy?” Sopheia questioned as she messed with the scarf around her neck. “Yes, I would have. They were super good. The best dessert I’ve ever had. It's so close to topping the food of my father's homeland. I think the next time would be even better. In fact, if I get ahold of the right ingredients, we could make this three times better. You're putting me and my 4 years of food education under my masterful mother to shame.

You obviously paid more attention and got extra lessons. Though I'm not complaining, I wish I could have gotten a few more lessons.” I rambled, but before I could rattle out anymore, Sopheia Spoke up, discontinuing her fidgeting. “Drasxson. Do you mean the things you said? because I want to know before I get myself hurt.” Sopheia Asked with her hands together in front of me, holding eye contact with me. I was in a corner and finally had to confront my feelings for her. I've been putting it off for as long as possible, but now I have to act and finally admit how I feel about her. Scores of memories of Sopheia smiling at me crossed my mind, that beautiful big smile and the way her beautiful hair flowed in the wind, making every moment I looked at her feel like I was viewing a painting. I used those memories to motivate myself, contemplating if today was the day I would confess to Sopheia how I felt and hopefully not come off too strong and make her uncomfortable. "Oh well, what's the worst that could happen? I'm still fortunate to have her as a friend, even if that's all this ever is. I breathed in deeply and exhaled before I entertained the idea of confessing. (“Sopheia,” I said as I reached out for her hands and wrapped my hands gently around hers. “Yes, Sopheia, I meant every word.”

“It brings me great joy to be your friend for all of these last 7 years, and it has brought much happiness to me being around you, Sopheia,” I said, watching Sopheia look at me silently as her face somehow reached a bright hue of pink I’d never seen before. I looked into her sparkling, lovely eyes and smiled before continuing. “ And I haven’t been honest with myself and have pushed away all of the thoughts and fantasies of your beauty, but I've found it very hard to keep it within for any longer since I've been alone with you for the past couple of weeks. It's time I told you what I've wanted to do for so long. Sopheia Ney-ko, I want to finally admit that you are the most beautiful person I've ever met in this short life of mine, and I want to say that you embody the beauty of character and reflect your mother's loveliness. You are gorgeous, Sopheia, and I just wanted to say I adore you. I dare not say love(for I don't understand these emotions myself) yet, but I really like you, Sopheia, and I sincerely hope I'm not coming off too strong.” I said before Sopheia made a reply.

“Draxson,” she said before she embraced me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I never thought you would never leave your shell and tell me how you felt. I Like you too, Draxson. I’m glad to be your friend as well. I always hoped you would finally tell me how you felt one day before I put my heart on the table. I want to be with you forever. You make me happy and bring me more joy than annoyance. I can put up with your silliness for you being my partner.” Sopheia then pulled back with tears rolling down her cheeks, and I realized I, too, was crying with joy.“Draxson,” Sopheia said with yearning in her voice. “Come here,” she said before she leaned in for a kiss. I leaned in as our lips conjoined and pressed together as we kissed for the first time. Sopheia wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed herself against me as she held me tightly around my neck. “I love you, Draxson,” I heard Sopheia whisper in my ear as she pressed herself against me tighter and placed her head on my neck. As we hugged, I wrapped my arms around her.) maybe that's how it would go if I really admitted to having the feelings that plague and torment me.

The only reason I'm holding myself back is that I thought to myself. "how could someone like her with so much beauty of character rival the most magnificent flower fields written about in books by ancient Friel who claimed such marvelous fields that showing someone its flowers can cure any sadness with just a glance and just by smelling them a dying man could come back to life along with other whimsical effects. And what am I to this Wonderful flower named Sopheia who deserves a class of her own? Could someone so friendly, loving, and empathetic to those around her understand and love me when I have caused so much pain and when everyone around me is at risk of being hurt by my inner powers I can't control? Would she even think of me as a person or as a monster? These are some of the questions I asked myself when I closed my eyes and thought of a response to Sopheia's inquiry. I attempted to open my eyes, but instead of finding Sopheia's face in front of me, as she stared back at me awaiting a response. Instead, I found myself suspended upright in the void of mind.

I've often Retreated to this secluded realm when I needed to think or meditate. Memories rapidly flashed in front of me like large, ethereal paintings(an allusion to memories like a movie scene of someone witnessing memories on TV). The first and most prominent Memory of the sequence was when I tore apart an invader with my Dragon claws 7 years ago when my home was under attack. I shivered. I remembered the sensation as if I was tearing the invader apart. I still thought about it sometimes and had nightmares of the Memory right after I shredded that man. The Memory was of my ascension into the air and the horrified faces of the invaders and my fleeing neighbors alike when they looked upon me as I transformed into a massive flying red Dragon. The screams that followed resounded through my mind as I watched through the eyes full of the burning desire to destroy those who hurt those I loved. I watched myself destroy my hometown and fight with the Friel Soldiers, who eventually subdued me, causing me to change back as I dropped and plummeted from the sky into a pile of ash and rendered unconscious on landing. I curled up asleep, crying and sleeping for 2 weeks, as was relayed to me by my mother and the commander of the Friel Guard upon my awakening in the frozen village. I met and grew up with Sopehia over the last 7 years. Concluding the sequence, the heartwrenching Memory of Sopheia's mother, Sigala Neyko, who was like a mother to me, lying on her bed waiting to give me a final goodbye as she departed from this realm leaving her body behind for us to bury a week later.

I felt tears roll down my cheeks as if I was watching her die for the first time. I closed my eyes to hide from the painful memories until Sopheia spoke gently. "Draxson? Are you alright? What's wrong?" I opened my eyes and felt that my cheeks were wet, and my vision was cloudy as I stared back into Sopheia's soft, greenish-blue eyes. Sopheia tilted her head to the side and and asked me “Are you alright Draxson? Is something bothering you?” while looking back at me worriedly. I replied "I don't want to talk about it. I fear you wouldn't understand and come to despise me if you knew the truth about me." "Draxson, what are you talking about? Why would I despise you...." Sopheia said before I interjected with, " Sorry, I just don't want to talk about it right now, Sopheia." I sighed, "Let's just work on putting these dishes away and training.Please." I said, looking back into Sopheia's worried eyes. "I promise I'll tell you about it later." "OK," replied Sopheia. “Can I give you a hug Draxson?” I was about to object but I quietly said “yes” as she reached around me and wrapped her arms around me in a warm embrace. I wisphered softly “I love you Sopheia” as we sat on our knees holding each other for a moment more before separating again.

Sopheia Pov

“Draxson do you really mean the things you said?” I asked after Draxsons unexpected confession. I looked him in the eyes and watched as he shut his eyes and thought of what he was going to say. Draxson looked stressed as if fighting off something while he was thinking and a minute later tears poured from his shut eyes and I became worried that soemthing was wrong so I asked him if he was alright."Draxson? Are you alright? What's wrong?" I said gently placing my hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture before draxson opened his watery eyes and looked at me. I tilted my head and asked “Are you alright Draxson? Is something bothering you?” Draxson replied with "I don't want to talk about it. I fear you wouldn't understand and come to despise me if you knew the truth about me." "Draxson, what are you talking about? Why would I despise you...." he interjected " Sorry, I just don't want to talk about it right now, Sopheia." I sighed, "Let's just work on putting these dishes away and training.Please." I said, looking back into my worried eyes "I promise I'll tell you about it later." "OK," I replied. “Can I give you a hug Draxson?” I sensed he was about to object but he quietly said “yes” as I reached around him and wrapped my arms around him pulling him tight to me in my warm embrace.

Draxson wisphered softly and what i could barely hear was “I love you Sopheia” as we sat on our knees holding each other I smiled inwardly saying “I love you too Draxson” soflty in the conections of our minds as I held him to me and I felt the muscles in my face lift into a smile and I did everything I could to hold my self back from Planting my lips on him and tackling him to the ground and wrapping my legs and arms around Draxson cuddling with him and not letting go until he begged for my mercy as I ferociously kissed his face. I instead kept to those urges to my fantasy and planted a kiss on Draxsons cheek as I pulled back from him and Suprisingly he kissed my cheek opposite to the one I kissed and I felt my face flush bright pink with surprise at the gesture he just made signaling that he’s romantically interested in me. I nearly wrapped my arms around him again and pulled him tightly to me again and tackle him anyways. But I held back thinking to my self that “maybe he wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing and meant to kiss me on the same cheek I kissed him on.

