Chapter 53: - The Stationary [3]
Blood.
So red, crimson in color, yet glinting in the sun, leaving that brightening hue of a cherry, dyed red on the ground.
In the shade, the blood looked black, darker than crimson, yet less than black itself. It was a dark, red mahogany color, yet distinct to knowing itself as blood. It will never forget.
It traced the trunks and trees like an oozing sap, slowly falling to the ground where the dirt and muck picked what little it could up, absorbed into the liquid like a sponge.
When the blood dried, that beautiful crimson color, like paint on a canvas, came calling, drying, snapping and breaking into pieces. Pieces of dried powder, clotted and hard.
Yet there was never an end to the flowing waters of the red hued blood, as it poured from the wounds, the gash, the injured and the plagued.
…The dead.
The dead never call, nor do they move, twitch, or scream out in agony for the loss of their blood.
A trickle - a drop. Down past the metal colored in black, held by hands soft yet hard, in places that were distinct to the sword. The weapon. The murder that struck these dead, killing them so easily in their lost sense of fear.
Lia stood, overlooking the scene lying before her, the air from her lungs coming in ragged breaths. Out and in. In and out. Repeating the same cycle, never getting enough in her lungs.
She was tired, but sleep could wait.
Around her were the dead, brown and green in skin, their eyes still holding some long held sense of greed.
Goblins, all dead, dyeing the ground in their blood.
How did it look again?
Right, a flowing crimson red that seems to paint the world. A world where all that starts ends in blood.
"Lia…"
Turning to the owner of the voice, Lia's eyes met Rian's, who stood not too far away, his gauntlets dyed in a similar color as her sword, matching the blood that spilled.
"These were the last of them."
Tearing her eyes from Rian, Lia looked over the goblin corpses, counting ten in total.
They were all so small and frail, easily killable, yet relentless in their attacks.
Cain wasn't lying when he said goblins were no mere joke. Their traps had nearly taken her head several times, leaving her a nasty gash to her thigh, while Lukali was lucky to walk away with only a small slash against his chest.
"Should we take them in?"
Rian gestured to the corpses, his mind somewhat distant, thinking to himself how they were going to bring all these bodies back.
"We don't need to."
Taking Rian from his thoughts, Lia gestured with her sword, the small wooden encrusted necklaces around the goblins necks.
"We can just collect the necklaces, since goblins only wear one per person. It's a lot cheaper than hiring a cart to bring all these bodies back."
Nodding his head, Rian agreed with Lia, knowing full well that they didn't have the funds to hire a corpse carrier.
Normal Hunters with large parties, or well off Hunters would often hire Corpse carriers who would tally up their kills, and carry them back to the Post in order to collect their reward.
Or, if it was a large guild, famous and well off, they would have special Post members who would join them on their raids, tallying up their kills for them.
This was a lot more common in high powered Hunter guilds that racked up hundreds of kills at a time.
Something that Lia could not afford to do, nor did she have the leeway within the Hunter's Post to request a specialized member to join them. As of right now, taking in their necklaces was the best and only option they had.
Lukali set himself to collecting the necklaces, each one distinct and having their own designs.
"By the way, Lia?"
Rian continued the conversation, surveying the forest for any stragglers, his mind though, was elsewhere.
"Did your skills happen to level up by any chance? Or is it a set skill?"
Lia stopped counting the bodies, and thought deeply on what he had said.
Some summons had ranking skills - skills that, over the course of time, with the more experience gained by the summoner, the stronger they would become and in turn, strengthen the skills, making them even more powerful.
Of course, these types of skills and summoners were extremely rare.
In fact, just owning one of these so-called 'ranking' skills, would undoubtedly classify you as a Ranker. Someone who grew stronger with each fight, based on the experience you gained through your class.
Though, being so rare, Lia had only heard of maybe a few within Rovsta, her home. Much less the amount she could hardly name within Melcor and the vast countries that called it home.
Lia herself had a sneaky suspicion that there were, in fact, more Rankers than the kingdoms actually knew of.
But that wasn't what her mind was focused on.
Currently, Lia could hardly overcome her excitement, as she began to question if her skills were indeed 'rankable' and if she could call herself a Ranker.
"Don't get your hopes up girl."
A deep voice came from her side, rather than her head.
Turning to face the voice, Lia found Cain propped up against a tree, his arms crossed as he looked at her with amusement written across his face.
"I didn't give you any 'ranking' skills, so there's no point in getting your hopes up."
Instantly, Lia's hopes were crushed, as she truly was praying that she could in fact be a Ranker.
But something caught her off guard.
"You sound like that's a bad thing?"
It was true. When Cain said the word 'ranking skill's' he made air quotes around his words, symbolizing his laid back attitude towards something that others would have been killing each other over just for the opportunity.
Shrugging, Cain once again didn't seem like he cared much for the idea.
"Ranking skills are overrated anyways. It's normally just something that summons give to sumoners to keep them occupied. Leaves less skills to be transferred over."
Frowning, Lia sheathed her sword, now engaged in the conversation.
Similarly, Rian also put in his opinion, not finding it strange that Cain showed up out of nowhere and acted like it was no big deal.
"You say that, but a rankable skill is still very rare. Even rarer than being a summoner, much less an Rank S summoner for that matter. So if they're just placeholders, used to occupy time, why aren't they handed out more often?"
Laughing to himself, Cain dropped his laid back attitude and glanced between the both of them.
"Easy. It's because the summons that do give out those skills are either incredibly strong, or just don't realize what they have. Most summons have a rank able skill - in fact I would say a good portion of them do. They just don't hand them out freely because they can become greedy."
"But they don't lose their skills if they transfer them over, do they?"
