Soul of the Warrior

"Since we're pushing through during the day, you should carry your armor instead of wearing it," Fira recommended. Reivyn nodded his head. "It's quite cold in the desert at night, and we've been careful to use shade to rest during the day, so you haven't experienced the full extent of the heat yet. It's not as bad outside of the desolate sands, but it's still hot."   Reivyn removed his armor and contemplated how to carry it along. He didn't have a convenient way to strap it to or put it on his pack as it had never been an issue up to this point.   "Umm, do you think you could do me a favor and put it in your storage pack?" Reivyn implored Fira. She quirked an eyebrow at him and paused like she was going to make a quip, but she just nodded her head and helped him store it in the spatial storage. "Thanks."   "It's not a problem. I have plenty of space, and you're one of us right now," Fira shrugged. "Ok, well, let's get going."   The environment was noticeably different. It was no longer sand dunes for miles on end. The desert wasn't just an area devoid of vegetation though. There were still plenty of plants and animals. Most of them were kind of dreary in appearance, but there was still plenty of green.   "After the rare rain, this place can actually be quite beautiful," Fira wistfully remarked. "The plants will pop up out of nowhere, and it will be a sea of green for a short period of time as they soak up the water and bask in the sun. When it doesn't rain, though, they're dormant."   Reivyn could picture the scene in his mind. He had memories from his dreams of seeing something similar, so it was easy for him to visualize.   The early morning dusk wasn't too bad as they trekked along, but once the sun started really beating down on them, Reivyn was grateful for the advice to remove his armor. There wasn't much of a wind, and there was zero humidity. The heat was really dry, and Reivyn found himself asking for the water skin often. He would use his own, but it wasn't cool and fresh like the one he was borrowing, so he saved it for an emergency.   "Only a couple more hours to go," Fira said when they took a break near the shade of a clump of stunted trees.   Reivyn gulped the water down and wiped the sweat from his brow. He had never sweat so much from just walking around and existing. He was used to sweating from exercising extensively, but this was the first time he had been drenched without being exhausted as well. The other members of the Party were much more used to the heat, and they still appeared quite normal.   "Mmm, you smell a lot better after you washed all the grime off," Fira remarked as Reivyn handed the water skin back, "even though you're sweating so much. What kind of scent did your soap have, it smells really good."   "It was scentless," Sten piped up. Fira looked back and forth between Sten and Reivyn for a second before blushing once more.   "That's all me," Reivyn chuckled. "See, I told you I don't stink."   Fira took a swig from the water skin in a panic to try and buy some time to calm down and formulate a response.   "Umm... That's the water skin I've been using," Reivyn pointed out.   Fira lurched forward, pulling the water skin out of her mouth before looking at it wide-eyed.   "You, you, you..." She stammered, pointing at Reivyn.   "What? It's not that big of a deal."   "Not a big deal?! It's like we just kissed!"   "Oh, come on! That's a bit childish, don't you think?"   "No! Your saliva was all mixed up with my saliva! I don't think I'm being childish."   "Then how come I don't feel like we just kissed?"   "Because you drank first!"   "Do you feel like you were just kissed?"   "It's the principle of the thing!"   "So, no?"   Fira glared at Reivyn through her brows. Reivyn just smirked at her. She started to say something, but before she could start, Reivyn leaned in real fast and placed a peck on her lips. She opened her eyes wide in stunned silence as Reivyn straightened back up, a slight smile on his face.   "There, problem solved," Reivyn said.   "What?! What problem did that solve?!" Fira's eyes remained wide open as she stared at Reivyn in disbelief. Sera walked over to stand right at Fira's shoulder, glaring at Reivyn with a hand on the hilt of her sword.   "The problem of the incongruence of your argument," Reivyn replied. He spoke as if he were applying logic to the situation, standing straight with his head held high, hands behind his back. "You claimed that I didn't feel like we had just kissed because I didn't experience your saliva mixing with mine. Then there was the fact that you didn't feel like you had been kissed.   "I just solved both of those problems with the simplest solution. Now I've had the experience of your saliva mixing with mine, and now you have the actual feeling of being kissed."   Reivyn was calm and composed on the outside, but inside, he was screaming at himself.   Why did I do that?! What's gotten into me? He maintained his composed outward look as Fira and Sera stared at him. Fira's mouth was moving like she was trying to come up with something to say but didn't have the words, and Sera was staring like she was trying to stab a million daggers into Reivyn's face.   "If there's nothing else, I think it's time for us to move on," Reivyn casually said. He turned to find the other three young men also staring at him.   