Strife Of The Eclipse

Ambush

Aiden is lost in his sleep before Rena wakes him up. 

“What’s up Rena?”

“The village is surrounded, be prepared”

Aiden quickly moves up and perks up his ears but finds that the village is quiet. He tried to smell the air outside…

“This smell… this is bad, it’s Lizardmen.”

Ambush!! Ambush!! The town guard screamed before he was shot down from the sentry tower.

Suddenly the sound of Bell rang as the lizardmen swarmed the village.

Every fighter and able bodies on their feet started to fight and repel the Lizardmens. Apparently this is not their first time, but surely not their last too..

“Rena, don’t use your rifle to fight here, try to find another close combat weapon” Aiden reminded her as they joined the fight in the village…

When Aiden approached the lizardman warriors, they let out their usual aggressive shrieks.

“Sylvari!”

“Foolish Sylvary! You come to die!”

The five lizardmen warriors charged toward him, brandishing their curved blades.

The level of each lizardman was low, but it was compensated for by their number. If Aiden was encircled by them, he had to face each of them in front and back, on the left and right, plus an extra one.

Aiden was confident, though. He is a renowned hunter in his time, not to mention a champion too in Titanoire.

Aiden and Rena were standing on the frontline to confront the charging lizardmen.

Given that their party lacked a warrior or a knight, those two had to play the role of leaders in a close fight.

“Eh, well, Dad,” Rena said.

“Yes?” Aiden asked back.

“If I die, please save yourself.”

Rena looked pessimistic in the face of the five lizardmen without her rifle.

“Don’t worry, Rena. If any of us goes down, I’ll be the first. I will attract their anger as I used to,” Aiden said confidently.

“Dad, you’re a Champion, you got the task from the gods . Oh, by the way, what’s your current level?” Rena asked.

“eight”

Aiden briskly plunged into an opening in between the lizardmen.

“Watch out!” Rena said.

His sudden action threw his teammates into utter confusion since he only wears plain clothes, but he was composed.

“Slice and Dice!” Aiden cried.

He confidently activated the footstep technique that he had learned in Titanoire, a skill to dodge enemy attacks with unpredictable steps.

Charging forward, Aiden suddenly disappeared right in front of a lizardman, and emerged on the back of it the next second.

“Backstab,” Aiden cried.

Aiden moved nimbly and swung his dagger thrice. Three silhouettes struck the neck twice and the spine of the lizardman’s body at the same time.

Stab!  Stab! Pierce!

The lizardmen were stronger than his peers since he is in the warrior ranks. Their body had the flexibility of reptiles, and high speed.

Their attack power wasn’t impressive, but what was terrifying was their greenish skin. The thick skin had a spectacular defense of its own, and they were even wearing plundered armor that they had looted from other races, which made them difficult to deal with.

Aurgh… Kyaaaak…. Hyeeoook….

Damaged by Aiden’s skill, the lizardman cried heavily in pain. It lost 80% of its life to near death.

Rena, right beside Aiden, watched the whole scene unfolding.

She had gone through a number of battles with him since he killed the  wargs and wolves before.

The whole thing was incomprehensible enough, and it seemed that his combat ability had not vanished.

I don’t know what skill it was, but it was awesome, anyway, Rena thought.

Actually, it was the same skill of Backstab in Titanoire, but since Aiden also a hunter, he merged his skill in Sylgarth and Titanoire while he was in there which makes it his favorite moves, other backstab skill only strike once, but his skill can strike thrice.

She felt as if three swords pierced the lizardman almost at the same time when Aiden used Slice and Dice.

“I can’t lose to him!”

Rena punched the lizardman that Aiden had already attacked. She wanted one of them down for now.

The lizardman had fallen, stunned by her action, so it could not avoid her punch.

Since the enemy had a higher level than Rena, she used her punches to begin with.

Clenching her fist, she threw five jabs in a row.

Don’t forget, Rena is a golem, which means her body is made of mythical metal. Her whole body is another weapon if used properly, and the lizardmen just taste how hard it is her punch can be.

Pabababak!

The lizardman that was hit on the chest and the solar plexus ended dead.

“What the?”

Rena was stunned for a while, though she was in the middle of a fierce battle.

“It was stunned. But why did it die so quickly?”

In stunned mode, a monster is unable to move, and is damaged twice when hit.

Still, Rena felt cheated that a lizardman at level twenty was easily knocked out by her punches.

The other lizardmen were not idling away, either. When their comrade was attacked, they roared in fury.

Four blades were flying toward Aiden almost at the same time, cutting off every possible option for dodging.

His body rocked like a reed in the wind. Three of the blades barely skinned his head, leg and shoulder.

The last one that he could not dodge cut into his side, leaving a lengthy wound, but the damage was lessened by threefold.

Due to training by his mentor in Titanoire, his constitution is greatly enhanced. 

In the middle of the battle, Rena and Aiden level up continuously. Both of them then helped the villagers fend off the Lizardmen the whole night. 

