Asher was frantically traveling towards the coastal province to the west in search of something he felt would give him an edge in the upcoming tournament. He had only a week before the competition would begin. He wanted every advantage he could possibly get in the upcoming fights ahead of him. That was why he was headed to Coralhaven. It was a trade hub based on the West Coast of the Empire. There were several smaller nations that would trade with the Empire, fueling the rapid expansion of the provinces that made up the massive landmass.
Asher was headed towards Coralhaven for one thing. He had heard of sirens who had a special power that he wanted. It was precognition, an ability that would allow the user to see actions a split second before they happened. With Asher's newfound strength and reflexes, he felt it would serve him very well. If he could manage to kill several of the creatures, he felt he would be able to defeat nearly anyone that he encountered.
With the tournament coming up, he needed every advantage he could get. Even though money had become secondary to him, it was still nice to have around. For one, his cuirass had nearly shattered when he had been struck by the giantess in her dying moments. That moment was clearly burned into his memory, as he had nearly died. Before the energy flooded his body, his vision had been fading to darkness.
He took one look into the distance towards the icy capped peaks of Winterhaven and proceeded towards the coastal city of Trader's Cove, which sat below a massive cliffside. During the daytime, the trading hub sat in the shade until sunset, which would light up everything in a dazzling array of colors.
Asher ventured farther towards the city, aiming for the guild. He already knew exactly what he wanted to hunt. Even if he didn't find a job for a siren, he would track one down himself. The jobs with the guild just made things easier for him. The din of the city grew louder as he got closer and the voices grew more distinct.
There was a large bazaar at the entrance of the city that he weaved through, attempting to reach the guild as quickly as he could. The inhabitants of the town were more tanned as a whole than either of the provinces he had been working in so far. Asher figured he would pay off his bounties soon in the province, they were low to begin with so the guards weren't likely to recognize him, but Asher wasn't going to chance it when he had the money on hand to pay off his debts.
Asher stopped before he got to the guild and admired the marble architecture in the city with balconies overlooking the streets high above the ground, with that style comprising most of the buildings whilst the streets were laid with primarily sand cobblestone which was available in vast quantities.
He had never really stopped long enough to look around the cities and provinces, but now that he was actively attempting to not be a criminal, he had a newfound appreciation for the beauty that was constructed around him. He sighed heavily, realizing he had only been surviving until now. Now, he was actually living a life.
The guild hall was very different here from the rest of them. The one in Imperia was built largely out of wood, and in Winterhaven's case, it was constructed from logs with a solid slab for a door. This one was comprised of ornate marble with blue accents in the trim. The doorway was made up of two large slabs of marble on heavy hinges to hold the weight. Asher imagined each door weighed at least a ton, if not more.
As he entered the guild hall, he saw the secretary sitting behind the counter who was a far cry from either Connor or Colin who were burly men with a surly demeanor, with Colin being completely bald these days, having shaved his beard and Connor having a long and bushy beard. The man that Asher saw behind the counter was slim with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. His tanned skin told Asher that he likely did jobs actively himself, betraying the skill of the man in front of Asher. "I'm Tristan," the man said while flashing a perfectly white smile under a set of lapis lazuli eyes. "I'll be the one taking care of any of your payments," Tristan finished.
"Good to know," Asher replied politely. "Where are the rank C boards in this guild?"
"Rank C?" Tristan asked with confusion. "You can't take jobs here unless you are at least rank B."
Asher felt his heart drop. He had traveled all this way, just to be told he had to be the next rank up. He knew he was at least able to qualify as rank B at his current strength. Tristan saw the look on his face and apologized quickly, "I am sorry for you coming all this way for nothing, Colin should have told you where all you could work at your current level when you ranked up. I can give you some coin for the trouble, from my personal account."
Asher couldn't be angry when he both saw and heard the concern in Tristan's tone. The man was truly apologetic for Asher having traveled as far as he did. "Could you potentially give me a tip as to where to find a siren?" Asher requested.
"That would be highly immoral of me," Tristan replied. "And for you to attempt to track one down, would be highly dangerous."
"I need one," Asher stated bluntly. "My business for why I need it is my own, but I need it."
"You aren't going to give up, are you?"
Asher replied quickly, "Not at all. I don't care about the money right now, I need something from the siren itself."
Tristan was silent for a long time, thinking. Sirens had several medicinal uses from organs in their bodies. The only thing he could figure is someone close to Asher was sick. Finally, he sighed deeply as he remembered a job where a single siren was luring men to their death.
"I will grab a map, give me a few minutes to mark a location. Do not tell anyone I did this for you and don't try this again until you rank up or I will report you to the guild and ban you from this hall."
Asher nodded his agreement and waited on Tristan. He hadn't even thought of the possibility of being thrown out of the guild. He breathed a sigh of relief as the potential of that dawned on him. He was living a fairly charmed life these days due to working with the guild. The bounty collectors were much more likely to look the other way, seeing him paying off his debts in other areas slowly as he made money. That would cease to happen as soon as his connections with the guild were to be severed.
