Chapter 1: Unexpected Disaster
"Are you sure? I can stay at home and-"
"Oh, I'll be fine."
"B-But…"
I stood by the entrance of my house in my adventurer gear, hesitant to leave for my adventurer work in Lola.
Leather bracers around my wrists and forearms, a light brown leather cuirass over my usual white and blue tunic, and a pair of leather greaves over my dark boots and greenish-brown pants; with a white waist cape around my hips finish the look. My weapons are strapped to the leather belt and holsters over the waist cape.
This armor set is named the [Light Rogue Armor Set] by Kagu, mostly used by those of my physique, although to actually find one in my size is pretty amazing. Cost me several dozen silvers but it is worth the extra protection it provides. Served me well for the past year or so.
As for the reason I'm hesitant, it's due to gramps.
This morning, he had broken into a fever and coughing fits; all symptoms of the seasonal cold that has been breaking out around the region as of late. It's not a deadly disease and one even the most basic of Recovery Medicine can cure.
It still doesn't ease my worries, though. After all, gramps is getting up there in age, and it is only with continuous application of the medicine throughout the next few days can the cold be properly cured.
What if he forgets to take his medication?
What if he passes out from the fever when he is alone?
What if he-
"Oh, just relax, why don't you!?" Gramps coughed out as he shoved me out the door, his flushed face in a frown, "I'll be fine! It's just a cold. I'm not some baby that needs constant supervision."
"I know that. It's just…"
"Quit worrying and go! Your party must have been waiting on you for ages now!"
"Fine… just remember to take your medicine, alright? I'll try to be back before sundown."
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
"It's after every meal, okay–"
"OH, JUST GO ALREADY!"
With a heavy heart, I leave my house and head down the path towards Lola to meet up with my party members.
"I think you are a little too paranoid about that, Liya."
"No, I'm not paranoid about this, Trish."
My adventurer partner sighs as she places her hand on my shoulder, "Relax, it's just a cold. It will blow over within a day or two. Why don't we focus on the job at hand? You needed the money, yes?"
"Hah… guess that's fair."
"We're here."
I stopped when our leader halted us and we all hid behind the bushes and looked out over at our targets.
This is the adventurer party I'm a part of, consisting of five adventurers including me. Most of them are at least about Lv20. I'm at Lv18, the lowest levelled adventurer among us, but that hadn't stopped me from contributing to the team, especially with my healing medicine in place of healing magic.
The other four are as follows:
First is Culann. He's a veteran who was a former soldier of the Melromarc army and is about Lv40, the highest level one can achieve without the Class Up ceremony. He's a tall man with combed back red spiky hair with yellow tips that resembles flames and sharp blue eyes, his youthful appearance greatly contrasts against his actual age of 49, with the only indication of that being the neatly trimmed goatee on his chin.
His adventurer gear is the [Lancer Armor Set], which consists of a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with spaulders tied on the shoulders and chainmail underneath it, a pair of bracers on his arms over his gloved hands with white pants that has greaves over his dark brown boots. His main weapon is a long black spear with a pretty long spearhead the length of a short sword's blade.
He's the leader of our party and our team's main vanguard and attacker. He's quite a friendly person who can be a bit pushy and blunt at times, but he often meant well, most of the time anyways. The only reason I was in their party is that he pretty much pressured me to join them after I had a bad encounter with some monsters when doing a simple harvesting request. Not that I ever regretted Joong them. It was thanks to him that I am where I am today.
Unfortunately, he can also be a really bad drunkard who often spent all of his share of the reward on drinks. Can't count how many times we found him drunk and unconscious at the town tavern. He never manages to get a hangover despite it all.
Second would be Fionne. She's also veteran, but not as experienced as Culann, and is about Lv29. She's a stunning beautiful young woman with long yet messy ember hair which she often hid under a metal helm with a metal visor that covers her scarred face and green eyes.
