4

Botan was frozen with fear as she locked eyes with the powerful mage. She was weighing her options. Fighting was out of the question, the mage took a direct hit from an arrow enchanted with smite and recovered almost immediately. Even if her bow wasn’t cracked and useless she didn’t own an arrow powerful enough to hurt him. She would have to use her most powerful skill, a skill not even her father could overcome. It was her ultimate trump card.

Ash looked at the terrified girl and wondered what he should do. This whole situation was a pain. It might be best to just let her go, he thought to himself. It’s not like she did any damage, except to his mage dress. Ash was just too hungry to really care. He decided it was best just to ignore her and keep walking towards the town. He was about to turn away from her when she suddenly bowed her head and started apologizing.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She said with a trembling voice. She raised her head and Ash was taken aback when he saw tears cascading down her grief stricken face. “My dad made me do it! He said I would have to kill you to prove myself to the guild. I didn’t want to do it!” This was a special move she had been perfecting for years called “Insincere Apology”. It worked on almost all of the guild members, except for her mother for some reason, but it should work on this fool. This skill was so effective it would make the other party feel as if they were in the wrong and ask her for forgiveness. Often she would be offered a gift or money to try and calm her down. Though, to her surprise, it seemed like the mage had already regained his composure.

“Ugh. Stop crying. It’s not that big of a deal.” Ash said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

It kind of is a big deal Ash; she did try to kill you.

“Oh, right.”

Botan’s tears stopped flowing as her face contorted in anger. He should be apologizing and ashamed, why is he just standing there?! She thought to herself. This was the first time a guy older than her had resisted her trump card. Her mother had always joked with her that this ability would become less effective the older she got but she chose not to believe her. Could her mother have been right? Was the skill already useless? These thoughts crossed her mind but she soon came up with an answer. No, my skills aren’t useless, it’s this guy! He’s just weird! She told herself this as she pointed the all too familiar accusing finger at Ash. “You’re weird! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Well, first of all, I was just hit by an arrow.” Ash says bitterly, narrowing his eyes at Botan. He decided that maybe he should try to be intimidating to get her to flee. “You know lady, you talk a whole lot of potatoes, you better be careful or those potatoes will get mashed.” Ash isn’t very good at being intimidating but surprisingly it works anyway.

Botan’s anger fades away and is replaced by fear as she remembers the predicament she is in. “Insincere Apology” probably isn’t going to work so it was time for her back up plan, bribery. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll do anything! Here you can have some of my stuff,” Botan says as she begins to dig through her pockets.

You probably should just let her go Ash.

“Believe me, I want to. I just want to leave.” Ash says to Sam as Botan continues to rifle through her stuff, little shiny rocks dropping from her pockets as she empties them.

“Rock…rocks…another rock…” Botan says muttering to herself.

“You sure have a lot of rocks.” Ash notes.

“I like shiny rocks, ok!” Botan says furiously.

“What are you, a bird?”

And she calls you weird.

Ignoring Ash she empties her pockets and she realizes that she doesn’t have anything this mage might want, just a bunch of shiny rocks and a rolled up piece of dried meat wrapped with paper. Maybe he’ll accept her quiver or her cloak; it won’t fit him but he could sell it in town for some quick cash. She was about to make the offer when the mage points at the rolled up meat in her hand.

“What’s that?” Ash asks in-between heavy breathing.

“It’s dried meat, beef I think.” Botan says taking note of how intensely the mage was looking at her snack. “Do you want it?” The mage nods slowly. “Ok, you can have it, but only if this makes us even and I can leave unharmed.”

Ash, this feels wrong. Taking food from her like this feels like you’re stealing.

“It’s not stealing if she is offering. It’s extortion at best, or would it be at worst? Whatever, I’m too hungry to care about morals right now.” Ash says with a matter-of-fact tone.

“Talking to your decision making ring again?” Botan asks recalling the ring from earlier.

“Yes,” Ash responds. “It says you have a deal.”

Liar.

“Good decision, ring.” Botan says handing the heavily salted slab of beef to Ash.

