There wasn’t any sunlight passing into the alley. There three shadowed figures, muscles bulging in various poses suited to their character types. One, a knight, stepped light onto Ralphos’s head. Ralphos and Juno were breathing in the dirt of the alley and smelled their blood on the ground. Juno dragged herself up, grunting.
“For that money you took, at least get Ralphos a healer!”, her face tight and a light in her emerald eyes. She wasn’t used to losing with Ralphos around, taking some serious hits and burns her pride hurt more than her body.
The knight, his cool breath came out with his somber voice as he pushed up ornate glasses. A mysterious light glinted off of them, marble color. He looked down onto the two bodies.
“Geez, getting cocky. Two lost nobles? Those weapons aren’t normal, that drill is full diamond ruby encrusted, that sword on this strange guy...I’ve never seen it but it’s obsidian dioride at the least. I wanted to leave you alone when I heard you took out a Shadow Demon, but when this strange guy blurted out he blew up a mountain, well, I couldn’t let that go. Nobles. Princes. Kings. Lords. You all make me sick. What sickens me the most…”
He lifted his foot. Giving a stable look to the stern faced catgirl, he sighed.
“Is that I chose to let you monsters run around. At the least, you honor your master. How about it, I kill him, you walk away. Surely, there’s something else you have in life?”
Juno started crying hot tears and looked down, her face tightening as she pounded the ground once. She was surprised that she did that, and the tears got worse.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to add insult to injury. Let it be your punishment for destroying that mountain. No way I’m telling my lord about this, to watch him squirm is one of my only joys left in life. Here, Qurbur, please get a healer,” he handed a black man wearing a genie outfit a huge bag of gold like it weighed nothing. Qurbur twirled it aimlessly.
“Thanks, I’ve gotten what I came for. If you’ll excuse me…” he turned and left them with a saunter his puffy pants fluffing with air.
“You sure you don’t want to take them to the church yourself, dear Cruci? Dear me, they look quite a fright, that poor girl. I feel like such a bully!”, a british man with a long mustache and perfect aristocratic attire gave him advice.
“Oh, you never think of others, Brutus. What if my lord hears of this? Catgirl, Qurbur is unreliable when it comes to anything but money. Don’t worry, he’ll bring you some aid. Now, I must get going…” Cruci the knight turned and left the alley without a beat missed, and Brutus followed close behind. The british man let out a simple light chuckle as they faded into the light, leaving Juno alone with the unconscious Ralphos.
“If only I knew the old Ralphos better, maybe he would have told me how to use that damn blade. I’m...sorry...I’m sorry!”, Juno said shaking, her tail and ears fully flattened.
Ralphos struggled up, pushing at the ground and shaking.
“What?! You didn’t move at all, I thought you were-”, the catgirl said shocked.
“Dead? Unconscious? Geez, just playing dead is easy. You don’t have theaters in this world?”, Ralphos grunted and threw himself against a wall.
“Well, I’m going to kill them all. Don’t worry, Juno. My character demands it,” he chuckled then coughed a little blood. Juno gave him a sober look, wiping away her tears. Her hair was matted with blood.
“Let them go. Just because they took the Shadow Demon reward money doesn’t mean anything. You’ll die. You’re not strong enough, you don’t know the ‘functions’, neither do I…”
“Then I learn. There should be someone who can tell me…” Ralphos stared at the bulletblade lying away from him.
“People like them, don’t you want to give them a punch in the face? I might end up killing them though, but hey, you beat up a guy and make his girl cry and what’s he to do?”, Ralphos spread out his hands to the air wearily, “what a bunch of assholes.”
Juno looked away and pulled herself to him. Ralphos stayed silent as he put his arm around her. It wasn’t in his character to ignore something as obvious as this.
The healer fixed them up, an old stern man, who looked like this was an everyday thing for him. They gathered their things and were searching the city.
“I thought I would like this place. Looked so pretty and innocent from the walk up…”, Ralphos complained.
There were spires poking into the sky from every building, a beautiful array of colors. Ralphos had asked for the best weaponsmith from the villagers he came across, looking quite frightening with blood all over him but the villagers took no notice of it. They were instead polite. Juno told him about the weapons.
“Nobles usually sink a lot of money into their weapons. Taxes are quite harsh in most kingdoms due to the recent wars. Anything to get something nicer for themselves, that they could have just taken my drill…” Juno was hugging her drill.
“I’ll make them regret going easy on us. You just wait. After this, we’ll find a quest from the guild and get some money, we’ll have to camp outside for a night, but you don’t mind right?”, Ralphos said as he patted her back.
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“I’m sorry…”, she whispered. Ralphos caught it, and his more human now face’s corners dropped a bit. He knew that he couldn’t do much else for her now. Save killing some bastards.
His face screwed up in anger as he looked away.
Later, they found it. A dwiff, that’s what they called dwarves here. The best in town, a royal capital blacksmith appointed so by the lord. It was lucky, usually a smaller luxury town like Locos wouldn’t have such a high level blacksmith like him. They were lucky too he was drinking, as is usual for him, as they stepped into his eternal sunset colored forge. The Dwiff laying back, his beer emptying into his throat nigh endlessly before getting refilled from a pleasant looking servant girl with a light smile about her.
“Ah, a catgirl. You’re after my own heart, so sad looking and messy and a pretty one like you! Were I to have an emerald like those eyes I wouldn’t sell it! I never bought into that war, y’know! Catpeople, dwiffs, we can share the underground! That’s why I left, damn Dwiffking. He thinks the whole world belongs to dwiffs, can’t we share? What do you think missy?”, Afgar the dwiff launched that rant the moment they stepped inside and went back to draining the beer the moment he stopped.
