Chapter 14

       The rains arrived and they departed, the flowers bloomed and they wilted. The skies were bright blue, and then they were clustered with stars. The trees painted the lands with their lush green beauty and then shaded them with their bright reddish-orange elegance. Each a testament to the passage of time, operating as they should be.

       Through the autumn, a young man walked. His hair perfectly and beautifully in harmony with the falling leaves of the trees around him. He was dressed in a black trousers, black boots, a white shirt and a black and orange cloak that complimented his hair perfectly. His swords within his sheaths shook left and right as he walked with his hands behind his head.

      He crossed a stream, making sure not to slip and fall as he used the wet rocks as a path. He noticed a strange beast he wasn't used to. He only just noticed some time ago how different wildlife was in this world. He stopped and lifted his head towards the sky, watching the blue expanse stretch over him…

      "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!! THE IDIOTS!!!!" He yelled at the top of his voice. The leaves continued to fall gently as he did so. He sat down and decided to take a rest, from the backpack he carried he took a water jug and took big gulps of water. He returned the jug to its place and leaned back.

      "The freaking idiots, I told them this was a bad idea but nooo! They wanted to cover more ground! What a bunch of numbskulls." Alsi complained.

      Why was he in this predicament in the first place? Well it just so happened that Alsi, Ceal and Serena were all finally about the age of 16 and above. It had been approximately 5 years and Agyro had trained them every single day. They learnt how to fight with weapons and without them. They learnt how to use kine and they became skilled at it in their own respective ways. They also learnt how to craft weapons using techniques known only to Ginknights. Agyro had usually been going on missions by himself, it was only on rare occasions that he let them come with him on less dangerous missions. But now the time had come to put their training to good use.

      Their mission was to take on an SS rank mission to clear out a dungeon that opened near one of the main towns in a cave. These dungeons usually contained dangerous monsters and if left unchecked, the monsters would break free and wreak havoc on the nearby towns. They also had to find materials such as metal and elemental ores (if they were lucky) to craft their very own weapons.

       "KYAAA!"

      Alsi heard a sound coming from the east of the forest.

      "Hmm, I guess someone is about to get eaten alive…" He assumed and leaned back. He rested his head on his backpack. Once again he started to gaze at the blue sky and the clouds that floated by gently, ignoring the screams of terror that desperately begged for help.

      ' Wait…what if it's Ceal or Serena? They still have that flame ore! If they lose it to some good for nothing bandits then I'm gonna kill them!'

      Alsi immediately jumped up. He grabbed his backpack from the ground and ran in the direction of the sounds. Meanwhile in the east of the very same forest, three adventurers were having a bad time trying to take down a King Bear. Their fourth member was already terribly injured. It appeared that they took on a quest that was on a completely different level.

      "Come on guys! We can do this!" One tried to encourage the other as he charged towards the raging beast. He tried to jump and assault it in the air but failed miserably when the bear reacted by throwing its paw at him. He hit the ground and his partner tried to make up for his fail by using kine.

       " Kine control! Raging flames!" She shouted out as she pointed out her staff to the bear as it roared, never staying still. She sent out a stream of fire that got to its target but it had no effect whatsoever. They kept trying to overwhelm it until at some point it seemed that it was working. The female of the group kept shooting fire whilst her two teammates assaulted it with earth kine and spear. The constant waves of huge rocks, fire and cuts from the spearman managed to knock the bear back. Their injured teammate was seated by a tree, cheering them on.

      Unfortunately, the bear had enough and it seemed they're fun with 'poking the bear' had ended. A blue light suddenly glowed from the bear's chest and it rised up, its eyes glowed the same colour. The adventurers had no idea that their opponent was capable of using kine. When they took the quest they were informed that locals were being harassed by normal bears that had started to dominate the area.

        Now they knew why most of the bears they killed were female bears. It was because it was the mating season, and unluckily for them they had just stumbled upon the Alpha bear. They knew that the moment the bear stomped its two feet, a tremendous wave of water would emerge and sweep them away with a great force. ' We should have run away.' That was the thought that dominated each of their hearts, but they let their greed get the best of them. Seeing only the bounty and not the potential threats.

       *STOMP!!*

      Suddenly a wave of water rushed from the bear and towards the adventurers. They knew they never had enough kine energy to repel this attack so they just accepted their fate. But in that moment, a stranger dropped in, his colourful hair glistened with the light from his energy.

       The adventurers could only see his back. The stranger stretched out his hands and a huge wave of fire was expelled from his palms. The flames engulfed the wave of water together with the bear itself. The collision from the water and the fire birthed a great deal of steam that vigorously rushed through the area like a great wind.

      In a few moments, the steam cleared and everyone could see somehow.The steam cleared enough to review the sight of Alsi cutting open the scorched bear.  He removed a blue glowing stone. He turned his head towards the shocked adventurers…

      " A thank you won't be enough for me saving you pathetic butts. So I'm taking this with me." He said.

      He then disappeared. The adventurers exchanged glances with eachother and then one of them spoke…

      " Haven't we seen him before?"

      " That's the lost prince of Amaris!" Said another.

      " The king of Amaris has been looking for him for years, it was rumoured that he died but the people of the town close to our borders confirmed that he is still alive."

      Said the female. They stared at the incinerated bear. Meanwhile, Alsi walked through the woodlands, playing with the blue stone he had just retrieved…

      "An aqua core AND a flame core at the same time!? Agyro is sure to sing out loud when he sees this. He stopped to put the stone in his backpack and then he continued on his way. He then started to whistle a melody as he kept walking, he fantasized about upgrading his short swords. With the next step he took, Alsi noticed light emanate from beneath him. Suddenly a circular pattern of light spread out all around him. It was an ambush!

