Chapter 2

"Hey brat, wake up." Zale heard someone talking

He groaned while trying to remember what happened. He pried his eyes open and saw trees above him and a huge cliff, he tried to sit up then before he felt his ribs cracking "AUUGH"

He yelled out. He heard a woman voice behind him then.

"Hey idiot, instead of whining aint ya gonna thank me? I saved your life you know."

Still while laying down he answered " well thats nice of you. But I didn't want saving." He didn't care about being nice anymore, he just wanted the pain to stop.

"Well, well I sized you up as you was always nice and tried to go out of your way to help people."

"Hard to keep what what you have if you're too nice."

She didn't answer back for a while this time.

"Well, either way you owe me for saving you. And I need your help to get out of here."

He turned my head to look behind him and saw a woman who looked like she was about twentyish she had black hair, green eyes and a pinched face. She had a purple tank top and a pair shorts on. And anybody could tell from her face she had a bad attitude . She was sitting on top of a leather bound book

"Whats your name?" I asked her

She smiled when she said " I haven't had anybody ask me that in 20 years. Ajax"

Ajax. A weird name kinda like mine. Zale thought

" Zale. And I would shake your hand but my body is broken," he started laughing, it hurt so bad to laugh but he couldn't help it he couldn't even kill himself right.

Then he asked "you said nobody asked your name in 20 years but thats a lie right? I mean you don't even look 20 yet." Zale himself was 26 but didn't look like it.

"You're not supposed to ask a woman age. And I'm older than I look, I can't help that I look like a super model."

He made a face disgusted face. And whispered underneath his "you look more like you're in middle school." He saw her smile, an evil smile that gave him chills.

Zale watched her reach down towards his face, she grabbed ahold of his bottom jaw. "What are you doing?" He asked, She proceeded to grabbed his nipple and twisted it and Zale started screaming"STOP, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" He could see her smile before she put some kind of ball in his mouth and pinched his nose. He blacked out after he chewed up and swallowed the ball so he could breath again.

Zale woke up gasping for air, he sat up without realizing it but didn't hurt anymore. He looked around but the woman Ajax wasn't with him anymore.

The scenery around Zale wasn't like it should be it seemed more like a jungle, it was humid with palm trees all around him and thick bushes.

He then heard that crazy woman behind him speaking "well, well, well. Look who's up, you're stronger than you look I didn't expect you to wake up for a few more days at least."

Zale reached around him and picked up a stick off the ground and said " I don't know what You done to me, but if you come any closer I'm gonna have to hurt you if you don't stay away. My nipples still sore."

She laughed "yeah, yeah I saved your life with something precious of mine and this is how I'm repaid? Because I gave you a nipple twister?" She said all of this with a smile on her face.

I ought to smack her Zale thought.

"Where are we?" Zale asked her.

She rolled her eyes then answered "if I knew then I wouldn't still be here. I woke up here just the same as you." She continued and before giving zale a chance to speak " what year is it? And have you ever heard of a man named Aeacus?"

Zale shook his head " sounds greek, never heard of him. And it's 2024. Now it's my turn to ask something, how long have you been here? What did you put in my mouth? And why am I healed up? I should have bled out or something."

"Ugh, I don't know how long I've been here but a couple hundred years maybe? And I put in your mouth a healing pill that I only have a few of. And that should answer both of your questions."

Zale burst out laughing.

I'm here with a mad woman. Maybe I did die and this is hell. Or maybe I'm just imagining all of this I might have collapsed and went into a coma. All of this ran through his head it a matter of seconds before she said " ah you probably are a common person and know nothing about alchemy that would make sense. But you do have an okay amount of talent maybe I should teach you?" She seemed more like she was talking to herself than him

"Teach me what?" Zale asked her.

"Alchemy, now shut up I need to think about this." Then she clapped her hands and smiled " okay I've decide you're going to be my disciple, we're going to start tomorrow. Goodnight."

She then ran towards him and raised a fist towards him, Zale brought the branch in his hand down to her level and swung not hard enough to kill her but enough to hopefully nock her out, his sore nipple helped fuel his rage.

She punched towards the branch coming towards her. Zale heard a crack that made him cringe and mooch away. When he looked back up he saw her standing in front of him, smiling her arm completely fine. "It gonna take more than a tree branch to hurt me." Then she cocked her head to the side " but there was no hesitation in your swing I'm surprised." She then proceeded to punch him in the face till blacked out.

Twice since Zale's attempted suicide he woke up gasping for air but this time he got splashed by a bucket of water to wake him.

"Rise and shine beautiful. It's time for your first lesson," when he sat up he realized his surrounding's changed, he was in a log cabin laying on a bed that seemed to be made out of animal furs.

Ajax was standing over a fire place with a cooking pot over the flames. Zale shot out of bed and with only his Spiderman boxers on.

For a minute he was speechless, making a funny face while trying to get word out. Ajax burst out laughing and said " don't worry I didn't do anything to you, I just needed to check and see what shape your body was in, and it turns out that you're not in good shape for how tone your body is. if I had to guess it would be that you didn't workout but instead had multiple part time jobs that put a lot of stress on your body and that kept you from getting fat."

Man this woman likes to talk. I'm still not even sure this is real and she wont stop babbling on Zale thought. Ajax then continued on speaking.

"So for the next few weeks we're going to be practicing hand to hand combat before I teach you alchemy you need to learn how to fight so you can gather materials." She stood up with a wooden bowl and spoon that was filled with the stew from earlier. "After you eat we're going outside to practice and we're not going to stop till lunchtime then again till dinner."

She handed Zale a bowl, he accepted it and said "while I know you're having fun making these plans and all but I don't even know if this is real, why do I have to do this if this is a dream?"

