Chương 130: Chapter 124 – Ivy, The Greater Dragonslayer

Ivy"Wait up!" Maple called out. Ivy looked back to see her eldest cousin running toward her on the rope bridge. The bridge swayed beneath Maple's quick steps, the woven ropes creaking against the tree supports as she hurried to close the distance. Ivy stopped and waited, one hand resting lightly on the side rope while she looked past Maple toward the village she had just left behind. Once Maple caught up, Ivy didn't give her a chance to ask.

"It didn't go well." Maple's face tightened.

"How? What did he say?"

"Basically disowned me. Said I should have put family first." Ivy tried to say it lightly. She even managed to keep her voice steady. She turned her gaze toward the far end of the bridge. Maple's eyes went wide.

"You didn't tell him what Adair did to you, did you?"

"I couldn't do that to him. Leave the dead, dead. No need making him the villain. I can bear that weight if it saves my father's feelings and memories. I love him too much to break his heart like that. I'd rather he be mad at me for not being there." Maple stared at her in shock. Ivy was not the same fragile child who'd left Leaf Village years ago. The girl Maple remembered would've folded under her father's anger and begged for any piece of forgiveness he was willing to throw her.

This Ivy stood on the rope bridge with her pack on her shoulder, her chin lifted.

"What will you do?"

"I figure I'll go East," she replied.

"To the Holy City?" Maple replied with furrowed brows.

"I'm an adventurer. I need to find a guild and keep getting stronger." Maple sighed. The sound carried more worry than judgment, which made it harder for Ivy to keep her expression still.

"Can I do anything for you?" Ivy shook her head in reply.

"No. I think I'm good. Thanks though. Take care of yourself, Maple." Maple held the side rope and looked at her for a moment longer, as if she wanted to argue but couldn't find anything useful to say.

"You too." Ivy continued across the bridge. She was nearly at the end when Maple yelled, "Is it OK if I come to visit you?" Ivy turned around and walked backward for a few steps.

"Sure! Just head to the guild." Then she faced forward again and continued toward the ground level. The lower walkway carried her beneath the last spread of Leaf Village's branches. A few dozen steps later, the divide between bridge and ground waited in front of her. Once she touched down, Ivy would be out of Leaf Village. Alone again. She sighed loudly and lifted her foot. For a moment, she held it there, suspended between the place that had raised her and the road that was all she had left.

Then she set her foot on the ground and solidified her choice. A week after putting Leaf Village behind her, Ivy heard voices in the woods. She stopped on the main road and listened. Voices, here, this far from the nearest settlement, meant trouble. Every adventurer knew that if someone heard people speaking off the main road, the best choice was to keep walking. It was almost always bandits, and anyone foolish enough to investigate was usually exactly the sort of person bandits wanted. So Ivy ignored it.

She kept walking with her grip tight around her pack strap and her eyes on the road ahead. Then a woman screamed.

"Shit," she whispered. Ivy turned toward the sound. The scream had come from the forest to her left, maybe fifty yards in. She pulled out her scepter as she left the road. It was still the same scepter she'd gained from the Labyrinth where Chelsea definitely died for a full minute. At the time, Ivy had thanked them and assumed she would use it mostly for casting. Now, with the weight of it in her hand, she was suddenly glad the group insisted on her taking it.

Ivy approached the source of the voices and stayed hidden as best she could. The trees were dense enough to help, though the undergrowth tugged at her clothes and snapped underfoot if she moved too quickly.

"Please!" a woman yelled. Ivy hurried closer now that she had a better sense of where the voices were coming from. The trees opened into a clearing. For a second, the scene made no sense. A carriage sat in the middle of the clearing, though Ivy couldn't figure out how it had gotten there. Dense trees surrounded the space on all sides, thick enough that no normal carriage should've been able to pass through. The question didn't matter for long. Around the carriage were maybe ten bandits.

Two servants were being held back by separate men, both crying and struggling as they watched a giant of a man holding down a woman in noble clothing. Several bodies lay nearby in torn uniforms, and the blood around them told Ivy the guards had already lost but not without taking out a few bandits of their own. The scene in front of her was too much. This wasn't her problem. She was outnumbered and alone.

