Unbreakable Bond

Chapter One

Two young men leaned against their sleek motorcycles in the shade. One, an eighteen years old boy with short black hair and piercing, dark red eyes, laughed as his companion accidentally spilt some water on himself. That companion was a seventeen years old boy with short silver hair and beautiful, sky blue eyes. His build was many times smaller than his best friend's, His head only reaching his friend's chest height. This caused people to mistake him for a child sometimes due to his short stature. They had been stopped by police many a time due to this factor.
"Ren, you gotta be careful. You don't want to get water on your phone." The boy with black hair spoke, attempting to suppress his laughter.
"You've spilt water on yourself before too, Kage! What's so funny!?" Ren replied, pouting as he attempted to clean up the mess. As Kage helped Ren, a black symbol appeared around him.
"Wh-What's this!?" He exclaimed, his eyes wide as he tried to step out of it. However, the black symbol just followed him around as a white one appeared around Ren. The symbols began to glow brightly, the best friends instinctively reaching for each other as they disappeared from their world.
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When Ren and Kage opened their eyes, they found themselves standing in a very large throne room. Sitting on the smaller of the two thrones was an older man with greying hair, a crown atop his head. Beside him stood a girl with waist-long, purple hair and pink eyes.
"Where are we?" Ren asked groggily, touching his head. Startled at what he felt, he quickly looked at his reflection in the glossy floor. He had soft, white cat ears sprouting from the top of his head, his human ears non-existent. He also had a white cat tail that fluffed up slightly in shock. Beside him stood Kage, who had gotten a similar transformation. However, he had black wolf ears and a black wolf tail. Both boys had fangs, sharp fingernails, and special black markings on their bodies to indicate they were the summoned heroes. Kage's was located on the back of his left hand, Ren's located on his right collarbone. Glancing at each other, the two best friends jumped when the king spoke.
"Greetings Assassin Hero, Barrier Hero." Turning, Kage and Ren stared at the man as he continued. "You have been summoned to our world in this time of crisis to save my kingdom from being destroyed." Kage stepped forward and shielded Ren with his body, his best friend peeking out from behind him.
"Don't think for a minute that we'll do anything for you without compensation. You dragged us from our world, we expect to obtain currency in order to carry out our duty." Kage spoke, narrowing his dark red eyes cautiously.
"Of course, Assassin Hero. Our Kingdom has encountered one wave of demonized creatures. We were barely able to kill them all, and even then many people died. We do not know when these waves will end, so should you accept our proposition to fight the waves for us, we shall provide a crystal that will teleport you to each wave. The crystal will glow brighter as the time of the wave gets closer. We will also give you a reward after each wave, as well as monthly wages so you can focus on getting stronger between the waves." Another man stepped forward, holding out a small bag of coins. "Inside this bag is one thousand silvers. It should be plenty for you two to get good starting gear." Kage took the bag and glanced inside it, handing it to Ren after making sure it wasn't a trap. Ren slipped the bag into the satchel he had found strapped over his right shoulder and resting against his waist, and Kage nodded.
"Alright, we'll take this request. But keep in mind that we will only continue to fight the waves of creatures with ample compensation. Should you stop paying us, we may just stand by and watch your kingdom burn to the ground." With that, Kage turned and headed towards the door with Ren in tow, the king and everyone else in the throne room glaring at them as they walked out.
"Dumb demi-humans.." The princess muttered quietly so they couldn't hear. However, their keen animal ears easily picked up her words.
After leaving the castle, Kage and Ren paused to look out over the castle town.
"Are we really in another world?" Ren asked, breathing in the clear air.
"Looks that way. I don't know how we'll get back if we ever will, but let's make the most of things while we're here."
"Right. We understood them easily, so it looks like we know the language of this world. Our first bit of business should probably be to find an armor and weapons shop."
"My thoughts exactly, let's go." The two best friends then walked down the steps towards the castle town.
"From the way they acted in the throne room, demi-humans must not be well-liked." Ren muttered thoughtfully as he touched his cat tail that swished back and forth.
"Yeah. But they have no choice with you and me. I don't know why we weren't just summoned as humans, but if this is anything like those animes and mangas we watched and read, then we have incredible power that they can do nothing about." Kage replied, patting his best friend on the head. "We have a general knowledge of how this world works from that, so let's get some directions to the armor and weapons shop." The boys paused at one of the guards who stood at the castle gates. After receiving directions to the shop, they set off through the town. The streets were made of stone, houses and shops alike lining both sides. Humans, Dwarves, and Elves mingled all throughout the city. Demi-humans could be spotted here and there as well, however they were always in rags with shackles on their necks, wrists, and ankles, chains linking them together. "I guess most Demi-humans in this world are treated as slaves.." Kage muttered thoughtfully.
"Yeah, there seems to be some of the other races who are slaves, but it's mostly demi-humans. Glad we're this world's special "heroes"." Ren replied as they stopped in front of a small, stone building. A wooden sign hung from it with a carving of armor and a sword. The two best friends stepped inside the shop to find any manner if weapons lining the walls. Red auras rose from most of the weapons, green auras rising from only a select few.
