Life Hunter

"Mh? Oh, the emotion thing, what"s wrong?" Arima answered

"Actually, I"m also feeling like Elia, I find it hard to believe that someone can control his emotions this easily" She said

Arima sighed "As I said, it"s not like I have perfect control over them, there"s a lot of people like that from where I come from, I"m sure they can do the same... maybe. Anyway, I only can keep controlling my emotions when they are of low magnitude" Arima explained

"I see" Lifa nodded

"By the way, who is that person who keeps those metals?" Arima asked in curiosity

Lifa didn"t answer for a moment "I think you can only understand that when you meet him but that person is the reason why we have that much special metals"

"Why?"

"Because it"s him who refine and mine most of them. I think you know, but to create mithril, we need to refine a certain ore called "mestil" with magic, for adamant.i.te, physical ability is needed and there"s no one more able than him" Lifa said

"That"s impressive" Arima said

At that moment, a group of four young elves approached, it was Layra and the younger kids from before. The three kids with cheerful expressions ran toward Arima.

"Big brother!" They shouted to Arima. And jumped on him. Night backed away when he saw them though.

"Layra, why are you here?" Lifa asked surprised

"The children wanted to thank the person who saved them, so when I learned that you were here, I brought them" She said and smiled

"Yeah, yeah, it"s me. Can you stop clinging to me though?" Arima was trying to get the kids off him because they were hugging him. Night looked at that with a bit of discomfort.

"{As I thought, I can"t stand kids}" Night said to Arima with telepathy "{Don"t worry, me too}" The latter responded.

When the three finally got off, Arima and night stopped talking "Flying on those birds was fun!" But they were still excited and talked to Arima about the griffins.

"(Birds? You"re calling griffins, birds?)" Arima retorted in his mind but then thought of something.

"Hey, kids do you want to see those birds one more time and keep them?" He asked smiling.

The three looked at each other"s and repeatedly nodded. Arima grinned, he waved his hand and three strange magic circles formed in front of each kid "[Anima nexum] (Soul connection)" A ray of light flew from the circles to the chest of the children.

"[Tribus Bestia gryphem]" This time, from each circle, a griffin was formed, they were smaller than the ones before, they were around the size of Night in his wolf form.

The griffins were immobile with eyes closed. People gathered around to see that but stayed away because of Arima while guards were already here but they didn"t do anything thanks to Lifa.

"Okay, kids, put your hands on their heads, it may sting a bit" Arima said and they nodded, they did like they were told and they felt a small pain, like a needle touching their palm. When they took back their hands, they saw a small red dot on their palm.

Then, the griffins opened their eyes which seemed to possess some intelligence, the three beasts looked around then walked to their respective kid and laid down in front of them.

"They are a special type of summoned beasts which I created when I a.n.a.lyzed the soul summoning circle, I create the body with my magic, I provide the mana while I connect your souls to link your spirit and mana pool then I take your blood to connect your physical bodies. It"s basically a weaker soul beast. They"re intelligent and will stay with you for your entire life" Arima explained

Lifa was shocked and Night grunted "I feel like I just witnessed something really unbelievable" The former said trembling.

Night looked at her and blinked "Don"t worry, happens all the time" He said

"I don"t think I feel better" She still said

Night blinked twice "Don"t worry, happens all the time" and said.

Lifa fell silent

After that, Arima separated from the kids and Lifa suddenly asked him to do the same thing with the cat which was still on her shoulder. Arima couldn"t help it so he did it. She looked happy, she seemed to like cute animals.

"Arima, do you like children?" Lifa asked Arima while walking.

Arima laughed "No, I don"t really am comfortable with them, you just have to look at Night, he is the embodiment of what I really think and it"s totally exposed"

Night frowned "Don"t say it like I don"t know how to lie"

Lifa was surprised though "Then why are you so kind to them?"

Arima smiled "When you grow old, the type of persons you come to be the most conscious of is children. Being kind to children is so important for them because they know what they became or could have become if they had experienced a happy childhood"

"I see" Lifa nodded seriously but suddenly realized something "Old?" And turned her head to Arima.

"I didn"t tell you? I"m 134 years old, you know?" He said

Lifa stopped walking and was left behind "Eh?" And finally reacted

********************************

Arima took some time to convince Lifa and two hours later, they arrived at a large lake in the forest, to the north of the elven town. At that place, the distance to the Empire"s frontier was not that big.

Lifa approached the lake "Master Jorga!" And shouted at the water.

Arima was perplexed and surprised when he wanted to ask what she was doing, he backed away from the lake immediately, by instinct. The ground shook a bit, ripples appeared on the surface of the lake, and the ripples soon became waves until a huge pillar of water was created by a figure emerging from the lake.

When the water calmed down, a huge gray seserpent-like creature had his head and neck out of the water. That serpent had a five meters large body, his head was the size of a small truck in the other world, his already out of water body was at least ten meters long. His sharp azure eyes observed Lifa, Night and Arima.

"Lifa, huh?" He said in a grave voice that resonated in the ears of those who listened. His voice carried a lot of pressure.

Arima gaped at the serpent and turned towards Lifa "When you talked about that "person", you were thinking about that?" He asked.

She smiled "Yes"

"What "yes"?! You were saying "person", why didn"t you say that it was a savant beast or a freaking giant sea snake!?" He snapped at her.

Jorga frowned, he looked at Arima for a moment "You"re a human, right?" He asked like he was confirming something.

