Chapter 2: Meeting
"My name's Elsword!" The red-haired kid introduced with a smirk, placing his sword over the shoulder. "You grown-ups better not underestimate me, I'm from the Ruben search party!" He gloated. "Now hand over the El or else!" Elsword definitely looked like he came from the search party. As Rena pointed out to me, Elsword wore a traditional search party uniform: a red long sleeve shirt with silver armbands and finger-less black and red gloves, gray and white shorts (amusingly held up by a ridiculously large belt for his size), and steel-gray shoes with black socks. Elsword seemed fond of buttons, there were buttons in the middle of the chest area on his shirt, two buttons each on his two gloves, and two more buttons on his shorts. Hell even his sword has a few buttons on the cross-guard (area between the grip and the blade).
For a kid he's pretty overconfident. I thought with a "not impressed" look on my face. I glanced over to Rena, who was giggling silently to herself. Figures. Seeing kids act all macho isn't something you see every day if you're a member of a humble elven race. "What do you suggest we do now Rena?" I quietly whispered into her ear. Outside the bush Hairy struggled to keep up with Elsword's movements as the latter circled around him, dishing out quick slashes to his left arm, back, and right hand, in that order.
"Why not just watch him first." Rena answered. "After all, you still need to find a proper weapon to use." She smiled at that last sentence looking at me, a very annoyed expression on my face. Hurts to say it but she's right. I still need to get back to my world, and I need a weapon to do so. So we both silently watched Elsword's movements, careful not to rustle the bush to alert our presence.
Elsword was dominating both of the bandits easily, wielding the huge sword one-handed to further boost his arrogant ego as if his red flaming hair isn't big enough. Baldy and Hairy, the latter bleeding from the aforementioned slashes by Elsword, are outmatched, slashing the air desperately with wide slow slashes to dish out some damage. "What's wrong bandits, tired already?" Elsword taunted. He rolled across the grassy terrain behind the two, exchanging the sword to his left hand after landing, and started turning left and smirked as he watched the horrified faces the two were wearing. "MEGA SLASH!" Elsword called out as a battle cry. Being a current Elsword player, or a former one depending how you look at my situation right now, I know exactly what Mega Slash does: one giant horizontal slash at the target…that's it.
Hardly surprising considering the result. I thought to myself after that Mega Slash attack. The two bandits lay there on the ground, bleeding profusely as Hairy dropped a bag he was carrying, the one containing the El. "Just one of the shards huh." I heard Elsword mutter disappointed. He grabbed Baldy, the only one still conscious, by the collar and glared a death stare right into his eyes. "Where the hell is the other shard?" Elsword angrily asked him.
"W-W-Why should I tell y-you- OW!" Elsword head-butted Baldy after two seconds of response.
"Don't screw with me! Where the hell is it?" Elsword got angrier and more impatient as time ticked by. I almost felt sorry for poor Baldy…almost. I just wish Rena and I could find a way to peacefully chat with him without being accused as their partners in crime.
A giant howl screeched through the air at that moment, and the two bandits slowly dragged themselves away from the noise. Elsword let them go, more worried about the creature howling in the middle of the forest, let alone in the middle of the day. Suddenly this gigantic wolf-like creature swiftly appeared in front of Elsword, using his huge snapping fingers to snatch the El right out of his hand. Even though I already knew who this wolf-like creature is I couldn't stop shivering, he's way more intimidating in person than some pixellated graphics on a computer screen made to look scary.
Berthe! I played the tutorial and already knew what happened next, but this was a different version than the real game. Just like me, I could feel Rena trembling a bit at the sight of such a creature. If only I can warn her and Elsword about him. A huge creature in the shape of a gigantic mutated wolf, Berthe was mainly dark blue from top to bottom with white tuffs of fur(?) on his shoulders. I thought as I could do nothing but watch the situation unfold.
"Oh how cute, a kid playing Adventure." Berthe growled humorously, although that chilling tone of his makes it sound frightening. "I guess this must mean I'm the bad guy in this scenario huh?"
"Shut up!" Elsword got tired of being treated as a kid. "I'm Elsword from the Ruben search party, now give that back or I'll have to beat the crap out of you!" He pointed to the El Berthe was holding, the size of the object paled in comparison to the creature, who held the El like it was a cookie crumb.
"How boring, guess I'll have to teach you a lesson." Berthe held the El in an icy blue aura, using his chest as a placeholder for the crystal. "Now if you can knock me over once, the El is yours." He got into all fours, presumably a fighting stance. I honestly had no idea if this was the case or not, the tutorial lasted two minutes at most.
"Tch, you'll be sorry you called me a bratty little kid!" Elsword yelled, brushing the sword on the grass to his right as he dashed towards blue monster. He gripped the sword with both hands and dealt multiple heavy horizontal slashes to Berthe's front right leg, however he wasn't the least bit phased by it. After the 5th or so slash, Elsword backed off expecting a counterattack by Berthe which never came. "Oh yeah…well how…about…this!" He rolled behind Berthe, panting from the previous assault and used the same trick I saw against the bandits, fully expecting what happens next. "MEGA SLASH!" He yelled with greater power this time, bring the full force of the sword sideways on Berthe's rear left leg. Breathing hard, Elsword propped his sword to the ground to support himself up. I could see that all his attacks were to no avail against the powerful demon, as Rena described it. Damn this isn't well for him. I thought to myself. I was seriously considering throwing the stick I'm holding straight at one of Berthe's glowing blue eyes just to give Elsword even the slightest edge, but with Rena here I can't just do a hit-and-run tactic and so sat here at this bush waiting.
"If that's your best shot, this isn't even a fight." Berthe complained, yawning. I noticed Elsword's angered expression at that comment, firing off Mega Slashes one after another in an attempt to at least injure the demon. It gave me a sense of déjà vu, the bandits trying desperately to hit Elsword as he curb-stomped them effortlessly and the same desperation present in Elsword's dulling red eyes as he swung again and again to no effort. "I'm getting bored now." Berthe decided, preparing an attack. He turned in a 180 fashion facing the miniscule Elsword as he reared up. Elsword, also Rena and I, stood his ground preparing to defend himself from the incoming attack. Instead, however, Berthe howled right at Elsword's face, picking up the red swordsman and soaring him backwards towards an incoming tree…a hard incoming tree.
The amount of wind generated by that howl kept me from witnessing anything beyond that point as I shielded my eyes and gripped the grass below to keep from flying. Under the deafening wind, I heard a faint crack coming from a tree a mile ahead. As I heard it Berthe, as though he was satisfied enough, stopped howling and took a good look at his fine work while Rena and I did the same. The whole forest within a 3 mile radius in front of the demon looked like a huge mess of tangled grass-like hair, trees everywhere within the vicinity blown to pieces or knocked clean off their stumps at best.
One gigantic tree, however, stayed in its place and in front of it, an unconscious red-haired kid. "Elsword!" Rena whispered, fear in her eyes once it looked like he was out for the count. Like that'll ever happen. I thought. He's the main character, of course he'll turn out okay. As if my thoughts are granted by a godlike being from above, Elsword slowly regained consciousness looking in somewhat bad shape.
"You amuse me kid, a normal person would've wised up and stayed dead. I guess I'll just-"
"LIGHTNING BOLT!" A quick flash of lightning raced across the air for all four of us to see as a female voice yelled out, almost like a spell. The thin bolt dashed through the air towards its target, Berthe. Unlike Elsword's attacks, this managed to inflict pain on the demon, comically having flashes of his bones shown as he gets electrocuted and falling on his back after the attack was over, dropping the El. Seeing his chance, Elsword tries his best to dash after the El, but stumbled over every step he takes. Confident now that Elsword and whoever cast the lightning were friendly, I ran out of the bush with Rena in tow.