Her gear is the [Defender Armor Set], consisting of a metal breastplate over a white shirt with a spaulder over her left shoulder, a pair of leather gauntlets over her forearms with a round shield strapped on her left arm, and a pair of blue pants with metal armour over her thighs, knees, and dark brown boots. Her main weapon is a heavy battle axe with a long dagger as her backup one.
She's considered our party's second-in-command and acts as our supporting vanguard. She's a strong young woman who cannot be trifled with but is really polite to almost everyone. She can get pretty loud when annoyed or angry, often at Culann and his drunk antics. Have I mentioned they are partners?
Third is Arjun. He's an older rookie of the trade who was originally a hunter, and is about Lv23. He's a brown-skinned young man who possesses shoulder length grey, almost white hair that is swept to the side and covering the left of matching grey eyes.
His gear is the [Dark Ranger Set], which consist of a leather breastplate over a black sleeveless shirt, a metal bracer over his one of his forearms while the other has a metal gauntlet that only covers his hand with the exception of the ring and pinky finger, and a pair of dark green pants with dark leather boots. His main weapon is a long black bow with his quiver strap on his hip, while a pair of short sabres as his backup weapons are strapped on his back.
He acts as our party's rearguard support with his amazing bow skills; I hardly saw him miss any of his shots, even if they looked to be impossible. He's a quiet man who often kept to himself, never joining in the conversation unless he was called. When he does, his responses are often quick and to the point, sometimes limited to a single summarized sentence.
He also has little to no presence at all. If he isn't making himself known, he would often just slip into the background and no one would even notice. I can't count how many times he just vanished only to pop up seconds later.
And last is Trish, my partner. She's a fellow rookie adventurer like me, and is about Lv20 but her attacks would indicate otherwise. She has long light blue hair that she held up with an ornate silver brooch and matching blue eyes.
Her gear is the [Mage Robes Set], consisting of a dark long-sleeved hooded shrug over an ember high collar sleeveless dress that reaches to her knees with a metal breastplate, a pair of fingerless leather gloves that has a metal plate on the back of the hand, and a pair of thigh high brown boots. She doesn't have a main weapon, but she has a backup one in the form of a short sword.
She's our party main rearguard, and a powerful magic caster. Despite her low level, her spells pack quite a punch and have a wide range. Not sure if it is due to her being a former noble, but she has quite an ego that rubs me off the wrong way when she first joined the party.
Thankfully, that ego has curbed down quite a bit and we made for a formidable duo when we are not adventuring with our other party mates.
These are the guys I had been adventuring with for the past few years. They are good people that I found myself relying on most of the time.
As for where we were heading off right now, let me explain.
To pay the 10 silvers I've owe Kagu for Chain Sword's weapon maintenance, Culann had found a monster request with a large enough reward money that could cover them even when we split them up among us equally. The difficulty of the request was pretty high, but Culann believed that we could do it no problem.
As for what the request dictates…
"So that's a Grim Wolf…"
"It is. The huge pack of Dire Wolves around it is proof enough."
Dire Wolves are one of the many common monsters local to the region, one of the few high levelled ones. They are big wolves about the size of the average human male, with black fur and white spots around their eyes; they are often around Lv20 to 23, high enough for most newbies to avoid but low enough for most rookies to chase after.
They are often seen hunting in packs of six or five. Their pelts are great materials for light leather armor sets like mine, and are often sod after by nobles for its smooth fur. As such, they are popular targets for any adventurers looking for some big payout.
But there are times where there are sightings of several dozen Dire Wolves within a single pack, and it is when one of them evolved into a rare monster and became their boss. That's a Grim Wolf.
A Grim Wolf is a massive beast the size of a single-story house, it possessed dark fur the color of the starless night sky with a white patch of fur the shape of a star on its forehead. It was often seen to be at Lv30, although the one we are looking at right now was Lv35, five levels higher than the usual.
