Book 2- Chapter 4- New introductions

Shae Alpha POV

One minute we were having a nice conversation, the next, we were ambushed. Thanks to our radars we detected them and managed to get them but they were still tough. We backed up, allowing us to get a better look at those that attacked us.

There were six of them in total, staring down at us on some elevated stair bleachers. If that wasn’t enough, they were the descendants from the previous guild leaders of the Holy Knights guild.

*If my face was real, I could actually show a surprised expression. Nu on the other hand…*

When I had discovered who they were, I immediately informed Nu. For the first time, he did a double take. Looking between them with confusion before calming down. He slowly nudged his way over and whispered.

Nu-Ru: “Looks like you’re right. I...I didn’t consider that factor…”

“It’s fine. Right now we have bigger problem.”

We didn’t go much farther as one of the individual interrupted our whisper conversation. “I must say that I’m quite disappointed. I heard that they were others as strong as us, but here I discover they are a mage, a woman and an elf.”

The one spoke with a clearly annoyed and disdain filled voice.

“Well is it the pot calling the kettle black. Said the group who ambushed us, some knight’s you are. You don’t know us and we don’t know you. Now get off your high horse.”

I was also annoyed as well. For the first time, I clearly voiced my true feelings, I even felt my face showing the emotion as well. In response to my retort, the person’s vein popped up. His face contorted in rage but before he could do anything, two of his friends stopped him.

XXX: “Calm down, we can’t have you killing our guests. Especially before I get another crack at them. Hehe.”

XXX: “Requa is right, you need to calm down Rumo.”

He looked back between the two before finally calming down. He took a deep breath before crossing his arms.

“My name is Rumo Roland, heir to the Roland second grand family.” He stood to be around two meter tall, with raven black hair that went down to shoulders and whose black eyes seemed as cold as ice. He also had a great-sword strapped to his back. He wore black armor with a red insignia on the chest-plate that matched that of Durandal’s wielder, Roland.”

“A pleasure to meet you, my name is Requa Siegfried, heir to the Siegfried fourth grand family. Let’s get along. Hehe.” The one who answered had short spiky blond hair and blue eyes and stood at about 1.9 meters tall. He had on a playful look to him but at the same time, that of a predator waiting for a challenge. The chest-plate on his silver armor had the same insignia as the wielder of Gram, Siegfried.

“My name is Huas Oliver, heir to the Oliver seventh grand family. I do hope we can be friends in the future.” He stood at 1.85 meters tall had short, chestnut brown hair and green eyes. Unlike the others, he gave off a feeling of friendliness. He wore shining white armor with the insignia of the wielder of Hauteclere, Oliver in Gold on the chestplate.

“I am Kugei Seijirou, heir to the Seijiroyu fifth grand family.” “I am Yusei Ayato, heir to the Ayato sixth grand family.” The two that answered were two individual that stood at the side, close to one another. Two of them seemed somewhat similar standing at 1.8 meter. Both had long black hair tied into a ponytail in the fashion of a samurai and black eyes (Think Seijirou from Log Horizon). They both also wore red samurai armor with a katana strapped to their waste. The only major difference between them was the insignia on their breastplate: one which belonged to the kusanagi blade wielder, Seijirou and the other belonging to the Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi wielder, Ayato.

“......I am Truas David, heir to the David third grand family.” The last one to answer had long straight crimson hair that went to his lower back and stood at about 1.85 meters tall. His cold blue eyes gave off a feeling of seriousness. On the chest-plate of his armor was the insignia of the wielder of Tyrfing, David.

Rumo: “Now that we have introduced ourselves, it’s about time for you to do the same.”

I panicked a bit on the inside as I was caught up during their whole introduction. I opened my mouth but before I made a fool out of myself, Nu stepped in.

Nu-Ru: “A pleasure to meet you all, I am Nu-Ru. We’re from a faraway place, Shae and I hail from the same place.”

He quickly moved his eye at me, I caught that action and knew what he meant. I stepped up and nodded to show that Nu was telling the truth.

