The World We Live In: Chapter 8
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Beautiful Relationship
Narati was holding for his dear life, trying not to be thrown off from the rockeater. He knew clinging by this thing’s fur was a mistake. He was supposed to be the one who knew his new weapon’s limit. The thing could only detonate after two bounces, not on impact. He hadn’t put specialized bomb in it yet.
Just then, from the wind, he heard a voice.
“Narati! Can you hear me!” said the familiar voice. Narati looked around and said, “Jek?!”
“Down here!”
Narati looked down despite of the wind threatening to blow him off. Jek was running, trying to match the speed of the rockeater with his own. He was trying to climb up the rockeater, but the monster’s movement was too fast and dangerous. One wrong move and he could be trampled, and that would mean sudden death.
“I can hear you, loud and clear!” shouted Narati, hoping that Jek could hear him.
“I need you to stop that thing so I can climb!”
“How?!”
“Use that thing on your right hand! That’s the new thing made from all those scraps, right?!”
Narati nodded. The improvised grenade launcher was sturdy and well-crafted, but it lacked different modes that he could use. He shouldn’t have taken the new thing without proper testing first, and should’ve taken the lance, but it worked well. Too well, unfortunately. The first bomb he shot towards the rockeater bounced off harmlessly, but exploded on its back the moment it made contact the second time. Narati thought that he had some kind of a weak point there, but he couldn’t climb to the top of the creature.
The only thing he could do was to startle the beast to stop. Narati had trusted Jek many times, and he knew he could trust the wolfman again.
Struggling to get a good aim, Narati shot one load of grenade toward the creature. It bounced off, but exploded in the air. The creature stopped momentarily, giving Jek ample time to start climbing up. His agility from climbing ruined building for vantage points was extraordinary, even more than Narati, who as a Fa’ar was a decent climber. In no time at all he managed to reach Narati.
“Can’t do anything without me, huh, Narati?” said Jek smiling. Narati wanted to protest, but the wolfman said, “Focus on the task at hand first. We need to get to its head and put one of your things inside its head. That can kill it instantly.”
“How?! I left my lance back at the camp! This bomb can only explode after it bounces off! This is a terrible idea!”
“Knock it off or I’ll knock you off this fucker!” The rockeater rocked its back, trying to make the two little pests off his body.
“How are you supposed to drill through his head? I don’t even know this thing is literally covered in rocks and eating rocks at the same time!”
“I wish that redhead has legs like me so he can catch up, but I guess we can’t rely on his help.”
Raine was clearly left behind. His human legs could only help him run for some time before he started to feel tired and fatigued. Never would’ve though a giant beast could outrun him.
“Fuck those beast races and their legs,” said Raine in-between his breath. “I should’ve let myself be bitten by that sexy werewolf girl! This is not working for me!”
Raine then remembered that he could enchant his boots so that he could run as fast as wind, but by the moment he reached them, he would be so exhausted that he would not be able to cling on the rockeater as per Jek’s suggestion. Besides, the three of them had been too far away anyway.
“Ah, I shouldn’t have drop the bomb on them. By this point they won’t even want to see my goddamn hair or my face,” said Raine while lying on his back. “All I want is some muns…”
“Well, look at you, dashing young man. I thought you look like a hero, but in the end, you’re still a human.”
Raine turned towards the familiar voice. The elder of the town walked towards him with some younger humans, who were clearly using magic themselves.
“But, I thought…”
“Not all of us agree that Fa’ars cannot be trusted,” said one human. “Although, I gotta admit, they multiply fast.”
“I think the reason they are called a chaos race is their fertility, huh?” said one human with a laugh.
“Raine…or, should I say, the Red Rogue…”
“Oh, uh…I don’t go with that name anymore. Raine’s fine.”
“We all know that you are still one. Your notoriety is heard everywhere around this region. Ah, but who am I saying? You see, like you, these young men are practicing mages, and I was one, too, before old age prevented me from casting complex spells. They cannot use elemental magic yet, but they can give you sufficient mana for your enchantment to last long.”
“How long?”
“Triple your current level, if your mana output is not much.”
Raine smiled. “Like your idea there, old man. But, I don’t know where they are now. They could be miles away.”
“That is why I am here.”
Raine was confused for a while before some idea snapped in his head. “Navigational magic!” he exclaimed.
“Whatever happens, Raine Winlow, this is the best magical assistance that you can get. Now prepare yourself and get going!”
Back to Jek and Narati, the wolfman, with considerable strain, managed to climb to the rockeater’s back. Without any meaningful activity on its back, the rockeater stopped moving around, but started to make both of their climb difficult by flailing about. It was fortunate that the rockeater’s body was covered with rocks in addition to fur. The rocks made good climbing steps for them.
