Caperiol was the first to attack. Her black metal sword swung through Jasion’s leg while Reveriol attacked him from the top, striking down on his head. They were obviously more skilled than Jasion, and he knew this, but from the looks, on their faces, as their weapons glided through him, they had never seen a power like his before. He planned to use this to his advantage.

As soon as the swords had passed through him, Jasion used the time stop. While the two girls were frozen in the air he moved over and positioned them so that they would smack into each other as soon as he started time again. He wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but this battle was more training practice for him as well as a step towards potentially getting them to join him. He started time again and like expected the girls banged into each other.

They look at each other confused for a few seconds not knowing how they had gotten into that position, but they quickly snapped back into action, jumping up and facing Jaison, ready to continue the fight. Reveriol studied Jasion, she couldn’t see any easy way to beat him and from the look on Caperiol’s face, she didn’t either. Caperiol leaped towards Jaison, her sword aimed towards his chest. The demon stopped time again.

“I would like to say that you should check your book again,” The demon said.

“Is this really the best time?” Jasion said as he put out his arm so that when he started time again, she would run directly into his forearm.

“Just do it boy” Jaison quickly complied and checked the book. His magic level had changed, it was now 480/500.

“The magic level runs down the more we use our power, so remember to use it sparingly as when you become stronger and use the flames more, the level will drop much quicker the stronger the spell. I won’t show you now as you’re busy but as you get stronger that level will grow, so sorry for the interruption and have fun” The demon whispered into his ear. Jasion scoffed, he didn’t understand what the demon meant by ‘have fun’, all he wanted to do was finish the fight as quickly as possible. Time started again and Caperiol ran directly into his arm, causing her to fall to the ground.

Caperiol wings flickered as she used them to quickly propel her back onto her feet. Jasion went to place his sword at her throat and demand surrender, but before he knew it Caperiol had a devilish smile on her face and Reveriol was standing behind him her sword aiming for his leg. They really didn’t want to lose to him. Despite their attitude, he was starting to like them, after all, they were much quicker to adapt than him. But they simply didn’t have the power of the demon’s black mist.

Wanting to finally end the fight so he could get back to the village, Jasion threw up his hand and summoned a circle of fire around Caperiol freezing her in place, he then raised another around Reveriol putting a stop to her as well. The green and purple flames rose around them. The girls looked intensely at the flames thinking of a way to escape, but they quickly realised it was useless. They looked over to each other, a look of annoyance and defeat on their faces.

“I surrender, if I had my knight equipment with me, I could have beaten you in seconds but for now I guess you win,” Reveriol said, pouting slightly. Caperiol looked down, a look of anger on her face. He could tell she was annoyed that she had lost to him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they had thrown the fight on purpose.

“I surrender as well,” She said, biting her bottom lip out of anger. Jasion lifted his hand and the flames died down until they were nothing but rings of embers. Caperiol and Reveriol stepped out the rings and walked over to him. They stood in front of him, their large wings folded behind their backs.

“So, you won, what do you want from us now,” Reveriol said crossing her arms. Jasion took off his mask, his black suit shined slightly in the sunlight as his kind eyes met with hers.

“Do you want to die?” Jasion asked his face still holding his kind, warm gaze. The girls both looked at him, slightly scared.

“From your looks, I guess you don’t. So, I want to give you an offer, you can go back to your homeland and be executed for your mistake, or stay with me, help me, and regain your honour and help me build a city. A city where people of any race can go without fear of being killed.” Jasion’s smile made the girls’ hearts warm. He reminded them of the old Angelic knights of legend.

“But we will be dishonoured if we don’t return for trial? We failed to kill the enemy Amazons; they decimated our forces; we deserve to die” Caperiol pointed out.

“A friend of mine was killed by Amazons so that their two peoples could be brought together, I hated myself for not being able to do anything. But from that mistake of mine I did learn something, from bad can come good, so let’s take the death of your comrades and do something good in their name,” Jasion put his hand out to the girls, a look of determination in his golden eyes, his red hair moving slightly in the breeze, giving him an almost picturesque look. Caperiol looked to Reveriol, seeing she had a look of awe on her usually proud face.

“So, I ask you, will you help me change the world.” The girls looked at each other, then to him. The girls smiled and both went forward to shake his hand.

“We are going to regret this” Caperiol said to Reveriol. Reveriol only responded with a small laugh.

“Probably. But yes, we will join you, friend” Reveriol said, giving Jasion a friendly bump on the arm as she walked past him towards the village.

