(Time to finish off...I mean conclude, NPCs!) (This will, without a doubt, be the last one. Actually, I thought this would be shorter, but I forgot I had to add a part or else the flow would be weird. Anyways, after this my posts SHOULD be entering normaler length, but I wont spoil anything so you gotta read it all. That said, this should all be fine now!)
Corro had one goal in mind. Finish off the man and find his family. He knew, if he could just regroup with them, everything would be over for these guys. At least, that was Corro's belief. But this guy Chris, although he acted like an idiot, he was smart in terms of battle. He managed to make a few comments to piss Corro off, but so far he never left himself with an opening while doing so. In laymans terms, he was one of those idiotic smart people that you always hate.
Corro knew a technique to deal with him, but not only did he not have the right equipment for it, he couldn't run and get it, or make something with ice magic in his condition. His clothes, which were more like armor thanks to the material, had held up considering he was receiving constant explosions or sword strikes, but even now it was about to fall off with a few more blows and then he would be naked except for his sword, against a guy who uses Blood Arts.
The moment Corro realized he used blood, had been the moment he realized he could not show that kind of opening. He made absolutely sure the blood never got on his skin, even if it meant getting hit with more blood over all. Because if it hit his skin, it was game over. The only thing in good condition right now were the shoes he threw as a diversion, and his sword which was much harder then steel.
If he had a second sword, even if it was iron, Corro could do something more. He found the weakspot for this guy, but now he had it covered and would not let Corro near it.
Corro couldn't even focus his mana to use his magic, because there was blood on him set to blow him up if he did. Chris had never mentioned it, but Corro could feel it. His instincts told him if he used magic now, he would get hurt. But thankfully, mana circulation techniques was not magic. As such, he had one idea that might work, but he was afraid these guys were high enough level that if he used it in front of them, they would know how to deal with it immediately. However, right now it felt like it was the only chance he had.
He immediately charged at Chris, who launched several blood spikes as he swung down with his sword. Corro lept into the air to avoid it, but that made him unable to dodge and Chris took a free shot at this foolish action.
Or at least, that was what he thought. However, Corro seemed to kick off the air itself and dodged it, getting behind Chris and giving a good swing. Yet as he hit Chris, it seemed like the attack that was meant to decapitate him was partially blocked, and there was a followup blow with an explosion that knocked Corro into a nearby tree. His armor was almost at the limit, and even Corro could not negate the injury enough to feel a bit impeded. Only the sword was flawless.
What the hell is that thing made of?
While Chris had a momentary thought about that, he had absolutely no idea how Corro kicked off the air without using magic. He figured it was a mana circulation technique, but he had no idea what it was or how it was utilized. In truth, it was an original technique developed by Corro's father, known as Air Step. It utilized exerting a mass of mana out of your feet, while focusing on mana circulation for your feet, so that you could have the two mana clumps impact each other as if they were physical entities and "kick" yourself around freely in the air.
Seeing as how Corro had managed to learn this technique in a year, he was frustrated by how long it took even when he had the creators instructions, though admittedly he was not the best at explaining things. However, given that he started trying to learn when he was five, and finally mastered it when he was six, many people praised him as a genius, even though he had spent every single day of that year trying to learn it. It is not as impressive to him, but everyone else still thought it was.
However, that Corro was now just barely getting up, as he had been heavily injured, preparing for round two.
Meanwhile, backing up a little, Lily was still in a huge magic duel with the enemy, with only a dwarf ally on her side while the enemy was alone. Although she was worried someone might enter the realm on his side and join him, and they couldn't possibly hope he would allow anyone on their side in, she believed in her strength and her family as she took out another staff from her Item Bag. The Item Bag was an interdimensional storage device used to store a large amount of objects in a small space. It had the interior size of a large mansion, including a garage, and could fit everything an adventurer might need inside.
So far, the battle had gone decently well with help from her Dwarf friend. Because he managed to hit him in the right spot, it made it harder for him to move, so he had begun to utilize flying magic to maintain mobility. It meant less attack attempts from Rek in the past few clashes, but it meant he was using more mana in this battle and couldn't land without fighting Rek as well. Needless to say, although maybe Rek was not anywhere near a threat as Lily, because of a Dwarf's toughness and his sheer existence, it had caused the battle to by unfavorable for Lyon.
And then, IT appeared.
"Chaos Realm!"
