Lisa P.O.V

One night had changed to two and the truth had come out. Mash was either trapped or dead. Either way, there was nothing that she could do to find him. Red, Jill, and Luke were just as worried. They had given up on shielding Lisa from the truth. They had spent most of the second day, trying different things to check if he was alive. Their mood wasn’t improved by Priscilla either. She had been worming into their thoughts, especially because of how dangerous she was. Without Mash’s situation being known, Priscilla was becoming an unknown quantity.

Priscilla had insisted that she would maintain the current situation for now. Apparently, she had promised that she would keep acting in Mash’s best interest until his friends and family died. It was reassuring to hear those words, but there wasn’t anyone to enforce them. Lisa had overheard Red and the others discussing Priscilla more than once. Apparently, Priscilla had bodies in a lot of places, and they couldn’t know what each body was doing.

That was how their second day had gone. With dealing with all the implications of a missing Mash. And there were a lot of things to deal with. They needed to inform an insane amount of important people. Not least of which included the king himself.

“Lisa, are you awake?”

Lisa flinched, but she relaxed when she recognized the voice. She didn’t climb out of her bedroll though and just called out.

“Yes, you can come in.”

Red didn’t smile as she walked into the tent home. She looked down at Lisa, and her eyes were a little more pink than normal. Lisa couldn’t conjure an image of Red crying and remained silent as Red stood there. Red took a long breath before speaking.

“The war is starting. Both inside and out. The north and south were obvious, but some of the beastmen cities are also fighting. To be completely honest, we don’t know what to do. We all kind of expected Mash to be here for this. He would usually rush us to a decision by making one himself. That didn’t happen this time. I wanted to hear what you think.”

“He’s not dead. I mean, I don’t think that he is. I still have the mark.”

Lisa knew how petulant that response sounded, but she couldn’t accept it. She moved to a sitting position to try and meet Red’s eyes with dignity. There was no way he would just die like that. Heroes didn’t die like that. Alone, in an unknown place, without reason. She couldn’t accept that the world would do something like that. Even after everything that just seemed too cruel. Red didn’t argue, instead, she accepted it and moved on.

“I hope you’re right. Even if that is the case, he isn’t here now. We need to decide what to do next. Whatever we do, I think you should go your own way. I wanted to hear your opinion first, but I don’t think you fit in a war.”

“What are you saying?”

Lisa didn’t like how her voice quivered. Fear was settling in though. They were going to abandon her. Even if it was meant for her own benefit, she didn’t like the image of her life without her protectors. Alone, she had nothing besides her levels, and she knew the worth of that all too well. No, she wouldn’t let that happen. Being with the others made her feel important. She didn’t quite understand how the politics here functioned, but it wasn’t hard to notice how many different important people paid attention to this group. She could get stronger without them. The mark would help her level. What she couldn’t get easily was the status. She knew that levels alone wouldn’t protect her. The thought made her rub at the side of her neck.

“I just mean, that we aren’t going to be in safe places. If we lose a battle in the north, we could wind up as slaves. If it’s in the south, it could be undead abominations.”

Red’s words gave Lisa goosebumps. The very thought of becoming a slave again bothered her. She would rather become an undead servant to one of the southern necromancers. At least, she would be dead in that situation. She found herself saying just as much.

“I don’t mind the danger. No one gets to my level without danger. But can we go south instead?”

Lisa tried to sound confident, but she gave up near the end. Her fear of the collar pushed her away from the north. Red’s eyes narrowed into blades, but she nodded.

“If you want to stick around, then I won’t stop you. Despite everything, you are still an adult, and older than me. I will go tell the others and I will see about getting a mission to the south. You know you don’t… Never mind, just pack your tent when you wake up.”

Red left after saying her piece, and Lisa’s shoulders dropped as she sagged against her bed. That went as well as she could’ve hoped. She wondered what the war would be like. She had seen battles before, but they had usually been against monsters.

Most of the fights against people were one-sided. It usually came down to those above level 100 but below 200. The reason was simple. Two people at 100 might have the strength to destroy a city. Two people at 200 could definitely destroy a continent. No, people at that level were teleported into temporary spaces for fights. Around the major cities, even those over 150 would get teleported. Would she have to fight someone an advancement higher?

That night, Lisa didn’t fall asleep. Her mind had managed to conjure a million different scenarios for her death. Those alone wouldn’t ruin her night. It was the thought of becoming a slave again that had truly kept her up. Either way, she had not gotten any sleep. And felt more tired from trying. Packing up the tent and her supplies was easy. One of the first things that she had been given was a storage item, in the form of an amulet that was hidden behind her shirt. After that was done, she just waited for the others to wake up. It was early. The sun hadn’t risen yet.

Jill was the first to leave her tent. She came out, in what was a large thin shirt, and very short shorts.

