Katachi put on his sabots and rolled up his groundsheet.
K : (...? There's something on the sheet?)
He nipped at it with his thumb and index finger, and raised it up to the grey wall.
K : (... Red hair? There's a strand of red hair on this? It looks... It looks just like that girl's red hair...)
Katachi didn't seem to understand how the strand of red hair got onto his sheet. Had he been awake 15 minutes beforehand, he would have caught sight of the girl's sleeping face on the groundsheet he had been under.
K : (... How did this get here? She couldn't have used my groundsheet, could she? I've fought her for like, 3 minutes only, and it's not like we fought above the groundsheet... Maybe it belongs to the people whom have made this groundsheet? I might have missed it up until now...)
He had been right on the answer, too - If only he had known that the marauder he fought had spent the night right next to him.
K : (... It doesn't really matter. Time is wasting. I ought to start out soon.)
Katachi placed the rolled sheet above his bag, and strapped it on.
*** ***
Before venturing out, however, Katachi climbed the orange tree once more. He reached for a smaller orange on the tree, plucked it down, and cupped it in his hands.
K : (恒定! Constant status - Orange!)
A small, golden 定 surfaced on the orange, and it now held the status of an everlasting orange, should the Word of Power be unremoved. Katachi placed the seemingly delicate everlasting orange into his pocket.
K : (I know that it is bad of me to take another when I've already had one, but I'm just going to give this to Mother Rin when I get there. It's not for me, so I really hope the owner of this tree wouldn't mind too much.)
Katachi made his way to the edge of Rulid, fully set on reaching Mielfeud. But, just to be sure he's walking in the right direction, Katachi approached a sentry.
K : "Excuse me, which way is it to Mielfeud, sir?"
"Oh, that way. Walk straight down here, and the road over yonder splits. Don't take the left - That leads to Fereport. That route is for people going to Eliasbury. Take the right, and you'd reach Mielfeud."
K : "Thanks."
Katachi's wooden sabots clacked loudly against the sandy path, and he's off.
K : (Go down this road, and take the left...)
Katachi glanced at the road ahead briefly to gauge how much distance he had to cover.
But, as he did, a sound was heard.
A metallic sound of something heavy dragging across the ground.
Katachi spun around, to see a blur of red and metal dashing at him quickly, swinging down something!
K : (!!! I have to dodge!)
Out of pure instinct, Katachi leaned his body away from his back, and pressed his hands against the ground before rolling away further in the direction away from the attacker. A heavy, clashing sound was heard. As he looked up, the beautiful girl with a red ponytail and grey-like armor entered his vision.
The girl was holding something new this time; To be specific, it was a flail with a long handle and three weights tethered onto it.
K : "!! It's you again!"
*** ***
R : "Haaah!"
Roberia did not bother with Katachi's unfocused rambling, and simply swung the flail at him hard. The spiked balls of steel attached to the chains swung through the air and missed his face by a few inches - Or, more appropriately, Katachi had continued rolling away and evaded the attack by a few inches.
He sprawled his body out and withdrew that peculiar wooden dagger once more, prepared to fight once again.
K : "..." (I... I can't fight like this...)
Katachi stood defensively, his body leaned backwards a bit, indicating his choice of flight as opposed to the stance he adopted yesterday. He seriously did not want to fight her, it seems - But Roberia didn't take heed at all. In fact, she had become a lot more aggressive than before, now that she was wielding a weapon she could freely manipulate.
She proceeded to draw out ferocious attacks that would maim him on his limbs, slowly and surely forcing Katachi towards the trees by the roadside, pressuring him to a restrictive place where he has to fight back.
Katachi has no choice but to follow suit, being unable to take offensive action.
K : (Gh! I'd normally be able to fight back like this, but I can't risk damaging the bag and the stuff! I need to find an opportunity to get away from her and put my stuff down!)
Roberia mercilessly swung the flail about, disregarding her opponent's handicap completely. The tethered weights made full revolutions around its handle, and crashed against the trunks of the trees, with no signs of restraint on it at all.
K : (I... Can't... Find an opening! 固定! Fixate object - Weight!)
A hoarse whisper rang in the back of his head, and a 定 formed on one of the spiked balls.
