The timeless moments that happens in one life are strange and almost non-existent if you don’t realize about them
For Juran Miles there has been two, and strangely enough both of them has been because of an arrow
Common situation but with different results, but what affected Juran the most in those two was only one thing
Helplessness
Juran is extremely talented, but his talent resided on magic, specifically in the divine ways of it
But he wasn’t born with the talent he strived for
And that was combat talent
A gift two of his siblings were granted, something the man before him excelled to unimaginable heights
Not even when he strived and worked for it, not even when he puked blood and destroyed his body and bordered the limits of mental exhaustion using selfheal
Deciding from an early age to live with the soldiers and train with them he never gave up
Looking up for his big brother and being proud of his younger sister who are physically talented
Even after all his efforts he could never be like his brother, not even when he was considered a genius by everyone, Juran always sought that, thus the people remained silent and just watched over him, his older brother proud and his younger siblings with respect and worship
But the more he trained the more he felt his own limit
And then, when that first arrow was directed to his heart he truly felt it, that helplessness of just waiting for ‘it’ to come
As he devoted every fibre of his being on moving and helping Ardha get out of the path of the projectile, he noticed a slight stream going around Ardha’s armour
Thus, instead of dedicating his being on moving he simply watched, capturing this moment with his eyes awed by the sight
A single motion from taking his scabbarded sword out in a single line
‘But it’s too late’ grimaced Juran on his overdriving mind
Then, a feeling of drain surged in Juran’s body, knowing the feeling very well he immediately deduced it from Ardha’s very peculiar set of skills
Losing almost all his buffs, Juran just watched as the arrow slightly slowed down because of the Annulment camp
Feeling the effect coming off, another thing appeared in front
Darkness appearing out of nowhere, taking an irregular shape like it was alive and desperate to protect its master, but it was incomplete
The arrow went through the Dark Coat almost unaffected, but Juran noticed it
Ardha’s motion which seemed late before was perfect, like cutting through space into a fine unchanged line, not even a single hesitation on the movement, as if everything was premeditated
Juran finally believed it when the metallic sound between a sword and an arrow reverberated through the space
In less than a second Ardha didn’t simply react to the upcoming projectile he used multiple skills and calculated the right timing for everything
Such a thing that Juran even doubted his siblings could do the man before him pulled it off
With a last emotion, the moment passed and with it time came back
Watching ahead, a silhouette appeared, the most catching of that was not his shape, the skill that was displaying or even that swinging shape that came from its back, it was those deep golden eyes full with shining brilliance
But even with that catching figure, Juran noticed that pale shine of blue flowing through the slightly shaking right hand of Ardha
All things went away for Juran at that very moment, and a single thought remained like second nature to him with a slight smile
‘I have to train more’
But that second time...
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‘Crap, I blacked out for a moment there, the action was too abrupt’ I thought as I feel my feet stumble slightly
A slight headache roamed inside my head and I use my water element slightly to heal my right hand because of the fast motion, but despite all of it I am feeling really excited
‘I finally can use the fourth element enhancement now! Well, maybe not now, but definitely when my Elemental Enhancing reaches advanced level 5!’
Using four elements has been an impossible task even after struggling for month, even after I could control 3 elements like normal and with few strains going further than that has been a pitfall every time I dare try… like the last time I ‘succeeded’
God that was awful, my whole body broke apart like a glass shattered by a rock, if it wasn’t because of Juran, Peko and my water element I would have died right there
‘But now I have an answer, it will be really hard though…’
Suddenly I hear a noise and I wake up from my thoughts
Deep golden eyes appeared from the dark along with a silhouette hidden by the shadows that was getting closer and closer
‘So they are finally showing up… well, at least one of them is, but that shape…’
Seeing the shape of what its coming closer we ready our weapon but something is amiss with it
Surprise arise from our faces when its body comes to light
Human facial expression with azure scales extending from the cheeks to the rest of its body, deep golden eyes that are alert to everything, azure blue hair and a tail that just about reaches the ground, wearing leather armour and having a bow and two daggers as equipment
Watching each other for a second i finally ask the first thing that comes to my head
“That attack was really good”
As if taken aback slightly by that comment the ‘man’ before me answers
“Eh, thanks…”
Without letting him finish, my fighting spirit and my killing intent comes out as I look at him at the eyes
Flinching for a moment because of the sudden imposing aura I give he takes a step back and put his hands on both of his daggers in a split second ready to fight as other presences that were hidden comes out to back up the fellow in front of us
But without taking notice of that I just continue saying
“But if you dare do that again I by myself will split you in half with the rest of your friends”
Without getting out from his stance he nods his head and I calm down, asking the second thing that comes to my head
“Are you Scardi?”
