15 Nothing To Do With Her

"Who are you boy." Sir Ainsley asked suspiciously with his hand already on the hilt of his sword. "Who I am is not important." Philip replied calmly. "My clan wish to move from here, this treasure outside will only bring us troubles. Will you fine Adventurers assist us?" he followed up. Instead of replying a shadow moved out from It's body and stabbed with a dagger to the back of Philip's head. Philip casually tilted his head to the side and effortlessly dodged the attack to his blind spot. He then disarmed the dagger from the shadow with a quick hand movement and stabbed it with it's own weapon in the forehead. The shadow vanished without a trace but the dagger remained in Philip's hand. "I guess that's a no?" Philip said whilst slowly standing up. It had already returned to Sir Ainsley's side and armed himself with two more daggers. "We started off on the wrong foot. I'll have to apologise for my colleague he isn't very trusting." Sir Ainsley said. It glared at him but didn't say anything. At that moment Orlov and Telerin walked into the hut. They had not made any progress with the fog and had noticed that quite some time had passed since the other two went into a particular hut. "Good you're all here, sit." Philip gestured to the side where the elders had previously been seated. Sir Ainsley gestured with his eyes for the others not to be hasty and sat down. The other three looked at the boy with Its dagger in his hand then at Sir Ainsley before also slowly taking their seats. Philip twirled the dagger between his fingers playfully as he also sat down.

"An expert like you should be renowned across the world, have you possessed this boy only recently?" Sir Ainsley directly got to the point. Nobody but a peak expert could dodge an ambush by It so casually and hide their existence in plain sight, much less an eight year old boy. And the way that blade was being toyed with, it might look simple, but it was actually a show of skill. With such dexterity, that dagger could appear in any of their necks before they could even react. "Surely a Paladin of the old ways like yourself can use [Detect Evil] ?" Philip responded with a smirk. Indeed Sir Ainsley had already cast that spell, and this was not a [Possession] by a dark spectre. Which was why he was even more confused. Hence, why he wanted to confirm directly from the source if it was [Possession] whilst also bringing his crew up to speed. "If you can hide from our perception you can fool my [Detect Evil]." Sir Ainsley said as his grip tightened on his sword. Orlov's muscles bulged and one of Its daggers was switched to a backhanded grip. Clearly although calmly seated the group was ready to fight at a moments notice. "Two things can happen here, you can attack me, and die or assist my clan, and gain rewards." Philip casually said while looking at Telerin directly. The archer had long since prepared an explosive arrow behind his back but hearing this boy he paused his actions. That confidence, that nagging feeling of facing a powerful foe even though everything appeared to suggest otherwise. He could not help but hesitate. "What rewards do you have in mind? " Orlov was the one to ask. "The [Immortal Slaying Arrow] outside, and my friendship." Philip replied relaxedly. Sir Ainsley shot up from his seat and pointed at Philip in shock . "Did you say [Immortal Slaying Arrow]? It cant be!" Philip only gave a knowing smile in reply. As the other three adventurers looked at each other whilst confused Sir Ainsley said " We will assist with any task you need." As if on queue, Chief Saito entered the tent at that moment. "Arrange everything with my father, we will be moving to the World Edge Mountain." Philip handed It his dagger back and closed his eyes again to meditate. "This way please." Chief Saito gestured for the adventurers to leave the tent. Sir Ainsley stepped out first with It following behind. Telerin put his explosive arrow back in his quiver and exited with Orlov finally flexing his robust frame at Philip before leaving. Chief Saito bowed to Philip before also leaving the hut.

"What was that about?" Telerin whispered to Sir Ainsley. "If the treasure is what that boy says it is, it cannot fall in the Blood Emperors' hands. If he can directly hand it to us the better." came the reply. "Were just going to trust that little punk?" Orlov said rather loudly. "Be glad you still have your necks on your heads." came Chief Saito's reply. "What did you say?" Orlov immediately flew into a rage. "Go ahead and try." Chief Saito pointed back at the hut with a smirk. 'If you're so tough and want to seek death, I won't stop you!' is what the look on his face declared. Orlov immediately faltered when he looked at where he was being directed. He might be a hothead but even his instincts weren't so rusty as to not know that was a beast den not a hut. "This way." seeing the desired effect, Chief Saito walked into another hut where all the elders were gathered. They had already dealt with hiding the all important bone slips and already had a preliminary discussion about moving the clan. Now with such legendary experts assisting, many of the pressing concerns could be easily struck off the list. "The biggest issue to moving into the mountains is the Han Mountain Clan." Elder Charles brought the four adventurers up to speed. A bunch of mountain brutes, the Han clan were a very unreasonable bunch. They were also extremely territorial and did not welcome outsiders. "We will have to bother the sirs in negotiating with them."

Unknown to them, on the World End Mountains, the Han clan was no more. An entire village and a large portion of the mountain side had been frozen solid. It was a chilling scene with the many villagers, buildings and even the mountain paths and rocks frozen solid into ice sculptures. The ice statue of a burly man with dreadlocks halfway into yelling a battle cry started cracking, before shattering. He finally finished his yell, but midway it transformed into crying. "AAAAAAAH" It was the wail of someone who had lost everything instantly. Why did he have to be so stubborn? In his sorrow he did not even notice a hunchbacked man walk up behind him and slit his throat. He continued to cry even as death took him, oblivious. "They had their chance to step aside, ADVANCE!" the man yelled. A large contingent of men in armour marched in formation past the desolate village. The ice crunched on their metal boots as they marched. In the royal carriage at the back of the procession a little girl took a nap as if it all had nothing to do with her.