Edgar stared at the book that had appeared on the floor in front of them. Benji had already dropped to the floor and was flipping through, gasping every second he saw something amazing. Silas stared at him then back at the woman that had a very intimidating presence. She might be small but Edgar could easily sense the power off her. She was quite impressive but it still couldn't be compared to the other two– Jenna and that powerful force.
In fact, compared to every other person he had met, none where compared to them.
They didn't make them the rulers of the realm for nothing.
A voice boomed in his mind and his eyes widened at the familiar voice and he stared at Reina. She was still staring back at Silas who looked like he despised her presence. Had he imagined it? That reply in his head?
"Nope, that's me." Reina looked at him and cocked her head at him. She gave him a once over and the intense stare from her deep grey eyes made him feel suddenly insecure and he frowned.
"How?"
"I'm psychic," she answered plainly, taking a couple of steps away from Silas whilst Ava followed, beside her. This only angered him more and Edgar could feel it, like poison in the air.
"And by psychic, I mean telepathy and clairvoyance. I've got the complete set. And you," she pointed straight at Edgar, "you've got a little something... I'm not going to go into that right now."
"Okay Okay." Wyatt clapped his hands to get everyone's attention then continued, "So, while you guys get busy educating yourselves, my crew and I will be taking the ship down east. The waters get a little rough around there but eh, you can manage. We won't stay on the land long because we just want to deliver something so if you plan to do something on it, I say you tell me before that happens. My office is at the top deck and Benji knows my quarters since we will be sharing a room. If you need me, just call me." Then he turned without another word and started up the stairs to the office he had pointed at.
"Wait, are you going to leave me with three of them?" Reina stomped her foot on the floor and glared at his back.
"Yes." He answered bluntly then disappeared into the deck.
"I bloody hate him. Fucking muggins." She rolled her eyes then turned back to the three of them.
She frowned at Silas and Edgar, then said, "Is there a reason the both of you are not reading the book like your friend over here?"
The both of them just stared at her before seating down on the floor to peer at the book. Benji, who had been at it, quickly started talking. "Oh Ed, you have no idea what I've seen. From land beasts, to sea monsters to people with powers. Of course some of this, we already know them from our world but there are some monsters here that I've never heard before. Did these beasts actually live in our realm?" He directly the question at Reina, looking up at her.
She cupped her chin and looked away from him as if deep in thought before she looked back and said, "Some of them. We all once lived together as one. From the stories the old witch had told me, there was a time we lived together and covered our tracks from the humans so they didn't know what was going on. But then a war broke and they found out about us. It was impossible to clean up our tracks because a lot of humans had died because of a war that didn't even include them. It would be inhumane to wipe their minds of a loved one so we decided to live with them. The old witch said it didn't last long because shit started going wrong again. Vampires were crossing the line and killing humans, werewolves were turning people, it was chaotic. Then the humans decided to fight back.
"According to the old witch, it was a war that would cause much greater lose so we decided to run. She created Domus, a realm for any being to call home. At least that way, she managed to prevent the deaths of thousands."
"So, those vamps are still running around here?" Silas asked.
"More or less. Now, back to why we are really gathered here." She kept her hands on her waist and stared, lifted the book in midair and causing the three boys to stand. "Runes are like containers. The more runes you have, the better it is for you. It can be used by normal human or people with no extraordinary powers to collect powers which can be retrieved later for use. Collecting power can be done in two ways, the person lends you copy of it or you beat the person to a pulp until you take it from them."
Edgar frowned as she went on to discuss how they could copy it. It was easier. Reina said the person with the power could give them a copy of their power but it won't be as powerful as it should be. More like each would be having half the power and that was why hardly anyone wanted to give it up. It was better to just take it which involved being gruesomely beaten and taken from them before they die because as they die, the power dies with them.
"We got three powers for Ava just yesterday. A friend of mine was able to give her all of it because of her sickness. She was a Handyman. They were typically good with anything they could get their hands on. If you give them a sword, they could be as good as a samurai in almost a day, give them a gun and they've got the skills of a sniper. Ava, however prefers to use knives which I keep telling her doesn't come with a fighting technique but whatever. " Ava gave her a bored stare and Reina continued, "The other person we met shared use half. He was a Steel. Their main forte is strength. Lifting heavy items is a piece of cake and their punches could knock you out dead.
