[coment and give me power stones!!]
"Attack!!" Atofe's words reached my ears and I immediately tensed, Philemon squeezed me tighter and I could hear his desperate call.
The top four, some guards, and Moore were all heading towards me.
If I were alone there would be no problem, but I have Philemon by my side.
So I made a quick decision and took to the air.
"huuung!!" I could feel Calina's sword caressing my feet, one more second and she would cut me in two...
"Don't let him escape!" Atofe shouted as he flapped his wings and took to the skies at terrifying speed.
"Paul! Wh-what do we do?!" Philemon screamed in panic but my mind was only focused on how to make him escape.
"Don't resist my love!!!" Atofe's battle cry sent shivers down my spine and his sword quickly went for my neck.
Fortunately she was too slow even by my standards so simply trapping her in gravity and turning her into a meatball was enough.
And that's what I did.
"hmmp!!, aaagh!, Moore!" She screamed trying to get away and when I realized it an ice spear was heading towards me.
"!!!"
With one hand busy holding Philemon and the other holding Atofe I had nothing to defend myself with, but fortunately the ice spear was only an advanced level attack, so as soon as it touched my battle aura the spear disintegrated into a thousand pieces.
Moore and Atofe's eyes widened, but I didn't give them time to react.
"Take this!" I shouted as I threw Atofe towards Moore followed by a huge fireball.
(baang!!)
The attack hit them full on and I took the opportunity to form a pillar of light with my free hand, fortunately none of the other guards could fly so they just looked at me with hatred until...
Calina threw her sword at me at great speed, a technique of the North God for desperate situations.
But I just moved from the place of the trajectory and the sword fell down the mountain.
"Don't underestimate us!! Calina is definitely the stupidest of the four main characters!" Peridot shouted angrily and the others nodded, what idiots...
"Raaah!! Paul!!!" Atofe screamed out of the smoke.
Unfortunately Moore had already recovered in the same way so he began to cast a spell.
My pillar of light wasn't ready yet as it was being formed with one hand so I made a decision.
"Philemon, don't hate me for this, okay? I promise I'll catch you!!" I told him in desperation.
"eh?, wh- Pauuul!!!" My poor little brother screamed as he was thrown into the air about five hundred meters.
There's no time to waste!
"Haaa!!" With a guttural scream I left the pillar of light and took my sword with both hands.
Atofe was already on top of me and his sword was diagonally towards my rib.
"Haa!" I intercepted his sword with magic and his already dented sword was deformed by the pressure and the sword's unique ability.
I could see Atofe's eyes widen but nothing more before she turned into a ball of flesh and blood
"Haaa!!" And without waiting any longer, he scattered the remains throughout the area, this would encourage its regeneration.
I looked below me and Moore was already about to throw a stone pillar.
"You won't!" I shouted as I used disturbance magic and his spell was cut off.
I could see the surprise in his eyes but then he muttered something to himself and started conjuring again
!I mustn't let him do it!
With a quick glance at the sky Philemon was already about three hundred meters from the ground so I didn't waste any more time
With the help of wind magic I charged towards the guards and split them in half one by one.
All this in less than a second, the only ones who could react were the four main ones and Moore but not too much.
He received the same treatment as Atofe but this time I made sure to instantly dissolve his remains with a mini heat island.
Moore's flesh immediately turned to ash before the astonished gaze of the four main
Philemon was already two hundred meters away...
"Y-you! You've killed-" The leader of the four main ones tried to speak but I intercepted him mid-speech.
No one could react to my speed and I cut off his head in a single movement followed by Peridot and Benebene, But I already knew that the latter would not be eliminated with my sword.
So before he could claim victory I froze him with a frost nova and used gravity magic to crush him as much as I could.
The result was a fountain of green slime seeping out from between the chunks of ice.
The only survivor was Calina who no longer had a sword.
But without caring too much about the cut to her in half.
My sword entered through his right shoulder, then reached his ribs, heart, lungs and then split his stomach in half until exiting through his left hip.
(kroom!!)
The shock wave of my attack sent his upper half flying into the mountains, but I didn't stay to watch the spectacle.
"aaaah!!, Paul!" I could hear Philemon's screams and I rose into the air towards him, slowing his fall with gravity magic.
"Phil! Are you okay?!" I asked him as I pulled him into my hug.
He hugged me quickly but then punched me in the cheek with an angry expression and buried his face in my chest.
"D-did you defeat them?..." He asked between sobs and I nodded in relief.
"Yes, we'd better get out of here right now," I said as we went down to the surface.
The corpses of Atofe's guards were scattered all over the place, I made sure to cover Philemon's eyes from all of this as I ran towards the hatch.
I lifted it up and closed it from the inside with gravity magic, but not before covering it at the last moment with sand for its Atofe was regenerated.
I put Philemon behind me as I advanced through the place, it was a long corridor of about a hundred meters so I took the easy exit and threw a fireball towards the corridor illuminating it.
