But moving forward from this story. We waited for the stranger to wake up, and I was the one to aid him with medical attention while Vant was working around the tavern. They've work hard until the stranger wakes up from his injuries as he gasp in his shock.
"Hey, hey its alright your safe now" it took a while for the strangers to speak but with a little time he started to speak.
"Where am I"
"Your in a tavern"
"A tavern here in the nowhere of DarkPeak"
"Yes a tavern we built the tavern"
"You built it without permission, in this cold climate?"
"Listen we know we don't have a contract but we made it anyways, plus we are very cold resistant."
"That is impressive, but feels like a crime"
"So why are you doing here?"
"Well every adventurer know that to become the greatest adventurer, you must complete the DarkPeak's challenge"
"And how far did you make it"
"Not that far honestly" then the stranger suddenly started coughing
"Hey, take it easy you were just brought back and, there's no need to be coughing again"
"Thanks. By the way what's your name?"
"I'm Jin, and my older brother Vant"
"Nice to know you Jin, my name is Handikiz"
"That's a funny name" as a laugh can be snickered from the two brothers
"You know I always thought names would be special and that it would give meaning to oneself. For a while I thought my name would mean something, but now it doesn't mean squat".
Suddenly Vant came in to check on the others "hey foods ready, if our guest is ready to come down we'll be happy to help"
"Alright I'm coming brother".
I started to head downstairs with Vant, Handikiz suddenly followed them downstairs as well, as we all have a nice dinner together, then tucked in for the night as a new light approaches the tavern. Still waiting for new visitors to arrive and settle into their tavern the brothers still clean the place up making sure as Handikiz wake up from his nap and heads downstairs.
"Your awake, Handikiz"
"Yeah soon I need to continue my journey to DarkPeak's mountain"
"You think your still prepared your not sick, are you?"
"Not anymore thanks to your kindness. Wait I still need to repay your debts for saving me, and how about you help me on this task I need to complete"
"You mean climbing towards DarkPeak's mountain, I'm sorry but we made this tavern to help shelter the adventurers who couldn't complete the challenge"
"What?! But you two are already accustomed to the cold at this season no doubt you can climb DarkPeak with ease"
"That may be true but we are still human. No matter how invincible we are, we still have an accustom to death" as Vant is continuing to clean the dishes.
Handikiz sighs a bit in disappointment "well I guess I have to continue this adventure alone, and I can't possibly bring the people who bring me, what a shame"
"Hey Vant how about I try to take the challenge" Vant sighs a bit
"You were always have the qualities of an adventurers. As our sister would say always, kind hearted adventurers are always the redeeming qualities"
"Does that mean I can go?" Vant sigh again as he knows how kind hearted his brother is.
"Fine you can go"
"Alright get ready Handikiz I will be a great guide for scaling on DarkPeak's mountain". As Jin packs the stuff he needs, Jin brings the stuff he brought into the tavern yesterday, and wears a cozy leather tunic with a robe covering onto the rest of the tunic then heading out of the tavern and head off to climb DarkPeak.
During they're journey on DarkPeak's, Jin surprisingly is having a easy time scaling the mountain and with the sheer cold emitting from DarkPeak, Jin is still not feeling the cold.
"How much further till we're at the peak"
"Judging by the distance I say a few more miles up".
Then Handikiz suddenly slips and almost falls off the mountain but manage to catch himself by holding onto a piece of wood stick out of the mounting "Jin!"
"Don't worry Handikiz, I got you" pull out a rope and boomerang he grabbed from before, tying the rope on the boomerang and plunging the boomerang to the ground and holding onto the rope he takes a running start and leaps off the mountain then swing with the rope in hand giving enough momentum to swing towards Handikiz and save him and enough to get back onto where they were during their scaling the mounting.
"That was insane"
As I was gleaming with excitement for saving someone I may regret. "Well we Akaumo's are risk takers. Anyways you should get your footing soon, before we can continue climbing"
"Understood".
They both rest for a bit before continuing they're journey, as they continue they experience the sheer cold of the wind coursing through them Handikiz is having trouble navigating the mountain but Jin is walking through with ease not showing any resistance against the wind.
"How are you not freezing?"
"You don't feel it? It's like I'm one with the wind" as Jin takes a big breath of the cold wind, he feels something within him, as the wind becomes more relentless,
"Come on Handikiz we're almost at the top".
It wouldn't take much time till they are all the way towards the top of DarkPeak's mountain and they both gazed upon to high horizon from the mountain.
"You know this was supposed to be a tough challenge. I don't know why was it so easy?" But at the same time looking at the horizon Handikiz's tone changed.
"That's because it wasn't supposed to be".
Then suddenly I was looking at the horizon as I didn't know he was approaching me as I turned around and sees a dagger being thrown stabbing me in his chest almost piercing his heart, blood splattered out of my mouth as I falls to my knees.
"The reason why is became so challenging, it was due to someone casting a spell on DarkPeak's mountain. And the person your looking for, it's right in front of you" as Handikiz began to laugh manically.
"You... you did this just to get entertain by others suffering"
"That's wasn't my true intention Jin. My mission from my master was only to observe and find the strongest among the weak"
Then Handikiz started to summon a fireball spell and aim it towards me "you are capable I'll give you that. But you too naive Jin, and I'll be sure giving your brother a visit or perhaps give him a gift or two" and fires the fireball spell at me.
I couldn't dodge it in time but it knocked me off the top of DarkPeak's Mountain as I had plummeted to the bottom hitting every rock that I fell on and soon plummeting down towards the bottom of DarkPeak's Mountain as I cursed out his name.
Though I almost lost a bit of consciousness after plummeting from DarkPeak's mountain, soon waking myself up to a colder environment and still seeing the dagger plunged into my chest and thankfully not piercing my heart, I tried my best to pull the dagger out of my chest yelling so loud in pain that is echos across all of DarkPeak's Mountain. Still bleeding from my wound I had to take off his tunic and patch myself the best I could and attempt to the tavern and warn Vant of the upcoming dangers approaching by Handikiz.
Hours passed and I was slowly making progress as to get back to the tavern, and due to the sheer cold from the mountain and the distance I fell from, I had to adventure back to the tavern. Adventuring back to the tavern till next light and is determine to get back to my brother, however, as soon as I made my way to a more familiar place seeing the bodies scattered where I quickly scavenge the bodies and the broken trees realized this is where the tavern was built.
Quickly I sprinted toward the tavern hoping for my brother to still be safe, but when I got there I had got a smell of charcoal in the air, a rush of fear started to emit from in me, getting closer to the scent of charcoal. Soon finally making to the tavern, still hoping everything is still safe, but as I gets a horrified expression to witness the tavern is destroyed and is nothing but charred pieces of the building, and I quickly searched of what's left of the tavern, and what made me even more horrified, was my own brother Vant-Sae Akaumo burned and lifeless. Though there was so much I could do but all I could was only hold his dead brother into my arms crying my heart out with no content and the wind scouring from my wails.
I had to bury my own brother because of what you did, and I searched for what's left of the tavern, only grabbing a few supplies, my brother's necklace, and a photo of our family, then walking off toward the unknown horizon as I now craved vengeance from you.
(End of chapter 14)