Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 62

The five newcomers surrounded him, and his grip on the dagger tightened in preparation. Of the five, two were girls that looked eerily similar and beautiful, likely either twins or sisters, and the other three were boys that had nondescript appearances. They were all young, but without using Blink, it was unlikely that he could take on all of them. Thankfully, only one of them seemed like they were an immediate threat, the other four hadn’t drawn a weapon and seemed relaxed.

“First you make us chase a new apprentice around for hours, and now you get yourself hurt over a mere umbra fox. Absolutely pathetic.” One of the two girls had both arms crossed over her chest as she addressed his attacker.

The other, who he presumed to be the girl’s sister, didn’t seem to be nearly as upset. “But on the bright side, he is even cuter up close. It’s about time we had a male apprentice who wasn’t completely average looking.” She winked at him, which seemed to make the situation worse, because one of those average looking apprentices drew a dagger.

The girls’ appearances were in stark contrast to the other three. Both of them had curled blond hair and refined features, and with the aid of their alluring figures, would draw every eye in the crowd. The other three would be completely forgotten in a crowd though. Everything about them screamed average. From their generic brown hair, to their plain features, or even their average height, nothing stood out. No one would pick them out of a crowd, and even if they did, they would likely be mistaken as common farmers.

“In the name of the Goddess, will the two of you shut up?” The one who had drawn his weapon immediately was glaring at him. “Jaric, get your ass over here and patch up Carter before he bleeds out.”

The one who he presumed to be Jaric shrugged, then walked over to the downed attacker and began applying pressure to the gut wound.

Seeing his orders being carried out, the boy turned back to Dante. “Now, why in the hell are you in our territory?”

“Please shut up Gavin, you’ll only embarrass yourself. Hannah said that she saw his guild ring when this fiasco started.” As the girl who winked at him came to his defense, the other boy that drew his dagger tensed up. He hadn’t even opened his mouth, but It seemed like things were only escalating. “Besides, you saw him fight. Carter wasn’t even his match, much less the two of you.” As she said those words in a mocking tone, the two of them tensed up even further.

At this point, he was almost certain that her intentions weren’t pure.

Behind Gavin, there was a flash of light and a whimpering noise that caught his attention. The wound that Jaric was holding his hand against was suddenly set ablaze, and for a moment he thought that Jaric was trying to kill Carter. But then the inferno in Jaric’s hand was cut off, revealing completely normal looking skin. Not only was the wound fully healed, but there wasn’t even a scar.

The two of them were both pale and heaving for breath, and although they seemed to be on death's door, it was the most amazing healing he had ever seen.

Carter stood, propped up with the help of Jaric, and Dante took stock of him for the first time. Unlike the other three men in the group, Carter wasn’t average looking. It wasn’t that his looks were above average, but something about him was off. He just looked threatening, almost feral. One glance at him would put anyone on edge.

“Who is your master?” Despite Carter’s threatening tone, the way he forced the words out between pants was somewhat pathetic.

After thinking the consequences over for a moment, he answered. “Victoria Nix.” Victoria could handle herself far better than he could, and even if she couldn’t, it wasn’t as though he owed her anything after she forced him into being her apprentice.

Gavin sneered. “Hmph, some apprentice with a no-name master dares-”

“Shut your mouth, Gavin.” Carter barely managed to force the words out, then he looked down to the fox. “We’re leaving. Grab the umbra fox.”

Gavin had a look of disbelief on his face. “What do you mean-”

“Master Daxez will deal with him.”

Gavin nodded, seemingly reassured, then stepped toward the unconscious fox.

He wasn’t sure what significance the fox had, but it was clearly desirable. He moved forward until the fox was directly underneath him, completely cutting Gavin off. If he was already going to be ‘dealt with’, there wasn’t much to lose.

As soon as he stepped forward, Gavin hesitated, and Carter visibly gritted his teeth. “Forget the fox. Let’s go.”

With the help of Gavin, Carter crossed the creek, then moved into the forest. It was hard to believe how easily the situation had been resolved. Even though he was confident in his ability to beat them in a fight, Carter’s restraint despite his anger was impressive, and slightly worrying.

That left him with the two sisters, the boy who drew his dagger late, and Jaric.

Jaric turned to the girl who winked at him. “Did you really need to egg them on, Olivia? If he complains to Master Daxez, we will all get double extra time in the pits.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “If I spent even one more minute with Carter I would have thrown up.” She gave Dante a coy smile. “Besides, I couldn’t let them bully such a cute new apprentice.”

Something about the way Olivia spoke was strange, her sultry voice seemed to directly affect his emotions in a way he couldn’t understand.

The other girl, the one who he presumed to be Hannah based on the earlier conversations, spoke up. “We need to get back, or we will get Master Ulete in trouble.” She glanced back to him. “Be careful, Carter may not be much, but his master is a deputy guild master in one of the guild’s branches, and has already completed the fourth level of the spectral attunement. I would suggest that you give the fox to Carter as a peace offering and make amends before your master bears the burden of your actions.”

Before making any rash decisions, he would need to find Victoria and see how well she matched up against Carter’s master. “Thank you for the advice.” He kept his answer neutral awarding him a nod from Hannah.

Hannah left, and was followed by both Olivia and Jaric, leaving him alone with a very angry looking boy holding a dagger. “If you so much as touch Olivia, I will kill you.” It seemed that the only reason he had stayed behind was to leave a threat, and Dante watched him leave warily.

He had only been in the mountain range for a single day, and it seemed like three apprentice assassins already wanted to kill him, and he had yet to meet their masters.

Letting out a sigh, Dante reached down to check the fox. They had called it an umbra fox, and since it had been the cause of his predicament, he very much hoped it was still alive.

After checking its pulse and finding it to still be alive, he looked at the injuries that it had been inflicted with. Surprisingly, both of its cuts were already clotting, and it seemed like the fox was in no immediate threat of dying. Taking out the sack that Victoria had given him, he placed the fox inside and slung it over his shoulder.

That done, he collected the weapons he dropped on the floor and rearmed himself. The electricity in the sword was already completely gone, so either Carter had stopped the skill, or it had deteriorated over time.

After picking up the weapons, he continued through the forest. There was still a few hours left until sunset, and thus far, he hadn’t found a single plant that Victoria had sent him for.

After several fruitless hours walking through the forest and fending off creatures, he was finally almost back to their camp.

There was a lingering feeling of disappointment at not finding any of Victoria’s plants, but he had to give up, despite the sun still being high in the sky. A combination of irritation and fear had ended his foraging trip prematurely.

The irritation was from the fox. He didn’t expect it to be so vigorous after losing so much blood. As soon as it woke up, it did its best to claw and bite him through the sack. It wasn’t a big deal when he was just walking through the forest, but it was a distraction when he ran into dangerous creatures.

The fear came with the realization that he was alone in the forest, and there was potentially a master assassin looking for him. Initially, he had thought that Carter’s master would go to Victoria and handle the dispute through her, but then he realized that an assassin might take advantage of an opportunity to kill him secretly. It wasn’t as though assassins were very scrupulous…

Because of that fear, making it back to the camp was more than a relief. As soon as he stepped out of the forest, he saw Victoria resting by a tree stump with her bird and let out a sigh of relief.

As he walked up to the camp, Victoria looked him up and down. “It seems like you got into some trouble today.”

Dante looked down at his appearance. He was dirtied, but nothing that wouldn’t be normal after searching through a mountain range with so many creatures. “How did you know?”

Victoria looked behind him. “You brought guests.”

Dante followed her gaze to the forest’s edge. At first, he didn’t know what Victoria was talking about, but then over a dozen people walked out from the underbrush.