Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

On a snowy hill path, two people were moving. One man and the other a woman. The tall trees here were covered with snow, even though it was not snowing now, it might had been before they came here, and the weather indicated it could start in any moment Both Of them had a thick layer of cloak on, as the chill in the wind and atmosphere was not something easy to handle. Even their mana circulations are affected by the cold.

"Why am I with you again?" Michelle said, looking at the gentleman ahead.

"It's not like I had something to do with where you would be teleported," Aasan said, turning around to look at the redhead. The two of them had not talked much since they were teleported here. "And if you do not like it, you can always leave."

Michelle snorted. "Do I have to leave my belongings if I want to move away?" she asked, recalling the past humiliations. In the trial before, this gentle-looking robber had taken away all her belongings, leaving one the wand and a few essentials. And she had not had her vengeance yet.

Aasan moved his face away from Michelle. "You would have to," he said, looking at the path down. "If you did not have enough strength." 

Michelle appeared to be amused at that phrase. This guy would bend, but would not break. 

"So why are you not leaving yet?" Aasan asked again, eyes on the path.

Michelle snorted again. "Why would I leave? It's the only safe passage I found after a long hour of searching? The one who should leave is you." she said.

Aasan did not open his lips again, nor did he leave, just walked down the path.

Michelle grunted but did not ask him to leave again. She needed to find a safe spot to spend the night soon. This place was almost unhabitual for her.

Moreover, a cold blizzard could start at any moment.

After moving another few minutes, Aasan suddenly stopped on his path as he gestured at Michelle to move behind and hid.

"What is it?" Michelle whispered, stepping side of the path.

"There are a couple of fellows ahead," Aasan whispered back.

"So what?" Michelle asked.

"Both of them armed in identical types of equipment, and they seemed to be on duty," Aasan said,. "Let's follow them. We might find a better place to stay."

. . . 

Wrik's head was heavy, as was his body. His mind was collapsing with the dampening fever, as the strength escaped from his body. His mind was only on the walk, carrying Tanya away. He could not hear someone behind, nor the yell from Byul.

Suddenly an arm caught his arm as a short girl appeared in front of him. She was saying something, but Wrik could not hear what. His guesses were she was saying to give her Tanya to carry. And he was right, Byul took Tanya on her back, and Wrik did not restrict her either. Well, he was in no condition for that. He almost collapsed in the ground when Byul took away Tanya from his shoulder.

Byul was saying something again. Wrik tried his best to listen this time. 

"Hey, are you listening?" Byul said a couple of times. "Just nod or blink if you can hear me."

Wrik tried to do what Byul mention and did not know which one he had succeeded the nod or the blink. Well, the good thing was he succeeded.

"We need to find a place to stay first. The night would be really wicked," she continued. "Just do your best following me." 

Byul strode away, saying that. Her pace was not the fastest as she was showing the path to Wrik. 

Wrik moved keeping his eyes at the leg of Tanya that moves with the ground. Byul was not strong or tall enough to carry the entire body of Tanya, nor she tried. She had to move a long way, it's best to keep all the stamina she could. 

They move upwards on the slope of the mountain. The path was not that inclined, as Wrik could barely hold on to his instinct. The Sun had set already, as the surroundings turned darker and chiller. There was a level of drop in the temperature, and it would drop further from here. 

Suddenly, Byul stopped in her stride, sensing no one following. She turned back to notice it was as she had feared. Wrik had collapsed on the ground, leaving her as the only member awake. 

. . . 

Anton moved whistling down the path. Like the trial before, he was teleported alone in a region again, but there seemed to be no goblins or other animals to keep him busy. The only annoying thing was the slightly chilly weather in the atmosphere. While the sun at the horizon, Anton's legs moved carefreely as if he had no care to find any shelter to stay the night.

Anton did not have that much concern for the night now, as he even spent a couple of nights in trees in the trial before. Besides, there was nothing harmful in his surroundings, he had moved west (opposite to the mountain) for over an hour yet to have met any carnivorous animals or infectors. Well, he met a few humans. Some of them wanted to steal his stuff while some engaged in combat without a word. 

Humans are such weird creatures. They will fight without a cause. Sighing a little, Anton moved towards a big oak with tall branches over all the other trees. There was still time to search for a better place, but to Anton, this tree was anything better than he would find today.

He climbed up the enormous tree rapidly, as after a dozen seconds later he was about thirty metres above from the ground. Leaning against a tree, he opened a water flask from his bag. He planned to not move anymore today, rest at the tree till dawn, but it seems the universe had other plans for him.

A couple of fellows moved fastly on the ground, as Anton picked up knives on his both palms. Anton looked at them from above, behind the camouflages of the leaves, even though it was quite dark now. It was the instinct he had built up over the years, doing the groundwork. His knives ready with mana armed, he could throw them at any moment if he saw them with any evil intentions.

But something else happened entirely out of his expectations as Anton climbed down the tree.

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