Requa: “Nu..Ru? Shae? Those are odd names aren’t they? So you’re foreigners huh? That would explain quite a number of things. So then, what about you girl?”

The question wasn’t directed at me, but Als who stood behind us, as if trying to hide herself. A couple of seconds passed before she finally stepped up.

Als: “I am Als...Evergreen.”

She spoke in a slightly shaken voice while trying to avoid eye contact with them. Probably because she was a demi-human or the fact that she was in front of them. Either way she quickly backed off.

Nu-Ru: “Now that introductions are out of the way, you mind telling us why you ambushed us?”

Rumo: “Don’t presume to point fingers commoners, blame Requa for his stunt.”

Requa: “Ohh come one Rumo, as if you weren’t curious as well. Anyway, I apologies. Are you happy now Rumo.”

Huas: “Now, now. Let’s calm down everyone. We’re all responsible in one way or another.”

Requa: “Huas, right. Let’s all forget about this. Now then we can finally move on, follow us.”

The short spikey hair kid jumped down and walked across the room. The others followed suit with us just behind them. The room looked to be similar to a large shed, eventually we reached a door. Behind it was a wide open space. The ceiling was closed off by what seemed like glass, similar to a greenhouse. The field looked to be as large as football field.

Requa: “Now then, let’s get started!”

Nu-Ru: “Wait!”

The boy was about to do something but Nu held up his hand to shut him down.

Nu-Ru: “First off, where’s the professor? We can’t just do wha…”

Requa: “Huh? You didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

Requa: “Well you see, this ‘special’ class was originally created for us. No one could compare to us, so they created this class where we could spar with one another. So no one really teaches, so we’re free to do whatever we want.”

I opened my mouth to question the validity of that but quickly reminded myself that they were high nobility, they could do whatever they want.

Requa: “Now that that is out of the way, let’s get things started. Seeing as how there’s only three of you, we’ll fight in pairs. You three versus three of us. Doesn’t that sound fair?

“Sure… ‘not like we have a choice anyway.’”

I kept the whisper to myself as he went back to his friends to talk to. I turned back to Nu and Als who were talking it out.

“So. what’s the plan?”

Nu-Ru: “I...I don’t know. I have no data on them, let alone a plan. Right now, we should play it safe. Als, what role are you?”

Als: “Role? What’s a role?”

Nu-Ru: “Sorry, allow me to clarify. You can only use offensive spells correct?”

Als: “Yes.”

Nu-Ru: “Here’s the plan. Shae and Als will be the front fighters, I’ll support you guys with spells and enchant spells. We’ll stick together and cover each other’s back.”

“*Whisper.* Hey, shouldn't you be in the front? I’m a support class remember?”

Nu-Ru: “*Whisper.* Those guys are all direct fighters, right now I’m a mage and you’re a warrior. We need to play our roles. Besides you can’t use your Orbitor, not to mention a warrior using support skills will raise eyebrows. ”

I wanted to object but what he said did ring true. Rather than dwelling on that, I got focused on the task at hand. Our opponents were Requa and the two with the katanas. We stood a fair distance away from one another, we positioned ourselves Als and I at the front with Nu behind us. They stood side by side in a carefree attitude. The others were on the sideline.

Requa: “Alrighty then, here are the rules. We'll be sparing until we can’t fight anymore. Of course I would suggest giving it your all. Are you guys ready?”

“We’re ready.”

The moment I said that, they charged directly at us. It took me a second to fully register just how quickly they lunged at us but I quickly snapped out of it.

“|Heavy Knuckle.|”

Als: “|Crystal Shard.|”

Nu-Ru: “Magic Arrows.|”

I used my skill and punch the ground into huge rubble. I quickly grabbed a piece of the ground and threw it at them. Requa unsheathed his sword and cut it into two. I picked up another one but it ended in the same result. The other two managed to block and defend against our spells.