Lily raised her staff, and utilized Chaos Realm with overloaded mana to turn him to dust. All sorts of attacks, pressure waves, every attribute of attack was thrown at him.
"Damnit! To think someone like me, with the ultra rare affinity for eight attributes..."
"Is nothing compared to me, who has affinity for almost all of them".
Lily was an existence that broke common sense, as she had attributes for nearly all the attributes. The only three she did not possess was Holy, Creation, and Spirit. But in reverse, the fact she had an affinity for all the other Attributes, excluding Eldritch which no one has, was incredible. As a result, she was known as an unreasonable existence.
Lily, who was applying an attack like that was this man's opponent. Lily herself was careful, noticing disruptions in the barrier isolating this realm, making sure to anticipate any enemies that entered. If an enemy tried to approach, it would be detected immediately as the man was being dealt significant damage. An enemy, that is.
Maybe one with sensitive hearing might have heard something like a small cannon go off in the distance, but by the time they heard it the damage had already been done. Although there had not been a shot for a certain sniper to take a headshot, thanks to a tree, he had shot Lily in the heart.
Even unreasonable existences could be killed.
Lily was forced to release her spell, but the man had taken so much damage that his own spell ended as well. And because of his current damage, and the mana he used, if he stayed in that spot he would die to the dwarf. He immediately began to use magic to run away, but if the Dwarf wanted to chase after him and deal him more attacks the man was not moving fast enough yet to escape him. The man did have magic remaining for combat, but he was saving that in case he ran into some Goblins.
Lily meanwhile was gasping for air. The epic magic battle that had occurred was ended because of one rifleman at a distance much further away then most people could ever fire from had shot a bullet.
Actually, if one was to rewind time a bit, they would notice Lily had put up six magic barriers automatically sensing danger, but the bullet had been given the penetration power to break through them instantly so it went unnoticed. Again, unreasonable existence. And this person trained Corro and Quail in magic.
And now, she was about to die. But even in this, she smiled as she used her magic to communicate with Rek.
"Hey, do me a favor okay? If those idiotic children of mine don't go to become adventurers, and live happy lives of fun and excitement for our sakes, beat them up and make sure they do just that okay?"
At the same time, all the objects in her house were sucked up by magic into her Item Bag, which would be sent towards Corro. Corro was not favored over Quail, but as any life threatening situation would likely have Quail in her Dragon Form, Corro would be the only one who could use the Item Bag in a crisis.
"After all, I always knew this would happen...that they were likely Children of Fate...which is why...I made Last Gift..."
And then, two bursts of energy shot out of her.
Meanwhile, Eric was not in the best state himself. Although he had been trampling these two, somehow when he was not looking one of the twins regrew his limb somehow. Furthermore, he was bleeding out from many scratches he couldn't close up using mana circulation. In other words, in a battle of attrition he would lose.
But what made it worse was something he sensed coming. Something eerie, and bad, as if it had to be stopped. But he had yet to figure out their secret. No matter. He wanted to conserve more strength, but Eric had no choice. He would use it all here, defeat these two and stop whatever magic was heading towards the village, and then rest to recover his energy and mana before rushing back. After all, he was useless dead.
"Overpower!"
Eric, who usually liked to have fun, all out, lengthy battles was not a fan of this technique, but he used it for emergency situations despite it not fitting him. He temporarily moved too fast to comprehend, and cut the two twins in half before cutting the halves into quarters, their organs and blood spilling out. It was a devastating scene, but Eric could not wait any longer and unleashed a powerful Manawave Slash. It involved swinging the sword down, but it cost a huge amount of mana. Had he not been forced to hunt down those Goblins, or fight the twin swordsman, it would have been fine but...
"Gah!?!"
"Die, you damn monster! For doing that to my brothers!"
Eric had destroyed the musical magic that would have enslaved the town, but there had been one person hiding in the shadows this whole time.
"So...they were triplets....huh, that is clever..."
If Eric had preserved some of his mana, he could have dodged the fatal blow. But because he used all his power to stop the attack, he had been left wide open. To be fair, he had no idea since they never used it in front of him, but the brothers had strong healing magic on each other, and a very powerful ability to conceal their presence. Because the two that appeared were always flashy, it distracted one from looking for that person, and they would switch out to take turns resting as they used their identical looks and extremely good sword skill to defend themselves.