"Sorry, we don't serve demi-humans here." A man's gruff voice spoke. It belonged to a dwarf with dark red hair and a braided beard, his brown eyes narrowing in annoyance as Ren touched a sword. Jumping backwards as a shock if pain shot through his arm, Ren yowled, his tail stiffening instantly.
"Ren! Are you alright?" Kage hurried over to his best friend, worry clearly written in his dark red eyes.
"Yeah, I just got shocked for some reason.." Ren proceeded to touch a few more weapons that had red auras flowing from them, only to receive shocks from each one. "Hm.." Ren muttered to himself and carefully picked up a small, jeweled dagger which was the only item with a green aura for him. Upon finding it didn't shock him, he turned to Kage who had been watching curiously. "Kage, the weapons with red auras seem to be ones we can't use. Weapons with green auras are alright though."
"Hey! I said, we don't serve demi-humans here!" The dwarf exclaimed, drawing both of the boys' attention.
"Why not? Kinda racist, don't ya think?" Kage asked, walking up to the man as he stood behind the counter.
"Demi-humans are not true people, they're animals. We don't serve animals here." The dwarf replied.
"Will this change your mind?" Kage showed the dwarf the special marking located on his left hand. The dwarf's eyes widened at the sight.
"That's the Crest of the Heroes! My apologies, I didn't know you two were the summoned heroes! Please, feel free to look at anything you want." The dwarf's demeanor instantly changed when he saw the marking. Ren stepped up to the counter and placed the dagger down as Kage walked over to two single-handed swords.
"How much is this dagger? Is it good?"
"That dagger is one hundred silver. It's created from the strongest metal known in this world, as well as those swords that your friend has. The swords are a pair at two hundred silver. Those throwables are fifty silver." The dwarf replied.
"Three hundred and fifty silvers, that's expensive. We still need armor." Ren muttered, Kage walking over and placing the swords and various sharp throwables onto the counter.
"Tell you what, if you find armor you both like, I'll give you a discount for the whole thing." The dwarf spoke, winking at Ren. "I think I may have the perfect outfits for you two. A seamstress friend of mine brought these for me to sell. They're high quality magic cloth, so even though they're lightweight, they can block about as much damage as normal metal armor when you first get them." The dwarf ducked down and rummaged under the counter, pulling out two outfits. One was a pure black assassin's outfit with shining golden lining, complete with a hood and mask. The other was a shirt with shorts, heeled boots, fingerless gloves, and a robe with a hood and very large sleeves. Its colors were pure white with shimmering gold lining. Kage's and Ren's faces lit up upon seeing the items. After the dwarf showed them into a back room where they could change, Kage and Ren pulled off their earth clothes and placed them into the satchel, then proceeded to put on the new clothes. They found that the clothes easily phased through their tails, allowing for a comfortable and perfect fit. The two best friends stepped from the room and walked up to the counter, the dwarf laughing. "Fits you two perfectly!" He smiled brightly as they nodded.
"How much for the weapons and this armor?" Kage asked, his wolf ears flicking back and forth at the sounds of more customers coming into the shop.
"The armors are two hundred silvers per set. That would bring the grand total to seven hundred and fifty silvers. But I'll give you the discount like I said, and there's the Hero's discount that's exclusive to you. The new total will be four hundred silvers, how does that sound?"
"Deal." Kage spoke as Ren rummaged in the satchel at his side. Ren handed the money to Kage who counted it in front of the dwarf. Once they confirmed there were four hundred silver coins, the dwarf brushed the coins into his own coin bag.
"Nice doing business with ya, come again sometime! Also, that gear you have levels up in power and stats along with you, so keep that in mind." The Dwarf, Tenaro, grinned as the two best friends strapped their weapons to their bodies. Ren had his dagger strapped horizontally across his lower back at his waist, the hilt pointing to the right. Kage strapped his swords to his back due to not having a robe/cloak, and latched the throwables to various parts of his body: legs, arms, waist, and even chest. "Oh, I almost forgot, please take this egg. A slave trader gave it to me, he said it's like a lottery. You're guaranteed to get at least a prickleboar, the creatures you'll see pulling carts. If you're lucky you'll get the Celestial-Rank Dracori that looks like a cross between a horse and a dragon. I only have one egg, but it's pretty big. I have no use for a prickleboar, so I may as well give it to you Heroes so you can have some form of transportation. Don't worry, it's free." Ren and Kage looked up from securing their weapons to find a fairly large egg, the size of a human's head, sitting in a basket on the counter. After thanking him, Kage picked up the egg and handed it to Ren who held it in his arms carefully.
"Tenaro, what are you doing selling items to lowly demi-humans?" A sneer sounded behind the boys and they turned to find a group of four humans standing there. Three were men, and the fourth was the princess from the castle. The man in the middle was the one who had spoken, his eyes narrowing proudly.
"They're the summoned heroes." Tenaro replied, the group staring in surprise as the princess glared.
"No way.."
"Why are the heroes demi-humans??"
"Yeah.. the heroes are awesome, but demi-humans are dumb." The men began to murmur amongst themselves. Ignoring their remarks, Ren and Kage walked from the shop, Ren cradling the egg in his arms as Kage shot the princess a warning glance.