Milkman

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

"Morning, little fox. Having a nightmare?"

”Sort of I guess. I must have blacked out from mana depletion or something but the last thing I remember was you laying on the floor with a stab wound in the chest and that girl aiming her blast magic at you. I can’t recall how it all ended. I’m just glad that you.. that we all are still alive.”

The fox paused a bit as Chounan returned with several items and Jazdia handed over a little tube to Yvonne. However the mercenary was in no shape to administer any form of healthcare to anyone. She kinda stated her wounds but Kaito figured she was still downplaying it a bit. Somehow his female companions all had this thing for acting tough.

”Just sit down and rest, ok? I’ll handle the situation. Make sure i’ll patch anyone up and we can get the fuck out of this damn sewer as quickly as possible before more misfortune comes our way.”

Quickly Kaito opened the metal thermos that Jazdia gave him but much time to think about it he didn’t have as the soldier the fox had knocked out earlier regained his consciousness and started talking. Something Yvonne seemed to find rather annoying.

”Guilty as charged.” responded to the Kitsune as the mercenary more or less inquired about who had left the soldier alive. For a moment he looked at the confused soldier who asked why he was still alive and where his sword was. ”Why you are still alive? Why not? Not everyone around here likes to kill people. Your sword is there by the way.” said the fox as he pointed to the canal. ”If you want it back you gonna need to take a swim. You’re gonna be private poopface for the rest of your career though. So why don't you sit tight for now so that we can have a conversation later?”.

Kaito paused as Jazdia walked towards the girl on the ground who apparently was still alive somehow. A part of him was kind of disappointed that the girl was still breathing. But could she be really held accountable for her actions after a life of abuse and manipulation by Gerald? That man had probably broken her mind to the very core and manipulated her into loving him. A story of a rather toxic relationship that sounded rather familiar to the fox. Somehow this encounter felt like looking into a mirror.

The ktisune let out a sigh and immediately felt the pain of his bruised ribs but grabbed the bottle of spirit and bandages that Chounan had brought nonetheless as he walked over the girl and the elf. he took a quick look at the girl and Jazdia before more or less commanding the elf to get out of the way.”You can’t give her a potion before taking out the arrow. That will lead to infections later. Your hands are in no condition to take it out. I’ll do it.”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Everything was black, no lights, no shapes, no colors. Just an endless nothingless, a void so tranquil yet devoid of anything. Anything? no, vague voices could be heard in the distance. Voices that sounded familiar but the fox struggled to place them. Then he opened his eyes.

The sudden light bombarded his eyes, the world around him seemed to spin out of control while a massive headache just kept ringing inside his head. For a moment Kaito just felt nauseous, weak and could not place where he was. The kitsune tried to stand up but felt that his legs were just giving in and he felt flat on his ass. For a brief moment the fox just sat there, dazed and confused about where he was and what just happened.

Then the events of earlier all started to come back slowly. The fight at the entry of the guild’s headquarters came first and slowly he started to regain his memories from today until the very last thing he remembered. The girl was charging up her blast attack in order to finish the job she had started. She was about to kill Jazdia when Kaito casted his illusion. Then everything went black for the fox.

A sudden panic came over the kitsune. Frantically looked around for his elf companion and tried to scream her name but his voice was weak from exhaustion. “Jaz…”. But before he could finish he noticed that she was on the ground next to him. Much to his relief she was still alive but badly injured.

”You’re alive. That’s good” Spoke the fox with much relief in his voice. Slowly the realization dawned upon him that the fight was over and they all had survived. But Jazdia and Yvonne were in terrible shape.

Kaito looked for a moment at Jazdia. The sight of her injuries still filled him with a terrible rage and concern. However he took a deep breath and decided that his emotions should not be clouding his judgment at this time. They had to get into moving shape as quickly as possible. They were still on the territory of the black serpents guild afterall.