“Oh I’m hopelessly in love with this helpless glutton. Oh my I wonder why the Forces of life sent me this reckless boy, but I’m thank for him anyways. Why could’nt I have just found a normal boy? Actually scratch that I’m glad to have been friends with him and im happy to share my life with him from now on.” I thought as i closed my eyes and flashed a smile at Draxson before I said “lets get to work Draxson”.

After cleaning up and getting ready for training we tested our theory about using the training artifacts as support troops for fights. We ordered them to fight against a bear before they were taken down and had to be extracted after healing and leaving the bear, which we later realized was with cubs. So we left them alone. We were now 20 miles or so out from our camp this morning when I pointed out some movement in some bushes. Then purple figures ran by, and when I pointed it out, bright purple and blue fur wolves appeared from the middle of the field. The bigger of the 3 attacked us and bit at my leg. I'm glad I wore pants today because that would have hurt more otherwise. The battle began, and Draxson and I brought forth our weapons. I unsheathed my sword and slashed out, leaving a shallow cut in the wolf attacking me. I jumped back as the nearest wolves lunged at me, and I watched Draxson tackle one of the approaching wolves, smacking them out of the air and pinning them to the ground while he fought with twin rusted and chipped daggers.

Draxson struggled with the wolf trading slashes until the most enormous wolf chomped down hard on his hand, fussing him to wince and give up the other dagger, and began slashing at the most prominent, fastest, and most colorful wolf. I dodged the wolf attacking me and made a brad cut from its midsection to its front left leg, which caused it to trip. I backed up as the wolf rapidly rose from its prone and swiftly retaliated, ignoring its pain. I tried dodging, but as I lept far to my left, the wolf who was 4 meters to my right appeared in a flash of light and bit at my boot, forcefully removing it. I kicked at it with my other booted foot, kicking it with my left across its head, knocking it back 2 meters and fracturing its jaw from the sound of snapping bones. When I prepared to fetch my boot, I am tackled by the wolf that decided to stop mauling Draxson and shift its focus on me. I struggled to keep its jaws off me while I held its jaws in long enough to grab a dagger. When I finally caught my left dagger, I stabbed the wolf in the neck, striking and breaking a colorful barrier. Thank the forces of life that my blade enchantment pierced through the alpha wolf’s iridescent barrier. When I got the wolf off of me with the shining blade in its neck, colorful blood, and magical fluids flowed from it, similar to when the leading wolf phases out with majic; I scrambled to pick up the artifacts that I had dropped from my bag when I was tackled. I'm glad I decided to stow them where they were easy to reach.

As I crawled to the nearest artifact, the alpha wolf dragged me away before Draxson clawed his wolf good and then took down my wolf. When the wolf was pulled from my legs, I reached for a training assistance artifact and summoned it at difficulty 7 with a spear, shield, and a set of medium armor before throwing it towards Draxson to activate on top of the wolf. Moments later, the artifact animated and began bashing the wolf with its shield while Draxson slashed at it. I fumbled at the other artifact and attempted to toss it to Draxson before my arm was cut, bit, and pinned to the ground by the previously staggered wolf. “Augh,” I cried out, coughing blood as I was stepped on. A wolf tried for my throat, but luckily, my scarf protected me as the knocked-down artifact finally activated and fought against the wolf.

With the support construct finally pulled the wolf by its neck and began bashing and slashing the increasingly crippled wolf. The wolf barked many woofs of distress, summoning the second smaller wolf fighting Draxson to attack me. Unlike its brethren, this wolf used small bolts of light to attack and blind me; luckily, I could avoid the blindness because my scarf obstructed my view. I grabbed at the wolf blindly until I grabbed a thick chunk of fur and began pummeling the wolf as it yelped for support from its more prominent ally. I was close to choking the wolf out to avoid killing it before my right shoulder became dislocated as I was bit and violently jerked by the more enormous wolf. As I heard a "Snap" as the wolf jerked its head side to side violently. I felt my arm dislocating with every violent twist, I looked to see the large wolf destroy both artifacts. It bit one of them before disappearing into its armor-set form on the ground for the duration of this battle. I cried in pain after the shock of almost literally having my arm torn off my body. Drasom rushed to relocate my arm by forcing it back into place while I screamed in pain at the procedure.” Hang in there, Sopheia,” Draxson said, lifting her and backing up while the wolf gathered its fallen brothers or sisters, defending them and snarling at us.

The battle began when the wolf went on the defensive of its kin.

The dark purple-furred wolf glowed in its presence, and many bright light orbs and rays radiated from it as she snarled back at us, defending her allies. We stood in opposition, shield in my left and sword in my right, and Draxson held two spears and wore the leg portions of armor, along with flames radiating from him.

Chapter 9 ends.

#beta reading #books #indie author #new author #fantasy #book writing

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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PART II

Out on adventure chapter 8

I woke up to the delightful perfume of a duck curry and the sound of Draxson delighting in its taste. “MMM, that is tasty.” I slowly sat up, rubbing my head, when I noticed Draxson sitting near a pot on a fire and a spot with plates and silverware. As I sat up, Draxson noticed and immediately came to me, enveloping me with a gentle hug. “Oh, Sopheia, I'm so glad you’re awake. I was so worried about you,” whispered Draxson as I heard tears in his voice and wet drops on my neck. “Oh, forces of life, thank you for keeping my lovely friend safe,” said Draxson in a whisper I barely heard. “I can't leave you alone; you would be miserable without me. Who knows what you would do? You might just burn down this forest, eradicating any trace of enemies.” I replied in a devious tone.

“And also, did I hear you say ‘tasty’? I thought you were more eloquent than that. Don't tell me you're becoming uncivilized. No wonder you've been eating like a beast, already succumbing to your primal instincts.” I said, teasing Draxson. “Hey, that's the first thing you think to say when you wake up recovering from such a nasty wound?” questioned Draxson. “Of course not, I'm kidding. I missed you too. I'm thankful for Draxy. I've fallen head over heels for my rescuer; such a breathtaking performance deserves a reward.” I said mischievously, with a plan in my head as I leaned closer to Draxson. Draxson let me go and tilted his head in confusion. “Good,” I thought.

“Oh, come here, you hunk, give me a smooch,” I said as I puckered my lips and approached dangerously close to Draxson’s elven lips." At the last moment, Draxson pulled away, but not before I planted a fat, wet kiss on his left cheek. “Hey, why did you pull away?” I said as I flashed him a bright smile. “Well, let's eat this delightful-smelling food.” “Thank you for the food, Draxson,” I said as Draxson and I dug into our meal. “Mmmm, this is really good Draxson. Did you imbue this with any majic?” I asked in between scooping another bite of the curry. “ I used some slow regenerating honey, restoration herbs, and some focus and minor dexterity boost peppers,” replied Draxson after chewing a mouthful.

“I got the restoration herbs from your familiar Comet. He flew over here a while ago to drop them off, and that reminds me: I also turned some of the herbs into a basic wound-healing paste for that nasty cut on your side and those minor scratches around your arms. The herb is ready when you're done eating.” added Draxson. “Thank you Draxson. Did you give Comet a majic worm?” I said as I placed another bite in my mouth. “Mmm, so tasty,” I add as I delight in another bite of the curry. “You see to be the one losing your eloquence, Sopheia. Yes, I gave him some Majic worms from the bag I took off you when I took off your cloak and set it aside when I was checking for additional wounds,” replied Draxson after he finished his portion.

