Raerek de Lionei
Chapter 1: Beginnings
AN: Hello everyone! I'm sorry for not updating my other fics, but this idea has been stuck in my head for a long time, and I've had a little bit of a writer's block. Anyway, this'll be my pet project for a while, and all of my other fics will probably be on temporary hiatus for the time being. Sorry!
Anyway, with this fic. This is gonna take place in a sort of Final-Fantasy esque world in Greek mythology with elements of several titles that I think fit well with this theme. To clear it up, so far I've decided on White Knight Chronicles I/II, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Dragon's Dogma for monsters, spells, weapons and territories.
Final note, if you like the story and want to submit an OC, PM me, I'll have a list of available gods on my profile. If you want to reuse a god, you're character will probably end up a minor character. Also, if you want your character to have a specific role in the story, then let me know or I'll just put him/her where I think he/she fits. Also remember, this is a medieval, sexist, racist world, so make your character accordingly. If he/she is too unrealistic, your character won't be accepted, but I'll probably give you tips in case you want to try again. Another thing that I would recommend is to wait for chapter two to be posted. It will explain the different countries and their unique qualities. However, I won't be introducing OCs en masse until after chapter 3-4, so be warned.
Special notes to a specific person (you know who you are ;D): Lol, I actually had the horse part typed up before you submitted him. I literally laughed when I realized how perfect this was coming together, especially now that I have his outline and my own completed! BTW, I rechecked and I broke 7,000! XD
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC.
- - -Mount Olympus
"ENOUGH!" Zeus shouted as he attempted to quell the other Olympians, "Cease this senseless arguing at once!"
Gradually, the chatter died down and Zeus prepared for the council to start.
He had always hated these, especially the council on the winter eclipse.
There were so many better things that he could be doing, he could be out with some mortal women, or watching a beach volleyball game, but no. He just had to preside over the gods, didn't he? Couldn't leave the job to his older brother, could he?
"Dammit." Zeus muttered quietly to himself.
"Now, as you all know, there has been an imbalance in the forces of nature. A mortal has obtained the power of a god." Zeus addressed the council.
"WHAT?!" Hades yelled, "What mortal would dare interfere with the gods?"
"How could he have gotten this power?" Hermes questioned, "It's not like he could've actually come to Olympus and taken a god's power."
"Correct." Zeus replied, "Neither me nor my daughter have been able to see how a mortal could have achieved this false godhood. But, he must be killed for his insolence, that much is certain." Zeus growled at the end.
"Which god's power was stolen?" questioned Artemis as the others murmured, curios.
"It was Leviathan." Athena replied, but Poseidon then nearly leapt up from his chair.
"Then bring him here! As a minor god of the sea, he is now under my jurisdiction!" Poseidon demanded to his brother, Zeus.
"That cannot be done, Earth shaker. And you know why." Zeus quickly said when he saw his brother's mouth open to protest.
"Then it has come to this?" Hades questioned his brothers, "Very well."
"It is decided." Zeus said, silencing any arguments.
"The boy will die." Zeus stated and then looked through the floor of the chamber, now showing a man with a large sword on his back, bearing strange symbols, one of them being an owl.
- - -Forests of Fylloma
The man that the gods were watching was indeed a warrior, or at least a mercenary with a strong build.
He stood at 6' even, a giant among the current men of that time, and was very muscular. If one were to ask him, he'd say that he weighed about 168lb.
He had forest green hair which cascaded down to the base of his neck in long spikes, looking almost like a mullet if not for the few stray strands that hung down in front of his face and covered his temples. His complexion was tan, more a natural tan than from being outside, and deep blue eyes, the color of the ocean.
He was currently wearing a baggy white peasant's shirt with a slit down the front, held somewhat together by black string. Over this, though, he wears the complete contrast of a royal blue tunic with golden embroidery and a split shirttail in the back that goes down to his knees. He also wore a small royal blue cape over his right shoulder. On his lower body he wears a pair of baggy white pants and dark leather boots.
The most impressive thing about this man wasn't his dress though, nor his height or physique. No, it was the sword he carried on his back.
The sword was huge, almost as big as the man himself, but he carried it like it was nothing. The total length of the sword measured at 5 feet, but the blade itself was 4 feet long and 5 ½ inches wide. The handle was 1 foot long and two inches wide, with the hand guard measuring at 8 inches by 1 inch.
The blade was massive, but that's not to say that it wasn't beautiful. It had a leather wrapped hilt and a golden hand guard, finished with a polished steel blade with a golden plate going down the middle of the blade. On the base of the golden plate on the blade is a picture on an owl, with the symbols for Alpha then Omega as you went down the blade.
The man was simply walking through the forest with traveling supplies strapped to the large brown horse next to him, leaving the man with his hands free to look at his map, which he was currently doing.
