The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]
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- Start date
BadRoad
a thousand miles
As obvious as it is to the reader, it makes sense that Saito and Louise wouldn't recognize him. They've only met him twice. The first time, he was in disguise and trying to kill them. The second time, he was Louise's amiable brother-in-law. From their point of view, it's probably more likely that the assassin was an entirely different person who happens to use the same spell.
Oh, now I remember what I was thinking! Louise and Saito knew that Wardes helped Charlotte with an illusion spell during the regicide incident with Joseph, but not that he basically killed Saito.
BadRoad
a thousand miles
You're right. They've met him three times. The third time was the party that the Elf crashed.
Or, to paraphrase abridged!Kirito, "I fought my mother. At best, my mother fought you."
this is off topic but what episode was that in ?
Chapter Eighty-Five
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eighty-Five
Lord Belmont was a pudgy and short man who appeared quite joyous at the prospect of having someone clean his mess for him. He was even happier when he realized Ulfric would vouch for them, and there was a quiet and timid beauty among their numbers.
"We should have left Tiffania back at the inn," Saito said.
"She's safer with us than with them, and Ulfric's job is just to keep her safe from random stuff while we deal with the Hydra itself," Louise replied hotly. "He's getting a cut of killing the Hydra without having to kill it, so really, he's the one who ends up rich without breaking a sweat."
The gardens extended for quite a fair distance, the mansion itself having been left largely unscathed from whatever rampage the monster would aim for. "They've been trained since birth never to step close to the house," Lord Belmont had told the duo before waving them all goodbye and wishing them good luck.
The first thing that reached their nostrils once they set upon a dirt path that headed deeper into the 'gardens' was the rich stench of iron, the blood dripping down from the nearby tree branches as carcasses had apparently been messily devoured and bits and pieces had flown everywhere.
"Well, he's a messy eater," Saito said, trying to lift Louise's mood, and ease Tiffania's fear.
"Perhaps his mother didn't teach him well," Ulfric joined in. "Hydras-man, I fought orcs and trolls, even a few ogres back in the good old days-but Hydras? I hope you know what you're doing. Poisonous breath, virulent and toxic blood-sheesh, we could have waited by the mansion."
"Tiffania knows a sleep spell," Louise said offhandedly. "I know one too. If we both cast it, we have a higher chance of affecting the creature. If it succeeds, then I can just finish the chant of my Vaporize spell and destroy the creature completely- And if that fails, then she can just-"
There was a low hiss, a snapping sound and then a sudden sinking feeling of pressure echoing through the forest as a light fog began to form from the ground up.
"The Hydra's breath-" Ulfric's hands had already tied around his face a wet napkin, and quite quickly he had done the same for Tiffania, true to his word about protecting his charge. He was getting paid for it, after all.
"Breathing it through the mouth or not won't change a thing," Louise said hotly, spinning her swordwand forward. "It's poisonous upon mere contact with the skin-"
Saito knelt slightly, clenching his sheathed sword with his right hand. "I always wanted to try this," he said as the tendrils of fog began to drift towards them. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them suddenly as he shouted a 'Hiai!' scream that reverberated through the air, followed his quick unsheathing of the blade.
A blade of wind parted from his sword, slicing through the fog and parting it, creating a path for them to follow.
"That-Well," Louise said with a surprised look, "I don't even know what to say. Did you see that in a game?"
"Yes," Saito said, his left hand shining softly, the glow on his runes glittering quietly in the forest's dimming light. "The fog's going to come back anyway, so-"
"So we better hurry anyway," Louise said as she began to rush ahead, Saito slightly behind her as he sliced open a path every now and then, gritting his teeth from the strain in his right arm. The fog did not diminish, but instead increased as the vegetation around them began to turn dark, the corrosive effects of the fog having turned most of the once verdant trees into matchsticks bubbling with acidic sap.
And then there it stood, most of its head asleep, the jaws open and putrid fog seeping out from it. Out of twelve heads, only two were currently awake, and seemingly resting atop the others, the creature's bloodshot eyes open wide and fiercely, the breathing deep and erratic at the same time. Scars covered most of its body, sharp fangs and blood-encrusted snouts seemed a constant through all of its heads, and if such fierceness wasn't enough, the tail was long and swishing back and forth, the end similar to a morningstar, if with spikes as big and thick as a human being's arm.
A shattered thick chain of steel stood around its legs, the old chain that bound it to a spot having been broken either by the acid in its breath, or by the virulence of its blood.
The beast was big. Even Ulfric took a step back at the sight of it, his eyes wide in fear.
"It looks afraid," Tiffania whispered.
"Well-it's mostly asleep," Louise said with a snap, her swordwand in front of her. "Chant with me, and let's get this over with quickly."
Tiffania hesitated only briefly, before pulling out her own wand.
The moment the two girls began their chant, the heads that were awake swiveled first with curiosity towards the source of the noise, and then with attention, swiftly followed by narrow eyes as the other heads awoke from their slumber. They snapped their teeth as the fog seemed to increase in thickness and strength, washing over the group were it not for Saito's blade of wind, which merely cut the fog in half, but could not stop its source.
Well, not at first that was.
Moving from his sword to his bow, Saito pulled back an arrow that was in actuality a spear, and as the heads began to draw closer, he unleashed the sharp, piercing implement of death and destruction.
One of the Hydra's heads snapped shut as the spear pierced through its lower mandible all the way to the top of it, shattering her brain and making the limb fall over.
The remaining eleven heads screamed as they charged ahead, the thick fog too much for Saito to stop this time as it came in full force, tingling upon their skin like scalding water.
Only it wasn't water, but toxic acid.
Rushing forth towards the fallen head, Saito nimbly jumped atop one of the hydra's heads that had come down to snap at him, the pest that had harmed its body. He rushed across the length of the neck, more and more heads swiveling down to face him as he emerged from the fog -since it was directed forward, and he was now behind the massive creature having run its entire length quickly.
Landing behind it, Saito rolled away from the murderous tail that cracked the ground it rested upon, before slamming his sword through the side of the tail, piercing it and screaming as he pushed the sword down on the ground through the toxic flesh, the blade itself disappearing into molten slag.
He quickly moved to a dagger, the slowing down barely noticeable as he rushed away, but still the heads turned to face him, and they carried their deadly fog together with their murderous expression. The deceased head blinked its fearsome eyes open, and stood back up together with the others. Opening its maws, the fog soon was replaced by something else.
It was replaced by fire.
It was replaced by a lot of fire.
"GAH!" Saito screamed as he pushed both arms in front of him, expecting the searing heat to scorch through his flesh already sizzling due to the acidic fog.
The fire twisted around him however, and left him unscathed in the middle of burnt ground. The heat was palpable, but with the fire, the fog had departed immediately to be replaced with flaming maws.
"That's-That's not a Hydra!" Ulfric screamed from behind him, attracting the creature's attention. "That's a Chimaera!"
The creature's heads burst asunder as if the flesh it inhabited meant absolutely nothing to it, and the forms of creatures it had eaten soon took their place upon the flailing necks. A head was like a gryphon, one was like a manticore, and many were dragon-like in appearance and form. What terrified Saito however were the human forms that flailed their many misshapen limbs about, their screams of pain and agony something that chilled him to the very bones.
"L-Louise! The spell! Now!" Saito yelped as the manticore-head rushed forward, the scorpion like tail stabbing and being redirected by the dagger, whose whole form bent and cracked beneath the impact of the blow. "NOW!"
Yet the chant was still going on. "Louise!" Saito screamed as he rolled away from a gryphon's paws, the shield on his back unclasped and put on within seconds, the seconds long enough to parry a gout of flames that came at him, but also made his arm burn from the heat propagating across the shield. "I'm cooking in here!"
The chant was not yet finished.
"Seriously cooking!" Saito continued, but the creature's other heads spun around the boy who had to hold his shield up, less he be cooked to a crisp. "Oh crap-Louise!" a snake-like head slammed into his side, the fangs biting down on his breastplate and shattering against it, yet also denting the armor. His right foot crushed against the beak of the Gryphon, shattering it as his left foot instead stomped down on the Manticore's face.
The humanoid-like heads didn't seem all that dangerous, at least, until they began to flail their limbs and chant.
"It can also use magic?" Saito wheezed out, his chest being constricted by the powerful maws of the serpent head, thus making oxygen an important commodity. "This is so unfair-"
Finally, the blinding light of Louise's spell showed itself, and Saito sighed in relief as it encompassed all of the creature's massive frame, the pressure against his breastplate coming less and freeing him from the serpent's maw, stumbling away from the corpse as the toxic breath of the creature rushed its course through the quickly beating heart of the boy.
His skin was coarse and red, looking even a bit raw to the sight. It wasn't like the others had emerged unscathed, the fog having done its course on their skin too. Yet they looked as if they had gone through a very aggressive peeling, which would probably leave their skins smooth like those of a baby.
