Chapter 39

O(I)O(I)

A strong gust of wind sought through the woods clearing the spindly tree branches of what little leaves they had left. The carrion in this wood was nonexistent due to how very few people or animals would ever explore it-Roui and Atraafire were one of the few who decided to venture through these woods as a short cut. Atraafire was the elf assassin who went along with him on orders of the king of Yakime Darilyly. They both knew there were strong, robust and not to mention bloodthirsty creatures in this forest but they knew it was also a shorter trek than the byways on the road and all the adventurers stopping people to ask their inane questions about bounty posters on people they were trying to avoid.

Atraafire didn't need help finding Ravenbreach Valley. Little did she know she was actively going away from the arrow that would take them to it.

With her hundreds of years going through city after city and being born with very powerful ears she could hear horse carriages turn left or right. She knew where every path turned taking people to cities. Ergo, every skid was one city closer to their destination. Their walking was mostly keeping to themselves and not saying anything, but then they found a small country with a multitude of different races...

Lizardmen, dwarves, demi-humans, vampires, even a frog with a bipedal way of walking and a red tattoo of a gemstone on his back.

Atraafire planned on going around the place only for Roui to tug her by her sleeve.

"Maybe we should go this way."

She looked at him with droopy eyes and a mouth agape trying to show off teeth that weren't there.

"Are you a complete numbskull? We are in a hurry to get to Ravenbreach and we don't even know how friendly these people a-"

"Atraafire? Atraafire, is that you?"

They both turned their attention to the person calling to them. It was a silver shoulder length haired lady with pointy ears and crimson eyes. Something about her didn't make Roui think she could be an elf, and she was wearing a gothic dress with a white frilly headband on her forehead. She was joined by a dark blue haired man wearing a green shirt, cargo brown shorts and a white scarf that made his emerald eyes twinkle like stars. Swarming around his legs were four black furred wolves with lightning bolt-esque horns protruding from their foreheads.

The wolves looked tamed and happy around the man which was a contradiction to the wild and feral attitude that they usually have. While Roui was looking at the wolves, Atraafire was staring intensely into the eyes of the girl.

"Good to see your still walking after escaping my fetters, bat face." Atraafire said.

"Yes. My research has shown your last client to be nothing but a con artist, knife ears."

"Lucky me he paid upfront and people respect my skills enough to hire me for their bespoke murders, albino skin."

"And I married a man who turned a scary inimical forest into a sanctuary for all different species, poison breath."

"Bloodsucker!"

"Lop-slasher!"

'Wingless bat!"

"Abandoned grandma!"

"Abomination!"

"Callous handkerchief face!"

Roui never enjoyed watching two people act so mean to each other and these two were no exception.

'I can't stop this fight on my own. Maybe this beast farmer can help.'

When Roui looked back he saw the man with the white scarf was gone. He disappeared, never even made a sound before disappearing from sight. While he was shocked the man's wolves looked forlornly where he once was. They howled to the trees because their foliage was so large it blocked out the sun except maybe a few sunrays that got through the small spaces gaped between tree branches.

Right before the silver haired lady could let out another insult, Roui hit her with three fingers bent to look like a cat's paw. He barely got any muscle in that punch. The lady didn't look angry, just looked at him like he was a weird little boy.

"Something bad has happened to your husband."

"What are you talking about? He's right..." She looked at the wolves seeing their grieving poise and howling with such vigor. Roui could see from the way she tried to keep her face together that she was worried about him.

However, the look Atraafire gave her was that of a bully hearing their target's most embarrassing secret. Roui spoke out the suggestion that made her smarminess disappear.

"Don't worry. Me and Atraafire will help you go look for him."

O(I)O(I)

Tatsumaki felt like Red Riding Hood if she was born in the same place as the Little Match Girl. She was given some Smik and a basket to make her way to the market and buy supplies for Alearado and Savatia. The first market she tried was worse than a used sack with potatoes sprawled on top. She couldn't understand the epithets of any sign; she also felt really hot from the rays of sun on this world beamed directly on her-sort of like the Little Match Girl when she soon died of the cold.

Unlike that girl Tatsumaki was allowed to enter a few of the taverns and book stores in the area before being kicked out.

'What kind of books are they selling in there?'

Despite her mishaps, she managed to get everything they wanted. She was ready to just give them their produce and go to sleep.

And then-she fell right into a chasm. As her eyes opened she was greeted to the sight of being in a room with a bed, a carpet and some spikes under another hole. There was also a young boy in the room with her and a levitating rabbit wearing a buttonless black vest that matched his tophat.

"H-Hi. A-Are you another player that fell down a hole and got trapped in here due to a glitch?" He asked nervously.

She looked at him the same way a mother looks at their children the first time they ask about babies being born.

"What game? This is suppose to be a fantasy world, and from what I heard it's not that hard to get out of it. Did you and your rabbit pal get trapped in here by accident?"

"Pal?!" The rabbit exclaimed with his eyes glowing brightly red and his soft palette nearly popping out of his big mouth. "I fervently hat this human! The only reason I am with him right now is to see him die!"

"Awww." The brown haired boy grabbed the rabbit by his cheek and stretched it out. The rabbit tried to make an angry face but it instead looked like a kid who ordered a hamburger spicier than he wanted. "Don't be like that. We've become pretty close these past few months and I know you would do nothing to harm-"

Just then the boy's body combusted and shattered into tiny blue cubes all around the air before disappearing from sight.

Tatsumaki swiveled to the suspicious looking rabbit and trapped him in a psychic lock. The lock was a metal band with four chains latched onto it.

"Okay, rabbit, I have some questions your going to answer for me."

O(I)O(I)

Roui and the vampire-elf Lobelia patrolled around the farm looking in every storehouse, school and marked for any sign of her husband, Dezaki. Roui was accompanied by Lobelia but he had to sought through the farm without Atraafire to help him. Atraafire was going to Ravenbreach Valley and delivering the item without him to accompany her; figured they didn't have time to waste looking for a missing person and she could sneak around much easier without him around her.

He and Lobelia asked all the residents of the sett if they'd seen him only for each of them to have no answers-some were very thankful for his help and weren't afraid to praise him. On their way out of the market a guy wearing a light green shirt with pocket protectors with a Fenrir, slime and pixie dragon started browsing.

They became unnecessary loud with their conversation.

"Look at all the meats in here, these are from creatures that are very dangerous and could give even you a run for your money, Fenrir?"

"What?!" He gasped. "I am over four hundred years and have never lost to any creature."

"If master says you might have met your match you might be in trouble, Fenrir." The slime said.

"The creatures here aren't as bad as the ones in my forest and I was the king of that place." The pixie dragon boasted.

"Guys, guys, your all shielding your insecurities with your teeth. But we came here to buy food and that's what I'm going to do."

Roui swiveled around, the conversation he was getting intrigued to listen to just ended like a breeze pulling a toupee off someone's head. Now looking at them he got to see the three monsters panic stricken with their mouths agape. They needed someone's help in finding their tamer, but Roui was interrupted by the appearance of a golden wooden boat with people standing in it.

O(I)O(I)

Mokouda, the man with three monsters as his companion, remembered being in a situation such as this; him standing around minding his own business when the next minute he's taken to a place he's never been before. That time he was taken to a king's castle with three high schoolers. This time he was standing around a person who looked entirely imbued with light manifested from an orange sky like a sunset with hundreds of other adults, teens and even a few eight to ten year old.

Things were so confusing it made his brain start atrophying in his skull. Most of the men looked handsome and competent compared to his five o clock shadow and his pliable body...