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[N00B Hunter]

Alright, before I start talking, I'm going to tell you that fan-fics aren't my specialty. There might be some lack of interest in the story that follows; please blame it on my bad writing skill. So, let's begin... oh, wait! Not yet! Something else: This story isn't about dueling, like some of the others I've seen -- it's about a game, or something of the sort, called "Monster World" (This is from Kazuki Takahashi's original "Yu-Gi-OH" Magna series). And so, the story will unfold from here on out:

 

[spoiler=Prologue]

Prologue -- Before the conflict

The old man could hardly believe his eyes. Things were definitely not turning out in the way that he had expected.. the strange man in the brown cloak at the local tavern had paid him well to pick up 4 items of what he had called "precious cargo". The stranger hadn't said what the cargo was, but 20 pieces of gold is more than enough to stop the mouth of any being, at least within the Earth Realm.

Yet, still, Hoseff was astonished at the sight of the four naked figures, prone on the dusty ground before him. Three men and a women, all stark naked, and all of different races. He recognized one of the males as a Merlin by the feathers along his arms and back, as well as a few upon his head. Another male and the female were either elves, or half-elves, for it's hard to tell the difference until you see their faces. Elves have much more angular faces, with long, tapering ears and narrow eyes, while half-elvish folk have rounded-out features, sharper than a human's yet smoother than an elf's.

The last figure seemed rather outcast. A short, well-muscled body presented the figure of a Dwarf. Yet Dwarves usually roamed with other Dwarves, as well as with Hobbits, Humans, and sometimes the occasional Merlin-Dwarf halfbreed, called a Hawkeen. To see a Dwarf among two of the elvish and a human was strange indeed.

As Hoseff was about to disembark and prod one of the unconsious figures, the Elfman stirred. With a clearer look at his face, Hoseff guessed the man was a Half-Elf. As the man rose, so did his company, and they all stared at Hoseff. At a loss for words, Hoseff handed them the garments that the stranger at the tavern had told him to buy. Each of the group put theirs on in silence, not a single word was uttered until the ceremony was over.

Finally, the Merlin sighed in relief. He shrugged the final piece of his outfit, a leather cloak, over the rest of his body, which was also armored in leather. The feathers on the top of his head, which replaced the hair that all other pureblood races have, moved slightly as he spoke:

"Where are we?"

Such a simple question; Hoseff couldn't help but laugh. Who were these travelers? A band of people who appear face-down in the sands of Centapath, and then appear to have no idea where they are! The whole scheme seemed incredibly ridiculous! But looking at the serious faces of the four in front of him, Hoseff cleared his throat and replied, "You are in Southern Centapath, of the Earth Realm," but his words rang on unknowing ears, so he went on, "A man requested you come to the city with me. So come on in."

"We don't have much money," This time it was the female's turn. Hoseff turned back, startled by her voice. While the voices of the males' were slightly gruff, she spoke softly, yet clearly. Easily the identification of a purebred Elf.

Waving his hand, the elderly man smiled and said in return, "I've been paid very well to pick you up, a full 20 gold pieces! You've no need to pay me," That settled it for the crew. They boarded the large wagon as Hoseff reassured them, "It might look a little out of shape, and the ride could be a bit bumpy, but my girl here is quite safe. Oh, and you'll find your weapons in the center, there."

Hoseff hadn't looked at the weapons before, but he saw the Dwarf pull out a small hatchet and a pair of gauntlets, while the Merlin found a bow and quiver, the Half-Elf found a large volume and a staff of polished wood, and the female Elf removed a stone pendant and some vials of liquid, emptying the sack. Knowing the adventuring types well, the old man assumed that the female was a priest, the Half-Elf was a Wizard, the Merlin could easily be identified as an archer, and the Dwarf; a Barbarian. A very diverse group, with very diverse choices of work. Hoseff felt a thrill inflating his old lungs with new energy and causing his weary heart to beat a little faster. A chosen group was told to come and eradicate the Terrorking. But could these people really be the chosen few?

