Even though that assassin had come for Ragnar, meaning that Aura was just caught in the crossfire, she still felt it necessary to thank Ragnar for saving her. If that bitch had really sliced up her face, she wouldn’t know what to do.

  Aura looked around at the bloody scene as she sorted through her emotions. The series of events had of course left her a bit shaken. Although, she found something really odd. Even though she had just been through a semi deadly ordeal, she was nowhere near as rattled as she should have been, except for the bit with her face.

  Aura wasn’t sure what to make of it. Of course, she knew that all the things she had faced until now played a role in it, but just that wouldn’t cut it. Then, it only left one thing.

  Was she so sure that Ragnar would be able to handle the situation? They hadn’t been together long enough for her to have developed that sort of trust in him, let alone considering his temperament. But still, for some reason, she didn’t doubt it. Life had given her some real good lessons on how to judge people and they hadn’t let her down, yet.

  With that thought, she moved her gaze away from the corpse of the assassin, towards her mount, Dino.

  Aura had made it a point early in her life to not get too attached to anything after everything that she had been through, and since Dino had only been with her for around 2 months, its death didn’t affect her as much.

  “So… What do we do now?” asked Aura as she regarded the headless corpse of her trusty steed.

  “Fuck do I know.” A curt reply followed.

  ‘Why did I even ask? And does he really need to curse in every other sentence that leaves his mouth,’ wondered Aura though she didn’t dare put it into words.

  She started going through her options as she turned back to look towards the high walls of HCR that were still taking up the complete horizon to their north. There was of course the option of heading back for a new mount. They could either buy another one in the Nexarion terry itself which would cost them a lot of money, or head to Riftdale for one of these bi-pedalled dinosaurs which would suck up a lot of their time.

  As for travelling on foot, yeah, not an option, the place she had in mind for their excursion was a 2-day journey on her mount given that they only stopped for sleep at night and nowhere else which was already quite a stretch. On foot, they would be lucky if they made it within a week. Of course, this estimate was made by Aura considering her own speed, without taking Ragnar into account.

  Suddenly an idea struck as she turned her gaze towards Ragnar. He stood there looking around at all the mounds in the otherwise flat grasslands, calmly waiting for her to come up with something. He didn’t even bother trying. Although that should have made her frown, she was currently eying him up with a weird glint in her eyes.

  She had remembered the method he had used to blackmail her the first time and the way he had been travelling with her until now. If she could convince him to take her with him through the ground, then they would neither loose time nor money.

  As these blasphemous thoughts ran through her head, Ragnar’s gaze met hers and instantly, Aura was forced to drop the idea without even trying. No way in hell would he agree to something like that.

  Ragnar gave her a questioning look but Aura shook her head vehemently as if she wasn’t just thinking about asking him to give her a lift to their destination.

  Aura lowered her gaze to the ground as she again got lost in her thoughts, almost. She looked back at Ragnar, with the same glint though a bit dimmer than before, she couldn’t give up without trying. She was no quitter. Afterall, what was the worst that could happen?

  She opened her mouth to ask, “Umm. Could you… you know… I-I mean…could you-.”

  At this point, her gaze met with Ragnar’s glare once more who seemed ready to berate her, she knew by now that he didn’t like it when people didn’t get straight to the point.

  Thus, before he could, she blurted out, “Carry me with your earth ability.”

  After finally letting it out, she again looked down at the ground, not willing to match his gaze anymore.

  Ragnar was looking at her with an emotionless gaze. He wondered what gave her the guts to bring this up.

  “Is there any difference between the ‘you’ now and the ‘you’ from the day before yesterday?” He inquired.

  Aura couldn’t help but be relieved sensing no anger in his voice, but the matter of his question made her scratch her head. She couldn’t tell what he was getting at. Hence, she replied in a calculative tone, trying her best not to trigger him.

  “No, none that I can think of.”

  “Then you should know your place by now,” he said, his voice still lacking all emotions as his stare almost pierced into Aura’s head.

