CHAPTER 23 - Action

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“Don’t you ever get tired of actually losing?”

 

Rei came into the conversation after hearing Johan’s situation, her feet feeling heavier than usual since she still held a miniscule amount of hesitation in things relating to even getting close to him.

 

“Well he insists that we do it regularly, I just say yes because Elena says I need to put in work every now and then to not get rusty.” Alair said, being quite receptive of Rei as usual.

 

`’What’s someone like you doing here? Don’t you have papers to sort or whatever it is you were actually hired for? Or maybe stuffing yourself full in the kitchen again?” Johan on the other hand with his hostility, dismissed Rei’s comment and was instead actually confused why she was in the training fields, considering her unfit for anything close to combat.

 

‘This damn …’ Rei on the other hand also dismissed most of what Johan said, but the last part actually affected her.

 

‘If you knew the severity of my situation you wouldn’t be saying that!’ Or so she was going to say, but then realised that Johan definitely wouldn’t be saying that, instead he’d probably take action to put a new hole on her head.

 

“Why, I’m here for the same reason you are. I wonder if it wasn’t that obvious?” Rei said, waving the heavy stick on her hand around, brushing off what Johan said.

 

“Hm …” Alair, even as nice as he was, recognised Rei’s mana problem and thus was struggling with something positive to actually say.

 

“Don’t screw about, rat. Do you think the world is your playground? Don’t waste your time on something so obviously fruitless, does the Section Chief even know you’re here?” 

 

“I can do whatever I want in my free time and besides, you underestimate me. I know my way around a sword quite well.” Rei asserted herself as a strong and independent woman.

 

Of which, it was quite obvious to both men that she wasn’t.

 

Strong? She almost lost to a normal bloke in a life or death fight, threatening to cut the story right then and there. Independent? She was in a slave contract, undercompensated, and was nothing short of vulnerable to workplace abuse.

 

It mattered not however, as Rei proves once more her proficiency in gaslighting even to herself.

 

“Pfffft! Hahaha!” Johan actually laughed for the first time in quite a long while, before being interrupted by a head chop by Alair.

 

“Hey! Laughing at other peoples’ aspirations is very rude.”

 

“Yeah yeah.” Johan said as he stopped to continue.

 

“So, I’m assuming you’re here to ask for a bout? Otherwise you wouldn’t bother playing pretend as a warrior so deeply. I can help you with that.” Johan saw through Rei’s plan and offered himself up as her willing partner, much to her dismay.

 

“Do you think I’m blind? You might as well ask me to walk naked in the deep slums with a gold chain around my neck, if anything that would be safer.” Rei could see that Johan didn’t at all even pretend like he was going to play nice, malice was present throughout the few days she had been in the godforsaken mercenary group.

 

“You’re afraid of losing to a loser?” Johan asked Rei.

 

“Provocations like yours are about as shallow as your temper. I wouldn’t–” Rei was about to brush it off as she wasn’t about to get to tussling with a deviant that almost killed her without anything as much as an assurance that she wouldn’t at least die on ‘accident’.

 

“Alair can gurantee your safety, I don’t bite.” Johan interrupted Rei, who then looked towards Alair who thought about what he had said.

 

“Sure, why not?” Alair said, thinking it was a good idea.

 

‘The Captain told me that people have an easier time bonding together and becoming friendly once they’ve crossed swords!’ Alair’s thought process went as such.

 

“You can’t be serious …” Rei was left with a scowl on her face as she saw the two men agree to the proposal.

 

“Oh come on Rei. What’s the worse that could happen? If it goes well then you two could even become friends after!”

 

“Not a chance.’’ Both Rei and Johan thought in unison.

 

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‘It’s the same as what my family taught me.’ Johan thought to himself as he viewed Rei from a distance whenever she was working alongside Elena.

 

Eyes always looking about for potential things to grab, always keeping herself away from windows, keeping balance with always readying herself for the nearest exit, and always avoided being the first to enter doorways.

 

Even just the way Rei naturally walked while wearing boots by putting her heels first, slowly and smoothly putting down the rest of her foot up to her toes.

 

And while being barefoot she always kept her toes first before smoothly guiding the rest of her feet up to the heel when walking, always paying attention to what she was stepping on.

