The carriage rattled as it bounced on the rugged path. The horses neighed as an old coachman led the cart on its way back home beside him was a man who covered himself in a hood. Inside the cart was a bunch of crates and boxes as well as a couple people.

  “You good back there, Tony?” The old coach man, Royce, asked.

  Tony smiled as he squeakily swung his small wooden sword, celebrating the gift given to him by the adventurer they had hired to be their guard on the way back home.

  “Hehehe.” The boy giggled.

  “Enjoying it huh?” The dark haired girl pulled down her hood and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Make sure to train hard so you become a knight.”

  “Thank you so much, Miss Alejandra!” The kid grinned with his eyes.

  Next to the young woman were two elves who were asleep together and next to them was a bulky dwarf who was busy fondly staring out at the snowy groves.

  “Aren't you sleepy, Mr. Cavael?” Alejandra asked the stout man.

  “Hah! Sleep is not fer ones like me, young ss.” He snickered before his expression turned serious. “Ya kno, despite the boy’s sharp tongue, I worry bout that lot.” A heavy worry settled on his chest as he thought about Nabel.

  “Funny, I assumed you would have hated him.” Teri commented. She sat next to the kid and coached the boy on the proper hold of the wooden bde. “Careful there.” She blocked his swing to avoid it rebounding on the cart floor and hitting him in the face.

  “Ya would think so, wouldn't ya?” He scoffed. “Boy’s got sum problems but he means well in the end. He’s just sum of his own…errr…trauma eh?”

  “I see.” Alejandra leaned back and gnced at the sleeping face of the elven girl next to her. She wondered what it would be like to lose a friend like that…

  She closed her eyes and a painful ache clenched her heart. Asher…

  “Anyways—” The dwarf shuffled on his seat. “I give the three of yer my gratitudes, if it wasn't for yer suggestion, we might have already found ourselves dead in the ditch by now.”

  “Thank this girl right here.” A bck haired man rode a horse closer to the cart. He was keeping watch at their rear, on a rented hors and outside the cart. “That niece of mine is very talented at things like that.”

  “Uncle.” Alejandra sighed.

  Cavael chuckled and continued gazing at the passing groves. “I only wish we could find him soon enough.” He closed his eyes. “These young ones deserve peace.”

  Millo rode closer to the side. “It is our job as adults to make sure they do.”

  “Right on ye.”

  The cart carried on without much trouble as the horse galloped with ease. The forests were peaceful and no signs of any disturbance could be felt in the wind.

  “It's the first I’ve seen you cover your face.” Royce mentioned it to the man next to him. “Usually, you'd be all smiles but now you're quiet.”

  “I’m sorry, Royce. It's just—” The man pursed his lips and felt the pce where his arm was severed. “I have some dark memories I don't wanna think about.”

  “We all have 'em, don't we, Hughie?” Royce grabbed some straw from his pocket and chewed on it. “Guess that young ss’ got your head all mixed up. If I didn't know you, I’d thought you’d have fallen in love at first sight.”

  Hughie chuckled and looked forward. It would be another few days before they get back home. He only needed to hide his identity until then.

  The cold snow and winds are annoying to cross but it's nothing an experienced merchant and his horse can't handle.

  “That girl’s pretty as a dame, wonder how she ended up as an adventurer with that face of hers.” Royce shrugged. “I reckon she hasn't lifted a sword in her life.” He giggled.

  Hughie smiled to himself and gulped. “You'd think, wouldn't you?”

  Millo slowed down a little bit on his horse to once again guard the rear. His rge garden shears tied to his back.

  There was a shirt clearing up ahead. Though the road was rocky and somewhat hard to pass through. It was wrapped with cobblestone with creeping branches from nearby trees longing to strangle any carriage that would pass by. The greenery surrounding the vicinity was also wilder and denser, somewhat so that you’d expect something to pop out the moment you let your guard down.

  Millo had an innate sense of danger, being an Azarol really hones that part of you to its extreme. He clicked his tongue and ccked his heels on the metal portion of the horse saddle. Driving ahead of the carriage and unsheathing the shears from his back.

