Morus pondered about what he should do next, juggling between finding Gad or Asa, but his thoughts combed down the interaction he had a moment ago.

  After the awkward meeting with Chief Ata just now, he was certain that the villagers knew that he and Monica were not from around these parts.

  The old Chief probably wanted to broach that topic, but found it was a sensitive subject, that’s why their conversation was filled with mostly nothing.

  That’s the worst part about being thrown into a world you know nothing about. Lack of information.

  If only he had access to a library or external information source where he could blend in.

  After shaking away his straying thoughts, Morus made his decision and walked towards the destination in mind.

  ??? ? ???

  Morus stopped at the gates of the village entrance. He looked up towards the empty sentry post, where Gad should have been.

  Snap!

  A loud sound came from Morus’ right, as if something metallic hit another metal.

  Before he could find out what that was, he heard whooshing sounds of something moving at high speeds, cutting through the air.

  Following the source of the sounds, Morus arrived at a clearing with several straw dummies.

  Monica and Gad stood side by side as they watched the spectacle in front of them.

  Asa was performing martial arts with what looks like a shiny whip.

  The ranger twirled the metallic whip by her side, it made the sound of blades displacing air as it started spinning at high speeds.

  At the peak of the spin, Asa threw the end of her whip forward.

  The tip of it stabbing through a straw dummy beside a decapitated one.

  As the attack connected, Asa pulled the chains of the whip back, bringing along the straw dummy and the wooden post that should have kept it grounded.

  A punch was readied for the moment the straw dummy reached the woman.

  With a speed that blurred under the naked eye, the straw dummy was fragmented into many individual parts.

  Even the wooden post snapped in half, as they landed on the ground beside the ranger.

  Morus stood wide-eyed.

  There goes any chance of them escaping.

  If it was even possible at all.

  Luckily the people Morus and Monica met in the village so far were friendly, at most a bit grumpy.

  After thinking about it for a moment, Morus just chuckled.

  How you view others is a reflection of your inner self.

  When’s the last time he received help from others?

  Genuine help. No strings attached.

  He laughed at himself.

  Pathetic. That’s why everyone distanced themselves from you.

  The older brother looked at his younger sister smiling brightly, though a bit slack-jawed, in the center of the training grounds.

  Monica clapped enthusiastically.

  Her movements were not as big as usual.

  Which Morus noted as odd.

  Then he realized that she had something pinched under her armpits.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Something leathery.

  Monica held the leathery item by the hilt, and dropped the rest of it.

  The leathery thing snaked onto the ground, and with a flick of Monica’s wrists, it crawled in front of her and started slithering on the packed dirt.

  As the girl started getting more accustomed to the leather whip, sounds of air being popped gradually became louder, until the final crack in the air echoed around them.

  To which, Asa held a hand out and stopped the girl from continuing.

  Monica, clothes drenched in sweat, looked up at the ranger & instructor before her. She managed to convince both Asa and Gad to give her lessons somehow.

  Turning around to check on Vigil, who was laying down on an elevated patch of land, the girl spotted her brother and waved at him.

  Morus, sitting cross-legged beside Vigil, was running one hand through its fur, and waved back at his sister.

  Seeing this scene reminded him of the times he picked her from rhythmic gymnastic lessons. Going through the drills of her routine while forgetting about the time and the environment around her.

  “That’s enough of a warm-up! I’ll show you how to train with affinity!” Gad’s voice burst forth with energy.

  “But now! Stand back!”

  Monica nodded her head, still recovering her breath from playing with the whip, and followed after Asa to take a step back.

  Gad lifted the warhammer he was carrying on one shoulder and landed it on the ground.

  THUD.

  Dirt flew into the air.

  Instead of scattering away, they gravitated back and adhered themselves to the head of the hammer.

  The dirt around Gad’s proximity crawled towards him, as if heeding a call. They climbed up the warhammer and formed a crust of dirt over the hammer head.

  The warhammer was lifted with a backgrip, the brown crusted hammer was pounded down into the ground by the giant of a man, once, twice.

  Dirt fell off of it in clumps, revealing a layer of stone beneath it.

  The stone cracked, fragmenting into many pieces, leaving the gleaming metallic sheen nowhere to hide.

  With a pull and a kick, the warhammer immediately picked up speed as it was gripped by the guard, he swung it slowly with one hand, gradually increasing in speed as the warhammer whirled around his body.

  To one side, then up around his back to the front, then repeating with the other side, then the other arm. Feet unmoving the entire time.

  Once that routine was done, Gad switched up his grip to a two-handed one.

  The hammer swung through the air with heavier momentum that made the air shake.

  Morus and Monica expected Gad’s swings to be a repeat of what he did with one-hands, but what they observed shook them.

  When the warhammer reached the extent of Gad’s motion range, instead of twirling it up above his head with the flow of momentum, the giant of a man raised his opposite leg and planted it into the ground, hard.

  A small dust cloud, followed by Gad maddeningly slashing the air in a criss-cross manner with a warhammer, as if it was a sword instead of a blunted weapon. The muscles in his arms bulged and deflated along the dance of blunted death.

  One second, two…

  On the third second, Gad raised his warhammer into the air, the limbs of his body fully extended as they held it up above his head.

  BOOM!

  A loud sound as the mini-meteor hit the ground, a small crater before the giant where a spike of earth shot up from.

  He turned around and beamed at his spectators, Asa was giving him a forced smile, Monica’s jaw was hanging off the hinges, Morus had his hands holding his forehead as if he had trouble processing what he had just witnessed.

  A large tremor traveled through the ground and rumbled beneath the earth beneath the feet of everyone around.

  As the dust settled, a loud voice thundered across the village, from the direction of the forge.

  “GAD! DON’T DO THAT AGAIN!”

  The man in question smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

  “Gad! How did you do that?”

  “Training! Lots of training.”

  “The part where the dirt comes to you!”

  “Oh! Uhm… You just call it to do it?” Gad shrugged, it came to him like second nature so he was terrible at explaining things.

  Asa patted Gad’s broad shoulders, her eyes shooting towards Morus and Vigil.

  “I’ll take it from here.”

  Gad, taking the hint, dragged his warhammer behind him as he made his way towards the man and dog.

  “Nichole, it depends on your affinity. Some affinities can do elemental coating on weapons easier than others. Fire, water and earth for example.”

  Monica nodded her head enthusiastically.

  Nodding back with satisfaction, the trainer continued, “You’ve seen how that giant rock does things, I’ll show you something more graceful and would help you in learning how to use this weapon.” She lifted the chain whip in her hand a little, the metal rods already stacked against each other, and placed it in Monica’s hands.

  Drawing a sword that she had been carrying by her belt, she moved to a spot where the ground remained relatively untouched.

  The ranger, now trainer, stood with feet a shoulder apart, sword in her right hand, as she faced Monica.

  Her right arm fully extended as the tip of the blade pointed towards the side.

  As if doing warm ups for her wrists, the sword did twirls in the air.

  Few twirls later, she held the blade up against her back, the tip of it peeking out from her shoulders, and looked down.

  When she looked back up, cold sweat ran up Morus and Monica’s back as they felt like they were being in the presence of a tiger.