There were too many men, and the largest one looked strong enough to break her in half if she let him get his hands on her. The giant man laughed as he started untying his pants. Fuck. She couldn't let this continue. Ivy tightened her grip around the scepter. She was only one woman. One woman wearing Rare+7 equipment and holding a rare+8 scepter, most of it purchased in some capacity by the Wixx family. Chelsea. Chelsea wouldn't let this continue. She would have already rushed in.

Ivy could picture her too easily, small and terrifying, charging into the clearing without pausing to count the enemy. Chelsea would run in, stab the big man in the face, and start eating him in front of the others. That obviously wasn't Ivy's style. She took a deep breath and aimed the scepter at one of the men holding back a servant.

"Donhaspinpa." A firebolt erupted from the end of her weapon. Ivy adjusted her aim and fired another at the second man. She didn't wait to see if they hit. She cast Wind Step, and the world around her sharpened as her movement surged. She cocked the scepter back, crossed the distance in a rush, and struck the distracted giant man across the face with the weighted metal rod. The impact landed with a sickening crunch. Ivy learned a few things in that moment.

Her strength was higher than she had thought, the bandit's constitution was lower than she had expected, and the Flame Warden's Scepter made a much better melee weapon than she had given it credit for. She turned immediately to assess the rest of the battlefield. The two servants were unscathed from her firebolts and running toward the noblewoman, who was scrambling away from the giant man on the ground. The other bandits stared at Ivy wide-eyed, caught between shock and the need to react.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Ivy cast Wind Lock on three of the men and shot another firebolt at a fourth. The firebolt missed, but she was already moving toward them. The others tried to scatter. She wouldn't allow that. She couldn't. She cast Spirit of Wind on herself, feeling the wind magic strengthen around her body, then drove a Wind Blast down onto the remaining three men.

The spell slammed their heads into the ground hard enough that Ivy didn't know if they were dead or unconscious. She didn't have time to care. The three caught in Wind Lock struggled against the spell, boots scraping uselessly against the dirt. Ivy threw three ember spells into the trapped air around them, and the spell drew the sparks into a spiral of flame. The bandits burned where they stood.

"Are you three OK?" Ivy asked, out of breath as she turned back to the women. The servants had gathered around the noblewoman, one kneeling in the dirt beside her while the other stood half in front of them with shaking hands. The clearing smelled of smoke now, with the scent of burned cloth and scorched earth hanging over the bodies of the bandits. Ivy kept the scepter low, trying not to look as threatening as she probably did after killing nearly everyone in the clearing within seconds.

"Y-yes miss," one of the servants answered.

"Y-y-you're not going to harm us?" Ivy hurried over to them to check for injuries, then slowed when all three women tensed at once.

"No. No of course not. I'm so sorry I didn't get to you faster."

"Miss Eleanor, he didn't touch you did he!?" the same servant asked. The noblewoman didn't answer right away. She sat in the grass where she had scrambled away from the giant man, her dress rumpled and stained with dirt. Her eyes were fixed on Ivy with the distant, stunned expression of someone whose mind hadn't caught up with the fact someone had come out of nowhere to save her. Ivy raised both hands and took a step back from the three of them. She meant to give them space. She meant to look calm and safe.

Her eyes moved from the noblewoman to the servant who had spoken, then to the one who hadn't. Ivy's heart started beating rapidly. The silent servant was beautiful. More than beautiful, if Ivy was honest with herself, which she did not want to be at the moment. Her eyes were wide, her hair had come loose from whatever careful style it had been pinned into before the attack, and she was staring at Ivy. No. Ivy forced her gaze away. This was exactly the kind of thing that had gotten her into trouble with Chelsea.

If she were ever going to atone for what happened, she needed to start by not trying to fall into bed with every pretty woman who looked at her too long.

"Miss," the noblewoman said in a small voice. The word startled Ivy out of her thoughts.

"Y-e-uh yeah?" she stammered.

"I can't express my thanks enough. Might I ask your name?"

"Sure, it's Ivy. I'm from Leaf Village."

"An elf?" The woman looked surprised.

"A wood elf. And you're a mage?"

