Chapter 101: Handling Business And Emotions
Wolves howled and growled as they slowly climbed out of the hole I made. There were seven of them in total that emerged. From what seemed to be a younger looking one to an old and battered looking wolf.
Lilith instinctively braced herself, lowering herself into her FireKing style stance. She had herself standing in front of me, breaking the formation.
This caught Gerald's attention, as he gave her a look. "Lilith, keep the formation! Let me handle protecting Kota. You make sure these wolves are done." As he said that, he scooted his way in front of me, Moving Lilith out of the way.
As much as Lilith gave him an irritated look, she listened and looked at the wolves that were slowly pacing their way to us.
"Ok, here's the plan for dealing with Wolves." Gerald explained. "Once they start coming towards us, Lilith and Kale will break and keep them distracted as Kota casts a spell." He then looked back at me. "Kota, I'd advise using that Quicksand spell. It'll slow the wolves down, just make sure you don't get these two stuck in it."
"Then what?" I asked.
"Then, we can pick off the ones that are stuck. Making sure that we don't mess up their pelts that much. We still need their pelts for proof."
"Got it."
Seemed simple enough, just do what he said. Slow them down and quickly kill them. That means I'll probably need to use another earth Spell since all my other spells that I know would ruin the pelts…
I'm sure Kale and Lilith can handle the wolves as they come, maybe just my quicksand spell will be enough.
Just then, I heard the wolves looking closer. Their growls growed louder and they snapped their jaws at us. Two wolves came forward and eyed us four, the two wolves looking like a elderly one and a younger one. The rest began to move to the side, trying to circle us.
Actually, if Kale and Lilith are busy with the wolves in front…what about these other ones? If they're too busy focusing on the ones they are fighting, that just leaves me and Gerald to ourselves. I don't know how well Gerald fights, but I'm sure he can handle them.
Unless somehow one targets me…
"Kale, they're charging!" Lilith yelled. My eyes focused forward as I saw the two wolves finally sprinting right at us. Just as they did, Kale immediately ran forward. He drew out his two blades from his waist and readied. Lilith followed in suit, but at a much faster pace as she was practically sprinting to match the wolves speed.
The elderly looking wolf went for Lilith, jumping and readying a slash with its claws. Lilith responded with a slide to the ground, going underneath the wolf. All of this seemed to happen in such a blur to me, their movement being quite fast. As Lilith stood back up, I noticed something with her left eye. It was red, just like in Prusha.
"Huh, she's got a better control of it?" Gerald observed. "Quite interesting…"
Lilith's left eye was able to perceive things at a much faster pace, if I recall…Maybe that's why she was able to react at the speed she was at.
And at such speed she was going at right now, it even caught the wolf off guard as it backed away from her as she began to move forward.
"Kota! Our left!" Gerald's voice made me focus again, as I turned to my left and saw one of the wolves farting towards me. It was a younger looking wolf and it zigzagged across the grass.
I raised my staff, but Gerald was quicker. He immediately put himself in front of me, his samurai-like stance in full view for me as he readied for the wolf to strike.
"Earth King style: Counter Flash!" Gerald yelled, His feet dug deeper into the ground as his Sword hummed a noise. As the wolf came in to strike with its claws, Gerald quickly deflected it. And in a burst of speed, he pulled his sword back and swiftly plunged it into the wolf. It was a blur of movement that could've been unseen if I had blinked. The wolf yelped and thrashed as it was held up by Gerald's blade before finally dying and going limp.
Gerald pushed the wolf off his blade, watching as the wolf fell to the ground. He then turned to me with a Smirk on his face.
"Ah? Thought that was cool?" He asked.
"It's different from what Lilith and Kale do."
"Yeah, learning other styles becomes quite handy when you need to handle people or monsters." Gerald's eyes shifted past me, the smirk on his face disappearing.
Turning to see what he was looking at, I found myself looking at another charging wolf at me.
"Kota!" Gerald yelled, pushing me aside. He quickly got into his Earth style form, preparing his Move.
This wolf hastily charged its way towards me and Gerald. But something seemed off. As it charged towards us, it seemed like it was targeting someone else…
As it got closer to us, Gerald readied. But once the wolf was directly in front of us, it made a sudden movement. Instead of charging at Gerald, it swiftly circled around us. I quickly turned towards its direction before realizing its motive.
