260 Eyes of a fighter (1/2)

Auren was feeling rather anxious right now.

It might be because he was tied up and being dragged across the desert by a group of masked individuals riding on monsters as if they were knights on top of their horses.

It might also be because he was lost in the middle of nowhere, with no idea of where his family or his friends were, and the last thing he remembers was being attacked by a huge dragon that was under the control of some weird white-haired man with orange eyes, and he could not stop worrying about whether they were okay or not.

It could also because his only current ally, Evlin, one of the most powerful mages he had ever met, was not doing a single thing to help the situation and was just letting the monster riders drag her over the sand as well while staring at the sky as if she was taking her time solving a math question.

”Hey... Evlin...?” Auren softly asked trying to contain his nervousness, ”Shouldn't we be trying to escape right now?”

”...” Evlin didn't respond and just continued to look lost in her own thoughts.

”Evlin!!” Auren shouted.

”Ah!” she gasped, ”Sorry, I zoned out for a moment, what's up?”

”Can you use your magic to get us out of here!?”

”And go where exactly?” she replied, ”I have no idea where we are... Even if we run, we would just get lost in this desert and die from the lack of food or water...”

”Then... What do we do??”

Evlin raised her head to look at the red shark with crab legs that was dragging her and the rider on top of it, ”They must be taking us to their village... Let's see if we can get some information and supplies so we can prepare ourselves...”

”What if they try to kill us?? I can't use my blessing without Ria!!”

”I can still use my magic if anything happens...” Evlin stopped for a moment while thinking about Knucker's warning, the more she uses her power, the more the terminal being inside of her continues to grow, and once it became strong enough, it would burn her body, ”But... For now... Let's try to save it for emergencies... We don't want to attack recklessly without knowing if they are our enemies...”

Evlin looked at her tied up body and noticed that her whip was still latched on her arm like a bracelet. The riders must have assumed that it was part of her clothing and not an actual weapon. This was not enough to create large spells like her crossbow, but it should probably be enough to handle a couple of random sand people she assumed.

As the riders continued to drag them, Auren began to spot a large shadow approaching on the horizon. The closer they got, the more he could make it out its shape, some kind of village of stone houses surrounded by a gigantic wall. On top of the wall, a group of watchers could be seen with bows and arrows pointed to anyone that tried to enter without permission, also mounting different kinds of beasts.

Large buildings and houses built on top of hills of sand, a massive tower in the middle of it all with a red flag on top of it with some kind of drawing of a fist being swallowed by fangs, and on the streets, a large number of individuals all walking around with different types of monsters either by their side or riding on it.

Some were using the monsters to perform delivery, others were performing races on an open field built inside of the city, and others were simply just petting the creatures and playing with them.

”What is this place...?” Evlin whispered. She never thought she would see humans and monsters living peacefully by each other's side like this.

”Some kind of... Monster tamers city?” Auren assumed.

”Monster tamers...?” Evlin repeated.

She kept gazing at the place and started to feel like she was in heaven. So many people getting along with monsters like they were their pets. Not just crab sharks, but also two-headed crocodiles, serpents of the size of a horse, a turtle with a shell made of diamonds, and so on, all wearing saddles to carry one of the masked citizens of this weird place.

”Man... I wish Sphinx was here...” Evlin whispered.

The riders finally reached their destination, a huge prison located under one of the buildings that could only be assessed by some kind of elevator and locked Auren and Evlin inside a cage made of metal while still tied up.

As they were thrown into the cell, one of the riders leaped off of his beast and stared at them. He carefully began to study their expressions to see what their state of mind was right now.

Auren was shaking a bit, which made the masked man think he was scared when in reality, he was just worried about Ria and Cia.

Evlin was laying against the wall of the cell and losing herself in her thoughts once again. The rider was surprised by her calmness and after a while, just exited the area with his beast and his friends, leaving the two trespassers alone in the prison.

Auren stared at Evlin again who had now laid on the ground to get more comfortable and continued to ponder to herself.

”Evlin!!” he shouted again.

”What...? I'm trying to think...”

”Think about how we are going to escape?”

”What? No, of course not... I can get us out of here whenever I want... I'm trying to think on how I'm going to kill Knucker...”

”What?? Why are you thinking about this right now?? We need to leave this place and find our friends!!”

”I don't know where our friends are, nor do I know where WE are... We got blasted by Ria's portal remember? For all we know, we might be on the other side of the planet... And I assume the same happened to them...”

”How can you be so sure?? What if they are still in the castle and were captured by Knucker and that dragon!!??” Auren shouted.

Evlin noticed that he was breathing heavily, ”Auren, relax... I saw sparks of energy flying around and hitting our friends right before we were teleported, I'm sure they got out of there safely as well!”

”But what if they were transported to some dangerous place!!?? What if Ria is alone? She can't make a barrier right now! What if she gets attacked??”

