《The Hunters: Gaea》"Special! Two Men and a Sorceress! Part Two!"
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“I’m back!” A feminine voice entered the office of the working Officials. A yellow-haired woman, fairly short, reaching only 5’0”. She’s in her early 30’s yet retained the beauty and appearance of a teen recently reaching 20. She had beautiful orange eyes that complimented her hair.
Her long blonde hair braided by the sides of her head, the braids meet at the back of her head and coiled each other all the way down to her shoulders, the rest of her hair was tied in a small bun above the braid.
She wore a yellow industrial jumpsuit that clung tightly against her body, showing her elegant frame. She wore thick boots made of brown leather and gloves with the same material. Her name is Lulu, one of the engineers of the Hunters Guild, gunsmith, Official assigned as the Siegemaster of the guild.
“Oh?” Slater stood up from his seat to walk over to her. “Welcome back, Lulu.” He personally greeted her.
“Good to see you’re still alive and haven’t passed out from work, Boss!” Lulu smiled, brighter than a lightbulb as she tilted her head to see Michel, sleeping on his desk. “Michel’s sleeping on the job though.”
“Let him sleep. He’s already finished his fill of paperwork. So where did you go by the way?” He asked with curiosity.
“Well, I’ve been gone because that guy—” She points at the sleeping man snoring on his desk and continued, “Told me to fetch his guns because he left them at his brother’s place.” She walked out for a moment to immediately come back carrying a large minigun with one hand and two massive pistols that looked too big for it to be even by one hand of a normal person by the trigger guard.
“I’m surprised you accepted his request to bring them back. So you had a chance to meet with Julius and Amanda?”
“Well he’s my senior, so what choice do I have? And I did! They were pretty nice. They even whipped up some snacks even though it was supposed to be a quick visit to get his guns back.” She walked past Slater. “Excuse me, Boss.“ She excused herself and went to Michel.
“Wake up!” She slammed one of the pistols by his desk. Which made the man, groggily open his eyes in annoyance.
“Urghh…” He groaned. “What the hell do you want this time?” He rubbed the back of his head as his vision slowly returned, he looked up to see who woke him up. “Wait… Oh, it’s you Lulu.”
“Afternoon, Senpai!” She spun one of his pistols in front of him. “Guess what I got?”
“Never… Ever call me that.” He immediately retorted. “How old are you? Ten?” He knows the word she used to refer to him and he is not going to humor the thought of being a senior. Or at the very least, accept it using it in that term.
“You know it’s at least true. You’re older than me, you are more experienced as an Official than me, and you and I are fellow gunsmiths. If you don’t like that, then how about Gun Husband?” She smiled with a bit of a playful smirk as she lets the other gun rest on the table. She still held the minigun by one hand as she lets it rest behind his chair.
“Don’t call me that either.” Another immediate retort from Michel. “But, thanks for bringing them back to me.” He looked at his minigun as he gave his large gun an affectionate stroke by its barrel. Cold to the touch from unuse.
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“Anytime, Mitch.” She rested her hands on his desk. “So you’re stuck on paperwork duty, right?”
“For now. You should go back to your forge. You must be getting anxious not being able to make anything for awhile while you did my errand.”
“As much as I want to work on my latest inventions that’ll be the best in breaking down walls and monsters like paper, I want to spend some time with my Senior. Is it wrong?”
“It’ll be a boring time. You’ll end up falling asleep just like me from the boringness of it all.” He lifts his minigun and lets it stand upright and lean against his chair.
“You’re really trying hard to make me go away, huh?” She said bluntly.
“Did I make it too obvious?” He said, putting aside any scattered papers from his desk caused by the slam of his gun against the table.
“It was obvious from the beginning. Because you immediately tell people to go away after one second talking to you.” She explained, yet she still smiled. “Though this is the longest I’ve gotten to speak to you outside of the forge when we work on your guns. Thanks.” She raised her arms and stretched a bit. “Well— I’m off! I’m already getting some real good ideas to build in my head right now! Gotta strike while the iron’s hot! Later, Mitch!”