“I’ll have to extend my thanks when I see Comet again. I love that bird; he works so hard. He tells me a lot about his beautiful family. His missus laid eggs a while back, and they’re close to hatching…” I said as I began rambling about My Familiar until I finished eating. Draxson had a third serving but only two because I needed the energy to recover. Draxson and I split a majic restoring brownie to top off our energy. “We only have one more portion of the duck curry for when you're hungry again. Also, here is the healing paste.” Said Draxson as he packed up the food, cleaned his dishes, and handed me the healing paste that I had applied and rubbed in my minor scratches. I turned away from Draxson, who was still occupied with cleaning and packing, as I lifted my shirt to use the healing ointment on the cut right below my chest.

I wondered how a cut managed to form here when it didn't leave a scratch on my armor when I inspected it. “I guess the skeletons could cut past armor and clothes without marking them.” I thought to myself as I finished my minor cuts, reached for the dagger holding the scarf tightly around my waist, and winced at the pressure. “Hey, Draxson, can you help me with this scarf around my waist and apply the healing paste?” I asked as I tried to loosen the scarf again before giving up. “Yeah, sure, I can help you, Sopheia,” replied Draxson as I watched him finish packing his supplies and bringing a small pouch before he kneeled at my side. “Here, you might want to eat this to lessen the pain while I undo the scarf,” stated Draxson as he handed me the small pouch with some chewy berries to occupy me while he undid the makeshift bandage. I plopped the chewy and sweet berries into my mouth as my body yelled at me while Draxson unwrapped my waist.

Upon exposure, my wound slowly bled while applying the healing paste to fill it in. The paste began working right away as it steadily closed my wound. I barely felt the pain as I was being healed; I Would heal it later if it was still there after a few days. When Draxson finished rubbing in the ointment, he spoke up and wrapped my waist in a bandage. “Hey, Sopheia, I just noticed you got some really thick fur. Has your hair always been like this?” Draxson asked as he finished up. I looked down and noticed what he was talking about. I was still in the state I was in my dream. I also found myself more toned in my arms, and my leg muscles bulged where my socks were before I saw them bunched up around my ankles. "Probably from when I was grabbed by that one skeleton," I thought.

“Hey, I also noticed that your shirt is stretching slightly, and your shorts are a little high. Are they supposed to be this short? Did the frost shrink them?” “. . . . Hey, what do you mean they're high up? Are you trying to look at my legs? I questioned furiously. “ I saw Draxson's face loosen as he looked at me, and he calmly said, “No, it's just your clothes that look smaller on you than when I was examining you for cuts and bruises. Also, you have a bruise where that skeleton grabbed you on your lower thigh. I calmed down as I examined my clothes to find them smaller than when I put them on today. I didn't think I would need to wear my larger clothes this early. I thought I could wear this for a few more months before growing. I suspected that with my muscles expanding, I grew a little in this new form. I began feeling a little guilty for being mad at Draxson.

“Hey Draxson. I'm sorry for yelling at you.” I said in an apologetic voice. “It's OKOK, Sopheia. I forgive you,” Draxson chimed back. “Well, let's get you up so we can examine those skeletons before it gets dark so we put on a dozen more miles or so before we set up a camp,” Draxson said as he stood up and offered me his hand. “ If you’re ready to go on Sopheia,” he added. “Yeah, I'm ready to move on once I re-equip my gear,” I replied, taking his hand and hoisting me up. “Alright, then I will grab my bag and get some stretches in,” stated Draxson as he grabbed his pack. I watched him stretch before I put on my armor, cloak, and weapons and donned my bag. I tapped Draxson on the shoulder, saying, “Come on,” and then searched the skeletons.

Draxson and I had been walking for a few more hours before it got dark, and we decided to rest for the night and clean ourselves. We had found a few pouches of money on some of the skeletons, and we found a large hard-cover bound book with light majic glowing from it, but Draxton was unable to open it, and I didn't want to rip it with my newly awakened strength accidentally. In addition, Draxson got a decent crystal from the skeleton that severely wounded me and collected some clocks and bone fragments he put into a jar for his cooking. We left most of the weapons as grave markers after we buried the skeletons, wrapped the salvageable armor in the gathered cloaks, and tied them to the tops of our bags upon my insistence that I could carry them. Draxson got a long spear with a frost steel edge and found arrows in the cart they surrounded. We also found a few large bags with rusted daggers inside, and Draxson took the bags and daggers. He attached the bags to the side of his bag, and some of the salvageable dagers were placed in his waist pouches and leg pockets.

After an hour of searching, we decided to camp near one of the larger trees of the forest, and Draxson started cooking something on a fire while I went to the river and warmed up a small portion before I bathed. I sat in the cold water after I stopped using my fire majic since it drew on much more power than my frost. As I relaxed there sitting in the shallow river, I stared into the barely visible stars as the sky went from light orange to purple and then dark blue, thinking to myself. "This is pretty fun, but this has been a rough day. I don't want it to be like this every day. I’ll have to get stronger and be careful from here on." I thought, and after a few minutes, I returned to our encampment. Draxson added the final touches to what looked like thick, meaty sandwiches.

We ate, chatted, and then we went through our supplies before I went to bed. Draxson decided to keep the first watch while he continued to sort his supplies and all of the new equipment while I was tucking myself into my sleeping bag. I slept peacefully, dreaming about sparing Draxson with my new strength. The following morning, Draxson inventoried all of our equipment and totaled 4 dented suits of armor, 21 daggers, 1 spear,20 arrows, and 2 and a half more days' worth of food and a week's worth of majic desserts. We headed out after a soup breakfast and a cookie apiece. We lived out this cycle for a week, occasionally hunting for more supplies and fighting a few wolves now and then, as well as the occasional bear.

Since Draxson and I began this journey together, his sleeping habits have been a bit… aggravating. I can't count the times I wanted to kick him in the chest for all the noise he was making in the night. I wonder if it will always be this way when I think about eliminating the nuisance. Yes, kill… kill, I must terminate Draxson…….’s snoring. I got up from my spot and walked over to where Draxson slept. Then I stomped my food into his ribs and began twisting my foot into him like one would squash a bug.

“HEY DRAXSON, you need to stop this snoring. I can’t sleep with all that racket. If you don’t stop, I’ll freeze you every night until you get over this habit.” I said as I continued to rub my shocked foot deep in his ribs. “Hey, what are you doing?” asked a bewildered Draxson. “Cut that out, Sopheia. I'm trying to sleep here,” added Draxson as I dug deeper with my foot. “DID YOU NOT JUST HEAR ME?” I said you need to stop snoring, or you’ll have some uncomfortable sleep in the days ahead. I swear you are just a thick-skulled lizard sometimes.” I replied before I let out an exasperated sigh. “Just shut up, Draxson, and go to sleep,” I said as I lay back down. “OKOK, Sophy, I’ll stop snoring,” replied Draxson.

Surprisingly, I returned to sleep and got some mmuch-needed but I wasn't awakened until whatever Draxson was making for breakfast woke me up. I sat up and yawned as I stretched and scratched my ears. After a moment, I greeted Draxson, “Good morning, Draxson. What are you making this morning?” I asked, rising from my bed and stretching my legs. I looked down and noticed that my clothes had gotten pretty baggy. A week ago, my transformation seemed to depart from me when I checked for the previously thick fur under my shirt. I only found the light patches of fur I had before the change and a nicely healed waist. I rubbed my hand down my waist and felt it fully healed. “I'm cooking a soup from those boars we hunted the other day. Remember how fun it was to capture those?” Draxson asked with a laugh. I remembered the boars and how I hated those beasts.

We were hunting a few days ago when we stumbled upon some light blue boars. I asked Draxson if he could shoot them from the distance we were at, and he confidently stated that he could. Draxson loosed his first arrow, aiming for the boar’s heart, and we witnessed his arrow harmlessly ricochet off an ice barrier surrounding the boar. When Draxson went for another shot with more power, using a frost-coated arrow and piercing through the barrier, it broke as it struck the boar's hide. When Draxson knocked back another arrow, the boar finally noticed us and signaled to the 20 other hidden boars. Who then began pursuing us for an excruciating 4 hours, displacing us many miles from our original direction. I remembered yelling at Draxson as we ran for our lives, “Really, Draxson!?! You couldn't take a single one down? I hope you are happy to have 20-plus ice boars after us.” I had said.

