by Adam Wan
I quickly got up and took my sword. I activated it and went to face him. We stayed far from each other.
No one made a move. We stayed at that distance. He was more or less 32 meters away.
I charged at him, he charged too. I didn't run that fast, I wanted to see what he does. He didn't do anything special, he was just charging at me.
"Tsss"
Our swords clashed. The sound wasn't loud enough to wake the others up.
I tried to find the opening I needed to hit him. Attacking over and over, I saw that his left shoulder was open for attack.
I did the skill called "Both Clockwise" to attack. I was attacking as I spun clockwise then anticlockwise over and over.
"Come on! Faster!" I thought as I tried to spin faster.
When I was turning anticlockwise, I targeted for his left shoulder. Like a piece of cloth getting burnt by flames, his shoulder was hit leaving a sound.
"Ssss"
He jumped back and covered his left shoulder with his right hand. He looked at his shoulder to inspect the damage.
"He's off guard! I must surprise him now!" I thought as I started running towards him.
He looked up and saw me charging at him. He started to jump backwards while blocking my attacks.
He ended up retreating with a smoke bomb. He left without leaving a trace. It was like he disappeared into the thin cold air.
"He's gone... This guy wants me dead! Ugh... I didn't get to see his face..." I thought as I slowly walked back to camp.
At camp, I rested my body on the thin piece of cloth and put a blanket on me.
"Wow, I'm exhausted! Time... to... sleep..." I thought sleepily as I slowly fell asleep from the exhausting fight.
I should've been worried about getting attacked by that unknown guy again but I was too tired. Luckily, the guy didn't return anymore that night. Which was a good thing for me.
Ordeal 10: Eradicus
"Cel... Wake up"
I heard the voice of Sora waking me up. I felt like my face was frozen. Or was it just me not wanting to wake up?
"Cel... It's time to go"
"Aww, man. Oh well, I'll sleep on the way there" I thought.
I opened my eye and saw the face that makes me feel secure and happy, the face that belongs to Sora.
"You're up! Let's go, you can sleep on the way there"
"You read my mind"
"Really?"
"Yea, I was literally thinking that just now"
I scratched my head. I felt like my hair had some uneven parts. They were shorter than the rest of my hair. "It must've got cut during last night's fight" I thought.
We got on the carriage, the carriage then started to move. I saw that Ayla was already taking a nap on the front seat of the carriage leaving no space for anyone else to sit, or in my case, sleep.
Sora noticed that I was looking at Ayla. She seemed to know that I wanted to sleep. She moved to the left side of the seat that we were sitting on.
"You can sleep now, Cel. Place your head on my shoulder if you want"
Seeing her happy face offering me to rest my head. Her shoulder was open and unoccupied.
"Thank you. I'm exhausted"
Sora seemed to have noticed that some strands of my hair were cut shorter than the others. It wasn't noticeable if you didn't pay close attention.
As I drifted to sleep, I started to think about the guy who has attacked me a total of two times already. I didn't want to be attacked again, but there's no way to avoid it.
"We're stopping for lunch here!"
I heard that voice when I was half asleep. I opened my eyes and saw that Ayla was still asleep.
I felt like there was some weight on my head. I rolled my eyes up and saw Sora sleeping with her head placed on mine.
I tapped her left shoulder which was leaning on the left wall of the carriage. "Sora? We're stopping for lunch" I said.
Sora's eyes opened up. Her eyes looked like they were glimmering. "Oh, ok. Thank you" she said.
"Ayla. We're stopping for dinner" I said as I was tapping her shoulder.
She eventually woke up and went to the restaurant together. Ayla seemed to be having a hard time walking because she was so sleepy. She was walking like she was dizzy.
Inside we ordered some food. The restaurant was of an 'ok' size. The chandelier lit up pretty much the whole place. There was a lit candle stick on every table.
"Thank you for your orders. Please be patient!" said the waitress.
Ayla continued her nap while Sora and I talked. Ayla's face was on the table. "Did she get any sleep last night? Or was she bored?" I wondered.
"Your hair had some strands cut. What happened?"
"Oh, even I just noticed this morning. It was accidentally cut with the portable sword"
"That thing is quite dangerous"
"Yea, an error could cause death"
Eventually, our food arrived. Ayla ordered some hot and spicy soup, she thought that it could wake her up a little.
"Acckk?!!"
Ayla's voice was heard. I looked at her and saw that her face was all red. Her tongue was sticking out with her mouth wide open. She was also panting.