Tristan emerged from the back room with a map that had an area circled. "There is a single siren here, do not go in unprepared. They are very dangerous and not just for their voice. They can take flight when they see that you aren't affected by the music and they have talons as long as daggers. If they fail at that, they have poisoned barbs embedded in their wings. Take wads of cotton along with you to drown out the singing. If you're successful, come see me. Bring something along with you to prove you killed it."
Asher shook hands with Tristan and said, "I appreciate your help greatly. I hope to do more business with you in the future, on better terms than we are speaking on now."
After that, Asher made his way towards the location marked on the map. He figured Tristan would remove the job for it for the time being at least long enough to be sure whether Asher was successful or had failed. He was going to be sure to prove Tristan wrong in thinking Asher was outmatched.
He reached a sandy shoreline and saw a half woman, half fish creature, very similar to a mermaid. On the other hand, it had scaled wings which appeared extremely fishlike, folded close to its body and instead of having the beautiful face of a mermaid, it had a bestial face filled with razor sharp teeth. Asher heard the beautiful song it sang from quite a distance away. It didn't quite have the same effect on him as other men who heard it, instead of it attracting him to the source, it was almost intoxicating. He felt incredibly disoriented from the sound. Before it got worse, he shoved the wads of cotton in his ears.
He approached carefully, watching for signs of the siren becoming aware of his presence. If the rumors were true about the creatures having the power of precognition, he knew it would discover him right before he struck, regardless. Considering it was a rank B creature, he knew it was going to put up a good fight. Asher knew he could match it in raw strength, having taken on the power of two Frost giants, but it had several aces up it's sleeve.
Asher gripped his blade tightly as he got closer. The creature nibbled at its own wings, preening itself. It appeared to be completely unaware of the danger approaching. Right as Asher was getting ready to strike, the creature sprung into action. It flew straight upwards and took a look at the situation.
As soon as it spotted Asher, it began to swoop in at him. Asher barely blocked the razor sharp talons as it slashed them at his torso on the way through. Just like Tristan had said, as soon as it saw the first attack had failed, it launched barbs at Asher who narrowly avoided at least a dozen of them being launched one after another. Had he been even a bit slower, it would have been the end of him and he'd end up being the creature's lunch. This was quickly becoming a huge challenge as he attempted to not get hit at all by the strange beast. Even one hit would spell his doom.
As it swooped in once again, Asher sliced at it's wings and it rolled across the ground. As soon as it regained its balance, it shot more barbs at Asher who ducked and rolled to avoid them. Asher took his spare sword and heaved it with all his might, sending it end over end towards the creature. The siren blocked the hit with it's wings and immediately regretted it due to the intense heat emitting from the blade.
It frantically reached for the handle of the blade as Asher closed the distance. As soon as it grabbed the blade, the handle burnt an imprint into the beast's hand. It barely had time to register the pain as Asher swung his blade over and over at it. The siren was just barely ahead of Asher with its powers of precognition, but that advantage was quickly coming to an end as it tired down and there were less and less chances to avoid the strikes.
Eventually the siren tired down to the point that Asher got a hit in. Once that first strike was successful, he continued to hammer into the siren. After a few seconds, its head was completely separated from the body. Seeing the creature lying on the ground, he already knew the surge of power was coming. It wasn't quite as great as the frost giant's, but it was still considerable. There was a very strange feeling that accompanied the warmth that he was looking for, it was the same as when he fought the Minotaur. It just seemed to be an improved version of the same ability.
He wasn't sure exactly what to do with the siren to prove to Tristan that he had killed it. He sliced into it and took it's heart and put it inside his bag, attempting not to gag from the fetid smell inside the fishlike body. Asher figured that would be enough to show Tristan he had truly succeeded in defeating the monster.
He traveled back to the city and went straight to the guild to deliver the heart to Tristan. Tristan's eyes went wide as soon as Asher pulled it from his bag. From the smell, it was definitely a siren's heart and they both knew it. Asher received a very generous sum of coin and Tristan said, "I am going to rank you up now, you've more than earned it."
Asher said, "No," quickly.
"Why not? You're more than capable of doing rank B jobs if you can kill a siren," Tristan stated incredulously.
"Because there is a tournament coming up that I plan to participate in and this was not a sanctioned mission, as I was not high enough rank to do it," Asher replied.
"I have the authority to rank you up right now and it would not be moral of me to allow you to stay at rank C to compete in the competition at your strength. You would very easily defeat every person at your level who even attempted to stand in your way."
"I still don't want it and I don't believe you want to bring morality into it considering you allowed someone at my current rank to do a job higher than they should be capable of," Asher replied slyly.
Tristan felt his heart pumping hard as he realized the corner he had backed himself into. He couldn't afford to have word get out about what he had done for Asher, so he would have to accept defeat here. He sighed and said, "You win. Go back and compete in your tournament. All I can hope is that someone gives you a true run for your money."
Asher was absolutely sure they would, as he had plans to put into action before the tournament in Imperia. He figured he couldn't be seen just stomping down all the competition, so he was going to do some experimenting with his power.
Tristan on the other hand was deeply confused. Out of everything he could have received from Asher, he had gotten the siren's heart which was the most valuable part of it with the most medicinal properties. He had to wonder, if he hadn't taken the heart, what had he taken from the creature? Perhaps he would investigate the site.