TIME: 2:30 PM
The trio-Charles with Radhan, Renier with Wyvern, and Sasha with Requlia-stood beside their horses, ready to set out.
"Well, boys, ready?" Sasha's voice carried an edge of urgency.
"Yeah," Charles and Renier responded in sync.
"Alright, first stop is Tyker's Town," she reminded them, mounting her horse. "Two hours on horseback, so let's not waste time."
They saddled up, leaving Roger's Hill behind, the sound of hooves echoing as they rode into the dawn.
Two hours later, the trio arrived in Tyker's Town. The small town bustled with life-laughter spilling from the tavern, children playing in the muddy streets, and merchants hawking their wares. The trio led their horses to a nearby hitching post, the noise of the town surrounding them.
"Boys, I'm heading to the tavern for a drink," Sasha said, her voice dry.
"The tavern?" Renier raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you already have whiskey before the ride?"
Sasha ignored him, striding into the tavern, leaving Renier shaking his head. Charles chuckled under his breath.
Meanwhile, at the town's entrance, a young man in a red scarf and scuffed jacket stood studying a map. His cowboy hat shaded his eyes as he muttered, "Now... where can I find the guild?"
After several failed attempts to ask the locals, he approached Charles and Renier at the hitching post.
"Hey there! Do you know where the guild is?" he asked, holding up his map.
"The guild?" Charles looked puzzled.
Renier's face lit up. "Oh, you mean the Guild. It's on the south side, left of the mayor's house."
The man sighed in relief. "Thanks!" He hastily marked his map and rushed off. Once out of earshot, Charles turned to Renier.
"So... what the hell is the Guild?" Charles asked, still confused.
"It's a mercenary guild, like any other."
"Then why call it the Guild?"
"The founder wanted it to sound important, I guess."
"Idiotic."
"Agreed."
Inside the tavern, Sasha downed her whiskey, trying to shake off a gnawing sense of unease. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a cloaked figure lurking near the door, watching her. "Damn it... why now?"
she muttered under her breath, her instincts flaring. Slapping some bronze coins on the counter, she muttered to the bartender, "Here's for the tab."
Suddenly, the cloaked figure drew a revolver. Sasha's reflexes kicked in, and she dodged just in time, the bullet barely missing her. In one swift motion, she launched herself across the room, kicking the man in the face, knocking him out cold.
"Oi! Why'd ya beat that poor sod?" a drunkard shouted, stumbling to his feet.
"That freak just tried to shoot me, you inbred horse lover!" Sasha snapped back, dodging as the drunkard swung a punch, missing her and hitting another patron instead. Chaos erupted. A full brawl broke out as fists flew, tables were overturned, and chairs crashed into walls. In the midst of the melee, Sasha dragged the unconscious attacker out the back door.
Once outside, she quickly plunged a knife into the man's skull, silencing him for good. She rummaged through his pockets, her breath catching as she found a folded note. Unfolding it, her blood ran cold:
"Payment of 200 platinum coins has been fulfilled. The Aracnoid group has been requested to assassinate the mercenary group 'Endur' by Grandmaster and Grand Marshall Arthur Evalunch of Elysees. Burn this letter after reading. Ensure all targets are dead."
Her heart pounded. "The Elysees Kingdom... they sent assassins after us?" Her voice trembled. "When did they find out? Did they intercept the letter from Tsuvir?"
Panic creeping in, Sasha bolted toward the hitching post, praying that Charles and Renier were still safe.
As she reached the post, chaos had already erupted. Lawmen and bounty hunters were firing at Charles and Renier, who had taken cover behind barrels. Renier clutched his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers, while Charles returned fire.
"Sasha!" As they both called out in Unison
"What the hell happened?" she asked, eyes darting between the lawmen and her injured comrades.
"They started shooting, accusing us of murder! We tried asking why, but they weren't in the mood to talk!" Renier grunted, wincing as he tightened the bandage around his wound.
"They've been bribed by Elysees," Sasha muttered in disbelief. "Elysees? What do they want with us?" Charles shouted over the gunfire." I'll explain later! Right now, where are the horses?" "They bolted," Charles answered grimly. "They WHAT?" Sasha groaned in frustration.
"Charles, go get them back! I'll cover Renier." Without hesitation, Charles dashed through the storm of bullets, whistling for the horses as he dodged behind cover. The familiar sound of their neighs echoed from the town's entrance. But just as he reached them, two bounty hunters raised their rifles.
"Got him!" one shouted, taking aim.
Charles ducked behind some barrels, drawing his revolvers and firing back in a blind shot. He heard a pained shout as one of the bounty hunters went down.
