(AN) Since this is my first story I would really appreciate some reviews with feedback, please only constructive criticism and no chat speak. I'll make sure to add chapter 2 as soon as possible. Enjoy
I would also like to thank ixJeffJeff for his review, it was quite helpful. I edited the chapter and made the story less painful to look upon, while doing this I found the errors that he had spotted and fixed them. I can tell that 's format is going to take some getting used to. (/AN)
Fire was burning bright against the sky as the smoke obscured the very heavens, blotting out the stars. Yet the moon still showed its face, a witness to this tragic event, this massacre.
The raiders had been swift, they had caught the town sleeping completely unprepared and unaware.
Their ranks were made up of hundreds of tauros led by a Balrog. In the night they had began their bloodthirsty assault as they swept in killing the sleeping inhabitants and burning everything else.
A lone figure ran across the fair fields of Heneseys, the beautiful meadows were charred black and the grass was beat down. The village up ahead was burning, with the screams of dying innocents piercing the air every so often, drowning out the guttural voices of the monstrous army that slaughtered them.
As the man raced towards the village he drew a sword and unslung a shield that had been strapped to his back, the shield had a dark background with a fiery red maple leaf emblazoned on it while the sword was tinted pink with a slight curve. As he ran he whispered the words Holy Charge and a bright light seething with power seemed to imbue itself within his sword.
As he entered the city the attacking creatures rushed toward him, but he paid them no heed and ran past.
He continued to run until he reached the center of the city, there he stood in the middle of a huge dais which the city had been build around and watched as the hordes of tauros surrounded him, ringing him in.
There was silence the very air seemed tense, waiting for either side to begin the fighting;
at length the man spoke "Be gone from here foul creatures, demons, for I am a paladin a wielder of the holy fire, a protector of the weak and the innocent.
Go back to darkness of your cursed sanctuary, and trouble not the outside world with your presence."
A balrog stepped to the front of the horde, the tauros parted before him, he then spoke "we do not follow the orders of a paladin nor any other human, we have come here to kill and slaughter and you cannot stop us, you shall die for your insolence."
"If that is so then further talk is useless" the paladin said,he then raised his weapon shouting "I summon the power of light, the strength of the divine to smite this scourge of evil from this fair land".
Then hanging in the air above him was seen a shaft of light shining so brightly that it was almost unbearable to look upon, and at the end there was the great head of a hammer which was made of a pure white light, and was terrible to look upon for those creatures of darkness and evil; but to those pure of spirit and full of honor it was beautiful to behold.
The balrog shuddered at the divine apparition as the tauros shrieked, then it came crashing down bringing judgment with it and obliterating the monsters that had dared to challenge the power of a holy paladin.
The rocky ground of Perion crunched beneath my feet as I walked towards the land of the wild boar, everyday since I could wield a sword I had walked around Perion,
training on the many monsters that lived there. First stumps, then dark stumps, then axe stumps, and finally now wild boars.
The reason for my "harsh training regimen" as others have called it, is to become as great as the paladin that rescued me nine years ago when my village was destroyed.
I was only three then, but I was the only survivor. My determination in leveling has taken me greatly past all of my peers and onto a plinth that few stand upon.
Hundreds of boars have fallen to my blade, and in a few more levels I will be strong enough to train on fire boars.
I am currently level twenty six and I intend on reaching thirty soon. My artes rain down death upon all the boars in my path, each one bringing me closer to the time that I might become a page and take up the path of that paladin that saved my so long ago.
His name is Oslander and he is like a legend, the only paladin that has risen from the ranks of white knights and taken up the fourth job. He is an embodiment of heroism and the many values of a paladin. He tears down evil everywhere he goes saving many innocent lives.
My sword swirling with mana smashes down on the head of a boar taking its life and gaining me a level.
With the new strength that I gain I decide to go through dangerous valley to the burning land to see if I can take on fire boars yet. Walking through the dangerous valley I see the entrance of the burning land carved into a cliff face, steam billows from its depths.
