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Chapter 26: Preparations "Ouch ouch ouch!" Alexis howled in pain as she burnt her finger on the stove while making breakfast yet again. "Fifth time." I thought, trying very hard not to laugh. However, Keichii couldn't hold it back any longer and burst out laughing. Alexis went red as an annoyed Siren put some ice on her finger, saying, "Learn not to get your finger burnt! I'm tired of this routine." Alexis hurriedly apologized as Fielda served breakfast, bacon and eggs. Someone knocked at the door and I went to open it. A very wet Roy was standing outside on the early morning rain. "My claw is gonna rust!" he said and went into the house, grabbing a cloth to wipe his claw. "Bad time to rain." I remarked, looking out the window. "At least its good for the flowers." Fielda commented, sipping a cup of coffee. We spent the rest of the morning playing poker. Roy managed to win most of the time until we found out he was cheating by hiding cards in his sleeves. He lost quite a few times after Keichii shook the cards out of his sleeves laughing. Note: I don't know how to play poker. "Full house!" I said as I laid my cards on the table. Fielda smiled and slapped her cards on the table, yelling, "Straight flush!" The rest of us sighed and got to another round. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door again. "I'll get it!" I said and headed for the door, wondering who it was. I didn't need to open it as it slammed into me just as I was about to turn the knob. "Hi guys. Took us a while to find you." a familiar voice said. "Where's Ivan?" another familiar voice asked. "You slammed the door into him." Alexis replied, laughing. The door was quickly closed and SonicBoom49 said, "Ivan, are you okay? Sorry about hitting you like that." I walked towards a nearby sofa woozily and sat down, replying, "I'm okay. Warn us before you pull that off again okay?" Quiet14 remarked, "Okay. Nice house by the way." Fielda said, "Thanks." as the couple turned towards her, asking, "Who's she?" I replied, "She's Alexis's and my mother, Fielda. Mother, meet two of our friends, SonicBoom49 and Quiet14. Quiet14 curtsied neatly while SonicBoom49 bowed, both saying, "Nice to meet you, madam." Fielda replied, smiling, "Same to you." SonicBoom49 and Quiet14 joined us for a few rounds of poker and then went to look around the house, which we had renovated. It now featured an archery range of two thousand metres in the backyard, a fighting dojo inside, a few extra bedrooms and even a mini library. Fielda used to complain about the cost until I managed to sell off some of the drops we got from Papulatus for a decent amount of money, 10 million to be exact. She now spent most of her time in the dojo, training with Keichii. Me and Roy occupied the archery range, trying to see who could shoot or throw further and more accurately. Alexis hogged the library, studying cooking, other home-making skills and the occasional swordfighting book, which techniques she took pride in showing to me. I decided to stay some distance away after she lost her sword over a failed Bladestorm and nearly sliced off my head with the flyaway sword. It took about 1 centimetre off my hair as I ducked. The sword stuck itself high on the wall. Keichii had to get a ladder, climb up to it, retrieve it and give it back to the embarassed Alexis. Because I would be needing more skills to defat Saevio, I asked for a few archery books from Athena, who gladly obliged. Alexis started to read those as well and became quite proficient in using a bow, although she fumbles with the string sometimes. Once, she practically blew herself up when she tried to strap bombs to her arrows. They exploded before she fired them and we had to leave her in a bedroom for a few days recovering. The Siren was heard to mutter, "Honestly!" as I checked on her every now and then. "I win!" Roy shouted as he ran down the archery range to his throwing star, embedded in the bull's eye of the target some 1000 meters down the strip. I huffed and fired an arrow at another target 900 meters away. It bull's eyed as well. I then fired another one and it flew down the range, splitting the existing arrow in half. Roy gaped at me, "Nice...... Too bad throwing stars are too hard to split." I looked in the archery books Athena had given me and flipped through the pages before coming to rest on a neat technique. I closed my eyes and imagined my arrow splitting off into a hundred more. "Cluster Shot!" I shouted and fired an arrow of concentrated mana. Sure enough, it burst apart in mid-air, but the result wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. The arrow itself broke up in mid-air before hitting the target. I rechecked the book and found out that I needed to use an actual arrow to perform the skill instead of a soul arrow. I tried it again, yelling, "Cluster Shot!". This time the arrow split apart neatly in mid-air and a hundred arrows pierced through the target. Roy retorted with, "Javelin Strike!" and threw a hundred throwing stars into the air above a target, blasting them with mana mid-fall. The throwing stars hurtled to the ground and embedded themselves neatly in the target. "Nice." I called over and flipped to another skill that I was interested in. It was called Mirage Arrow and it involved firing an arrow that would split up into four with only one being the real one. I concentrated my mana into the arrow and sent it flying with a shout, "Mirage Arrow!" The arrow split up into four and flew towards the target. When it hit, there was only one arrow in the bull's eye. "Bladestorm!" Alexis yelled as she spun around in circles, twirling her sword. Suddenly, it broke free of her grasp and flew towards my feet. I rolled towards the side to dodge it. "Sorry. I just can't keep my grip on!" she hurriedly apologized and went to retrieve her sword, which was stuck in the wall. "It's okay." I replied, setting up a dummy in a corner. She concentrated her mana into her sword and said, "Aerial Strike!". She slashed her sword from a distance at the dummy and rippling waves of air cut it in half. I clapped my hands and chucked a potion bottle at her. She caught it neatly and drank it. "Lets see how many you can take down with one attack!" Keichii called over from the corner and carried fifteen dummies over, placing them in various positions around the dojo. "No problem! Typhoon Slash!" she replied, tracing magical symbols on her sword. She did a 360 degree spin in the middle of the dojo, whirling her sword around. A spiralling wave of water appeared around her and rippled outwards, knocking the dummies off their posts and getting me and Keichii wet. "Nice move." Keichii called over, drawing his Rigol sword and muttering, "Fire, heed my call. Fire Charge!" his sword started to glow red and he used it to dry our clothes. SonicBoom49 and Alexis were at it in the dojo, with the two thieves chatting and watching from the sidelines. I was outside on the balcony, gazing at the bright moon smiling at me in the night sky. The Dark Dragon asked, "Matters on your mind, young one?". I replied, "I wonder if the moon is like this in my original world...... I can't recall my past..." The Dark Dragon said, "The gods probably have sealed your memories to prevent you from thinking of the past. For now, you must put all your energy into defeating the evil plagueing this world." I sighed and sat down cross-legged. I could have sworn I saw a dark shadow flying across the night sky, but I thought nothing of it and went back inside the house. Roy had broken out the Monopoly set and was in the middle of a game with Alexis, Keichii and Quiet14. However, he appeared to be winning. We found out later, he had stacked the "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards. They made him swear never to cheat on our games again and restarted the game. That night, when we went to sleep, I stayed awake for a few minutes, pondering my past. Alexis woke up in the middle of the night and we went to sit on the balcony together to do some stargazing. |
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