Ina walked through the little town with a look of horror on her face. Everywhere she looked there were dead bodies lying around. The town was small with a few houses here and there and a Magic shop in the center. A meat market and a blacksmith shop were nearby as well. The straw roofs of the buildings were common in this era and region of the land of Yomolia.
Yomolia was simply the name given to the seemingly massive land mass that was surrounded by water on all sides. The people knew it was large because it took months to travel from one shore to another. The time period in this dimension was that of the medieval days. Cannon powder was barely being discovered. The weapon of choice was the sword, the bow or the spear.
The land was peaceful most of the time. There were currently no wars between the three regions of Yomalia. This was why it was so puzzling to Ina that she had wondered into a village where everyone seemed to be dead. Not only were they dead but they had no visible wounds or signs of struggle. There were also no signs of children either. Ina prayed that whatever had killed all of these villagers, had perhaps spared the children.
It was odd the way in which she found each dead body as well. All of the bodies she found were either naked, or the person had removed their pants and undergarments.
She looked around the village. There didn't seem to be a single living person anywhere. She pulled her backpack off and set it on the ground. From out of it she pulled a small journal and opened it up to an empty page. She began to write.
Day 43
I have arrived in the village of Gioma. Once again no one is alive. Every last body I have found shows no signs of struggle or any kind of wounds. There is no sign what so ever of what has killed these poor people. This is the fifth village I have come across now. I have been tracking this abomination for far too long. If I do not catch up with it soon I fear it may grow too powerful for me to stop. I don't even know if I have the power to stop it as I am now.
She closed the journal and put it back in her backpack. She pondered the last thing she had written.
"What if I'm not strong enough to stop her?" she asked out loud.
Ina herself was an average height, 130 lb. woman. She was not very strong just as most Mages were not. Her slender body was suited more for using Magic to defeat her foes than trying to overpower them with force. The weather was warm so she was wearing a leather bustier that covered her C cup breasts and leather chaps that went down to just above her mid-thigh.
Over these two garments she wore a chain mail top with rings that were large enough that you could see her olive skin beneath it. The armor covered her down to her elbows and hung down just below her breasts. Her strong, sturdy stomach was left bare to the world. Over her leather chaps she also wore a chain mail skirt that went down past her knees.
On her body were various ornaments, tattoos and jewelry. Around her left ankle was a small chain with a green, spherical crystal clasped inside the mouth of a golden snake. Up her right leg was the tattoo of dragon, curling around her calf and ending with its head just above her knee. Her belly button was pierced with a charm that hung from a chain. The chain hung down to just above her waistline and on it was a star shaped ornament that clasped a blue diamond. Her stomach had various black markings tattooed across it that seemed to swirl around her belly button. They were a series of broken lines that looked almost like a circular maze across her tummy.
She wore a necklace of silver that held a tear shaped diamond in between the cleavage of her breasts. A number of rings with various precious stones adorned her fingers. Sleeve tattoos ran from her shoulders to her forearms and had scenes from the battles Magi of her village had fought in the past. A giant wolf was being slain by a man that stood half as tall as the wolf's shoulder on her upper right bicep.
A woman standing strong and with a powerful aura was on her lower right forearm. Finally a scene of a group of Magi fighting back a group of winged demons was pictured in great detail up and down her left arm.
Her tattoos and jewelry were meant to amplify her Magical abilities while her outfit was meant to be light and functional. When she did fight she had to be able to move quickly. Yet her chain mail was strong enough and embedded with enough Magic to be able to take a hit or two before it was destroyed.
Not everyone in Yomalia could use Magic. And those that could didn't seem to pass it down to their offspring either. It just sort of happened that a person would show certain signs of being a Mage. Often times they were sent away by their families to be trained by a master Mage.
Village leaders knew how important it was to have their Magic born strong and ready to rise against a threat. Countless times a group of Magi had risen up to defend villages from marauders, wild beasts, elementals and even renegade Magi of their own training.
Word of the strange slayings of entire villages began to sweep across the land and Ina's village of Horns Crossing near the Nina River had responded. Horns Crossing was known for producing some of the strongest Magi and Warriors in all the land.
From an early age children were taught the way of the sword and the spear. The Magic born of the village were trained by the legendary Mage, Dauntless. Her skills with spells and Magical attacks were unmatched and turned out batch after batch of powerful Magi that were then dispatched across the land to help keep the peace.