Roberia, whom had been freely swinging the flail at Katachi, suddenly felt the limitations of her weapon as the chain between the handle and the fixated weight was stretched to its maximum allowed length.
R : "!! What the-!!" (The weight is... fixed in mid-air?! It's just as immovable as my sword! Then... !!)
Katachi took advantage of the confusion to leap back, and placed his bag down quickly and gently. Gripping the dagger in his hand tightly, he stood firm and steady, finally prepared to fight back.
K : (恒定! Constant status - Self! Constant status - Dagger!)
The golden 定s formed on his chest and the dagger's blade. With the shade of the trees blocking out the sunlight above, Roberia could finally see the Word of Power on the dagger properly for the first time.
R : (That attack... He didn't curse my word so it would be too heavy to move... Rather, he fixated my weapon in that space, that position, so it won't be able to move! And that Word... I recognize that magic anywhere!!!) "You! That's... That's a Word of Power!"
K : (... What... What did she mean? Did she not hunt me because I had the Word of Power in the first place?) "Who are you? Who sent you to attack me?"
Katachi didn't seemed to have noticed that his opponent had entered a wild, frenzied state, though.
R : (This... This is good. Very good...! If I beat him and get his Word of Power for my own, and bring it back to my country, it would definitely be a big boost to my reputation! Fighting this guy is the right decision after all!) "Looks like my choice of targets isn't as bad as I thought!"
Roberia then took out something Katachi had not expected - A tough pair of shears. She wedged the chain close to the fixated weight between the scissor blades, and snipped it off cleanly.
K ; "!!!" (She snipped it off... That is going to be problematic. If the weapon can be broken down and segmented like that, then stopping her won't be as easy as I thought!)
With a combat craze yet unseen, Roberia struck and swiped the weapon at Katachi hard.
*** ***
R : (As expected of a Scholar... He's real tough!)
The girl had repeatedly whipped the boy with the flail, with the weightless chain swinging faster than the other two balls. Yet Katachi had simply stood there, taking all the hits and blows like it didn't hurt. He didn't flinch from the pain, he didn't stagger from the blows, he simply stood there like a training target.
R : (I figured that I can't get him to crack so easily! If I want him to fight me, I have to target something important to him! I need to force a fight out of him if I want a chance at his Word of Power!)
Roberia continually swung the flail at regions where it would hurt badly - At the waist, at the neck and larynx, the calf muscles and even at the genitals, but Katachi just wouldn't budge. Roberia relented on her flurry of attacks for a while, and backed off to think for a bit.
R : (Come to think of it, he didn't defend like this when he had his stuff on. Maybe there's something important in his belongings? Would he start attacking me actively if I aimed for his stuff, then?)
Roberia glanced briefly at his bag, and Katachi, for some reason, seemed to react to that by jumping between her and the bag.
R : (!! Oh? So his bag is valuable to him after all.) "What's so important in that bag that you'd have to guard it?"
K : "... It was given to me for free."
R : (Seriously? That's it?!) "... Really? That's the reason you'd place yourself between me and that?"
K : "Yes. I also have a gift within to deliver, so I cannot let any harm come to it."
R : "Hoho, a gift! Now THAT'S something interesting. What kind of gift could be so valuable that you have to protect it like this?"
Roberia stormed forward, swinging the flail in circles and warming up for a powerful attack. She changed her stride suddenly, and rushed at the bag, swinging the flail down at it. Katachi had, in response, sacrificed his left arm to snag the flail onto his wrist, stopping the attack.
R : "It wouldn't happen to be the money to bring to your family, would it?"
She pulled back, and the two locked eyes with each other fiercely.
R : (I had thought him to be a poor bloke, but if he's been saving his money for a family to feed this whole time, then I don't feel as bad for attacking him!)
*** ***
K : (I can't have her ruining the free stuff blessed to me by Segus... I should just end this quickly. 固定! Fixate objects - Weight!)
The remaining two weights on the flail were fixated in the air, but Roberia snipped them off again. There are now two weights floating next to her, and a third spiked ball to Katachi's left.
