17: Demons and Drakes
Eliza, Lily, and Grant were all tense.
Lily, who didn’t understand the situation, picked up on whatever her mother’s emotions were and seemed to follow along.
“What… What do we do?” Eliza asked. “Do you just… go out and slay it?”
Grant sighed.
“No. Unfortunately not.”
“What? Why?!”
“The war between the empire and the kingdom of Erast has progressed, much more rapidly than ever. They’re… currently trying to both force an end to this war. To that end, they’ve started robbing the union, instead of trading with us peacefully.”
Eliza paused.
“Both of them? At the same time? ”
Grant nodded.
“Yes. It seems that they have decided to make a coordinated effort. They’re trying to take as much as they can of the union. The drake… is seemingly seeking you and Rin out. If I go out, I can’t be there to protect the city. With the war progressing as it is, I need to stay close. We’ve switched to relying on trading with the other continents of Atlan, hoping to prepare as much as we can for when we’re inevitably attacked… Eliza, I’m sorry, but that could be any time now. Any day now they’ll come here, raiding for resources, and if I’m not here to stop them… The union would fall.”
Eliza gulped.
“Both? At the same time?”
Grant looked at her, tired.
“Yes... Again. That’s what happened.”
“But… aren’t they afraid that the union would try to pick the lesser of two evils and support them?”
At that, Grant snorted in laughter.
“Lesser of two evils my ass. Both of them are equally as fucked as the other one is. We just see the crimes of the kingdom more since we’re closer by.”
Eliza was stunned.
“How is this happening? The kingdom and the empire never agree on anything at all!” she asked. “Yet they both just suddenly start doing something that could potentially lead to them losing the war both at the same time?!”
Grant sighed.
“It seems a lot of money was moved around in the kingdom, recently. A group of nobles all suddenly began pleading for this to happen, and… some of them betrayed the kingdom, and joined the empire, asking for the same thing.”
Eliza… felt complete and utter shock.
“This was a coordinated effort... Wasn’t it?” She asked knowingly.
Grant nodded.
“Someone out there wants to hurt the union. We’re small, so the kingdom and empire probably just never bothered to strike at us… Which is why I need to stay here. Sea trading right now is the union’s best method of keeping afloat. There’s… another continent out there, with swordsmaster just like Tiola. Trading with them… gives some of our citizens an out, at least. If we could recruit a second swordsmaster, or… Some kind of elite force of some kind… The union would have enough might to ensure we continue to exist.”
Eliza paused. This was a lot to take in, and… It at least had ideas she could work with.
“There are more swordsmasters on the other continents?” She asked.
Grant nodded.
“There has to be. I know for certain, there has to be. There are only three swordsmasters on Tiola, but… Tiola isn’t the whole world, even if it feels like it, sometimes. There are more than us. Countless people have had a chance to grow, out there, in a time of peace. Without war, constantly cutting off lives, people would grow. They have to.” He said, seemingly trying to convince Eliza…
And to convince himself, too.
“And… This brings me to the hard part, Eliza. I don’t want to ask you to make this choice. But… We need time. Any time.”
“... What is it?” She asked.
“I’m sorry. But I need you to make a choice, Eliza. Either… try to slay the adult drake, or… leave the union, and lead the drake to attack either the empire or the kingdom. This is… the union’s choice.”
Eliza was stunned. Neither seemed possible for her… Unless she got a lot stronger in a short amount of time, she wouldn’t survive.
A landwyrm is larger than several houses, but a drake… is like a natural disaster. The one she killed was just a baby, so the drake that was now approaching would naturally be several times more dangerous.
Eliza, despite not being angry at Grant… felt rage. Personal rage.
Not the cold, chilling intent to kill that she was used to. No, this was anger, pure anger.
She already knew what was happening.
The city government was essentially asking her to either die to placate the rage of the drake, or go and sacrifice herself to deal some damage to either the kingdom or empire.
She understood that it was likely the best option… But it wasn’t one that pleased her.
Lily, who was watching her mother, noticed something. Eliza’s eyes… were darkening. Rather than the blue they once were, they were slowly shifting and changing to a deep, dark, red color.
At that moment, an observer entered the scene. One Eliza didn’t expect.
Rin, the blonde haired assassin, burst through the door.
“About that… I have a better idea.” she almost yelled, seeming excited.
Eliza almost jumped. She hadn’t noticed Rin there, due to the stress… or perhaps, Rin’s skills were improving faster than Eliza’s were.
Grant sighed.
“At this point… I’d be willing to take anything. I obviously don’t want to lose a sword expert when we don’t have hundreds of them, like the empire and the kingdom… What’s your plan, Rin?”
Rin grinned.
“Do you remember what we did with the corpse of the ‘landwyrm,’ Grant?”
Grant thought about it, then nodded.
