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Humans
Thanks to their high essence sensitivity, humans have a set shield hit point of hundred. Matriarchy is the common practice among humans since the women of this race have more control over essence manipulation. The gimmicks of the human race are: A short teleport with a cooldown, (30-60 meters) adrenaline and noradrenaline.
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She took a deep breath. The thought of fighting for real was both scary and exciting at the same time. She would win this battle easily of course. The main character of a novel couldn't lose, she thought. Her grip on the knives tightened as she waited for one of the 'villains' to attack. She could feel her essence reserve draining bit by bit just from maintaining the knives. Summoning her soul weapon, her scythe would be ideal as to maintain some essence while attacking. One of the reasons she decided not to use it was because no one had teached her how to use it effectively. The bandits finally decided on attacking. The green haired woman started charging at Cyeen with her (also green) sword. She calculated how to stop her and then... She felt something cold no, warm?? pierce through her chest. The weapon had barely missed her lungs, allowing it to come out on the other side. She looked behind her in disbelief. The male bandit had teleported behind her at the very start of this battle. How could she have not thought of that..? As she was looking behind her she felt a sudden pain in her neck aswell. The woman in front of her had landed a solid slash on her neck. Cyeen teleported away as far as she could to collect her thoughts. Despite what transpired, she wasn't bleeding much infact, after a short while the bleeding had stopped. The pain was still there for sure but the wounds, they had disappeared. A smirk appeared on the face of the young lady.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun."
She was not getting punished for her recklessness despite taking some hits. Her body pumped a little bit of adrenaline in response. This was exciting. Truly exciting. She dashed towards the short man and parried his sword with her right knife while stabbing his left arm with the other knife. She felt her skin tense up before rolling to her left quickly. She saw a couple of green knives hit the ground where she was at a second ago. "I see." She let go of her left knife before summoning a tennis ball sized blaster in her hand and lifting it towards the woman. Fire! she thought as the blaster obeyed her. The woman was able to get away from the beam of essence. "Tch, waste of essence" she muttered while throwing the blaster away. Cyeen quickly rushed towards the woman this time, it seemed like she was not that great at close ranged fights seeing how she avoided facing her head on. The woman parried her knife three times in a row but upon making a mistake on Cyeen's fourth strike Cyeen was able to stab the woman's hand making the green haired woman drop her sword. As Cyeen went to grab her throat she felt a sharp cold pain behind her. The man also had access to blasters. That wasn't shocking though, it was not a rare arsenal weapon. Cyeen pushed the woman by her neck instead of grabbing and turned towards the other bandit. She attached a string on her knife and flinged it towards him. Though startled, he parried it easily. They weren't trained by professionals like me, these scoundrels stand no chance were her thoughts. Her cheeks were blushing from the excitement and she had a creepy smile on her face by now. She was inexperienced in real life combat but quite skillful with the basics. The man started rushing towards her this time. She didn't fully focus on the man this time though. She had seen this move before. With a bit of anticipation she did a small jump to her left and threw a knife behind of where she was. It was a hit! She had gotten lucky this time. The bandits looked at eachother before nodding twice.
The bandits started rushing towards Cyeen at the same time suddenly. She tried parrying their attacks but with each try, she was taking more hits than she could prevent. It seemed like the bandits were only testing whether she could fight or not. Along with that realization, her smirk had disappeared and her will to fight diminished a little. She was trying her hardest to get some damage in between each parry but it was not enough to stop them from rushing her. The constant sound of blasters going off and the knives whirling towards her were hurting her ears. Her essence reserve was also starting to take a huge hit. Cyeen quickly summoned her scythe after letting go of her knives. She swung it three times pushing the bandits back a little. This bought her enough time to think. And that small gap was enough for her to realize that she wasn't under the effects of adrenaline anymore. She soon felt the excruciating pain of all the hits she received. Before she could think of what to do, she felt the cold laser of the man's blaster on her face. Her shield's hitpoints had decreased by a lot. She looked at her clothes. They had gotten even more ragged now. She spit out blood. Huh? Cyeen thought, not feeling the sword that nearly cut off her hand. Her hand quickly stitched itself back into place and her eyes started frantically looking around for something to use. This wasn't fun anymore. With the final hit of a blaster summoned behind her, her shield shattered into pieces. She could die for real now. This wasn't fun nor exciting. She was hungry and tired and scared and...
