Chapter two the Hero and the Monster
"So let me get this straight you were going to be baptized by Ilias, but you heard a loud noise so you went to investigate and you met her?" asked Lancer.
"Yes that's right, and her name is Alice" Luka replied
"I can tell him my own name" Alice said, "and you say Ilias very casually are you not afraid of her?" Alice asked
"Naw I ran out of fear after fighting two heavenly knights and almost beating one" Lancer replied. With that Alice eyes perked up and she looked at him with interest.
"You almost defeated one?" she asked
"Yeah the slime queen, she bothered me so I fought her."
"How did you fight her?"
"I got in some quick slashes, dodged, did some flips and then Allison, my partner, imbued my sword with fire. I slashed her back, threw her into the lake, and ran." Lancer explained
"Interesting tactics... Either way do you have any business with us?" Alice asked
"I was told to meet you here."
"By who?" Luka asked
"Some vision told me, weird I know, and it was right, you guys were here right on time." Lancer said while looking at the sky.
"Okay well unless you have some business with us we'll continue on our way." "We'll be at the castle for a few more days."
"Okay see you two later be safe and don't run into any heavenly knights alright."
"Okay bye." they said rushing off
On his way back to the hotel Lancer thought that the Lamia, Alice, looked much different than the ones you would typically see. He turned around, but they were gone. He decided to go to the hotel and finally sleep. "You must ask the Lamia to help make you stronger, but be careful she is the Monster Lord."
"What?" Lancer asked surprised, though getting no reply
ALICE POV
"Erubetie what's this about a human almost defeating you?" Alice asked.
"He didn't almost defeat me... Though I hate to say it, but he would be a great ally if we could get him on our side." Erubetie muttered reluctantly.
"You may be right I'll check out his current ability and then train him to his fullest potential." Alice said
"Hey Lancer wake will ya come on rise and shine." Lancer woke up irritated wondering who woke him up. It was his bloody employer.
"What do you want?" Lancer asked. The employer shook his head
"Here's your money" he said. "Oh and the salamander left and went off somewhere."
"Ugh okay I'm up, did she say where?
"No" replied his employer.
"Alright I'll go find her, just give me a second."
"Hey no skin off my back" said the employer, leaving.
On his way out he remembered what the voice said about the Lamia "so she's the monster lord well Damn" "So I need to ask her to make me stronger huh, okay well here goes nothing." Lancer muttered. As Lancer was searching for Allison he went around a corner and walked straight into the monster lord.
"Oh uh hey" Lancer said.
"Hey" Alice said surprised.
"So I have a favor to ask of you."
"Go ahead"
"Can you train me?" Lancer said nervous.
"Yes" Alice said simply
"Oh okay... Wait what?!" Lancer asked bewildered
"What?!" Luka said also surprised
"Really?!" They both said
"Yes, now let's go to the castles training field." Alice commanded
When they got to the field Luka went to the side off of the main area. "Alright when are we gonna start?"
"Now" Alice said quickly. Lancer heard it and rolled to the side expecting an attack and was glad he did because where he just stood was where a scaly tail was. He ducked under another tail attack and pulled out his sword and threw his shield to Luka ended up with a shield hitting him in the face.
"Oww" Luka said. As Lancer pulled out Daemon Purifier he rolled to the side to dodge yet another attack. "You're slow" Alice said. Lancer ran towards her jumped on her tail that flew at him jumped again and brought his sword down, and hit nothing. He looked over and noticed that she had instantly moved from his position causing him to miss.
"Come on is that all you've got?"
"Nope not even close" Lancer replied causing Alice to frown, she then launched her tail again. This time Lancer was ready he sidestepped grabbed her tail and pulled as hard as he could then let go successfully picking her up and launching her. As she flew he ran towards her pulled out his dagger and slid underneath her and jammed it into her back and cut. It was a dangerous move, but he wasn't worried after all she was the monster lord. She screamed in pain just to be fully healed she landed spun and swung her tail. Lancer put up his arms allowing the steel bracers to take the brunt of the impact. When the tail hit him however it sent him flying thirty feet or so horizontally. He landed backwards and rolled several times till he hit a wall knocking the breath out of him. He sat for a few seconds and laughed painfully.