The look on Elsword's face as it changes from relieved to retrieve the El to horror as he sees us two running towards him to anger as he takes a fighting stance. "Who the hell are you?" He panted out, fighting to keep himself from looking weak. "I'm not…letting the…El…get away." It's no use. No matter how hard he tries, he's taken a big blow from the tree to even stand and collapsed.
"Heh what a coward!" Berthe stood back up immediately, showing minor injuries. From a direct hit like that!? "I guess you needed some company to back you up as you try heroically to beat me by yourself. Oh well a deal's a deal." He picked up the El and placed it in my hands, Rena's occupying Elsword while the latter lay battered. For some reason, Berthe was staring at me strangely, or at least his eyes were wider than they were before. "You don't seem to come from here are you?" He asked me strangely. Oh and you aren't you big freak!
"The hell you mean by that?" I asked, trying to keep my legs from shaking.
Berthe noticed. "Aw did I make you go in your pants?" He joked.
Shut it! Was what I wanted to say to him, instead I gave him a hard stare for being right. I didn't even use the bathroom when I was still at home and now all this…
Berthe continued from his earlier statement. "Well I guess one of my henchmen must've sent you here." He calmly said to me.
The sound of planes crashing, trains wrecking, and Nokia phones raining down the sky raced around my brain as I heard his answer. "…What do you mean one of your henchmen…? I started sweating a bit.
"One of my Glitter monsters must've fondled with the demon portal I set up back home. Must've been the one who accidentally sent you here."
"Does that mean I could be a de-"
"Oh no, it's a mistake on his part. Although this can turn out handy…" Berthe started grinning. "Maybe if you could defeat me then I can send you back home."
Is he serious!? "What do you mean by defeating you?"
"Exactly what I mean, you could even bring these two kids to help you." He glanced to Rena and Elsword, the former glaring angrily at Berthe. Well she does look in her early twenties.
"Wait a minute, what do you gain from this!?" I asked. It's so cliché it's guaranteed to blow up in his face later on.
"A fun challenge." He answered. "Now I'll be waiting at Feita, in the Altar of Dedication. See you then." He raced out in an instant.
Feita? Altar of Dedication? Must be one of the dungeons in the game, but I haven't even gotten that far yet! Suddenly I remembered my bladder and rushed to the nearest still standing tree. I started to unzip my pants when…
"WTF GET OUT!" Someone pushed me right out of the tree, forcing me to go to the other one. After finally relieving myself, I look back at the flustered tsundere.
Knowing I'm in the game, I easily deducted that the tsundere is Aisha. Her short purple hair, purple sushi-like pom poms, a white flower-like collar on her long sleeved purple dress (also like a flower), a belt like Elsword's that's way too big on her, white knee-high socks, and brown shoes. Her pink purplish staff reminds me that she's the designated magician of the game, a smarty blabber mouth who's also quite immature for her age. Can't believe she's a year younger than me though.
"Now e-explain yourself!" Aisha's face turned bright red and she was quivering for a bit. A typical tsundere…a cute tsundere…
"Well y-you see we just-"
"NO EXCUSES!" She raised her staff, prompting me to make a run for it. "LIGHTNING BO-"
"CUT IT OUT YOU TWO!" Rena's voice suddenly sound more masculine and demonic sounding. Aisha and I shook at her tone.
"Who a-are you m-miss?" Aisha felt too scared to ask.
"I'll explain later. Can you two- ugh." Rena grunted as she tried picking up Elsword.
"Oh we gotta get him back to Ruben!" Aisha was suddenly worried about the kid. I wonder if she has feelings for him.
But there was no time to waste. "Here I'll carry him, where's Ruben?" Rena complied and handed me Elsword. I held him as if I was giving him a piggy back ride. Rena shouted directions to Ruben while I carried the unconscious kid. All this time, however, I never noticed how worried Aisha looked at his limp body.