Chapter five: Meet-up.

CHAPTER 5

The Entero Continent, one of the largest mainlands in the world, consists of 5 regions namely, Adamante- North, Imperium- South, Colossus- West, Gardari- East, and Entente- Center or Central. Each of these regions has its own different set of government, culture, and beliefs.

Adamante Empire, where I lived since birth, was the most extravagant place you all ever know, the area is well known for talented magical knights and the biggest army you have ever encountered. This is where the Royal Academy is located, so mostly all of the people around the world are willing to study here since this is where geniuses graduated all throughout history.

Imperium is a place for Holy ground, the rumored land for unexpected miracles and full of sacred treasures which it can only be found in the Holy Divine temple where the Grand Pope was located.

Colossus of the West, the place where the mixed breeds and other races aside from humans are mostly living here. They say that this region lived once in harmony until the demons and magical beasts tried to take over them 30 years ago. But with the help of the alliance of the other 4, they managed to protect it. This is also a good place to trade since it has plenty of merchants around, the capital city is called the Place of Merchandise.

Entente, the Central Empire, where mostly the place of unity and cooperation of all the regions. The area is where the meeting place of each representative of the Allied Empires. Building good relationships and trust between them is what they are doing to retain their alliance until now.

Lastly, the Gardari, an extension to the Adamante Empire, is also one of the places where the ice and snow don't melt, so it is like winter for 3 seasons, the only thing to see the sun was only for a month because of the summer thingy, more like just peeking out to the clouds and such. One of the most dangerous places to live because it is also the breeding place of magical Beasts, so most people here are having a hard time since there are monsters all around them.

As we were about to feel the cold breeze around us, we prepared some things prior to entering the place itself, since this is going to be hard because it will be snowing hard real soon.

We stop for the night, the area is dangerous for us to travel because there are some monsters lurking around. I told Rebecca to prepare our clothes for the training since this is a good place to start and we need to boost ourselves against the cold weather. I told Leika and the coachman to stay behind and guard our things while we are gone since they also know how to fight as well, unlike me and Rebecca, we have our own style of training.

"Fuck, it's freaking cold, Cady, can you withstand this weather?" Leika said as he was shivering because of the cold breeze and was trying to light up the fire.

"Boohoo, Leika can't withstand the cold." Rebecca teases Leika and laughs hard as she was watching him trying to use the two sticks to cause a fire but failed.

"What the fu—FUCK! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE REBECCA—" Leika tried to stand up but the campfire made of rocks and sticks was crushed by his foot.

"Quiet, let's go, Rebecca, Leika stop being a bitch and moved on" I interrupted and went straight to the woods to find a good spot to warm up.

Rebecca stick her tongue out and runs after me, I heard Leika's blabbering mouth from afar, I sighed and started our usual training. Since it's cold, we take one step at a time as this will be hard for us because exercising in this weather requires some extra precaution and intensity. We must first have to increase our endurance, so we start running around the forest for a few hours.

Rebecca had to stop running as she needs to go back to the camp since she will be preparing our dinner tonight. I let her go and continue running until I sensed some low-tiered beasts, the wolf-tiger-looking monster, eating a deer. They saw me and run in my direction, as they were about to hit where my position is, I jumped backward and took out my dagger and imbued it with my ice magic.

The beasts retreated for a few steps as they saw me using my Ice Pillars to trap them up. I did these many times together with my ice spear to let them dance around. I smirked when they have already fallen into my tricks, while they are busy avoiding my skills, I already embarked on my ice floor behind them, causing them to outbalance their movements.

I manipulated my ice pillar and turn them into a cage form, trapping them inside, I moved forward towards them and made a final skill to erase their existence.

"This is nothing compared to the other beasts that I've encountered so far"

I concentrate on my dagger to form into wind, so it looks like a light blue-green combination, for some reason, I have experimented with my skills since then, and I can manage to mix up my auras into one. I can use other skills and combine them into one whenever I want since it won't let me run out of mana that easily.