"Ow that hurt a bit." He muttered, in pain. He looked up to see her slithering towards him he slowly grabbed his dagger as to not gain attention. Got up ran towards her with a limp rolled sideways and threw his dagger. She teleported right behind him as he watched his dagger thump into a wall. He turned around with his sword out but was nailed straight in the chest and disarmed him.
"Alright we're done here." she said.
"Is that all a monster lords got?" he said smugly which caused Alice to look over at Luka in alarm and back at him questioningly.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"The vision told me" he responded
"Well either way you're not even close to your full potential. You have darkness inside of you, use it."
"What?" Lancer asked right before he was knocked out by a solid hit to the face.
He woke up in bed next to Lukas and Alice, "They're talking" Lancer thought eavesdropping.
"You weren't trying that hard right" Luka said.
"Of course not! Don't be ridiculous, though he is extremely strong, for being a human."
"Who do you think was giving him the visions?" asked Luka
"I don't know" Alice replied. Lancer decided he had heard enough and rose from his bed. "You're up good; it's time to make you stronger."
"You knocked me out!" Lancer exclaimed.
"Oh… uh you weren't supposed to remember that." She muttered in response.
"Whatever let's go." Lancer grumbled.
"Alright we're here"
"The training field I thought we were done here."
"Do you want to get stronger?" Alice asked annoyed
"Yes"
"Good"
"Alright so you want to focus your energy into your index finger and then not only imagine where you want the energy to go but feel where you want it to go." Alice explained
"?, What?" Lancer asked
"Just do what I say" Alice grumbled.
"Okay fine whatever." So he focused his energy into his index finger and imagined where he wanted the "energy" to go. While focusing he felt like an idiot because he didn't even know what he was trying to achieve.
"There you did it!"
"Did what?" Lancer asked.
"You launched black stygian lightning or black lightning."
"I did what now?"
"Basically you shot lightning out of your finger" Luka explained.
"Uh huh, okay, that's cool I guess" Lancer stated.
"Now all you need to do is keep practicing and eventually you can imbue your blade in it, which would give your blade unknown side effects."
"Unknown side effects, great." Lancer said sarcastically.
"Alright keep practicing we'll be back tomorrow."
"Where are you going?"
"None of your business that's where"
"Ok well then bye." At that Luka and Alice left. For the rest of the day Lancer kept practicing until he could keep a stable beam of "Stygian Lightning". As he used the beam he aimed and concentrated further until he launched a blast inside of the beam causing an explosion of dark lightning. "Wow, that's cool he said to no one in particular. As the sun went down the two returned Alice looking happier than usual and Luka a little tired.
"Hey guys" Lancer said
"How'd your practice go?" Alice asked
"I stayed up all night training so I'm a little tired, but I can shoot a steady beam and charge more powerful blasts." Lancer stated.
"Well go get some rest and we'll go and test out your newfound power."
"Alright" Lancer agreed
The next morning Lancer woke up headache free and well rested. He got off of the mat on the ground put on his steel bracers, grabbed his gauntlets, his steel toed boots, and his sword Daemon Purifier. On his way out he woke up Allison who had came back while he was training.
"Hey I'll be back" he said quietly
"Where were you yesterday?"
"I was out training, I'm 'bout to go again, so see you."
"Wait I'm coming"
"Okay" Lancer agreed. After Allison had put clothes on they left.
"Where are we going?" Allison asked
"The training field" He answered simply. When they reached their destination Lancer told Allison to stay back as his energy was volatile.