Kaito stood up and walked over to the elf. ”We’re is your medkit? We need to do something about that shoulder of yours.” He paused a bit and looked at Yvonne. ”And we need to do something about pretty much everything of Yvonne. Where is Chounan?”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

The sudden wave of telekinetic energy blasted Kaito away from his position in front of Jazdia. Flying a few meters through the air he crash landed on the floor, rolling a few more feet before coming to a stop. The fox could feel the bruises and cuts all over his body. As he tried to get up he could feel an intense pain coming from his ribcage. The crash had most likely bruised some ribs at best or broke some at worse. Painful but not enough to keep him from fighting.

For a moment he looked at the girl to figure out a plan of attack. He wasn’t sure if she could actually see or hear. His words didn’t seem to have reached the fragile thing and the blindfold suggested that she was visually impaired. If she was deaf, charming her would not work and if she was blind, purely visual illusions would not work either on her. However she did respond to the mace that Yvonne had thrown so it seemed a relatively safe bet that the girl retained her sense of touch and pain.

However there was no time to strategize. The girl continued her brutal assault against Jazdia. Attacker her with a spear and pushing the elf away again with her telekinesis. But it would not end there. The masterless slave girl was charging up her magic blast again. If the fox didn’t act now, that crazy chick would certainly kill the elf.

Kaito knew he had to go all out. He had one shot before his mana would be depleted. The kitsune stood up and drew out his last remaining magical powers. The hairs on his head and tail were all swirling as he was casting one of the most intense, devious and disturbing illusions he had ever done. ”Stop it!!!!

Suddenly flames bursted out of the girl’s body with intense heat. The smell of burning flesh drove away the stench of the sewer. Kaito has given the girl the sensation that she is burning alive. She would feel the intense heat and the excruciating pain, smell the sickening stench of her own flesh burning away, see the flames devour her body, hear the fire raging in her ears and experience a taste so horribly that no words could describe it.

Casting such a complex illusion that attacked all five senses at once was quickly draining the last of Kaito’s remaining mana. As an unbearable headache set in he knew he could only keep this up for maybe 10 seconds at best, probably less before he would pass out from exhaustion. Hopefully it would distract the crazy chick long enough for either Chounan or Yvonne to get in a shot and disable this girl….permanently.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito wasn’t sure on how the Golem did it but somehow he had created an explosive ball of feces infested waters powerful enough to get Aaron Delving sound the retreat. Maybe it was the explosion, the falling debris or the shit hitting the turd below but somehow it worked. Ironman had broken the stalemate and secured the victory for today.

Watching Delving and his men scramble for the exit the fox could not help but to swing some more insults at the constables head. ”You can run and hide all you want Delving but with that smell of yours we’ll track you down in a matter of minutes. Shitheads like you do smell like shit after all.”

Much time to rejoice the retreat of the constable wasn’t given as the situation took a dramatic turn. From the other side of the canal a floating girl appeared. Kaito recognized her faintly as the slave girl that was locked away in that special room behind a magic barrier. It was unlikely that she had lifted the barrier herself but who did it then? Was it Gerald?

Before Kaito could even ask the girl a single question she fired her magic at the fox’s elf companion. A large explosion of white and purple blew Jazdia away. ”Jazdia!!!!!!! No!!!!!!!!!!” Yelled the Kitsune in pure shock.

”Why….Why did you attack her? She tried to set you free! Spoke the fox as he clenched his sword even harder as his initial shock turned into anger that spread through his body like wildfire.

Kaito desperately tried to keep his head cool, raw emotion was never a good advice giver and yet he felt this burning desire to split this girl’s head in two. It was pure hate that he felt for her. Hate, anger and rage for hurting someone who he deeply cared about. And then it dawned upon him. Could it be that the floating girl felt the same?

