Chapter 113 (1/2)

Raina hastily put her mask back on, blushing furiously. She was secretly quite pleased, but underneath that was a thick layer of shame. Her face as it was now… Without this mask…

Without saying anything to the man, Raina gathered her stuff and hurried down the hill.

“At least tell me your name, beautiful!”

Whereas she was previously slightly overwhelmed by a strange fluttering in her heart by the strange man, now a hard wedge of annoyance drove down, and she straightened her back and strode away.

‘You aren’t getting anything with that entitled attitude, that was for sure,’ Raina thought to herself.

Then she spoke aloud, forcing every ounce of her willpower into her words. “Stay away from me.”

Her voice was low, but the air rang with the imperative in her words. Satisfied, she returned to the village. Perhaps she really should get a class at this rate. She had gotten lucky with monsters, by which she meant that she hadn’t encountered any. But this man arriving reminded her that although this place was safer, it was not safe.

Lower, after she walked almost halfway down the hill, almost against her will, she stopped, and turned and looked up, expecting…

Well, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But she saw a now distant figure, standing stock still, looking down towards her. His entire body posture radiated sad puppy dog. For a moment, Raina regretted what she had done, but then she buried that sentiment.

‘After all,’ She reasoned. ‘If he really wanted to talk to me, what’s the harm in making him work a little for it? Like I’ve been working to find out where Randidly is…’

With her thoughts turning decidedly frustrated, Raina continued back to Donnyton, her eyes on her feet.

****

Alana looked around, slightly alarmed. There was an odd tension in the air, and Devan’s eyes were narrowed. They were in a strange little clearing, next to a small stream. The vegetation around them, the grass, bushes and tree leaves, were various shades of blue, while the trunks of the tree looked like obsidian.

But what was most strange was that surrounding them were around 3 dozen mother fucking human turtle people, aiming crossbows at the new arrivals. Everyone was very still. Alana’s hand twitched as she forcefully repressed an urge to draw her spear. This was extremely strange, but there was at least another village. So perhaps this was a diplomatic mission after all, and Kiersty hadn’t been blowing smoke out of her ass..

But her hope dwindled as one of the turtle people caught sight of the twitch, and a crossbow pivoted slowly to aim at her.

Then the rabbit man stepped forward. “Razor Fleetfoot reporting. I have brought back the representatives of our sister village, which calls itself Donnyton.”

Silence was the only response from the crossbow sporting group of turtles. Razor’s smile faltered. Devan stood quite still, seemingly completely at ease, but Alana knew from experience with him that he could spring into motion at the drop of the hat, activating Aegis to boost the group’s defensive arrangements.

Alana began to run through some mental math. Assuming they weren’t boosted by access to the system, but were simply crossbows, Alana was rather confident that she would be able to withstand the volley of arrows. Their armor, new, improved versions provided by the forges of Donnyton, would be more than enough to weather this storm.

But if they were system improved weapons…

Further lowering her spirits, one of the turtles, the one that appeared to be a leader stepped forward, his green, leathery hands behind his back. “Initiate of the 1st Circle, Razor Fleetfoot. It appears that you have successfully returned from your scouting mission to the sister village. Unfortunately….”

He paused then, his balding green head bobbing a little. “Or rather fortunately, when you didn’t return yesterday, your grandmother was inconsolable. She has insisted on the draft. We cannot continue without more individuals with a class. If you were to return, perhaps her resolve would waiver.”

Razor just blinked. Alana felt ice cold on the inside. “But…. But I’m here, I came back.”

The turtle man nodded serenely. “...with quite grievous injuries.” He snapped his fingers.

Six of the crossbows snapped, bolts flying forward to lodge themselves in the chest of a shocked Razor. He tried to open his mouth to say something, but only blood came out, dripping and pooling on the ground in front of him. After a few seconds of struggle, he keeled over sideways, silent the entire time, toppling in front of a serious eyed Kiersty.

Devan took a step forward, and several loaded crossbow swiveled to him.