Chapter 14 - The King's Quest

Me and Rize woke up at the morning. We got down at the lounge in the inn and I saw the Bladedge group hanging around.

"Hey there Bladedge." I greeted them with a smile. I wanted to befriend them rather than be enemies.

Rael stood up from where he sat and bowed his head down. "I'm really sorry we... No... I doubted you. The king of Itz personally asked us to go here and kill the serpent terrorizing this kingdom. I thought you were just lying to get the rewards and killed off some random serpent in its territory."

"No, no. Don't mind it. Please raise your head."

He met me eye to eye and he said, "Well... The same thing happened to our kingdom not far from here you see. A random guy boasted that he killed a giant Ogre. Well we believed him of course. But after a week from that, the Ogre raided our kingdom. The kingdom's defenses were breached. Well the Ogre was killed before it could reach the castle but a lot of innocent people died." He was telling no lies. I could see in this young man's eyes and his way of speaking that he truly regretted doing nothing when a monster was running amok.

"Sorry about that." I couldn't say anything but a pitiful sorry.

"Don't worry about it. And here's the unstable metal we promised. We'll go on our way now."

The unstable metal glowed in red. Rafael their leader, handed me the metal.

"Wait, before you leave." I stopped them in their tracks. "Will you join this quest with me?"

"What quest?" They curiously asked.

"Well you know that this..." I told them the whole details of the quest.

"Hmm... Okay what do we get in return?"

"Ah crap. I forgot to ask the king. Let's just ask the king after."

Rafael showed hesitation but since he wasted his trip here since the serpent died he accepted the quest. "Okay. Let's do it."

The time for the quest began and both the Bladedge party, me and Rize went to the pathway the caravan were taking.

The caravan finally started moving towards the neighboring kingdom.

"Rize, use your magnifying skill."

Rize nodded at chanted, "Archer's Eye!"

"Keep a close eye on them. The Bladedge party, do the same. Rael and Rafael, go behind those trees and slowly follow. For Tas and the two mages, follow Rize. I'll follow you from the back for unsuspecting enemies."

All of them nodded and got into position.

Once we got into the 30 minute mark of the travel with the caravan, monsters appeared. The three bodyguards of the caravan held their swords but the villagers told them to lower it.

"Let's go Zieg!"

"No." I stopped them before they could move. "Something is wrong here."

I saw one of the goblins chanting something.

"Shit. Everyone run to the opposite direction!"

"Why?" Rafael asked.

"Just do it!"

We all ran to the opposite direction of where the caravan was going. The goblin's chant ended and a the area around the goblin illuminated.

"Zieg, what was that?"

"That's a detection skill. It detects living beings around the caster in a 100 meter radius. If we were spotted we would've been swarmed."

"What do you mean by that?" Lily, the mage asked.

"Look at the monster and the villagers riding the caravan. They are talking to each other. They're accomplices."

"What should we do?" Tas, their tank asked.

"Let's follow them for now."

Everyone agreed.

We got deep into the forest until we saw a garden...? It was just a bed of flowers. The bodyguards was worried of what was happening.

The goblins chanted something again.

"Sir, I might ask, what are these goblins doing and what are they to you?" One of the bodyguard asked the villagers.

"Just wait. We'll leave soon." One of the villagers told them.

It was a long chant for about 20 seconds then their staffs was redirected to the bodyguards. It was the skill root.

"What is this?!" All of the guards tried to get out of the root spell by tilting and rotating their bodies. "What's happening?!"

"Kekeke." The villager laughed evilly. "God! I came to bring you sacrifices!" The bed of flowers that surrounded them was tainted by black and the beautiful flowers transformed into disgusting buds that have teeths. But the most surprising of all is the humongous bud that suddenly grew as big as the elder serpent.

The Bladedge team beside me grew scared of the thing that was about to eat the bodyguards.

"Hey!" I shouted at a voice wherein the villagers can't hear. "Snap out of it. This is the reason why the kingdom of Itz is in famine right now! Do you want more people to die?"

They wiped off the sweat that was pouring from their faces. "No. Absolutely not." Rafael replied.

"How about the rest of you? Rael, Tas, Lily, Lila?"

They all nodded to each other and said, "No!"

"Rize?"

"I'll follow you wherever Zieg."

"Then follow my lead. Lily, Lila and Rize. Stay here. Lila, prioritize healing Tas. Lily and Rize, unleash everything you have to the small buds. We should all kill the small buds first before the big one. Rafael and Rael, kill the small buds too. Tas, you and me we'll charge to the large bud. We'll hold off its attacks so that they can kill the small buds first. Got it?"

"Yes." All of them replied.

"Let's go!"

Rafael and Rael are attacking the small buda while Tas and Me immediately ran to the buds that are about to eat the bodyguards.

Lily and Rize supported Rael and Rafael from killing all the small buds.

"What is happening?!" The villagers were startled by our visit.

"Tas! Go in front!"

"Got it!" Tas got in front of the bodyguards to prevent the large bud from eating them.

I jumped above Tas and used the same move that defeated him. I grabbed my hammer from my inventory and smashed the head of the large bud.

"Skrieeeee!!!"

"Zieglind! All of the small buds are killed!" Rafael shouted.

"Okay let's kill this gian-..." I was cut off in my speech because of the movement of the bud.

The giant bud moved so fast I didn't notice that it ate the bodyguards behind Tas.

As soon as I saw Tas buckled from his position near the giant bud I shouted, "TAS! GET OUT OF THERE!"