"Should we ask for increased hazard pay?" Saito asked belatedly, as Louise snorted and began to chant once more, this time for an Explosion spell. The spell was noticeably longer than the Sleep spell, and as Saito was held up by Ulfric's right arm passing beneath the boy's left arm and circling around his back, the mercenary whistled in appreciation at the sight of the sleeping creature.
"You adventurers never fail to surprise me. Those things you did-I know of older men that would have wept in fear and pissed their pants rather than do something like that," Ulfric added. Saito wheezed out a dry chuckle, and then gasped for air as a sudden sharp spike of pain struck him in the sides. At first, he thought it had simply been the armor of Ulfric, a bit of it might have hit his raw flesh and made it feel like a dagger in his flesh.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, it was a dagger in the sides.
"This is for breaking the oath of surrender," Ulfric whispered harshly as he twisted the dagger. "This is for breaking it twice," he pulled the dagger out, and slammed it back inside once more, "And this is for breaking it thrice."
The last stab of the dagger would have aimed at Saito's face, had the boy not been saved by a sharp pointy tip of a swordwand coming from Tiffania's delicate hands, which caught the mercenary by surprise long enough to make him push Saito's bleeding body against the girl, who let go of the blade she was holding on to improperly, only to grasp hold of the dying boy.
The mercenary spat to the side, "Stay out of it, girl-" Ulfric pulled out his sword and began to walk forward calmly. "It doesn't concern you. These two are scum, and must pay the price."
"P-Please don't!" Tiffania stammered out. "W-Why would you do this?! This-This is not right!"
"Not right?" Ulfric chuckled. "They were offered terms of surrender. They accepted them. Then they broke them. Once, it would have been a slap. Twice, it would have meant a flogging. Thrice? Thrice means death. We mercenaries don't have many rules. 'Obey the one who pays' is usually such a deep and vague thing we don't even bother much with loyalty for loyalty's sake, but the first rule is simple to everyone involved. 'Surrender is surrender'. You never know if you'll be fighting against or together with the mercenary you have in front of you in the future, so if someone surrenders, you treat him well because it might just be you the next time, or you might need him to guard your back in a future war! Surrender terms are to be respected-always! It's just fucking common sense!"
He pointed his sword at the still chanting Louise and at the bleeding Saito. "And they've trampled on them! They're not the only ones who do this shit, and they always end up the same way. The news' already spread throughout the whole of Halkeginia by now. 'If you have the chance, against a masked and a dark haired boy working together, stab them, because they broke the terms'. Look, you're not involved with them, so just step away. I'll add something to it too: I get the pay for the Hydra's death, and I use that to buy you a coach anywhere you want to go. You don't have to waste your life away for these guys, girl."
He furrowed his brows, "But if you're not going to, then I'll really have to get mean. I'd rather have my women laughing in my arms rather than screaming at the end of my sword, but-well, I did my fair share of razing villages to the ground."
He had meanwhile kept walking forward, "So I'm used to it," the pommel of his sword came cruising down for Tiffania's face, but Saito's hand grabbed on to the pommel with his right hand, his legs bending as he slammed his dagger straight through the man's chainmail, cutting through steel and pushing the giant mercenary backwards.
"Keep her out of this!" Saito gurgled, his vision blurry from the blood loss and the poisonous fog.
"Why you brat!" the pommel struck down mercilessly on Saito's helmet, making it ring deeply, and denting it quite a bit from the strength of the blow. The blow came again, and again, Saito's brain wobbling about in the boy's poor skull.
Strength waned from the boy's arms, and as it finally dropped to nothing, the mercenary kicked him in the side, sending him to bleed on the ground his last. "You're tenacious, I'll give you that," Ulfric snarled, and lifted his sword upwards, ready to bring the blade down on his unprotected neck. "But this ends now-"
In that moment, a manticore emerged from the bushes and roared, slamming into the mercenary's back and quickly proceeding to claw at its chainmail and rip the metallic rings away, while the scorpion tail slammed fast and hard wherever it could find flesh to puncture. There was a movement of jaws, a quick snap, and then it was over.
Ulfric's fingers twitched one last time, and as the manticore began to feed over the body, a broken chain was visible by the creature's right hind paw. The beast had probably been one of the many creatures in the 'zoo', and it had then broken free just at the right moment.
It turned its feral eyes and blood-dripping fangs towards Saito and Tiffania, but then bared its teeth as a warning and began to drag the corpse away, its desire for prey fully satisfied.
