Aurzel's Adventures

[autarchaurzel]

Seeing as i like writing, i decided to start a story, based on my character.
The events i write about, or most at least, are fictitious but all the named people i'll write about are my real friends in game, i hope you all enjoy it, and please dont post comments here, i'll open a seperate thread for that so that this thread isnt cluttered and the segments impossible to find.

and without further ado:

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 1: Setting Off

“Aurzel?” Aurzel turned around, “Aurzel!?” he felt something push him.
“Aurzel wake up!” he started, sitting bolt upright in his bed, looking around with bleary eyes.
“What, what is it?” he said sounding confused.
“Well you did say you wanted to set out today on this big adventure of yours that you’ve been going on about, maybe I should have let you sleep in.”
“What? No wait,” he was out of bed in a flash, gathering together everything he’d been trying to pack for the last week.

“Ok I’m ready, I’m ready!” Aurzel called as he ran down the stairs before tripping and collapsing at the bottom after a short fall, banging his head on his mace. “Owww!” he cried out, trying to shake the spots from his vision. There was no one around.
Aurzel hoisted his backpack onto a table and checked the contents hadn’t been damaged. Satisfied he shouldered it and grabbed his mace and shield up from the floor. The mace had belonged to his mother, her very first. She’d been a great paladin of Isya, but she had fallen on a vicious assault on the evil Gordon Master, the shield, his father’s, who had died trying to protect her from the evil minions that had waylaid them at the time.
Since he was young, Aurzel had heard tales of the epic deeds that his parents had accomplished and, ever since, wanted to venture out to one day become as good as them.

“Typical, they must have got bored of waiting,” Aurzel muttered to himself as he walked outside. It was a bright day, the sun was high and warming the cool morning air as noon approached. Aurzel looked around him, Roumen was bustling with young adventurers going about their business, there were even some older, much more experiences adventurers scattered in amongst them. Aurzel took a deep breath, savouring the fresh air of his first day as an adventurer.
He hadn’t even taken five steps before he collided with someone who had been running by. He landed on his shield, twisting his wrist in the process.
“Watch where you’re going,” said the woman he’d crashed into. Before Aurzel could turn to respond, she was already running off again.
“How rude,” he muttered to himself, then turned as he heard someone chuckling.
“Not a good start eh noob?” the speaker was a rather short eld, propping himself on a staff almost twice as tall as the elf himself.
“Who you calling noob?” Aurzel shot back, grabbing his mace and swinging at the elf.
The elf swept his hand in a bored manner and Aurzel froze in mid-swing.
“What did …” Aurzel began as he struggled against what ever was holding him still.
“Just something minor to keep me from killing you. This cloak; it cost more than you’ll ever see, it would be a shame for you to rip it with that thing,” the elf indicated the mace as if it was a disgusting wild animal.
“Dam mages with their spells,” Aurzel muttered under his breath.
The elf chuckled again, “Well then you’d best avoid us hadn’t you.”
With another sweep of his hand the elf disappeared into thin air, accompanied by a quick burst of pure white light. Aurzel collapsed to the ground, hitting his head on the edge of the cobblestones as the spell that had been holding him in place vanished.

He picked himself up for the third time in the span of an hour.
“Well, bad luck comes in threes,” he reasoned, “So I should be fine from now on.”
His eyes twitched left and right to check no other bad luck would creep up on him and headed off.

[darthnish]

woo go caboose, i want more :P

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 2: First Steps

Aurzel wandered through the marketplace, glancing at the various vendors, peddling their goods, everything was too expensive for him though, he’d saved for years for this day yet, despite his hard work, he’d only saved little more than a hundred copper pieces.
‘Hardly a fortune,’ he thought to himself.
Trying not to depress himself by thinking about his lack of money, he headed instead for the merchants.
“Is that you Aurzel?” a voice drifted towards him amongst him amongst the chatter of young adventurers.
“Julia,” Aurzel said, identifying the caller.
“You could almost pass for an adventurer as you are,” Julia giggled.
“I am an adventurer,” Aurzel replied resolutely.
“That’s it little on, live the fantasy,” Julia continued to giggle.
“It’s true,” Aurzel said with a hint of annoyance.
“Is that so?” Julia asked, trying to refrain from collapsing in laughter, “Well in that case, I have a quest for you.”
Aurzel’s eyes lit up, “Really, what is it?”
“I need you to kill some bad bad slimes, they’re camping out, outside Roumen and threatening the younger adventurers,” Julia said trying to sound serious.
“They’re evil monsters?” Aurzel grinned at the prospect.
“Oh most ebil,” Julia said with a hint of sarcasm.
“I’ll get right to it!” Aurzel said determinedly and completely missing the sarcasm. He jogged off, missing the fits of laughter coming from behind him and the prediction that he wont even have the courage to leave the city limits.

Aurzel stood under the arch that marked the edge of the town of Roumen. He’d never been this close to leaving the city before. Whenever he’d tried to sneak out as a child, Robin had always been there to stop him. Today Robin was dozing off on his bench, but it always seemed like he was watching. Aurzel shook the thought off and turned to face the forest before him. The whole area used to be a forest, but when a port was to be build, the hero Roumen had led his people down here, through the monsters and treacherous conditions till they had reached the coast and proceeded to set up camp, and later, the town itself.

Aurzel had heard many such stories in his life and felt a great thrill as he though that, one day, he could be a great hero to be remembered through the ages. It was this thought that pushed Aurzel into his first steps outside Roumen. The soft grass and soil gave way under his foor, very different from the unmoving stone and wood he was accustomed to. He looked around at the trees, taller than any he’d ever seen before, a thick canopy blocking or filtering most of the sunlight, giving the forest path a shaded look all day. Aurzel watched another adventurer sprinting past him, breathing heavily with a large axe slung on his back as he disappeared over a rise.

[DF001]

Caboose..?

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 3: The Slime

There was a rustling in the bushes nearby. Aurzel raised his mace to shoulder level and his shield to cover his chest, flinching as there was a throbbing pain where he’d twisted his wrist, he approached cautiously.
A little creature appeared from the bushes. It was purple and shaped like a blob, with a huge smile on its face. “Hello,” it said cheerfully.
Aurzel knelt to the creature and said, “Well hello there little thing, what are you doing here?”
Its eyes shifted left and right, almost confused then said, “Hello.”
Before Aurzel could say anything though, there was a flash of light and metal which disappeared in a moment, leaving the creature in a flattened pulp. Aurzel looked up in shock and gasped as he saw the source of the flash. A tall robust man wearing full body armour which seemed to double his size and make him seem a foot taller stood there. A shield hung at his side, at least as big as Aurzel’s and glowing eerily. What drew Aurzel’s attention though was the other hand. Gripped loosely in it was hammer, its shaft was easily a metre long and the top was bigger than Aurzel’s shield, not only that, but it radiated a sphere of golden light, sending out sparks of gold in all directions.

“Cat got your tongue?” the large man asked as he saw Aurzel’s mouth drop open.
Aurzel came to his senses enough to speak, “Are … are you … a pa-pa-pala …”
“A paladin? Hahah, no, not yet at least. Sean says I need a little more time before he thinks I can begin my training,” the man said.
“Sean?” Aurzel asked confused.
The man opened his mouth, about to speak, but instead grinned and simply said, “Maybe one day you’ll meet him yourself.”
“Why did you kill it?” Aurzel croaked, remembering the dead creature.
“Oh the slime?” he shrugged, “Why not?”
“Slime? That’s a slime?!” Aurzel asked shocked.
The man nodded.
“B-but … Julia said …” Aurzel stuttered.
He was cut off by a hearty chuckle, “She told you they were evil and a threat.”
Aurzel nodded, his brows knitted together in confusion.
“Don’t feel bad young one, she tricks many people like that,” he said, clapping Aurzel on the shoulder with enough force to almost send him sprawling to the ground.
“Then why kill such a helpless creature?” Aurzel asked.
“Monsters don’t feel pain like you and I,” the man explained, “They never truly die and, given enough time … well see for your self.”
Aurzel looked at the slime, intrigued. Sure enough, in a few moments, it un-squished itself and, after a brief flash of yellow light, looked as good as new. “Hello,” it said as if nothing had happened.
“Now you try,” Aurzel was told.
Aurzel swung his mace at the slime at the slime but it bounced off the soft body.
“Ow!” the slime exclaimed and bounced up and off Aurzel’s chest, knocking him to the ground. The slime tried to bounce onto Aurzel while he was down but was caught in mid-jump. It flailed against the large man’s grip but fell silent after a single threatening glance, scampering back into the bushes after being drop kicked several metres away.

“This is not my day,” Aurzel huffed, trying to brush soil and mud off his clothes.
“Cheer up lad, you’ll have far worse days than this,” the man said, smiling.
“Thanks, I guess,” Aurzel replied, “Why are you here anyway, don’t you have much more important things to do?”
“Oh yes many, but once a week I take time to come down here to help the youths. After all, many of you are great adventurers to be, you just need time and maybe a little helping hand,” he smiled warmly.
“Ow!” Aurzel exclaimed as he tried to get up.
“That slime couldn’t have hurt you that much,” the man said, confused.
“He’s just a wimp,” someone called out before running off.
“What was that about?” he asked.
“She’s the reason I got a twisted wrist, she ran into me and knocked me down,” Aurzel said.
“Is that so? Well that’s easily fixed,” he closed his eyes for a moment, then thrust his hand towards Aurzel’s wrist. Aurzel jumped back as he felt a tingling in his wrist, it seemed to warm then return to normal, normal untwisted. He tested it but found no pain when he moved his hand.
“Thank you.” Aurzel said with a smile.
“You’re quite welcome, now if you’ll excuse me, I must be on my way, goodbye and good luck young one,” the man said. He made another motion and a furry creature appeared near him, seemingly out of thin air, he mounted the creature and it immediately sped off in a flash of orange and black.
Aurzel watched as he said to himself, “One day … one day I’ll be a great adventurer like him.”

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 4: Nightmares

Aurzel sat under a large tree, his back against the trunk as he read. He’d eventually managed to kill some of the slimes he found round the edges of the town and, returning to a hysterical Julia, accepted a scroll from her; she had said it would help him a lot if he studied it. So he sat there for the rest of the afternoon reading through it. He had gleaned much information from it, it was a learning scroll, something adventurers bought or found to teach them new abilities. This one seemed to give instructions on learning to heal. He had studied it intently, reading it through several times, following the instructions as he did till he thought he had it memorised. Birds chirped in the trees while, if he listened closely, there was the occasional squishing sound of slimes wondering around. Aurzel had decided to camp out for the night in the forest to help him grow more accustomed to his surroundings then decided to head deeper into the forest, into the area called the Forest of Tides, apparently it was the edge of the forest and there was a beach past it. As he had been returning to Roumen, Zach had approached him. Aurzel had been quite reluctant to talk to anyone since Julia’s attitude but Zach had seemed seirous. He told Aurzel that there were imps in the Forest of Tide that were harassing travellers and merchants along the path and he needed someone to go in and deal with them, he also hinted to be careful of a powerful slime called the hero slime. Aurzel snorted with laughter at the prospect of being afraid of another slime till Zach had explained of how it had incapacitated many an unwary adventurer. Aurzel still wasn’t sure as to whether to believe Zach but thought that it would be better to be safe than sorry.

As the sun sunk below the horizon Aurzel started a small fire, piling on some logs he’d gathered earlier and set up his sleeping bag nearby. He tucked the healing scroll into his backpack which he then placed as a pillow for later. After staring up at the slowly rising moon for a little while, thinking of old stories of heroes and adventures from his childhood, he threw another log onto the fire so that it would burn for several hours more, then crawled into his sleeping bag. No sooner had his head hit his backpack than he was asleep.

Aurzel tossed and turned that night, he was dreaming, a nightmare, one he hadn’t had for years. There was a huge ghost chasing him, he was running as fast as he could, monsters were all around him, huge and menacing.
“Turn back and fight you coward!” someone’s voice called out from the blackness surrounding him.
“Hurry son, get away from here!” another voice called. Aurzel skidded to a halt as he recognised the voice, it was his father’s. He turned and saw his father standing strong against at least a dozen monsters. He blocked and parried many blows with sword and shield. His arms a blur of motion as they kept up with the flurry of attacks coming at him, he even managed to land a few strikes on some of the monsters, wounding them or even forcing them back for a moment. But the shield shattered as he raised it to block a huge club that had been ready to knock his head clean off his shoulders. Then there was a flash of light and a pair of magnificent white wings engulfed his father as if protecting him. Without a sound his father hurled the magnificent glowing blade he was wielding at the closer monster. It embedded itself in his target’s skull, causing it to scream in anger and agony as it dropped to the ground dead. Before the body even hit the ground though his father had an axe in his hand, it had the same golden glow round its head as the man’s hammer he’d seen that morning. The axe was swung in a wide arc, slicing through the several monsters at once and stunning them before he swung the axe again in a high crushing arc, bisecting another monster. Aurzel noticed the blows were being deflected from his father, almost as if an invisible shield was preventing them from harming his father. All too soon though the shield failed and, though his father managed to parry several blows with the shaft of his axe, he was hit in the stomach and sent flying back.
There was a shriek from somewhere nearby and out of the blackness a woman leapt at the approaching monsters, she twirled a hammer in her hand and slammed it several times over one of the wounded monsters, smashing its skull in. She held a large shield before her and blocked several blows swung at her. One made it past her defences though and knocked her back. She landed next to his father but was back on her feet quickly. His mother raised her hands as if in supplication to the goddess Teva and a shower of white light fell from the sky. Both his mother and father’s wounds were healed and they both lay into the monsters, pushing them back under their renewed assault.

“Help the others,” his father said as they killed several more monsters, “I can handle the rest.”
“You can’t and you know it,” his mother said.
“We have to kill the Gordon Master or else he could destroy all Isya!” his father roared as his axe smashed against a club.
Before his mother could reply her legs buckled as she received a blow to the head. In a rage his father leapt to her defence but the new attackers were too much for him, he was cut down and both his parents killed.
Aurzel called out in pain and anger as he saw his parents killed. The monsters turned towards him, he suddenly realised he was a child again, no more than eight, cowering back as the first reached him, a grin touched the monster’s evil lips as it raised a club and brought it thundering down towards Aurzel.
Aurzel forced his eyelids open in a gasp. He looked around but saw no one, the fire was burning low and the moon was beginning to descend towards the horizon. He settled back and drifted off to sleep again.

[menam]

Keep goin keep goin, It's getting interesting Aurzey :D

Me liiiike <333

Narayuth Lv69 Warrior
Apoline ftw!

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 5: No Rest for the Noob

A bird chirped as the sun cleared the horizon. It flew down towards a small sizzle of smoke, landing near a smouldering, charred log. It pecked at the warm soil nearby and was rewarded soon after with a worm. The bird clutched the worm triumphantly in its beak. It spread its wings, about to fly off again with its prize when a hand appeared seemingly from no where and landed on the bird, its chirping became a low sickening squeak and fell silent.

Aurzel’s eyelids fluttered for a moment. “Argh!” he cried out as something harp dug into his hand. His hand shot up, along with the rest of him, as he sat up and was no less than shocked to find a bird dangling from a cut in his palm by its beak. He tried to shake it loose but the bird’s grip remained firm. He reached out with his other hand to pluck it off and was rewarded with a sharp pain as he pulled the skin the bird had been hanging on to away with the bird itself.

The bird quickly snatched up its discarded worm as it tried to wriggle back into the soil and flew away. Aurzel looked at his bleeding hand and muttered a curse. He reached for his backpack to get a bandage when an idea struck him and he reached instead for his something else in his backpack instead. He withdrew a scroll and began studying the instructions for healing written across it and began following them. His tongue stumbled over a phrase and yelped as he felt a burning sensation in his hand. He raised the scroll again and practiced the incantation without the motions. When he was more sure he tried again, and was rewarded with a pleasant warmth in his hand as he watched the skin mend itself. Aurzel mused about how handy this would be as he packed up and got himself ready to set out again.

After almost an hour of walking, Aurzel came out into a clearing. Looking around, he saw the place littered with monsters wondering around.
“Hello,” a slime said, wandering up to him. Aurzel proceeded to squash the slime with his mace.
“Now where’s those imps?” Aurzel muttered, looking around.
“Ha, you’ll never find them,” it was the same annoying woman striding past. Aurzel huffed and set off in the opposite direction. He found a dirt track, uneven and overgrown with shrubs and roots. He carefully picked his way though till the path began to open out again. Suddenly he spun on his heel.
Looking around, he had the strange sensation that he was being watched. He swivelled round again but saw nothing. He heard a twig snap to his right, very close by. He swung round with his mace recklessly and felt his mace slam into something soft. He looked round to see something vaguely humanoid but much shorter and disproportionately large red eyes; its creamy/grey complexion stained with the colour of its blood. It picked itself up, blood running down a deep gash in its cheek, and screeched in anger before throwing itself at Aurzel. He raised his shield and battered it aside before swinging his mace again, catching the creature in the side, causing it to double over in pain before he brought the mace down on the creature’s back.

Aurzel kicked the prone body. “Imp,” he mused, “They’re rarely alone apparently.”
As if to confirm this, something knocked into his leg, causing his knee to buckle. As he tried to rise from his kneeling position another blow landed on his head and he saw an imp fall face first on the ground, obviously having tried to stay on Aurzel’s head. Aurzel quickly rose to his feet and kicked the imp still lying on the ground. They were cackling like a bunch of kids tormenting a large animal. He swung his mace backwards, allowing the momentum to turn him round. Several more swings and a kick sent the three imps tumbling back into the forest. Aurzel wore a smug look as he thought, ‘It’ll be a while before they come back to bother people.’ He muttered the healing incantation and felt his cuts and grazes heal over. Satisfied that he’d make it back to Roumen in one piece he backtracked towards the clearing.
“After that fight, I think a nice meal and a comfy bed are in order,” he said to himself, but his realisation was short lived when he saw something vaguely familiar come out of the tree line to block his path.
Aurzel glanced around worried till he heard, “You’ll pay for what you’ve done.”

[dinosue]

Very nice Story Aurzel ^^

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 6: A Close Call

The fiery orange slime stood tall and defiant against Aurzel, it was almost as tall as him with a grim expression which made Aurzel feel uneasy. They both stood silent, each sizing the other up. He gripped his mace tightly to reassure himself.
“You made many slimes suffer through your actions, I cannot allow this to continue,” the hero slime growled.
“I’m not looking for a fight,” Aurzel said.
“You should have thought of that before,” the hero slime said before launching itself at Aurzel. He raised his shield to ward off the hero slime but the force of the impact knocked Aurzel back several paces. Before he could react, the hero slime struck him in the chest, winding him. He swung his mace but only managed to knock the hero slime out of the way. Aurzel rose up again as he was given a brief respite, backing away as the hero slime advanced. Suddenly the hero slime leapt at Aurzel but he ducked to one side and swung his mace round. The hero slime slammed into the thick trunk of a tree as the mace sunk into its back, flattening the monster against the tree trunk.

Aurzel breathed a sigh of relief and healed himself as he began to walk away. A few steps later, a huge force knocked him face first to the ground. He turned round with a bleeding nose to find the hero slime standing over him.
“Did you think I could be defeated so easily? You are most gravely mistaken,” it taunted.
“I can always hope,” Aurzel murmed as he quickly rolled to the side, out of the way of the hero slime as it launched itself at him. He pulled himself up into a crouch and held his shield high. The hero slime slammed its bulk into the shield, sending Aurzel sprawling to the ground. As he tried to get up again, he was knocked to the ground, the hero slime enjoying this game of cat and mouse. Aurzel tried to heal himself but the hero slime had taken on many young adventurers before and landed on Aurzel’s hand before he could finish, crushing it. Aurzel through all his anger into his swing as he brought his mace round, slamming it deep into the hero slime’s body, knocking it down for a moment. Pain flared through his hand as the blood flow returned. As he struggled to get up, something hard prodded into his other hand. Lifting his hand he examined what was underneath. There was a rounded crystal with a red hue to it. He picked it up and watched as its many facets glinted in the sin’ light. It was one of his health stones.
He’d been given them about a month before when he had started preparing for his journey. He’d been told, “In times of great danger, just crush it in your hand and accept its power within yourself.” Aurzel didn’t know what to think at the time but he was in great need now. He pressed on the crystal but it was unyielding as he’d expect any crystal to be. He sighed and tried again, completely closing his hand around it and squeezing it tight. He suddenly felt it give way and his hand sunk in. He glanced down and saw a fine dust. The dust began to glow and rose from his hand. It formed a glowing dust cloud and enveloped him in a flash of red then disappeared in less than a second, leaving him feeling energised once again.

Aurzel was on his feet, jumping to the side as the hero slime threw its bulk at him. He laid into the hero slime’s exposed flank, swinging his mace again and again in a frenzy. The hero slime fought back, leaping away from several blows with a dexterity beguiled by its size. It struck back but Aurzel was able to deflect the blows with his shield, losing only a few steps to each attack. He felt a pain shoot through his arm. He had twisted his wrist again trying to deflect another blow. He healed himself without even wincing and through all his rage into his swing, all but cutting the hero slime in half as it absorbed the blow. It slumped to the ground, leaving Aurzel alone breathing heavily. Without saying a word, he trudged back down the path. He barely reached the first clearing when he collapsed to the ground and slipped out of consciousness.

[monkt]

So-weet, Love it man love it, Hehe

Naraveth Lv38
Apoline ftw!

[jaxman13]

guys dont post on this forum post on the aurzels adventures (coments page)~ this is for just autarchaurzel and her kewlio story:D

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 7: New Friends

Aurzel’s eyes snapped open, they refused to focus though. He could feel soft earth beneath his hands. As his eyes began to blur, colour returned to his vision. He could see greens and browns around him but nothing clear. There was a glint of duller silver but it disappeared just as quickly. He tried to say something but his throat felt scratchy and no sound escaped.
“Ah, you’re finally awake,” a voice said. Soon after he felt a warmth spread through his body, making him shiver slightly; he hadn’t realised he’d been so cold.
“Are you sure he’s ok?” a second voice spoke.
“I’m not sure,” the first voice replied, “He took quite a beating. I’m surprised he made it at all.”
“One so young taking on a hero slime, not a smart move,” the second voice tutted.
Aurzel slowly felt strength returning to him, his hand clenched involuntarily as a dull ache flooded his body. He felt a boot nudge his clenched hand. Trying to turn his head, he managed to bring the vague shape of the boot into view. The person crouched down till his face was visible.

“Good evening,” he said, “I’m Alyssa_Drake.”
Aurzel tried to reply but his voice was still gone.
“Don’t try to speak, you still have a way to recover,” Drake said.
Aurzel managed a thank you.
“Oh don’t thank me,” Drake chuckled, “This is the man you should be thanking.”
The first man crouched down next to Drake, “Knight_of_Dwyana, pleased to meet you.”
“Aurzel,” he managed in a hoarse voice.
They both nodded in greeting. “It’s good we found you when we did, you were close to gone,” Drake said.
“And you’ve been asleep for at least a whole day,” Knight added.
Aurzel nodded and tried to move. He accepted the hand offered him and pulled himself up into a sitting position. He tried to move his legs but they were slow to respond and had an ache in his stiff muscles.
“Careful not to strain yourself too much, you have to give your body time to recover,” Knight said.
Aurzel nodded as he looked around. “Where’s my …” he began.
“Your stuff? Laid out over there,” Drake pointed to the trunk of the nearest tree. His backpack, mace and shield were all there in a heap. He nodded a thanks and took a swig of water.

Soon after Drake stepped away, “We have to get going very soon, the others will be getting ready now.”
Aurzel looked at Drake questioningly.
“Once every little while, Mara and Marlone get it in their thick skulls to try and aasault us from the coast. Every time, a group of adventurers gather together and try to head them off,” Drake explained.
“Why don’t you just kill them?” Aurzel asked.
“Can’t, powerful magics secure them from getting killed,” Knight said, “They warp themselves away when it looks like they’re cornered, then they leave a bunch of clones behind to slow us down.”
“We never give up though,” Drake said, “Otherwise the Mara pirates and Marlone clan would be all over us and Roumen would fall in a day.”
“Must be dangerous … I’d like to help,” Aurzel asked.
Knight chuckled, “Maybe one day but for the moment, you’re too young, maybe you could go ask Roumenus if the town chiefs are planning any Kingdom Quests that they could use your help with.
“Thank you sir,” Aurzel said, trying to stand.
“Don’t mention it, maybe we’ll see each other again some day,” Knight waved a hand dismissively, “Well then, shall we?”
With that, Drake headed off with Knight, leaving Aurzel alone again to make his way back to Roumen.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 8: Kingdom Quest


“Come on, move it people, we don’t have much time,” someone called out.
Aurzel was jogging forward, to the side of a group of adventurers. They were all spread out as they headed through the valley.
“Halt,” a guard said, “The enemy lies beyond, I’ll stay here to wait for reinforcements and guard your retreat, the luck of Teva with be you.”
“Ok we better split up,” one of the adventurers began, “You three, you’re with us, the five of you, and the other five left, that’s three teams. Each has at least one competent cleric and fighter.”
Aurzel cringed at the word competent, as did a fighter standing next to him. They pulled out a map. On it were four concentric rings, each marked as being higher the smaller they became, with a ramp leading up to each.
“Team 1, that’s mine,” he looked to be a fairly experienced fighter by the looks of him, “Will take the short route to each ramp, while teams 2 and 3 go the long way, we rendezvous and move up. Roumenus wants no monster spared.”
With remarkable efficiency, the adventurers split up into their teams and rushed the first circle.

Monsters stood guard over the first circle’s entrance, a valley that had once been carved out by a glacier. When the king slime had stumbled upon this area, it had begun a mass project to excavate the area and turn it into a fort. None of this however, was on the guards’ minds as a large group of adventurers waylaid them and slaughtered them to a monster.

Aurzel fell behind as everyone ran forward to engage. He saw a mushroom, slightly larger than those he’d killed in the forests around Roumen, but swung at it nonetheless. The mushroom ducked with such speed that Aurzel didn’t even have a chance to raise his shield before he received a jab to the stomach, winding him, followed by another to the chest, sending him flying till he landed hard on his back. Pain shot through him as he tried to get back up. The mushroom was standing over him, ready to deliver another blow when it got knocked to the ground. A fighter leapt forward and started hacking at the mushroom, his sword whirling around him. A brilliant spherical missile of pure yellow slammed into the mushroom with such force that it sent the mushroom hurtling into the cliff face of the second circle. This was followed by another missile which burned red with internal fires. It struck the mushroom with enough force to rock the cliff face. Another yellow missile followed soon after, squashing the mushroom completely. As it did though, rocked were dislodged and soon after several boulders were cascading down the cliff face in a landslide. All the rock came crashing down and completely cut off the route to the right.
“Only one way forward then!” the self imposed leader called out. Everyone followed as they set off down the left route.
“Thank you, you saved my life,” Aurzel said.
“Don’t sweat it,” the young fighter replied.
“Aurzel,” he said holding out his hand.
The fighter grasped Aurzel’s hand, “Narayuth.”

Aurzel healed himself as he ran, the others had gone on ahead without the two of them. Huffing and puffing, they came upon the scene of a huge battle. Small yellow creatures, brave honeyings he was told, along with various slimes, silver, red, and even some gold, had ambushed the group as they had been ascending the first ramp. Aurzel attacked one of the brave honeyings while it was distracted, battering it down as Narayuth joined in. He glanced around and saw his team’s cleric trying desperately to heal their fighter while he was surrounded by slimes. One broke away and charged the cleric. The cleric was trying frantically to ward off the slime’s blows while still trying to keep the fighter healed. Aurzel charged forward and just as the slime knocked the cleric back several steps, he slammed all his weight into the slime, they tumbled across the ground together and ended up with the slime fallen across Aurzel’s chest.
“What I wouldn’t give for a breastplate …” he rasped as the air was compressed out of his lungs.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 9: A Cleric's Life

Aurzel blacked out for a second. He felt the pressure release from his chest and he took in a sharp breath. He looked round and saw the slime dead a few feet away.
“You saved me …” he felt his body warm as he was healed, it was the cleric. He pulled himself up.
“You were in trouble,” he said before looking at the cleric. Realisation struck him as he saw her face.
“Sorry for being so mean to you all this time, I’m fireflint,” she said smiling.
“Aurzel, the clumsy idiot,” Aurzel glared.
“I apologise,” fireflint said.
“You two coming or what!” an archer shouted somewhere ahead. They both turned and sprinted after their team.

“Thought you’d abandoned us,” their lead fighter said.
“Not at all,” fireflint replied.
“Cleric, heal me,” a mage called out.
Aurzel heard and tried to locate the mage in the chaos of the battle but Narayuth needed help as he engaged two of the silver slimes.
“Heal me dammit!” the mage called out, then Aurzel spotted the mage, a brave honeying chasing him before he got knocked down by a blow to the back. Aurzel leapt forward and swung his mace at the brave honeying, catching the distracted monster by surprise as it had been preparing to finish off the mage. He managed to clip its wing, sending it crashing to the ground.
“Ahhh!” the mage shouted in pain, “Omfg! That cleric’s such a noob, doesn’t know how to heal, pl0x!”
Aurzel ignored this and walked away, while ‘accidentally’ stepping on the mage’s ankle, causing him to curse as he cried out in pain, before healing Narayuth who had been faltering against the silver slimes.
“Thanks Aurzey,” Narayuth said, relieved.
“Aurzey …” Aurzel asked confused.
Narayuth laughed as he side-stepped an attack and sliced through the silver slime.
“Any time Nara,” Aurzel replied. Narayuth laughed again.

