Elwen the Conquered

When morning came, she rose and put her clothes back on, then gently started prodding Cira. She wanted to make sure that the girl had plenty of time to get ready, but she was also a little sad to wake her up, especially when she saw her sleeping face. When Cira woke, Elwen helped her get ready so they could head downstairs. Varian was waiting for them, sitting at a table that he had secured a few minutes ago.

Elwen winced a little when she saw that the table had three plates of food on it, but was relieved when Varian told her that he went out briefly to get food from elsewhere, and he was just borrowing their tableware. She really didn’t want to try the inn’s food again, once was enough.

They spent the next few minutes eating their breakfast. It consisted of a piece of bread, a few sausages, and an apple, each. It wasn’t much, but they also didn’t have much money to spend, they needed to save as much as they could. Once they had a (mostly) stable source of income, they could consider letting up on their cost-saving measures, but for now they were stuck with them. Hopefully, things would change soon.

Once they were finished with their breakfast, they began their search for Cira’s parents. Cira’s excitement was clearly shown on her face, and Elwen couldn’t help but give her a warm smile as she held her hand.

“Cira, do you know where your house is?” She asked the girl.

“Mmmm… not really… but it’s a big house! With a huge window! And… And it’s blue!” The girl exclaimed.

“So she doesn’t know where… troublesome…” Varian mumbles. The girl hears him and almost starts crying.

Elwen reassures her that it’s alright, and they would get her back to her mother soon.

“Maybe we can go to the main square and see if she recognizes something there? She might find her own way home…” She proposes, hoping that Cira would remember something when exposed to familiar sights.

Varian nodded, and they left the inn, entering the city’s busy streets.

“Umm… Do you know what direction it’s in?” Elwen asked.

“Hmm? Of course, it’s in this direction.” Varian responded. “Although it looks quite busy up ahead.” Not only did the density of people increase, but there were also more carriages and wagons. It would be difficult to get where they were going if they continued on this path, there were simply too many people.

“Let’s take a short cut.” Varian said, looking at a less populated side street.

It was not a shortcut. They had spent about half an hour just walking down the side streets. They made progress, yes, but every time they tried to rejoin the main street, they hit a dead end. Now was no exception.

Normally, this would be much of a problem. They would just backtrack a little, then continue down the side street a little more before trying again. This time, however…

“What have we got here?” A man says, stepping out of the shadows, grinning like a mad man. There were two other men with him, each of them armed with crude swords. “Another traveler come to bring us gold?” Elwen took a few steps back, but she quickly hit the wall behind her.

“O-oi! Boss! That’s the girl!” the man on the left shouted, pointing at Cira.

“Hmm?” The lead man turns his attention to her, before widening his smirk. “What are you doing here, girl? Didn’t think you could escape us, did you?”

Elwen pulls Cira close, keeping her safe in her embrace.

“Stand aside!” Varian shouts, drawing his sword and pointing it at the group of thugs.

“Bah! You think you can take us on! There are three of us and only one of you! We’ll smash you like the rat you are!” The man replies. He makes some sort of signal with his hand, and his men spread out, forming an arc around Varian, and blocking any possible escape.

“Let’s see you back up your words!” Varian shouts.

 “Kill him! Leave the girls alive, boss wants the small one,” he orders, he licks his lips as his eyes feel up Elwen, “And we can take the other one ourselves!”

The men start laughing, lustfully eyeing her over while they close in on Varian.

“Elwen! Get behind those crates!” Varian ordered her, not taking his attention off of the approaching group of thugs.

Elwen saw the group of crates Varian was talking about, stacked off to the side of the alley up against the wall. She quickly rushed over to them with Cira and ducked behind them, making sure both she and Cira were completely hidden behind them.

Varian, meanwhile, was quickly formulating a plan to get them out of this mess. His only real advantage in this fight would be surprise, the men didn’t seem to be taking him very seriously, confident in their own strength. That would be their undoing.

Once they get in range, Varian uses [Charge] to quickly reach the left thug, and slices at his right hand. The man drops his sword and screams, collapsing to his knees in pain, and Varian quickly stabs him through his heart, dealing a lethal blow.

With the first thug dead, Varian uses [Quick Slash] to hit the middle man, taking advantage of the speed boost to cover the distance between them quickly. The man blocks and is pushed back slightly, but he wasn’t Varian’s true target. A few more steps and Varian reached the final thug, slashing across his stomach. He, too, fell to the ground.

Varian then turned back to the leader, using [Taunt] to make sure the he was focused on him alone. He raised his guard, now more wary of Varian.

‘Two down,’ Varian thinks to himself, turning his sword to the last thug. He glances at his ability cooldowns, noting that he has around thirty seconds left before he can use [Charge] again.

Varian jumps back, putting space between him and the thug, and also repositioning himself so that he was between the thug and the crate Elwen and Cira were hiding behind. He was lucky that they underestimated him at first, but the rest of the fight will most likely be harder, now that the man was wary of him.