This wolf was targeting me.
It quickly lunged right at me with his mouth open wide for a killing blow.
"Kota, Move!" Gerald yelled as he turned. Even with his speed, he wouldn't be able to stop the wolf in time!
With the face of death looming closer to me, I had to think fast. There's no way I'd be able to cast and aim before it bites me, so I got to think of something else. Using any spells at this close range would just end up hurting me…Unless…
Quickly, I held my staff up in an effort to block the wolf's bite. But as I did, I casted a spell. The dry ice spell to be exact, only this time I channeled it to form around my staff.
The wolf bit into my staff, pushing me to the ground as it snarled and drooled over me. The spell casted and slowly formed from the middle of my staff, its white coloring spread across until it hit the wolf's mouth. Suddenly, the wolf gave out a confused yelp as the Dry ice began to spread across its mouth. I watched as it spread and spread, slowly forming across its face now as it began to crack from the utter coldness of it.
With Quick speed, Gerald came in for the kill. He swiftly got beside me and sliced down, cutting the wolf's head clean off. As its body went limp, the head of the wolf stayed stuck on my staff.
"Ah!" I screamed, it was an unholy sight to see. Gerald then proceeded to yank the wolf's head off my staff, its mouth breaking apart as it did.
"Woah! So that's what that Spell does…Yikes." Gerald then pulled me up, patting me. "You alright, son?"
"Y-yeah…" I stumbled on my words. "Just didn't expect it to be that intense…"
"Hey, it's alright. You're a quick thinker! Now let's help the other and find the other wolves." Gerald gave me a quick head pat before turning to Kale and Lilith.
The two have already dispatched the two wolves that had attacked. Kale was quickly removing both of his swords out of the wolf. It seemed he had made a large gaping wound to its stomach and quickly did with a thrust to its neck.
Lilith had already finished her wolf and was looking around for the others. The elderly wolf that had attacked her was laying dead beside her. It had large stab wounds to its head and its stomach.
"Alright, everyone!" Gerald yelled. "We got four of them, that leaves Three left! Good chance that they are either underneath or they ran off."
"There were five of them circling us before you and Kota took two more." Kale said, eyeing the wolves' dead bodies. "Those last three must've gone underground."
Lilith began to kneel, placing her hand to the ground. Her left Red eye moved around for movement. "Hmm…Errr, there's rumbling underneath us. They're still close, but they're moving away."
Gerald sighed, but quickly clapped and rubbed his hands together. "Ah, well…If they are running, we might as well get the pelts from the dead ones and report back."
"Eh? But we didn't kill them all." I said, confused.
"Bounty never said anything about exterminating a whole family of wolves. Let's just take what we have now. There's probably a good chance that those three wolves won't be coming back if their pack was easily wiped like that."
Gerald then moved to one of the wolves, kneeling beside it as he plunged his sword into it again. "And now…we get the pelts! Isn't this fun everyone?"
"Skinning is the worst part of this!" Lilith said, a frown forming in her face as she turned around and began to skin her wolf.
"Haha! I think hauling this back is the worst!" As Gerald began to skin his, he looked at me. "Wanna watch me? Maybe you can get some good practice."
"Uh….I'm good, I can watch." I said.
"Come on, Kota. It'd be a good time for the both of us, Father and son bonding!" He started to smile as he looked at me. "Do it for your old man!"
Ouch, you're going to hit me with that? I don't really want to cut off a wolf's skin and have that be a bonding time for the both of us. And the stench of blood is practically clogging up my nose right now that I need to back off and get fresh air.
Still…Looking at Gerald and having him talk was making me remember things. Reminding me of my dad, my past life's dad.
It feels kind of odd, but it's weird seeing Gerald be more of a dad than my own Dad. Maybe I'm starting to think Gerald really is my dad now…
I don't really recall my own dad really reaching out to bond with me ever since my teen years, just more of ordering me around the house and making sure I was holding up my grades in school. Sure, he was making sure I was academically well…But he never really tried to at least get personal with me.
"…You know what? Yeah, I'll help." I said to Gerald, moving towards him.
"Atta boy! Alright, I'm gonna show you how to skin the pelt of an animal!" Gerald looked gleefully as he began to explain skinning to me.
I watched quietly as Gerald did his work, and soon he quickly had a wolf's pelt in his hand. The look of joy in his face was something to be seen, I didn't think anyone was that happy to be doing things like this.