Lulu walked out on the office as Slater came to his desk. “Now what’s that on your face?” The tired Guildmaster said with his arms crossed. “Is that a smile I see? Now that’s something I thought you could never make.”
Throughout the conversation with Lulu, Michel wasn’t aware of it himself that he had a small, calm smile when talking to her. When Slater pointed it out, it went away instantly as Michel glared at him. “Very funny, Asshole.”
“At least it’s a good thing to know that you have a bit of a soft spot for certain people.” He said with a tired smile.
“If you don’t shut up right now, I’ll make sure you go to sleep for a whole week.” He cracked his knuckles. Michel felt a vein form on the side of his head. “You’re pissing me off five times than usual. You know that, right?”
“I’m aware. But I do find it interesting to point out at the very least.”
He growled as he stood up from his seat. “I’m having a coffee break.” He walked out of his desk, making through the doorway before meeting face to face with a familiar face. It was Elana, looking up at him with a stern look.
“You.” Elana spoke with her voice calm but also holding a bit of stress.
“Me.” Michel retorted.
“I need your help.” Elana leaned to the side a bit to see his desk containing his artillery. “I see you have your guns back. Good, good. Go get changed.”
“You sure you need me and not the asshole behind me?” He raised his thumb behind his shoulder, pointing at the aforementioned asshole who took notice of Elana’s arrival.
“I need him too. Both of you.” Elana had her staff with her. A beautifully crafted staff it was. It was made of white Ironwood, with miniature etchings of runic writing so small it would be mistaken for the grain of the staff. It’s straightened like a pole as the top staff ended with a metallic, gearlike crescent, with a large green orb that is floating in the crescent in the staff through magical means.
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“What seems to be the problem, Elana?”
“We’re going north. We have to deal with a problem involving golems.”
The far north of the world of Gaea. A frozen tundra where spring was rarer than the sun ever appearing in this frozen wasteland. A world where the strong survive and only the strong. Strength is the fundamental rule of this frozen land. A land ruled by the strongest magician and warrior.
Slater and Elana wore winter garb to stay warm.
For Slater. A brown peacoat, a matching beanie, brown fur pants with snow boots. Almost casual clothing used to walk on a cold suburban street than a frozen tundra.
For Elana. A winter garb that is a warm fur coat that reached up to her shins, wearing thicker winter clothing underneath compared to Slater’s more casual winter clothing.
Michel however, wore his clothing like normal. Not bothered by the cold.
“You could’ve at least wore some winter clothing. Fire Essence or not, it’s better to be naturally warm.” Elana commented. She’s shivering a bit despite the clothing she’s sporting. Compared to the two hunters she paired herself with, she's only human.
“I am naturally warm.” He crossed his arms as he stared beyond the frozen wasteland, not bothering to look at her as he talked. “It’s why that asshole is showing off his wardrobe instead of doing what I’m doing.”
“Even a Fire Essence User has limits, Michel. Using your essence’s passive of natural warmth uses up your stamina.”
“And I don’t care. The cold is the least of my problems when I go to Grayvorn.” He stated, seeing something rise up from the snow.
What rose was a polar bear, buried in the snow. Standing up on Its hind legs. It is massive, around 7 meters standing up and on Its shoulders while on Its around 4 meters tall. Its claws, larger than short swords, sharper than like the blades of stainless knives.
It took a whiff of the scent of man, despite the large distance it covering the three and the storming blizzard barely showing the silhouette. Michel can see through.
“What do you see?” Slater asked. Stepping forward as he guarded Elana, an instinctual reaction he makes regardless of the person.
“Mega Bear. Polar Bear Variant.” He pulled out his pistol, cocking it as he aimed to where the polar bear was. His eyes glowed a bright orange, a circle taking in the form of an aiming scope’s target as his pistol started emitting a small flame. “Not a problem for me. Can’t say much for Little Miss Deadweight over here.”
