Heya guys, I hope you can review my work, I would appreciate even a simple 'Nice story'. It feels kind of lonely...
Chapter 5
Luka, what the fuck was that?
Gold Volcano, one of the eight danger zones located south of the Gold Region, in Sentora. It is famous and infamous among monsters and humans.
For humans, it is a deadzone where no human life can survive, both because of its immense natural heat that has turned the surrounding volcanic region into an hazardous zone, and because of the many powerful monsters populating the ins and outs of the volcano.
For monsters, it is the greatest spa in the world for the monsters who have affinity to the element of fire. The magma in the volcano is rich in minerals and natural energy for them to bathe in and enjoy. But that's not everything.
In the Gold Volcano, there is one particular entity that lives and thrives on these hot flames for more than a thousand of years: Salamander, the living incarnation of fire.
A prideful and wild spirit known for her great martial arts, that commands the element of fire on her fingertips. She's the main reason why Gold Volcano has become so famous among monsters. Many monsters come to her with the desire of being made into her apprentice, and just as many left with disappointed and defeated expressions once she refused their request.
However, this may be considered the first time ever she felt this repulsed by a 'guest'.
With a tall and muscular body filled with battle scars, with black long hair and a face that shows unprecedented wisdom, the man that was currently staring at her with his sharp black eyes could be seen as an example of how a real expert of fighting should look like. And there was nothing wrong with that, at least up to this point.
But his soul… That was a completely different story.
As an elemental spirit, Salamander could consider herself as someone with a good ability to judge a person's character. Just by looking at a person's eyes, she could see who is worthy of her aid and those who still have room to grow.
Yet, the man in front of her expelled negativity to levels she had never ever seen before. His gaze spoke of the complete absence of empathy, his eyes only reflected arrogance, overbearingness, and suppression. Such a person cannot possibly be human or monster.
The worst part of it was that some unknown force restricted her movements, like an ocean that crushed her body from every imaginable position. Every square inch of her skin was completely suppressed, while the man's eyes pierced through her flames, as if he was looking at her deepest secrets.
This had been going on for a few months, and ever since he first appeared, he didn't move at all, as if he was just a statue. He didn't eat, he didn't drink, he didn't excrete anything… If it wasn't for the fact that he was still breathing, she would have thought that he died standing on his feet.
She was a spirit who lived for a thousand of years, so she didn't need any kind of nutrition to keep herself alive, and also, this timespan could be considered as a short nap. But this oppressive pressure forced her to live every passing second under such a repulsive sensation.
There were a few monsters who tried to rescue her upon seeing her condition, but as soon as they took a step in their direction, they were suddenly overwhelmed with great fear that made them scramble on their feet and never show up ever again in this volcanic chamber.
Salamander didn't know for how long this torture had been going, but all of a sudden, a woman came out of nowhere, stepping in the central platform of the volcanic chamber.
The spirit couldn't even turn her sight on the new guest to see who they were, the only reason why she knew that it was a woman was her voice.
"Hi!" The woman cheerfully said. "How's it going, Algor? I hope I didn't disturb you."
When the woman finished talking, Salamander collapsed on her feet as she felt the restrictive force keeping her still disappear. To stop her fall, she instinctively lifted her arms and caught herself in a kneeling position, with her arms down on the ground and her knees supporting her.
Salamander wished to finally enjoy the freedom she had been granted, but there were more concerning problems to face, mainly the man who started all of this. She lifted her face as she threw wrathful glares at the black-haired man who looked at the woman that greeted him.
"I'll kill you!" Salamander's flames exploded with immense heat as she kicked the ground and threw herself at the man, extending her hands in the shape of claws. For a moment, she paused midway when she felt a powerful pressure crashing on her.
This pressure was vastly different from the previous one that restricted her movements, she could feel brutality, cold fury, destruction, and the promise of certain death washing over her. She understood why the monsters who tried to help her before all left, and at this point, she didn't even blame them. Any person with a weak heart would receive a heart attack immediately.
But the restrictive pressure wasn't the only thing that changed. Now that the raging fire of her fighting spirit was lit up like never before, she can fight against this pressure and easily shake it off in less than a second. Once she had done that, she resumed her charge at the man with the sole intention to eviscerate him for what he had done to her.
Unfortunately, the new guest interrupted her. The last thing Salamander had seen was a feminine face with blue mid-length hair and red eyes covering up the man's silhouette before she slammed on an invisible wall, stopping her charge.
She groaned in pain as she took steps back, trying to stabilize herself, and looked at the person who attempted to stop her from killing the man. The woman was dressed in a very bizarre way, wearing a skimpy white furred dress under a white cloak filled with golden zips.
On her head, there were a pair of white bunny ears that looked weirdly fake, and a white top hat laid on the top of her head. There was a sickly smile on the woman's face as she looked back at Salamander, and then she opened her mouth.
"No, no, no! No touching!" She spoke in a teasing tone, but all Salamander felt was unadulterated rage against her and the man behind her.
"Scram if you don't want to die too!" Salamander screeched at the rabbit woman, but even after showing off her blood lust against her, the woman didn't seem to budge by an inch and her face didn't change at all.