R : "I figured you would use that technique again. Did you think I wouldn't have expected this outcome?" (... Truthfully, I didn't expect this outcome at all... I had thought he simply increased the weight of the sword, so I had imagined the flail hurting a lot more if it were heavier as well... But this is good too. It gives my weapon speed, which seems to fare better than power.) "I actually wanted this outcome. Now my weapon hurts even more."
Roberia began spinning the three loose chains at a very high speed. It was not synchronized at first, but she had spun it so, so much that the three chains have come together into a whip-like fashion, a consistent, strong whipping sound could be heard from her right. She ran towards Katachi, and whacked him clean in head, the chains wrapping around his neck from the momentum.
R : "I got you!- ... !!"
But Katachi had grabbed the handle of the flail with his left hand, and raised the wooden dagger against her neck. When he removed his hand, a 定 was engraved on the handle.
K : "... No more. Please."
He then pulled the chains off his neck, turned to pick his stuff up, and continued on his way-
R : "... Don't turn your back on an opponent, you insolent, shameless rogue!!!"
- and Roberia revealed a hidden steel dagger on her back, stabbing it into Katachi's back! Or, so she had thought, but the simple knife simply bounced off his body like stabbing a brick wall with a twig.
K : "... Please don't fight me again. I really don't want to fight you."
R : "... I... I have to beat you! I have to beat you now! I can't afford to spend any more money bluntly! Yesterday night was bad enough!!"
Roberia continued to blindly swipe her blade at Katachi ineffectively as he backed off to avoid her attacks, but as Katachi side-stepped...
R : "!!! Guh!!!"
K : "!!!..."
... Roberia had accidentally brushed her side against a sharp branch.
She held her hand down to her gut, and a shiny, sticky, red liquid, as brilliant as her hair, stuck to her hand.
K : "Good heavens... Lie down!"
R : "Aahhh..."
K : "Lie down, and don't move!"
Katachi ran towards his bag, and returned with a sort of bottle.
R : "... I... You're smaller than me... I should have... Seen that branch..."
K : (What kind of nonsense is she spewing?! Injured people shouldn't exert themselves!) "Stop talking! Don't worsen the wound any more that it shouldn't be!"
He removed the wooden cork, and rubbed the ointment-like substance against the gashing wound. It was not much, but he did the best he could to ease her pain and help her recover. When he was finished with the application, Katachi lay Roberia's body completely flat and cast a Word of Power on her.
K : (固定! Fixate position - Red-haired girl!)
Roberia's body stopped moving completely, and lay stiff as flat as a board. Katachi picked her up carefully, and carried her back to Rulid.
"Wha- Hey, what happened to her?"
K : "Excuse me, sir! She hurt herself by accident and her waist got stabbed by a branch! Please tend to her immediately!"
"Ah- Okay! Leave her to me."
*** ***
Katachi and Roberia lay on the cold floor of the abandoned house which he- Or rather, they had spent the night in.
K : (... Looks like I'm going to spend another day in Rulid after all... I have to tend to her and ensure she's fine before I go. I also need to stock up on this healing salve...) Katachi dropped his blanket on the floor, and laid Roberia on it gently.
K : (... She got a proper treatment from the sentry, so everything should be okay now.)
Or so he thinks, but Katachi can't help but blush and redden at Roberia's belly button and slender waist while the sentry patched her up. To treat her, the greyish armor and her top had to be removed so her injury could be tended to. Katachi, being a young boy, had only seen the body of one woman - Mother Rinnesfeld. As such, it was natural for him to shy away upon the sight of Roberia's navel.
K : (... At least the sentry didn't violate her body or anything...!! What- What was I thinking!? Segus will punish me for this!) Katachi rid his head of the embarrassing emotions, and walked out of the abandoned house's awkward atmosphere - Which he had imagined himself. He took out the bottle of healing salve, and swivelled the fluid within a little to measure how much he had left.
K : (There's not much here, I can only use this for a few small wounds and only once on a medium wound... Here's hoping there's an apothecary nearby. I'll try to run errands and make a few coins for the herbs, but if it's still too expensive, I'll just look for the Mestiel on the go.) Katachi headed towards the south of Rulid, holding high hopes of finding what he was looking for.
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