"Where are they?" Lancer wondered. Right as he asked he was struck in the side sending him rolling. He recovered his balance and stood up, while pulling out his sword. "Bring it on" he stated he dropped his shield and corrected his stance, this time he was ready. He started meditating and listening closely while charging up an energy blast. As he was listening he heard a slight movement recognizing as slithering. He turned and in a split second threw out his palm and released a blast. It missed her barely sending dark energy arcing around the wall where it hit. He ran and dodged a fireball. "That's new" he muttered. He started charging up another attack when he remembered what Alice had said imbuing the energy into your blade will cause unknown side effects. He didn't know if it would be good or bad, but at that point he didn't care. While charging he dodged blocked a tail swing with his arm. He stopped and very carefully moved his hand along the blade putting the volatile energy on to his sword. After the feat was completed. He ran up to her, but while he was running he felt completely energized and realized that he felt stronger and faster. "Is this because of the energy?" he said as he looked at his blade. When he looked at his blade he noticed the energy was going back into his hand, and realized that the energy was giving him strength. He looked back up and realized that Alice was right in front of him, so he did a hand stand while running and flipped over her and brought down his blade right into her back. As he brought it down a beam of energy came out and exploded right onto her back launching Alice forwards and Lancer backwards. As Lancer landed he tumbled losing his footing and falling over. When he finally got up Luka jumped in and brought his sword down. Lancer rolled to the left and blocked another swing with the back of his sword, and rolled to the left. Stood up and faced him, only then did he get a good look at his sword. It looked more like a sword shaped club as it was covered in blunt designs, making it useless for cutting.
"Interesting sword" Lancer said. As Lancer spoke Luka swung again. This time Lancer was ready and grabbed the sword, pulled and threw it to the side. "You'll have to be faster than that" Lancer said with a smirk. At that Luka focused and called upon a spirit. It was Sylph. As soon as Lancer saw Luka summoning he started meditating to increase his speed. As he was meditating he thought about how to increase his strength and speed for an extended period of time. Then it hit him, " that's it a re-circulation" When he finished meditating he moved the energy to his other hand and split it. It was a dangerous move, but if it payed off then it would be worth it.
When he finished he felt a surge of energy giving him a boost. "This should even the battle field" he said. "Let's go". At that he ran up at incredible speeds. Luka finished summoning just in time to block, but the power behind the attack pushed him backwards. Lancer noticing this stuck his leg out to trip Luka, but Luka instead used the force of the attack to launch himself over Lancer. Lancer rolled to the side and swung his blade which Luka parried and hit Lancer in the head sending him
spiraling. Lancer rolled as he landed and instantaneously threw his dagger almost so fast that Luka couldn't see. Luka sidestepped; yet still ending up with a cut along his side. After Luka was hit Lancer ran towards him. Luka seeing this swung his sword in an arc. Lancer foresaw this and stepped to the side smiling. While side stepping he crouched flipped his sword to the blunt side and spun while swinging his sword at amazing speeds, tripping Luka. After being tripped he rolled over just to see Lancer pointing his sword at him.
"It's over" Lancer said
"O-ok" Luka said startled. While Lancer was battling Luka, all they saw were blurs. From their view Lancer ran forewords and somehow disarmed and struck Luka at amazing speeds at which their eyes couldn't keep up with.
"What just happened?" Allison asked
"I have no idea" Alice responded utterly amazed
"I didn't know a human could move that fast" she said in confusion at what had happened
"What did you do?" Alice asked
"I noticed while fighting with you that if I reabsorbed the energy it made me faster and stronger so I set up a re-circulation to continuously keep me that way." Lancer explained
"Huh okay" Alice responded not really understanding.
