A New Word Part 2

The atmosphere felt heavy and oppressing for Laena as she stood uncomfortably around a rectangular table. The small space that the tent offered didn't help to disperse the feeling she got thanks to the other members of the meeting. Her only savior were Andrew since she knew him but couldn't let it be known and Leon who waved at her when she entered.

The apprentice paladin seemed quite happy to see her. He had been forced by Alikio to stick with the carriages and the holy knights and hadn't been able to wander around in order to see his friends. Furthermore, she and Fyorn didn't want to come to this meeting since they found it boring and asked him to debrief them later. Laena stood next to him while smiling back, bringing a smile to his lips too. Then, she studied the other members of the assembly who were giving off this heavy feeling.

Next to Andrew was standing a massive beastman high of at least 2 meters. A well trimmed mane which had the color of a blazing fire was furnishing his neck and the side of his head. He seemed proud of it and showed off his lion-like features with a grin on his face. Two cat ears were pointing on the top of his head and attracted Laena's attention. Beastmen were all different : some had only animal ears while the others were more animals than men.

And that was what he was. His face was akin to a lion's one and the only difference was that in his only eye shone intelligence and wisdom. The other one was closed as a long scar ran on his face from his forehead to his cheek while passing on his eyelid. His body was also impressing as he stood with only a pant on him, allowing everyone to see his thick muscles hiding under the yellow fur that covered his whole skin.

His right shoulder hadn't any arm attached to it and yet he seemed completely fine with it. His other arm was quite muscled but didn't show off any unnecessary mass. Instead, you could feel the strength he had inside of it and in his clawed hand when he moved them. At first, Laena found him scary but when she looked in his amber eye all she saw was kindness and tiredness. Not the usual exhaustion though, what she had seen was the one you accumulated through your life until your breaking point.

Next to him was standing a knight in golden armor who was seemingly annoyed by the fact that Ashley was bigger than him. Many precious stones were embed in the pommel of his sword which was hanging by his side. The flashy color of his plate armor and the fact that it had been polished to the point that it shone when a small light reflected itself on it was quite disturbing but the worst part for Laena was the feeling she got from him.

She had already seen him before once but didn't think much of it. However, this time her observations were sharper and her instinct took up the same things as she saw. He seemed to be bored out of his mind as he stood there and was seemingly annoyed too. His handsome face was distorted by a frown and while he seemed quite similar to Gabriel in appearance their attitude were a world apart. The former seemed to be pouting and waiting to go back to his toys while the latter had a dignified and serious expression, seemingly waiting a few seconds for everyone to get accustomed to the others.

'What the hell is he doing here...? That's an angry child's face, not an A rank's one dammit !' Laena thought while sighing internally before moving her inquisitive gaze toward the most interesting individual.

The silent one. That was his or her's nickname as this person never spoke a single word and always communicated with a piece of paper and charcoal. He was standing there, his face hidden by his deep green cloak and a dark face mask. Only two dark eyes could be seen from the small interstice since the hood of the cloak was quite deep and covered everything else.

His stature was quite normal as he didn't seem particularly muscular or thin under his heavy cloak which was covering him nearly perfectly. From an interstice on his torso Laena saw that he was wearing a leather armor and his green jacket. She also saw the metallic shine of what seemed to be a dagger before the silent one turned away warily, noticing her inquisitive gaze.

This surprised the elf as she thought that she had been quite stealthy but she let this weird happening disappear in the depth of her mind as Gabriel finally spoke, breaking the tense silence around them. Andrew had been especially stressed out, sweating heavily as he thought that remembering this meeting would be a primordial task for him. However, he had a bad memory and knew it only too well, bringing him to wonder if Jack wouldn't erase him if he did some mistakes.

"My dear companions, thank you for having answered our call. As you have probably noticed, here are only the sharpest swords of Dragard. Allow me to do the presentations : As you already know this man next to me is Leon, an apprentice paladin who is devoted to serve the God of Light and is really well if I dare say. This beautiful silver haired elf is miss Laena Brathadh, also known as the Dragon Slayer." Hearing this had surprised the other A rank adventurers since they had never heard of this newcomer.

Ashley simply nodded and grinned a little, revealing his fangs, after having stared in her emerald eyes for a few seconds. The silent one didn't openly react but still studied the elf with a little more attention than before while Giorgio seemed to notice how weird it was only a few seconds later.

"You? Where do you come from exactly? How is it possible that I don't know an A rank for Dragard?" He asked, outraged.

