First fight

The duo makes their way along the main path, it is not traveled by many as it connects the small village of Sanryu to the city of Deria, and there are not many people who know about this village, not to mention it has nothing special to see or know.

"How long does it take to get to this city?" Lurue doesn't want to take long to get to Deria.

"A week on foot, if we had a carriage or horses, it would have taken us half the time." Sanryu answers Lurue's question, is inside whether he regrets not having a horse.

"What?! Does it take that long to get there? Let's run, it will take us a lot less." Lurue prepares to run towards Deria.

"Stop right there! First of all, I'm not as fast as you, second of all I want to use this time to get a feel for the camp, and third of all I want to test the limits of my fencing skills against some creature." Sanryu stops Lurue instantly and explains to him why he shouldn't rush things. 'But shouldn't the gods have a different perception of time than ours? Since they are immortal beings, for them a week could not even come close to the blink of an eye.' Sanryu finds a goddess like Lurue strange.

"How boring! But I'm curious to see how you fare in combat, don't disappoint me." Lurue admits to being a little curious about Sanryu's fighting style.

"I'll try to do my best." Sanryu doesn't want to make a bad impression in front of a goddess like Lurue, but it will all depend on her abilities.

After the whole day spent walking, the duo decides that the time has come to stop and start lighting the fire for the camp. Even if all this serves Sanryu, given that a goddess like Lurue doesn't need to eat or sleep, but shortly after stopping, foreign presences approach their position.

"I feel something approaching us, multiple presences." Sanryu's senses awaken, and they sense the presence of some being.

'Incredible, to think that he noticed it almost immediately, despite being a novice, is no small feat.' Lurue had already perceived these foreign presences, and also knows the identity of these beings, but she does not reveal anything, and observes how Sanryu will behave. "You have good senses, congratulations." Lurue tells him just that.

"I thank you." Sanryu brings his hands to the lining positioned on her belt, ready to draw his sword. 'I won't be able to use the techniques my father taught me to their full potential, not with this type of sword, it's not a katana, but I will try to adapt to the situation.' Sanryu turns his attention to the approaching presences, ready to sprint at any moment.

Silence falls, and you can only hear the rustle of the cool evening wind, increasing the tension on the boy's muscles. "Don't get anxious, your enemy definitely has the advantage, since he decided to attack you as soon as the sun went down, he wants to take advantage of the poor visibility of your eyes, this means that he knows his prey." Lurue tries to calm Sanryu, apparently he has no intention of intervening in this fight.

"So they've fought humans before, or they know them well enough to know that we don't have good vision at night." Sanryu begins to think about what creature could attack them like this.

The long silence is broken by a sudden sound of tension, like a string being pulled.

'A bow?!' Sanryu immediately thinks of a bow, and without even thinking about it, he performs a lateral somersault, avoiding a possible arrow shot towards him, an arrow that actually arrived, but hit nothing. 'They have weapons, so they are not beasts.' Sanryu realizes that the enemies are humanoid creatures, oh at least capable of using weapons.

"Hmph, how ridiculous." An arrow is also shot at Lurue, but the latter dodges it with a simple gesture of her hand, not getting a single scratch.

*Growl* *Growl*

'These lines...I've never heard them.' Sanryu doesn't recognize these growls coming from the forest, so he can't figure out who he's fighting, but it's not long before the enemy reveals himself to the pair.

The first individual comes out, followed by two others behind him, these beings are humanoids and therefore walk on two legs, but they are not humans, indeed they are creatures known as Gnolls. Gnolls are a kind of cross between a human and a hyena, they are said to be the children of a demon lord, Yeenoghu The Lord of Savagery. They are driven by the pure instinct to hunt and bring ruin to the other races that inhabit Ethia, they mostly live in the middle of the forests, or inside caves, they are scattered throughout Ethia and sometimes they also decide to make immigrations towards others places.

'There are three of them, armed with clubs and axes...but there must be others hidden, since I don't see that they have bows equipped.' Sanryu believes that it is not just the three of them who are here, but there should be others hidden somewhere else, ready to take advantage of the boy's distraction.

"Hehe fresh meat, brothers." The first one to appear begins to speak, a hoarse and shrill voice comes out of his jaws with an evil grin. It is rare for gnolls to be able to speak the human language, as they are not very interested in learning languages other than demonic language. Their terrifying sharp, dirty brown eyes look at Sanryu as if he were a juicy prey. "Attack the male...we'll think about the female later." The leader must have realized that Lurue is much stronger than Sanryu, so he targeted the boy.

The two gnolls who were behind the leader rush towards Sanryu with their axes. 'I've only vaguely heard about gnolls, they're not tactical fighters, they just rely on pure hunting instinct.' Sanryu has to play smart.