Soon, Gerald skinned the other wolf we had killed and everyone else had skinned theirs. With four pelts in hand, we trekked our way back to the trail.
Along the way back, Gerald walked along with me. He held two of the pelts, Kale carried the others.
"How was it?" He asked me.
"It was…Intense. Didn't expect wolves to be that fast. It all seemed like a blur to me."
"Yeah…That's what it was like for me when I did my first Bounty." Gerald chuckled. "I have to say though, you performed alright. Quick thinker and pretty good with your magic. I'd think Synthia would appreciate how well you grew…And how unharmed you are."
Synthia was an intermediate ranked user in all of the magic elements, she'd be glad to hear that her kid was able to live a Bounty. She'd probably be even more happy that I didn't really mess up my spells too.
"Anyways, I'm glad you weren't harmed as well." Gerald continued. "Not a lot of people make it when they do bounties. It takes a quite skilled person to do them. And I'm glad you are able to tackle it." He spoke in a softer tone as he said those last words, like he was glad.
Was it perhaps…He wants me to be an adventurer like him? Sorta likes to continue his legacy of being an adventurer, continuing the name of the Detrut family? Oh, and speaking of Detrut…
"Uh…Gerald?" I began my question. He turned his gaze to me, his attention now fully on me. "Who are the Detrut?"
The question itself seemed to surprise him, maybe he didn't think I would pull a question like that at a time Like this. There was a long silence from him as we continued walking, he rubbed his chin in a focusing manner before he answered.
"That…Is a question that we'll need to answer another time." There was now a frown on his face.
"Why's that?"
"It's not something I can just explain at the moment…and I didn't figure you'd be asking that question this early, I thought I'd be giving you the answer later on in your life." He pondered after that. "Hm, How about this? Once you finish up your duties in Ozoth, you come back and I'll answer you."
"…Alright, if you say so." I agreed.
"I think there's more important things to talk about once we head back." Gerald said. "I still haven't heard much about what you experienced in Prusha. Later on tonight, we can discuss it." He then gave me a nudge as he smiled once more. "Maybe a lil chat about Lilith."
"Alright, knock it off!" I swatted his hand away. He gave out a laugh as we continued on our way back.
***
We were close to the trail before something caught the attention of Lilith. The silver haired girl stopped in her tracks as she squinted her eyes at something. Was there something wrong? I couldn't feel any vibrations or anything, so the wolves aren't near us…
"Lilith?" Kale looked back. "What's up?" He then looked around, confusion all over his face.
"I thought I felt vibrations under my feet." Lilith said, she then put her hand to the grass floor, "but…They stopped?"
"Hm…Let's just keep walking, it could be your imagination." Kale shrugged. "Maybe your eye is making you think weird." He pointed at his left eye. "Actually…why is your left eye still on?"
"Eh?" Lilith touched her face. "It's still on?" She then looked at me for confirmation.
Kale was right, it was still red. I'm still unsure of how she activated it in the first place, but I'd be more worried with the fact that she can't turn it off. If I remember, wasn't her eye activated by emotions? Maybe she was feeling something strong right now that was keeping it activated.
"Are you…Feeling anything?" I asked her.
Lilith thought for a moment, maybe too long to recognize her feelings. But she managed to nod her head and answer.
"I feel like everything's going fast?" She clutched her hands in a manner that reminded me of a very hyper kid. "Like my heartbeat is beating fast and I want to run around and kill things!"
"Oh…I think she's having an adrenaline rush." Kale concluded. "you're still feeling it. I'm sure that's the cause for your eye. The rushing feelings of entering a battle is still going strong in you."
Gerald chuckled. "Heh, She's got a lot of fire in her. But maybe Kale is right, I don't feel any vibrations or anything underneath us. So we should be good. You can relax, Lilith." And with that, He continued onward.
Kale stayed for a moment, looking at me. "Hey, stay with her so she can calm down. Trails up ahead, so me and Gerald will wait there."
"Got it." I said. "Wait, why can't you?"
Kale raised his eyebrow at me, then I remembered our last conversation about Lilith. I guess Kale wanted this to be another time where I helped Lilith learn more. So I nodded and walked towards her.
As Kale moved forward, I made my way towards Lilith. She pursed her lips and rubbed her chin in confusion. What, was she not sure of how to calm down from an adrenaline rush?