Because of his already tense mood he flinches at hearing my words
“Who sent you?” He asks back without answering my question, taking his reaction in count then I assume he is Scardi
“Azalea”
His eyes sharpen for a second and then he relaxes back as he gets out of his fighting stance
“I am sorry about earlier I needed to test you, it has been told to us that human reinforcement might come by the name of Azalea, but when we saw your numbers… well, you have proven that you are strong, my name is Grudell Scardi”
“I understand, we are just a few but you can trust us, my name is Ardha” I tell him then one by one my companions star saying their names
“Juran”
“Isa”
“Vladi”
“Aren”
“Luer”
“Kiner”
“Arksen”
“Zenith… and you should tell your friends over there to introduce themselves too” says Zenith while pointing with his face to the direction of the other presences
Grudell nods and waves his right hand
Five other people like Grudell appear, by the looks of it there are 2 females and 3 males
The females introduce themselves first, both of them identical to each other with short dark green hair and scales with golden eyes, the only difference is that one has a bracelet on her left hand and the other on the right
“I am Sili and the one on my right is my sister, Jun” says the one who has the left bracelet Jun only nods a bit warily
“My name is Hein”
“And I am Pux”
Two of the males introduce themselves; Hein has a smaller build with brownish scales and hair with dark brown eyes, and Piure has about the same build as Arksen with pale green scales and hair and his eyes are light brown
The third one just stays silent while watching me at the eye, pitch black scales and hair with sky blue eyes and a built of about 2 metres with bulging muscles, instead of daggers he has a huge sword like Zenith’s
Grudell steps up and introduces him “He is Isca, he isn’t someone of many words but you can trust your back to him”
Before I could say anything, Isca speaks up “He doesn’t need it”
Grudell’s eyes widens a bit but he returns back to normal after taking a glance at me
“Nice to meet you, do you guys eat meat?” I ask while smiling
Surprised at my question, the Scardi people just say yes and I start getting ready for cooking
Looking at them and my group I say “Sit down everyone”
Nodding, the group sits down, the Scardi group are a bit dumbfounded at my sudden relaxed attitude but shrugged it off nonetheless
While waiting for me to finish cooking, Kagito asks Grudell with a serious expression “Do you guys have any information about Dorek’s army?”
Grudell’s eyes narrow and everyone gets serious, nodding he answers “Yes, it might not be recent but I can say that it should border the 9000s by now”
Hearing those numbers a sinking feeling befell on us
“9000… and I guess it is still growing?”
“Yes”
“That’s quite a number but it doesn’t really mean much of their true fighting force, are there more like Cha Cha?” Zenith asks
Grudell nods with his eyes closed and takes a deep breath before he starts talking again
“Yes, Dorek has 4 commanders at his disposition who are at the very least at Cha Cha’s level… well, 3 now, the fact that Cha Cha was around here took us by surprise but luckily you guys could defeat him”
“Three…. This is getting harder by the minute…”mumbles Kagito
I think for a second and say “I guess we will need her help… Kagito, take one for the team and pm Eliana and tell her about our situation”
“Ugh… Ok” Kagito accedes with a sour look and start speaking with Eliana in PM
While Kagito speaks I ask Grudell “And how about you guys, how many are you?”