Ash brings the gift close to his face and unwraps it to partake in its edible beauty. It shines with meaty goodness and it smells…actually kind of sour like it might be bad but whatever, Ash was hungry. “Yes, this pleases me.” Ash says to himself as he opens his mouth to devour the treasure.

Botan looks at Ash feeling a little bit worried mostly because she has no idea where that meat came from or why it was in her pocket. She kept her fingers crossed that it was still good but considering it was in her rock filled pocket she wasn’t too optimistic. She decides that when he gets violently ill from food poisoning she’d make a run for it.

Ash was about to eat the snack but stops short as he realizes that he can’t move his arm. “What’s going on? I can’t move my arm.” Ash says looking at Botan.

Botan shrugs, “I’m not doing anything,” she says.

Botan watches with confusion as Ash begins to float from the ground and finds himself hovering several feet in the air unable to move his limbs. “Ok, this is weird.” Ash’s hands open wide and he watches in horror as his recently obtained snack predictably falls to the ground. “Oh, damn it all!”

It’s for the best Ash. I don’t think you have any protection against poison. Eating that would have probably killed you.

Ash’s arms lift above him and his hands slap together. “Sam what’s going on? Did I accidently activate a levitating dance spell or something?”

Earth Magic doesn’t have an ability that makes you float. Wind Magic and Psy Magic do though.

“Psy Magic?” Asks the floating Ash.

“Yes, Psy Magic. I’m not surprised you know about it.” Says a mysterious voice from the woods. Ash’s floating body turns to face the woods as two strangers walk out of it. The first is a handsome man with short blonde hair and blue eyes. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He seems to be well equipped wearing leather armor and wielding a round metal shield and a short sword. He is also surprisingly tall and well built; Ash decides immediately that he doesn’t like him.

Walking in front of him with her hand outstretched towards Ash is a petite and short woman in a purple mage robe. She is an elf, Ash guessed, but probably not the same kind as Sheeve. Her skin is more of a light olive color and her ears point up instead of outwards. She has straight, mid-length black hair and auburn eyes that are fixated on the hapless Ash. Her outstretched hand has several rings on it that Ash could only assume had special powers. She also looked pretty young, than again most elves do.

She’s a Belign. A desert elf. I wouldn’t call her that though.

“A Belign?” Ash asks.

“Who told you?!” Responds the elven woman. “My race should be the least of your concerns right now. We were lost in the woods when we happened to come across you harassing that poor girl.” She says pointing to Botan.

“We weren’t lost.” Says her companion. “It was a shortcut.”

“We were definitely lost, Garret.” Replies the elven woman.

“Wait!” Cries Ash. ”You’ve got it backwards. She tried to kill me with some kind of super arrow. Look at the hole in my robe. It’s super arrow shaped.”

“I don’t really buy that.” Replies the elf. “What mage would walk around without using “Detect Arrow”? It’s basic magic.”

I’m afraid you don’t have that Ash. Not that you really need it with your passive defense spells. It’ll take more than an arrow to hurt you.

“Look, elf lady, just ask little miss victim player over there.” Replies the ever-floating Ash, ignoring Sam.

The elf sighs and turns to Botan who was still trying to figure out what in the world was going on. “Is this true? Did you attack this mage with the intent to kill?”

Now Botan could have defended Ash and perhaps even have built a friendly relationship with him but unfortunately for Ash, Botan saw this situation as a chance for a little revenge. “No, he’s lying. He robbed me and was going to do horrible things to me.”

“Horrible things, huh? Yeah, I figured as much. Well don’t worry; you’re in good hands now. My name is Saline and this is Garret. We take pride in helping the weak.” The elven woman says while pointing at the tall blonde man.

“Thank you very much.” Botan replied sweetly trying to mask her seething fury at being called weak.

“Oh, come on. She’s lying.” Cries the elevated Ash.

“Oh, really?” Replies Garret. “Then how do you explain all these shiny rocks on the ground?”

“I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“I thought so.”

“Look. She’s a member of the Red Piper’s Guild. They were mad at me so they sent her to kill me. Now that I think about it, I’m a little insulted.” Ash says trying to sound as convincing as possible. Saline and Garret turn to look at Botan who had quickly closed her black cloak to hide her red clothes and Red Piper emblem underneath.

