Jason staggered to the ground after electrocuting himself. Again. It had been three days since he arrived in this hell hole of a world. He had been trying for the last few hours to master his new electric ability because he desperately needed a new offensive technique. He had been attacked by goblins several times. The first few times, he took his snake form in order to kill them, but he quickly tired of that. Goblins tasted horrible.

He got lucky though, and discovered that one of the bigger goblins wielded a meal club similar to the only weapon Jason had ever used: a bat. In the subsequent fights, he fought by partially transforming his arms for greater strength while swinging the bat back and forth, completely crushing his foes. However, he wasn’t actually used to fighting, and got cut by the enemies’ swords several times.

He needed something long range to whittle the enemies numbers down before they got to him, then he remembered his electricity. However, his body couldn’t handle the electric build up past a certain point and he kept shocking himself. It wasn't as funny as it was a few days ago, when he was watching others do the same thing.

Now, instead of charging the electricity up, he simply let it surge and discharge through his fingers, creating an electric bolt. This must be how that guy stunned me, Jason thought, as he inspected the small amount of damage on the tree he was aiming at. Hmmm, if my body can’t handle the electricity, then maybe…

Jason put his hands near each other, as if he were about to clap. Then he bent his fingers and began letting the electricity surge through through them. instead of gathering electricity inside, he gathered it outside, and watched it form a small, crackling yellow orb between his palms. Then, he let the energy in the orb discharge energy from a single point. the result was a moderately powerful bolt of lightning which destroyed the tree and caused a small fire, which Jason put out by animating the dirt.

His animate ability could be used for combat by animating the earth to form spears or tentacles, but it drained him physically, and since he stayed on the move, he couldn't have that. The electrical ability only drained him mentally, or gave him a headache if he used it too much, so he decided to use it as hi main offensive.

He tried using his electricity with his bat, and after a few more hours of electrocuting himself, discovered that if he let the lightning flow out of the small spike at the end of the bat instead of trying to swing it like a certain Sephiroth-slayer, he could shoot it out.

By then, it was getting late. He took his snake form and hunted down a deer. It much easier to get sustenance in this form since he had no experience in hunting. After that, he headed over to a cave he had found earlier. The goblins that had lived there fled when they saw him approach.Guess I'm getting a bit of a reputation. They are lucky I have no wish to hunt them down. Inferior creatures. Jason hissed slightly while thinking these things.

After making sure the cave was empty, Jason reassumed his human form. He pondered his thoughts from earlier. he had never thought so violently before, but somehow, it didn’t seem wrong. Those foul creatures had dared to attack him, though he had left them alone. They were lucky he didn’t eradicate their weak species.

Jason realized that this thought process was more likely influenced more by the dragon than the snake in him. The snake simply wished to hunt until it was full, then be left alone, but the dragon was prideful and territorial. Luckily, the dragon in him was weaker, which was why he could only grow a pair of arms in his snake form, not wings or any other appendages. Or so Jason theorized.

Jason looked around the cave and found various things. He found the armory first. He took a look at the armor, but it was all small and low quality, so he couldn’t wear it. He looked for a better bat, but didn't find one, so he left that area. He then found the treasury and the dragon in him was instantly aroused. There were no great gems ar fantastic treasures, but there was gold silver, copper, and pretty ores that Jason did not recognize. All of a sudden, he heard cries from further in the cave.

He switched to his snake eyes and saw around 15 weak heat signatures towards the rear of the cave. wielding his bat, he carefully advanced towards the cries, and discovered several hostages. But they didn’t exactly look human. They were all around 5’0 tall, with lithe figures and long pointy ears. Half of them were crying over the body of another hostage which actually was human.

She was a black haired girl with a slightly pretty face, pale skin, and a body with subtle curves. And she seemed to be dead. “Help us!” called one of the prisoners, finally noticing him. “She’s dead! We couldn't use healing magic with these chains on!” the female prisoner cried. It’s impressive that they are concerned with this woman, even though freedom is right in front of them. Oh well, I've been wanting to try this out for a while now, so I might as well help them out.

“How long has she been dead?” Jason asked. “I think five minutes, hurry and get these chains off us so we can help her!” The female prisoner said, tears overflowing from her eyes. “Stop it Deineres! We all know that healing magic can't bring back the dead! Besides, you only knew her two days, get over it!” A male prisoner said with a frown.

“Move” Jason told them. The prisoners remained crying over the woman’s dead body. With a sigh, Jason switched to his dragon voice, and with a voice so deep it scared even him, he repeated the command “Move”. Instantaneously, everyone was against the wall. Jason approached the woman, and put a hand on her midsection. He activated his animation ability, but the chuuni in him couldn’t resist saying saying “Forbidden Technique:Impure World Resurrection! Animate!”