  Alejandra noticed his sudden change in attitude and shrugged to wake up the two elves next to her, who coyly opened their eyes and sheepishly stammered their way to figuring things out.

  The orange haired elven girl slowly blinked her eyes, “What's going on?” She asked as her allies had begun to draw their weapons.

  “Have you fought before, Bou?” Alejandra tightly grinned.

  “Against small animals like rabbits, I guess. Should I—”

  “Good luck.” Alejandra giggled and peeked out the carriage before swinging her body outwards then upwards to nd on the roof.

  “—be worried…” Bou didn't get to finish her sentence towards her comrade.

  “You can do water magic right?” Teresa shrugged as she dragged her hands back to tie her long chestnut-like hair into a high ponytail. “I’m assuming that includes healing magic.”

  “Well…yeah but I'm not that great at it whoa—hey!” She panicked as Teresa rolled out of the cart and into the pathway below.

  Teresa performed a perfect dive roll and nding on stance that had her bow notched immediately ready to fire to wherever Millo’s investigating.

  “HAHAHAHA!” The dwarf inside the carriage ughed as he brandished his forging hammer in his palms. “We can't afford ta lose out on some of er action, don't we?” Cavael snickered as he crouched forward until he was at the front of the moving carriage.

  “What's going on, Miss Elf?” The young Tony asked.

  “I wish I could ask that myself.” Boudicca muttered under her breath but her father’s reassuring voice calmed her down.

  “Stand far for now, My love,” The elven man, squeezed his daughter’s shoulder, “perhaps watching the situation unfold will give you enough data to decide what to do next.”

  Bou closed her lips and nodded. The cart soon slowed to a halt as Millo raised his hand to signal it to stop. The two elves took this chance to step down and watch from afar. Bou tightly gripped the wand she held close to her chest. This wasn't a particurly good wand, it was the one she had used when she was a toddler. It wasn't like she had much of a use with water magic when it came to cooking. She didn't have a proper teacher as well so there was no way she could improve much either.

  Because of this, Bou never really put much studying into magic, only learning the lowest tiers and the most basic common abilities in the water affinity and she's also unable to cast any magic from the other elements.

  “Now take a good look, Honey.” Her father had a sly smile as he counted down in whispers.

  1…

  Millo turned his head down to listen for an attack.

  2…

  Alejandra on top of the carriage shifted her legs to prepare to pounce.

  3…

  Cavael dropped down from the front of the carriage with a loud thud.

  4…

  She could hear the tension of the string from the bow being pulled by Teresa behind her

  5—

  It happened so fast, what seemed like a beat emerged from one of the bushes with its arms wide open and its mouth raring for a bite. Millo dodged it by leaning back on his horse and allowing it to crash into the tree on the other side.

  He then slid down the stallion and drew both of his bdes from his back, forming it into a cross shape and resting into a defensive stance. The horse between him and the beast neighed and panicked as it prepared to run away. The beast, however, had different pns. It growled and struck once more, ripping the horse’s torso apart, leaving a huge gash, and causing even more distress to the animal which quickly dashed as far away as possible.

  It paraded through the chaos in chase of Millo who was dashing backward leading it to Cavael who grinned as the dwarf finally got to showcase one of his hidden tools.

  “I've been waiting for this!” Cavael was a dwarf, and dwarves despite how different they are will always be in love with the forge, that is their nature, that is their instinct. Cavael followed it and created his greatest piece for himself.

  He raised his hand forward revealing a silver bracelet.

  Millo and Cavael gnced at each other and nodded.

  Cavael prepared his arm forward as if he was about to charge.

  Millo kept running until in the st second he turned to the side in a complete ninety degree turn that the beast could follow up with and it slipped, seemingly about to crash to Cavael.

  However, a series of sounds made up of clinks, gears, and scraping metal audibly sounded and in front of his arm was a rge circur shield the size of a rge brazier. The beast cshed onto the metallic pte and pushed the dwarf back slightly but the man’s strong thick muscur legs kept him steady.