And so both husband and wife died that day. In battles, they were unmatched. But like everyone else, there was always a potential vulnerability, an opening, to exploit. They were not careless, or stupid. They did not make anything one would call a mistake. They did their very best, and beat unreasonably strong people. Of course, they were even more unreasonable, but still. Sometimes, it was not always an epic battle or a final move that got you killed, but from something else.
But as Eirc died, he just smiled and said one thing.
"Good luck...son, daughter..."
And two beams of energy shot out of him as he died.
And now, inside the Magus Codex of all four of them, it temporarily became a singular Magus Codex thanks to the Spell "Last Gift".
"Registered: Lily Porter is deceased".
"Registered: Eric Porter is deceased".
"Both Mother and Father are deceased. Activating emergency spell, 'Last Gift'"
"This message will playback for Corro and Lily Porter immediately inside the Temporary Central Magus Codex Domain established by Lily Porter".
In the outside world, as Corro and Lily were hit by two shots of magical energy each, they would get pulled into this new Magus Codex for some period of time. But in the outside world, only a single second would pass after being hit by that energy.
In this, the two of them stood, but also their parents stood. Additionally, it was their current forms. Corro could see that Quail was sick from something, and Quail could see Corro had been beaten to a pulp and his clothes barely were hanging on, which given the material they were made from, should be quite difficult. However, their parents stood their as spectral entities.
They immediately came and embraced the both of them, all of them, together as a family.
"If you are here, this means we died. I am so sorry for leaving you like that, but I guarantee we fought to the end to keep whatever came away from you".
"The truth is, we suspected for some time, given when we found both of you and what happened to who we found you with, and where you were from, that something was special about you. That you might even be...Children of Fate..."
(See the upcoming updates for the Gods Thread to learn more about Children of Fate)
As Corro knew what that meant, he also knew this was no joke. Some might say Children of Fate are blessed, but others say they are cursed. It was that kind of thing. That they had infinite potential, but infinite trouble. Children who would make an impact on the world before becoming adults even.
"So, Corro, Quail!" "Sweeties, please listen". "This is a combined order from your parents".
And then, in the middle of this touching moment, they spoke in unison that at any other time might be comedic. One would question their sanity here, but their next lines removed any doubts of them having no taste.
"Support not just yourselves, but each other! Do not sulk, or go for revenge, or get depressed and shut yourselves away! Become grand adventurers, heroes of legends, be the greatest adventurers you can be. But above all, do not lose your precious smiles and laughter! Do not let each other lose their smiles and laughter! Push forward, not just for us or for you, but for each other!"
Although they said all this, Corro was still crying in this place. But between tears, he pulled himself together...and his eyes began to glow red.
"Yes, I promise...to ensure our laughter and smiles!"
And so, time resumed once more for them as they returned to the real world. However, there was something that they also learned from the Codex. The truth about the spell Last Gift, that it was a Boost Spell that took advantage of the potential of Children of Fate. Lily had been a great genius Magician, and found a way to exploit that power to a degree in her spell unlike anyone before, however there were negatives. For one thing, it was not efficient, or could be used again, and so on. That was one of the reasons she had never used the method of strengthening by Last Gift. Of course, there were other reasons, such as it being the most effective as the one who gave the strength was dying or had just died, but there were others like that as well. There was also one reason that would particularly upset Corro and Quail.
That was because, in addition to the temporary boost, there would also be a permanent boost. Although the outer appearance of their bodies would not change in the slightest, there would be great changes to their insides. Their natural strength, speed, and abilities would be boosted. Even their mana would be boosted and enriched, becoming stronger. So it would seem like there were nothing but benefits. Yet, there was a minor detail most would not mind, but Corro and Quail would hate.
However, this sudden boost would take nuitrients to keep up. There would not be any noticeable change immediately, but…it would actually slow their growth. Possibly in a drastic way. Given that Corro and Quail were small, and wanted to get big, this could be said to have been a horrible outcome for them. Especially since each belonged to Vora’s races, and already aged slower as Vora didn’t want them to just have long adult lifespans, but long childhoods as well to compensate. And Corro was small and slow on appearance growth even for Animan standards.
In other words, they would remain small for longer than normal and take even longer to hit their growth spirts. A snail could cover ten miles on its own, and they would almost certainly not even grow half an inch. But, because as they received this boost right as their parents had died, it worked in tandem with them being Children of Fate. Their parents dying as their village was invaded by criminals and Goblins was the tragedy, or just simply their parents dying while they were still young could be called the tragedy alone. And then, the boost would affect them. Although it was only theoretical and could not be guaranteed, it was possible as they could not fully utilize their high potential that it would provide the biggest gain.