"Icy Wind Blast"

The blue-green light emerges from my dagger, forming a shock wave of full pure force towards the beasts, causing great damage not just from them, but all around the 10-meter radius, forming a big hole. It also causes the ground to shake and loud noise from the cries near me.

Ah, my mistake, not gonna lie, I was a bit excited to finish them up. It seems that all the beasts around me died as well. I should learn how to control my powers in the future, Rebecca will surely get ma-

"MY LADY, WHAT HAPPENED, I HEARD A LOUD NOISE FROM THE CAMP?! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Oh shit.

I just shrugged, she saw me holding a dagger, a few seconds later she run towards me and checks every bit to see if I have a bruise or wounds around.

"What happened, Cady, and WHOA, THAT'S A BIG HOLE, HOLY SHIT" Leika saw the surroundings and was surprised to see the view of the battlefield.

"This is nothing, some small fry beasts I come across while I was running."

"Small fry? Are you serious? This is one of the beasts that have a great number of breeds around the place, did you just kill the babies?" Leika mentioned the 'babies', wait this is just the small beasts? I should search the area for the parents and finish them off.

"No worries, I'll finish them up as well, need to clear some of them for us to travel safely to the Archduke. Go back to camp and let me know if it's done."

At first, they didn't want to leave me behind as they are afraid of my safety since this area is one of the breeding grounds of they have called the "Tiger-Wolf beasts", the fastest breeding monsters in the region, as long as they have a number of females into the secluded place, they will breed as many as they want, and this is one of the problems in this Empire, so the knights here are having a hard time searching the breeding grounds.

"Hmm, let's start with the nearer ones, shall we?"

I run as fast as I could before my free time is over, Rebecca will get mad at me since she will surely give me an earful. I sense one from afar of the secluded caves, it is well hidden between the hills filled with icy spikes, and the other one is near the frozen lake, they made a hole below that and covered it with some of the barrier magic, no wonder the knights won't notice a thing unless you are a well-trained magic knight that has a good detection skill.

As I glanced at the icy hills, I went straight ahead and jumped at the tallest tree, and scouted the area. I saw the bigger-sized Tiger-Wolf breeds lurking around the place. I closed my eyes and focus using my Mana Search, this skill enables you to sense their mana nearby within a 5km radius or depending on the level of this skill.

"One, two, three, four,….. Fifteen. Including the babies, huh. That's a few"

I tried to lure them out using my wind blade skill in one of the beasts. This alarms them and went out of the cave, for some reason, they seemed to protect the female wolf-tiger. The beasts rushed towards me and released their big claws and were about to slash into my location, but I used my wind aura to evade their attacks.

After a few minutes, as we continue to exchange attacks, the beasts already got tired which made them move slower than before, once they knew we are far away, I quickly used my Ice spear mixed with lightning current and released it towards where the female Tiger-wolves are.

It is too late for the male beasts to return to where the breeders are, because the moment they are there, all of them are gone, including them due to the impact. These made the mountain-looking hills create a hole in the middle, and an avalanche was formed after, blocking the entrance of the cave killing most of the remaining beasts inside. I doubled check again using the same skill as before to see if there are some beasts who are still alive, when I know that there are no more signs of life, I went straight ahead to the next location.

Same scenario shit as the last time, I count the number of beasts below the frozen lake, and it's fewer than in the first one. This is easy for me to finish on time as I only did is to trap them up and filled them with my water skill, then mixed up with my lightning skill to roast them inside. After some loud cries and a few seconds later, I opened up the entrance which I blocked it using my hard ice that was formed into a big ball that can be sized up anytime, and check per usual if there are any live beasts inside, I walked slowly and saw their dead bodies around, and killed the rest of them using my knife.

As I was about to head out, I glimpsed again the area for final checking, I got interrupted by the cold wind towards me, I took the initiative to run back to the camp since I was out for a few hours already, and they are surely started to get worried if I can't go back on time.