Soon they came in full force with Requa charging right at me. I held up my arm and defended against his slash thanks to Nu’s iron flesh enchant. I didn’t take much damage but the force knocked me to the side, away from Nu and Als. He didn’t let up as he continued to attack relentlessly. All I could do was dodge as we separated.

I could only attack with light jabs and punches, but they were blocked by his sword.

Requa: “When I first heard about you, I was skeptical. A warrior that fought with no weapon, now seeing you in person I can see that it’s all true. Hahaha, show me more!”

His attack started to become more frantic and quick. He picked up the pace and caught me off guard with the sudden boost in speed. I dodged the attacks by the hair, but eventually he decided to wrap things up.

He probably was tired of running so he stabbed his sword into the ground and ran towards me with the blade streaking against the ground. Requa swung up, sending dust towards me. It blinded me for a moment, allowing him to move to my side for an attack.

But thanks to my new body, the dust had little effect from the dust. He came in for an upward slash but I stopped it with |Heavy Stomp.| I did a small jump and activated my skill to bring down my leg against the attack. I kicked it with a powerful force to knock him back, temporarily dazing him.

I quickly dashed towards him to finally finished him off. I could imagine the scene already. Using a skill and knocking him straight to the ground...but that wasn’t what happened.

Requa: “|Counter.|”

The next moment completely surprised me. Even in his small dazed state, he managed to quickly turn around and repel my attack. But it wasn’t that, it was the fact that he used a Skill.

*No...That can’t be! That was definitely a skill, but that’s impossible… No it’s just that we never seen anyone use a skill before.”

Back in Eternia attacks were separated into two different categories. Spells which were magical attacks by mages and spellcaster and skills which were abilities or attacks used by warriors.

I couldn’t think more about it as he quickly went in for another strike. That moment caused me to panic internally, causing me to use one of my more powerful defense skill, |Ironguard Wall.| A skill that boasted the highest defense, allowing me to easily defend anything even Nu’s strongest spells. But what happened shocked me even more.

Requa: “|Cross Slash|”

He activated another skill and charged straight in. I readied myself to completely bounce back the attack but that didn’t happen. I felt my power drained a bit, the next moment I was hit by his skill. I felt the force of it and was knocked back. Numbers flashed before me as my health went down by a bit, but that wasn’t what concerned me.

*What?! Why didn’t my skill activated? I didn’t take that much damage but...but I shouldn’t have taken any.*

I observed him with frantic eyes, looking everywhere as to give me any hints. Eventually I looked upon his sword, which was glowing.

*That’s… The legendary sword item, Gram. ...I see, that makes sense now.*

One of the swords used by the leaders of the Holy Knight guild was known as ‘Gram the penetrator.’ The weapon special ability allows it to cut through all defenses of an enemy. Be it armor, support spells/skills or ability. To be more specific it ignores those attributes and attacks them as if they don’t have any armor on.

I took my eyes off of him and back to Nu and Als. They were having trouble as well as the two they were fighting were using their legendary swords’ abilities as well.

Requa: “I must say that I’m generally surprised. You’re quite strong, you’re the first one who actually kept up with me. Let’s continue!”

He readied himself again, this time I charged at him. But instead of running at him, I ran passed him towards Nu. By the time I got there, his opponents had him on the ground. Supposedly he was caught off guard as well.

I got the jump on him, knocking him away from Nu. I quickly helped him up and we stood side by side.

“So, I’m guessing you’ve already figured it out?”

Nu-Ru: “Yeah. Another careless blunder.”

His face contorted into a small face of annoyance and rage. No doubt it was due to missing this piece of information. Nu would also be hard on himself whenever things went awry. Whether it was because he took it too seriously or whether it was because of his ego was something he never discuss with us. I quickly acted before Nu did anything.

“We surrender!”

I spoke those lines with the loudest voice I could muster. I looked around to make sure they heard me. Requa and the other eased up and sheath their swords.

Requa: “Already? Just when things were getting fun. Whatever.”

To my surprise he gave up rather quickly and walked back to the others. I looked back to see Nu walking towards Als and helping her up.

