Chapter Seven: Recovery and Quest Part Four

Vanessa is on Mars in an instant with Mars barely able to react, trying to push her back but she dove behind him put her arm around his neck and pulling out a wicked and sharp looking dagger and tried to stab Mars in the neck, but hit his hand as he protected himself.

“Ah shit, Vanessa what the in the hell are you doing to me?” Mars grumbled through the strangulation and the dagger inching closer to his throat.

“I’m trying to kill you for hurting my Atlas!” Vanessa screeched into his ear.

Hey I’m not anybody's anything, I mean I know some people might dispute that claim I mean I am a handsome man, but I don’t belong to anybody or anything.

I watched for a second to see if Mar’s could breakout of Vanessa’s hold, but he just strained to keep her dagger from killing him, and not wanting to see Mars die yet, I mean I wanted to try a couple of holds on him now, I dove at both of them tackling both to floor trying to wrestle the knife out of Vanessa grip.

“Atlas I can handle this! Just give me a couple of minutes…” Mars said while going slightly blue in the face and struggling weaker. Shit, he’s not gonna last much longer, I got to hurry this up!

“Atlas you can pin me to the floor any other time, but not now I need to kill this bastard before he hurts you like that again!” Vanessa said with a slight blush, good to know and all, but still, need to keep you from killing him

“Vanessa! Dammit, stop trying to kill Mars! He hurt me so what? I’m alright now, things like this happen when you fight, I mean you should know.”

“But Atlas, because of this bastard not watching you, you almost killed yourself with that rebound! I mean, you were practically a blood fountain with how much you were leaking! And as much as I hate to say it without that Carcajou bitch, you would probably have died!” That sounds kinda cool actually, but was the situation that bad? Did I really push myself that far over the last couple of weeks?

“So what, doesn’t it mean it’s my fault since I worked myself a little hard? Or doesn’t make it the guilds fault because of not making this common knowledge?” Vanessa’s dagger shook at what I said, but didn’t lower.

“Does it matter? This duty was relegated to Mars and he has to pay for his failure! I can’t bare thought of losing you,” She paused for a second before continuing quietly. “And I will not lose you like I lost her..”

I looked Vanessa straight in her normally warm, but now icily eyes “But I forgive him, are you just going to kill everyone that hurt me? What if you hurt me are you going to kill yourself then? What if I told you doing this would hurt me? Maybe not physically, but on the emotionally level definitely.” Vanessa’s dagger shook violently the more I spoke, and I looked down at Mars who seemed to be on the verge of passing out, and eye’s practically screaming I can still handle this, but his face’s with how blue it’s getting saying ‘No he can’t!’

Don’t worry buddy I’ll get you through this, now for the final blow.

I tried to look Vanessa in the eyes again but she wouldn’t meet me, and her dagger’s practically falling out of her hands, huh can’t imagine that this feels pleasant in Mars’s hand.

“And Vanessa, please look me in the eyes,” I said and gave the best non-threatening smile I could make, not that It would matter she seemed to like all my smiles, she slowly turned to look me in the eye’s blushing deeply, but still making eye contact. “How can you give me that reward you owe me if you’re in facing murder charges?” She looked confused for a second but eventually understanding washed over her face smiling with a devious look in her eyes. She let go of the dagger leaving it hanging in Mars’s hand, and brought her arm off his next. She grabbed the back of my head bring me into a deep, long, and wet kiss.

The kiss last a while, but felt nice and full of a lot of tongues, with my thinker, larger tongue trying to overpower her small soft one, but could never quite do it, and at some point she began to grope around me eventually settling when she reached my ass giving it a good squeeze, I followed suit running my hands up and down her back feeling her soft, but solid back and lovely hair…. Hey, I might be a lot of things, but I don’t grope on the first date...If this even counts as a date. I broke the kiss off when I felt I started to run out of breath, leaving a thin strand of saliva between us.

Vanessa looked much better after giving me my reward, not really blush very much anymore and has a very sultry, dirty look on her, and leaned in close to my ear.

“Hope you enjoyed your reward Atlas, I know I did.” She said low and panting slightly.

I leaned over and bit her ear slightly, teasing it and pulling it.

“Mmm, I’ll take that as a yes,” Lightly pushed me away and looked down at Mar’s who seemed to be a step away from going under. “Sorry, about that Mars just freaked out a little.”

Mars spoke with a slight rasp of his voice “It’s fine, I’ve had worse done to me.” He then looked over at me “And you, I told you I could handle it..” Mars said before passing out.

Vanessa looked back at me “He’ll be fine, now Atlas whenever you feel like getting your first quest, you come down and see me, I’ll be waiting.” She said with a wink and sauntered out with her hips swaying, I loved watching every minute of it.

Before she left though “Oh and Atlas.” She called out to me.

“Yeah.”

“Remember any other time.” She said with a sweltering voice, that threatened to break my pants.

“I’ll make sure you do,” I replied low and with confidence.

Vanessa gave a throaty laugh and left, leaving me alone with an unconscious Mars and the others, which speaking of…

“Why didn’t any of you bastards help?”

“Bwahaha, mate that was awesome! I mean how could I interfere with something that intense! I mean that’s better than most stuff on the box!” George said over his uncontained laughter and had started to buckle over from laughing so hard, I sighed and looked over at the other two, and found my answer for Julian, he had fallen asleep with Damon standing in front of him defensively but blushed furiously when he met my gaze and looked away stammering with a slightly high pitch “I-I had to protect the master when that wench attacked trainer Mars, in case she turned on Master Julian.”