Grim Wolf's pelt is considered a high price luxury material, with nobles constantly wanting to own one and would pay a ludicrous amount of money to get their hands on one. Prices can range from 80 silver coins to 2 gold coins, with requests to hunt down such monsters can go as high as a single gold coin for a single Grim Wolf pelt.
Which is what we are doing right now. Culann had found a request, no doubt made by some noble from the nearby region, that desired the pelt of a Grim Wolf and was willing to pay several dozens of silver to get one. And considering how rare a Grim Wolf is, it was already pretty hard to fulfil.
Thankfully, Arjun managed to find one down in the nearby forest and even tracked it to their pack in this clearing here.
They were busy eating their meal, some poor deers unlucky enough to be chosen as their prey, so we hadn't noticed by them yet.
"So, how are we going to do this?" I asked.
"We'll go with our usual, but leave the Grim Wolf to me and Fionne." Culann stated as he formulated a plan, "Trish, use your magic to clear us a path towards it. After that, you and Liya are on crowd control. Make sure to keep those Dire Wolves off of us."
"Understood."
"Count on us."
"And Arjun, you— huh? Where did he go?"
"I'm right here."
"Hwah!?"
We all stumbled back when Arjun finally made himself known. I could never get used to how little presence he has…
"A-Ahem! Arjun, give us support but don't get too involved with the Dire Wolves. Take to the trees and keep out of sight."
"Got it."
"You really need to work on boosting your presence." Trish told him.
"I'll try." He nodded.
"All righty then." Culann stretches his fingers as a grin forms on his face, "Time to get to work."
On que, Culann dashes out into the pack, with the rest of us not far behind. Trish immediately got to work and cast her multi-target spell.
"I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them! Shoot an arrow of darkness at them!"
"All Fast Dark Arrows!"
Countless dark projectiles materialize around her before being unleashed right at the many Dire Wolves in the pack, killing half a dozen of them. That left a path towards their boss for Culann to rush in with Fionne not far behind.
"Take this!"
Culann dashes towards the Grim Wolf, spear at the ready. The gigantic wolf took notice and charged at him with claws swiping down at him. Fionne rushes in front and parries the attack away with her shield, while Culann circumvents around them before spinning his spear, slicing into the monster's limps and getting a yip of pain from the boss monster.
The Dire Wolves all reacted and charged in to assist their leader. But I'm not going to let that happen.
"Your opponent is me!"
I rush in and swipe the Chain Sword towards one of the Dire Wolves, the chain whip slashing into its neck and killing it, getting the rest's attention. I spun around and swung out the chain again, this time shooting the arrowhead into a wolf's torso and stabbing right through where the heart would be for another instant death.
They all immediately change targets and charge at me with every intention to bite my head off. I dodge the first wolf and the second, before pulling out my short sword and slashing at the third's side.
I lashed out with my chain whip, swiping at the wolves coming at me in all directions. I managed to take out a couple of wolves at once with a good swipe of my whip, stabbing into one of them before wrapping my chains around another, and swinging it into another wolf.
My chain whip has quite a high attack stat, but my personally low level meant I wasn't able to kill most of the wolves without getting a good hit in. Thankfully, Trish helped me out by taking down those wolves I have damaged but didn't manage to kill, taking them out with bolts of fire and darkness. She also manages to push back those that rushed at her with some wind spells, giving me a window to take them out with my chain whip.
Soon enough, the wolves became smart enough to try to shorten the distance between me and them, but wasn't good enough to avoid getting killed by my chain whip slashing into their bodies from all sides. They eventually got close and attempted to flank me by both sides.
"Grawh!"
"Hurah!"
Chains flew as I simultaneously sidestep their coordinated attack and kicked one of the wolves in the head, knocking it away while slashing into the other's side with my chain whip. My counterattack left me temporarily vulnerable to a third wolf that took advantage of my inability to retaliate and leaps at me, jaws wide open to bite down on me.
Thankfully, I wasn't alone in this fight.
"Fast Wind Shot!"
