"Don't take too long".

  A single drop fell onto the Mage's hooded cloak, then another on the ground.

  As the Mage stood there, eerily frozen, letting out one singular tear while Jacob slowly dropped into his sister's grave, what started as a shower quickly turned into heavy rain.

  Jacob walked towards his sister's lifeless body, putting a hand behind her head and picking the upper half of her body up, holding her head in his arms.

  He began breaking down, trying to hold back from crying but too overwhelmed to hold back with his sister's head in his chest, the rain made it hard to recognise his tears.

  The Mage still continued to stand in the rain, feeling he deserved getting his clothes soaked, he eventually created an invisible barrier above the grave to avoid making the hole fill up with water.

  Ten minutes went by.

  At this point, Jacob had put Hannah's body resting back on the ground, crying while continuing to hug her head in his chest.

  He felt the final embrace of her body one last time from the hug, stood up and climbed out of the hole, wiping the rain, tears and snot off his face,

  "Lets go. I'm not letting any more people get away with killing other families the exact same way they killed mine",

  Jacob's voice was cold but precise, like he found a new objective to complete.

  While Jacob walked away, the Mage performed the Wayfarer's Goodbye, touching both ends of his shoulders then reached for the sky finishing off saying "Rest In Peace," then dropped to the ground using his magic to bury her once more.

  He then quickly caught up to Jacob.

  "What is it you're planning to do now?"

  the Mage was surprised by how quickly Jacob had jumped back,

  "You said you were gonna teach me to get stronger and more powerful did you not? So lets go".

  Jacob was suspiciously determined to go training with a legendary figure like the Mage, but the Mage wasn't planning to look after a kid who had lost all his will to live, so was glad.

  They walked through the town past its lifeless residents, half of which were cut in half by the Mage while the rest burnt, slashed or buried under collapsed and burnt down houses.

  Thus the two began a new journey, Jacob's being to restore his title of a feared swordsman and the Mage's being to build onto his newly formed party with more than one person for the first time in two hundred years.

  "We can't keep going like this, boss. We've lost half of our men, at this rate if we don't put our plan into action we won't get the capital nor half our army back alive!",

  a servant busted through the ancient door to where the boss and Perry were having a meal, a single slice of bread for each.

  The boss let out a sigh responding to his servant,

  "I say when we put our plan into action, those men made an oath, their deaths are necessary and cement their name in honour, we will win this war and the city will be ours, just wait until our reinforcements are ready",

  the boss forced the servant to quieten down.

  Once the boss finished his food he stood up grabbing the handle of his sword and quickly impaling the servant standing at the door right through the heart killing him instantly,

  "What the hell d'ya do that for, boss?",

  Perry jumped at the sound of the sword going through the servants ribs, muscles and bones,

  "Come with me Perry, I'll show you what happens to people that piss me off",

  with that, the boss gripped the head of the now lifeless servant and dragged his body, with his other hand sheathed his sword on his back.

  Opening one of the older doors in the building he walked down what appeared to be a basement in the building.

  Once Perry and his boss got to the bottom, a foul and rotten stench surrounded the two.

  The boss unlocked a large iron door pulling it back and revealing a sight that almost made Perry puke.

  He appeared to be at the top of an at least five-meter-deep cage, in it laid the wasteful bones of what used to be all sorts of things, humans, animals, even skeletons of figures he's never seen before, and at the bottom, a large armoured man, at least four and a half meters tall, bulky and greasy with a helmet on.

  The boss opened a small door placing the servants head through it and pushed his feet forcing his body to go through the hole and smash onto the ground, within a singular second the man, if you can even call it that, rushed towards him, using his fists crushed his body and ate him.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "This, Perry, is what I call my plan for winning this war, it's the result of giving a Momal a couple extra kilograms of meat and protein, an absolute monster. This is what we will use to win, if they take it down, we've got four more, and they're all my obedient little dogs."

  The Momal spat out the bones of the servant, put his head back, looked at the ceiling and forced the entire building to shake uncontrollably unleashing a fearful roar easily making anyone's ears bleed as he pushed his head forward.

  "There's a really good question I've been meaning to ask you",

  Jacob hoping the Mage would tell him this time,

  "Back after you killed that Warlock Of Dreams guy you mentioned he was a Momal, what is that?".

  Jacob waited a few moments before the Mage finally responded to him,

  "Momals are like humans, essentially, they are an enhanced version of humans, five times stronger, smarter, faster than normal humans, they are very dangerous, because of it most humans despise them, knowing at any point they could turn against them and easily destroy anything they desire".

  Just as the Mage finished his response a loud scream could be heard from a distance,

  "HELP!"

  the Mage and Jacob stopped for a single moment looking at each other then both quickly ran towards the sound.

  Looking over a crest they saw a young woman seemingly being robbed by a group of men, grabbing her hair while groping her chest and hitting her arms every time she tried fighting back.