"Lilith?" I nudged her. She finally took notice of me again, she held a frown on her face which spoke to me that, yeah she did not know. She was breathing quite fast and by the looks of it, her hands were twitching a lot. She eyed me for a moment, thinking before replying back to me.
"Kota, umm…Can you help me calm down?"
"Uh, yeah. What do you need?"
"Hold your hand out." Lilith then presented her right hand.
I looked at it with curiosity. Maybe she wanted me to hold her hand? That could be a pretty good way to help someone calm down.
I lifted my left hand as my right hand was holding my staff.
"Alright, now whaaaaagh?!"
Before I could finish my sentence, Lilith clamped her hand onto mine. It didn't seem like she meant to grasp that hard as maybe she was just casually gripping my hand. But even with that, her brute strength with her Eye activated seemed like I was being gripped by a Gorilla. An Angry gorilla. The pain surged through me in an instant, almost bringing me to my knees and Lilith casually closed her eyes and took deep breaths.
"Mother used to tell me that holding someone's hand could ease you, she used to do this a lot with me when I was a kid." Lilith explained, she began to talk in a Much more relaxed way. "And then you just need to relax and take some breaths."
"Yeah,Yeah, C-Can you ease up in the grip? I hope you didn't crush her hands when you did this with her." I said, wincing in pain.
"Hm? Oh." Lilith seemed to have noticed my pained face and softened her grip. "Sorry."
"I'm going to need to heal this up once you calm down." I muttered, but then I noticed something with Her left eye. Slowly, its red coloring began to fade and slowly turn back to its Amber color.
"Hey, Your eye is going back." I pointed out.
"Yeah, that surge of mana I feel is slowly fading…" Lilith smiled in relief, she then let go of my hand. "Some point I'll be able to activate it on my own."
"If it's based on your emotion, why not figure out how to control yourself?" I suggested. Having to control yourself in any situation shows mastery of oneself, not letting your emotions get yourself and cause even more problems. I know Lilith has some major issues when it comes to her feelings, sometimes it reminds me of mood swings. But if she can learn to control them, she'd be a wrecking force.
Lilith pondered that idea. But as she did, I felt something underneath our feet. A vibration. Lilith stopped what she was doing and looked around to find where they were.
"Kids?" I heard Kale yell towards us. Those two were already back on the trail. And quickly, his voice was interrupted by the loud earthly explosion from the ground. It was right behind me and I could hear the growling of a wolf. Actually, Two wolves were emerging from a hole behind me. And just behind Lilith, was another explosion. Another wolf emerged from the ground, snarling. And then it clicked to me, The wolves were waiting for us to be alone, tracking us and sniffing to identify whether Kale and Gerald left. They were playing the Long game.
"Kota, Move!" Lilith said. Even without her eye activated anymore, she was still fast. She instantly drew her short blade and pushed past me.
As she did that, I raised my staff and readied a spell. I was going to shoot this wolf with Dry Ice, and end it. No more games for me, I wanted out of here!
The Dry Ice spell casted, a ball of White formed quickly at the end of my staff and instantly shot forward. Before the wolf could even react and move out of its hole, it was shot directly in the face. With a shot like that, it was Instantly dead.
When I turned to face the last Two wolves, I saw Lilith. She quickly dispatched the first wolf with a clean throat slice, then she proceeded to give the last wolf a slash right at its body. The wolf howled as it backed off in pain, it limped backwards as Lilith stared at it.
At first, I thought she was going to kill it. Maybe her eye activated again and she wanted to kill this last wolf with it. But rather than kill it, Lilith raised her sword in a threatening way towards it. The wolf took that gesture as a sign of mercy, bowing its head as it limped its way away from us. When Lilith turned back at me, I noticed her eyes were still amber colored. She holstered her sword and walked towards the wolf she killed, readying to skin it.
"Was that good for controlling myself?" She asked me.
"Ah…Well I suppose." I scratched my head. "Maybe you can do that with people as well?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like, Not being hostile to them? You act defensive whenever a stranger appears."
"That won't happen." She said immediately. "People are mean, and I don't fully know what they'll do. I'd rather be ready to kill them than to hear them go on with excuses."