"Cool right?" asked Lancer
"Yeah, sure" Alice said still confused
"Oh, how is that wound?" Lancer asked
"Oh it's nothing it takes way more than that to hurt me"
"Were you even trying?" Lancer asked
"Nope, not even a little." Alice stated in a matter of factly
"Well then" Lancer said grumbling
"Alright I'm going to keep meditating to hopefully maintain the state better, and find new tricks." Lancer said
"Okay well we're leaving now" Luka said with a slight hint of sourness
"Okay, bye we'll see each other again soon I'm sure" Lancer said
"Okay bye, shall we go now" Luka asked
"Yes, and you're right we will meet again soon, very soon."
"Okay?" Lancer said a little creeped out. At that they left.
After they had left Lancer continued to meditate and put the energy onto his blade while trying to maintain his powered up state longer. While training he put more and more energy into his blade to keep a steady flow of energy. After a few hours he noticed that his blade was starting to absorb the energy. "Well this is new." he thought, "I wonder how the blade will react?" he muttered. After another few minutes or so he stood up and swung his blade, it caused a beam to come out. It looked no different than the other ones he's launched, but after he swung it he noticed that there was still some energy left in the blade. So naturally he swung it again, and yet again another beam came out. "Figured it'd do that" he muttered. "So my blade can store energy, well that's a bonus." Lancer thought. For the rest of the day he continuously put more and more energy into Daemon Purifier until he was exhausted. After he was done he left for the inn in which he was staying at. When he reached it however Allison was not there.
"Where does she possibly go" he said out loud.
"Who?" a cheery voice asked. Lancer turned around very quickly with his hand on his blade. He looked over and saw a small kitsune, a kitsune is a small fox-like monster and its power is typically gauged by how many tails it has. This one had nine tails making it one of the strongest, if not the strongest.
"Who are you?" Lancer said a little nervous
"I am Tamamo" the kitsune said
"Well then Tamamo what are you doing in my room?"
"You left the window open." She simply stated
"Well if you would kindly leave, that would be great"
"Naw, I want to talk to you first." Tamamo said
"What do you need then?" Lancer said calming down slightly
"Well I heard that you almost defeated one of the heavenly knights and that you were just training under the monster lord, so I came to ask if you wanted to join our side against the rebels."
"Uh, who are you again?"
"I'm Tamamo, one of the heavenly knights"
"At this Lancer sighed I've met all but one now, great."
"Will you join or not?"
"No." Lancer said definitively
"Why not?"
"Because I'm on my own side, and it's the monster lords job to straighten out her subordinates." "Besides she let it happen not me." He simply stated
"Please reconsider, we could use someone like you," she said
"Get out, now" Lancer commanded. Then the kitsune left
"Too many damn heavenly knights giving me problems." He grumbled then went to his mattress to sleep. As he sat down he wondered for the second time where Allison left too.
"Whatever she'll show up again, she always does." He convinced himself.
"See you're getting stronger just like I told you"
"Who are you, and why are you sending me visions?"
"Who I am does not matter though you will most likely find out on your own."
"Fine oh mysterious person, but you didn't answer my question why are you sending me visions?"
"I have my reasons, now awaken and get stronger."
When morning came he stood up and noticed that Allison had either came back and left or had never came back. "Where is she?" he muttered while gathering his items and gear, then left to go search for her. He figured that he might as well spend some of the gold he obtained from the escort job he did, so he visited the blacksmiths' forgery.
"Hey can you make me some Cryonium bracers, and a Cryonium cross breastplate?"
"Sure, it's going to cost a bit considering the type of metal you want."
"Okay, no problem."
"How much are we looking at?"
"I need a neck bracer, some arm bracers, shin guards, and toed boots. "Oh and some plated gauntlets only on the top though."
"Well okay tall order that's probably going to cost around twenty five gold, do you have that much?
"Well I have twenty seven, how much would you buy my current armor for?"
"Well it's a little beaten up, but it's steel so… wait shield included?"
"Uh… yeah sure it's useless now."
"Okay so I'll buy your armor for fifteen and eight for the shield."
"Okay how long 'till the armors ready?"
"It'll be awhile, but probably ten to twelve hours."