As they cleared the second circle, there was a guttural roar, “You think you can attack my home and leave alive?! We’ll see if you can defend yourselves against my most elite guards!”
“What … was … that?” Aurzel asked shocked.
“King Slime himself,” fireflint said.
Aurzel squeaked in terror.
“He thinks we are so meek as to be cowed down by his forces? Lets show him how wrong he is!” the fighter roared and charged up the ramp, followed closely by his two clerics. The adventurers slammed into the defenders like a wave front against a wall. Slimes of vaying types were cut down, burned or became pin cushions for dozens of arrows.
As the slimes’ defence collapsed, battle was joined by ratmen and warrior boars. Between the ratmen’s speed and the warrior boars’ brute strength, the assault was sent reeling as the adventurers tried to counter attack this new threat.

Aurzel found himself going toe-to-toe with a ratman. He swung his mace in a wide arc but the ratman’s lithe body contorted round the swing before it lashed out with a crude club, catching Aurzel on the right temple before suffering a kick to his chest, knocking him down and sent him tumbling, rather painfully, down the ramp. Two warrior boars saw Aurzel fall and knocked through the battle and charged towards his prone form. He saw them coming and pulled out one of his health stones, then he stopped himself. What would be the point. There’s no way he could take on two warrior boars alone.
Out of nowhere the lead fighter broke from fighting two ratmen and called after one of the warrior boars, he lashed out, kicking the warrior boar between the shoulder blades before slicing his sword straight through the other’s arm, hacking it almost half off.
“Get up!” the fighter grunted as it prepared to face all four adversaries. Aurzel quickly crushed the health stone and stood as he felt its rejuvenating effects. He started healing the fighter as fast as he could, his hands gesturing, his mouth muttering as he sped through the incantation over and over. Even still the fighter was being pushed back, no one able to withstand this combined attack. One of the ratmen broke away and jumped at Aurzel. He quickly jumped back from the swing of the club before healing the fighter again. He swung his own mace, still under the revitalising effects off the health stone and knocked the ratman to one knee as he struck its leg. He kicked it with all his strength and felt his foot connect with the monster’s face. Aurzel was surprised as the fighter was still on his feet, fireflint, healing him as fast as she could. Aurzel added his heals to hers and soon the fighter was able to knock out one of the warrior boars.

A cheer went up as the last of the elite guards was dispatched, but not without cost. Four adventurers lay dead in the dust, fallen as they’d tried to protect themselves from the terrible onslaught.
“There’s no time to mourn, we’ll come back for them later,” the leader called.
No one liked that but they all knew he was right, this wasn’t the time, they still had a mission to complete. As they ascended the last ramp everyone ready weapons, shields and mages began picking from their list of spells. The King Slime stood proud in the centre of the top of this hill.
‘King of the hill,’ Aurzel mused ironically, ‘About time he was dethroned.’

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 10: The Terror of King Slime

The King Slime stared down each of the adventures arrayed before him, fully aware that he was more than a match for any of them alone, but he’d encountered these packs of humans before, and the outcome was never always certain. Each adventurer stood defiantly, knowing the King Slime would wait for them to make the first move, so as to better gauge their abilities.
“You all know the plan, to protect Roumen!” the leader cried out and charged the King Slime. The two clashed and a bitter melee followed. The King Slime leapt around with remarkable agility and attempted to knock out the fighter who sought to challenge him. The fighter sliced through the King Slime in every way imaginable, from high crushing arcs, to short, sharp thrusts and stabs, rolling to the side as the King Slime launched himself forward. Aurzel healed the fighter along with the other clerics, there were 5 of them all together and their combined power was enough to keep the fighter on his feet even after he suffered a horrendous crushing blow from the King Slime. Archers and mages were firing and casting at him with great zeal, the barrage distracting the King Slime from focusing his full attention on the fighter. Some shots pattered harmlessly though off the incredibly thick hide which the King Slime boasted, cackling as several arrows rebounded off his skin.
“To me my slimes, protect me!” King Slime suddenly called out. From out of the very ground itself, slimes began appearing. Aurzel had heard as everyone else had that slimes were born of mud, but he’d never seen it for himself.

“Aghh!” one of the mages cried out as she was knocked to the ground, 2 slimes standing proud before her, ready to finish her off.
“Spawn control!” the leader called out, his attention never leaving the King Slime.
Narayuth as well as 2 other fighters charged the slimes, still forming out of the ground and began cutting them down as fast as they good. One mage and two archers turned their attention to the appearing slimes. Soon after three slimes fell to a fusillade of arrows and a fourth destroyed by the impact of the mage’s spells. Aurzel alternated his attention between the battle between their leader and the King Slime, and the swirling chaos between the other fighters and the slimes. Three iron slimes had swarmed Narayuth but with the aid of the two archers and Aurzel’s healing, they managed to put the iron slimes down.

“Defend me!” the King Slime roared over the battle. Suddenly the slimes attack faultered as they were cut down and no more appeared to replace them. The King Slime suddenly leapt high into the air, just missing their leader as he slammed back into the ground with earth shattering force, sending a tremor through the ground which knocked the closer adventurers too the ground including Aurzel. He tried to get to his feet but as he did, he noticed movement nearby. He turned his head and saw a rim of grey next to him. He looked slowly up at a towering white form and gasped out.
“Prince slime!” someone called out. Aurzel rolled to the side just as the prince slime tried to crush him, its bulk landing a hair’s breadth from his legs. They’d fought prince slimes before on their way around the third circle, but they hadn’t been so large, and he’d only seen them from far away, not so close he could touch it. He stumbled as he tried to get up but the prince slime was slightly faster and knocked into Aurzel, causing him to fall to the ground again. He turned round onto his back and stared up at the prince slime, terror in his eyes as it advanced on him, a malicious glint in its eyes. As it drew nearer though, a flurry of arrows and spells impacted its flank, distracting it long enough for Aurzel to run, as he did he healed himself but as he looked up, he slammed face first into another slime, he looked up at it, it was even taller than the prince slime. He launched himself away from both the slimes and sprinted for the others crying out, “Queen slime!”
Immediately two of the fighters turned from fighting the prince slime and attacked the queen slime. They stabbed at her with great speed, gashes appearing in her sides as the fighters lay into her.

Before Aurzel even had a chance to think, he heard a great cry of pain, he turned to see their leader collapse in front of the King Slime who roared triumphantly over the sounds of the battle.
“Nara!” Aurzel cried out as he saw the prince slime knock him to the ground, blood seeping out from a broken arm. He tried his best to heal his new friend but the damage was too great. He looked around and saw the King Slime running riot as it charged the secondary line, scattering the archers and mages as they tried to evade him.
“Fall back!” someone called out, “We are lost, there’s no chance of winning!”
Aurzel looked around and spotted fireflint pulling a broken legged fighter with her, Aurzel watched as the archers distracted King Slime while the mages searched for signs of life among the fallen.
“We have to get out now!” fireflint shouted. The archers broke off their attack and sprinted away as the others dragged what wounded they could with them. Aurzel pulled Narayuth to his feet and forced him into a quick jog before helping a mage pull away one of the archers who had stayed to try to distract King Slime while the others made their escape. They were down the ramp in moment, King Slime’s roars of victory echoing across the canyon, never fading even though they’d out paced him and he’d given up the chase. After almost half an hour of running all the adventurers slumped to the ground exhausted. Aurzel looked around them all, seven … seven of them had survived from the original fifteen man team, less than half of them had survived and their mission left incomplete.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 11: Aftermath

“We should get going before someone comes looking for us,” Aurzel said, standing up.
“Agreed,” fireflint replied, “We need to report to Roumen. Who can walk?”
Two others stood up and started helping the other three to support them.
“Nara can you walk?” Aurzel asked as he helped Narayuth to his feet.
“I think so,” he said as he was pulled up, “Thanks Aurzey.”
After a few minutes they were under way, two of them being all but carried as they were in no fit state to walk.

Aurzel looked through the darkness. There was light in the distance, he moved towards it but it always seemed to dance just inside his field of vision. He felt a draught to his left, he spun round and was face to face with a complexion of dulled white. The face had pits where its eyes were supposed to be and a hood of white draped over its head. Its maw opened wider than a jaw should allow, the depths of which seemed to swallow up all light. Aurzel tried to scream, to call for help, but no sound came out. Suddenly the apparition disappeared and the darkness was immediately replaced by a blinding glare, forcing him to shut his eyes. He could hear voices but they seemed far off, almost like echoes of people talking miles away. He squinted his eyes open and saw the outline of two figures against the hard glare which he now realised was the sun. It must have been close to noon for the sun to be so high in the sky. He opened his mouth to speak but his voice was hoarse and his throat dry. He only managed to mouth the words, “mum … dad” then he shut his eyes as he remembered it couldn’t be then. He opened his eyes again to find the figures resolving in his sight as the sun disappeared behind a cloud.
“Here, drink this,” fireflint said, handing him a canteen of water. He gulped some down and gasped with relief.
“Thought you were in a coma Aurzey,” Nara said.
“W-what happened?” Aurzel asked, drinking a bit more water.
“We stopped for a break and you must have dozed off. We tried to wake you but you were jabbering about something or other and wouldn’t wake,” Nara confirming this with a nod of his head.
“How long have I been …” Aurzel began.
“Out? Couple of hours,” fireflint said, “We should really get moving.”
Aurzel nodded as he slowly rose, “Think we can still make Roumen by nightfall?”
“Possibly,” fireflint said, “Assuming there’s no more delays.”

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 12: Debriefing

The sun was just dipping below the horizon when the adventurers finally emerged from the forests. The tall buildings and cobblestone ground distinct against the green surroundings. As they entered the town and left the wounded to be tended, they saw Roumenus talking to a large, imposing figure near the docks. Aurzel, fireflint and Narayuth, those who could still walk unassisted and with the energy to do so, descended the wide stone staircase, ending behind the free battle zone tent. They could hear the tail end of the conversation as they proceeded.
“… to do with … prisoners … can’t contain … Elderine …” the tall man was saying, most of his words being carried off by the wind, despite his obviously loud, brusque tone. Roumenus’ reply was too low for them to catch but what ever it was, the imposing man didn’t like it, pivoting on his heel and storming off.
“What was that about I wonder?” fireflint said, sneaking up behind Roumenus. To his credit, he managed to turn his jump of surprise into a haphazard swivel and step back.
“Praise be to Teva, I’d been told you were all killed,” he declared.
“Not all of us, we left the wounded to be attended before we came to see you,” Nara said.
“Then t’is good news indeed, did you complete your quest?” Roumenus asked.
Fireflint grabbed him by the collar and yanked his face close before hissing in his face, “Good men and women died and all you care about is your stupid quest!”
Aurzel tried to pry fireflint away but she had an iron grip and refused to be stopped.
“It was for the safety of everyone,” Roumenus said.
“I’m sure it was,” she spat, before shoving him away. Roumenus attempted to regain a measure of composure as he watched fireflint stomp away, muttering about how helping the wounded would be a far better use of her time than arguing.
“I take it you don’t share her opinion,” he turned to Aurzel and Narayuth, “Good then …”
“Oh we do,” Aurzel cut in, “But we wanted to know who you were talking to and what about.”
Roumenus huffed and said, “That was Guard Captain Shutian, he is charged with the defence of Elderine.”
Narayuth and Aurzel exchanged a moment of confusion, both having lived their lives in Roumen, but quickly continued, “What did he want?”
“Nothing you need to concern yourselves with,” Roumenus said.
“Try us,” Nara said. Roumenus simply shook his head and walked away.
“Well whatever it is, I guess they have it under control,” Nara said.
“I guess,” Aurzel replied before slapping Nara on the back, “What do you say to a hot meal and a comfy bed?”
“I say lead the way,” Nara said, both of them walking off.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 13: Boys Will be Boys

Aurzel raised his shield, deflecting a sword stroke and swinging his own mace, the blow jarring against a shield, before he could recover the sword came down, threatening to cut across his midriff. He jumped back but wasn’t completely successful as the tip cut into his leg, just enough to draw blood. He inhaled sharply but healed himself while blocking a follow up swing, countering with a sweep of his foot, catching his opponent in the knee and causing it to buckle. A swing of his mace caught a hastily braced shield but was knocked away, he raised his mace again.
“I give,” his opponent said. Aurzel dropped his mace to his side and put his shield down, offering a helping hand.
“You’re getting too good for me Aurzey,” Narayuth said.
“Nah, just got lucky,” Aurzel replied, “Come on, lets go get some lunch.”
“Sure why not, its not like I got hit in the stomach … twice,” Nara said.
Aurzel laughed, “You’re the one that almost stabbed me through the lung Nara.”
“Almost …” Nara said shiftily, “I knew what I was doing.”
“Yeah I’ll bet,” Aurzel replied as they exited the free battle zone tent.

It had been two weeks since the raid on King Slime’s outpost and though the survivors had recovered no one was happy that they’d failed. Aurzel, Narayuth and fireflint had become fast friends in that time and had quested together on a number of occasions, defeating hobs, honeyings and even wolves that plagued sand beach.
“Would you look at that,” Nara said pointing.
Aurzel glanced over and saw three women walking in their direction, chattering and giggling. Nara leaned on the hilt of his sword and was about to call out when Aurzel knocked the sword out form under him. He fell to the ground and looked up in time to see the women walking past, giggling even more.
“Hey!” Nara exclaimed to Aurzel, “What’d you do that for?”
“You were acting ridiculous?” Aurzel laughed before running off. Nara was up quickly and on his heels. He turned but found Nara had disappeared. He slowed down and looked around confused. Suddenly he got knocked in the side with great force. Both he and Nara tumbled to the ground, rolling across the cobblestone before Aurzel managed to throw Nara off. He got up, dusting himself off and heard a voice.
“Oh I’m glad I found you,” Julia shouted.
“What do you want?” Aurzel asked cautiously.
“Oh you’re not still holding a grudge about the slime thing,” Julia said, affecting a hurt tone.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Aurzel said.
“Fine be that way,” Julia huffed, “I have a problem. I sent two people out to gather some clam meats for me but neither’s returned, I sent them yesterday morning.”
“No reason to panic yet,” Aurzel shrugged.
“I just know it was that King Crab, it just has to be,” Julia said adamantly.
“And I suppose you want me to go find out,” Aurzel finished.
“Would you?” she asked.
“Oh fine,” Aurzel replied before shoving Nara in the general direction of sand beach before he could open his mouth.

[amearashi115]

I love this story Aurz!