“It’s not as easy as it looks, Sopheia. I put a lot of effort into those shots. Would you like to fight them, Sopheia? Retorted Draxson. “ yeah, totally. I would love to fight 20 boars. Are you that hungry that you want 20 boars?” I asked Sarcastically. “That sounds good, but that's too much and will hurt the ecosystem,” Draxson replied. I slowed down and began summoning frost from the habitat to shroud my fists in a thought that crossed my mind. “This would be the perfect opportunity to test out my strength and grow even stronger,” I remember stopping and turning around while I told Draxson my plan to absorb more frost Majic and asking him to prepare a flame wall to cover our escape.

In the end, I shredded through a few boars and managed to run away with one in between my arms and jumped over the area Draxson flame barricade would form right before he summoned said wall during our escape from the engagement. When I returned to the present, I said: “Yeah, that was Euphoric.” “ Well, anyways, here's your bowl Sopheia. Enjoy :)” “Thank you, Draxson,” I said as I took the bowl of soup from Draxson, and he smiled back at me. I, in turn, smiled back, sat down, and happily ate while Draxson dug into his food. We sat there and quietly ate until I broke the silence and discussed plans for the day. “So I think we should train with my Majic battle simulation constructs today for team training. How’s that sound, Draxson?” I asked as I finished my bowl, set it down, and placed my hands by my sides. “That sounds like a solid plan. We can also bake a power pie with the last Inferno chicken eggs from our reserves and some of our vitality honey and Mana fruit. We can have it just in case we find ourselves in an unfavorable matchup.” Offered Draxson when he, too, finished off his meal.

Later that evening, I was fighting One of my training Artifacts from my father. I was weaving between max setting attacks from the artifact when Draxson stuck an arrow right in its throat, activating the safeguard that powered it off and rendering it disabled when the arrow landed. When the artifact retracted to its deactivated form, I sighed in relief and relaxed after the battle, “Phew, that was a close one, Draxson, you nearly hit me.” “yeah, sorry about that. I’ll work on my aim to avoid a harmful addition to your attire,” responded Draxson as he lowered his bow, standing over 30 meters away. “Hey, Sopheia, do you think we could use the training artifacts to fight other creatures?” asked Draxson as he approached me.

“I don't know Draxson, but that might be a good idea. Do you want to try that tomorrow after we test battling both artifacts at the max setting? I asked. “Yeah, that sounds good to me. Do you want to go for another round against the artifacts? I'll try out using a spear. Then we can spar after dinner if you want to.” offered Draxson. I took Draxson up on his offer as I set up both training artifacts. “Alright, are you ready, Draxson?” I ask before I activate the artifacts. When I received a nod in response, I activated both artifacts and stepped back as the two training constructs came to life with Majic, who charged at me with their spear and shield. Draxson swooped in with his spear and blocked one of the construct's slashes with a spear while I locked into combat, slashing at my adversary with my frost steel sword.

I went for a slash at the leg, which was met with a shield from my adversary, and in response, I delivered a kick toward its head with my right before I ducked and slashed at their legs. I watched the trainer stagger backward before recovering and swiftly jabbed at me with its spear, cutting across the top of my left shoulder. I winced upon being cut and flipped backward before stabbing out at its abdomen, being stopped by a shield and another swipe at me with its spear. I jumped, dived towards my opponent, and rolled behind them for a broad slash from shoulder to leg, scraping against the armor before being smacked with a shield to the face. I was in a daze momentarily before recovering and charging at my opponent on all fours. I slid between its legs before delivering a vertical slash from its head into the ground, deactivating its level 1 protection protocol and causing it to lose its armor. When another jab was directed my way as Draxson and the other artifact clashed between us. I delivered a punch to the head and knocked the helmet off. Draxson knocked the spear out of the hand of the one I was fighting before he rolled to the side and continued his fight. With its spear gone, my artifact charges me with abandon and punches me in the chest before blocking any retaliation. I stumbled back with the force of the punch and took a second to recover before I kicked the shield out of my enemy's hand. With no weapons, the artifact wildly punches out before faking me out and roundhouse kicking me in the side and knocking me over.

Just as I was about to be hammer-struck by my enhanced combat trainer, Draxson’s body slammed into it, deactivating it as he blocked a swing of a spear and bash of a shield. Draxson picked up the shield dropped from my artifact and used it to cover us as he lifted me from the ground.

Draxson drew its attention to the left as I charged around the back, unleashed a frenzy of slashes, and finished the battle in sync with Draxson, Who delivered a punch as I tore through the defenses with my claws and deactivated the battle trainer. The shields and spears the artifacts dropped disappeared and returned to the spell artifact, signaling our victory. I gave Draxson a high-five and wrapped my fingers around his in celebration before taking my hand back after squeezing his. “Good job. That was a nice save.” I said, smiling ear to ear, feeling my ears perk up. “Yeah, that was great. We did pretty well. That was an exhilarating fight,” replied Draxson as he patted my head and scratched behind my ear.

“Hey, what are you doing, Draxson,” I said, grabbing his hand and pulling it off me. “ I stared back at Draxson's handsome elf face and barely kept myself from caressing his face. “Sorry, Sopheia,” said Draxson as he put his hand down to his side. “Let's cook something delicious and bake that pie, Sopheia. Sound good to you, Sopheia?” “Yeah. that sounds good to me,” I replied, following Draxson and helping prepare our meal.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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[SECTION 3]

Chapter 7

Beginning of a journey chapter 7

Draxson and I stepped out into the forest, leaving our home behind, to explore the world and find excitement. We walked through the forest for a few hours before anything of note happened. We suddenly stopped when Draxson pointed out a carved stone with engraved markings. There was a bed of ice-blue flowers around its base. When I looked at it, I remembered Draxson, and I had wandered from the village to explore the forest a few years ago. While walking around the forest, we encountered a lost woman in dented armor, bloodied and limping in our direction. We approached to see what happened to her.

I shuddered, remembering the grave words she spoke. "Run! They are upon us; the Necron is coming this way. Leave me, protect yourself, get as far away as possible." Those were the wounded soldier's words before a cloaked figure manifested from a cloud of green energy 3 meters behind the soldier. The figure radiated swirling black magic and glowed a dark green around his jet-black apparel. His dark green cloak flowed freely in the wind while the Necron stepped forward with green majic flowing from his right hand. The wounded soldier's face dropped, and a look of dread spread all across her face as she said, "It's too late. They are upon us."

"Did you think you could escape the fate your compatriots suffered?" asked the hooded magic user as he cackled. "You're a fool for thinking you could get away. You are going to become my servant for life," stated the Necron as Draxson and I prepared some spells and stepped in between him and the wounded soldier. "You're not going to inflict any more harm on her or anyone else," I said. I remembered the scene in painful detail, shuddering. My attention was brought back to the present with a shout from Draxson, notifying me of a creature up ahead. "Hey, Sopheia, we got a hostile 20 meters ahead. "Skeleton." Let's take it down." “Yeah, I'm on it," I replied while preparing an ice shard.

I launched the shard at the middle of the skeleton's spine as Draxson charged and slashed at one of its arms. The Skeleton Blocked Draxson's strike with its sword. Draxson jumped back as the skeleton slashed at him with its blade, then stepped forward and punched Draxson in the jaw with its free hand, sending Draxson a couple of feet back. I flung another ice shard at the skeleton's sword hand and caused it to drop its sword as its hand froze. Draxson swiftly recovered from the skeleton's blow a few seconds later, then formed a fiery fist and punched a hole through its skull, burning it. Draxson pulled his fist back and said, "This must be one of the old soldiers' comrades they said got possessed.”