“That’s unlikely.” Says Saline. “She’s wearing all black and everyone knows that the members of that guild can’t survive without wearing an obscene amount of red.”

“I thought they wear green?” Asks Garret.

“You’re color blind Garret.”

“Oh, right.”

“Oh come on. You’re being obstinate!” Yells Ash as he frantically tries to cast a spell.

“I don’t know the meaning of the word,” Replies Garret. “What does it mean?”

“Look,” Says Ash angrily. “Just take off her cloak.”

Botan gasps and begins to cry with an extreme amount of overacting. “See?” She cries. “He’s a monster.”

This is going downhill fast.

Garret gently grabs her shoulder and tries to calm her down. “It’s okay. He can’t do anything now, literally.” He says soothingly. Botan stops crying and as soon as Garret turns away from her she looks up at Ash and grins at him mockingly. Ash has had his fill of this situation and thinks to himself trying to figure out an Earth Magic spell that might help him.

You won’t be able to cast most of your spells.

“Why can’t I cast a spell?” Ash asks Sam.

“It’s because I have your hands clasps so you can’t direct your attacks.” Replies Saline. “You should know that. You’re a mage aren’t you?”

She’s right unfortunately; most assault magic requires hand movement to direct the attack. Even area of effect magic needs an origin point directed by your hands. With your hands clasped like that you can only cast defensive magic on yourself.

“Then what would a mage do if they lost both their hands?” Asks Ash in a whisper.

Most mages only use their hands for casting but skilled mages can cast spells using other parts of their body or by simply using objects like wands or staves. However, that takes practice, so right now it might be best if you just do what they say. Don’t worry, you have a very high defense, I doubt they can do anything to really hurt you.

“Oh man, you’re a cheater.” Ash sighs, “That’s a pretty cheap move.”

“No it’s not!” Screams Saline. “It’s completely fair!”

“You guys are really baking my dough here,” Says Ash to the duo. “What do you want from me?”

“To punish you.” Replies Saline simply. “You need to understand what you did was wrong. Don’t worry, we won’t kill you, we’re just going to bruise you a little then turn you over to the garrison in the next town over.”

That won’t work. The garrison likely has better things to do than to take in random criminals.

“That won’t work.” Says Ash bluntly.

“He’s on to us.” Whispers Garret to Saline.

“Fine.” Replies Saline coldly. “How about this instead? I sentence you to the yo-yo of pain.’’

“Yo-yo of pain? Oh good. I thought you were going to make me do jumping jacks or something.”

“I don’t know what that is.” Asks Saline.

“A world without jumping jacks? Bonus points for this world.” Says Ash as he finds himself being turned to face the woods. “Well, this doesn’t look promising.”

“Reflect on your actions.” Saline says to Ash while making a twisting motion with her hand. With a grunt she pushes her hand out in front of her and Ash goes darting into the woods.

Rapidly, Ash flies through the darkening woods smashing into trees and branches before coming to a stop still hovering in the air. He was covered in twigs and his robe took a lot of damage but he was relatively fine other than still being extremely hungry and annoyed.

Are you ok Ash?

Ash spits out a squirrel. “I’m fine. You know normally I’m against violence but I got to tell you I could really go for some violence right now. Violence directed at an elven girl. Is there really nothing I can do?”

There are spells that can be cast above you like Meteor and Cataclysm, they’re extremely high level Earth Magic spells you are capable of but I’d like to ask that you don’t use those as you could wind up killing everyone within a mile radius and that would be a problem.

“Yeah, a not my problem.” Ash says as his eyes adjusted to the woods darkness he looked down at the sticks and leaves that covered the woods floor and he could hear something very large moving closer to him. He could hear limbs or maybe even whole trees snap as whatever it was moved closer to him. In the corner of his eyes he could see something red moving towards him but before he could make out what it was he starts flying backwards in the direction he came.

After smacking into several trees he emerges from the woods. He stops back above the dirt road and finds himself being turned to face Saline. Saline looks at him with her arm outstretched. “Are you sorry now?”

Okay Ash, maybe if you talk calmly to her you-

“I apologize for what I’m going to do to you the moment you set me down.”