“Ha! We are a lot, if we take together our whole race we should amount to at least one hundred thousand… but our race is quite divided” Grudell says it while having a self-mocking face, the others have a sour expression on their faces too
“What do you mean?” Asks Isa with an intrigued face
With a thoughtful look Grudell says “Well, if we convince the nearby tribes we can amount to… 3000 thousands at most”
“Oh… where are the others then?” Asks Vladi
“Well, they are in other regions of the Plains of Gauder and some are in others parts of the Continent” Answers Grudell
“Oh…”
“Well, with 3000 plus our reinforcement it shouldn’t be that impossible to win if he attacks us…” Says Juran with a grim face as he knew what was coming
As expected, Hein shakes his head and says “Dorek’s power and army are still growing he will obliterate us by the time he decides to attack us”
“How is his power growing?” Zenith asks while frowning
“When he fought against Gardan he ended up heavily injured and a part of his powers sealed, his recovery took a long time and the seal slowly faded away but there is one more thing… we don’t exactly know what it is, but it is slowly giving Dorek more power” Answers Grudell
*Sigh* “This place is almost as chaotic as my homeland…” Says Zenith
Grudell looks curiously at Zenith, but before he could ask anything I say “Well, the food is ready and I have cooked a lot, so let’s dig in!”
Everyone cheers and start eating as I fill their plates
While eating we start talking about other stuff, we decided to camp here as the other have to go, and I say
“I’ll stay, I want to practice something”
They nod and Vladi, Isa, Arksen and Kagito log out
The Scardi group looked curiously at us and I realize that they haven’t met a foreigner yet so I tell them
“Oh, forgot to tell you, we are foreigners”
As if lightbulbs appeared on their heads they say “Ohhhh”
Jun who hasn’t talked much ask curiously at my friends here “How is it to live with a foreigner?”
Huh? What am I, an animal?
Zenith shrugs, and says “Well, they have different times than us, after observing Ardha for a few years Peko and I reached an understanding on him, at first he would go on nights after nights with small breaks and then he would go off for 30-40 hours normally… but he seems to say a code word before going on those big breaks that is ‘I am going to rest’”
‘He has a point I always say that whenever I am going to rest for the day’
All the Scardi people were looking curiously while taking glances at me, even Isca was paying attention while feigning indifference
Aren joins the conversation and says “There are also their eating habits it seems they have something as a ‘satiety bar’ and if they eat more than that they start getting sluggish… but it does seem that Ardha’s satiety bar is bigger”
Then Juran jumped in “Oh yeah, I still remember when you guys got into an eating contest…” then the other group of barbarians
I feigned ignorance looking elsewhere while whistling
Then I stand up and say “Well, I’m going over there to practice”
Everyone nod and keep on talking as if I wasn’t there in the first place… *sniff*
As I recluse myself like an outcast I start practicing the fourth elemental enhancing before the feeling goes away
I try slowly the combinations but always fail when I am on the third elemental enhancing… but the started is Wind, at least I know that
‘Hmmm, but using wind has a limit and if I try to enhance it with fire or lightning it start getting out of control… maybe instead of slowly I should do it explosively?’
As I start getting an idea I use Wind and Lightning, but the speed was too much to handle, then Wind and Fire it is
‘Elemental Blending, Elemental Enhancing: Wind-Fire, Max output’
As I did it recklessly I felt the world distorting a bit and a headache came, thus I stop the process because I knew it was doomed to fail
I start growling in dissatisfaction with a bitter expression and I realized everyone was looking at me and I shout “What happened?”