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 14: A Crabby Evil

“So you ever going to tell me what we’re doing?” Nara asked as they walked towards the beach, their feet sinking a little into the sand at each step.
“Must I?” Aurzel answered with a grin.
Nara slapped his face with his palm as he fell to his knees.
“Being a bit dramatic aren’t you?” Aurzel said, standing over him.
“Not really,” Nara yanked Aurzel by the arm, causing him to stumble and fall face first into the sand. Nara took off down the beach while Aurzel tried to brush off some of the sand.
“I’ll get you for that!” Aurzel called out as he felt sand slide down into the back of his shirt.
When there was no reply, Aurzel looked around to find where he’d gotten to. His jaw dropped as he saw his friend lying face first in the sand, standing over him was a huge crab. A blue chassis of a shell surrounding it completely, its feet were long and powerful, with almost talon like points. As it loomed over Nara it held up its huge crushing pincers, clinking them open and shut eagerly as it eyed the body below it.
It leaned down, one pincer hovering inches from his head before Aurzel called out, “Get away from him!” and started sprinting towards the King Crab.
It took no notice of the shouter and engulfed Nara’s head in one pincer, apparently deciding how best to snip it off. Aurzel barrelled, shoulder first, into the King Crab’s thick shell, the impact was absorbed and Aurzel stumbled back from the recoil, falling to the ground as the King Crab turned to find out the source of the interruption. It looked down at Aurzel as he regained his footing, only to find himself staring down the eyes of the King Crab, flanked on each side by one of its huge pincers, both wide open and ready to slice him apart.

Aurzel leapt back as the pincers shot towards him, he felt the wind of one fly past him but the second was a little closer, the edge slicing clean through his leather armour, nicking the skin below. Aurzel raised his shield to block a lunge and swung his mace, batting away a pincer being thrust towards him. He ducked under another attack but couldn’t move as one of the King Crab’s many legs came hurtling up towards him and connected with his face. He was sent reeling, his nose battered and bloody before a swing, like a backhand, knocked him clear off his feet and a good few metres back.

Aurzel scrambled backwards as the King Crab stalked towards him, the sand doing almost nothing to hinder its progress yet almost everything to hinder his. He raised his shield in a vain attempt to block a pincer hammering down on him. The shield splintered as it endured several such hammer blows and he felt his arm flare with pain as the impacts shook it. He kicked out, catching one of the King Crab’s feet but it quickly recovered and pressed down on his leg, the sharp leg piercing his skin and causing him to cry out in pain as it pinned him down. He healed away the pain in his arm but to no avail as a few hits later, the shield shattered in his grip. The King Crab lifted its leg away. The feeling was like a dagger wound and sent pain shooting through his leg and then through his whole body, enveloping him and causing him to momentarily black out.

Coming to he looked around. He was lying in the sand but he couldn’t remember how he’d got there. He reached for his head and felt a graze there, pulling his hand away in pain he found blood on it. He looked around but there was no one in sight. He heard a thud to his left and turned. He gasped and scrambled for his weapon. Hie hand clasped around the hilt of his sword and Narayuth leapt to his feet, charging towards the King Crab, pincers ready to strike the unconscious form of Aurzel. Nara dove towards the King Crab, the sand letting him slide under the King Crab’s huge shell. He plunged his sword with all his strength into one of the openings of the shell, severing the leg protruding from it and sinking it deep into the monster’s underbelly. The King Crab jolted in agony, its pincers flailing wildly while it stomped around on its remaining legs. Nara yanked his sword out and rolled out of the way as one of the legs landed inches from his head. He rolled again and was clear, he jumped to his feet and ran round the still flailing King Crab, ducking under a pincer as it swung round. Nara grabbed Aurzel and pulled him away from danger. He swung his sword at the monster’s head before it could regain some semblance of control and cut into one of its eyes. Blinded as it was in one eye, it took a few clumsy swings but they were easily avoided. The monster was soon exhausted and fell to the ground, unable to support its own bulk anymore, its pincers still opening and closing slowly with the last of its strength. In the mean time Aurzel had been brought round and hobbled over to it, watching as it died before him. He raised his mace and started smashing it over the head with his mace till its shell started to crack. The pincers finally stopped moving as the King Crab died. Aurzel walked away, dragging his feet through the sand before his shoe struck a rock, tripping him up. He healed himself and Nara to the point where they could walk, and found himself weary, his mind cloudy from all the healing he’d done.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 15: Keeping Focus

“I think we should rest,” Aurzel said after the found themselves at the forest’s edge. Nara nodded and sat back against the trunk of a tree and dozed while Aurzel lay back in the grass, watching the clouds drifting by. He felt a twinge in his lef where he’d been speared by the King Crab’s leg, though he’d done his best to heal it, it was still painful and would need some time before he’d recover. He closed his eyes and started dropping off into a light sleep.

Aurzel’s eyes snapped open, he thought he could hear a voice calling his name. He sat up but there was no one around except Nara who’d curled up into a ball and was napping quite contently. The voice came again, though a little more distant this time. He peered through the tree line, thinking he saw movement among the thick trunks. As he tried to get up to follow though, his leg protested and he slumped back down. The movement seemed closer now, almost trying to entice him into getting up, flittering back and forth, urging him to follow. He tried to get up again, using a tree trunk to support his weight. The movements disappeared deeper into the forest as he started to walk.

The voice returned as the trees closed around him, its tone soft and inviting even as a part of his mind screamed at the rest of him to be wary, but in his trance like state, rational thinking wasn’t a priority. He came to a small clearing, a figure was standing with its back facing him. He approached slowly, the person looked familiar to him. She stood a little taller than him, dark brown flowing hair draped down past her shoulders, her hands were at her sides as she stood almost to attention. Bulky armour encased her body, glowing faintly from the powerful magics within the very metal. A shield held in one hand, large with intricate details which glowed with additional enchantments, as did the mace in her other hand, a starburst of gold. The woman turned and his mother’s smiling face came into view. He stepped back in shock. Once again the voice returned.
“Aur-zel,” it whispered to him from what seemed everywhere at once, “Aren’t you happy to see your mother?”

Aurzel looked around, searching for the source of the voice, it seemed to come from the trees themselves.
“What trickery is this?!” Aurzel declared, “My mother is dead, you are not her!”
“You shame your mother by saying such words my son,” this time it was his mother that spoke.
“You are not my mother,” Aurzel stated simply.
“Of course i am, now come to your mother,” there was the slightest hint of anger in her voice. As Aurzel watched, her face shimmered, it was overlaid with the face of something else, something not of this world, but it was gone in less than a second, leaving Aurzel wondering whether he’d actually seen it or it was his imagination playing tricks on him.
“Go away!” Aurzel shouted, fighting the urge to step closer.
“Listen to me child,” his mother hissed, “You’ve been lied to your whole life, I was never killed, you are being used by everyone around you. You must help me, together we can defeat this corruption that has ensnared Isya!”
“What about father?” Aurzel asked.
“What?” his mother looked confused.
“Where’s father?!” Aurzel pressed.
His mother shrugged, “It is not important, we must hurry, come on!”

Aurzel let out a brief laugh, “You really believe I would expect my mother to act like this? To disregard my father as a mere trifle, not worth as thought?”
He advanced with a hefty mace in his hand, he didn’t know how it had got in his hand but he couldn’t care less at the moment. He swung the mace with all his might, the force knocking her head clean off her shoulders. The body remained standing though and before Aurzel could think why that was, a terrible hissing blasted at him from all sides, it almost had a physical force capable of knocking him back. The body of his supposed mother exploded outwards, the armour falling everywhere as something burst from it. A white apparition was all that was left, floating above him with the monstrous face he’d seen play across his mother’s face. The monster hissed at him and floew towards him, a terrible maw gaping open, threatening to swallow him in darkness.
Aurzel stood defiant against the monster and shouted out, “You dear defile the memory of my mother!”
A bright flash of light, emanating from between them, formed a wall of pure white light and began to grow, pushing the monster back. Slow at first but it quickly built up speed till the light enveloped the whole clearing and Aurzel with it. Within that second the light turned to black and Aurzel’s eyes snapped open, finding himself looking up at the clouds as he was when he’d fallen asleep. Nara had his back against the tree as he’d been before, everything exactly as it had been.

There was darkness all around, pitch black. There was silence everywhere, dead quiet. There was a sudden flash of white light, slicing through the darkness for miles around if distance was a constant in this realm of darkness. The light was soon accompanied by a hissing which left no doubt that something was beyond enraged. The ghostly apparition recovered its senses and dove for the point of light, a forest clearing just barely visible before the scene in the darkness snapped shut. The hiss became a roar of anger as the monster sailed through where the hole had been and was sent tumbling through the abyss of nothingness.

[jenjen27]

best story evah-next to twilight ofcourse-

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 16: With One's Own Kind

Aurzel felt a dull numbness in his leg, he moved it slowly to test it. Once they’d returned, both he and Narayuth had headed straight for the inn to relax, fireflint was usually there most days unless she had work. Today they found her gone but it wasn’t long before she returned, joining the two of them as they ate.
“Couldn’t wait for could you,” she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
“We would have, but getting almost killed works up a person’s appetite,” Aurzel shot back.
“Oh really, and what were you doing?” she said, one eyebrow raised.
“Nothing much, just taking on a giant shell with huge claws,” Nara said between mouthfuls.
“King Crab?” fireflint asked, her other eyebrow following suit.
They both nodded with full mouths before clunking mugs together and draining them.
“And you weren’t hurt?” fireflint eyed them suspiciously.
“No mother, we got hurt good,” Nara said in his most sarcastic tone.
Fireflint scowled at him before elbowing him to the next seat, taking the now vacant spot and ordering herself some food.

“So what were you up to?” Aurzel asked.
“Raid on the mara pirates’ ships, they were getting ****y so we went and ruffed them up a bit,” she said.
Aurzel choked on his food as he heard this, after several bouts of fitful coughing he managed, “You ... they let you go?”
“Yes, is that so suprising that its worth killing yourself?” fireflint said.
Aurzel kicked her under the table but she just kicked back, the toe of her boot connecting with the still healing scar tissue. Aurzel cried out in agony and fell off his chair, curling into a ball as he gripped his leg.
“What happened to you, i barely touched you,” fireflint said, looking at him confused.
“I think you just kicked him in his scar,” Nara said through a mouthful of food.
“I ... what?” fireflint asked.
“The King Crab stuck his leg in me there dammit!” he gasped between gritted teeth.
“Oops sorry,” she replied with ah int of worry, and tried to heal him.
“I already did that,” he groaned through the pain, “It needs time to heal on its own.
“Just let him have his moment,” Nara said.
“Sure, why not,” fireflint replied, starting on her newly arrived food.

After a while Aurzel was back in his seat again as if nothing had happened.
“Get over your pain quickly do you?” fireflint mocked.
“Well I have to be strong for the two of you,” Aurzel said.
They both tried to stop themselves from grinning, but it was too much and soon burst out laughing. Aurzel eyed them both annoyed before shaking his head and walking away. He decided he mat as well go and report their mission to Julia before she started worrying that something had happened to them too.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 17: ECHO ... ECHO ... echo

“How did you ever talk me into this?” Nara asked nervously.
“By not letting that oversized piece of sea food kill you,” Aurzel shot back.
“Hey I saved your life from it too,” Nara argued.
“I only needed saving because I was distracting it from you,” Aurzel said matter of factly.
“Oh fine,” Nara grumbled and bumped himself into Aurzel, causing Aurzel to stumble, “So why we moonlighting as miners anyway?”
Aurzel looked around the dank, rocky walls, up at the high arching ceiling above which had long, thin stalactites cling to it. He followed the opposite wall down to the uneven, rocky ground. It was dark in the cave, echo cave it was called, known for its abundance of copper ore deposits. But it was also a dangerous place as he recalled blacksmith James’ warnings before setting out; especially the powerful archmage books which dwelt deeper in the cave, and easily able to overpower the both of them with hardly any effort. He shivered at the thought of such raw power.
“James needs copper ore, it’s too dangerous in here for miners apparently, monsters and all that,” Aurzel finally said.
“So he wants us to clear the area ...” Nara began.
“And get the ore,” Aurzel finished.
A scream echoed down one of the main tunnels and they both took off down it full pelt.

There was another scream, this time more coherent, “Monsters!”
They came into a large cavern, someone in the centre was running, stumbling and rolling away from something too far to make out. They made their way towards teh terrified man, picking their way round the tall stalagmites and particularly rocky ground till the chaser, or rather chasers, came into view.
“Slanderer Phinoflys,” Aurzel hissed to Nara, “They’re the ones causing the trouble in here.”
“Three of them against us ...” Nara mused before leaping into action, diving at one and tackling it to the ground while it was still shaken by the new arrivals. The other two turned and launched missiles at Aurzel. He dove behind a stalagmite but the shots cracked it into pieces. Nara was struggling against the surprisingly strong enemy, but it was in vain and he was thrown clear. Nara slammed into a boulder and was knocked out. Aurzel ducked and weaved between missiles, cursing himself for not buying a new shield. The three Slanderer Phinoflys stood as if in a firing line, launching a constant stream of missiles. One shot caught him in the leg, grazing it and causing him to stumble. He rolled with the fall and came to a stop behind another boulder, it too began to crack as a fusillade of missile fire peppered the other side.

Aurzel healed himself but Nara was too far away for his prayers to do any good. The cracks on the boulder began increasing till they formed a mosaic over its surface. He flattened himself on the ground, trying to avoid the impending attack when he saw a flash of robes to his right. He took a moment to glance over, seeing a mage striding wuickly towards the phinoflys. The mage came up behind the three enemies unnoticed as they continued trying to get to Aurzel. The mage raised his staff, muttering a few incantations under his breath and brought the base of his staff down hard on the stone ground. Magic radiated from the staff in yellow starbursts, swirling around him and consuming the phinoflys, dropping them as they writhed in pain at the magical energies coursing through them. Aurzel was on his feet given the respite and sprinted towards Nara, lying face down on the ground. He turned the unconscious man around, his face was covered in blood from a gash across his forehead. Aurzel did his best to heal Nara and clean up the vblood, after a few minutes life flickered back into his eyes as he regained consciousness. He tried to speak but his voice was hoarse and Aurzel shushed him, telling Nara to rest while he gathered the copper ore they still needed.

[autarchaurzel]

Interlude: Eyes in the Dark

Black eyes peered at the lone figure held in their vision. A young man wearing the leathers of a cleric and hefting a pickaxe, striking it against a seam of copper ore, gathering up the chips and pieces flying off at each hit and stowing them in one of his backpack’s larger pockets. The figure reached a hand out towards the cleric but as it clenched, it swept through the image, flickering as the hand passed through. The hand withdrew, the image flickered again and faded, leaving the figure in total darkness and silence. There was a quiet hiss, it was one of frustration which would have chilled anyone, if there had been anyone to hear it. The hand tore forward again, ripping through the darkness itself and a new image formed, the cleric was there again, tending another man in a bed, injured. There was a glimpse of the sun in a window, telling the silent watcher that it was probably a day later, even though it had only felt like a few minutes. That was what it was always like in that darkness when there was nothing to anchor it, time was not constant. The silent watcher pushed this thought aside and continues the scrying.