"It would be really dangerous if I did that, you know? He's capable of killing you, and you know what happens if you die." The woman replied back at Salamander before she looked at the man behind her, before speaking in a scolding tone. "And you! Couldn't you have been gentler? She's still one of few people who manage this world's nature, so give her a bit of respect. Maybe you could have just asked her instead of using your abilities first."
"I don't care." The man gave her a simple and emotionless reply. "Why did you come here?"
"Oh, right, I almost forgot about that!" The woman sheepishly laughed as she fixed her top hat. "We've got an intruder in the ghost ship, they must be there to take the Purple Orb. I hope you can take care of them as always. Remember the rule, don't kill anybody else except for them."
"Make way, I'm done here." The man, completely ignoring the raging Salamander who was punching the invisible wall as hard as she could with the intention to destroy it, fully turned his attention to the woman.
"Don't you dare to run away! You heard me?!" Salamander screamed with great anger. "I'll fucking kill you, you chicken!"
However, her provocations were ignored as the rabbit woman grasped the edge of her cloak and lifted it up, revealing a pitch-black darkness inside her cloak. Without care of anything, the man crouched his back and slipped inside the woman's cloak, magically disappearing.
Before also leaving, however, the woman looked back at Salamander and told her: "I hope you can forgive him, Algor is not really good at social interaction. Now I have to hurry, I am quite busy."
After saying that, the woman extended her cloak over her head, and just like Algor, she disappeared into nothingness, leaving behind only the raging flames that was Salamander's burning body.
"AAARRGHHH!" Her burning rage, without nowhere to vent, could only explode everywhere indiscriminately. The ground shook, and the magma boiled with more violence before the Gold Volcano erupted, mirroring the inner anger within Salamander's heart.
Meanwhile, in Ilias Continent, the exact opposite of that catastrophic event was happening.
The sky was getting darker as evening approached, and stars appeared one after another. Since it was getting late, the strange group of two Apprentice Heroes and a traveling monster set up a camp at the side of the road.
Fortunately, they didn't encounter any monsters in the way, although that can be attributed to the fact that they were the last people to leave Iliasville. The first people to pass through here are people who rented or owned a horse-drawn wagon, who may have reached Iliasburg already at this point.
Then came up the Apprentice Heroes who had to travel on foot, who should have dealt with the ambushes that monsters may have set up for them. Alexander and Luka spent a few hours preparing and saluting their acquaintances before leaving. So while there was a great difference of distance between their group and everyone else, they didn't have to face anything the previous travelers that walked on their road went through.
Sometimes, being late may be better than being early…
Once they set up the small camp, Luka made dinner for everyone as they ate it with gusto. By the time they finished, Alice relaxed her body on her tail piled up on itself as if it was an armchair and gave a positive comment for the first time she joined the party.
"I admit it, you're very talented at cooking. You should have tried to become a cook rather than a Hero, I'm sure you would find greater success in that field."
Luka blushed a bit at the compliment and replied. "Thank you, I've learned in my work."
"What kind of work was that?" Alice asked while showing an unexpected degree of interest that took both Luka and Alexander by surprise.
"...I just own an inn. I was the only worker there, so I had to manage everything, including cooking." Luka replied as he recovered from his stupor at the Lamia's surprisingly positive behavior.
"What a shame." Alice commented as she shook her head, as if it was truly a tragedy that Luka had chosen the path of fighting rather than cooking. "Well, if you ever give up that childish dream of yours, I'm willing to let you work as my chef for a very good pay."
"...Uh… Sure." Not knowing what to say, Luka simply went along with Alice's words. And before this conversation would escalate any further, he grasped the sheathed sword at his side and stood up from his sitting position, before looking at Alexander.
"Hey Alex, do you mind becoming my sparring partner for this evening? I have to keep myself sharp every day if I have to fight the Monster Lord."
Alexander shrugged as he also stood up, holding his wrapped spear. "Sure. I've got to warn you, though. It's been a few years since I actually used a weapon, so I don't think I can be a good sparring partner."
"It's fine." Luka replied with a smile as they walked a bit further from the campfire, just so that they wouldn't accidentally knock something down.
Alexander held the wrapped Tempest with both hands while Luka lifted his sheathed sword. There wasn't any need to hurt each other, so they kept their respective sheaths on their weapons.
"It's been five years since I started practicing, and now I'll show you my swordsmanship, Alex. Fight!" Luka shouted at Alexander as he charged at Alexander while lifting his sword over his head.
"..." Alexander merely sidestepped, seeing the attack coming from miles away, and let Luka miss his first attack. The next thing he did was shove his spear against Luka and push him on the ground, which caused him to yelp in surprise.
However, after that, Alexander didn't do anything else other than looking down at Luka with a gaze filled with stupor.
"Uh… Luka, I know I'm not much of a fighter, but you don't have to hold back like this." Alexander told the downed boy as he took a few steps back, giving Luka some space to get back up on his feet.
"Ugh…" Luka gave a small groan as he stood up again. "T-That's unfair, Alex." He spoke as if he didn't hear Alexander's words. "I just asked to spar with you, there's no point in it if you dodge."
