Hi all! It took much longer than I wanted it to, but chapter six is ready. Chapter seven and eight are written, but still need editing, but I plan to post them soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Huge thanks to Netrepid for editing.
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Elara hit absent-mindedly at the training dummy. She spent the last half an hour distracting herself, or at least tried, because it wasn't very successful. The image of Zack on his knees, and her daggers moving to attack, again flashed through her mind. She almost killed him today.
She needed to confront this with Asher. He would make her feel better. Or at least forget about all of it by distracting her.
Elara leaned on her knees, wondering if he finished his class already.
She forgot her phone from her room, so she couldn't text him. She swept her eyes around the square. It looked like other groups had also finished their classes. However, supports left the square early on, and Elara couldn't recognize anyone from their group to know if they finished too.
She noticed that fights were still going on on the other side of the square. Elara realized that the tank group was still having their fights, perhaps because of their higher stamina, slower movements, and lower damage, their fights just lasted longer.
Two guys fought against each other, so she wasn't particularly interested in them. But the fight finished just when she glanced there, it seemed like two girls were preparing to take the next fight. Another two girls passed in front of Elara moving towards the tribune.
One of them dressed in all black, with matching hair and dark makeup, the second one had long wavy auburn hair and big glasses which made her look much more adorable than her friend. They climbed on the tribune and Elara noticed Asher, when the girls that she followed with her eyes sat next to him and some other blonde girl.
He must have finished his class earlier. Why didn't he come to her? He sat there with one girl, and already two more joined them. All three of those girls were attractive and Elara felt a pang of jealousy, but quickly snapped out of it. Asher just sat with them, and she was going to allow him to do much more in the near future.
But she would choose their teammates, and she didn't know those girls that sat around him right now, Elara believed that would make everything easier for her, and she could handle it. Easier said than done, but she still had some time.
Elara realized that, in reality, it wasn't so long. They should look for teammates and find them in the next two weeks. There wasn't so much time until she would need to share Asher. She was concerned about what creating a harem would bring to their relationship. If it was going to survive and if it was the right thing to do. She shook her head. There wasn't any other way.
Elara decided that she should focus on something. Finding and choosing their teammates was an important matter. And there were three girls talking with Asher right now, all of them attractive, Elara wasn't a fan of the goth girl style, but it suited her. They were potential teammates.
Elara crossed through the square towards her boyfriend and girls accompanying him. He was engrossed talking with them and didn't notice her until she was just a step from him. She dropped her daggers on a seat next to him and jumped into his lap, putting her arms around his neck.
He jumped, surprised and turned around towards her quickly. Elara pecked his lips, and felt his body relax, recognizing her. Asher put his arms around her to hold her close.
Elara glanced at the three girls and noticed their curious looks. "Hey, I'm Elara," she introduced herself.
The blonde girl sitting next to Asher smiled shyly at her and answered. "Hey, I'm Madelyn," she said, pointing at herself. She was pretty, but it looked like she was trying to hide it. Elara wasn't sure if it wasn't just an impression, but the girl had her hair pinned and her clothes looked rather plain and oversized, like she was trying to hide her body.
"Zoe," she added, pointing at the goth girl. "And Sam," she finished at the third girl sitting furthest from her.
"What were you talking about?" Elara asked, she interrupted their talk rather abruptly, so she wanted them to continue with whatever they were speaking about.
"About today's classes. And apparently about you," Madelyn answered Elara's question.
Elara glanced at Asher surprised. "Me?" she asked, while he hugged her closer to himself, smiling.
"I heard that you beat this asshole, Zack, in a fight," Zoe replied to her question. "And that you beat a horde of goblins," the same girl added.
Elara chuckled. "I see gossip spread around fast." She glanced at Asher and then at the girls. "There was only one goblin, not the whole horde." Asher hands moved to her lower back and stroked lightly there. She smiled at him affectionately.
"Asher already told us," Sam said, speaking for the first time around Elara. She looked more shy and withdrawn than her goth friend.
"Is it common in your area for monsters to attack?" Madelyn asked, scrunching her face with concern.
"No, it was the first time. We lived far away from any dungeon entrance, so we were shocked when it attacked us."
"You think it traveled so far?" Zoe asked.
Elara sighed. "I don't think so. There's probably an unknown entrance somewhere close."
Locating this entrance would allow explorers to defend it, and stop monsters from spreading around, but it wasn't so easy. Big ones were obvious to find, but smaller ones in the middle of the forest or in some underground cave were hard to locate.
Elara's thoughts were interrupted when a guy stopped in front of her. She glanced at him, he was tall and fit, but not muscular. Skin color and facial features suggested that he was Latin, and his short dark hair matched it. He stared straight at her, while she still sat in Asher's lap. She felt her boyfriend's arms tighten around her protectively.
"I'm Thomas Black. I heard that you knocked down Zack with one blow." he stated, then he glanced at Asher, and only skipped his eyes over the rest of the girls.
Rumors how she almost killed Zack spread around, so it was obvious people were interested to team up with her. She stopped herself from wincing, reminded of how she almost killed someone today.
"Do you want to join my team?" he asked Elara, and she was taken aback. Straightforward, asking if she would join him. He didn't tell her anything, his class, or other people that he had in his team. Nothing.
He didn't even ask about testing it out first. Just to join his team, like she was supposed to happily agree. It crossed her mind that he might be popular or something like this, and she should know him. But she was from another city and had no idea who he was.
Even if he wouldn't make a bad first impression, he was a guy, so there was no way for them to team up. Elara realized it might be a good occasion to state some things publicly, it looked like rumors spread around quickly.