Mercenaries

From time to time, all over the kingdom, countless stories developed at once as one, any story as unrelated as they related to each other, having not a single connection yet intertwining with each other with bonds far beyond our reach.



Brave heroes and unscrupulous villains abound Avaron, a land of opportunities, discovered only 10 years ago. Dotted with all sort of landscapes and beautiful sceneries, it had many theatres for the actors to play their roles. Still revealing their ways is Fate, the deity that watch over all of the lands existing above and below the oceans, the very creator of life and destiny.



Many people traveled to Avaron, hoping to start anew, beginning a new life as someone completely different, the new continent didn’t appear without dangers, however. Docile creatures wandered most of land, yet, countless other, ruthless monsters lurked everywhere as well, then, spreading as quickly as a wild fire, came bandits and pirates, trying to overturn the newly formed government on the continent.



Courageous people then jumped in to overcome this disasters, being in the right place and moment, they quickly rose and became heroes, they fought bravely thorough all of Avaron, innumerable acts of valor came to be and they were acclaimed by everyone. A time of peace came to be in and everyone lived just as they were supposed to…



Now, however, most heroes are but the mere shadows of what they used to be, only men and women of legends now, all but a few have managed to endure the trials of Fate and stay as living legends of their own accord.



Most of them were only reduced to mere mercenaries, deceitful creatures whose hunger can be only satisfied by money and the false promise of hope, sell-swords and the like, only now less honest than ever before.



Taking on such a living meant only to dishonor thy self and to

become the scum from all society.



Nobody ever dared to stand up against them…





(Possibly)

Chapter 1

… A maiden from Frons Wechers…





The Sarde Woods, only Rekchecies forest from the Old Lands rivaled it in beauty, from its flora to its fauna, all new kinds of species thriving within its womb as well as many small towns scattered around it, the woods harbored a feeling of security.



However, deep inside, one of the mercenary guilds founded by Nas Degdo, the famous White Saber, operated. Their target was only seen in the vicinity, an easy prey they figured. However 3 peerless warriors are planning on destroying the settlement and defeat the mercenary guild New Sacracy…



Two silhouettes came running into a clearing inside the vast woods, their looks were those of aristocracy, a young woman and her even younger escort stopped running, short of breathe they quickly turned around. The cerulean haired girl looked with concern as three more figures came rushing outside the trees, as the auburn haired man drew his sword and locked his eyes on the closest of the mercenaries facing him



“Fuck, Serra, you really did it this time!” The hard eyed man shouted as he clashed metal with an assailant before him.



“Hey! Watch your mouth, Matthew! And besides, it’s not like I knew this would happen!” The young priest said while fending off another thug with her cane.



“You’re a Far seer for crying out loud!” He shouted back, however the mercenary took advantage of Matthew’s distraction and lunged his sword, Matthew quickly ducked, but his face was met by the end of a steeled boot, the mercenary holding a spear suddenly charged as well and sank deep into Matthew’s shoulder the long weapon.



“Watch out, Matt!” Serra cried but it was too late, the 3rd man grabbed Matthew from his head and bashed him hard on the floor, Matthew grunted as he tried to reincorporate but again, an iron clad boot reached his face at high speed and knocked him out cold



“Eek…!!!” Serra’s eyes became wide open, the tip of a sword had managed to cut her arm, she leaped back and whirled around, in an attempt to make escape, but all of the sudden she felt a horrible pain on the side of her stomach, she fell on her knees short of breathe and gritting her teeth, a knife had just cut deeply into her, the pain then made her collapse into the ground, her mind became completely blank as she looked on the grass all around her. She got face up and reached for her staff, however, the faster of the 3 men beat her to it and stepped on her hand.



“Sorry, but you’re not getting away that easily” The taller of the 3 mercenaries said as he grabbed her from her hair, Serra just moaned in pain as he pulled her from her hair to get her up, with her left hand tightly clamped on her wound. “This wasn’t what I saw at all!” She suddenly screamed in fear, still clattering her teeth from the intense pain, the green eyed mercenary smiled as he reached for her chin. “Ah, Far seer Serra Orima, you must be talking about your vision you got while on the bridge, aren’t you?” Serra opened her eyes in surprise, and frowned as she finally got to see things as they were. “What you had was nothing more than an illusion”



“What?!?” The indigo haired girl voice trembled, feeling her gash open slightly as they pulled her more strongly every time, “Let’s just say that far seers aren’t above deception”



Serra became puzzled quickly, that voice wasn’t from any of the 3 mercenaries before her nor it was a male voice, but what was startling her more is that she had this feeling that she knew the voice.