”Auren...”

The man started to shiver, ”I... We... We need to get out of here!! Get us out of here with your magic right now!!” Auren yelled while glaring at Evlin, which made her shiver as well. She never saw him glare at anyone or anything before.

”Auren, please, calm down...”

”Calm down!!?? My wife is missing! My daughter is missing!! All our friends are missing!! We are stuck in this stupid cell with no idea of where they are or if they are safe, and all you can do is dream about that orange-eyed weirdo?? What's wrong with you!!??” he replied. Evlin couldn't understand his fury but acting so relaxed when she had all this power inside of her and still not using it when they found themselves in such a dire situation was making Auren really frustrated with her.

The mage lowered her head, ”... Sorry... It's just... I had a lot in my mind right now...”

”Like what?? What could be so important that can keep you from focusing on our current problem!!??”

”... ... ... I'm trying to think if Knucker killed Dalla...” Evlin whispered.

Auren gasped for a moment, ”W- What...?”

He remembered hearing the name Dalla before, it was the name of Evlin's old caretaker that took her in when she first arrived in this world and acted like a mother to her before passing two years later.

”What do you mean...?” he asked now with a calmer tone.

”Knucker... He... He has the power to see the future...” Evlin began to explain, ”He told me that all the bad things that happened in my life were his doing... All because he wanted me to hate this world so much that I would never want to stay here... ”

”Why would he do that...??”

”Because, according to him, I'm the cause of his death... For some reason, the simple fact that I exist ends up leading to his downfall somehow...”

”...”

”And because of that, even though I didn't even know him, even though we never talked before, even though I already wanted to return to my own world before, he just hates me... He hates me in a way that I don't think I was ever hated before... And trust me, a lot of people hated me...”

”...”

”And when he told me what he did... I kept thinking about all the things that happened to me, and couldn't stop wondering... How many of these things happened because of him and how many were just left to chance... In fact... Was anything even left to chance? Was my whole life just one big play set up by this one guy? Is my whole life just his personal fanfiction? Am I just a toy for him to play with??”

”I- I'm sure that's not true...” Auren tried to say.

”But what if it is?? What if everything was just a game playing in the palm of his hand?? What if... What if Dalla ended up dying because of my connection to him?? Did he kill her just so that I would leave the city? You would think that this is impossible, after all, she passed away from old age right in front of me... But what if he did something? What if she could still have lived longer and he... I don't know... What if he sneaked into the house while I was away and poisoned her, or maybe he did something before she ever met me when she was just a kid? Did the fact that I was going to meet her leaded Knukcer to her? Or maybe I only met her because he wanted me to?

I... I just don't know what's real anymore...”

Auren stared at her face and realized that she was trying hard to hold her tears. Every time she uttered a word it was like a dagger was pressed against her heart.

Evlin took a deep breath and tried to relax again, ”So... Yeah... My head right now can't really think of anything besides getting rid of this guy for good... So I'm sorry if I'm not worried about some random monster riders making us their prisoners or our missing friends... As of right now, I'm trying to think if even this mere moment wasn't just something he planned for me...”

Auren wasn't sure how to respond. He could see that Evlin was just as troubled as him, if not more, but was just trying to remain calm in order to not lose herself in her own uncertainty.

A sense of guilt began to surround the man. He already knew that people around Evlin always placed a lot of pressure on her shoulders. This was the price to pay for being the stronger one. When you can do things others can't, others simply expect you to just be able to do everything.

He was familiar with that situation. During the old days, Auren too was always placed in a position to handle the hardest problems by himself. He was someone with a very strong physique and a unique ability that allowed him to heal himself, making him the perfect fighter.

The problem was that Auren never liked fighting. He hated violence, hated hurting others, hated having to raise his fists to cause injuries, and most of all, he hated how people would look at him, at his muscular body, and all they could see was a warrior when that was the last thing he wanted to be.

Nobody ever tried to understand him, ask him what he wanted to be. That is until he met Marceus, the first man that ever said the words 'What do you want to do?', to which Auren replied, 'I want to help people, not harm them...'

Marceus smiled at him and after slapping his back simply said, 'Welcome to the team!'

He was never asked to be on the front-lines, he was never asked to fight. He always stayed in his position of support. The position where he met Ria, the woman he fell for.

Auren wanted to untie himself just so he could punch his own face. Despite how much he hated being treated like a tool and how grateful he was for being given a proper choice, he never realized that Evlin was going through the same things he was. Everyone looked at her and would only see the mage, not the human. They didn't see that she also could get hurt, could cry, could be sad, the same way they never looked past his appearance when he was in the same position.

The strong are not allowed to be weak, because if they are, they weak won't have someone to rely on.

Auren was afraid, worried, concerned, agitated, and he wanted Evlin to solve all his problems, but he did not realize that she had her own problems as well.