Ash…

“Fine,” Says Saline irritably. “I’ll throw you into the woods and pull you back as many times as it takes.”

“I get it.” Says Garret with a sudden realization. “Like a yo-yo.”

“Yes, Garret, thanks for joining us.” Says Saline as she gets ready to send Ash soaring back into the woods.

“Wait!” Cries Ash. “There’s something in the woods. Something big.”

“There’s always something in the woods. Tell it I said hi.”

“Oh, you are just asking to get cataclysmed.” With that Ash is sent bolting into the woods smacking tree limbs and getting leaves in his mouth. When he finally comes to a complete stop he eats the leaves in his mouth and tries to gather his bearings.

Don’t worry Ash. Psy Magic consumes a lot of magic power. She’s going to run out of energy soon. Wait…Did you just eat those leaves?

Before Ash could answer he could feel something loom over him and could hear a loud hissing noise. He couldn’t look directly at it but he had a feeling he knew what it was. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This world sucks.”

Tell it Saline said hi.

“Bring me back!” Ash starts screaming.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....

Saline and Garret were looking at the woods where Saline had propelled Ash into, her arm was still outstretched to control him. Garret walks up to Saline and pears into the woods. “Must have sent him in pretty deep, huh?” He asks Saline.

“Yeah,” She responds. “But we may have a problem.”

“Why?”

“Well, now that I’ve had a moment to think, he may have been telling the truth.” Saline says casting her eyes over to the ground.

“What makes you think that?”

“On the ground there are cracks and marks like a high level spell went over it, a spell like smite, which can be enchanted into an arrow. It looks like someone shot a couple of arrows and missed because I can see two on the ground. Also that girl was carrying a quiver and a bow so we know she is an archer, not only that her bow was cracked like it had been used to shoot a highly powerful enchanted arrow. Now that I think about it the mage had a large hole in his robe like he got struck by something, but if he got hit by an attack like that there’s no way he could have survived.”

“All right, that is suspicious, maybe we should ask her about it?” Garret turns to where Botan was but is surprised to discover that she is long gone. “Where did she go?”

Saline nods, “She left into the woods the moment we weren’t paying attention. In other words she probably is a member of the Red Pipers guild who was tasked with killing the mage, failed, and saw a chance to escape. And now I’m currently holding an innocent mage against his will, one that seems to have taken no damage after being hit with an arrow and being chucked into the woods. ”

“Shoot, I guess we better apologize and stop hitting him with trees.” Says Garret while scratching his head.

“I really don’t want to.” Saline grumbles. “Also I’m not hitting him with trees I’m hitting the trees with him. It’s completely different. Lastly I have a feeling he’s going to attack us when I set him down.” She was about to say something else when they suddenly could hear screaming in the woods.

“What’s that?” Asks Garret.

“It’s the mage. He’s having a fit about something. Guess I better bring him back.” Saline says while making a pulling motion with her hands. They could hear a lot of snapping and breaking in the woods as Ash flew towards them. He stops in the middle of the road and Saline uses her magic to make straighten him upright. “Look, mage, I think we owe you an apology. It seems like we wrong. I’m really sorry. Please forgive us.”

“Forget that!” Ash says as various debris falls off of him. “Put me down! Something is coming!”

“What?” Asks Saline.

“Not a fish!” Screams Ash as a red basilisk, three times bigger than the one he dealt with earlier that day, bursts out of the forest breaking a tree in half and looks down at the floating Ash. “Stop dangling me like a worm and set me down!”

“Right!" Saline yells as she lets go of Ash and he hits the ground with a thud. Ash barely rolls out of the basilisks way as it lunges at him fangs bared.

“He’s right. That’s definitely not a fish.” Cried Garret as he readies his shield and sword.

“It’s a red basilisk! A huge one! That must be the monster that’s been attacking travelers! That’s the creature we have to kill for our quest Garret!” Saline explains.

“Don’t worry. I can take it.” Says Ash confidently. “I can, right?”

Yes. This one is a great deal bigger but if you use the same attack as last time you should be able to defeat it. Just keep in mind this one is big enough to swallow you whole.