“Excuse me!” She exclaimed, taking immense offense as she gently moved Slater aside to walk towards him. “I may be a human, Mister Michel Ares. But I’m an Arch-Mage. You know what that means? I can make this Blizzard stop if I wanted to!” She's a patient woman. An endearing one at that, she was nice to everyone and treats others with respect and love, like a mother and child. But with Michel’s behavior, it’s a stern mother getting tired of screaming at her brat’s ear.
“I know.” He acknowledged. “But I don’t give a shit.” He fired. The gun going through the harsh winter storm, unfazed by the wind’s attempt to change course. It was a fixed shot, a bullet that illogically goes at a straight line, not arcing down or even weakening from the long distance.
It hit its target. The bullet pierced through the dense, iron-hard skull of the Mega Polar Bear like a needle through a thread. A half-second passed as the shot exploded a harsh blast, exploding the brain matter from within and the skull of the massive bear as the gargantuan body laid limp like a ragdoll in a mere instant
The gun stopped flaming as Michel blew the smoke coming from the barrel. “If you are that strong, why come for us in the first place?”
“Because you two are going to fight Golems. Dragonscale Golems.”
“So that’s why. And why did you bring Asshole over here?”
“Because if I let only you do this with me, You’ll run away once it’s over. He’s here to keep an eye on you. Gormin would’ve stonewalled you, but you’ll break through. Jack could’ve frozen you in place, you’ll melt and break the ice. Only Slater can stop you, unfortunately. Even with my magic, I can’t multitask on stopping the production of these dangerous Golems while keeping you in place.”
“You trust me that little?” He said, not denying her assumption he will book it the moment after he’s done protecting her.
“Indeed. Slater here has one thing that will prevent you from ever escaping.”
“You don’t fucking mean—” He was caught off guard as Slater stood in front of him, his hand on his chest.
“Hades Shackle.” Slater spoke. Chains of pure flame wrapped around his hand, the end of the chain had a piercing spike as it went through Michel’s chest, passing through like a ghost as it reached his heart. Michel felt the flaming chain coil around his heart before not feeling anything at all.
“You fucker—!” He cursed. “You only use this kind of shit to fucking interrogate. Not keeping me hostage.”
The chains disappear as he softly smiled at his irritable Official. “Now you can’t run away from us. If you ever go too far away from either me or Elana, your heart will explode with no warning.” He gives those conditions with a warning via the heart burning and tightening if the victim is nearing to break that condition. But to Michel, maybe a little exception is allowed.
Michel was livid that he would go so far to use that cursed ability. It may not be devastating against an army, but if it’s one, single, target. It’s the deadliest ability that would ever exist.
Like a pinky promise to its maximum degree, it’ll make the strongest fighter to be weaker than a normal person, the most powerful mage into nothing but a normal scholar... Just with the simple condition of not using their strengths at all if they fear having their hearts explode if they break these conditions.
Michel stepped back, clutching his chest, furious that he used a huge cheat to keep him in check. “That’s low, Slater.” He finally used his name than a derogatory name. He took a deep breath as he calmed himself. “I’ll accept these terms. Promise me you’ll fucking remove this chain from my heart once were done.”
“Promise.” He smiled while going behind Michel to pat his back. “Don’t worry, Michel. I know you’re not that dense to do something stupid like leave someone for dead once the job is done… Actually now that I think about it, you’ll one hundred percent do that. So better safe than sorry.”
“Let’s just fucking go to the workshop.” He growled as he looked at Elana. “You’re the one who knows where. Take us there to make this quick.”
“Gladly. As patient as I am, I honestly do not want to spend time any longer to spend a few more minutes with you.” With a wave of her staff, The snow around them gathered together in front of them, coalescing into a massive ball of snow before the ball cracked like marble against a chisel as it turned into an ice buggy, being dragged by horses made of pure snow.
“Show off.”
“I will throw you sky-high until you’re far enough for your heart to explode.” She threatened as she flicked her staff to open the buggy door, entering first and Slater came second.
“Bitch.” He muttered as he entered last as the buggy started moving.
