Disclaimer: I'm getting sick of saying this every time. I still don't own the slayers.
An assassin?
Someone's out to get me
Eruk was now fully healed, and they walked on towards Seyruun. The next few days passed without any trouble. Most of the time, they were talking about magic. Eruk did show promise, he could already cast a spell that resembled the flare arrow with more power that Sylphiel, but he had some big trouble to control the energy once the arrow was let loose. The magic was strong when cast, but lost its power much to fast. In fact, even before it had been flying for a second, it was even weaker than when Sylphiel used her infamous *flare carrot*. She was secretly amazed, she had never seen anyone learn magic that fast. But on the other side, she had never seen anyone with that poor control. There was something bothering her too. The spell he thought was the flare arrow, was way to powerful to be a normal spell. But with her limited knowledge on attack spells, she wasn't able to identify it.
They came to another forest. They decided to camp on the outskirts. It could be pretty dangerous in the forest at night. There could be berserkers and trolls or even worse things lurking. They were about to have dinner when a man stepped out from the shadows. " YOU!" he shouted, sounding clearly insane, "I HAVE COME TO CLAIM THE REWARD ON YOUR HEAD!!!" Both of the travelers looked at each other to find out who the man meant.
They got their answer shortly after. He charged at Eruk, the dagger in his right hand flashed in the sundown. Eruk stood up, ready to defend himself. The man didn't look like a good fighter, but his insanity made him difficult to approach. Sylphiel was sitting at the fire, looking wide-eyed at the two men fighting. She knew there was nothing she could do to help her friend, her black magic wasn't of any use, and her healing magic couldn't make a difference, she could only watch, and hope for the best.
Eruk was having some trouble, but he felt more and more certain of his own abilities. He made quick attacks, wounding his opponent a little every time. This only worked as fuel to the mans madness. Eruk could feel how the man got stronger and stronger. Madness was a powerful weapon. Eruk knew he had to do something, to get the advantage. He got his chance a few seconds later. The man made a kick. Eruk was fast to block with his left hand, and pierced his opponents knee with his right hand. The man fell to the ground, almost unable to move. "Damn you, I wont let this reward slip out of my hands" His eyes were clouded with madness "IN THE NAME OF THE DARK COUNSIL, I WILL KILL YOU!!" He got up with an inhuman effort, and leaped at Eruk again.
Eruk stepped back "How can this guy keep getting up? Perhaps I should try to use magic. Sylphiel told me that I always were shielded from my own spells, perhaps I could…" He started preparing his flare arrow, but instead of focussing on his opponent, he placed the focus on his wristblades. The blades erupted in flames. He made a vicious slash at the insane man. Even though he made a blockade with his dagger, the wristblades cut right through it. Eruk could fell how his blades hit flesh, and he could see his opponent erupt in flames. He was dead on the spot. Sylphiel was shocked, and Eruk was just as shocked as she was. He had never imagined that his little idea would prove to be a move, that could do this.
They were silent for a moment, then they decided to gather their stuff and get out of there.
"I never imagine that I were capable of doing anything as powerful, and terrible, like that" Eruk was still shocked, but Sylphiel seemed amazingly calm. "how can she be so calm?" Eruk thought. Sylphiel was one of the most peaceful people he knew. He would have imagined she would be sitting on the ground, crying in shock. She noticed how he was staring at her "you wonder how I deal with what happened back there?" Sometimes he was very easy to read. Without waiting for an answer she started explaining "It's true that I don't like violence, but if you want to survive you have to defend yourself sometimes. At least he died quickly. Besides I have seen miss Lina deal with bandit gangs before. There you can talk about senseless violence".
Eruk started to understand how she felt. He had been acting in self defense. He started to feel a little better, but even so, he was convinced that he wouldn't be eating anything fried the next few days.
As they continued on, Eruk couldn't stop thinking on something the assassin had said. The dark council? Who were they, and where? Apparently they knew more about him, than he did himself. Sylphiel told him that she had never heard anything of this dark council. "I only hope that we can get some information when we get to Seyruun", Sylphiel said.
That night at camp, Sylphiel continued her magic lessons, this time she tried to teach him levitation and a few small healing spells. Eruk was pretty quick to master the basic healing magic. He had the same problems with levitation as he had with flare arrow. As soon as he left the ground the spell failed. Just as he was about to give up learning the spell, he thought of using it in the same way he used fire magic, by concentrating on small bursts of energy. It worked, he couldn't fly, but he was able to use it as a boost jump, and then use it again to break, just before he hit the ground. He didn't learn more magic that night, he simply fell asleep.
He was dreaming. He couldn't see anything, but he felt he was moving at great speed. Suddenly a powerful light blinded him. He came to a sudden hold. This emotion was so powerful that it woke him up. He must have be shouting, Sylphiel was awake too. "What's the matter Eruk dear?" she asked sleepily. " Eruk…. Dear? She haven't called me that before" She too, realized what she had said. She didn't mean it like that, she was only sleepy, not thinking straight. She did like him, but not like that, or did she? her mind was racing. " Don't worry about it Sylphiel, it was just a dream". She was confused. A dream? She didn't understand what he was talking about. Then she remembered, he had been shouting, that was the reason he woke up. Maybe he didn't even noticed what she said. "Don't scare me like that, ok?" she was laughing a bit. He assured her that he wouldn't do that again on purpose. "Well, it's still pretty early, we should get a bit more sleep". He turned over. She did the same thing, even though her mind was still going around in circles, about her words earlier.
Autors notes:
This chapter turned out a little short. Eruk seems to become rather powerful, doesn't he? Just what secrets are hidden in his past? You have to read on to find out.
Oh, and another slayer makes an appearance in the next chapter.