"..." Neither Alexander or Alice said anything about it, as they stared at the purple-haired boy in silence. However, not noticing the mood in the atmosphere, Luka raised his sword and swinged widely against Alexander, who simply raised his spear in reaction to it.
Much to Alexander's surprise, he couldn't feel a lot of power behind the strike… Like, it was way weaker than he expected, even though Luka was still limited by his small frame in terms of muscular power.
"Hya!" Luka struck again, but this time, Alexander stepped back, letting the attack slip in front of him.
"Burn! Spinning Decapitation!" At this point, Luka started to spin around himself while shouting that phrase, as if he wanted to send the missing swing back at him a second time, but Alexander interrupted by kicking Luka in the ass as soon as he spun behind him, causing the boy to fall down on the ground.
"Oww…" Once again, Luka groaned in pain while Alexander felt a frown shaping up on his face as he stared down at him.
"Luka, what the fuck was that? Are you even trying?"
"O-Of course I am! Rather, didn't you just lie to me?! You said that you haven't fought in a long time, but you are clearly better than me!"
"Oh Founder…" Alice grasped her forehead in exasperation as she stood up from her tail. Meanwhile, Alexander stared at Luka in disappointment.
"You said that you trained for five years! What the fuck were you even doing?!"
"That's my Spinning Decapitation!" Luka shouted with pride in regards to the sloppy movements he pulled off before.
"That thing had a name?!" Alexander looked shocked that Luka would recognize that mediocre dance of his as an actual technique.
Luka spent five years getting his ass beaten by the military while sparring with them, sometimes coming out with just a few scratches while other times he would receive actual bruises. Alexander never went to see the spars with his own eyes since he was busy helping his acquaintances with their works to get some money out of their jobs, but he thought that Luka must have been working hard to become a Hero.
Five years, countless bruises, a third of his money spent on medical aid… Is this what Luka achieved with all of that? How is this remotely possible? The knights at the temple should have noticed that something was wrong!
"Oh my Goddess, you've got to be kidding me." Alexander cursed with disappointment. "Your technique is absolute shit, Luka! I've been watching the fights in the Colosseum in Grand Noah, and the same janitors who wiped clean the floors of the royal castle have better technique than you! How the fuck did you even train in these five years? Falling from the stairs of the temple?!"
"Alex…" Luka could feel the contempt in Alexander's voice, yet he still couldn't understand what he was talking about. Is his technique really that bad? But he worked for so many years to perfect it, he even asked tips from fellow Apprentice Heroes who stopped at his inn…
"Congratulations, you managed to hurt me just by watching you." Alice commented at the side while pinching the spot between her eyebrows, bringing Luka's and Alexander's attention to her.
After exhaling a long sigh, Alice stared right at Luka and told him: "Forget the spar and whatever kind of abomination that 'technique' of yours was, I'm going to put you back in shape."
"Huh?" Luka blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"I'll train you." Alice elaborated while crossing her arms under her chest. "Think of it as a way for me to repay you for that dinner of yours. It would be disappointing to have such a good cook getting eaten because they don't even know the basics of swordsmanship."
'She really likes Luka's food…' Alexander thought while watching the two of them interacting. Alice seemed to like Luka's cooking so much that she may have already replaced the identity of 'Apprentice Hero' with that of 'Cook' in her mind.
"But… learning from a monster seems a bit weird…"
"What was that?" Alice immediately interrupted Luka with a small glare. "Did I hear discrimination? You talk so much about making humans coexist with monsters, and yet you immediately back off as soon as a monster offers to teach you how to be an actual swordsman?"
"S-Sorry…" Luka replied in defeat under her glare, but Alice didn't relent in the slightest. "Damn right you are! Now pull that knife out of its sheath so we can start with practicing swinging!"
Even though Alice sounded quite aggressive, Alexander took notice of the fact that she was faking it out. It could be said that he was very great at judging people and their emotions, so he knew what he was talking about when he saw this act of hers.
Still, he didn't know the reason behind her act. Maybe she wanted to knock into Luka's mind the idea of how bad his 'swordsmanship' was so that he will have an idea of what being a good swordsman is like? Or maybe she wants to give Luka the impression that he shouldn't hold back anything while she's training him?
It could also be for the same reason the drill sergeants are also so aggressive, to make their soldiers get used to focus under high levels of stress. After all, Luka's journey won't be the same as it was today.
Alexander was traveling with wagons guided by other people when he was young, heading towards Iliasville while starting from his home at Grand Noah. Even though he was just a passenger, he had the opportunity to spectate large-scale ambushes from monsters, so he knew what it looks like to be caught by surprise.
Because of this, Alexander understood that, just like him, and certainly to a worse degree considering what he is trying to accomplish out of all of this, Luka will also have to face sudden ambushes from wild monsters during his travels, so it is necessary for him to adapt to a stressful situation as fast as he can.
Alexander walked back to the campfire and sat nearby, using his traveling bag as a backrest. With nothing else to do, Alexander watched Alice training Luka for the next few hours.