14 Acquiring The Loyalty of A Dark Elf

Leaving the village, he headed straight into the forest. He could have taken the road to the nearest town, but he for some reason felt like going through the forest would be nice.

As if granting his wish, the forest was filled with a sense of nature and harmony. Getting this type of feel in a modern world is difficult but not impossible if you become an explorer, like Bear Grylls. Birds chirping, gentle breeze of the wind, the greeny scene made the heart more at peace.

He removed his helmet and breathed in the pure oxygen rich air. *sigh* "It feel really great! So peaceful! So...nature, will this place also change if this world gets technology in hand?" he mumbled under his breath as he took another deep breath.

"Well if it comes to that, its their loss! I don't believe I'll be around that time anyway, hahaha" he lightly laughed. Looking around the peaceful forest, he know that one day, all this might turn into ashes or be cut down for self interest or other needs of the humans.

Suddenly, the breeze started to get a little excited. He looked at the sky and saw that more clouds started to flock in. These clouds weren't show white, but dark like the thunder clouds. 'Looks like its gonna rain, better get to some place safe' he thought to himself and put on his helmet. Just at that moment, he heard a thunder. It was as if a war going on the clouds as the clouds clashed against each other.

He looked at his map and pointed a small mountain nearby and thought, 'if my luck is good, then there should be a cave nearby'. He folded the map and collected some branches and twigs just in case for creating a fire.

Within ten minutes, he got a lot of wood to make a fire that will burn through the night. He imagined a line connecting him and the crystal in the pendent and saw everything that's inside it, 'quite convenient' he thought. He then looked towards his arms in the dark space. The wood were still there, and he let them go as they started to float in the space. He then immediately cut off the connection. "If this was only in our world, things would have been much easier! Sadly, there are no wizards or magicians or 12 foot sized Ogre there" he said as he started to walk towards the direction where the small mountain is.

The frequency of the thunder started to increase, he also increased the frequency of his steps.

Just as he was about to start running, he heard a *thud* and looked towards that direction. He quickly drew his blade and pointed it towards the direction where the sound came from. Walking slowly towards that direction, he came near a bush. He readied himself and dashed out and pointed his sword towards his front.

His eyes completely went wide in shock. What he saw there was something he never even in his dream thought existed, but hey, this is after all a world with magic energy and monsters. There was a dark elf sitting on the ground with a tree to his back to support himself. He was trying hard to breath and was panting heavily. His left shoulder had a wound which looked like a knife stab. The dark elf looked at Saito with an exhausted expression. Saito just stood there pointing his katana at the dark elf, didn't know what to do.

The dark elf tried his best and said in a low voice, "if..... You.... Are.... Going..... To.... Do.... It.... Then... Do..... It..... Quickly..... and... End.... My.... Suffering... " he sounded as if he's almost going to die. Well he is on the verge of dying. He then passed out, he must have lost a lot of blood as his leather armor and cloak was soaked in blood.

"What....the.....actual... Hell!? This is a Dark elf right!? A real living and breathing Dark elf that's on the verge of dying right!? Ahhhh! What should I do! What should I do!? Dark elves are supposed to be enemies with the human race right? Or so those fantasy novels said! Wha-" his panic was cut of by a loud thunder and rain started to pour. He then turned around and was about to run towards the direction of the mountain, but he stopped on his tracks and turned around to look at the Dark elf. He can't convince his heart to leave him alone to die. "AHHHHH FUCK THIS!" he shouted and went near the Dark elf and picked his up by his back and ran towards the mountain. "Oi! Don't you die and don't you try to kill me when you wake up!" he said as he ran faster. The rain, as if pushing his challenge, poured down heavily.

He then finally reached the small mountain after five minutes of sprint. But lady luck didn't keep up with him as he couldn't find any cave nearby. After five minutes of search in the heavy rain with a dying Dark elf on his back, he final found a cave.

As he entered the cave, he saw five goblins sitting around a fire with meat in their hands. Just as they were about to eat it, he barged in. All the goblins turned their head towards him in unison. He gritted his teeth and said, "I've had enough of this sh#t! Go to hell you green blooded goblin sh#ts!" he then drew his blade and charged towards the goblins as he dropped the unconscious Dark elf.

The goblins were surprised by his sudden action and were too late to react. He stabbed the nearest goblin and slit the neck of the next one. He didn't wait for them to react as he moved on the next one and slashed his blade horizontally. He immediately moved towards the next one and decapitated it. Then he stared at the final goblin alive. Its eyes showed fear, almost as if begging him to spare its life. His expression did change at all. He remembered the old man Christopher said to him about goblins when they were partying at their village. He said that these monsters should be killed on sight and if we show them mercy and let them go, they will only get strong and come to take revenge on us. He then mercilessly killed the goblin. Surprisingly to him, only then did he notice that the goblins had red blood instead of green. "'Don't judge a book by its cover' huh?" he said under his breath.

He looked towards the unconscious Dark elf. He hurriedly brought his near the fire and took out a few wood and herbs from the pendent. He tried hard to undo his leather armor and finally it budged! He took it off him and saw his skin. He had a lot of scars on his dark brown skin and blood was dripping down on his skin. He took the water bag from his hip and poured it on the wound.

The elf hissed even though he didn't have consciousness, but at least it proved that he didn't die! Yet. "Look's like its been poisoned" he said in a low breath as he narrowed his eyes and tried searching for a cloth. After searching through his body, he couldn't find any. Finally, he had an idea. "Hey Nirashi! Remove this armor for now! I'll tell you to summon this later!" he called out Nirashi. She replied with a simple, "Yes master!". Right after that, his costume glowed a bit and vanished.

He didn't care about experimenting with it for now and took off his cloak and the dagger. He cut a piece of cloth from the cloak and used it to clean his wound while pouring some more water. He looked around and took two rocks from the ground and dusted them and blowed them. He then used his blade to flatten the rocks. After that he placed the herbs on the rocks and ran towards the cave entrance and tried to wet the herbs using the heavy rain. After making them wet enough, he hurried towards the rocks and placed the herbs on the flatten surface of one rock and took the other in his hand and pressed it against the rock which had herbs on it. He then started to grind them into paste using the rocks by moving it forward and backward.

Soon the herbs became paste and he took it all and placed on the wound of the Dark elf. He groaned in pain, twisting his body, clenching his fist and gritting his teeth he tried to endure it. Saito then took his cloak and tore off another piece from it using his dagger. He placed the piece on the wound and tore another piece off an dressed his wound.

After fifteen minutes of hard work, he slumped back but the condition of the Dark elf was not getting any better. He quickly called Nirashi, "Hey Nirashi? Can you help him? He looks like he's been poisoned, and I can't really treat poison cases! I'm not a doctor! Help me out a bit".

Nirashi answered his call as the saya with the blade glowed in bright light and separated from him and floated before him. The katana started to change shape. After a bit, a beautiful women with silver hair and fox ears with huge racks wearing a kimono, which exposed half of her cleavage stood before him with a memorizing smile and a slowly waggling tai. He then said with seriousness, "can you help him?" He then looked at the Dark elf. 'Kyaaa~! The serious master is too cool!!!' she screamed in her mind as her tail started to swing faster. Realizing she lost it for a bit, she composed herself and said with a confident smile, "leave this to me master! It will be over in a breeze!". She then turned to face the Dark elf and pointed her palm at his wound and started to chant, "£-#&#5@:£;-£-#|∆÷¢°¢£-3;#;¢¥°¥π`{¥-£&! 3+2+[¥°$[$°¢÷$¥". Just as she finished her chant, her palm glowed with bright white light and the wound on the Dark elf also glowed. Saito looked at the scene with amusement. It was his first time seeing something omyojutsu type magic.

Soon after, the glow in her hand dimmed and same goes for the wound. The elf now looked like he was sleeping peacefully. She nodded her head and turned towards Saito and said, "Master, he's good now and will wake up soon after".

Saito then let out a *sigh* and said, "that's good then, thank you for your help today Nirashi, if it were for you, then I wouldn't even be here alive". She hurriedly said, "No No No! It was master and his skills that brought you here! I only help a little, I'm not that strong as you think I am....." her voice went a few decibels down at the end as she looked down.

He went near her and took her hand as he looked her eyes. She was a few inches taller than him so he had to look up, she looked sad. He then said, "I don't know what happened in the past and I don't want to know. Right now at this moment, I am alive and he is alive, all because of you! If it weren't for you, I would have probably died by that panther or the ogre or the bandits we face together. So don't you ever say that you are weak! To me, you are the strongest as well as the most beautiful wolf...women I've ever seen! So never say anything negative like that ever again!".

Like a sting that's been released, a warm sensation crept up in her chest. She held both her hands near her chest and tears started to form in her eyes. Seeing that's she was on the verge of crying, he hurriedly tried to console her, "Eh! Did I say something weird!? If I did I'm so very sorry!" he bowed 90° as an apology. Looking at him, she smiled and went him and lifted him up. Just as he was about to speak, she hugged him tightly almost suffocating him. "Thank you soooo much master! I feel much better now, thank you!" she said with a smile on her face and tears at the corner of her eyes which indicated that she was very happy. He then said with difficulty, "Ni....ra.....shi.... Its hard... To.... Breath" and his voice ended after saying that. Confused, she opened her eyes and looked at him and saw that he was being choked by her bosom! "Eh? Eh!? EHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Master! Are you alright!? Speak if your still alive!" she anxiously shook his body with a rapid force. "I wam shull awavive sthap swaking mwe!" Clumsy words escaped his lips which were difficult to make out. "Yes master!? What is it! Speak!" She then stopped shaking him and stared him with worries visible in her eyes. "I said 'I am still alive! Stop shaking me!'" he said after catching his breath. She then blushed and said "I'm so- so- SORRY MASTER!" she bowed at him and hit his head hard.

"Ouch!"

He cried out and held his forehead. "Ok ok calm down now! Oh yea, change into your weapon shape before he wakes up or it will only add up more trouble" he said to her as he rubbed his forehead. "As you wish, Master" her body then started to glow white and she changed back into a katana.

Picking it up, he placed it on his hip and looked around. The goblins dead bodies made the place look awful. He quickly disposed the bodies outside the cave and cleaned the remaining food which the goblins had. He added more twigs and branches to the fire and took out the meat jerkies he got earlier. He filled in his water bag with the rainwater. He then sat near the fire and started to roast the jerkies with the fire while holding them using twigs. Soon the smell spread through out the cave.

Due to the aroma of the jerky, the Dark elf squinted his eyes and finally opened them. He looked confused and looked around and saw that he was inside some cave. He remembered that the last thing he saw was a guy in a weird costume. He then tried moving and saw that his wound was dressed with herbs and cloths. Only then did he smell the aroma of roasted meat in the air and look around.

He then saw the figure he saw earlier in the forest before he passed out. The guy was sitting by the fire roasting beef jerkies, without a care in the world. Looking at the meat, he gulped his saliva. He saw that his leather armor, cloak and daggers were removed and placed to his sides. 'He didn't even take my weapons? Is he that naive?' he thought and silently took his daggers and crouched as he approached him.

The figure suddenly spoke, "You know you don't have to use you daggers to ask for meat, one is for you anyway, here!" he then turned towards the Dark elf and pointed the meat towards him with a smile. The Dark elf was taken back by his unusual behavior, yet he still remained vigilant towards him and stared the meat sharply with his eyes. Saito laughed and said, "hahaha, you don't have to worry, I didn't poison it, here" he gave it to him.

The Dark elf finally accepted his generosity and took a bite. His hunger surfaced immediately and he devoured it, soon the meat was gone and only the stick remained. He then stared at Saito's portion of meat and saw that it remained untouched and gulped.

Saito let out a *sigh* and said, "here, you can have this too" he then gave his part of meat to him. The Dark elf soon finished it and looked around. Saito passed him the bag of water and looked at him as he chuck down the whole bag.

"Why?"