  Alejandra took this as her chance. She drew her bde, it was completely blue, so beautifully blue it’s hard to describe it properly. It's simply as if ice was carved directly to form the shape of a sword.

  “I beg of you,” Alejandra seemed to be speaking to her own tool with a grim expression. “Do not dare do anything beyond being a sword. I don't need your magic nonsense.”

  Boudicca blinked.

  That was odd.

  Her father seemed fascinated by that interaction however.

  Cavael bashed the beast with his shield and upon wielding his hammer with his free hand, smashed it down the creature's head. “Stay behind me, Sir Royce and Fellowmen!”

  “Above you!” Alejandra armed as she came plummeting down with her sword drawn. Cavael pushed the beast forwards and took a step back as Alejandra nded between them and performed a critical horizontal ssh with her sword.

  She winced as it made contact with the flesh of the creature and her arm faltered for a split second before she regained her composure. The beast fell on its back, seemingly dead

  “You good, Lass?” Cavael immediately ran ahead of her and covered her with his shield.

  “Yup, just—just a bit cold.” Her eye twitched as she sheathed her sword for now but suddenly a hissing snarl struck them from behind. The two immediately jerked back as the dwarf decked the beast with his shield to keep it from advancing.

  “Sir Cavael!” Teresa yelled from behind. “Can you get it in the air!’

  Cavael grinned and brandished his hammer, revealing some writing on it. He smmed it onto the dirt and the writing glowed forming a pilr of dirt and rock that unched the creature upward before dissipating. “Up ya go!”

  From behind them an arrow lodged itself in the creature's head, then neck, then chest, then. Two back to back on its two arms. The beast flopped on the ground with whelp and it growled angrily, somehow still alive.

  It roared angrily and tensed its fur and muscles, snapping all the arrows that had penetrated deep in its body.

  “The hell is with this dog!”Alejandra slid out her sword again and it's a lot chillier to look at right now. Becoming as blue as the sky itself.

  “DIEEEEEE!” The beast surprised everyone with its sudden ability to speak but it was interrupted as two shear-like bdes cut it’s back in a cross pattern, dealing heavy damage. It fell on its chest and was finally rendered unmoving but not before it howled one st time as Millo finished it with a swift x-shaped cut at the base of its neck.

  Hughie stared in disbelief at what he just witnessed. The old man next to him was in even more shock.

  “T-that girl could swing a sword, huh?” He nervously chuckled, feeling guilty for what he had said earlier.

  Hughie didn't respond, his eyes were on Alejandra and the bde she carried. How was she able to control and quell the being inside that sword, was she actually able to?

  Why hasn't she gotten rid of that sword yet if it's dangerous to use?

  Why doesn't she use another sword in the meantime?

  Different questions pop infinitely on his mind as he watches the beautiful sun kissed girl exhaustedly ugh.

  Alejandra Ramirez, what is up with that sword of yours.

  Boudicca stared in awe at what had transpired. “I—I didn't know that's how fighting was like.”

  “Indeed Honey,” Her father smiled and pushed her forward, “now go heal Cavael with as much healing as you can do right now.”

  Bou smiled as her father went back inside the carriage to nap. He followed his suggestion and headed to the dwarf to help ease the injuries he sustained from maintaining the aggression of the beast the whole fight.

  The two human frontliners walked up to the dead body of the creature to investigate and figure out what it was.

  “It's a beastman—” Millo said as he observed the body. It didn't look like your typical beastman who usually showed more human-like features on their upper bodies. This one looked more like a wolf.

  “Beastman? But shouldn't they look and be less—well…animalistic” Alejandra knelt beside her uncle next to the body.

  “I don't know—” Millo flipped the body over and examined the eyes, they were dited and bulging. The body also feels bloated like it's been loaded with something inside. “There's something going on.”

  Suddenly a chorus of howls from across the forest could be heard. It sounded like five—to six— no double that.

  They let out one shrieking call that signalled their anger as the audible sound of hurried running and snapping branches could be heard in the distant corners of the forest.