[KyttiKatt]

hmmmmm cool idea...I'm actually half tempted to do one. >.>

Notice: HALF tempted

EDIT: I think I should change my Siggy xD, since I'm 75 now.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 18: It's a Full Moon

“Aurzel?” Aurzel turned and drifted back to sleep, “Au-rzel.”
He pulled the covers over his head trying to mask the annoying sound. Suddenly he felt something smack into the back of his head, “Wake up you lousy git!”
He woke with a start, looking around with blurry vision and saw both fireflint and Narayuth standing over him, fully dressed and ready to go.
“Boy can you sleep, I bet I could have dropped a bomb in this room and you’d happily sleep right through the explosion,” Narayuth said.
“You’re probably right you know,” Aurzel said yawning and getting out of bed.
“Well get ready, we’re heading out,” fireflint said forcefully.
“What? Why where we going?” Aurzel asked looking to Narayuth to clear up his confusion.
“Trouble,” was all he said.
“Wow seriously? No way I thought you were in a rush to go somewhere to watch the tide come in,” Aurzel said sarcastically.
Fireflint glared at him before swivelling on her heel and storming out.
“What’s wrong with her?” Aurzel asked.
“No idea, now get yourself ready Aurzy, you already missed breakfast,” Nara said giving him a piece of toast.
Aurzel took the offered toast and started munching on it as he got himself ready to head out, “Any idea where we’re going?”
“None, she came woke me up an hour ago and just said we’re going get ready,” Nara said.
“Isn’t she just a bundle of fun,” Aurzel said.
“Bundle of something that’s for sure,” Nara replied tossing Aurzel his leather top, “Oh, and I’m fine by the way, thanks for asking.”
“You were fine when I left you, not to mention I stayed up with you to make sure of that half the night,” Aurzel replied.
“Whatever, get moving sleepy head,” Nara said as he exited.

About ten minutes later Aurzel was downstairs with the others, mace hanging at his side and armour donned.
“He I picked this up for you this morning,” fireflint said hurling a small wooden buckler at him. Aurzel ducked to avoid the shield flying towards his head and picked it up after it clattered to the ground. He nodded a thanks by she was already walking out. Aurzel and Nara looked at each other and shrugged before hurrying to catch up, not wanting to be left behind. They quickly made their way through Roumen out into the wilderness and into the forest, travelling quickly for over an hour, passing sand beach before emerging into another opening in the forest. This one however was much darker. Tall, majestic trees formed a thick canopy letting none but the strongest of sunlight through, creating an eerie twilight effect.
“Ooo-kay, who wants to enter the creepy forest clearing first?” Nara said, his eyes shifting every which way nervously.
Fireflint huffed and strode forward boldly, “This is the forest of mist, fireflint explained, we’ve been hired to eliminate some ... problematic monsters.”
“If you say so,” Aurzel said, also on edge as the faint sight of the sun through the few gaps in the canopy eased his anxiousness a little. They followed the cleric in silence for several minutes as she moved confidently through the numerous paths and around obstacles. They came to a large pond and paused for a moment to rest.

Aurzel peered into the pond, he could see his reflection, though someone hazy in the water and he thought about events over the last few days. He was interrupted by,
“For the last time stop asking me!” fireflint shouted at Nara.
“Geez sorry,” Nara groaned, rubbing his should where he’d obviously just been hit.
“Come on we’re going,” fireflint said, coming over and nudging Aurzel out of his thoughts.
Aurzel picked up his pack and slipped his buckler over his forearm, he’d attached a second strap where the hand hold was so he could wear the shield over his arm instead of having to hold it, leaving him a free hand while his right dragged his mace loosely behind him.
“Better get moving Aurzey, don’t want the snails to catch you,” Nara said, bounding past him.
“Rather that than falling off a cliff ... watch out!” Aurzel cried out.
Nara slid to a halt right on the precipice of a sheer drop, wavering as he tried to keep his balance. Aurzel’s hand shot out just in time to pull him back.
“You’re right ... snails,” Nara said catching his breath but went running off again towards the rapidly shrinking back of fireflint. Aurzel shook his head and followed.
“Bet he dies,” Aurzel muttered to himself.
“Bet you die,” a voice hissed into his ear. Aurzel swung round, shield and mace up only to confront; nothing. Empty space was all that Aurzel could see all round him. If he’d looked a bit further down though, he might have noticed the dot of blackness but it shrunk and winked out of existence all too soon. Aurzel hurried on, not giving the probably imagined voice a second thought.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 19: Don't Look Down

“Are you sure this thing’s safe?” Aurzel asked as he stood in front of the rope bridge suspended over an enormous chasm.
“Of course it is, it’s been here for ages hasn’t it?” fireflint said.
“That’s what I mean,” Aurzel replied nervously.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of heights,” Nara laughed nudging him in the side.
“W-What? No, not at all,” Aurzel stammered.
“Then what are we waiting for,” fireflint said and began striding confidentally across the bridge.
“After you,” Aurzel motioned for Nara to cross.
“Not at all, ladies first,” Nara replied exaggerating the motion.
“Eff you,” Aurzel said and gingerly stepped onto the first wooden plank. He took another step and felt the bridge sway slightly. Another few steps and he started to feel the vibrations and movement that fireflint was causing as she continued across. Aurzel glared back at Nara who was grinning back. Muttering under his breath, Aurzel continued slowly across.
“Come on slow poke, get over here,” fireflint said, now standing on the other side. Aurzel tightened his grip on the rope railings as he walked, his palms were turning sweaty as he felt his heart beating faster. He looked back at Nara and was shocked to find he was already half way across. He turned back and took another step when he felt the bridge shudder. His head snapped back round and he found Nara prancing along the wooden planks.
“What the hell are you doing, get back!” Aurzel shouted at Nara.
“Oh grow a pair and get your *** over here!” fireflint shouted out.
Aurzel glared at her and tried to get to the other end between the bounces of Nara’s steps.

When he reached the other side he collapsed onto the grass beneath him, breathing deeply to try to calm himself.
“Oh you big baby, come on already,” fireflint said, yanking him to his feet. Aurzel groaned and followed behind, his legs still a little wobbly on solid ground.
Aurzel looked around at all the vegetation. The tall trees everywhere as well as patches of thick grass. In the distance was a bamboo forest, standing probably three times taller than him or more, on its own rise. Because that’s what these were. The forest of mist was so named because it was a forest on the peaks of several tall hills, the mildly misty effect which gave the forest its name was due to the low clouds which passed over these peaks. Aurzel looked down one of the many chasms at a river far below and gulped before turning away and carrying on, trying to put the height of where they were out of his mind.
“Do you know what boars are?” fireflint suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah sure, we were fighting with them before we found the King Slime didn’t we?” Nara said.
“Generally yes,” fireflint said, turning to them, “But a sharp boar is different, that’s what we’re here for.”
“Is it shorter, faster and ... meaner,” Aurzel gulped.
“Yeah ... how’d you know?” fireflint asked.
“Because um, there’s one right behind you,” Aurzel said.
Fireflint tirned slowly, wide eyed as she came face to face with the boar, or rather face to tooth ... big, jagged, sharp teeth.
“It doesn’t look so ... tough ...” Nara said before noticing fireflint take a step back.
“There’s only ... one of it ...” Nara continued before two larger and stronger boars stepped to either side of the sharp boar.
“Bored boars,” fireflint hissed. All three boars growled at the adventurers, displaying big, toothy grins as they eyed up their potential next meal.
“... mother,” Nara squealed. Aurzel gripped his mace tighter and called a silent protection spell on the three of them, thinking to himself how glad he’d been to pick that up before they’d left Roumen.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 20: Boar-ing

The boars stood there snarling at the three adventurers. Each had its paws raised, baring talon like nails ready to rip through the squishy humans in front of them.
“Maybe if we just back away slowly they won’t do anything,” Nara muttered out of the corner of his mouth. They both nodded and took a step back. The moment they did the boars growled at them and leapt forward. The three of them began backpedalling as fast as they could but the boars were much faster. The bored boars slammed right into Nara and Aurzel, the sheer force of the impact sending them skidding across the ground. The sharp boar stopped short of fireflint and lashed out with one paw, the nails raking across her arm as she tried to raise her shield. Thin lines of red formed as the nails cut into her skin, though her armour saved her from the worst of it. Fireflint bashed her mace against the sharp boar’s thick hide. It’s arm drooped under the bruising impact but its leg swept out and knocked her legs out from under her. Fireflint hit the ground hard but rolled with the impact, just out of reach of a foot about to land on her chest. From the ground she swung her mace and felt it connect with a knee. The sharp boar’s knee buckled from the impact and it dropped down to one knee. Fireflint sprung to her feet and healed herself but it also gave the boar a chance to recover.

Aurzel stumbled back as a blow struck his shield. He swung back but the blow was shrugged off the bored boar’s side and only enraged the monster further. It raised both its paws together and brought them hurtling towards his head, ready to smash it as if on an anvil. Aurzel dove to the side at the last second, one of the claws nicking his cheek as he did. He gripped his cheek as pain flared through it and withdrew his hand to find it drenched in blood. The bored boar was on top of him, pinning him to the ground. Aurzel struggled, swinging his head while his arms were pinned beneath the boar’s large paws. It punched down in the ground next to his head, the nails digging through the soil like spears. Aurzel stopped moving and watched the boar. It yanked its hand out of the ground and raised it ready to strike again. Aurzel struck with his now free hand, knocking the boar in the side of the head with a strong hook of his fist. He brought his arm back round and the buckler cracked into the boar’s jaw. The force knocked the boar off him for a moment. Aurzel took the chance and rolled away from the beast before just about managing to get to his feet as his hand fumbled for a health stone.

Nara danced between the boar’s clumsy attacks, weaving this way and that, each fist strike landing just away from him. For all his speed though, he couldn’t find an opening to counter with. He feinted to the left. The boar punched but at the last moment Nara halted his momentum and transferred it instead to his sword arm, jabbing forward as if it were a spear. The tip of his blade embedded itself in the boar’s side and it growled furiously. It yanked the blade out and threw it into the chasm. Nara stood there, now weaponless, in front of the boar, backing away slowly. The boar advanced, matching him step for step. Nara quickly ran forward and kicked out, the ball of his foot connecting with the boar’s chest, causing it to stumble back a little. The winded boar didn’t take its eyes off Nara for a moment though. Just then there was a loud growling and the second bored boar suddenly collided with Nara’s opponent, they both tumbled away from the impact and rolled off the cliff together, angry growls echoed up as both boars fell a great distance before no doubt getting splattered at the bottom.

Fireflint stood bloody and battered in front of the sharp boar. She was breathing heavily from her exertion, her mace dangerously close to falling out of her hand. The sharp boar was far less injured. It circled her, toying with her. It lunged at her but she blocked with her shield. The blow jarred her arm and her shield fell to her side. The sharp boar grinned, or what passed for a grin. It stopped moving and eyed fireflint as she stood there ready to collapse. It growled and started running at her. She closed her eyes and let the exhaustion from her constant healing and fighting wash through her mind. Letting go gave her a moment of tranquillity. She heard the sound of the boar’s footfalls almost upon her. She almost felt a hand touch her shoulder. Before she could think about it, the touch turned into a firm grip and yanked her away, she opened her eyes as she fell to the ground and saw the image of a figure colliding with that of the boar.

Nara collided with the boar’s side, he immediately was knocked back with the force of the impact but the sharp boar wasn’t so lucky. It stumbled off balance and howled out as it lost its footing and fell, and kept falling as it went over the precipice into the chasm.
“Would you mind moving?” Aurzel gasped from fireflint’s elbow digging into his chest. Fireflint barely managed to roll over, her weary mind still trying to think over what had just happened before she passed out.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 21: Sunset

“That was ... fun,” Nara coughed.
“Ye-eah ... can we go home now?” Aurzel asked.
Fireflint rolled onto her side, it was clear that even that took a lot of effort and she wouldn’t be walking on her own any time soon. She tried to get up but it was a futile attempt. Aurzel and Nara slowly got to their feet and helped firelint up too. With an arm around each of them, the three friends hobbled off back towards home.
“We’re not going over that bridge again are we?” Aurzel asked.
“Oh shut up,” fireflint muttered.

It took all day for the three of them to get home. By the time they’d reached the safe, familiar cobblestone paths, the sun was already setting. It was all they could do to get fireflint into a bed before they both collapsed themselves. Narayuth started snoring away almost immediately but Aurzel lay there for a few minutes, eyes open. Even though he tried, sleep wouldn’t come to him. After a while he got up, deciding to go for a quick walk. As he stepped out of the inn he inhaled the salty sea air and looked around him. There weren’t many people about at the moment. Most were probably going home to settle down for dinner, Aurzel reasoned to himself. He wandered aimlessly around, most of the shops and stall owners were themselves packing up for the night too. Without realising it he’d brought himself right to the edge where sea met wall and he could hear the sounds of waves breaking beneath his feet. He followed the wall, through the now empty market place till he reached a jetty of sorts. It was stacked high with boxes and crates. He looked out and laid out in front of him was the vast expanse of sea which continued on passed the horizon. Unexpectedly he felt himself grow weary. He slumped down with his back against a stack of crates and watched the undulating motions of the sea as waves flowed through it. The sun in the distance was already half swallowed up by the sea as it continued to dip below the horizon. His eyelids drooped as the sea air worked on his drowsiness. He closed his eyes for a moment and finally felt himself relax.

He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and someone said, “Well it’s not often I have company, in fact it’s never.”
Aurzel opened one eye against the glow of the setting sun and saw someone standing next to him. She wasn’t too tall, probably about a head shorter than himself and stood with her hand leaning against a large crate, he also noticed a staff set against the crate too.
“I come here most evenings to watch the sunset,” she said inclining her head towards the fast disappearing orb of light.
“I found this place by accident,” Aurzel said.
The mage giggled, “You know what, so did I.”
“It’s very peaceful here,” Aurzel noted.
“That it is,” she said settling down nearby.
“I’m Aurzel,” he said reaching a hand out.
“Train,” she replied holding her hand out to shake his.
“That’s an unusual name,” Aurzel said.
“Well so’s Aurzel,” she replied.
Aurzel nodded his head and turned back to watch as the last sliver of the sun slipped below the horizon. Twilight enveloped them as the last of the sun’s light disappeared. There was a sound of hurried feet. Aurzel turned to see a man running across the plaza.
“He’s just here to light the lamps,” Train said, obviously used to the sound. Sure enough the man approached each lamp and lit it using his own blazing torch.