 

Through this she made the least sound possible whenever she walked and combined with the fact that Rei was Forsaken, she was virtually almost undetectable when someone’s eyes were off her unless one happened to be the most astute of observers.

 

“Is that how you’re playing at?”

 

Much to the young warrior’s annoyance Rei picked the same weapon on the rack as Johan, a pseudo-spear mimicking its true self, its end tipped with padding for safety concerns continent-wide.

 

“Do you even know how to use these? There is no shame admitting you were only all talk and no bite. We have a lot of pencil pushers as such where I come from.” Johan felt a scowl crawling up his face as Rei stepped forward only just a few paces away from him.

 

“You could say that such rudimentary tools are below me, even. After all, how hard is it really to swing and thrust a stick around?” Rei said, which Johan interpreted as an attempt to further aggravate him.

 

Even though Rei, through the special properties of her red eyes was being genuine as she said this, Johan brushed it aside as he seemed to misunderstand what was at ploy.

 

“I won’t be swayed by such obvious provocations.” Johan replied, mimicking Rei from earlier.

 

“Yeah yeah.” Rei said as she walked forward in an elegant stride, until they were both already within striking distance from each other.

 

“Well then, since both of you are ready then we can start–” Alair said so as he clapped his hands, but was interrupted by Rei crouching down all of a sudden.

 

“Ah, hold on. Need to tie my shoelace.” Rei abruptly said.

 

“...” Johan’s eyes became stricken with awe, as was just baffled by the lack of preparedness and etiquette.

 

Someone picking a fight doesn’t even take note of the condition of her own feet? Johan thought it was naught but foolishness and near incompetency that someone like Rei, who he had already acknowledged as someone vigilant past the normal person could–

 

“...!?” Johan suddenly remembered from how he had stared at Rei’s feet so often.

 

Rei’s boots didn’t have shoelaces.

 

‘Idiot.’ Rei sprang up and threw sand into Johan’s eyes.

 

“Ugh, you rat!” Unfortunately the effect wasn’t large as it would have been, as Johan had realised what Rei was up to and closed his eyes before the particles had reached his bare eyes.

 

However still Johan stood there blinded for a moment.

 

‘Your opponent uses a spear, focus!’ Knowing he could counter any spear movement from someone like Rei for at least a single instant, Johan readied himself for the incoming thrust, but found none even as his eyes opened.

 

‘!?’

 

Instead Rei’s form had shifted to a different motion far from the normal doctrines of the weapon she was supposed to be wielding.

 

A swing.

 

‘Who says that these things can only be used as spears!?’ Rei thought, taking enough time that Johan had actually managed to recover due to how she swung her holding from the bottom.

 

“Tsk!”

 

Johan was many things however, and a jobber didn’t seem to be one of them. Just barely he managed to block Rei’s hit from an awkward position as he recovered from the surprise of Rei’s attack.

 

He thrusts forward, Rei brings her weapon back to deflect against Johan’s hit.

 

So heavy was it that it rattled her legs, her feet trembling under the impact of just having Johan’s weapon drag against her own. It felt like for a moment that Rei could keep up …

 

But then, the incoming blows became faster.

 

And faster.

 

Unti …

 

Rei eventually made a single mistake, so small and fleeting. But it had been enough for Johan to see a line.

 

‘Nordend Family Technique: Needle’s Eye!’ In front of Rei’s eyes, the point of Johan’s staff condensed into a single point. So much so that even Rei’s eyes initially had trouble judging how far it actually was from her.

 

‘Block it!’ Unlike the previous hit the speed of Johan’s technique was slower, its power diminished as it pushed ever forward towards Rei, which made Rei judge that the time to block for a counterattack was nigh.

 

But she couldn’t, and it went through her defence.

 

“Urrhk!?” Straight to her liver.

 

‘It … hurts differently?’ Rei grit in her teeth as she felt the wood crash into her side, however the feeling of her insides being rattled seemed to be strangely dampened, some would say absent even.

 

Strong the impact undoubtedly was to knock Rei off her feet a distance away from Johan as she rolled against the training field’s floor, however …

 

‘That … felt different?’ Johan questioned himself as he looked upon his staff, thinking something had gone wrong with it but was baffled when its disrepair was in no noteworthy condition.

