First Quest

After making a short stop to where Wraith had brought my mother, Suki, and Akina's parents, I began to head South toward the village that had made the job request, making sure to check in with everyone before leaving as well. I had a decent amount of money in my inventory from a while back, so I gave it all to my mother so they could find some food to eat since Wraith was providing them with a pretty large house.

I moved silently as I ran through the plains and forests that dotted the landscape. I felt strangely invigorated after I had left the hospital that Akina was at, so I used my newfound strength to get to the village as quickly as possible, and get back to the hospital. I was a blur as I sped through a forest and burst out into a massive grassland. I stopped for a second to admire the foggy landscape as the sun had set behind the mountains.

I continued to run towards my destination as I conversed with Jack. 'So, how much longer until we get there? If I keep going at this speed then we should get there pretty quickly right?' I heard Jack let out a familiar beep before responding 'Well, we might get there in an hour or so if nothing comes up...' I sighed and said 'I swear, if you jinx us I'll k-' before I could finish my sentence, a group of people armed with guns and a varying amount of armor jumped from the tree-line.

'Goddamnit Jack...' I clicked my tongue and cursed silently as a scantily clad woman walked forward and said "Halt! No one passes without paying tribute. Fork over your money before we pry it from your cold fingers..." Her men pointed their guns at me and I burst out in a fit of laughter. I felt my stomach cramp up as I let all of my laughter out before turning serious.

In a split second, all of the men were decapitated and lying dead on the ground, some of them were even Guardians who had fallen from the Light. I turned to the woman, who was shaking with fear as her eyes widened in horror, and said "I'll be going now. Don't bother following me." before leaning down and getting ready to start sprinting again but, suddenly, a warm weight spread across my back as the woman's long hair dangled in front of my face.

She began to whisper something into my ear, but I heard nothing but the sound of my furious heart beating in my ears. I stood up, knocking her to the ground before turning my wrathful gaze to her. I drew Sol and brought it to her neck before effortlessly decapitating her without batting an eye.

I wiped the blood from Sol's edge and sheathed it before continuing my journey. The sounds of birds and crickets kept my mind from wandering as I paid attention to my surroundings, not wanting to find a bullet embedded into my calf. Jack's voice rang out in my head as he said 'Oh hey, look, we're here!' I looked forward and saw a large wall made of logs with a large wooden gate with guards stationed at the front. Torches lit the top of the wall with men lazily gambled to relieve themselves of their boredom.

I slowed down and needed the gate, drawing the attention of the guards in the process. They were wearing full suits of armor with auto rifles in their hands. The guard on my left pointed his rifle at me and asked "Who are you, and why have you come here!?" in a deep voice. I took the piece of paper I had taken from the board back at the House of Boars and shows it to the man.

He nodded and glanced at his partner, gesturing for him to open the gate with his chin soon after. The gate opened with a loud creaking sound, drawing the attention of many villagers, causing them to stick their heads out of their doors or windows to see who was entering the village at this time. Once they saw it was me, many sighed in disappointment and complained about me being a kid.

A guard jogged up to me and said "Excuse me, allow me to escort you to the Chief. He'll explain everything in detail." I nodded my head and followed along, keeping a close eye on the villagers who eyed me with contempt and frustration. I needed to remember their faces just in case. We walked up to a rather lavish house made out of expertly carved stone with at least two floors and a shingled roof.

The guard, a young man with blond hair and green eyes, bowed his head as he opened the door and gestured for me to enter. I walked through the fine wooden doors and glanced around at the chandeliers and lamps decorating the large living room. An old man with very little hair hobbled down the stairs as he leaned on a wooden cane.

I waited for him to speak and, after a while, he said "Greetings, young Guardian. I am Elder Javel. Please, follow me so I can tell you about the recent attacks." The old man's toothless mouth curled up in a kind smile as he slowly hobbled over toward a room to the side of the stairs he had just descended from.

I squinted my eyes slightly before following the old man into the room and taking a seat in front of a large wooden desk. The man sat down on the other side and pulled out a red folder before pushing it toward me, his grey eyes looking into mine with an indecipherable meaning. I grabbed the folder and opened it.

I saw many different pictures of a strange, black furred creature, but most of the pictures were blurry and taken as the creature was moving in the woods. I shook my head and asked "What, is this the thing that has been attacking your village recently?" The elder shook his head and said "Yes. The thing howls in the night and moves as silent as an Owl. I fear that this thing may not be an ordinary beast..." in a grave tone.

