12 Parricide

A group of three adventurers, one younger than the others along with a female mage and a knight traveled through the dense jungle. Having escaped from a green-scaled, Adult Rank Apex, the group was now lost. If they could not return back to the coast where their ship was docked within time, they would be announced as dead and left to meet their doom.

The best that they had was a general direction. They could at least read the general position of the sun in the sky.

And that is what they followed, every now and then glancing around to make sure no Apex or other beast falls from the sky or pops out of the foliage.

Every so often the group would stumble upon a 'mark' left in the earth. An area frozen over and covered in a light layer of snow, an area devoid of all life, where everything was withered, an area where the mana in the air was immensely dense, pure and rampant, an area that was burned to the ground with only ashes and embers remaining, an area covered in thick blood, both liquid and crystal, the blood floated in the air as if defying gravity whenever it dripped off of a leaf.

It was a wonder. As if someone had taken bits and pieces of land from across the world and stitched them together. It was hot and cold, mana was rampant and there was a void of no mana.

This wonder, however, wasn't quite positive or helpful to the group. They had previously already entered and partly explored a few areas similar to the ones they saw now when they were in the larger groups. Then and now, all these areas were simply an overbearing obstacle in their way.

The knight and mage had taken command of the group. The two older adventurers weren't quite thrilled but didn't voice any complaints as the knight and mage were higher level than them.

The knight and mage made good decisions, choosing which area to cross and which to avoid to maximise their chances of survival.

The group, who were now all familiar with each other and on a first-name basis worked together quite well. The leadership was shared and without many flaws while the group of three adventurers did their due diligence with only minor complaints both minor and sarcastic made by the older two.

They had been travelling for a good long while.

Making their way past a certain thicket of bushes, one of the older adventurers signalled for the group to stop immediately, which they did.

The older adventurer didn't notify them of danger or to be careful in this area nor did he signal anything to them besides to stop. After a tense second of waiting for the older adventurer to give any sort of signal, the younger adventurer, who stood nearby when the older gave the signal, caught a glance at his face.

Eyes wide open. A glimpse of slight fear which was near instantly replaced with worry as the old adventurer dashed out of the thicket without a single word or signal.

The rest of the group couldn't just stand there, they moved basically immediately after the man.

The younger adventurer was a little late to react but followed still, being the closest to the old adventurer who suddenly dashed through the thicket into a small open plain, he saw it.

There was a small girl, bleeding and burnt laying on the grass. Clutching the huge paw of an animal that seemed to belong to an [Ashblood Tiger].

Pierced into the paw was a spear with a bladed tip made of crystal.

The old adventurer was treating the young girl with bandages and a few potions to clean and heal the burn marks and deep scratch marks that littered the body of the young girl.

She was short. Couldn't be older than four, by the looks of it. Her long golden blonde hair had stains of blood, mud and a few twigs and leaves stuck in it.

Her eyes were closed and from what the older adventurer said, she was barely even breathing.

...

"Oi Bobby! What the hell are you standing there for, Ai!? Get over here and help me treat the girl!"

The older adventurer yelled at the youngest.

"C-calm down Marcello! I was surprised."

Bobby, the youngest adventurer of the three spoke in return before running towards the wounded girl and his senior named Marcello.

"Marcello! Keep it down a notch!"

The mage, Elaryn, yelled in a whisper as she jogged towards the scene, followed by Samaton the knight who reinforced the statement.

"We don't know what lurks around here, Marcello, let's help the kid out quietly, okay?!"

Samaton yelled in a whisper as he neared the gathering group.

The last of the group, one of the older adventurers named Johnathan observed the surroundings as he spoke towards the group.

"The blood might attract beasts, I'll keep an eye out. We book it out of this clearing the moment I alert you, got it?"

Receiving no confirmation but knowing that the group heard him and agreed silently, Johnathan scouted the area quietly and carefully.

"Oi, Elaryn. Conjure some water, will ya? We can't let the girl get a disease from dirt or monster blood getting into her system now can we?"

Marcello commented as he carefully raised each of the little girl's limbs towards Elaryn who cleaned them all with a bit of water magic.

"Samaton boy, you have extra potions on hand don't ya? Gimme one."

The knight didn't much hesitate as he gave Marcello a potion and watched the procedure in silence.

The dress of the girl was beyond strange. As if made of the stars themselves. Unblemished even with all the dirt and blood sticking to the girl's skin.

"What the hell could have happened to her?"

Samaton asked in both worry and astonishment.

"No idea in heaven. But a Classless lass like this can't have survived here alone all this time."