The first gnoll reaches him and launches a slash with his axe, but Sanryu avoids the blow with ease, but he cannot distract himself as the second gnoll reaches him and also launches a blow with his weapon, but this too misses, Sanryu's agility is clearly superior to the two of them, but this doesn't make the beasts give up.

The gnolls attack the boy with increasingly sudden slashes, driven more by the nervousness of not being able to even scratch the boy, rather than by the thirst for battle. 'Their movements are basic and easy to predict, typical of beasts that get carried away by the rush.' The jaws of the gnolls churn a large amount of drool, due to their great hunger.

"What are you idiots doing?! Kill him!" The leader orders his subordinates to hurry up and kill Sanryu, but the two gnolls can't even reach him.

'I'd say I've memorized their movements, it's time to act-' Just when Sanryu was about to react, two arrows fly towards him, the first one he manages to dodge but the second one, pierces one of the boy's thighs. "Argh!!" Sanryu groans in pain, but he can't afford to distract himself since the two gnolls in front of him won't leave him alone. 'Curse!' He curses in his mind as he barely dodges an ax blow that was about to decapitate his head.

"Take advantage now that he's hurt." The leader of the gnolls orders his subordinates to take advantage of Sanryu's moment of weakness, in order to have a certain victory.

The two gnolls don't have to be told twice, they attack Sanryu with even more ardor. 'It's not over yet, I have to get rid of them before the poison starts to take effect on my body.' Sanryu is 100% sure that these gnolls' arrows were covered in poisons, so he must hurry up and kill these creatures.

Even with his injured thigh, Sanryu endures the pain and even manages to put it aside for the time he needs to face the two gnolls. With rapid movements, he dodges the slash of the first gnoll, and launching a slash with his sword, heavily wounds the beast's neck, leaving a large cut on the flesh. Black ichor comes out of the wound, bleeding the creature dry, which almost immediately collapses to the ground, trying to stop the blood from flowing out with its paw, but without success. The second gnoll rushes behind the boy, but Sanryu was already prepared for an attack from behind, he uses a side thrust, moves to the gnoll's side and inserts the tip of his sword into his snout, piercing the beast's brain , rendering her instantly helpless. The two gnolls fall to the ground, lifeless, and Sanryu observes their leader, the latter has eyes full of anger and his gaze looks straight at the boy.

"You'll regret it, human." But contrary to what Sanryu expected, the leader returned to the darkness of the forest, bringing with him the other gnolls hidden in the bushes.

Sanryu looks towards the thigh where the arrow is stuck, it's like his father taught him, he extracts it with precision and accuracy, trying not to break it is causing damage, that is, leaving the tip of the arrow inside the flesh, in that case it would be more complicated to extract this tip. After extracting the arrow, Sanryu immediately takes an antidote, prepared by his father, and drank it in one gulp, in this way he should be safe from possible poisoning, and finally bandaged the wound with medical socks.

"This is how it should go." Sanryu sighs, having finished everything.

"If you had been more decisive, you wouldn't have to do all this at this hour." Suddenly Lurue's voice reaches Sanryu's ears, causing him to turn his gaze towards the goddess. "You have excellent reading of movements, but it's still too rough, you need to be faster. The same goes for your reaction times, you need to be faster, you should have eliminated those gnolls in no time with your skills, but instead you have too much stalling, too much insecurity. And if you had been quicker, you could have avoided that arrow, because you already knew that they would aim at your blind spots as soon as the two gnolls charged at you." Lurue corrects all of Sanryu's mistakes and admonishes him, giving him some tips.

"You're right...I stalled too much with those gnolls, if I had been more confident, I would have eliminated them faster, thanks for your advice, Lurue. But now there's no use crying over spilled milk, I have to set up camp. " Sanryu doesn't lose heart and promises himself to do more next time.

"Sleep peacefully, I'll take care of keeping watch, after all I don't need sleep. Surely those gnolls will return during the night, I'll keep them at bay with my aura." Lurue tells Sanryu to stay calm, as long as she's around, no gnoll will come near.

"Thank you, Lurue, then I'll take advantage of it." Sanryu lights the bonfire and begins to cook some meat, which she also gives to Lurue to try, the goddess seems to be happy with the good flavor of the meat, mixed with spices and condiments cooked by Sanryu. Once he has finished eating, the boy puts his sleeping bag on the ground and begins to sleep.

"You did well, Sanryu." These are the words that Lurue says to the boy as soon as she falls asleep, while numerous shadows surround the duo, but as soon as the goddess lets out her aura, those creatures run away from fear of her. "Hmph! Stupid beasts."