File 6 - Waking Up

Amos, night the day after.

Sam sat down, and walking on his knees and right arm, headed toward the room’s door. Taking support on the wall, he stood up.

It has been around one hour since the middle aged woman applied the last set of bandages for the day.

He knew that he was alone until tomorrow morning.

The time to reckon had come.

These past few days, his mental fortitude have suffered great pressure, so he was eager to get a better understanding of his situation and location.

It was unlikely that he will be able to find a car in his immediate surrounding he thought; The noises he heard until today were noises of cart being pulled by horses.

Furthermore, the way people were dressed hinted that these people were a tribe of self-sufficient, away from technology and civilization type of people. He did not see any devices, and even during the four days period people were visiting him as if he was an attraction, he did not see any cameras.

In addition, their ways of nursing…

The conversations Sam heard confirmed his thoughts, as everything he heard was about hunting, farming or even mining.

However, if Sam managed to walk long enough, he was sure he would be able to reach a town or a village nearby with a phone.

Sam breathed, and stealthily opened the door of his room.

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Brian and his children were in the living room with five of the family’s guard.

The guards wore green colored leather armors.

The news of a beast attacking gatherer spread like wildfire in the village. A squad, led by Denise and Sasha killed it, but they suffered heavy damage. One guard had been killed, and four were severely injured.

Sasha was explaining the events that took place.

After the villagers provided them with the beast location information. They encountered the beast, a wild boar, in the forest outskirt waiting for them in ambush.

One guard was killed instantly. The guard captain, Vincent, reorganized his men and under his leadership, the guards, Sasha and Denise were able to repel the wild boar attacks with their swords. While Vincent slashed the wild boar, taking him down with several powerful strikes.

Sasha paused, and then said.

“Father according to Vincent, this wild boar was a level seven body realm beast!”

Brian frowned when he heard the beast was at level seven body realm.

A beast also evolve based on level. With time, some of them will break through the body stage realm, and evolve into a spirit beast. However, the beasts are physically much stronger than humans are but do not have a soul spirit.

Therefore, ranking was hard to apply. The base of their strength was on a completely different level.

Experts agrees that when dealing with a beast, it was always safe to assume their rank to be at least one level higher in strength and fierceness.

Brian mumbled :"A level seven body realm beast encounter in the forest outskirt".

Brian was annoyed. Normally, the forest outskirt was relatively safe. The fiercer danger one could encounter was a wild animal. From time to time it was possible to meet a low-level beast, but the guards were more than enough to deal with it.

However, only on rare occasions was a higher rank body stage beast sighted in the forest outskirt, and most of the time, the reason was a sudden change in the forest beasts' hierarchy of power.

"We need more informations on this matter. Thankfully, Philip will come back tomorrow. He sent earlier today an eagle carrying a message stating that they were less than a day away."

Then turning to face the captain, a middle aged man wearing an insignia with a two-tailed lion on his chest, Brian said:

“Vincent, good work today, your quick thinking during this sudden attack saved many lives”.

Vincent was a seasoned soldier, the case of higher level beasts in the forest outskirt had occurred more than a dozen times since he started serving under Lord Gerad.

Vincent bowed and said: “Not at all my Lord. Lord Sasha's and Lady Denise's support was also crucial in our victory today”.

Vincent have been working as a guard in the Lennart family for twenty-five years now.

He met Gerad during a territory war with a neighboring village, and was deeply impressed by Gerad’s strengh.

Twenty years ago, without warning, the Bargil village attacked, destroying some of Amos’ crops and killing several villagers. Brian went berserk and mobilized soldiers to go and erase Bargil village from Phi continent.

Gerad though otherwise and sent a delegation in order to discuss the matter. Up until now, the two villages kept cold, but cordial relationship. This attack seemed out of place.

It turned out that the Bargil’s village ruler Simon Necker died, and his son, David took over after him.

David was a greedy and arrogant man. He had been preparing for months and hired several spirit realm experts in order to protect and assist Bargil village.

The delegation Gerad sent came back and gave him the report as well as a message from David.

David asked Amos village to give their right over the mountain, which had a better quality ore as well as taxes on their activities from now on. If Amos village did not comply, David will use his army led by spirit realm expert to trample them.

Hearing this, Gerad took the guards and went to Bargil village. Although David hired many first and second level spirit stage experts, thanks to Gerad, none of them were able to stop their advance, and the fights were ruthless.

Bargil villagers were afraid. Normal people were like cattle in the wild, if there were no experts, it would be impossible for them to survive in the village. There were many wild animals and beasts around.

However, when villages raise against each other, completely wiping out the other village was an unsaid but widely followed rule.

Gerad and his men killed their way toward David manor, seized David and drove him outside.

They put David on a post and killed him in front of all the villagers gathered. Gerad declared “From today onward, Bargil village will be under Lennart family’s rule. People who do surrender will not be harmed, and resistance from experts will be severely punished.”

This show of mercy was an unusual display for an expert. When Vincent asked him why he did not kill all the villagers, and why he let the experts who showed submission survive, Gerad replied: “Killing is easy, but not always the best solution and sometimes, the worst move."

When Gerad saw Vincents confused look, he sighed and added:

“Keep your family close, and your neighbors closer, because in time of needs, they are the only people you can count on.”

Vincent who was still bowing, heard a knock on the door followed by Brian saying:

"Come in!".

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After opening the door, Sam exited the room into a small corridor. He could see a slightly opened wooden door and moonlight was piercing through.

Rejoicing that security was so lax and taking support on the wall, Sam headed toward the exit.

He stopped behind the door, peaking through it.

He saw a courtyard and a big, old fashioned and impressive manor. The manor was three stories high, and looked well maintained.

Sam listened and scanned the surroundings for a while. "It's seems that no one is around".

Passing through the door, Sam limped his way out of the stone house.

“I've had enough with this place!”.

Tasting freedom again after such ordeals, Sam breathed delightfully.

However, after looking up, he froze.

There was no clouds in the sky, and amidst the beautiful sea of stars, the sight of two crescent shaped moons, one blue, one yellow, shattered Sam's paradigm.