On the way to the village, the adventurers began talking. Hoseff couldn't hear well, but picked up some words like "quest" and "level one right now". He also thought he picked up the female's voice talking about "ascension", and "The Light Realm" or something of the sort. Now, while it was known that above the Earth Realm, the Gods' owned their a world, which they guarded and kept hidden from mortal prying, some believed that there were multiple levels of ascension, and that there were the lands of Fire, Water, and Wind above the Earth Realm, and that the land of Light and Darkness stretched above that. Such rumors were discarded constantly, and those who believed in it were looked down upon, but the suspicion never died out, and the people never lived a day without giving at least some thought to the matter of ascending. So maybe this pack was just a bunch of foolhardy travelers after all, who lost their armor and were hit with some amnesia curse. Of course, that left why the group would all have been targeted, and also why they were lying there on the sand.

Of course, Hoseff never really found the answer to his questions. After dropping off the travelers within the city, he lived another seven years before dying in his sleep. He never saw the four travelers again, but their story is one of great reknown. And it is this that I will now tell you.

 

NEW!! Chapter One Added!!!

[spoiler=Chapter One] It was midday when the group of four walked into the mediocre-quality tavern of Southern Centapath, in the city known by many in the Earth Realm as Infouse. Though the city was rumored to be one of the oldest in all of the Earth Realm, it certainly wasn’t the richest, an attribute which was reinforced by the unpolished, creaky wooden floors, and the scratched and chipped tables and chairs which filled the tavern space. Three large tables, each with four chairs apiece took up most of the center of the room, while two smaller tables, each boasting a chair and a rather shoddy stool made from a section of tree trunk stood next to the earthen fireplace.

The Merlin, his name was Leitartikel Mieze, though his companions knew him as Leit, brushed his talonlike fingers through the feathers on his head and drew in a deep breath: “I already hate being dirt poor,” He was met with silence from the rest of the tavern the other four customers populating the small room paid him little heed.

The group moved split apart, each person moving for a different location. The Half-elf strolled towards one of the larger tables, where a Human sat, calmly playing a game of solitaire. At the Half-elf’s approach, the man did nothing. He was a fit figure, with pectorals that stood out, pressing against his expensive, sleeveless white shirt. His large hands were placed on sturdy arms, with impressive biceps that led up to powerful shoulders and a thick neck. The man’s head, however, looked quite out of place. Small and round, it seemed to rest like a marble on a mountain. Thick lips, a flat nose, and two rather large, sparkling green eyes led up to a completely bald head and tiny ears set low, nearer to the nose.

After watching a short time, the Half-elf cleared his throat and began to speak, “Excuse me, my name is Nara Jadugara, and I’m looking for some information on a supposed threat to Centapath,” The man sitting down looked up with questioning eyes, so the Half-elf quickly added, “I-I’m new to Centapath. We just moved in from… a rather out-of-the-way place.”

The sitting man grinned and chuckled. His voice seemed rusty, almost like it hadn't seen use for a long time. But that almost came as no suprise -- the burly figure could say all he needed to with a fist and an angry snarl, "Sit down, son. I know exactly who you are."

“Do you really?”

“Nara Jadagura, the Wizard commissioned by the Gods of Chaos, and blessed by both Uria and Djiva. Oh, yes, I know you and you party well.”

Inwardly, Nara smiled to himself. He hadn’t the slightest idea who the Gods of Chaos were, and the only name that was familiar to him was Uria, the great Fire Dragon and one of the 6 Sacred Beasts. But if this great brute decided to think that Nara was holy, who was to complain? As long as Nara got the information he needed from the man, there was no problem.

“So,” the Halfbreed went on, “If you do know exactly who I am, then I shouldn’t have any trouble getting you to tell me where my friends and I are needed, right? Where exactly are we needed, anyway?”

The old man stared hard at Nara for a while without saying a word. He looked the Half-elf straight in the eyes, and though the small head was at a lower level, Nara felt as though he were being pushed slowly into the ground. The man’s eyes never blinked once, but kept their focus trained on Nara. At long last, he spoke in a menacing growl that could make the most vicious Tyranno cringe:

“I told you to sit. Obey the order or suffer for it.”

From just about anyone else, the remark would have bounced off. But intimidation resonated from this figure like heat from a bonfire. Nara obeyed.

