In the village of Furboar, 2 kids were playing with each others on the big green field not far away from their orphanage. As they were playing happily, the little girl bumped onto a fierce-looking man. "Ouch...." The girl fell down, and before she managed to get up, the man gave out an angry snort. "Damn you, kid... Where's your apologize??". The girl slowly stand up, and apologized sincerely, but the man didn't seems like wanted to forgive her. Because the girl went afar before the boy, so all these happened before the boy could do anything. By the time he came beside the girl, the man was already making all kind of complains. "Don't bully Finny!!", the boy shouted and tried to protect his friend. "Huh? What the hell are you talking about, kid? Just shut up and give me my compensation." "We did nothing wrong, we had already apologize to you!" "Huh? What kind of stupid thing are you talking about, look at my shirts, it was torn." The boy examined the man's shirt and saw a small piece of cloth being teared off. It was a piece too small to be noticed, so the man is obviously over-exaggerating. The boy tried to argue back, but it was futile, the man was full of hostile and the boy understood that things will be very ugly if he doesn't do something. "Here, this is all I got". The boy took the only coins he had from his pocket. "Are you kidding me, kid? Like that would be enough!". While the man was getting in rage, he knocked the girl down again, and a pendant came flying out from the girl's neck. "Oh..... look what we got here." The man took notice of the pendant, which has a purple jewel on it. "Wow..... isn't this rare... A graltite stone". The graltite stone, which could only be found on the north region, inside a mine on top of the maze-like forest. It is something as valuable as a diamond, if not more valuable, exactly the kind of treasure thieves and bandits will die fighting for. "No... please don't take it..." The girl started to cry when the man grabbed the pendant. "Stop it, I had already gave you my money so stop it!" The boy shouted in vain, still hoping the man will let go of the pendant. "Haha, what you gave me won't be enough for compensation, but this pendant will barely be enough. So I'm taking both. Hahahaha." While laughing, the man turned around, and walked away from the kids. "No.... It was mummy's........ NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO".
As the girl cried out very loud, something went passed the boy, but it was too fast for him to check what it is. In an instant, the vicious man who took away the pendant fell down in front of them. While being shocked, the boy looked up ahead, and saw a tall young man with a white-colored hair, standing there. The young man then approached the little girl with the pendant on his hand. It appears that this tall young man ran passed the boy and snatched away the pendant from the bad guy, but his overall movement could hardly be noticed by anyone. Though so, at least the boy knew 1 thing: the young man was there to help them. Before the young man handed over the pendant, he looked at the pendant and lost in thought for a few seconds. At that moment, though briefly, the little boy noticed that there was a sad face revealed on the young man. "Here, take great care of it and never, ever let it go again." After the young man handed over the pendant, he said to the girl in a gentle smile. Upon a closer look, the boy noticed the color of the young man's eyes are deep red like blood. Goosebumps came raising as he looked at those red eyes, which reminded him of the blood he saw when his birthplace was destroyed in the past. "Fuck you! Give me back the pendant!" The vicious man from earlier got back on his feet, and attempted to assault the young man. The young man did a swift dodge and pull the vicious man to the side to stop him from falling down and bump onto the girl. While pulling, he put some more strength and overthrew the man to the bushes. "Urgh!!", the vicious man cried.
The little boy was still buried in his scary recollection of the destruction of his village in the past. By the time the little boy came to his sense, the vicious man already ran away. "Are you 2 alright?". Once again, the young man approaches the two children and shown a gentle smile. The girl nodded a little, with her eyes still watery. "Thank you very much for helping us!" The boy showed his gratitude energetically. "Well then, I must take my leave as I'm in a hurry. You 2 should hurry up and go home in case that man comes back again, and just to be safe, bring along an adult with you when you're coming out next time, to make sure your pendant will not be taken away again. It is a precious treasure that many thieves and bandits look for." The boy was amazed by the young man for he not only skilled in combat, but also seems to have a lot of knowledge regarding gems and jewels. Before the young man left, the little boy stopped the him and told him: "I wish to be your disciple!!". The young man laughed a little, then denied his request. "I am sorry, but I will not stay here for long because I had very important business to attend to at other places." Hearing that, the boy felt a bit down, and in a disappointing tone, he asked: "Will you come back here again?" The young man thought a little, then gave him a yes, but also mentioned that will not happen anytime soon. The boy was overjoy to hear that, even though he knew the next time he met him might be after many years. After that, before the man was able to take his leave, he was stopped again, this time by the little girl. "Erm.... sorry... for the trouble... and.... thank you.... very much", saying so while sobbing. The young man gave a smile to the little girl, waved his hand and left them. As he had left at a certain distance, the boy suddenly shouted: "I am Ronuelty, and she is Finne. We will be waiting for you to come back again!!". The young man turned back, look at them from afar, and shouted "I am Fulikia, and I promised I will come back to see you guys again." Then he left.
