Extra Story: The Rookie Adventurer Horn, Part Two

Extra Story:
The Rookie Adventurer Horn,
Part Two

 

THE ORC RUSHED US in a vicious assault.

Lah fired an arrow. It embedded itself in the orc’s arm, but no—it wasn’t enough to stop the orc. I used the last dregs of my mana and hit the orc’s head with a hardened clod of dirt, and…and the orc stopped moving.

Okay. We had something now.

Lah fired another arrow and hit the orc, but it didn’t collapse. I collected my last bit of mana in my hand. I made it harder, made it spin faster—made it stronger, and let the hardened earth magic fly!

…and the clod hit the orc in its left arm. I aimed for its body, but I missed. The orc unleashed a war cry, though, and it looked like it was in agony. It tried to lift its left arm, but the flesh hung limp from its shoulder.

Now it raised its right arm, though—its club arm—and now we were really in trouble. We tried to make a break for it, and the orc brought down its right arm. I mean, it really brought down its right arm, because the arm itself fell off the orc and slapped the ground, followed shortly by its head.

“Gil,” said a voice, “why’re you stealing the best part?”

“Didn’t mean it like that,” said another.

A woman with beautiful golden hair and a sturdy-looking guy appeared from the trees. I’d seen both of them around the adventurers’ guild. Rulina and Gil were their names, if I remembered right.

“You all right?” asked Rulina. “Or did we steal your catch?”

“No,” I panted, “you saved us.”

“Glad we did. We were a little far, but it looked like you were under attack. The orc had its back turned to us, so we took our chances and attacked.”

I looked around, trying to take in the whole situation now that everything settled down. It looked like the orc’s head was cut off by Gil, and in a single swing too. “Shin, Bru, are you okay?!” I called, looking over to where they’d been sent flying.

“I’m over here,” Shin groaned. The pair of them came over, clutching their bodies.

“Are you two all right?”

I wanted to run to them, even tried to, but I used up so much magic that I could barely walk. Shin ran over right when I was about to collapse and broke my fall. “Hey, Horn. You all right?”

“Just used a little too much mana, but I’m fine. You two?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” said Shin. “Got bopped around a little, that’s all.”

Bru was fine too, turned out. What a relief; they hadn’t been badly injured.

“You saved us,” I said, turning to Rulina and Gil. “Thank you so much.” All four of us thanked them. It was hard to stop.

“It’s fine,” said Rulina, shaking her head. “We just attacked because the orc left its back unguarded. You’re rookie adventurers, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m Horn.”

“Shin’s the name.”

“Call me Lahtte.”

“Brute.”

“I’m Rulina. Tall, dark, and silent over there is Gil.”

“Yes, we know you! Everyone says you’re great adventurers.”

“Do they?” Rulina blinked, looking a little embarrassed. “Well, ah, orcs have been spotted around here, so it’s dangerous.”

“Really? We heard there were just wolves in this area.”

“Wolves, too, but not just wolves. If you can’t take down an orc, it’s dangerous around here.”

An orc. As in, one orc, and all four of us hadn’t been enough to defeat it. I needed to practice my magic more. I needed to get stronger. If I’d just been able to hit it somewhere other than its arm with my last bit of magic, I might’ve been able to defeat it, but no…I’d gotten flustered and missed. Lah told me it was the same for him—we both choked up.

I needed to work harder.

 

From there, we headed back to the temporary shed that the guild employees set up, Rulina and Gil accompanying us. They built the shed near the tunnel, and with the massive crowd of other adventurers there, it was completely safe.

As if waiting for us by the tunnel entrance, there was that cute bear with the sword to welcome us back.

Rulina tried to stifle a laugh. “Ah, when I see that statue, I can’t help but smile.”

It really was super cute… “Um, do you think this statue has anything to do with Yuna?”

Rulina raised an eyebrow. “You know about Yuna, Horn?”

“Yes, she’s my teacher.”

“Your teacher?”

“She teaches me magic. Like, how to use it and stuff. That’s how I make sure I don’t drag everyone else down.”

Shin shook his head. “Drag us down? Horn, you’re our essential firepower right now.”

Bru agreed. “If we hadn’t had your magic, that orc would’ve gotten us.”

It was nice of them to say, but I was still a long way away. I really had become more confident thanks to Yuna, but no way was I going to stop now. I knew I could work harder. I knew I could be more useful to everyone.