As I enter the burning land an acrid smell hits me, viciously assaulting my nose.
As I walk forward a patch of steam obscures my vision for a moment, that one moment was enough. A huge impact knocks me over and sends me flying into a cliff wall.
The fire boar is on top of me in a fraction of a second, tearing open my chest with its sharp tusks all the while burning me with the simple touch of its skin.
I see my broadsword lying a few feet away, just out of reach.
With a Herculaneum effort I throw my self to the side a grab wildly for the hilt.
With sheer luck I grasp it in my hand bring it up thrusting it into the fire boar's heart.
I look down at my torn up slashed and burned body with horror seeing the damage the boar has done. Crawling over to my pack I open it and take out a return scroll, willing it to work and take me back to Perion.
I gradually become aware of seeing light flicker in front of me as the world comes into focus; I am in the Perion potion shop.
Sophia leans over and dabs some ointment onto my arm, seeing that I am awake she bursts into a barrage of accusations about how I should never have gone to the burning land at my level. Her words hit my skull like hammer blows and my vision blurs again I don't resist, happy to drift off to sleep.
When I finally wake up again most of my wounds are healed, except for a few that are covered in bandages.
The shop is empty. It feels good to get out of bed after being in one so long; I step out of the shops tent flap and breathe the fresh Perion air.
As I begin to walk off, a peer of mine Jen stops me saying "Khilvin, you can't go off and train. you aren't strong enough yet!" "I'm sorry but I have to, I've been delayed enough as it is" I say brushing her aside.
I continue on to the burning land, ready to avenge myself on those damn fire boars. As I enter, once again a fire boar leaps at me, but I am ready I quickly roll out of the way and slice through the boar's skull with my strongest arte strengthening my sword.
Another fire boar charges me, I quickly sidestep and slice its belly open letting its steaming guts fall to the rocky ground.
I see three more rushing at me head on, without thinking I call upon my mana and tackle the boar in the center thrusting my sword through its heart.
The two other fire boars rush past me; one however manages to slash my left arm. I turn around and face the two fire boars as they charge again. I slash wildly trying to knock them back, one is stunned by the force of my attack but the other continues forward throwing itself towards me.
My body reacts without thinking and I thrust my sword deep into its gullet, its momentum carrying it into my sword while its flames burn me a little before going out.
The other fire boar snarls and rushes toward me but I cannot dislodge my sword from the first fire boars throat, leaving me with only my injured left hand to defend myself. As the fire boar draws near and I feel its hot breath upon me, I wince waiting for the inevitable to happen.
However a ray of light shoots from the entrance of the burning land and pierces the fire boar's heart before it could make another move, and I feel my wounds healing. I saw the cleric that had saved me was standing in the entrance way of the burning land.
I immediately noticed that she was around level forty with red hair and wearing a blue moonlight robe, it struck me that she was really pretty.
"Who are you? Why'd you save me?" I asked, she glared and said
"because I spent the last few weeks healing you for being a dumb ass, when Jen told me you went back here to train I came to make sure you didn't kill yourself.
"Oh" I said staring dumbly.
"Well since you seem to be such a hotheaded moron that won't stop training for your own good,
it looks like I'll have to stay and train with you to keep you from getting killed".
"I guess that that's fine by me" I said still unable to look away from her. She raises an eyebrow,
"are you going to defend yourself or keep ogling?"
I gulped and turned away, just in time to impale the fire boar that had been moments away from trampling me.
That day we trained for hours until the sun began to set during that day I reached level twenty eight.
As we walked back to Perion she told me that I was probably strong enough to hold my own at the burning land, so she was going to Lubridium to train on chronos tomorrow.
Chronos, a monster I had only heard stories about.
I finally raised the courage to ask
"what is your name?"
She looked at me with surprise and told me that it was Kayla.
