"This isn't a training camp but there are some guys around your age here." Baydí said, pointing at a few other people here.
"I thought it was a one party quest?" I asked.
"You'd think, but if there is anything about Fayha…" Baydí spun, her cape slashing the air around her. "We don't just love festivals or celebrating! We love one upping ourselves!" A couple people cheered as she finished her performance.
"This is group one right? I found our other member." A boy, one that Baydí pointed at, walked up.
He had black hair and a giant scar across his nose. I guess weird scars aren't too uncommon for adventuring, huh? His eyes were like a void. I felt a light amount of magic within them. What caught me off guard was his horns, or lack thereof. He had closed eyes under his normal ones, a clear sign he was a dragon but I didn't feel any condense magic on him for horns. Could he be a full dragon too? At his age no way. Wait, what type of dragon is he?
"Uhh, yes this is team oh I mean group one." Me and Stella both said fumbling over our words.
A red hue speared across Stella's face. I had a feeling mine did too. This dragon is so unique. I need to know what type of dragon he is. Just as I finished the thought another adventurer waltzed up with two strange horns.
"So we have two kids and a master, huh." Her 'huh' fell out trying to stay away from me and Stella.
She had dark purple hair and two horns that looked more like antennas. One was a bright blue and the other a bright pink. She had closed eyes so she wasn't a full dragon. Then she had a tattoo on her face or a rune. It was two circles, one in the other and a line that went through them. Her eyes were a dark purple then a dark blue, almost dark enough you wouldn't notice they were different from a distance. What type of dragon is she, those horns don't help at all.
"Wait, did you just call me a kid? You look the exact same age as me!" I yelled back.
Stella didn't back me up, she was staring a bit blankly at the boy.
"Yeah I did, you two blushing at the sight of a boy!" She retorted.
"I'm only red because I can't figure out what type of dragon you two are, and if he even is one!" The girl took a weird step back her face trying to find the right composure. "Oh! Look who's blushing now, freak!"
"Hah hah hah!" Baydí bursted out laughing at us. "Holy, Phoenix, I didn't know you were that curious about dragons. That's why you brought up the four eyes when we met." Badyí continued to laugh, almost falling to the ground.
"Umm, my name is Angel and I'm from the only sword dragon family." He reached up to his face and two jet black curved horns sprouted. "The reason you couldn't tell was because I'm a half breed of dragon and human."
If my face wasn't already red it was the sun now. "No! Freaking! Way! Dragon blood is really dominant, so normally it takes over human blood, but sometimes, like one in a couple trillion, a perfect mix can happen! My mom is a human but my dragon blood came through!" I grabbed the flames and molded them into two evil looking imitations of his horns. The flames hardened under my hand and then solidified in its shape.
"Woah" Baydí and everyone besides the blushing Stella said watching my flames harden.
"Oh yes! Apparently my flames might harden sometime in my life! I'm destined to be strong, as the myth states."
"Well yeah, why wouldn't the Phoenix be born destined for strength!" Baydí smiled brightly, patting her own horns.
I was more taken aback by her eyes but she definitely is destined for strength too with a unique horn shape, or I guess amount.
"Wait, did you just say Phoenix? You and some others said that before at the guild. Is this..." The girl looked me up and down. "Her?"
"Yes it is! I just met her and her cousin today, Lynix. They are fresh out of high school."
"Lynix huh? I'm still wondering about what dragon you are? My cousin and I fire dragons clearly."
Mockingly I pushed the slit skin under my eye open forcibly to reveal another flame orange colored eye. The eye I couldn't see out of, yet.
"Ughh, you are a kid aren't you." She clicked her legs together then stopped herself. "I'm an earth and water dragon." She sighed.
"A mix!" My face burned like the other times it did.
"Idiot you are a mix!" Stella snapped out of her delusion and hit me with her staff.
"Uhh, yeah but I'm a weird case."
"Huh, Phoenix isn't a flame dragon?" Baydí asked.
