The sun rose in the horizon, slowly filling the capital of Lisbea with its sunlight, indicating the start of the day for most of its inhabitants. The night shifters returned to their homes to sleep most of the day, the bakers prepare to open their stores to sell the bread they have been preparing since 4 AM, the items shop owners give their stores a clean up before opening their doors, the average citizen woke up knowing that they had a job to attend, from farmers to the town hall employees. In the depths of the castle, the guards from the night change places with the guards from the day and those soldiers who don't have to guard begin preparing themselves for their usual training routine while most nobles remain asleep and few of them start their days for whatever reason they could have.
Inside a residence that was hard to tell if it was a house or rather a hut, the first rays of sunlight woke up Lyle, who found himself sleeping on an old couch covered by a single blanket. The swordsman cleared his sight, blurred by the sudden strike of light. Lyle felt something soft clinging against him, it was Stella.
The first time it had been extremely uncomfortable, but this was already the fourth time in the last month he had woken up with the healer so close to him, and this time instead of freaking out or pushing her, he just blushed a bit as he stood up with calm, trying to not wake her up.
Since Mistia had joined the party, she let them stay at her place. They had to sleep on the couch, it was a comfortable couch despite being very old. It was also considerably cheaper than renting a room every night at the guild.
Usually, Lyle and Ascalon shared the couch and the blanket, but when it had happened that Stella couldn't find someone to stay the night with, and even though the couch was only suitable for two people, Ascalon had no problem with sleeping on the floor, he actually seemed to like it more than sleeping on the couch, not to mention that every morning when Lyle woke up he would always find him cozy on the floor.
Sharing the couch with Stella wasn't easy for Lyle at first, of course a 19 years old would be nervous of sharing his sleep with an incredibly attractive girl, especially if said girl had the infame of being sort of a whore, but honestly, that statement is being too soft on her. But anyways, Lyle at first refused sharing the couch with her but Stella was very insistent, and her Soothing Hands ability didn't make it easy for him to resist. As already mentioned, the first time when Lyle had woken up hugging her, it had been very awkward and it got him very flustered, but with each following time, it actually had become less uncomfortable. Maybe it was that he was getting used to it? Or was it because of his bond with the girl becoming stronger during the last month?
Whatever the reason was, as Lyle stood up and looked at Stella's beautiful face as she remained asleep, he noticed that he had really been getting more used to being around her, each time, her flirtatious and somewhat degenerate behavior had less effect on him. He was seeing her less than just as a stranger woman, and instead he was now seeing her as a genuine friend. That time she had helped him overcome his early stage of grief that made him almost kill himself training had helped, but ever since then, being around her and acting just casually with the healer had formed a true bond between them, she had gone from a caring companion to a true friend.
As Lyle tried to walk to the little kitchen of the place, he almost stepped on Ascalon, what to say about Ascalon, his best friend, always there for him since they were four. He had always been weird, the axeman had always been very reluctant to social relationships with other people that weren't Lyle, actively choosing not to socialize with more people, which had always been weird to the blonde. When they met Ascalon was very eager to start a friendship but with every other person, he always found a way to keep them away, and it didn't have anything to do with the thing of 'as you grow up it's harder to make friends', this has been a thing since day one.
It was a weird trait of his best friend, but that's the guy Lyle had grown accustomed to, if he changed his ways, that would really freak him out. Speaking of changes, that made Lyle think on other thing, Ascalon's general behavior, since the tragedy, Ascalon had shown a very indifferent opinion about it, almost like if he didn't care, while for Lyle, thinking about that always made him feel sad and nostalgic, but Ascalon was more like 'oh, yes, that happened'. Lyle just found it so strange, maybe it was his coping mechanism? He couldn't tell, and he knew for a fact that if he asked, Ascalon would find a way to dismiss the question. The swordsman knew his best friend like no one else did.
As the blonde took some silent steps to the kitchen to use some boiled water left from the previous night to make some tea, he looked to his right, at Mistia's bedroom door.
Things with Mistia were weird, to say the least. She and Lyle were so similar yet so different. They shared many likes, even though their personalities were so distinct. It was weird, yet being with her was nice for Lyle, sometimes they would go along to take a walk or go to the nearest bakery for a bun and just talk about something they like. And as a team they were pretty good, the feeling that Lyle felt when Mistia used her dark magic to boost him, was like a rush that accelerated his heart. He really liked Mistia.