"MY LADY, IT'S BEEN 6 HOURS SINCE YOU ARE GONE?!" Here she comes again, ugh, my ears.

"Stop it Rebecca, you are scaring the animals around, can you keep it lower"

"A-aa-apologies, my lady, I am just worried--"

"Ey, Cadyyyyy, you know that you have been gone for too long and the food is cold already" Leika interrupted.

"Shut up and reheat the food then, I just came back from clearing the shit" I blurted.

"Pfft, so how many are they recently? Intel told me that's just a many of them lurking around the area, your Grandpapi is having a hard time dealing with them lately as he was focusing on the other matters in the Royal Family in the North lately" Leika said while giving me the papers containing the most information we need in the area.

"So, it must be dealt with accordingly and precisely as fast as we can. We have a long way to go then, prepare yourselves. We will investigate and handle this on our own." Rebecca gave me dinner food as we sat down near the campfire.

"Also, serve this as one of the training, better be ready as this will take long before we arrive at the Archduke's place," I added then take a sip on this hot delicious creamy soup that Rebecca made.

"Yes, my lady," Both of them said in unison.

We finished our meal and head ourselves to our warm tent which Leika made, I told Rebecca to prepare the nightdress as I will rest and prepare ourselves the next day. In the morning, I woke up to the sound of the annoying man and a lady outside the tent.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT, I WILL WAKE UP THE LADY, IT IS MY JOB TO TAKE CARE OF HER NOT YOU!" Rebecca shouted and tried to block the entrance of the tent I was currently resting at.

"OY, MOVE IT, I AM THE ONE WHO WILL WAKE HER UP, I HAVE SOME IMPORTANT DISCUSSION REGARDING THE ISSUE IN THIS AREA," Leika replied as he was trying to evade Rebecca's arms.

"NO, YOU CAN'T, SHE'S RESTING AS YOU CAN SEE"

"SHUT UP, STEP ASIDE!"

"NO, YOU..."

"HEY, NO, YOU!"

"I SEE YOU WANT TO FIGHT ME EH?! BRING IT ON, CURLY FREAK!" Leika said as he took out his sword.

"AS IF YOU CAN DEFEAT ME, WEASLY BRAT" Rebecca took out her two daggers in between her thighs.

As they were about to clash, I went straight out and walked towards the middle of their fight, the two of them have no time to stop and were about to hit me when I used my wind aura barrier, causing them to fly away from my distance. I managed to secure them using my water ball to prevent them to get hit by the rock and a tree.

"It's too early in the morning yet you broke my peaceful time, are you guys done?" I said as released my water ball and both of them fell down from it.

"Awwww, Cady, that hurts like hell, you formed a cushion made out of the water," Leika said while holding his head.

"My lady, I'm sorry for the cause we had made here, this stupid idiot was disturbing you all along," Rebecca said while clearing up the dust in her clothes.

"WHA—"

"Quit yapping and prepare something, I'm hungry" I cut off Leika's irritating voice.

"Yes, Cady" Leika felt depressed while walking toward the supply cart.

I didn't mind the childish act of that idiot man and continued walking towards the mini creek. I went near the area and washed my face with the cold water, Rebecca tried to stop me since she already heated up the water for my supposed morning routine but I didn't agree and continued on with what I am doing.

After a few minutes, as I am done changing my winter training clothes, the group proceed on traveling, I didn't go inside the carriage as I was doing my warm-up exercise by walking, followed by running after, the usual basic physical training in winter because I don't like forcing my body too much just because we are not used to this kind of weather, Rebecca did the same thing as what I did.

Half a day passed as we continue running around and encountered many beasts along the way, we decided to stop at the moment and prepared lunch. I suggest the two of them start to hunt around the area with some food if they can find anything that is edible. They are unsure at first but I reminded them that this is also a part of the training, after a few seconds, they went out on their own and I decided to stay in the camp because no one is guarding our horses and the supplies.

