Violence

“I… I don’t think I want to come with you guys tomorrow.” I told them both, after they revealed to me, that I was supposed to join them on their hunt.

“Oh, it will be fine, Tepin, we have done this hundreds of times.” Olgore responded.

“It has become quite the normal routine for us, true.” Dust said.

That did not convince me. At all.

“It’s not like you will have to fight. Just lean back and enjoy the show.” Olgore told me, part of me was interested in seeing them in action, but still, I might put myself in danger.

“I will think about it, okay, we can talk about it tomorrow.” With that said, I started constructing a spell that would allow me to hover around. Something I didn’t have time for last night. As it finished, the rota connected by lines of mana were visible around me, buzzing with energy, lifting me into the air. Purring mana into specific rota that are part of the spell lets me control my flight.

As I flew over to the night table, which had a pillow placed on it. They both stared at me with blank faces on their faces. Dust’s mouth was slightly agape. I rather enjoyed the sight.

“You can fly? I know specters can, but soulcores?” Dust asked after he recovered from what he had seen.

“Yup, and goodnight.” Surprisingly enough, they left me alone. That was nice of them. I was mentally tired after having constructed my core throughout the last night and then going shopping for almost an entire day. I would have to think about whether I would join them tomorrow.

With a crackling noise, I let my flying spell break apart into little specks of mana. With glowing particles drifting around me, I drifted off into “sleep.”

Bright light hit me, slowly rattling me awake from my sleep. My pillow was gone! Taken from me! Theft! Now, instead, the smell of leather surrounded me. I found myself strapped into the side pocket of a backpack. Still not completely aware, I looked at my surroundings. I found myself on the back of Olgore, who was walking beside Dust. To our left was a vast field, covered in yellowed dry grass. To our right was a forest, with large trees that had sharp-looking green needle-like leaves hanging from them. Flowing along the road to the right, beside the wall of green, was a little river.

Taking it all in, I realized it. No, they didn’t. They had taken me on their hunt without asking me again. My core flared up in a bright purple, small sparks of mana shooting out of me. I cast my flying spell once more and escaped the pocket I sat in. Quickly, I flew around Olgore right in front of them, my eyes furrowed.

“How dare you just take me without asking first!” I screamed.

They stopped walking and looked at me, but didn’t answer. They didn’t even look guilty.

“What the hell! Answer me.” I continued to yell.

“Did you lose the ability to speak? Or do you think simply taking me and then just ignoring me is going to make this any better?” I was fuming. How could they? And why did they ignore me?

Oh…

I forgot to cast the communication spell…

Alright, that was embarrassing, but they didn’t know that I had screamed to myself

“Did you just scream at us without the communication spell active?” Olgore said, deadpanned.

“Ugh, I did not.” I responded.
They both looked at me, and I could see the doubt lingering behind their eyes.

“That wasn’t important here! You took me against my will. What the fuck!” I yelled. They both cringed from the tirade I unleashed into their mind; it must have echoed through their entire body. That cooled me down a bit, my sphere growing less bright. That’s what you get for bringing me on a hunt for some mana-beast running amok against my will.

“Tepin, we tried to wake you up, but it was impossible. We wanted to ask you, but we couldn’t wait that long anymore. And leaving you back in the city, after you told us how much you wanted to go out again, felt wrong. It’s already midday.” Dust explained.
Oh, it was already that late in the day? I hadn’t expected that I could be knocked out for so long. My core turned from purple to a warmer blue. My anger dissipated since they had thought about me.

“Alright, alright, it’s fine, I guess.” I said.

“Don’t worry about it, Tepin, after all, we are B rank adventurers. You are safe with us.” Olgore said as he punched his chest.

“Hmm, I hope so. Well, how do ranks work anyhow?” I asked.

“Okay, from highest to lowest, there are 5 ranks S, A, B, C, and D. Everyone starts at D. The more assignments you do, the higher your rank. A higher rank means more benefits from Eventyr. Better, more exclusive assignments with higher pay and, as you know, free lodging at every branch of theirs.” Olgore explained.

That was all well and good, but.

“Why use the letter S as the highest rank? That’s just stupid.” I answered.

They both shrugged in unison.

After a small while in silence, I asked them.

“Where are we heading?”

“Currently, we are on a less-traveled road to Shade’Hill, a city in the east.” Dust told me.

