The bushes around them started to rustle. Noah then looked at Evelyn and said.
"Looks like the blood attracted some more pests. Get ready, I'm gonna teach you some martial arts. Let's start with the sword; the only thing you can use is your physical strength, and be sure to keep reinforcing your muscles. I'm not gonna teach you any techniques yet, just try to get used to the weapons, and I'm gonna refine my magic skill and test this new ability."
What came out of the bushes was 16 hyenas with bulky figures and rocky spikes protruding out of their shoulder and foreheads.
They watched Evelyn and Noah warily; most circled Evelyn, and the rest were left to distract Noah.
Noah then said to Evelyn as he created a sword in his hand, It was a simple standard double-edged sword.
"Hmmm, there are many ways to use a sword, stabbing, thrusting, slashing, etc., and there are some habits that you will need to lose; these become most apparent when fighting someone who's coming at you with the intention of killing you."
Then Noah thought as he made a chop with his hand.
'Hmmm, will this work?'
As he thought this, he surrounded his hand with mana, trapped air in the layer of mana, released mana, and gave it the lightning property, which then turned into a plasma-like blade.
"Cool, I can make so many epic things with this. I'm in love with magic already."
As he said that, he walked to a tree and cut the side, leaving a big burnt mark, then he looked back at the hyenas with a wide smile as he spoke.
"Get ready to get flambeyed, you mangy mutts."
The hyenas took a step back in apprehension.t
Noah took a step forward and lunged towards them, and beheaded one of the hyenas with a smooth arc of the plasma blade.
"Next, you."
Muttered Noah as he disappeared from his location and beheaded another hyena. The hyenas cried out as they were slaughtered one after another. After a while, all 6 hyenas were slaughtered on Noah's side.
Noah then calmly slid his hair back with one hand and sat down near a tree. With his back against the tree, he calmly observed Evelyn.
Evelyn had been taught how to use the sword by her dear father in her past life, before he died. Remembering her father, her hand quivered; there was a trace of longing and grievance that formed into a frown on her face, but the emotions soon disappeared and were replaced with a face of coldness.
The hyenas attacked Evelyn one by one. The first one attacked but was parried away by Evelyn. Evelyn stabbed its neck and finished it off. She then ran towards the other hyenas and slowly finished them off one by one. They were scared because of Noah and didn't get the chance to flee.
Evelyn finished all of the hyenas off and took a deep breath.
Noah looked at Evelyn and then replied in a calm and serene voice.
"You know, I just realized something, our future is not without hardship, our spirits scream, and I hear whispers wishing us good luck."
"So, you heard them too, huh?"
Both their faces were tense, and they both knew that what was to come was not a mountain without challenges.
Then came a voice, a voice ethereal and like a melody that could stir time itself.
ak?is!er tiun*s akw#id j#dunf fat$^se_il iyuh
a mysterious voice was heard all around the world, but Noah and Evelyn instinctively realised that the voice was for them, and they also realized 'it' had kind intentions, so they replied together.
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
The trees converged, and a single drop of an ethereal liquid dropped from the trees onto Evelyn and Noah.
Noah then asked
"Can you tell us what your gift was?"
Flowers bloomed from all the trees, and they converged into the shape of a crown, a beautiful crown that bloomed with flowers that constantly changed, seemingly evolving.
Noah smiled and said
"Is that your hint?"
The tree's branches converged and and two branches went to where Noah was sitting and formed two flowers.
The first flower was like a sunflower with orange petals and a smiley face in the middle of the flower in green.
Noah smiled as he looked at the flower, then commented
"hahahahaha, I guess that's your hint."
Then another flower bloomed, a dark black, a flower that was completely covered with cosmos and stars shimmering now and then, and seemed to be lit in a black fire with white highlights.
After looking at the flower, Noah understood why it gave him the flower. He smiled, plucked the black mystical rose, smelled it, stood up, and gently approached Evelyn and handed her the flower.
He then calmly spoke, with a serenity like the first bloom after winter.
"I think you should wear it, it suits you and complements your beauty really well."
Then he smiled, a smile that enchanted Evelyn, and quickened her heart rate, a smile that felt radiant and at the same time dark, a contradictory darkness that was only felt by Evelyn, a darkness she started to slightly like.
A hint of red appeared on Evelyn's usually aloof face, and she looked at the dark rose and smiled, took the flower from Noah, and put it up in her hair.
