Beatitudes

Episode 44.

After giving out that piece of information he looked at his listeners as they stared at the mountains with a now apprehensive gaze before he continued and reassured them, “But these mountains have already been cleared off, nothing should be present within them for now at least, the war against these tainted creatures is looking to be one of attrition in the end.” To the end of his words, he spoke with a smile that spoke of many things unknown.

ROARR!!!

Yet before he could continue, a resounding roar echoed out around them as a shadow flung itself with great speed at them.

A large shadow moved from their left side with great speed letting out an equally fierce roar laced with heavy ferocity. it moved so quickly and abruptly that none of them were able to react accordingly, all except Adam  froze in place as he waved his hand carelessly in a semi-circle.

BAM!

Just as the beast was about to land a heavy claw swipe on Harry , the one at the fore of the group, a loud slamming sound was heard and the shadow was flung backward along the same trajectory it charged at them as it flipped somewhat gracefully landing  and balancing itself only after sliding a few meters backwards.

The intensity of the sound and force of the shadow’s landing was enough to show both the strength behind the earlier claw strike and the sturdiness of the barrier that flickered to life with a transparent dark glowing hue.

After being thrown backwards despite its all out attack and ambush, the shadow refrained from moving a second time too soon as it growled menacingly while reassessing it’s prey.

The shadow’s appearance was finally visible as it paused hesitantly. It was a tiger, a big tiger considering it was well over seven feet tall as it was four feet wide. An orange body of fur adorned it while a red tuft of fur grew on its fur like a symbol of sorts. It’s strength wasn’t something to underestimate either as its whole body rippled with defined muscles, enough to intimidate the crew of newbies, its thick tail flicked sideways harshly announcing it’s impatience at not already tearing into its prey’s flesh yet.

After giving it a perfunctory glance, Adam  turned his head to the side as he talked, “Your luck seems to be holding, you managed to run into a beast at the peak of the first tier. Just the right strength to allow you to assess your new class abilities, you’ve should’ve been curious to test them out right?”

They completely ignored Adam  as they stared at the beast who stared right back with increasing signs of impatience in its gaze. Harry  trembled faintly as he turned his head to look at Adam , posing a question, “This is a tier one beast?”

Adam  in turn gave him an odd look as he replied, “What did you expect… prowling pussycats and barking dogs?”

Hearing the answer to his question, Harry  turned back to face the tiger as he gulped faintly, this beast seemed almost nothing like the beasts back in the jade forest.

“Do we go together or…”

Hiya in a fairly rare moment also spoke up with a question to which Adam  smiled faintly and replied,

“You can choose to fight it together, that is if you don’t want the curse energy within it…”

Isaac whipped his head to the side as he asked, “Curse… energy?”

Adam  was about to lament at how he literally had to explain everything when Harry  surprisingly chipped in, in a moment of rare wisdom. “It’s said that the creatures outside the untainted zone are beings living against the world’s laws and order. So the world itself laid a curse on them, that who so ever is brave enough to slay one such beast would be able to absorb an energy within the beast, the energy the beast wielded before it’s death.”

After he finished his narration, he noticed three pair of eyes staring at him with odd gazes, a look of surprise was present deep in their eyes. He looked back at them confused, “What??”

No one replied him though as Adam  spoke up with a nod, “The reason its therefore called curse energy is not because its cursed… but because is bound by a curse to the body of the dead beast…”

A moment of silence was spent digesting the new information before Isaac turned his head to Harry  with the same odd gaze as he asked,

“How come you knew about something like that?”

Harry  replied to him with a smug expression, “I was born in this world you know, you’re the odd one out here out of everyone…”

Hearing that, Adam  wore a peculiar expression on his face as he kept quiet.

That said, he watched the tiger as it stared back, staring at exactly the shimmering dark barrier separating the two of them. It had instinctually ascertained that that was the hurdle standing between them, but it wasn’t going to give up. So it stared intently looking for the best place to jump at its prey to tear them apart.

Finally after both sides stared at each other for an extended period of time, the tiger was no longer going to wait, it arched its back as it growled lowly stretching while gathering energy to pounce. Right at that moment, a voice broke the deadlock silence, and Hiya stepped forward with a calm gaze on her face, “Let me try…”

Hearing her, the reaction of the males to the only female in the group were obvious on their faces as Adam  stared at the two men silently with a gaze clearly criticizing them for calling themselves men. Harry  and Isaac as though feeling his gaze burned with embarrassment as they kept quiet and watched a girl willingly deliver herself into the paws of the hungry beast.

Stretching her hand outwards to her side, a sword appeared in her hands following a slight ripple in space. It was a plain looking sword yet it exuded a sharpness that caused slight pain to one’s eye when one looked at it. It was one of the items in the ring handed to them by Kira , a part of the beginners kit for hall members. While Isaac and Hiya were given swords, Harry  was given an axe.

The black and white fighter gear on her body was enough to light the fire in any male, Isaac stared at the girl unaware of the kind of reaction she was causing as a memory from two days ago played across his mind.

Shaye, was the name of the elven bar we sat in, to relax and get in tune, was the reason Adam  gave. It was the first time we had ever been somewhere like the bar, and actually my time ever, I couldn’t be sure about the others.

Some kind of beautiful melody played in the background as the common sight around all of Sarang, that is the different races present, could be glimpsed in the bar as well. The whole setting and atmosphere was a first for me though. With a bar counter at the very front and sets of four chairs and a table arranged in a concurrent manner around the counter. While I adjusted properly and swirled the blue colored drink in my hand, Adam  broke the news to us.

“We’ll be heading out into the untainted zone in about a day or so.”