“I see, one more question. Is there a central government? Or is every city a state in itself?” I asked Dust.

“Ah, it is easy to forget that you don’t know basic stuff. We are in a country called the Republic of Inas. And yes, the city we are coming from is the capital. Actually, Inas is one of the only few republics; most countries have a monarchy.” Explained Dust.

“I see.” I fell silent. They started talking with each other, but I didn’t listen.

Monarchies, huh? That was an ancient concept in my world. We had a unified government for the whole planet.

I looked at the surrounding nature, heard birds sing their songs, and the wind rustled the dry grass. Being able to be outside and enjoy this little bit of freedom made me happy. There were no people on the road, so I did not even need to hide. Olgore must have put me into the outside pocket after leaving the city. That was more considerate of him than I had expected. Yet, seeing my surroundings made me sad that I had no body letting me feel all this.

Ah, the body problem, something I was planning on rectifying. One day, I would be able to eat again, walk on my own two feet! But for that to happen, I would need to spend my evenings working on a rota construct that would allow me to create a mana construct acting as a body. It probably won’t have everything an actual body had, but I might be able to throw in some senses and the ability to speak. Sadly, considering nobody here knew what a Kirin was, I would probably have to make that body look elfen or human. Constructing a complex spell like that and making sure it was safe wasn’t easy and would take me some time. I vowed to myself that I would start working on this project today!

While thinking about this, I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. Uh, I mean flight pass. In short, I bumped into a tree, and the next thing I heard was.

“Ha, I told you she would do that, when she gets distracted, Dust!” Olgore said, looking triumphant.

“I guess you win…” A disappointed-looking Dust said.

“And now hand over the coin!”

Wait, I was used for a stupid bet. Oh, come on! It was almost like I was back at university. I floated a bit closer to the river and cast a small spell, letting me pick up some of the water. Carefully, I split the liquid into two small balls and made them hover over both of their heads. Ready to bring those two a wet surprise. Small droplets of water already started escaping the two floating spheres.

Revenge shall be mine!

But just when I dropped the water balls, they suddenly stopped, and my plan missed its mark. The two water spheres dropped to the ground with no target below them and just splashed apart. Nooo, my revenge! I was confused. Why did they stop so suddenly? Then I noticed that Olgore had drawn his large axe. And Dust had readied a spell, purple sparks coiling around his hand that slowly turned a bright green. Again, he hadn’t used rota, I should ask him about that. That’s when I looked in the direction they were staring at.

There were several rough-looking men clad in leather armor standing in the middle of the road before us. All of them holding weapons. Clubs, swords, and one especially large guy even held an axe similar to Olgore. They did not look friendly.

“Dust, I think there is a chance we found the beast, or I suppose beasts.”

“Hey!” the guy with the axe started talking.

“If you want to live, how about you give us everything you have. And I don’t want you to misunderstand me, I mean everything. Including the armor on your skin.”

Then I was plugged out of the air by Olgore. “Well then, time to get this party started!” he said and then threw me away towards the river, while going into a sprint.

A small splash splattered little droplets all around me when I landed.

Then all hell broke loose.

I picked myself up before the current could wash me away. I quickly looked around to see what was happening. Multiple large tendrils were breaking apart the flattened earth of the road. Rushing towards the men, trying to grab them around their ankles. When I looked at the source of that magic, I saw Dust, hands outstretched, mana turned green oozing out of them into the earth below. Meanwhile, Olgore had already sent two of them flying, and they had crashed into a tree. That must have hurt.

I was so preoccupied with their fight that it took me a while to notice that there was another one of them. And he was running beside the river towards me!

“What do we have here? Wait, are those eyes?” He was pointing at me with his sword, still moving towards me.

Fuck, what do I do.

“Olgore… Dust… Help!” I screamed and looked in their direction, but in the heat of battle, they did not hear me.

No no no, he was coming closer and closer. I need to defend myself, but how? As fast as I could, I went through the possible spells I could use., I went for the most basic thing I could think of. Pure mana slightly compressed into a ball, propelled by gravity towards the enemy! It wasn’t necessarily a combat spell, but it might do the trick? This was the first time I needed to use magic this way. When I saw him closing in on me, I started casting, quickly! There was no time to think further about this!

I pushed a lot of mana into the spell, hoping to make it stronger, and let the rota do their work. They compressed the spell into an unstable mass, ready to explode at any time. Sparks of purple mana started to shoot out from it in any direction.