The man relaxed visibly, which wasn’t much, considering the bulk of his body and the tightness of his muscles. He introduced himself as Ytt Niir, a brutish name, reflecting his personality and figure. Apparently, he knew a great deal. And he debriefed the Half-elf on Centapath’s basic history, and its present situation:

 

It was something of twenty years ago when Centapath was a fine place. The forests were guarded by the Seltis, and had been a safe place for the hundreds of years that both they and Infouse had existed together. However, two decades and six years ago, a strange game was brought to the Earth Realm by a single woman; her physical characteristics have never been completely identified, and there is much confusion about her appearance. The game she brought was known as Chess. Played on a ten-by-ten board with six different kinds of pieces, Chess was an incredibly popular game when it first came to Infouse. The populants made the playing of Chess a favorite pastime for about four years, until strange things began to happen.

People would become obsessed with the game, pouring over it day and night, becoming recluses and maniacs. Every waking moment they spent would be at books or a table, with wild looks in their eyes. They rarely ate, rarely slept; rarely kept in touch with any of their friends or family. Exactly Twenty-one people caught on to the seeming-plague, and exactly a year later, precisely three hundred sixty-five days later, the skins of each person were found where their bodies once sat or stood. There were no bones, no flesh, nothing but skin. That was when the Archfiends began to appear. A small army of them, numbered twenty, came and raided the encampments of the Seltis, killing hundreds. Of those who escaped, they told frightening stories of ten bone-and-muscle constructs wielding swords made of bone with demon faces, followed by two marching heads and six skeletal figures with swords and staffs. They called themselves Archfiends, the greater demons. In the twenty some years that had passed, both forests had become dark and dangerous, and the lands were overridden with monsters of all kinds. There would be no chance for Centapath, and the city of Infouse, if this horrible crusade continued. Soon the city would be overrun and destroyed, and all would be lost as the demons would spread their curse over the entire Earth Realm!

 

Nara took all this information with gusto. Finally the time had come, and he had a plan. It was time to tell the others. Nara thanked the man who went back to his game, and started towards the rest of his group, who were at the bar.

Ruchi Garaja, the Elf, learned almost nothing. She met with a group of two men, both in the rather shoddy clothing of a villager. Both were sixteen, and had taken in more than enough alcohol to cloud their common sense. It wasn’t very long before she got sick of their loud, detestable jokes about her womanly attributes and left to talk to the tavernmaster, who was busy cleaning mugs.

He was a pleasant man, very much in contrast to the rest of the tavern’s populants. He had a reddish, weather-beaten face and a salt-and-pepper moustache that fit perfectly underneath his prominent nose, and also matched his soft, grayish-green eyes. The man was a local, and had lived through the downfall of Infouse and Centapath due to the Archfiends. He didn’t know so much about the raids on the Seltis, but described the lives of the twenty-one victims in full detail, even down to the final day where their skins were found in their quarters, lying in a squashed heap. And so that was how Ruchi passed her time until Leit and Silivio joined her. Leit has talked to the fourth and final man, at a two-person near the fireplace. The man wasn’t very social, wrapped up in a book he was reading on the influence of Cilicis on the common language of Multimundus. He said very little, and so chased Leit away soon after Ruchi turned her back on the two boys at one of the larger tables, who continued to call her name and make unkindly noises in her direction.

Silivio, the Dwarf had silently been watching the tavernmaster from the back corner of the room. He had said nothing, but joined Leit as he met up with Ruchi.

 

The group ordered supper and two rooms for the night. Leit and Nara slept in the same room, with one person asleep, and the other on watch, while Silivio and Ruchi also slept in the same kind of room with the same sleeping arrangement. Nothing woke them up that night, but none of the four could shake of the feeling that something was stirring...

 

 

 

Depending on everyone's reaction to this, Chapter Two will come out possible within the next two weeks (again). Thank you all for reading, and maybe this will join the 5th YCM Weekly Jump! Until next time! :mrgreen:

[eyeofthedeck]

nice. can't wait for chapter one.

[Victory]

This Fan-Fic Deserves To Get More Viewers.

I Am Putting It In My YCM Jump.

8/10 For The Fic.

[N00B Hunter]

Chapter One has been added!! I'm working on Chapter Two, and thanks to both of you who commented, and especially "Victory" for putting my epilogue into YCM Jump!