“But first you need to learn how to make a proper sword, the ones you made are shit, to say the least”, she said as Caperiol followed her. With that, the girls made their way back to the village, a happy Jasion right behind them.

They soon arrived back at the village. The Angelics stopped, and Jasion caught up to them. Haunily and about 100 or so people including the man that was going to be sacrificed were all crowded around the centre of the village. Jasion looked over to Haunily who seemed to be organising the crowd. He looked to the two Angelics and gave them a nod to follow him as he moved over to ask Haunily what was going on.

As Jasion approached, one of the wolf-kin got Haunily’s attention and pointed in Jasion’s direction. Haunily turned around and when she saw Jaison her eyes widened with happiness. Jasion relaxed, her smile was enough to calm him of any and all worries he might have had.

“So, what’s happening?” Jasion asked. Haunily excitedly wagged her tail. Jasion looked to her side, the blue dragon was sitting there. In the dragon’s mind, it thought Haunily was Pelana and assumed that Jasion had forgiven her and was now friends with Pelana again. Thinking that Haunily was Pelana, even the dragon looked excited for what she was about to say next.

“These warriors here are all the wolves in our village that want to learn to fight,” Haunily said, happy at the small army she had gathered for Jasion to train. At the site of Jasion’s smile, Haunily gripped to his side and smiled proudly towards his face, her ears and tail both flopping around carelessly, a sign of her happiness.

Jasion gulped slightly at the number of men and women that wanted to fight. It would take him a lot of time and hard work, but he would have to make weapons for each one of the wolf-kin. He had to admit though that he was impressed by how many wolves were now willing to fight rather than run.

“Hey Caperiol, Reveriol!” Jasion called over to the two girls, signalling for them to approach. The girls went to Jasion’s side and started to examine the wolves.

“Once I make the swords, I will also try to make some spears and axes, until then could you try to train them in the basics of fighting,” Jasion asked. Reveriol and Caperiol nodded and moved over to the ramble of wolves.

The girls muttered some words to each other before turning to face Jasion.

“It will take some time and a LOT of effort and hard training, but we might be able to turn them into slightly fewer stupid wolves,” Caperiol said with a look of annoyance on her face as she and Reveriol started to realise the hell that it would take to make these rag-tags into a fighting force.

“But before we do that, we will need to teach you how to make a decent sword instead of the metal sticks you made us use earlier” Jasion smiled, he was happy to see the usually high-and-mighty Angelics to have seemingly gotten of their high horses and actually start talking to him like a normal person.

But this might of all been just because deep down they didn’t want to have to return to their homeland and be executed, he was happy for this as he knew how vicious the Amazons were by nature and how badly they probably wanted to avenge their comrades. But if her army was attacked by Amazons, depending on how long they had been captured for meant that the Amazon army had to be moving fast in their direction. If the village was to be kept safe, he would have to make the weapons, train the villagers, train himself and get away as soon as possible so that he wouldn’t be putting the wolves in danger.

Caperiol and Reveriol both walked over to Jasion. Reveriol gripped his arm and started to lead him back to the hut they had slept in the night before. While Caperiol watched them. Haunily watched on angrily, she didn’t know why she was angry, but she felt very, very pissed off at the thought of them being alone together.

“There isn’t a decent enough blacksmith in the town so I I’ll have to talk you through how to make a good sword. While I do this Caperiol will start getting a training regime ready for the Wolves to start using to get themselves in fighting shape” Reveriol spoke as they entered the hut and she flung him on the bed. Haunily watched grumpy as they disappeared off into the hut, she was hoping that she could have spent some more time with Jasion, but it seemed the Angelics were keeping him busy.

Reveriol sat next to Jasion, stretching her long grey wings around him, pulling hm closer.

“So how does the whole ‘weapons making’ thing work?” She asked.

“I focus very hard on the kind of weapon I want and how it is made, then the mist does the rest and creates the weapon from the knowledge I have of it. Or at least that is what I understand.” Jasion said. The demon of the mask manifested himself in front of them and leant against the wall opposite the bed, making Reveriol jump as she was still getting used to the fact that a literal demon lived within Jasion’s mask, or maybe it lived inside of him? But this wasn’t something that she wanted to start thinking about now, so she quickly pushed the theory aside.

“That is about how it works. I would have done it myself but over the few hundreds of thousands of years I have been floating about this world I have forgotten how to make most mortal weapons” He said scratching his mask as if it was his real face.