"Eh? " Saito didn't know what to say. The Dark elf repeated his question, "Why did you save me? Don't you humans hate us? Banned us as evil and vile creature? Then why did you save me?".

Saito removed his helmet and smiled as he replied, "why shouldn't I?". The Dark elf was taken back with his reply. He then continued, "They might hate you, ban you as dark and vile creatures or whatever, but to me personally I don't think so because I'm not from here, I'm from the far east so I don't give a fuck about what the people here think" he then smiled and took out some more meat and bread.

"Let's forget all those and eat right now! Come on" Saito invited him heartily with a warm smile. The Dark elf didn't know what to say, he just kept his daggers to the side and joined him. They both ate meat and bread and talked heartily with each other like old friends.

"So your saying that there are no monsters or other races from where you come from? That's unbelievable!"

"You should, its real though we don't need other races to fight with as we fight within ourselves, *sigh* rough world"

"True true, humans do posses an unique personality for jealousy and greed, not that other races are any better! Dwarves hate elves, wood elves hate dark elves, dark elves hate wood elves and humans, humans hate all but they don't show it outside" the Dark elf said.

"Bah, let them go f*ck themselves, they dig their own graves and if they want to dig more, let them! We don't need to give a damn about them and eat our food right now, cause I'm hungry as hell! I fought too much today and now I'm hungry as hell!" Saito said. The Dark elf's interest got piqued and he asked, "fought? Did you fight someone? Where?". Saito took a bite from his jerky and said, "a village nearby, it got raided by a bandit group of 51 bandits, ten of them were actually mercenaries from a Mercenary guild called "Dark Mercenary guild", well I killed them all and got these food and some gold coins from the village head as reward". He then looked at the Dark elf and saw that he was staring at him with wide eyes and mouth. "Is there something wrong?" Saito asked.

"You...slayed 50 bandits and ten of them are from the Dark Mercenary guild you say! And yet how can you act like it was nothing!? Do you even know what the Dark Mercenary guild supposed to mean!?" The Dark elf stood up and shouted. Saito replied him with a simple, "No idea".

The Dark elf sat down and face palmed himself. He let out a *sigh* and said, "Dark Mercenary guild is supposed to be the dark side of the mercenary guild. The difference in them are as you can see, the mercenary guild does legal requests at affordable prices whereas the Dark Mercenary guild does shady jobs for high prices, Assassinations, ambushing, track and kill and many more evil jobs are taken by them! They both are like wood elves and Dark elves, they don't like each other and the village you said that was raided? That seems like something the Dark Mercenary guild would do and they are known to be ruthless and cruel as well as they put their money on their power and skills, so I'm amazed that you killed them when its even hard to survive from one and you killed no less than ten alone! Its hard to believe" he then took another bite from his jerky.

"I didn't know that those guys were that strong, well I do agree two of their swordsmen were unbelievably powerful, but they can't be compared to the bandit boss with a war hammer! Each of his hit made my bones and muscles shook for every attack he did! And my hands still ache a little bit" he then massaged his shoulders as he took a bite of the meat. "If what your saying if true, then you are really lucky and truly skilled to be alive here" said the Dark elf eating his portion of meat.

"Maybe or maybe not, its all done deal and no use dwelling in it, and by the way, I've been meaning to ask, how did you get injured like that? That poison was hard(lies) to cure" he then asked the question that's been bugging him for a while. The Dark elf stopped eating and stared into the fire with a sad expression on his face. "Well if you don't want to say its fine by me" Saito said as he looked his face filled with sadness.

"Its fine actually, I've been meaning to let it out. I got this as a parting gift from a women I love. Her name is Cheshoni. She's a fine Dark elf with remarkable skill set! I loved her very much, but it had to happen that I became a traitor by setting me up" his sad voice proved that every words he said were true. Saito then asked in a serious tone, "traitor? Set you up? What happened? Can you tell me in details?".