This was Ina's first journey since she had completed Dauntless's training. She had been excited about venturing out on her own until she reached the first village and discovered the horror of what was being done. Now she surged onward with a new determination. She would find what was slaying the people of these villages, and she would put an end to it with her own hands.
Ina walked over to one of the fallen villagers. It was a man of middle age. Like the other villagers he had removed his pants and lay there with his lower half exposed. Ina knelt down next to him and examined the ground around the man. She had never noticed it before but there seemed to be a red sort of liquid saturating the ground next to the man.
As she touched some of the liquid to her hand she realized right away that it wasn't blood.
The liquid upon touching her fingers seemed to glow bright red. It grew brighter and brighter until suddenly it was gone. Ina looked at her fingers in confusion. There wasn't a trace of the red liquid on her fingers at all. There was enough of the liquid pooled in front of the man to coat her entire hand in.
Once again as soon as the liquid was on her skin it began to glow. This time the liquid reached an even grander intensity but once again it seemed to be disappearing off of her skin as it glowed. Ina stared at her hand as the last of the stuff vanished from her sight.
Ina stood up and looked around. She suddenly was aware that she felt as though she had just woken up.
It wasn't that she was groggy or out of it, instead she felt as though she had gotten the best night sleep of her life. She looked around her wondering what it was that could have made her suddenly have this new found energy. She looked down at the man at her feet and then at the red liquid in front of him. Had the glowing red liquid on her hands had something to do with her sudden boost in energy? She decided to continue on her search for clues.
She was walking around the side of the Magic shop when she bumped headfirst into someone. Her hands rose up in front of her face and the person was instantly thrown backwards as if a powerful wind had just swept him off his feet.
She looked up to see it was a man now lying on his back in front of her. Two swords and an assortment of daggers lay sprawled out around him. He slowly began to get up but Ina rushed to his side and placed her foot on his chest. Her hands began to glow as she shouted "Don't move!"
The man underneath her raised his arms over his head in surrender. "Wait, wait." He said looking up at her.
"Are you the one killing all these people?" Ina demanded.
"If I was do you really think I would tell you?" The man said laughing slightly.
"You might if you knew that lying to me would only get you killed." Ina said trying to sound tough.
"Well perhaps if I told you I was from NewHarton and had been sent here to investigate the slayings as well, that keep you from killing me."
"Why is NewHarton sending their goons out here to investigate this new killer?" Ina said not letting her spell dissipate from her hands. In an instant she could set him on fire or crush him into the ground with another gust of wind if he tried anything.
"I could ask why Horns Crossing sent one of their wimpy Magicians to come looking for the same thing." The man said with defiance.
Ina didn't seem to have a shred of patience for nonsense. She simply stood up off of him and allowed her glowing hands to dispel back to a normal state. "This isn't a job for a warrior. Go home sword swinger. I have everything under control here." She glared at him as she said it.
The man slowly got to his feet. Now he lowered his brow and returned her serious gaze. "There is no proof that a warrior would be any less effective against this threat than some Mage. I'll leave you be but I refuse to not continue searching for what has slain these people."
"Just so long as you stay out of my way." Ina said. She turned so that he couldn't see her face.
The truth was she wished she could have someone help her with the investigation but she really did fear for the life of the warrior. If he was from NewHarton than he was probably one of the most well trained swordsman she had crossed paths with. While Horns Crossing was known for its powerful Magi, NewHarton was known for its highly skilled warriors. The problem was Ina knew that this threat was something that used a powerful Magic. She just wasn't certain that a warrior would be able to fight against such a foe.
"So I can't help you?" The man asked getting to his feet.
Ina turned back to look at him. The man wore a thick metal shoulder bracer on each arm. He too wore a shirt of chain mail but nothing on underneath it. She could see the power in his chest and curve of his muscles beneath the mail and her eyes traced down to the bulge in his breeches. Finally her eyes traced up to his face. He had large blue eyes and short curly brown hair. He was dreadfully handsome. She whirled around in order to keep herself focused.
She had a job to do and she couldn't let herself be distracted by a lone warrior that could possibly be the most attractive man she had laid eyes on. She noticed that when she had looked at him he seemed to be taken in by her beauty as well.
