36 Small break (1/2)
Part 1
”So what does she look like exactly...?”
A group of six men sitting on a table inside of a bar discusses a topic among themselves while enjoying their drinks and meal. One of them raised a question only to be answered by a person sitting in front of him.
”According to what that mage said... Apparently, she has short black hair, wears wooden armor and carries around a crossbow. She can use magic but without a wand or staff. She is also traveling with a red-haired girl as well. The last time he heard from them, they were traveling to the city of Emerald Dawn...”
”And this mage... You sure we can trust him...?”
”He's famous for being able to discover information from the most well-guarded places... Even if he is laying, there must be a reason for why this girl, in particular, would catch his attention...”
”And he said that this girl knew how to find the second living weapon?”
”That's what he told me...”
”And he just handed out the information to you...? Just like this...? Asking nothing in return?”
The two figures who were discussing the topic were interrupted by another one of the individuals on the table.
”Sounds like a trap... He's probably trying to trick us to get rid of the competition...”
”Still... This girl he is talking about... Must be the one who's become famous for reaching the exper-rank as a mage despite only being twelve years old...”
”I heard that too... If this girl gets her hands on the living weapon... Imagine how powerful she will become...”
”Even if the info about the living weapon is fake... Capturing her and making her work for us would be a great help for business...”
”... So what do you all say? Should we take the chance and see if she might have some value to us?”
After the first figure raised the question, the remaining five proceeded to each give their answer.
”I say we go after her! At worst, we get a strong mage to join our team. At best, we might also end up getting the living weapon as well!”
”Agreed... Business has declined lately... More power on our side would be welcome...”
”I'm curious as to how she uses magic without a wand or staff... I want to try and exchange a few blows with her!!”
”As usual you think about nothing but fighting... Still... This is our only clue on the whereabouts of the living weapon right now... I'm in!”
”...”
The last figure remained silent, thinking about what answer to give. The fist man tried to instigate him to talk.
”The vote needs to bu unanimous man... we all go or no one goes...”
”... If you all want to go so bad I won't oppose it... Just remember that if this girl really is this talented, catching her will not be easy... You all better have a plan...”
”A plan huh...? Should we ask Boris for help...?”
”You want to call that maniac... ?”
”He might be a little hard to work with, but he never fails at his job... If we rely on him we will get her for sure!”
”Won't he try to keep the girls for himself in the end?”
”Then we just kill him once he tries... No big deal... If we get our hands on her we won't be needing him anymore...”
”Very well... Let's send a letter to Boris and start searching for this wood-armored girl... If this works out well... We might be standing on top of a gold mine!.”
Part 2
”Come on!! Focus!!”
”I'm... Trying...!!!”
Three days have passed since the discussion between Evlin and Gustav. Both groups decided that they would be traveling together towards the southern kingdom. The mood was slightly heavy at times as Evlin would try her best to avoid contact with Gustav and Daren.
”You need to gather energy on your hand!! You need to feel the power flowing towards your fingers!!”
”Fell the power... Feel the energy... Ok... Ok...”
Ashley was mostly indifferent towards the rest of the group. She didn't show any desire to try to talk or get closer to anyone. She was also starting to smile less and less with each day. It seemed like she was really opposed to the idea of joining this team after all.
Evlin, on the other hand, managed to get along really well with Ria and Auren, after all, they were the only two who tried to fight for her to join the team since the beginning. Evlin would often talk with Auren about the similarities with their healing methods. It seems like their powers worked in opposite ways. Auren's power would allow a person to rejuvenate and remove any injuries as if he was rewinding time, while Evlin would accelerate the body's natural recovery process.
One worked by moving backwards before the injury, and the other speed it up so the injury would go away faster. It was unclear which method was the most optimal, but they both seemed to have fun discussing the pros and cons.
”You need to picture the distance between two places as if it was something that could be removed with your power! Imagine the distance between you and that tree and get rid of it with your hand!”
”I... Can't!!!”
As for Ria, she would often come to Evlin with her usual fangirl act and keep asking her how her powers worked. She would ask about things such us, how much energy could she release, how big of an object could she create, could she turn her into a dragon, and so on. If she wasn't talking about Evlin like she was a new game she was trying to learn the rules off, she would talk about Sphinx and how much both of them just wanted to spend the whole day drowning in its fur. Evlin was happy to find a fellow animal lover as it seems like Ashley was also indifferent to Sphinx despite the beast loving to cuddle her.
”Ria, this isn't working!!”
”Yeah... I can see that...”
Ironically, the one thing Evlin wanted to discuss with Ria was what she was the worst at talking about. Whenever she tried to explain how her wind-scar power worked she would only end up making Evlin even more lost. It appears that Ria had no idea how she was doing that honestly.
”Are you sure this is how you do it?”
”Pretty sure... I just think about removing the distance about where I want to go and then, boom! Wind-scar!”
They would often spend hours trying to have Evlin learn how to open a scar by herself so she could try and open a portal to her own world. But, big shock, Ria was actually a really bad teacher.
”Maybe we should take a break for now... Let's go grab something to eat...”
”Ugh... Fine...”
Evlin had spent the whole morning swinging her hand up and down trying to copy Ria's movements but to no success. She looked like she was calling someone from a distance which made Sphinx constantly come over thinking Evlin wanted to pet her. This would often result in Ria getting distracted wanting to play with him and just making it even harder to continue her training.
They joined Ashley who was enjoying a meal with Lilith. The boys had all gone out to catch some creatures to eat. Evlin was strongly opposed to the idea but she gave up when realized how hungry she was. Evlin was worried if they would be ok since it was still the middle of the day and Daren couldn't use his power, to which Ria tried to respond.
”After your 'If you want to stop being useless, then stop being useless' speech, they decided that they wanted to try and rely less on their power and fight on their own.”
”I see...”
”It seems like they are feeling really bad about the way they treated you after all... I was used to seeing Marceus bullying them all the time but I guess they never really tried bullying someone...”
”Marceus was a bully...?”
”Maybe not a bully... But he would often take every chance he had to make fun of his candidates for always taking everything so seriously... ... Man... I'm really going to miss him... ”
”Yeah... He seemed like a cool guy... I wish i could've talked more with him...”
Ashley finished her food and joined the conversation.
”So how did the training go today?”
”No luck... Again...”