------------------ After 7 years ---------------
The boy, named Ronuelty Hacooz, is now 14 years old. With the girl, Finne Cain, 12 years old. Ever since Ronuelty met with Fulikia, he had been training himself hoping to become as strong as Fulikia. A few months after his encounter with Fulikia, Ronuelty managed to find a veteran mercenary to be his teacher, and trained under him for all these years. The Ronuelty right now is a warrior all children in the orphanage look up to. With nothing out of ordinary, the peaceful daily life goes on. Today, the matron realized some of the cooking ingredient are running out, so Finne proposed herself to run the errand of buying those ingredients, with Ronuelty tagging along. Because Ronuelty became capable of defending himself and protecting others, so they were allow to go further away from their home without fearing much of people attacking them. The nearest city they are going to is called Port Tulmill. A city that is located together with the largest port of the continent, so there are a lot of people and werebeast in the city. Though once in a while some crime like thievery might occur, in overall it is still a safe and lively city. When they reached the city, they realized there were more people than usual today. "Should we take the back alley? It will be faster than way." "Hmm......... but wouldn't that be a little bit dangerous?" "Don't worry, there are security guards everywhere so this city is safe for most of the time, even if something happened I can protect you right?". Finne was very worried for some reason, but after looking at Ronuelty smiling confidently, Finne gave in and walked to the city's central square through back alley. On their way, there were quite a few vicious-looking men and werebeasts watching them as they passed by. Ronuelty and Finne proceed calmly, without making any eye contacts with any of those men, and they arrived the central square safely. Then the 2 of them have a little date when shopping in the central square, enjoying their youth as a young couple.
After a few hours, they were done with their little dating and shopping. They were chatting happily while going on the direction back to the orphanage. A short while after they had left the city, sounds of rustle came from the bushes nearby, and very soon they found themselves being ambushed and surrounded by a group of 7 bandits. "Hehe..... you know what we're surrounding you for." The chubby man who appears like their leader spoke. "No, I don't know what are you up to." Ronuelty gave a sarcastic reply as he changed to his fighting stance. Finne held the bag of food she bought earlier tightly, not preparing to run, but preparing to dodge Ronuelty's attack. "Stop looking down on us you idio- Ugh!" before the chubby man could finished, Ronuelty charged in and hit the man's jaw, in a swift move. It had always been Ronuelty's fighting style to strike first in a very fast movement, trying to imitate what Fulikia did when he saved them. As the chubby man was falling at the air before reaching the ground, Ronuelty quickly draw out his sabre and knock down the bandit at the left with the blade holder, followed by cutting the hand of the bandit at the right to disarm him. As the falling chubby man had finally reached the ground, Ronuelty were already at the 7th bandit, and knocked him out easily in split seconds. Ronuelty was well trained by his teacher, his ability now is enough to face off a few skilled town guards. So dealing with a group of bandits like this, which most of them are underage and inexperienced, it was nothing too tough to handle. The only one who can put up a fight is most likely the bandit's leader. But with him being short and heavy, Ronuelty didn't expect him to be able to get up at all.
