Ruth's Departure, and Oliphym's improvement
In the morning, the following day, Oliphym was accompanied by Amanda.
Amanda, same as usual, was teaching Oliphym sword arts, exercising, and sparring with mock matches.
They were practicing outside from a distance just enough to not disturb the sleeping children.
DAAANG!
Amanda blocked a heavy swing from Oliphym, but she simply parried and redirected the force elsewhere.
This left her open only for a moment, shorter than a breath.
He tried to aim for that opening and tried to strike her side with a kick.
Amanda noticed this and was quite surprised by this in her mind.
whoosh!
Using the momentum of parrying his strike, Amanda spun away from his range, and, countered with a stabbing motion of her practice sword.
Missing it's mark, Oliphym didn't pursue and predicted her counter.
whoosh!
Amanda's strike brushed on his left shoulder, as his vacant hand supported his balance in his crouching posture on the ground.
He have another chance again as he withdrew his sword and swung his sword upwards towards her from underneath.
cla-CLANG!
To his expectation, Amanda also blocked this as well, but this time she was smiling even more.
"You're doing so well suddenly, Oliphym. It's like I'm facing a different person." she marveled as she break the sword lock. Her eyes sparkled with a bright smile.
chiing!
Both of them took half a step away from each other and readied their stance.
"I learned a lot from you." he replied. He just felt like his senses are heightened to the point he could perceive things he would miss before.
His dull senses the day before can no long the felt. Still, his slightly rough breathing was noticeable.
Compared to Amanda who didn't even break a sweat, he is in a bad shape.
But unlike their previous sessions, Oliphym certainly showed improvements and he is able to properly exchanged strikes with her, unlike on initial training before, where he always run away, or make distance every time Amanda swing her sword.
Amanda beamed with a smile as she took the initiative this time.
DANG! CLANG CLANG! DANG! DANG! CLANG!-
They exchanged 15 more strikes with each other, but Oliphym had to back away further than the last everytime he block, before their practice swords locked again.
"Oh? Even better. I already knew you have a good battle-sense, but it's even better than when I first met you." she giggled as she loosened her strength, along with half a step backwards, making the forward weight of his body fall towards her direction.
This made him momentarily lose his balance and realised that she intends to seize his sword.
He suddenly kicked the ground out of reflex and lunged forward towards her side out of sword reach and rolled on the ground once before he regained his balance.
But when his eyes landed on Amanda's figure, a flash of sword strike was already an arm reach away from him.
CLANG!!
He managed to parry her sword on the last moment away from him, but as a result, he accidentally let go of his sword, landing far behind him.
It was his defeat, he sat on the ground defenseless and Amanda stood tall before him, but on her face was a refreshing smile.
-
Oliphym washed his face with a pale of water as he stood besides a nearby water well, and on the opposite side was Amanda also taking her break.
Truth to be told, Oliphym felt a peculiar feeling ever since he woke up again. It's the feeling of unrecognisable familiarity, but he couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why this is the case.
"Vague memories. Those aren't even my own reflexes.."
This is what kept coming up in his mind. Blurred visions of figures. Whenever he thinks of this, he momentarily feel like he is in a foreign body, but that only lasted for a breath before that feeling vanished.
For some reason during their sparring, his body would somehow respond to her strikes with reflex that his body almost couldn't catch up.
While he was thinking of this, the corner of his vision caught some figures coming out of the house with luggages in tow.
"..Somehow, this was expected." Amanda spoke as she stood next to him. Both of them recognized the three people leaving the house. The figures moved as if they are sneaking out quietly, unknown to then that Amanda and him have seen them.
"Amanda, are they with Ruth?"
"Probably, I cannot assume but, they must've discovered Ruth's departure, so they are planning to come with her." she continued, explaining her assumption.
"Do they even know where they should go?" Oliphym replied with a helpless smile, thinking that they might miss each other.
"They should. Otherwise, they would come back here. Although I didn't want them to go because Ruth asked me to look after them. Wanna go again?" Amanda asked with a smile as if to change the subject.
'..You care more about their feelings and respect their decision as well.' he thought while he quietly watched their departing figures before he took a deep breath and nodded at Amanda's question.
-
This morning, Ruthritia leisurely left the city through the city gate. She wore a hooded cloak over her body, with the hood off her head.
It's still early in the morning, but as usual, the city guards are still on their posts, monitoring everything that goes in, and out of the city.
This also applies to people who leave, and arrives in the city, regardless of time.
When she was already a hill away from the city gate, a small figure suddenly wrapped their little arms around her body from behind.
Out of vigilant reflex, she grabbed the figure and seized it's head.
"Ow ow ow ow! It hurts! Sister Ruth, so mean!" a familiar voice reach her ears when she heard the figure whine.
Her eyes widened and immediately released the figure of the girl that came to her, and not far from her, another two figure stood together.
Facing them, Ruth didn't need to figure out whether they sneaked out, or Amanda told them of her departure. She is more than sure enough that they want to come with her, but-
She can see tears on their faces despite the dimly lit surroundings.
"Did you come to see me off? Ali, Snow, Little Ji.. " she asked with a helpless smile that was rare to be seen in front of others.
"No, please take me with you!" with her hood off, Ali of the fox-kin with brown fur, refuted with her voice a bit raised.
"Me as well!" based on her name and appearance, the smallest of the three refuted as well with her eyes closed and hands clenched, her cheeks had visible traces of tears on them. She has recognisable small green antlers on either side of her head, that come could be mistaken as hair ornaments it a headband.
"Please don't leave us!" the sole the wolf-kin replied last, Snow refuted as well. She was holding little Ji's small hand, her hair resembling the color of the white snow.
Taking a good look, Ruth's observation wouldn't overlook their rushed breathing and small beads of sweat of their faces. Most probably they rushed to find her on a short notice.
Her eyes felt watery and her heart jittered as if her chest had butterflies. She was happily, and equally worried as well. She doesn't want to make anymore scene on the road as she turned around, not showing anymore emotions to the onlookers.
"You girls sneaked out without telling big sis Amanda?"
"..." the three girls remained quiet in reply and averted their gaze, looking on the ground. Ruth sighs helplessly.
"..We have a long road ahead. Let's go. I'll just write to her and tell her you're with me." she giggled inwardly with a small smile.
The three nodded with joy and followed close behind Ruth as they form a small group.
One day, Ruth realized she was captured by the bandits, she was aloof and often resists them, but in return, they lashed and whipped her until she became quiet.
It was on the third day after she was captured did she met Little Ji. She woke up to find Little Ji treating her wounds alongside Ali. Ruth was quite distant from them at first.
But it immediately changed when Snow came and was thrown in jail. The person that dragged her in had obvious traces of bleeding, probably because she resisted fiercely.
Snow was bruised heavily, and the wounded man was about to lash out more on heavily battered Snow when Little Ji shielded her, and the whip landed on her, letting out a painful whine.
The man was agitated by the intrusion and was about to lash out more when Ali and Ruth came as well, kneeling next to Little Ji's curling and trembling figure as if to defend her, and behind little Ji was Snow's body that was not moving, lying down on the floor. They couldn't tell apart whether she was still alive, or unconscious.
That was how they all first met. Since then, Ruth started to care more about them.
Although she appeared very reluntant and was forced, no one knew better than herself how happy she was that she will still be with them.
They continued to walk down the path of the road, and on the furthest horizon ahead of them was a wide mountain range with the rising sun next to it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone