“H-hey! Hold still!” As Charles says this, he takes out a cloth, puts water on it, and then firmly presses it on my shoulder. I scream in pain as the bite mark from the wolf feels like spikes piercing my very soul. “If you keep moving like that, you’ll only open your wounds more. Stay still.”

I do what he tells me and lay still, but even if I did, the pain still develops throughout my body, making it nearly impossible for me to do what he says. Tears crawl down my eyes as I struggle to keep my mouth shut from the intense pain.

It is only an hour later, all the pain left, and I continue my emotionless gesture. I stare at the ceiling for a long while until turning my head and look at Charles, who most likely feels awkward about his current situation.

“Do… you need something?” Charles struggles to say.

“Ch-Charles.”

“That is my name. What’s yours?”

“My… name?” Charles nods. “A-Aden… I think…”

“You think, why so?”

“I can’t… remember.”

“What are the things you still remember?”

“My… parents.”

“What are they like?” Charles says with a smile, most likely trying to drag the conversation.

“They are heroes… they fight to protect everyone they love.”

“That sounds amazing. What are they doing now?”

“They…” I pause.

“They what?”

“They… They…” My eyes widen in shock as an image of two uniformed men appears in my mind. “They… They…”

“Aden, are you ok?”

“They… They…”

“Aden?” At that exact moment, I began coughing. I continue to cough until they get worse and worse, then I start barfing out blood. “ADEN!”

I lose consciousness.

I slowly opened my eyes to everyone in front of me talking. Kin is talking to Ithan while Aruko, Nisuki, and Lilith do the same with each other.

I shake my head, coming out of what seemed like a trance.

It happened again? Why does this keep happening?

I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see Kin and Ithan. I blink curiously at them, "Hmm? You guys need something?"

Ithan laughs, "Cmon! Don't remember our match?"

"Oh, right! Sorry, I think I dosed off there for a moment."

"No worries!" Then Ithan begins to laugh out loud, again.

A moment later...

“Are you sure you want to use your primary weapon? You could use the spare swords we have.” Ithan questions, looking at me as I have one of my hands on the handle of my sword.

“It’s fine. Besides, I prefer to use the same weapon.” I answer, knowing fully well that my weapon would not break that easily.

Ithan and I stand in place, both of us facing each other as we are about ready to start our sparing. Kin, Lilith, and everyone are just outside the white circle that designated the space needed to avoid any harm from the two dualists.

It is a moment later, Ithan goes into his battle stance. He spread his legs, his left in the back while the right on the front, making his shoulder pointing at me. He raises his right hand while clutching it and slightly covers his face as if it’s a shield. All the while, he holds his greatsword with his left hand, the weapon itself pointing behind him.

That stance, just looking at it, makes me realize Ithan isn’t just an ordinary swordsman.

Using one of his hands to cover him from the front while having his sword already in swinging position. Such a stance wouldn’t be possible, that’s if you’re a human. Ithan wasn’t. He’s a lizardman. Having skin tough as iron, along with superhuman strength, a stance like this is perfect for Ithan. Heck, he could just change in and try to take advantage of the situation already. Even if I managed to counter him, with that one hand protecting him, the chances of me successfully punishing him wasn’t that high. Just looking at him already makes me feel uneasy.

I begin to draw my special sword.

But I don’t intend on losing.

I draw my sword and go into my usual stance. But as I do, I pause… and look at my sword, which isn’t rusty anymore. Instead, it shines brightly, as the blade of the weapon looks sharper than any weapon I’ve seen before. Not only that, the blade itself seems more extended than before, making it heavier than it ever was. But, this newfound weight didn’t waver my confidence. Instead, it makes me feel even cockier than usual.

I went out of stance and looked at my new sword in surprise. I turn to Lilith, which beside her is Kin, who has the same look as me, and give her a look saying, what did you do this time?

Lilith smiles but answers with a shrug.

But at that point, I remember.

Always trust in your partner.

I look back down at my sword, still wearing a surprise gesture.