"Sorceress, but yes Miss, I picked up some mage spells as they are a bit more reliable." Ivy replied, bowing her head. The movement gave her something to do other than look at the quiet servant again. Ivy focused on the ground,"Would we be able to repay you in any way?"

"No, that's not necessary. I'm just glad I could help." She did her best to look everywhere but the silent servant woman.

"My manners, I'm so sorry. I am Eleanor Gondrab. My father is Count Gondrab. These are my attendants, Fleur and Milana." Milana. Just knowing her name made the feeling worse. Ivy shifted her grip on the scepter and tried to make sense of what was happening in her own head. She had never had this sort of reaction with Chelsea. Chelsea had been everything all at once, but not this strange pull that hit before a conversation had even begun. Was this woman some sort of succubus or something like it?

That seemed ridiculous, but so was most of Ivy's life lately.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"Lady Ivy," the other attendant, Fleur, started. Ivy blinked at the title but didn't correct her.

"As you can see, we are in a slight situation. Would we be able to hire you to take us to the Holy City? Or at least until we make it to another traveling caravan with guards?" Ivy's thoughts betrayed her immediately. She would get to be near Milana for an extended period of time. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Ivy tightened her jaw. Gods, what was wrong with her?

"I could travel with you. You don't need to pay me though. I was heading that way anyways." She looked back at the carriage.

"How did you get that thing in here in the first place?"

"It's enchanted. It can shrink and grow. Our guard said it would be best to set up camp away from the main road."

"Yeah don't do that. Bandits typically avoid main roads." Her eyes somehow drifted back to Milana. Milana was still staring at her. Ivy quickly looked away.

"Oh," Miss Eleanor said.

"I'm curious, the guards we hired were all around level fifteen and the bandits killed all of them. What level are you? You took them all down so easily." There was a gasp from Milana. The other three looked toward her. Her eyes were wide now, fixed on Ivy with an intensity Ivy didn't like. It made her self-conscious. Whatever was happening with Milana was harder to understand and much harder to defend against.

"She has The Eyes, do you have a salacious title or something?" Fleur asked in confusion, looking from Milana to Ivy.

"Oh!" Ivy drawled.

"She can read! That's impressive. My title is the Greater Dragonslayer." The other two gasped and took a step back from her. Ivy winced internally. She had forgotten, for one careless moment, that most people did not hear Greater Dragonslayer and respond the her usual group from Junstruce did. Bea would have laughed, made some ridiculous comment, and Chelsea would explain that dragons tasted different from people.

"Trained with the Wixx family," Ivy explained.

"Adriane Wixx?" Miss Eleanor whispered.

"Yeah," Ivy said with a smile.

"I was her daughter's consort until she became a valkyr." The words came out easier than she expected, but they still left something painful behind. She shook her head, forcing herself back to the present.

"Enough about me, what's your story? Why are you traveling to the Holy City?" Chelsea"I'm curious how you would do on one of these," Chelsea said, looking up at Freya.

"Probably not as good as you'd hope," she replied. They were sitting in one of the Merchant Guild assessment rooms, waiting for the official proctor. The room was cleaner than the ones Chelsea had used in Junstruce and Nordrak, with polished wood paneling, a broad desk, and several locked cabinets along the far wall. Even the hourglasses on the shelves looked expensive, each one held in a shaped metal frame and marked with careful little lines Chelsea desperately wanted to inspect.

For their one month anniversary, Freya had surprised Chelsea with a trip to the Vundundu Empire. Apparently, this was where Jibjib the servicer golem seller originated, and where he returned five days a week.

"Want to try?" Chelsea asked.

"Absolutely not," Freya replied.

"This is your gift. Take your time. Savor it."

"That's the exact opposite of what I'm aiming for," Chelsea laughed.

"Nine minutes forty one seconds. That's the time to beat."

"Whoa! For this assessment? Who set that time?" Freya asked playfully.

"Oh stop," she said, flicking Freya with her tail.

"Sorry you're going to have to sit and watch me take a test for ten or so minutes."

"Are you kidding me? You're the hardest person ever to buy gifts for. You buy whatever you want. This was the best I could come up with."