"Wow that'll be fast"
"I'll have my apprentices on it too."
"Okay I'll be back" with that Lancer left for the training field. When he arrived he was surprised to see Allison there.
"So that's where you've been this entire time!" Lancer exclaimed
"Where were you last night?"
"I went on a walk."
"Okay well don't let me bother you, and your training." Lancer stated
"Okay" Allison replied. Lancer watched her charge up balls of fire and launch them at a wall. Then out came a soldier.
"Oi wot are you two doin out 'ere?"
"We're training" Lancer replied
"Well ya shouldn't be out 'ere" "This is the soldiers trainin ground, it ain't for common rabble."
"Well you'll be happy to know that we aren't "common rabble" Lancer replied smugly
"Well ya ain't soldiers that's for sure"
"Well we were hear with the boy and the lamia if it makes a difference"
"It doesn't" "How 'bout this, if you defeat me then ya can train 'ere" the soldier said roughly
"Shouldn't be a problem" Lancer said, as he had already charged up
"You won't stand a chance, even if I wasn't charged." Lancer said
" I don't know wot ya mean by "charged" "No matter we'll see 'bout that"
"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you." At that Lancer ran forwards so fast that the soldier had no time to react, and in a split second the soldier was on his back with a sword pointed at his neck.
"Blimey"
"Told you"
"Alright, alright you can stay 'ere and train" the soldier said reluctantly
"Thank you" Lancer said sarcastically, and with that the guard left. Lancer sighed and went back to meditating. As he was meditating he lost track of time and started thinking of new ways to have a stronger charge, then it hit him all he needs to do it store more energy in his sword until he runs out then keep doing it so that way he could regain all of the energy at once giving him more than usual. So that's exactly what he did. He was put back into reality when Allison shook him and told him that it was getting dark.
"Alright, you can go ahead and go to the inn to sleep. "I'm going to check up on my armor." Lancer said.
"Okay." Allison responded. When she left Lancer stood up at walked to the smithy.
"Hey how's it going?"
"We're almost done, it'll be done tomorrow."
"Okay" with that Lancer jogged to the inn went into his room and collapsed on his mat. Then he looked over and saw Allison's bed.
"Lucky" he grumbled, then fell into a deep sleep dreaming of darkness and a light though somehow the light had a slight aura of evil to it. Right when Lancer started coming to a realization he woke up.
"Bad dream?" a voice said. Lancer looked over to where the voice came from. It was the kitsune from earlier.
"What do you want?" he asked
"I came to ask you to reconsider your previous decision."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because we will personally train you and make you stronger, isn't that what you want?"
"Yes, but it's still not my problem and unless it becomes personal then I won't join, so sorry tough luck" Lancer said getting irritated.
"Okay, okay if you do reconsider then just dream about one of us, it shouldn't be hard to do. Tamamo said right before she teleported away.
"Dumb-ass" Lancer muttered angrily. With that he got up to check on his armor, over at the smithy.
"Allison's probably training again" he thought as he left. On the way out he grabbed his bracers, shield, and of course his sword, he would never forget that. When he arrived at the smithy the owner was already waiting for him.
"The armors over there on the rack" he said.
"Alright thanks" "Here's my old armor and shield and here's the gold"
"Alright here's your money from the armor"
"Thanks"
"That brought me back to twenty five gold, I only lost two" he thought while leaving to go and put on his bracers, gauntlets, and boots. After he was finished putting on his new gear he left for the training grounds to find Allison. When he found her she was talking to Luka and Alice.
"What are you two doing here?" He called
"Oh we just figured we'd come back and tell you of an attack on Sabasa."
"Okay, why do you need to tell me this?"
"Because there is an army of monsters attacking them and since you're strong I figured you could go and help."
"I'm weeks away from Sabasa, I wouldn't get there in time anyways" Lancer said walking closer to them.
"That's true, but there is one thing I want to show you, come here." Alice said
Lancer walked up to her "what?"