It was hard to tell with the blindfold before her eyes but still her body language screamed anger and pain. Her attack was so focussed and tenacious as if it was done out of pure hate for the target. And yet they had never truly met. Could it be that it was because of Gerald’s death? Did she somehow have similar feelings for that wicked Guild master he has for Jazdia? That seemed to be the only scenario that made some sense for her actions Kaito could think of in this moment

And if that was true? What would that tell about the fox? Would he turn into a similar rage monster hellbent on getting revenge if the boss elf would die? It would be easy to get consumed by the anger and hate if your loved ones die to violence. He would move heaven and earth to undo the wrong but at the same time he knew also that no matter the retribution he would dish out, it never would change what has happened. The dead cannot be brought back to live and the pain of loss would not be any more bearable after revenge.

Kaito looked at Jazdia. Her wounds looked pretty bad but at the same time he also saw someone he desired to protect more than anything. It was a feeling stronger than the anger and hate he felt for that girl. A feeling the fox would cling on dearly as he stepped between his elf friend and the attacker. ”I think I have a grasp of how you feel, you loved Gerald, your master, right? No amount of revenge can bring him back and no amount of violence and death will ever ease your pain! It will only put other people through the same misery you’re feeling now but it will never end yours. I will not allow you to hurt my friend because I feel the same.” Spoke the Kitsune more resolutely than ever before. He wasn’t sure if any of his words would ever reach this psycho chick but he would not move. He would not let this girl take any more shots at Jazdia.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito’s strike to the neck of the soldier landed and the man collapsed unconscious on the ground. The fox quickly disarmed him and collected the weapons of the two soldiers that Chounan had slain and tossed them into the canal. For now that threat was neutralized however on the other side there was still an Aaron Delving with some remaining men.

And with the bridge destroyed, reaching him would be difficult. They could try to swim across but just the idea of diving into the with feces infested sewer water made the kitsune sick. Not to mention that cleaning his brush tail afterwards would be a drag. It might smell for a week. Only the golem didn’t seem to care about the risk of attracting unwanted odors. But the rest seemed stuck at the other side of the canal.

To make matters worse, that prick of a constable had raised some kind of barrier that made him and his last few men save from their attacks. The Golem tried to sweep underneath it but by the looks of it the barrier covered all their angles while the two soldiers with muskets could still fire potshots at them.

Kaito could feel the fatigue setting in. He had been covering the entire room into an illusionary mist for quite some time now and it started to drain his mana. The fox wasn’t sure if his illusion was still affecting the enemies inside Delving’s barrier. There was a magic barrier in the underground arena that had been messing with his abilities and the constable’s one looked somewhat similar.

Quickly he assessed the situation. Delving and his men were waiting at the other side. Clearly they were waiting for them to make a move. Kaito and his companions could try to retreat but then the musketeers would most likely open fire on them when they would enter the narrow pathway that they had used to enter the canal room. If they would try to cross the feces canal they would be exposed to the same musket fire. And as long as Delving has his barrier up, there was nothing they could do about it.

Kaito quickly took cover behind the rear pillar and gestured to Chounan to do the same. For now the fox did not see any options to either advance or to retreat. The only thing to do was to wait for an opening. It would be unlikely that constable Delving could hold up his barrier of an indefinite amount of time. With everyone having taken cover, it would be best to conserve his mana so the kitsune ended his illusion.

Speaking from behind the rear pillar, Kaito decided to taunt the constable. Maybe Delving would make a mistake if the fox could manage to get under his skin. ” Hey Delving, I always knew you were a crook but you turned out to be also a coward. Hiding like a scared little baby behind a barrier isn’t exactly knightly. Why don’t you come over to our side and fight like a real man?”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito quickly followed the leader through the corridors and tunnels until they reached the canal hall where they would be greeted by a familiar but rather unwelcome face. Somehow Constable Delving managed to be just at this particular spot at this particular time. How surprising. It was as if he knew they would come through here. The fox simply guessed that this was the reason that Gerald did not put up a fight back in his bunker. He was counting on his fellow conspirator Aaron Delving to save the day.

The kitsune sighed as he knew that they would have just another fight at their hands. Clearly their involuntary participation in Gerald’s gladiatorial wasn’t enough to please the gods into giving them an easy escape. However this time there wasn’t any magic field that interfered with Kaito’s abilities. Delving and his goons would be in for a nasty surprise.