Haus: “So how was the fight?”

Requa: “It was fun, but boring as well. I thought they would be more of a challenge.”

Roland: “Don’t forget that you fought against some commoners. Where do you see the challenge in that?”

Requa: “True but it was still disappointing.”

They were talking behind our back, trashing us. I couldn’t help but grind my teeth because in reality we would wipe the floor with them. The only thing stopping us were the ‘Binding Ring’ item. In Eternia the item, ‘Binding Ring’ was a special item that allowed players to lower their level. The purpose of the item was higher rank players to play with friends that were lower ranks. Helping them a quest, a duel, or training them.

After the orientation we equipped the rings as a precaution. We limited ourselves to level 32 at most to give us some leeway as well. I had no choice but to ignore them and continued on my way towards Nu. I got there as Nu slowly lowered Als to lean against the wall.

Out of all of us she was the one that took the biggest beating. There were bruises all over her body with light wounds and cuts as well.

Nu-Ru: “Are you alright?”

Als: “I’ll live….I’m fine.”

Als tried to get back up but she didn’t make that far before using the wall as a support.

Nu-Ru: “Here. |Heal|”

Nu activated his spell and healed her wounds. She slowly slid down the wall until and started to relax.

Nu-Ru: “Here you go. Just get some rest.”

Als: “......Thank you.”

Nu simply nodded before walking back to me.

“You seem to be rather close to her.”

Nu-Ru: “She would argue otherwise. Anyway, I’m guessing you’re curious regarding them.”

I nodded, telling him to continue on.

Nu-Ru: “First thing is first, regarding their levels they’re only level 26 at most.”

“What?! How could they be so strong?”

Nu-Ru: “You're forgetting one thing, they aren’t monsters.”

I couldn’t help but let out a ‘huh’ sound as i was confused as Nu’s question. The question made no sense to me. He waited for me to answer but when it didn’t come he just answered it.

Nu-Ru: “I identified everything, their equipment and their swords respectively. Surprisingly they are almost on par with our current equipment. The only things that made a difference were the swords. They’re the real deals.”

“But...But how? Those weapons were among the best legendary weapons. A player would need to be at least level 95 to equip it, let alone use it.”

Nu-Ru: “I know. This was one of the pieces of evidence that points towards this world not being a game. But that doesn’t explain why they’re able to equip it. ...For now it’s not that big of an issue. The weapons are for extensive purposes, weakened in a sense compared to their original power. But we should still keep an eye on them.”

I wanted to debate some more but Nu did had a point in his argument. I couldn’t help but sigh in agreement. For the rest of the class, we kept to ourselves. Nu and I talked about what to do next while looking out towards them while they sparred with one another.

Soon class finally ended and we could finally leave the academy. Nu and I decided to head to the food and shopping district to look at some merchandise and to get some fresh air as well. Sirva came to pick us up and was a tour guide as we navigated through the district. We spent the better part of the hour just looking around on the goods being shown.

Most looked neat but were practically useless to us. We did buy a couple of things, such as potions, elixirs, etc… More on Nu’s end to learn more of how advanced the world really is. It was around late evening when we decided to finally head home. We were on our way back until something ran into us. It hit Nu and fell down on her but.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Getting a closer look, I realized it was an elf. It looked to be no older than a child. she had on dirtied rags that covered up her body. Upon closer inspection she looked to be hurt with a nasty bruise on her head. I bend down to help up but she started fighting me as I touched her.

“Please calm down, we aren’t going to hurt you.

XXX: “Let go of me! I need to run!”

I eventually got her up and help her still just as a group came out of an alleyway towards us. They numbered five in total, all gruff looking men. The little girls started to shake uncontrollably when she saw them.

XXX: “There you are, now be a good girl and come over here.”

Nu-Ru: “Who are you? What do you want with her?”

XXX: “That’s none of your business. Now hand her over.”

“I don’t see a slave mark on her. She’s free.”

XXX: “This is your final warning. Hand her over or else we’ll get serious.”

