Chaotic Worlds chapter 11: Exit and Start (2)

"Keh, you're such a show-off." Pride berated.

"Ah yes, showing off to the squirrel on top of a tree, who's not even looking at me, what an amazing audience," Ryu replied sarcastically. Over the past few days, he had realised that the way to counter Pride was sarcasm.

Anything he said in a criticising manner, was replied to with sarcasm. Not like Pride was active that much these days, he spent most of his time sleeping anyway. Not that Ryu minded, it gave him more time to feel like some protagonist and explore the surroundings.

"Still, you're acting as if you're some elite adventurer, when your skills with a spear may be best described as sub-par." Pride snorted, and continued, "Your basic moves have the jist to them. A spear is a sweeping and thrusting weapon, and while you do that your main way of acting through is brute force." 

Ryu sighed and nodded, "I know. I did only pick up the spear for the first time like a few days ago. One of the first things I plan to do is find some sort of guide or book on how to use spears proficiently, hopefully, in Levine, it can be found." 

He knew himself of his lacking skill. Ryu was ultimately a salaryman that had been literally thrown into the body of a teen, and although his body was accustomed to the movements needed in battle, he knew how to do none.

Seeing that reading a book has helped him in magic a fair amount, perhaps a book could help him in martial arts and such.

That night Ryu had renewed passion. He had finally been given something different. No more computer science and game creation but rather he got to basically live inside a game! 

And so 3 more days passed by in a similar fashion. By day time, Ryu simply ventured and explored in the general direction, occasionally monsters would pop up and he would do his best to make the most of the experience. The road had become larger now, instead of treelines, free grasslands lined as far as the average human eye could see. 

"Wow, this looks exactly like I thought it would." Ryu marvelled at the view in front of him. He had expected it to be similar, but for him to be able to feel the wind, the breeze with the smell of grass was something that was a testament to his situation.

As he was basking in the sunlight and breeze he never felt when he was still trapped in the cities, in his previous life. The faint noise of hoofs landing on the ground reached his ears.

" incoming behind you, about 50 meters away, approaching at about 3 metres per second." Pride spoke up. 

Heeding the warning, Ryu turned to see horses with a caravan attached to the back. Recognising the fact that the horses weren't running, he doubted that they would be hostile, but he wouldn't take any chances. 

However, he didn't take out Pride, as it may instead antagonise the people on the caravan, so he would be one to react after them. If they didn't do anything funny, then all was good. But if they brought out weapons...well, he would fight back.

He quietly stepped to the side, thinking the carriage would simply pass by. However, just before its body of it had been completed it came to a halt. The horses huffed as they came to a pause. 

'Ah typical...now if I'm not wrong, a super-rich merchant will come out and then end up taking pity on me.' Ryu predicted inside his mind.

Soon a head poked out from the front of the carriage. The patch of brown hair was neatly combed to either side. The man looked a fair bit of a heavy set type character, but as they landed on the ground their rather short stature was revealed. 

The articles of clothing that he wore would indeed be considered posh in the current time, a lavish blue suit. A pair of pearl white trousers and an overcoat with golden embroidery.  

As the man's soft hazel eyes stared at Ryu, he knew he was being given an appraising look. But it was to be expected when one stopped in the middle of the road even after you've moved to the side to allow them to move on.

"Uh...can I help you?" Ryu asked with confusion in his mind. He was quite inexperienced when it came to this sort of occurrence, and he was trying to mask his emotions. 

The man being addressed simply smiled, "Don't worry, I'm not going to harm you." He calmly replied.

Typically speaking that one line is what children about to be kidnapped heard, but considering Ryu seemed almost twice the height of the man, he somehow doubted him doing that.

The man gave a short yet firm bow, his behaviour exhibited composure and a well-mannered upbringing. However, when Ryu gave a quick look at the caravan he noticed one key bit about the caravan that was missing.

A noble's insignia.

In this kingdom, each nobility was represented by their insignia. They were like an ID, and they proved you of your identity, especially in the capital. 

However, this person clearly did not possess that.