  *Sigh* “I really should… shouldn’t I?” Aura mumbled, her head still facing the ground.

  Just as Aura was once again ready to go back into her thoughts, albeit dejectedly, to decide what their plan of action now could be, she heard his nonchalant voice once more.

  “It uses a lot of essence when carrying humans inside with me, so it’s impractical anyways.” Ragnar was a bit doubtful as to why he had bothered to explain himself, but seeing her sulking like that did make him feel that he wasn’t doing his job as her superior well enough.

  Aura slowly looked up as a soft smile appeared on her face involuntarily. She couldn’t help that smile turn into a grin as she thought through what he had said.

  “I think I can do something about that,” she said.

  Then without waiting for him to respond, she started explaining.

  “You see, last time when you used it on me, I could feel my essence instinctively rejecting your ability from invading my body. I think that is a natural reaction of my or anyone’s essence for that case. So, if I were to allow your essence in, then you would most probably only require as much essence as you did when carrying that dead quaraxi. Then you should be able to carry me, right?”

  Her grin had turned proud by the end since she had figured out something about his ability just by being its victim once.

  Ragnar couldn’t help but give her a long stare. She really didn’t know her place yet. Anyways, what she said actually sounded quite logical, even to him, so he didn’t bother degrade her just yet.

  Instead, he took a step towards her and reached out his hand to hold a frill of her white gown near her waist. Now that he was in no hurry, he wouldn’t want to touch the cattle needlessly.

  Aura observed him calmly and couldn’t help give a genuine smile when he held her dress instead of keeping his hand on her shoulder forcefully like before. She didn’t know his reasons but anyways, it seemed a bit childish to her. She wasn’t about to complain though.

  Ragnar activated his ability and they both disappeared into the earth.

  Aura observed the view shift in front of her as the bright morning sunshine was shrouded by pitch-black darkness. Then she heard his voice that sounded as if it came from right beside her ear.

  “Do it.”

  Aura understood what he meant and tried out her theory. She actively removed any resistance that her essence might be putting up against his ability. She felt a tingle as his ability entered her body and enveloped her completely. It didn’t feel too bad.

  Just as Ragnar had told her to do her thing, he sensed his essence that had been draining like an open tap, slow down to a crawl like the tap was closed and only a few drops were leaking every now and then. He smiled.

  Then their view shifted once more as they appeared back on the surface with the glaring white sunlight forcing them to cover their eyes before they eventually adjusted.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Aura looked at him expectantly as she voiced out her question, “Did it work?”

  “It sure did,” Ragnar replied with a calm smile. Ragnar had to really give this one to Aura, since he might have taken a hell of a lot longer to figure this out on his own. Although he wasn’t sure when exactly and with whom this trick would be useful, since he had no plans on becoming a chauffeur. Though as of now, since she had come up with it, he guessed that it wouldn’t be too much to reward her with one trip.

  Aura smiled gleefully as she stretched out her hand. “Then… can we?”

  She guessed that he was trying to be considerate about touching her needlessly so she decided to take the initiative in giving him her hand. Travelling such a distance with him holding her dress would surely be inconvenient for the both of them. But her expectations were once again meant to be crushed.

  She definitely didn’t know her place.

  Ragnar simply stared at her hand before turning away.

  Aura stood there with an awkward smile as she felt the wind bristling through the fingers of her stretched out hand. But just as she was about to withdraw it, she felt something land on it.

  But before she could even get her hopes up, she noticed what it was. A black cloak folded like a rope whose one end was held by Ragnar. He seemed to have taken it off of the assassin’s corpse.

  ‘He’s fine with that rather than holding my hand.’ Thought Aura as she sighed. She simply couldn’t tell what goes through his mind. That said, she could do nothing except pout and go along with it. At least he had removed the bloody part of it before handing it over. And he seemed to have actually agreed to take her with him. That felt like progress. Towards what? She couldn’t tell.

  Though just as she was starting to be at ease, he once again spoke up.