 

‘This is … weird.’ Johan came to that conclusion.

 

He swore that he had accurately, with the accuracy of the Needle’s Eye technique, went through Rei’s defence to deliver a straight blow to her liver … but it didn’t feel that way when Johan had driven his staff forward.

 

Johan couldn’t at all feel the organ beneath Rei’s flesh move, instead it felt more like normal muscle similar to the ones on biceps or pecs.

 

‘Were my senses dulled? I’ve been lacking in practice in the family techniques lately … but I didn’t expect to be this washed up.’ Johan thought, but decided that wasn’t at all the case.

 

“No! I can still keep going …” Rei willed herself up after writhing on the ground, clutching the spot where her liver was supposed to be, signalling against Alair who mistakenly thought that Rei was no longer in any condition to fight.

 

‘She managed to get up from that …’ Confusion clouded Johan’s mind. 

 

There had been no problem with his sense of impact perception, nor with his technique which was clear even to Alair.

 

Johan definitely felt it connect, but it didn’t feel like how it was supposed to.

 

‘You … just what are you …?’ The girl who resembled naught more than a rat in Johan’s eyes now shifted to something closer to an enigma.

 

‘!?’ Johan found himself quickly surprised when Rei not only recovered from the hit but already unleashed an attack much quicker than he had expected as he was caught up in his own thoughts.

 

‘No.’ It wasn’t only that.

 

It wasn’t that Rei recovered much quicker than he expected, but rather that she rose at him faster than the speed Johan has observed Rei to be capable of ever since their first chase incident.

 

Johan undoubtedly thought that what was happening in front of him shouldn’t have been possible, yet the symptoms of the phenomena presented before him match up the concept he’d built his entire basis of martial prowess around.

 

The basics of mana focused into physical efforts, enhancing and improving.

 

Aura.

 

Quite similar was the feat that Rei performed as she rushed at Johan who only had just readied himself to receive an attack.

 

But not quite the same.

 

‘I can do it?’ Rei thought to herself as she felt the blood run within her veins, fast was it that she felt her hesitations disappear. Her hands bringing her staff forward to focus on a single point.

 

Rei was in a daze, the scent and taste of iron gripping her senses as her head became jumbled.

 

‘Ah …’ Rei realised, the dark crimson blood flowing from her nose and the spurts that came out of her mouth.

 

Her legs felt weak, her chest tired as her she continued to bring herself forward, but it didn’t matter.

 

‘I can do it.’ Rei’s movements matched Johan’s.

 

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‘Nordend Family Technique …’ Rei moved the same as Johan had.

 

“Needle’s Eye!” Johan also said aloud in response to Rei’s own as the wooden spear in its great length suddenly appeared to Rei’s eye condensing as a single point, giving the deception of the point of a needle.

 

‘...’ With undoubtable haste was the response that Johan gathered to counter her attack, but Rei immediately went on to counter his counter …

 

‘Nope, can’t counter that.’ Rei thought to herself as her eyes keenly observed the technique closing in, the tip of Johan’s mock spear nearing the spot between her eyes.

 

After feeling what seems to be slight internal rupturing as she copied Aura without the proper bodily foundations her body finally caught up to her head her body now more feeble than it had been moments ago.

 

‘He even said the attack name aloud …’ Such an act grants the simple technique an ample boost to its effects as per the Heavenly Decrees that defy the realities of the world.

 

‘How sweaty.’ Rei thought as she smiled to herself, satisfied at having rattled such a response from the cautious Johan.

 

“I yield.” Her soft voice said aloud, and immediately a great rupturing wooden noise met Rei’s ears as the sight of a wooden point was blown away by another, as a larger body comes in to keep Rei from falling down to the ground, holding with great care.

 

“Tsk!” Johan remarked to himself as he saw the tip of his pretend-spear blown away by none other than the guarantor of Rei’s well being for the match, Alair.

 

“Rei! Are you alright? Did your lungs explode!?” Alair carefully inspected Rei at that moment.

 

“You idiot, I wouldn’t be alive if they did, just take me to the infirmary already.” Rei said as she looked up at Alair, clutching her chest as she found it just a bit harder to breathe.