Still, he himself couldn't calm down while thinking about Ria and the others. He needed to get out of this place, and he needed Evlin for that. He needed to fix this situation so they could work together and leave this place.

”Look, Evlin... I know you must be frustrated...”

”Actually I'm not, to be honest...” she quickly replied.

”You... You're not?”

”Yeah! Didn't you hear me? This guy is the reason all the bad things that happened to me ever happened! So if I get rid of him, I can finally enjoy my life once and for all!!”

Auren then realized, Evlin wasn't just troubled, she was also excited. She wasn't so focused because she was afraid of Knucker, she was focused because she couldn't wait to free herself from him, the one that caused so much misfortune for her.

But he still wondered, how much did Knucker actually do? Auren began to think if Evlin wasn't placing a bit too much faith in killing Knucker being some kind of magical answer to all her problems.

”You sure about this...?” he asked.

”Totally!! I can finally see a light at the end of my tunnel! I can finally say goodbye to this life as a mage and just enjoy my own world like I wanted!”

”I see...” Auren whispered, still unsure of what the correct way to respond would be, but for now, he could see that Evlin was finally having something to feel good about, so he decided not to take this away from her, ”So... What do we do now...?”

”I told you, I'm trying to think of a way to get rid of him... and for that... I need to find his real body...”

”What if-” Auren was about to comment, but was interrupted by the sound of the cage doors opening and revealing a strong-looking man with tanned skin with his hands behind his back. He was much bigger than everyone there present, and the guards of this city were already pretty big themselves, but this person, in particular, was so huge that his head could almost scratch the ceiling.

He was staring at the two prisoners behind his white mask with red paintings while a group of guards stood behind him, around ten people.

”Oh, hi!” Evlin said, ”We are kinda discussing something important, so if you're here to feed us to the sharks or thrown us into a volcano to please your gods, could you come back in like, five to ten minutes or so?”

”...” the white-masked man did not reply and just glared at Evlin, at least Auren assumed he was glaring, it was hard to tell since his body gestures were rather composed.

”Evlin... I think we should take this more seriously...” Auren suggested.

”You want me to take these guys seriously when they walk around with these tacky-looking masks on their heads? It would be easier to ask the planet to spin backwards...”

”Evlin...”

The man walked into the cell and came closer to Evlin. The two stared at each other for a couple of seconds as if they were playing a game to see who would blink first. He finally raised his hand and grabbed Evlin by the neck, raising her entire body with one arm.

He noticed that her gaze showed no shock though, she simply continued to look at him with focus as if patiently waiting to make her move.

”Hey, my neck hurts...” Evlin muttered, ”Could you let me go?”

”You...” the man finally talked, ”Your eyes have no fear...”

”... Wha...?” Evlin whispered.

”You have the eyes of someone who stared at the abyss and returned to tell the tale... A calming gaze that does not waver even after witnessing all the beasts from our land or being faced by my presence... Do you not fear death, little one?”

Evlin began to think about her answer and started to grin, ”If I died I would finally get to rest in peace a little bit... And I'm pretty sure the universe would never let me have that so easily, I'm its favorite punching bag...”

The man began to let out a small noise which got bigger and bigger until it turned into strong laughter that infected all of the guards as well.

Evlin and Auren traded glances feeling confused before the white-masked man finally calmed down.

”We have ourselves a warrior in our hands!! Bring this one to the arena!! Have her show us what she can do!” he shouted while pointing at Evlin, ”Let me see what you have done to earn these eyes!”

”And if I refuse...?” Evlin asked.

The man began to chuckle, ”You two are trespassers on our lands... If you are of no use for me, you will be made of use to our beasts... By becoming their dinner!!”

Evlin stared at him for a moment, she was once again in a position where someone wanted to make use of her for one reason or another, but right now, she needed to clear her head, and a little bit of action might help her she assumed, ”... Eh... sure...”

Part 2

The riders moved Evlin to another floor located even deeper down the current building after removing the ropes that were wrapping her body and started to stroll through a couple of dark tunnels towards the battle arena.

They began to whisper about her performance on the battlefield commenting things like how long would she last, how much she would cry, or how hard it would be to clean up her remains.

Auren was walking right behind her after being freed as well and shaking with worry, ”Evlin what are we doing?? Why are we following what these guys are saying?”

”I think the big guy liked me or something... If I give them a good show, maybe they will lend us a ride back home...” Evlin explained.

”What!!?? That's your plan??”

”You have a better idea?”

”Can't you use your earth powers to locate the exit to the desert or something?”

”I tried! But I still don't know where is the exit of this land of sand! I'm not sure you understand how big of a place a desert actually is... You think I can just scan an entire...” Evlin paused for a moment and began to speak in pauses, ”An entire land with my power...”