Blair

Blood went to my head for a brief moment.

Bonus attribute points? Stat points? Whatever they were called, either way it was something that I didn’t know was possible. She left my side and proceeded to use her ability on everyone, though her level remained the same. At the same time by the time she was done with her friend, her face had become pale. So she had only healed Matt, Andrea, and I, and she was already drained.

I turned to Glim, trying to transfer over my thoughts to it.

[Hmm, oh right.] Glim bobbed. [Yes, this isn’t too rare, but among low-grade Prophecies it absolutely is.] Glim circled. [The Prophecy she picked up is too stringent! So in that sense it makes sense for her to get bonus attributes, besides, what is she going to do? Kill someone? She cannot kill!]

I nodded hearing Glim. Though something worried me. Should I rush to acquire a Prophecy before leveling?

[Wait, right there!] Glim interrupted. [A common advice tends to be to not level too much before acquiring a Prophecy, but I say; do whatever allows you to live, trying to have a choice in this is a luxury. You must live. For you’re my partner! You’re my shining star⁠—]

I began to ignore Glim once more. Sometimes it was a bit too much for me. Well it just felt that way. Glim spoke highly of me more often than not; the Humans did too⁠— at first it was nice, but thinking about it rationally I simply didn’t feel like I was anything special. I quietly shook my head, keeping my feelings to myself. Wasting no time, I turned to the group, and recited the now common words.

“We should get going.”

They all nodded without a second thought.

And not much time after, we left the place, no Prophecy in sight, no pillar no more, and hopefully, no enemies nearby. The walk was silent. The horizon line with its sparkling pillars of light, and the empty wind that carried no whispers. In the end, all we could do was walk to the closest light, and hopefully this light would be it, even if the feeling in my heart told me it wasn’t as simple as I thought.

The power to change fate… Or so it said. I want it.

I stared at the stars that seemed to be calming, the starfallen rain had become something closer to a drizzle. The horizon was still brimming with light, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t last for much longer.

We walked, and walked, hours passed, and I finally came to a decision.

“I am going to go to sleep,” I declared. The healing Prophecy had eased my body, but I was still mentally fatigued. I had nonstop been running around since getting the loot of the bird.

Matt stared at me, and nodded understandably. The girls were a bit confused but decided to stay on guard while Matt and I got some rest; well I decided to nap on a tree and had Glim work as an alert as normal.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Incubation Period: 3 days 17 hours 33 minutes]

I slept⁠—napped for 2 hours, and the rest had been spent in fights and acquiring Prophecies. I wasn’t worried about the humans attacking me, to be honest, numerous reasons were there for it, one of it was Glim and the other one was simply the fact that they needed me around. Time sure passed, quick. I glanced at the sky, it was still night time for some reason. The sky hadn’t shifted or changed, and the Humans were still on alert with Matt sleeping. But it was time to get going, the Prophecies wouldn’t stay there forever. At the same time the more time we took, the less likely it was that we would find what we were looking for.

Even if it was the first round, there was no guarantee I would find what I want in the second round. Due to this it was better to get going as fast as possible, and hopefully find something…

I got down the tree, surprising the two girls. And promptly kicked Matt with a tap of my foot, he shook awake and lazily looked around. His gaze carried nothing but confusion as he seemed to slowly come to his senses, the more seconds that passed the more his face hardened. He grumbled to himself and stood up.

“Is it time to go?”

I nodded to his question.

“Blair, is it alright to get so little rest?” One of the girls asked, but I dismissed it.

“The more time that passes, the less our opportunities become. Simple as that.”

They seemed to agree with a bit of a pause, which was understandable. After all, the both of them now had a Prophecy and perhaps nothing to worry about in the future, but as for me I still had to find something. Matt as well, though it wasn’t really my responsibility to find him a Prophecy. If he stumbled onto what he was looking for before the demons, then great for him.

I just wanted a Prophecy to call my own.

◇ ◇ ◇

A stick of dried wood, glittering and full of mist. The Prophecy looked great, but unfortunately it had stringent requirements once more. The trek took quite a long time, and the forest of the Skirmish seemed never ending once more, though the tree type changed once more. The tree bark had taken a darkened blue color, and the leaves were an ashen pale blue color. No monsters lurked, and the area where the Prophecy was, was devoid of people and things.

The jog took over an hour to get here, and yet we hadn’t run into any sentient beings. A few monsters sure, but we ignored them, and they too, took no notice of us, instead choosing to wander elsewhere. I didn’t know how big the Skirmish space was, but it was weird in the sense of distribution. So far even though I had traveled plenty of distance, I had only run into two parties of Humans and the horned people I had seen from afar.

I couldn’t help but ask myself: When would I run into elves? How were they doing? Of course, there was more than one type of elf, even though to me a lot of them were the same it was important to make a distinction between those that betrayed nature, and others who simply minded their own business. Well only one race minded their own business.

In the end, it seemed I had a vendetta against everyone. Though the ones I remember vividly were the woodland elves⁠— pale skin green hair, elongated ears with piercing green or yellow eyes. Yes. They were the ones to initiate everything while the others just rallied behind their banner.

When would I run into them?