The Dark elf had nothing to hide as he believed that this human before him would believe him and trust him, so he opened himself up as he stared into the fire, "truth to be told, I'm an assassin from the "Dark Creed", a group of elite assassins. We never miss out mark and never get caught, Cheshoni, the women I told you was also a part of the Dark Creed, we were close and always went on missions together. One day, the General of the army of underbark, malsov, sneaked out suspiciously, so I followed him and saw him speaking to a human in a cloak. I hurried to the palace and explained everything to the Queen and she whispered something to a servant and told me to wait. I stayed knelt on the floor with my head down and waited for her to order me to rise. Suddenly the door opened and the General walked in with 50 guards and four of the Dark Creed came with them, for once I thought they were conspiring and hurried to her Majesty's side to protect her. But she said, "cease the spy! Don't let him escape!" dumbfounded, I look at her with wide eyes. She then said something that shook my world, she said, "did you really think I would believe you? A spy? The General has been on your tail for a long while and he finally caught you red handed, don't think you can escape traitor!" She said, I tried to explain to her, but I felt an attack incoming, so I reflexively dodged and saw my friend with his face filled with hate and disgust. I saw my other companions, they also had the same face, except for Cheshoni, she had a face of disbelief and disappointment. Looking at her like that made me lose myself as I jumped out the Palace through the window. I then ran towards the forest, as I felt someone following me I turned around to see Cheshoni chasing me rapid speed with her daggers in hand. I shouted that I'm not a traitor and I was set upped. She didn't listen and came at me as if she wanted to reap my life. I couldn't come to harm her myself, so I just dodged her attacks. Soon we faced off each other and I got stabbed by her dagger. She was stunned for a moment and I used it to escape as I said, "goodbye" and jumped into a waterfalls. And I ran and ran and ran after reaching the shore. I ran till I collapse and that was when I saw you, so I asked you to end my suffering, but you ended up saving me and for that I'll forever be indebted to you" he kneeled down with one leg as he lowers his head.

Saito went near him and picked him up as he said, "you don't need to kneel down to prove that to me, if you feel like you really want to settle your dept, then be my friend" he smiled.

"Eh?"

The dark elf didn't know what to say and he managed to think of a reply, "very well then, no matter what! I'll never leave your side my friend! Who I thought as friends think of me as an enemy without even a second thought, having someone to rely on isn't a bad idea. On this day, I swear to the spider goddess, Fyndia, that I Herjar will forever be your companion, be it a situation of life and death or something else, I'll be on your side to aid you, my friend" the Dark elf then spit on his palm and extended it to him. Saito smiled and did the same. And then they both shook their hands.

"Say, you never told me about you, we are now friends right? Can you tell me now?" Herjar asked him. "Its nothing of a secret, My name is Saito Araya which was given to me, one day I was suddenly transported to the far east without me knowing how and somehow I became a square for a Samurai, then he saw the potential in me and started to teach me the way the of a Samurai, then later I completed my training and became a real Samurai, then I was transported back here yesterday mysteriously. And now I'm the same as you but I'm searching for the one I love not having her hunt me" he replied him with a laugh and most of the story was made up.

"Ha! Lucky you, you get to go other continents and learn fighting skills and your women don't hunt you. How lucky is that?" Herjar said with a scoff. "Who cares about that now? Oh yea get dressed, we are leaving at first light tomorrow if you want to come with me" Saito said as he looked at him.

He replied, "well of course I'm coming with you, not like I got anywhere else to go, so where are we going?".

Saito dropped a bombshell on him, "To a town nearby, I want to register myself as a mercenary. So you will accompany me right?" he asked expectantly. Herjar's face was blank as he replied, "the town you say is a human town you know? "Human"! They will kill me at first sight!" he shouted at the end. Saito waved his hand and said, "relax relax, if they lay a finger on you, they will have to answer me first" his voice was cold as ice. Herjar gave up and said, "fine I'll come with you and register myself as a mercenary as well if they permit it!". He then turned towards his leather armor and equipped it. He then said, "we better get some sleep, we got a long day ahead of us tomorrow" he then went to a corner and lay on the ground with his daggers near him.

"Well, we certainly do" he looked out and say that the rain stopped and the moon lit up the night sky with the help of thousands of stars. He then turned towards a corner and started to sleep. A rough day awaits them both at the town.