Will of a Prince

Jacob sat up and looked at Slimo with apprehension.

"Okay, if you’re going to be on the team, we are going to have to gain your trust a bit more. Do you mind if we stay here for a little bit?"

"I don’t mind at all, friends! I can show you around the area once we’re done here."

Lidia stood up and started laughing.

"We have a chef with our group now! This is amazing!"

She walked over and shook Slimo’s hand firmly. She noticed how rough his hands were and looked at them concerned.

"Geez. What king of work are you doing to get these kinds of marks on your hand?"

Slimo blushed slightly, having Lidia’s hands move around his.

"Well, it’s not the easiest thing to constantly chop wood for the fire and get your own food. Sometimes, the food fights back."

"I see. Well, thank you for the meal. We all really appreciate it!"

She smiled brightly and put her hands on her hips.

"Is everyone ready? I can lead you all to the river so you may wash your clothes or your bodies if you wish."

Jacob looked around at everyone who all gave him a nod.

"We’re ready. Let’s go."

Slimo led the group out of the cabin and started walking north. As they walked, he started talking a bit more about himself and some of his unique accomplishments.

"You all won’t regret having me join your group! I’ll show you all how useful I can be! There was this one time where a big monster tried attacking me in the forest while I was chopping down some trees for firewood. However, I was able to get around him with ease and chop his head right off! Best tasting meal I had in a while that was! There was also another time my rope snapped carrying some wood back to my place, so I hand to manually drag them miles here. Boy, that was one long day."

Jacob couldn’t help but notice he was purposely aiming these accomplishments at Lidia who seemed to be listening carefully to his words. It felt like he was trying to impress her in some way, but Lidia remained stone faced through most of what she was hearing.

"That’s very impressive for not having a power. Do you do any training to keep your strength?"

"Eh, not really. The hard labor is what keeps me in shape mostly. However, I’m very good at setting traps for animals in the woods. It took me forever to master that. I almost starved before I could catch anything at one point."

Lidia smiled and finally seemed intrigued by something.

"I was a farmer myself back at the kingdom. I could probably be considered a half-noble. The only reason I was made noble was because of my power I received. It’s weird to find someone else who only stays in shape because they have to."

"You have a Zalo? How does it work?"

Lidia gave him a creepy look.

"You want to test it yourself?"

Slimo started blushing slightly.

"W-What do you mean?"

Lidia stopped everyone and held out her hand in front of Slimo. The beautiful mountain range was standing tall behind her confident figure.

"Punch me as hard as you can!"

Slimo was dumbfounded by the question.

"Punch you?! But we just teamed up! I don’t want to hurt my comrade!"

"Oh, come on. I can take it. You won’t be able to see how my power works otherwise."

Slimo was extremely hesitant before giving his response.

"Are you absolutely sure? As hard as I can?"

"I’m sure."

"I’m not sure if I can hit a pretty lady such as yourself."

"Oh please. Just imagine I’m your worst enemy or something!"

Slimo finally readied himself.

"Okay, I’ll do it. Please stay back everyone."

Everyone slowly gave them some space as Slimo prepared his punch. His face suddenly went cold and serious staring at Lidia. Jacob started getting a weird feeling in his stomach. Lidia felt something was off too as Slimo started winding his punch up. His eye’s had a glint of malice in them, his fist seemed to be much larger than it was, and his whole presence felt extremely threatening. Lidia got a terrible urge to dodge the punch. Slimo started throwing it forward with all his might.

At the very last moment, Lidia’s own survival instincts seemed to force her to move. She threw herself away from the trajectory of the punch. As it rippled the air, the strike came to a deafening stop. Everyone looked at the fallout in horror.

The punch seemed to send an air current so strong that it completely hollowed out a large portion the field in front of them with ease. Slimo’s fist, body, and legs were all steaming with power. He looked at the damage with frightened eyes.

"I... I’m so sorry!"

He got on all fours and bowed his head towards Lidia.

"Please forgive me! I didn’t mean to overdo it! I was just trying to go all out like you said!"

Everyone still didn’t utter a single word. They were all frozen in fear. The seemingly innocent man who harbored no power of his own was able to decimate an entire landscape with a single punch. Lidia was the first one to say something. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"... you said you only train by chopping wood?"

Slimo looked up and met Lidia’s dark eyes.

"I guess I also do a lot of weight training."

"With what?"

"There’s this waterfall by the start of the river. I sometimes like to take large boulders and try to throw them against the current as it falls. I keep repeating that until the rock breaks. Oh, there’s also the occasional Zalo user I have to fight as well. I also like to punch really tough things to keep my bones strong. I believe that’s all. I’m sorry for not telling you before!"

Jacob was still looking at the damaged landscape.

’Can a human really be capable of something like that?! What the hell kind of world are we living in?!’

Lida sat up and offered him a hand.

"Just... forget about my power for now. Maybe I can try and explain it to you later."

Slimo looked up at Lidia with sad eyes.

"You really aren’t mad at me?"

"Mad? I’m more impressed to be honest. I feel like I couldn’t beat you even at my max strength."

Something seemed to connect in Jacob’s brain.

"You said that you fought a monster and chopped off his head, right? Do you mean a monster from a fairytale?"

"Fairytale? Not at all. These monsters are as real as they get. Sometimes, they can be even more dangerous than people!"

"How strong are these monsters exactly?"

Slimo thought to himself for a moment.

"Hm... I’m not exactly sure how to tell you how strong they are without a good comparison. Maybe I can say it like this: The strength it took me to chop off that one monsters head would have taken me the same amount of strength to chop down five thick trees with one swipe. Does that help?"

Jacob felt like getting sick. He had no idea if these monsters were real. However, if they were real, it seemed like fighting one would be a death sentence for any one of them in their party.

’Did we just get lucky that we found Slimo when we did? What would have happened to us if a monster found us before he did?!’

"It gives us a good picture."