Scene 1 - Travel Stories

The ground shook and thundered while clouds of dust were kicked up into the sky. A massive, speeding lizard ran down the dirt road, shooting past like a cannon. On top of this particular, scarred lizard sat three hundred youths in their seats. However, these lizards were powerful beasts and this amount of weight wouldn’t slow them down in the slightest.

Saren sat calmly, reading a book, seemingly not the least bothered by all the wind. Next to him, on his right sat Nena, enjoying the scenery and laughing loudly in glee during the whole ride, while passing by the lands. To his right sat Vince, who had developed motion sickness and had been throwing up in a bag, whilst Rune helped him by rubbing his back.

Ren sat a few seats over to the left, snoring and sleeping in a lazy posture, saving his energy for the test. Xue and Len, on the other hand, enjoyed the breeze as it rushed past them, as they sat on both sides of Ren.

Finally, yelling in an excited manner, the twins were seated to the left of Vince. Their blood boiled, waiting to test themselves, and this chance would finally allow them to run wild! The city always felt restricting to them and this would be the first time that they would visit a sect!

After a few minutes, Nena stopped laughing and calmed down, even though the wind was blowing fast it didn’t the passengers. Luckily, the ride was stable thanks to a support formation seal, built into the saddle.

She then turned to Saren, who was reading his book, “Hey big brother, what are you reading?”

Saren, without turning towards her, replied, “The theory of war and tactics.”

“Oh. Can you read it to me?”, Nena’s eyes sparkled, gazing upon the book.

However, Saren glanced up at Nena, while sighing, “You're too young for this book. What about I read you that story of the maiden and the demon king instead?”

Nena pouted a bit, but nodded her head, as it was one of her favorite books since coming to this city.

Even though it was windy, it wasn’t to the extent that you couldn’t hear the person next to you or seven seats over.

Saren nudged the pale looking Vince, receiving the book; Vince once again relieved himself of his stomach inside a vomit bag of holding.

Flipping the book, Saren noticed where he had last left off, at the beginning of chapter three. Clearing his throat Saren began to read.

“In the decaying castle, deep within the earth, lived a demon king who had recently slaughtered an entire kingdom for their greed. In his arms was the pure-hearted maiden from the destroyed kingdom. He had only kept her alive for it was love at first sight, that warmed his heart made of stone.

Alas, pure hatred now radiated within her eyes; her mother the queen and her father the king were slaughtered by this demon. The heroes, put on stakes, lay outside the gates of the fallen kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of innocents were enslaved by the demon king under his massive armies.

The maiden grieved greatly over this and in many attempts tried to kill the demon king. Only to be met with laughter and a smile after every failed attempt. This counted as the 9432nd assassination attempt.

Maiden tried her best to invent new ways to kill the demon who had taken everything from her; be it swordsmanship, poison, games, wits or traps.

Sadly, nothing seemed to work, When he drank the poisons that Maiden put into a large wine barrel, he looked her right in the eye and grinned. The demon king with no regard would chug down the whole barrel that was made of more poison than wine. No matter what type of game she tried, be it war or board game, she could never match his strategy that was too vile for her.

In a battle of wits, she seemed to always lose no matter the topic; she even had usage of the demon king's study, alas, his knowledge was too profound. Even with traps that should undoubtedly kill anyone who’d dare try their luck. She had legions of demons working at her disposal, given to her by the demon king. He would just crush anything she put in his wake with his overwhelming power!

The only thing that seemed to be working was her swordsmanship; by fighting the demon king herself. He would lower himself to her level and use only a wooden sword, while she used a demon-killing longsword.

Her skills would sharpen every time they fought and she would gain new insights into the way of the sword. However, whenever she got stronger, so did he..”

With a whisper, the demon king placed his lips next to the Maiden's ear, causing her to blush uncontrollably, “I’ll be taking my prize now, my dear Maiden.”

The demon king had made a bet with the Maiden that every time she failed, he would get a single kiss from her. She thought it was weird for the demon king to only ask for a kiss, but didn’t think much about it when she agreed with it. Since, if the Maiden ever once won against the demon king, she would be allowed to take his life.

Pulling the maiden in close by her supple waist, the demon king feasted upon her lips with little to no resistance. Who could blame her? This was the 9432nd attempt.”