“Good morning! I think you should change into something warmer.”

Lisa tried to be polite, but also glanced around to see if anyone else was there. Jill didn’t seem to care much for her modesty, but then again, the outfit wasn’t really revealing or sensual. Maybe people here just wore more okay with revealing their sleepwear. Jill didn’t respond. Her half-closed eyes said that she wasn’t really awake and probably hadn’t heard anything. Lisa was about to try again when the sudden rush of sunlight turned her head.

The sun peeked over the tree line. The shadows of the trees dragged across the ground as the light illuminated the world in an orange hue. She just stared at the sky for a moment, before remembering Jill even existed. But when she turned to check, Jill was gone. The flap of her tent closed, as she went back inside. It was only after an hour of not hearing anything from within the tent that Lisa realized the truth. Jill had only come out to see the sunrise. Who did that? Lisa didn’t think people worked like that.

Red was the first to actually wake up. Then came Luke and the final person was Jill. Lisa decided not to comment about the strangeness from earlier in the morning and waited for the others to eat some breakfast. Lisa prepared some simple sandwiches with meats and cheese. After finishing her meal, Red told them of the plan. They would head south to a city called Capend. It was the most fortified city in the south and would be the center point of combat there. They would get more specific orders there. It would take around three days to get there normally, but Jill could speed them up with teleports.

The fastest method would have been to have Mash carry Jill. Then Jill would teleport the rest of them. That worked because Mash’s speed was barely affected by carrying someone, and his speed was ridiculous. If he wasn’t here, the next best method was to have JIll repeatedly teleport to the limits of her vision, and then grab the rest of them when she got to the destination, or if she wanted to take a break. That was all that really happened for the whole trip. And each day was harder than the last as they grew more worried about Mash. Lisa still found some comfort in feeling the mark. In knowing that it was still there and working. Hopefully, that meant that he was alive.

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Mash P.O.V

Mash was not enjoying the flight. His escort, which consisted of Gus, Aarushi, and his wife Ciara, was not a ‘fun’ group. Aarushi and his wife were overly apologetic and fearful, and they talked about their kids almost exclusively. Even without knowing their language, Mash had heard the kids’ names pass between their mouths many times on the trip. He wondered why the two of them had even come.

Gus was annoyingly focused on his craft. Mash had spent most of the journey just watching the man work. Blacksmithing here was very different from what he knew. The metal was never melted or even heated. The man used different solutions to burn away things from the metal. Controlling the liquid seemed to be the most difficult part of the process. It explained why their weapons never got that sharp. It got boring quickly.

The final thing he watched was the world itself. They had mostly flown over forests, but they had made frequent stops for meals. Mash had killed several new monsters. Nothing with special abilities, but he had seen a lizard that shot its tail out like an arrow. With all that said, this world was unremarkable. He felt kind of bad thinking that, but it just was. If he hadn’t changed his body so much, he could see the danger. If he had come here as a normal human, then he certainly would’ve died. He wasn’t human, and he certainly wasn’t normal. None of the things he had encountered had even been remotely threatening.

At least the journey was almost over. He could see the mountain in the distance now. He guessed it was big, but it wasn’t particularly impressive. The mountains back home were larger. The skies were wider. The magic was grander. A world without that magic was bland, and he wanted to go back. He felt somewhat empty without his magic, and his endless sense of hunger wasn’t helping. Mash looked at Gus. He was on the other bird, and Mash could still see the man working. If he didn’t finish soon, it would be too late, and he wouldn’t wait for it either.

The final leg of the journey went by slowly. He was so eager near the end, that he just jumped from the saddle. Wind rushed past him as he fell, and his landing left a mark on the ground. The dirt got pushed aside as if he were a boulder. Mash grinned, turning and waiting for the birds to land. Mash walked over to Gus to tell him that he was too late when the blacksmith pulled out the staff from what looked like an enormous metal tube. It was large enough to fit the entire weapon. Bluish liquid dripped from the weapon as he held it for Mash to examine.

It was a long red staff that now resembled a staff more accurately. That being said it kept the jagged design in an interesting way. The teeth motif that Mash had suggested was more than represented. Dozens of different teeth-like shards jutted from the staff. They were perfectly mirrored on the top and bottom half, creating a well-balanced weapon. Despite not having a perfect way to shape the metal, Mash was impressed by the design. The teeth on the staff weren’t super sharp but had groves and edges that made them look like real teeth. Had the metal been white instead of red, it would’ve looked like actual teeth. Almost as if reading his thoughts, Gus pulled out one final tube.

“I forgot. Pour this over the metal, and it will change the color to match the design.”

Mash stared at the tube in disbelief. There was no way the blacksmith would know what color to bring.

“Why did you bring white paint?”

Gus revealed his own teeth with a smile, before responding.

“I brought every color.”