Trish's wind spell slams into the wolf, knocking it away before an arrow from Arjun stabs into its sides and into its heart, killing it instantly. I gave her a thumbs up to thank her for her support before swiping my chain whip at her direction and slashing into an attacking wolf targeting her, cutting deep into its neck.
"Liya, potion!"
"Okay, catch!"
I threw a Magic Power potion I had brewed up to her to recover her MP and continued on with the fight.
This is the combat tactic we have come up with working together. After all, Trish attacks are strong but she needs time to cast them, which leaves her vulnerable; while my whip attacks are fast and sweeping, but I am unable to deal a proper blow to my low level. If they got too close, Trish has her sword while I have my knife, but we try to not let that happen.
I caught glimpses of the battle with the Grim Wolf at the corner of my eyes, seeing how Culann managed to get several good hits at its limps while Fionne blocked and parried most of its attacks away. There were arrows from Arjun that hit part of the large wolf's sides, not enough to outright kill it but enough to slow it down.
Soon enough, we had killed most of the wolves in the pack, and Culann was about to end his fight with the Grim Wolf.
"Trish, I need a boost!"
"On it! I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them!"
The Grim Wolf took the initiative to take out Culann immediately when it saw him changing his grip on his spear to a throwing stance. Fionne rushes in front of him and parries the wolf's jaws away with her shield. At the same time, one of the Dire Wolves dashes at Trish to interrupt her chanting, only for me to quickly intervene and whip my chain towards it and slashes into its sides, killing the monster.
"Fast Wind Shot!"
"It's over!"
Trish's wind spell flew towards Culann's weapon, just as he pulled back his arm and lobbed his spear right at the large wolf's throat. With the added push from the spell, the spear stabs right through, piercing into the monster and shooting out the other side, leaving it to choke on its own blood. Some tense moments later, the monster collapses and falls limp.
At the sight of their leader's death, the other wolves all took off towards the forests to get away. Arjun arrows were able to kill some of them, but a good half a dozen had gotten away. We still managed to kill around a dozen of them before that happened.
"Oh yeah! We did it!" I cheered as Trish exchanged a high-five with me.
"Damn right we did." Culann grins as he said so, "Now, let's get to deskinning these monsters. I can smell the money we can get from these many pelts!"
Our knives got to work as we took great care to deskinning the monsters, taking great care to not damage the pelts any further than we have to. Unfortunately, my whips left several gashes on the wolves so their pelts come out looking rather damaged than normal, but they still look somewhat presentable.
At the rate we were going, we should be finished before sundown. I did a quick check to find I am now at Lv27. All those Dire Wolves and the Grim Wolf gave that much experience…!
"…Hey, did anything strike you as odd with the wolves just now?" Culann asked.
"Hm? Now that you mentioned it…" Fionne noted.
"They didn't notice us charging out of the bush." Arjun pointed out.
I thought about it for a moment before realizing that Argun was right. They only reacted once their pack leader was attacked.
"Hey, that's right!" Trish noted, "They were all looking somewhere else!"
"That is odd." I noted.
"Dire Wolves are known for the incredible danger sense." I stated, "They should have sensed our presence the moment we charged out of the bushes. But instead, they ignored us until Trish's spell hit."
"Almost as if there's a far greater threat than us…" Culann noted, "But no one else is here besides us. And I don't think there were reports of any other Grim Wolves about either. So, what could have spooked them this badly to ignore us literally charging at them?"
That's a pretty good question, if a bit ominous. The Grim Wolf was one of the strongest monsters of this region, excluding the rumoured dragon nesting in the mountains north from here. If they are indeed spooked by something else, what could be strong enough to warrant its attention?
"Judging from where it's looking at, it seems to be facing towards the coast southwest of here." Arjun noted.
"The southwestern coast?" I brought up a mental image of the region's map in my head before I realised in horror. That's where Lurolana Village was located!
"Liya, wait! Where are you going!?"
I ignored Trish's cries and ran off towards the direction of the village.