  “Its only because what you said was useful, and I don’t like owing any favours. Don’t expect me to do this again.”

  His words only managed to put her more at ease though as she smiled again. It was nice knowing his thought process behind his weird actions. And how simple it actually was in most cases. She could also use this to her advantage in the future.

  “I didn’t do much though,” she said.

  “You wanna go or not?” he asked.

  “I do! I definitely do!” She blurted before he could change his mind.

  “Hm…” was all he said to that before asking, “Check if she had anything useful on her.”

  ‘You can take the cloak on your own but need me to check the rest.’ Aura grumbled in her mind but didn’t refute his words.

  As she neared the body, a disturbing scent assaulted her nose but she wasn’t too bothered by it, casually scavenging the corpse.

  After going through everything she turned to Ragnar with a wry smile. “There’s nothing useful except for the spatial pouch itself and this dagger, similar to the one you carry.”

  Ragnar took the dagger from her and noticed that it was identical to his own. Not just that, its condition was also not too far off from Ragnar’s own. He could tell that she didn’t keep it with her for combat. It probably had some other significance for her just like he did for his own.

  Instead of keeping it with him, he channelled his waves through it. It slowly started vibrating in his hand as a slow, controlled hum started reverberating from it.

  Hummmmmmmm

  Aura took notice of it and wondered what he was up to.

  The frequency of the vibrations started rising at a rapid pace and didn’t seem like they would stop.

  nnnnnnNNNNNYYYYYYYY-T

  It got louder and louder before it suddenly stopped. Silence returned to the grasslands accompanied by the noise of blowing winds.

  Aura watched with wide eyes as the blade in his hand slowly fell apart into pieces and fell from his hand. And before those pieces reached the ground, they had scattered into fine dust.

  Aura was once again baffled by his actions as she couldn’t tell its significance. Was this his way of sending her off, since she could deduce from her words that they knew each other. But then wouldn’t it have been better to either bury her or do this to her body. Aura thought about suggesting him to bury the body, but she held herself back. For some reason she had an inkling that she might get stuck doing it all on her own.

  Ragnar didn’t comment on what he had done instead he thought with his eyes on the new spatial pouch they had obtained just like that. ‘What was the point of wasting all those enders then?’

  “Just keep it with you,” he said, since if he kept it with himself, then it would keep reminding him of his wasted enders. And he had also noticed that Aura’s belt seemed to be made for carrying multiple of these pouches anyways. He, on the other hand had just stuck it on one of the straps for belt on his jeans.

  Aura nodded and hung it around her waist with a swift motion.

  Aura was about to suggest they finally head off but the corpses lying in the corner of her eyes really bugged her. She couldn’t possibly leave them in the open to rot like that.

  “Um… About the corpses. Do you think that you could maybe… do something about them?” She gathered the last bit of courage she had left and said it. She made sure to phrase it in a way that wouldn’t trigger him. She was getting good at it.

  “And why would I do that?” he asked with clear confusion in his eyes.

  “Because if I do it then it might delay us a bit. It should be a lot faster with your ability.” Aura was starting to get an inkling of what would get him to move.

  “And why would you do that?” he asked, still not getting the full picture.

  Aura sighed in exasperation before explaining. “You know… It won’t take long for someone to discover this, and then for my family to find out that this was my mount. And once they do, they will think that something bad happened to me, and then send people to search for me, and if they saw this person’s body nearby then things are bound to complicate even further. So wouldn’t it be better to avoid all this altogether.”

  Ragnar listened calmly but wasn’t exactly bought on her reasoning. Even if all that did happen, it didn’t really concern him much. But still, he didn’t think it was a big deal if he just had to bury them. He didn’t question her further; it was true he didn’t want to wait around while she took her sweet time burying them. Then he might as well.

  He simply walked over to them and took them with him underground before leaving them there and coming back out. It didn’t even take 30 seconds.

  Aura didn’t exactly have this in mind when she suggested it but it was so much more convenient than what she had in mind. His Tainted Perk really was an outlier. After he was done, Aura spoke up to finally get going.