I can hear the loud scream noise and banging of the random beasts from afar, hmm, good job, looks like they already know how to handle the situation very well. I saw the coachman come back with the bucket filled with water for the horses. Uhm, I forgot that we have this guy all along, never mind.

Two hours tick by and they are still not back yet, where the fuck are those two have gone? I tried to sense them using my mana search and suddenly stood up as I noticed that they are in great danger.

"Not good, they can't beat that thing, hey coachman, guard this camp for a bit. I am heading to where those idiots are" I ran after saying that, the coachman understands the situation and continued on brushing the horses.

I ran as fast as I could to arrive at the area, but the location was too far, around 1.2km, so it took me around 15 minutes to reach them. As I was about to go near the place where they are, I saw Leika push back and hit on the tree with a quick violet attack from that thing, causing him to faint. Rebecca tried hard to evade as well, but unfortunately, she didn't notice the tail behind her and was hit unexpectedly, I saw her fall down and her blood was gushing out from her mouth.

As that thing was about to attack Rebecca again, I quickly ran towards to rescue her and used Ice Mist, causing the area to create cold breeze smoke to distract the beast itself. When that thing was searching for us, I dragged Leika out of the area and went far to the safe place for them to hide, I used my water flow magic and heal their wounds. This took a while as the wounds are almost fatal because their vital points were hit by that thing, after a few seconds, I heard groaning sounds and their breathing patterns were normal now.

"Rest, I'll handle this"

"M-my lad-y, i-it's d-dang-ee-rous"

"Shh, just don't move, Sleep."

After that, they went asleep soundly well, knowing their safety was secured, I head straight back to where that thing was. Damn, they encountered the Noble beast, talk about bad timing.

-*Grrrrrrrr…-*

"So, why does a dragon seek refuge in this area? I thought you guys are extinct years ago?" I glanced at the dragon. Seems like he was very injured from those two.

-*GROOOOOOOOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLARRRRRWWWWWWWWR-*

The dragon jumps high and was about to body-slam me, I managed to avoid this and causing the area to crack and made a small hole. The beast suddenly used his tail to sway just like what he did to Rebecca, I blocked it using my windshield barrier but it broke after a few seconds. Knowing that my shield was broken, I bend down to fully evade its tail and tumble across the other side. While at it, I throw some stones at the beast and tried to slash him up, but his armor was so stiff that any normal weapon can't manage to slice them whole.

His tail went straight up to the big rocks, causing the dragon to stumble. I took out the sword and used 3 auras and infuse them into my wooden sword. Since the dragon has a double armored skin, I thought of using wind, water, and ice magic instead of lightning, since it will cause another destruction in the area again. I keep on being distracted because of his nonstop frisky movements as he was trying to get up, I can't get near him yet.

"Ha…Haaa…I need timing on this, can't you stop moving, beast?" I gasped while trying to evade his tail and stepped back trying to think of a way to end this.

"Phew, If I can't move forward, I can just go up, right? Well then." I added.

I searched for a higher place to run by, manage only to see the biggest tree near him that hasn't been taken down. I jumped high until I reached the peak point. Once there, I quickly glanced at the beast and sensed his core in the center, near the heart.

"Fucking cold out here, I want a warm bath after this"

I positioned myself and concentrate on my wooden sword, focusing all my auras mixing together into one, and transferring it to the weapon, creating a beautiful teal-colored aura, it feels warm when you used it. I closed my eyes and jumped toward the dragon and turned in which my body was upside down and pointed my weapon to where the core of the dragon is.

"Aura Forcekinesis"

The force of my weapon went straight to the center, to where the core is, resulting in the dragon ending his life immediately and its area beside us caused destructive outburst due to my skill, so it seems I overused my power again, I don't see any trees around as well as the other organisms, I think they were blasted away. Uh-oh.

