595. Nice

595. Nice

Omen: 5, 9

“A pleasure doing business with you,” Adam said, half saluting the noble.

“Do not allow me to keep you,” Sir Landon replied, nodding his head at the group as they made their way out. “Thank you again for gifting the core.”

“No worries,” Adam replied. “I wish you the best of luck on getting married, Sir Landon.”

“I wish you luck on your journey, Adam.”

The group made their way north, while Vonda glanced his way. “You gave the core away?”

“I awoke with a terrible feeling in my heart,” Adam admitted. “I realised that selling a core in the city closest to the Mother was a terrible idea, especially when it’s to do with marriage.”

“...” Vonda wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“I placed a thousand gold into the party fund, though, so it should be okay.”

The group passed through the fields north of the town, Zeus pulling along the cart. Around noon, the road veered towards the east.

“The capital is west of us,” Jurot said, bringing up the mental image of the map of Aldland. “It is home to more than East Port and Gold Port. It is the only city with two million inhabitants, though Gold Port is close.”

“What’s the capital like?”

“It is expansive. It is the largest city, sprawling over for several miles on every side. The river we followed to East Port does not originate from the capital, but it is the first Aldish city which makes use of it, for previous Kings have disallowed any settlements from being built along it due to an insurrection.”

“Oh? The river that we followed past Water Ford?”

“Yes.”

“Ah!” Adam slowly nodded his head. “The fish along that river did taste pretty good. That saltfish, or whatever it was called, wasn’t so bad.”

“Snowfin with salt,” Jurot reminded him.

“Right, right, that was it.” Adam paused in thought. “Didn’t I promise Water Ford something?”

“You promised to return to River Hill to buy scale mail from Sam’s Scales,” Jurot confirmed.

“How do you even remember that?”

“You said it.”

“I don’t like how you have such a great...” Adam recalled Jurot had even corrected him about his children’s birthday. “Jurot, you’re the best brother ever.”

“I am a good brother,” Jurot confirmed. Jaygak and Kitool noted the way his ears twitched.

‘Why are we going north if we need to go west?’ Lucy thought. Dunes was, as far as they were aware, near the west. ‘If it means I get to kill things then I’ll just keep my mouth shut...’

“We’ll fight, three of us against the three Awakened Wolves. If you lose, you become ours. If we lose, we...” Adam threw a look to Jurot again, thinking. “I don’t know what you want, other than food and gold.”

“If you lose, you three will become ours,” the Awakened Wolf replied. “A fair trade.”

“Sounds like a good deal to me,” Adam said, while Lucy stepped beside him. “We’ve got our three.”

The three Awakened Wolves stepped forward. “You will not kill us if we lose?”

“We won’t,” Adam reassured, imagining the army of Awakened Wolves he would have as they travelled through the land doing business for the United Kindom. ‘How cool!’

Battle Order

D20 + 1 = 6 (5)

They had each prepared themselves, but the Awakened Wolves could feel something was off. It had been a while since the greater warriors have travelled through the land, and they had made easy pickings of the few people who travelled along the road recently. They were all dressed up fancy, but they all seemed so young, so they felt quite confident in their chances, but something was definitely wrong.

Due to their hesitation, Adam and the other were able to act, with Lucy and Adam charging forward, as one of the more eager Awakened Wolves charged forward and around towards the unarmoured one with the smaller axe.

Fighting Spirit: 3 -> 2

Attack - Wraith

D20 + 10 = 15 (5)

D20 + 10 = 19 (9)

Hit!

Mana: 21 -> 20

Ability: Divine Smite

2D6 + 2D6 + 9 = 23 (2, 6)(2, 4)

23 damage!

Attack - Wraith

D20 + 10 = 16 (6)

D20 + 10 = 25 (15)

Hit!

Mana: 20 -> 19

Ability: Divine Smite

2D6 + 2D6 + 9 = 21 (1, 4)(1, 6)

21 damage!

Onward Soar: 1 -> 0

Attack - Wraith

D20 + 10 = 16 (6)

D20 + 10 = 23 (13)

Hit!

Mana: 19 -> 18

Ability: Divine Smite

2D6 + 2D6 + 9 = 25 (2, 6)(3, 5)

25 damage!

Attack - Wraith

D20 + 10 = 15 (5)

D20 + 10 = 25 (15)

Hit!

Mana: 18 -> 17

Ability: Divine Smite

2D6 + 2D6 + 9 = 27 (6, 6)(1, 5)

27 damage!

Lucy was the first one into the fray, cutting across the side of the Awakened Wolf, which winced as its fur singled, and caught aflame for a moment. It managed to push through the pain and clamped its maw around Lucy’s side, biting into her skin. However, as it clamped down against Lucy’s side, its teeth could not break skin, and its eyes went up to meet Lucy’s, which were filled with blood lust, her entire body hot with rage as she readied to bring Great Destroyer down.

Adam met an Awakened Wolf in battle, which clamoured up against his armour harmlessly. Adam inhaled deeply, before raising Wraith up. Even as Wraith was raised, the creature slammed up against Adam, not yet backing down.

“You’ll be Jirot’s,” Adam said, bringing the heavy axe down towards the top of the Awakened Wolf’s skull, expending his Mana to bring forth divine magic to sear it, before Adam knocked it out with a quick flurry of his axe.

The Awakened Wolf which attacked Jurot, found Phantom blurring towards it, and its eyes stared past it, to the group behind the Iyrman threatening to bisect it. There were many others adorned in metal, and others who were not. Most of those who were not adorned armour were smiling.

Smiling?

The Awakened Wolf dropped under Jurot, whose face carried the shadow of a smile, and he raised Phantom once more. It had barely managed to scrape across Jurot’s side with its claw, and yet it was the one whose entire body was rocked with pain, especially its mind, which was finding it difficult to think, doubly so after being struck by Phantom. It rolled over and whinnied, as another had done, while Adam’s Awakened Wolf had dropped under his feet.

Victory!

XP Gained: +300

XP: +13 500 -> 13 800

‘Nice,’ Adam thought, watching as his XP was increasing steadily. ‘I can prob-,’

Mara tensed up as time fell still, and a coin was flipped.

The title is in reference to the amount of damage Jurot dealt.