"Yes, I am" Arima turned to look at him in the eyes.

"Strange, his soul, I can"t measure it" He mumbled inaudibly. He looked towards Lifa for an explanation. Arima also wanted to know who this serpent was.

"Master Jorga, this is Arimane Blade, a human, a lot happened but he is now a helper of our country and he asked for mithril and adamant.i.te so I brought him here. And, Arima, this is Master Jorga, he is the guardian of this forest for almost a thousand years now" She said

"I see" They both nodded at the same time and looked at each other.

"Hey, little one, why do you want those metals?" The big serpent asked haughtily.

A vein bulged on Arima"s forehead "It"s not your business, big one. Just give it to me" He emphasized the word "big".

Jorga"s eye twitched, he smirked unnaturally "Yes, you"re right, but I can"t give it like that, you can only try to persuade me"

Arima grinned "I suppose that"s all I can do" and said.

Night watched on the side with the restless Lifa "Wwait, don"t fight" The latter said in an attempt to stop them.

Night observed like always "The atmosphere is tense" He said "So much, that it looks like they"re creating sparks" He commented and continued to look at his expression gradually became darker.

"Wait! That"s real sparks! What the h.e.l.l are you doing!?" He shouted.

Arima and Jorga both released their aura and clashed the other side"s. Sparks was only the beginning. The land between them was crushed by the pressure and the one around them was razed and dug. It didn"t stop there; the wind blew in an extremely strong way and the water of the lake became chaotic.

A strange fact, there was only one place which wasn"t affected by the things happening here.

"Eh?" It was Lifa, she seemed to be protected by both Arima and Jorga.

"Hey!!" Night was trying his best to hold his ground while in his wolf form "Why are you protecting her and not me!?" He shouted. He looked around and rushed behind Lifa to protect himself. He laid on the ground shamelessly. Even the cat on Lifa"s shoulder pointed his paw at Night like it was mocking and meowed "Shut up, s.h.i.tty cat" Night retorted

At that moment Lifa looked at the sky and yelped. The clouds were gathering in the sky above them. On Jorga"s side, the clouds were gray and very dense and on Arima"s side, the clouds were black which meant that they were thunderclouds.

"Hey, hey. Those two are releasing their full aura with their attributes in it" Night commented "They"re trying too hard" He said.

"…" Lifa was just gaping. She knew that Jorga was strong but although she knew it, she never saw it and there"s also Arima, a human she just met by coincidence, who possessed a strength that she couldn"t even imagine. So, she bugged.

"This girl lost it" Night glanced at her and turned back towards the two and his expression changed once again "How far are they going to go?"

Thunder already was rumbling and lightning was connecting the clouds while on the other side, it began to rain and a tornado was already forming in the distance. If the two clashed now, the forest would be destroyed in at least a fifty-kilometers radius.

Of course, something like that couldn"t pa.s.s unseen. Everyone in the Alliance saw the gathering of clouds of different nature. Particularly the rulers of the Free City and the Elven town, which were the closest, they perfectly felt the pressure, they wanted to rush the moment they sensed something but when they realized that one of the auras was Jorga"s, they cast away the idea to go because they knew that they couldn"t win against someone on the same level as the guardian of the forest. It wasn"t only limited to the Alliance, the strongest individuals in other countries also felt it.

After a few minutes of an intense clash, the two auras calmed down and vanished, the clouds also dispersed.

A part of the land near the lake was totally messed up and Arima and Jorga were laughing in the middle of it.

"You"re pretty good" Arima said

"You too, human. Let me present myself, I"m Jorga Manda, I"m a descendant of Jormungand" He said smiling

"Jormungand? The World Serpent?" Arima was surprised this time.

"Yes. When I was born in this forest, thousands of years ago, I received the blessing of Jormungand" He said

"I see" Arima said and smiled "(Does some of the legends of this world are the same as my own?)" He thought "(Or maybe even true?)" He frowned at that thought.

"Huh? What is that? Did I miss something?" Lifa was confused.

"Maybe that"s what you can call respect between warriors" Night said to her from her right.

"I see, I understand" Lifa smiled like she understood something

"Understand? What? You can"t understand something you shouldn"t be able to, you know? I only saw that they were on the verge to fight. Hey, you hear me?" Lifa stopped listening and was lost in thought.

On the other side "You wanted mithril and adamant.i.te, right? How much do you want, usually I make the elves do something for me or make them pay, but I"ll give it to you for free" Jorga said.

"Thank you, but I won"t take it for free, what about that, you can ask me for any favor" Arima said

"Oh, that"s more than enough, having someone like you behind me is already an unfair trade, but I won"t hesitate and I"ll keep it in mind for now" The huge snake smirked.

"That"s good then. I"d want two units of mithril and one of adamant.i.te" Arima said. In this world, one unit of a liquid or a metal is equivalent to a cubic meter.

"That much?" Jorga was surprised but still lifted three spherical rocks from underwater "I suppose you know, but the silver ones are mithril and the dark blue one is adamant.i.te" He said

Arima put the three rocks in his storage "Thanks, I"ll be sure to come back soon" Arima said and left after he gave Jorga a telepathic link for the latter to ask his favor when he wants.

"Lifa can you find me a smithy?" Arima asked when they were in front of the town.

"A smithy? I don"t think you"ll find a good one here, you"ll have to go to the Free City. But why do you want a smithy?"

"This is the first thing I thought when I saw the information about those metals" Arima smirked "It"s time to go back to the good old weapons" He said.