“I see,” said Rulina. “Yuna really is your teacher, then.”

“Yes. See why I was curious about this bear statue?”

“I do. Now,” said Rulina, “this is just a rumor, all right? But apparently, it’s called the Bear Tunnel because Yuna found it. Hence the bear statue.”

Yuna had found it? Simply amazing!

 

We handed off our harvested materials to the adventurers’ guild and received our payment. Our kill count climbed, too. At this rate, if we put together all the money we’d gathered until now, we might even be able to buy a slightly large item bag…

“How long are you sticking around, Horn?” asked Rulina.

“We need to consider how much food we have, so we’re going home the day after tomorrow.”

“Same as us then,” said Rulina.

“It’s only you and Gil in that party?”

“These days, yeah. We used to have a four-person party, but we split. Just the two of us for now.”

A little ways away, Gil chatted with Shin and Bru.

“Gil,” said Shin, “could I hold that sword?”

“Mmhm.”

Shin took the large sword from Gil. “It’s heavy…”

“Shin,” said Brute with a snort, “you’re gonna make yourself look bad.”

“But I’m telling you it’s heavy. You try holding it, Brute.” Shin handed the sword off to Bru. Bru held it, but even he seemed to have trouble with its weight despite being the strongest out of all of us…

“It’s lighter than I thought,” said Brute, as if his face wasn’t scrunched up with effort.

“No way,” said Shin with a laugh, “you’re gonna drop that thing on your foot!”

Everyone looked like they were having fun. When they returned the sword to Gil, he waved it around like it was nothing. Shin and Bru piled praise on him. If Gil cared one way or the other, he sure wasn’t showing it.

“Looks like Gil’s pretty happy too,” said Rulina.

“Huh? Is he?”

Rulina tilted her head. “Nah. I think he’s happy.”

I looked at Gil’s face. Nope, I couldn’t tell a thing from it.

 

“What are we doing tomorrow?” Shin asked, which meant now we had to finally decide.

“There are orcs over there,” I said, gesturing in that direction, “so we can’t go there.”

“But there aren’t any monsters nearby,” said Shin, “so we’ve still got to go a little further out.”

Rulina broke into the conversation: “Then how about you all come with us?”

“Rulina?” I could hardly believe it.

“We’ll take care of the orcs. You just fight the wolves and goblins.”

“Are you sure?”

“But that would make more work for you,” said Shin.

“It’s fine. We’ve already made more than enough, and teaching rookies is part of what a senior adventurer does. You agree, right Gil?”

“Sure,” said Gil, stony-faced as ever. Wait, was Gil angry at Rulina for deciding everything for him?

“Um, Rulina,” I whispered, “are you sure Gil’s okay with this?”

“Huh? How so? You think he’s mad or something?”

Gil looked at me expressionlessly. Yep, this guy was definitely mad.

“Look at that face,” said Rulina, “can’t you see? He’s not angry in the slightest.”

I-I couldn’t see that at all, no!

 

The next day, we headed back to where the orcs were. It was a little scary, but at least we had Rulina and Gil on our side.

“Okay, juniors,” said Rulina, “we’ll stay behind you. Just go about business as usual. If an orc appears, we’ll take care of it.”

“All right,” Shin answered, and the rest of us nodded. I nervously crept forward. Shin, Lah, and I guarded the front and Bru took the back.

I could hear Rulina and Gil talking behind us.

“Looks like they’re putting thought into this.”

“Yup.”

And they were watching us too? It made me even more nervous than usual.

Shin indicated for us to stop right where he was walking up ahead. I peeked through a gap, and there: two wolves. We exchanged positions. Shin and Bru went ahead. Lah and I prepped for long-range attacks, figured out who would take what wolf. Lah loosed his arrow and I launched my earth magic, they hit, and Shin and Bru jumped out simultaneously.

One of the wolves—the one that Lah stuck with an arrow in its belly—tried to run off, but Shin thrust his sword and dealt the final blow. Bru finished off the wolf I hit with my earth clump.

“Oh, you defeated those things a lot more smoothly than expected,” said Rulina.

“Sure did,” said Gil.

Thanks? The praise was a little embarrassing, though…

“You really have your teamwork down,” Rulina added.

