Seeing the rubble that was once a boat, I didn't know what to feel. This was the worst possible outcome.
"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" I muttered as I quietly began backtracking my way back to the ancient hall.
After another half an hour, I finally saw the stone door at the bottom of the hill again.
I continued walking when suddenly-
All the hairs on my neck stood up, and every instinct in my body flared, as if urging me to move from where I was. And move I did. I swerved to the side.
Just in time to see a shadow zoom through where I had been just a moment ago.
Without wasting a single second, I summoned my sword and hacked at my previous location, only to realize it was gone. My senses sharpened as I cautiously accessed my surroundings while simultaneously creating two reflections.
All three of me stood back to back, in case of another ambush.
Suddenly, the shadow leapt at me with unimaginable speed, and bit through my neck.
"Crack!" my body shattered into shards of light with a soft crack. The shadow however, once again disappeared into the trees at breakneck speed.
Only this time, my other selves saw it clearly. It looked like a cat, that much I was sure of. A blue cat half as big as I was, but much also stronger and faster than me.
'Yeah I'll be damned!' I turned my attention to where the beast had leapt to.
Throughout my entire time here, this was the first time I had encountered any beast. The 'see me no more' artifact seemed to have been doing its job well, up until this moment. Or maybe I was just unlucky.
The beast dived at me once again, this time I barely managed to stop it's claws with my sword, only for its other claw to tear a gash across my chest making me burst into burst into shards of light once again.
But this time, blood sprouted as i also managed to tear a deep wound in it's left fore limb. I was aiming for its head, but it managed to tilt it's head at the last moment.
But even though, the beast didn't retreat this time. Perhaps because it saw that there was only one of me left.
It came at me again, but with it's balance lost due to it's injury, it was way slower than before. Though make no mistake, it was way slower than before didn't mean it was slower than me.
If anything, It was still very much faster than I was, and it only grew more ferocious. But I didn't move, even as it's claws sank into my body.
For the third time today, "Crack!" I burst into shards of light, just in time for another me to appear behind the beast– the real me.
"1st art: Blooming Spring."
My core and arm muscles strengthened as my sword ignited in blue shimmering Aether. The sword's deadly diagonal arc left no way for evasion. The sword bit into the beast's neck with little to no resistance. Blood sprouted as it's head was seamlessly separated from it's neck.
"Thud!" It's body dropped with a dull thud.
"Piece of shit." Taking a deep I crouched before the corpse.
A shame, It was a beautiful blue furred tiger. It could have lived if it didn't attack me. perhaps I could have even taken it as a pet, but alas, such is fate.
After the beast destroyed one of my reflections, and retreated, I created another one and hid it behind a particularly large tree. I bided my time and waited for just the moment before the beast's claw sunk into me, then swapped with the reflection.
Then I appeared from behind, and used 'Blooming Spring', the first art of the Darkfell royal sword style.
"I pulled it off better than I thought. Maybe..." I started, but stopped abruptly.
The air suddenly felt silent, and the surroundings grew colder. It was as if the entire forest had been had been momentarily swallowed by an eerie stillness.
"GROWLL!"
But that stillness was shattered as an even larger blue tiger walked out from a bush, five meters away from me. It was about twice my size, and it did not look happy.
"Oh... shit!" Am I the only one getting some sort of deja Vu?
The corpse before me vanished into my storage ring, just before I immediately started running towards the stone door. No way I was leaving good food behind. Even if it's especially angry parent was after my precious life.
I ran like my life depended on it– which it literally does. I was barely two meters away from the stone door when beast's claws connected with my body, tearing three huge gashes on my back.
Pain assaulted my body as I flew into the air, but fortunately, the beast's attack propelled me through the stone door.
I fell into the ancient hall with a roll. My back hurt like hell, as blood pooled from the three gashes on my back.
I took off my torn shirt, and brought out one of the basic healing potions I had procured.
I gritted my teeth in pain as the yellow liquid slid off my back, especially when it touched my raw flesh.
While the healing potion did it's work, I thought about the fight from earlier and came to one conclusion. I was a complete noob when it came to fighting.
I reflected on everything that I could have done, and most of my strengths that I didn't utilize.
For reference, I didn't use Aether reinforcement at all. Which would have increased my strength, speed, and both of my offence and defence.
Second, I didn't use mirage steps. If I had used it, I would have no doubt avoided the gashes on my back.
'One of many' and the sword style were the only things I had utilized.
"It's mainly because of Damon. That bastard didn't even put the slightest of effort in training ever since the awakening ceremony." I put the blame on Damon.