Aurzel let out a deep sigh as he relaxed back into his tranquillity.
“Tough day?” Train asked.
“Bored boars, sharp boars, bottomless chasms, you could say that,” Aurzel replied.
“Ah the forest of mist,” Train said, “You took on a bunch of bored boars by yourself?”
Aurzel snorted, “Yeah right.”
“So where’s your friends?” she asked curious.
“Resting at the inn, I couldn’t sleep so I found myself here,” Aurzel yawned, “But now I think that sleep’s creeping up on me.”
Train giggled, “Maybe you should get back to your bed and crash out.”
“I suppose so,” he said as he stumbled to his feet, “See you tomorrow?”
“If you can get here for dawn,” she winked at him before he wondered off in search of his bed.

[autarchaurzel]

NB:
Due to the lack of interest in this story, Aurzel's Adventures is postponed, there'll be no new chapters till I either feel like writing any more or more is requested through popular demand (a couple of people does not count as popular demand)

thank you to those few of you who have read this story and to the fewer of you who have actually stuck with it unlike those i kept pestering to read it

[liqeur]

NOOOO!!! i want moooooore! :(
yes i'm breaking the rules by posting here, but PSHH. more more more

[henriksson83]

NOOOO!!! i want moooooore! :(
yes i'm breaking the rules by posting here, but PSHH. more more more

Totally agrees with fire!! DONT stop writing aurz :'(

[princessyfeather]

<33 He's so busy with me
XD ilu Aur ^^''
<3

[universalmaster001]

im a man of many words but i only have a couple for this story.....its good

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 22: What Matters

Aurzel awoke to the feeling of aching muscles. He could feel the sun light against his still shut eye lids as you slowly become aware of his surroundings. He tried to force his eyes open but to little effect, the sun was too bright for him to see anything. He could hear the smooth breathing of fireflint asleep, as well as Narayuth’s occasional snores. He very slowly tried to turn over on his side but his muscles protested with every tiny movement. He was barely able to move himself a few inches before he gave up and dropped off to sleep again. He woke again to feel something pressed against his forehead, it felt like a hand, as if someone was checking if he had a temperature. He eased his eyes open, finding the extra sleep had done him some good, as had the sun light now no longer falling on him. His vision was still unfocused and he couldn’t make out who was standing over him.
“W ...” his throat was dry and his voice hoarse as he tried to speak, “Who are you?”
“Well I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon, your friends certainly haven’t, and you needn’t worry about me, I’m just a concerned person. I saw you come into the inn last night while I was at the bar and you looked simply terrible,” the feminine voice said.
Aurzel struggled to bring the room into focus and slowly the vision swimming before him began to form into recognisable objects, as did the woman standing over him. She was smiling at him while she wrung out a wet cloth of warm water which she placed over his forehead.
“You must have caught something while you were out last night, I’ve tried to cure it but the best thing to do now is wait it out,” she said as she stepped away.
“T-Thank you,” he managed but his voice faded away again.
“Oh my, you must be parched, here,” she offered him some water which he gulped down, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Thank you again,” you said with a bit more solidity in his voice, “I’m Aurzel.”
“Nice to meet you Aurzel, I’m Sally,” she replied as she took the empty mug from him.
Aurzel smiled at her before he felt his arms that had been propping him up begin to ache again, causing him to collapse back onto the bed.
“What about fire and Nara?” Aurzel asked.
“Oh it’s fire now is it?” fireflint spluttered as she drifted into consciousness.
“Something wrong with that?” Aurzel asked in a sarcastic tone.
“Not at all,” fireflint sputtered, “I just thought it wouldn’t do to give a girl pet-names in front of your girlfriend here.”
“My what?” Aurzel looked between the two women, his mind whirring as he tried to think straight.
Fireflint giggled, “Oh I’m only kidding you, I know you’ve only got eyes for me.”
“I what, you what ... what?!” his eyes looked as if they’re were going to pop out of his head followed closely by his eyebrows.
There was a great guffawing from nearby, “Oh god – you’re too easy.” No sooner had Narayuth woken than he’d collapsed into laughter. Even Sally couldn’t resist a small laugh.
“Oh will you all shut up,” Aurzel said, annoyed more at himself than them.
“Sure you want us to leave you two alone as well?” Nara said, and everyone burst out into laughter again, even Aurzel couldn’t help snickering a little.

“I think your friends are fine,” Sally said when everyone had calmed down and caught their breath.
“Unfortunately,” Aurzel glared at them out of the corner of his eye.
“You know you love us Aurzy,” Nara said.
“Aurzy?” Sally looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t you start too,” Aurzel said to her.
“It’s his nickname, I gave it to him,” Nara said taking on a proud tone.
“Suits you actually,” Sally said. Nara stood and bowed in a low sweeping bow which took his head down to the level of his knees. Aurzel reached out with his foot and knocked him in the back with his heel, causing Nara to fall forward onto the floor and instigating another round of laughter.
“Never a dull moment here eh?” a voice said from the door.
“Train! What are you doing here?” Aurzel asked surprised.
“Well I came in for some breakfast, then I remembered you were staying here and just followed the banging and laughter,” she said as she walked in.
“This is Train everyone, I met her last night while I was out for a walk,” Aurzel said, addressing everyone.
“A walk? I’m sure that’s what you were doing,” Nara nudged Aurzel with his elbow suggestively.
Aurzel was about to retort before he closed his mouth, when he opened it again he said, “I’m not falling for that again.” Nara laughed to himself and sat on a chair, pulling up another for the new arrival to sit on.
“I thought you said there was three of you,” Train asked questioningly.
“There were, this is Narayuth and fireflint. Sally here we only met this morning,” Aurzel explained, “She was kind enough to make sure we were ok.”
“And are you?” Train asked.
Nara jumped to his feet and demonstrated his health by vaulting over Aurzel’s bed, he turned to do it a second time but was discouraged by a twitch he noticed in Aurzel’s leg, he didn’t want to take the chance of being knocked to the floor a second time. Fireflint managed to get to her a feet on her own and after a few minutes the pain had gone, her wounds had healed over night after all the healing both she and Aurzel had used on her, while Aurzel himself finally felt the stiffness leaving his muscles, he stood up and walked around a little to make sure.
“Well since you can all walk how about we all go down for some breakfast?” Sally said.
“Great idea I’m starving,” Nara said.
“When are you not?” fire shot back.
“When he’s asleep of course,” Aurzel answered.
“Touché,” fire replied.
Everyone sat round a table and, a few coins later, were contently munching their way through breakfast.

After breakfast they decided to have a lie in, they deserved a bit of rest after their latest escapade after all. No sooner had they decided this however than the door burst open and a man came running in screaming at the top of his lungs.
“ATTACK! ROUMEN UNDER ATTACK!!!” he screamed before collapsing on the floor, what looked like a claw was sticking out from his back, blood soaking through his shirt.
“How can Roumen be under attack, where’s the town guards!” the inn keeper shouted before pulling out a large sword from behind the bar which he gripped firmly in both hands.
“Attacked? We’ve gotta help,” Aurzel said standing up.
“No arguments there, but where’s your stuff?” Train asked, gripping her stuff.
“Upstairs,” Nara said running off, taking the stairs three at a time.
“How could this have happened?” Sally asked as she held a mace and shield which she’d left with the inn keeper behind the bar too.
“Catch!” came Nara’s voice from upstairs and down came a cluttering of weapons shields and armour. Aurzel grabbed up his leathers and strapped them on quickly, followed by his shield and finally grabbing his mace up from the pile. Fire and Nara were both ready in a flash too and soon the party of five were outside to find out for themselves the danger. Everywhere they looked town guards, adventurers, merchants and vendors had all taken up arms and were doing battle with a host of slimes. Silver slimes, iron slimes, gold slimes, prince slimes, every type of slime was here and in great numbers, crowding the streets of Roumen like a tidal wave of bouncing, squishy death.
“There’s so many of them,” Train said, hurling a fireball at the nearest slime.
“Doesn’t matter, we fight!” fireflint said, healing Nara who’d taken on several slimes at once. Sally and Aurzel had between them, taken on five slimes but were hard pressed to land a fatal strike while trying to defend themselves at the same time. Train swung her staff round and cracked a slime over the head, before it could recover she’d sent two bolts of magic at it. Three more followed barely a second later, stopping another slime in its tracks as it had made for fireflint, who was both healing Nara and fighting off a gold slime that had taken a disliking to her keeping its prey alive. Nara was surrounded by three prince slimes but his quick feet and fireflint’s healing kept him just out of death’s grasp.

Suddenly the layer of slimes surrounding them parted upon the death of several silver slimes.
“Need some help kids?” a familiar voice said.
“Knight?” Aurzel glanced over at the new comers, “Alyssa? It’s been ages, where’ve you been?!”
“We’ll catch up later,” Alyssa said, cutting through two of Aurzel’s opponents with his axe while Knight crushed one of Nara’s prince slimes with his hammer. Another fighter leapt in, scything through a second prince slime as Nara finished off the third himself.
“This is Acidsky,” Knight said, introducing the fighter.
“Call me Acid,” he said as he warded off a blow from another slime with his shield before running it through with his sword.
Introductions were over in mere moments and everyone had once again entered the fray. With eight of them working together no slime lasted longer than a minute before either getting smashed, stabbed or blasted apart.

“Drive them back!” came a call over the din of battle, they looked round to find several people standing in the middle of everything, it was two archers two mages and a cleric. Every few moments the archers would volley several arrows into the horde of slimes, any slimes that charged the archers were met by the mages who released waves of yellow magical energy around them, no slimes were able to harm the group even without the cleric’s ministrations. They became a rallying point for the other defenders and soon the wave of slimes had been ground to a halt and were being pushed back, one line at a time.
“Don’t stop till every last one is dead!” the same person’s voice called out. The fighting continued without rest till the whole of Roumen had been cleared of the slimes and even then the fighting continued into the forest the slimes had invaded from. Aurzel and the seven others with him were at the forefront of this group, there were at least six or seven others with them too, everyone else was scouring the rest of the forest while these few adventurers forged on ahead. They soon came to an all too familiar valley but they didn’t slow. They continued their charge right alone the circular pathway, and up a ramp, hacking through any slimes that got in their way. They ascended the second ramp to find the familiar contingent of warrior boars and ratmen waiting for them. This time though they knew what they were doing and knew what they were fighting for. They were undaunted when the elite guards charged them, warrior boars were surrounded and hacked down while ratmen were shot down before they could get close. As they ascended the final ramp they found the quarry they’d been seeking, surrounded this time by a retinue of prince slimes the King Slime rose to its full height as the adventurers prepared to take on what they’d been defeated by before.

“Don’t worry about them,” Alyssa said, indicating the prince slimes. Before anyone could question his meaning he ran straight at them. All the prince slimes turned to the charging fighter and chased after him. Both Acid and Knight followed his example as did several other of the adventurers. It was a swirling melee as blows were exchanged and magic was cast. The King Slime eyed down the remaining adventurers and laughed at their determination.
“You think you can defeat me now when you already failed once before?!” its deep booming voice echoed all round them.
“You’re going down,” Nara said, pointing his sword at the King Slime.
“Rather cliché don’t you think?” fire said to him.
“Screw that,” Nara replied and charged at the King Slime. The remaining adventurers let loose on the King Slime too, arrows and magic peppered its thick hide as it tried to land a crushing blow on its nimble opponent. Aurzel was healing Nara frantically to keep him from faltering under the King Slime’s onslaught but with three clerics it was possible.
“Slimes destroy them with my power!” the King Slime boomed and from the muddy ground, a dozen more slimes pulled themselves up, the Queen Slime among them. Aurzel abandoned his healing as both the Queen Slime and two prince slimes headed right for him, while the other prince slimes either headed for the mages and archers or the huge fight still occurring against the King Slime’s retinue. Aurzel sprinted away from the approaching slimes, doing his best to heal both himself and Nara on the run, he jumped out of the way of one blow and fell to the ground rolling, trying to avoid another blow. Acid came from out of nowhere and sliced his sword through one prince slime and swinging it round into the other before kicking out at the Queen Slime. All three slimes turned towards him and began attacking him. He knocked several blows aside with his shield while Aurzel took up healing him. Suddenly there was a guttural, echoing scream which chilled everyone’s nerves as it shook them with its force. Aurzel looked round into time to see Nara’s sword plunge into the back of one of the prince slimes, fire and Sally were beside him, bashing their maces into the other on, with this brief respite he noticed the corpse of the King Slime, slumped over as a puddle of deep green. Without giving it another thought he hit the Queen Slime with all his strength. The Queen Slime turned on him and in one motion, slammed its whole bulk against him, the blow sent him flying across the plateau and cracking his skull against the wooden fence surrounding the plateau. This allowed Acid a brief opening in which he ran the Queen Slime through with his blade. The huge battle against the prince slimes died out moments later, leaving two of their fellows dead and Alyssa was badly injured. Nara and fire ran to Aurzel to find him slumped on the ground unconscious, his head was bleeding and he looked to have several bones broken.
“Aurzel? Aurzel get up, get up, come on,” fireflint said shaking him.
“Come on Aurzy you can’t leave us, get up lazy boy,” Nara said also shaking him.
“Let’s get him back to the inn.”

[universalmaster001]

yay finally keep em comin

[minidragoness]

Congratulations, Aurzel! You've got a lovely story here! I know for a fact that if I tried to write a story like this, it would become a Fiesta Tutorial... xD *ponders* ...Hmm, maybe I should write a story like that, it might be kinda fun as long as I kept it a story... xP

You've given me a lot of hope for my research paper as well, I'm writing it on how can video games and MMORPGs can help develop kids' and teens' reading and writing skills! ^^

Good luck to you, and great to see you've kept this story going for such a long time! <3

Aria ^^

Aria_Aethera, Lv 73 Paladin, Epith Server

[universalmaster001]

bump for aurzel

[monkt]

Whoa, i've been gone for about 4 months in the dog pound n my buddy Aurzey finished this much already!? way'da go man wooooo! keep it comin mah friend :D

Naraveth 4x
Apoline ftw!

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 23: Answers

Aurzel woke with a start, he looked around but it was pitch black. He strained his eyes as he caught a glimmer of something but it faded just as quickly as it had come. He got to his feet quickly and looked around trying to catch sight of it again but nothing was apparent in the darkness. He opened his mouth to call out but no sound came out. He tried again but nothing, he couldn’t hear the sound of his own breathing, his footsteps, even his heart seemed to be silent. Again he caught a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye but in the moment it took to turn his head it had been consumed by the darkness again. He spun round, taking in everything around him, or rather nothing. The glimmering occurred again but this time he didn’t look at it, he was vaguely aware of it in the corner of his vision but he remained where he was. It seemed to get a bit closer but still he didn’t look. It started to dance into and out of his sight, as if trying to grab his attention. He turned towards it but once again it vanished into the darkness. As soon as his eyes stopped moving it was there again, it was moving quickly from side to side, getting closer and moving further away again. This time he turned away from it, but it stayed in the corner of his vision, taunting him. Suddenly it sped towards him, he stumbled back in fear but this time it didn’t disappear when he looked at it, it kept growing larger, it might have been coming closer to him but he had nothing else with which to judge distance, instead it just looked like it might be enveloping him. Soon his head was swimming as his eyes tried to adjust to the pale yellow that he was seeing instead of the blackness.

