It was about 2pm in the afternoon and Helena was no closer to reaching Haven Guild than when she left the forest a few weeks back. The map her mentor left her was of little help, it was a political map, showing the major states rather than a topographical map, that would show her where she needed to go. Better yet, her mentor should have actually spoken to her instead of disappearing into the night.
A smart person would've bought the right map at the first town they entered. A smart person would also remember that in this day and age, a topographical map of the entire island of Tyron was hard to come by. This was the fifth town Helena had entered asking if anyone had the map she was looking for only to hit a dead end.
Currently, in the town of Strowsten in the Beaufort state, she was in a partially empty cafe trying to think of her next move. She checked all the guilds in the town and none knew where Haven Guild was, some have never even heard the name before. She was really at her wits end.
"Cercy, what am I going to do?" she asked the little 'snake' coiled around her wrist. According to her mentor, Cercy has been with her since she was a baby and has never parted from her since. Cercy tilted her head, "Try checking with the town guards, they may have seen mages from foreign guilds."
"Cercy you're a genius!" Helena squealed, placing a kiss on her snake's head with a smile. Cercy rubbed her head against Helena's face before slithering up the sleeves of her shirt. As soon as she stood up, a man came flying in through the booth window, sending the table and seat flying, both barely missing her.
"Hey are you okay?" Helena couldn't help but ask in concern, that looked like it should've hurt. There was glass everywhere.
"Yeah I'm all right, just gimme a minute." He replied, shaking off the rubble that fell onto him. He flashed her a toothy grin before running right back through the hole he made on his way in. She stared at his retreating figure dumbfounded.
"You saw that too, right Cercy?" Helena couldn't help but ask her white snake. Cercy, who came back down after all that commotion, gave Helena a small nod before retreating back to the sleeve of Helena's shirt.
"Guess I should check what's happening."
Helena made her way to the hole in the cafe's wall, and couldn't help but wonder who'd be paying for the damages as she stepped outside. There she saw something which only semi-surprised her. It had her more excited than anything else.
Before she could even fully process the scene before her, an object flew straight towards her head. "Eeeeep" she squealed, preparing to be hit, only to be met with the guy from earlier in front of her, catching whatever was going to hit her. Would it be weird to say she felt charmed?
"You should really watch out." he laughed before heading back to the fight. He, along with another man and woman were fighting what looked like a giant crystal robot, no, a golem. They were fighting a crystal golem.
The golem didn't surprise her, it was more of the fact it got into town without causing an earthquake with every step. While Helena had practiced all sorts of magic with her mentor, she's never put her attack magic to actual use. Hence, she decided it would be better for everyone if she stayed out of it.
Helena hid behind a piece of wall debris, wondering where it came from as she observed the battle. All she could do was just silently analyze the situation as the guy who flew in through the wall had his fist engulfed in flames. The woman was flying around the golem trying to attack it with a sword, it seemed as though she had some type of transformation magic and the other man was shooting ice at the golem.
'It seems to be magic proof.' Helena thought to herself as she noticed the robot took no damage from the mages' direct attacks. The sword seemed to be doing damage but with all the thrashing and twisting it's just doing light scratches. It didn't take long for her to come up with a solution.
"Aim for the back of the knee with the ice. Keep flying around it, the torso can only twist so far." Helena yelled from behind the wall. She peeked up just in time to see they were following her instructions. The golem spun around trying to swat down the lady that way flying which led to it's torso ripping and when it stepped back the ice impaled its leg causing it to go crashing backwards.
Helena sighed in relief seeing the giant golem was down.
"Thank you for the assistance." The sudden appearance of a voice next to her caused Helena to jump. "I didn't mean to scare you, my name is Irina Bellam." The voice introduced. It was the lady from before that was flying in the two seconds it took Helena to sigh and close her eyes, she had on a completely different outfit.
In contrast to Helena's long pale blonde hair, Irina had a short fiery red pixie cut with pale green eyes. She was beautiful, there was something about Irina's last name that was familiar but Helena just couldn't put her finger on it.
"It's fine, I just didn't expect someone to appear next to me, how did you- nevermind. My name is Helena. Who are your friends?" Helena introduced, holding out her hand with a smile. "The fire mage is Ryan and the ice mage is Callum." Irina introduced, shaking her hand while pointing to each person.
"We-" Irina was cut off by Ryan's yelling as he ran over. "Couldn't you have yelled for me to do something." he pouted before getting hit behind the head by Irina. "I was speaking." she said glaring at him. He- Ryan, huffed and looked away.
"Idiot." Callum muttered loudly, shaking his head as he made his way over. "What was that stripper?!" Ryan yelled, bouncing back from Irina's hit, which by the way did not seem gentle, to start fighting with Callum.
"Don't worry, this is a regular thing, I'm Cere." a new voice introduced. Helena looked around for the source of the new voice only to see an adorable, dark purplish snake. "Aren't you the most adorable thing ever?" Helena squealed, picking up the snake and giving it a face rub.
"You smell nice." Cere muttered slithering into her small chest. "Ouch, except you, Cercy, he's the second most adorable thing." Helena whined, trying to fish Cere out her clothes as Cercy bit her. Instead, Cere slid down to her arm and wrapped himself around her wrist.
Cercy made her presence be known by sliding down to Helena's other arm, glaring at Cere.
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted twice." Irina continued, glaring at Cere and in Ryan's general direction before turning back to Helena. "We are from the Haven guild and we were commissioned to deal with this monster. Since you helped us I believe it is only fair you come back with us to receive a portion of the commission amount."
Helena's eyes lit up at the mention of the Haven Guild, that's right where she was trying to go. Maybe luck was finally on her side. "I would love to, that's where I was heading anyways." she replied happily. She genuinely thought she'd have to travel from town to town until she made it.
"Great. Let's leave immediately. Ryan, Callum let's go." Irina smiled before moving off.
.
.
.
.
"Wait, what about the damage?" Helena asked jogging behind Irina. "The Guild will take care of it." Helena nodded in partial understanding, looking behind as Ryan and Callum followed, neither looking too beat up from their fight.