Ah, that good answer I guess, I thought about giving George a good knock upside the head though, but he seemed to have enough brain damage as it stands.

“So anyway good to see you guys and all, but why are you here?”

George looked shocked for a moment, along with Damon, Julian’s still sleeping through and had moved to my bed when I wasn’t looking.

“Altas friends come to see each other when the others hurt, so why wouldn’t we be here?” George said with the oddly serious look on his face.

Huh, that’s weird dad said, if got injured never seek help from anybody but him, and hide till I’m healed otherwise.

“I never, really got injured where my anybody could find me, I usually just seclude myself till I heal.”

“That’s a horrible idea!” Damon blurted out.

“Why?” I asked honestly curious.

“WHY?! Because if you have no one to monitor you, how can you get better? What if you get an infection or a disease and your wounds only get worse? When you get injured or sick you go to the doctor that’s common knowledge!”

“Well, it’s obviously not that common knowledge since I didn’t know about it.” I replied It really the first time I’ve heard of it, every time dad left me alone he left a cache of medicine and supplies for me somewhere… He’s really a good father.

Damon looked like he was about to start screaming, but took a second to calm himself once he noticed Julian moving.

“Anyway Atlas, you seem to lack a lot of common knowledge and I think-”

George interrupted Damon and said “Atlas is fine the way he is, If he hasn’t need this knowledge yet he’s fine without it.” I nodded my head in agreement with George.

Damon tried to say something but stopped, and just sighed “Whatever, we came here to check up on you since we all watched the fight,” he gestured to George. “That idiot somehow managed to get the best seats, so we watched your fight, good job on that by the way you total monster, and tried to come see you after you turned into a blood fountain. Since Master Julian was rather worried.” He gestured to Julian's sleeping form, which really looked quite worried.

“Mate, we’re all worried It ain’t every day your best brute goes up in a shower of blood, and no one allows you to go see him or let you know if he’s livin or dyin. It’s really freaking scary, and I’m glad to see you up and about.” George said with the hint of worry, and walked up to me wrapping me in a big hug, he then whispered: “And seein ya get some action’s also quite nice.” I burst out into a laughing at that and returned the hug.

I looked over at Damon and saw he looked a stoney faced, but his eyes seemed to be envious, so I reached over and pulled him over into the hug, and marveled a little at how soft he felt. “Ya know Damon, you didn’t have to come see me but I’m glad you came anyway. Even if you don’t think of me as a friend, know I think of you as one.” George's voice came up “Me too, Damon buddies your my friend whether you want to be or not!”

I heard a soft yawn behind me, and another pair of arms around me. “Good to know you live Atlas..” I heard Julian say before he fell asleep on me.

After a little while, the hug broke, and I put Mars on a bed, while George picked up Julian on his back and left with Damon.

“I’ll see you guys later after I go on my quest!” I said as they left the room.

“Then your paying when we go to eat next time!” George said as he left.

I laughed and went to look at the time, the sun hadn’t even reached the top of the sky yet, so a little before lunch. But my stomach disagreed with that and rumbled louder than a thunderclap, Mars slept through it though.

I rushed to the cafeteria.

After picking clean my plate, and my second plate, I went to see Vanessa.

When I got to the counter It had no one attending it, so I sat down and waited for Vanessa or one of the other clerks to appear. A moment later Vanessa appeared with a brilliant smile and said: “Atlas are you ready for your first quest?”

“Yep,” I said a little nervously, this would be my first quest, I couldn’t wait to do it.

“Alright then, since you’d usually only a rank one you could only take rank one quests, but since you beat Mars you have been promoted to rank three and can third rank quests and any quests below it. Now if you would only give me your guild card.” I focused for a moment and willed my guild card out of me, watching the silvery white fluid assemble into a card, and then handed it to Vanessa who put it into a machine, which made a bunch of noises, before it popped out and Vanessa took it out but didn’t hand it back to me.

“Now I’m going to show you a list of quests you can take for the moment, but since your rank three you can only take up to three quests for the moment till you rank up.”

Suddenly a screen pops up in front of me above the desk and showing a list of the quests I could take and their descriptions, time limits, etc.

I took my time looking through them till I smile, and picked the three that would give me the best challenge.

When Vanessa saw what I picked she just sighed, but kept smiling anyway. “Are you sure these are the quests you want to pick, they might be high paying but they’re pretty high risk- aw what’s the point, the guild makes me say that for a quest like this and knowing you this is just for the challenge. Hold on for second and…. done!”

She handed my guild card back, which had changed from a silvery grey to a blue with a silver outline.

“Now Atlas, when you get back remember to come see for your reward.” She said with a warm smile.

“I’ll make sure to do that.” I then turned to head out the door but. “Oh and Atlas we have your gear in the storage room.”

Oh I might need that.

After getting and putting on my gear I got felt ready for my quest and stood in front of the gate. Which would open up for my adventure to start!... Any second now…. Come on.

I took a look at the gate which is pretty tall and thick, maybe fifty feet tall and ten feet thick double doored gates opened by a mechanism. I looked further up and saw some guy trying his best to get the gate open with the mechanism, I felt annoyed at his incompetence and put my hand on the gates, and squared my feet and started to push them open.

The gates resisted my attempt to open them, but squeaked and groaned under pressure but didn’t yield, I just pushed harder, and harder till someone noticed and told me to stop but it's too late, the gate shot open under my unrelenting force, and I took off to began my quest.