"Ayla!"
She was unconscious. Ayla and I were surprised to see her like that.
"She fainted of the hot and spicy soup..."
"She thought that it could wake her up but it ends up making it worse"
After lunch, I carried her to the carriage and placed her in the front seat like last time. I sat down and leaned on the right side of the carriage, I was looking out the window.
"Yawn*"
I heard Sora yawn. She closed her mouth as she yawned. She seemed sleepy.
"You can sleep on my shoulder if you want" I offered.
"Haha... Thank you"
She placed her head on my left shoulder. After a while, I decided to sleep since it was a while until we reach Eradicus. I placed my head on her head gently while wrapping my left arm around her delicate body and drifted to sleep.
"We're here!!! Everyone! We're here!!!"
I woke up and saw a city landscape out of the window. I woke Sora up by saying "Sora. We're here!", I woke Ayla up too. Luckily, she wasn't unconscious anymore.
We got out of the carriage and saw a city that seemed to be abandoned and wrecked. The buildings had holes in them and the windows were shattered.
"Rawr!!!*"
We heard a roar from the distance. We knew what creature the sound came from. It was the roar of the Gyronorme.
Ordeal 11: Gyronorme
"Rawr!!!*"
The roars was loud enough to be heard clearly from afar. The grounds was shaking from the roar that it makes.
The ground was covered in the pure white snow. The sky still had snow flakes slowly fall to the ground. The sky was dark as it was covered by the clouds. The howling of the wind could be heard too.
I looked back at Ayla asked "Ayla, are you ok?", "Yea" she replied as she took out her bow.
"Ayla, you go to the top of that building and be ready to snipe that Gyronorme" I said pointing at the tallest building in the city covered in snow.
"Alright! But it'll take a while since its so tall" Ayla replied.
"Sora, you follow me. We'll attack the beast head-on" I said.
Sora and I took out our portable swords and activated them. "Let's go!" I said as I started to run, Sora followed. Ayla started running to the building that I mentioned earlier.
Sora and I had to run pass many buildings in order to get to the location of the beast. We followed the sound of its roar to determine its location.
"What's the plan?" Sora asked.
"We'll see. I don't know what the Gyronorme is like, so I couldn't make a good plan yet"
"Alright"
I heard the stomping sound of a giant beast. The stomps made the ground shake.
We saw the beast, Gyronorme walking in a direction away from us.
"I'll do a quick attack on its tail
" I said as I walked towards it's tail.
"Are you sure?"
"Trust me"
I was next to it's tail. I raised my sword up high and landed the hit.
"Raaaawrr!!!*"
I retreated to Sora. The Gyronorme turned around and faced our way. It had bright red eyes that were glowing like a flame. It kind of looked like a bull. The fur was black colored.
"Attack!" I shouted. We started charging at it.
We were hitting it rapidly from different sides. My plan was to keep attacking at it from different sides, it wouldn't be able to choose who to attack.
It was turning and spinning in different directions. It also tried to run away from us, but I was preventing it from escaping.
"Raaawwwrrr!*"
It kicked me away from him. I was knocked away pretty far from it.
"Gaahh!!!*"
Sora was kicked away from the beast.
"Sora!!!"
I decided to do "Sonic Boom", I ran as quickly as I could.
Gyronorme stomped its foot on the ground causing the ground to break. Some concrete emerged from the ground, making me trip and fall in front of it.
It raised its upper body up to attack me.
"Gahh!"
"..."
"Cel!!!"
"Tss!!!*"
"Raawwr!!!*"
"Huh? What happened?" I wondered. The beast was knocked away from attacking me.
"Hyaaa!!!"
It was Sora, she saved me from its attack. She was attacking the beast repeatedly. I got up and joined in.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome!"
We were hitting it multiple times nonstop. It started to get overwhelmed by our attacks.
"Phewshh Boom!!!*"
An explosion was heard. It was Ayla's bomb arrow, she had made it! She shot it a few more times.
"Shooting Star!!!"
It was Sora's attack, it was a near equivalent to my "Rapid Fire" attack skill.
"Tss Tss Tss Tss Shew!!!*"
"Raaaaa!!!*"
The beast died at her hands. It was the first time I saw her use an attack like that.
"Nice one!"
"Thank you but 'Shooting Star' was suppose to have light beams being shot at it"
"It requires magic, right?"
"Yes, it does"
"I guess it is because the portable sword couldn't be used with magic"
"Maybe, 'Heat Blast' doesn't work too"
"Let's head back"
"Yes..."