"Argh-" Saito mumbled. "Louise's going to hold this over me," he clutched at the wound that was copiously bleeding. "Just-argh-need some bandages-"
"Wait," Tiffania whispered, her hands bounding together in a sort of prayer as her ring began to gingerly shine. "Here-" she lowered the shining ring to his wound, which began to close rapidly. "It-It was my mother's," she added in a quiet whisper. "I use it to heal the orphans from scraps and bruises, but it works just as well with this sort of wounds-"
Saito blinked. Tiffania was wearing white robes, and was capable of healing people.
"You're a White Mage," Saito blurted out. "Tank, DPS and White Mage," he said to himself. "Now we just need the Roguish Bard and then we'll be set for a full party."
Tiffania brought a hand to Saito's forehead in worry. Perhaps he was feverish from the poison? If that was the case, then she'd have to suck the poison out. The breastplate had been punctured-maybe the snake's fangs had bit him?
When the blinding white explosion tore asunder to thin shreds the Chimaera, leaving nothing behind it could regenerate from, Louise turned with a tired, but satisfied expression.
She blinked at the sight of a chest naked Saito with Tiffania's roving hands on his -Louise's propriety- chest.
She didn't consider the lack of Ulfric at the present time as something worthy of notice, or at the blood trail on the ground.
No.
She had righteous fury to smite upon the Elf.
How dare that vile devil try to tempt her man like that?
Inquisition!
She would never expect Louise's Inquisition!
Lord Belmont was a pudgy and short man who appeared quite joyous at the prospect of having someone clean his mess for him. He was even happier when he realized Ulfric would vouch for them, and there was a quiet and timid beauty among their numbers.
"We should have left Tiffania back at the inn," Saito said.
"She's safer with us than with them, and Ulfric's job is just to keep her safe from random stuff while we deal with the Hydra itself," Louise replied hotly. "He's getting a cut of killing the Hydra without having to kill it, so really, he's the one who ends up rich without breaking a sweat."
The gardens extended for quite a fair distance, the mansion itself having been left largely unscathed from whatever rampage the monster would aim for. "They've been trained since birth never to step close to the house," Lord Belmont had told the duo before waving them all goodbye and wishing them good luck.
The first thing that reached their nostrils once they set upon a dirt path that headed deeper into the 'gardens' was the rich stench of iron, the blood dripping down from the nearby tree branches as carcasses had apparently been messily devoured and bits and pieces had flown everywhere.
"Well, he's a messy eater," Saito said, trying to lift Louise's mood, and ease Tiffania's fear.
"Perhaps his mother didn't teach him well," Ulfric joined in. "Hydras-man, I fought orcs and trolls, even a few ogres back in the good old days-but Hydras? I hope you know what you're doing. Poisonous breath, virulent and toxic blood-sheesh, we could have waited by the mansion."
"Tiffania knows a sleep spell," Louise said offhandedly. "I know one too. If we both cast it, we have a higher chance of affecting the creature. If it succeeds, then I can just finish the chant of my Vaporize spell and destroy the creature completely- And if that fails, then she can just-"
There was a low hiss, a snapping sound and then a sudden sinking feeling of pressure echoing through the forest as a light fog began to form from the ground up.
"The Hydra's breath-" Ulfric's hands had already tied around his face a wet napkin, and quite quickly he had done the same for Tiffania, true to his word about protecting his charge. He was getting paid for it, after all.
"Breathing it through the mouth or not won't change a thing," Louise said hotly, spinning her swordwand forward. "It's poisonous upon mere contact with the skin-"
Saito knelt slightly, clenching his sheathed sword with his right hand. "I always wanted to try this," he said as the tendrils of fog began to drift towards them. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them suddenly as he shouted a 'Hiai!' scream that reverberated through the air, followed his quick unsheathing of the blade.
A blade of wind parted from his sword, slicing through the fog and parting it, creating a path for them to follow.
"That-Well," Louise said with a surprised look, "I don't even know what to say. Did you see that in a game?"
"Yes," Saito said, his left hand shining softly, the glow on his runes glittering quietly in the forest's dimming light. "The fog's going to come back anyway, so-"
"So we better hurry anyway," Louise said as she began to rush ahead, Saito slightly behind her as he sliced open a path every now and then, gritting his teeth from the strain in his right arm. The fog did not diminish, but instead increased as the vegetation around them began to turn dark, the corrosive effects of the fog having turned most of the once verdant trees into matchsticks bubbling with acidic sap.