"Wow you're really pretty" I started to say but before I could finish she slapped me, sending me crashing into an outcropping of rock.
How was a cleric that strong I thought as she teleported away.
I picked myself slowly off the ground and continued on to Perion alone. When I arrived I used the mesos that I had earned at the burning land on level thirty armor, but I didn't get a sword just yet as I lacked enough mesos for a scimitar.
The following five days I trained everyday on the fire boars, massacring thousands of them, by the end of those five days my endurance paid off and I managed to reach level thirty. As that last fire boar fell granting me that sacred level, I felt elation shooting through my spine and on light feet I ran to Perion.
Dances with balrogs looked up from the paper he was reading, as his most promising student walked into the warrior's sanctuary.
Out of breath he blurted
"Master I have reached level thirty at last and would like to know how to make the job advancement as a page".
Dances with balrogs eyed him for a moment then said "well done, no one has ever reached this level as early as you. I offer you my most sincere congratulations, however I must warn you that your journey gets much harder from here on out.
You see, the job advancement of page is much harder than that of a spearman or fighters, for it is the paladins that uphold justice and honor amongst all the warrior classes, that power is not given lightly.
You must find Oslander the last paladin; only he can advance you to that sacred rank of page."
"T-thank you" I stammer as I rushed out the door.
Finally I get to meet Oslander, the greatest paladin alive, and become a page on my way to paladin hood myself. I remembered what Dances with balrogs had said earlier about the page job advancement being the hardest, but I shrugged it off; I knew I could do it.
I found Oslander at the dangerous valley, he nodded to me saying "Hello Khilvin it is good to see you again, I see that you have reached level thirty; am I correct in assuming that you have come here to become a page?"
"Yes" I said in awe at him.
"Well normally I would give the lecture about the difficult and hard road of a page but I doubt you'll listen with your current level of anticipation".
I immediately stopped bouncing on the balls of my feet and looked down, embarrassed. Oslander laughed "do not be ashamed, you are still young."
He was serious again in an instant; "well for the first part of the test I must judge your strength. Go and slay seven copper drakes."
I gasped in amazement; copper drakes weren't usually trained on until level fifty.
I saw now what dances with balrogs had meant, but I knew that I could not stop now after coming so far.
I walked towards the end of the dangerous valley with my heart thudding in my chest. I was already formulating a battle plan in my head, I knew that in order to survive I would have to take on the copper drakes one at a time.
As I reached the end of my journey, I saw a massive body looming ahead of me, a great copper drake, a lesser dragon, and a formidable foe. I readied my broadsword and charged forward, summoning my power and channeling it into my sword.
As I approached the copper drake shifted its head to look at me, giving it no time to react I leaped into the air and brought my sword down upon its head. But to my amazement it did not die as my sword had only left a shallow cut across its face, blinding it in one eye.
One thing that my cut had done though was to piss off the copper drake; this much was clear as it rushed forward howling in rage and pain. I quickly leaped out of the way as it smashed into the cliff wall sending chunks of rock raining down in all directions. "Shit" at this rate its going to draw the attention of every drake in this blasted valley.
The drake prepared to lunge again as I stumble to my feet, shaken from my hard dive. Enraged to see the small creature that had caused it so much pain still alive, the drake rushed forward again abandoning all caution. As the drake came closer I saw my chance,
as its great bulk loomed over me, I ducked down and thrust my sword into its belly.
The copper drake roared in pain and thrashed around making it hard for me to hold onto my sword, but I knew that it was not mortally wounded yet. So with grim determination I continued to slice upwards through its belly, gutting it until it stopped thrashing and the life left its eyes. I stepped away from the copper drake's carcass and readied myself for what would come next.
Another copper drake appeared out of the mist coming to investigate the source of the noise caused by the previous battle. As it stood eying me it was joined by two others, they looked at me and at the corpse of the first copper drake; even as stupid as they were it didn't take long for them to realize that I had killed their comrade.