Lia asked confused, her mind thinking over the possibility of this actually being true.
"Well, let me ask you this. Let's say that you were carving something out of wood. It took you three days and a lot of blisters, but you were proud of yourself. Then, your neighbor received a half finished one for his birthday or something like that. He fixed it up, and went around all proud of himself for finishing something 'so hard.' You get it now?"
"So you're saying it's the same thing with summons and their masters. They just don't want their masters to be carried through something they struggled to do?"
"Exactly. Most summoners can rank up their skills by having their summons do it for them. That being said, most summoners don't like seeing that - them getting the easy way and all that."
Curious, Lia crossed her arms, giving Cain a skeptical look.
"Is this the same case with you?"
Cain almost laughed, but settled for a half scoff, half laugh, that took Lia by quite the surprise.
"No. Why would I care about that? Doesn't matter if I give you all my skills or none of them. You still won't beat me. Besides, all my ranking skills are too strong for you right now."
"What do you mean by that?"
Before Cain could respond, a rustling in a set of nearby bushes caught the attention of Lia, who quickly drew her sword to face the monster, but was too slow in doing so, and as such, the goblin appeared right before her in a matter of seconds.
Her sword was still in its scabbard, yet this goblin's knife was out, flying wildly around, trying to hit anything it could.
But before it could land a hand on Lia, it was suddenly shot to her right, a blast of flames thicker than a grown man's arm shot like an arrow towards the goblin.
All that was left by the time it fell to the ground was a pile of ashes, knife, necklace, and all.
Turning to face Cain, who still leaned against the tree in the same manner as before, though one finger protruding out gave Lia a hint where that powerful blast of flames came from.
'To think, he wasn't kidding when he said he was much stronger than me.'
If Cain could do that with one finger, she wondered what he would be like without holding anything back.
Staring one at him, Lia placed her hands on her hips, hoping Cain wouldn't read her mind.
Catching the look she was giving him, Cain shrugged, one eyebrow raised.
"What? What did I do?"
Lia turned and pointed to the goblin's ashes, then pointed to the necklaces Lukali happened to be carrying.
At once, Cain understood, though he was less sympathetic to her trouble as she thought he would be.
"What? That's it? A necklace. Psh."
Snapping his fingers, a similar looking necklace appeared in his hands, this one made of some reddish, purplish looking wood.
Taking barely a glance at the necklace, he tossed it to Lia, who hastily caught it.
"As I was saying. The lowest ranking skill I have is at least a Rank B skill. You're still Rank C, so until you bring up that Rank, you won't get any newer skills."
Hanging the necklace to Lukali, who placed it in a large waist bag, Lia asked again, this time more curious about the skills Cain would be giving her.
"What about the Rank C skills you have now?"
"Wow, greedy much?"
Lia shrugged before walking off, moving towards a different section of the woods.
Cain didn't make any motion to follow her, but as she walked through the woods, he would randomly come into view leaning against a different tree, as if the moment her eyes lost sight of him, he would appear again, still chatting away.
"Most of the skills you would get from me are small and simple ones."
Disappearing, and reappearing.
"I'll probably just give you ones that you might need, though only when you need them."
Like a constant cycle, he never left her vision.
"Of course it would depend on the situation, if you had an idea, needed a skill to complete it, I might just give it to you."
Before he left her sight again, she turned to him.
"So in total, you'll just give me skill at random?"
"Yes, though sometimes they'll come when you do actually need them. I'm not going to buff you up with skills and leave a weak and frail body to wield them. You're meant to be a cut above the rest."
Hearing Randolph's words repeated to her, Lia rolled her eyes and continued walking, though this time, she did not see Cain reappear.
'Cain? Where are -'
'Hold up.'
His voice was stern and within her head, and at once she knew something was wrong.
Drawing her sword, she motioned for Lukai and Rian to do the same, who needed little explanation when they saw how serious she was.
'What's the matter?'
'Shhh. Listen.'
Heeding his words, Lia made a motion for Rian and Lukali to do the same, holding one finger up to her mouth.
All at once she felt her range of hearing get wider, and her senses growing sharper.
'It must be Cain's doing.'
Without waiting for a response, Lia crouched down, slowly moving forward with Rian and Lukali at her slides.
"Isn't the road up ahead?"
Lukali asked, his voice barely a whisper, yet his hands clung to the bow in his palm, tense and waiting.
Seeing this, Lia couldn't help but be proud, knowing that Lukali had come a long way from where he had once been, a stumbling fool turned valuable Hunter.
She couldn't ask for a better friend.
But that could wait. Currently her six senses were screaming, telling her to run away.
But from what she did not know.
As they neared a cluster of bushes, blocking the view from the road Lia knew laid on the other side, she could hear the small but subtle sounds of whimpering.
'Was someone attacked on the road?'
'Worse.'
Cain's stern voice, filled with a grave sense of weariness, his actions stoic, yet fearful.
As the three of them pushed back the small leaves of the brush, Lia's eyes fell on the stone paved road, dyed in a color she knew all too well.
Red.
And then she heard it. Like a piping shrill that filled the sky, a scream raised the hairs on her neck, piercing the air and setting each of them on spry.
"Aggghhhhh!"
Tense and ready, Lia motioned her eyes over the corpses of about three people, landing on a group of ten green and musty goblins.
In their hands, each one clutched a different body part of what Lia could only assume to be a fourth, their mouths foaming, blood oozing from in between their teeth.
On the ground, not too far away, scrambling to create distance between them, was a small girl, a teen no older than 16 - 17 at most. Her leg was cut, blood was flowing.
And Lia was up and running, her sword sharp and cunning.
Red flowed that day, like a river of milk and honey.
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