“What’s going on?” he said, gagging a little as if he had just taken his first breath in a while. He looked around but there was nothing to see.
“You should be able to tell that for yourself,” a voice said from nearby, though there was no source, “It is you after all that has brought us to this dream.”
“I’m dreaming?” Aurzel looked around confused.
“Yes and no, it is both your dream and something beyond that, it holds power here for it is you that has summoned me here,” the voice explained.
“Then why can’t I see you?” Aurzel retorted.
“As I said this place isn’t completely yours, although you have brought me here you cannot force me to show myself,” the voice continued.
“Then why am I here?” he asked.
“That remains to be seen,” the voice said ominously.
There was a feeling of a faint breeze and a point of blackness opened up like a hole before him. It expanded till it was about the size of a window. Nothing could be seen beyond it except blackness. Aurzel walked round it as it remained stationary but no matter what angle he looked at it from the shape and size remained exactly the same and nothing could be seen beyond.
“What is this?” Aurzel asked as he completed a full circle.
“This is a place both mysterious and incomprehensible, it is there yet by all reasoning it shouldn’t exist. Move into it and any life force will be pulled apart in this abyss of nothingness,” the voice said from different locations as if it too was circling the gateway, since that’s what it seemed to be.
“Then what’s the point of it?” Aurzel was getting more confused by the moment.
“Questions, questions ... why don’t you see for yourself,” the voice came from further away this time.
“But there’s nothing in ther-” Aurzel paused as he saw a pinprick of light through the blackness. It grew larger and light spilled into the blackness, illuminating something standing in front of it. He strained his eyes trying to make it out. He couldn’t quite tell but it looked like a mushroom fighter, it definitely had the build of a mushroom but was about twice the size. Before he could be sure though it leapt through the gap which, he could just make out, showed a grassy path next to a forest. A few moments later yellow rings pulsed that he’d attributed to a monster healing itself and a mushroom fighter appeared on the spot. Before he could see anything else though the gap closed and there was only blackness there once again.
“What was that?!” Aurzel asked turning round in a circle trying to find a speaker.
“I think you should be able to figure that out for yourself,” the voice said, hinting as if a great secret lay below the surface of what he’d witnessed.
“No more games, tell me!” Aurzel shouted.
He heard a sigh before words echoed to him again, “It appears I’ve overestimated you. What you see before you is the Shadow Realm, the monsters you and your people so willing slay, haven’t you ever wondered where they go and how they come back.” When there was no reply it continued, “They go to the Shadow Realm, there nothing exists, there is no concept of time or place, wounds are nothing and can be recovered in less than an instant, thus a monster never dies as long as it’s able to return to the Shadow Realm. All monsters have an inherent sense of power, which is their ability to hang on to your world. When you are hurting a monster, you are actually making it harder for it to remain in the realm world. Once in the Shadow Realm a monster is able to recover its power and, once sufficiently strong enough, it may use that power to force its way back into your world but at a high cost, its memory. Only beings of immense power are able to retain more than a fraction of their memory from the last time they were alive.”
“So ... whenever a monster respawns, those yellow rings ... that’s it breaking back into the real world?” Aurzel asked, trying hard to grasp what had been said to him.
“Exactly, I-” the voice paused.
“What is it?” Aurzel could hear a sort of urgency.
“Your time here is over, it is time for you to return to your consciousness,” the voice replied.
“Has this all been a dream then, did I imagine all this?” Aurzel was still very confused.
“I told you before that this was partly your dream and more, you have a connection that is ... somewhat unique. Before you disappear though,” the voice was beginning to sound more distant, and the distance was increasing, “I leave you with one final thought, the Shadow Realm can be used for more than simply cheating death ...”

Aurzel gasped as air rushed into his lungs, his eyes were wide open and his heart beating as if it had an hour’s beats to get through in a minute, his head snapped sharply from side to side trying to figure out where he was. He tried to cry out but all he managed was a hoarse groan.
“Aurzel! Calm down, you’re safe now,” he felt a pair of hands press down on his chest, keeping him restrained. It was only then that he felt the soft comfort of a bed beneath him. He slowly stopped struggling and looked up to see several people crowding around him.
“Don’t worry, you’re ok now,” the voice repeated.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 24: Friends Make It Better

“Shadow Realm? Aurz what are you talking about, you were unconscious dude,” Nara said looking over at him.
“I know, but the voice told me that it was like a dream, people dream when they’re unconscious don’t they?” Aurzel asked sitting up on the edge of his bed.
“I don’t know, I guess ... I never really thought about it,” Nara looked around the empty room. Once everyone had been satisfied that he was ok they’d all headed downstairs to eat, apparently he’d been out for almost two days and everyone had been by his side the whole time, living off sandwiches brought up to them.
“So should we go join them?” Aurzel asked, preparing to stand up.
“No you need to rest more,” Nara said pressing Aurzel back down onto the bed.
“But I’m starving, can’t you hear my stomach rumbling? Besides I haven’t eaten for two days,” Aurzel punctuated his words by standing up and soon after stumbling towards the door, trying to hide how dizzy standing up had made him.
“Crazy guy,” Nara shook his head and followed after him.

“You’re up!” a voice squeaked as Aurzel entered the bar room downstairs, which doubled as a dining room during the day.
“Should you be up?” fireflint asked, looking up from her plate.
“No of course he shouldn’t, get back to your room,” Sally said rushing over to him.
“I’m ok really, besides I’m so hungry I could eat a wild boar, tusks, bone and all,” Aurzel said collapsing into a chair.
“Hah, I wouldn’t put it past you,” fire laughed, along with everyone else.
Aurzel looked around, trying to find someone, “Where’s the others?”
“They left when they were sure you were ok, they had stuff to do I guess,” Nara said sitting down too.
“Aww shame,” Aurzel groaned, “I wanted to at least say hi to them and thank them.”
“Thank them by digging in,” Train giggled as his food was served to him.
“I can do that,” Aurzel said, enthusiastically grabbing his fork.

The five of them sat around eating and laughing and talking about what had happened, but during the quiet moments Aurzel’s mind would drift back to his dream. The conversation would play out in his mind and he remembered what he’d seen. He kept wondering whether it really had been all a dream or if it was something real.
“Copper for your thoughts,” fireflint said, and he realised he’d stopped eating and was staring off into space.
“Oh nothing, just thinking,” Aurzel replied.
Fireflint shrugged, “Suit yourself but it’s not as much fun.”
“I should get going, a nice bed would do me wonders right about now,” Train said, yawning as she stood up.
“I know what you mean, sleep without worrying,” Sally said standing up too and stretching.
“You need someone to tuck you in?” Nara asked winking at them. They both giggled and shook their heads before walking off.
“Smooth,” Aurzel laughed at Nara.
“Aww what am I doing wrong?” Nara asked glumly.
“Maybe sincerity would help?” Aurzel suggested.
Nara looked thoughtful for a moment, “Sincerity? I could fake that.”
“Come on, let’s just go to sleep,” Aurzel said.
“You’ve been asleep for two days!” Nara called after him.
“Been out cold doesn’t count as asleep,” Aurzel replied.
“Sure it doesn’t, you’re just lazy,” Nara shoved Aurzel from behind.
Aurzel stumbled and shoved back, “What’s wrong with that?” They both took off up the stairs towards their room, laughing.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 25: Tour of Elderine

Aurzel ducked under a fist and brought his shield up to block the second strike. It battered harmlessly off his shield and he swung his mace low, knocking the smart phino’s feet out from under it. He quickly kicked it while it was trying to get back up and brought his mace down from above his head, crushing it under the force of the blow. He looked around at his surroundings as he stopped for a breather. He’d returned to the Forest of Mist at the behest of one of the townsfolk who was worried about the smart phinos raiding shipments of supplies from Elderine. Fireflint and Narayuth had both gone with a contingent of other adventurers to investigate the King Slime’s outpost, but after what happened, Aurzel didn’t think he could face that place again anytime soon. There was a brief flash and another smart phino appeared next to him, it looked around dazed for a moment and then headed towards a nearby tree. Not waiting to see what it would do, Aurzel set upon it, quickly smashing it apart with several quick blows from his mace.He looked on past the forest and, in the distance, he could make out the city of Elderine itself. He hadn’t even visited the major city before, at least not alone and grown up. He’d heard about it many times and he still had a few memories of the rare occasions he’d been with his parents. During his revelry he didn’t notice the soft sound of muffled footfalls behind him. So it came as quite a shock when he got knocked off his feet, face first into the ground by a strong hit. He rolled onto his back to see another smart phino standing there, watching him. Aurzel shivered, ‘It’s faces like that, that give clowns a bad name.’ He got back to his feet as the smart phino continued to study him, almost comically.
“Not very smart are you?” Aurzel said as he knocked the smart phino off balance with his shield and proceeded to pound it with his mace. With that annoyance removed, Aurzel healed away the minor bruises on his back and turned back towards Elderine. He thought a moment longer before he shrugged his shoulders and thought, ‘What the hell, I wanna see what it looks like.’

As Aurzel hiked towards Elderine he noticed the journey was rather quiet. He didn’t see many of the usual monsters he’d expect along the way, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw several roving bands of adventurers dealing with any monster that came close to the path. Aurzel continued on and slowly the huge protective walls of the city began to loom up above him. In less than an hour he was standing before one of the city’s entrances. A huge pair of metal reinforced wooden doors stood open, granting him a view of the city within. A portcullis barred his way and on both the inside and outside it was flanked by a pair of guards. When they saw him approaching they looked him over and called to let him through. The portcullis slowly slid up and Aurzel stepped inside. In front of him stood the huge city of Elderine. Its majesty made Roumen seem like a tiny fishing village. As he walked down the main thoroughfare he could see many houses to his right and in front of those, he could see several merchants dealing with any passing adventurers who showed interest. To the left he saw a small garden, a nice recreational place to relax he figured as he continued on. What he saw next took his breath away. Before him stood a flight of stairs taller than most of the houses and the whole structure was supported by columns thicker than he was. He started climbing the stairs and immediately saw that he’d walked up into an arena. There were stands circling an inner stadium, some of the stands were occupied in fact, while in the stadium stood several people.

Aurzel took a seat in the stands and watched as two pairs of people sparred with one another. On one team there was a mage and a fighter while on the other there was a cleric and another mage. The mages were engaged in an intense magical battle, the likes of which he hadn’t even dreamt of. He could identify bolts of magical energy containing fire, ice, lightning and they all were so much more destructive than he’d ever seen a mage wield. They collided and exploded around the arena, causing a great deal of scarring to the heavy stone floor and walls. One blast of two huge balls of fire colliding happened right next to the stands. Aurzel covered his eyes, expecting to get caught in the blast but as he opened them, he saw the haze clearing as if pressed against an invisible wall. Then he noticed 3 mages standing along the side of the arena wearing white robes, and 3 more on the other side of the stands. They were projecting what must have been some sort of shield to protect the spectators from anything that happened in the arena. A stray ice bolt came hurtling towards one of the mage, but the mage didn’t even flinch. The bolt impacted against the shield and arcs of icy blue energy short along the shield wall as it dissipated across its surface. Aurzel then looked over at the cleric and fighter who were engaged in their own battle. The fighter was wielding a large two handed sword while the cleric had a battle hammer and shield. The fighter was quick, dodging in and out of the cleric’s slower hammer swings and swung his sword around in a wide arc, using its superior reach to keep the cleric from countering. The cleric brought his shield and blocked the blow and the sound of metal striking metal rang through the arena. The cleric brushed the sword to the side, causing the fighter to roll to the side to keep her balance, but the cleric was on her, swinging his hammer as faster than seemed possible to find a weakness in the fighter’s defences. The fighter parried one blow and turned it into a counter, forcing them back onto even footing. Meanwhile the mages had stopped hurling magic at each other, each was eyeing the other, trying to determine what to do next and what to expect at the same time. One took a step closer to the other, who remained still. Another step closer, then another. Suddenly a powerful blast of magic flared from the stationary mage and hurtled towards the fighter. The other mage quickly raised a shield to block the bolt and instead reversed the power to be sent straight back at the caster. This took a lot of concentration though and wasn’t expecting the barrage of minor missiles that were hurtled at him. He was knocked to the ground, robes smoking slightly from being singed. He got to his feet again and sent a retaliatory strike of both powerful and weaker bolts, hoping that the other mage wouldn’t be able to identify and counter them all. He was surprised to find every attack blocked. He exerted his will on one of the larger firebolts as it hurtled towards his opponent and at the last moment it shattered into many minor bolts, knocking his opponent back. The downed mage picked himself up, eyeing the other mage for such a dirty trick, but he stumbled slightly, apparently weakened from the beaten he’d just taken. He sent his own barrage of bolts back but they were easily blocked. Gaining confidence that he was winning, the other mage advanced, blocking every bolt thrown at him. Stumbling back, the weaker mage couldn’t hold his opponent back. He cried out as he seemed to trip and stumble back further. The cleric knocked the fighter off who had been landing several blows on the cleric’s shield and swung at him with a strong swing which collided with the fighter’s sword, jarring his shoulder. The cleric seized the moment and began chanting. White light coalesced around the cleric and he thrust his palm out at his allied mage. The white light shot forth from his palm and enveloped the mage. It was all over in about a second and the mage now stood tall, no longer weakened, almost as if he’d been expecting everything to happen exactly this way. He immediately sent a strong barrage of bolts and his enemy who was caught completely off guard and collapsed under all the magical energies being thrown at him. The mage then turned his magics on the fighter who’d beaten the cleric back. The fighter was knocked off her feet and thrown against the mage shield at the stadium’s side. The cleric and mage emerged victorious from the arena while arena clerics rushed into the stadium to treat the downed fighter and mage. There were cheers as the winners left, no doubt accompanied by friends and people who’d just made themselves some money.

Aurzel eventually left the stadium after the winners’ party had all headed off and he descended the stairs to continue his tour. Not far from the arena was the vendors’ pit. He could see possibly hundreds of people trying to attract people, advertising their wares and bartering with whoever showed interest in what they had to offer. Aurzel admired some of the exceptional equipment that could be seen from the edge of the pit but eventually tore himself away as he knew he didn’t have anywhere near the kind of money that those kinds of goods called for. As he carried on he reached what he surmised was the centre of the city, a huge statue stood in the middle of a small pond. It was absolutely magnificent, Aurzel stared up at it as if unable to comprehend its size. It was also a very busy place as many people were coming and going, heading to different areas of town as this was where the two main paths met. There must have been dozens of people passing by at any one time and as Aurzel looked around at the rest of the unexplored city, he looked up and saw the sun was beginning to set. There was no way he’d be able to see the whole rest of the city before it got dark and instead spent the next half hour or so looking for an inn. Once he found one he immediately hired a room for the night, the prices were a bit more expensive but that was to be expected. Once he’d paid he immediately went upstairs and crashed out, exhausted from all the exploring and excitement.