Seriously, the idiot only did the bare minimum in training.
"I'll have to get into more fights though, it's the only way I'll be able to improve." I concluded.
Two hours and another healing potion later, my back was spotless. After that I ate some food, set up a tent behind one of the pillars, and went to sleep. Perhaps due to the fight and the healing, I was somewhat drained.
....
It was until some hours later that a clanking sound caused me to open my eyes.
I quietly opened my tent and peered my head from behind the pillar.
The pillar was still blocking my view, but I could hear some voices. People? It was some people having a conversation.
I peered my head even further, and then saw them. It was a group of four, clad in armors. A burly bald middle aged man, a petite woman, a young man in shining armor, and last but not least, a beautiful dark haired woman.
Wait... if humans were here, doesn't it mean I have a way out? Perhaps I could hitch a ride on their boat, or whatever the fuck they used to get here.
I wanted to step out and introduce myself, but considering my non existent social skills, and the fact that I didn't know if they were friendly or dangerous stopped me.
I already had the face morphing artifact on, so I didn't need to worry about them figuring my true identity.
"You behind the pillar, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" the dark haired woman turned in my direction with a subtle smirk that didn't reach her eyes.
My body froze, how did she know I was here? Perhaps she had some sensing ability. God knows everything was possible in this world.
Since she already knew I was there, there was no use pretending.
Gathering myself, I got up on my feet, created a reflection, and stepped out.
"Oh, would you look at that. It's a little brother." her smirk deepened.
My mouth twitched at the stupid kind of address.
"Identify yourself!" The middle aged man growled, hands at his sword.
I frowned. Who does this idiot think he is?
"Isn't it common courtesy to introduce yourselves first before asking about others? Besides, you all were the ones who barged in here, so I suppose I should be the one doing the asking."
The man's eyes widened as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You–" he began to speak, but was shut off by the dark haired woman.
"Come on Captain Baldor, It's just names, besides, he's right."
'Baldor? is it because of his head?' my gaze instinctively went to his bald head, which he seemed to notice.
His eye twitched, probably in anger.
"But my lady–" he began, only to be abruptly cut off.
"It's fine." the dark haired woman said a little more firmly this time.
Then she turned to me with a mesmerizing smile.
"You don't mind me starting, do you, little brother?"
My body shivered at that nickname, but I answered nonetheless.
"No, I don't mind."
Her face turned serious as if the smile earlier was a mere facade– which it probably was.
"Our party docked here a few hours ago. Only to be met with a particularly feral blue tiger beast horde. The rest of our party, buying time for us four to get to safety, unfortunately didn't make it."
The faces of the rest of her cohort dimmed at that. They were most likely mourning for their dead comrades.
'Wait a minute.'
My mind went blank, her words replayed in my mind. 'A particularly feral blue tiger beast horde.' I then thought of the corpse in my storage ring.
'Yeaaah, I'm not taking that out anytime soon.' Who knows if they'll just kill me outright.
Looking at them once again, I realized they indeed look battered. Blood covered most of their armor.
Like a bipolar creature, the woman's smile returned.
"As you've heard before, this here is Baldor" she gestured at the bald man. "These are Ivan, and Mira." She pointed to the young man in the shining armor and the other woman respectively.
Then she pointed at herself with that subtle smirk.
"As for me you can call me Ms. Present."
'Huh? what type of ridiculous name is that?' I looked at her incredulously, but didn't voice my thoughts.
The Baldor guy meanwhile, scowled.
"Now your turn, tell us how you got here and what happened to your party."
I smiled.
"I'm a archeologist. I came here on an exploration last week, and I came alone."
"Alone you say?" The man frowned, clearly not believing me.
"You expect me to believe you came here all by yourself?"
I shrugged.
"Yeah, I came on a boat, but unfortunately, it was destroyed before I could get back. Probably by some huge beast."
"Enough with the tension." The dark haired woman, or Ms. Present cut in before she turned to me.
"You haven't given us your name yet, or do you perhaps want me to continue calling you little brother?"
"No!" I gave her a deadpan look.
As for a fake name, well, I hadn't thought of another one. Because I was sure as hell not going to introduce myself as 'Mark Mywords.' 'Hmmm, let's see!' It took a few seconds of thinking, but I decided on one.
"Ahem." I cleared my throat. "You can call me Mr. Past."
***********
A/N: Well, here we go. If you like my story, support it with power stones, and leave a review. I'm open to suggestions.