Warlock Apprentice

On a giant rock on the coast that was obviously washed by the sea for many years, a boy wearing an old black-and-white coat and a checkered hat was reading a thick book bundled in a hard leather cover. He was rubbing his panda eyes and yawning.

Apart from these three, another man standing close to Angor also drew his attention.

It was a bald young man with dark brown, almost blackish skin. He did not wear anything over his slim upper body, and those skin gave out a glimmer like a palm oil under the sun. His appearance would surely attract many ladies—a handsome face which hid an unbounded wildness and supreme might behind it.

Angor paid attention to these four people because besides Nausica, they were the only ones who were not directing hostile attitude to him. Maybe it was because they were not interested in Angor at all.

There were exceptions though.

The boy sitting on the sea rock seemed curious about Angor. He threw secret glances at Angor many times. When Angor noticed him, the boy returned a smile instead of looking away.

It was an innocent and kind smile, albeit a little reserved.

Angor was curious as well. The boy looked like an ordinary naive boy to him. How did he survive from the deathmatch? Was that innocent look for deceiving others?

All the other deathmatch winners more or less showed aggression to him. Even Nausica’s subordinate Ebony kept looking down at him with unfriendliness even after being scolded by his commander.

“Hey you, shorty. What’s ya problem, walking in front of my tent every day? I can f*cking kill you for that, you know?!” A man with punk hair and a beast skin loincloth walked to him on his bare feet. He was carrying a bloodthirsty look as he asked, “I always wanted to ask this. What’s your f*cking business with dat wizard in the big tent?”

Angor looked at the man almost twice as tall as him and frowned. He smelled a strong sweat stink as well as a faint smell of blood.

“My business with them is none of your business,” replied Angor. He was never someone to fear random punks. His instinct was telling him to detest the taller man’s aura. Angor smelled blood from the young man with blackish brown skin too. It was even stronger. Strangely though, while the young man gave him a more friendly feeling, the tall guy in front of him only disgusted him.

“Ha, nice one. Do you know what happened to the last bastard who dared to talk shit to me like this?” The loincloth man stared his eyes wide. He sneered, “I killed him. And several more. Heeheehee. You know, every f*cking time you walked in front of me, I want to tear your limbs down, put a stick through your ass and your mouth and hang you on a flagpole, just like what I did to the others.”

He moved. He grabbed Angor’s collar and lifted Angor off the ground.

The sharp stinky breath mixed with the smell of sweat and rotten flesh invaded Angor’s nostrils.

The boy sitting on the sea rock showed a trace of worry while all the other ones watched the play in a relaxed manner.

“Argh! Shit… Ow, it hurt!” The man suddenly let go of Angor and yelled in pain.

The sudden change attracted everyone’s attention. When they checked what was going on, they saw a strange seabird wearing a tailcoat and a red bow-tie assaulting the man madly.

Toby followed behind Angor every day on the cloud whale, so most people knew that bird.

However, they had not expected the bird to be so brave. It was fast! They could barely register the bird’s flying trails. More amazingly, the bird only attacked the weak points on the human body—eyes and blood veins where the skin was thin. It did not take long for the loincloth man to start bleeding over multiple places.

Angor was also shocked by Toby’s attacks. He was expecting a good beat-up. Instead, Toby woke up from inside his hair and repelled the bulky man easily.

Angor stepped back. He saw the man’s neck had a giant hole pecked by Toby which was giving out blood quickly.

“Toby, come back!” Angor did not want to cause any death so he called for Toby. The bird did not let him down and complied. However, it did not land on his hair this time. Toby stood on Angor’s shoulder, proudly, like a general who had just won a war. Angor’s complimentary words boosted the bird’s ego even further.

Angor thought the loincloth man would know to stay back after the incident. However, when the man realized Toby stopped attacking, he bellowed in anger, took out a sharp bone knife from his waist and dashed towards Angor.

“Watch out!” The boy on the rock called out.

Angor saw it too. Toby lunged at the man again, but this time the loincloth man went straight for Angor with his knife, completely ignoring Toby.

Angor grimaced at the man’s narrow-mindedness. He tried to step aside but he was too slow.

The instant before Angor was getting stabbed by the bone knife, a figure threw itself in between and kicked the loincloth man into the air.

Angor looked up to see a graceful body wearing a brown leather coat and silver scale shoulder armor in front of him.

“Nausica,” Angor called out her name gently. He added, “Thank you.”

“Get some training, boy. If you can’t avoid that, you won’t live much longer here,” Nausica gave Angor a side look. The sunlight shined at the side of her face and cast a golden rim on it, giving her a wild and carefree look.

A woman just said he was weak. Angor felt terrible.

“Hookdick, now you’re only good at bullying kids? What a disappointment.” Nausica stepped a foot on the loincloth man’s face. She looked at his terrified expression before she kicked him away.

“Do not show mercy to anyone aggressive to you. That will make you live longer,” Nausica told Angor.

Angor nodded in shame. He knew he would be in great trouble if not for Nausica’s quick move. Maybe he really needed to change his way of addressing matters.

Nausica kept explaining, “That man is Hookdick, a chieftain of a remote tribe from Ferran Land, and quite a killer. Maybe he was lucky or something, but he was found to be a talent.”