“I remember receiving a report about the alchemist near the market street being very pleased with the state of the corpse. Yes, I do, why?”
Rin smiled.
“Well, that alchemist seemed awfully happy, and even lent us a storage pouch to use to carry it… A storage pouch that will certainly be filled with pieces of the drake hatchling… And its scent, too.”
Grant, by now, didn’t yet understand what was being referenced.
“Well….” Rin said, smiling. “The demons in the forest are awfully organized, this time of year. All we have to do is have someone who can sneak past most sword experts go and pour all of that pouches contents into the midst of a demon camp…”
Grant’s eyes widened… Then, for the first time since the conversation started, he smiled. And then… he frowned.
“Rin. This… is taking the risk off of Eliza and putting it all on you. We already know that demons don’t attack large groups of humans on purpose, but we know for a fact that they have, and can kill humans. You’d… be risking quite a lot.”
Rin laughed, then nodded.
“Better to risk my life here than to risk my life fighting against the kingdom or the empire. I’m no sword expert like Eliza is… And, if I must say, I’ve been thinking about her a lot. She’s almost certainly going to become a swordsmaster in the future. If I can stop some bullshit like this from happening to her… It’s worth it.”
Grant seemed to have a glint in his eyes, as if he was seeing something entirely new and bright in the former assassin.
Eliza thought about it for a moment. Internally… she wanted to run away, escape, and take Lily to a new land. Lily was her priority, after all.
But… no.
Eliza had made friends.
Lucas. Sorin. Olivia. Theodore. Rin.
And… So had her daughter, with Mary.
She couldn’t just leave them all behind.
No, even if they would understand, Lily wouldn’t. Lily would hate her mom for separating her from everything she had begun to love. She had only just now opened up to everyone, even after all this time of growing.
And most importantly…
Eliza would never forgive herself.
Eliza composed herself, for a moment.
“I’m going with Rin. I want to keep her safe.” She said calmly. Her once red eyes now seemed to return to the cold blue they were before. Grant and Rin both took notice, but did not mention it.
Now was clearly not the time, after all.
Rin almost seemed to chuckle, but Grant was clearly annoyed.
“You’re…” He said, giving out a sigh. “You’re exactly the type of person the union needs. Which also means you’re exactly the type of person who would volunteer for this mission as well… Sorin asked me something. He told me he wanted to go out there and fight the drake, to protect his family… As well as to protect his newest protege. Thankfully, I knocked him out cold, and his daughter helped carry him away.”
Eliza, despite being so tense, couldn’t help but smile.
That sounded exactly like Sorin, to her.
The three quickly made their way to the shopping district, dropped Lily off at the Honeyed Bee Inn, and then moved to the alchemists, where Grant himself personally ‘requisitioned’ the materials that remained from the alchemist’s experiments.
From there, it took very little for them to prepare. Rin and Eliza were given potions to increase their dexterity and agility, once again, forcefully ‘requisitioned’ from the alchemist.
Eliza felt confident. She had become overwhelmingly strong in the past few months compared to an average person in this world.
[Eliza: Age 25.]
[Physique: 939. Wisdom: 640. Emotions: 1708. Creativity: 626.]
[Body: 43. Mind: 60. Charm: 39.]
[Advice: Good luck, Eliza.]
Even the status window, something she had long since known only cared for Lily, seemed to be supporting her.
Eliza almost smiled at seeing her nearly 800 gold arrows in wealth from payment accrued, but knowing she had to actually live long enough to use it put quite a damper on her mood.
Grant left them by the city gates, but…
Even there, they could see it.
They were hundreds of meters away, yet the creature was overwhelmingly visible.
It was like looking at the Statue of Liberty from around the Liberation Monument in New York.
If you didn’t know what it was… You could assume it was a building.
But it wasn’t.
From afar, she could see the eye of the creature, staring around at the landscape. Its horizontally slit eye was almost glowing orange. She felt even the blinking of the creature would likely create incredible sounds to those near it… Who weren’t dead.
The creature towered nearly so high that she felt as if it could claw towards the heavens. Its body was covered in monumental brown scales, which were likely so thick even Eliza would struggle to cut them.
Every time it moved, it moved slowly, clearly searching for something. Moreover, the area itself seemed to warm up, shaking with every step it took.
“... And this thing isn’t as strong as a dragon?” Eliza asked.
After a certain point, the absurdity of the task they were trying to accomplish hit Eliza all at once. It was so absurd that she couldn’t even comprehend the task.
The drake would not be able to attack the city, yes…
But could the demons even kill it?
Rin nodded.
“Dragons are real, but they’re nowhere near as large as this thing. They’re more dangerous, though. Not something you fight. Think of a warrior, compared to a bodybuilder. The warrior would be stronger and easily win in a fight, even if not as bulky. Dragons are like that. Compressed power. That thing lets its power run rampant. Its body is exactly the same as any other creature. Same muscle, same bone, exactly. Just... big. And… think of how much it has to eat, to sustain a body that massive?”