“We’re weak,” I said, “so we need to fight while helping each other out. That’s how we win.”

“Knowing you can trust your teammates is a good thing.”

We’d all gotten along since childhood, so we had trust in spades. From there, we kept defeating wolves and horned hares. Two orcs did appear and gave us a fright, but Rulina and Gil defeated them in the blink of an eye.

Shin whistled. “That’s amazing!”

“Rulina, you’re so cool,” I said.

“Thanks, but your teacher is a lot more amazing than me.”

“You mean Yuna?”

“I sure do. She’s something else in a fight, let me tell you.”

“Have you seen her fight before, Rulina?”

Gil snorted. “And got carried around like a princess.”

“Gil!” Rulina snapped.

“Like a…princess?” I repeated.

“What’s that about?” asked Shin.

“I-It’s nothing. Never ask anyone else about that—ever.”

“I-I don’t really understand,” I said, “but we, uh…we understand?” The four of us nodded, prompted by Rulina’s…enthusiasm. No more questions about that, got it.

“Gil,” Rulina groaned, “stop smirking!”

I looked at Gil just in case, but…could you call that a smile? Could you call that an anything?

 

With our last day of adventuring done, we headed back to the tunnel where the bear waited.

“Gil, we’re ready.” Shin and Bru were already trying to take on Gil and his sword.

They’d gotten the short end of the stick compared to Lah and me. Brandaugh taught Lah how to use a bow, and Yuna taught me how to use magic, which apparently made them jealous. That was why they asked Gil to teach them how to fight.

Rulina cackled. “Gil looks like he’s having an all right time.”

Shin swung his sword, and Gil mowed him down with the flat end of his massive sword.

“Gil,” said Shin, “how do we get strong?”

“Get swole. Build stamina. Swordsmen have gotta move the most out of anyone.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t take your eyes off the enemy. Learn techniques through experience.”

“But what if we still can’t win even if we do?”

“Then fight with your partners. You got teammates. Trust them.”

At those words, Shin looked at us. “You mean we can’t get stronger on our own?”

“People’ve got their limits. Only a few become truly strong, but when you fight with your friends? Then you can almost get as strong as those few.”

Rulina beamed. “Awful talkative today, isn’t he? Maybe he’s taken a liking to them.”

“Rulina,” I said, “do you really think that people have their limits to how strong they can get?”

“Sure. People aren’t created equal, not really. Mana is a good example of that. Even we have different amounts of mana between us, Horn, and the difference between us and Yuna is immeasurable.”

“Is Yuna really that strong?”

“She is. She was fantastic when she beat the goblin king. Trapped it in a hole and defeated it by hurling magic at it. Going out to take on a black viper solo is also unbelievable, but she went out and killed that thing like it was nothing.”

Yuna…she really was amazing. “But she really doesn’t look strong.” She looked super cute, like a big fuzzy bear. “But just remembering what happened to Shin when we first met is terrifying.”

“What happened?”

I told her what happened during our first meeting.

“Horn, don’t talk about that,” said Shin. “No one thinks a girl in a cute bear outfit could be that strong, okay?” At some point, they finished their sword practice and started to listen in on our conversation.

“Shin,” said Rulina with a grimace, “you took a terrifying risk there. You’ve got to value your life more.”

“Terrifying?” Shin repeated. “Really, Rulina?”

“Yuna is terrifying when she’s angry,” Gil agreed.

“You too, Gil?”

“Him too. Our old teammates picked a fight with Yuna and got pummeled. Gil’s face was puffy for weeks,” said Rulina. She smiled, but it sounded like a nightmare.

Just hearing about it made Shin tense up too. Oh no, he’d gotten really close to being pummeled. I’m glad he was okay, but…wow.

 

Then, the next day, we got on the same carriage we’d boarded out to go back to Crimonia, with Rulina and Gil traveling with us. We took several days off to recover and now, finally, we were going out to shop.

Finally—finally—we had that item bag.

“Now we’ll be able to carry the monsters we’ve slain.”

“Yeah, our goal now is to get item bags that are this big for all of us.”

“We’ve got to work hard.”

“Right!”

Since we met Yuna, it felt like everything was going swimmingly. So many things had been so difficult till then…we’d pinched pennies and struggled to buy supplies at all.

Scary or not, maybe Yuna was my good luck bear?