The men spread out, surrounding us and backing us against a wall. I motioned the little girl behind me to protect her.

“Say, can we beat the crap out of them already?”

Nu-Ru: “We’re in kind of a narrow walkway right now, I can’t use my spells without possibly hitting everything around me. So let’s go with this, Sirva, take care of them.”

Following Nu’s order Sirva charged directly at the intruders. They didn’t even have time to react as she used a high kick and knock out two of them. The others backed off before one of them charged in trying to grab her.

Sirva easily jump up, dodging him and then strike down. His head hit the pavement with a huge thud. She slowly stood up while brushing herself off. Out of the remaining two, one fled the scene.

XXX: “Screw this!”

The last one pulled out a rusty knife and charged at Sirva. He lunged at her but once more she easily evaded him. Quickly sidestepping, she grabbed his arm and then threw him against a wall.

Nu-Ru: “Good job Sirva.”

Sirva: “I live to please, my master..”

“It’s alright. We won’t hurt you.”

The little elf girl hid herself during the fight but slowly walked out into view.

XXX: “Tha...thank you.”

“Why were they chasing you?”

Nu-Ru: “It isn’t all that hard to guess why. Anyway where do you live? We’ll escort you there.”

The elf was about to object but both of us insisted. Eventually she gave up and we helped her home. During the walk we learned that the girl name was Alia and she was a free elf because her previous owner died. Before she was enslaved again, she found a way out.

Eventually we reached her home...no the proper term was shack. Her home was located in the poor commoner district near the edge of the wall. The shack was very run down, with holes and decrepit plywood. Dirt and trash littered the streets with a horrible pungent smell all around.

We walked in to see a small room that looked much nicer on the inside. There were two rooms, in the house. One main room and a door that led to another small back room, The main room wasn’t that big, at most holding about 30 people. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a broken bed in the back room.

Alia: “Thank you for helping. I...I don’t have any…”

Nu-Ru: “It’s alright. But do you really live here? All by yourself?”

Alia: “No...My sister lives here too.”

“Sister?”

As if on cue the front door made a ‘irk’ noise as it was slowly opened.

Als: “What the?!”

The one the came into view was Als, the elf. I looked over to see Nu surprised as well at the odd turn of event. But that didn’t last long as she quickly threw down her stuff and turned towards us with hostility. But before she could act Alia stepped in.

Alia: “Please don’t! They’re friendly.”

Alia stepped in-between us, causing Als to back up a bit in surprise.

Als: “Explain now.”

For the next few minutes we informed her on what happen after going to the shopping district. At first she was still skeptical but she eventually resigned and acknowledged it.

Als: “I see. Could I talk with you all outside.”

We all slowly got up and stepped out of the shack. Soon we were outside with Als.

Als: “What the hell are you up to? First you helped me, now you’re helping my sister.”

“Umm, Nu, you mind explaining?”

Nu-Ru: “When I helped you, it was because you were hurt and no one was going to help you. Regarding your sister, we meet her by accident. We helped her because it was the right thing to do.”

Als: “…..”

Nu-Ru: “Feel free to ignore it or put it off, but that’s the truth.”

Als: “Don’t talk to me.”

“Huh?”

Als: “Just ignore us. Don’t talk to me in class or get close to me ever again.”

Nu-Ru: “Wait--”

Als: “I said leave us alone! We’ve held out with just us. We don’t need other meddlers.”

The way she made it out, it was as if she was annoyed at us for helping her. I was about to argue back but Nu stopped me.

Nu-Ru: “If that’s what you wish.”

He turned and walked away with Sirva. I looked back at Als and Nu before running to catch up to him.

“Just how ungrateful can she be?”

Nu-Ru: “Please drop it, we are kind of at fault for getting involved with her. Besides…”

“Besides?”

Nu-Ru: “I can see where she’s coming from.”

Nu ended his sentence and we walked in silence until we were finally back at the dorm.

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Assassin leader POV

“Is this report correct?”

I was in my office, shifting through every information gathered by my spies.