"Hmph." He grunted, "Figures this town had to be in a part of the forest that I've rarely visited before."
He kept on walking, deftly avoiding running into trees and other creature, most of the threatening ones scared off by the aura that he exuded.
Most of them.
The man had to duck quickly, lest his head be taken off by the large hellhound that had attacked him.
"You're not native to this area. What purpose do you have here?" The man grunted as he threw the hellhound into a nearby tree before drawing his sword.
"Can't talk?" He questioned mockingly, "Oh well, no harm in trying." He sighed as he bisected the hound the next time it lunged at him.
"Too bad, I was hoping for a challenge." He said as he started to walk away.
Just before he sheathed his sword though, about a dozen more appeared in between the trees.
"Great." He muttered to himself before stabbing his blade and crying into the air "Athena guide me!"
From that point the fight was a massacre.
The man hacked, slashed and stabbed his way through the hellhounds with such skill. He went after the one closest to him in the circular clearing and immediately impaled it's back on his sword.
He wasn't done, however, as he then swung his blade around, decapitating one more and launching the dead body at another with such force that the creature was crushed.
He then looked at his situation. There were nine hellhounds left, and he was surrounded.
He smirked, "Time to get in my daily exercises."
The hellhounds moved first, moving in such a way that he couldn't hit one without exposing himself to another.
'Hmmm. Well, they are wolves.' The man thought as he recognized the pattern.
They were all coming at him from different angles, trying to catch him off guard. Not to mention that if he went after one, that would leave him completely open to the ones behind him, and possibly the ones to the side.
Unfortunately for them, he knew a way to deal with this.
He hefted his huge blade over his right shoulder with both hand and crouched while charging magical energy.
Just before leaping into the air he said one thing, "Watch my Void Crash."
With those words his stabbed his blade into the ground as he came down, the kinetic force as well as the magical energy that he had been storing in the blade was all released at once, resulting in a huge shockwave that vaporized the hellhounds on contact because they were so close to the epicenter.
"Well, that works." He grunted as he sheathed his blade again, panting slightly from the drain of the Void Crash.
He hadn't noticed it while he was battling, but the sun was starting to set. He checked his map again.
"I'm not too far, but I won't be there before nightfall. Meh, I'll set up camp. I always did like the forest better anyway." He said to himself as he tied his horse to a tree and began to set up his tent and arrange stones so that he could build a fire.
After he sparked a fire it was starting to get dark and the man was starting to get hungry. He noticed out of the corners of his eyes the three hellhounds that hadn't been disintegrated.
One was beheaded, he could eat that one, another was skewered, he might be able to eat that one. The last one, however, was crushed almost beyond recognition under the force which it had been crushed.
"Well, I can still skin them all for furs, they sell for quite a bit. And I might be able to make some alchemical use of the eyes, teeth and claws." Nodding to himself, he set about harvesting whatever he could from the hellhounds, skinning the two that were fit to eat and cooking them over his fire.
The man was just about to sit and enjoy his meal in peace when he heard a loud whooshing noise from above.
Faster than the man could react, a flock of ravens swooped down and carried off his meat before flying into the forest.
The man, enraged at losing his dinner, quickly picked up his sword and canteen and set off after the birds.
He chased them for just several minutes when, all of a sudden, they dropped his meat down into a pile of leaves.
Unsatisfied with simple victory, the man attempted to pursue the ravens, but he almost tripped over something. Or someone.
"What would a boy be doing out this far into the forest?" He wondered to himself before picking up the body with one arm and his meat with the other, forgetting about the birds.
"Regardless, he appears to need medical attention. Thank Apollo that I have some knowledge of medicines." He sighed to himself, 'Why do I have to be so nice?' he questioned himself.
'And modest, and handsome, and-' The man cut off that train of though. Athena would have his head if he continued on like that.
By that time he had reached his camp and proceeded to place the boy in his own bed.
"Looks like I'm roughin it tonight, eh Ischyro?" the man spoke to his horse, now known as Ischyro.
The horse gave no visible response to hearing him.
"Well, I should probably check the wounds on that kid, right?" The man said as he got up and moved to the tent.
He knew the wounds looked severe, if the slash/burn marks on the boy's armor were anything to be certain of.
It was then he took a closer look at the boy.
He was dressed in regular military archer's armor, a white tunic embroidered with gold and a grey vest over it with the royal insignia, leather boots and gloves, a pair of baggy grey pants and a standard white archer's helm. He appeared to be about eighteen and about 5'5", a bit short, but he could definitely have been a city guard.
The boy appeared strangely thin for a boy, and possibly a little feminine, but that's probably why he was an archer instead of a fighter.
The man scoffed. If you can't hold your own in single combat, then what business did you have protecting others.
It was obvious that the boy had lost, badly if his condition was anything to go by.