"Shit!" the injured man cursed, clutching his side. The other hunter, panicked, stumbled over a barrel and fell hard. Charles didn't waste the opportunity. As he advanced, the injured man's skin went pale, his eyes widening in terror as he watched his partner's headless corpse hit the ground.
before the man could react, Charles swiftly slides to him before putting the barrel of his revolvers right at the man's temple
BANG.
Without missing a beat, Charles gathered the horses and sprinted back to Sasha and Renier. The situation had only worsened. Lawmen and bounty hunters swarmed their position, gunfire roaring.
"Did you get the horses?" Sasha shouted, ducking as bullets whizzed overhead. "Yeah! Follow me!" Charles yelled, signaling for them to make a break for it. Renier, despite his injury, rose to his feet, with Sasha's help, and they all bolted toward the town's entrance. But more bullets flew past them, one barely missing Sasha's head.
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"Shit! We need to take cover behind that house!" Charles bellowed.
They dashed behind a small house, panting. Sasha checked the side of her head where the bullet had grazed her.
"Seems like your luck ran out a little," Renier teased, wincing through the pain.
Sasha slapped the back of his head lightly. "Ow..."
Charles took out a water bottle, offering it to Sasha as she knelt beside Renier, using her powers to form a sphere of water and lay it on his wound, trying to speed up the healing process.
"Sasha, you done yet?!" Charles called out, fending off lawmen with blind shots from his
revolver.
"No, you dumbass! Give me a minute!" she snapped, focusing harder, knowing they didn't have much time to spare.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and Charles felt something slam into his skull. His vision blurred as his body hit the ground, blood pooling around him. For a brief moment, everything went dark.
"CHARLES!" The desperate screams of Sasha and Renier pierced the darkness.His vision snapped back. Groggily, he saw the muddy ground beneath him, his body lying near the house.
"CHARLES! Get over here, fast!" Renier's voice urged.
Charles blinked, disoriented, but adrenaline kicked in. He leapt to his feet and sprinted toward them, bullets flying past. His head throbbed, but he pushed through the pain.
"What the hell is happening?!" he demanded.
"We're in a gunfight, why? Because Elysees bribed the lawmen and placed bounties on our heads!" Sasha shouted. "Now stop asking questions and fight!"Charles shook off the confusion, grabbing his revolver from the ground. He aimed, firing a clean shot into the lung of one lawman. The man gasped for air before collapsing. Charles spun and fired again, hitting another in the stomach.
He turned to see Renier standing up, stretching, his wound has been completely healed thanks to Sasha.
"What? Did my handsome face stun you?" Renier quipped.
"If you used that charm on real women instead of us, you might get somewhere," Charles shot back with a smirk.
"Go fuck yourself," Renier muttered, mildly annoyed.
Sasha rolled her eyes, her patience running thin. "Can we focus, please?!"
But before they could banter further, a bounty hunter emerged from the shadows, his rifle aimed at Sasha. In a split second, Renier acted using his blood powers to form a shield around his back, sacrificing his own strength as he jumped in front of her.
"Renier!" Sasha gasped.
Charles in quick succession fires a shot at the man, landing right at his head.
BANG BANG BANG
the man falls onto the ground, limp and stiff, eyes devoid of life.
Reiner stumbling manages to get his blood back into his body, before he can die of blood loss.
"RENIER! Are you fine?!" yelled Sasha shaking him and checking if he went unconscious or what not as Charles goes back to fighting the lawmen and bounty hunters, he cant leave his position or some other lawmen or bounty hunter might ambush.
"Agugh..my head feels so light.." softly speaks Renier, standing up and fixing his wobbly balance.
'Why would you do that death gamble Renier? you fucking dipshit!' yelled Sasha worryingly, like an older sister tending to a naïve brother .
"Augh..don't worry let me give reinforcement..you old hag..heh." as he gives a smirk.
Sasha gives a light smack to Renier's head "I'm only 25 you fucktard."
"ow.."
"Sasha stop fucking around with him and think of something to get us out" Charles yelled as he blind fired to the bounty hunters and lawmen.
"I got one! Both of you cover your weapons in a mud water" Exclaimed Sasha.
"What?! that's disgusting but sense you say you have a plan, ill go on with it.." Sighed Renier.
As all three cover their revolvers in mud water, having a pitiful face, watching and fearing their weapons may become defunct due to the mud water damaging the intricate mechanics.
"Aw man..." murmured Charles seeing his custom revolvers littered with mud water, leaking from the cylinders and from the barrel till to the point of leaking from the sear, while Renier is silent, sad seeing his revolver completely dirtied by the mud water.
"Perfect!" exclaimed Sasha before she dug her finger into the mud before underground water rises up in a sphere that circled Sasha, before she makes it a large ring, placing it on the wall of the house, concentrating the water till its razor sharp, cutting a hole, the cut wall crashes down revealing a entrance into the desolate home.
"Oh can't forget!" She exclaimed before also dipping her revolver into the mud water.