Chris didn’t know all this, but he could tell something was wrong when two bolts of energy came out of nowhere and shot into Corro, and another two seemed to go nearby, which Chris figured was Corro’s sister Quail. He readied his weapon, as he used a special magic that had been cast on all of them from the start to understand the situation.
“Hey? What happened?”
“We managed to kill the parents, but some weird spell activated when we did. Be careful, it looks like the situation might change”.
Hearing this, Chris focused down on the boy in front of him who seemed to have gotten aggravated, but seemed to have been temporarily shocked. Chris had finally managed to wear down the ridiculous armor he had been wearing, so in order to toy with him, instead of attacking his limbs Chris shot spikes of hardened, liquid blood at critical points, causing his clothes which were made of tough material to finally fall apart. This was apparently enough shock to bring Corro back to his senses, and get him embarrassed. Being naked of their own free will was seen as acceptable and normal, but being naked because of someone else excluding family and friends to some level was seem as embarrassing as it meant their free will had been taken away. Free will was the border between embarrassment and what was considered normal and acceptable.
Additionally, it was considered embarrassing for warriors to be attacked or fought in those states because it was seen as them having let their guard down around an enemy, even if the situation couldn’t have been helped.
“Look at that, finally naked like an animal should be. I swear, that fucking armor was tough. But without it, you only have your skin. Your parents are dead. Are you really going to fight me like that? But…after all the trouble you brought us, I think we need some repayment. I am sure several of our members wouldn’t mind using you, but I bet your sister will be very popular among the guys. So cute and innocen…”
Chris had started talking, antagonizing him, because he figured that throwing the kid off his game would make things easier for him. Although his weapon had been unaffected by all the attacks, it was currently the only thing he had, so in this state having been forced into this condition, Chris decided to make sure he was thrown off. His clothes were in pieces on the ground, and his bag was lying next to him. But it was right when he noticed the bag had not been on Corro, nor was it there before, did a strong aura flood out and overwhelm Chris, cutting his words off.
Almost instantly, Corro had moved in front of Chris with extreme speed that surpassed earlier, and brought his sword down towards Chris’ neck. Chris was able to block in time, but Corro moved behind him before Chris counter attack by intentionally placing blood on him, or even for the blood from Chris’ wound to spray out and hit him naturally. Chris moved to block the next strike, but it ended up taking off a leg and an arm instead. Chris used the blood to re-attach while shooting out hardened spikes to stab Corro repeatedly, but Corro was already further away.
Chris was still regenerating and couldn’t chase after, but instead Corro touched the small pouch and a strange interface made of magic light appeared. He took out a spare change of clothes, a T shirt, an overshirt with a hood, some shorts, and a pair of long pants. He quickly put on the lighter clothing first, and then the heavier clothing. It seemed weird given his berserk pace before, but after he finished getting dressed, the only thing he did not replace being his shoes and socks, he stared back at Chris. And that was when he saw Corro’s eyes. They had begun glowing bright red, and held an ominous feeling. Because Corro disabled him and then took the time to get dressed, he thought Corro had maintained a calm mind. But looking into those eyes, he understood. The boy from before was looking down on him, with hatred but also with a bit of despising.
“I can let go of a lot of things. Thanks to my parents, who raised us properly, I can take quite a bit, and even if I get angry I can maintain some level of rational thought and reason higher then most. However…there is no fucking way I am letting you live after saying you would do that to Quail”.
With a heavy voice as his eyes glowed bright red, Corro spoke to him with a voice mixed of coldness and rage. But even then, despite all that, that cute smile he always had on his face was still there. It gave Chris an uneasy feeling. Although Chris had suspicions from how he behaved, it was true that the clothing Corro put on was also Armor Grade. But it was not armor meant for training. It was meant for worst case scenario combat, and also winter when it got cold. If Corro wore this armor for too long in the warmth of summer, he might die from other reasons.
He also used this time to instill a level of fear from his own aura of rage and bloodlust.
“So, I will make sure your death is put to use!”
(So, although I hoped it would be shorter by about 1k words or so, its done! And no more NPCs other then the enemy! That is right people! Anyways, my next post will be concluding combat and feature the escape, so that we can start the actual adventure! Because we are still in the prelude! Anyways, lets do this people! ROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRR!)