“Got it!” Ash says as he slips on some shiny rocks and the basilisk uses the opportunity to bite down on him, lift him in the air, and swallow him whole.

Saline and Garret look on in shock as they watch the monster eat the mage alive. Saline couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty and garret just shakes his head. “Well, he’s dead.” Says Garret a little darkly. “Saline, why don’t you use your Psy Magic and lift it in the air so I can stab its soft underbelly.”

“I can only lift things up to four times my own weight.” Saline responds a little frantically as the creature turns its gaze towards them.

“Then what’s the problem?” Asks Garret as Saline shoots him an angry glare. “Okay fine, old fashioned way it is.” Garret says as he runs towards the monster at full speed and dodges as it bites at him. It lunges at him again and he smacks its head with his shield. With the monster disoriented for the moment he takes his sword and slices at the creature’s body, but his sword doesn’t cut through its thick scales. The basilisk hisses at him and Garret just barely manages to dodge its attack. “Its scales are too thick now what? Should we run?”

“No.” Responds Saline as she picks up a large rock using her magic. “This thing might make it to the village and innocent people could get hurt. We have to stop it here.” She shoots the rock at the snake and it hits the monster’s side with a loud thud. The basilisk looks at Saline, unharmed but enraged. “Crap.” Says Saline as the creature gets ready to lunge at her. Unlike Garret, Saline is not very agile and as she tries to move out of the beast’s way she trips and falls to the ground hard. She braces herself for its attack but nothing seems to happen.

Saline looks over to the snake and sees it thrashing violently as several sharp rocks jut out from the ground underneath it stabbing, crushing, and piercing the unfortunate snake. A large sharp rock had stabbed it in the middle of its body and kept if from moving. Garret and Saline looked on in horror as it flailed about making terrifying sounds as the rocks continued to come from underneath it. Finally, one of the many rocks rising from the ground stabs through the center of the creature’s head ending its torment.

“Wow, Saline, did you do that? Brutal.” Asks the surprised Garret.

“No.” Saline says looking at the dead creature.

“Well, we should probably take its fangs.” Garret says as he makes his way over to the dead snake but stops when he thinks he sees it move. He takes a closer look at it but almost screams when a slimy hand emerges from the basilisk’s torn body. I’ll leave out the details but it’s not a pretty sight as Ash emerges from the snakes body covered in the worst kind of nasty. “Hey, the mage guy’s alive.”

“That is beyond gross.” Saline says trying not to vomit.

Ash stands up on the solid ground and looks back at the snake. “So that’s area of effect magic?”

Yes, it’s very strong but you can’t really control where it goes. I feel bad that the basilisk had to suffer like that though.

“It ate me. Speaking of which, does this technically make me snake vomit?”

Snake bile maybe?

“Wait. Did you do this? An attack like that requires a lot of skill.” Asks Saline with amazement.

“Yeah, it was me. I guess I better take these fangs too.” Responds Ash as he gets ready to remove the fangs.

“Too? What do you mean too?”

“I killed another one of these earlier. This place seems to be littered with them. This must be snake woods or something. Fang forest. Snake silva. Basilisk bosk.”

Actually, they are uncommon for this area.

As Ash begins to remove the fangs Saline motions for Garret to come over. Garret walks over to her while keeping an eye on Ash. “What are we going to do? He killed the thing we took the request for. How are we going to claim the reward if this guy killed it.” Asks Garret with a concerned expression on his face.

“I think I have an idea Garret, just let me do the talking. Switching to friendly Saline. Hey Mage!” Saline calls out to Ash as he pockets the fangs.

“It’s Ash, you ass hats.” Replies Ash, not willing to forgive them just yet.

“What’s an ass hat?” She asks Garret curiously.

“A poor fashion choice?” Garret replies.

“Anyway, Ash is it? Are you a member of a guild? Do you have a party you’re a part of?” Saline asks Ash sweetly and innocently.

“No guild, no party.” Ash replies quickly.

“Well, I just want to say I’m sorry about earlier, and as a way of apology let me clean you up.” Saline holds out her hand and a white light envelops Ash. All the slime, blood, and guts covering Ash disappears and as the light fades Ash feels very clean like he just got out of the shower. He takes a sniff of his tattered robe and it smells like it just got out of a dryer.