"You can teleport" Alice said like it was nothing special
"I can teleport?"
"Yep"
"How?"
"I'll show you" "concentrate your energy and picture where you want to go, when that's done feel yourself go there" "Try something easy like by that wall" she said while pointing at a wall around one-hundred feet away.
"Okay, I'll try" he said unsure. After concentrating for a few minutes he disappeared and reappeared "on" the wall.
"Uh this supposed to happen, wasn't i supposed to be by the wall!?"
"YEAH it's normal!" she yelled over to him. Then she turned around to face Luka and said "no, no it's not"
"Now do the same except over here!" she yelled while Lancer disappeared
"Already done." He said
"Wow that was fast" "Alright keep practicing and then go to Sabasa they need your help." Alice commanded
"Okay, fine" "Oh and your heavenly knights are starting to piss me off" he said
"Sorry, you should listen to them though."
"I think I'm good" Lancer responded
"Okay" "Bye"
"Wait you're leaving, again?"
"Yes" and with that they left. For three days Lancer continuously trained his teleportation and his charging, until finally he felt he was strong enough to go to Sabasa. Before he left though he packed up his stuff and ended his stay at the inn. On his way out he found Allison
"Hey want to come?" he asked Allison
"Sure" she said
"Alright let's go he said while grabbing Allison
As he teleported he thought Sabasa and ended up there. Though he landed in the throne room.
"Uh oops" he thought.
He let go of Allison and turned around to see a vampire holding a man in armor just to drop him, leaving him unconscious.
"Go" he told Allison
The vampire turned around and looked at Lancer.
"Who are you?"
"Funny, I was going I was going to ask you the same thing" he said while meditating.
"No matter you will die anyways"
"I have had many people tell me that recently"
"Well you won't survive against a vampire queen" the vampire said while charging. Lancer finished meditating. Rolled behind the queen and slashed at insane speeds. She spun and back handed him with the same speed. He stood back up and ran forwards, jumped and slashed just as she put her cape in front. Lancer realized the action and curved in midair so the hit wouldn't land causing him to face plant and roll.
"You couldn't hope to defeat me" the vampire queen said as Lancer got up. Lancer heard her and instead of responding he just charged at her. She side stepped, so Lancer crouched on one knee spun and slice horizontally hitting both of her legs. She screamed in pain and anger. Just as Lancer stood to finish her off a portal appeared and a dragon he recognized as Granberia came out.
"We meet again" she said
"Yes we do" Lancer responded turning bringing his sword down to finish off the queen, but right before the strike landed he gained a fire ball straight to his back sending him flying. He landed painfully. He stood backup to face his attacker then realized it was Granberia.
"Oww" he said
"I thought that'd finish you off" she responded
"It'll take more than that he said while charging at her"
She thrust-ed her blade forwards while Lancer rolled to the side. He could feel his energy supplement leaving as he finished rolling he turned and made a diagonal slice at her back. It struck, but did nothing as it cut through the armor, but glanced off the scales. She turned and blew fire at him he dodged and countered with a swing. She sidestepped noticing that Lancer was getting slower, and punched him in the chest pushing him down. She picked him up and threw him at a wall. He hit the wall but landed with a thud, rolled and countered. His attack struck again cutting through the scales and digging into the flesh. As he swung a second time she side stepped turned and stuck her sword under her arm, all at insane speeds. It went straight through Lancers cross breastplate and out the other side sticking through his back. She lifted her sword digging farther in then she pulled out her sword and kicked causing Lancer to fall over heavily. He hit the ground and tumbled looking over at the people knocked out wondering who they were. Granberia turned, said something brought her sword down and finished off the vampire queen. When she turned around though Lancer was gone.
As Lancer teleported, his mind wandered to a city which he vaguely remembered it seemed like Grangold. He woke up in a strange room with people all around him scrambling to keep him alive, then he fainted again.