“Eh, HUM!” I look up at Ithan, who went out of stance while his arms crossed. I shake my hand and go back in a fighting stance. Ithan smiles, then returns to his fighting stance. “Remember the rules, right?”

“If you get out the designated line, having a blade touch you without any way of countering, or go unconscious, you lose.” Ithan nods, then we both go silent.

We stand at our spots for another long moment… until Ithan makes his first move. He charges at me aggressively, most likely intending to slam me with his right hand. I quickly raise my shiny sword above me and swing down as Ithan is about to ram me. In response, Ithan blocks my downswing with his wrist. He manages to stop it, but due to this newfound sharpness to my blade, it slit through his skin, making blood flow out.

Your opponent has stopped your attack with their arm! 40 damage!

However, this didn’t seem to make Ithan waver. He slams his right foot down and swiftly raises and swings down his greatsword. Pushing me back to put me in his area of attack.

The moment both my feet land on the ground, I jump to the right and successfully evade the swing. I roll on the dirt and quickly turn my body to face Ithan. As I do, I use my legs and bend them as it glides on the earth. By doing so, I immediately stop my momentum. Ithan turns his head at this moment, just to see me ready to jump straight back at him. “Morph.”

Congratulations! Your Morph has ranked up to Rank 9! +2 END +1 WILL

The moment I chant this, I jump at Ithan at threatening speeds with my sword raised. I try to swing down and directly hit Ithan, but at that moment, he manages to evade my attack by jumping forward towards where his body faced, making me miss just by a hair.

I panic as I’m now about to fly past the line. I slam my legs down and use them to stop my momentum. And thankfully, it’s just enough to stop to a point where my feet are nearly touching the line itself. However, this isn’t the time to relax. I quickly turn, knowing my advantage, and run at Ithan. I lower my head and glide my sword from my right as I hold it with both hands. Ithan, who had finished turning towards me after stumbling for three seconds, put his guard up, ready to take anything from me.

I keep running at him full speed until the very last moment before he’s in my sword range. I slice upward with my blade. As I do, dirt on the ground goes upwards, going straight to Ithan's face. Ithan covers his face entirely to keep the soil from hitting his eyes. And at the same time, he swings his sword to where I was, but the broad iron lands on nothing but earth.

Ithan tries to turn, knowing full well I’m most likely behind him. But all he sees… is defeat before him as my blade is already pointing up at his neck.

I smile, “My win.”

Ithan smiles as well, “Yeah, you win.”

Ithan and I take a deep breath then turn to everyone to see their reactions, but…

“Aden… Umm…” Kin struggles to say his question, as he was dumbfounded by this so-called sparing.

“What is it?” I question.

“You actually call that sparing!?” I take a step back in surprise.

“Huh? That isn’t sparing?”

“Aden,” I turn to the Nisuki, who has a tiny drop of sweat coming down her forehead, “What they call, what you two did, is an attempt of murder.” I widen my eyes.

“Really?” I question confusingly. I turn to Ithan, who only shrugs. At that moment, a female warrior walks up to Ithan and suddenly starts patching up his arm, which is bleeding.

Kin takes a breath of relief, “Sparing is just practicing for fun. If anyone were to watch you two fight, they’d think you two are trying to kill each other.”

“I don’t think so. I mean, a few people passed by and didn’t mind us sparing.”

“That’s because we were convincing them that you two are sparing!” I laugh nervously at this.

“A-Anyways, you want to spar with me, Kin?”

“I’ll pass this time.”

“Aww, come on! Scared all of a sudden?”

“What!?” I turn around and half-jokingly snicker, having my back facing Kin. Everyone laughs as they see Kin jump onto me. I get taken by surprise and fall face-first into the ground.

Everybody continues to laugh until Lilith questions, “My, my. Aden, I didn’t know you're a sadist.”

Everyone pauses, including me. While on the ground, I turn to Lilith and question, “Sadist? What’s a sadist?”

Lilith grins, “Why, a sadist is-”

“Something you shouldn’t know!” Nisuki yells out and wraps two tails around my head. Lilith giggles at this. “Why, Lilith! Don’t you try to corrupt Aden!” Nisuki worryingly yells out, not noticing that I can't breathe.

