Rise of the Arkytes

Legends

“Get off your a*s already, it's morning,” Jax kicked the back of Erwin's chair. He woke up quite startled falling down along with his chair almost breaking it.

“Good thing it didn't break otherwise I would have rather sold you off than give them any money.”

“Alright boss, I'm up, don't talk so loud,” Erwin staggered up from the ground.

“You have thirty minutes to get over your hangover or I'm leaving you here, we'll be leaving Taxia.”

“Oh man, where's my stuff?” his voice didn't sound the least troubled with the possibility of getting robbed in his sleep.

Jax dropped them on the table and told him to take a shower before they left. All the rest were up, Finn and Ivan were so sore they had a hard time walking.

Alice had a slight headache not used to drinking so much. Lexy, however, was probably the one in the best shape out of all of them. It made Reagan wonder when exactly this girl had started drinking.

She was the youngest of them, just eighteen. Alice was twenty, Reagan twenty one, Ivan and Erwin were both twenty four while Finn was twenty six. Jax was the oldest of them just, six months shy of thirty.

Lexy came down all energetic, giving everyone hugs and kisses on the cheek before ordering breakfast, a whole loaf of bread and fried eggs.

All of them took breakfast and by the time Erwin had just come down from his bath Jax tossed at him a three slices of bread. They didn't have time to wait for him to have his breakfast, they had to move on to their next job, which was actually their main job.

They had to catch two fugitives, twins on the run after murdering the daughter of a noble man just east of Taxia. The two had met her while she was coming back from a 'social gathering'(raging party) from one of her friends.

The official story is the two tried to take advantage of her but when she refused they decided to finish her off.

The story itself had too many holes, like wouldn't a noble be always moving around with guards, what the hell happened to them?

However a mercenary's position isn't to investigate but apprehend, save the questions for the constables to ask. When they got to Taxia Jax decided to take the d**g smuggler bounty job, sure they could catch him quick. It took about a week but they got the job down and now they can focus on the twins.

They stepped out of the inn only to be met with the first of the year's winter snow, making them buy some warmer clothing before they could go anywhere. Lucky for them it was only a light snow fall, travel was very much still possible.

They rode their horses west towards the farm lands of the Edvar region. Along the rodes it was mostly passing a few small towns and villages.

They had already decided on journeying the whole day and only till evening would they stop and rest.

By noon it was slightly warmer, the snow fall had stopped allowing them to travel at a slower pace.

“You sure they went this way Jax?” Reagan asked.

“It was the most logical conclusion considering their background, but that doesn't mean we will find them.”

“Well I don't wanna miss out on a thousand gold coins. Maybe Alice would finally take me seriously,” Erwin said, turning back to face Alice and giving her a wink. All he got was an eye roll.

“Why would she, she's also getting the money assuming we catch the twins,” Finn pointed out.

“Yeah, your best chance would be being an Arkyte, but that probably wouldn't work you being you,” Lexy couldn't help teasing.

“If I was an Arkyte I wouldn't be sweating this small stuff, I could literally do whatever I want,” Erwin replied.

“You and me bro, imagine what it's like to be that powerful. I heard one of them was seen over in Durma, she took down three noble houses by herself, burned them all to ashes...” Ivan said.

“I heard she was up against a thousand soldiers, didn't even break a sweat,” Erwin added.

“That sounds a little exaggerated, don't you think?” Reagan asked.

“No way, from what I've heard they can take down whole nations by themselves, let alone a small army,” Erwin answered.

“Isn't that how Madara took over Solsheim, he stormed the capital, killed the king along with his army. Those who valued their lives over service surrendered and he personally took them in and trained them himself...”

“Some say he's the strongest of all six and his soldiers are unbeatable,” Finn chimed in.

Reagan looked over to Alice, “What's so great about these Arkytes? I really don't know much about them.”

“All I know are stories, I've never actually seen one...”

“There's supposed to be seven of them, spirits of original seven powerful warriors that pass on to whoever they see worthy and give them power beyond any mortal's grasp,” Alice started.

“Seriously? What kind of power?”

“I'm not sure myself. All I know is only six of them are know, the last one either hasn't been chosen yet or just doesn't want to be known.”

“Oh, really now,” Reagan said.

“I don't care about them at all. Most of them are just self-centered bastards. They don't care about anyone else,” Her face scrunched up in annoyance. Reagan could see she really didn't like the Arkytes.

“You know, you're cute when you're angry,” He told her nonchalantly.

Alice head jerked in surprise as she turned away from Reagan to avoid him seeing her flustered face.

“Um...thanks,” her voice was quite pitchy it made Reagan chuckle. It was one side of her no one really ever saw.

Ever since she and Lexy joined the group she gave everyone cold vibes. She wasn't much for humour, only focusing on her job or training her skills.

The first person she warmed up to was Reagan when he happened to find her practising her hand to hand battle forms. He stood there watching her until she finally noticed him.

She was pretty annoyed since she felt like he was just like the other guys, staring at her body and thinking of ways to hit on her. That's when he surprised her by challenging her to a sparring match.

At first she wasn't sure of his intentions but was confident in being able to beat him so she accepted. He wiped the floor with her so much that she was embarrassed.

It wasn't his intention to, she was just bad at taking a loss. After him winning their first round, she shrugged it off, calling it a fluke and challenged him to another. After ten rounds she finally excepted he was better than her, but it didn't do anything to the shame she felt.

Reagan noticed how hard she was on herself and offered to train with her so they could both improve. After that they just started hanging out every time they got the chance. She was almost always serious, he couldn't remember the last time she tried telling a joke or just having fun without involving training or hunting.

“Nice move Reagan,” Lexy called him out noticing the atmosphere between the two.

“Shut up!” Alice yelled at her making Lexy laugh.

“Alright guys we're taking a break here. Let's set up camp. I want Ivan and Alice to scout the place, Lexy and Reagan go get as some wood,” Jax said.

They had stopped at small clearing within the a small forest of sorts. They would set up camp and leave as soon as first light was up.

They split up into teams, while Jax, Erwin and Finn set up camp the rest did their duties. The first to come back were Lexy and Reagan, Lexy carrying so much wood everybody wondered how her body could support it.

She dropped them on the ground and turned back to Reagan sticking her tongue out at him. “Told you I could do it.”

“What do you mean, you almost broke your back. I had to support you most of the way here,” Reagan retorted.

“I didn't ask you too, I still got more firewood than you.”

“You took most of those from my pile, you're such a cheat.”

“Am not.”

“You are so a chea–”

“Children, enough arguing. Geez, it's like I'm running a kindergarten. If you wanna compete some more, set up the fire and make us some grub. Whoever does it first gets a special reward,” Jax stepped it in.

“That doesn't sound true–”

“I'm gonna get that prize matter what,” Lexy declared and immediately got to work.

Reagan didn't bother with her at all. He went and sat next to Erwin, who was already chugging down some beer.

“Any way, what's the deal with these twins?” he asked.

“I don't know much about them, but I think I heard they're supposed to be assassins...yeah, assassins,” Erwin answered him.

“But why would assassins randomly target this girl?”

“I don't know dude, people are weird,” That answer didn't help much.

Soon Alice and Ivan, came back. They had nothing much to report. But now Reagan really wanted more information on the twins.