 

It was truly nothing short of regrettable that her dumb luck didn’t extend to it being enough to finish the only opponent still alive that she functionally ‘lost’ to, but it was fine all the same as long as she was alive.

 

Rei at that moment didn’t really know the details, so vague were the changes in her body that transpired but this would set the foundation for her future growth as a force that can hold her own.

 

The basic structure of copying the effects of Aura, an offensive technique that wasn’t physically taxing beyond her body’s output, and a rough outline on what to expect from Red Hilt’s combatants in a ‘fight’.

 

‘I can keep going.’ Rei had seen all she needed to anyways.

 

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The sound of a wooden mug with liquor sloshing in its insides made itself clear to the dark room as it collided with the counter.

 

“So, what about it?” A dark figure, words coming out from a man that had seen better days beckons onto the other figure standing aside him.

 

Rosso had come to this place, offer in hand to his dear friend whom he had spent many days together to speak about his potential ending of retirement.

 

A man as equally worn, with a face that passively gives off the feeling that the world he lives in is nothing but short of a tragic experience sits across Rosso and then raises up his hand to rub his chin past the ruffled unkempt hairs of his untrimmed poorly-groomed beard.

 

Deep in thought he was, thinking about the propositions of the sender Rosso.

 

Then he spoke.

 

“That’s quite difficult for me to agree to …” His mouth moved quite differently to what Rosso was hearing.

 

Etalian it was with no doubt, but the way it was delivered made it seem like a poor dub translation of a foreign television show.

 

Unsettling. Uncanny. Unnatural.

 

It was the universal recognisable mark of a Traveller, the Goddess’ gift upon her new children that come into Gaiya regularly through the Beginner Dungeons from the beaches in Francoria to the cold plains of Polania-Liduria.

 

Translation magic.

 

“It’s the offer of a lifetime, more than enough to be worth an inkling in your schedule!” Rosso convinced Huo Feng, raising his glass to really emphasize how great the chance was.

 

“I just think it’s a bit sketchy. You’re not revealing much information after all … I don’t even know how much we’re talking here!?” Huo Feng was hesitant to get into something so sketchy.

 

“Millions, my friend. Millions! We are talking millions of Yuleas into our pockets. Though I can’t tell you how we’re making the money off the venture as it’s a security risk. I need your commitment before I can tell you.”

 

“You definitely think its in the millions?” Huo Feng asked, just sounding exhausted at this point.

 

“Without a doubt.”

 

“Well … if that’s the case …”

 

Huo Feng couldn’t say no.

 

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Eventually Huo Feng came back once more.

 

Dark corridors.

 

Eyes of the ones who had lost hope.

 

Malnourished bodies.

 

And rotting corpses dotted here and there against the tight worn-down corridors.

 

This was the darkness hidden within Ragosa, a city truly buried six feet deep within humanity’s negligence and humanity, though still a far cry from the utter chaos that ruled Olm in Reikland.

 

But still, it was enough that it made Guella look like a joke in comparison.

 

“About as nice as I remember.” Huo Feng pinched his nose, making sure to cling to his robes tightly as eyes filled with greed looked upon his stature.

 

“Oh, you think this is nice? Well you better get used to it since that’s all abut to change, old friend.” Rosso assured Huo Feng as they went down deeper into the darkness.

 

Eventually they came to single steel door, poorly illuminated by the inkling of sunlight that managed to pierce though such a forsaken place.

 

“Hold for a moment.” Rosso said as he went on to step in front of the steel door, and then knocking thrice upon it.

 

Suddenly, the slit on the door moved to the side, revealing a pair of studious eyes who looked upon Rosso from head to toe before suddenly closing.

 

Next, the machinations behind the door shook, clampered and banged. Before long the door finally slid open, revealing a figure who bowed in courtesy.

 

“Welcome back, Padre.” The anticipating figure said.

 

Huo Feng stared at astonishment.

 

Although it wasn’t very obvious because of how he was covered up, Huo Feng could see the markings and the signatures of an warrior who was at least at the level of a Knight.

 

‘What is such an individual doing all the way over here?’ Huo Feng thought, before Rosso went on to welcome him.

 

It soon made itself clear that upon entering that it wasn’t only the individual at the door was at the level of a Knight, but a few tens of them had congregated in the dark hideout that Rosso seemed to be the master of.