  “I think we are done here. Shall we leave?” She was of course not going to phrase anything as an order.

  But Ragnar didn’t directly leave. He seemed to be awkwardly trying to tie the cloak around his forearm. He did have convenience in mind when he opted for the cloak.

  Aura could see his vision, and thus smiled and walked over to him.

  “May I?” she asked with her hand outstretched towards him once more. Despite her failures, she wasn’t one to give up.

  This time though, she wasn’t heartlessly left to rot, instead he took the offer without much thought and handed her the cloak. Aura tied it neatly near his forearm and then tied her own around her waist above her belt. She could see the appeal of this method now. Even she would have felt awkward holding his hand for that long. But did he really think that far? She highly doubted it.

  Now they were finally ready to head out. And without any warning, Ragnar activated his ability and they were below the ground. Aura promptly removed any restrictions from her essence without him having to ask.

  Aura knew that in this state, she was completely defenceless and completely at his mercy, but she didn’t think the situation would be any different if she wasn’t removing her restrictions. She had seen enough of his nature by now to tell that she was as safe here as she could be anywhere else in the realm. Or maybe slightly more.

  “We just need to head straight south till we hit the Deicry falls,” Aura said once again without him needing to ask. She really was getting better at this, since Ragnar was just about to inquire about the path ahead. Though he still had a doubt, but before he could even open his mouth to speak.

  “There’s no way we could miss it. You’ll know what I am talking about once we get there,” she spoke with a cheeky grin.

  Instead of saying anything, Ragnar closed his eyes and scanned his mind, to check if she had linked their minds with her ability or something like that without his knowledge. But he found no such trickery.

  Aura might still have had an idea as to what he was thinking but she decided not to comment on it and simply smiled. It was getting easier for her to get a read on him as time passed.

  Ragnar chalked it up to her getting better at her job and started moving through the earth. He was going as fast as his ability would allow.

  Now that he thought about it, it would have been easy for him to just take a mount from one of the groups that were heading out from HCR. That would have also given him some free charges on the side, just in case they decided not to hand over their mount peacefully.

  Meanwhile, Aura was completely enchanted with the way the Tainted Perk worked. She couldn’t see it before since Ragnar had instantly gone back to the surface after finding out that her advice had worked. Now that she had the freedom to look around and observe the surroundings, she discovered that she could actually see above the surface now. She was sure that she couldn’t see it before back when Ragnar had used it on her the first time.

  She could see everything like looking above the surface of water while being below it. The parts she focused on instantly became clear while the peripherals got blurry. The same happened wherever her gaze went. She was finding it quite fun just looking around. She realized that the earth itself was acting as her eyes.

  “This is amazing,” she said inadvertently under her breath.

  But it sounded to Ragnar as if it came from right beside his ear. He turned his head around in slight surprise and could make out even in the dark that she was facing up.

  “You can see it?” he asked.

  She nodded her head, but then instantly spoke up as well, “Yeah, I can.” She didn’t know that Ragnar could make out her figure even in this darkness.

  Ragnar didn’t say anything and turned ahead. It seemed like this method even allowed her to see above the surface like he could. He wondered if this trend would carry over to the negative side of his Tainted Perk as well. Will she also have the urge to stay inside Earth forever? He’ll find out eventually.

  Aura couldn’t get enough of observing the outside, when she noticed the Softsteppe mounds in the distance. She suddenly remembered another method they could have opted for in order to get a mount, and it would have really been easy with Ragnar’s strength, what he had shown until now could have easily gotten them one.

  But that didn’t matter anymore, she really liked this method. Aside from the scenes she could observe, it was also really comfortable, with her whole body feeling relaxed. She would really like to travel like this with him in the future as well, which she knew wouldn’t be easy.

  This way, she could also talk with him whenever she wanted. It could get really lonely travelling this long without having someone to bounce off of. She liked this. Much better than all her adventures and companions until now.