He looked back and forth between the two groups. He shrugged and walked off in the direction they had been walking before the break. After a short moment of walking by himself, the others caught up and continued the journey with him. He noticed that Fira kept more distance between them, and she actively avoided looking at him.   Reivyn just acted like nothing had happened and kept walking.         The gall of that man! Kefira thought to herself. I have never had someone take such brazen liberties with me before. Who does he think he is? How could he just do something like that?   Kefira walked in silence, brooding over the situation. She actively avoided meeting Reivyn's eyes, but she still kept glancing at him when he wasn't looking. She actually didn't know how to feel about the situation.   Objectively speaking it wasn't that bad, Kefira conceded. In fact, it was kind of nice. I had no idea it would feel like that. Lips have a smoother sensation than I had expected. Kefira paused for a second. Wait! What am I thinking right now?! She put her hands on either side of her face. She could feel the heat on her face in her hands.   I should think about this objectively:   Is Reivyn a creep who I now need to avoid? No. Although he stole a kiss from me, he didn't make any other overtures or try to take advantage of me.   Is this enough of a big deal to part ways with him? No. He flirts with me a bit, but I don't dislike it. I actually enjoy the attention. And he's a very capable fighter. I like his flirting, and I like his fighting abilities.   "Fira," Reivyn had walked over without her noticing and touched her on the elbow to get her attention. She jumped up into the air in surprise and turned to glare at the offending person. Reivyn just smirked at her reaction and she felt herself redden further.   He keeps putting me in these embarrassing situations! Her heart pounded over the close proximity of the handsome youth walking next to her. She could see Serilla paying 90% of her attention that was supposed to be on the surroundings on Reivyn now that he had closed in on her.   "Can I get some more water, please?" He asked innocently. Kefira huffed.   "No! Drink your own!" She turned her head to the side. She walked like that for a few steps before glancing at the young man out of the corner of her eyes. She saw him drinking from his own warm water, and she felt a spike of disappointment.   What's he doing? All he had to do was make an argument, any kind of argument, and I would have given him the cool water. But nooo, he's just going to ignore me.   Kefira huffed once more and continued walking. She couldn't get the thought of her first kiss being stolen away like that out of her mind.   All in all, am I actually upset about it? Kefira finally had to face the reality of her feelings. No. I'm not upset. I was just surprised and didn't know how to react.   She pulled out the cool water skin and walked over to Reivyn to hand it to him, wordlessly. Reivyn took it with a thanks and got his fill of cold water. He handed it back to Kefira. She stared him in the eye as she raised the same water skin to her lips and took a drink herself. Reivyn just stared back with a blank face.   "What?" She asked, lowering the water skin and putting it back in her storage pouch.   "I didn't say anything." Reivyn shook his head.   "That's what I thought," Kefira replied with a smug expression.   What am I doing?! Did I just encourage him?   She was acting calm on the outside, but her heart was pounding a mile a minute in her chest. She looked up to see Serilla looking back, staring at her with an open mouth. Kefira lifted her chin as she walked up to her companion.   "Close your mouth. You'll attract flies like that," she said. Serilla's mouth snapped shut.   "I hope you know what you're doing," she said.   "Me too," Kefira said. "Me too."   They walked in companionable silence, and Kefira's beating heart eventually slowed down to a normal rate. She had worked through her feelings and decided she wasn't entirely opposed to the actions of her new acquaintance.   "Something doesn't seem right," Reivyn's voice intruded on the silence.   She looked over at him to see a frown on his face as he stared off into the distance. The terrain wasn't entirely flat and open, and there were trees and short hills blocking their vision to the horizon.   "What isn't right?" She queried.   "Well, we should be pretty close to the city by now, but I don't see any smoke in the sky, and I don't hear any noise, either," Reivyn explained.   "It's the middle of the morning in a desert," Sten interjected. "Do you expect people to have fires lit in their homes? And we're still a ways away. You would have to have a really high Perception Stat in order to hear anything all the way out here."   "Maybe," Reivyn replied as Kefira assumed a thoughtful look. "But what about industry? Wouldn't blacksmiths and other Lifestyle professionals have their fires going by now? Are they not working? There should be something. And as to not hearing anything, there are always people outside of major cities, as well. My Perception Stat should be high enough to catch the occasional babble of the crowd on the wind.   "Granted, there's a lot of things in the way that could be obscuring it, but I just have a strange feeling about it is all."   "If it's just a strange feeling, then it's probably not a big deal."   "No, I think we should take his words at least a little seriously," Kefira remarked. "Instead of heading straight to the city, let's head to the top of a nearby hill so we can see what's going on. Kirlon, the name of the city," she supplied for Reivyn, "has a pretty strong goldsmithing industry. Reivyn's right that we should be able to see some smoke in such a clear sky."   With a new destination, the Party veered off the course that would lead them straight to the gates of the city, and they refocused on reaching a close, tall hill where they could get a good vantage to see.   They were still a bit of a way away, but that was only considering the fact that they were walking. If they were on horseback and moving at a decent clip, it wouldn't seem like nearly as much of a distance away.   Serilla led the team, threading through the shrubbery and walking along animal trails leading up the hill. They eventually crested the hill and got their first view of Kirlon in the distance. Everyone froze and stared at the sight laid before them.   "What happened here?" Kefira whispered.   Off in the distance, they could see that the walls around the city had been completely smashed. Rubble and broken stone littered the ground. They could see no movement from any people from within the city, and there were obvious signs of something attacking the city, destroying everything in its path.   The city lay in ruins, and there were no people to be seen anywhere. Just two weeks ago, there had been tens of thousands of residents and Adventurers there. It was a major trade hub on the outskirts of the desolate sands.   Not many people ventured into the sand dunes, but the Lizaldons often sent trade caravans of silk and metal ores to trade, and there were plenty of monster nests and a decent Dungeon nearby. There was no above ground river or anything connecting the city to the rest of the country, but there was an underground water source, and the roads were well maintained to allow for robust trade.   "This doesn't look like the work of a beast tide," Reivyn commented. Kefira glanced over at him. She noticed Serilla also turn her attention to the young man. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna still stared at the city in shock. It was understandable. This was their home.   "What makes you say that?" Kefira asked.   "Look," he pointed at the area in front of the city walls. "I might not be able to track, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize the tell-tale signs of a formation. The lines in the ground indicate orderly formations, and there are deep tracks to indicate wheeled siege engines. If you look over there," he pointed inside the city, "you can see a boulder just lying in the street.   "Someone laid siege to the city."   "Have experience with siege warfare, do you?" Serilla remarked a bit snidely.   Kefira could understand her skepticism. It was practically unheard of for such things to happen anywhere in the world. There were plenty of lands available for people to settle, and resources weren't scarce. The only conflicts that usually happened were in open, un-tamed zones where two nearby kingdoms competed for the higher grade resources.   Attacking cities in a well-established kingdom just wasn't something that happened.   "I've defended an outpost against a beast tide, and I've defended a city from atop the walls against a semi-organized army," Reivyn replied smoothly. "It wasn't another kingdom attacking us. There was a Dungeon break, and a horde of ancient skeletons was bound together by some cult to attack us. So yes, I have some experience in siege warfare."   Serilla just stared at him with a frown on her face for a moment before looking back to what he had pointed out.   "Yes, it's easy for us to see what you're talking about," Kefira said, patting Serilla on the shoulder to placate her. "The only questions are who and why? It doesn't make any sense to attack a city out here. This is only a Tier 3 Region, and any kingdom that can attack a Tier 3 Region is most likely of the same Tier or higher. What could they get out of it?"   "People?" Reivyn ventured. "I don't see any people moving about down there. I doubt they slaughtered everyone here, though it is a possibility. But if they killed everyone, did they take the time to bury all of the bodies? I don't see any corpses in the streets or outside the walls."   "Hmm, I can't see that far," Kefira squinted her eyes, holding her hand over them to shade them from the light. "What exactly is your Perception Stat? It's got to be close to 200 for you to make that out from here." Reivyn coughed into his hand. "Oh, sorry. You don't have to answer that."   "I don't mind saying a little," he replied. "I will say, it is over 200. I can see the city pretty clearly."   "Do you see anyone hanging around nearby, waiting in ambush or something like that?" Serilla asked. Kefira nodded her head. When it comes down to serious business, she knows to put her feelings to the side. Good.   "I don't see anyone, but I can't see the other side of the city," he answered.   "Then our next course of action is to scout the other side of the city," Kefira decided. "We'll follow the animal trails and circle the city to another hill on the side where we can get another vantage point."   "I suggest we don't skyline ourselves next time," Reivyn said. "I wasn't really thinking along the lines of enemies at the gate, but now that we know it's a possibility, we should stay out of sight as much as possible until we know there's nobody watching."   "What does 'skyline ourselves' mean?" Kefira tilted her head curiously.   "It means standing on the very top of a hill or ridge," Reivyn replied. "If someone was looking up at us from down below, they would be able to see the outline of our bodies against the sky in the background, thus skyline. If we don't go on the very top of the hill, though, behind us would be more hill, and it would be harder to see us."   "That makes sense," Kefira said. "So how much experience do you have in warfare? You mentioned you worked in a Lord's Retinue at one point, and you just said you fought against beast tides and sieges. You're, what? 17? 18 years old?"   "Umm, 14," Reivyn coughed into his hand once more. Serilla joined Kefira in her surprise. That's unexpected.   "Are you some sort of prince in disguise? An ambiguous Tier 4 at the age of 14?! Are you kidding me?"   "Well, what about you?" Reivyn retorted. "Despite not participating much in the actual fighting, don't think I haven't noticed the large amount of Mana running through your body at all times when we've fought. You can't be much older than 17 or 18 yourself, and you're mid-Tier 3."   "Ahem," it was Kefira's turn to cough. "I'm also 14. But I'm a magical prodigy! You would be shocked out of your socks if I were to display my magical abilities." Kefira took a pose, hands on her hips as she raised her chin with pride.   "I believe you," Reivyn replied with a smile and a wink.   Why did he have to wink? We were having a perfectly normal conversation, and he just had to add a wink to turn it flirty, Kefira rolled her eyes, though she was secretly pleased. She was beginning to get used to the attention, too, and her face didn't even blush.   "Well, our job right now is to ascertain if there's still anyone else around waiting to ambush more people coming to investigate. Once we've determined that, we can search the Adventurer's Guild for their communication device and send word of the attack. If they, or the city administration, don't have their communication tools still lying around, we'll have to walk to the next city, which would be another approximate week."   "Good idea," Reivyn concurred. "It would be best to assume they had a way to block messages from getting out."   "My thoughts, exactly," Kefira nodded. "Alright, Sera, lead the way."   Serilla once more led the Party down the hill along the animal trails. They stayed out of direct line of sight of the city as they spent the next couple of hours traversing the countryside to another hill. Luckily, they didn't spot an army camped on the other side of the city. There were obvious marks on the ground to indicate more siege equipment or wagons moving about.   Kefira was worried about Sten and his friends. They were silent and brooding during the whole trek, and she could tell they were impatient to get inside to check up on their family and friends.   "Just a little while longer before we can get into the city," Kefira comforted them. "Thank you for bearing with us and not rushing ahead."   Sten gave a weak smile with a nod.   "We understand. We're not so naive as to put everyone in danger just to get there a little sooner."   Kefira patted him on the shoulder as she commanded Serilla to lead them to the city.   It only took a short while to make it to the city from the hill they had ascended. They didn't have to sneak around now that they knew nobody was watching, and they rushed quickly to the smashed gate. Kefira could tell that Sten, Dowell, and Cinna were extremely anxious to check out their homes.   "We'll go to your houses, first," Kefira told them. They gave her an appreciative smile in thanks.   "What about you?" Reivyn asked. "Are you not worried about checking up on your families?"   "Sera and I aren't from here," Kefira replied. "Our families are definitely safe. No need to worry for us." Reivyn nodded his head.   The Party made its way through the rubble of the city. Like Reivyn had said, there were no corpses anywhere, but many of the buildings had been smashed. It would take a lot of work and a lot of time for anyone to resettle in the city in the future.   There were no bloodstains on the ground, and Kefira was hopeful that there really hadn't been a slaughter. The genocide of an entire city of tens of thousands wasn't something to brush off. The kidnapping of tens of thousands of people wasn't much better, but at least they would still have their lives and a chance at rescue if that was the case.   They made it to Sten's neighborhood, and everyone was relieved to see that the houses weren't destroyed. There were no people, but there were no signs that they had been killed, either.   "I can live with this, for now," Sten remarked, coming out of his family home. "My parents and siblings should be fine, wherever they are. They're Lifestyle Classes, so they're not likely to put up any kind of resistance that will get them killed."   "We'll do everything we can to ensure their safety," Kefira told him. "I can't imagine what you're going through right now, but we won't turn our backs on you. I won't turn my back on you."   "Thanks."   "Reivyn, can I rely on your help in this matter?" Kefira turned to the young man. Her heart beat heavily within her chest as she waited for his answer. He has no obligation to help any further at this point. Will he choose to stay, or leave?   "I can't ignore the plight of one of my companions in good conscience," Reivyn replied. "You can count on me."   Kefira smiled.