After being lost in thought for some minutes, the swordsman reacted and continued with the part of boiling the water. He reached the pot with water and poured a bit into a cup. Lyle then grabbed some tea leaves to put them in the cup, and using a little spoon, he would add a bit of honey into the water, to give it a sweet touch. He would mingle the drink using the spoon and put it aside once he had mingled it enough. Lyle drank the tea in small sips, he didn't had any hurries, the tea definitely wasn't warm but neither cold, it was just fine, and on a sunny morning of spring like this, something hot was definitely not a preference, as cold as previous night could've been, the recently raised sun was quickly warming up the air. Lyle stood by the curtainless window of the house and looked outside, the sight wasn't anything spectacular, just a bunch of other houses of similar appearance to Mistia's, but the bright light of the sun that reflected on the surfaces almost made it look pretty.
The silence would be promptly interrupted by the sound of grunts, in the minutes Lyle spent looking at the window while drinking his cup of tea, the sun had continued moving and its rays of light had reached Stella's eyes, partly waking her up. The healer grunted at the feeling of the sudden burst of light getting into her eyes, in an attempt to get away from the annoying light, she rolled into the floor, hitting the ground and waking her up completely. Lyle stared at her as she made an effort to stand up while she continued grunting.
"Good morning, Stella" The blonde said in a whisper as to not bother his still sleeping friend.
"Uh? Whut?" A sleepy Stella would respond as she looked at Lyle without bothering to lower her voice.
In silence, Lyle would make her a sign to keep her voice down, which would take Stella a few seconds to understand as her vision was not clear yet, but once she had understood the sign she made a sign of approbation. The healer would stretch while Lyle once again turned back to look at the window. Moments after, Stella walks to the window to stand next to Lyle.
"Did you sleep well?" Lyle asked in a whisper.
"Yes… I did" Stella answered with a low voice as she stretched her back. "What about you?".
"I had a good rest" The blonde responded.
"Of course you did, you had my soft body to snuggle to" Stella declared with a smirking face.
Lyle didn't bother to respond to his companion's declaration, by this point he was already used to this kind of comments from her. Stella continued smiling while looking at Lyle and decided to look through the window as well, after some moments she opened the window, allowing a nice spring breeze to enter the house. The healer takes a deep breath of fresh air with a relaxed expression on her face.
"So refreshing", Stella said with closed eyes and an expression of serenity.
"It is", Lyle agreed as he took another sip to his tea.
"Lyle, have I ever told you how much I love spring?" The healer commented as she leaned on the window frame.
"I don't think so" The blonde responded with a little relaxed smile on his face.
"Well, I do, it's my favorite season of the year actually" Stella revealed.
"It is? May I know why?" Lyle questioned as he took another sip of his tea.
"Why do I love spring? That's an easy question to answer" Stella said as her gaze rose to the sky.
"During autumn and winter, everything begins to die, plants, animals, even humans. Those are really though parts of the year for all living beings, seeing how the nature seems to perish for two entire seasons, and then, spring arrives, and it's like if it was magic, everything comes back to life, the trees recover their leaves, the animals have their babies and the nature in general, recovers all of what makes it so beautiful".
The swordsman stared astonished at the girl standing next to him, he could not believe that such words could come from the person who half of the words she spoke in a day were about sex.
"And now that I think of it, I believe that is a reason why I'm more devoted to the goddess of life over the other gods. She reminds me of the spring" The healer declared.
"Huh" Lyle spoke up after taking another sip of his tea. "Why is that? For what I remember from my theology classes, the goddess of nature is the divinity associated with this season of the year".
"Well, that may be true, but, just like spring restores the beauty and life of nature, the goddess of life does something similar. I remember what I read years ago, that she has the power to restore the capacity of anything to give life. I remember when I was younger, my grandmother had recently passed away, and I asked at my classes of healing magic if I could ever learn a spell that could bring people back to life" The healer looked at her hands.
"My teacher was pretty straightforward with me, I could not. No matter how talented I was or how much I attempted, bringing someone back from death is impossible, even for the goddess of life herself." She looked at the sky.