When I got there, I was treated to a sight that I could only describe as hell on earth.
The sky was dyed red like blood, monsters that should only exist in horror stories walking about killing and ravaging the villagers, the buildings were either torn down or on fire. All paled in comparison to the literal tear in the sky where the monsters seemed to be spewing out from.
There are already several demi-humans dead on the streets, many whose faces I recognised. One of them was the general store lady, who was torn to shreds from the shoulder down.
"This is…"
Everything I saw reminded me of the legend I had read when I was younger. An old legend about the Four Cardinal Heroes and their prophesied battle against the world ending disaster that spew dangerous monsters from another world.
"The Waves of Destruction…!"
I've always thought that was just some dumb myth the Three Heroes Church came up with to glorify the Heroes…! I never would have thought that it was real…!
How far has it spread? Is my house okay? Are the kids okay? Is gramps okay!? Oh god, if it had already spread that far—
"Uwah!"
"Keel!"
I pushed those worrying thoughts out of my head when I heard the screams of the little dog demi-human kid as I immediately jumped into action, roaring at the top of my lungs while running down towards the many armed corpses known as Interdimensional Zombies.
Drawing out Chain Sword, I swung at the monstrosities and let my chain sliced into one of them which was about to cut down on Keel. The skeleton monster lacked flesh for me to cut, as such the arrowhead hit bone and managed to somehow sever the skull clean off its spine.
Good, looks like their level was lower than my current level. I should be able to deal with them no problem.
"L-Liya…?"
"Get to the woods! I'll try and hold them off!"
Killing one of their comrades must have caught their attention, as the other skeleton soldiers all marched towards me. That's good. If I draw their attention away from the villagers, they can escape.
"B-But Liya…! There's too many…!"
"Go!"
I didn't have time to check if Keel and the other villagers heeded my word when the skeleton soldiers charged at me, the ones leading armed with pikes.
I lashed out my whip at them and decapitated their heads, before ducking under an axe swing from another. Leaping at it, I tackled the skeleton to the ground and raised Chain Sword's pommel in preparation to smash its head in.
Before I could, groans behind me alerted me to the skeletons' sneak attack and I hastily rolled out of their swords paths. I immediately countered with my whip slashing and bisecting the their spines, effectively splitting their torsos from their legs. Their lower bodies collapsed into a pile of bones, but their upper bodies were still very much alive and crawling towards me using their arms.
"Okay, so take out its head to kill it for real."
With that discovered and acknowledged, I kicked the skull off one of the skeletons' torso while stomping and shattering another. A scream caught my attention as I turned away from stomping to see a skeleton cornering a villager with a rusty sword a distance away, too far for me to reach her in time.
Thinking fast, I wrapped my chain whip around the handle of the axe dropped by one of the skeletons. With a tug, I pulled it out and used my whip and momentum to throw it. The spinning axe hit its mark and smashed the monster into a pile of bones.
I sighed in relief. Thank goodness I made it in time.
"Get out here!"
"R-Right! Thank you, Liya!"
*CRACKABOOM*
The roar of thunder got my attention immediately, I turning to see what looked to be several streaks of lightning striking outwards from the woods where my house was located.
That's no natural phenomenon. It had to be magic. The only person I know of that uses such an element was Sadeena. Is she over there? Why is she in the woods of all places—
"Liya, look out!"
"Grgk!?"
I wasn't prepared for the surprise attack as the swinging hammer from a larger skeleton struck me hard and was sent crashing into one of the houses, the general store if the countertop my back had slammed was any indication.
I let out a groan as I got back on my feet, an intense pain erupting from my side receiving that attack and if the taste of iron in my mouth was any indication, my ribs may had fractured from it. These damn things could be really sneaky if they want to…!
"Grraahh…!"
As I reach into my pouch to take out a potion to heal myself, the large skeleton charged through the door frame, shattering it into splinters as it swung its hammer at me. I managed to dodge out of its way, and watched the metal weight smashed through the countertop like it was nothing. It swung its weapon again, I managed to duck under it as it destroyed the shelves of potions.