◇ ◇ ◇

The next Prophecy was in the shape of a water tear, according to the vision, it helped shoot beams of pressurized water to cut anything. I didn’t really understand it, but the requirements were still stringent so it was a no brainer to simply leave it alone. Matt considered it, because it was only one year of service, but I still refused to even think about it.

There had to be something out there.

A sigh left me, time had been ticking down and so too did the Prophecies. I stared at the next pillar which was surprisingly close by. Hopefully this time I would find something worth my time. I wanted to get back to killing things, and to getting stronger.

Trekking and moving about simply looking for pillars of light while jogging with Humans was a unique experience, but just that ⁠— unique. I held no desire to actually stick around for the long run. Matt did ask me about mana manipulation, which I explained to him but he seemed to struggle with it. At least though, he seemed to be aware of the mana inside his body, he just couldn’t move it much.

He described it as jelly, or tar. I had no idea what either of them were, but apparently they were sticky substances that were hard to budge.

◇ ◇ ◇

There was another clearing of the trees, this time going uphill. I approached trying to use Penumbral Instinct to sense things, but there was nothing in sight. The pillar of light erupted into the sky with a purple hue, but the Prophecy laid beyond the hill. The clearing was empty and devoid of sounds, but I still cautioned Matt and the others away just like always.

Once they hid behind the trees, I stared ahead and began to take the details in. The grass was stomped, and upwards of the hill there were gashes and missing patches of green. Out of the two Prophecies we had been to so far, one had traces of battle but was intact, and the other was completely intact. It seemed that securing a Prophecy wasn’t as difficult as I initially expected, but finding the right one was a different story altogether.

There existed a possibility that this one had already been checked and left to be, or that danger still lurked. I grabbed my bow and with an arrow ready, I slithered forward through the sides of the clearing.

As I walked I noticed other small things, fallen pieces of metal glittered like starlight within the grass. They were gray and polished, splintered and fractured. Some were bigger than others, some as big as my fingernail and others as big as the palm of my hand. At the base of the grass there was dried blood.

People battled here? I frowned and moved uphill. Finding more metal, but I also found something rather interesting. At the ground there was an arrowhead, it was sleek and lacked jagged edges to stay inside the victim. I found a mix of metal arrows from the tutorial and also some wooden arrows, their wood was almost scarlet; a deep brown, white lines ran through their body. They were arrows that I recognized.

Elven arrows.

I was unsure who they belonged to, but elves had battled here. Expectedly or unexpectedly. I had been wondering where they were after all. I felt a tinge of excitement shoot through me, it was slight hope. I had no plans of attacking or mounting any type of ambush, but I simply hoped to know what was happening on the elven side.

With bated breaths I made my way to the top of the hill where whispers entered my ears. They were quiet, silvery like the wind.

“Do you think they’ve left yet?”

“I don’t know…” she replied with a raspy tone. “Hopefully… the others did lure them away…”

There was heavy breathing past the hill, it was almost inaudible. I shifted my stance and proceeded with careful steps that masked the wind. It was a slow process as the two people stayed in silence. Seemingly waiting for the right moment to leave. A minute later ⁠— one that felt like an eternity ⁠— I peered slightly over the hill. A downwards slope of grass followed, where damage was much more visible, blood and a corpse was present, an elven one.

I turned in the direction I heard the breathing, and I saw two figures hiding in the back of a tree. One was slightly frail and trembling, pale skin, green hair and piercing yellow eyes that caught the moonlight. A girl. The other elf was male, he had white hair and green eyes, but I ignored it, completely forgetting what type of elf it was. My eyes simply focused on the woodland elf⁠— the ones who had started everything.

A quick inquiry confirmed my thoughts.

[Woodland Elf. Lvl. 6]

I didn’t hesitate further, feeling my chest heat up. It was just the first, but I would bring down judgment on all of them, just like they did to my people. The elf whispered something to the other, I looked at the other who seemingly was stronger. First the guard and then the Woodland elf. I pulled back my bow. Using Power Draw in an instant.

The white-haired elf froze making eye contact with me, as I aimed for its head, seemingly unexpected for him.

The start of retribution. I shot the arrow with a silver streak. It flew in an instant, the whisperer of death. My eyes almost smiled with glee as it reached. The elf moved⁠—reacted, reaching for his waist. A flash. A spark, and a grunt of pain followed by crying. I blinked. The Woodland elf had a bloodied cheek, the arrow was impaled next to her head. The other elf⁠— his arm was bloodied and he held a sword in his hand as he looked at me with rage.

“We must run,” he grunted while pulling the girl, in one swift motion. I grunted and nocked another arrow to kill the woman instead. She was forced to stand up, barely not falling over, her height not even reaching my chest. She gave me a quick glance of fear as the mana drained from my hands.

It was a child. I stared at the clearing as they left.

Mixed feelings filled me, but one thing was for certain. I wasn’t going to chase after the two elves. A sigh left me as I turned around, leaving the Prophecy for the taking.

Ultimately it was a child, I too was punished for simply existing. I didn’t know how to feel about doing that to others, it wasn’t always about eye for an eye, I was scared when my home was attacked, I didn’t know what to do, where to run, where to flee, where to hide. The child was in a similar position to mine, did they deserve to be killed for being the offspring of those who caused me pain?

I didn’t think they did.