"That was what awakened my curiosity to know more about the goddess of life. I looked up information about her, and I was fascinated, at how she with a single swing of her arm, could give even the most inhospitable of the lands the capacity to grow life again. And it is fascinating, because at the end, life is a cycle isn't it? No matter how much death there is, everything will be born again eventually, even if it is not in the same form and it's just… I don't know if what I'm saying makes any sense, I… I'm kinda just saying things as they come to my mind to be honest" She chuckled, a bit ashamed.
"I honestly don't know much about that topic myself, but if it makes sense to you, it makes sense to me" Lyle told her as he gave another sip to his tea, only to realize that he had already finished it.
Stella got a bit flustered by the words of her friend, being treated so friendly by men wasn't something she was really used to, Lyle was the only man in her life to ever treat her like this. It's not like Ascalon was some kind of douchebag with her or anything, overall he wasn't very polite with anyone but Lyle, he was respectful at most, and being respectful was not the same as being friendly. A little awkward silence was formed between the two team members, but that silence quickly disappeared by the sound of Ascalon standing up and stretching his body, making his bones crack for sleeping on the hard wooden floor, and despite that it didn't seem like he had a bad sleep.
"Good morning" Ascalon said, stretching while his bones cracked, although he didn't seem to feel any pain.
"Good morning, Ascalon", Lyle said, attempting to drink a sip of his already non-existent tea.
"Good morning", Stella said, giving Ascalon a smile. "Did you sleep well?".
"Indeed", Ascalon replied.
Lyle offered his friend a tea which the axeman rejected, he'd prefer to go out and eat something, although it would take at least another hour for restaurants around the city to open their doors, but it was still early, there were no hurries.
Lyle, Ascalon and Stella maintained a short casual conversation without any really important topics, just a bunch of friends chatting about the first thing that comes to their minds. However, their thoughts would be cut short at the sound of the creak of Mistia's door opening. From inside the bedroom, the woman emerged, already dressed up and already combed. Mistia gave off an air of royalty and elegance, almost like a princess, just as every morning, it was a weird time of the day where she didn't seem like her soul had abandoned her a long time ago or being shy and demure. And said and done, this air of royalty disappeared almost immediately once Mistia made eye contact with her partners.
The typical morning greetings were given, Lyle offered his companion a cup of tea which she gladly accepted, so the swordsman quickly put hands on the job to make the cup of tea, he made it the exact same way as he had done his minutes ago. Once the drink had been stirred he handed it to Mistia, who kindly accepted the tea cup and soon took a sip of it.
"Delicious", Mistia said with a warm smile that Lyle found pretty cute.
About three hours later, around 10 AM, after a satisfying breakfast at one of many restaurants they used to attend, the group found themselves at the guild, looking for a mission to accomplish that day. The place was unusually crowded in comparison to other days.
They were in front of the board, Stella was toying with her chest while she leaned against a wooden pillar, Mistia and Lyle looked at a great dragon poster someone had put without actually looking at the rest of the poster and commented how good the drawing was, and then there was Ascalon, the only one actually looking for a mission, he spotted one that caught his attention, so he extended his hand to take the poster to give it a better look.
At that moment, Ascalon's hand grazed against another hand, about the same size as his but surprisingly smooth, he looked at his left to see who's hand it was, there he spotted a guy that was about the same height as him, his eyes were a light blue, his hair was short and black and he had a little goatee, he seemed to be somewhat fit, the man's clothing was a predominance of light blue colors and some wave like details. However this man was, he was clearly not hiding his capacity to use water magic. The man stared at him for a while, with a challenging look, the mission that had caught Ascalon's attention didn't seem to be the big deal, yet that guy's look made it seem like a big deal. A few moments after that, Ascalon decided to back off, and so did the man, with a pretentious look on his face.
"Sorry, Am I too intimidating for you?" The mysterious man said, catching the attention of Stella, Lyle and Mistia, who looked at him with curiosity.
Three other people appeared behind the water guy, catching the attention of the entire squad. One of them was a particularly short girl, she stood next to the water guy, holding his arm, her head barely reached his shoulders. Her hair was of a blazing reddish color and was just long enough to reach her shoulders, her eyes were amber colored, she seemed to be wearing some make up, but it was barely a soft pink lipstick, her figure was slim without any particular highlights and her attire was similar to the water guy's, however, hers had a predominance of red colors and flames details, and not so subtle sign of her being a fire magic user.