<...I'm picking up the scent of blood, be careful.> Pride warned. One thing he had discovered is that the two were able to communicate telepathically, as the blade was basically a part of his body now.

Immediately, Ryu's guard was up, the smell of blood had meant that the man was anything but good. But he decided to play it off for now,

"Ah sorry, it was just...a bit strange how you had stopped midway in the road." He apologised.

The man seemed to give an overly bright smile, "Oh my apologies. I must say, the colour of your hair is very unique so I decided to stop over." The man told him, "My name is Esteban. I'm a travelling merchant who goes from here to there. A pleasure to meet you." The man extended his hand.

Ryu felt somewhat uncomfortable sharing the sentiment, yet he forced himself to do so. He too extended his hand although he could feel his heart thumping within his chest. If his hand was clammy due to the hot sun today, it would be a cascade of sweat now that he was about to pull out his spear and cut the man's handoff. 

His instincts were screaming at him to jump back to not accept that man's handshake as innocent as it seems, it feels as if the man would poison him. Within the mini-breakdown that was happening to Ryu, a small and feeble yet present voice spoke out and cut the tension like a hot knife with butter.

"H-help...." 

That single word made Ryu still. His brain seemingly computing the voice and if his suspicions were correct so was the man. 

<Ryu, jump back!> Pride called out. His alarmed voice snapped Ryu out of his stupor as Ryu took a giant leap back.

Seemingly in time, a needle shot out of the man's arm space but failed to hit its target and fell to the ground. Ryu's eyes traced the trajectory of the needle that he could only guess had poison on it. His eyes were fixed on the needle embedded into the ground, what would've been inside his body.

He unconsciously shuddered as he imagined the alternative of what could have happened if he had not jumped back at the last second. 

"Aww," Esteban interrupted the silence, " You dodged. Good reflexes I must say." He praised.

Ryu's shaky eyes flew up to look at Esteban. The man looked as composed as ever and still smiling at him like an innocent flower. 

"Well, seems I failed. Get him, men," The man flippantly waved his hand, and suddenly a group of men jumped down from the carriage, their attire was typical of bandits and overall seemed dirty. 

Yet the sight of one thing made the iris of Ryu's eyes shrink, dried blood. The men had devilish grins on their faces, but strangely Ryu didn't even bat an eye at them. His eyes were fixed on the shirts that had spilt blood of others on them.

Flashing images emerged in Ryu's head, as if recalling a distant memory he had desperately sought to forget, but now was cruelly made to remember.

/???/

"Don't forget me..." 

The image of a somewhat obscured girl appeared in Ryu's mind. A free-flowing pink sundress swayed against the wind, yet he could not feel the breeze. 

The girl began to move backwards, without turning around. Ryu tried with all he has to try and reach out to the girl, yet he could not accomplish it. His body did not respond to his calls and the girl began to fade into the dark.

Ryu's mind worked continuously trying to remember the name of the girl. For some odd reason, he had the notion that, should the girl be allowed to fully submerge into the dark, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

As the hopeless clench gripped his heart, he felt like he just witnessed a very important part of him being lost.

Yet he couldn't react.

/???/

<Ryu...RYU!>

Pride's voice resonated within Ryu's mind as he was forcefully snapped out of his daze. Once again he had been just barely able to react, but this time it was to the sword that gazed at his chin as he backpedalled.

" Y'know, it's a shame. If you had a half-decent poker face, you would've been just fine. Just safe." Esteban shook his head and breathed a heavy sigh, " but it seems you were the type of person who wore their emotions on their arms like they were sleeves, too bad." 

<Ryu, I don't know what happened but you must kill these men. Immediately!> Pride sprung into action.

Yet Ryu's thought hung around that one word.

'kill'

To kill someone. 

What did that mean?

The act of taking life, extinguishing the flames that define them as living. Fighting and killing monsters was one thing, but for humans... it was something unthinkable to someone from the modern society of Earth. Although Ryu was just as insensitised to death, the act of taking life was still unknown to him. 

<Ryu hurry up! Stop daydreaming, fight!> Pride snapped at him. 