His black hair was slightly singed and had dried blood crusting over on his forehead. His strangely, for a guy, peachy colored skin was marked with bruises and cuts. He appeared to have two sets of scars over his body, three slash marks on his arm, and a long scar from his left cheek to his ear.
The man's eyes then widened as he noticed a chest wound that he hadn't noticed before.
'That's a very sever wound. It has to be treated immediately!' were his thoughts as he immediately reached for his medical supplies.
He was about to tear open the boy's shirt when he felt something through it.
'It's already been wrapped?' The man thought, confused, as he felt the bandages under the boy's shirt, 'Why would someone bother to treat his wounds then leave him out here to die?'
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice a single golden yellow eye open, and he didn't notice the boy's body freeze when he checked the bandages again.
"Hmm. The wound seems to be over the right lung. I should check for any form of tear in the bandage." The man muttered to himself as his hands drifted toward the boy's chest.
The boy felt himself freeze again. There was nothing that he could do without revealing himself to be awake, or revealing his other secret.
'Dammit!' the boy thought angrily, but soon started blushing uncontrollably as the man's hands reached his chest and started searching, almost like a massage.
Unwillingly, the boy uttered a small moan, and attracted the attention of the man who was checking him for wounds.
"Good, you're awake." Was all the man said before helping the boy to sit up.
"Now, I need to check your chest wound more thoroughly, so I'll need you to remove your armor and shirt." He said quietly, obviously trying not to scare the boy.
"Umm…" was all the boy said, but the man interpreted it as that he couldn't get his shirt off by himself.
"It's okay, I'll help." The man said and began to take off the boy's shirt.
The boy once again froze so the man, trying to start a conversation, asked "Hey, kid, what's your name?"
The boy immediately responded, "Aria-" but cut himself off, "Aaron." Was all he said before going silent once again.
The man continued his work in silence until the only thing on Aaron's chest was the bandages, literally around his chest.
"Now, I'll need to remove the bandages to check the wound." The man said.
"Wait!" Aaron exclaimed, seemingly panicked, "I can do it!"
"No," the man sternly replied, "You can't treat a wound this severe by yourself."
"Wait-" the Aaron tried again and covered his chest with both of his arms and turned away.
"Enough!" the man got frustrated and pinned the boy down with one hand and undid the bandages with the other.
The moment the bandages came undone, the man's eyes widened and Aaron looked away, blushing in shame.
"You-You're a girl?" The man questioned disbelievingly.
Aaron seemed content to simply glare at him.
In his shock, the man released the girl, who proceeded to put her clothes back on.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" the girl retorted sarcastically, her voice higher pitched than it had been before.
"Your breasts." Was all the man said, clearly not getting the sarcasm.
The girl blushed heavily and glared at the man more for being reminded that he had practically freely groped her for the past few minutes.
"What's your real name?" the man questioned, eyes narrowed.
"I see no reason to tell y-" the girl was once again cut off by the giant sword stuck in her face.
"Let me go first," the man said, "my name is Raerek de Lionei. Now, what. Is. Your. Name. Girl." He growled out at the end.
"A-Arianne." The girl squeaked out, a little freaked out by the sight of such a huge sword, "Arianne Seatos." She got a little more confident at the end.
"So, you're her." The newly named Raerek mumbled to himself.
"You know," he started, getting her attention, "I was actually paid to come here and kill you."
Arianne's eyes widened when she heard that and she started backpedaling away from him, only to trip and end up with her back against a tree.
'Did I really survive all of that just to be killed by a bounty hunter? Ladon attacking wasn't even my fault!' she cried in outrage inside of her head when she heard Raerek laughing to himself and sheathing his sword.
"Come on, girl. Did you really think that any self-respecting mercenary would kill an injured woman in cold blood." He smirked at her reaction.
"You-you, you, you, YOU!" was all she shouted as she ran up to him and punched him in the gut as hard as she could.
"Owww!"
"I wouldn't recommend trying that again." Raerek said as he looked mirthfully at the girl shaking her probably numb fist.
She just glared at him again.
All of a sudden, Arianne swayed on her feet and almost fell over if Raerek had not caught her.
He carried her into the tent and set her down in the bed "Get some sleep. You'll need it to recover from those injuries." Was all he said before he left.
Arianne wanted to protest, to try and stay awake so that he couldn't do anything to her, but her body was too tired.
She was out within the minute.
Raerek chuckled as he remembered the girl's chest, "Quite the looker, eh Ischyro?" he looked over to his horse only to find it asleep.
Raerek chuckled to himself again as he got ready to sleep on the ground before he realized something.
"If Athena finds out about this, she's gonna kill me. Oh well, I doubt she'll ever find out." He muttered to himself with a groan.
- - -Mount Olympus
Athena twitched while all of the other gods laughed at her.
They had been watching the whole time.