I walk towards the dead dragon and slashed up his skin, this will be good for producing armors in the future. After a few minutes, I dragged both of them back to the camp and let them rest for a day since they are safe from death.

Morning passed by as nothing happened and I glanced at the two of them approaching me while I was eating my breakfast. We talked ahead of about what was happen after they have fainted, I told them that I manage to kill the dragon and brought back some precious souvenirs. This made them surprised as this is one of the rarest materials we find since the dragon should be extinct and is hard to find after 50 years, I shrugged and finished off my food like usual.

"My lady, we apologize that we are a bother to you, it won't happen again in the future." Rebecca bowed down despite having slight back pain.

"No worries, it is unexpected. Now you know the possible threats that will happen to you some other times. This is also a part of your training, but this time, I will thoroughly be watching you from afar and testing you all out sometimes while we travel, so I don't want to hear any blabbering nonsense or you'll be deadbeat for sure, understand?" I said while searching for a bandage for Leika.

"Yes, Cady/ My lady!" both said in unison, again. Hmm.

"Now pack things up, we have some work to do"

"Awww, Cady, can you see I'm still hu--- WHOA HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! I AM SORRY, SHIT DUDE, KEEP YOUR KNIFE DOWN, I WAS JUST JOKING" Leika run towards Rebecca and hides behind her back after seeing me take out two knives from my mini pocket. I just said no blabbering shit, jeez.

We continue traveling nonstop for a few days, eventually, I keep on tracking the two down and helping them maintain their composure when it comes to fighting beasts, but over time they are showing great performance and learned to control and discover their own skills. Not gonna lie, those two have a good combination, but the downside is, they are sometimes fighting when it comes to who will take care of me in the end, I just gave them a piece of my skill and that will be over immediately as I was getting annoyed by them.

Three months have passed, and reports told me that the magical beasts around have lessened compared to before, so it will be easy for the travelers and tourists to drop by the Empire safely.

As we approach the gate of the Border, I glimpsed the area around, I saw the castle from afar, looks like it wasn't taken care of because of the blizzard weather. The guards stopped us and questioned me about the reason for the visit. I took out the necklace that my mother gave me when I was so young.

The guard was shocked when he saw the pendant with a Lion-snake figure on it and let us through the gates to the castle, for some reason, the guard used some kind of communication device to inform the people inside that we have an unexpected guest that arrived shortly.

As we are traveling inside, I saw how beautiful and big the place is, despite the cold weather, somehow it is not scary as the people we passed by are waving at us. Weird.

After that, as we are getting near the castle, I saw the figure of an old man at the entrance, together with the butler, the maids, and the knights of the easts, preparing for the 'guests' which was me. The carriage stopped afterward and went down, as usual, Leika hold my hand carefully and thanked him after.

As I was about to approach them, I bowed down and greet the most respectful man in the Empire.

"Greetings, Archduke Felis Archon Valente. It is I, Cadyssa Von Bloodhound from the Adamante Empire. Greet the War Hero with respect and gratitude."

"Cadyssa, it's been a long time, how are you?"

"Oh, I am fine Archduke. Thank you. I am glad to see you as well"

"Stop the formalities, let's head inside and warm you guys up. You must be tired from the long travel you had."

"Thank you again, Archduke" He stopped and turned around, I tilted my head to know if there is something wrong with him.

"Cadyssa, you know that I am sad and in despair after what happened to you since the accident? That bastard should learn his lesson for leaving his daughter out, even your stupid brother as well." He blurted as I sensed his aura leaking out due to anger.

"I am fine, right now I am just a dead daughter, Archduke, I only have you left"

*chuckles*

"Fine, fine let's head inside and we'll talk about your stories, I'll prepare some warm tea and snacks for us."

"Yes, Archduke"

"Again, Cadyssa, don't call me Archduke, you'll make me sad"

"Yes, Grandfather" I smiled and we continue walking inside the castle.