Capítulo 13: Sunburned Mosquitos
*Knock-knock*
Soren shot up, sweat dripping down his face.
His little dream had shown him each time his head got cut off. The times he couldn't even try to resist. First, it was the mistress and then the guard.
He could actually fight against the spider, but then again, he also had all his limbs intact then too. Well except for his lost arm after the fact.
"You in there?" Roz voiced from outside the hut.
"Yeah, one second."
He stood up, wiped his face with his hand, and slid his sandals on.
Still feeling a bit comical he opened the door expecting Roz to have some food and water.
"Uhh, who are these people?" Soren asked surprise written on his face.
Before him stood three additional people. One was short, one normal height and the last one stood over a foot taller than everyone else.
Everyone present had something unique to them, except for Roz. He was a normal height, had all his limbs, and didn't seem to have anything bad about him.
'Should I be suspicious or is it because this is the heavenly faction?'
Roz responded with a shy grin, "Well you see, I happened to find some willing souls faster than I thought. I was thinking before we head out in a few days, we could go eat together, and get some drinks maybe. You know, get to know each other better."
He never liked going with people to places. It was fine in middle school, going to birthday parties and spending the night at someone's house.
After that, everyone became judgy, they focused on who had more money. He was not someone with that luxury. He decided to stay focused on school and eventually did get a degree. It may have been useless now, but the others didn't get a degree.
It was more like they didn't have to, with their parent's money.
However, this was different. Soren wasn't sure how people were picked as candidates, but everyone here wanted to not be in pain. They wanted to win and get stronger. They had the same goals.
He did too, but his goals were loftier.
"Yeah sounds like fun. It will help us later on too."
He needed a foundation to begin winning, and this was the start of his learning how to do that.
Even more enthusiastic, Roz grinned fully, "That's great. Let's go before it becomes too dark outside."
With that, they left for the tavern, talking about this and that as if no one was worried about dying.
That night, the five of them enjoyed drinks and food at the tavern. Nobody was working there, so it was more self-serve than anything.
Morning came fast.
"Everyone wake up!" Roz yelled aloud.
He had woken up first, while Soren and the short guy were next, followed by the tall man and normal-height guy.
"Today we are going over our game plan and will leave first thing in the morning tomorrow to maximize our daylight time. Any complaints?"
No one spoke up.
"Great, let's eat breakfast and then get started."
He started leading the way while the others were still scattered around the tavern.
Soren had already gotten up and was heading toward the exit, while the three others scrambled to get up and follow.
'Not much discipline in them is there?'
They started following behind Roz as he became the makeshift group leader.
Soren thought to himself, 'This is fine, I don't want to lead. I'll get what I need done regardless of who thinks they're the best. I could get some information though.'
Semi-awkwardly he spoke, "So uh, about abilities."
As Roz heard him he immediately took over seeing how much Soren had struggled to bring it up.
"Yeah, it's crazy. Five whole abilities from the heavenly faction. It's too bad we only get one every 10 deaths though."
Soren was about to respond when he understood what was just said. That wasn't right, it was every 5 deaths, but none of the other three people looked like it was abnormal or wrong.
'Do they seriously only get one every 10 deaths? Why is mine every 5?'
This was alarming news.
That meant he was different from others, but how different was he? What if he said the wrong thing?
'Let me confirm first before I get too far in my thoughts.'
"So, regrettably, I didn't understand the book that great. Could you try to tell me so that I can understand it correctly?"
Roz looked at Soren for a moment with a blank face. He either was just fascinated by how someone would not read the book and understand it or he was regretting his decision of picking him.
Then his face lifted, "Of course I can, but let's save that for another time, we're here."
They walked up to a row of tables with wooden bowls and spoons with pots filled with something that looked like soup in each one. They had some type of meat in it, not good looking, but not inedible which was always ideal.
Each member of their rag-tag team got a bowl and sat on stools that were placed nearby.
Roz sniffed the bowl, "Yeah, this is the stuff."
The three unnamed men showed similar satisfaction while eating.
Soren was struggling to hold his bowl and eat with the spoon. It was awkward, to say the least.
After a while, Roz finished and said, "We ought to have a group name right? How about 'Flying Tigers'?"
Soren almost choked when he heard that.
'What is this guy's naming sense? Flying Tigers?'
Seeing no reaction, Roz became a little salty, "What do you all think it should be?"
Shorty, Medium man, and Tall dude voiced their own opinions on the matter:
"Maybe 'Mist Fighters'?"
"What about 'Blood Drinkers'?"
"Perhaps 'Colossus Chickens'?"
Hearing their responses, whether they were being serious or not, Soren decided to also give one.
"How about 'Sunburned Mosquitos'?
Everyone looked at him, each with their reactions.
Then in unison, everyone except for Soren said, "It's perfect."
Soren looked at their serious faces with exasperation.
'I said that as a joke, why, why are you taking it seriously? I can't take it back and say it was a joke now can I?'
Sighing in defeat, he joined the unification of the Sunburned Mosquitos.
"YEAH!"
The Sunburned Mosquitos had now figured out their all-powerful team name and were ready to face what was to come. Probably.
As they all finished eating, the tavern was the next destination. Not to drink, but it was time to figure out their game plan.
Status de energia semanal
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Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder