"Are you okay, young lady?"A much younger Leonard looked at the ragged child in front of him. She wasn"t wearing anything, and her black hair, eyes and wings stood out alongside her sickly pale white skin. Her scrawny body and her vigilant eyes full of distrust indicated the maltreatment she received. Despite the constant rumble of her stomach, she didn"t seem to be embarra.s.sed about it but rather look around to see if he had any accomplices.
Hearing her stomach, Leonard immediately went through his backpack and took out a stale bread. It wasn"t the best, but it was good enough for the work he did. Stretching his hand out, he tried to give her the bread, but she just took a step back. The closer he got, the more she would retreat.
It was only until much persistence that she dropped her guard and took the bread from his hand. Sniffing a little, she found that there was nothing wrong with it and immediately dug in. Giving out a satisfying sigh, she realised that she was still in front of a stranger. She immediately jumped and got back her previous vigilant posture.
"Hahahaha!"
Seeing this, Leonard started laughing as he found it cute that she was embarra.s.sed like such. The girl, on the other hand, felt a blush out of embarra.s.sment surface onto her face.
…
"My name"s Leonard, what is yours?"
The girl didn"t know how to speak as she cutely tilted her head.
"Don"t tell me you can"t speak."
Still getting no response, it was pretty simple for Leonard to tell that she didn"t.
…
"That is a squirrel."
Pointing at a picture of a squirrel he turned to Velia to p.r.o.nounce it.
"Sq-squiwwel."
A determined look was on her face when she repeated after Leonard, striking him in his heart with her cuteness. Leonard had given her the name Velia when he found out she didn"t have one.
…
*Bang!*
Velia rushed through the inn door and looked towards Leonard. Calming her breath, she said one word that brought a happy smile to the latter"s face,
"F-f-fath-father."
…
"Keep your posture steady, regulate your breathing…"
In a training field, Leonard instructed Velia in using a great sword. It wasn"t a real one, but a wooden one for the purpose of training. Leonard wanted her to train in another weapon, but she insisted on learning this because he used it.
…
Memories of her father flashed through her eyes. When they laughed together, when they cried together. He had bought colour into her original dull world and now that same dullness slowly crept into her heart.
Inside she felt something awakening from the depths of her body. She felt something that wanted to be released. Something thing that had been caged since time immemorial. She couldn"t stop it as she felt it cover her marrows, her organs and slowly seeped to her skin.
Everyone was surprised seeing the girl in front slowly have a black miasma surround her.
- Earlier -
Leonard woke up just before sun rise due to his natural alarm clock. Looking around the tent, he saw Velia sleeping peacefully and got ready. Making his way outside, he felt the morning breeze and how some people had also started waking up to get moving. By the time the convoy had started moving, the sun had already shown itself over the horizon.
The carriage travelled peacefully throughout the day, having their lunch on foot to quickly get out of this area. A hooded Velia was walking next to Leonard when she noticed something far ahead of them. She didn"t think much of it but the closer they got, the more unsettled she was. As the feeling grew, she told Leonard who in turn had just barely spotted them.
"Too late now. Look, they"ve already seen us and are coming here."
Seeing he dust cloud up ahead, Leonard ordered everyone to get ready. The first wave of bandits stopped in front of them halting the convoy. A second wave surrounded them, and the pig demi-human was already shot dead for trying to reason with them. They now naturally knew that it was do or die, mainly for the men. A worse fate awaited the females of the group regardless of their age.
Leonard immediately sent for Velia to get cover and hide herself until this ordeal was done. However, as time pa.s.sed engaging the enemies, Leonard felt the hope in his heart slowly seep out and aa scream shattered the remaining pieces left.
The bandits were relentless in their attacks, tiring him out using quant.i.ties. Although he had killed many, more were slowly surrounding him. That scream was from an all too familiar voice and as he turned around, he saw the extent of the damage caused by the attack. More than half of the mercenary group were laid to rest and their souls on a journey to the River Styx. The remaining ones were trying their best to hold on for dear life.
Leonard felt his heart bleed seeing their numbers cut down, they were his brothers in arm, people who had travelled with him through thick and thin, yet they were either dead or on the verge of losing their lives.
What worried him more was his adopted daughter; it was naturally her scream that pulled his attention. Just then he saw Velia running away from a bandit who had a l.u.s.tful smile. Her hooded robe that covered her was only left with a hood covering her face as she desperately escaped from her attacker. Yet her small, weak legs couldn"t take her far and she was quickly apprehended.
"No! Let me go!"
She bit the hand, but another came and smacked her across the face. This resulted in her necklace falling off and her features shown to the entire world as she fell headfirst on to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Her black wings started to frantically wave about as she got up trying to escape but the astonishment from the attacker was quickly replaced greed. Gone was the l.u.s.tful look, he knew that the money this could bring was unthinkable.
"Looks like we hit the jackpot boys!!"
The other bandits started laughing as their attacks got fiercer. Soon they lost one more person and the other"s started to feel weak from the pressure.
"Nooo!"