When Ronuelty was about to put his sabre back, the chubby man stands up. ".....heh...heh...." he looked weird as he made those sound, then Ronuelty and Finne saw something their common sense cannot comply. Muscles starting to grow on the man's body slowly as he made those evil grinning. Though they had never seen anything like this, but they were firmed that the growing is inhumane. "How do you think, Finny?" "In one of the books I read in the library, there was this monster that grew a lot of muscles and increase in size when they were enraged, but usually after making a havoc, they will died instantly." "That means as long as we managed to run away and let time passes it will eventually die on its own, right?" Finne nodded to confirm Ronuelty's question. "Hahaha..... you were quite informative despite being a village girl, but unfortunately I am not what you had describe." The chubby man, which is now a 'thing', spoke in eerie voice. Ronuelty didn't understand its word. Very soon, Finne grabbed a hold of the situation and explained that those kind of monsters she mentioned earlier, after became enrage, they will lost their conscious and doesn't understand any human word, which it doesn't seems so in this case. So basically Finne was when she was guessing what kind of monster they were facing. "Are you saying you won't die even after a given period?" "Of course not, I'm not like those weak creature. I am an empowered human! Having an explosive strength and endurance, while holding the intellectual of a human, AN ULTIMATE FORM!! Hehehe.... You are so dead. Mwahahahahaha!!!". Sensing the danger ahead, Ronuelty asked Finne to find a place to hide. "Be careful, Ron.". After seeing a confident smile from Ronuelty, Finne ran away to hide. Ronuelty gripped his sabre tightly, and charged towards the overgrown monster. He first cut the monster at the waist, some blood were gushed out, but that monster didn't react in pain. Instead, he continued his grinning as Ronuelty continued in stabbing and slashing at its other body part. Even though all his attacks landed successfully, but the monster didn't seems to care at all. Amidst the endless attack, Ronuelty kept on thinking for a way to defeat the monster, then come out of an idea. He launched his sabre towards the monster's eyes, and the monster blocked it. "As I thought, even though you might not feel any pain no matter how I cut, but you still can't see if I blinded you. And if you can't see, then you can't harm us easily." "Ceh...." Ronuelty pulled his sabre back, then put on a feint attack towards the other eye but as the monster tried to block it, he quickly dash to the behind and swinging his sabre hard at the monster's neck, successfully cutting his head off. "If cutting your eyes made you blind, then cutting off your head means you will lose control of your body as your brain is no longer connected to your body." Ronuelty took a few steps backward and gave Finne a smile of victory.
But the reaction given back Finne to Ronuelty, wasn't a happy one. She noticed something, and shouted at Ronuelty. "Something is wrong, I still feel its presense of life." "huh- Argh!!!" The monster's left arm defied how a human joint works, move backwards and hit Ronuelty hard. In that instant he thought that he had hear the noises of the bones of his left arms cracking. Taking the hit, Ronuelty flied far away and hit hard on a wall of small hill. Finne quickly ran towards Ronuelty as the monster slowly move to pick up its 'head' and attached it back to its neck. "Ron, are you ok?" saying so while feeding a potion of painkilling, and apply some herbs on his wound. "Ah.... I'm fine, but we seriously need to make a run now, this monster is not something we can handle." saying so, the monster was already standing in front of him, with its head already re-attached back. "You were late to realize that. Now die!" Because Finne was still there trying to nurse Ronuelty, so he had to protect the monster from hitting Finne. He used up a lot of strength to force his body to move and block the attack with his sabre in 2 hand. "Hahaha! After I finished you, then I can get a hand of that graltite stone. Hmm.... the girl is cute.... maybe I should play with her as well.... Muahahahaha!!" Ronuelty didn't find it strange for the monster to know about Finne's graltite stone that is on her pendant, because he was provoke with the monster's words. He felt very angry and use all his strength to repel the monster's gigantic arm away, then by touching the magical stone attached to his sabre, he invoked a magic that amplifies his slashing power, and managed to cut the monster at the center, splitting it into 2. "Hah....hah..... now it is over." Looking at the 2 half body on the ground, Ronuelty gasping for air while declaring it is over. "Ron, let's hurry and go home. I had a bad feeling about this." The look on Finne seems to be more terrified than earlier. Believing in her hunch, Ronuelty agreed and tried to leave the place after he held Finne's hand. *BANG* as he held her hand, he was attacked from the behind like earlier. The attack was very powerful, causing Ronuelty to almost lost his conscious and let go of Finne's hand. "Rooooooon!!" Ronuelty was once again, flied far away after taking a full hit. When he used all his strength to stand up and look ahead, the monster that were in 2 pieces were back into a piece, like his powerful slash never happened at all. "Damn.... I.. must not...... lost.... my..... conscious...."