"The last one however, was a beast. Of course they can't give you their power, you'd just have to take it. Ava had to fight that one off by herself. And she amazed me. The beast she fought was a Koron. Korons are large tigers coated in red fur, with a hard armored back and a deadly scorpion tail. She amazed me when she dove her dagger right into his armor and cracked it. If it's tail hadn't gotten her she would have killed it right there. And right after I had gotten the venom out of her, she ran back at it and stabbing the tail at it's joint, rendering it useless and then keeping the beast in a head lock. She said the spell rapio, causing the beast to convulse and turn into dust. One of the best fight I've seen by an amateur." She praised, giving Ava a smile and she returned it then looked back at her brother who had been frowning since he saw her.
"Now that we know the basics," Reina went on, taking the book from the air and handing it to Benji. "all we need to do now, is get you some powers. And luckily, the city we are going to now has tons of beasts and monsters and rouges. I'd say you better start reading up on how to weaken them and take their power. You'll need them if you want to survive where this ship is heading."
"And where is that?" Silas inquired, taking a step closer to Reina who quirked a brow at him.
"That question is for Wyatt. When you see him, ask him. Ava, let's go."
Ava only nodded before they vanished, not even leaving a trail of smoke behind.
Edgar stared awkwardly at where she had disappeared from and he blinked when he felt her power again but in a distance, somewhere below and away from him. He frowned at that, confused he could sense her so easily.
This wasn't new to him. He had always been able to sense things from people. Most times, it was their emotions. Like now, excitement was emitting off Benji while anger and confusion blared from Silas. When the air around them changed, Edgar could detect a shift in their emotions. He had used colors to easily separate them so he wouldn't get confused. Like dark green was envy or jealousy, light blue was sad, bright red was love, dark yellow was excitement, black was anger and it just went on.
"What are you staring at Edgar? We've got to learn this." Benji snapped his fingers in front of him, pulling him out of his thoughts to the book opened in front of him. "And there are a lot of beasts."
"And we can't fight them off with just our normal strength," Silas added, moving to stand beside Edgar so he could peer at the book.
"But your sister-"
Silas didn't let Benji finish as he cut him off. "...Could fight even without those powers. Black belt Karate and was learning quickly in Judo. I was bullied in school for some reason and she wanted to protect me."
"You must be close to your sister." Benji smiled, handing him the book when he asked.
"Yeah." The air around Silas burned bright red and he blushed. "Yeah, she is the best."
"Cute." Benji laughed, throwing an arm around Silas suddenly and he had to hold the book tighter. "I wish I was close to my big sis like that. She's like what... twenty something with a kid or so. Whatever. She was an ass when she was around so I don't care. Besides, I have Edgar. He's an only child by the way."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Edgar shrugged.
"But no worries," Benji continued, "Edgar's never been lonely because he had me. Most of the time. Anyways, I'm going to head back to my room and get myself a good bath. Try not to get" lost in the ship. It's a big ship." Benji ruffled Silas' hair before entering into the ship's quarters.
"This is huge." Silas remarked, sitting on the floor and moving to the railing so he could rest his back on it. He flipped through the book Edgar hadn't even had the pleasure of viewing properly then added, "I can't believe I'm not freaking out anymore. I mean, my sister just teleported in front of me. Maybe it wasn't her who did the teleporting but she just appeared. I was a bloody science student, I'm astonished."
Edgar smiled. "Well, I guess it would stop being of a shock to us soon enough." He shrugged his shoulders then went to sit in front of him. Edgar held back a grin when Silas looked up and instantly blushed.
Ah yes, he didn't have a shirt on.
"You should go wear a shirt. It's cold."
The grin broke on his face and only got wider as Silas tried to look away from him, his face reddening. His emotions were all over the place, flashing from pink which was happiness, to grey which was confusion and to light blue which meant sad and it confused Edgar. Why was he sad?
It wasn't so bright like the pink or grey which meant it was about something that wasn't on his mind at the moment.
Edgar nodded, pushing that thought out of his mind then said, "I'm not cold. I've faced worse. It's pretty warm even."
"Of course." He rolled his eyes and the pink seemed to bloom brighter, almost over shadowing the light blue.
"Okay Mr. Silas, tell me all you know about all the monsters you've read." He clapped his hands together in preparation for what was to come and Silas just laughed before diving into weird names and powers he hadn't expected.
All in all, he was glad he was able to brighten Silas' mood and he only prayed they weren't going to get killed by the first beast they met.
...
Alve was a big city. Unlike Uthor where the houses were spaced out, Alve's were tightly packed. It was bustling with markets and people talking, yelling. From the harbor, the view of the large arena could be seen and, according to Wyatt, was the city's source of income. He said people placed bets on the contenders and winners normally went home with loads of cash. Reina then told them that that was where they were going to find their beasts.