"Yeah I almost forgot because I shouldn't really have it. You did see it in my status earlier."
"Oh right, gravity magic. I only know one other gravity magic user. She was weird, being able to wield that magic that usefully in a fight. She won last year's Fayha fighting competition. What was her name Rika, no Heki…" Baydí trailed off searching for her name.
"Oh yeah I have a friend who uses gravity-" Before I finished a bell went off loudly in the area.
"I'm hoping everyone is in their groups? Glad to see some new faces here. I'm Jace and if you don't already know." The man struck a pose, his dreads dancing around his head. "I'm the pumpkin Queen's personal festive knight!"
The crowd cheered at the knights title. His dark grey detailed armor shined a magical blue hue. The man was human and didn't appear to be a dragon. He had a little hair on his chin and a scar on his right jaw that stretched up to his eye lid. He had bright green eyes. He had a dark red cape with a little gold flakes coating it. The armor on his left shoulder was larger and his cape fell from it. His right arm wasn't covered in armor but tattoos of festive and halloween items. Looking at him the armor looked more like decoration. I guess that's a festive knight, huh? I'm pretty sure they work for the Queen of Fayha. My face redness died down but a faint warmth stayed.
"Stella, you think being a queen's bodyguard would be a cool goal?" I turned to Stella who was watching the man.
"Shhh." Stella hushed me as the festive knight continued.
"Your group will be assigned a type of monster, go catch 'em." He turned towards his group he was leading.
A woman around my height stood there. She had orange hair and, like almost everyone here, had a scar across her left cheek. Even from this distance I could tell her sword was magical. The blade curved in a way which looked like the sword itself knew it would hit its target. The festive knight turned back for a second.
"Don't hurt them too much. We will make sure you won't get the monster you weakened in the tournament. K…" Jace flashed the crowd a smile and returned to his group.
"So Baydí are you the team captain?" I asked.
"Guess I need to be with you two noobies. Let's go over a quick game plan."
After a slight discussion we were set on a plan. Lynix, who was an earth dragon, even if mixed, looked through the area for our beast.
"You're lucky Heo, only getting in a group to hunt d class monsters." Lynix sneered.
Damn this girl is annoying. How about if I just show off a slight bit. I grabbed the horns I had formed earlier and changed them into a rectangular curve, coming from my forehead. Just the horns I normally went with when flames were too much for the atmosphere. While we walked I fiddled with it slightly, giving it more detail.
"Do you normally spend that much time on those horns?" Angel asked, walking next to me.
"Yeah, it's the only magic I was really allowed to freely use. When I first awoke" I paused to laugh a little. "I would be in and out of the hospital for severe magic sickness. Hell, one time I broke almost all my bones in my body while testing out gravity." I giggled remembering that.
Did hurt a crap ton. I'd even say comparable to being cut in half or falling off a cliff.
"Ohh…"
He backed off a bit and glanced between me and Stella. Stella, who was still slightly flustered, stole a couple of glances at Angel, then saw I was watching her and her face grew brighter. I started giggling to myself and Stella raised her staff towards me.
"It isn't funny, Heo."
"Sorry sorry." I continued to look at her then we started laughing together again.
"You two shut up! I found some." Lynix ordered us.
We both tried to hold in our laughter, we glanced at each other like we were in the back of class and we had a pissed sub.
"Which way?" Baydí asked.
Baydí pulled out a sword. I saw a flash in Angel's hand and a giant scythe came out.
"That way." Lynix pointed then I saw another flash as a scythe appeared in her hand as well.
"Holy. I guess I only got one option"
"Heo don't do that stupid thing again."
Her words had no effect on me as I used gravity magic in front of my hand. Not too much of force or I'll lose magic quicker than it takes Rex to teleport to the other side of the solar system. I added flames to the inside of the shape and a small dagger was visible. I grabbed it and mentally felt my overall magic capacity. Sweet I can hold this for about thirty minutes if I don't increase the amount of magic usage.
My form wasn't perfect but it held together better than I had done it before. The beast was on its way towards us now. It looked like a horse with three faces in one. Bright yellow eyes and sharp teeth.
"Heo, stay on Stella!" Baydí ordered back towards us.
This should be easy for her rank. The monster came up on us and Angel rushed towards it. His scythe cut the air around it and faint images of ghosts flew off it. The scythe dashed down towards the monster and instead of cutting it in half with that force, it just went through it. Each slash looked to tire it out.
I saw Lynix's shoulders slump down and her movement slow. She flexed her muscles and I saw a gathering of magic form into a giant pile of mud. Baydí waved her hand and Lynix's shoulders straightened. I saw the magic in front of her grow stronger and shoot out towards the beast. It was trapped down by it. Baydí walked towards the horse, swinging her sword before hitting it with the helt.
It's... it's unconscious. Just like that? For her she wouldn't even need the team. Baydí high fived the group before turning to me and Stella.
"Damn, that's like two minutes wasted on this dagger."
"Don't worry we will find something you guys can practice on a bit" Baydí cheered me up and we continued searching after texting the location of the monsters to a gathering team.
Not too far along we found another one, it wasn't what we were after but Baydí wanted to see what we had.
"F rank is not too hard for you right?" Lynix asked.
"It seems like you are actually curious." I replied completely too confident for my strength.
I rushed the beast while Stella had her staff trained on me. The monster was wolf-like with a spiraled pattern in its fur and antlers. It's claw shot out at me. It was as fast, but Stella formed a flaming shield to block it. Flipping the dagger in my hand I plunged it into the exposed neck of the clumsy beast. It went down.
"Haha, check that! Not too hard, huh?" I chuckled.
"Idiot, we are supposed to catch them." Stella ran up slapping me with her staff.
"But it was only F rank, and the first one I have ever taken down."
"Congratulations Heo on your first, but you won't get paid for that F's corpse." Baydí scratched her head.
"Next time, I'll knock it out."
"No next time, it's gonna get you" Lynix said laughing at me before she froze in her tracks.
"What?"
"That's a little too high for this group, no?"
A giant, eleven foot skeleton draped in armor and a long sword, long enough that I could sleep on it and have a bunch of leg room, blew up the tree next to Stella. Her barrier came up and it pushed the monster back. She dropped the shield too early, something I had told her to do more often to preserve as much magic.
Its sword came down to her face. I grabbed the hem of her jacket and pulled her backwards. Before my blade met the skeleton I poured more fire into it. The gravity magic broke and a small explosion was set off throwing the monster on its back and the sword a couple feet away. The flames barely warmed my skin but the amount I put in it, I instantly felt an effect from.
Locked in, Baydí sword's helt crashed into the skeleton's side, revealing a core where its heart should be. With her other hand she tore it out. The skeleton's body fell apart. Bones rattling on the ground.
"Close one, nice reaction Phoenix. You did drop your shield but that was quick for a primary magic user Stella." Baydí cheered. "Unfortunately for this guy we gotta wait for the recovery team."
After Baydí saved us I saw her twitch and scratch dangerously close to her second set of eyes, sending a shiver through me.
"Ok." I replied panting from my magic usage.
"Why for this one?" Angel asked.
"Well we can't leave the core with it, or it will come back to life."
I helped Stella back off the ground and opened my status. "Hey, that's around fifteen magic points, just those two small fights."
"I wouldn't call that small. You two almost died, how long have you trained?" Lynix asked, Angel turned to listen as well.
"Me and Stella really did just freshly get out of high school. We haven't actually practiced a day in our lives."
"Heo I got twenty-one." Stella stated, raising an eyebrow at me.
The group was too silent and focused on our conversation. Me and Stella both turned and watched them. Lynix and Angel's mouths were agape. Eyebrows trying to find the right position.
"With that explosion and not even a single inch pushed back. I just don't believe that you've never practiced" Lynix complemented.