Noah then complimented her with a smile.
"See, like I said, it suits you well."
Evelyn then said with a smile.
"Thank you."
A branch came near Evelyn, and at its end formed a white rose with cracks like mirrors that appeared now and then, and it was lit in a white fire with black highlights.
She plucked the flower from the branch and handed it to Noah.
Noah reached and took the flower the flower. The flower grew upon touching Noah's hand turned into a glove.
Noah opened and closed his hands rapidly, then commented.
"Hmmm, feels quite good, I like them."
As Noah was getting a feel for the gloves, Evelyn asked
"Can you guide us towards the direction of the nearest settlement from here, please?"
The branches pointed in a direction, as if signaling where the settlement was located.
"Thank you, Noah. Let's be on our way. We still need to get to a place where we can get information."
Evelyn thanked 'it' and told Noah to move toward the directed location. She headed in that direction as Noah followed her.
"Thank you, until we meet again, I wish you well."
After wishing it well, Noah and Evelyn moved in the direction it guided them towards.
As Evelyn walked ahead, Noah surveyed the surroundings as he followed from behind.
He noticed that the plants and the animals here were quite different, and some were slightly familiar; there were scarlet and orange bushes that gave it the feeling of autumn, as they, from time to time, also glowed, entrancing those who looked at them, as their flowers were in small clusters with three petals that made a triangle; there were vines that mimicked snakes and hollow trees that make the sounds of the growls of wild animals.
As they continued on their way, there was silence between them, a calm, as the sound of their hard soles stepping on the ground was heard like a monotonous melody with the wind carrying down the orange leaves from the trees and the small animals stepping on them creating a crisp crackling sound.
There sat an alone child reading a worn book, as he sat while gasping for breath and sweat trickling down his face.
Noah looked at that boy and smiled, as if he found something truly amusing.
He approached the boy with silent steps and sat next to him. He placed his hand on his violet hair that was like silk and ruffled it as he spoke in his ear.
"Kid, what are you reading?"
The boy looked to be around 10 years old.
The boy, startled, was about to hit his head on the trunk of the tree, but before that, Noah stopped his head before it could hit it.
The boy then looked at Noah with sparkling eyes and asked.
"Mr, how did you do that? I couldn't even hear you; it was as if you were a ghost."
"Hmmm, ah, that it became second nature to me, but I used this energy to boost myself forward, as it then flows in the opposite direction like smoke."
As he said that, he showed him the purplish energy that flowed out like smoke from his hand.
Mesmerized by the mystical sight, he finally asked.
"Are you an unbound?"
Noah curious asked
"What's an unbound?"
The boy replied
"Oh, they are not really known to the public, weirdly, but I heard they are unbound by the rules of the normal and common. I once saw one in a cloak; he conjured an arrow out of thin air."
Then Noah commented
"Hmmm, looks like it will be night soon, shouldn't you go back to your parents, they'd be worried, won't they?"
The boy closed his book and looked at Noah with tears in his eyes.
"My parents died trying to protect me a long time ago."
Noah looked at his eyes and saw sorrow and desperation, and with it, he felt nostalgia for the men he trained for battle.
Then he asked, with a smile at the end.
"Then do you live alone, and were you training to get stronger?"
The boy tilted his head in surprise and asked.
"Was it that obvious?"
Noah answered
"I would be blind if I couldn't tell, and don't you have any friends to play around with?"
"I do, but they left for the city for education and knight training, so now I live alone and practice by myself because I can't afford the education in the city."
Noah thought to himself and then decided something, with a large grin.
"Kid, I'm kidnappin-cough adopting you."
Evelyn looked at Noah as if she were looking at an idiot and thought to herself
'I deployed a translate spell and he noticed that too, but isn't he too free-willed?'
The boy looked at Noah as if he were looking at a criminal.
"Don't worry, kid, I was once a common soldier; I can probably teach you something, and she's a witch; she was a little late to get burned at the stake, though."
Evelyn then said
"So, putting the jokes aside do you wanna take him with us?"
"yes"
replied Noah with a large grin on his face as he looked at the boy.
Evelyn thought to herself
'I wish you well on whatever ordeal you're gonna face kid.'
Evelyn then started using her magic to teleport them back and before the boy could react in surprise after seeing the magic, they were back in Evelyn's house.