Cult

"Wow, the beasts became weakling the closer we got to Tsige," Cloud said the hot wind blew away from the path of the dead Cerberus that fell to the ground after he severed its 2 heads from its body.

"Teah, well the beasts are higher leveled the further you get from the Tsige base," Briggs said after regaining his breath a swiping away the deluge of sweat covering his face. "I'm surprised you came to the edge of the world with no idea what was waiting for you here."

"Ha!!! As if a hero like me would worry about small things like that." He rapped his knuckle on the cuirass he wore under the ripped haori. "After all, a hero always gets what he needs to continue fighting."

He thinks himself a 'hero'? Doubt he does not know there are actual real heroes chosen by the goddess. I think it's more like an other-worlder by the goddess than a hero actually saving people.

The regular people might think of this guy as a hero and it might have gone to his head but by the way he is acting I highly doubt it.

In the distance we could see the walls of Tsige's base, however, it might also be a marriage from the heat. We had been walking and fighting for hours giving me confidence it actually was the base.

"Come on, we are almost there." I held Briggs by throwing his right arm over my shoulder and helping make it the rest of the way. "We are almost there man, keep it together a bit longer."

"H-hey Entei... got any water for me?"He asked and struggled to take steps, I denied it since I had none left on me. "Oh look," He pointed to an area with some large spikes. "Look an oasis." The latter part came out as a whisper, as a wish or a final will said on your deathbed.

"Stay with us Briggs, stay with us!!!!" I had to pull him by force with me towards the town. "We will wait for you guys in the inn." My legs didn't feel much of a burden I threw him over my shoulder and took off towards the town.

---

The names Roshi and I just completed a solo quest. Haha.

It was quite a pain but those goblins were no match for these fists haha.

"Helloo, please find a free table, and I will be with you in a second!" The voice of the hot angle of this tavern resounded over all the chit-chat and clinking noise all the other customers made. 

After a quest like that, a man gotta treat himself. "Rumi brink me some more Ale!!!"

"That's enough for you. Maybe you can afford everything you drink this time but that's enough!" The hot tavern angel seems a little mad, I wonder why? It can't be because I grab a handful every time she passes by. Some guys looked like they wanted to fight when I did that, but they never muster up the guts. Cowards.

"Fine! If you don't want my money fine! There's another tavern around here anyway!" I drank the last ale in my tankard and let out a content sigh. I smacked my lips... and everything went black.

---

We made it back to the little town, village, or whatever it is called, still carrying Briggs on my shoulder I rushed to the nearest tavern which was one I had never visited before. Inside I looked for a free table, being somewhat early afternoon I expected the place to be a little more free than it actually was. Thanks to that it took me a few more seconds to find an unoccupied table to set my dehydrated passenger on.

"Helloo, please find a free table, and I will be with you in a second!" I heard a high-pitched feminine voice come from somewhere in the room. I had no idea where from but I did not want to stay standing and searching with a sack of meat on my shoulders.

"That's enough for you. Maybe you can afford everything you drink this time but that's enough!" The same voice of whom I guessed was the tavern maid drew my attention. The image of Yume popped into my mind when I saw her hair, being a mix of brown and red. However soon that image got taken up by the full image of this girl. She turned to take an order from another customer letting me see her side profile. I saw a blue eye, and freckles on her cheek and nose bridge. A cute upturned nose and full lips set in a cute angular face like Aerith from FF7 Remake gave her the look of the cute village girl. Going further down she lost all the cuteness and exchanged for 'I just met a succubus ' because these body proportions looked like they came straight out of a wet dream.

When she finally came to our table the other half of her revealed itself to me. Her eyes surprised me, the right side of her face looked just how I expected, however, her eyes surprised me since the right eye sparkled in a beautiful emerald green and the left eye in a beautiful sapphire blue.

"What can I get for you?" She asked with a unique high-pitched voice that was not grating on the ears, quite the opposite it was nice to listen in a sea of deep voices coming from all around the tavern.

"3 tankards of water for my friend here and one for me," I said pointing at a Dehydrated Briggs who for some reason looked like a mummy.

"OK, I'll be right back with the water." Her eyes glanced over Briggs and she left at a quick pace towards what I assumed was the kitchen.

"Fine! if you don't want my money fine! There's another tavern around here anyway!" The same guy with the grave voice said when she was on her way to get the drinks,

My eyes roamed the tavern while we waited to see if something caught my eye. My eyes paused on an adventurer, the place was full of them of course but this one almost had the complete image of a Shaolin monk. Bald head, orange with yellow robes but what broke the monk's image were the iron gauntlets he wore on his hands.

