EQ: Cross of Ameran 05

Chapter 5

„It’s time for a break…“ Nima, a human woman around 20 years old, patted her horse and swung herself from the back of the animal. Sighing, she looked at her trousers. “…” She pulled out a letter, taking a closer look at the text again.

‘Dear Nima,
I have not much time. They stole an artifact from another world! You have to stop them. Contact a demon-commander with the name Shirai in Fredbrand. Tell him about the ‘Cross of Ameran’. Maybe he knows something about it!
Good luck!
Rena’

Nima sighed. This letter was the reason they wanted to kill her… If she just never stick her nose into the underground-politics of the king…

As she pulled on her green hat, her glasses fell to the ground. “Dammit…” Nima leaned forward. A tear dropped down on the glasses on the ground… “What have I done…?!” She whipped the tears off her cheeks. She sobbed a little more before she put her glasses back on. ‘I have to go on… Rena is counting on me…’

Suddenly, Nima’s horse started to get nervous. “Huh? What’s wrong?” An arrow landed right next to her feet. The young blonde turned around. Her eyes doubled in size. A group of royal soldiers was close behind her, riding on griffons. “U-oh!” Nima jumped on the back of her horse, riding as fast as possible to get away from the ‘bloodhounds’.


Ledah sat on a tree, enjoying his meal. Now that he knew what was eatable and what not, he could enjoy his journey again. He had just prepared himself a wonderful looking fruitsalad with apples, oranges, nuts and a strange yet sweet fruit he had never ever seen before.

The enwa licked the remaining juice from his dagger before he put it back to the inner side of his cloak.

The sweet taste of the fruits was delicious… Ifrit would have loved it for sure and so would Issney and Dane. Yuna liked sweets too, thought she liked the sweet of things as vanilla more than the sweetness of fruits. His grandfather Bel’Zath however wasn’t a fan of sweets at all… Ledah’s thoughts drifted off more and more back to his homeworld. He wondered what his friends and family were doing at the moment… They were probably totally worried to hear that he went all alone to go search for the cross. And Iska and Gawain? He just prayed Galdor would be still in one piece when he came back! About Gawain he was rather unworried. She was the perfect knight to take over his duties.

Ledah was sent back to reality as he heard screams close to his current location. He looked down at the fruit-salad and back to the direction he heard the scream coming from…

“Gra! If that’s not an urgency I swear by Asgard--!” The enwa jumped down the tree, leaving his meal behind.


“Ah!” Nima dodged another arrow, nearly falling from her saddle as the horse sprinted through the light woods with full speed. Another arrow missed her just be a few inches. She could even feel the wind of the arrow next to her arm! “UAH!” As the horse jumped over a tree-stump, Nima lost her balance, crushing down into the hard ground, rolling over the moss before she finally landed flat on the grass.

“We got her!” One of the soldiers laughed triumphantly as he hopped down his griffon and walking towards the helpless girl. “That’s it.” He put an arrow to his bow, ready to shoot her, only a few feet away from her face. He enjoyed seeing the desperation in the woman’s face as tears started running down her cheeks.

Nima pressed her eyes shut. She couldn’t see into this man’s eyes who was going to kill her now. She didn’t want to die!

“Don’t you think five against one is a little unfair?” A male voice from behind her made Nima look up. A young man with blonde hair and a white coat stood behind her, crossing his arms in front of his chest. A crimson sword hang from his belt and those deep blood-red eyes of his gave her a chill.

“Stay out of this, mercenary. This is concern of the royal guard of Suuna.” The soldier barked towards the young man… he had to be in his twenties…

“Mercenary? Hm… yeah, sound nice in my ears…” He grinned evilly. “What did she do that you want to kill her without mercy?”

“None of your concern! Now go already or I will teach you a lesson!!”

“Sounds fair enough, though I doubt a useless chess-figurine as you can show me anything I don’t know yet.” The smile on the man’s face turned into an evil grimace, making the soldier hesitate for a second.

“What?! You little punk I will show you-“ The soldier took his bow, now targeting the young man, but the mercenary was faster, throwing a knife directly into the chest of the guard. The soldier sank down lifeless, an expression of agony on his facial frames.

Nima gulped, pulling herself away from the dead corpse.

“My name is Ledah. Just stay behind me.” The young man stepped in front of the girl, shielding her from the other soldiers that now drew out their weapons.

‘I need my abilities! Gra!’ Ledah slapped himself mentally. He totally forgot that he was unable to use his spells here. This was going to be harder than expected… He couldn’t feel the Manastreams of this world yet, so trying to use them was suicidal! Yet he could feel the Mana within him so he was at least able to boost his own physical abilities…

“How dare you…” A soldier with a golden armor, probably the leader of the small unit, took out his lance, coming closer on the back of his griffon. Ledah’s eyes fell on a little emblem on the chest of the knight.

“I know this emblem!” His eyes widened. It was the same emblem as those from the soldiers he saw on Midgard! “…” He changed into a fighting-stance, taking his sword into his hands.

The griffon-squad charged at Ledah. The enwa jumped up, throwing another knife at a soldier with a bow, hitting him deadly. The griffon screamed, throwing the body off its back and into a tree. Ledah took the chance and took Nima’s hand, pulling her up.