And then there it stood, most of its head asleep, the jaws open and putrid fog seeping out from it. Out of twelve heads, only two were currently awake, and seemingly resting atop the others, the creature's bloodshot eyes open wide and fiercely, the breathing deep and erratic at the same time. Scars covered most of its body, sharp fangs and blood-encrusted snouts seemed a constant through all of its heads, and if such fierceness wasn't enough, the tail was long and swishing back and forth, the end similar to a morningstar, if with spikes as big and thick as a human being's arm.
A shattered thick chain of steel stood around its legs, the old chain that bound it to a spot having been broken either by the acid in its breath, or by the virulence of its blood.
The beast was big. Even Ulfric took a step back at the sight of it, his eyes wide in fear.
"It looks afraid," Tiffania whispered.
"Well-it's mostly asleep," Louise said with a snap, her swordwand in front of her. "Chant with me, and let's get this over with quickly."
Tiffania hesitated only briefly, before pulling out her own wand.
The moment the two girls began their chant, the heads that were awake swiveled first with curiosity towards the source of the noise, and then with attention, swiftly followed by narrow eyes as the other heads awoke from their slumber. They snapped their teeth as the fog seemed to increase in thickness and strength, washing over the group were it not for Saito's blade of wind, which merely cut the fog in half, but could not stop its source.
Well, not at first that was.
Moving from his sword to his bow, Saito pulled back an arrow that was in actuality a spear, and as the heads began to draw closer, he unleashed the sharp, piercing implement of death and destruction.
One of the Hydra's heads snapped shut as the spear pierced through its lower mandible all the way to the top of it, shattering her brain and making the limb fall over.
The remaining eleven heads screamed as they charged ahead, the thick fog too much for Saito to stop this time as it came in full force, tingling upon their skin like scalding water.
Only it wasn't water, but toxic acid.
Rushing forth towards the fallen head, Saito nimbly jumped atop one of the hydra's heads that had come down to snap at him, the pest that had harmed its body. He rushed across the length of the neck, more and more heads swiveling down to face him as he emerged from the fog -since it was directed forward, and he was now behind the massive creature having run its entire length quickly.
Landing behind it, Saito rolled away from the murderous tail that cracked the ground it rested upon, before slamming his sword through the side of the tail, piercing it and screaming as he pushed the sword down on the ground through the toxic flesh, the blade itself disappearing into molten slag.
He quickly moved to a dagger, the slowing down barely noticeable as he rushed away, but still the heads turned to face him, and they carried their deadly fog together with their murderous expression. The deceased head blinked its fearsome eyes open, and stood back up together with the others. Opening its maws, the fog soon was replaced by something else.
It was replaced by fire.
It was replaced by a lot of fire.
"GAH!" Saito screamed as he pushed both arms in front of him, expecting the searing heat to scorch through his flesh already sizzling due to the acidic fog.
The fire twisted around him however, and left him unscathed in the middle of burnt ground. The heat was palpable, but with the fire, the fog had departed immediately to be replaced with flaming maws.
"That's-That's not a Hydra!" Ulfric screamed from behind him, attracting the creature's attention. "That's a Chimaera!"
The creature's heads burst asunder as if the flesh it inhabited meant absolutely nothing to it, and the forms of creatures it had eaten soon took their place upon the flailing necks. A head was like a gryphon, one was like a manticore, and many were dragon-like in appearance and form. What terrified Saito however were the human forms that flailed their many misshapen limbs about, their screams of pain and agony something that chilled him to the very bones.
"L-Louise! The spell! Now!" Saito yelped as the manticore-head rushed forward, the scorpion like tail stabbing and being redirected by the dagger, whose whole form bent and cracked beneath the impact of the blow. "NOW!"
Yet the chant was still going on. "Louise!" Saito screamed as he rolled away from a gryphon's paws, the shield on his back unclasped and put on within seconds, the seconds long enough to parry a gout of flames that came at him, but also made his arm burn from the heat propagating across the shield. "I'm cooking in here!"
The chant was not yet finished.
"Seriously cooking!" Saito continued, but the creature's other heads spun around the boy who had to hold his shield up, less he be cooked to a crisp. "Oh crap-Louise!" a snake-like head slammed into his side, the fangs biting down on his breastplate and shattering against it, yet also denting the armor. His right foot crushed against the beak of the Gryphon, shattering it as his left foot instead stomped down on the Manticore's face.
The humanoid-like heads didn't seem all that dangerous, at least, until they began to flail their limbs and chant.
