Chapter 4 - The First Battle

When Frainer woke up, it was already night. Quite confused, it floated around, and discovered a fire burning on the ground, and some kind of house made of cloth, similar to the one he used to live before he made a contract with the man.

The man. Looking around, the Ifere couldn't find any signs of the man, Drake. It's young mind started to grow anxious, as it floated around frenetically. It felt uneasy without Drake there, by it's side.

Frantically, it flew up, trying to see if it could find the human. It was in the middle of an opening in the forest, and, when it got above the trees, it was able to see the road a few hundred meters away. It was about to rush there, thinking that it was the last place it saw Drake, when the bushes on one side of the clearing started to rustle.

A young man, about twenty-two or so years old, walked into the clearing, pushing the bushes aside. He was 1,8 meters tall, had dark brown hair, and tanned skin. His body, although not exactly muscular, wasn't fat either. But his most striking feature was his eyes. A deep black, that made anyone who looked at him feel like they were staring at the void.

Frainer cared about none of this. With a happy noise, it threw itself at Drake, latching onto his shoulder like a leech. No matter what Drake did, the Ifere wouldn't leave him, and that made him worry that something bad had happened.

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"What happened, Frainer?"

A rush of emotions hit Drake through the contract, as the Ifere rubbed it's head against him. It was quite confusing, but he got the gist of it.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you. It's just that you were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't want to wake you up. I just went to gather some fruits, see?"

Lifting up his hand, Drake showed Frainer three strange looking fruits. The Ifere analyzed them curiously, but soon lost interest, and returned to

floating around him.

Seeing that, Drake shrugged, and took a bite out of one of the fruits. He knew they weren't poisonous, since he used to eat them at home. After putting the other two in his bag, he entered the tent, preparing to sleep. On other nights, he would have to light a fire, but today he was so tired he preferred to just go to sleep immediately.

Frainer followed him, and, when it found out Drake planned to sleep, it happily sat on top of his head, preparing to eat his dreams. His companion, however, first warned it that it could only do so for a small period of time. They were in the wilderness, and could be attacked at any moment. From now on, Drake would have to sleep with one eye open.

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"You are being harsh. We shouldn't be interfering with him."

"We don't have any option. We need to know whether he is the one or not."

"You are forcing him into a path he can't turn back from! We were afraid that he will join our enemy. If he ever discovers, the decision you made today might be the one that tilts the balance against us!"

"The decision is already made. Worse comes to worst, we will find another one."

"It's not that simple, and you know it."

"I don't care! We aren't playing a game! By presenting him this world earlier, I am preparing him! This is a war about to start, and we don't need children to babysit. We need soldiers. And we need a general. If he can't cope with it, he isn't even worthy of our time."

A long period of silence followed those worlds. Finally, an answer came, barely more than a whisper.

"I hope you are right, for the sake of the world we live in. Because if you aren't, we might have just doomed it."

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Drake barely closed his eyes that night, anxious and worried as he was. It was his father who taught him how to survive in the wilderness, and that he was skilled in fighting, but no matter how much he prepared, that was the first time he was out of the safety of the city on his own.

Every little noise made him jump, thinking someone or something was about to attack him. He kept telling himself he was being dumb, and was depriving himself of a good night's sleep, but that was what saved his life.

Unable to fall asleep, he noticed a noise stood out amongst all others. The reason was that it was getting closer. It was the kind of noise wind chimes would do, but quieter.

Getting up slowly, Drake pulled out his knife from it's sheath on his waist. One of the first things people were taught in school was that if you were to sleep in the wilderness, you had to do so fully clothed, and with your weapons at hand. You never knew when you would have to fight or flee, and doing so barehanded and in your underwear wasn't advisable.

Carefully stepping out of the tent, Drake woke up Frainer. The noise was getting louder and clearer by the second, and it couldn't be more obvious that whatever was causing it was going towards them.

The moonlight shone across the clearing, finally showing their to-be assailant. It was an Ifere as big as a car, but that was stepping lightly on the dead leaves, making almost no noise. It looked like a giant boar, but it's skin was silver, and it had sharp bone spikes in it's back. It's four eyes glowed yellow, and let out a dangerous look.

The cause of the wind chime sounds were it's fangs. They were silver just like the rest of it's body, and half a meter long. When the Ifere walked, the fangs would scrape against one another, creating the noise.

"This is bad. It's a Moontrit. We have to be careful, Frainer."

Drake had no idea why a Moontrit was attacking them, but as a death-type Ifere, it was especially dangerous, even more at night. There were stories about how it liked to mortality wound it's prey, to then slowly devour their life force. However, they rarely appeared so close to the roads, and this one in specific was covered in sweat, as if it had just run a long distance.

Still, Drake didn't have time to worry about these questions as the Ifere started glowing with an orange light, a sign the skill Charge was being activated.

He ducked out of the way, with Frainer following him. His companion's three eyes were glowing intensely, showing it was angry. The Moontrit trampled over the tent, before turning around to attack again. It was at this moment that Drake's instincts kicked in, and he grabbed his knife tightly.

"Are you ready, Frainer?"

The Ifere grunted, and started floating higher, ready to attack.

"Then, let's do it."