CHAPTER 25: THE CITY OF ASHVALIS WILL SURVIVE

I felt the warmth around my arms but it wasn’t the same feeling the power gave, I looked once more to see it was Ghost wrapping my arms and hands.

"I’m basically your personal medic at this point hehe." Ghost says with a small chuckle.

"You definitely have good timing." I reply, not realizing that I was smiling a bit from her sudden appearance.

Do I always smile when I’m around Ghost or is this something new that I didn’t experience before? I can’t really remember if that’s happened before or not.

"Your extreme strength looks quite interesting." Lukas says sarcastically.

"It just has an appearance side effect, that’s all." I reply with a calm tone.

Admitting to the power of a dragon could give off quite the wrong impression since most people haven’t reported such a power before. It would’ve been posted about everywhere if someone did and they might even be seen as a monster.

"Interesting. I’ll let it go for now but I will keep an eye on you." Lukas says before walking away.

"Hahaha. He’s totally onto you Rokuro." Lilly chimes in as she laughs.

I’ve gotten used to her personality a bit more so I understand that this is just how she is as a person. It’s still a bit annoying but I can definitely handle it.

"Helping out with any injured people would probably be a good idea for a little while." I suggest after Ghost finishes bandaging me.

Ignoring her comment seems like the best way to go about this for now.

"Aye aye Captain." Lilly responds with a tease like manner.

"At least this will help with our rank Promotion." Ghost says with a bit of excitement in her voice.

I wiped my eyes and took a look around, the place wasn’t completely trashed but it was definitely a little messy. "A rank Promotion is definitely calling to us." I agree before moving along to help.

Everyone helped out the survivors for quite a few hours until the sun finally started to come up. The casualties number was quite low for the scale of the attack that occurred here today.

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Civilians: 15

Hunters: 2

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I’m glad the numbers weren’t too high here since I was worried that we made it way later than expected. It was the complete opposite from the get go, we made it before everything went to shit.

The City of Ashvalis will Survive after everything it went through tonight... After all the monsters that attacked, how lucky is that.

Aetherion will remember the day that most hunters left this city to rot as they stayed back behind their walls.

It makes me wonder if I would’ve died back in the junkyard if I never left....

"The sun is finally in the sky once again!" Someone shouts with excitement.

The sun was shining down brightly on us all today as we finished up with the cleaning of monster corpses in the streets. It was a miracle that I got to help with anything at all here today.

"People of Ashvalis we have survived the attack, thanks to the various efforts of the hunters who arrived here to help!" A man shouts from the top of the Velgrade steps.

People began to cheer as the man continues on about how the city will thrive and blah blah blah. The amount of monsters that we had to face was no easy feat, not even for a guild like Velgrade to deal with.

"I don’t really care much for speeches." Lukas says quietly.

"You really know how to appear out of nowhere huh?" I question with a bit of an annoyed tone in my voice.

"I told you I’d keep an eye on you but this place was my home for a long time. Nobody in Caelmaris would understand, unless they were born here as well." Lukas responds with a more serious tone.

Makes a lot more sense on why he’d be here when no one else from Aetherion seem to show up. Ashvalis was basically my home too, even if the name isn’t the same as what it once was.

A lot of cities went through changes after the collapse.... It was inevitable after all. We all had to adapt one way or another so that’s exactly what they did.

Elyndra is the only city that’s always been the same, except the hunters guild wasn’t around until after the collapse. Well, I can’t say entirely what the case is for the guild there.

They could’ve been around but had a different name or something since Elyndra has been there for some time now.

"Before the collapse or after?" I ask while staring at the crowd.

"Before. It used to be such a beautiful city, I can’t believe how much everything has changed." Lukas answers with a bit of sadness in his voice.

Lukas is like me in that sense then. Being born here before the collapse is a big deal since it hits differently compared to those who aren’t from here originally.

Ashvalis is a lot different and I don’t know if I can say that it’s a good kind of different or not.

"The whole world has changed, not just Ashvalis." I say with a calm tone in my voice.

"It has. But hopefully one day we can find the answer to why this all happened." Lukas replies with a bit of hope in his voice.

The crowd finally started to die down as everyone went back to business as usual. Velgrade decided to up the patrols around the city entrances so that they don’t run into this issue again.

I can’t say that it’s a bad idea for them to do since they should take a page from Caelmaris. Throw some walls up around the city to keep the monsters out and even get guards to watch the gates.

It makes it feel a lot more like the fantasy stories I used to read a long time ago. Maybe in a way we have reverted to some of those methods without realizing it.