'I must protect Finny this time!' is what he thought, but in the end he fell down after taking a few steps. "Some...one....... please...... save..... Fin....ny......" and he lost his conscious. "Muahahaha, now that the annoying brat is gone, you're all mine, young lady". Finne was very scared, but she tried to stay calm in order to search for an escape. "Take cover!!", then suddenly she heard someone shouting that. Without even confirming where does that come from, she quickly ran and hide behind the nearby tree. The next second she went behind the tree, a huge explosion hit on the monster. "AAARRRGGH!!!!!!!" For the first time, she heard the monster cries in pain. Then at the next moment, a purple color lighting strike the monster from the sky, burning its body to coal black. "AAHH!! WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU ARE DEAD!!!" still not falling down, the monster charged towards the couples who attacked it earlier. Though she can't see clearly from afar, but Finne could tell the woman was casting the spell earlier, and the man next to her who was holding a long bow, aimed at the monster while he was chanting something. After he finished chanting, he let go of his hand, and an magical arrow strikes the monster at the left of its chest. The monster stopped moving, and stood there like a statue. As the wind blew, the monster's body became like ashes and were blew away. The woman quickly ran towards Ronuelty, and cast a healing magic on him. After a while, Ronuelty regained his consciousness, and look at the woman who healed him. "Who..... are.... you...." "I'm Jazz. I just gave you an emergency healing, you're safe now." "How.... about.... Finne..?" "If you mean that girl hiding behind the tree, she is fine. Ah, she is coming now". Ronuelty turned his head sideway and saw Finne came running to him. When she arrived, she held Ronuelty tightly to her chest. "Thank goodness..... Thank god....." and she cries of joy.
As he was resting in Finne's warm embracement, he noticed a man walking towards him. "Hey.... sorry for being late. It's been a while, kid." Though he couldn't remember "his" face well due to the damage he had took, but he could vaguely recall it is a voice of someone he knew. He then forced his eyes to open wider and attempted to take a close look of the man. Deep-red eyes, tall in height, snow white long hair with a cowboy hat on his head. Though his outfit changed, but without a doubt, it is a man he knew. "You're finally here...... Fulikia...." saying so, Ronuelty closed his eyes and starting to sleep after feeling relieve.
-------------In the Furboar Orphanage---------
Ronuelty opened his eyes, and found himself back in his room in the orphanage. It was a room for 4 boys included him, with 2 double-decked bed and 2 cupboards that barely fit into the room. He was resting on one of the lower bed, instead of his own bed which was the upper bed. While looking confused of why he is on the lower bed, Finne came into the room with a bowl of water on her hands. "Ron, stay still! You're still injured." At first he didn't understand what did she meant by 'injured', but later on his memory came back, telling him about the monster that attacked them, as well as being saved by Fulikia..... again.
"Where is Fulikia??" Ronuelty tried to jump out of the bed, but he was pushed down by Finne and was scolded by her. Ronuelty could care less when the matron in the orphanage scolded him, but he can't fight back when the one scolding is Finne, she is basically his weakness, so he had no choice but to listen to her scolding obediently, while making a sad face like a kid who was scold by his mother. "Hahaha!! What a face you made". Ronuelty looked at the direction of that voice, it was Fulikia, with a woman who introduced herself as Jazz behind him. "Hey boy~" "Fulikia!". Ronuelty ignored Jazz's greeting, as he was too focused on his lifesaver. Jazz felt a bit down after being ignored, while Fulikia was laughing, he suggested Ronuelty not to ignore a lady. "*Sigh* Ron is always like this, not delicate at all." Finne complains while Ronuelty still haven't realized his mistake.
After Finne had clean Ronuelty's wound, he was finally allowed to wake up and sit on the bed to chat.
"I'm really happy to see you again, Fulikia"
"Well me too, Ronuelty."
"Ah, actually, you can call me Ron."
"Haha, ok.... Erm.... Ron, actually, I had a few questions regarding the incident earlier."
"Please, ask me anything."
"Haha, you don't need to be so polite. Alright, although Finne had told us everything, but there still a few things that only you, who had fought with the monster, will know. So first of all, how did it felt when your sabre cuts through the monster."
After thinking a little, Ronuelty made a reply.
"It was..... like..... cutting through a harden mud. Not as hard as a stone though."
"Ok, next question, how was the monster's fighting will?"
As a skilled warrior, one could tell their opponent's fighting will, whether it be of good will, bad will, chaotic will and many more. Basically it is like reading one's emotion while fighting.
"It was a senseless will, where it has no idea of the reason it fights. It is like a soulless puppet controlling by someone else."
Fulikia sharpen his eyes when he heard that, after a moment of thought, he asked his last question.
"Do you had any idea why he is after Finne's pendant? The graltite stone."
Ronuelty made a questioned face, then he tried to recall all words spoken by the monster earlier. After a while, he managed to recall the monster saying something like wanting The Graltite Stone before it said it will 'play' with Finne.
"No...... He wasn't in Port Turmill, nor I recall seeing him elsewhere before. So I don't know how he got to know Finne's pendant. Why are you asking that question? Wasn't it normal for bandits to go after that rare stone?"
"Yes, but if it was as you said, the monster was like a puppet being controlled, then the reason he wanted the stone will not be a bandit's typical reason, it is more likely that the person who controls it wanted the stone. For your information, someone who is able to control a human as well as giving him such a monstrous power raise, is definitely not a bandit. It is without a doubt a magician's work, and magician do not seek rare stone for simple reason like making money."
The information given tickles Ronuelty's curiousity, while he was hoping to hear more, Fulikia refused to talk anymore.
"Well, I'm sorry to say this, but I will need to leave now for a very important issue."
Ronuelty felt like his heart was broken when he heard that. It was like the moment his older brother left the orphanage when he decided to go on a journey on his own. Ronuelty stepped down from the bed and kneel down in front of Fulikia,
"Please take me along! Whatever journey you're on, I prove myself to be useful! So please! take me along!!"
Fearing that Fulikia might denies his request again, Ronuelty went as far as kneel and bow down.
"Oh boy..... why are you so determined to follow me?"
"I don't want to always be protected, I wanted to be stronger, I also wanted to repay you back!"
Fulikia no longer had a kind look on his face. Rather, he glared at Ronuelty fiercely with his red eyes. Because of his unnatural red-colored eyes, Fulikia gave an aura that scares all the kids that were watching them from the door. It was an aura he gave when he became very serious.
"You wanted to repay me? Well for starter, let me tell you something....."
Fulikia squatted down, and said in a voice that sends shivers to the spine.
"I am Fulikia Reddirt....."
Finne was shocked when she heard his surname. For everyone who were educated, the first knowledge other than basic life needs, is about the huge war happened between an evil army against the Kingdom of Kamm 12 years ago. After the Kingdom's strongest warrior sacrificed himself, the main war ended. After that, there were many minor havoc occurred in various places as the war's after effect, so another 3 warriors
who were apparently the strongest warrior's successors, stepped forward to solve all those minor conflicts across the world. The 3 of them, are called 'The Reddirts'.
A silent came after that. Upon hearing Fulikia's full name, Ronuelty already felt the weight Fulikia carries. No, not exactly, Ronuelty only managed to felt a little bit of the weight Fulikia carries, but it was already enough to give Ronuelty a huge pressure. Finne felt the same, but she was even more panicked because she knew that is not enough to Ronuelty's determination. Within the silence, Fulikia didn't move his eyes, nor remove his scary aura. After a long silence, Ronuelty finally moved his head up and look at Fulikia eye-to-eye.
"Oh..... impressive. Normal human wouldn't be able to look at me eye-to-eye. As I thought, you are not normal as well, as you were able to survive after 2 direct hit from the monster."
Even though he was complimenting Ronuelty, Ronuelty couldn't feel happy as he was still fighting the shivering on his body that was caused by Fulikia's glare.
"Very well, you passed. Hurry and pack your stuffs. I'm leaving in another minute."
Fulikia finally stopped his glaring, and removed his scary aura as well. As he left the room, Jazz gave Ronuelty a wink and followed Fulikia outside. After that, Ronuelty stood up and turned to the cupboard as he tried to pack things up, but he noticed Finne was already there packing up for him. As he wondered what Finne was doing, Finne explained that she will be coming along with him since she is worried about his well-being. "Besides, you could even forget about your meal when you started training, so I have to keep watching you." Since he can't change Finne's mind, so he agreed and let her come along, though there is another reason why he allow Finne to join: he will missed Finne a lot, but he kept that to himself.
After finished packing up, Ronuelty and Finne meet up with Fulikia and Jazz at the front gate of the orphanage. "Erm.... just for the record, what is your full name?", Fulikia asked the first thing he saw Ronuelty at the gate. "Ronuelty Hacooz", "and I'm Finne Cain". 'What a rare surname, Hacooz..... ah! I see...' Fulikia thought, as he heard Ronuelty's surname. As the 4 of them were preparing to leave, all children from the orphanage came out and gathering around Ronuelty and Finne. "Ron, don't go....", "Finny, I'm gonna miss you...", each of them said similar things like that, while some of them were crying out loud. After saying goodbyes to all the children, Ronuelty and Finne left the orphanage with Fulikia and Jazz.
-------------Chapter 1 END-------------
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