  Millo took a stance and his hair began to levitate slightly. ”All of you, around the cart, now.”

  The howling grew closer as Tony tried to peek out but was pulled back inside by the elven man.

  “What's happening?” The boy asked fearfully. “I’m scared.”

  “It’ll be okay, young one.” The elven man reassured, “you have to be brave. A knight never falters, remember?”

  “Right.” The kid nodded.

  “Alejandra,” Millo faced his niece, “this is your first pop quiz.”

  “What?”

  “Survive.” Millo’s menacingly dark eyes turned red. “Do not let anyone die. Do both; and you pass.”

  Alejandra gripped the icy sword in her hands and she heard a faint chuckle emanate from it. “It has been quite some time, Master.”

  …

  “Trunk ahoy!” Julian spryfully held his shield to his side as a swinging lumbering mass of pure thick muscle rocketed towards him.

  The trunk crashed with a loud cng as the shield he was once holding was now shattered into several pieces scattered across the snowy ndscape of the Outnds. Julian did not receive the quick death that his shield had gotten as he was sent flying away and skittering down the mountainside before smming his shoulder into a boulder, “ARCK!”

  “SIR KNIGHT!” Autumn screamed as the one who had defended her all this time suddenly disappeared. From her point of view the time between the swing of the trunk and the flight of her friend was near instantaneous.

  “Get back, Autumn!” A voice called from behind as the Crown Prince unched a rge blood spear between her and the massive elephant like StoneHide.

  It was towering, roughly the size of two houses stacked on top of each other. It had sunken eyes that made it look lifeless and empty. Its trunk was as thick as that of an actual tree, and it's hard to penetrate grey skin sagged to the side as if it was melted stone. It also had tusks that size of a boat hull that would've split a body in half should it have gone through one.

  Its cry was that of a mix of hundreds of owls at night and a whale call. A haunting breath of air emanated from the tip of its trunk as it gazed its head down towards the smaller punier humans under it.

  Autumn had never felt such primordial deep seated fear within her. This was not a normal Stonehide, this was far scarier and was many times bigger than a normal one.

  Ben slid from beneath her legs, “Stay behind me—” His voice was serious.

  On in

  “That thing’s gigantic.” Ben gawked at its sheer size.

  “P-Prince.” Autumn’s eyes wavered with worry as she pointed towards the pained knight ways away clutching the shattered shoulder he had so graciously been gifted by this monster.

  “It's okay—” Ben seemed like he was reassuring himself more than Autumn, he hadn't fought such a beat before, even the two headed regenerating lizard didn't seem this powerful.

  Ben breathed in, rexing his chest. He grabbed his sword from its sheath and grabbed the blood spear from the ground. He closed his eyes and remembered back at that capital. What the Vice Captain loved to do—

  He felt the winds lift his arm and the feeling of his sword got lighter, it gave off a faint whitish glow that coated only the bde of the sword. This was what made the fight against the Vice Captain so difficult back then. His bde was covered in the thickest and densest amount of Spirit he could've mustered. That allowed the sword to hit hard and be sharper than almost anything.

  He felt the blood spear react wildly on his other hand as the glow of the white sword began to increase in volume. Ben tried his best to calm it down so that it wouldn't affect the blood magic he was using but he was interrupted as the Stonehide raised its entire upper body in preparation for a stomp.

  Ben’s body reacted almost instantly.

  Fear.

  He was directly underneath its feet. The white aura on his sword radiated wildly and suddenly the bloodspear on his other hand dissipated into a mere pool of blood.

  “RUN!” Autumn didn't have to tell him twice as she grabbed the Prince by the scruff of his neck and bolted towards the weakened Knight. Ben wondered how she had gotten so athletic all of a sudden.

  The elephant Stonehide bellowed as it smmed the ground with its powerful feet creating a sort of shockwave of wind and air that knocked the running teens down to the floor.

  Julian lumbered his way towards them and pulled the two closer to him “What is that thing!?” He grimaced. “It broke my shield into pieces!?”