XXX: “Yes! We’ve even double checked it sir!”

I looked through the information twice. I couldn’t help but let out a massive sigh at the information presented. The funniest thing about it was that most of the information gathered on those that aided the princess came from a child that stayed behind and heard the event taking fold.

*If this is true, then we have a massive issue on our hand. That means it’s their issue as well.*

“That’s all for now. I’ll inform them.”

My subordinates nodded and left the room. I quickly grabbed all the information that we have and left the room. Our base was a small wooden house with a lower interior in the ground. I walked through corridors that were dimly lit. Eventually I came to a room.

Inside the room was nothing. No windows, no item, just an empty dark room with no lights. In the middle stood a thin, tall pillar with a crystal at the top. I closed the door and activated the crystal. Within a couple of seconds a small rectangle image flashed. It flickered a bit before an image cleared up.

Through the use of the crystal and specially imbued magic, images could be shown. Even long range communication was possible but most were in the early stages of development. Although there would be no images and only vocal communication was possible.

XXX: “Diosas, is that you?”

Finally a voice responded from the static. It was a shrill, high voice of a woman. She was my leader and head of the Assassination branch of the Black order.

“I have my report Catherine.”

Catherine: “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

“According to our reports we’ve finally identified those that killed that knight and our assassins. We’ve already confirm that the demi-human that assisted the princess is one of them along with the female knight with him. Also, the group that we sent after them was taken down. A couple escaped to tell us this.”

Catherine: “Hmm.”

Even without the image on, I still knew what she was thinking. Boring. That was the kind of attitude that belonged to her.

“The next individual appeared to be a lizard woman assassin. We don’t have much information on her. Finally we have a mage. From the reports, it would seems that he’s the leader of the group. He tried to negotiate with the knight and even captured one of our assassins to learn more. As for how much, we don’t know.”

Catherine: “How powerful is this mage?”

“The story from the child was jumbled. From what we could piece together, two of the spells he used were a lightning type spell, and a gravity type spell.”

Catherine: “Did you just say gravity?”

“Yes.”

Catherine: “From my extensive knowledge. A spell like that would be around a sixth rank spell.”

When she said that I accidently made a loud gulping noise. Although my knowledge of magic wasn’t that wide, I still knew the implication of what she meant by that.

Catherine: “Is that all?”

“Yes. I’m planning on sending more troops to trail the demi-human. According to my spies, they’ll be within Regios territory soon. The mage on the other hand, we don’t know.”

Catherine: “The Holy Empire.”

“Huh?”

Catherine: “He’s mostly likely at the Holy Empire by now. If they’re investigating the Black Order than they will head to the only two human countries. If the demi-human is following the princess, then it’s only logical to head to the empire to cover all sides.”

“I see. I’ll prepare scout immeda…”

Catherine: “Cancel that order.”

“What? Why?”

Catherine: “Because I’ll be the one in charge. I’ll head to the Empire and look for this man. You on the other hand focus on the demi-human and the princess.”

“Well certainly that would make things easy. But why? You never involve yourself in anything, why now?”

Catherine: “Isn’t it obvious, because this will be interesting.”

With that, the call ended and I was by myself. Although I asked her that question, I already knew the answer. Catherine, or as she referred to in the Order, Catherine the Craved.

*If she’s joining the fray then this might get messy. I almost feel sorry for the mage.*

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Hey everyone. Hope you liked the chapter. Here is some important news. First, chapters 1 through 5 that were all originally written by thecode have been redone. Don’t worry, the plot and all of the important things are mostly the same, the biggest differences would be some new details as well as the fact that word choice and grammar have changed, especially with the descriptions of some of the main characters. Another piece of news is that I finally figured out how to add the symbol for the fanfic on the main page. That symbol also happens to be the flag of Crimson Strife that was described in chapter 1. Finally I would like to ask for those of you who like my fiction to rate and review it to tell me what you think and what I could do better. I am always open to new ideas as I try to decide in what direction the story will go as well as the direction of the relationships between the different characters.