"It can also use magic?" Saito wheezed out, his chest being constricted by the powerful maws of the serpent head, thus making oxygen an important commodity. "This is so unfair-"
Finally, the blinding light of Louise's spell showed itself, and Saito sighed in relief as it encompassed all of the creature's massive frame, the pressure against his breastplate coming less and freeing him from the serpent's maw, stumbling away from the corpse as the toxic breath of the creature rushed its course through the quickly beating heart of the boy.
His skin was coarse and red, looking even a bit raw to the sight. It wasn't like the others had emerged unscathed, the fog having done its course on their skin too. Yet they looked as if they had gone through a very aggressive peeling, which would probably leave their skins smooth like those of a baby.
"Should we ask for increased hazard pay?" Saito asked belatedly, as Louise snorted and began to chant once more, this time for an Explosion spell. The spell was noticeably longer than the Sleep spell, and as Saito was held up by Ulfric's right arm passing beneath the boy's left arm and circling around his back, the mercenary whistled in appreciation at the sight of the sleeping creature.
"You adventurers never fail to surprise me. Those things you did-I know of older men that would have wept in fear and pissed their pants rather than do something like that," Ulfric added. Saito wheezed out a dry chuckle, and then gasped for air as a sudden sharp spike of pain struck him in the sides. At first, he thought it had simply been the armor of Ulfric, a bit of it might have hit his raw flesh and made it feel like a dagger in his flesh.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, it was a dagger in the sides.
"This is for breaking the oath of surrender," Ulfric whispered harshly as he twisted the dagger. "This is for breaking it twice," he pulled the dagger out, and slammed it back inside once more, "And this is for breaking it thrice."
The last stab of the dagger would have aimed at Saito's face, had the boy not been saved by a sharp pointy tip of a swordwand coming from Tiffania's delicate hands, which caught the mercenary by surprise long enough to make him push Saito's bleeding body against the girl, who let go of the blade she was holding on to improperly, only to grasp hold of the dying boy.
The mercenary spat to the side, "Stay out of it, girl-" Ulfric pulled out his sword and began to walk forward calmly. "It doesn't concern you. These two are scum, and must pay the price."
"P-Please don't!" Tiffania stammered out. "W-Why would you do this?! This-This is not right!"
"Not right?" Ulfric chuckled. "They were offered terms of surrender. They accepted them. Then they broke them. Once, it would have been a slap. Twice, it would have meant a flogging. Thrice? Thrice means death. We mercenaries don't have many rules. 'Obey the one who pays' is usually such a deep and vague thing we don't even bother much with loyalty for loyalty's sake, but the first rule is simple to everyone involved. 'Surrender is surrender'. You never know if you'll be fighting against or together with the mercenary you have in front of you in the future, so if someone surrenders, you treat him well because it might just be you the next time, or you might need him to guard your back in a future war! Surrender terms are to be respected-always! It's just fucking common sense!"
He pointed his sword at the still chanting Louise and at the bleeding Saito. "And they've trampled on them! They're not the only ones who do this shit, and they always end up the same way. The news' already spread throughout the whole of Halkeginia by now. 'If you have the chance, against a masked and a dark haired boy working together, stab them, because they broke the terms'. Look, you're not involved with them, so just step away. I'll add something to it too: I get the pay for the Hydra's death, and I use that to buy you a coach anywhere you want to go. You don't have to waste your life away for these guys, girl."
He furrowed his brows, "But if you're not going to, then I'll really have to get mean. I'd rather have my women laughing in my arms rather than screaming at the end of my sword, but-well, I did my fair share of razing villages to the ground."
He had meanwhile kept walking forward, "So I'm used to it," the pommel of his sword came cruising down for Tiffania's face, but Saito's hand grabbed on to the pommel with his right hand, his legs bending as he slammed his dagger straight through the man's chainmail, cutting through steel and pushing the giant mercenary backwards.
"Keep her out of this!" Saito gurgled, his vision blurry from the blood loss and the poisonous fog.
"Why you brat!" the pommel struck down mercilessly on Saito's helmet, making it ring deeply, and denting it quite a bit from the strength of the blow. The blow came again, and again, Saito's brain wobbling about in the boy's poor skull.
Strength waned from the boy's arms, and as it finally dropped to nothing, the mercenary kicked him in the side, sending him to bleed on the ground his last. "You're tenacious, I'll give you that," Ulfric snarled, and lifted his sword upwards, ready to bring the blade down on his unprotected neck. "But this ends now-"
In that moment, a manticore emerged from the bushes and roared, slamming into the mercenary's back and quickly proceeding to claw at its chainmail and rip the metallic rings away, while the scorpion tail slammed fast and hard wherever it could find flesh to puncture. There was a movement of jaws, a quick snap, and then it was over.