“Let’s start with some basics of how swords are made then” Reveriol said. She then taught Jasion on the basics of what makes a good sword for the next few hours. Jasion listened well and after she finished a part of her lesson outstretched his hand and started to think of all the information. The black mist went around his hand and after a few seconds of hard concentration a long black sword appeared in his hand. He excitedly passed it to Reveriol, hoping the weapon he had made was good enough by her standards.

Reveriol looked over the sword for a few seconds. She stood up and took a fighting stance, giving the sword a few good swings and thrusts. Once satisfied she weighed the sword in her hand by lifting and holding the sword along different parts of the blade.

“It isn’t half bad, much better than the other swords you made, but you still need a lot of practice. Try weighing the sword yourself then deciding what about it you need to change” She said passing the sword back to him. Jasion nodded. He was good at making medicine and not weapons so he understood that his first very serious opportunity at making a weapon that was meant to last for more than 5 minutes, wasn’t all that good.

“I’ll do a few more attempts later, thanks for the lesson.” He said as he allowed the sword to fade back into the black mist.

Reveriol left the room to allow Jasion to train in private as well as help Caperiol start with the training preparations with the wolf-kin. Jasion watched as she left the room, a small smile on her face. He knew that the reason for the two Angelics to join him wasn’t a very good reason, after all, he didn’t know how them helping him make his city would regain their honour, but he could tell they were just taking any excuse they could to try and redeem themselves in their own eyes. This also probably explained why they chose to blindly believe him when he said he was human without asking for any proof. He did think it was strange that they just trusted him right off the bat when he said he was human, but this theory could explain that. He wanted to ask them about it, but he didn’t want to ask them such a personal question so early in their partnership.

He knew for now that they were just doing what they needed to do so as not to be executed for their failure, but he hoped that they would find some happiness in helping him build his city. But he put the thought aside as he dedicated the next few hours of the day to practicing making swords from the black mist.

While he was training himself to make the weapons for the wolves, Caperiol, Reveriol, and Haunily were busy forming the wolves who volunteered to fight into two groups.

The first group was made of Wolves who were smaller and better runners, this group would be trained in how to make bows and scouting/skirmishing tactics. Caperiol had led this group alongside Haunily into the jungle where they would start teaching them on how to make bows out of naturally materials. There were about 40 wolf-kin in this group.

Reveriol was to lead the second group. This group were of the stronger, tougher wolves who would be better in close quarter combat. While Jasion was making the weapons, she planned to have them do exercise training, as well as act out mock battles using sticks. This would help them to get physically strong as well as slowly start to make them more used to fighting.

Haunily sat next to Caperiol as they watched over the wolves. The wolfkin were busy finding strong and sturdy sticks and vine so that they could start trying to make, makeshift bows. Caperiol watched the wolves carefully as they did their tasks, she wanted to make sure that they did their job well and there were no accidental injuries. Haunily on the other hand had her eyes locked on Caperiol. She didn’t like this Angelic for a number of reasons. For a start she looked down on the wolves as a lesser species. Secondly, she didn’t respect Jasion in the way Haunily wanted her too and lastly, she didn’t know why, but she felt as if she shouldn’t leave Jasion alone with the girls for too long in case they tried to corrupt him and turn him against the wolves.

Caperiol noticed Haunily’s gaze and turned to look at her. She didn’t like this wolf, she hadn’t been around her much but when she was, the wolf girl was always loud and obnoxious. She also clung to the side of the so called “human” Jasion whenever she saw them together.

“What is it you want wolf” Caperiol said, turning away from her to carry on watching the wolves train.

“My name is Haunily, and I watch you because I don’t trust you.” She said, trying to sound tough.

“Why? Is it because I am stronger than you?” She said, laughing at the pathetic wolf.

“NO! I see in your eyes no loyalty, the only reason you are helping us and Jaison is because he offered to give you a new life, correct?” Haunily said gripping the stone knife that hung from her belt.

“So, you followed us? I didn’t sense you, impressive for a wolf.” Caperiol swung around and nocked Haunily’s knife out of her hand.

“Your friend Jasion is a good man, yes we joined him because we don’t want to die, but we hate our kingdom to begin with, our army was a suicide force to fight the Amazons, and we were sent to lead it because our families wish to see us dead. We are not disloyal, but your friend does still need to earn our loyalty if he wants us to help him for the long term.” Caperiol said as she handed Haunily her knife back.

“May I ask you something? Is Jasion really a human or just a weird Amazon?” Caperiol asked, trying to turn the conversation in a happier one.