Zenith is the one to answer with an amused expression “Well, it seems we all felt something oppressive and it came from your direction”
“Oh… Don’t worry I am just trying something”
The Scardinians, as I chose to call them, are looking at me as if I am a rare animal and Aren was just shaking his head with half a smile
But then Zenith said something interesting “If you are trying to use four elements then try doing one at a time… and use Overflow”
I look at him surprised and he continues while shrugging “Hey, I might not know much about your skill but I have been hanging out with you for over 3 years, I can catch one thing or another”
I smile and nod
Everyone starts looking curiously because Juran said they would be able to watch something interesting
I shake my head and enter in a state of concentration
“Razer Body”
I feel my body changing and my resistance going up
“Overflow”
Then I feel a wave of energy and power surging while my mind clears up, I smile at this feeling
Then I think for a second how to do it and start figuring out a way
‘Elemental Enhancing: Wind, Max output’
As I feel my senses sharpening and getting an otherworldly feeling I concentrate until I feel that I am going to hit a wall
Then I use the element that would help break that wall with raw power
‘Elemental Blending, Adding Element: Fire, Middle-Low output’
Then, something quite amazing happened, I felt like I could overview everything… well, until a range but I couldn’t dwell on the feeling as the fire element accomplished it role
And now ‘Elemental Blending, Adding Element: Lightning, High output’
Then I felt that range increasing, I felt my body was as light as a feather and every sense blending, I could feel the flow of the elements intertwining and increasing by themselves, but at the same time they were getting erratic
I felt a cold sweat because it was obvious what was going to happen, but thanks to this state my mind was clear, my instinct and my reason were working together, and then I felt it
‘Compress’
Then that huge range of overview that I felt compressed at the same speed it got larger, a huge energy was storing in me at a lightning fast pace and the elements were compacting themselves and organizing
Then the fourth element was coming up, but…
But then I felt something screaming at me, a full sense of danger and the only thing I could think of was
‘I screwed up’
My body was breaking apart
“Annulment!”
Everything broke apart for a second, my mind shut down and everything was complete darkness
Then everything started slowly, a warm feeling swimming throughout my consciousness and my being
Then a blurry vision started appearing and I felt a distant sound getting nearer and nearer
I could vaguely feel my body now and little by little the pain that was waiting for me
Then I could hear someone growling in pain, and I realized it was me
‘Holy xxxx’ As I was about to log off I suddenly felt I shouldn’t, for a reason I stayed logged in and endured the sharp pain coming from everywhere in my body
Gritting my teeth, the image in front of my eyes finally was clear enough to guess
Juran was in front of me while extending both of his hands on top of my body while a light was appearing in front of them
Zenith is spreading quite an ominous feeling and it felt that the remains were dispersed by him
After a minute that felt like an eternity my body calmed down, with some sequels of the pain and Juran sighs
“What the hell were you trying to do, when we felt something was going wrong you suddenly shouted ‘Annulment!’ and created a mini explosion, then your body fell on the ground like a corpse, if it wasn’t for Zenith dispersing the remains of the power and I trying to repair your body and at the same time supplying your vitality you would have broken in pieces!”
Then Zenith’s eyes opened and sighed in relief while seeing me, and then he says “You screwed up?”
“Yep, I screwed up” My voice sounds a bit hoarse
The Scardinians and the Barbarian looked at me curiously and Aren sighed when he saw that I finally could talk and says
“You really don’t cease to surprise me”
I smile wryly and try to sit down, while doing so I feel that my body is numb from the pain, so it is a bit uncomfortable to move
But my head hurts the most, this headache is quite something, I use the water element to relax and repair my body
Then Juran says “It seems you are fine now, it took us quite a long time to finally get you back, and this is why Isa always says that you are the reckless one of the group”
Everyone chuckles at that comment and I smile
I open the notifications and a bunch of stuff appears
Endurance, Perseverance and Fighting spirit gone up but one caught my attention
System Notification You have bypassed the systems control of pain, a report has been sent along with a video of the event to the central operation system. Please contact the nearest Insanity Corporation building with your name and ID for more information. Parallel. |
‘Haaah, I screwed up’
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Grrrr, i was going to post it before, but i finally got released!
Well, you could say i am back in the game so, hello everyone~
Hope you enjoy the chapter, it is quite tedious because not much happens, but i needed to do it :V
Well, bye
~Sky