It was early the next morning, just as the sun began to peak over the walls of Elderine and bathe its cobblestone ground in light that a commotion began. People emerged into the streets in big crowds, there were cries of excitement and awe. Aurzel woke as he heard all the shouting and wondered what was going on. He quickly got into his armour and headed downstairs to the inn’s main room.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he approached the barman.
“Don’t you know?” the barman asked confused.
“I’m new in town,” Aurzel replied, there was surprisingly no one around, he would have expected to see at least a few people having breakfast or a drink.
“Today’s the day, the return,” the barman said. He carried on after seeing Aurzel’s confused look, “Three months ago to the day, five heroes set out from Elderine for the forest of slumber, boasting that they’d overpower and capture a kallap to bring back to fight in the arena.”
“What’s a kallap?” Aurzel had never heard of something like that before.
“Well not many people know really, they’re said to guard Helga’s tomb in the forest of slumber and are immensely powerful. Easily able to match our best heroes, they must be if they guard the legendary Helga,” the barman explained.
“And they’ve captured one and brought it here?” Aurzel asked.
“That’s what they said they’d do, so now everyone wants to find out if they did it,” the barman said as he stepped out from behind the bar, “Are you going too because I want to lock up and go see for myself.” Aurzel headed out and watched as the crowd surged forward, heading for the centre of the city and looking around for a sign of the approaching heroes. All of a sudden there were gasps and cries and everyone looked up. Aurzel looked up too and he could just make out a silhouette in the sky. It slowly got bigger as it approached and slowly the silhouette became five as they descended towards the city. They flew overhead and banked as they passed the far city wall and as the light hit them, everyone could clearly make out all five of them. They rode magnificent horses of pure white with wings, a pegasus was something Aurzel had only heard stories about, he never dared imagine he’d see one, let alone five. The pegasi spread their wings as they glided downwards, slowing down till they touched the ground and started running till they came to a stop before the crowd.

The man in the centre of the group lead his mount a few steps forward and looked over the crowd before he began, “Citizens of Isya, no doubt you have all come to witness our triumphant return, and return we have. Our mission was a success, behold!”
On queue the two standing on either side of the leader projected their hands palm out towards each and a surge of magic shot between them and converged in the middle to become a swirling vortex of magic. A few moments later the magic was gone and in its place was a very tall, humanoid figure. It had smooth red skin but its face didn’t appear human at all. It stood above the heroes even on their mounts and was bound in chains which it struggled to free itself from.
“May I present to you a kallap, it has been bound in chains enchanted with magic of the highest calibre, it’s a testament to the creature’s strength that it’s still alive while bound by such powerful magics, but here it is for you all to see!”
Applause and cheers broke out as everyone dismounted and stood before the crowd. The leader had a large shield and sword strapped to his back and wore armour which looked thick enough to stop a house falling on him. While the two who had brought he kallap wore the robes of mages, embroided with mystical runes which gave off a very faint glow from the power they contained. While the remaining also wore thick armour and had the shields and maces of clerics. Aurzel could barely look away from the writhing monster standing inside the v of pegasi as it continued to struggle against its bindings.

[autarchaurzel]

Chapter 26: Chains of Torment

Everyone was congratulating the five heroes and singing their praises at the accomplishment of such an incredible feat, while others watched the kallap as it struggled and screeched. Aurzel didn’t know what to be more in awe of. Ironicly, despite being the last to join the crowd, he was one of the closest to the heroes and the kallap since they’d landed in the same street the inn was on. People were shoving their way through and emerging from the crowd who were likely prominent adventurers in their own right and probably friends of the heroes by the way they greeted each other. One man burst from the crowd and nearly knocked one of the mages off her feet in his attempt to reach her and embrace her.
“What does everyone say to drinks in the vendor pits!” the other mage called out, using his magic to magnify his voice. There were cheers as everyone started heading away to fetch whatever drinks they had to share with everyone.
“Take care of that and I’ll have a bottle of the finest wine around waiting for you,” the leader said to the two mages as he clapped the male mage on the back, grinning at them.
“Yeah I suppose we should stow away old ugly before he deafens everybody,” the mage said to his counterpart who only just managed to worm her way out of her embracer. Aurzel watched as they headed over to the kallap, the clerics were already leading the pegasi away to the stables.
“Ready?” the female mage called out.
“In three,” the male mage replied.
They started counting down together, “Three. Two. One.” They both gestured and magic swirled round their bodies and began to grow and extend towards the kallap which began screeching even more at the touch of the magic. It was enveloped and as the mages lowered their arms the magic surrounding them quickly dissipated. The rest of the magic winked out, leaving the kallap standing there, without the chains. It screeched and as it waved its hands in some sort of gesture and then plucked a sword as if from the very air itself. The mages backed away in terror as they hurled all the magic they could at it. It looked down at them, towering over them as it did, it must have been about twice their height. The kallap brought its huge sword down and cleaved one mage in two. The two clerics were running at the kallap, trying to stop it from killing anyone else. The kallap turned on them as one threw herself at the monster, striking at it with her mace repeatedly while the other healed and protected her as best he could. The fighter meanwhile was rushing at the kallap as fast as he could, sprinting with sword and shield raised and ready. The kallap took a blow to the abdomen and kicked the cleric, denting her armour as the force of the blow knocked the air out of her. It brought its sword round which smashed into the cleric’s shield and cut off the top, along with part of the cleric’s arm. She dropped the shield as the muscles in her arm failed and the kallap swung its sword again. It caught her on her shoulder. The blade failed to pierce the thick armour but the blow jarred her arm and she cried out in pain. Despite the second cleric’s ministrations, the kallap’s attacks couldn’t be countered fast enough with his healing abilities. The fighter barrelled into the kallap with his shield and knocked the monster back a few steps. The kallap was caught by suprise but it quickly recovered and swung at the fighter. The fighter ducked under the blade and thrust his own sword into the kallap’s side. Enraged, the kallap kicked the fighter. The blow was absorbed by his shield but sent him flying several meters away. Faster than the eye could follow, the kallap wheeled around and impaled the wounded cleric on its sword. It lifted the cleric up on his sword, using its enormous strength and flung the body against the mage, whose myriad of spells was doing little to effect the monster. The fighter was back on his feet and again lay into the kallap, slashing constantly to keep the kallap on the defensive. The kallap blocked several slashes and parried every stab. The fighter was dodging under the blows his opponent was able to aim at him but one broke through his defences, aimed for his head. At the last moment it bounced away by a magical shield but the force still knocked the fighter to the side as the shield wasn’t strong enough to block the full blow. The kallap turned on the cleric, which had conjured the shield and slashed at the one that had prevented his kill. The cleric blocked and dodged several attacks but he couldn’t heal himself enough and avoid the kallap at the same time. One low swing cut into the armor of his leg which began bleeding profusely as the blade was ripped out. The cleric dropped to one knee, unable to stand with his injured leg. The kallap stabbed at its injured prey but at the last moment it was knocked aside by the fighter who was back on the offensive. He hacked away at the monster and managed to score a blow against its leg, it wasn’t enough to incapacitate it but it was clear the kallap was favouring the other leg now. It fought back fiercely but the fighter turned aside the kallap’s blows, his shield dented under the strength behind each strike but it still protected him under such immense strain. The kallap screeched at the fighter as he wounded it again, this time on its arm, the force behind its blows decreased noticeably as it couldn’t wield the huge blade two handed anymore but it continued to attack with incredible speed. The fighter jumped back from one swing and thrust forward again, intent on scoring a more damaging wound, and felt the blade cutting through his chest as the kallap’s swing made it past his shield. He looked down at his half severed chest, his blade unable to reach the monster as he died.

The kallap kicked the fighter off its blade and swung round at the mage, whose magic had been the reason the kallap had been too distracted to give its full attention to the fighter. Now the mage began backing away as it peppered the kallap with its spells, its body smouldering from the impact of so much magic. It screeched at the mage and began advancing on him determinedly, despite its wounds. Aurzel, along with the rest of the crowd were silent through the whole battle, none of them were even remotely strong enough to help, that left them to pray that the heroes would prevail but that prayer seemed to be fading as each hero died. The mage backed towards the arena as it continued to hurl any magic it could at the kallap. There was a crackle of air and magic and at the top of the steps to the arena a figure appeared. The figure stood taller than most humans and was dressed in the most ornate robes anyone had ever seen. He held a staff taller than him and which radiated immense power. A breeze whipped around him as the magic subsided, rustling his robes as he looked down at the kallap on the street below.
He raised his staff high and shouted, “You shall harm these people no more!” He pointed his staff at the kallap and a bolt of pure white light shot from the top of his staff at the kallap. The force knocked the monster off its feet and pounded it against the ground as the white light continued to be emitted from the mage’s staff. The magic rippled the air around it with its immense power as the beam drove itself into the kallap which writhed and screeched on the ground.
“Be gone from this city foul demon!” the mage shouted out and the beam intensified as it enveloped the kallop in its white light. Suddenly the beam stopped. The mage lifted his staff and planted it on the ground next to him. The kallap got to its feet, smouldering as smoke drifted off its body. It screeched at the mage and raised its sword, but as it did so flames began to engulf it. They spread from its hands and feet until the monster’s body was alight in flames. In moments the whole body had been burnt to ashes which were blown away on the wind, leaving nothing of the kallap except the destruction it had wrought. Satisfied, the mage swung his staff round and disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared.

Aurzel didn’t quite know what to think of what he’d seen. The whole crowd was dumbstruck too as they processed what they’d just seen. Aurzel looked around at the rest of the crowd, even the barman standing a few feet away had a quizzical look. Slowly though sound began, first a few quiet whispers until it quickly became an uproar as everyone began talking with whoever was next to them.
“So now what?” Aurzel asked the barman.
He looked at the young cleric for a moment before speaking, “Well I’m sure there’ll be a ceremony tonight to honour the heroes who’ve lost their lives, and then we’ll have to rebuild from the damage that’s been done.”
“I think I should be heading back to Roumen, it’s a long walk and I want to be back before the evening,” Aurzel said as he followed the barman inside to retrieve his pack.
“Oh well that’s not a problem, you can just head past the sea of greed,” the barman said.
“The where?” Aurzel asked.
“The sea of greed, don’t worry it’s not really a sea, it’s just the name we use for the path from Elderine to Roumen, it runs along the beach which borders the real sea of greed.”
“Thanks,” Aurzel said, shouldering his pack as he headed out.

“Faster my ***,” Aurzel said stepping away from a swiping claw. The lizard man growled and chomped at Aurzel as it took another swipe at him. He blocked the blow with his shield and batted the next strike away with his mace, causing the lizard man to stagger back. He quickly advanced and struck several times, knocking the lizard man down as he delivered a final blow. What the barman had neglected to mention was that the path through the sea of greed was overrun with monsters. He already killed several that wouldn’t let him go on his way but he’d finally come out onto the beach. He could see the tide lapping up the shore and he could hear the soothing sound of waves breaking. As he walked along the beach, he thought he caught a few people looking in his direction, they all wielded swords and were standing around various tents and fires, some cooking food and others just talking or sitting around. Pirates, he supposed, he knew there were some around, Mara and her pirates were constantly raiding these areas. Aurzel was careful to stay away from any of these groups so as not to cause trouble. Eventually he could see Roumen’s dock in sight, across a short waterway. There was also a jetty at the end of the small spit of land he was on with several small boats, no doubt used to ferry people to and from the docks. He tossed a few coppers into a boatman’s hand and soon he was being rowed over to the docks.

When he disembarked, Aurzel thanked the boatman and headed off the dock towards the inn. There was more than the usual activity in Roumen for this time of day. He supposed it was an especially busy day for the vendors but when he passed the market place he saw that there weren’t that many more people than usual. When he finally arrived at the inn he ordered himself a warm meal and went and sat at his usual table. By the time his food arrived his stomach was rumbling as he realised that he hadn’t had breakfast that morning.
“Aurz buddy where you been?” came a voice as he was about to start eating. He looked up to see Nara and fire standing in the doorway.
“Hey guys come over,” Aurzel called to them, indicating the chairs around the table. They both went and ordered something to eat and then came over and sat down.
“So what’s been going on? Roumen looks pretty busy,” Aurzel said between mouthfuls.
“What’s been going on? You don’t know?” Nara asked surprised.
“No as soon as I came into town I headed straight here,” Aurzel said as he swigged a mug.
“Typical, always eating and never curious,” fire rolled her eyes.
“Hey I haven’t eaten today so hush up,” Aurzel shot back.
“Well I’m not sure exactly what went down, but something happened in Elderine –” fire began.
“Oh that,” Aurzel said mid-sentence.
“What do you mean oh that? So you do know about it,” fire said.
“Know about it? I saw it,” Aurzel stated.
“You what?” they both asked shocked.
“I was there, I saw everything happen,” he repeated. Aurzel proceeded to enlighten his two friends on what had occurred in Elderine that morning.
“I heard an angel appeared and destroyed the kallap,” fire said.
“And you believed that?” Nara sneered.
“Hey it’s what I was told, have you got a better suggestion?” she asked. Nara went to say something then thought better of it and closed his mouth.
“It was a mage, he appeared on the steps of the arena and destroyed the kallap with a beam of white light, he literally disintegrated it,” Aurzel affirmed.
“A mage? I’ve never heard of a mage with such power,” fire thought.
“I have,” Nara said.
“You? When, where?” fire asked eyeing him.
“The Guardian Magi,” Nara said.
Fire burst into a fit of laughter, “You really are thick aren’t you, the Guardian Magi are a myth, legends.”
“The oldest in fact,” Nara continued undaunted, “How else do you explain a mage of such great power?”
“Who are the Guardian Magi?” Aurzel asked confused.
“They’re supposedly protectors of Isya and wielders of Teva’s very power, they’re supposed to appear in times of great need,” Nara said.
“Except no one’s claimed to have seen one for almost three centuries or something like that, but the legend is always passed down,” fire finished, leaving everyone in silence as they thought about this. Eventually after further discussion, they decided that it was late and they’d best turn in for the night. They each paid for a room and headed up to a reasonably comfy bed.

[T3h_SyN]

Whooooooooo

This story is un-deaded! Not to be confused with undead which refers to reanimated cropses, un-dead as in no longer dead.

Great stuff, albeit the reactions from the townsfolk was a little... dry.

[liqeur]

*GASP* you're writing again!? this is great ^___^

[monkt]

Getting pretty good Aurzy, But why do I have to be beaten by the King Crab? XD
Also when am I gonna spring into a good Action, I was the higher lvl then joo T~T
Lol, Keep it comin Aurzy!!