Elf-Guard

"Please let me go... I promise to be good, I'll leave, I swear it." Tiffania sobbingly pleads as a man approaches her with a torch in hand. They didn't even give her notice as they toss the torch onto the kindling, causing it to ignite and allowing the flame to slowly grow.

The heat licks her legs and she screams, begging to plead to be let go, but her rambling quickly breaks down into agonized screaming as her body is enveloped in fire. She'd never experienced anything so painful in her life. She felt everything, her skin shrivelling up and boiling, eventually blackening as the flames continue up, climbing her body but not giving her death until everything she knew was pain.

The crowd laughs as she screams, jeering and continuing to throw rocks and fruit at her, but she doesn't even take notice of it as she uselessly tries to free herself.

Her world turns to fire, then blackness.

...

...

...

But somehow, she awakens, the agonizing pain she was experiencing gone, yet she continued to tremble from the phantom pains.

"Tiffania! Are you alright?" a familiar voice asks, and she opens her eyes for the first time, looking over at the speaker.

"Y-you?" she mutters, confused at seeing the stranger whose memory she'd erased. Her attention is drawn away however as she spots the blackened pole to which she was previously tied to. She gives a strangled shout of terror as she quickly shuffles away from it, only now noticing that she was completely naked.

"Tiffania! You need to calm down, you're alright. You're fine, I saved you..." the man, Michael says with a sympathetic frown.

"I-..." she starts but notices her pale white skin that was slowly reddening with contact to the cold air, surprised at the fact she was unharmed, she holds her hands in front of her face, but notices her missing ring. "M-my mother's ring...? Where is it?"

The man called Michael wraps his cloak around her body, not minding her reactionary jolt at being touched, he slowly holds her hand and slides the now gemless ring into it. Tiffania gives a relieved smile as she holds the ring to her cheek, taking in its presence that reminded her so of her mother.

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Michael can only sigh at Tiffania's state, clearly, she was traumatised by what she'd experienced. But he couldn't let him linger like this for long, as the guards would be here soon enough. "Your mother's ring revived you Tiffania, but we can't stay here. Those people will be back soon, so we need to go, now." he urges the trembling girl.

"W-why did they do this to me...?" she mutters, and Michael can only shake his head, "Because they are taught to hate you and every other elf. The Church worships Brimir, and these people follow his lead in irrationally hating elves. As long as you live in this world, you will be hunted... But there's a way for us to escape." he says, causing the girl to look up at him with a hopeful expression.

"H-how?"

Michael shakes his head, "We can talk about this later, for now we need to go before shit hits the fan." he says, but the sound of feet behind him signal that it was too late to run.

"He revived the demon! Kill that heretic!" one of the many guardsman shout as they charge him with drawn blades.

Michael draws his own sword and stands with Tiffania at his back, "I won't let them hurt you again, Tiffania." he promises, causing the girl to tear up, though, whether it's in fear or gratitude, Michael couldn't really tell.

"You fucking bastards burned an innocent person alive! So I won't have to feel bad about cutting you to pieces!" he shouts, thrusting his hand out and chanting, "Shock!" a couple times, causing threads of lightning to explode from his fingers, killing around ten people almost instantly.

Unfortunately, he hadn't realised just how much magic he'd used to revive Tiffania... He was almost entirely out of mana... Luckily, the guardsman's charge was halted at the sight of magic. The superiority of mages was ingrained in their hearts, making them wary of approaching someone who's powerful enough to kill so many of them with such ease.

"Tiffania, get up, we need to get out of here." he quickly says over his shoulder, hoping that no one with a bow would arrive anytime soon.

Tiffania eventually nods, clutching her mother's ring tightly as she stumbles to her feet, unable to stop the incessant trembling occurring all over her body. It was a massive improvement to, you know, not being on fire, but that didn't instantly make her able to move around like normal. Even in the past, she had always been clumsy, so adding her mental overload and seeming unfamiliarity with her body, it was a wonder she was able to stand at all.

"Get back!" Michael shouts, pointing his weapon menacingly at the guardsman, all the while summoning the Book of Commoners, accessing his inventory and downing his Clarity potion. A blue glow covers him, indicating that his mana was rapidly regenerating, but he couldn't relax as a single hit would disable it.

During this, a carriage arrives and an angry, familiar-looking woman hops out of it. "You!" she shouts, Michael recognizing her as that bitch Tatiana that helped torture him in the capital. She draws her wand and begins to chant something, but Michael interrupts her but shouting, "Hex!".

She turns into a chicken with a puff of smoke, shocking the surrounding guards and allowing him to throw Tiffania over his shoulder and flee in the opposite direction. He didn't want to try fighting them while Tiffania was vulnerable... She'd only just been resurrected, and he wasn't willing to risk her death again.

With the activation of Shadow Dance, he zips out of the town like a bat out of hell, entering the forest and easily outrunning whatever guards attempted to pursue him.

"M-my lady! The criminals have escaped!"

Tatiana glowers at the guardsman and points her wand at him, "For your failure, DEATH!"