11. Savior of the Western Continent

It's been two days since I started my journey towards the Moniyan empire, I'm almost there, will reach my destination in a few hours.

As I keep walking, I start hearing voices, there are two people talking in a clearing few feet away from me. I hide behind a tree and take a quick glance towards the clearing.

It seems the two of them just finished fighting, one is Gusion. Just by seeing the confidence in his eyes I can tell who's the victor of the skirmish. The other one is wearing heavy armor, but his shield lies completely on the ground beside him and he's barely holding his sword anymore.

Taking a closer look at the person in armor, he's probably in his late twenties, has a blue hair, fair skin, his armor have blue plates in it. I've seen a similar figure in newspaper once...this person goes by the name Alaster, and he was quite legendary. But would he lose so easily to Gusion? Or maybe is Gusion that strong for someone to deal against.

Their conversation gives me answers to that question,

"The legendary warrior Alaster! The savior of Western Continent, the priest in armor. They say you've travelled the world, saving countless of villages from destruction. That you've fought ten rock golems by yourself just to save a child. I assume this goes to show you should never trust legends, huh? If legends are as weak as you on the other realm, I don't know what are we preparing for."

He stops as he sensed my existence behind the tree.

"Who's there?!"

I stay silent, trying to breathe as slowly as possible.

Then he threw one dagger which goes past beside me, immediately turning direction and flies right towards me aiming into my throat. I sit down to avoid the dagger.

"Quite a reflex you got there, we meet again."

I take a big breath as I stand up, I can't afford to get defeated by the same person again. I've trained with Hayabusa, it's time to show him that I'm not the same person anymore.

I used quad shadow, a skill which summons four shadows in four directions, which lets me teleport in and out at will for the time being. This will be my main strategy to dodge his daggers.

I see a shock on his face as I appear in front of him, I attempt to stab him but he blocks with his daggers, then I slashed his daggers which sent them flying in the air.

He teleported behind me to throw five more daggers at me, same trick won't work twice on me. I teleport back to other shadow as he throws those daggers at me, after he missed his daggers I immediately re appear in front of him, slashing him few times on his body, it's hard to tell if he's taking much damage since he's wearing a metal suit, but I can tell he's having a hard time now.

After landing few more hits I attempt to stab his chest directly, he tries to stop it with his hands, he managed to change the direction and my sword broke a piece of of his armor near the shoulder. His hands were bleeding, I know he can't use his daggers anymore.

But I was wrong, he summoned ten daggers in his hands, throwing all at me which I got hit by most of them and immediately recalling the daggers back to his hand, I fall on ground, I can't stop this massive flow of blood from my body.

"I see you've improved a lot, you caught me off guard, but it's not over yet. I'll be seeing both of you again." Gusion teleports as he says these words.

During the time we were fighting, Alaster seems to have completely healed himself, and now proceeding towards me to heal me, he points his sword at me, I get enveloped in white light, healing my wounds, just like the healing crystal.

"You had no obligation to save me," he says. "But you did so anyway, at the risk of your own life. I cannot let such selflessness go unrewarded. I, Alaster, vow to this day that I offer you my protection from this moment. Tell me, brave soul, what is your name?"

"It's.. my name is Lucifer."

"Speaking of names, aren't you supposed to be hero of a legend? How exactly does one as strong as you get bested so easily by a dagger user?"

"Oh, that...."

He sounds embarrassed.

"You see, Lucifer, I may be powerful but that doesn't mean I don't have any weakness."

"I could never master the shield spell properly, I can defend from magic just fine, it's normal weapons which I have trouble with, that's why I wear an armor, use sword and a shield. I first started using them because I couldn't use my shield spell properly, but soon I started tailoring my magic around them, and my very fighting style. I found a master that would teach me to fight with weapons, and I used my magic to enchant them.

Then, after every fight I'd use my white magic to heal my wounds like I did just now."

"Gusion can control his daggers at will, and there were many of them attacking me simultaneously. If i had a proper shield spell to defend against them, defeating him would be a child's play. But defending against all those daggers with a sword and a shield alone would have been impossible regardless of my combat style. All armors have their weaknesses. All he had to do was go for the armor's joints repeatedly, untill he wore me out"

"Why are you telling me all these? Shouldn't you be at least a bit worried about telling your greatest weakness to someone you just met?"

"Hey, you just saved my life! So you can't be that bad right?"

"I guess you have a point.."

"So what are you going to do now?" asks Alaster.

"I was heading to the Moniyan empire."

"Let me lead the way then, I just came from there."

"Sure. Wait, how did you come to Land of Dawn?"

"I received a direct invitation from the Emperor, saying they require my help."

"I see."

As we were talking, we continued to head towards Moniyan empire."