“Orima-sama, what a surprise to find you here…” The voice appeared to come from every place at the same time, Serra could hear it above her, below her, around her.



“That’s what I’d like to say, but we are both seers. Anyways, Orima-sama, it seems that you got yourself in a very sticky situation, your actions seem to have ticked his majesty off quite a bit”



“Shizune…?” Serra asked



“Oh my, oh my… Seems I got a little careless, you managed to recognize me” The voice let out a long sigh of disappointment, “Orima-sama, it’s been a long time” Suddenly a young magician of golden hair and emerald eyes showed up, appearing out of thin air and landing softly between the mercenaries and the priestess, “That’s quite an injury, are you feeling weak by now?”



“Why… Shizune… why are you helping them…? I thought…”



“Shut up, you still don’t understand what’s going on, do you?” Suddenly the green eyed mage shouted angrily, glaring with rage at the trembling cleric, who just gulped in fear as the mage walked at her, “You’re an idiot!” A hand went flying and reached the little cleric’s pale skin, Serra just fell on the ground, grunting with pain, “Everything is your damn fault!” The blue haired mage kept on beating the cleric, letting out all of her rage on the weakened priestess.



Serra just curled into a ball, still holding tightly of her cut, she cried in fear, pain and remorse, what the mage’s words meant to her, she kept to herself, “I’m sorry” She whispered as if a chant were again and again. “You’re just disgusting now” Shizune’s words were burned into Serra’s mind as her sight slowly clouded and faded, and she passed out from the exhaustion and agony.



“Come on, take her away before we lose the target”



Shizune looked n a sort of spying manner, following with the corner of his eyes, as the group of mercenaries lifted Serra’s beat up body and carried her away, then she sighed after the men disappeared from her sight. She kept silence and looked at the sky.



Matthew slowly got up, staggering to his feet, a sight of red covered his eyes as he tried to make out what had just happened, then his eyes fixed on the small girl, who was deep in her thoughts.



He gnashed his teeth as he finally made out who the little girl was, a hundred thoughts crossed his mind in that moment, but he reached for his sheathe nonetheless. Creeping slowly on the small girl, Matthew felt a bit evil, as he was about to slain a seemingly harmless girl. However, he was going to set this straight, he pulled the sword softly, yet an almost inaudible metal clank came from it. Matthew then tried to slash as fast as he could, yet, the girl’s hand reached his and stopped him from victimizing her.



“Whoa, hold it cowboy, you could hurt me with that… even if you do something to me now, you’re too late to help her” Shizune gave the green coated man a smarmy smile, as if daring him to do anything at all.



Suddenly, Matthew hit her hard on the pit of her stomach, making her kneel down in pain, coughing a bit, she tried to catch up with her breathe, however, he quickly grabbed Shizune from her hair and laid the tip of his sword on flat-chest girl “Do we have to keep on this little act on them?” He said under his breath, letting go of the girl’s hair.



“Well, for the time being at least” Shizune said with a serious face, looking with disdain at the sword player as she fixed her hair a little.



“The time being… until we get the payment, isn’t it?”



“…”



“Well then, I guess I’ll just cut you a bit” Matthew suddenly exclaimed as he moved swiftly his sword downwards, Shizune, having no time to react, only yelped in pain as the cold steel cut into her slightly, reaching from her chest to her stomach.



“It hurts! Why’d you do that!”Shizune said, pressing the long cut with her hand



“That was for Serra, you were too rough on her just now” He said with a straight face and turned on the girl, “I guess I better hurry up, if I want to catch those 3… Where did you find them anyways?”



“They’re from the Grado Plains, why? Did they impress you?” She answered, pushing herself up.



“Believe me; they just caught me off guard. That won’t happen again”



“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, let’s get going” The girl said and leaped into the air, disappearing all of the sudden, “And I thought elementals were annoying…” Matthew thought with his gaze fixed on her as she disappeared, with a sigh of relief he then made his way into the trees across from him.



It was time, time to wonder at the strange bond that kept them together, why would they set on an objective so absurd even they thought sometimes was impossible? There was no logical nor rational explanation, still, this had to be carried out, in order to continue to unveil the secrets these 3 thought were hidden around Avaron.