As all of that is happening, Aruko feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns to see Kin, who somehow managed to sneak out of that whole situation. Kin then asks, “By the way….” Kin points at Lilith, “Who’s that?”

Moments later...

“You’re Lilith? My names Kin, nice to meet-”

“Oh, Kin Akame? The one I had to help save, but in return harm Aden? Yes, I know you very well.” Kin is taken aback by this.

“Don’t worry, Kin,” Aruko comforts, “Lilith is always like this when one of her favorite toys gets harmed.”

Kin returns with a weird out facial expression, “T-toys? So Aden-”

“No,” I interrupt, “All I am is an entertainer for her. I’m nowhere near as close as a toy.”

“Aww… Aden,” Lilith then clings onto my back, “You’re just saying this to avoid looking like you’re embarrassed ~ ♡.”

I give up at this point and decide to ignore her.

I, Lilith, and everyone else are walking towards the main tent, where it is said to be where they are planning our next attack with all the commanders, which is why Ithan is also part of this marching group. As we do, we all talk about things we’ve heard and particular subjects that are within our minds at the moment, such as the plan against Baricka and how we are going to handle it. Right now, I’m talking with Lilith, who is still clinging to me.

“So, how’s Charles? Is he doing ok?” I question, still worried about Charles.

“Indeed, he is. His body is healing as we speak. If I were to say how long it will take until he recovers is when the invasion starts.” I turn my head in confusion about this.

“Wait, didn’t you say that Charles’s body isn’t in good condition? How is he recovering so quickly?”

“Mostly due to one of my familiars healing him at the moment, he’ll recover much quicker now.”

“...It’s weird.”

“Hmm?” Lilith puts away her hands from me and steps in front of me, looking at my gesture of confusion. “Is something the matter?”

“Why are you helping us all of a sudden? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t?”

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m enjoying this odd adventure of yours. It is rather surprising and impressive at the moment. I can see that you two are going to last for quite a while,” Lilith winks at me, “So I decided to quickly heal Charles and see what crazy things you two will do next. I’ve even given Charles a few gifts along with the staff.”

“Thanks, I guess?” I still look at her confusingly.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t say I’d ignore the deal and help you all the way. You two are to suffer and entertain me. All I’m saying is that I’m adding some surprise elements to this little adventure you two are having.” Lilith says with a light giggle. As she does, she walks to my right side and wraps her arms around my arm. “So continue to do what you’re doing. That is all I’m going to say.”

I blink at her for a moment until looking forward and continue walking to our destination.

Surprise elements? What does she mean by that, and what did she do to Charles? Hopefully, nothing terrible…

As I think this, I see two shadows overlapping Lilith and me. I turn to see Nisuki and Aruko… not happy with something. That is until I realized it’s most likely due to Lilith hugging my arm.

“Lilith-chan, I’m rather annoyed to hear you enjoy Aden’s suffering.” Nisuki bluntly says as she doesn’t seem to look happy about the entertainer thing. “I see you’ve never changed since then when you happened to make one of our students suffer.”

“My…” Lilith sneers to this. “I see you two haven’t cooled off since then.”

Nisuki didn’t seem to react to it, but Aruko, “Of course we haven’t. You’ve nearly killed our top student. Even now, she’s still recovering from the curse you put on her.”

I turn to Lilith upon Aruko saying this, “Curse?”

Lilith giggles, “Oh nothing, Aden. Just one of their students disturbing my fun time.”

At that moment, an immense feeling of dread is felt behind me. Then I hear Aruko say, “You mean disturbing the united council between the eastern tribes and the players!?” Absolute hatred is heard in Aruko’s voice. Everyone stops in place and turns to Aruko.

“I did apologize, didn’t I?” Lilith mocks, “You should blame the players for attacking one of the east-southern castles. My father wasn’t happy when he heard that the players had taken one of our hard-earned lands.”

Aruko looked like she was about to walk up and punch Lilith until, “Are you ok, Aruko? What are you guys talking about?” We all turn to see Kin, who seems worried about what’s happening here.