Ulfric's fingers twitched one last time, and as the manticore began to feed over the body, a broken chain was visible by the creature's right hind paw. The beast had probably been one of the many creatures in the 'zoo', and it had then broken free just at the right moment.
It turned its feral eyes and blood-dripping fangs towards Saito and Tiffania, but then bared its teeth as a warning and began to drag the corpse away, its desire for prey fully satisfied.
"Argh-" Saito mumbled. "Louise's going to hold this over me," he clutched at the wound that was copiously bleeding. "Just-argh-need some bandages-"
"Wait," Tiffania whispered, her hands bounding together in a sort of prayer as her ring began to gingerly shine. "Here-" she lowered the shining ring to his wound, which began to close rapidly. "It-It was my mother's," she added in a quiet whisper. "I use it to heal the orphans from scraps and bruises, but it works just as well with this sort of wounds-"
Saito blinked. Tiffania was wearing white robes, and was capable of healing people.
"You're a White Mage," Saito blurted out. "Tank, DPS and White Mage," he said to himself. "Now we just need the Roguish Bard and then we'll be set for a full party."
Tiffania brought a hand to Saito's forehead in worry. Perhaps he was feverish from the poison? If that was the case, then she'd have to suck the poison out. The breastplate had been punctured-maybe the snake's fangs had bit him?
When the blinding white explosion tore asunder to thin shreds the Chimaera, leaving nothing behind it could regenerate from, Louise turned with a tired, but satisfied expression.
She blinked at the sight of a chest naked Saito with Tiffania's roving hands on his -Louise's propriety- chest.
She didn't consider the lack of Ulfric at the present time as something worthy of notice, or at the blood trail on the ground.
No.
She had righteous fury to smite upon the Elf.
How dare that vile devil try to tempt her man like that?
Inquisition!
She would never expect Louise's Inquisition!
Dimensionist
Grandmaster of Apologism, Keeper of the Faith
- Location
- Bangalore, India
They should probably abandon their adventurer identities at this point. Thankfully, the descriptions is easily circumvented - if not with dies, then with stuff like the Shapechange spell.
I dont think it's Karin. Can't Tiffania talk to animals all Disney Princess like with her spooky elf magics?
I remember something like that, but it has been a while...
NOBODY EXPECTS THE INQUISITION!
had to do it.
but does Saito influence Louise with all the memes and references?
had to do it.
but does Saito influence Louise with all the memes and references?
- Pronouns
- she/her
In this chapter: Breaking the terms of surrender to escape is bad, but breaking the terms of an alliance to steal the reward for yourself is completely different. Ulfric be full of shit. And also a complete moron who lets mages continue chanting spells called Vaporize while he monologues.
They've gotten to the point where the only real threats are knives in the back, as Voidhaxx and Gandalfr rune completely counter direct threats. Changing identities wouldn't make them any safer from betrayal or manipulation. Wouldn't even make them less of a target as their goal is still to acquire a ton of money- thieves like Ulfric would just come up with another excuse.
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
Yes that is a bullshit excuse!
All a band of mercenaries has to do is slander one of their opponents to turn the entire mercenary community into a mob of backstabbing traitors.
Mercenaries are allowed to work only at the sufferance of government officials. If they start some sort of organized attempt at vigilantism they're likely to be culled, as has happened in periods of history.
Besides, there is no such thing as a lawful binding agreement at sword point, or rapists would avoid prosecution with the claim that the victim "consented" when their life was threatened! Or muggers could keep their "ransom money" they "were gifted" by letting their victims live.
All a band of mercenaries has to do is slander one of their opponents to turn the entire mercenary community into a mob of backstabbing traitors.
Mercenaries are allowed to work only at the sufferance of government officials. If they start some sort of organized attempt at vigilantism they're likely to be culled, as has happened in periods of history.
Besides, there is no such thing as a lawful binding agreement at sword point, or rapists would avoid prosecution with the claim that the victim "consented" when their life was threatened! Or muggers could keep their "ransom money" they "were gifted" by letting their victims live.
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- Location
- Elsewhere
Actually, considering Louise's rant in the earlier chapter about how all elves need to die horribly at the hands of righteous people...
I think Louise may have lost the element of surprise.
- Location
- The Old Dominion
Of course there is a big difference between organized professional mercenaries companies who do have rules and are generally reliable as long as their paid and run of the mill mercenaries who are notorious for being less unreliable, untrustworthy and backstabbing their employers and comrades at the first offer of greater pay.