I raised a brow and asked "How do you know it moves silently? And how it might not be an ordinary beast?" The elder laughed lightly before responding. "It is because the thing makes no sound when it drags its victims away, at least none loud enough to wake the people sleeping next to the victim."

Now he had my attention. "Wait, you said that it dragged someone away and was even able to get past the people in the same room? Old man, have you ever thought that the suspect may be a Human, rather than a beast?" The old man's eyes turned dark as he cast his eyes to the ground and sat there in silence before muttering "Aye. I know that the beast is no Human because it was my wife that it took, while I was asleep next to her, it came and snatched her away from me..."

I felt my suspicions fall in an instant as I nodded my head in sympathy and said "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ca-" The old man smiled weakly as he put his hand up, stopping me from apologizing, before saying "Don't worry lad, just make sure you find that thing and kill it. It would mean much more to us than you could ever know."

I stood up and nodded my head before saying "Alright, I'll start my search after a few hours. I'd like to see if the beast will show up anytime soon." I turned and walked out of the room as Jack said 'Leo, something seems a little...off, don't you think?' I released a silent sigh before saying 'Yeah, something feels weird, but I don't think that the old man is the culprit. I need more information to make any calls, though.'

---

I sat on top of a branch high up in a tree as I kicked my leg back and forth with my chin in my palm. Boredom was consuming every fiber of my being. Jack kept turning the radar on and off every few minutes as I used a special ability I had concocted after seeing Wraith swat bullets aside while blindfolded.

I used Void energy to create a 'lens' around my eyes as I sent Arc energy throughout my body to enhance my natural senses, giving me a sort of slow-motion binocular vision, although it was very mentally exhausting to use, it was a pretty neat ability if I had to say so myself.

After waiting for three hours, I sighed and jumped down from the tree, barely stirring the leaves below when my feet hit the ground. 'Jack, keep the radar on for a few seconds...' No sooner than I said this, a large figure burst out from the brush and leaped toward me. I didn't even need to unsheathe Sol as I bat the figure away with my bare hands.

The figure whimpered before releasing a low growl and darting back through the brush. I immediately followed after and found the creature a few feet ahead of me and, when I went to speed up, the thing suddenly vanished like smoke being blown away in the wind. The radar began to slowly turn a lighter shade of red, indicating that the creature was fleeing.

I clicked my tongue and followed the creature using the radar, however, I couldn't keep it active for much longer. I sent Arc energy through my body and ran as fast as I could before appearing in front of the large, black furred creature. It looked like a large wolf, but it had two curving horns on the side of its head and its fur looked more like spikes than, well, fur.

The wolf growled and began to circle me slowly, looking for a chance to attack as well as flee. Suddenly, an idea popped up in my head. 'Wait, I can use this as an opportunity to polish my skills! I won't always have Sol at the ready, so I'll need to learn how to improvise...'

I felt an imaginary lightbulb light up in my head as I began to flood my hands with Solar energy before molding the energy into a sort of spiked glove shape. I ended up with two blades made of Solar energy jutting out from my fists, which filled me with a rather strong sense of pride for some reason.

The wolf snarled and bared its teeth as its body began to glow a purple hue. Its eyes turned a dark purple as its horns burst into purple flames, filling me with a sudden sense of nostalgia. I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I took a stance and waited for the wolf to make a move. I watched as the beast quite literally disappeared from sight, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on edge.

I spun and slashed out with my fire-clad hands and managed to draw a clean line across the wolf's face, just barely missing its eye. The beast yelped and jumped back as it spit out a glob of some strange purple substance. I sidestepped and watched as it landed on the ground and began to smoke and sizzle as it bore a hole straight through the hard, packed dirt.

Jack's voice rang out in my head as he said 'Leo, that's a special kind of poison that doubles as acid...so watch out.' A wry smile made its way onto my face as I said 'Yeah, thanks for the heads-up bud...' I could practically feel Jack's happiness as he responded 'You're welcome Leo! And people dared to call me useless." For some reason I couldn't help but feel that he had nodded and pat himself on the back...

I dodged another glob of acid before tossing out a concentrated ball of Void energy. I knew that I had to use Solar energy sparingly, since I was surrounded by trees, but I realized that I was at a severe disadvantage as the wolf literally ate my projectile and began to grow stronger.

"Well shit..."