It was a quiet ride. Mostly quiet. Michel didn’t join on the idle chatter between the two Officials who were talking about their jobs and their time whenever they have free time, meaning mostly Elana talking about her lovely daughter who became a famous celebrity.
The buggy came to a stop as Michel broke through the ice door with a firey punch, shattering the ice as he hopped out of the buggy with the hole he made.
“That’s very unnecessary!” Elana commented as she and Slater walked out of the buggy using the other side.
“What’s unnecessary is teleporting far away from the Workshop.”
“You know very well teleportation spells and scrolls cannot go to places that’s been turned inaccessible. This workshop made a one-way dead zone to prevent being directly teleported from the place.”
“Elana is correct. Dead Zones are the reason The kingdoms can’t be directly teleported unless the scrolls are kingdom approved.”
“You know I don’t give a shit about magic nonsense. Let’s get this over with and destroy the workshop.” Michel equipped his minigun as he looked through the storm.
“Is the Mastermind inside the workshop, Elana?” Slater asked.
“They’re dead. They sacrificed their body to be the core of the factory to mass produce these magic immune dolls.”
“A Very extreme passion.”
“It’s extremist mages and alchemists that see magic as a form of art that gives me the biggest headaches.” A man who spent his whole life making Golems, loves Golems to the point he has made a massive debt to spend the mage-killing material, Dragonscale.
“The mage intentionally ended his life because he has racked a massive debt in the Regalia black market. Because he planned on making Magic immune golems to roam around the world to see their work become a well-known art.”
“How do you know that?” Slater asked curiously with Elana slowly pulling out a leather book.
“His Journal. I went to the workshop to deal with it on my own, But I found out the golems were immune to magic so I snatched this before escaping.”
“That’s quite a risky move, Elana. It’s a relief you made it out safely.”
“That means I don’t have to worry about holding back.”
“Correct. Now, time to clear the storm just a bit.” Weather control. The strongest form of Meteomancy, It changes the climate of the world and bringing miracles or disasters. The usual harsh blizzard will now become a weak, clear, dusting snow.
“Why not just make the whole place warm?” Michel asked as now that the snow got weaker, he can finally have a smoke, igniting a cigar from his pocket and started puffing one out.
“It would disrupt the climate of the world in the long run if I do that. It’s better to weaken the natural weather of a climate than change it completely.” As the snow cleared to see further. The three were on a high slope and witnessed a large workshop from below. It was wide, almost looking like a hidden factory than a single man’s workshop for sorcery.
“Quite a modern workshop, looks more like a factory. And this is built by one person?”
“That was my reaction too, but when I entered that workshop, it was practically a mixture of science and magic. This Golem Maker made a factory to specifically produce as many golems as it can contain. He threw himself into the core to power the workshop. The materials were made of condensed snow that’s been hardened with ice and minerals to give it form and shape. Then imbued with a core with a dragon scale so that it is entirely immune to magic.”
“Did you get that info from the journal too?” Michel puffed a thick smoke without moving his cigar.
“Mhh... It really is a waste that bright minds fall deep into passion and become maniacs.” She bit her finger at the regret to see a bright mind as this fanatic kill themselves to make Golems.
“And he’s just gonna let these Golems be free and do what they want?”
“Exactly. Which is why you two are going to destroy this factory. Leave nothing behind.”
“Understood.” The men both said in unison. Michel’s Minigun rotated as he took aim from afar. “Raining Hell.” The rotation became rapid to the point it didn’t look like it was whirring if not for the noise it made as he fired a volley of firey rounds.
They weren’t small musket shots. They were like cannon shots, the moment the bullets hit the structure, it let out a powerful blast as if his minigun was a rapid-firing cannon, The roof goes down as a siren can be heard through their ears as the attack on the workshop sprang an alarm.
Coming out of the facility are large, 3-meter tall bipedal figures, white as snow, their bodies craggy and stiff-looking yet their steps and movements are fluid. Their heads, lacking any facial features with the only feature being a yellow glowing gem in the center of the head to work as an eye.