She stared at him and smiled "even if it is a dream what do you have to lose?"

She is right it's like there was anything to lose. He started engulfing the food she made, it was so delicious. He finished the first bowl in a just a few minutes and had second, and thirds before he was full. He looked over at Ajax and said that was delicious, thank you. Can I have my clothes back now?"

She shook her head " your clothes were tore up so I got you new ones." She walked over to the other bed and opened a chest at the foot of the bed. It just looked black inside but she stuck her hands in it and they disappeared, Zale watched her with a dumbfounded face she pulled out a journal, a set of black pants and a white tank top. "Meet me outside as soon as you get dressed, oh and address me as master from now on."

She opened the door and light flooded in from outside he caught a glimpse of the ocean before she closed the door.

Zale quickly put on the clothes and they fit perfect. He went to the door and opened it feeling full of vigor, a new chance at life. This is what zale was thinking before they started practicing then he realized he really did get sent to hell.

The practice started out like this.

Ajax started out like this "okay so the best way to learn hand to hand combat is to get beat up over and over again, not only will it toughen up your body but it will change your muscles for fighting." She said all this while wearing a smile that would give the devil chills.

"But master shouldn't you teach me something?" Zale asked desperately before she rushed at him.

"Nope" she said before she punched him in the ribs. "Guard your weak points." She yelled at him.

He tried to back up but she wouldn't let him get away. She tried him if he tried to go forward, and if he tried to go backwards he got punched hard enough to make him fly.

This went on for two weeks before he could block right, getting beat up all day everyday only stop to eat and when Zale would faint. Over and over and over again until his body would dodge and block without him even have to think about it, changing his stance to take the biggest part of the force, with minimal amounts of thought.

And anytime he would get cocky his master would put him in his place showing him that she has always been taking it easy on him.

After the first two weeks when it was hard for him to attack Ajax said " okay from now on the less you punch the less you eat."

The first day after the two weeks and tried to punch only a little and got a single beet to eat. He cried for the first time since being here that day.

Slowly his body changed along with getting beat up, his muscles got more toned his healing started to become super human. He's broken both his hands and a few fingers multiple time but the would heal in a day. Even Ajax was surprised by this.

He tried to runaway multiple times but she would always track him down and fight him till he fell unconscious.

By the time a month has passed when it was time for lunch after fighting both Zale and his master were breathing hard.

Zale knew himself that he couldn't beat his master the way he was right now but if they fought as hard as they could she wouldn't get off scotch free either, at least he hoped so.

The day after a month had pass while fighting Zale asked "Master why haven't you taught me something like swordsmanship or something with a weapon?"

"I will after I teach you to make your own weapons. And you will always have your hands and feet to they never brake but sometimes weapons brake."

"When am I going to start learning this alchemy you keep on talking about then?" She got surprised by this one and zale punched her in the face with a punch the would nock out a cow, but she didn't even flinch when it connected and instead she punched towards his open side of his ribs, but he left it open on purpose he brung his arm down and grabbed ahold of her arm and flung her over top him and swung her towards the ground but she went with the swings momentum and twisted his hand and kicked him in his ribs.

It hurt but not that bad normal people it would break their ribs and would probably kill them but after all the training it only hurt a little.

Ajax looked at the shadow on the ground with the homemade clock she made that uses the shadows to tell every hour of the day and stated that it was lunch time.

We went inside to find onyx inside. Onyx came over to Zale after he and Ajax entered the cabin and started rubbing on his side

Ajax one day before zale got here got attacked by an onyx colored wolf and she beat it up over and over again until it became her disciple as well she trains with it when we fight to sometime she fights both of us at the same time, we still lose but its harder on her.

Onyx delivers food everyday and then tries to escape so Zale didn't meet him till a week after training. He and onyx got along right away, cause they were in the same position both just getting beat up everyday.

Onyx was different from most wolves not just his color but his muscles and his height were very large he was almost the size of horse, also he could also use a type of alchemy made for animals that Ajax taught him. He showed Zale when they were hiding from their master, it was like magic but you using magic ingredients instead .

Onyx left after starting the soup over the fire. Zale and Ajax sat down at the table while waiting for the soup to get done, Zale knew something was different as soon as his master started speaking, she sounded worried. "If you're that excited about learning other stuff, maybe it's time?"

Zale tried to approach this carefully and failed "just let me, let me, let me, let me. I'm ready my body looks like I've been working out for years and its hard for you to nock me out now"

Zale watched a smile slowly creep onto his masters face. He blinked then felt something hard hit his face in the millisecond he blinked, he then blacked out which he hasn't done in over a week.

He opened his eyes again in around 15 minutes to the smell of food. "What was that for?" He asked Ajax

"You were being too cocky, I just needed to show you that it's easy for me to knock you out. And I've decided to teach you some new stuff but first we need some monster cores, and you're going to hunt them."

"Huh?" I asked in between spoon fulls of soup

"Monsters. Wild animals that have learned how to use alchemy and used it to train their body's, and through the process gained mana inside their body that gathers inside a crystal thats inside their skull, at the top of their spine." She said all of this like Zale should have already known it.

"Is onyx one of those?"

"Yep but he's been made docile, so he's more like a familiar."

They finished eating at the same time.

Ajax walked over to her bed and reached inside of her chest to pull out a leather bag.

She threw It towards Zale and with his reflexes he caught it right before it flew past him

"This is a holding bag, you can put anything thats not alive in there in a 500 foot radius but you can't stack things on top of each other, also the weights not important."

"Thats awesome! What am I gonna need it for?"

She smiled before punching Zale again and nocking him out.