The lure of adventure (part III)

As Selie had already seen, behind the counter laid access to an inside court, a space almost as big as the one that Thirteen had seen in Etgas’ property.

The ground wasn’t paved it was like a big messy barren field, the only odd thing was it was covered by the building roof for some reason.

A long balcony held up by a wooden column circled it all, Thirteen noticed it since a certain commotion and chatter started echoing into the court, coming from there.

The people in the tavern had left their places and were observing from there, even the two adventurers that had backed up the receptionist were there, staring in silence.

“ Marvellous, we’ve got an audience.” grumbled Thirteen “Now what, we sing and dance for all to see? I’m tone-deaf just so you know.”

Braska looked at him narrowing his eye.

“What now? You seemed to enjoy yourself, being at the centre of attention before.”

Thirteen shrugged a little with a neutral expression

“It was on my terms, oh well, I guess I will have to oblige in giving them the show they want. So, what are we supposed to do?”

Braska clapped and four men that donned clothes with the same colour pattern as Rhea showed up, bringing up two big wooden weapons racks that moved on wheels.

There was one representative from each weapon humans could wield, from knife to two-handed zambato, from sickle to scythe, there were spears, iron knuckles and bows too.

At a closer inspection, all weapons that needed an edge had none, they were all blunt props like they weren’t meant to hurt more than needed.

“Pick up a weapon.” Said Braska “come at me, one at a time, try to get a hit off me using whatever kind of weapon and style you are more familiar with.”

“Wait a moment!” Protested Thirteen “I said I am a magician! There’s no point in me using a weapon, is there?”

Braska sighed, yes it was another of those “Listen, it doesn’t matter how much mana you have, there are situations in which you can’t use magic. Classical example? You’re ambushed and engaged in close quarters, that’s the usual way a mage gets felled. There are others in which you shouldn’t, I mean you don’t throw a gigantic fireball when you or your friend are engaging the enemy in close quarters. Last time someone wanted it checked he discovered mages were flammable too.”

Thirteen made an expression as he understood, then he looked at Selie and at the Knight called Xindi that followed them.

“Care to give us an example on how you deal with those exercise situations? I mean you wouldn't want us to create another disaster, right miss Xindi?”

Xindi exhaled audibly under her full metal helmet.

“Even if you ask, it’s not like I can do whatever just because I am a royal knight. Anyway, I can ask, will you allow a little demonstration, Braska?”

-he has ways with words, that I can concede.-

Braska sighed, taking from the rack a sword with a similar shape to the one at the waist of the knight.

Then he took a big shield and wielded it before throwing the weapon in front of the knight.

“Please go easy on me miss knight”

He hadn’t the time to end his sentence than the knight had picked up the sword, rushed him pointing the weapon at his neck in a charge.

It happened almost in the blink of an eye, it wasn’t even like she was wearing the heavy suit of armour she was.

Her form was perfect, an example of the kingdom’s swordsmanship; there wasn’t much of a wasted move.

-Geez so much for going easy, should I take her seriously too?-

Braska sighed, normally he would have allowed a hit from someone on that level of skill and polish to end it there, but he wanted her to show a little bit more of her skills.

“Easy I said, do you wanna kill me?” He said, backing away and using his shield to try and deflect her charge, but as he predicted she adjusted her movement, trying to circle his guard on his blind side, her ability to change her impetus midway was nothing to joke about.

Without magic or his gear, it was difficult to keep up with her, but he wasn’t the guild-master for show only, he had experience under his belt.

He pivoted on his artificial leg and tried to bash her with his shield as she swung her sword at him.

He met her sword, but the swing was lighter than expected, he managed to disarm the knight, no it was more her dropping the weapon.

Xindi avoided the shield speeding up further and faked a punch coming straight for his face, only to stop a hairbreadth from his nose.

“That’s one way you can do it” She calmly stated, extending a finger clad in metal to tap his nose, a thing he allowed her to do.

He could avoid it, given the speed at which the attack came, but it was clear that she held the advantage in both training and strength over him even if she was half his size, with her armour on.

Thirteen whistled audibly, and then clapped slowly, while Selie was astonished by the show of prowess of the knight.

“Then Selie, you’re next. Show me how a Pictoro warrior performs.”

Said Thirteen pointing at the weapon racks, making Braska Frown.

“Oi!” He said “Aren’t you a man? Are you gonna make women do all the heavy lifting for you?”

Thirteen chuckled, apparently he didn’t buy his taunt.

“Come on, she said she was a warrior, her chance to prove herself.”

