Leave a comment

–––Annero’s viewpoint

I am Annero, proud fighter of the Golden Scale Tribe, as well as the man granted the title of hero. Our continent is populated by all sorts of races, but us reptids have the highest natural ability at hand to hand combat. Our scaly skin easily deflects regular attacks, and we have a tail on top of our four limbs, making it easier to deal against larger groups of enemies. On top of that we also can survive for prolonged times underwater, and there’s hardly any terrain that is not favorable to us. Because of that, for the longest time we proudly thought we were the strongest warriors in the entire continent.

I had sparred with many self-proclaimed brave men of other races, and I always defeated them without issue. That made me overconfident, thinking I would be stronger than the heroes from other countries as well, but one day the truth was suddenly shoved onto me. We had all been summoned to a meeting in Leble, and there I witnessed someone stronger than anything I had seen before. Barbaros produced some sort of miasma from his body, which transformed him and greatly enhanced his fighting ability. But even he was powerless against Lapis’ overwhelming power. That was the moment I started changing my view of the world.

I threw away my own pretentious nature and began seeking the help even from those I had looked down on before, changing myself for the better. Thanks to that I learned many new skills I never thought possible before, and I got quite a lot stronger as well. But as time went on it became harder to find good sparring partners, making me worry as to what to do now. I needed someone at least as strong as me to practice all the skills I had learned, and to train my body even more. When I was getting desperate wondering where to go, an unexpected invitation arrived. Barius’ hero Bandit wanted to see me.

I still remembered him from Leble, we did not speak much, but I remember he was a friendly fellow, and it was pretty easy to talk with him. He was in a similar situation as me, worried he had no way of training himself any further, so he decided to reach out to me and see if I wanted to train with him.

I obviously agreed to that invitation almost instantly. I had not seen him in action yet, but considering he was the hero in his country he had to be stronger than the average person, and would definitely be the best sparring partner I could ask for. When we finally got to fight each other, we found out we had nearly the same strength.

He also had two other members in his party, just like me, so we were able to fight with our entire parties against each other, trying out various combinations and seeing how to defend against certain situations. When I started thinking we were ready to fight actual demons, Luvias invited us to do just that. We would get to rescue the people of Strom from the manipulation of demons, fulfilling our duties as heroes, and I would get to fight alongside other powerful people. I would never refuse such a proposal.

“Sorry for taking so long. I’ll carry all of you to Strom with Flight Magic, so please bear with it for now.”

It had been a while since I last saw Lapis, she came accompanied by an elf I had not seen before. When I asked about her, they told me she was Zelvis’ hero, as well as a spirit magic user who had formed a pact with Behemoth. Elves were like that, they looked young but had very extended lives, so being able to subjugate one of the Four Great Spirits made sense…until I was told she was not powerful enough to actually summon him yet.

“As I stand, he vanishes as soon as I try summoning him. But at least I’ve been able to maintain him for a bit longer than before, so soon enough I’ll learn to summon him properly.”

It sounded like we could not count on having Behemoth on our side for this fight. But the day she accomplished that, she would become the most powerful spirit magic user of the world.

Thanks to Lapis and Diaria’s Flight Magic we reached the capital of Bordaule in just two days. Flying for the first time was an eye-opening experience, an inexplicable sensation filling my body and giving me a thrill I had never felt before. I had never imagined that flying beings had such a good view as they flew through the sky at high speeds.

This was not my first time visiting Bordaule’s capital, so I did not get any strong impressions from it. But the group waiting for us seemed to be quite surprised seeing me, many surprised faces turning my way. They were all the priests gathered from all sects with the same goal as us, to liberate Strom. Most of them looked rather young, so maybe they were only here to witness a battle for the first time. Luvias noticed their stares, so she quickly bowed and apologized.

“Reptids aren’t seen commonly here, so they’re just curious. Please forgive them, they mean no harm.”
“I don’t mind. I’m used to being seen like that.”

My golden scales would always attract a lot of attention no matter where I went, so I barely noticed the gazes anymore. Though now I was slightly ashamed of them seeing a princess bow to me because of them.

“I’m relieved to hear that. Now then, let me explain our plan, listen up everyone!”