Even though Benji was excited as hell, it still didn't shake the fear that was growing him in him. He stared at the other participants on the notice board, glancing over Ava, Edgar, and Silas' names. There were tons of names he couldn't recognize; many were very tribal. But he wasn't surprised, the realm they were in was pretty tribal. It was the mix of different cultures. Some people wore traditional outfits like Reina and the people of Alve and there were people who wore similar outfits to the one of his realm.
"I guess we are fighting together. I wonder who or what it is." Benji hummed, shoving his hands into his pocket since it hadn't stopped shaking.
"So no one is freaking out?" Silas frowned at him then Edgar who was still staring at the names.
A couple of people came to view the same list then left before Edgar shrugged and said, "I'm freaking out, of course. But can you believe it, we're going to have our own power. I think that's what's keeping me from running back to the ship."
Silas sighed, rubbing the back of his head as he turned back to Benji. "What about you? I'm not my sister, I can't take a Koron by its head."
"Your sister is my idol if that story Reina told us was true." He poked him in the chest then turned, heading in the direction Reina had told them to go if they wanted to find her. "I really want to see her fight."
"I doubt she's as good as Reina made her to be." Silas laughed shyly.
"Well, we'll see today." Edgar said then started to speak to Silas about something they had read up on.
Benji felt awkwardly excluded and it made him frown. He only wished Wyatt was there with him, at least both of them could dive into talking about dragon and that type of power he had. Wyatt wasn't exactly a chatty person and the two days he had spent being his roommate in his lavish bedroom, he had been the one to talk, telling him about his world and the new techs they had. Wyatt had told him that his mum had only been there when all they had were guns and tanks, but nothing that rendered you unconscious instead of dead. Weapons like that were now used by minor cops in case a citizen was evading arrests, holograms were now used in classrooms instead of boards and a device called an RA45 was used by students to take their notes. The RA45 was almost like a see through iPad which could read your notes back to you or with which you could bring notes out to read yourself.
Wyatt had been amazed and was actually curious to see his world and that made him smile. At least their feelings of experiencing both sides were neutral. But at the moment, his world was the least of his worries.
Ava stood in front of a building, the door locked tightly as if the person inside didn't want her entering. She leant of the wall, eyes scanning the crowd until her hazel eyes fell on them. A small smile broke on her face and Benji felt his heart skip a beat. Ava was a beautiful woman with long blond hair that was plaited into two cornrows, her arms were folded over her nicely average breast and she pushed off the wall, showing off her full height which was only taller than Reina-the woman was short- and walked up to them.
"Hey." She waved.
"Ava!" Silas came to stand in front of his sister and he held her arms tightly. "What is wrong with you? You've been oddly quiet around that woman? Did she do something to you?"
She tiled her head at him then flicked him on the nose, causing him to pull away from her to cover his nose. "Jeez Silas, what's up with you? I'm fine. I'm only guarded because she can read my mind and I hate that."
"She can?" Silas said it before Benji could open his mouth. "She can read minds?"
"Yes. According to her, I babble too much for her liking." She rolled her eyes then kept her hands on her waist. "So every free time I have, she calls me to tell me more about her world and ways I can defeat certain monsters. But what do you think? About all these I mean? Fucking amazing right?"
"You bet." Silas grinned and his sister give him a smug smile.
"You seem confident. Did you do any training?"
"Training?" The three of them exclaimed and Ava's pretty hazels widened.
"You three must absolutely stupid. How did you think you were going to win over those monsters without training?"
"Wing it?" Benji helped when no one responded and she glared at him, sending a pleasing shiver down his spine.
"Wing it? Wing it. Right. Well, that can't happen. My first two powers were handed to me and when I got to fight that Koron, the dream I thought I had faded. These beasts will kill you and what Reina signed you up for was fight to death."
"What?!"
"Oh lord." Ava rubbed her temples, pacing as she mumbled off to herself.
Benji only stared at her in shock. He hadn't seen Ava this disturbed even when they were back in their camp. Sure, she complained but she didn't freak out like she was at the minute. She looked back at them and frowned.
"You are going to die in there. We've got the rest of the day to train and with Reina's permission, I will train you to the best of my abilities."
"Whoa sis, aren't you taking this a little too serious?"
The look of total horror on Ava's face almost made Benji step forward to slap Silas silly. Wasn't he seeing how grave the situation was? Or did he think just knowing the weakness was going to save him?
"Where would you train us?" Benji said, coming to stand beside Silas. "I don't think I want to die yet. I still want to explore this realm."
Ava stared at him, and the color seemed to return back to her face. She cupped his face in her hands and the look of relief swelled in her eyes. "That's the spirit."