However before he could do anything the whole situation went to shit when Jazdia ordered the release of the guild master. However the moment Gerald made his way across the bridge the elf just shot him to pieces. ”For fox sake, we were supposed to take him alive!!” Yelled Kaito in frustration.

However there was no time to argue about the necessity of Jazdia’s action. Three soldiers armed with muskets had taken position on their flank and took their aim. They were ready to shoot them on the spot. But before the soldiers pulled the trigger, the fox created a thick illusionary fog in the entire hall, reducing everyone’s vision to less then half a meter.

Well, not everyone’s vision. The kitsune knew that the boss elf could see through it with ease. Also Chounan would be perfectly capable of locating anyone with his ki sense. Not to mention that Kaito himself was not affected by his own creation. Yvonne might have a hard time but at least the soldiers would not be able to take a clear shot unless they somehow had a way to see through his illusions.

Quickly Kaito moved to the side to flank the most left soldier. With his sheeted sword in his left hand the fox dashed at the soldier to suddenly pop up from the fog. The kitsune drew his wakizashi and launched a strike against the soldier’s sword, pushing it aside while remaining in contact to prevent a counter attack. This attack was quickly followed by a left handed strike with the scabbard aiming at the side of the neck, trying to knock the soldier out in one swift blow to the vagus nerve.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito followed Jazdia and the others through the tunnels and corridors until they met their target. Some of the thugs tried to put up some resistance but those were quickly cleaned up. One familiar face even yielded before putting up a fight. The kitsune gave the coward a quick thumbs up as he passed him by.

The elf breached the final door with an explosive arrow and everyone stormed inside. Much to Kaito’s surprise the guild master was quickly overpowered and taken into custody. Jazdia had slammed the man a few times into the wall and apart from a bit of verbal resistance, nothing happened. Was it really this easy?

The boss elf quickly barked her orders and directed the kitsune to check the documents on the floor. The fox piled them all up and started to scan through them one by one looking for any evidence that would tie the Black Serpent guild to the assasination attempt on the king. However he didn’t get far before a somewhat expected guest broke his concentration with his rather unique entrance and demanding voice.

Kaito looked up from his pile of documents and stared rather annoyed at the golem. ”Hey Iron man. I don’t know who you are or what you want but please zip it till we’re done with our work here and out savely. I prefer to spend as little time in Geralds murder dungeon as possible so keep it down until I’ve fininish going through his paperwork. Thank you.”

The kitsune didn’t wait for the golem’s answer and simply hoped that he would shut his mouth till the point that they were safe. After that he could stir up as much trouble as he wanted but the fox didn’t feel anything for spending unnecessary time in the Black Serpents guild headquarters.

Quickly Kaito continued with his quest to find anything that could like the guild with the assasination attempt. There were documents with all kinds of shady and illegal stuff in the pile but the first few contained nothing he was looking for. The first thing of note were procurement letters of various contraband items. All the names on the letters appeared to be alliasses and some of them were rather interesting. Another item of note was a receipt for a shipment of sulfur. One of the main ingredients for making smoke bombs.

The fox quickly put those aside and continued to scour through the pile of paperwork. Most of the documents were unrelated to the assasination incident. However after a while another item caught Kaito’s attention. It was a detailed map of Rascade. Allone it would not be that noteworthy but underneath it was a second piece of semi-transparent paper that could be folded over the rascade map. Once that was done it provided an overlay of what appeared to be an underground tunnel system and its location relative to Rascade.

Continuing his search the Kitsune finally stumbled upon a ledger containing a vast number of financial transactions. There wasn’t enough time to go through it in detail but it was interesting enough to add it to the documents he had filtered out. From what Kaito had found it was clear that the Black Serpent Guild had the items in stock that had been used during the assasination attempt and was aware of the existence of the complex tunnel system beneath Rascade.