“Here come the golems.” Slater slid down the hill as Michel works on destroying the building. His palms coated in a blazing inferno red hot flames. Clapping them together as the burning flames coagulated into a lava-like consistency.
“Inferno.” Slater chanted, he hopped out from sliding down the slope and was high in the air as he fired a blazing burst of burning heat that hit the Golem, melting the Golem without as much as letting it boil and melt, disintegrating in a mere instant like a pressure hose on paper. What was left were the mere cores of the Golems
Elana covered her ears from the loud blasting of his large minigun firing its destructive round to destroy the rest of the facility. “Mute.” She pulled out her wand from under her coat and casted a spell to make a small area of dead silence around Michel. He can hear the noises from outside, it was just that he can’t make any noise in the area she made. She can hear the bullets zipping out of the area but that was more bearable than the firing.
The Golems swarmed Slater, crowding him like ants overwhelming a larger bug. They raised their fists but before they can attack they were all destroyed as Slayer covered himself in a large pillar of fire. He is holding back. Hard. The reason? His flames are too deadly and affect the very climate he stood on.
“The Golem Maker made one big mistake. They are nothing but snow.” Slater burned them all as he crossed his arms and spreads them out. “Haze!” he exclaimed as a large horizontal arc of flames go through the horde of Golems as they all melt into water, the snowy ground melted to reveal the soaked grass and leaving only the cores and gems scattered across the ground.
“Incredible.” Elena said in awe. “No wonder he’s called the Fire King.” Slater Lillith. Guildmaster of the Hunters Guild. He’s a master of flames to the point he has achieved the unachievable. To create the undying, all-consuming inferno known as True Flame. Nothing will put out the flames he emits unless he tells it to.
“Fire King my ass.” Michel retorted, Unaware he’s been silenced as hs stopped firing. The Workshop is destroyed leaving nothing but rubble and debris, his minigun stopped whirring as the iron barrels were red hot. He dropped them on the snow to cool them off as he dropped his empty cigar.
“That takes care of that.” Slater looked at the area around him, looking like spring was starting to come soon in this winter wasteland he counted a total of 200 Golems, something an army will take hours to destroy all of them, he destroyed them in mere minutes.
He looked at the destruction caused by Michel as he looked up on the hill to give him a thumbs up. Which was replied with a flip of the bird, smiling back from his retort.
“Now is this considered a mission complete?” He asked Elana, who wasn’t hearing him. “Oi... I’m talking to you.” He walked out of the area she silenced as Elana turned her head to see Michel walk towards him.
“What is it?” Elana asked him with her head slightly tilted.
“What are you, deaf? I said are we done now? I want a good drink after this—” He was cut off when the ground rumbled. “The fuck?” He cursed as the snow beneath them began to move and slide down as his minigun fell along with it. “My gun!” He tried to reach but fell from the snow suddenly being pulled down, being dragged down on the hill with the snow.
Slater tried to walk back up the hill but fell back down when all the snow that was covering a large amount of the area being gathered to the workshop. “What the—Michel!” He took notice of Michell rolling down and being covered in snow as he fired a burning flame with the palm of his hand to melt the snow that was dragging him down on to the hill.
With Michel no longer being pulled by snow, he used his large pistol and buried it against the hill like a climbing pick. “What the fuck is going on?!”
“You’re kidding me!—” She stabbed the ground with her staff to not be pulled along like Michel as she witnessed what was happening. “Slater! You forgot about their cores!” The body doesn’t matter to a Golem. What matters is the source of their existence and automaton.
Snow golems were obviously brittle and soft. Even with the enhancements of minerals to become tough like any other normal golem. And the reason why the Golems are made of snow, was the ridiculous abundance of it in this frozen wasteland. The cores and gems bundled together in one spot as the golems are being reformed into one, massive being.
“In other words. This asshole made it worse!” Michel summarized as he climbed back on the hilltop. “There’s no more snow around this place… This Golem wants to go out with a bang.”