Nisuki pats Kin on the head. “No, it’s nothing, Kin. We are just arguing here.”

“Oh! If I remember correctly,” Lilith speaks out as if adding more wood into the fire, “Kin here is a friend with that top student, isn’t he?”

“What do you mean? You know Natsumi?”

“Lilith, stop,” Nisuki interrupts, trying to disable the situation, “You have done enough. Stop your sadistic acts or else….”

“I know Nisuki,” Lilith admits, “I know you’ll call Jun if things were to go out of hand. And I’ll admit that I won’t be able to do anything with Jun's interference, but it doesn’t mean I’ll stop doing what I love to do. Do remember that Nisuki.”

“Yes, I will remember,” Nisuki smiles, “so in return, you’ll not make things harder for us, alright?”

“Agree.” The two begin to giggle with each other.

Aruko looks at them suspiciously, “You two cool off so quickly Nisuki, ever since you and Lilith met after she called off the attack against the players, you two started to become friends all so suddenly.”

“Of course, Aruko, do remember Lilith promised she’ll find a way to cure Natsumi.”

Aruko looks at Nisuki in shock, “Wait, Nisuki, you mean….”

“Yes,” Nisuki smiles, “Lilith is the one that’s finding the cure.”

Aruko frowns at Nisuki, “I was curious about who the person might be. I didn’t know it would be Lilith of all people. You should have told me sooner to whom it might be.”

Nisuki pats Aruko, “Well, I wanted to surprise you. At least Kin seems surprised about it.” She says disappointingly as Kin looks at Lilith with wonder.

“Y-you’re the one finding the cure for Natsumi?” Kin asks, looking at Lilith as if she is the person of miracles.

“Yes, do you perhaps have a problem with it?” Lilith replies, returning a look of displeasure.

Kin immediately puts both his knees to the ground and goes into a position I think is my first time seeing such a thing. He bends down his upper body and puts his hands down near his head that touches the ground, then speaks out, “Please,” Kin pleads, “continue to find the cure for Natsumi.”

I look down at Kin for a moment, then turn to Lilith, who seems only more displeased. Lilith immediately continues to walk towards our destination. It catches me by surprise, and I almost trip before walking normally. Then Lilith says out loud, “Best you save that apology for someone else, Kin.”

It is a second later, and everyone continues to walk towards the main war tent. I continue to ignore Lilith, cuddling my arm until she says to me, “My, it seems Charles is awake.” I turn to Lilith, who seems to be focusing on something.

“Is he ok?”

“He is. His body is healing quite quickly as well.”

“...Will he be joining this war?” It’s most likely that Lilith heard my sudden worry.

“He will. He’s your close childhood friend, after all.”

“I-I see.”

“Are you getting worried, Aden?”

“You can say that… I’m just beginning to realize what kind of situation I’m in. I’m most likely going to intentionally kill my first person, go through my first castle invasion, and….” I sigh out loud and look up at the sky. “I’m dragging Charles into this.”

“You’re not dragging him, Aden,” I turn to Lilith, who is smiling at me, “He’s willingly following you. You don’t need to worry about him. He has his own duty. So focus on the war Aden, so you can plan your way through it all and call it another day.”

I look at her with astonishment, then return a smile. “Yeah… you’re right. Thanks, Lilith. I feel more determined than usual.”

“It’s fine,” Lilith giggles, “I don’t want my toy breaking itself after all.”

Ok, that just ruined the conversation.

I sigh at her sudden claim then return to just walking. We continue to walk for a moment until she lets go of my arm and sets herself in front of me. She makes a cute pose while walking backward and says, “I need to go see to Charles’s recovery. May the deity of destruction grant you the power to survive, my Aden.” Lilith lightly taps my forehead with a finger and then disappears without a trace.

I was about to say goodbye, but she just left all of a sudden without giving me time to say anything. So I just follow the flow and continue to walk. I thought it was good and all since I didn’t have someone clinging onto me until I felt two familiar beings behind me.