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Hearing their laughter, blood filled Leonard"s eyes, and with a roar he swung his sword around decapitating the nearby enemies. The pressure the others were facing, lessened slightly as the bandits started to concentrate on their attacks on Leonard. This didn"t impede Leonard though as he took one step at a time reaping lives left and right. One step, one swing, and at least one head would fall.
This naturally left him in a terrible state, but it seemed that the anger got to his head as he ignored the wounds. Before long he was in front of Velia"s attacker and swung his sword splitting him in half.
He turned to Velia with a smile as he quickly looked for any injuries. There seemed to be nothing as he let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly her shout brought him out of his thoughts,
"Father!"
Looking at her horrified look, he saw a bandit appear behind him through the reflection on her eyes. He tried to turn around but realised that his body wasn"t able to. He was too tired; wounds crisscrossed his body and exhaustion filled his mind. Lifting a finger was harder than ever and before he knew it, he felt something entering his body and leaving it. He saw the sword come through his torso before it was quickly retracted.
It was one of many wounds and wasn"t the most painful as the pain from the others drowned it out. It was however the most vital one and strength was lost in his legs. He saw the face of despair on his daughter"s face as he tried giving her his signature smile of not to worry. It was probably the most crooked one he had ever done.
It wasn"t the same for Velia as it was the same as ever.
She was unable to hold back the ent.i.ty that was inside her. It told her,
"Kill…Kill…Kill…"
The more it was released the more frenzied the voice got,
"KILL…KILL...KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL!"
She didn"t know why she was holding it back. As a menacing smile plastered her face, her eyes turned a full black and her pure black smile reached her ears.
The bandit that had gave the last attack on Leonard went to finish him off when he suddenly felt danger. It was the last thing he felt as his body was pierced by many black arrows. What followed was a ma.s.sive explosion of mana attracting everyone"s attention. They all turned to a hovering girl that would flap her abyss like wings in the air. Looking into her eyes was like looking into the abyss as was her smile. It was the most terrifying thing they had seen in their lives as many felt themselves lose their bowels and other couldn"t stop trembling.
A distance away, another bandit with a more luxurious armour was looking at the events unfolding. Seeing Velia act like such he started smiling,
"It seems we have really hit the jackpot."
Saying his piece, he immediately whipped his horse and made his way towards the caravans. An especially organised group of bandits followed after him.
ON the other side, Amadeus" party also felt the mana explosion and looked towards it. They were still far from the location but as dragon"s they were more attuned with magic so most of them could feel the explosion. The non-draconic members were strong enough to feel the explosion.
Knowing that it would be a proper fight, armour started to appear around Amadeus out of thin air and latch onto his body. It was just like the blades" samurai armour yet more luxurious and purple with gold lines. The dragon on the helmet had two hands growing beneath it with four claws and looked life like. Mounting Sleipnir, Amadeus took out his favourite weapon. A Chinese Halberd, more specifically, the Hsu Quandao.
It was about two metres long and a crescent moon shaped blade was placed onto the top. The blade had another smaller blade emerging from the middle of the inner curve. At the other end of the pole was a rather smaller dagger like blade. Both the armour and weapon were stored in a ring he was wearing and with a little manipulation it took just a thought to have it equipped at a moment"s will.
Standing in front, the only one that didn"t have armour was Sleipnir but currently it didn"t matter as he felt that normal weapons won"t be able to harm the horse anyway. Standing in front of all the blades, Amadeus felt excitement within his bones. He was living the dream. It wasn"t exactly the cold weaponry war he was imagining but where else would there be an eight-year-old leading a cavalry to charge. Not exactly cavalry but it was still similar.
Standing in front, Amadeus didn"t know what to say and j roared,
"Charge!"
"Bu-"
"Shut up! Arrow Formation!"
Blurting out a simple formation designed for piercing enemy lines he took position as the tip of the arrow and sped forwards. Behind him, was a rather reluctant Eras and the blades who didn"t want Amadeus to take the lead, but they couldn"t do anything else. He had taken charge and had also overwritten Aras" command and all they could do was listen to his commands. Amadeus didn"t know it yet, but a slight regal aura befitting an emperor was unintentionally released when he screamed.
It was unbelievable but what was? Right now, he as an eight-year-old was leading a cavalry, who were composed of powerful dragons, while holding a two-metre-long weapon on an eight-legged, horned, fire breathing, flying horse. It seemed that just due to Amadeus" existence that the common sense of the world started to question itself on what was happening.
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Author"s note
Changed Sylis to Velia.
For her power, imagine Frankenstein"s power from n.o.blesse, just pure black and more smoky. Not like his that"s like a liquid and attaches itself onto him.
For his weapon, just google Hsu Quandao.
As for plans on romances, I don"t know. I know the general idea of the story but have nothing specifically planned ahead.
Velia didn"t even exist in my mind until Leonard entered his tent. That"s the type of author I am, but I like it. I can read your comments and plan the future out. I wont take your suggestions word to word but some do inspire me, some don"t.