Varian drops down for a second, picking up a rock by the side of the wall. He throws the rock at the thug’s head, aiming just a little to the right, and uses [Quick Step] to dash to the left side of the thug, swinging his sword upwards and to the right, and applies [Break Defense]. The thug leans to his right to avoid stone, and seeing Varian’s movements, swings his sword toward him and uses [Guard] to defend against the attack. When their swords meet, Varian’s [Break Defense] prevents the thug’s [Guard] from effectively protecting him. His sword flies upwards due to Varian’s superior strength, putting him off balance. Varian kicks him in the chest, staggering the thug back.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to properly take advantage of the opening, as the thug quickly recovered before Varian had the chance to follow through with an attack. Still, it moved them into an opening, so at least he can move around a little more. There was also a pile of rubbish near the thug’s feet, which he didn’t seem to notice. If he could just get him to step back, he might be able to create another opening.

The last thug was now furiously staring at Varian and grinding his teeth together. He was seeing red, losing all sense of reason. Varian saw some sort of red aura envelop him, before the man started angrily brandishing his sword and charging at him.

Varian was unsure what the thug was trying to do, but he wasn’t going to give him the chance to show him. Activating [Charge] and [Quick Slash], he ran at the thug and slashed at him, hoping that his speed was faster than the thug could react. He seemed to be successful, but he gave the thug a stab through the heart just to make sure, and then the last thug fell to the ground, dead.

Quickly searching the three, he found a few silver coins, as well as a dozen copper ones. He checked their weapons and equipment, seeing if he could acquire a better one than his own, but their weapons were even worse than his starting sword, and the little armor they wore was too damaged to be useful. While searching them, he found that each of them was wearing an iron dog tag, with a skull resting on a pile of coins.

‘They might not have been carrying much,’ he thought to himself, ‘but these are worth something.’ He pocketed the tags, as well as the coins.

‘But weren’t these tags supposed to be for a bandit gang? What are they doing inside the city?’ From the information he got from the guard captain, the group was camped out somewhere in the forest. There were some night raids against the city, but there was no mention of daytime activities, at least inside the city.

Varian didn’t really care about what the bandits did, but if they were successful at acting within the city, they would have to get out as quickly as possible. It was simply too dangerous for Elwen, he couldn’t be guarding her all the time. What if they attacked her while he was gone? There was no point in contemplating such a thing. He would never let it happen.

“Is it over?” He heard a small voice call out from behind the crates.

Varian looked around at the mess the fight left behind.

“Give me a minute.” He replied, opening up a manhole cover.

‘This’ll do,’ he thought as he moved towards the former thugs. A few seconds later, a distant splash could be heard, followed by another a few seconds later, and a third not long after that.

“It’s all right, you can come out now.” Varian called, wiping the blood off of himself. Luckily, his shirt was black, so no one would notice the bloodstains.

Elwen slowly stood up, still holding Cira, and frantically looked around. Her eyes quickly settled on Varian, and she relaxed. Varian could tell she was still scared, but was to be expected. She was used to this. Neither was he, but he at least had some experience with VR games that he played.

“Let’s get out of here quickly, before the guards come.” Varian said. He wasn’t sure if they would actually come, but he would rather not have to explain himself. Elwen quickly agreed, and they swiftly left the alley, entering the maze of backstreets once again.

After a few more dead ends, they finally arrived at the main street, now firmly on the other side of the busiest section. It wasn’t much longer until they reached the main square, they could even see it from where they were.

The group continued on, Varian taking the lead and Elwen holding Cira’s hand while looking at all the shops around her.

She saw a bakery squished between a produce store and a butcher. It was a small shop made of stone with a short chimney. She could tell it was a bakery because of the delicious scent that was emanating from it. The sign with a piece of steaming bread helped, too. She took in another deep breath, confirming the identity of the store. She would have to visit it later.

There were quite a few other stores along the way as well. She saw several tailors, a cobbler, and even a hatter. None of them really help her attention. Sure, she wanted better clothes, the ones she had now were rough and irritating, but they didn’t have the money. It was better just to not look than get her hopes up.

The stores did get larger and more elaborate as they got closer to the square. It seemed like they were entering the prime real estate for larger businesses. She started to see more trading companies and luxury stores rather than the everyday stores that commoners would visit. Elwen started to worry that they were wasting their time. What if Cira didn’t recognize anything in the square? If it was just a place for rich people, it was entirely possible that Cira had never even been there! Still, they had nowhere else to start, no clues. Maybe they should look for a church? Or a monument?

As they were about to enter the square, Cira pointed to a large building and exclaimed “There it is!”

Elwen was shocked, that wasn’t just a house, it was an entire store building! It was four stories tall! And she said she lives here? Just how rich is this girl’s family?!