“What was that?” Says Ash amazed at how clean he feels and even smells.

“Clean spell.” Saline says with pride.

“She learned it so she would never have to take a bath.” Says Garret with a smile which quickly fades as Saline elbows his side. “Oof!”

“Seems like a good spell to have.” Ash says running his hand through his clean hair.

Saline looks at Ash’s torn robe. “So did the archer girl’s arrow do that?” She asks.

“Yeah.” Ash says looking sadly at his robe. “Though hurdling me into the woods didn’t help.”

“Oh, right, sorry about that. I can fix it though. This is called Repair Magic” Saline holds out her hand again towards Ash. Ash and Garret both watch as Ash’s robe stitches itself together even forming new fabric where it had been disintegrated. In a matter of seconds Ash’s robe was as good as new.

Ash was impressed. “Amazing.” He says.

“She learned that so she would never have to change her-“Garret stops short as Saline clasps his mouth short with her Psy Magic. She shoots him a dangerous look and releases his mouth. “Point made.” He says while rubbing his mouth.

It’s not surprising she knows more than just Psy Magic. Most mages learn various basic magic like that before moving on to a combative magic.

Ash chooses to ignore the obvious jab at him. “Hey, I’m curious, isn’t Psy Magic just telekinesis?”

“What’s telekinesis?” Asks Saline.

“It’s where you can move objects with your mind.”

“Like Psy Magic but with your mind not your hands?”

“Just forget I asked.” Ash looks at the setting sun and nods to the other two. “Well, it’s been really awful you two but I have to get going.”

“Wait!” Saline cries, “I have a proposition for you. Won’t you hear me out?”

“No thanks. You tossed me through the woods and got me eaten by a snake.”

“Come on. I said I’m sorry. Besides you were kind of asking for it with that attitude and smug face.”

“I have a smug face? Have you tried looking in a mirror?” Ash asks smugly.

“I don’t like looking in mirrors. Sometimes I see my mother staring back at me.”

Garret nods, “Yes, sometimes I even see myself turning into my father when I look in a mirror.” He says knowingly.

“Nah, I put her there.” Responds Saline. “Anyway Ash, I said I’m sorry, won’t you just hear me out? Tell you what, how about I let you attack me? Hit me with your best shot! Then again I guess you look like the type who wouldn’t hit a lady bu-” Her sentence was cut off as a rock shot from the ground hitting her in her stomach. “Oof!” She bent over rubbing her stomach. “See? Now we’re even. Oh, wow, that hurt a little.”

Ash shakes his head. “As cardiactic as that was-“

Cathartic.

“Whatever. It’s still a no.”

“But.” Saline protested.

“All I want is to go to town and get something to eat, so quit bothering me!” Screams Ash finally losing his temper.

“Well, I have food if you’re hungry.” Saline says as Ash stops in his tracks and turns back to look at her. “Here.” She takes out from inside a pocket in her robe what looks like a six inch stick of beef jerky and holds it out to him.

Just to be safe you probably shouldn’t eat that.

Garret shakes his head. “Saline, he’s not going to want your half eaten stick of-“Garret stops short as Ash puts the whole thing into his mouth.

Saline and Garret watch as he finishes chewing. Saline holds out a leather waterskin which Ash declines, for some reason he stopped being thirsty after she used the cleaning spell, also he really didn’t want to drink after someone. The two look at him expectantly and he lets out a long sigh. “Fine, I’ll hear what you have to say.”

“I want you to join my party.” Saline says with a big smile.

“What?” Asks Garret. “I’m cool with it but don’t we have to ask the rest of the group first?”

Saline was pretty sure she could convince the other two members of their party. They were thinking of adding a new member to their team anyway, and this guy was obviously strong. He easily killed two basilisks, withstood her yo-yo of pain, and even took a direct hit from an enchanted arrow all without taking any noticeable damage. He’s powerful and he doesn’t even belong to a party. She had to get him to join them. “So what do you say Ash? Won’t you join us?” Saline says with a big hopeful smile.

Without a moment of hesitation Ash replies, “Nah.”