“Take the griffon! Hurry!” He shouted, pushing her towards the animal while blocking a spear thrust from the leader of the unit.

Nima hurried over to the animal, jumping on its back. The animal shook its head, moving around slowly, unsure why someone it didn’t know just jumped on its back. The young girl reached for the leash, calming the griffon before making it fly up out of the fight. As she looked down, her face paled a little. The young man saving her was in trouble. The remaining 3 guards had surrounded him, attacking with incredible speed. The man called Ledah barely managed to dodge all 3 soldiers at the same time.

“Go, get her!” The leader shouted towards one of his comrades. “Don’t let her get away!”

The soldier nodded and flew up towards Nima and her griffon, sword in hand.

“Not so fast!” Ledah reached for his last remaining knife in his coat as… “Ah!” There was no knife left! His last knife was the reward he had given Martin and his family for the supplies, map and gold!

“Ledah!” Nima screamed as the soldier came closer. He was almost in reach.

“Dammit!” Ledah took his sword and laid all his energy into it. He threw it with all the force he could afford.

“KYAAAA!” Nima drifted back with her griffon, as the soldier was right next to her as suddenly… A red blade pierced through the griffon-guard’s back, causing him to fall down back into the forest.

“Deadly mistake…” The knight-leader grinned evilly. Ledah gulped and turned back to the remaining two soldiers. He was guardless now. The only option for him was running but… the griffons were faster. And flying? It took too long to spread his wings now. They’d kill him before he had a chance to get off the ground.

“…” Ledah looked at the two remaining soldiers. He closed his eyes as he felt his heart pounding against his chest. His soft breath ran out of his mouth in silent streams, in and out… And so was the Mana around him. ‘This is my only chance.’ The enwa grid his teeth and rose his hand.

“Ready to die?!” The knight-leader charged forward, thrusting his spear towards the young man. During the same second, the other soldier rose his bow, ready to kill.

A stinging pain hit Ledah right into his arm.

“Burn!” The blonde pressed his eyes shut, bursting his inner Mana to the outside, sending a wave of Firemana towards the griffon-knights.

As the enwa opened his eyes slowly, he saw himself surrounded by flames. The attack he had just used was truly strong… It had burned his enemies’ flesh and killed them on the spot along with their riding-animals.

Ledah still shook from his attack. He had totally outdone himself without even noticing it. One thing was for sure. As long as innocents were around, he wasn’t ever going to use his Mana here again… It was totally out of control. The trees were burnt, the ground was covered with ashes and even his own skin was slightly burnt.

Ledah looked down his arm. A burnt wound made his face flitch for a second. Most of the arrow that had hit him already laid somewhere on the ground, burnt to ashes… Only the metal top of the arrow was sticking in his arm.

“Are you alright?!” A female voice from above made Ledah snap back into reality. He looked upwards, seeing the young human flowing down towards him. “How… how did you DO that?!” Nima hopped down from the griffon, looking around. The flames were gone by now but some plants were still smoking. “This was incredible! Thank you so much!!” Nima bowed in front of Ledah in a respectful manner.

“Welcome…” Ledah caught, patting the dust off his cloak with his still healthy arm.

“Huh?” Nima took Ledah’s arm, looking at the wound. “The arrow is still sticking inside… It will turn into a really bad infection if we don’t do anything!” The young woman bit her lip.

“…” Ledah looked at the young girl. She was human, that was for sure…  And as far as he could tell, she wore some kind of uniform. So maybe it was best not to tell her that his body-regeneration was stronger than those of ordinary humans… The wound wasn’t going to heal while the pointy top was still inside his arm, but it wasn’t going to get any worse either as long as no vain was hurt… “I guess you are right…” Ledah sighed and walked over towards the dead bodies of one of the soldiers he had killed before. He pulled the knife he used to kill the soldier previously out of his chest and cleaned it on his victim’s trousers. Then he walked over to the second soldier who had a blade inside his chest…

“My name is Nima Lerain. I’m strategist of… err… ex-strategist of the royal army of Suuna.” The young human ran up to her savior, not sure how to help him… He was hurt, but somehow he seemed so unimpressed about it…

“Ledah Ainu.” The blonde man looked up from his cleaning and walked past her again. This time he picked up his flame-saber.

“Uhm…” Nima ran up to him again, waiting for him to tell her if he needed help with his arm.

Ledah just sat down on a rock, taking his knife in hand, slowly removing the metal sticking in his arm. During his journeys he had learned how to treat with his wounds all by himself…

“…” Nima just stared at the blonde, watching in awe as he grid his teeth while pulling out the arrow. “You are really an experienced mercenary… in this with this young age!” She smiled. “Well, on the other hand, I’m only 20 yet I was the royal strategist of Suuna…” She chuckled nervously, trying to break the ice between the two of them.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…” The woman bit her lip again, pulling her glasses back into the right position. “Listen, Mister Ainu, I… I can’t pay you right now, but I need a guard who leads me to Fredbrand. And as soon as we are there, I swear by my honor, I will pay you for your efforts!”

“Fredbrand?” Ledah looked up. ‘I have to collect information about the cross… as royal strategist, maybe she knows something.’ He smiled evilly. “Sounds like a deal to me. And just call me Ledah.”

“Alright.” Nima smiled softly. “Thank you!”