Kaito quickly placed all the documents he found in a leather bag and walked up to the elf. ”Jaz, based on the documents I found the Black Serpents Guild certainly had the items and intricate knowledge of the underground tunnel systems required for the assasination attempt. I think we got enough and should make our exit.”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

kaito could feel his blade hitting the bear’s skull. Rather than punching through his wakizashi was sliding down, following the contours of the skull and only cutting open flesh, skin and muscle where it should have skewered the brains in order to be fatal. It was at that moment that the fox realized that he had made a grave mistake. From his peripheral vision he could see the giant muscular bear arm swinging towards him. If it would connect, it would turn the kitsune into fox pudding. However the attack suddenly stopped as a timely arrow stuck the creature right in its muzzle. Jazdia had saved his skin.

The fox readied himself to strike again but then some form of chaos ensued in the audience. Gerald ordered the arena to be sealed while the elf had blown up the trap door. For a moment he looked at the bear and then at his companions before making a dash towards the door. This fight was over but the mission was not. They still had to capture Gerald.

Kaito quickly caught up with Jazdia and Yvonne. “Even more fighting?…you can have my part if it makes you happy. Spoke the fox as he had seen enough fighting for today but knew that there would still be a lot more of that stuff coming their way.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito assessed the situation. The wolf was preoccupied with getting out of the net Chounan had tossed and would soon be free to attack the samurai. The werebear was a totally different story. That creature had managed to swat away Yvonne like a fly but had found himself in an even worse spot. The strange latecomer had somehow managed to fuse himself with the bear’s armor and turned it into a frying plate. The creature was in absolute agony and tried frantically to get rid of the glowing hot torture device that was strapped to his now burning chest. Judging both creatures, it was clear that the bear was paying the least attention to his surroundings.

The fox circled around the top right pillar, making sure to stay out of the rolling bear’s field of vision as much as possible. For a moment he quietly observed the werecreature’s movements from behind the pillar. Kaito knew that he had to deliver an instant fatal strike. If he would give the bear the chance to retaliate, he would be in grave danger.

The moment the suffering bear rolled with his head into the direction of the pillar Kaito initiated his strike. Lunging forward from behind the pillar the fox thrusted his wakizashi with all his might into the exposed head from the bear. The fox could only hope that he has enough strength to pierce through the werebear’s tick skull.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito had barely asked his questions to the elf or the announcer started to speak again. Looking up, the fox noticed a most hideous creature sitting on one of the thrones. The tick layers of paint could not hide the ugliness of this hag, her drooling face promised little good. It somehow made him feel that what would happen next would have something to do with the perverse fantasies of the hideous hag on her throne.

What came from the trap door on the other side terrified the kitsune to his core. It was a huge canine creature, standing on his hind legs with razor sharp claws and a grim grin on his nasty muzzle full of sharp teeth. Kaito had never felt comfortable around dogs but this werewolf was on an entirely different level. It made all the hairs on his tail stand up in sheer terror.

However the werewolf was not the champion of hideous hag Stritzel. Another werecreature entered the arena and set his sights on the fox. The hag’s champion was a freaking werebear clad in armor. Instinctively Kaito set a few steps backwards while looking over his shoulder to the gate where they came from. Every hair on his body told him to run but there was nowhere to go. The gate was closed. The only option was to stand and fight so he drew his sword.

For a moment Kaito looked at Jazdia, they should strategize about how to deal with this new threat. However before he could say anything, the creatures made their move. The bear dashed forward with his eyes fixated on the fox and the elf started immediately to fire arrows at the creature. The first did not seem to have much impact but the second, explosive arrow rocked the werebear.

For a moment the Kitsune contemplated if he should attack the creature. But what good could he do with just a shortsword against such a large bear clad in armor. But before he could come to a conclusion Yvonne dashed forward with one of the fallen poleaxes while commanding Kaito to stay in the back. I.. I think I will Spoke the fox as he positioned himself behind his comrade.