Narati had also climbed up, but he was clearly exhausted. Even if he was a Fa’ar, he had no idea climbing was so hard. Jek helped him up and hold him from losing his stepping and falling.
“Seriously, just how much stamina you have? Is making bombs your only expertise?”
“I’ve never climb something moving like this! Why can you easily do it?!”
“You’re the one that can’t climb. Now, we need to…”
“Guys, I’m back!”
Hearing that voice was a relief to Narati, but what he saw was entirely different from his interpretation.
Raine, using enchantment on his boots, ran towards the rockeater with speed that’s inhumanely possible. This surprised Narati to the point he said, “You used enchantment on your boots!”
“Hey, I’ve shown you this so many times…ah, not you, apparently. Sorry, Narati.”
“Well now that’s a relief. Get up here and stab this creature’s head! I’m getting sick of clinging on its side!”
Without being prompted, Raine jumped and he reached the back of the rockeater with one leap, surprising even Narati. He ran past the two of them like wind and reached the head before them. He then pulled out his dagger and held it on the rockeater’s head.
Sensing danger, the rockeater started moving again and caused the three of them to lose balance. But somehow, Raine held on and stabbed the rockeater’s protected head.
“Lucky for me, those guys gave me a lot of shit. I feel bad, but I’m gonna spend them all in one place!”
With a clear and direct movement, Raine stabbed the rockeater’s protective rock skull. All the sudden, the rockeater stopped. Jek and Narati wondered what’s happened before they were surprised by the rockeater falling to the side, dead.
Jek walked towards the human after he pulled the dagger out, still clean.
“Got help?”
“Sharp as always, huh, Jek? They gave me an abundance of mana, so of course I’ll spend it all in one place. I’m so lucky to have this dagger. I mean, it flows mana so good it enchanted its length many times its size! On top of that, this thing…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know you bought it from an elf back in your region for 500 muns. I don’t do enchantment, so, not interested.”
“Oh, come on, man! At least I kill this son of a bitch! You gotta treat me after this!”
“Well, you will get it. But first thing first.”
Jek turned towards a group of people that went towards them and stood near the rockeater. Some looked at the rockeater in awe, but some had their eyes fixed towards Jek and Raine (and Narati after he climbed down the body).
“Ah, Jek, these guys helped me with the magic. If not for them, this job won’t end this easy. Thanks!” said Raine.
“It’s not us who deserve thank you.” The old man then bowed. “Thank you, Red Rogue, and the rest of you. But, I’m afraid we can’t give you the muns that this job needed…”
“Oh, that’s fine. Besides, if not for you, we won’t get to kill this rockeater anyway,” said Raine. “But…I guess we have overstayed our welcome, huh?”
“No…you aren’t.” said the elder. “That Fa’ar helped us. Like I was trying to convince them…he’s someone who can be trusted. Right, Fa’ar?”
Narati just nodded, but Jek and Raine could see that he was also uneasy around them. Because the place wasn’t a freetown, Narati thought that something bad would happen to him, but then, he saw one of the humans approached him and touched him, making him surprised.
“Hey, it’s fine,” said the human. “I know we can’t let you in since that’s the rule, but, you’re not half bad. Anyway, you’re kinda short for a Fa’ar.”
“He’s still 15.”
This caused some of the humans to gasp. “15?!” they exclaimed.
“Hey, are you two raising him right?! He’s not supposed to brave this danger alone!”
“We didn’t know that this rockeater is the one causing the problem, and Narati did cling on it because of danger, right?”
“Uh…Jek…I wasn’t clinging on it because I wanted to.”
They talked to each other like a banter. The humans looked at them in amusement, especially when Narati started to cry because of being teased by his two older companions. The elders scratched his head and said, “Well, for a chaos race, he seems like an innocent child.”
“Don’t you think it’s wrong to have a kid like that wander around the wasteland? Beyond this town is something else. Besides, there’s no way that kid can grow up nicely with two notorious bounty hunters around.”
“No, it’s better that way,” said the elder. He looked up to the sky. “That Fa’ar is not raised by his parents. I know they are not supposed to act like that, but…Narati, huh? I wish you can be a Fa’ar that’s different from your own race.”
The three of them left the town the next morning, after accepting their muns and well-earned rest (in their camp). As they walked away towards a new place, the people in the town looked towards them one last time, and saw three people of different races walking side by side, talking as friends.
The elder of the village wondered if he could find a better partnership like this in his lifetime.