Indigo Afina – Frenzy Camp
Indigo observed, impassive, at Isla's stunned silence. After a moment of savoring it, she continued,
”I see you're beginning to see the bigger picture. I'll leave you for now to think about what you've done and what you can do to fix it. Later, when the troops have returned, I will come back to you to hear your response. Might I add, even if you do choose to defy us, losing your ability to paint will not be your only punishment. You will still cooperate with us one way or another...psychopath.”Leaving that charged word to hang in the air like a miasma, the sorceress left Isla to ponder her predicament in solitude.
Ike's apology and subsequent explanation deserved nothing more than a shrug from Chester.
”No problem.” He gave a short huff of effort. By now, the streets' incline had become mildly unpleasant, though this change heralded the half-way point of the two soldiers' trip to the arena. The beastmaster caught his breath and, in response to Ike's next question, stated,
”Yes, I do think there was. While I was at the Doma Flau at the time, the Camp was attacked by two strange creatures. One was this seafood-pirate-ghost kind of monster, and the other was some prettyboy with a huge, two-headed snake. We captured the last one, and his snake too, but the first one vanished. Apparently it's the same monster that screwed with Akane Resort a few months back. Weird, huh? Guess it's got a beef with us.”A new applicant to Frenzy Plant? Jane nodded in approval. It always felt gratifying to hear good things about one's guild. Such remarks helped ease any possible insecurity one felt that they might have made the wrong decision.
”Lady attacks be no common occurrence, lass. As fer depression, a fellow of ours named Ike recently escaped from a terrible curse. When he returned to us, he wasn't quite at full sail, if you catch my drift, and there was some fightin'. Most of it's fine now, however.” She turned her eyes on the fighting duo, watching with increasing worry. This seemed more like a deathmatch then a rivals' dispute, and neither showed any signs of holding back.
Before long, the battle ramped up again, and both Riona and Jane stepped instinctively back. All the while, the former piratess struggled with the question of jumping in and ending the duel, lest the park suffer irreparable damage. A shockwave rippled through the landscape and the people atop it, causing Jane to let go of the Privateer to avoid falling forward. Soon after, a crystalline substance carpeted the earth. While smooth, the surface didn't turn out to be slippery, and Jane could only wonder about the point of the spell. As the intensity of the Crimson God Slayer's magic built up, however, the tension grew for her as well, like one who sees the tumultuous black cloud and feels the drop in air pressure heralding a disastrous storm. When the Hell's Retribution went off, she turned tail to run, but the second, more explosive half of the technique sent her sprawling unceremoniously to the dirt. A few seconds later she got to her feet, only to immediately notice the corrosive magical residue of the attack beginning to eat away at her clothes.
What a series of events! First damaging Cecilia's armor, despite her insistence otherwise, then turning two strangers naked in public, then embarrassing and getting Ni hurt, then getting buddy-buddy with Isla, fighting Ike, and now this. Something snapped within her; Jane found herself sick and tired of Argus, and after this latest attempt to disrobe her, her fuse had burned down. Perhaps the malevolent aura of the demon assisted this. Regardless, steam practically blew from Jane's ears as she sucked in breath, before she roared,
I've had it with all this insanity! Ya bloody blaggards wanna tack about on Frenzy Plant turf, try and screw with me clothes? Ya best get ready to pay fer it! High-stakes Shells!” Her cannon's revolver barrel loaded itself magically with miniature warheads. Each one boasted enough concussive force to reduce a building to rubble, and in her fit of blind rage she leveled the Privateer at Argus and Marlene, and fired. A rocket-propelled bomb exited the barrel with a
foomp and shrieked through the air toward Argus' crater. All eyes lay upon it as it approached the two fighting mages, promising to toasty them at best and obliterate them at worst. They watched in terrifying silence as a white spark shone from its tip.
Then the shell unceremoniously fell to the grass, completely nullified.
In the stunned silence that followed, akin to the crowd surrounding a defused warhead -and with every bit of the same tension- a purple shape dashed into the clearing. It skidded to a halt between the crater and Jane, and resolved to be Frenzy Plant's premier swordswoman, who only days earlier had been reborn from her broken dream: Hyun. Brown hair flowing in the gust of wind caused by her arrival,
Hyun impassively slid a katana from its sheath and span around, saying,
“Mundane sparks!” A flurry of glowing white embers like snow whirled around the clearing, and where they touched the magic of Argus melted away completely. Jane and Riona were left with only mildly-destroyed attire, though the same couldn't quite be said for the original victim of the attack, Marlene.
Hyun replaced her sword and looked around imperiously, though she avoided the nudity of the combatants. An S-rank as of yesterday morning, she carried the authority of the guild master on her shoulders. Jane earned her attention first.
”Corporal Putcher, you ignoramus. Calm your temper before you find yourself cooling off in another cell.” Jane subsided immediately, suddenly ashamed. Hyun glared at the other two, though not directly.
”Oh, it's you. And some stranger. You both will have much to answer for.”Nero bobbed his head, pleased that Shujin would return a smile to someone who antagonized him not long ago. He liked the cut of the jib of anyone who could take a joke.
”I've been happy as a clam, and clammy as Hapi! A snort followed this wordplay; it wasn't often that he could work mythology into his clever remarks. Unfortunately, he did not expect the Dragon Fang metalsmith to get it. Shujin's fist-pump elicited a mirthful chuckle from the dark mage.
”Heh, good luck with that! If any of you need a magical pick-me-up, you know just who to call! Oh, and if you see Eve anywhere, tell her she's being sorely missed. Ta ta!”He continued on his way, but got only a little farther through his exploration before coming face-to-face with another aimless wanderer, this one moving quickly in a direction opposite to some colorful-haired, scantily-clad woman in white. In fact, Nolan nearly ran into Nero, who quickly slid to the side, saying,
”Whoa! Good morning, sunshine!” The very next instant, it seemed, that very woman appeared next to them, though her attention lay on Nolan alone. Nero seized the opportunity to wistfully imagine what Sayatachi would look like three hundred pounds heavier, before scooting along past them. The Rainbow Majesty's manner caused the Genie to laugh through his nose, a slight hissing sound, before commenting,
”Drink stand's up ahead if you're really thirsty.” He gave another merry laugh, beaming all the while, before proceeding.
The sight of Grane earned him a wide-eyed look from Nero, but for once the dark mage found no quips in his repertoire appropriate for a highly-intimidating lizardman. Instead, he merely shared his everpresent smile and passed by.
At that point, the first match of the day began.
”Ooh!” He leaned over the balcony to watch, not too far away from Grane so as to be out of his sight. A handful of minutes passed while the battle between Pakuna and Lazarus raged, and at the end, when the Light God Slayer stood above the Water Make wizard's unconscious body, Nero exclaimed to anyone in the vicinity,
”Man, who doesn't love a good, surprise ending? Because nobody saw that comin'. I'll never understand how some people have philosophical debates in the middle of fights. How weird. That Lazarus guy though, major butthead. What kinda person judges someone they never even met? Especially in a religious sense.”Throughout all this, Nero somehow failed to notice that his little spark of light, Ayame, was nowhere to be seen.
