hi. i like this one
Chapter 9
Ashen
The woman carefully makes her way toward the lone house of Silent Ire, where the men lay asleep. She quickly opens the door, and her eyes fall on the dagger on Cain’s belt. She silently steps on the floorboards, and quickly swipes the blade from the sheath. She begins to back out, with her back turned. However, a yelp comes from her as she’s kicked rather hard in the back, sending her flying out of the house.
Emilios rubs his eyes, and prepares a fighting stance. “Who the hell are you?!”
The woman gets up, readying Cain’s dagger, as well as her own personal knife, “None of your business, just reclaiming what’s stolen.”
“That’s Cain’s dagger! And I can sense your magic! You… Must be a Veridian Soldier! You were gonna kill Anthimos in his sleep, weren’t you?!”
“What? No, I-”
Emilios lunges forward with a kick, but the woman dodges to the right. She uses her magic to create a large cloud of ash, obscuring Emilios’ view. She creates more distance as Emilios backs up, coughing slightly. He summons five stationary blasts of spirit energy with a stomp, and cuts her off with his impressive speed. Emilios keeps her on the backfoot with a couple kicks, until she summons another cloud of ash.
This time, instead of running, she begins to attack within the ash. As Emilios tries to leave the cloud, she pursues him and summons more ash. She slashes at him a couple times, landing a hit due to his obscured perception. She goes to lunge with a stab, but is cut off as the five small blasts begin to collide with her. Emilios hears this, and goes in with a strong kick to her stomach, knocking the blades from her hands.
Cain emerges from the house with a panicked look, having awoken from the sound of fighting. He goes over to the large ash cloud as it begins to dissipate, seeing his dagger on the ground.
“What the… Emilios, what’s happening..?”
“This Veridian idiot tried to steal your dagger, and was probably gonna try and kill Uncle Anthimos! We should take her out!”
“I’m telling you, I’m not with the Veridian Dynasty! I’m just trying to reclaim what’s stolen…”
“Emilios, you were wrong with me. Let’s just hear her out real quick, alright?” Cain asks, picking his dagger back up.
“Fine. But if you’re wrong, you’re buying lunch!”
“Sure… Now, what exactly do you mean..? Reclaiming what’s stolen?”
“Your dagger. Taiyonokuni’s only made one weapon for Redwake, to my knowledge. So it’s definitely stolen.”
“This…?” Cain looks at the dagger, confused. “I mean… I don’t remember how I got it, either… But I lost my memory. This is the only thing that I have left… If it’s even mine.”
“Wha? You don’t remember anything? Mm… Well you still don’t look like anyone from Taiyonokuni.”
“I don’t know what that place is…” Cain frowns.
“They’re a powerful kingdom, situated far northwest from here. I don’t think you’re lying though… Ugh. Truth be told, I just wanted to admire it. I’m an apprentice smith. I’m very interested in forging and inventing weaponry.” She explains, dusting herself as she gets up.
“Ohh… I remember hearing about you… You made Mister Petros’ fancy new mace, right?” Emilios asks.
“I helped, yes. Wait, you…”
“I never saw you, I just heard about it when I asked him about it. Ahah… Sorry about that…”
“No, behind you!”
The two men look behind them, as they’re suddenly ambushed by a small crowd with red shrouds, and sleeveless black jackets. Cain releases an explosion of magic to knock them back, and prepares himself.
“Help us out real quick, you can admire it all you want, alright?” Cain says, looking behind at the woman.
“Sounds good. This’ll be easy.” She responds, picking up her knife. “The name’s Bevel, by the way.”
“These guys… Wait, they actually might be after Anthimos…! They must’ve been hired by the Veridian Army…! Let’s get them!” Emilios yells, lunging forth.
Chapter 10
Ideas
The three engage in a brawl with the small battalion of assassins. They were magicless acolytes trained for brief, quick fights, and wielded small, old weapons. They attacked in droves, utilizing quick strikes from their small weapons and backing out to let another take their place.
As an assassin thrusts his rapier at Emilios, he sways to the right and lands a hard knee to the stomach. His followup kick misses the mark, and allows the assassin time to try and back up. However, Emilios rushes him down, slamming an assassin away with his shoulder and launching a blast of spirit energy at the fleeing man, taking him down.
Bevel, noticing Cain’s magic, takes him aside for a moment. “Hey, Cain. We could do something pretty cool here… Follow my lead.”
Cain nods, and listens to her plan. He rushes into a crowd of assassins and releases a burst of explosion magic around him. He dashes to the side as Bevel uses a placed magic circle, and unleashes a shockwave of ash, synergizing with the charred assassins and petrifying the lot. Acting quickly, Cain charges back in with another explosion of magic, breaking the petrification and sending many of the assassins flying. Cain and Bevel share a high five, acknowledging the synergy.