Woah, talk about blunt. But I guess she gets that from Emmit. I can see her side of things as reasonable, you can't always think everyone will
Be friendly in this world. Always proceed with caution, even if that person seems friendly. But still…
"But not everyone is like that." I argued. "Why didn't you act hostile or angry to Kale when you first met him? Or Me?"
Lilith hesitated. "…Well I trusted Your dad when he said that Kale would train me. I had trust in your dad. And you, well I saw you protecting me."
"But I could've just left right after. Or maybe I could've started bullying you."
Ok, I wouldn't actually do that. I wouldn't find it in my heart to really bully her, but I gotta make a point here. I gotta give some life lessons to this girl.
Lilith irritatedly folded her arms, she narrowed her eyes as quietly thought to herself. Soon, I noticed that Kale and Gerald were making their way towards us. But that didn't bother Lilith at all as she began to talk once more.
"So…From what I'm getting is that you could've been mean to me?"
"Err…If you put it like that, you make me sound bad."
"Kota, where is this even going?" She sounded even more irritated when she said that.
"Uh…"
Alright, I think I've made a miscalculation. Maybe I wasn't really prepared for this sort of conversation with her. Maybe I should've worded all that in a much better manner…Perhaps I shouldn't have said that I would've bullied her…
"Kids!" Kale yelled. He moved his way between me and Lilith, bending forward as he looked at us with worry. "You guys alright?"
"Yeah, but Kota tried giving me advice?" Lilith said, frowning. "He kinda sucked at it."
Ow.
"Oh." Kale took a glance at me. "Great…"
"Could you elaborate on what he was trying to say?"
"Hm?" Kale seemed surprised by Lilith's request. "Ah…Well what was he trying to say?"
"To control myself."
"Mmm…" Kale rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well when you fight or when we train, you tend to be more aggressive…Angry, in my opinion. And perhaps Kota has seen that anger before and tried to say that maybe you should control that anger?"
"I get angry?"
"Yes, you do. But…Maybe you could harness that anger and use it to your advantage instead of letting it run rampant. Maybe learn to handle your temper."
"Ah…I got it!" Lilith balled her hand into a fist and slapped her palm. "You explained much better than Kota!"
"Haha…I guess I did." Kale said, smiling. He then turned to me, that smile fading very quickly. And then he whispered to me. "I thought you were good at giving advice?!"
"What?! I messed up once and I get this?" I whispered.
"What'd you even say to her?"
"I just…Alright, I might've messed up. But at least she got some good advice from you." I pointed it out to him.
He squinted his green colored eyes. "…Alright, fine. But next time, be more clear to her."
Kale then shifted his footing and faced Lilith, looking down at the wolf she killed. "Guess we should skin the wolf, the one Kota took out looks damaged. But we'll do with what we have."
"Got it." Lilith nodded.
"And hey, Kota was trying his best to explain things. You know he was trying to do his best for you, right?"
"…yes." As she was skinning the wolf, she began to blush. She began to focus more on the wolf to hide her face.
Kale noticed this and tried to brighten the mood. "That's what boyfriends are for! Doing their best for you!"
I heard Gerald give an audible chuckle as he watched on.
"Gah, Shut up!" Lilith said, her face beet red. "I can't finish this wolf with you saying that!"
"Haha, Alright. Here, I'll help you so that we can get back faster." Kale chuckled, he moved right next to her to assist her.
Not long after, the two finished and now we had Five wolf pelts ready to be brought back to the Bounty hall. With much proof, we should easily get that payment.
We made our way onto the trail, following it until we reached Shanford. It was Evening by the time we got back and Upon entering the Bounty hall, Rachael immediately noticed us and watched with gratitude as Kale and Gerald threw the wolf pelts onto the table. Rachael then closed off the bounty for the wolves and marked our Bounty ID's to show we completed the bounty. She had a look of complete joy when she saw me and Lilith, maybe she was happy to see the two of us alive…
Either way, She made it quite Fast with giving us our Rubees. Each of us getting twenty five for a cut. I'll probably save mine up as I didn't really have anything to buy at the moment. Rachael then said her goodbyes to us as we left, Gerald waving Back to her.
A/N: Hey all! Quite a long chapter here! I found myself having a lot more time on my hand when it came to writing, so I managed to write this in time with my Two week schedule. It's probably going to be busy at my work next week, so I'll have less time writing. Anyways, hope you enjoy this more action based Chapter!
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