Without hesitation they charged together leaving no avenue of escape, they covered ground with impossible speed. With my doom approaching fast, I looked up hoping for any way to escape. To my amazement I saw the hilt of a huge spear that had been embedded in side of the cliff; with all the strength that I could muster I leapt and grasped the spears shaft in my hand.
I watched with grim satisfaction as the three copper drakes crashed into the cliff wall below me,
wasting no time I leapt down behind them. Before the trio of copper drakes could react I charged up behind one of them and slid on my back between its legs, seeing its exposed underbelly directly above me I stabbed upward with all of my might and pierced its heart. With one last groan of pain the copper drake fell over dead,
the other two copper drakes locked their eyes on me and howled.
Throughout the valley answering howls were heard, aw crap that's not good I thought.
The drake on the left attacked first sending a claw ripping downwards in my direction, without thinking I imbued my blade with mana and swung it upwards to meet the strike. That claw came down with enough forces to shear through rock, but my parry held, and with new found strength I leapt up and slashed the copper drake's nose sending it shrieking and reeling backwards.
The other drake slashed at me with its claw as well but I dodged under it, and with all the strength I could muster I drove my sword forward slicing open the drake's leg.
It howled in pain and crashed to the ground as I watched in grim satisfaction. I then turned and faced the drake whose nose I had destroyed, it charged forward revenge clouding its mind. Without hesitation I ran forward to meet my foe, as we neared each other I leapt once more into the air and drove my sword into its throat.
As I landed unarmed behind the copper drake's corpse, it fell forward and broke off one of its fangs on and outcropping of rock.
Even with one of its legs rendered useless the other copper drake crawled towards me, its eyes filled with hate. With the copper drake's murderous jaws coming ever closer I reached for the only weapon I could find, the dead drakes fang.
As my fingers curled around the ivory surface of that great tooth, the crippled drake lunged forward jaws snapping, once again my reflexes took over and I reached into the copper drake's mouth plunging the fang deep into the beast's throat.
Standing up I surveyed the four carcasses of the copper drakes I had slain. I walked forward and drew my sword from the throat of one of the copper drakes.
As I watched two more copper drakes appeared in the mouth of the valley, without any hesitation or fear I raised my sword above my head and charged forward unleashing a war cry from my lips. I raced across the ground surefooted and confident,
as I neared my foes I propelled myself into the air and pivoting in midair kicked off the canyon wall tackling the foremost copper drake's neck. The copper drake screamed and veered to the side crashing into the second and knocking it over, I swung around the neck in a full circle and landed in front of the monster.
The copper drake's deadly head lunged forward as I alighted on the ground forcing me to sidestep; as the head flew forward I saw my chance and cut deep into the unprotected part of the monsters neck just behind the head. The copper drake gave one last pained sigh and slumped over, dead.
The copper drake that had been knocked over finally righted itself. Before it could launch an attack at me I jumped up and kicked the beast square in the face, the copper drake fell back stunned. Without giving it a chance to recover, I launched myself forward and stabbed my sword into the copper drake's gullet.
Leaving the two dead copper drakes behind me I went in search of a seventh and last copper drake to slay.
Out of a dense patch of mist an enormous tail appeared and slammed into me sending me flying into the air stunned, my sword left my grasp and landed somewhere out of my sight. The copper drake closed in for the kill lunging forward with an open mouth full of teeth, I narrowly avoided death by diving to the side just in time but a fang raked down the length of my left arm.
I cried out as the unbearable pain hit me like a sledgehammer,
grinning the copper drake moved in to finish me off; wounded and unarmed there was nothing I could do.
As death closed in around me I remembered all the effort I had spent to get here, all the hours spent training to take the test to become a page. It was all for nothing now.
My sadness began to turn into rage as I realized that I was giving up, and I would not allow that.
I was filled with a steely determination, after all that I was NOT going to end up in a drake's belly.