After a small amount of time, the assassins are all defeated. Bevel wipes some sweat from her brow. “Man, that was it? I think they shoulda sent more for a guy like Anthimos…”
“Right? Well, you held up your end… Here.” Cain hands Bevel the tanto, observing her giddy expression as she gets a close look at it.
“Oh man, this is a real work of art… Shame that it’s a little tarnished, but what can you do… The cutting edge hasn’t dulled at all, though. Almost has a golden sheen to it, kinda like… Huh, that actually makes sense…” She continues, mumbling to herself as she earnestly examines the blade.
“Uh… Can you understand her at all?” Emilios asks, looking at Cain.
“You think I’d know? Maybe this’ll give me some insight as to who I am, though.”
Bevel hands the tanto back to Cain, smiling. “Thanks a lot! It seems to be a collaboration piece, using materials from Lumen, and smiths in Taiyonokuni. They used to have a pretty strong alliance while the kingdom existed…”
“Lumen… That destroyed kingdom?” Cain asks.
“Mhm. Whatever it is, it’s a rarity. Most blades like this would be gifts of some sort, special occasion kinds of things.”
“Huh…”
Cain looks at the tanto fondly. While he couldn’t muster up any memories of his past, every look at it has felt familiar. The handle fits perfectly into his palms, and the name “Cain” resonated so deeply within him. It had to be his…
“Well, it’s mine… Does that mean…?" Cain muses to himself
"Do you think… I was from the Kingdom of Lumen?”
“Mm… It’s unlikely. This wouldn’t be something any citizen would have. Something like this is only for nobles and such… You probably just got lucky.”
“But I swear… The name resonates with me…”
“I mean, it’s not impossible, but…”
Before Bevel could finish her sentence, they were cut off by a strong energy jumping high above the island. A remaining assassin, dressed in more elaborate attire compared to his allies. He dropped to the ground, glaring at the three.
“Hmph… The Viceroy of Redwake, the Basileus’ own son, and a potential survivor of Lumen? Nexus will pay heavily for your head…”
The man unsheathes his rapier, which was a great deal nicer than the weapons of the former assassins, and unleashes a large wave of magic energy, imbuing his blade with plasma magic. He begins to step toward the trio, as they ready themselves for battle once more.
The mage leapt to the sky and crashed down with the sword, unleashing a shockwave of magic energy that forced the trio to back up towards the house. He lunged toward the trio with blinding speeds, imbuing himself with plasma. Before he could make contact, however…
“Four dumbasses this time…? Yeesh… You kids’ll be the death of me…”
Anthimos ensnares the assassin with vines from his magic as he lazily exits the house, rubbing his head.
“You guys probably coulda handled him, but… I really need some beauty sleep.” Anthimos unsheathes his blade, imbuing it with his trace magic energy from his martial prowess and wrapping it in sharpened vines.
“You were after me, huh…? I’m impressed that they’re this bold… But… If you wanted to take me out…. You shoulda brought Merlot!”
Anthimos leaps forward and lands a slash with his massive blade, the speed sending him past the assassin as he severs the man in two. He uses his magic to throw the bodies away and cracks his neck, before laying his eyes on a shocked Bevel.
“What’re you doing here?”
“Don’t worry, sir… It’s all good. She gave me some insight on my blade… And fought some of those… People with us.” Cain responds.
“Emilios started something again, didn’t he?”
“It was fair, this time…!” Emilios exasperates.
“He called you a Veridian soldier again, didn’t he…?”
Cain and Anthimos share a laugh as Emilios buries his head in his palms.
“Hm… Well you being here does give me an idea.” Anthimos says, looking at Bevel, How about you forge Cain here another weapon? Something bigger. He needs some practice with larger blades.”
“Sure, I don’t mind. What’re we thinking?”
“A polearm.. The type doesn’t matter. I’m told you’re rather good with improvisation.”
“Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, I can work on that with the smith here. I’ll leave you three to rest… I’m rather tired, anyway.”
“Mhm… Go off, now. We need some sleep, ourselves. C’mon, you two.” Anthimos says, walking back to the house and motioning the two men to follow him.
“See you Bevel. Thanks for the insight, and for the new weapon…!” Cain waves, walking back.
“Sorry again. Seeya.” Emilios says, racing Cain back.
“Mhm… Now then… Time for something new…” Bevel responded, heading over to her ship. Her mind flooded with ideas for a new Polearm, something unique. Suiting of the fighting style she observed in Cain.
bye bye, next part when lucian donates to charity