Feelings had place in this crusade too, a strange mix of revenge, duty and a quite weird touch of happiness and completeness. Whatever crossed their minds, it was indeed an strange deed and the actions to undertake would make them go into roads unclear and doubtful.



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The city of New Revenal, the biggest city of all Avaron, an example to follow by all the people around the world, the only place where ‘peace’ really existed, only a façade sadly, within the marble walls all too new and old types of corruptions flourished, the royal army was nothing but rumors on the streets ruled by rogues and convicts all over, posting on rewards never to be paid or even paid with one’s head.



The brutalized people lived only in fear, and the decadent king of Avaron took no action. 8 years sitting on the throne did nothing but to corrupt Genish Otter Dral II’s mind and with the time came even more corrupt advisors and chancellors. In a place full of deception and treachery, still misleadingly enchanting, the Grado mercs entered gallantly with the exhausted priestess.



“I hope your plan works… For your own good…” Matthew thought as he followed the group, disguised as a common citizen, carrying only a dagger to finish off the job, a bit uneasy, those mercenaries did give him a beating, to calm down he looked around him, his gaze was met with tired looking faces. He clenched his fists as he realized that the spirit of the town where he used to live was completely destroyed.



“So this is the king’s undoing…” Matthew just walked straight, careful of not raising any suspicion. Then he felt it like if a pair of eyes drilled holes into the back of his head, turning around ever slightly, he found nothing, only the people’s blank stare. He walked warily, with his hand always on his knife, he tried to mimic the look of despair on the people’s faces, looking zealously upwards with his head bowing down, not losing the mercs from his sight.



Suddenly, he felt it again, a harsh glare piercing right through his right temple, rolling his eyes to the right, he gnashed his teeth, finding nothing but a stone wall, what was it that made him so uneasy?



He suddenly snapped out of it, realizing he had lost the mercenaries. Matthew stood with his mouth open, breathing quickly, “Fuck!” The lifeless crowd suddenly stared at Matthew, who sweated bullets, he looked with panic at everyone before running away as if running for his own life, “And I had to fuck up the plan instead of her!” He thought angrily to himself as he turned around the corner.



“Keep calm. Keep calm, I just have to find them, they couldn’t have gone too far” His legs shook uncontrollably as he looked at his trembling hands, it was no use, in that state he would do nothing but blow his cover. “Took longer than I had foreseen but…” Shizune’s voice echoed inside Matthew’s head.



“Wh-What are you talking about?!?” Matthew screamed with rage, “Keep it quiet you idiot! Look around you, you’re just making a scene!” The voice retorted, “So, the great hound has lost its prey” She laughed.



“Shut the fuck up! This freaking plan was messed up from the beginning!” Matthew yelled back.



“… that’s not a nice thing to say to a girl, did you lose your manners?” She asked in an annoying tone, laughing under her breathe as Matthew gritted his teeth. “Are you stupid?” He yelled



“Are you stupid?” She replied, teasing him more, enraging him.



“It had to happen, they had already noticed your presence anyways” She said with a sigh, before continuing. “Those guys are experts, did you already forget that?”



“Just try to calm down” She said with a soft voice, trying to calm down Matthew, “There’s so very few places they will pass through before going to pick the booty, you just have to wait for them at the tabern, and keep walking straight to the east, you’ll surely come across them… I think”



“You… don’t sound very confident about this”



“Future is not set in stone” Was her reply, “I can only see the most likely future, I don’t mean that what I see is what will come to pass… I’m sorry, I’m just still sorting out a few things, don’t worry, I’ll stay with you… for now. Just keep in mind, you lose them again and we’ll have one too many troubles to handle” Matthew stopped for a moment, Shizune’s voice wasn’t on his head anymore.



“Just play along” Shizune said to Matthew’s ear, making him jump in surprise. “What the hell? Where did you come from?”



“Forget about that, get moving or we’ll really lose them this time”



“…” Matthew sighed, putting his hand on his face, shaking it lightly as if shaking off the dizziness and relieving the rock in the pit of his stomach. “Alright…” He finally said, as the little sage jumped on his shoulders, “Just act like my little brother, pretty please!” With a cheerful smile she said into his ear, Matthew looked at her with cold eyes but nodded nonetheless, still reprising a clear desire of just punching her.