“And when will yours come?” Asked Braska, making him shrug it off.

“I will be outperformed, that’s obvious.” He smiled “I don’t see myself moving that fast or be that precise.”

“Don’t you have any pride as a man, as a hero?” Growled Braska quite irritated at him.

“Oh, you are one of those” Chuckled Thirteen moving forward, as he put away his cards “One that thinks there’s no point in living if you throw away your pride. Am I wrong?”

He asked picking out a spear, and going to Selie, offering the weapon to her.

“I say that protecting a man’s pride is a woman’s duty”

As she took the weapon he patted her back, as to push her forward, however, Braska noticed it was a sleight of hand of sorts, he slid something on her back.

It was a good sleight of hand, he noticed only because he was still focused on both and not only him, it made him raise an eyebrow because he could faintly feel his magic.

“Yeah, I think something along those lines, more than that I know that there are times in which you’re asked to take a stand, putting your life on the line. That’s kind in the hero’s job description. “

Thirteen chuckled looking at Xindi now “Don’t I just know that…”

He mused at her and then noticed that Selie was trembling, frozen in spot; he didn’t seem to realize himself but beast-man was very sensible to magic.

Braska knew exactly how eerie that hero’s mana was, after all, he felt it a couple of times, it was a trade-off of dark aligned mana after all.

Braska had experienced thousands of magic casters deploying their magic, so he knew even better than the standard mage.

There wasn’t a single time dark aligned magic evoked a good feeling in him, and even more so in the case of Thirteen, since the unstable power, he evoked only enhanced feelings of dread and foreboding.

So he could perfectly understand how that scared the girl, even if whatever purpose he had, harm wasn’t contemplated, for now.

“Come on, Selie, don’t you wanna show those fellas how a Pictoro fights?”

Thirteen encouraged the scared girl that nodded and exhaled, trying to calm herself down, and moved.

There wasn’t the polish of an expert warrior, it was more like a hunter’s move set, somebody who needed to chase prey and bring it down.

Braska thought she was pretty decent for a beginner, at least she had some basic down; he noticed by her movements she had been shoed, it was a weird choice it was kind of a trade-off.

She could move about into town without too much fear of damaging her hooves, but her natural hoof wasn’t that of a horse, it was split in the middle.

This meant that she had two digits rather than one on the ground and could balance on those her weight.

Having a single ring of steel on which to balance hindered her natural sense of balance and movement somewhat.

She wasn’t as quick as Xindi, but rather than taking a direct approach she added some feints here and there that were based on instinct rather than practice.

So her shoe hindered her in those, in how she managed her weight, but all in all, it could be said that it was a reasoned exchange to be able to move about on man-made surfaces, only not on her part.

Her spear technique on the other hand was more unique and less awkward, she was reasonably practised on that kind of weapon, her lunge was good and reasonably dangerous, Braska opted to be coherent and defended seriously.

Selie had both a bad footing and a worse balance at the moment, this meant she couldn’t react how she wanted and was about to get seriously hurt.

Braska couldn’t stop midway and Selie could only brace for impact at the best of her possibilities.

It happened then, he felt that fear, his stomach turning upside down, and the next thing he saw was his shied shattering on a floating shining card.

A magical circle shone on the back of the card, light glowing where the figure would have been made impossible to see what it was.

It wasn’t exactly a sturdy shield nor a good one, still, a card couldn’t normally splinter wood, or break steel for that matter.

The only good point was that the impact took almost all the momentum of his swing and Braka could avoid having his arm come into contact with the floating card.

He didn’t dare think what would have happened to his arm had he proceeded with his swing, he looked at Thirteen, a snicker on his face turning into a big smile.

Thirteen raised his right arm and two fingers, and the card flung itself into his hand, his mana felt like an unstable, menacing presence growing ever stronger as the card touched his fingers.

On the surface of the card not covered by that glowing magic circle, Braska could see the figure of a skeleton holding a scythe and performing the act of mowing a field in the light he couldn’t previously see through.

The power released by Thirteen swung wildly in intensity, from calm to seemingly ready to swallow and annihilate everything at a moment’s notice.

Braska had seen mages in such a state before, they had lost control of their power and were swallowed by it along with anything that was near them.

Killing the mage didn’t help, if anything in some cases it worsened the situation, making the panicked mage try and focus such power into a spell had proven to be nothing short of a catastrophe able to change the layout of the landscape.

If there was one, that was the reason a warrior of such skill as Xindi was tiptoeing around Thirteen; then again the power seemed somewhat stable in that state.

“Even so, being able to protect a woman, is a man’s pride. Or so they say, anyway. Seems like that you still haven’t figured how to balance yourself, Selie.”

“Thirteen, you weren’t supposed to use magic, remember?” Asked a worried Xindi, her hand on the grip of her sword.

Thirteen smiled but there wasn’t happiness in his expression; it was so obvious in the fight that even he had figured that out, he put the card away and so his magical presence faded away as it was never here in the first place.

To Braska it was proof Thirteen somewhat was in control of that swinging, swirling primal mess of a power he could unleash.

-What the heck, I never felt mana able to change like that, it’s like it doesn’t have a shape but it’s forced into one-

Braska couldn’t wrap his head around that, he could ask later, after all, Thirteen continued his chatter.

“Sorry, no need to be that serious miss worrywart, I was only making a point here” He chuckled looking more at Selie than her.

The girl was as surprised as Braska and more scared than him by the magical presence evoked by the hero, even in protecting her.

“After this try, what do you think? Shall we continue with the shoe or shall we limit ourselves to resetting those hooves of yours? “

“Why did you save me, again?” Growled Selie “You are human! You are the hero, you are supposed to kill those like me!”

Thirteen laughed “Sadly, I am human indeed. That’s pretty much the reason I saved you. There’s not much you can do about it. Curse that if you wish, but after all, I still require you. You aren’t supposed to die just yet.”

He moved to the weapons rack and took out a katana, making a couple of swings to grasp the balance of that weapon.

It was a weapon introduced by the first King of Cesio, given the vast array of choices he had there was no way it was coincidental or so Braska and many others were led to think.

Braska had another shield brought to him by an attendant, as he secured his grip on it he looked at Thirteen

“Before we begin, I’d like to know if Selie passed her examination or not”

Braska sighed at the request of the hero, it wasn’t weird to care, but judging by the tone of his voice it didn’t seem like he cared.

“I’ll tell you both after the exam is over, Thirteen”

Thirteen clicked his tongue, sighing “Are you sure? I never tried swinging a weapon seriously yet, I might kill you. It would be a pain in the ass to do it all over.”

A burst of laughter rose from the audience making the hero raise an eyebrow, but he hadn’t the time to think it again, Braska charged him.

Braska had lost it, he recalled his magic power-boosting his already trained body and lunged at him hitting him straight in the gut and then again in the face.

Thirteen didn’t even try to resist, he simply smiled letting go of the blade before even getting hit for some reason.

He was lifted from the ground and swung at the nearby wall, smashing through the wood like it wasn’t even there.

Only then did Braska realize he hit way harder than he wanted to, but the deed was done, the hero had been hit full force.

Even without a weapon, a hit like that was bound to have dire consequences, but before he could think about those he saw Selie wanting to run away in the opposite direction from where Thirteen had landed.

It was like she instinctively felt her life in danger if she didn’t put any distance between her and that man.

The laughter and chatter from above stopped soon after, as they realized what was happening. When they felt it too.

Braska focused, cursing the fact that he hadn’t brought down his battle gear and had to make do with what he had at the moment.

Even Xindi brought out her sword trembling at the sight she had to see from behind her steel helmet.

Thirteen had come out of the crack in the wall his body caused, he was badly bruised, his clothes torn by the splintering wood that had left some part in his flesh.

Blood was dripping from his nose and mouth, dirtying his long beard and clothes even further but the scariest part for them was his magic power, only an undead would have his magic power move his body.

Had the hero died and come back? Could a hero join the ranks of the undead?

Those were the kind of questions prompted by that dark power manifesting to move that flabby body again.

Thirteen brought his hand to his mouth collecting blood on his fingers, he looked at his right hand as if in disbelief of seeing blood.

Then he laughed long deep laughter that made him cough a little of blood in the end as his magic rose even further, focusing more and more.

As the aura focused more the sensation became dreadfully clear, it was like that aura called forth the fear of dying.

Thirteen moved as he removed the splinters from his body like he felt no pain, but his blood still flowed like a living person would, so Braska had to at least try.

“Oi, you’re still alive?”

He asked Thirteen that nodded “Sadly for you all, yeah. I guess this concludes the argument about me being unable to fight melee” He looked at Xindi, smiled “I do hope you brought a healer along”

He said, cutting out his magic and falling flat on the ground, like a rag doll; Braska ran to check on him, he had suffered less damage than he thought, but he still had some broken bones and cuts.

All they could do now for him was to call a healer and let him rest and recover, it couldn’t be otherwise.