I wrapped my arm around her and walked back to the carriage together.
At the carriage, we waited for Ayla to arrive. She eventually arrives at the carriage.
"Nice shot!"
"Thank you... I'm exhausted from walking up and down those stairs..."
"I know how that would feel like. Come one, let's head back"
"Yea..."
Ayla and I got in the carriage. Ayla slept at the front seat, again. As soon as everybody has sat down, the carriage started moving.
Ordeal 12: Panic
We were asleep in the carriage. Sora had her precious head on my shoulder. My head was sometimes resting on her or on the wall, and maybe even letting my head lean backwards, resting on the little bit of cushion left.
I was occasionally waking up from time to time due to the bumpy road we were riding on. I usually woke up when there was a stone on the road that was big enough to cause the carriage to jump a little.
I woke up again, it wasn't because of a bump that time. I just thought that I should look out of the window because I felt like I had an urge to do so.
I was careful because Sora was still on my shoulder. I slowly moved my body to not wake her up. I then looked out the window. What I saw was something, no, someone I didn't want to see.
The guy with the portable sword was there. He was standing far out in the distance. The sword's glow was bright enough to be seen from afar.
My heart rate started to speed up. I was starting to sweat. My breathing slowly became almost as fast as panting.
The guy that was stationary started to run.The moment I saw him move, I started to panic. I stopped looking outside.
"No... No no no no... Don't come close! Why am I scared? Is it because he was always trying to kill me? I don't know!" I thought.
I didn't have an idea as to why I was scared to see this guy. I also guessed it to be because of the dream I had before, the one where I talked to Sylus, that nightmare.
The carriage was entering a town. I looked outside and saw him stationary again. His sword was deactivated.
"He's gone for know... I can't let Sora know, yet. I don't want her to get involved in this, it's dangerous" I thought.
The carriage stopped in front of a hotel. The coachman came to us and said "We're sleeping here. Go and get checked in"
I woke them up and went in to check in. I went to the counter and asked "How many rooms are left?".
I wanted to know since it was a small hotel. The receptionist replied "One, its a single bed".
The moment I heard that, I thought " What?! I'm sleeping with both of them???!!!". I turned around and said "There's only one room, and its a single bed", they immediately replied "We'll take it!!!". "Whaaa?!" I thought.
We got the keys to our room. We walked to our room that was on the top floor, it was only two stories tall.
After I opened the door, the girls immediately jumped into bed. I closed the door and locked it, I then made sure that no one could enter the room.
After I finished checking the lock, I went to the window. I thought "Wait... We couldn't breath if it wasn't open", so I decided to lock it if I ever left the room.
The room didn't have a toilet nor bathroom. So I had to go to the toilet downstairs if I ever needed to. I was hoping to not feel that urge that night.
I turned around and looked at the bed. I was in a predicament. The girls were sleeping on the edge of the bed.
"Come one. You should get she rest, come here and sleep between us" said a sleepy Sora.
"Whaa??!! If it was only Sora, I'm fine. But Ayla's here too!!!" I thought.
I needed to sleep anyway, so I would have to endure it. I took off my uniform and hung it on the uniform stand.
I got in bed and felt the warmth of their bodies next to me. I felt so weird and couldn't really fall asleep.
I eventually closed my eyes and drifted into dream land. I was still worried about being attacked because I wasn't wake to protect them from that guy. I was hoping for it to be a safe night but I can't be sure about that. He could come here anytime soon.
Ordeal 13: Attempt
I felt like something was making me feel uncomfortable. I would feel like this if I wanted to go to the toilet. I would wake up if I felt that way, most of the time.
"Damn... Thank goodness that I woke up. It would be bad if I wet the bed..." I thought as I slowly sat up.
I jumped off the bed from the front and went to the window. I looked outside to look for any signs of danger. "Nothing suspicious..." I thought as I closed the window and locked it securely.
I went to take my portable sword and the keys. I slowly opened the door, there was no one there. I locked the door, went outside and closed the door. "I can feel like someone is watching me... It must be him" I thought.
I walked down the stairs and into the hallway that leads to the restroom. The staff weren't there anymore. The place was merely lit by some torches.
Step by step, I walked closer and closer to the restroom. The hallway was getting darker and darker from each step that I took.
I stopped walking. I could feel someone's presence behind me. I took out and activated my sword.
"Tap tap tap" went the quick footsteps that came from behind. The person was about to attack, maybe, as I wasn't sure who it was.