The drinks we had were alcoholic, so it helped to loosen the tension between us, hence when Adam  dropped the information, Harry  looking as natural as possible in the bar raised a quizzical eyebrow while he asked, “The untainted zone?, the zone outside…”

“Yes Harry , the zone outside the city of Sarang to be precise…” Adam  chipped in before he turned to look at me, understanding my confusion as he continued, “The zone of the tainted beasts, the battlefield of the hall.”

Taking in what he said, I posed a question, “What are we going to do?”

To which he answered, “To grow stronger…”

The expression of the rest of us changed slightly as the memories of the past training through the forest crossed our minds, but at this point, I don’t know when exactly I started to feel like that, but I now felt a certain need to grow stronger deep within, it was like someone or something was urging me to grow stronger and I was sure it wasn’t Astral  nagging at me. So I actually had the feeling of looking forward it instead.

Our table grew silent as none spoke again or brought up a conversation for a while.

It was then my eyes swiveled around the hall before landing on the one person who hadn’t said a word since we got here, Hiya. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was forced to make a comment or two at specific times, she would have naturally passed of as a mute to us. Even now she had only mumbled a ‘thank you’ when she was handed her drink ever since. But I had to say, under the dim atmosphere painted with different colors of light which gave a kind of highlight to her features, she looked pretty… good. She had an indifferent nonchalant expression on her face as she glanced around the bar from time to time. I couldn’t help but want to know the thoughts on her mind as I watched her blank eyes roam around her surroundings. I don’t think she noticed my gaze as she kept on staring at the drink making tricks displayed at the counter ways from her. I stared a little while longer, her purple eyes were glinting with brilliance even in the maelstrom of colors that we were in, I suddenly wanted her attention, her focus, even though we’ve been staying together for a while now, I couldn’t think of a particular time we actually had a good conversation or a lengthy one. So I asked the first thing that came to my mind.

“Hiya, the other day… at the origin pillar…”, my words seemed to have an effect as she turned her head slightly, her gaze landing on me. I continued without missing a beat, you mentioned that you didn’t need a class, why’d you say so[U1] ?”

Hearing my question she stared at me for a good while before she looked away and finally replied, “Because I don’t need it,” she paused her words at that before she continued two seconds later, “Not everyone needs it…”

The conversation took a slight dip downwards as the obvious question left unanswered lingered in the air. A slight sourness lingered on my tongue as the silence prevailed for the few seconds after, until Adam  spoke up, he took his job as our encyclopedia apparently quite seriously,

“You see Isaac, it’s not every fighter out there climbing the ladder of power that has a class, those endowed with particular extraordinary aspects or abilities can rely only on that to reach the top. Most races are naturally endowed with their defining extraordinary abilities, but most of those classes also receive classes, after all only the few nature spirit races at the apex of bloodlines can aim to reach the top with their abilities and prowess alone. The funny part though is that humans are neither part of the few nature spirit races at the top, or even the multitudes of races that have their own natural abilities. We’re the one of the select few without them. It’s why Hiya as a human is a special case…” with those words he turned to look at Hiya with a peculiar gaze as he continued with a slight change in his tone, “Care to tell us how Hiya?”

She seemed to be calm despite the peculiar question Adam asked, but that was the assumption while not noticing her slightly tightened fist which had been kept under the table. A few seconds of silence followed the question before Hiya drew a faint breath and said, “I’m only half human…”

The answer she gave was a tad bit surprising as I looked closely at her again. If I knew correctly, a Halfling was a person who was half human and half of another race, they usually had some defining features to ascertain their identity, while only few would look like a normal human. It was now that I noticed that her hair and those eyes I was so drawn to didn’t seem to be particularly commonplace among humans. It make me want to know more but Harry  beat me to the question as he asked, “What’s your other half?”

Her reply was short and precise, “I don’t know…”

She seemed disinclined to talking some more about it, so the questions and answers ended there and everyone fell silent again.

Everyone seemed to have their minds on something at that point as their gazes stared past the objects in their view, I on the other hand continued to stare at Hiya, something was drawing my gaze to her, but I actually didn’t mind as I kept staring…

Remembering the past till there, I snapped back to the present and the scene before me had already changed.

ROARRR!!!

A massive roar greeted my senses first as my eyes gained its focus back, my eyes focused to be a big tiger that worse for wear. Innumerable s***h wounds covered its body as it tried to take a swipe at the nimble female figure assailing it. But the fight already seemed to have come to an end with a victor already decided as Hiya slid to the side quickly and crouched down slightly, her backside curved out for a split second before she launched herself into the air with a twisting posture, she looked just a martial master as she spun her whole body like a flexible drill. Microseconds into her jump, she was exactly above the tiger’s head as she borrowed the force of her spin to whip out the sword in her hand, it drew a beautiful crescent in the air as it made contact with the seemingly tough looking skin of the tiger instantly drawing blood. That was the finishing move of the show as the tiger’s head miraculously separated from the rest of its body following the seemingly light swing of her sword.

 Her fighter gear remained clean as she dropped down gently and nimbly and stood to the side of the headless tiger, the blood pouring from the neck wide wound forming a tiny pool beside her legs. Hiya didn’t look much different from before the fight save for the fact that her breathing had quickened slightly and a strand of her purple hair danged from side to side in front of her face. The whole picture painted a captivating scene and although I hadn’t witnessed exactly how she fought, I couldn’t help but stare some more as single word escaped my lips under my breathe, “She’s…”

Astral : “…”

 [U1]Sorry for those who have already passed the episode “Getting classes”, but I changed a few things there when I realized the odd vibe it brought, that is what is now reflecting here. To understand better, you can go back to the “Getting classes” episode and see what I mean.