"I'm C rank and I'm a new adv-" Laena tried to reply before he interrupted her.

"Ooooh alright everything make sense now. It's a lie this rumor hohoho. Well tried shitty elf but you'll need more than that to beat my near godlike intelligence. Now then, let's kick her out, she isn't worthy of being in our presence ." He started before an heavy hand fell on his shoulder, its grip nearly bending the metal.

"To me, you are the one unworthy. You can't even recognize a true fighter when you see one, Golden Coward." Ashley sneered in a deep and low voice. Andrew was thinking about intervening too when Gabriel spoke in order to quieten everyone.

"Now then, let's take a deep breath and relax a little everyone. Laena deserve her title since the source is an ocular witness which is here with us. Am I right Leon?" Seeing the paladin nod made Giorgio realize his blunder. Yet, he wasn't about to let this outrage go away without anyone getting punished.

"Release me you filthy beast !" He said, trying to move away Ashley's hand and then claim that he had scratched his armor. Yet, the beastman didn't budge at all when the man's golden gauntlet grabbed him.

"First, apologize to our host and this lady." The lion replied quietly. Giorgio tried to wriggle his way out but the massive hand was akin to stone and refused to budge no matter what. This impressed everyone else and particularly Laena and Andrew who suddenly found the former information much more believable now.

"Gentlemen, enough." Gabriel ordered in a dryer tone. Ashley simply nodded and lifted his fur-covered hand while the other interested simply sneered but obeyed too.

The holy knight then finished the presentations before explaining them why he had reunited them in this tent. The meaning had already been guessed by everyone but they still waited for him to say it.

"Your strength is a strategic resource for us. As such, we wanted to make ourselves sure that you would be at the best positions to produce the best work possible. Furthermore, if you know our plan first you will be able to be more efficient and reinforce the key emplacements of our formation. As you have heard earlier, our target is a village of heretics who have decided to follow a "Dark Lord."" He nearly spitted those last words as wrath deformed his face.

"Our original plan is to encircle this cursed place, making ourselves sure that none of these people who have fallen out of the right path will be smitten and sent to Svet for him to judge them. Silent one, we will also need you to do the scouting for us before we send the assault. We have no best scout than you and time will be short if we don't want any of them to run away." The quiet assassin simply made an "ok" sign with its gloved hand before returning it to the depth of its cloak.

"Good. The others, you will be deployed a key points of the lines like I told you earlier. We can't really decide that in advance so I'll have to ask you to follow the holy knights' order when we'll be getting ready to purge this hellish village." He was about to continue when Andrew raised his hand.

"Hmm?"

"Do you know when we will reach our target's location?" The stressed knight asked.

"In about four days I guess. This bring us to the next point : As you have seen, monsters are appearing from the depth of Hell and want to stop our holy task by shaving our ranks. This may be a power of this evil god they worship so be careful and please, do your best to protect everyone. After all, we are all brothers and sisters." Gabriel concluded with a smile. Then, he told them that he would call them if he needed anything and that if they had any suggestions his tent was always open. The same thing was applied if they needed any information about Svet.

Unsurprisingly, everyone politely declined and slowly left the tent. While she started to walk toward her resting place Laena stopped since a deep and now familiar voice called her. Turning around, she saw the one eyed lion walk toward her with a small grin on his face.

"Excuse me if I bother you, miss Brathadh but I have a favor to ask you. Would you hear it?" He asked calmly. Yet, his eyes betrayed him and showed that he was quite excited.

"First, you can call me Laena, I don't mind such bothersome formalities. I would be happy to be able to help you too but... For what exactly?" The elf replied a bit confused.

"I would love to invite you to a duel. Tasting the Dragon slayer's strength would be incredible. Please fight me !" He was clearly agitated and excited. Seeing him like this surprised Laena since this was quite far from the character she had seen so far. Yet, she found the idea interesting since it would allow her to empty her head, train and see how strong he was at the same time.

'Three birds with one stone.' She thought while replying :

"Well.. I'm alright with this yeah. Where and when though? I also need to go and grab my sword then. Or do we use wooden weapons?"

"No, let's use the real ones. We're skilled enough to avoid killing each other no?" He joked with a wry grin at the corner of his mouth.

'This reminds me Jack...' Laena thought while she got the location of her duel with him. He had kept it simple and simply proposed to do it outside the circle and to meet each other in front of Gabriel's tent with their weapons in 30 minutes. It wasn't by choice but simply since it was the only marking point they knew in this makeshift camp.