CHAPTER 53: MEETING THE TEAM

We walked into the Adventures Guild and quickly made our way over to the designated space that we were to meet our new teammate. As we walked down the long corridor Lana spoke up. "Do you think we will get on with them? I mean what if they are some stuck up Nobel or something?"

Letting out a weary sigh as this was something that had been nothing Kana all morning. With a slight effort of will I kept my voice neutral. "It will be fine Kana I’m sure they wouldn’t just group us up with someone that wouldn’t at least somewhat fit in with our group. I’m sure mr Stone wouldn’t do that he seems to competent to mess up group pairings so badly."

"I know, I know but what if.."

I turned to face her and reached stretched up to cup her cheeks with my hands and turned her head to look down at me. "Kana. It will be fine. We’re here with you, besides if they are a duck we can just leave them behind and go on by ourselves." Without giving her time to try rebut my argument I pulled her down and planted a swift kiss on her lips. Her cheeks flushed at that and as whilst she was still off guard from that I grabbed her hand and resumed walking, pulling her along in my wake.

I did notice Amanda with a slight quirk to her lips, she obviously found my ability to ’tame’ Kana in everyday life quite amusing. So much so that she couldn’t hold back a gentle quip. "Do enjoy watching the succubus acting to shy during the day, is such a nice contrast." I began to smile till she leaned down and whispered in my ear. "Almost as much as I enjoy watching your switch being flicked." I felt my own cheeks heat up slightly before harrumphing and moved on dragging the still stun locked succubus behind me.

We eventually made it to the designated meeting spot and headed into the familiar training room. Inside we first spotted the mountain of muscle with a shiny head and bare chest known as Atar Stone. He was sat in the center of the chamber in a medatative position, his eye did open when we walked in and he gracefully stood up and greeted us with a smile. "Welcome back, glad you made it on time, unfortunately it would seem your teammate is running slightly late.

"Not to worry we are happy to wait for them. Could you tell us about who our teammate is in the meantime?" I asked after giving a small bow.

"Ha! No need to bow girl I’m not some snobby noble who requires it." He snorts upon seeing my bow.

Thankfully I had an answer prepaired. "No but you are powerful enough to kill us with hardly a thought so I figured showing some respect couldn’t hurt." I did flash a smile at the end.

"Ha! Can’t quite argue with you there, now if only my own family couldn’t be more like that!" Before I could respond the door slammed open and someone rushed into the room panting as if they had just run a marathon to get here.

Turning around to inspect the newcomer I was momentarily shocked when I recognised her. It was Zara, the wolfkin woman we had met at Stone stories the odd little shop we had visited where I got my new staff. Blinking in surprise at this I was unable to formulate any response before she spoke up, and she did not sound pleased.

"Uncle! Why, for all that is good in this world did you fail to inform me that I was supposed to be meeting my new team today until barely 10 minutes ago? I had to sprint across half the city to get here on time! You didn’t even offer to bring me along with you when you left!?" My mind froze for a moment as I processed what was just said.

First off Atar was Zara’s uncle? How the hell did that work with them being different species? And then the fact that she was here to meet her new team? Did that mean that Zara was to be our new teammate?

"Well I thought you could do with the exercise, after all it’s no good to stay cooped up in the shop all day long!" Atar responded.

This did not calm Zara down, if anything it made her even more annoyed as I could swear that her hackles rose. "And who’s fault is it that I had to be in that store in the first place! Your the one who made me watch over titnfor you!"

"Did I? Thats doesn’t seem like something I would do?" He shamelessly denied.

A vain looked about ready to burst on Zara’s forehead at that comment. "Your exact words were, either look after the shop or kiss goodbye to your spot on the trail ground expedition."

"Nooo, you must have misheard me, doesn’t sound like me at all." He easily replied. This seemed to do it for Zara as she suddenly dashed forwards, a sword appearing in her hand and swing with all her might. Atar easily leant out of the way of the strike but the wolfkin did not let up unleashing a flurry of stabs, swipes and thrusts towards the man who avoided every blow sent his way.