Ryu clenched his fist. He'd have to wonder about his choices later on, for now, he needed to beat these men and save the people in the caravan.

"Come, Pride!" Ryu spoke, as his left hand glowed. Soon enough, the spear had appeared in his hand.

"Oh? A soul bound weapon? Now, that's a rare one." Esteban nodded intrigued. Fear wasn't present in his heart, for a guy that didn't have a way to hide his emotions, and openly looked like he was about to crap his pants, worrying about Ryu wasn't on the top of his checklist.

The main reason he had stopped was that Ryu can be identified as a handsome person. And now that he was standing in front of him, even he found Ryu pleasing to the eye. 

"Mr Ryu, let me reintroduce myself. I am Pablo Esteban. A rather rich, influencing slave trader." Esteban performed a curt bow, which would seem respectful in any circumstance but this. 

Ryu regained his composure. He was someone with enough confidence to beat these 4 people that jumped out to fight him. 

Although his own status wasn't very high, it was high enough to place him well above the average knight. And since he had access to a pretty good level of magic, so he estimated his skills above these bandits.

The front-most bandit swung his sword horizontally, and Ryu promptly ducked under the blade. shifting his position upwards, he thrust the tip of the front end of the spear into the butt of the blade, which caused it to go loose and the bandit to lose his grip.

Jumping up, he performed a roundhouse kick to the face. 

"Dwah," the man grunted as he fell back unconscious. The other men stood dumbfounded at how one of their own had fallen to the kid that seemed to be shivering at the sight of them. Even Esteban looked somewhat shocked. But he had regained his attention and grit his teeth.

"What are you fools doing! Hurry and get him!" He shouted evidently seething with rage. Esteban had considered himself as a good judge of a person, based on their body language, behaviour and natural habits. Through the use of those, he had judged Ryu to be a good target and as nothing but a pretty voice with some good armour.

Of course, there was no way that he could've known the damn kid not only had a soul bound weapon but was also capable as a fighter. The men he had hired, weren't the best but they weren't any pushovers either, and each of them could be a worthy mid silver rank fighter.

(The tier list of adventurers and monsters goes from:

Bronze, Silver, Gold, Plat, Diamond, Mithril, Orichalcum, Demi-saint, Saint.

Each rank below demi-saint has 3 steps, beginning, middle and high. The only difference in this scale for monsters is that instead of demi-saint and saint, there is demi-apocalypse and apocalypse.)

Ryu didn't give the men any chance and immediately chanted,

"Infernal flame, burn my enemies, blaze ball!" he summoned a ball of flames into the palm of his hand. The flame burned bright, yet it didn't singe him. Ryu threw the ball of flames and it collided with one of the bandits.

However, he was weak. His magic wasn't potent enough to eradicate the men, so it only burned the bandit with first degree burns. The man flailed around, trying to swat the flame away while, the other 2 men distanced themselves presumably to avoid the flames that were roaring on the man, using the clothes as fuel.

<Good, they don't have any way to countermagic.> Pride informed Ryu. 

Ryu stepped forth, with a nimble step but a heavy heart as he put into consideration what he was about to do, but he had no choice and as he reached where the man was still somewhat on fire, he spun his spear and promptly,

slit his throat.

Ryu felt time slow down, as the man's face froze with a shocked expression and immediately blood began to spray out. The man seemed to have frozen on the spot, as the red liquid came pouring out covering Ryu's head, shoulders and armour with blood. 

"UUOOOOOOAAAHHHH," feeling something snap in him, Ryu gave out a deafening roar. Jumping up, he kicked the now bleeding out man's head so hard, that he went flying into a nearby tree. 

But he didn't finish there, Ryu leapt forth to the now dumbstruck men, and promptly slit their throats too as well as making sure to break their knees.

"AAAHHHH," the men shrieked as they fell to the ground, tears came out of their eyes as they fell. When they had joined Esteban, all they had expected was a bit of fun and some girls to enjoy along the way.

However, this?

This wasn't something they expected at all. And they wouldn't live to regret it, as they slowly bled to their deaths.