"Topping Bradford is going to be tough," Chelsea said, nodding slowly. Freya leaned back in her chair with a relaxed posture. Chelsea, on the other hand, had been glancing toward the door every few seconds. She liked these tests. Still, this branch had a reputation, and that made her eager in a way that left her fingers tapping against the arm of her chair.

"How long did you know you liked me? In this way I mean. For me it wasn't until that night in the bath." Chelsea asked offhandedly"If I'm being honest? It was when I was testing out how your armor changed and I was pressing my face to your chest. Hearing your heart speed up. I don't know. It made me get that it was a possibility for me. Then laying under your turtle's…"

"Tortoise."

"Turtle's!" she emphasized.

"Tree. Having you lay beside me while we talked about nothing. I don't actually have a heart anymore but if I did it would have been going crazy."

"I still love doing that," Chelsea said, grabbing Freya's hand. She pulled it to her mouth and kissed it gently. The door behind her clicked. Chelsea released Freya's hand and sat a little straighter as a stern-looking older human woman entered the room. Jibjib followed behind her, dressed neatly.

"Mr. Jibjib. It's wonderful to see you again," Chelsea greeted.

"Miss Havoc. It is a pleasure to see you again as well." She loved the way he said pleasure, somehow adding a syllable without making the word sound wrong.

"I hope your servicer is still performing satisfactorily." The proctor looked back at him. Jibjib covered his mouth, then held up both palms in apology.

"Mister Jibjib has been instructed not to speak but he insisted he wanted to be here to see the white demon girl complete the assessment. I have my doubts, Miss Wixx, at the legitimacy of your last two exams. I scoured the record and the fastest time, prior to yours. It was ninety one years ago by the famous Gnome merchant Eladandra Poll. Her time was twenty minutes and eleven seconds.

In comparison to gnomes, demons are not known for their intelligence so do know, I will be watching your every movement for signs of cheating." Chelsea folded her hands neatly in her lap and turned her smile up to eleven on this woman.

"Oh, goodness." Chelsea turned on her charm.

"That is completely understandable. I sincerely hope I can change your mind on my kind. We have such a bad reputation." The woman looked down at the fully armored demon girl smiling pleasantly up at her. Something flickered across her stern expression, and for a moment, the lines around her mouth softened. She looked almost bothered by the urge to apologize but she resisted and pushed past it.

"I am the guildmaster for this branch. By now you know the rules."

"Yes Miss. May I request you use the smallest increment of hourglass that you have?" The woman looked down and gave her a wicked smile.

"We are not Junstruce or Nordrak. The exams given out here are of the highest caliber. You will not be able to sail through this one so easily."

"Oh!" Chelsea exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. She gave a small excited clap and looked at Freya. Freya smiled back down at her.. The guildmaster crossed to the desk and set the test facedown in front of Chelsea. The packet was thicker than the others had been, tied neatly with a thin strip of blue cord. Beside it, she placed a quill and ink, then drew one of the smaller hourglasses from the shelf and set it where both of them could see it.

"May I also have some extra paper?" Chelsea asked. The woman reached into the drawer in front of her, pulled out a small stack, and set it to the other side of the ink.

"Your time starts when you flip over the exam." Chelsea reached for the packet, then stopped when she remembered something important. She looked back up at the guildmaster.

"Something to note, I have a royal demon heritage. It doesn't let me use what it deems as common tools like the quill so it will change it to what it thinks is appropriate." She picked up the quill. The moment it settled between her fingers, it changed. The plain writing tool reshaped into something much finer, nearly identical to the one she had used when she was with Passion. The shaft smoothed, the nib sharpened, and the material took on a quality that made the guildmaster's eyes narrow at once.

"Please, use The Eyes if you can to ensure there isn't any sort of enchantment or anything." The proctor gave her a hard look but studied the quill.

"Historic+4," she said.

"That is quite the intriguing bloodline ability. So could you sell the quill?" she asked.

"Unfortunately not." Chelsea set it back into its holder, and it returned to its usable classification. She picked it back up, and it changed again. The guildmaster leaned forward despite herself, watching the transformation with open professional interest now. Even Jibjib appeared to be suffering terribly from not being allowed to speak. Chelsea placed one hand on the corner of the exam packet and took a steady breath. Finally, she flipped the exam over.