  "Go help her, I'll tell you what to do when you get there",

  the Mage acted terrifyingly serious forcing Jacob to instinctively run towards her yelling,

  "Get off her you disgusting bastards!",

  as he did, the end of his sword pierced through one's chest effectively subduing him, the next second, the remaining robbers surrounded the boy.

  They all attacked at the same time, thanks to his title as his village's best fighter he parried most attacks but, due to being overwhelmed, he was slashed in his lower back.

  He continued to parry what he can while continuing to be struck on his arms, legs and body.

  Once the Mage got on top of the crest he was able to finally give him directions on what to do,

  "Kick the guy in front, dodge the guy behind, parry the guy to your right!".

  Effectively his teachings did work, while he wasn't dealing as much damage in as he'd hoped for he was getting hit a lot less, right when he believed he had overpowered them all he heard one yelling,

  "Special move - Pressure strike!",

  the Mage quickly backed Jacob up,

  "Lift your sword to your left, make sure you have a good grip on that thing!",

  thanks to the Mage's advice he was able to stop his attack from going through but got stuck in a stalemate.

  After a couple seconds, the force from the strike backfires on the man forcing him to drop his sword while his hands rung.

  With that he was able to get more instructions from the Mage and with a bit of effort, subdued the remaining men.

  The Mage rushes down from the hill meeting up with Jacob while he greets the young lady,

  "Are you alright ma'am, you're not hurt are you?",

  Jacob holds her hand to show himself as a warm presence,

  "I'm not hurt but what about you, let me heal you",

  before the woman can do anything the Mage approached the two,

  "It's all good ma'am I got it",

  the Mage puts his hand on Jacob's shoulder and instantly heals all his injuries,

  "Lucky you're pretty bloody strong for your age".

  After the Mage patches Jacob up the lady bows to the both of them,

  "Thank you very much for helping me, please, accompany me back to the capital, I'll dry your clothes and treat you both to a drink",

  the Mage and Jacob look at each other and nod,

  "Well lead the way then".

  Upon leaving the area Jacob asks the Mage another question,

  "That guy back there, he yelled special move then proceeded to use an attack much more powerful than his usual attacks, what'd he do?",

  the Mage looked at the young woman,

  "Do you know special moves?",

  the young woman nodded her head in approval,

  "Special moves are moves that allow people to put more energy and power into anything, for example the attack you defended off, it had more power behind it because it was a controlled attack. Anyone with enough training can do it, some use special moves to heal a large area of wounded people, defend against attacks that'd kill the normal person and many more".

  The Mage looked at Jacob,

  "With a bit more training you'll get there, don't worry".

  Travelling for around an hour, they finally reached a fairly large city, guards at the front gates while merchants seemed to be coming and going.

  Jacob, the Mage and young woman strolled through town, upon looking around, the Mage had flashbacks from the previous village while running straight into another woman,

  "Hey, watch where you're going",

  "My apologies ma'am",

  the woman looks at the Mage in disgust walking off,

  "Freak".

  The Mage looks at her as she walked away before the young woman from before grabs his hand leading him towards a tavern,

  "That lady is who we call The Hero of Swordsman, her names Claire, she's our city's strongest fighter but she doesn't really get along with anyone".

  Upon getting to the tavern, the Mage and Jacob stand at the door while the woman talks to the guy at the counter.

  A few minutes go by before the young lady invites them in, then around the back of the store where the bartender used his magic to dry their clothes.

  Upon returning to the front they sit down and order a beer, the young lady then sits with them and begins talking,

  "My name is Sarah by the way, I was just coming back from a little scavenging, what are your names?",

  before either of them could answer, an older looking man came smashing his way through the door, scoping the place as if he was looking for someone.

  Sarah put her head down and began whispering to Jacob and the Mage as if she's terrified,

  "Shit, here's the money for the drinks, I think it's best if we never meet again, it was fun hanging out with you guys",

  the man then looked towards their table and got an angered look on his face stomping towards the table.

  The man slapped Sarah while the entire tavern stared,

  "You stupid bitch, get your ass back home now!",

  the man grabbed her and yanked her away, however Jacob stands up.

  "What do you want, kid?!"

  Before Jacob could answer him the Mage grabbed his wrist and forces him back down whispering to him,

  "Best not to cause a scene in a place we've never been before",

  Jacob's expression becomes angry but fights off the urge to do anything he'll regret.

  The man then whispers under his breath,

  "Coward",

  with that he walked away forcing Sarah with him.

  A bit of time goes by while Jacob and the Mage sit there with their dry clothes, guilty and silent while the rest of the tavern has little conversations.

  They eventually get their drinks and have a single sip before Claire comes casually walking in, looking straight at the Mage and Jacob and pointing at the two while walking towards their table,

  "You two, the Lord would like to have a chat with you",

  the Mage let out a sigh and responds,

  "No thanks, we're a bit busy",

  Claire responds frustrated,

  "I wasn't asking, I was telling you, he wants to have a talk with you both".

  By this point, the entire tavern had gone even more silent than when the man came to take Sarah away.