A Serpent's Tale

(Dorrak POV)

I saw Traytora and Cythistia getting overwhelmed by the crowd until the Stag pushed them back with her magic.

I was about to follow them but a wolf-kin man dressed in a tight black suit stopped me.

"Move." I said trying to intimidate him.

"Sir, you're in the city of Athenela, if you dare to cause trouble here, then the grand elders of the council will take care of you." He replied fearlessly.

"I only wish to protect the serpent girl over there. I have no real reason to do such a thing." I replied coldly.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come with me anyways." The wolf man said.

"Why me?" I questioned.

"Because you are a potential threat to the public's safety."

"More than her?" I asked in annoyance.

"She seems to be with miss Cythistia so I have no real reason to stop her, you on the other hand, although you claim to be with her for her protection, she does not seem to be with you, besides, she's safe here." The wolf man went on to explain.

"Mmm…" I grumbled quietly as I thought. "Fine…" I decided to adhere to the man's words and went off with him.

And so I followed him into a building that looked the same as the rest of the city on the outside bud was extremely plain on the inside, with grey painted walls and a multi-shaded grey tiled floor and very little furniture.

"What is this place?" I asked suspiciously.

"It's a building used to record people like you that are a potential threat to the city, it's not really a prison but it is advised to follow the rules. As for what they are, you'll find out in a bit." He explained.

He then took me to an interrogation room and question me on my motives, which I explained again. I was then brought to another room to had my strength tested and I was too powerful and broke everything.

The man deemed that I was too unsafe to be near any important figure but I told him that I would cause trouble if I couldn't fulfil my purpose.

"And what purpose is that?" He inquired.

"Protect that child until she reaches home, though I have a feeling that she'll be making this her new home... But leaving now would leave me feeling unaccomplished, and like I haven't fulfilled my repentance to her..."

"Hmm..." The wolf-kin thought to himself for a moment before coming up with a solution. "If you really want to help her, you can help us clear out an infestation that's been here for potentially eons."

"What are you getting at? Why would I do that?"

"When I said that the girl would be safe here, I was telling half a truth. I shouldn't tell you this but I feel that you can at least be trusted to not spill this information to the public."

"Go on."

"Deeper into the north west of the forest, there is an infestation of demonic creatures that take the ancient form of goblins from before some of them became Majin. They're actually a form of demons that have been around for as long as the recreation era. I don't know what their goal is but they're a constant source of ever-growing danger."

He was about to say more but I stopped him and agreed to his request. "I'll help."

"E-Eh?" He was shocked by my words.

"I'll help eradicate them. It'll help me fulfil my repentance by erasing those damned things from this realm."

"I-I'm rather surprised that you'd accept so easily." He said still slightly shocked.

"Well, when we were waiting for Kyristhus to return we were kidnapped by those things and Traytora went insane, literally, so getting rid of something that traumatized her will be my way of repaying her all the suffering I brought upon her." I explained.

"I shan't inquire further and will just accept your help. We move out in two days, come with me and I'll show you your temporary room."

And like that I was led to a room in the building where I would live for a time before I was moved somewhere else.

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(Traytora POV)

"And soon after that, I went on several missions to help exterminate those monsters." Dorrak finished regaling me on his whereabouts for the past half a year or so.

"…" I was shaken by what he told me what he'd been doing all this time, just for me.

'Thank you…'

"No need to thank me, it's what I owe you. I've since guessed that you'll be living here from now on and I wouldn't feel like I've repaid you for what I've done, so I figured I'd get rid of those things to give you peace of mind."

I stayed silent in thought as tears threatened to fall from my eyes.

I can't stay mad at him anymore.

I jumped at him and embraced him with a hug. I felt his big strong arms wrap around me as I started crying.

A few minutes later I finished my weeping and we both rushed to catch up with the others.

When we returned I went back to Cythistia's side and Dorrak stayed nearby.

"Feeling better now?"

"Mmm."

We travelled in silence after that until the sun started setting and we set up camp for the night.

We set up our tents while some of us went on watch while some cooked dinner.

Once it was ready and we'd finished setting up all of the tents, we went and got a serving of food before finding somewhere to sit and eat it.

When everyone had their fill, it was time for most of us to retire to our tents while some of the group stayed up to keep watch for wild monsters.

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Morning came and we repeated what we did yesterday after breakfast.

Along the way to the dungeon we made some small talk. Topics such as what kind of monsters we might encounter and how to counter them, as well as what to do in case a trap separated us.

When night fell once more, we did the same as yesterday and would do the same thing as today until we reached the dungeon.

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In the early morning we were abruptly awoken by someone shouting. Cythistia and I quickly got our clothes on and prepared for battle. We rushed outside to find a small pack of goblin monsters riding some large wild bears assaulting the camp.

My anger flared as I hurled a [Fireball] at the closest monster, engulfing it in a fiery inferno that burned it into nothing but cinders and ash in mere seconds.

Cythistia fired an arrow at one that was riding on top of one of the beasts, piercing through its head and killing it in one shot.

At that moment all of the monsters surrounding the camp charged towards everyone.

There was only around fifty monsters and beasts each so it wasn't that hard to get rid of them all and we ended up getting rid of them in less than half an hour.

Some of the people in the group then butchered one of the beasts up while another portion of our group cooked up the meat.

When we were done, I was asked to burn the remaining bear corpses in a ceremony after some of our bear-kin members gave their prayers and condolences to their wild and beastly kin.

As for the goblin corpses, they were all tossed into a pile which I proceeded to light ablaze with [Hell Fire].

Once everything was over and everyone had their fill of food we continued on our journey to our destination.

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The sun was hanging low as it was nearing the end of the day when suddenly, we finally saw the entrance to the dungeon.