The woman’s eyes slowly opened. they were a dark green, with flecks of blue. “W-what the… didn’t I die?” She whispered. All the prisoners’ faces were pale, with fear in their eyes. the female one spoke up. “Y-y-y-y-yes, you did Alize. But that um… nice necromancer saved you I think.” She was sure to smile at Jason towards the end. Jason sighed. “I’m not a necromancer. This wouldn’t have even worked if her brain had been dead. Or rather it would have I think, but she wouldn’t be conscious.” Jason said with a tired voice. Animating the woman had taken more out of him than anything else he had done with his abilities.

Jason dragged himself to the wall opposite of the cell, where the keys were hung in plain view of the captives, just to make them suffer. He unlocked the first set of chains, then let the prisoner he freed do the rest. The female prisoner, Deineres, quickly began releasing energy from her palms, directed at Jason. He began to feel better, and regain strength.

“Deineres what are you doing? he’s a necromancer! They're evil remember? We need to hurry and escape to-” Deineres quicly cut the male prisoner off. “Escape to where Calex? The village was burnt down! What, do you think the high elves will let us in? Good luck with that! This person saved us and now, not only do you want to leave without thanks, you want to leave him to possibly die! Shame on you.” Jason smiled. This chick sure knows how to talk, he thought to himself.

Jason soon felt strong enough to stand, and he quickly did so. “You guys are free to go wherever you want. I’m staying here for the night though.” He walked off, looking for the store rooms. He still felt a little drained and wanted something to eat. He realized that the prisoners were following him. He stopped and looked back at them and they flinched. Jason sighed yet again.

“What do you want, I said you’re free. Stop following me” Jason said. He felt kind of uncomfortable. Deineres fidgeted a little, then spoke “We don’t.. exactly have anywhere to go. Plus its nighttime and its dangerous outside sooooo, can we possibly stay here? We’ll be no trouble I swear!” Jason thought for a moment, then said “Fine. the name’s Jason Delacroix, you can call me Jason.” With that, he continued through the cave.

He found the storeroom, but some the food in there was rotten. After he started separating the bad from the good, the former prisoners began to help. He didn't exactly like talking to people a lot, but he felt it was awkward to work next to someone in silence so he made some conversation. “ So, what race are you.” He asked. The elf looked at him like he asked what the sun was, then her face changed into one of understanding.

“Ahh you must be one of those strange humans like Alize. She didn’t know what we were either. We are sylvan elves. You, like Alize ar probably surprised about our height, the elves you are thinking of are high elves. Condescending bastards. They don’t exactly like us very much. We’re too lowly and short lived of a race for them” Alize said with obvious disdain.

This made two things clear for Jason. One, there were multiple races, at least four, of sentient beings. Two, Alize was from Earth. This didn’t make it clear if she was an enemy or not though. Jason made small talk with Deineres for a while after that, then, once the rotten food was thrown out, he began to cook.

Jason was no 5-star chef, but he was a decent cook. He was from louisiana, and was well-versed in the local cuisine. once he began cooking, the smell was impeccable. the elves began to gather around him and plead that he make whatever foreign dish that was for them too. Jason sighed and agreed. He noticed he began to sigh a lot lately.In the course of an hour, he cooked several fine dishes. they took their food o the main branch of the cave and ate around a small fire.

Jason noticed Alize wasn’t with them and asked about it. Deineres’ eyes widened “Oh no, she must still be in the cell, When she died the first time, she had been sick, we need to go check on her now!” She said, and then she dragged Jason through the cave to the cell. Sure enough, there lied Alize, panting softly as she sat against the wall. “Alize! What’s wrong!?” said Deineres as she rushed towards Alize, trying to heal her. Jason looked over the girl with a suspicious eye, then spoke. “Alize. You’re from earth too right? You have some sort of disease?”

“Alize opened her eyes and shook her head with a slight smile. “No disease, for my superpower thingy… chose vampiric constitution… But I don’t want to kill anyone again... hahaha, stupid huh?” Alize replied weakly. Jason looked over the girl. He knew how to save her now, but didn’t know if he would. His mind knew she was a possible threat. But something told him that letting her die wasn’t right. As he argued with himself mentally, Deineres looked up at him, then got on her knees and begged him “Please! I’ll do whatever you ask of me, so please Jason!”

Jason couldn’t just ignore that. after the events of his first night on this planet, being forced to murder someone, being rejected by others, Jason had prepared himself to be heartless. To care for himself, and only himself. But he realized at that moment, while the woman in front of him selflessly begged for the life of another whom she had known less than a week, that he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t completely shut his heart away. If I regret this later, so be it.

