Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero no Tsukaima The Holy Knights ❯ Chapter 3

Master Gen

 

Seth opens his eyes to find the ground flying past only a few feet from his face. Like anyone else would Seth begins to struggle to get his face away from the fast moving ground but suddenly it feels like someone just hit him with a hammer in his spine. The ground stops moving so fast and he quickly remembers what he did and immediately regrets acting like some hero.

Suddenly whatever was holding his legs down releases and he flips over the side of the horse and crashes down onto his back. One of the men grabs him by the rope binding his wrists and pulls him to his feet.

Seth is shoved towards a man sitting in front of a fire. The man stands up and turns around, it is the man that tried to kill all the towns people before, “Why did you take me prisoner?” The man cocks back his fist and whips his arm forward connecting with Seth's face dropping him. Seth rolls over onto his stomach and pushes himself back up to his feet. The man smirks and swings again, this time Seth blocks the punch but can't stop the left arm as it strikes him in the gut and he falls to his knees coughing.

'Two days ago I wouldn't have even gotten involved, what is this world doing to me?'

Seth gets back up. He blocks a right dodges the left but is caught with a straight kick in the gut. Seth catches the foot but one of the men behind him hits Seth in the back of the head. Seth lets go of the foot but it quickly proves to be a mistake as a foot finds the side of Seth's head knocking him back down to the ground.

“Listen here boy, we are going to break you, and one day you will accept your new position in our ranks.” The man turns back around and sits back down.

Seth rolls over onto his back so that he isn't breathing into the ground and one of the other men places a boot across his throat, “Get.....hack off...me!”

The man applies more pressure, “You will learn to show Raven respect, and as his second in command you will show me respect, the more you squirm the worse this will be.”

Seth can't help but squirm as the man is crushing his throat until he can not breathe at all. The cold darkness of unconsciousness takes him again.

 

 

The fire is warm against his face as he slowly opens his eyes. The sound of shouting and screaming horses makes him snap out of his just woke up stupor. Seth sits up and the camp is completely torn apart. Seth stands up and finds the man that forced Seth into his premature sleep is on the ground dead from a knife wound in the throat.

“You bandits are not welcome here.” Seth turns around and sees another one of the men being cut down.

Seth turns and runs in the opposite direction. Before he can get even get out of the camp he is caught by the back of the shirt and pinned to the ground, “Ready to die bandit?” The man puts his knife to Seth's throat.

“Wait, wait, wait, I'm not a bandit I was capture by these guys yesterday! Please get that knife away from my throat, I am not a bandit!”

The man keeps the knife to Seth throat, “What village are you from?”

Seth starts mentally freaking out because he can't remember the village name and he doesn't even think he asked. He starts searching in his memory to find something that could be relevant to this man. “I don't know the name it west of here, uh....uh, the daughter of the leader is named Rain, her brother is gonna be leader soon his name is, Cli....Clu.....Cloud, Cloud, I can't remember anything else, come on I already told you I'm not with those bandits!”

Another man walks up behind the one that is pinning Seth to the ground, “Tristin get off him, he is just a teenager.”

He gets off Seth and nods his head toward the other much older man and walks away. The old man takes Seth's hand and helps he get up, “Don't be angry with Tristin he has a dead hatred for the bandits.”

Seth gets up and rubs his throat, “Well at least I'm not getting punched out by that Raven guy no more....”

“Raven, he was here!?” The man begins to look around the area with a more tense air around him before, “Do you know which direction he went?”

Seth shakes his head, “No, sorry.”

The man scratches the top of his head, “Don't worry about it.” The man reaches out his hand and shakes Seth, “My name is Gen, are you lost or can you find your way back to your village?”

Seth looks around and then looks back at Gen, “I'm not really from around here, I have no idea where to go.”

Gen calls Tristin back over, “I need to use your familiar.” Tristin whistles a short tune and a hawk like bird lands on his shoulder. Gen goes into his pack and pulls out a piece of paper and writes something down. After he finishes he ties it around the birds leg, “Now I need you to tell him to visit every western village with this message.

Tristin whispers something that doesn't sound like any normal language to his hawk and it flies off into the dark sky, “So what are we gonna do with.....”

“Seth, my name is Seth, thanks for saving me.” Seth puts out his hand so that Tristin can shake his hand but he doesn't accept the gratitude and walks away. “Geeze.....”

Gen laughs and nods his head motioning for Seth to follow him.

'This place is freaking crazy, I can't believe the mess I've gotten myself into.'

Seth follows behind Gen back into the destroyed camp, “So why did you attack these bandits?”

Gen starts looking over the equipment left on the ground by the killed bandits, “I hate them, and they are also trespassing on land that isn't theirs right now.” Gen stands up and walks back over to Seth, “Are you skilled?”

“Skilled?”

Gen puts a pair of metal gauntlets in Seth's hands, “Can you defend yourself?”

Seth looks down at the gauntlets, “Not really, I wouldn't have been captured if I could have defended myself. I mean I did stop that fire ball but-”

“You stopped a fire ball?” Gen begins stroking his chin, “So you have some skill.”

Seth smiles at the idea, he didn't really think about it before but he did stop that fire ball from killing all those people, “Thanks, I guess.”

Gen suddenly lunges forward and swings at Seth who jumps backwards narrowly dodging the first attack. Gen plants his hand on the ground and flips forward and hits Seth with a mule kick. Seth falls to the ground and quickly pulls the gauntlets onto his hands. Gen feints a left hook and tries to hit Seth with spin kick. Seth summersaults under the kick and ties to hit Gen with a back kick. Gen grabs his foot with one hand and throws the foot down making Seth stumble and Gen connects with a palm strike into Seth's forehead knocking him to the ground.

Seth gets up, his face is filled with rage and Gen lifts his hand, “Wait, I'm sorry I just wanted to see for myself how good you are.” Seth falls to his knees and clutches at his gut where he was kicked by Gen, “Sorry for that.”

Seth looks up at him form the ground, “So how'd I do?”

Gen chuckles, “I'd say out of one hundred levels you would be around five.” The sound of being at only level five out of one hundred really bothers Seth.

“Well thanks for the demoralizing statement.” Gen laughs again and helps Seth to his feet.

“Well if you were already overly talented then you'd have nothing to do while the hawk is away trying to find the village that you came from.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“If you die now I will feel like it is my fault, because I have the means to make you into a strong fighter. I believe in a higher power and I believe in karma, if this is truly a sign then I will not waste an opportunity.” Gen picks up a pack and tosses it to Seth, “Come on, you are going to need some rest if we are going to start training you tomorrow.

“Hey uh, Gen, how long do you think it will take for that Hawk to find the village?”

“Depends on how long they have been riding and how many villages he has to go to before finding the right one.”

Seth nods and follows Gen into the dark.