“We already took down more than forty lizardmen…” Rena counted

“We will face a more difficult enemy from this point on. How about baiting them now?” Aiden asked.

“Okay dad!” Rena said.

“We should be careful. We can’t allow many lizardmen to take on us at once,” Aiden said.

Rena did a great job baiting lizardmen one by one. Her outstanding dexterity helped her lure the enemy separately.

“Come on, you ugly reptiles!”

“Kroaaaaagghh kroooaaaagh!”

“Sylvari, we kill you!”The furious lizardmen chased after Rena.

“Ugh!”

“Sylvari fists, they hurt!” screamed one of the Lizarmen.

“Hunt Human instead”

Listening to Lizardmen speaking, Rena went fishing in a group of lizardmen in the distance when there were two or more groups of lizardmen nearby. Rena and Aiden work in tandem to eradicate the lizardmen.

Both Rena and Aiden swept the village clean of the Lizardmen that day helping the villagers till they were exhausted. Some parts of the village are on fire and some are broken. signs of devastation is here and there

“We in Atombe Village owe you.” an elder approach Aiden that is resting on a big stone in a corner with Rena

“No, Sir. We have only done what we were supposed to. We will always do our best to preserve every Village’s peace and prosperity as we come to the village.”

but their conversation is held up as they hear some argument from the central area

“You’re responsible for this!”

“Why are you making a scapegoat out of me?”

“Your pathetic response got Anita killed in action!”

“It is her responsibility to take care of her own life.”

“Now you’re blaming the dead woman!”

While winning back Atombe Village, and cleaning up the remnants of the lizardmen, the mercenaries who rested in the village suffered some heavy casualties.

To begin with, the group of total strangers was incapable of executing organized tactics, so they ended up losing many clueless members in the middle of a dogfighting ambush.

As a consequence, there was no love lost between Kandras and the ranks of the mercenaries.

“It was a battle, part of a war, that we just participated in,” Kandras said. “Inevitable casualties are always a part of war, aren’t they? Get over it.”

“A few casualties? Are you calling the death of Anita inevitable casualties? You don’t give crap about it? It’s all because of your bad leadership!” the angry member who had lost his friend shouted.

“Wasn’t it you who eagerly accepted to obey my bad leadership? I am tired of quarreling with you this way when the battle is hardly won.”

“What the hell!”

The quarrel between Kandras and his ranks got worse.

With such heavy casualties, nobody cared if Aiden and Rena had run around fighting during the mission.

I did my best. I killed the most lizardmen, and my friends rescued you. Show us some respect,” Kandras said calmly.

“You… bastard” 

“What? Do you think we don’t know what you’re up to?” Kandras retorted back.

“You just want to find a scapegoat for your incompetence…”

Another brawl happened as the one jumped on Kandras, but he disposed of the latter easily with a hit aimed at the other man’s heart. but something unexpected happened before Aiden’s eyes.

The dead man in front of him turned into pixels and dropped some coins and potions.

“What sorcery is this…” Aiden gets wary and alerted.

Rena took a glance and informed Aiden..

“Dad, your world has been abandoned completely by their gods, they have turned this world into something new, all i can remember is that you have to protect your kin before they are completely extinct, i think the reason why there is no Terris from the bard story is because of they are wiped out by some races due to dominion and dominations…”

“I can’t explained much, but all i can say that the one that turned into pixels can ressurect themself, but they got penalties for each death, I can’t tell you much about this since my knowledge about it is limited, i’ve encountered several in my journey as technomagi golem along the multiverse, but all i can say is that the gods have largely summoned souls of warriors into your world, and that cause the imbalance of power and the emerge of humanoid intelligence is because these souls are free to choose which race they want to be when they first entered this world.” 

Aiden turns his back and moves away from the central area after listening to Rena’s explanation, his heart is raging with fury towards the gods once more. 

As an elder sylvari, Aiden was taught since childhood that they have to love nature, and preserve its kind to keep nature and magic flows, to love art and artistry, music and poetry as Vexira adores her sister Allyse so much too. Sylvari are more often amused than excited, and more likely to be curious than greedy. 

Sylvari tends to remain aloof and unfazed by petty happenstance. Aiden was not a Noble Sylvari himself that is the reason why he looks like an old man in his fifties even though he is young and handsome, Only Noble Sylvari can retain their youthfulness, that is the gift of Vexira that only few of the sylvari owned, or can be said that only the very gifted one among the sylvaries are being given the gift. In his memory, only 7 Founding elders of sylvaries got it. That is the reason why he told Rena that she was a Noble sylvari but not him.

“Rena, we must return to Sylvari village, so that I can know what to do next. My mind is a mess now… too much to think about..”

“Okay dad… I’ll move around to find some supplies for our journey.”

Rena then leaves Aiden to think for himself…

“What happened to sylgarth since the gods abandoned everyone… these are so frustrating, another problem occurred, these warrior souls… i need to know their origin and purposes too”

Aiden closes his eyes and falls asleep shortly under the tree in the village. Everyone is busy with reparation and many things, so no one takes a note of him…