Jason transformed his finger into a talon and made a small incision on his forearm. He pressed it to Alize’s mouth. “Drink.” He said. She tried to resist and push his arm away. He firmly put it back. “It’s ok, drink.” The woman slowly began to suck blood from his arm. Her hair began to regain luster. Her skin, though still pale, no longer looked sickly, and her eyes began to glow a deep crimson. Jason took his arm away from her once he saw her condition improve.

Alize looked disappointed, but shrugged and stood up. She looked radiant now under the torchlight. The blood seemed to invigorate her and enhance her beauty. She notice Jason looking her over and winked at him before speaking. “My name is Alizea Brasi, you can call me Alize, thank you for saving me twice now, Mr…..”

“Delacroix. Jason Delacroix, it was a pleasure to do so Ms. Brasi” Jason said, making his voice a little deeper, and using his best southern gentleman persona. He was strangely attracted to Alizea, and the dragon within him only intensified this. Alizea looked as though she realized something, and put on a pair of lightly cracked glasses she had in a pocket “Ah I’m sorry Jason, you looked into my eyes while they were red right? They tend to bewitch people. Sorry, part of my vampiric constitution, i should’ve warned you.” She said with an apologetic look.

Jason turned away, and felt the strange attraction begin to dissipate, but not fully leave.”I-I see. anyway, I’ll be leaving” Jason said as he quickly slipped out the room. I was careless, he thought to himself while trying to suppress his lustful thoughts. He went over to the front of the cave and activated his snake vision. Seeing that no one was coming, he asked a couple of elves to sleep in turns and stand guard in case goblins attempt to reclaim the cave. He promptly went to sleep after that.

When he woke up again, it was early morning. He gathered his belongings and began preparing to leave. When he reached the mouth of the cave, he saw all the elves along with Alize already waiting for him while staring. “Uhhh good morning” he said, while walking past them. Ooookaay that wasn’t creepy at all. Jason thought. Then they began to follow him wordlessly. Nope, definitely not creepy at all.

“Ummm what are you guys doing?” Jason asked, though he had an inkling as to what was going on. Deineres spoke for the group. “We’re following you! You set us free, and we have nowhere else to go!” For some odd reason she said these words with pride. “ Yeeeeeaaah, don't do that. I’m by myself. I intend to stay that way. I'm sure yours wasn’t the only village for sylvan elves, why don't you go join them?” Jason said

Jason had seen enough betrayal his first night on this planet to know that it was very possible to be betrayed by people you don't know who seem like they're your allies, but as soon as something goes wrong, their true colors show. If it hadn’t been for that, the one group who started the killing that night would have been quickly suppressed.

Deineres spoke again. “There are some around two weeks south from here, but we are houseless! We will be treated as dregs of society!” Jason looked at her confusedly and said “Can't you just build a new house when you get there?” Deineres looked at him as if he were crazy, then rubbed her temples in frustration. “By house, I mean family, a house is like a group of families under one banner. Ours were destroyed in the war with the goblins and orcs”

Jason understood the pain of an outcast. he had felt it throughout his teenage years. But he knew that was nothing compared to how these elves must feel. but still, he had to think of himself first. “Then why not found a new house with the survivors of your village, or join a different one I’m sure Alize will help you.” He said while motioning towards Alize. Deineres’ face brightened up, as if she had a brilliant idea.

“Join a new house, eh? I think I’ll do just that! I, Deineres, shall join the house Delacroix! Who shall join me?!” Deineres shouted. All at once, the elves, even Calex whom Jason thought hated him, started chanting in unison. “I swear fealty to the house Delacroix. I and my family shall serve loyally, pridefully, and shall bring honor to mine house. I swear these words by my blood.” While they said these words, a strange red colored energy began to gather in their hands which covered their hearts. When they finished, It shot towards Jason’s left hand, leaving a symbol which looked like four squares interlocking.

Jason was stupefied. He could guess what had just happened, he had watched enough fantasy anime to know that at least. But why? “Why would you do that? I’m not entirely sure what you just did, but I’m sure it can’t just be undone. We just met yesterday!”

Deineres looked him directly in his eyes.”Because we owe you our lives, We have nowhere to go and no purpose for living. If we leave on our own, most of us will die at the hands of goblins. And after witnessing your powers, I kinda think going with you would be exciting.” She said the last part with a slight smile. “Now, shall we go? I’m sure you don’t plan to leave your FAMILY behind. Don’t worry about anything else, this Deineres Delacroix won’t disappoint you!”

Jason sighed. Now he was stuck with them. Even if he tried to abandon him, they could probably find him though that magic they put on him. He turned around and started walking. “ I’ll leave you behind if you slow me down.” He said over his shoulder.

The elves followed him with relief, they knew Jason could have still rejected them. As for him, Jason felt a little joy in his heart. They may be using him for protection, or plotting to kill him, or a number of other things he could imagine. But it felt good to be wanted. So, with good vibes in the air, the newly founded house of Delacroix moved out.