Marcello answered.

"Classless?"

"Appraisal tells me that she's Classless and at Level 1, yeah."

"Same here."

Both Marcello and Samaton the knight answered Elaryn's query.

"Isn't it strange? Couldn't this be a trap?"

Elaryn questioned with narrowed eyes, though she herself didn't quite believe it.

"Knowing this place might just be an Illusion Magic polluted area. Even so, I can't just leave a kid to bleed to death."

Marcello answered, gritting his teeth before he saw the breath of the girl stabilise and continued with a deep sigh of relief.

"Yet the potions seem to have worked and I don't know of any illusions that are this realistic."

"... Neither do I."

Elaryn said after a pause.

The youngest adventurer provided Marcello with some extra bandages that he kept with him before he heard running from behind him.

Johnathan was running their way, fear in his eyes as he hand-signalled to him.

Bobby's eyes widened before he turned back to the group.

"Apex warning. Ancient. We run, now."

Bobby said without hesitation as the faces of all the group members steeled.

Marcello picked up the little girl while Johnathan ran past and took some of the bags that Marcello had been gathering.

The group didn't hesitate nor waste any time as they ran back into the deep jungle, making their way to the ship as fast as they could, barely avoiding the Apex that flew through their area a moment later, only to avoid the area as nothing of great interest was there.

...

An hour passed. The group had seen a familiar landmark minutes before, an Apex corpse they had stumbled upon when they started the journey to the centre.

The little girl was now mostly fully healed and the group could only ask more and more questions about the strange girl they found.

For example, how the hell did she end up in the Great Dragon Continent in That type of situation?

That was the most common question that floated around the group.

Another would be how the hell she even survived.

That was the second most common question that floated around the group.

Yet her breathing was stable, her wounds were mostly healed and the bandages were dealing with the small amounts of bleeding happening and covering the scars. Thankfully all the scars were small and the burn marks were all fully healed.

The group continued on stealthily and cautiously as they have learned to do, speaking to each other only every so often when the coast is 100% clear.

Feeling movement on his back, Marcello stopped and informed the group.

"The girl is waking up."

The group stopped, the knight, Samaton, and mage, Elaryn, moved towards him while Johnathan and Bobby kept watch on the surroundings.

Marcello crouched down and placed the little girl down, letting her lean on a tree as he slightly shook her shoulder.

"Mnnmn"

The girl voiced out with fatigue as she slowly woke up and rubbed her eyes with her palms to make it easier to blink.

"Hello, my name is Marcello. What's your name, lass?"

Marcello spoke calmly and gently as the little girl looked around the area.

It was all familiar to her yet ever so different. Her spear was gone, her fur beast gone. Who were these people in front of her?

Little Junko had no idea where exactly she was or what was happening. The people standing near her, however, looked similar.

'Kin?'

She thought but dismissed it as they didn't quite feel like her kin. Though they seemed similar to her. Same skin, no natural armour, the same hands and number of fingers. Maybe they were actually kin but she just couldn't feel it? If so, then why?

"Hello? Can you hear me, lass?"

Marcello spoke again as he made eye contact with the little girl, with Junko.

Junko couldn't understand what he was saying. Her bare minimum of knowledge didn't quite help with learning new languages.

"Ammm?"

Junko questioned the man.

Junko could understand the meaning behind the words written in the system even if she couldn't quite read or understand everything. Without the simple communication method of growling and movement she learned during her time with her feline fur beast friend, Junko was stranded in the language department.

Meaning behind most words coming from the people in front of her were lost or unknown to her.

Marcello could only sigh slightly.

The knight, Samaton, who stood behind him spoke up.

"Well, she does seem quite young. She just might not understand common language yet."

"Seems likely considering we found her here of all places."

Elaryn agreed as Marcello stood and lifted Junko up with a little effort.

Junko giggled a little as this was a new mode of transportation she had just learned about.

Placing her on her legs, Junko could feel a little pain in her feet.

Lifting one up, she looked at the area she felt pain in, bandages covered both her legs and arms which she started to study thoroughly.

"Heh. Still a kid. Though she sure as hell doesn't weigh like a normal kid."

Marcello commented before crouching down.

"Keep these on and say something if your legs hurt too much, okay?"

He said as he pat Junko's head before holding her hand and walking off. The mage and knight followed beside him as the mage commented.

"If she doesn't understand common language how do you suppose she even understood you there?"

"No idea."

The older adventurer answered as the other two adventurers rejoined the group and they continued to walk towards the place where their ship was docked.

Junko looked at the hand that held her own in interest.