It is too fast for its size…! I have no time to even heal myself…! Guess I have to take him out first…!
I got to a distance and swung my chain at him, slashing into its neck. Instead it decapitating its head, all I got was a loud *ping*; an indication that its defense was higher than my attack, and I did no damage to him.
"Damn it!" So much for that idea!"
Sadeena's ridiculous power would be most appreciated right about now…
My musings was cut short as I ducked out of its hands when it tried to grab me. Finding an opening, I dashed back outside, only to meet a couple dozen skeleton monsters armed with pikes. They are all crowded together and gave no way of evading them.
"Grraghhh!"
The skeleton giant crashed out of the store; the poor house couldn't stand the abuse and collapsed into a pile of rubble. Shit, a giant monster behind me that I had no way of damaging and an army in front. I'm utterly trapped with no way to escape.
Is this how I'm going to die?
"Sorry, gramps…"
Gripping tightly on Chain Sword, I mentally prepared myself for a final stand. If I'm going down, I'm taking as many of these bastards with me as I possibly can!
"All Zweite Shadow Spikes!"
Several dark spikes suddenly shot up from the shadows, impaling all of them through the head and lifting them off the ground. The spike didn't pierce through the large skeleton, who broke through the spikes impaling their empty rib cage and charged on forward towards me with its massive hammer raised.
Just as I was about to retaliate, an arrow shot out of nowhere and pierced through its skull, shattering it on impact; the headless corpse collapsing under the weight of its armor into a pile of bones.
"Liya!"
"Trish? Arjun?"
My partner along with our quiet archer run up to me. I stumbled a little as the pain from my fractured ribs started to flare up, falling into Trish's open arms.
"Why are you…?"
"We got worried and chased after you!" She told me with a scowl as she handed me a healing potion which I downed in an instant, "What were you thinking, facing so many monsters on your own like that!? You got a death wish or something!?"
"I saw Keel about to get slashed by one of them. I had to do something." I explained as I felt my ribs stopped hurting. I can still taste blood, but at least now my ribs are properly healed now. "Where're Culann and Fionne?"
"They went after this large three-headed wolf near the coast." Arjun stated, "We think that might be the boss of all these monsters."
"Then if we kill it, the Wave will end…?"
"We don't know, but it should at least cause the other monsters to panic after it is dead."
True, most monsters that worked in packs often fall into disarray once their leader was taken care of. It was the same with the Grim Wolf and its pack.
There was a slim chance that would be the case here as well, but these are monsters from another world all together. They might not even react the same way.
"Even so, just the two of them?" I asked, "Is that such a good idea?"
"The plan was to grab you and then head their way to back them up." Arjun pointed.
"Ah, I see. Then we better—"
"HOOWWWLLLL!"
A loud howl echoed from the outskirts of the village, somewhere at the coast.
"What was that!?"
"That sounded like that three-headed wolf."
As if on cue, several more skeleton soldiers appeared and marched towards with an increased vigor; some of them even let out war cries while slamming their swords on their bucklers. Was that howl some kind of signal for them?
"Looks like we won't be heading there any time soon."
"Liya." Trish readied her short sword as she turned to me, "I've got your back."
"Same." Arjun nodded as he unsheathed his two sabres.
"…Thanks." I twirled Chain Sword in my hand with a renewed strength, "Let's take them down!"
As if on cue, the skeletons charged at us as we charged back with equal vigor.
…
To be continued…
Some major changes made here. One being that Liya makes it back to the village while the Wave is in full swing. For clarification, this is around the time of Raphtalia's parents death.
Another would be some cosmetic changes to my OCs, some with their hair and eye colour to their attire and weapon choice. As you can see, Liya would be using only Chain Sword as his primary weapon.
With that, I wish for all of you to be of good health and thank you all for reading this!