“Son, get back on your feet and pick up the sword. If this was real combat, would you really just lay down on the ground and let yourself get killed like a little bitch?”

“So annoying dad, why do I even need to learn this? Wouldn’t it be better to just teach Lucius?”

I’m looking up to a man… literally, a big, tall, bearded, old-looking man. He is wearing simple clothes he probably picked up in the morning.

He is my father. An old, retired adventurer, trying to pass down his skills to his youngest son on a sunny morning in the front yard of our home.

I close my eyes for a bit, feel the sea breeze on my skin, the chirping of the birds and the warmth of the morning sunshine, I don’t want to be here, it would be better if I could go play outside in the village with my friends in the arena, maybe go with grandpa to visit someone or just stay in bed hiding from him.

“Your brother doesn’t really need my lessons at the moment,”

“AUGH,”

He just kicked me on the ribs, lightly, but still hurts.

I’m forced to open my eyes and get up. On my way up, I pick up a wooden practice sword.

“Yes, sure, I need them” my tone came off a bit too strong

“You know what I meant Raan,” he looks at me with a regretful look “I don’t mean it that way, but Lucius is your older brother, I already taught him all I know and now he needs someone who can teach him better than I can”

“So that’s why you were sending those letters?”

“You sure like to be where you’re not called,” he sighs “yes, indeed, I sent a letter to an old friend”

“Old as in, when you were an adventurer?” my eyes lit up a bit

“Yeah, she’s really good with the sword, far better than me, so I asked her to come over and stay with us a season,”

Now I got excited. I’m beaming at dad so hard I’m getting dizzy. He notices and pretends to be all cool. “She’s the wolf, right? The wolfkin on your stories”

“Yeah, that, she is,”

“YES!” I screamed so hard a couple of birds got scared and flew off their nest but I paid no mind to that.

A real wolf warrior in here, so cool! And she was, a legend in the flesh, a human descendent from the ones created by the first Arulf clan head more than 600 years ago, she probably could see her enemies from really far away, hear the heartbeats of her enemies from crazy long distances.

She can surely break stones and mountains with her sword in a single slash

“Will she teach me? Please please please please I want her to teach me,"

“what’s with this? is she cooler than your old man? does having fangs and fleas and perpetual bed hair more impressive than your own father? Besides, I don’t think she will be interested in teaching some lazy seven-year-old who won’t even pick up his training sword and constantly leaves his guard down,”

He then sent me tumbling down with some weird move, lifting my feet of the ground with the training sword, I hit my back with a loud thud. I knew he wasn’t going to stop with just that, so I hurriedly put my guard up. The piece of wood deflects his second attack.

I wasn’t looking at what I was doing at all. But I must have succeeded nonetheless since as soon as I raised my sword arm, I heard the sound of the wooden swords colliding. I felt the impact rise from my hand and course all the way through my arm up to my shoulder.

“Look at you! slow learner for sure, but you surely are catching up, who knows maybe the future village head won’t be a weakling” he said that with a weird grin on his face as if he’s winning a bet, knowing him, he probably is.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to catch my breath, I back up against the stone fence, if he comes after me ill jump to the other side and put some distance between us, if worse comes to worst, I can just throw the sword at his face and make a run for it.

The old lady must be up baking bread at this hour, so I’ll go and pick Finnan up, then we can go play.

He’s coming for me. I can feel it.

I looked at dad, he was looking behind me for a second, his sword was ready, he changed his focus back to me and as soon as he started to move, I pushed myself to the other side of the small stone wall and heard an awkward painful grunt.

“Mr... aaagh!”

I hit something or someone and fell to the ground again. I could hear my father chuckling satisfied from the other side.

So that’s why he was looking at it.

I move my head up to look at whom had I just invertedly made a victim of my super cool and thought-out battle plan.

It was Fabien, a fisherman, he mostly worked at the ducks when he’s not guarding, from morn till noon, well, not really, he wasn’t that much of a hard worker, mostly because in this sleepy town there isn’t much to do.

He looks worried, his breathing is a bit ragged. He probably ran all the way to our house.

Since it’s almost on the opposite end from the pier, just close enough to still be considered a part of the town, but far enough to overlook it, and the wheat fields.

“Mr. Alden sir, we need your help, there’s one of those squid-like motherfuckers” he said while moving his hand in a very funny way as if he was trying to imitate the monster

“It’s okay Fabien, just try not to swear close to the kid or my wife’s will kill me,”

I stood up and supported myself on the short wall

Father looked at him, his face change into his work version, a much more serious down to earth look. Not bad.

“Raanan, come with me. I think it would be good for you to see this. Maybe it will spark some motivation in you,”

We walked down the path east to the docks at a hurried pace, before leaving. Dad took his old hatches from inside the house and was now carrying them on his waist holder. He didn’t bother to put on some armor, as he said.

I’m more than enough for a creature like that. Besides, we don’t have the time to waste putting on nice clothes. We aren’t picking up some dirt ladies.

As he closed the front door of the house, I caught a glimpse of a sleepy blue-haired girl rubbing her eyes.

The heart of town is a big, round, open space with a small fountain. Surrounded by houses made with shiny rocks pulled out from the coast, red bricks roofs, and lots of plants everywhere you look.

Multiple roads lead to and from the town square. The main road, though, descends its way down to the small-town harbor.

The big commotion seems to have brought all the villagers out.

Fortunately, no one seems hurt.

Dad started to question the bystanders, who were observing from a safe distance. from what I can hear, all the fishermen and people that work close to the docks were far away from the water when the monster attacked.

No one died or got hurt. This way, Miss Freesia doesn’t have to work that much.

