Level 3 - (27/30) + 14
Level 8 - (71/80) + 3
Word Count:1253
Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town ~ The Bismarck Restaurant
@Yankee@Dark Cloud@Dawnrider@Lugubrious@ZAVAZggg@Archmage MC@DracoLunaris@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN
As Link watched the silver haired swordsman bound after the last of the Cia's, sword straight and true, Link lowered his bow and directed his gaze elsewhere. There was no good reason, he decided, to watch the same woman die twice in the same day no matter what sort of woman it was.
It didn't help much. The sound of it still stabbed at his ears and nowhere he looked had anything to offer him in way of comfort. No matter what there was a flipped table, the scorch mark left behind by dark magic, an injured person, a ruined evening. A spirit that couldn't possible had come from the enemy. A reminder of what his lack of vigilance had cost.
"Unbelievable." He said, sounding tired. "I leave the princess alone for a minute and I end up getting kidnapped. Some bodyguard I am." He looked left and right, at the Cadet and the Frog. "Thank you. I'm sorry I got you guys into this."
It appeared, at least, as though
someone was pleased with all this. Two orbs appeared in the ruins of the restaurant just as the barrier went down. Link walked around the table after a moment, cautiously approaching them as he pulled up his Sheikah Slate. "They're not attacking us." He said, bringing up the slate and snapping quick picture of each for future reference. "Spirit Orbs?" He said aloud as he lowered it. "Who from? I'm going to very upset if this was all some kind of trial."
He turned away from them, and as he did his boot hit something and sent it tumbling across the floor. He followed it, the little mote of dancing light tumbling until it came to rest against Cia hat where it had fallen on the floor. He reached down and picked up the sorceresses spirit. He contemplated destroying it, like Frog had, but couldn't bring himself to squeeze quite that hard. The image of the green one reaching for him in her dying moments was still fresh in his mind and the sting of pity the image generated stayed his hand. Of course, he wasn't going to fuse with it either. He didn't want to know what sort of awkward chimera would result from taking in someone with a
him obsession. He supposed he could let it fade away, but that was completely out of the question. It just wasn't in his nature not to use the resources presented to him.
That left only one option, and it kind of turn his stomach that it would be the one most enjoyable for her, but he would just think of it as getting her to work off her debt to them. He thought back to what he'd seen Linkle do, and brought the spirit up to his lips where they could see eye to eye. "I know you don't have any objections to coming with me. Not after all this."
Despite this the spirit sat still in his palm. "Come on." He said. "You wanted to know my story, right? I'm saying you can be a part of it. Something besides a bit villain."
There was a another moment of hesitation then, almost shamefully, the image of Cia flowed out of the spirit and into Link's body. He shook his hand, wiping away the residue of the quickly dissolving spirit, and sighed. "You probably could have come along body and all if you had just asked."
It wasn't long after that that the real trial started. Soon enough the authorities arrived to take everyone to task for the calamity they had made. The owners complaints may have been made in anger, but he couldn't disagree with any of them. There really wasn't a way to argue out of the fact that picking a fight in the middle of a busy restaurant hadn't been the best plan. That's why, when arguments came, the issue was sidestepped entirely. Frog staked his good reputation in town to try and deescalate the situation, a move that made Link feel miserable considering he had just met the man a few minutes ago, before trying to pay for the damage out of his own pocket. Geralt, on the other hand, banked on their usefulness. It seemed as though his group had had a productive day while Link had been abducted, solving the mystery of the seemingly unconquerable enemy plaguing this ocean on their first sortie. Everyone else either hadn't chosen to speak or were hurriedly hushed.
"Admiral." Link said, stepping forward and bowing his head remorsefully. "I was the cause of this fight. While I was searching for a ship the sorceress, Cia, approached me and used magic to subvert my will. Though Frog did strike out at her, his only target was her scepter and his only intention was to break the spell she had placed on my mind so that they could take me away from here. That is all. It was Cia that escalated this to battle when she tried to murder my saviors with black magic." Which meant, he realized, that both the person that had initiate the fight and the one that had escalated it had both been from
Limsa and not their group, though he bit his tongue on that. There was no way he was throwing the man that just fought to save him under the kart and he didn't think 'well actually this is you guy's fault if you really think about it' was an argument that had ever held sway in the history of any world. Still, the knowledge added a little more confidence to his voice. "I'll admit I haven't been a member of this group for very long, but in the short time I've spent with them I've seen them defeat a monster fearsome enough to destroy this town all by itself and free a whole city from its dominion. I have the picture to prove it. If anyone can put an end to this Abyssal threat, it's them. Please, let us make up for this tragedy."
Location: Frozen Highlands - Snowdin ~ Snowfield
@Lugubrious@darkred
Linkle felt all the air evacuate from her lungs, but she barely had time to get a breath back before the world started spinning. Then she was flying through the air, bouncing off the ground like a stone skipped across a pond, before the whole world went white. The dark. Was this is? What she dead? No, no, that didn't make any sense with the prophecy. Either of them, the catgirl one or the beat Ganon one. She couldn't be dead.
She opened her mouth, tried to breath, and then inhaled something. She popped out of the snow drift she had been bee plowed into, hacking and coughing before choking the unmelting snow out of her throat and taking a few deep, grateful breaths. With a groan she picked herself up and stared down the man. This man was really starting to bug her. That last attack had actually been a great idea, even he had said so, and she had wasted it on him. Not to mention that she was starting to notice something very troubling. The man was bored, listless, he left himself open all the time. He didn't care about getting attacked. Despite that, not once had Linkle pinged onto any sort of Weak Point she could exploit. Not even once. "What's your deal?" She yelled. "You don't feel anything? Ice, fire, getting kicked in the head, you just laugh it off?"
She took a sprinters stance and breathed in, letting the magic she had gotten from that potion spread through all her limbs. There was a thrum of power as Linkle began to glow, sparks of energy flying off of her. "I've got electricity too. Are you afraid of that?" She sprinted at him, the magic coursing through her body driving her twice as fast as before. As she reached him she planted one leg and lashed out with a series of kicks aimed all over the strangers body, lightning arching from from one boot to the other as the magic drove the power behind them to new heights.