Ralphos, ever the sensitive caring soul he was, wanted answers as soon as possible. He placed the bulletblade onto the counter and Afgar’s eyes went wide as his pupils hit it, but he finished drinking anyways. As the girl refilled his beer, he snatched the bulletblade.
“Ah, no wonder ye came to me. You’re a kind lad. Prince? Lord? Goblin make, but dwiff technology. I’d love to see the crazy bastard that pulled this off,” he hit latch and it unlocked the blade. He pulled and took a look inside the handle.
“Madam, my headlamp if you don’t mind. And a sticker,” he cried to the woman.
She calmly handed him a short thin metal rod and a crystal with a strap tied to it. He slapped on the strap around his head and prodded with the metal rod.
“Gee. This is some fancy work. You want it repaired? Doesn’t need it, milord,” Afgar said.
“I hit my head, forgot how it works. Can you figure it out? It can destroy a mountain so be careful…” Ralphos cautioned.
“Oh, who do you think you’re talking to! Well, the trigger shoots it, that much you got right? Far as I can tell, you gotta operate this latch then control this little stick here,” Afgar pointed with a stubby finger to the stick on the inside of the handle, facing outwards.
“Ah, I couldn’t even get it open without shooting it, no wonder, must have hit that trigger in a panic back then,” Ralphos said with his hand on his chin.
“Eyeglass, thanks,” the lady retrieved a tiny crystal and the dwiff eyed the bulletblade handle inside carefully with it stuck between his brow and cheek.
“Huh. You a prince? Never heard of a goblin half breed prince,” Afgar looked at Ralphos.
“Uh,” Ralphos mind sped, “It was a gift. From a prince.”
Afgar eyed him furtively, a grin spreading across his face before returning to examining the handle.
“Country-class treasure, here. This thing, that prince must be your boyfriend or something. No way he’d let this go, even if he died. Drives. It’s got four of them. What do you call this?”, Afgar tapped the blade.
“Bulletblade,” responded the partial dragon half goblin prince with a catgirl maid at his side.
“No wonder then. It’s got instructions, too small for you to see, the creator made this to last a long time, to be fought over in wars, to save or doom kingdoms. What a wonderful person, dwiff or goblin, whatever he be he’s after my own heart,” Afgar sighed and leaned back.
“Spare me a war, okay kid? I’m too old to do anything but drink and work,” he slugged down another beer.
Ralphos gave him a bemused look and sighed as Afgar continued and showed him the inside of the handle .
“Drives. See the directions it can go, to the corners of that box inside the handle? one? Bisect. Drive 1. Limit Breaker. Drive 2. Kingdom Crush. Drive 3. Soul Breaker. Drive 4. Want me to explain them?”, Afgar had a look on his face like even if Ralphos carried his catgirl princess style and dashed out that he would follow him to the ends of the earth.
“Ah, well. I’m glad the guy who made this, Xethos, put such a detailed description in here. He probably knew it would change hands, the lovely bastard,” Afgar sighed and drank.
“Xethos…” whispered Juno, her ears going back and her grin tightening. Ralphos noticed, but stayed quiet.
“Drive 1 Bisect, point and click it. Auto aims the blade to a target you’re thinking of, intelligent targeting, reads your mind. Just be careful when you click it, not that accurate if you’re thinking of someone else, you hear!”
“Drive 2 Limit Breaker, just pumps your physical and mental ability. ‘Superhuman’, it says. Good luck with that one. Adds regeneration too, convenient. You won’t get stuck dead if you can hit that, kid.”
“Drive 3 Kingdom Crush. Don’t use that, you bastard. I’m not telling you that one! Don’t ever use it, ever, ever, okay? Even if you find someone to tell you what it does, remember I told you no! Might blow up a mountain with that damn thing, bastard.”
“Drive 4 Soul Breaker. Another one, don’t use it. It’s cruel. If you tap that one…”
Afgar leaned back and sighed. He drained the next beer. As he slapped that tankard down, he spoke.
“You kill someone’s soul, add it to the pile in the blade. There’s a counter in there. You want to know how many it’s got?”, Afgar looked at him blank.
Ralphos stared back, pondering. It’s a test. The way he’s holding the bulletblade, he might steal it right here. Ralphos didn’t expect that option, but the guard he had up now and the change in behavior scared him.
“I won’t use Drive 4. Drive 3 I already used by accident. Drive 4,” he sighed, “that’s too much for me. I don’t want to know the counter number.”
Afgar gave him a bigger grin than before.
“Good. Damn kid like you with this thing, the world’s your oyster, but, this thing will probably get you killed. I’ll tell no one you came here. Milord’s a dick anyways. You want to run wild? How about giving him a Soul Breaker, if there’s anyone who deserves it, that bastards the one. Unfortunately, this thing runs on souls, see the counter in there?”, Afgar showed Ralphos the counter without guard this time.
“Wow, 3.500? Someone must have used it a lot. That’s not ethical at all, that’s horrible…” Ralphos mumbled staring at the counter, “what kind of history does this bulletblade have?”
“Beats me. I’d ask the prince you got it from. I can’t tell you how much soul the damn thing will use, but if you run out...well, you hit overload. Don’t do that. Might take your soul as power for the thing, that’s usually how soultaker treasures work. This one though…”, the dwiff gave the inside a stare.
“It’ll blow up a country, if you hit overload. Keep a wary eye on that counter. If you run out of souls, just ask around for the biggest assholes you can find, I’m sure you can kill them off horribly and nobody will mind,” consulted Afgar.
“Now, get out. And take that catgirl with you. If there’s anything that can keep you sane with a damn thing like that, it's a good woman. Seeya honey, hope you like this bastard, you might end up dying for him,” Afgar drank.