  “I don't know!” Autumn seemed tired of the questions as she constantly had no answers for them.

  “You keep saying you don't know!” Julian grit his teeth, also tired of her not knowing anything. “What’s your use if you can't even provide the most basic intel!” He growled.

  “SHUT UP!” Autumn’s face turned red of anger so much so that she looked out of pce in the blue snow.

  Julian stood up and pressed his finger on the base of her neck, “I’VE HAD IT WITH YOU!”

  “ME TOO!”

  BAM!

  Ben smmed his palm into the snow and gred at the two, “ENOUGH!” He seemed frustrated, “While you two were arguing, that monster is getting closer and closer and here I am— trying my absolute best to figure out a way to either fight or escape—-but you two—you two? Oh my goddess. You two can't just get along won't you!?” He snapped. “Now for the grace of the Divine Asmodeus can we have some goddamn peace and quiet!”

  They looked behind them as the elephant Stonehide howled as it raised its hind legs once more, preparing to stomp and release another shockwave of wind and snow in all directions.

  “Not again.” Ben’s expression darkened.

  “W-wait—” Autumn’s eyes gnced somewhere, it was a high cliff that extended high to the side of the mountain pass. “W-WILL FALL!”

  “What!?” Julian stared where she was pointing and he realized what the barbarian meant. There was a rge amount of snow stock piled on the mountainside that looked a bit more shaking could send all that piled up dirt, rock, and ice tumbling down.

  The Stonehide’s feet crashed towards the ground and a rge shaking thump shook the whole mountain. Ben immediately embraced the other two to prepare for an upcoming avanche as they all tightened themselves together as if they're a yarn ball.

  The three of them stared towards the side as they watched one chunk of snow fall.

  A sigh of relief escaped their lips.

  “Safe.” Autumn dropped her head onto Ben’s chest.

  The Stonehide bellowed once more with a loud shriek simir to that of what it looked like, an elephant.

  The three spoke one word in unison, “Fuck.”

  The mountainside grumbled and—-just like a roar of a beast everything came tumbling down.

  “BEHIND THE BOULDER!” Julian immediately pulled them behind the massive hunk of rock that broke his shoulder.

  “THIS TOO FRAGILE!” Autumn immediately noticed as soon as she touched the rock. It didn't feel like normal rock. It was more gssy. She knew what it was of course and although it is rock-like with its hardness—enough pressure will shatter it easily.

  “What else can we do then!” Julian fired back. “We have no other options!”

  Autumn shut up. He was right after all.

  There was no hope for them to run away in time and the Stonehide didn't seem to be going away anytime soon so they were stuck and couldn't escape.

  Was this the end?

  Are they about to perish?

  They had just stepped inside the Outnds. Was the danger this immediate and imminent.

  “Your Highness,” Julian saluted the Crown Prince, “It was an honor fighting alongside you.”,

  “Do not dare count us as dead already.” Ben gred and the Knight’s shoulders slumped, he winced from the pain of doing so.

  “I apologize, Your High—Whoa–” A chain had linked itself into his arm, “—What the fu—AAAAAAHHHH!” he was suddenly dragged away into the darkness behind the mist of the snow as he vanished from view.

  “Julian!?” Ben snapped up but then a whimper sounded next to him. He turned to realize Autumn’s legs had been wrapped in simir chains as well.

  “P–Princ—HIYAAAAAAAH!” Autumn was suddenly pulled before he could even reach out for her.

  “CRAP!” Ben grit his teeth as his face turned to a horrific beast-like expression. “WHO ARE YOU!?”

  His raging gaze scanned all around the vicinity as the threat of the avanche loomed closer and closer. He could feel it rumbling behind him as well as the Stonehide lumbering its way closer.

  All hope seems lost.

  “WHERE ARE THEY!?” He yelled into the blizzard. “TELL ME—” Then, like a living vine, a chain burst from the shadows and wrapped around both his arms.

  He tried to yank his arm away but as, just like that, he was dragged right after his two friends straight into the dark.