 

“Just … what are you hiding here?” Huo Feng asked Rosso as they continued walking.

 

“Be patient, we are almost there.” Rosso told Huo Feng as they crossed numerous rooms, filled with more armed personnel at work as they moved heavy boxes and containers across the facility.

 

“We’re here.” Soon the pair arrived in front even bigger steel door.

 

“Open it up!” Rosso said with a commanding voice, and so it was opened drifting towards both sides as it revealed itself before Huo Feng.

 

A revelation that could shake up the entire peninsula had thus been presented in front of Huo Feng, his disdain uncontrollably disappearing as his mouth went agape.

 

Huo Feng rubbed his eyes to make sure if what he really saw was real, but alas the more he did the more it only confirmed the sight of the thing in front of him.

 

“This … shouldn’t be here …” Huo Feng circled around the ethereal phenomena in front of him, still unable to believe it.

 

Huo Feng he was sure, unless he had somehow been abducted and placed into a perfectly identical city, was perfectly sure that he was in County of Enna-Catenia in isle of Isilia.

 

Not Francoria.

 

Not Reikland.

 

Not Polania.

 

But Etalia.

 

And yet, it truly was undeniable.

 

A paradigm of lights and darknesses, compounded into a near-incomprehensible form as viewed with the naked eye, mana leaking out by the waves, so thick and raw that it can be felt through the skin even while Mana Detection wasn’t active.

 

“A Dungeon …” Huo Feng finally acknowledged it as reality.

 

Yet, the awe was overtaken by the immediate urgency as the situation drilled itself into Huo Feng properly.

 

“A Dragon-ranked Dungeon no less!?” Huo Feng was basically frightened.

 

The second highest-disasted level for a Dungeom had revealed itself in the midst of a region wherein no Dungeon had ever shown itself before.

 

“So–” Huo Feng went on to ask, but was answered immediately.

 

“No, as far as we know, other Dungeons have not appeared throughout Southern Etalia. It can only be stated as nothing short of a theory, but as far as we know we are the only ones who hold … much less own a Dungeon here.”

 

“Haha … good! Then a repeat of what happens in the North couldn’t possibly happen again …” Huo Feng was overcome with relief, although was struck by something Rosso had said.

 

‘Own …?’ 

 

“… So when do the Dons plan to hire a Traveller Company to raid it then?” Huo Feng asked, sweating as he tried to confirm his suspicions.

 

“Raid? Ah … well, of course we’re planning to save it for later. After all, we can’t be killing the golden goose just as it's about to lay eggs, right?” But alas Rosso confirmed what Huo Feng was suspecting.

 

Huo Feng walked up to Rosso angrily, the vivid memories of monsters raging wildly within his head.

 

“And by later … you mean …” Huo Feng eyed Rosso, still hoping for a semblance of sense as his eyes trembled with worry, anxiety, and the taint of fear.

 

“Just before a Dungeon Break.” And just as Rosso said this, the sound of metal clashing against its scabbard could be heard, as well as the echoes of a sword dropping to the floor and the severed hand holding it.

 

“Fuuaaaaghhhhh!!!” Huo Feng clutched the open stump where his sword hand used to be, dropping to the floor as his impulse to make the unreasonable revert back to its reasonable state had been foiled with the flick of a hand.

 

“Huo Feng, it’s a shame that things have to be like this … but you’re staying with us, a Dungeon is unmanageable without Traveller input. I would have preferred to have done this more cordially and keep a professional working relationship between us … but it seems that we’re past that point now.”

 

“Don’t you know what you’re doing!? It’s not too late to stop this! You can–”

 

“Can what? Idly sit here and watch this city rot further under the management of devils?!” Rosso clapped back angrily, silencing Huo Feng.

 

“You wouldn’t know because you came here a coward and ran away a coward, but in these past ten years these people have known nothing but suffering!” 

 

“You’re mad. Insane even!”

 

“Maybe ..." Rosso said as he looked away from Huo Feng, symbolising how he has turned his back away from what was right or wrong.

 

"... But what kind of 'Father' would I be if I just let this oppurtunity slip by my fingers?” Rosso was already past the point of dialogue and debate.

 

The time for action had come.

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