All of the snow was absorbed around a half-mile radius to turn into a new body of the Super Golem. The Golems reformed into a massive hulking Golem, standing at a staggering height of 15 meters.
It was almost the same appearance-wise but it had no head and an open maw with jagged shark teeth that revealed a black void on its chest, exhaling to imitate breathing, leaving foggy breaths. The cores. Around exactly 200 hundred cores acted as its brand now eye as it looked down on Slater and roared at him, firing a cold frosted breath at him. Slater countered by firing a harsh blast of heat, his heat overpowering and went through Its mouth, leaving an open hole from Its maw and back, but the hole slowly disappeared and repaired itself by adding new snow.
“Destroy the cores! Michel!”
“I’m fucking on it.” He said with an annoyed groan as he slid down alongside Slater, mostly because his minigun made it down to where he was.
“I’ll distract It, you destroy Its eyes.” Slater prepared himself.
“Trying to hold back and think I can’t handle your True Flame?”
“No. I think with how many targets this thing has, it looks like the perfect job for the Sun Killer.” He smiled at him as he quickly countered by disintegrating Its giant fist as the only thing that came at them was hard steam.
“Hmph. Always a fucking show off, making others take credit for what you can do with ease.” He picked up his minigun and the barrels started rotating. “Which is something that fucking pisses me off!” His eyes glowed with a blazing flame, turning into the same orange scope that he uses for an always accurate and devastating shot.
“Star Killer.” He named it, the ability to see or make critical points to shoot and destroy any target. Everything has flaws. Perfection has pores. Walls have cracks that he can use to destroy everything effectively, be it through firearms or his bare fists.
“That’s it. Kill this motherfucking Golem, you bastard.” He humored him for a moment as crippled the rest of the Golem to give Michel an easy time destroying all Its cores.
“Now you’re speaking my language!” He said with a smile forming involuntarily from his usually angry face as every shot of his bullets were explosive and powerful, making holes and craters around this golem with every round being fired.
“And that’s how these two worked together for the first time.” Elana said, wearing her original attire as she had in her hand a glass of Juice. Around them was a round table that had Gormin, Michel, Slater, and Lulu gathered together.
“It’s less working together and more like, not wanting to punch this prick in the face.” Michel corrected. His table was scattered with empty beer mugs.
“I say we have quite the synergy. Fire and fire normally should cancel each other out. But in the cold, The flames have to stick together to be strong.” Slater, who also had the same amount of mugs but were stacked in a clean tower of them.
“Hahah! Well said, Slater! Though we may not be men of YOUTH! It is a relief to know that regardless of our age, we still carry the passion and vigor of one!” He flexed when he said youth. Miraculously the uniform is still in one piece. He had his side of the table be stacked with protein and meats.
“If I knew Michel was gonna go to Grayvorn, I would’ve come and joined so Slater can continue working to not get piled up in the long run.” Lulu chimed, She had 3 barrels of beer, two underneath the table and one she's currently drinking on.
“You would’ve just let him go so he can be free again.” Elana commented.
“I wouldn’t do that! I respect my senior but I know how to stop him!”
“And what would that be…?” Michel said, drinking on his current mug.
“I’ll threaten you by telling Pa to stop making guns and ammo for you.” She bluntly replied with Michel choking his drink.
“Well fuck… With a threat like that, I can’t really run free if that happened.”
“You’re really not going to deny our assumptions?” Elana raised her brow at him, taking a sip of her juice.
“Why deny something when it’s true?”
“Your honesty is the only thing endearing about you…”
“By the way, Elly?” Lulu looked at Elana with a curious look.
“Yes?”
“This thing you made Mitchie—”
“Don’t like that nickname” Michel snapped.
“and the Boss do.” She ignored. “Is this considered a mission?”
“Well to be quite fair It’s more of an errand that requires the strength of these two monsters than letting good members take it and possibly die or get really hurt taking this task. So in a technicality… No, it isn’t. But for the fun of it, I say this is a mission and the reward as that everything is on me.”