"Now, both of you stay at the side of the entrance I made , when you hear a door being knocked down, throw your weapons".
"Huh why?" questions Charles and Renier in Unison.
"Just trust me" She uttered.
As Sasha walks inside the house and then standing right in front of the front door, she takes a deep breath, looking back seeing Renier and Charles standing at the side of the hole entrance, she looks assured, nodding at them before attempting to knock the door out.
She kicks at the door at full force breaking it, taking the attention of all the bounty hunters and lawmen shooting, Charles and Renier immediately throw their revolvers, totaling in 3, add in her own revolver, finally totaling in 4, she took advantage of the mud water in the revolvers, making the stand in place before hurling at her, taking a circle shape around her and firing at all the lawmen and bounty hunters,
BANG BANG BANG BANG
The lawman and bounty hunters, all drop like flies onto the ground, some with a lung shot, others to the brain and others directly at the heart, in rapid fire as Charles and Renier stares at amazement.
Finally, the place is quiet as the night, littered with corpses.
"Charles, Renier, you can come out now, we did it!" She exclaimed with relief that her plan work.
"Finally! We can go now!! Quickly get to the horses!" Shouted Charles in relief.
"YAHOOO" screamed Renier.
"Let's go!" Exclaimed Sasha as she runs off to the other entrance side of the town.
"Wait..WAIT!" Yelled Renier, reaching his hand out to Sasha and Charles as they stopped in their tracks, looking back with a curious yet tensed face.
"What? Did something happen? Are you injured again?" Charles with intense worry.
"Our revolvers...whos gonna carry and clean them?!" Questioned Renier.
"YOU ASK IT RIGHT NOW RENIER??!! WHEN WE ARE INCHES AWAY FROM ESCAPE YOU ASK ABOUT THE FUCKING REVOLVERS????" Charles exasperated .
"THEY ARE CUSTOMED MADE BY THE ROYAL BLACKSMITH OF KING GYWENDOLYN'S WHY WOULDNT I ASK ABOUT THEIR MAITENCENCE?" Renier complained with a ferocious anger in his voice .
"SHUT THE FUCK UP BOTH OF YOU, I'LL CLEAN THEM AND CARRY THEM OKAY? " Exploded Sasha with utter annoyance.
"Yes ma'am" uttered Charles and Renier in unison, quaking in fear of Sasha's outburst.
Sasha used her ability to make the revolvers come to her, putting them into her coat's pockets before looking straight in the eye of Renier and Charles.
"NOW. LETS. GO." Commanded Sasha as she ran with a stomp in each step to the horses, Charles and Renier.
The sun was going down, it has been evening, the trio get on their horses, and run off to the sun set with heavy gallops, some minutes pass, they look behind, the town now a spec on their viewpoint.
TIME: 5:30PM
"Phew..we were lucky, holy shit my blood was full of adrenaline, because like we never had a good and deadly gunfight like this sense the siege of the Tyjur kingdom." Renier Rambled on and on.
"uh huh.." lethargically Charles and Sasha spoke, nodding with no thoughts in their head.
"Renier...dont you ever get tired? not after that shit show? I mean you could have died for real, I know your tendency to joke around in tense situations and not take life or death situations seriously but, I'm afraid for you dude." Charles spoke with a slit of caution even in his current tired mind.
"Ehhhh stop worrying about death and all, not my type to die so easily, all I want is that if I do die, id like a honorable death, or a death that is a little of a spectacle.
"Man you always want a spectacle? of fucking course you will always chase that..." Charles spoke wearily, slouching down a little on his horse.
"Hey, Charles I gotta ask, I never knew you could come back from the dead, when they popped a bullet on your head, I genuinely thought you got killed...only to see you rise up from the dead, I only thought your regeneration goes only up to limb level not...death level you know?" Sasha asked.
"Well..now you brought it up, I gotta say..I don't know, like I genuinely don't know how..all I felt was the darkness take me before I awoke in that battlefield, I seem top forget information or what and why I was fighting after I was shot in the head, maybe my regeneration goes above simply limbs or organs I guess...maybe even.." pondered Charles, can it be really through? can it be true? No other person with regeneration ability had this level though so how can it be possible?
"Death?" Renier interjected.
"..yeah....." Charles hesitated
silence befalls the group for a short while, Charles contemplating the maybe inherent consequences of this immortality, then Sasha breaks the silence
"Hey, both of you, lets not think of this now, maybe later? Lets head to arike cave as soon as possible." Speaking in a hopeful manner, trying to get Charles and Renier's head out of the gutter
"Yeah..yeah.." Spoke Charles
"Uh..yeah." Said Renier
CHAPTER 2 (Part 1) STATUS: COMPLETED
CHAPTER 2 (Part 2) STATUS: WORKING
Author's note: King Gywendolyn is the king of Tsuvir