With a roar I jumped up onto the copper drake's head even as my left hand bleeds profusely, I punched the copper drake in one eye then the other putting both eyes out and blinding it.
The copper drake screams and throws me to the ground, I rise and ignoring my dangling left arm and searing pain I run up to the copper drake and wrap my right arm around a soft spot on its neck.
I am buffeted by flailing blows from the copper drakes arms, and legs too when it falls onto its side, but I do not relinquish my hold and eventually the drake ceases to move and falls dead.
As I stagger back to Oslander I find my sword amidst a pile of rocks, picking it up, I limp the rest of the way to the paladin.
When he see's me he immediately rushes forward and heals my wounds, the pride on his face at my accomplishment is tremendous. At length he speaks saying
"congratulations Khilvin you are the first one to complete that aspect of the test in twenty years." Felling confidence well up inside of me I ask "So, what is the second part?"
"You must face a balrog and overcome the temptation of evil."
As we walked to the entrance of the cursed sanctuary Oslander explained the second part of my test
"Just inside the sanctuary you will find a balrog, it has been bound and can do you no harm. However balrogs are powerful demons, it will do all that it can do to get you to release it. Your job is to not give in to its temptation and to drive your sword through its heart."
He motions for me walk inside a doorway "you must accomplish this task alone, only then can you become a page" he says as he shuts the door behind me.
I see heaps and piles of bones illuminated by the flicker of torchlight, suddenly there is darkness in the room complete and utter. Through the darkness a terrible voice speaks "why have you come here?" "I have come here to slay you and become a page" I state before the darkness
The demonic voice laughs "I suppose you are under the assumption that I can do you no harm,
well let me show you the truth."
Without knowing what happened I find myself lying on the floor, all that remains of my right arm is a bloody stump.
"NO! How can I ever become a paladin with only my left hand?" How can I ever become strong enough to avenge my parents? Why did Oslander lie to me?" I weep as despair engulfs me.
But slowly the illusion fades and I find myself kneeling on the cold sanctuary floor in front of a hideous balrog, standing chained to a wall. I stand but immediately another illusion overtakes me.
I find myself standing in my old town watching the monsters kill my friends, my parents, and my siblings. I cannot move to help them, I cannot save them.
I cry, hot tears of shame and grief cascading down my cheeks.
I hear the balrogs evil laughter in the background "Please make it stop, I'll do anything" I plead. "Cut my bonds then, release me" the demon whispers back as the illusion fades again. I rush forward weeping, filled with misery and cut the chains binding to balrog to the wall.
"What a fool you are, it is sad I will have to kill one as useful as yourself" the balrog says as it draws back its massive clawed hand, and begins to cast a spell.
Suddenly the balrog is blasted across the room by a beam of light and Oslander angrily shouts at me "Khilvin! I cannot believe it, you of all people! You released a balrog, if I had not slain it, it would have caused untold misery throughout the world. I'm sorry, but you have shown that you do not have what is needed to become a page."
As I heard these words all my hopes are shattered and my dreams fall, I run from the sanctuary weeping.
Gradually I arrive in the mountains of Perion, and my despair begins to turn into rage.
"If cannot become a page destined to become a paladin, then I shall become a spearman on the path to becoming a dark knight!" I scream at the sky
"I will not be an upholder of justice and purity; such things are dead to me now. I choose the path of strength and the power to destroy all those who oppose me, people shall despair and cower in my presence;
the spear I carry shall be forever drenched in blood!"
Thus saying the young warrior grasped his sword in both of hands and with the new found strength of spearmen, dragon knights, and dark knights he rented it into an unusable piece of metal, unworthy of him now.
He then returned to the place where he had been saved by a spear shaft sticking out of a cliff face. With inhuman strength he ripped the spear out of the solid rock, it was pitch black, and power could almost be felt oozing from its surface.
He then turned and strode east, killing every living thing that crossed his path be it monster or human.