Chapter 14: Peace and Quiet

            It had been over a week since Austin and Ellie had disposed of the pack of Dyodhiibs in Occidignus and not much had happened since then. Although Ellie had been quite shaken up at the time after almost being ripped to shreds by the alpha of the pack but somehow being saved by Austin, after consuming a huge amount of alcohol she was back to her usual self. And now, after receiving a 7000 coin payment off the obviously stoned out of his mind contractor, and with a drink in her hands, she was in an even better mood than usual.

“So, I know this is a bit late, but how did you move so quickly before and how did you kill the Dyodhiibs so easily? *hic* fucking hiccups.”

“Hah… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just hacked and slashed my way through them. They were just way easier than we expected.”

“Yeah, they’re not exactly difficult to deal with on their own, but you didn’t exactly just hack and slash your way through them. You annihilated them. *hic* fuck. And then after that you were quicker than the alpha and practically killed it in one movement.”

“I also had enough time to see your face and decide I didn’t want to see you like that again… Basically I’m using the power of the Dragon God whose soul is sealed in my Soul Binding…”

“…”

‘…’

“Wait did I say that out loud?”

“Yes.”

‘Yes.’

“Ah fuck…”

“… Pffhahahahaha*hic*hahahahaha FUCK! Oh man… You are so drunk. That was funny though. Holy shit. I’m literally crying right now.”

‘Lucky escape.’

‘She needs to know.’

‘Not yet she doesn’t’

‘Then when? We keep getting into dangerous situations and what if I can’t help her next time. She has access to a similar power all we need to do is tell her how to actually get to it!’

‘It’ll be different wait Larax! He’ll require different circumstances and if she tries to push him he might close himself off permanently. Then she’ll be fucked.’

‘… Fine.’

“Alright then, I’m pretty hungry. Let’s go grab some lunch before we head to Claralux.”

“Hell *hic* yeah! I fucking hate hiccups!”

            After grabbing a quick lunch Austin and Ellie found what they thought was probably a cheap price for a ride to Claralux around. It also just so happened to be the first one they stumbled up to that miraculously had enough room for them to fall into the back together.

“I’m so angry.” Ellie suddenly blurted out after a while of silence with her head in Austin’s lap looking back at the now distant town.

“Oh shit, I thought you’d gone to sleep. About what though?”

“Nope, not yet anyway. About the incident obviously.”

“Well yeah, but why? There wasn’t anything you could do.”

“Exactly. And that’s why the alpha targeted me. It went straight past you and went for me because it knew it would be able to take me out easily and that way it’d just be you against it.”

“But that’s not your fault. You did well taking out the others. It’s just because you were only just getting up from your other fight.”

“Yeah but that’s even worse. I ended up on the floor after fighting one of the smaller ones.”

“Like you said before, one is easy, but you took out three of them in that fight. And you do better in longer distances so that was a disadvantage for you as well.”

“… I was so scared at the time. I thought I was really about to die. But looking back it, it makes me so angry thinking about how little I could do. About how much I had to rely on you. And I also can’t help but think about how much I want to kill that thing. I wish I could go back in time and do what you did to it. I want to be stronger.”

“Hah… Maybe with some special training you could.”

“What, go back in time?”

“No. …Get stronger I mean. Strong enough to not even have to worry about those kinds of creatures.”

“How?”

“You need a special teacher.”

“What kind of special teacher?”

“You’ll find them eventually. But you’ll know straight away when you talk to them.”

‘Real profound.’

‘Remind me how you died again.’

‘Woooooooow. Low blow. I thought you said you weren’t gonna go there anymore.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. And it was you that said that, not me, so keep ya trap shut.’

‘Damn. That was just rude.’

‘Yeah, my bad, that might have been a step too far.’

‘It’s okay, I’ll forgive you.’

‘Oh good. I sure am glad to be forgiven by a dead God.’

‘You know I can still kill you by overloading your body with my power.’

‘What good would that do you? Wouldn’t you just die too?’

‘Nah, it’d just sever out bond and I’d just wait for my next chance to bond with someone.’

‘When was the last time you bonded with someone?’

‘… Not long ago.’

‘Right. And how many have even tried to bond with you?’

‘… Loads.’

‘So, what I’m getting from this is that you’ve never actually bonded with anyone before because nobody even bothered trying to use you as a weapon. Hah! that’s perfect.’

‘Except you, who decided to mercilessly slaughter a bunch of Zemlecus with me.’

‘Touché… Alright, I think I’m gonna grab some shut eye. If you could hit the lights on your way out that would be great.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean? We’re in a cart in the middle of the road and even if there were any lights, I wouldn’t be able to turn them off because I’m dead.’

‘… I just meant can you put me to sleep again.’

‘Oh… Sure.’

            Entering Claralux again was a refreshing change of scenery for Austin and Ellie. After over a week of nothing but dark clouds and torrential downpour, it was a pleasant surprise for them to wake up to heat and sunshine. They had been in Claralux for a couple of weeks now doing absolutely nothing but eating, drinking and sleeping on a small hill just outside the town in the shade of a single tree. Most of the towns people had labelled them as just a couple of broke, low-ranking mercenaries and tended to ignore them.

“I like it here. It’s so peaceful.”

“mmhm. I like that everyone just pretends that we’re not here most of the time.”

“Yeah. It’s nice like that.”

“Alright then.” Austin raised his legs into the sky and used them as leverage to flick himself upright. “Time to get moving then.”

“What for?” Ellie began to question weather they had been drinking too much for a second.

“Is it not obvious? We just jinxed the peace and quiet. So something bad’s gonna happen and we should probably get ready.”

“Ugh. Fine I guess you’re right.”