As the fireball traveled down the hallway it revealed a dozen guards hiding and they rushed at me.
I shuddered slightly at the thought of what would have happened if I hadn't done that but I still got into fighting position.
"give up!"
"Let Lady Atofe marry you!!"
These were the shouts of some of the guards as I cut them apart.
Despite being Atofe's personal guard, none of them stood out for their strength and in less than twenty seconds each and every one fell.
"Philemon, stay behind me at all times!" I said seriously as I walked down the hallway with my sword in one hand and a fireball in the other.
It took us about five minutes to walk those hundred meters until I reached the hole I had created when I left and I peeked out slightly.
"!!!"
A dagger grazed my forehead and slammed into the opposite wall with a thud.
"tch!!!" I clicked my tongue as I entered the room only to be greeted by three guards already in combat stances.
"Hehe! We are-agh!!" I didn't let any of them speak and crushed them with gravity magic.
Fortunately the teleportation circle was intact so I picked Philemon up and jumped into the circle, briefly losing consciousness.
...
"gah!" I opened my eyes quickly as I looked around.
Philemon was still holding me tightly, fortunately, and we were in another room of concrete and spiders.
But I got into a fighting stance once more as I climbed the stairs.
Philemon was always behind me as I inspected the six rooms but all were clean thankfully.
"haaa..." I let out a sigh of relief as I left the ruins and found myself camouflaged again in a large rock.
"Paul, where are we now?" Philemon asked as he looked at me anxiously.
"We're in the north of Asura Phil, we're safe now..." I muttered as I sat on the ground allowing him to relax me momentarily.
It had been less than ten minutes.
And I had just finished that full guard...
"Heh!..." I couldn't help but smile proudly at myself as I got up from the ground.
"Are you feeling okay, Phil? Do you want to keep traveling?" I asked him.
He looked at the camouflage stone, then looked at me and nodded.
"Yes, let's go, but where did you say we're going?" He asked again.
"Towards the magic city of Sharia in the Kingdom of Ranoa...well, that's our final destination, I want to look for my group first" I told him.
"your group?, you talk about that Roxy and Hilda?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, it's only been ten days since we separated, can you believe it? They're not even halfway there, so we have to catch up with them." I told him as I brushed the dust off his head.
"B-but do you have any idea where they'll go?" He asked and I shook my head.
"Not at all, but they must not have gone far, the Ars border with the northern territories is barely a month away by carriage, "They haven't left the country, we can reach them," I said as I took him in my arms.
"Okay...let's go" he murmured as we rise towards the sky and with a sonic boom we began to travel.
I'll use the ruins of the capital Ars to guide me north and fly low along the road level, that's how I'll do it.
But it was already night so we only traveled for half an hour before I decided to camp in the woods.
The city of Iduna was a couple of hours away but I decided to stop here for the night.
With my sword I cut down a tree and before it touches the ground I cut the trunk into thousands of pieces.
It didn't take long to form a bonfire and with a ball of fire it was quickly lit.
"Philemon my brother...admire...tonight's dinner!!" I said while showing him what he had cooked after putting it on a plate of earth.
"It's just roasted wild boar meat... can't you cook anything else?" He asked in exasperation.
"I don't have any money right now, little brother, so until we get Sharia, we'll keep eating this... or unless I get involved in some adventurer jobs to get some money." I muttered as I savored the culinary masterpiece I had created.
"Haaa..." Philemon just sighed in exasperation as he started eating again.
We didn't talk much that night, for my part because of what happened with Atofe, that woman is definitely crazy and I don't want to see her again.
And another thing is that I couldn't balance protecting Philemon and fighting at the same time.
Obviously this is something that shouldn't happen, but I still don't want anyone else to put me in this situation like on this trip.
"Paul..." Philemon suddenly muttered, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"What's up, bro?" I replied with a smile.
"You should definitely take some adventurer job, I don't like wild boar meat" he declared and my smile disappeared.
"...of course" I said while holding back a sigh.
Looks like I'll have to go back to my old ways a bit to satisfy this little gremlin's hunger...
Not that I'm complaining of course, we need money after all
After that, I created an earth igloo in which Philemon used my arm as a pillow to sleep.
The forest was really quiet, it seemed there were no crickets in this world so their cooing sound was gone.
So I just focused on Philemon's breathing until I fell asleep.
Tomorrow the trip will continue, so I need to be well rested...
...
That night I was also able to sleep well, I had been on a roll these past couple of days with Philemon and my dark circles had finally disappeared.
After spending half an hour trying to wake Philemon up and make some more roast boar meat, we finally continued our journey.
The trip to the city only took me two hours and we landed in the nearby forest.
I had already made a decision which was to do a couple of jobs to earn money and thus be able to sleep in an inn and stop eating wild boar.
I could just travel for hours to Sharia but then Hilda and the others would take months to arrive so I decided to kill time while I earned money so I could intercept them at a better time
The city did not stand out in anything important, it was just another city that was generated when a village grew quite large.