“Yes, from what father says, he is also much kinder than any Amazon” Haunily said, much to the amazement of Caperiol who just assumed Jasion saying he was a human, was a bad joke.

“S…so he really is a human… amazing” She muttered to herself, excited that he was really the first human she had ever seen. Since it was true, he was a human, she started to think that she needed to study him, learn about him, see how humans act. She had to admit she was excited to tell Reveriol the news.

The wolves soon gathered to them. All nervously holding the long sticks and vines they had gathered, Like Haunily the wolves all also feared Caperiol and the power she could have so they hoped what they had gotten was enough to appease her. Caperiol put out her hands and the wolves bowed their heads and offered up the sticks. She was happy to see that she was finally getting the respect she deserved from such smaller beings.

She examined the sticks and vines carefully. She made sure the long sticks could be bent into bows and that the vines could be thinned out and stretched into string.

“Most of these will do, now here comes the first part of your lesson, making bows” Caperiol said as she started her lesson.

Meanwhile Reveriol was busy getting half the wolves to run laps around the village while she flew over their heads. She kept flying over the remainder to check on their progress. They were busy taking down some trees and using them taken down tree to set up a running track for the wolves to use as a training area. Some of the wolves were even setting up logs from the trunks of the trees to test weapons on. Reveriol was happy with the progress they were making; at this rate they would probably be ready in about 4 weeks.

Jaison was making his 8th sword when finally satisfied he’d got the balance of length and strength exactly right. Jasion excitedly ran out of the hut to look for Reveriol and Caperiol. The small blue dragon was happily bouncing after him as he ran into the jungle where he saw them.

Caperiol and Haunily where the first ones he had found. Caperiol was helping some of the wolves to make bows while the others who had already made bows were trying to make arrows with Haunily. Haunily’s ears stuck up as she could hear footsteps approaching them. She turned around to see Jasion along side the small blue dragon happily approaching them, a large smile on his face. Haunily was just about to jump up to talk to him as the fluttering of Caperiol’s wings blocked her vision of him as she landed at his side. Jasion quickly presented the sword to her. Caperiol took the sword from him carefully and waded it in her hands. Happy with the wate she gave the sword a few swings before handing it back to Jasion.

“Very good for a person who isn’t a blacksmith” Caperiol said, nervously handing the sword back to him. She couldn’t help but be nervous as she tried to hide her excitement at the fact, she was talking to a real life human.

“So how are the bows coming along?” He asked.

“Well, we have been doing this for 3 hours and only a few wolves have actually made bows and after I told them how to make arrows… they are just barely getting onto that, and even then, they are very bad at making arrows” Caperiol said, sounding slightly annoyed.

“Oh, well I could always try” Jasion said. He knew he already had to make a huge number of swords and spears, but if it meant helping the wolves, he was alright to take on the extra work.

“No, you have already done enough, and these wolves have to learn this for themselves once we leave,” Caperiol said waving off his offer.

“Either way, can you tell me where Reveriol is? I saw you go into the forest, but I may or may not have forgotten/not watched where she led the other group” Jasion said scratching the side of his face slightly. He was embarrassed that despite being able to beat them in a fight (even if it was only because of their lack of equipment) he wasn’t smart enough to make sure where the girls were going to be taking their training groups.

“Reveriol is in the jungle on the north side of the village” Caperiol said pointing off in that direction. As Jasion walked off in the direction she’d pointed, a pair of devilish eyes peaked down at him.

Pelana’s eyes opened quickly, as she came out of her trance. She was sitting in a tent with Tanua, Jenkari, Kalani and the high priestess. She looked down to the blood-stained cloth in her hands, she had gotten it when Jasion once cut his finger on a sharp stone when she was trying to push him down into a lake to “bathe” with her. She had used the cloth to clean the small cut he had gotten on his hand, and she had kept it ever since, she loved the scent of the blood, it was like he was there at her side.

“Did you see him, did the blood location magic work?” Tanua asked. Pelana smiled to herself.

“He has gotten far, it seems the power of that evil demon has corrupted him and made him very fast, they are over 200 miles away. But I know where our prey is” She said smiling as she pushed his blood staind cloth into her face. Kalani faked a smile, she was hoping that Jasion could have gotten away safely.

But the high priestess had shown Pelana a dark magic, that by using a drop of a person’s blood (even if it was dry) after a special ceremony they could go into a hypnotic state and see where the owner of the blood was at that point in time. And much to the sadness of Kalani, the Amazons had just found Jasion, all she could do was give a fake smile and hope the amazons believed she was on their side.