For five years, Lina caused a lot of trouble on the desert of Misrule. When she announced to the poor folks that she will leave this place to join in a war, everyone sighed with relief. Then it changed to gasps of dismay when Lina added that if she became very powerful, she will come back and this town will be having fun again.
Lina traveled east since most of the wars happened there. When she arrived, she quickly volunteered to fight. On the battlefield or jungle, Lina used all she had experimented with her fire and burned her enemies.
She made quite an impression that someone took notice of her special abilities. One day, that someone approached Lina.
"Who are you old man and what do you want?" Lina asked when an old man approached him.
Atop his white horse, the white-clad, old man introduced himself. "I am Ezalor. I am known as the Keeper of the Light. I am on a quest to find potential Heroes to fight for, er, what was that again? Ah yes. To fight against an army of Undead. I have heard of your reputation and seeing you in action, I told myself that I have to recruit you."
An interested Lina raised a brow. "Fight the Undead? Ooh. Sounds fun. You know what, old man? You have yourself a new recruit."
"You accept? How delightful! Then we travel now to the base."
After a week of travel, Lina was introduced to the other special individuals.
"Lina the Slayer, this is Io, the Guardian Wisp." introduced Ezalor.
Io made a sound.
"Eh? You have to leave now? Why?" another sound coming out from Io. "Ah. I understand. Be careful, old friend."
"I see Sir Davion. Come, we shall meet him." said Ezalor after Io vanished.
"You came from Misrule? I've been there. It truly was a scorching desert." said Davion as they were introduced.
So this is the Dragon Knight. Lina pretended she never heard about him and they talked about the fire-breathing desert wyrms.
"Ah, here come the others. They just came from the battlefront." said Ezalor when he spotted two armored men separate from the ordinary soldiers. "How is the battle, Omniknight?"
"Good. We managed to push back the undead. For now. Soon, they will return." replied the Omniknight. "Who is the woman with you, Keeper? A new recruit?"
Ezalor introduced the two first. "Lina, I want you to meet Purist Thunderwrath, the Omniknight. Omniknight, meet the new recruit, Lina the Slayer."
"An honor to meet you, milady." said Purist as he held her hand and look like he kissed it. "Ease my curiosity. Why are you called the Slayer?"
"Let's just say I… enjoy scorching my enemies." replied the sassy Lina as the hand that Purist once held combust with fire.
"Impressive." commented the other knight riding a strange-looking beast. "I am Chen, Holy Knight."
"Lina the Slayer."
"Ah, and here comes another." called out Ezalor when he looked at the person coming behind Lina.
Lina turned to meet the other stranger and blinked. The man wore blue-plated armor and his left hand is encased with a gauntlet. She recognized three things about this man: three years ago, she saw the helm on a poster; the big sword when it was shown to her; and her body that seem to know the stranger standing in front of her.
Ezalor introduced the two. "Lina the Slayer, I want you to meet Sven, the Rogue Knight."
Sven bowed. "A pleasure meeting you, Lina the Slayer."
Lina smirked. "Same here, Sven the Rogue Knight."
No one is aware that these two were pretending to have just met and never cared about each other.
After dinner, Lina decided to go to the balcony to catch some fresh air. When she looked down, she could see the barracks and training area. She also saw one of the soldiers make fun of a fellow and both had a merry chase.
"Ah, Lina. Fancy meeting you here." said a helm-wearing Sven and joined her as he kept his distance. "What were you doing?" he asked when he looked at her.
Lina knew he was keeping up the pretense that they were just having a normal conversation. "Just watching those two make a fool of themselves." Lina said as she pointed at where the two soldiers are running.
"Ah." seeing no one is around but still keeping up the pretense, Sven asked. "What made you leave Misrule?"
"Got bored. I just can't stay on that prissy town forever." Lina smirked."You should have seen their faces when I said I'll be back to make the town lively again."
"I can imagine it." even though Lina could not see Sven's expression, she knows he is somewhat happy by the tone of his voice.
"So, Sven? How did you end up joining here? You already know mine because the old gizzard told you."
Sven chuckled. "Ah, Lina. You're still the same. Though I disagree of you calling the Keeper an old gizzard. It was he who recruited me in the first place. He found me fighting against a small group of Vigil knights. After knocking them unconscious, the Keeper came and recruited me. It is a good opportunity to keep myself hidden from the Vigil knights."
"How long have you been fighting for this cause?"
"Almost three years now. And I've become stronger as the fighting continues."
Three years since we met. "Ah, I see."
"Hm. It seems we are called for a meeting." said Sven as he noticed Azwraith gesture them to come. "We will be there shortly." he called out. When Azwraith left, Sven turned to Lina again. "It is nice to meet you again, sweet Lina." he whispered.
"Same here." Lina whispered back as she gave him a smile.
Together, they went to the meeting as they continued their pretense. Why they continue to do so will be only known to these mutual understanding persons.