The walls were about five meters high but nothing major.
"Wow...I remember I could only see this city through the carriage window," Philemon murmured as we walked.
"Really?" I asked curiously.
"Yes...although I didn't understand it very well at the time and besides, Wii Taa seemed quite tense those days," he said as he squeezed my hand more tightly.
"I see..." I muttered as I looked around, Now that I think about it, one city after this Alek and Gesse had ambushed me, surely the traces of destruction are still there.
But there's no way those bastards can find out it was me anyway.
"Philemon, we'll go to the adventurers' guild right now..." I said but I trailed off mid-sentence.
"Alright so what happens?" He asked noticing my concern.
"...I don't have anyone to take care of you and because of my adventurer rank, it's probably monster hunting jobs or something like that" I told him with concern and he frowned.
"What kind of monsters? I can help you! I promise!" He said and I smiled bitterly.
"The least I can find are black wolves or bears, we are close to the northern territories and there could also be requests to explore some dungeon" I told him while I stroked him on the head.
That only put Philemon in a bad mood and then he turned his gaze to the adventurer's guild.
"B-but then what are we going to do?...I promise to be useful to you, brother!"He protested as tears welled up in his eyes and I sighed.
"Let's go to the guild first to see what kind of jobs they're asking for so we can make a decision, okay?" I told him, and he nodded after a few moments.
We walked through the city until we reached the building, it was nothing special, it looked like a big cabin in the middle of the city but it was okay.
"Phil, there can be a lot of aggressive men here, okay? Don't stare at anyone and don't raise your voice." Understood?" I asked him and he nodded.
(Bang!)
I opened the guild doors as I entered and the laughter and conversations immediately ceased.
I could see the bigger men scan me from top to bottom but quickly lose interest in me.
That's good.
"Hey kid?!, since when is being a babysitter a sought-after job, huh?, hahaha-ahg!" One of the men screamed but I quickly threw a stone bullet at him that cut his left cheek and made him fall.
Those who were preparing to laugh fell completely silent and I continued walking towards the busty girl at the counter with Philemon holding my hand.
My theory was right, in these places they only want busty women and that's fine hehe...ahem!
What I mean is, maybe it's some kind of sales strategy or something, I honestly don't care.
After registering with her I went to the request table
The other adventurers had remained silent while the guy who had opened his cheek looked at me with open hatred.
That would leave him with a big scar at best.
But pushing those thoughts out of my mind, I looked at the petition board and...
"All bad, not one good," I muttered to myself as I scratched my cheek.
"What's wrong, Paul?" Philemon asked fearfully.u"Haaa...there are only B rank proposals and above around here and they all boil down to escorting caravans to the south, clearing dungeons and hunting monsters..." I muttered.
"...and I can't go to any truth?" He asked with narrowed eyes.
"Exactly, to start with, Dungeon clearings are things that can only be done in groups and generally last a couple of days, escorting caravans would only take us further away from our objective..."Monster hunting... I honestly don't know if I could take you on one," I said, crossing my arms.
"I-I promise to do everything you tell me and if not then you can leave me in the air with your strange magic!" He said with conviction and I stared at him.
"Do you promise to run if I tell you to run and hide if I tell you to?" I asked him seriously and he nodded several times.
"Haaa...okay, now let's look at the least dangerous one," I muttered as I searched through the proposal board.
Black Bear Hunt
Proposal range: B
Requested by: The General Mayor's Office of the City of Iduna
Hundreds of black bear sightings have been reported in the vicinity of the city, with one death and three injuries reported. Witnesses say there are a pack of 10-15 black bears.
Kill them all and bring their claws and skins as proof.
Reward: 2 gold coins per person
"hmmm..." I muttered as I looked at the proposal, this was the "safest" of all the others and the pay was good.
But first...
"I'll take this one," I told the receptionist as I handed her the proposal carved in stone.
"...you alone? And your team?" The woman asked curiously.
"No need, I'm an advanced rank in the God Sword style," I told her and she narrowed her eyes but when she checked my adventurer card she just sighed and she gave me the registration stone plate.
"I also want to register him as an adventurer," I said as I made my brother approach the counter.
He looked at me with wide eyes but then nodded.
The receptionist, to my surprise, appeared unperturbed and from under her counter she pulled out a registration paper and a pen.
"In that case, please fill this out with your personal information," she said as she handed it to Philemon, who looked at me in panic.
TRUE...
"I'll sign them, he doesn't understand human language" I said and the receptionist nodded without saying anything.
Name: Philemon Greyrat
Rank: F
Age: 4
Race: Human
Occupation:
Adventure group:
It was a simple card but it served its purpose, with that it could help him rank up and gain experience.
Philemon looked at the card with a frown at not being able to read it but he still thanked me.
"Well, there is no time limit to complete the hunting task, there must be a minimum of twenty pairs of claws and skins to claim the reward." The receptionist said and so we both left the guild so we could get some money.