Run.
Cyeen threw her sack of gold over the bandits raining precious gold on them. While the duo was distracted Cyeen used her teleport consecutively towards where the green haired woman pointed at when they first met. After roughly six blinks she was exhausted. I thought teleporting took no essence..? After a quick visit to her mind, "The teleports consume exponentially increasing amounts of essence if used outside of it's cooldown." was the sentece she recalled. Her essence reserve had ran dry. She lost. Not just the fight but her pride and all her gold too. The young lady was about to break down right there and then. She wanted to go back home. This was horrible.
"Quick, come here!"
The whisper came from inside the forest. Cyeen slowly started going towards the sound. She had stopped thinking rationally by now. The branches were now starting to actually hurt her although the small scratches she was getting didn't hurt as much as her pride shattering. She soon saw a light. Oh how bright it was...
"Hey, are you okay? They didn't hurt you much did they?"
There was a woman standing in front of her now. Her slightly pink hair was shining under the sun. She looked thirty? No, she couldn't be over twenty nine. She didn't have the stress of age on her. Cyeen snapped out of her thoughts,
"Huh, ah... Yeah, I think I am fine. "
A commoner? Why would she help me? she thought as the woman looked her up and down. Oh yeah I see, she wants my money too. All the commoners are dirty thieves. I knew it. The woman extended her hand towards Cyeen. She flinched and close her eyes.
"I'm Súko, I didn't mean to scare you, sorry."
Cyeen opened her eyes hesitantly. Huh? She doesn't want my money? Is what she wants is a connection to nobility? She couldn't decide whether or not to trust Súko's words but she had no choice. If she wanted to return back home she needed food and money, maybe this woman would be dumb enough to be exploited by her. She shook her hand and stood upright.
"I'm Cyeen Fla-" she coughed "Cyeen Flanner. Nice to be making your acquaintance."
The woman got befuddled. How was this girl able to be this dignified in her situation. She looked at her clothes. Though they were really ragged she could easily tell it was one only a noble could afford. But why would a noble be out in the forest with no protection? She shook her head. She could think about it later.
"Nice to meet you too Cyeen Flanner. If you need help with something I could be of help. My house is just ten minutes away."
Cyeen tried to utter out some words but they refused to come out. Her throat had dried up. She signed water with her right hand. Súko nodded and helped her walk in case she fell down.
Súko looked at the noble in awe. How hungry was this girl? She was devouring the stale bread she put in front of her and any water put in front of her vanished in a second. Did they starve her or something? Cyeen looked at the woman in gratitude for a second before going back to eating. She had to keep a kind act in front of this Súko woman. She wanted to take advantage of her for sure. Yeah, for sure. After taking a short break and looking around, she saw a painting. Inside the painting was a man and pink haired woman holding the hand of something small. For some reason the middle person she called 'small' had been painted over with red. It looked to have been made by a child which was weird. She hadn't seen anyone other than the woman inside the house. Cyeen stared at her for a second. She looked mournful. Is it because she realized I'm not someone she can't take advantage of? Hah, take that you low life. Cyeen stopped eating a moment later. She looked at Súko,
"Thank you for your kindness. I feel truly refreshed but I should be on my way home now."
Súko looked her up and down again,
"Don't let me keep you, but are you sure you want to be wearing that?"
Cyeen looked at her clothes once again. Her bright white dress had holes everywhere along with dirt and blood marks all over it. She felt embarrassed of looking like this in front of a commoner. Cyeen spoke in a slightly ashamed tone,
"Could I ask you to lend me a piece of clothing for my travels if you'd be so kind."
Súko nodded her head once again. She guided Cyeen through her house upstairs. The two entered a room with a double bed in the middle and a wardrobe next to it. This was probably her bedroom. Along the way to this room she had noticed a thing. The house was really dirty and had dust wherever was not used commonly.
Súko opened the wardrobe to reveal some clothes for Cyeen to choose. She looked over at Cyeen who was already picking out an outfit for herself. The child clothes carefully stacked on the bottom shelf took her attention. What she really was focused on were not the clothes but what was on them. There was a thick layer of dust on them.