“I guess after the last two years under that Necron's spell, the body deteriorated faster than usual,” added Draxson as he inspected the corpse’s corpse. “They got some pretty good stuff here,” said Draxson as he pulled out two small objects. “Here’s the Majic crystal I made with what I could extract. They also dropped a small nugget of frost iron. Oh look, there’s something else,” said Draxson, reaching his hand into the skeleton's cloak and pulling out a small book the size of his palm. “What is it?” I asked Draxson as I stepped towards him. “From what I’m reading, it seems to be a small majic book,” replied Draxson as he rifled through the pages.

“I can understand about two spells so far, but the rest is in a language I don't fully understand,” said Draxson as I looked over his shoulder and recognized the writing.

“I don't understand all of it, but I can make out 5 of those spells. I bet if we sent this to my friend back in the village, she could translate this, and we’d know what this says,” I said as I took the book from Draxson and flipped through the pages. “Your scribe friend?” how will we send it to her without heading back?” “Well, Draxson, I would be thinking the same thing if I hadn't been given something to call a messenger bird.” “Where did you get that from?” asked Draxson as I pulled out a Majic stone, activated the spell, and wrote a letter while I waited. “I got it from my father after I was inducted as an honorary soldier. He gave it so I could update him on what happens here and anything we find.” I replied as a sizeable blue crow came from above the trees and landed elegantly on my right arm. “ Hello, Mister Comet. How are you doing, buddy?” I asked as I lightly stroked my crow’s head while it cooed in contentment. “I have a delivery for you to take to De’lah in the scribes' quarters.” “Caw,” responded Comet. I handed him the book I wrapped in a small paper package while I waited for him. “Here you go. Take this to her, please.” I said as I attached a small letter to the package Comet carried with his talons. Comet replied with a resounding yes with his caws.

“Oh, and here's this buddy. Thank you for the hard work,” I said as I tossed Comet a Majic worm as he was about to fly off. “Bye bye comet. Fly safe,” said I as I waved goodbye when he flew away. “That was pretty cool. It understands what you're saying?” asked Draxson. “Kinda, it can only read my intent and tone for now. As my bond with it deepens, I can speak in its language, and he can speak mine. Eventually, the bond is strong enough to sense whether or not each other is in danger.” “I will also need to get him a cage soon so he can travel with me. Dad says it’s tradition to hand-make the cage for your companion.” “So, Let's get going, Draxson. We should try to get some more miles in before we break for lunch.” I say as I approach the corpse and bury it in the snow, and then I stick its discarded sword at its head for a grave marker. “OKOK,” replied Draxson as we continued deeper into the forest for another two hours and stumbled upon three skeletons hobbling around a wagon with its contents strewn about. “Get ready, Draxson,” I say as I unsheath my sword. “Don't need to tell me twice,” replied Draxson as he notched back an arrow. “I’ll take the one on the far left; you take the one on the right.” I tell Draxson, “Yes, ma’am.” replies Draxson.

I dashed at the skeleton on my left and swiftly sliced its spine, causing it to shriek in pain and fall into two halves. The leg portion kicked at me, and I chopped its foot off, grabbed the remaining legs, and used them to crush the top half of the skeleton before I crushed it with my frost-shrouded boot. While I rushed at the other skeleton, Draxson had already shot the main parts of the skeleton on my right. I punched the skeleton near me in the chest with my ice fist, and Draxson assisted by shooting the skull off. Then, from my left, a skeleton climbed through the frost-covered dirt, grabbed my leg, and retained a firm grip, crushing my lower thigh. I grabbed a dagger from my belt, stabbed the skeleton in the head, and forced it into the ground. Another skeleton appeared on my right, and as it grabbed my arm, I struggled to free my other dagger from the other side of my belt. Draxson shot the skeleton through the arm, and I finished it off with a kick to the chest and broke through its spine. “Thanks, nice save, Draxson.” “No probl....” Suddenly, I spotted movement behind Draxson. “Draxson, watch out behind you!” I shouted at Draxson as a skeleton stabbed him in his right thigh. "Gah!!!" cried Draxson

Draxsons cry of pain rang through my ears, reminding me of the same ear-piercing scream that the soldier gave a long time ago as that Villain took control of the wounded soldier. Once they were taken control of, she screamed momentarily and pleaded for our departure. “Please leave now. I don't have much control left, and it’s agonizing; save yourself, please, and get help.” “No way we’re not leaving you behind," I replied as Draxson. I rushed the Necron and bombarded them with frost and fire, avoiding their puppet's attacks for over 20 minutes. *swoosh* sounded as the Necron shifted away, leaving the still-under-control soldier behind. “Y-you did it, You stubborn kids. Thank y– said the soldier as she began to writhe in pain and let out another scream. I stood there stuck like a log, unable to move my limbs. I watched her scream in pain as she scratched her skin off. I watched Draxson charge into action. He knocked the sword out of her hand and pinned her to the ground while I stood frozen as I did right now as Draxson was stabbed through his leg.

“SOPHEIA HELP” cried Draxson as he struggled against the skeleton. I awoke from my trance and snapped as rage welled up inside me upon seeing Draxson wounded. “DRAXSON” I screamed as I ran to reach him; I pounced upon his attacker and viciously cut the skeleton to pieces.

I First stabbed the skeleton in the chest with my sword, then I brought out my twin daggers and tore at its ribs. Stab after stab, the bones under my blades surrendered under my attacks and shattered them. Way out from the left side of my vision, a robed skeleton charged a spell about 10 meters away.

I flew with a leap to close the gap and take down the wizard before it could cast the spell. A light green orb spun as it formed in the skeleton's hands while the wind visibly swirled around the majic orb. I was 3 feet from my target when the spell unleashed a green breeze that covered me. As the wind passed over me, I felt a chill all across the bones of my body. I went for a slash across the wizard's pelvis with my sword as a gust of wind forced my blade back after I barely cut.

From my left side, an armored skeleton pierced my side with a powerful majic. The magic pierced through my armor and clothes and left a hole the size of my fist, pouring out blood. As I reached to cover the wound, I fell over sideways on top of a sharp rock under me, and I felt a crunch as I broke a rib with my fall. I lay there with my hand being insufficient to stop my bleeding as my cat's blood spilled through my fingers. In my pain, I cried as I yelled for help. The cry “Draxsonnn” roared from my lungs as I stifled my sniffling. “help” exited my mouth, barely a whisper. I faded out of consciousness momentarily as Draxson rose from his spot with bright and shining flames pouring from him.

(Cinematic view shift) As Draxson rose from the ground, his elvish appearance disappeared, and he transformed his face into his red dragon form. His sleeves ripped from his shirt as his scaly arms bulged and dragon claws formed at the end of his draconic hands. Draxson’s eyelids snapped open, revealing his golden flaming eyes. Fire rose from his scaly skin, and a thick cloud of smoke formed behind him. A brief flicker of purple and green flashed over his eyes as he unleashed a throaty “ROARAGH” when flames shrouded his claws and face as he charged the one who took Sopheia down.

Sopheia was in a memory as she lay unconscious and bleeding out.

“Sopheia. Stop standing there and get over here and help me,” shouted Draxson while he struggled to keep the possessed soldier down and from clawing herself. “End the pain. It’s killing me. I’m doing everything I can to keep from Fighting you two. Kill me, please, I beg of you.” shouted the soldier as tears gushed from her eyes as she was stifling a sob. “I-I can't do that, ma’am,” replied Draxson. “Stop being such a selfish brat. You can't save me unless you kill that Necron, but they escaped. The only way you can save me now is to end my pain. Please.” “What’s your name, ma’am?” asked Draxson. “Sharchie Shine. Take the badge from my right pocket, the scroll, and the letters and give them to Sham Shine or my captain SOl Fire in the Sun Shine kingdom.”