“It’s casting magic?” he swung his sword towards me.

Then the last rota came into existence with a buzzing sound. Too stressed to even aim, I just released the spell.

A loud, deafening sound assaulted me, together with a blinding light. A shockwave threw me into the mud beside the river, spraying dirt everywhere.

Silence.

Was the fight over?

As the dust settled from whatever had just happened. I slowly hovered back up from the ground, looking over to where my attacker was. I found him still standing where he had reached out to grab me. At least his lower half. My spell seemingly hit its target head-on. His entire upper body was just gone.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Olgore and Dust just staring at the sight. Their fight seemed to be over, bodies scattered around them. Unmoving.

Shivering all over, I wasn’t able to stay steady where I was hovering. Slowly, shakingly, I flew back down to the ground. One thought was burning painfully in my mind.

I had taken a life?

A sickening feeling spread throughout me. The feelings felt like they were about to burst out of me. The sense of sickness overwhelmed me, I started shaking uncontrollably, my sphere turning a dark purple. Then I couldn’t hold it back anymore, I released an ear-piercing scream that rattled my mind to its core. Like a broken dam, everything just flowed out of me. My mana started going wild. Purple lighting curled around me.

This wasn’t what I wanted! I just wanted to defend myself. Not take a life! I hated this, I hated this world! I just wanted to go home! I wanted to see my family, my friends. I threw myself into the river, hoping it would wash away this feeling of wrongness. The sin that I had just committed. My mana grew more erratic, more and more purple lighting curling around me. Where it hit the water, pockets of steam formed. I was hearing voices in the distance telling me to calm down. But how could I! This was inexcusable! Those were the last things ringing through my mind before I fell unconscious and darkness embraced me.

For the first time in a long time, I dreamed. It wasn’t a good dream. In it, I saw myself casting spells, exploding people indiscriminately. I tried to stop myself, but couldn’t. It was like I was nothing more than a spectator. Slaughter all around me! Then even my dreams became exhausting enough to fade to black.

…

Consciousness found its way back to me. I felt exhausted, my core hurt, and it almost felt like I had sore muscles. At some point, I must have shut down all my senses. As I slowly opened myself back up to the world, a stone ceiling greeted me. Dust sitting beside me, I found that I was back on the small pillow on the bedside table.

Lifting up my still clouded consciousness, I spoke up.

“What happened?” He looked at me, worried. That’s when the memories came back to me.

“I, oh.” I wasn’t even able to speak. I felt sick again.

“Are you okay? No, of course you are not. That was stupid of me to ask. We should have made sure that you were safe before fighting them.” Dust looked towards Olgore, who was sitting on his bed on the other side of the room.

For a second, that distracted me. I didn’t expect the so rough-looking Draigkin to be capable of looking so guilty.

“We are often confronted with situations like that. It’s something we have accepted, and we see as necessary to keep this world safe. It was unfair of us to just bring you into a situation like that. If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me.” Olgore said.

The immediate shock of remembering what had happened was over. I still felt dirty, empty. I feel like I should be angry at them for putting me into the situation, but it felt like this was all my own doing. After all, what had kept me from running away?

“I, I am not… angry at you both. I just need time for myself, please.” I couldn’t say much more than that.

“Of course, we will leave you alone for now, but if you need anything, just ask, we will stay close enough so that the connection won’t break, okay?” Responded Dust.

“Thanks, Dust.” I responded, my voice almost breaking.

My world was one of peace. Of course, we had crime in Eriphynia, but rarely was I subject to it. This world was so different, roaming with criminals and monsters that would just attack on sight. I did not fit into it. I had regained my freedom for barely two days, and this world had already forced me to do something so heinous.

How would I continue from here? What I had done plagued me. Tormented me. I knew there wasn’t much else I could have done. An unnerving feeling arose in me. The mana within my sphere thickened, flowing more slowly. There was no time to think about my actions in that moment. Was there nothing else I could have done? No.

Still. The feeling of sickness wouldn’t go away.

I had to survive in this new world so one day I could return to my own, to my family.

There wasn’t much of a choice, right? I hadn’t just endured months of isolation, just to give up now. After this. That wasn’t me! I would endure this too.

A plan started forming within my mind. I would stay with those two until I got a better grip of the language. Learned enough about the world around me and had a body again.

Then I would go and set out to find a way back home!