The third one was a short guy, he wasn't as short as the girl but he was still short. His hair was black and spiky, tied up in a fairly long ponytail and having two particularly long sideburns that looked like lightning, his eyes were amber like the girl's but a tad less intense, his face didn't show any signs of any kind of beard, his clothing possessed many thunder details, he was clearly an electric magic user, and around his waist he had a belt with a sheath with a thin and long sword, for the looks of it, the sword was most likely made to make fast and accurate slashes.
The fourth person was a big guy, like, really big, he was a head taller than Ascalon, that combined with his wide musculature made him look even bigger, he had some prominent muscles that quickly caught Stella's attention, and the man wasn't shy to show off his muscles, doing little yet noticeable poses that stirred something inside Stella, his hair was a light brown, he also had a little mustache, his eyes were a strong brown, and his clothing was lacking, he wore no shirt and most of the lower part of his brown pants was ragged, he also had no shoes or boots and he had a belt that instead of a belt it was a chain around his waist.
The water guy continued to give Ascalon a mockery expression, waiting for him to respond to his question.
"If someone like you could intimidate me, I wouldn't even have considered becoming an adventurer", Ascalon replied with a slightly annoyed face.
"Excuse me?" The short girl asked with a hint of anger.
"Do you know who you are talking to?" She questioned while tightening her grip to the water guy's arm.
"I have never seen you in my life, so, no, I have no idea, and honestly I don't care" Ascalon responded, he was getting really annoyed.
The axeman continued to look at the strangers with an annoyed expression which Lyle noticed, he couldn't blame him, he was getting annoyed as well, but he was worried about what Ascalon might try to do to them. Mistia just looked at them with a curious expression, for what she could detect none of them possessed a power worth showing off. Stella stared at the big guy with lust in her eyes, the man noticed her gaze on him but it didn't seem like he understood the expression on her face.
"Well, then, allow us to enlighten you, ignorant axeman" The water guy, who seemed to be the leader of that group.
"Why? I said I don't care who you are" Ascalon questioned with confusion and annoyance.
The ambience had a sudden chance as the group of strangers began doing some weird choreography, and by how well executed it looked, they sure practiced it a lot. All of them began doing weird poses as they took position. The big guy positioned himself in the back most part while he raised his arms in the air as he flexed his muscles.
"Terrac!", he yelled with a strong and deep voice and almost made Stella melt.
The guy with spiky hair positioned himself slightly in front of Terrac but a bit more to the right from the perspective of the squad, he stood in a simple pose as he crossed his arm turning his back on the squad and turning his head just enough for one of his eyes to be visible.
"Raphael", he said in a very poor attempt of making a deep voice, causing him to cough a bit before saying his name again, his natural voice was somewhat deep, but all the seriousness aura he could've given got screwed by his poor try of making it even deeper.
Next up, the redhead girl positioned herself similarly to Raphael, but being at the left instead of the right, she stretched her left leg while flexing her right leg and both of her arms lifted in a diagonal position to her right.
"Elene!" she screamed, her amber eyes almost literally turning on fire with her attempt of deepening her voice, which unlike Raphel's, she actually had a very high pitched voice.
Finally, the leader stood right in front of Terrac, standing slightly more afar from him than Raphael and Elene, made some strange movements with his right arm by moving it like a clock around him to finish off by getting on a knee and raising both of his arms diagonally in opposite directions.
"Dante!" He screamed with a powerful voice.
"And-" Terrac said.
"Together-" Raphael said.
"We-" Elene said.
"Are!" Dante said.
"The Elementals!" The four of them yelled in unison.
"Could you turn down your voice?!" Lady Ladia asked from the counter of the guild.
"Sorry!" Dante apologized to the attendant.
The squad looked at The Elementals with different expressions and different thoughts each of them.
"Wow, they must've practiced that a lot", Lyle thought.
"What the hell did I just watch?" Ascalon thought.
"Who the fuck are these jesters?" Mistia thought.
"I want him to crush me with his biceps" Stella thought, she hadn't paid any attention to the presentation, she just looked at Terrac.
Most of the people in the lobby were looking at The Elementals weirded out, but some of them were just ignoring them, this definitely wasn't the first time they had done their act in public.
"I say that if we slowly walk away, no one will think we're related to them" Ascalon whispered to his companions, his voice was loud enough for The Elementals to hear him.
"Excuse me?" Dante said, highly offended. The other elementals seemed offended as well.