His table had no space for a plate of food as it was full of empty tankards. And he was about to finish another one, I thought he would try to get up and be all wobbly in the legs or simply pass out. He set the empty tankard down, let a content sigh, marked his lips and I heard 'K.O.' in my mind. My mind came to a stretching halt and then I burst out into laughter. The guy literally smacked his lip with his right palm but since his hand was covered in a thick layer of leather surrounded by metal, it was like landing a palm strike on the face of some drunk.

The tavern maid came back into the room with a wooden tray on her right hand and a tankard on her left hand, the tray had 3 more tankards. She dodged and weaved her way to our table with a pep to her step.

"Here are your drinks." She placed the one on her hand in front of me and the ones on the tray in front of Briggs one by one.

Briggs only waited for her to set sound one before snatching it up and downing it, almost making me think he would drown. The tavern girl and I stared at him, surprised by the recklessness of drinking so much water without pausing to get a breath In.

When he finished he let out a satisfied 'ah' and took in a big breath, "I'm alive!!!" He then looked at the girl, shifted to the side to get a better view of her butt. A moment after he he sat back to how he was before. "Well hello there beautiful."

She gave him a look as if a cockroach had just spoken to her, "Hi" She then moved her head to face me, "If you need anything else just call me, my name is Rumi." She gave me a full smile.

I gave her a nod and smiled, "We are waiting for the rest of our party, we will need your services then. I'm Entei it's nice to meet you."

She started humming a happy tune as she left to take another order.

"Dude..." Briggs just stared at me after saying that.

I ignored the star and slowly drank my water.

A little while later Jessie came in through the entrances, "Found them!"

---

In the middle of the road between Tsige and Rotsgard Obito and Rin sprinted down at their max speed.

Flashback

In the Gotetsu restaurant, a man in a purple uniform with a haori that had a slayer symbol written on its back was eating a chicken hot pot. The woman sitting with him ate a similar dish, she wore a modest light pink -almost white- and a red leather jacket over it.

"Why did you call us here in a hurry?" Obito sat opposite of him and started to dig in.

"Let's finish our dinner first." He caused his eating to say that before getting back to it.

"Don't worry it's worth it." The woman by his side said as she took small bites of her food.

"...Ok." Obito nodded his head in acceptance, took a seat, and started picking into the pot with 2 chopsticks,

Rin took a seat beside him, opposite of the other woman. They greeted each other and she joined in the feast.

After finishing the chicken hot pot Obita again asked his question.

"Obito what is the hurry?" The man asked in a languid yet joy-full and upbeat manner like seeing nothing urgent coming on the horizon.

"My son is 17, and powerful too. So I'm going to send him to participate in the slayer exam this year." Obito answered with pride dripping from him.

"Wait, wait, wait, what?!" The man slammed his hands on the table and stood up. "He is a child of you two right?" 

"But of course, he's is an awesome warrior that could only come from me," a small fire brid slammed into the back of his head. "And of course my wife." Rin grew a content smile on her face.

"You sure about this?" He asked in a serious voice, "You do know what they will say?"

"Yeah, I know. He can handle it. Now what did you want to tell me."

"Well the food is finished so I guess I will." He cleaned his mouth with a tissue before continuing, "They have been concentrating on any and all anti-goddess cults throughout the kingdoms. Every time they send a couple of mid to low-level fighters but always a lower moon to obliterate the worshipers we don't know if they interrogate or take some with them since everyone we have sent so far dies. Keep an eye open in case there is any part of the cult in Tsige, getting information of who is their leader is crucial."

"Oh, well guess I will need to send him on his way as soon as I can." Obito and Rin got up ready to leave when the man stopped him.

"Since you are going to send your kid to take the test take this sword to him," he threw a sheath katana towards him. "Have him use it until he gets a personal smith to forge him one"

"I will and thank you." He gave him a small head bow and rushed out.

Rin also thanked them and Ran after him.

"You forgot to warn them about the slayer we sent days ago." The woman reminded him of the detail he knew he forgot to mention.

"Ah, I knew there was something at the tip of me tongue" She gave him a little shove. "Eh they will be fine, let's order another one."

A yawn ripped out of her mouth, her left hand shot up to rest on top of it. "I am too tired, I'm going home."

"Ok, I will join you later," He said and waved over to the waitress to order something.

Flashback end

Rin from behind him asked, "Are you sure you don't want to stay a bit, he is your boyfriend after all, you didn't even mess around with him this time?"

"Entei is in danger. There is a part of the cult in Tsige and we, you and me are away so sorry if I cut it short but we have to get back fast." She yells 'my baby' before gaining speed.

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Word count 2144

If there are any grammatical errors let me with a comment on the paragraph.

Thank you guys. I appreciate your reading so far.