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
Sometimes I fail to find the best vocabulary when writing.
By "organized attempt at vigilantism" I meant the conspiracy among the mercenaries to murder Louis and Saito over the claim by a group that they "broke the oath of surrender".
While it is a bullshit excuse to back stab comrades, it sounds like the story is being circulated among the mercenaries.
Saito and/or Louise should see about finding the proper authorities to find a solution to this!
GiftOfLove
From the Heart
Reputation is a powerful thing. If a well known and trusted band of Mercenaries put out that there are some dudes not abiding the rules, then things will get done. Respecting things like the oath of surrender is crucial to functioning in a business where yesterday's enemies are tomorrow's allies.
Because otherwise you get shit like this, where you can't trust the guy next to you not to be a scumbag, and because it extends the life of everyone in the business. Which benefits everyone.
So I can see it both ways.
Because otherwise you get shit like this, where you can't trust the guy next to you not to be a scumbag, and because it extends the life of everyone in the business. Which benefits everyone.
So I can see it both ways.
Dimensionist
Grandmaster of Apologism, Keeper of the Faith
- Location
- Bangalore, India
Changing identities certainly would make them safer from knives in the back and betrayal or manipulation given they've seemingly got every merc in the country gunning for them. Those tactics aren't ones mercs are going to shy away from (and, as demonstrated in this chapter, were already demonstrated by them), so removing the target on their backs would only help.
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
No respect of an Oath given under duress is necessary or even desired to functioning in a business or any civilized society.
Respect of not threatening non-combatants in order to make someone surrender, and respect of not abusing unarmed prisoners is crucial to the functioning of society.
They had Siesta tied up and threatened to kill her to make Saito stand down. There is nothing to respect in
If you feel that "breaking the oath of surrender" is a crime punishable without any judicial action, you are essentially saying every rape victim who has fought back after being coerced into saying things they didn't mean is a criminal!
In fact respecting Oaths given under duress would destroy society! Someone holds you up in an alley, not the business of the police that you purchased your life. Someone forces you to say that you give them your house, you are now homeless due to a bad business deal. Someone forces you to agree to work for them for free, if you run off -- you are the criminal!
That isn't even rule of the strong, that's rule of whoever gets the upper hand first!
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- Location
- The Old Dominion
I suspect that respectable companies of mercenaries would likely be out of the price range of someone like Count Mott instead working for great nobles and at the kingdom level. For one thing they tend to have camps and war trains that move around with them which cost money to support hence the high cost of employing them and why they often had a legal right to loot.(medieval and early modern mercenary companies often went to war followed by their wives and children because they often didn't have a permanent base of operation).
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
I think Count Mott could afford better mercenaries, even perhaps adding to their members someone whose capable of countering magic with magic. Since he does hold a very high position after all.
That the mercenaries haven't already hired such a person hints that they may be proud of their non-magical, normal human thriving in a magical world status.
If Count Mott gets it in his head to replace them with a much more pragmatic group composed of mundanes mixed with low nobles, Louis and Saito will be severely threatened!
Which is why Louise and Saito(as their noble title aliases) should tell Count Mott about what his mercenaries have done and are up to. I doubt he'd appreciate that his mercenaries threatened to kill Siesta!
That the mercenaries haven't already hired such a person hints that they may be proud of their non-magical, normal human thriving in a magical world status.
If Count Mott gets it in his head to replace them with a much more pragmatic group composed of mundanes mixed with low nobles, Louis and Saito will be severely threatened!
Which is why Louise and Saito(as their noble title aliases) should tell Count Mott about what his mercenaries have done and are up to. I doubt he'd appreciate that his mercenaries threatened to kill Siesta!
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- Pronouns
- she/her
The problem with the Mercs being able to slander them to a kill on sight level is that no matter how they spin it the story is going to boil down to "it was 6v2 and we got dunked on 3 times in a row". Which does more to cast suspicion on the merc's competence than disgust towards the ones who defeated them. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, I may have issues with pattern recognition.
How does one opportunistic thief equal every merc in the country? Ulfric was primarily after money, not justice. He didn't go out of his way to set up a trap for traitors, he took advantage of the situation to make a huge profit for himself. Saito and Louise are attempting to amass a large sum of money, thieves will be after them regardless of identity.
And if this supposed mercenary honor system really did exist, these tactics are the exact opposite of what a merc on board with that would use as they would then find themselves with a reputation of being untrustworthy backstabbers.