"Maybe you don't know, which is the only option I can think of", Dante said, annoyed.
"But we are the most efficient and strongest team of this city, maybe even of the kingdom may I say" He said with a lot of pretension.
"No you're not the strongest and on the other thing I have no idea nor I care" Ascalon said, he was getting annoyed by these guys.
"Oh, yeah?" Terrac said, closing the distance between himself and Ascalon "Wanna check it out?"
Terrac stood imposing just a few centimeters from Ascalon, looking down at him in the eyes. Lyle seemed a bit worried on how this could end, so did Mistia and even Stella snapped momentarily out of her dirty thoughts upon realizing that this conflict might escalate. Even The Elementals seemed a bit worried about this situation. Although Ascalon didn't look intimidated at all, he stared back at Terrac without a single bit of fear in his gaze.
"Enough Terrac, we're better than this" Dante said firmly.
The big guy stared at Ascalon for a few more seconds before retreating behind his friends.
"Sorry for that, Terrac can be a bit aggressive when people mess with us" Dante apologized, maintaining some of his pretentious tone.
"Don't worry, it's not like he intimidated me anyways" Ascalon said with an inexpressive gaze.
The words of the axeman annoyed Terrac who wanted to say something, but Raphael put a hand on his shoulder and told him to stop it. Terrac looked to his three companions who all shared the same scolding look. Reluctantly, the big guy decided to calm down. Lyle decided to step up before Ascalon made this conflict escalate even further.
"Ok, I think I'm gonna talk now, first of all I'd like to apologize for my friend right here, he's not got the best social skills and sometimes can be sort of an imbecile" Lyle said apologetic. Ascalon was slightly offended for being called an imbecile.
"But look, we don't want any trouble with you guys, you are a bit annoying I must admit, but overall I don't think you're bad people. It was kinda sweet that you stood up to Ascalon for insulting you actually" Lyle continued to speak, looking at Terrac, who seemed to appreciate Lyle's compliment.
Lyle's words seemed to improve the environment, but not completely, he was too honest with his words. Even when softened, being called annoying bothers anyone. Everyone remained silent for a few moments, those who were spectating the scene had lost interest or had better things to do. The voices of other people talking across the entire lobby were the only thing that prevented this situation from turning into an awkward silence and remained just awkward.
Stella's thoughts once again drifted into her sexual fantasies as she stared at Terrac, who continued to wonder why she continued to look at him like that. Raphael looked away, it was clear that words weren't his strong and being in a situation like this was really uncomfortable for him. Lyle continued to stare at The Elementals with a nervous grin, desiring that this situation ended soon enough, next to him Ascalon stared at Dante with a displeasured expression that Dante responded with a pretentious grin. Elene, standing next to Dante, tried to imitate her leader's expression, but aside from the fact that no one was paying attention to her, her height made her look cute instead of whatever she was trying to look like.
Mistia looked around, there should be a way to settle all of this, she began thinking, The Elementals wanted to show their superiority. Maybe with a mission? She looked at the mission requests on the board next to them and drifted her sight across all of them until one in particular caught her attention. She walked closer to the board and took the poster to give it a better look.
"Mistia, what are you looking at?" Lyle questioned as he looked at Mistia reading the poster, catching the attention of the others.
"You really seemed to want to show off how spectacular you are, didn't you?" Mistia asked, staring at the poster in her hands.
"That is correct, because we are!" Elene spoke up.
"Well, I think this might be just the way to show off how… 'spectacular' you are" Mistia said, turning back to look at both her companions and The Elementals.
Mistia raised her right hand, showing off a poster with a pretty particular mission, a free for all, someone named Victor Roughtalon was searching for someone with the power to beat him in a 1 on 1, anyone could accept the mission no matter how many people already had accepted it and a good amount of gold would be paid to the first person that could defeat him, in one of the corner an address and the time intervals when to attempt fight Victor. It seemed like the perfect opportunity, The Elementals wanted to demonstrate how powerful they were for mere pride and wouldn't stop until they did, and Mistia knew it. Ascalon was up to the challenge, this seemed interesting, Lyle wanted things to settle and Stella wanted an excuse to look at Terrac's perfectly shaped body for as long as she could.
So it was decided, both teams would take on that mission to demonstrate their power, even though they were unaware of Victor's power, someone that is literally willing to pay people if they can beat him up, must be someone very confident of his own strength, right?