This is thanks to dad’s protocols; he instructed the villagers that as soon as an emergency occurred.

“The first thing to do is to get away as soon as possible from the danger, securing one self’s safety,” I remember because grandad made sure I know these things.

The second rule is to, then, immediately send someone to call for him in the event of a monster attacking the village.

“Raan, stay here. You will be able to see everything from this place, front seats to the show like an Assythian noble,”

He signaled me to hide behind some crates near a fish stall. The docks are clearly visible from my new position.

This is far more interesting than practicing swordplay. It’s like in the adventure books.

-----

He walked slowly to the origin of all the ruckus that had interrupted his pacific, idyllic morning.

Big dark purple tentacles came out from the water, wrapping themselves around a small fishing boat and squishing it like rotten fruit, breaking the wood apart. Splinters flew everywhere.

Alden didn’t care much for the splinters flying in his direction and just took hold of one of his axes, a heavy-looking piece of iron with lots of little engravings on its surface, going from the side of the bit to the very end of the knob.

One of the particularities of this weapon was a little hook-like piece of metal coming out from the heel, this especial modification was made so that it would act as an anchor in the flesh of whatever it struck, it’s meant to make it harder to take out since it requires considerably more force, it’s going rip the flesh apart on its way out.

The man threw the ax, sent it flying, coursing through the air. The ax hit its target, one of the big tentacles protruding from the water, pushing it backward and nailing it to a wooden lamppost on the pier with spectacular precision.

The kind that comes with years of practice and experience. The kind that only a master of its craft can pull off.

And Alden Rowan Donn is a master with his ax. He had used it many a time before in his adventuring years when he fought against the most ferocious creatures and the vilest of humans.

He would use this expertise in combat against this creature so that his son could see how strong his father was, so that maybe this little play may spark some motivation in the youth.

Not even a scratch can be allowed. he thought. He couldn’t look anything less than overwhelming in front of his third and youngest son.

The tentacle wriggled in anguish. It started to move in an unnatural motion until it severed itself clean, red blood splattered both the wooden boards and the water.

Whatever creature it was, it had decided to sacrifice a limb just to free itself.

All the tentacles retreated, hiding in the darkness of the sea.

Alden walked slowly but steadily, not letting show an ounce of hesitation or fear. He got to the end of the dock the monster was attacking.

Removed the ax that was still stuck on the lamppost.

He felt it just then. His well-trained senses told him danger was close, something was coming for his life and if he didn’t do something right now, he would lose it. Still, he remained calm and acted fast.

He channeled the world’s energy, as some called it, mana, magic, spirit.

Doesn’t matter, he did as always and internally directed it to his legs. Then, he jumps backward, a big jump, normally inhuman.

He did it just in time since the tentacles poured out from the sea with deadly speed, landing just at the exact place he was a mere second before. The wood broke and splintered due to the force and weight.

I can’t let it break anything else or I’ll get scolded afterward.

Thinking this, he took his other ax, a twin copy of the first one, and prepared himself for another jump.

This time it was a bigger jump, at the very least 7 meters from the floor.

The Guardian directed his concentration to a single point, the place where he thought the tentacles were coming from, if his assumptions were right, he should be able to bring it out, he just had to put some work into it.

Channeling his strength, not on the legs, but on his arms this time, he sent both his axes straight to the water with incredible force, the weapons soared through the air with great speed, landing on the water, and as if a small meteor had hit the sea, a great splash occurred accompanied by a loud splashing sound.

Alden was on his way down when it occurred to him.

shit, fuck… I didn’t think about the landing.

He again, in desperation, tried to cushion the fall by sending mana to his legs. This worked a bit, but he felt an immense pain either way on the legs and knees as he made contact with the paved floor.

a so-called superhero landing.

Thank the deep, Raan can’t see my face from this angle. I’m about to shit myself. Oh! the merciless years are starting to take their toll on my weary body! Getting just a tad bit older.

He shook the pain from his mind and centered back on his mission.

The pains intensified when he started moving but, he made his best effort to hide his emotions yet again.

“I think it’s time for you to come out,” he said this to no one in particular, just wanting to say something cool, mages shouldn’t be the only ones with one-liners. He spoke just loud enough for his still hiding seven-year-old to hear.

He extended his arms in front of him, opened and close his hands as he was grabbing at something invisible. And just as he finished that motion, a faint glow came from the palm of his hands, an ethereal, light green chain materialized, it went from Alden’s arms all the way to somewhere inside the water just a few meters away from where seven ugly dark purple tentacles were falling limply on to the water surface.

He let a little groan escape from his lips as he channeled strength and magic throughout the entirety of his body, and pulled, pulled from the chains so hard something came out from the water, flew 2 meters in the air, and had now fallen to Alden’s feet. Dead.

A mass of tentacles protruding from a sphere-like purple body with warts and veins covering the surface, a big snake-like eye that now had two axes buried in it, was centered on Alden.

The man pulled his weapons out from it, breaking everything on its way out. Rows of sharp teeth show themselves to be behind the eye.

This creature was known as a Gin-fir, eye squid, deep eye, one-eyed fuck, or if you’re feeling brave, a squid piece of shit, among others.

This was a creature that lived in deep waters, rarely not seen in the open sea, a common enemy of the sailors and a common terror for small fishermen all over. This one was especially big. Maybe it had run out of stuff to eat, maybe it hadn’t found any fisherman on small boats and ventured out from its hunting zone. Or maybe something else didn’t matter. It was already dead.

A small dark-haired, green-eyed boy came out from behind the boxes he had been hiding on, he looked at his father, and upon seeing him overpower that creature he understood… in total dismay, that he could never become someone like him it was impossible, useless to even attempt.