“Forces of life, please forgive me,” whispered Draxson as I watched him raise the sword he knocked from the soldier's hand and pierced her in the heart. Sharchie flashed a smile and gave thanks. “Thank you…. ‘Draxson and Sopheia are our names,’” inserted Draxson. “Thank you, Sopheia and Draxson, may the light shine upon you….” replied Sharcie as she cast a light that covered us. She let out her final breath And gave a bright smile as a tear ran across her face. My Memory ended with tears flowing from Draxson’s eyes. The next thing I remember was Waking up to see Draxson shred through my attacker, pull from the fire on his face, and unleash a breath of fire upon the wizard. Then, I witnessed Draxson bring down his flaming claws in an arc through the wizard from top to bottom, leaving a shredded cloak upon a pile of bones. Draxson let out a loud cry with his face to the sky before he slumped down and panted before awakening from his rage and desperately went to his knees and came to my aid. “Sopheia, stay with me!” cried Draxson in desperation. He looked down at my bleeding wound and began muffled words as unconsciousness threatened to take me.

“NO, no, no. I’ll take care of this, don't you worry,” said Draxson, looking down upon me with a worried look before he went to his supply pack, pulled out a light blue paw print-covered scarf, and then picked me up slightly as he began wrapping the scarf around my waist. I winced as he wrapped it tightly around me and let out a small, pained cry as he started tightening the scarf with a sheathed dagger in a knot. “I got you, I got you, it's going to be OK. Stay with me, Sopheia.” cried Draxson, dripping tears on my face. As I fell asleep, I heard Draxson screaming while he shouted my name. The last thing I saw was Draxson crying a river of tears, and this image burned into my Memory as I closed my eyes.

Meanwhile, Draxson held Sopheia to his chest as he momentarily cried for his friend. Without wasting a moment more, he fetched a blanket from his supply pack, covered Sopheia with it, and began a fire to keep Sophiea warm while he cooked something. Draxson poured some ingredients for a broth into one of his pots and started chopping meat to go with it. Draxson attempted to make something to heal Sopheia and sustain her while she recovered.

Draxson pov

An hour and a half later, I heard the familiar cry of Sopheia’s companion, “Caw, Caw, caw.” The bird continued to cry as it swooped down and hovered before me. It had a small bag in its beak, and I dropped it into my outstretched hand. “Thank you, comet buddy,” I said as I placed the bag beside the cooking supplies. I reached for a bag to get a worm from the bag Sopheia fed him the last time. I found the bag, which I placed with the rest of the gear I took off Sopheia when I checked for other wounds.

I only found a few bruises and minor scratches along her arms where the sleeves were torn. I left her in her long-sleeved shirt, lifted only high enough for the bandage to cover and wrap around her waist. I had covered her legs with my cloak to keep her warm. I extracted a worm from Sopheia’s bag and gave it to Comet as I gave his feathery head a gentle pet. “Thank you so much, Comet.” I waved goodbye to the bird as he flew away. I picked up the bag and grabbed the herbs from inside. Then, I prepared them for the food and a paste to fill Sopheia’s wound. I mixed in the prepared herbs and the other ingredients for the curry.

I had made a spicy duck curry with onions, carrots, pepper, medical herbs, rice, soft noodles, honey, and a touch of parsley. I let the curry cook for another 20 minutes before it was ready, and I pulled out a small loaf of bread. I uncovered the lid on the curry and prepared plates and utensils. I persuaded the aroma to surround the area and focus on Sopheia. I tasted the curry with a modest spoonful, brought it to my mouth, and delighted in the lovely spicy and creamy curry. “MMM, that is tasty.”

Sopheia’s dream: I awoke not to the sight of the frozen forest as I had hoped. Instead, I found myself in a pitch-black space with only a tiny blue light illuminating a small area a moderate distance away. I stood up from my sitting position, and as I began to walk, I felt pain all over, from my toes to my ears. I rubbed my eyes to fully awaken myself. I stumbled and limped to the faint light. It became brighter as I approached, and after a few minutes, I was Within my reach. I reached out to grab the light, but my hand passed through the orb of light; when I pulled back, a tall and broad figure formed from the light. When the form was finalized, it depicted a larger-than-normal and furry female cat-nye. I stepped back in fear and asked, “What are you?” “I am the beast that you are supposed to become; I am the transformation your body needs. This is the power of the cat-nye clan. To survive, you must transform and make this power your own. Sopheia, he needs you, so be strong for me, my little girl.” “Mom. is that you?” I asked in surprise at this revelation of the beast knowing my name. “No. I am not your mother; I am your great-grandmother. My power resides in you because you are my youngest kin.”

“Where did you go, great grandma? You went missing, and they couldn't find you.” I replied. “ I AM in the frost realm. I am with the ancestors and the first Frost majic users. I reside partially within your Frost core due to my relation to you.” I had so many questions, but as I began to ask a question, Great Grandma said, “ I don't have time, as inconvenient as that is. I can only help you with one thing, but I also need you to do something for me.” “OK,” I said. “ I will use some of my power to speed the transformation, but I need you to find my daughter to help you cultivate this power.” “This is going to hurt a little and take some time to get comfortable with, but this is only one of the many transformations waiting for you.” I watched my great-grandmother (Silvale) empower me with the earlier blue light and purple majic. I began to feel my body expand as I grew slightly taller and barely wider, and fur grew, covering the spots that the hair under my upper shirt and shoulders did not.

I was left with fur everywhere except my hands, which had slightly more hair than before. As my muscles expanded, that wasn't all I could feel, and the pain I felt before slowly ebbed. “ There, you are so gorgeous, my baby. Goodbye, my darling; see you soon,” stated Silvale as she dissipated into the dark space, leaving me alone again. Moments later, I was starting to feel better as sleep let go of its hold on me. And I regained consciousness.

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Departure(chapter 6)

The following day, Draxson and Sopheia rose half an hour after dawn and gathered their things to meet up at the edge of the village. The two gathered to find that their families and villagers joined to send them off. The chief of the town came up to Sopheia " I give this to you on behalf of the entire village so you can take a piece of you with us,” Said the chief as he handed her a dark blue cloak with hundreds of varying sizes of paw prints adorning the back of the cloak. Sopheia smiled and happily took the gift from the chief. “Thank you, everyone. Goodbye my kin. See you later.” Said Sopheia, raising her voice so all could hear, tears of joy rolled down her face. “Goodbye and good luck, Sopheia and Draxson. Have Safe travels.” shouted all of the villagers in unison.

Sopheia put the cloak on and started walking with Draxson into the frozen forest. Right at the edge of the village, Draxson stopped and spoke to Sopheia. “I-I-I-L-let's do this, Sopheia,” (* what he wanted to say was “I love you, Sopheia,”) said Draxson as he reached out his hand to her. “Sopheia tilted her head in surprise as Draxson extended his hand. She grabs his hand, wraps her fingers around his, and says, “Yeah, let's do this.” "she closes her eyes and smiles, cheeks flushed. Hand in hand, the two gave each other a final glance, and they said. “ "Let's go,” they stepped out, and draxson gave one final cry, “This is where it begins. I'm coming for you, world.” "Pfft” "expressed Sopheia giggling at his response. SECTION 2 End

SECTION 3 preview: Sopheia is having the most challenging time of her life fighting monsters and the harshest temperatures, but the hardest challenge yet seems to be Draxson's snores. Will Sopheia and Draxson succeed in their adventure, or is Draxson going to meet an early end? Find out next month. The first sample comes out next week.

#beta reading #books #indie author #new author #book writing #fantasy

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therealjames-m-thesecond · 28 days ago

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Day 2 & 3 (chapter 5)

Dawn of the next day.

Draxson awoke early in the morning and dressed before leaving his room. He stepped out the door and into the hallway to find his siblings waiting for him. "Did you sleep well, Draxson? Were you dreaming of Sopheia?" Teased Dralaiss as she lightly punched Draxson in the ribs. "Don't you go imagining anything immoral, Draxson.

"Haha. You're so funny, Dralaiss. Let's hurry up and eat to meet Sopheia outside." They went to eat some ham rice and a duck plate with a slice of Caramel apple pie that Solina and Sopheia had baked the night before. As they ate through their pie, Draxson expressed his satisfaction.

"Mmmm, that's good, Mom. Thank you. I'll also have to thank Sopheia for this scrumptious treat." I'll bake some cookies and mango cake tonight. Would you two like to help me?" Asked Draxson, addressing his siblings in between bites.

Yeah, that sounds fun. I'll help to slice the mangos and stir some of the mixes," Frieladelian replied also. I'll help you bake those cookies, and I can make some cream to coat the cake," Dralaiss said as she finished her pie. Draganather walked by Solina in the dining room .

He stopped on his wife's left, leaned down, and kissed her forehead. "Thank you for the fantastic breakfast, honey. Thank you for helping Frieladelian, " said Dragnarther as he sat beside his wife. “You're welcome, my love, " replied Solina as she leaned over to kiss Dragnarther. Draxson finished his pie as he watched his parents when an unexpected thought came to his imagination about how it would feel to hold Sopheia's hands and share a kiss , but he her. He quickly waved away the thought; Draxson was thinking that fantasizing wasn't right. Instead, he thought about the duel that awaited him.

Minutes later, Draxson, Dralaiss, and Frieladelian headed out and met Sophiea, who was waiting for them outside. "We didn't make you wait too long, did we?" Asked Draxson. "I've only been waiting a minute.” Sopheia said before being cut off by Dralaiss.

"Still, you shouldn't make a lady wait, Draxson. And we could have been out here sooner if you didn't eat so much." Said Dralaiss, elbowing her brother. "Hey, I must eat a lot to regain my energy and strength." "efended Draxson.

"She is right, Draxson; you eat nearly double what Dralaiss and I eat. I think Dad's starting to fear you'll out-eat him soon." "greed, Frieladelian. "Will, you seem to be glutinous as ever, Draxson." "chuckled Sopheia. "Will, let's go now."

"Yeah, let's do that. Oh, and thank you for the spectacular pie. I loved it." "chimed Draxson. Dralaiss made a kissing gesture at him from behind Sopheia.

Frieladelian put his hands together and placed them on his face as if to say, "A"w."

"Aww, Draxsons talking to a girl. He's growing up so fast." "eased Dralaiss in his mind.

"Aw, just tell her you love her already." "hipped in Frieladelian. Also, intruding on his mind. Draxson couldn't help but feel annoyed at their remarks, but he did his best to hide it from showing on his face. " You're welcome, Draxson. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I pour my heart into my food."

"Smiled back, Sopheia. "Hey, don't you be stealing our brother from us, Sopheia? It's already sad to see him leave us to adventure." "complained Dralaiss. Sopheia couldn't hide a smile. She blushed and tried to turn away and hide her face from Draxson. She looked over her shoulder to see Draxson blushing, too. She was interrupted by Frieladelian. "We don't have all day for you to stare at each other all day. LeLet'so." "Right, let's get going," "said Sopheia as she walked ahead of the group with Draxson following. Frieladelian and Dralaiss held hands as they followed behind them, whispering.

Ten minutes later, they all arrived at the field where Draxson and Sopheia had spent many hours sparring and training their abilities. "Let's do this," "stated Sopheia as she set her bag down by her and Draxsons shed and stood waiting to fight.

"Yeah, we'll take you both down." "replied Frieladelian and Dralaiss. The fight started with Dralaiss calling upon her draconic magic to summon her wings, claws, and Dragon head. Frieladelian cast a support spell on Dralaiss, boosting her majic. Dralaiss took flight, b-lining towards Sopheia, and Draxson claws out.

Sopheia summoned Frost around her hands, running to strike Dralaiss. Dralaiss reached out to claw Sopheia; Sopheia launched a Frost blast, and Dralaiss dodged, circling Sopheia. Draxson cast a pillar of fire under Dralaiss before she could strike Sopheia. Frieladelian cast a barrier around Dralaiss to protect her from the strike.

"No," you don't, Draxson." "shouted Frieladelian, catching Draxson's attention with a ball of Frost majic from the surrounding snow. FrFrieladelian'slast heavily struck Draxson in the chest. "Oh, I'll get you for that, " shouted Draxson as he launched himself with a blast of fire.

As he flew towards Frieladelian, Draxson shrouded his fist in the fire. He went to strike Frieladelian but made contact with a barrier. Draxson continued to punch out; blow after blow, he struck Frieladelian's shield.

"Good, I'm starting to wear him down. Just a little longer, "thought Draxson as he continued to wear Frieladelian down. As Draxson wore down her brother, Dralaiss frantically clawed at Sopheia, mostly striking solid ice. After many strikes, Dralaiss slashed Sopheia across her left ear with her right claw. Sopheia cried out in pain as she retaliated with a Frost blast.

Upon being hit, the Frost covered Dralaiss, freezing her in place. With her opponent frozen, Sopheia went around and blasted Dralaiss's wings, knocking her down. "Huut oof," "ried Dralaiss as she fell on her face as SoSopheia'soot was on her back, pinning her down. Frieladelian's strength was coming to an end as Draxson broke his shield. Frieladelian stared down at his burning brother in fear.

He desperately tried erecting a snow wall to block his, brothe her but failed. His brother blazed through the snow wall and knocked him down. Frieladelian went down with a loud "Upon." "upon raising her head, Dralaiss could see her brother taken down by Draxson.

As she saw this, she let out a roar and let out flames from her mouth, pushing her head backward and knocking Sopheia over. Dralaiss quickly stood up and lobbed a fire at Sopheia as she recovered.

Sopheia got hit in the chest with most of the flames, barely saving herself from being shot in the face with her ice majic. Dralaiss ran and then took flight with her frosty wings, defrosting them as she flew.

When he saw his sister charging Draxson, Frieladelian yelled at her, "Stop. We're already lost here." Upon Frieladelian's outcry, Draxson shifted his attention to his approaching sister. He launched a fireball at her, and as it flew toward her, Dralaiss used her chaos clones to confuse and distract Draxson.

Draxson summoned a vertical wall of flames to remove all the clones but was struck by his sister from behind, making him stumble.

Frieladelian didn't taste the opportunity to push his brother off of him. He rolled from his spot, stood up, and charged Draxson. Draxson was stretched thin and tried to summon walls of flame around him but got overwhelmed by his sister's slashes and his brother's mirror spells.

Draxson was on the edge of defeat when Sopheia got back up, launched herself forward, pulled Dralaiss off of draxson, and slashed at Frieladelian, causing him to lose his balance. Sopheia shot globs of snow on Dralaiss and Frieladelian, then formed it into ice to keep them stuck.

Sopheia pulled Draxson up from the ground and summoned a large cloud of freezing winds as she tucked her scarf to cover her mouth and nose. Draxson wasted no time to shroud himself in flames.*2*

Minutes later, Dralaiss and Frieldelian surrendered under the pressure of the chilling breeze. "Y"u win. Now, please unfreeze us. I'm lying here. How do you two deal with this? My butt is freezing." "complained Dralaiss as she rose from the snow, massaging herself with her warming flames. "Oh, stop complaining, Dralaiss. You sound like a grumpy lizard, just like your older brother" "explained Sophiea as she looked over at Draxson, helping his brother get to his feet. An agitated expression appeared on Draxson's face briefly before subsiding. Sopheia grinned while Draxson was agitated by her claim but then pouty as Draxson brushed it off. "Well, did you two get the results you wanted?" "asked Draxson, looking at his siblings.

"l I thought it would end like this, but I hoped we could win” "replied Frieldelian with humility Looking down at his feet. “ "l-I was planning to kick your butt Draxson, and I was planning to wear Sopheia down, but you got me good. I won't be as easy to defeat next time, Sopheia.” retorted Dralaiss. “Well it be time for Draxson and I to do some training? Feel free to watch it if you want.” "stated Sophiea as she walked over to a small shed in the field. She stepped out of the shed with a sword on her waist and daggers in her belt pouch.

Draxson followed suit and retrieved a bow and a slim quiver of arrows on his back with a target in one arm and a small training dummy in the other. He set the target down, stepped back 250 feet on level ground, and planted the training dummy where Sophiea pointed 30 meters from his shooting point.

Draxson returned to his shooting point as Sopheia pulled a small artifact from her hip pouch opposite her sword scabbard. With the activation, the training dummy came to life with its metal armor shining in the bright sunlight. The training dummy summoned a metal sword from a small portal and charged Sophiea. The training dummy and Sopheia engaged in combat while draxson stood firing arrows at his target. The first arrow hit the bottom of the second center ring and fired four more shots before hitting the target dead center. Dralaiss and Frieldelian watched the two training for a few hours before they went home. When draxson and Sophiea were satisfied with their training, they put away their weapons and equipment and went home shortly after. As they walked home, Draxson spoke up and asked, “Hey, Sopheia, my siblings and I are making some desserts tonight. Would you like to bake with us before you go home?” Yes, I would like to join you. That sounds fun.” replied Sopheia.

That night, Draxson, Sophiea, and the rest of the Draxson household made various desserts with majic and energy-boosting effects. They sent Sopheia back with some desserts for her, her dad, and her sister. “Later Sopheia. I'll see you tomorrow.” "bye, Selia, see you later. Goodnight” "said Draxson as Sopheia received farewell hugs and then went out the door carrying her sister.” "Later, Draxson” "replied Sophiea as she went out the door. “Bye, Draxxy,” "replied Selia as they closed the door. “ "Draxson, you're fighting me tomorrow. I'm going to see how strong you've gotten.” "stated Draganarther when Draxson's siblings set the table for dinner. “Alright, I accept. I can't wait to test my power with no restrictions.”

Eagerly responded Draxson as they went to eat dinner. After dinner, Draxson went to sleep early after bidding goodnight to his parents and siblings.

The next day, Draxson got up earlier than usual and began working out in his room and studying a majic book before he got up to make Everyone breakfast. Draxson made Sausage, spicy crackers, hash browns, and jelly-filled bread. Draxson set the table and finished cleaning up by the time everyone woke up to seat themselves at the table. “ Thank you for the food.” expressed everyone as they began to eat. When everyone was done, they cleaned together and prepared themselves for the day.

“Later, Dad, I love you. I'll see you later.” "Aid Sophiea as she left her house, leaving Selia with their dad. “B"e Sopheia. Love you, have a great day,” "replied Sopheia's dad (Efai Neyko). Sopheia went to train while she waited for Draxson. After a few hours of training, Sopheia watched Draxson and his dad walk to an open spot in the field. Sopheia stopped training and walked up to Draxson to see what they were doing. “What are you up to, Draxson?” "asked Sopheia as she watched him and his dad stand a dozen meters apart. “Oh, good morning, Sopheia. My dad and I are going to spar Today.”

"replied Draxson.

“Oh, I want to join too.” "stated Sopheia. As Sophiea took a stance, a cat-nye soldier approached her and told her that her father had summoned her. “Aww, OK. I'll be right there.” "responded Sopheia as she followed the soldier to meet with her dad. Minutes later, Sophiea approached her dad, standing before 100 soldiers in formation. “Yes dad, you summoned me?” "sked Sopeia. “A There you are, my lovely daughter. I asked for your presence because it's time for your battle readiness test. Could you hand me your training artifact controller?” replied her dad as he turned to look her in the eyes. "Here you go, Dad.” Sopheia said handing her dad the enchanted stone and metal disc Efai took the artifact and examined it. "Well congratulations you've completed difficulty 7 out of 12.

You're going to be advanced now to difficulty eight the next time you use the training artifact.” Happily expressed Sopheias dad. “ "Today, I'm having you spar with all of these women and men that protect our village every day to test your capabilities one last time before you leave the village.” "stated Efai. “Are you ready Sophiea?” "Yes, I'm ready," replied Sopheia as she unsheathed her Sword. The Sword was dual-edged and had many ruins down the middle of it that lit up with a bright blue light. The hilt of dark oak encasing the blade's iron handle had no hand guard yet. “Begin” shouted Efai as a majic bubble was cast over Sopheia and the hundred soldiers. Her dad outside the bubble along with his officers.

“All armor will only endure one strike per piece. Lose three pieces, and you are finished.” "shouted Efai's second in line as a breastplate, full face helmet, and metal plates covered the top of SoSopheia'shighs and above her knees. When the plates set in, Sopheia charged forward to the closet Soldier, slashed at their chest plate, and was blocked by a shield. Sophiea pulled a dagger from her correct belt pouch and slashed at the soldier's leg armor. She slashed one leg plate off war, ripped her leg around it, and brought the soldier down, bringing another leg plate within her range. She slashed the plate, and it fell off, and she froze the arm that held the soldier's shield, causing them to lose their grip. As four soldiers approached her, she slashed at one on her left and slashed a chest plate before the back of a sword struck her left arm. Sophiea winced at the mild pan as she kicked the soldier down.

Sophiea threw a dagger at their chest plate. The soldier that was downed first rose and immediately teleported out of the arena as their chest plate fell off with the dagger in it. When Sopheia switched targets to a soldier in the middle of the advancing formation, her Sword was smacked out of her hand by the hammer of a soldier on her right. After being disarmed, Sophiea shrouded her claws in Frost and began slashing through the soldier's defenses. Using her agility, she avoided dozens of strikes before losing a single-leg plate. By the time Sopheia lost all her plates, she took down 47 soldiers and removed 172.

“ The battle readiness test is over,” "shouted the officer as they dispelled the enchantments and majic bubble. “Very well done, Sopheia; you've proven yourself to be very talented at taking on multiple enemies at once and avoiding their attacks.” Said Efai when Sopheia teleported in front of him with the soldiers back in formation.”. At the same time, this was just a test. You could probably only take down 1 to 2 of these fine soldiers if this was a real fight.” "plainly stated Efai. Sopheias smile ceased when she heard that. “But power doesn't come from one's strength. It comes from the ability to work together that increases the squad's fighting power,” stated Efai before continuing. “Sopheia Neyko, you have been deemed a fledgling soldier. Please step to my head officer to claim your uniform, insignia, sheath, and handguard for your Sword.” "Sopheia's ears perked up as she stepped in the direction of the head officer.

“I am proud to present Sopheia with your equipment and spot in our ranks.” Sophiea took the cat-nye uniform shirt, pants, shorts, a white cloak that transforms into a bandana for easy storage, and her pure white scabbard and silver handguard. Lastly, Sopheia received a small half-snowflake clip for her uniform shirt, which made her a recruit for the Cat-nye army. “ I introduce you to the newest honorary member of the katis army of Fornull.” "stated the officer as claps of congratulations sounded from the soldiers.

Sopheia left the congregation and changed into her new uniform. When she was ready, she went to the field where she found Draxson on his knees with his hands on the ground while he desperately gasped for air; he had many burns along his body.

“Well, son, that's the difference between our power, but you did very well, son,” "aid Dragnarther as he cast a healing spell and brought draxson back up to his feet. “Draxson, being weak isn't a death sentence; being weak is the greatest strength you can have because your potential is limitless, and you can find new ways to be strong.” "I think I understand. Being weak gives us better ways to be strong. "I'll do my best, Dad. I won't let you down.” "responded Draxson happily. “ " I know you'll do great things, Draxson. Now go explore the world.” "said Draxson's dad as he hugged him. “Hey Sopheia, what's with the uniform?” Draxson asked "I've seen initiated as an honorary katis army scout division.” “Oh, that's awesome, Sopheia. Congratulations.”

"Thank you, Draxson.” "Well, are you ready to go, Sopheia?” "Yeah, my bag is packed, and I'm ready to leave tomorrow morning.” "Alright, let's go home to all have a meal together,” "said Draxson, following his dad. Come with us, Sopheia. We invited your father to eat with us before we send you off tomorrow. “A"right, I'I'moming.” "The two families had a nice dinner together the night before Sopheia and Draxson left for their trip.

#beta reading #books #indie author #new author #fantasy #book writing

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