“Well, something good at least happened tonight.”
“We promise not to drink too much. I’m prepared to pay for my own and Michel’s drink if that happens.”
“I don’t think it’s you two are the least of my wallet’s concern…” She looked Lulu’s beer barrels and Gormin’s plate stacks.
“Woo! Free beer!” Lulu already walked out of the table to jump over to the counter. “Aza! Another barrel—no—Four! Give me four barrels!”
“I see your point…”
“I’ll pay for her drinks.” Michel bluntly said as the three turned their heads at Michel from his sudden comment
Gormin who decided to drink beer at the wrong time spits on Michel’s face with a spray of cold beer on his upper body. Which immediately set Michel on fire and dried the alcohol off of him.
“Wonderful spit. I give that a fucking disgusting, out of ten.”
“Do my ears deceive me?!”
“Shut up.”
“Are you actually!”
“Regretting I ever said anything about this.”
“BEING NICE?!” Michel was prepared for the whole place to quiet down to hear Gormin’s scream. But no one looked, not even Lulu.
“Mute.” Elana casted the same spell. “Please use your inside voice, Mister Gormin.”
The musclebound adonis of a man had his cheeks develop pink patches of embarrassment, blushing how he can never seem to control his volume. “M-My apologies. Lady Elana.”
“Now what made you have the choice to do something like that?” Slater asked curiously.
“I’m not explaining shit to you.” He said resting his arms behind his head, putting his feet on the table. “I just want to pay for her drinks. Don’t think too much about it. What are you three, teenagers?”
“Quite a mature retort for an immature man. But I’ll respect it and keep quiet.” Elana finished her non-alcoholic drink and removed the mute spell.
“I’ll respect it too. But be careful the next time I put my hand on you.”
“You’re a fucking rat to resort to something that low just to get an answer out of me.”
“I will respect your chivalrous choice and also keep quiet about it.”
“Good.”
The group spent the rest of the time drinking, eating, talking about their previous missions and jobs as Officials. It was just another day being an Official in the Hunters Guild.
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Vetta Mindal travels a long way from home to attend the most exclusive school on Winkel World. Yet her simple soul can only deal with the restless spirits around her by drawing upon four of the five well-springs of joy. When she is held hostage by a mysterious blue-haired girl only then does she discover what the fifth well-spring is.
8 139Shadow of Steel
Purple. Persecuted. Poisoned. Saya was a poor teenager raising her family on a farm. She knowingly poisoned herself by choosing the dangerous job of picking Malvaos, mysterious purple fruits. The greater the danger, the better the pay. Picking Malvaos for five years turned her purple. Ever since she got her hands on a broken purple staff, weirder and stranger things have happened. So much happened that she questioned if things would ever go back to normal again. She journeyed back to her hometown, Steel, Michigan, where nothing was the same. Adding to the mess that the new human inhabitants created, the Orcs were trying to take over the town. There was no way to turn it back to how it was but she was determined to fight for Steel, for humankind. Being purple isolated and hardened her but it gave her extra power. With the help of a Tengu, new friends, suspicious elves, and naughty fairies, she would learn how to use her powers to battle the Orcs. Unintentionally, it's like "Percy Jackson" meets "Stranger Things."
8 199Cuts and Bruises
She hears all the locker room talk. She helps when the guys drink too much before a game. She tapes them up when they're injured. And in return, they watch her back. While most students spend their time partying, Lily spends her free time working. But her job as the assistant athletic trainer for the PSU football team comes with the benefit of being friends with every player on the team. Except the entirely too cocky, reckless, and charming golden boy of the team: Vincent Bradshaw. When they aren't spouting insults at one another, Vincent and Lily are doing everything in their power to avoid each other. That is, until Vincent gets injured.
8 147Anxiety and the Beginning
Poetry not intended for the masses.Coping with anxiety, living with depression, seeing the beauty of life anyway. Being a weird creative type in a world not built for them. An ode to the bizarre internal world of a human being.
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