Survivor

Chapter 13

                                                                               Three Years Later

Phoenix quickly rolled out of his bed when he saw ray's of light go through his window. He quickly threw on his clothing and he opened his door. He checked his pouch and he noted that he had four silver coins. Their neighboring city, Toren, had given them money so they could jump start their economy while they were mining for more gold, silver, and copper. The plan was for them to pay them back at a later date.

Phoenix was now living in a house, instead of the tent that he had been leaving in a few years before. They were having more and more houses being created and the mine was going along fine. They were raking in amounts of silver, copper, and gold every day. They were also forming metal into things like weapons, tools, and other appliances like hinges for doors and locks.

They had been attacked by Ragnar's associates a few times over the year. It had been small raids that had served only to pester them. They had not seen Aaron at all, but they had heard rumor's of some type of super powered person moving across the country side and helping in the take over of multiple cities.

Phoenix had been gaining more and more of his memories. He had been able to find out what he had been doing directly before he had been sent into this world. He also found out that time actually moved a bit faster in this world, so that one week in this world was a day in the other world. he had also found out more about the state of Earth before he jumped into this world. It was a burning hot planet with a lot of humanity living underground.

Phoenix went to where they had a market place. He bought a few salted fish so they would last a bit longer, and then he brought them back to his home. He looked around on the walk back and remembered about how he had started this group with just he and Ray sleeping in a cave.

he wrapped the fish in an amount of cloth so they wouldn't come into contact with the floor. Then he decided to go and check to see if the guards had seen anything. On his way to the guards, the Master of Coin, Corson, ran up to him. He began babbling something about how people weren't paying the proper amount of taxes and something like that. Phoenix looked at him and said "Do you think you could get me a list of the people?"

Corson nodded and handed him a piece of wood with names carved onto it.

Phoenix calmly checked it, then pocketed it and said "I'll talk to these people later about why they aren't paying. How about you worry on making sure we don't suddenly get into horrible debt with Toren."

Corson nodded again and quickly went off. Corson was someone who took his job a bit to seriously, although he could easily be reduced to a stuttering fool if you looked at him the wrong way. He was also one of the few people that they had that seemed to understand how to crunch the numbers when it came to the amount of money that they both lost and gained during trading.

Phoenix arrived at the guard tower a few minutes later. He asked each one if they had seen anything suspicious and they all said that they hadn't. Phoenix decided to go out and check on his own traps. Now that they had an economy system, everybody had their own traps instead. They all had to go to Phoenix and make sure that they weren't intruding on anybody else's area or trapping in an illegal area before they set them down.

He found three birds in his traps. He didn't have any sea traps. He bought all of his sea food.

He came back to his home and he quickly began cleaning the birds. He then hung the bodies over the fire, hoping to draw all of the moisture out of the birds so they could dry up. While they were doing that he patted them down with salt.

He then went looking for Ray. When he found him, he and Ray went to the area where the military trained. Phoenix drew his sword and shield and Ray did the same.

Phoenix relaxed his shoulder's. Then he yelled "Go!"

Ray jumped forward. Phoenix blocked his first strike with his shield and whipped around with the blade swinging through the air. Ray threw the blade to the side with his powers and he whipped his shield around as if it were a weapon. Phoenix dropped down and tackled Ray to the ground. Phoenix jumped back after tackling him and brought his sword up, about to strike a killing blow. Ray stuck out his feet and struck Phoenix in one of his shoulder's. This made him stumble back. Ray then rolled backward and pushed himself up. He jumped forward. Phoenix rotated around and blocked Ray's strike and the sword glanced off the shield. Phoenix kicked the blade to the side and kicked Ray in the ribs. Phoenix lunged forward and pressed his sword against Ray's neck and said "again."

They disengaged. Ray stared at Phoenix and said "How do you do it? I've almost never beaten you."

"You're impulsive." said Phoenix "It's how your fighting style is and you don't want to change it. Changing your fighting style completely is harder than you think. It involves completely changing how you think when someone starts attacking you. That's not easy because when that happens, you tend to rely heavily on impulse. So you need to train your brain to not rely on impulse."

"And you're not?" asked Ray.

"Everybody rely's on impulse every now and then." said Phoenix "It just depends on when you use it. Some people tend to use it when they're about to die, some people use it like how you do, whenever someone does this." Phoenix twisted around and struck Ray in the sternum with a hard kick.

Ray stumbled back. Phoenix drew his blade and jumped forward, slashing through the air. Ray dodged the strike and was bale to get his sword out, which he had sheathed when they had finished.

Phoenix didn't give him time to prepare beyond that. He continued to press the attack, knowing that Ray would be forced to do so because he didn't have his shield out so he couldn't defend as well. Phoenix lunged his blade forward and gave Ray's hand a small prick. Ray growled and almost dropped the blade. This made him hesitate for a single moment, and Phoenix only needed that one moment. He lunged forward again and poked the blade against Ray's sternum and he said "Dead. Again."

"That wasn't because of impulse was it?" asked Ray as he bent down to pick up his shield that he had dropped.

"No" said Phoenix "That was because you weren't prepared for the attack. Always be prepare to be attacked."

Ray nodded. He readied himself again. This time Phoenix called it. "Go!" he called.