After this went of for a couple of minutes, during which time myself, Kana and Amanda just stood about in confusion and slight amusement. Until eventually Atar stuck back with a simple palm strike. The effects of this blow was considerable thought.

As soon as the palm met Zaras stomach she was launched off her feet and faster than I could even track, impacted the wall behind me with a bone crunching thud. My eyes opened wide as I spun around to look at where she landed only to spot her just as she slid off the wall into a boneless lump on the ground. I let out a gasp and rushed over to her instinctively extending my aura to envelop her and begin the healing process.

Arriving at her side I slapped my hand down on her shoulder and activated Touch of Life and flooding her body with my mana. I was rewarded with the disturbing sound of bone snapping back together. I watched as her irregular pained breaths started to come in easier before she suddenly sat up with a start as she took in a deep lung full of air.

I still had my hand on her shoulder so the first thing she saw was my concerned face hovering over her. It was almost amusing watching the spread of emotions that rapidly flickered over her face as she processed who I was and that I was currently healing her. But before she could fully process that I turned to the cause of this incident with a scowl.

"Don’t you think that response was a bit excessive? She could have died there! More than one of her ribs were piercing her lungs!" I was actually a touch surprised at how angry I was at the powerful man, after all I barely knew Zara and yet I was willing to nearly shout at a man who could kill in an instant over hurting her.

"Well she had a healer on standby and she was getting a bit bratty so needed to be reminded of an important lesson." He replied almost petulantly and crossed his large arms over his sculpted chest.

I knew that I should take the bait but I just couldn’t help myself. "And what lesson would that be?"

He smiled at that before disappearing for a moment and then reappearing right in front of me and was crouched down to be eye to eye with me. I somehow managed to not flinch which only made him smirk as he spoke. "That the rules are made by the strong, and the weak need only follow them." The flint in his voice was jarring, coupled with the return of his commanding presence the meaning behind those words came through all too clear. I am strong, so I can do whatever the hell I want.

We stayed like that for a moment longer before his smile widened and he stood up the tense atmosphere dissipating slightly at his actions. As he took a couple of steps back he spoke once more. "Zara dear allow me to introduce you to your new team, Kana the Archer and scout. Amanda the rouge. Lilliana the mage and healer and Dawn the nature dragon. In turn I would like to introduce you all to Zara Stone my niece and a warrior. Together you all should make a wonderful team." He had a wide smile on his face as he said this before he continued. "I shall leave you all to get acquainted but I have other matters to attend to, toodles." And just like that he vanished.

We stood like that all looking around at each other unsure on exactly how we are supposed to go from there. However, it would appear that he wasnt done with us just yet as he suddenly reappeared. "Oh right forgot to tell you all we meet outside the city in 2 days time, be there at dawn or you won’t be attending. Here’s a map, see you all then!" And then he vanished again as a map gently floated over to land before me on the floor.

Again we stood in silence for a moment before it was broken by a groan coming from behind me. "Urgh, he is so embarrassing." I turned to see Zara had her head in her hands which caused me to chuckle which in turn made her look up and me, her dark cheeks going a lovely shade from her blush as she met my eyes. "Umm t-thank you for healing me. He would normally just pour a healing potion over me, which whilst it may work it’s never quite as pleasant as what your healing was like." Her voice almost started off strong but it got quieter and quieter as she went on till I could barely hear her towards the end.

I smiled at her and and couldn’t resist teasing her as I spoke up. "Well you are more than welcome dear, I’m always happy to heal you up after things get a little rough." Looking straight into her eyes I didn’t miss when she auidably gulped and her cheeks darker even further. "But since it would seem that you are to be our teammate allow me to properly introduced you to everyone."

I stood up and held out a hand towards her which she took and I pulled her to her feet before looking around to see both Kana and Amanda walking over with smiles on their faces as they appeared to have caught my words and her reactions. ’Yeah I think she will fit in well with us’ I decided.