Of fucking course!

It’s moments later that we all are in the main war tent, Nisuki and Aruko holding both my hands as we sat on neighboring wooden stools set next to the long table. Everyone is sat down and ready to go. A moment later, three people walk in, Jun and two other people, one being Ithan and another assumed to be the other commander. They sit at the opposite end of the table from me and near a map of Baricka. Jun positions herself comfortably, then declare out loud, “Let us begin.”

Unseen Things:

“So the demi-humans returned, huh?” A man in a silvery suit armor says as he rides a griffin, a lion and eagle hybrid. He rides this majestic creature up in the skies, nearly touching the very clouds themselves. He does so along with five others, four of them his companions, while another volunteer to go.

They fly towards Baricka, expecting to fight the same demi-humans who have been rebelling against the slave trade two years ago.

“Yeah, and I heard they have some super strong fighters there.” Another man responds, having an outfit fitting for a fighter class mainly using fist skills and abilities.

The knight in silver armor turns behind him to see his companions in arms. One of his most trustworthy, a man with a fist as fast as lightning. Another, a young girl who is blessed with holy magic. Then the other two are a human archer who can snipe any creature from miles away and a mage very in-depth in elemental magic and trapping spells. The final, however…

“So, by the way, who is the young lady at the very back?” The man in armor named William questions as he looks at the beautiful brown skin girl at the back.

The girl has long black hair that seems to reach down to her knees and eyes the color of blood. She looks average in height for an adult woman, but the long armored black heels she wears on her feet make her look outrageously tall. And otherwise, she is just an ordinary but gorgeous woman. She looks slim, but not too much to make it look like a big deal and breasts that seem to fit the perfect girl image.

To add to this perfect image, she wears a black skirt that seems a bit too short, almost as if you think you’re about to see what’s under that skirt but don’t see anything but legs. She also wears an upper black armor set that looks light but feels as if they are unbreakable by any means. And almost covering that void armor is a long coat that reaches down to her knees. It has the same black void color as the rest of her clothing, but red outlines cross it. She also has parts of her void armor covering every joint of her body. Her kneecaps, feet, arms, shoulder joints, all of them covering as if protecting from all harm from the outside world.

The young healer known as Mary answers, “H-her name is Yami.”

“Huh, strange name. Is she from the far eastern or western part of Olimpia?”

“Most likely eastern, I’ve seen a player with a similar-looking sword.” The elemental mage known as Julian answers as he stares at the long katana that looks about as big as Yami. “But… I’ll be honest, not that long.”

Willian gives Yami a long stare until asking, “Is she allied to the players?”

“N-no.” Mary answers, “she says she has no connections with them.”

“If I remember correctly, her sword style is called… what is it?” The fighter known as Paul questions.

“It’s called Blood Moon Arts. First I’ve heard of it.” The archer, known as Asher, answers.

“Well, I don’t trust her. Why is she following us anyway? Does she have something important to do in Baricka?” William suspiciously questions.

“She felt it.” Asher answers.

“Felt what?”

“A student. One who uses the same sword style and has potential that surpasses hers.”

Aden's Stats:

Aden Haraldson:

Race Currently: Dragonborn

Age: 13 Years Old

Guild: None

Classes Currently:

Draconic Warrior (Level 7)

Vital Currently:

HP: 1107.5

Rage: 100

Stamina: 1057.5

Stat Currently:

Strength: 148 Intelligence: 90

Dexterity: 131 Agility: 138

Perception: 129 Endurance: 150

Willpower: 96 Faith: 0

Charisma: 860 Luck: 233

Skills and Masteries:

Draconic Heavy Swing: (Rank B)

Sword Mastery: (Rank 9)

Critical Mastery: (Rank F)

Evasion: (Rank A)

Blood Moon Arts: (Rank 7)

Parry: (Rank B)

Block: (Rank B)

Create Campfire: (Rank B)

Natural Armor: (Rank A)

Natural Senses: (Rank B)

Morph: (Rank 9)

Morph Overtake: (Rank F)

Natural Instincts: (Rank A)