       The circle became brighter and finally exploded. The blast took out a few trees and smoke rised up from the ignition. About 5 individuals came from behind the trees in the background. They came closer to where the explosion went off.

      "Did we get him?" Asked a tall, huge and muscular man with two scars across his face.

      "I'm not sure yet, let's wait for the smoke to clear up." Said another man who was medium but muscular.

       "This is gonna be so worth it!" Said a woman as she pulled her hair back. Another woman who seemed older just observed quietly.

       "Shut up!" A fat guy with muscular arms commanded his mates. They kept quiet and watched closely, expecting a dead corpse…or pieces of it. The smoke cleared slowly, leaving only suspense In the air.

       "I see something!" One of them pointed out. A fiery head was revealed, and then the scarlet eyes. Everyone was shocked to see this youngster standing in front of them after an explosion like that. They watched Alsi in shock and Alsi looked straight back at them with a rather comically irritated expression.

       "You idiots thought you could take me with a childish trick like that? The heck, a kid could get better results than that with a firecracker. What do you bastards want anyway?"

       Angered by his mockery, one of them replied…

      "You good for nothing runt! You won't be saying that after we're through with you!"

      "Through with me!? Hah! What, like your little explosion?" Taunted Alsi.

       "You-"

      "Calm down…" The medium muscular man restrained his fat friend.

      "You're Alsi Amaris, the lost prince, am I right?"

      Alsi was caught off guard by the question…

     ' what!? How did they find out? What's more surprising is that they know I'm still alive. I thought they would have counted me as dead by now! …wait a minute…'

      "How do you know that I'm a lost prince?" He questioned.

     The man laughed out loud when he heard Alsi's question…

      " Don't you know? You are wanted by the King of Amaris! The posters are everywhere! "

      ' The King of Amaris!? So they've already replaced my father. I thought the military was going to take control since everyone from my bloodline is dead by now.'

      The man continued…

      "And the conditions are that you are wanted DEAD OR ALIVE. "He said in a threatening tone. He paused to let the information sink in.

      "However I'm a very generous man, so I'm giving you a once in a lifetime deal. Surrender without a fight, and we will spare your life. What do you say?"

      "..... Are you all high? Cause I'm pretty sure potions can pass for weed in this world."

      "Don't test my patience kid! I'm giving you a chance to live. If you don't agree to this then we'll be forced to kill you."

      "I'm already aware that you're trying to kill me. The question is…you and what army?" Alsi challenged.

      The man simply gave Alsi a dark look. At that moment more people started to show up,they were so many that they may have numbered into about 50. They surrounded Alsi in all directions, leaving him no way to escape.

      "You had your chance, kid. But you wasted it. Now almost the whole guild is going to pummel you straight to death."

      Alsi looked around him whilst drawing his swords from their sheaths. He took stance and said…

      " Alright then…bring it!" Alsi spoke calmly.

      Now there was a moment of complete silence. His attackers had all sorts of weapons with them. Bows and Arrows, guns, swords, daggers, maces ,you name it. Others among the mob just watched comfortably from afar, not joining the others in the assault. The air became thick and the atmosphere became more tense.

      "AGHAAAA!!!" One of his attackers yelled as he charged, resulting in the rest of the mob going in with him. Alsi scanned every opponent closing in on him with his deep scarlet eyes.

       Immediately, he aimed for the one closest to him, his attacker attempted to swing a sword at him but missed when Alsi swayed, his attacker bypassed him and Alsi kicked him towards the other two who were coming after him. Causing a whole bunch of them to stumble and fall.

       Alsi used them as a stepping stone and jumped into the group of attackers behind them who got confused by the chaos caused by their fallen comrades. He landed on one of them with two feet and proceeded to cut down his allies. More opponents were approaching and Alsi charged at them. One of them tried to pound him with a mace only to be the victim of a counter attack that left him eating the dirt.

      The other attackers came with their weapons, hoping to be the ones to take him down. They used kine and shot lightning at him. Alsi dodged it and it hit the opponents behind him. He returned the attack with his own kine by swinging his sword, which in turn, resulted in an arc of fire that flew to its target and hit it with enough force to blow it away. More opponents kept coming and Alsi dished out pain to each one of them. He fought graciously and wittingly, utilising every opening he saw.

      The man who confidently offered Alsi a chance at life could only shake his head at the bodies which were flying in all directions. He was utterly shocked to see a person with a scary amount of strength and skill like that. He didn't even know whether his teammates were dead or knocked out.

      "I didn't sign up for this!"he said as he decided to make a run for it. He knew that things would only get bad for him if he dared to stay. He ran as fast as could and tried to get as far away as possible.

      'This is my chance, he's distracted!' he thought.

      "You thought you could bitch out whilst I was distracted, how shameful!"

      The man found his throat on the verge of Alsi's sword. Alsi looked straight into his eyes with an expressionless face. The tip of his sword brushed the throat gently. Cold sweat started to run down the face of his victim and he began to shiver.

      "So…aren't you supposed to kill me? Well then let's get it over with." Said Alsi.

      The man could barely speak, the only thing he could communicate was the raw fear on his face. Alsi rolled his eyes and just knocked him out with the back of his sword. He returned his blades back to their sheaths and adjusted his backpack…

      "Talk about a bunch of cockroaches. The pests couldn't even leave a scratch for me to remember them by."

      He yawned and stretched. He then heard a sound behind him.

      'What is it now!'

      He turned around only to find a beautiful young woman. Alsi knew he was familiar with this girl. Her body was nicely curved almost like an hourglass. Her golden brown skin glowed, complementing the autumn around her.

       "You took out all those guys by yourself Huh? That's impressive…you really have grown strong." She said.

      Alsi eyed the girl for a moment. He turned his back towards her and said…

      "That's the thing, Serena… I've always been strong."