Eliza gulped. Rin may have a plan… But she couldn’t feel confident in it, yet.
“How do we… lure it?” She asked.
Rin nodded. She felt like pretending to be certain here would reassure Eliza.
“A drake has to constantly consume prey. It spends most of its time either eating or sleeping. Therefore, it has a sense of smell strong enough to detect prey that it finds edible… Or for avenging lost kin. We leave a piece of the meat in an area far away from the town, then we run like hell. The drake will smell it within fifteen minutes.”
Eliza almost panicked, but she knew what she was doing.
“How did Grant ever expect me to lure this to the kingdom…?” She asked.
Rin sighed.
“He didn’t. The government of the union simply wanted to sacrifice you and pretend it would accomplish a goal. Grant was forced to put up with it, because try as he might, a single swordsmaster wouldn’t be able to fight an entire army. They wanted a scapegoat, not a solution.” Rin frowned.
At her words, Eliza’s eyes tinted red for a bit, causing Rin to almost show visible excitement upon seeing it.
If what Rin assumed was happening with that was indeed occurring… Eliza was closer to becoming a swordsmaster than anyone had expected.
And then, they began running.
The only worry about the plan was if the drake would be able to smell them and notice they were the killers of its child. If it did… It was game over.
Eliza slowed her breath, looking at the drake. The trees in the forest were absolutely massive, yet the drake was as tall as if five of those trees were stacked up together.
Far enough away from the town, they placed a large piece of meat, one around the size of a car. It wasn’t completely processed, but the valuable blood had been drained away by the alchemist. It would be enough for the plan, though.
The plan was underway.
Soon, the drake began rumbling its way towards their former location, but a well trained sword expert and an assassin who had both consumed potions could barely outpace it… Until the drake realized that it had found its child’s corpse.
Speeding up made the tremors on the ground much worse, and Eliza and Rin could barely make their way deeper and deeper into where the forest began.
But eventually, they made it. Rin and Eliza were inside the forest, temporarily obscured by the shadows of the trees. It wouldn’t hide them for long, but it would likely be enough to rush to the demons… They hoped.
They made their way through the underbrush as quickly as they could, the two not even sharing any words of encouragement or dialogue with each other. They both knew what needed to be done.
The trees somehow were falling down and being crushed simply by the drake, possibly even a thousand meters away, exerting its pressure.
Exploration was getting more and more difficult as they approached the area where the only demon residence was known.
But… something strange happened. Even before they had reached the perimeter and successfully stashed the contents of the dimensional pouch in the demon capital… They saw it.
A fort, built by the demons. Fully stocked and full of demon soldiers.
The demons were there. And they were armed.
Eliza could see the demons for the very first time. And unlike what she had expected… They were almost completely humanoid.
Each demon had grey skin, and unusual brown antlers emerging from their joints. The antlers ended in a mystical blue pattern that occasionally glowed white when the demons were active. Other than these antlers, they had nearly no difference from normal humans, other than a grey-ish skin tone.
“Shit!” whispered Rin, who began explaining the situation.. She looked at Eliza… “El, do you think they’re preparing to attack The Shelf?”
Eliza shook her head.
“No… Why would they be, now of all times? That… Whatever! This isn't the time!”
Eliza couldn’t explain, but she felt like it shouldn’t be possible for the demons to be attacking humans. But they were preparing for a fight, and clearly against something, otherwise they wouldn’t have built a fort.
But before they could sneak into the fort and empty the pouch, they felt a rumble. The drake was approaching them from afar.
The plan had gone wrong. The demons were clearly armed, many of them wielding spears, bows, and swords. They were planning something, whatever it was.
And then…
A demon at the encampment looked over towards the drake, shouted something in an unusual language.
Rin could feel it right after.
The gaze of the demons observed them both.
Eliza and Rin were being watched.
It wasn’t a hostile gaze. But rather, the gaze of an observer.
And then… They charged. Not at Eliza and Rin…
But at the drake. From hundreds of meters away, they charged at the large threat.
The army of demons, despite knowing the two were there, were running towards the behemoth of a creature instead of the two that brought it to them. All of a sudden, Rin pulled Eliza away, running towards the ocean instead of back towards town.
“We’re getting the hell out of here!” Rin shouted as they ran.
Eliza, stunned, looked back, only to find the demons and the drake already engaged in combat.
As if they could cut through space itself, the demons seemed to fly in the sky, disappearing from reality and reappearing next to the drake, primed for attack.
Whatever they were, right now, demons were a help to them. The two didn't stay to watch the battle. After all... Whoever lived would probably take it up with the two of them.
She looked forward at Rin, feeling relief in her heart.
Whether it went as planned or not…
The mission was a success.
